I had so many questions for Steve Guttenberg.

The man occupies what is arguably a historically unique position in the cultural landscape. Fresh out of high school in 1976, he moved to LA with $300 in his pocket to become an actor. After setting up his own fake studio office on the Paramount lot (“I became my own agent,” he says), Guttenberg booked his first lead role in 1977, at age 19 (The Chicken Chronicles). Despite a funny name, a not especially memorable face, and no obvious flair for physical comedy, he relatively quickly went on to become basically the biggest comedy star of the 1980s, with roles in the wildly successful Police Academy franchise, Cocoon (and its sequel), Short Circuit, and Three Men And A Baby (and its sequel). For a time, he was neck and neck with Tom Hanks in terms of fame (rumor has it Hanks beat him out for the role in Splash and turned down the part in Police Academy that eventually went to Guttenberg).

And then Guttenberg sort of disappeared, with no movie roles between 1990 and 1995. In the 2000s he started to become one of those hardest-working actors you never see (see also: Roberts, Eric) with roles in everything from Veronica Mars to Sharknado 4 and Lavalantula, as well as its sequel, 2 Lava 2 Lantula. The highlight of this period was arguably Guttenberg playing himself in probably the best episode of Party Down, delivering the immortal hot tub line “You really should take your underwear off, the jets feel great on your balls.”

Guttenberg’s amiable everyman shtick seemed to get white-hot, then burnt itself out, before becoming an ironic joke. These days almost every semi-famous social media influencer seems to be unknowingly channeling Guttenberg’s brand of handsomish inoffensive positivity. Did I mention Guttenberg also holds the Guinness World Record for most hot dogs prepared in under a minute? Who needs an EGOT when you’ve got that?

It seemed like he had dabbled in fame and come out the other side, and appears for all the world happy and healthy. In typically eclectic Guttenbergian fashion, this week he was promoting Good Boy, the latest in Blumhouse’s horror anthology series Into The Dark for Hulu. In Good Boy, a goofy-fun, satirical horror-comedy in which Judy Greer adopts a murderous support dog, Guttenberg plays Greer’s long-suffering editor at the local paper. The film was released June 12th, to coincide with Pet Appreciation Week, which was an odd bit of kismet for me personally.

See, Steve Guttenberg also stars alongside a dog in probably my best-ever celebrity encounter story. It would’ve been about 2008. My girlfriend at the time was looking after her roommate’s dog, a lovable and energetic dalmatian (I think his name was Arthur?) who happened to be afflicted with explosive diarrhea that day. As she left their apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, grappling with the spotted beast and trying desperately to coax him off the sidewalk as he spewed foul brown water from the anus, who should attempt to strike up a conversation? That’s right, Steve Guttenberg, the erstwhile star of Police Academy. He had happened to be eating at an outdoor cafe at the time, and The Gute, ignoring the dog, struck up a conversation with the then-girlfriend, found out she was going to school for theater, and offered to discuss acting with her some time, or some such. He even gave her his number.

Naturally, I’ve retold this story at least 100 times since then. Who uses a diarrhea dog as an ice breaker? Legendary. I never did have the balls to prank call Steve Guttenberg, though I often considered it. What does one say?

12 years later, fate had reunited us, once again over a dog. Could I ask about what it’s like living in the afterglow of such success? What must it be like to constantly have forgettable interactions with people who will remember them for the rest of their lives? And how did he ever the find time to become a hot dog champion? As I said, many questions.

As soon as we got on the phone, however, it became abundantly clear that the real Steve Guttenberg, or at least the one I was talking to, didn’t have much in common with the fictional one from Party Down who goes commando in the jacuzzi. The Steve Guttenberg to whom I was speaking was sober-minded and serious about his craft, which he compared numerous times to painting. I think it was about 90 seconds in when Guttenberg compared his slowed output of the early ’90s to Picasso’s Blue Period that I realized I was never going to be able to ask him about chatting up my ex-girlfriend over a shitting dog. In the context of the call, it would’ve been like hurling a dog poop bag at his head just to see how he’d duck.

I couldn’t insult Steve Guttenberg in that way. Even if he had once nearly cuckolded me. Maybe that’s the key to his early success, that we always want to see him as the nice guy. So sure, maybe I didn’t discover the Rosetta Stone of 1980s comedy fame. But what did I expect in a 20-minute interview? Steve Guttenberg has written two memoirs. Maybe I should read them.

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Good morning. How are you doing? You doing a lot of press for this one?

We are, yeah, it’s a very talked-about picture. So people want to hear about it.

We’ll just go with the big ones first. What’s your relationship with fame like these days?

I’ve been very fortunate. I started in the film business when I was 17. When I had just turned 18, I did a picture called The Boys from Brazil (1978), with Olivier and Peck and James Mason, Uta Hagen. So I started the fame trail pretty early, and I’ve always looked at it with great respect.

Did you consciously take a step back from acting in the nineties?

No, I’m an artist and I do the same thing every day. I put it in a 10-hour day and I’m always doing something creative, whether it’s painting, taking a dance class, taking an acting class, theater movement, mask, writing, and I’ve been doing it for over four decades. So it’s the same thing for me every day. It’s show and it’s business. So my job is to do show, to be the best artist I can be, the most creative and most open, the most explorational artist I can be.

And the business is selling paintings. So sometimes your paintings sell at the gallery and sometimes they don’t. There was a period during the Blue Period for Picasso that his paintings didn’t sell as vigorously. Van Gogh never sold a painting until years after. So being an artist is the same thing to me every day. I’ve been very, very fortunate to have the business be a little better than terrific to me and has rewarded my family and friends and myself with a great quality of life that we all can enjoy. So every decade’s just been the same for me. Wake up every day, be creative.

The way I imagine it, you are at a position where you’re sort of comfortable, and I don’t know, maybe you can just take a job every now and then when it seems particularly interesting. How close am I?

Actually, you’re pretty far from the mark.

Okay.

Yeah, I just am fortunate to have never worked a day in my life. I get up and I’m creative every day. As Robert Frost said, when your vocation meets your avocation, then you never have to work. And that’s been the way it has been for me since I was 12 years old, making $2 a performance doing Jack and the Beanstalk. I looked for outlets where I can create art. So some days I cook, sometimes I dance, some days I film, and an actor could only do what he’s offered. So when I’m offered a dance class, I’ll decide if I want to take it. If I’m offered a mask class and not the coronavirus mask, of course, but theatrical masks, I’ll decide if I want to take it. And if I get offered a picture, I’ll decide if I want to do it. My decisions always rest on my family and my creative ability to add to the piece. It’s pretty simple.

Then are you getting a lot of offers these days?

Yes. Very lucky. I’ve always been very lucky. I’ve always gotten offers to do cinema or movies or television and because of the commercial success of a few of the pictures I’ve done, that elevates the amount of offers, but I’m lucky. I’ve never been without work.

So I read that you had, when you first came out to Hollywood, you had this thing where you would create your own fake studio office. What was the story with that?

True. I came out to Hollywood when I was 17 and a half, and I had two weeks to become a movie star. And then I had to go back to Albany State and start my college career. So I drove around all the studios. I found Paramount was the queen mother of them all. So I snuck into Paramount, found the Lucille Ball makeup building, found an office, got some furniture, got a telephone, and started becoming my own agent. And it took off from there.

Did you ever get in trouble for having this unauthorized the office there?

I wouldn’t say trouble. I would say I got caught walking around the studio at three in the morning often. I would be the ghost of Paramount. And I would, once in a while, a guard would catch me on a bicycle, show me to the Bronson gate and I would just come in to Gower gate. So it didn’t matter.

Do you still live in Manhattan now?

No, my wife and I moved to a town called Pacific Palisades in California.

You were on the Upper West Side for a while. How long were you in New York? And when did you guys move out?

I was there almost 20 years and we moved to California two years ago.

Do you miss it? Seems like you’d have to really love it a lot to be there 20 years.

I love it. I love New York City. It’s entertainment every block. You walk down the block and there’s a poster for My Fair Lady. And there’s a newsstand with all the newspapers on it, someone speaking French when they walk by, someone walks by with a pizza, somebody’s carrying Chinese food, a messenger’s coming by with Thai food, the iconic buildings. You walk down 76th street, East 76th street, the beautiful architecture. You go to The Met. You go to MoMA. You walk uptown. You walk downtown. Just absolutely the greatest city in the world.

Have you found things in Pacific Palisades that make you feel okay about having left?

Absolutely. There’s a Pierson Playhouse, which is a wonderful theater in Pacific Palisades. They always have terrific fare. And the library’s magnificent in the Pacific Palisades. You have the mountains, you have the sea, you have the beach, you have terrific book clubs, a woman’s club, The Optimist Club. You have The Armed Services Club. There’s no lack. There’s a great bookstore. So there’s no lack of intellectual stimulation, but once you stop comparing New York to L.A., then you can have a successful life in both and a great quality of life.

So what was it about this particular role that made you want to do it?

Well, Jason Blum’s office called us and asked if I was interested. So I read the script by Aaron and Will Eisenberg, and I thought they did a great job. And I’m a fan of Tyler MacIntyre. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of his work, Tragedy Girls, Patchwork, he’s a talented guy and Judy Greer’s one of the most talented actresses working today. So I was pleased to be able to support her. And that’s my job, to support Judy Greer.

What are some of your favorite movies of the past few years here?

I loved Get Out. I just thought it was brilliant. I thought Jordan Peele did an incredible job and that’s probably my favorite movie in the last few years.

Do you still gravitate towards comedy or do you try to get away from it? Does it matter to you?

It doesn’t matter to me. I’m a painter, so sometimes I’ll paint a still life. Sometimes I’ll paint a landscape. Sometimes I’ll do portrait work, painting. And that’s what acting is, painting. So you might enjoy painting your family portrait more than you’ll enjoy painting a stranger, but it’s the joy of the craft. And I’ve been very, very fortunate to be able to entertain my craft for 40, almost 45 years professionally. And then I guess, 50 years, yeah, 50 years doing the craft since I was 12 years old.

Do you think comedy is a lot different now than it was in the eighties when you were kind the face guy of movie comedy?

No. Comedy is the same. It always will be the same. People laugh at the truth. It’s never been different since Shakespeare had the Globe and the Groundlings got in cheap and they were where the laughs started and then they rolled back to the rich expensive seats. Comedy’s the same. That’s why, take a look at Laurel and Hardy. You’ll laugh. There’s just nothing different between Seth Rogen’s comedy and Laurel and Hardy’s comedy. It’s funny. That’s why you laugh. It’s true. That’s a fact.

What about breaking into show business? Do you think it’s any different now than it was when you first came out to L.A.?

No, it’s the same. You do the best job you can with the equipment you are given. So if you look like Brad Pitt, you are going to have a different trajectory than if you look like Paul Giamatti or if you look like me. Different. And that’s cinema and film. The issue is most people consider cinema and film acting, and it’s not all of acting. There’s theater also. So if you look like Brad Pitt, or you look like Paul Giamatti or me, you can play roles that don’t look like you in theater. Whereas on television, it’d be very hard for Brad Pitt to play the down on his luck lonely guy, because of how he looks. But he could play that in theater very easily. So I think it’s the same as it was when I started. Train, read, become as smart as you can and work as hard as you can every day to get people to see you as an artist and in theater you can absolutely make a living for the rest of your life. And in film and television, it’s a bit more capricious, but, and there’s more awareness of it, but I think it’s the same. You got to train and also lady luck has a lot to do with it.

Was theater a big thing for you and your family when you were growing up?

Absolutely. Oh yeah. We went to the theater all the time. I did theater constantly and it’s a terrific way to learn your craft because if you don’t do it well on Wednesday night, we’ll do it great on Thursday night and it’s a great opportunity to work out.

‘Good Boy’ is currently available on Hulu. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

In an effort to get the National Women’s Soccer League into America’s second-biggest media market, an ownership group has reportedly established a limited liability company in Delaware called WFC LA and begun establishing trademarks for “Angel City FC,” according to a report from Meg Linehan of The Athletic.

The groundwork has been laid by digital media and gaming entrepreneur Julie Uhrman, who according to Linehan is listed as the CEO and president of the company. Uhrman once served as the vice president of business development and digital distribution at IGN Entertainment, and has been an advisor at various companies ever since.

Linehan also reported the Uhrman’s involvement comes as a surprise to those within the NWSL, as the assumption had been one of Los Angeles’ two men’s soccer franchises would lead the charge to bring a women’s team back to southern California. The legendary Mia Hamm has an ownership stake in LAFC.

Planting a team in L.A. would give the league a team in a vital market. A tenth team, based in Louisville, had already been slated to join the NWSL next year, and a Sacramento team is a possibility, too. But for a league that only has teams in three of the 10 most populace U.S. cities, a presence in Los Angeles would be a big boost.

First, the NWSL will become the first American team sport to return from a COVID-19 hiatus when it holds its Challenge Cup in Utah a little later this month.

Of all the summer movies that were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the one that hurts the most is Candyman. It coming out closer to Halloween makes sense, as its a “spiritual sequel” to the original horror movie classic, but still, I want it now! Especially after director Nia DaCosta, who also wrote the film with Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, shared a new teaser on Twitter. “CANDYMAN, at the intersection of white violence and black pain, is about unwilling martyrs. The people they were, the symbols we turn them into, the monsters we are told they must have been,” she tweeted, along with a gorgeously animated (and chilling) video detailing the film’s lore.

Watch the teaser below.

Here’s more on Candyman:

For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright, move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile Millennials.

With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.

Candyman opens on September 25, 2020.

We’re 48 hours removed from The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever, and as it turns out, it actually wasn’t that bad of a wrestling match after all — even if it did result in Edge tearing his tricep, resulting in surgery. While fans can debate forever whether or not it actually was the greatest wrestling match ever (spoiler: nah), it’s worth checking in with two former pro wrestlers who have notched up some classics in their own right: CM Punk and Bret Hart.

The Best In The World and the Best There Is, The Best There Was And The Best There Ever Will Be appeared on WWE Backstage last night to discuss the epic clash between Randy Orton and Edge. And, as to expected with these two personalities, they had opinions. First up, Hart said he did watch the main event of WWE Backlash, and actually quite enjoyed it:

“I thought it was a great match. I think it’s really almost impossible to name one match as the greatest match of all time, as wrestling evolves and changes. You watch some of these old matches with Buddy Rogers and Pat O’Connor and stuff, and go, ‘That was the greatest match’ back in 1962 or something. There’s certain matches you aways remember for the hype or the way they come out, and I think it’s impossible to say one match is the best. I think the one missing ingredient that would sort of not allow me to say it was the greatest match of all time is the fact that there’s no audience. You gotta have the third ingredient. You got two great wrestlers, you gotta have a wrestling audience. Unfortunately, that’s an unfortunate limitation. There’s nothing they can do about it. But in saying that, I would say they certainly had a great match and I thought it was very realistic, very intense. It [reminded] me of a tennis match.”

Later, Hart divulged that the Rated R Superstar reached out to him for advice beforehand:

“[Edge] was a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of declaring [it] the greatest match of all time before you walk out. A tough pair of shoes for anybody to fill. Sometimes, before I went out and wrestled, I remember thinking about my match and envisioning it, and I always thought of myself sitting in the front row watching myself. I’m gonna try to entertain myself. This match is for me. All the things that I’m gonna do are for the little fan me sitting in the front row watching it, and if I can get his attention, make him go, ‘Hey, this is a great match’ — it’s kind of all in your head, but I always thought that was the best advice… He did text me and tell me that he put himself in the front row and then played the match and he was quite happy with it. I was always a big fan of a great wrestling match and the psychology, watching someone really work a hold and try to tell a story with working different body parts, telling a story that leads to the whole story. I thought they did a great job of that in the match.”

Later in the episode, Punk had the opportunity to voice his own thoughts on the match and its branding, and true to form, he didn’t hold back:

“I think if you’re Randy and Edge, you just ignore that. You can’t live up to that. It’s too subjective of a label: ‘The greatest match of all time.’ What’s the greatest single of all time, music-wise? What’s the greatest band of all time? What’s the greatest car of all time? It’s too subjective, everybody’s going to have a different opinion, but I think that’s what makes wrestling great: You can talk about all these different wrestlers from all these different regions from all over the world who wrestle a different style, and sometimes in the ring you get magic. I think they had a great match. Was it the greatest match of all time? I’ve seen better Randy Orton matches. I’ve seen better Edge matches. But, like Booker [T] said, to put that on the marquee to get people to watch, I kinda feel like it was a lot of unnecessary pressure especially on Edge, coming back after almost a decade of not wrestling. They did a great job of compartmentalizing it and almost ignoring it and just going out there and delivering.”

There you have it: If Edge/Orton managed to placate two of the best talents and two of the harshest critics in professional wrestling, maybe it actually was the Greatest Wrestling Match Ever.

In a press release from the NBA Players’ Association put forth Wednesday, the organization committed to an increased emphasis on diversity with partner organizations and expanded the scope of its racial justice activism work.

Through a letter entitled “NBPA Update On Current Social Crisis,” the union highlighted that its team is made up of 65 percent people of color and 40 percent women. The union pledged to use its licensing partnerships across all economic sectors to “infuse the values and principles of diversity, inclusion and equity into the core” of these businesses through its for-profit arm, THINK450.

“As we strive to identify our role in addressing issues of systemic racism that go beyond police brutality, we believe we are uniquely positioned to engage our partners in constructive dialog about their workforce and board diversity,” the union said in its statement. “We believe they should also recognize the value of Black participation at every level of their organization.”

Moreover, the union is identifying new ways to put money back into the fight against systemic racism. The statement announced the creation of the Police Accountability Project, which aims to “create and manage a nationwide database of police misconduct and abuse” and lead or “support community efforts to remove those local officials in those jurisdictions evidencing historical indifference to or affirmative protection of predatory police officers.”

Though the union is not officially creating a new organization to spearhead these efforts or raise money, they will seek partnerships with other activist groups already doing this work.

From the union statement: “Rogue law enforcement officials persist in abusing communities of color largely because of their confidence – borne out by the historic failures of their respective jurisdictions – to document, investigate or prosecute those who abuse their authority.”

When the majority of the NBA relocates to Orlando in a few weeks, the union will work to register as many players as possible to vote. Previously, nine teams had been registered, but getting everyone in one place provides an opportunity to go further.

Also in Orlando, the union wrote, “We are actively preparing and soliciting proposals regarding ways Players competing in the games in Orlando can effectively continue their advocacy on the national stage occasioned by the games.”

Much remains to be hammered out, but the union stepping forward with concrete action is a strong step as players like Kyrie Irving, Avery Bradley and Dwight Howard continue to push for real in-season demonstrations if the league resumes play.

Bay Area rapper Saweetie has returned with the first single from her upcoming debut album, “Tap In.” Once again tapping into her penchant for sampling early-millennium hip-hop classics, Saweetie turns to hometown hero Too Short and his 2006 hit “Blow The Whistle” for an energetic, party-ready bop that is sure to repeat the success of her previous summertime staples, “My Type” and “ICY GRL.”

After revealing that she nearly quit rapping until the success of “My Type,” Saweetie sounds rejuvenated on her latest single, which finds her bragging about her physical features and skill at accumulating wealth. “Wrist on glitter, waist on thinner / I’m a show you how to bag a eight-figure n****,” she boasts.

Debuting the song on Beats 1 Radio, Saweetie spoke on the support she received from the legend whose hit she sampled. “Short has always been supportive since ‘ICY GRL,’” she shared. “So the fact that I was able to get his blessing to do ‘Blow The Whistle’ because I recorded it and I was like, ‘What if he doesn’t like it?’ But then he liked it. So I’m just so excited. I’m so happy that he loves it.”

“Tap In” is the first single from Saweetie’s upcoming album, Pretty B*tch Music, the full-length follow-up to her 2019 EP, Icy.

Listen to Saweetie’s “Tap In” above and stay tuned for the official video dropping at 3pm PST / 6pm EST.

Saweetie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

WWE canceled its tapings yesterday after a developmental talent was diagnosed with COVID-19, and today they’re trying to make up for lost time.

After filming on June 16 was called off in order for all of WWE’s on-site staff to be tested for the coronavirus, the company planned to tape a total of eight episodes of TV today, according to PW Insider. Their goal was to film next Monday’s episode of Raw, next Monday’s Raw Talk, next Friday’s Smackdown, this and next Friday’s episodes of 205 Live, and next weekend’s Main Event at the Performance Center starting at 11 AM. Additionally, WWE planned to tape this week’s and next week’s episode of NXT at Full Sail, and tonight’s NXT, “may broadcast live on the USA Network.” Overall, that’s about thirteen hours of TV.

So far, things haven’t gone completely according to plan. PWInsider also reports that WWE won’t allow anyone to enter the venues, “unless their COVID-19 tests have come back negative.” That left several performers, staff, and executives on “standby,” and resulted in the tapings starting at least forty minutes late. It’s also the most likely reason that, according to Gary Cassidy of Sportskeeda, today’s scheduled taping of Smackdown has been canceled.

Today was meant to be WWE’s last day of taping until June 29 through July 1. The next period of tapings is scheduled from July 13 through July 15, followed by a live broadcast of Extreme Rules from the Performance Center on July 19.

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NASCAR is now eight races into its restarted season and, thus far, it has to be considered a success. The races are drawing significant viewership as fans have flocked to TVs to be able to watch live sports, and to this point, drivers and teams have seemingly been able to stay safe as they’ve instituted distancing and mask guidelines, while limiting the number of people teams send to races.

They’ve also cut out practice and qualifying to avoid having too many gatherings at the track, which makes life more difficult on teams trying to get their car set ups together. NASCAR’s hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic pulled drivers off the track right as Joey Logano was came off a pair of wins in the first four races of the season in the No. 22 Penske Ford, quite the feat given he entered 2020 with a new crew chief in Paul Wolfe. Since returning to the track, Logano’s had four top-10 finishes, but the dynamic of having a new crew chief is made all the more difficult by a lack of track time for the two to collaborate on setups. As Logano notes, the result is a lot more hit and miss with cars as there’s not a lot of adjustments to make on the track, leading to a wide variance of results for many of the drivers on the Cup Series circuit.

On Sunday, the Cup series finally gets back to a one-race per week schedule after a furious run of eight races in four weeks to get back on track when NASCAR heads to Talladega, where Logano has three wins and three other top-5 finishes in his last 10 races. Logano spoke with Uproxx Sports over the phone on behalf of Panini America, where he’s now the racing trading card ambassador, about the challenges of the restarted season, how he’s building a relationship with a new crew chief without much track or garage time, why his racing style tends to lead to either wins or wrecks, his love of trading cards growing up, and what he’s learned after NASCAR drivers promised to “listen and learn” amid nationwide protests against systemic racism.

What’s been the biggest adjustment or challenge to this restarted season where y’all are running two races a week with little to no track time before the race?

This is definitely the times of change and challenges for everybody, no matter what industry you’re in something has changed and you’re needing to adapt, and it presents a great opportunity for you to adapt quicker than your competitors and find the competitive advantage from that standpoint. And if you look at the challenges we’re all facing, I think communication might be one of the biggest ones, which, thank God we have video calls and things like that to keep the communication going along. But now we don’t have practice and I can’t go to the race shop, and there’s just a lot of different things that keep coming up, one after another just kinda stacking on each other. That’s been, like I said, a tough transition for us. I used to be the guy that was in the garage from when it opened to when it closed, and now I just show up to drive the car.

So as you can imagine for me, that’s a huge change, so trying to figure out how to prepare myself mentally for the challenge ahead. I will say it’s been different, but as we’ve run seven or eight races now, it’s almost like I’ve gotten used to it. You change so quickly and you adapt and it becomes your new normal, and I’m OK with it. You’re able to plug away and go hard at this thing.

With the lack of practice or qualifying and without that garage time, I feel like this year there has to be such trust between driver and crew chief in terms of getting the car set up and knowing what each other wants out of the car at each track, and you have a new crew chief in Paul Wolfe. How has that trust and relationship developed in your first year with him as crew chief?

I mean, it’s going good, but I will say not having practice will make it a lot more challenging as we don’t have time to work together and talk about the car as much until after the race. Cause preparing for the race, like, I fought this last year and he fought this last year, so let’s kind of put it together and see what makes sense. It’s hard to try new things and it’s hard to communicate about the car until after the race because once you start to race you got what you got for the most part aside from making wedge and track bar adjustments and air pressure. There’s just not a whole bunch more you can do, so I think it’s just kind of learning those things as you go. That’s a big challenge, no doubt, that’s ahead of us.

I feel like we’ve done a good job with it, but I feel like you have more races where you hit or miss. You can’t tune it in to what I want specifically in a race car compared to what Brad [Keselowski] wanted with Paul over the years. Those types of things we’ll work through, but I feel like we’ve done a good job and grown a lot over the last few weeks and will continue to do that.

Y’all are racing a lot in the South in a time where it’s very hot and humid, and we’ve seen some guys struggling after races. What is the physical strain of doing this much racing in the heat, and what do you do nutritionally and with workouts during the week to try and have your body ready for this much racing in these conditions?

Yeah, you gotta physically keep things in mind, cause like you said, we went from 0 to 200 in no time, running in the heat of the day and races every three days or so. It’s been very tough on a lot of drivers and probably the ones who took the time to continue to work out and maintain their physical fitness level are the ones that are reaping their rewards right now. I think that’s the name of the game, during this time where everyone’s quarantined, you know, there’s opportunity there to become better. There’s also opportunity to become a lot worse. I think staying focused and driven to be the best, even when you’re not competing, is the really how you start to move yourself ahead when we got back going here, and I think you’re seeing that.

You head to Talladega this week, which is a place you’ve had a lot of success in recent years. What is it about Talladega and the superspeedway that seems to fit your eye?

I just think that I like it. I think that might be the biggest thing. A lot of people don’t like superspeedway racing, so I think the fact that I enjoy it is a good thing. I’ve had fast cars here the last few years there, which helps as well. I’ve been working hard with my spotter on being on the same page with T.J., who’s my spotter, and I think that’s good. Working with my teammates and focusing on being in the front, that’s kind of what’s led to our success. Now, that mentality of being aggressive and staying towards the front is, as many wins as there is, there’s just as many crashes [laughs]. That’s kind of the name of the game when I go to these superspeedways. We’re going to be up front and have a chance to win or we’re going to be on the hook and going home early. And that’s OK, that’s my attitude and I’m alright with that.

I’m not going to be the guy riding around in the back and saying I finished fifth at best and maybe worse. Not for me. I’m not that type of racer, and I think our fans come to see us race and not ride around in the back and hope not to crash. So, yeah, I don’t know what to tell you, maybe it’s a lack of patience, I don’t know what it is, but it seems like it wins a lot of races but it also ends in a lot of crashes. But it’s what I got [laughs].

You’re partnered with Panini now as their racing trading card ambassador. How did that partnership come about and what are you excited about working with them?

Yeah, well with Panini I’ve been able to work with them the last couple of years, and it’s been a great partnership. So many different levels, but for me the authentic brand they were able to bring for myself, somebody that is a race fan at heart and first. I loved watching racing as a kid. I got trading cards as a kid, and that’s what kind of grew my love for the sport as I learned more about the drivers and the cars and the details, and that’s all on the back of the trading card. That was something that really attracted me to where I am today, and I think even now as I’ve been in the sport for a long time, I still collect them, but you also see other fans come to you now with your card and you sign em and you hear stories of what it means to them. It’s fun, and now as a dad, it kind of keeps going, I see my son, Hudson, he’s starting to look at cards here and there and see the cool race car on it and stuff like that. But it’s cool how it’s generational, and I think that’s something that’s so big in the trading card industry. And with Panini, the quality of their cards are second to none. You now when it comes to the uniqueness, the colors, putting in the collectible items — whether it’s sheet metal or suits or gloves, whatever it may be. There’s so many unique things — autographs on the cards already and trading card sweepstakes winnings — that take it to the next level to where it really becomes elite in this industry.

Finally, you were among a number of drivers that participated in NASCAR’s “Listen and Learn” video. What are the things you’ve learned over the last few weeks as we see all these protests of police brutality and racism that are happening around the country?

Like you said, it was all about learning. That’s the biggest thing, learning with an open heart and I think there’s only so much we can probably learn as we’re all in different situations, but the most important thing I’ve learned so far is we need to choose love over anything else. And let your faith in God guide your heart, and as long as you kinda go that way I think we’re gonna be able to get through it all. I think the other big thing is we want people to feel welcome to the race track. All people, no matter what color your skin is, we want people to feel welcome and safe and not judged at our home. Right? Our NASCAR race track. That’s to me been the driving force of how we move forward and the most important things.

Joey, I appreciate your time. Best of luck at Talladega and hopefully it ends in the win and not the wreck.

I hope so [laughs]. It’s 50/50 lately. I hope so.

Thanks to his involvement with Freaks and Geeks and cult classic The Cable Guy, Judd Apatow was already known among comedy nerds before The 40-Year-Old Virgin hit theaters in 2005. But the Steve Carell-starring comedy is what led him towards becoming arguably the preeminent comedy director of his generation. Not all the jokes in the movie haven’t aged well, especially Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen insulting each other’s masculinity, but Carell screaming “KELLY CLARKSON” while getting waxed?

That still holds up.

Apatow, whose The King of Staten Island is out now, was a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, where the “Since U Been Gone” singer told him that “it doesn’t matter what I do in my life, no one remembers me for anything other than that.” Considering she’s an American Idol who’s sold over 25 million albums and won three Grammys, that’s saying something. “Was it your fault Steve Carell screamed my name?” Clarkson asked Apatow, who responded, “I’m going to blame Seth Rogen.” Good advice for any scenario:

Apatow showed that they actually had a cardboard poster on set with two columns of swears for Carell to draw on. One side was full of actual profanity (and therefore blurred out on the show) while the other side had goofier, less serious exclamations. Clarkson’s name was right in the middle.

Here’s that list.

I need to know the blurred-out word between “Jesus” and “juice.”

(Via Entertainment Weekly)