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  • -Welcome back to the show. -Thank you.

  • -I always love to see -- Yeah, we love you.

  • I always love seeing you, pal. I want to say congratulations.

  • You co-wrote and directed your first movie.

  • -I did. -This is a big deal.

  • -Thank you. [ Cheers and applause ]

  • Yeah. -Alright.

  • What is it called and what can you tell us about it?

  • -It's called "Hell of a Summer."

  • It's like a slasher horror but -- with a lot of blood.

  • But it also has -- It's supposed to be funny, so I hope it is.

  • -Yeah. I think you can do both. -Yeah.

  • -Were you nervous about directing or...?

  • -Definitely, but I also -- I've always wanted to be, like,

  • making films since I was really little.

  • And now I'm a little less little.

  • -Yeah. -So, it makes -- Yeah.

  • I feel like it makes sense. -Did you talk to

  • the Duffer brothers and say, "Hey, give me some advice.

  • What do I do?" These guys are masters.

  • -Yeah, totally. -Writing and directing.

  • -Yeah, I texted them, and I was like, "Do you guys

  • ever get imposter syndrome still when you're directing?"

  • And they were like, "Yeah." So they still get...

  • -So, if they get it -- Then, yeah.

  • -Then we're good. -But you're also acting in it.

  • -Yeah.

  • -So you're better than the Duffer brothers.

  • -No, no, no, no, no. Well, actual--

  • You know, maybe --

  • [ Laughter ] -Yeah.

  • -'Cause they don't act.

  • -You know what? -Yeah.

  • -The Duffer brothers have never acted in their own stuff.

  • And that's why I'm better than them.

  • -Yes! Exactly right!

  • Thank you! Finally! You can say it on this show!

  • -That's not actually true because when I was acting in it,

  • I was like, "Man, this is going so well."

  • Then I got into the edit room, and I realized --

  • I was, like, watching it, and I was like,

  • "Whoa. I'm not acting in that shot.

  • I'm not acting in that shot."

  • It's just basically me watching the movie like this.

  • -You're reading the lines? -Yeah.

  • I'm, like, mouthing people --

  • I'm mouthing along with people's lines.

  • -You couldn't get out of your director...

  • -No, apparently not. -Oh, my gosh.

  • -So, yeah, I don't know if I could maybe do that again.

  • -Dude, I'm excited. I can't wait.

  • When that comes out, please come on the show.

  • We'll talk about it. -Thank you. I'd love to.

  • -I haven't seen you since season four

  • of "Stranger Things" came out. Congratulations.

  • It's the biggest thing in the world.

  • -Thank you.

  • -So well done. -Thanks.

  • -And kudos to the whole cast and the Duffers, as well.

  • And season five -- this is the last season coming up.

  • -Yeah. -Yeah.

  • Are you nervous, excited, sad,

  • or just waiting for all those emotions?

  • -It's going to be crazy once it's all done.

  • I'm just excited to go back and actually finish it.

  • -They released the name of the first episode.

  • -Yeah. -It's called "The Crawl."

  • -I'm not even joking. I found out about that yesterday.

  • -Really? -Yeah.

  • -So you don't know? They just did it,

  • and you go, "Oh, when are you guys going to tell me?"

  • -No, and I think a lot of people don't believe it

  • because it just is, like, they don't --

  • "Of course you know. You're on the show."

  • But, like, they're really -- they're super cagey.

  • -Yeah. For a good reason. -I guess so, yeah.

  • Or else I'd go blabbing on "The Tonight Show."

  • -Yeah. Exactly.

  • But I heard also that you -- You have a creative brain.

  • You have a very artistic brain, a great brain.

  • And I think you said, as a joke to someone on the staff

  • or on the crew -- You were doing "Stranger Things."

  • You go, "You should do a spin-off of blah, blah, blah."

  • And you said something, and they were like,

  • "You're kind of right." -Well, yeah.

  • So, we were on set filming "Stranger Things 4."

  • And we were all talking about, like, yeah,

  • if there's going to be, like -- Like, joking.

  • "Oh, they're all going to have us back in 20 years.

  • We're all going to be, like, fat and old

  • and being like, 'Oh, Evan, where are you?'"

  • You know, that kind of thing.

  • And then I was like, "Oh, but, if you guys are

  • actually going to do a spin-off, it should be this."

  • And I said it, and the Duffers, like,

  • looked at each other and looked at me, and they were like,

  • "Could we talk to you for a second?"

  • And then they pulled me off and they were like,

  • "That is the idea. Who told you?"

  • I was like, "No one."

  • They were like, "What do you mean?

  • You just, like, came up with it?"

  • And I was like, "Well, no, I just thought that that

  • would be a cool way to kind of expand..."

  • And they were like... -It is.

  • -Yeah. They were like, "Well, yeah, I don't know."

  • And they were like -- Yeah, it was really funny.

  • They were like, "Okay, well, don't tell anyone."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • -"And it's our idea." -Yeah, exactly.

  • -I want to talk about your new movie.

  • It's called "When You Finish Saving the World."

  • It was written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg.

  • Gosh, we love that guy. -Yeah, he's one of the best.

  • -Oh, my gosh. He's brilliant.

  • How did you get involved with this one?

  • -Jesse had written an Audible Original

  • sort of, like, a --

  • kind of audiobook play sort of thing and put me in it.

  • And it was based on that. The movie is based on that.

  • -Yeah. -Yeah.

  • It's with Julianne Moore.

  • It's about this kind of mother and son

  • who are complete opposites.

  • Yeah. I don't know. It's an honor to be a part of.

  • -You also play, like, an aspiring musician in this.

  • -Yes.

  • -And, really in real life, you are a musician.

  • You're a great musician, by the way.

  • I was telling you -- I was listening to you

  • on Spotify earlier today. -Yeah. Thank you.

  • -You wrote some of the songs for this?

  • -Yeah, I helped write some of the songs.

  • There's like two or three songs in the movie that I wrote,

  • but they're less important.

  • They're the sort of shallow, bad ones, and then --

  • -No, it's great. They're great.

  • -No, but then the great ones --

  • Like, Emile Mosseri, who's one of the greatest

  • living film composers,

  • helped, you know -- wrote it with Jesse.

  • And Jesse did the lyrics and everything.

  • But, yeah, no, it was amazing to sort of do both.

  • Like, be kind of treated as a collaborator.

  • -Does that change your --

  • the way you write your songs, meeting these composers?

  • -Yeah, definitely. I remember just being like, "Oh, man.

  • How similar are my songs to this,

  • like, really arrogant kid's songs?"

  • -Yeah. -Yeah, so I started comparing --

  • The guy that I play, his name is, like, Ziggy.

  • And he's, like, this pretty sweet kid

  • but also super-obnoxious and arrogant.

  • And, you know, he writes these songs

  • and plays them live on the Internet

  • kind of like on a TikTok platform.

  • But, like, no one cares in real life about him

  • or about what he's doing.

  • So he's always just like, "Yeah, so, I have

  • like 20,000 followers, so it's pretty cool."

  • And everyone's like, "We don't care, dude."

  • -Yeah.

  • -But it was very -- Yeah, it's great.

  • -What is it? It's under Ziggy Katz?

  • -Yeah, Ziggy Katz.

  • -Ziggy Katz is what I was listening to today.

  • -K-A-T-Z. -And the song?

  • -It's called "Pieces of Gold."

  • -Just check it out. It's so good.

  • Dude, I love it, top to bottom. I want to show everyone a clip.

  • Here's Finn Wolfhard in "When You Finish Saving the World."

  • Take a look at this.