February 23, 2025 • 14 mins
Original Air Date: February 23, 2025
Best known of late for “This Is Us”, Griffin Dunne executive-produced and stars in “Ex-Husbands”, a dramady that centers on fractured relationships from the male point of view.
Best known of late for “This Is Us”, Griffin Dunne executive-produced and stars in “Ex-Husbands”, a dramady that centers on fractured relationships from the male point of view.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Gracie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I want to introduce you to somebody. I'm actually a
fan of this actor.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I'm not always a fan. I'm a fan of Griffin Dunn.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
The last thing I enjoyed you in was This is Us,
and I know a lot of people kind of rediscovered
you with This is Us before we love It. Let
me just explain why Griffin is joining us this morning.
He is starring and executive produced the movie ex Husbands,
(00:44):
which is now in theaters and it's going to be
streaming March twenty fifth. Now, Griffin, I have to tell
you that I like to watch movies and TV shows
with my husband, and of course we have to agree.
And he looks up all right, ex Husbands, he sees
you're in it, and then he looks at all right,
what's it about? And he agrees to watch the movie.
(01:08):
I mean, there are many times when he just says,
you're I'll go off on your.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Own in the studio. You just go see it.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
And it's even more rare when we both love a movie,
and we love this movie, so I thank you for this.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
That negotiation can be very difficult. I've had it many times,
agreeing on a movie or a TV as I made it, Yeah,
or TV exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
That's right, Like this is Us. We agreed on This
is Us. So also starring in ex husband's Richard Benjamin,
who we rarely see anymore. It was like a oh,
look who it is movement and he plays your dad.
And Rosanna Arquette, who I immediately recognized.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
My husband didn't, but he said, oh, she looks familliar.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
It's for Rosanna, our cat, and she plays your wife
soon to become your ex wife. And I love the
guys who play your sons, and I was not familiar
with their work, James Norton and Miles Heiser.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Is that how you pronounce it?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
That's exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Okay. So here's what I loved about this movie.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
This is a dramedy, and it's really a dramedy about relationships.
But it's one of the few movies I've ever seen
that takes fractured relationships from the view of the men.
It's really only from the view of the men. This
whole movie is a male perspective. It's also a father
(02:42):
son kind of love story because the mother daughter relationships
are much more difficult, I think to navigate. But all
relationships can be difficult to navigate. So Griffin Dunn's character
is a Manhattan Dennis see a lot of Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And in the beginning.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Of the movie, his father is breaking the news that
after sixty five years of marriage, he's divorcing his wife
so that he can find the new love of his
life and live out his years happily in love. And
your character is desperately trying to you know, no, you
can't do this. This is this is just bad, and
your dad saying I told you not to argue with me.
(03:26):
I'm just you know this, this is what is. And
then you find yourself about to become single because your
wife played by Rosanna Arquett wants to divorce you, and
both of your sons are having relationship issues as well.
And anyway, so why why this movie you executive produced?
(03:49):
You not only start in it, you executive so you
have you have a stake.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
In this I do, but you know the way you
described it. If I didn't know you and hadn't been
in it, I go, that sounds really interesting. I have
not seen a movie about uh, being a father to
grown children and and a man old enough to have
lost his parents and and talk about these Uh it's
(04:17):
about these issues of what it is about being a
man and the role of a father, and and you know,
having a gay son, and and having a son another
son who's who's got health mental health issues. This doesn't
sound like a comedy, but I swear to God it is,
(04:40):
and and who's going through a divorce, And it just
hits all the keys that I'm very familiar with in
my life, having been married and divorced and lost my parents,
and I have a father, I'm a father of a
grown up. So I figured this is going to appeal
to other people, and you know, it's I it's the
(05:00):
kind of movie I'd be hungry for if I hadn't
been involved in it.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
You know. And so.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
It's the kind of movie I used to walk to
the theater to see, you know. And in the seventies
and eighties that would either come from Europe or Italy
or America you know that were you know, relationship comedies
that were you know, dealt with the absurd and dealt
with the you know, just people people talking and having
(05:32):
sex and falling in love and out of love. And
I just missed those movies so much right now.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
You know, it's really funny.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
At one point in your movie, you're talking to your
gay son who just came out and he has this
fling with the married guy and you're.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Asking him about the sex.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
And it's so funny because I turned to my husband
and I said, I know you we married later in life.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I said, I know you disagree with me.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I am so open with my kids about sex, and
they kind of hate it.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
They kind of hate that.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
I'll, you know, I'll just flippantly ask like you said,
like like you would go, well, well was it good?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Did have fun?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
You know?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Because my John wouldn't never broach that with his son.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And I think it's totally inappropriate. And I have to
tell you, Gryffin, my kids think it's inappropriate. But I
think it's kind of a generational thing. I mean, we
grew up in the sexual revolution. These were things we
talked about and on the air for the longest time.
Griffin in the eighties, I was telling the dirty joke
(06:41):
of the day and it basically sex educated a whole
generation in the New York City area because if you
could laugh about sex, then you could talk about sex.
Absolutely absolutely, Yeah, But are you open with your own
your own grow?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Do you have a son or a daughter?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I have a daughter. I have a daughter. So so
I am not going to I'm going to be your
husband like your husband. I don't want to know. Just
just spare me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I will just make no.
I don't want to know. As long as she's happy,
I'm down with it. But let her tell her mother
(07:21):
that stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Well maybe they do, Maybe they do.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
So you mentioned something, you know, the romantic comedy kind
of sort of seems dead.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
What happened? Why?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
You know?
Speaker 4 (07:37):
I think And by the way, it's a director that
was like my bread and butter, you know, I that
was like, you know, addicted to love and you know,
even even practical magic. We had romance and comedy and
and I always thought that would I think it's it's
somehow just it became a laughable genre. People were so
(08:00):
of like embarrassed to be in a rom com and
it just sort of took a hit. And I think
it's definitely going to come back, but it had to
redefine itself and just sort of bring in you know,
when when romantic comedies were sort of at their height,
there were an amazing number of scenes that took place
(08:20):
in bridle stores, like buying a wedding dress and what
kind of cake are you going to get? All that,
and people have a different attitude about like getting married
is not to be all and end all as it was.
And you know people, you know, meeting the love of
your life and having the camera fade out of like, oh,
they finally got together. People I don't know. They're much
(08:43):
more savvy. They're going to go, well, how long is
that going to last? All right, they met on the
top of the Statue of Liberty, but you know they
still got to go down to the ground level and
deal with real life. And so I think there's I
think a romantic comedy is trying to find itself and
I don't know what the I don't think we count
as a romantic comedy. We're in the dramedy world, but
(09:06):
I'm curious to see where it lands.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I'm speaking with Griffin Dunn.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
He executive produced Any Stars in the movie ex Husbands,
now in theaters and it will be streaming March twenty fifth. Okay,
where do you sit on this streaming world? Because you
talked about, Yeah, this was the you know kind of movie.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I would go to theaters to see.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
And in today's world, there are very few movies really
that people are going to theaters to see because that
genie came out of the bottle and you can't put
it back.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
But what do you stand on this?
Speaker 4 (09:46):
I stand on the in club nostalgic. I'm from a
generation which I'm very happy to have participated in going
to the Core or Baronet Theater on on our third Avenue,
that there were prestige cinemas they would like the opening
(10:07):
weekend of a Stanley Kubrick movie. I was at the
twelve o'clock showing I'd stand in line gratefully. I'd stand
in line for a rough nixt To Robert Altman movie
or Woody Allen or whatever it would be. And I
kind of miss that. And I am now a guy
who sits on a couch, particularly post COVID, still on
(10:31):
the damn couch, catching up, you know, with so many choices,
I don't know, they all flatten out. There's nothing that
pops there's no there's no kind of trade ad. There
are no ads you would see, you know, full page
ads in the New York Times of you know, a
(10:53):
new Bardalucci movie or with all the quotes on it.
It's just a different marketing thing, and it's all sort
of word of mouth, and there's just so much and
I sound like I'm bitching and moaning about it. But
as you say that the tube is out and it's
not going back in, I don't really understand the math
of how all that works, how they're all making I
(11:15):
think that the studios are struggling. They're trying to find
I don't think they have the answer, the the the
economic formula to make all this work. So, you know,
we're still entering, and I think we're still you know,
in an unknown world here. We're still you know, canoeing
down the nile, hoping, you know, we find the right thing.
(11:39):
So it's not just going to be ten pole movies
in movie theaters. There's got to be an alternative to that.
People are and how do you market a movie like
what we're in. You know, this is a movie that
people definitely would have gone to on a Friday. This
will be a Friday night date movie. Right, So, so
(11:59):
how do you how do you get that going? Well,
we'll find out.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
This is the challenge.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
We only have a few minutes left.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Tell me, because you have been through divorce, what are
your greatest lessons you've learned from failed relationships and divorce.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
I think when I look when I look at my
friends who have been married the longest and we're talking now,
well over forty years, I remember, I remember when they
got married. I remember their fights. I remember, you know,
the struggles that they were having. And I thought about
(12:38):
that in my own life, of like I would do that,
and then I would bail, or I'd be with someone
who would bail. And they are now still together, more
in love than ever. And it's because they stayed in
the room. They didn't leave. They they refused to let
(13:01):
go when they're being screamed at, the skin would be
pulled back on their face and just terrible fights, and
they still gave each other a chance and it paid
off for them. And you know, if I didn't, I
didn't do that. I'm in a relationship now and I'm
telling myself this very thing. I'm telling you because you're
(13:22):
always going to have that and I used to leave
the room, and you know I would. My advice that
I did not follow that i'm trying to now would
be too to write it out, to stay in the
room to see where it goes, because I think I
think there are happy endings in it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I love that. That's a very interesting thought.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
And I'm telling you this is this is the best
way I could tell you to go see Ex Husbands.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
My husband loved it. I loved it. That's enough said.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
We just don't agree on entertainment too often, but we
agree on on enough, well, plenty of things. And the
love and thank you so much, Griffindon, I really really
enjoyed Ex Husbands. If you are not going to be
able to get to the theater, it will be streaming
March twenty fifth.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
You've been listening to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
three
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Gracie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I want to introduce you to somebody. I'm actually a
fan of this actor.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I'm not always a fan. I'm a fan of Griffin Dunn.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
The last thing I enjoyed you in was This is Us,
and I know a lot of people kind of rediscovered
you with This is Us before we love It. Let
me just explain why Griffin is joining us this morning.
He is starring and executive produced the movie ex Husbands,
(00:44):
which is now in theaters and it's going to be
streaming March twenty fifth. Now, Griffin, I have to tell
you that I like to watch movies and TV shows
with my husband, and of course we have to agree.
And he looks up all right, ex Husbands, he sees
you're in it, and then he looks at all right,
what's it about? And he agrees to watch the movie.
(01:08):
I mean, there are many times when he just says,
you're I'll go off on your.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Own in the studio. You just go see it.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
And it's even more rare when we both love a movie,
and we love this movie, so I thank you for this.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
That negotiation can be very difficult. I've had it many times,
agreeing on a movie or a TV as I made it, Yeah,
or TV exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
That's right, Like this is Us. We agreed on This
is Us. So also starring in ex husband's Richard Benjamin,
who we rarely see anymore. It was like a oh,
look who it is movement and he plays your dad.
And Rosanna Arquette, who I immediately recognized.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
My husband didn't, but he said, oh, she looks familliar.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
It's for Rosanna, our cat, and she plays your wife
soon to become your ex wife. And I love the
guys who play your sons, and I was not familiar
with their work, James Norton and Miles Heiser.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Is that how you pronounce it?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
That's exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Okay. So here's what I loved about this movie.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
This is a dramedy, and it's really a dramedy about relationships.
But it's one of the few movies I've ever seen
that takes fractured relationships from the view of the men.
It's really only from the view of the men. This
whole movie is a male perspective. It's also a father
(02:42):
son kind of love story because the mother daughter relationships
are much more difficult, I think to navigate. But all
relationships can be difficult to navigate. So Griffin Dunn's character
is a Manhattan Dennis see a lot of Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And in the beginning.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Of the movie, his father is breaking the news that
after sixty five years of marriage, he's divorcing his wife
so that he can find the new love of his
life and live out his years happily in love. And
your character is desperately trying to you know, no, you
can't do this. This is this is just bad, and
your dad saying I told you not to argue with me.
(03:26):
I'm just you know this, this is what is. And
then you find yourself about to become single because your
wife played by Rosanna Arquett wants to divorce you, and
both of your sons are having relationship issues as well.
And anyway, so why why this movie you executive produced?
(03:49):
You not only start in it, you executive so you
have you have a stake.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
In this I do, but you know the way you
described it. If I didn't know you and hadn't been
in it, I go, that sounds really interesting. I have
not seen a movie about uh, being a father to
grown children and and a man old enough to have
lost his parents and and talk about these Uh it's
(04:17):
about these issues of what it is about being a
man and the role of a father, and and you know,
having a gay son, and and having a son another
son who's who's got health mental health issues. This doesn't
sound like a comedy, but I swear to God it is,
(04:40):
and and who's going through a divorce, And it just
hits all the keys that I'm very familiar with in
my life, having been married and divorced and lost my parents,
and I have a father, I'm a father of a
grown up. So I figured this is going to appeal
to other people, and you know, it's I it's the
(05:00):
kind of movie I'd be hungry for if I hadn't
been involved in it.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
You know. And so.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
It's the kind of movie I used to walk to
the theater to see, you know. And in the seventies
and eighties that would either come from Europe or Italy
or America you know that were you know, relationship comedies
that were you know, dealt with the absurd and dealt
with the you know, just people people talking and having
(05:32):
sex and falling in love and out of love. And
I just missed those movies so much right now.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
You know, it's really funny.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
At one point in your movie, you're talking to your
gay son who just came out and he has this
fling with the married guy and you're.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Asking him about the sex.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
And it's so funny because I turned to my husband
and I said, I know you we married later in life.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I said, I know you disagree with me.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I am so open with my kids about sex, and
they kind of hate it.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
They kind of hate that.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
I'll, you know, I'll just flippantly ask like you said,
like like you would go, well, well was it good?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Did have fun?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
You know?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Because my John wouldn't never broach that with his son.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And I think it's totally inappropriate. And I have to
tell you, Gryffin, my kids think it's inappropriate. But I
think it's kind of a generational thing. I mean, we
grew up in the sexual revolution. These were things we
talked about and on the air for the longest time.
Griffin in the eighties, I was telling the dirty joke
(06:41):
of the day and it basically sex educated a whole
generation in the New York City area because if you
could laugh about sex, then you could talk about sex.
Absolutely absolutely, Yeah, But are you open with your own
your own grow?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Do you have a son or a daughter?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I have a daughter. I have a daughter. So so
I am not going to I'm going to be your
husband like your husband. I don't want to know. Just
just spare me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I will just make no.
I don't want to know. As long as she's happy,
I'm down with it. But let her tell her mother
(07:21):
that stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Well maybe they do, Maybe they do.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
So you mentioned something, you know, the romantic comedy kind
of sort of seems dead.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
What happened? Why?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
You know?
Speaker 4 (07:37):
I think And by the way, it's a director that
was like my bread and butter, you know, I that
was like, you know, addicted to love and you know,
even even practical magic. We had romance and comedy and
and I always thought that would I think it's it's
somehow just it became a laughable genre. People were so
(08:00):
of like embarrassed to be in a rom com and
it just sort of took a hit. And I think
it's definitely going to come back, but it had to
redefine itself and just sort of bring in you know,
when when romantic comedies were sort of at their height,
there were an amazing number of scenes that took place
(08:20):
in bridle stores, like buying a wedding dress and what
kind of cake are you going to get? All that,
and people have a different attitude about like getting married
is not to be all and end all as it was.
And you know people, you know, meeting the love of
your life and having the camera fade out of like, oh,
they finally got together. People I don't know. They're much
(08:43):
more savvy. They're going to go, well, how long is
that going to last? All right, they met on the
top of the Statue of Liberty, but you know they
still got to go down to the ground level and
deal with real life. And so I think there's I
think a romantic comedy is trying to find itself and
I don't know what the I don't think we count
as a romantic comedy. We're in the dramedy world, but
(09:06):
I'm curious to see where it lands.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I'm speaking with Griffin Dunn.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
He executive produced Any Stars in the movie ex Husbands,
now in theaters and it will be streaming March twenty fifth. Okay,
where do you sit on this streaming world? Because you
talked about, Yeah, this was the you know kind of movie.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I would go to theaters to see.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
And in today's world, there are very few movies really
that people are going to theaters to see because that
genie came out of the bottle and you can't put
it back.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
But what do you stand on this?
Speaker 4 (09:46):
I stand on the in club nostalgic. I'm from a
generation which I'm very happy to have participated in going
to the Core or Baronet Theater on on our third Avenue,
that there were prestige cinemas they would like the opening
(10:07):
weekend of a Stanley Kubrick movie. I was at the
twelve o'clock showing I'd stand in line gratefully. I'd stand
in line for a rough nixt To Robert Altman movie
or Woody Allen or whatever it would be. And I
kind of miss that. And I am now a guy
who sits on a couch, particularly post COVID, still on
(10:31):
the damn couch, catching up, you know, with so many choices,
I don't know, they all flatten out. There's nothing that
pops there's no there's no kind of trade ad. There
are no ads you would see, you know, full page
ads in the New York Times of you know, a
(10:53):
new Bardalucci movie or with all the quotes on it.
It's just a different marketing thing, and it's all sort
of word of mouth, and there's just so much and
I sound like I'm bitching and moaning about it. But
as you say that the tube is out and it's
not going back in, I don't really understand the math
of how all that works, how they're all making I
(11:15):
think that the studios are struggling. They're trying to find
I don't think they have the answer, the the the
economic formula to make all this work. So, you know,
we're still entering, and I think we're still you know,
in an unknown world here. We're still you know, canoeing
down the nile, hoping, you know, we find the right thing.
(11:39):
So it's not just going to be ten pole movies
in movie theaters. There's got to be an alternative to that.
People are and how do you market a movie like
what we're in. You know, this is a movie that
people definitely would have gone to on a Friday. This
will be a Friday night date movie. Right, So, so
(11:59):
how do you how do you get that going? Well,
we'll find out.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
This is the challenge.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
We only have a few minutes left.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Tell me, because you have been through divorce, what are
your greatest lessons you've learned from failed relationships and divorce.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
I think when I look when I look at my
friends who have been married the longest and we're talking now,
well over forty years, I remember, I remember when they
got married. I remember their fights. I remember, you know,
the struggles that they were having. And I thought about
(12:38):
that in my own life, of like I would do that,
and then I would bail, or I'd be with someone
who would bail. And they are now still together, more
in love than ever. And it's because they stayed in
the room. They didn't leave. They they refused to let
(13:01):
go when they're being screamed at, the skin would be
pulled back on their face and just terrible fights, and
they still gave each other a chance and it paid
off for them. And you know, if I didn't, I
didn't do that. I'm in a relationship now and I'm
telling myself this very thing. I'm telling you because you're
(13:22):
always going to have that and I used to leave
the room, and you know I would. My advice that
I did not follow that i'm trying to now would
be too to write it out, to stay in the
room to see where it goes, because I think I
think there are happy endings in it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I love that. That's a very interesting thought.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
And I'm telling you this is this is the best
way I could tell you to go see Ex Husbands.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
My husband loved it. I loved it. That's enough said.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
We just don't agree on entertainment too often, but we
agree on on enough, well, plenty of things. And the
love and thank you so much, Griffindon, I really really
enjoyed Ex Husbands. If you are not going to be
able to get to the theater, it will be streaming
March twenty fifth.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
You've been listening to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
three
Popular Podcasts
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!