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Alec Baldwin: "Public Life Is Horrible, It's Awful"

Jen Carlson

Published Nov 27, 2013

Modified Nov 27, 2013

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Jen Carlson

Published Nov 27, 2013

Modified Nov 27, 2013

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Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Baldwin earlier this year (Getty Images)

Yesterday we spoke with Alec Baldwin about his MSNBC show's cancellation, and during our interview the future of his podcast—Here's The Thing—came up. The podcast was broadcast on WNYC, and featured a wide array of guests, including Thom Yorke, David Brooks, Lena Dunham, and Dick Cavett. Baldwin also spoke a bit about GLAAD, the word "cocksucker," and the stresses of public life, particularly while living in New York City.

Are you still going to do your podcast? I can't imagine I would now. Listen, this is a business where once the doors close they almost never reopen. Do the podcast where now?

You can't just do it on WNYC, you can't continue it? WNYC was a situation where in the first year, and I mean this literally, the show was underwritten by 30 Rock. And I didn't need any money because I had this other job I was doing, I could do the podcast as a hobby. But the television show I was doing ended, I said I can't afford to do it for the amount of money I did it for, which I split three ways with my other producers—I said I didn't want to be paid more than them. This wasn't some million dollar number.

I said let's just not do it anymore. I couldn't afford to do it as a hobby, I gotta go to work, I have to make a living. There's no point in them stressing about it, so it ended.

And you won't bring it back? At this point no, I couldn't even imagine where I would go with it. We get phone calls from non-traditional sources putting out feelers to me.

But you can just do it yourself you know? But building that whole thing... honestly now, the way this has all gone down, I question whether I should even bother doing that. I really do, I really do. The podcast was a lot of work. And this thing where people think I am some homophobe is very difficult. Two friends of mine called today, my wife was talking, and said "Will you officiate our wedding?" And I said, "Are you sure about that?" I live in two worlds. I live in a world where I live my life and don't have any of those issues privately. And then publicly it's like, you know, like the fact that we live in a world where TMZ has any credibility.

Again, I have only one, I mean other than my own sadness... you see in this world there are advocacy groups and rights groups all played a different way. There are certain advocacy groups in my lifetime, they wanted their rights and they wanted to live. Other advocacy groups... they don't only want their rights, they want you to salute them. Andrew Sullivan wants to be saluted. And I think to myself, wow, this is a new development in my lifetime. And I've said before, if the word "cocksucker" has become... if that word is a homophobic epithet then I will make due note of that. I've got no desire to offend anyone.

But I feel like GLAAD... many of my friends who are gay and even those who have some kind of advocacy position, worked with them. GLAAD very suspiciously... they want to raise money on my back. [GLAAD vice president of communications] Rich Ferraro would sit there and say, "Look at Alec Baldwin, this is exactly why you need to send us your money. Send us your money now so that GLAAD can keep up its good work of making sure that people who... we're pretty convinced are wrong. We might not know for sure, but we're satisfied with our judgements here at GLAAD. Help us do that good work we're doing." Okay. That makes me sad.

If I could get a check tomorrow and never work in this business again, I could just go take a break, if I could do something else, with my family, I would do it tomorrow. Or find a way to dismiss this whole public aspect of this work. Because public life now, it is just, it is horrible. It is horrible. It's so awful.

Are you going to leave NYC? New York is just... I go out the door of my house, every day there's all these photographers here. We have a little baby, you think I want my kid raised like that? My ex wife raised my other daughter in Los Angeles. What does Los Angeles mean, what does it signify? It means gated living. You pull up to a gate you go behind a wall and you're done with it. You get out of valet parking you go into a restaurant you're on private property. Your feet never touch public land! I think to myself there's so many other places to live to be happy. You know, Bloomberg doesn't want people to drink big sodas, but he wants to make sure those paparazzi have the right to have their lenses five feet from my daughter's head.

You know something, I don't know what the answer is as far as career and life, but I know I have to walk down completely different routes, I just do. I have to walk down completely different routes. I feel like you just become... what you're doing is paddling against the current.

Tagged

alec baldwin

glaad

here's the thing

podcast

wnyc

original

Jen Carlson

Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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