Note: Dead Eyes transcripts have been generated with automated software and may contain errors. We advise you to listen to episode audio before quoting in print.
Dead Eyes, Season 2 Prologue (w/ Ira Glass)
Connor Ratliff In the first season of Dead Eyes, we set out to find out why Tom Hanks fired me from that small speaking role in Band of Brothers.
[Inquisitive theme music interjects]
I got some theories on what really happened from some friends in show business, even my mom and dad. I talked to the actor who replaced me, and even acted out the scene I was supposed to be in with members of the original cast
For season two, I'll be talking to some people who did not fire me, even though they could have. I figure I've spent so much time trying to understand how things went wrong, why not analyze a few instances when things went right? It's still the same investigation, we're just expanding the scope of it. We're solving for X, if I remember correctly how algebra works...and I'm not sure that I do.
There's still plenty more to learn about why Tom Hanks fired me. And to get ready for our second season, I turned to someone whose instincts are always on the mark podcast-wise. Someone who's been in the storytelling game for a long time and knows how to cut right to the heart of what's important.
Connor Ratliff Well, it's so nice to talk to you, Ira.
Ira Glass So nice to talk to you. I literally have no idea what we're about to do.
Connor Ratliff Well, I think I had run into you quite a while ago and I had told you I was working on this idea for a podcast. I think I had sort of told you about my...my Band of Brothers experience...uh...
Ira Glass [Laughs] Yes, which I was disturbed and surprised by, yes.
Connor Ratliff I wanted to ask your advice a little bit, because it's been very important to me from the beginning of doing this podcast that...I think some people assumed when I started it that I must have already had the ending in my back pocket.
Ira Glass Wait, is there a question that the podcast is trying to answer?
Connor Ratliff I mean, the big question is—and I guess it's less of a question than a conversation that I'd like to happen—is that, in my experience of it, I was in a room with Tom Hanks and a few other people, and I'd like to talk to the people who were in that room and find out—And it may be that they have no memory of what happened, because it was one of many things that were going on while they were making the biggest TV miniseries of all time.
Ira Glass But I still don't understand, what's the thing you're trying to figure out by doing a whole podcast?! Like, what's the thing, what's the thing you want to know?
Connor Ratliff I want to know if Tom Hanks said that I—he thought I had dead eyes. That...I don't know, I—
Ira Glass Did you just say that, that you want to get an answer from Tom Hanks about this?
Connor Ratliff Yeah.
Ira Glass Tom Hanks isn't going to remember this.
Connor Ratliff But he might remember it because it was a, you know, it was a hassle that day. They had to...
Ira Glass Ah.
Connor Ratliff Even if he remembers it in the same way that you might remember like, getting bit by a mosquito or something, or stung by a bee,
Ira Glass [Laughs] Oh my god...
Connor Ratliff I think it would be nice to sit down and have a conversation with him about this. And also to find out if he has experiences that made him feel like that early in his career.
Ira Glass Oh. Yeah. I bet he has.
Connor Ratliff I mean, John Hamm has said he'll go into the room with me and re-audition with me. He'll read with me if Tom Hanks would let me re-audition for him. That's what I want to do. I want to go into the room and re-audition with Tom Hanks because I think it'll be funny.
Ira Glass That is funny.
Connor Ratliff Does that seem like a worthwhile goal for a podcast?
Ira Glass I mean...are you saying for me as a listener? Or for you as somebody who needs to get something, um, like that out of his, out of his heart. [Laughs] Do you know what I mean? Like, are you saying—
Connor Ratliff [Laughs] Either, Ira!
Ira Glass —are you saying like, is it going to be good for me or is it going to be good for you? I think if you still feel driven to return to this moment...I don't know. It seems, it does seem like it would put it to bed, if it's not been put to bed.
Connor Ratliff You think, you think that there'll be something—there'll always be something else that'll be eating at me.
Ira Glass No, I don't. No, no, no. I'm saying like, I'm saying like, yeah, if you, if you got to re-audition with Tom Hanks and to talk to him about this, it would definitely like, put an end to the experience...unless he says something even worse than the dead eyes thing. Have you, have you contemplated that?
Connor Ratliff I have not.
Ira Glass Like, it could go worse. Maybe, maybe "dead eyes" was just a euphemism for something even worse about you that they weren't saying.
Connor Ratliff Oh my. No, it hadn't occurred to me. And this is, this is very helpful. Because I need to, I need to be prepared for that possibility.
Ira Glass But I, I, but I, I bet that's not going to happen. I bet, I bet like, he's a normal person and he'll be utterly gracious [laughs] and won't try to torture you. [Laughs] He seems like a lovely man who, who is not going to try to torture a fellow actor.
Connor Ratliff Let me ask your advice on something. I...We haven't actually reached out to him because as I sort of felt like there were some—I felt like there were points along the journey that I needed to get to before I went right to trying to meet with Tom Hanks and...so we sort of did the first season without an official ask. There's an implicit ask in the, in the existence of the podcast itself.
Ira Glass Mhm.
Connor Ratliff But, um, we haven't done that thing of actually sending a letter. And so I bought an old vintage typewriter, which was supposed to arrive in working condition. And now I'm trying to fix it. My thought is that I want to write Tom Hanks a letter and ask him, um, if he'll talk to me about this. If I write a letter like that, I'm stumped at the very beginning of it, because I don't know whether you write that letter "Dear Mr. Hanks," "Dear Tom Hanks," "Dear Tom." Each one of them seems—
Ira Glass That's a really, yeah, no, no, I, I, I would go with "Dear Tom Hanks."
Connor Ratliff That's, that was my impulse, but I was like, each one felt like I had, I had an issue with each version of that.
Ira Glass I think we should take these one by one. I think "Dear Mr. Hanks," is too formal and obsequious, and "Dear Tom," is too familiar.
Connor Ratliff Too familiar. Yeah.
Ira Glass And, uh...He's like Charlie Brown. It's "Tom Hanks." You know. Like, it's the whole name.
Connor Ratliff Do you think it should be a short letter or a long letter?
Ira Glass Everything should always be a short letter.
Connor Ratliff That's very helpful. That's very, very helpful. Have you ever come across Tom Hanks in any of your travels?
Ira Glass I have. But I am—I've got no pull with Tom Hanks. I'm just another movie fan. You know what I mean? I got, I got nothing.
Connor Ratliff Right. But you've met him?
Ira Glass I have met him.
Connor Ratliff And he was nice?
Ira Glass Lovely.
Connor Ratliff Um, this is going to sound like a, maybe, uh, an overly ambitious question, but I...How do—How do you get a Peabody award?
Ira Glass [Laughter]
Connor Ratliff It just occurred to me that like, this is the first thing I've ever done where I feel like I'm technically...like, it could happen.
Ira Glass Totally could happen. Yeah. Yeah.
Connor Ratliff And I think it'd be really funny, I think it'd be really funny if a show like this got a Peabody, it would be—I think it'd be amusing.
Ira Glass Well, Connor, I'm sitting here at my computer, and just coincidentally, today, in my email, I got an email from the Peabody awards.
Connor Ratliff Are they asking for recommendations?
Ira Glass "Peabody awards will begin accepting submissions on Thursday, October 1st for consideration for best storytelling from 2020. Entries must be programs that have aired or are scheduled to air within the calendar year. Guidelines of more information are available at their website.” Uh, “Peabody accepts submissions and programming across news entertainment, documentary children's programming and public service, produced for radio and podcasting, television and streaming for online platforms. Full descriptions...guidelines are here—" So, so, uh, so you have from October 1st through December 16th at 11:59 PM Pacific Time to get in your application.
[Soft theme music fades in.]
Connor Ratliff I'm gonna do it.
Ira Glass I support you.
Connor Ratliff Oh, thank you. I can't put—Can I put that in my packet?
Ira Glass [Laughs] Sure.
Connor Ratliff New episodes of Dead Eyes start on October 22nd, right here in this feed. I'm gonna go start typing that letter to Tom Hanks. See you soon.
[Music ends]