-Come on, pal, you look --
Wow, you look gre--
You're all dressed up.
I think you are the first guest
to dress up for me.
-Dude, I always dress like this.
-No, oh, my -- stop.
Really?
Every day of your life?
-No, dude, I knew you were
coming back and thought
you were all --
and I thought maybe
we would do something special.
So, I was like, "I'll get the
suit back on," you know?
-You're a good man.
Thank you for doing that, buddy.
Where -- Are you in London?
-Yeah, no, we're in London.
And it's all good.
And we're just sort of like --
Sorry for that.
Just a second.
-Oh, my gosh!
Are you wearing shorts?
You cheater!
-No, no!
-You cheater!
-No.
-Busted.
-No.
-Busted.
-No. I'm just kidding.
-Oh.
Hey, I know you just played --
You do this thing every year,
"Soccer Aid."
But this year you did, like,
an e-sports version of that.
How did you get involved
in "Soccer Aid."
Are you a good player?
-Ah, I'm a "good" player.
Yes.
I'm a good person,
and I'm a player.
-Yes.
You definitely are.
-I get my backside
handed to me regularly.
But I am a good person, and
I try and play for charities.
And we've raised millions
and millions and millions
and millions and millions
of bucks for UNICEF
and children all over the world,
so it's been a really good --
It's been a really good ride
over the last 10 years.
-But you also --
You do a lot of stuff.
You also do a thing with,
uh, supporting
Give and Go Athletics, which is
based in Philadelphia, correct?
-Yeah. Give and Go Athletics
is something that we've gotten
involved in just recently
through a very good
connection of ours.
And Philly's a --
I regard it as a second home,
and I have a home there.
We try to get there
as much as we can.
I love the town.
Uh, Give and Go Athletics --
it's formed by two guys,
amazing guys, Caleb and Andre.
They grew up on different sides
of the gang line
in North Philly.
They both became
collegiate athletes.
They both became
behavioral health therapists.
They both came back
to North Philly,
met each other at the exact time
that the state took away
all extracurricular
sporting activities
and after-school events
and stuff.
So in step these two guys.
They're collegiate athletes.
Like, incredible athletes,
but they're also
behavioral health therapists.
So what they started to do
is provide
extracurricular sporting
activities and stuff like that.
But at the same time, providing
sort of trauma-informed therapy.
So, they've been doing it
for the last 11 years,
and they've been doing it
on a shoestring.
And they've been doing it out of
the goodness of their own heart.
And so we started to pair up
with them and all that.
So, I mean, if you don't mind,
can I plug them?
Can I give their website?
-Please do.
That's why -- yeah.
We let everyone.
-If you want to support a child
through the year,
monthly donation is the best
thing that you can do.
And what you want to do is,
send it to --
You want to go to
giveandgoathletics.org/
get-involved.
That's giveandgoathletics.org/
get-involved.
And get involved
with these guys,
because they are fixing
the world.
-I think it's so cool
that you do that.
I love that.
I was, you know, in quarantine.
You spend a lot of time looking
at things on the Internet
and getting creative
and all this stuff.
But then I saw you in a thing
called "Star Force."
Let me see if I get it right.
"Sci-Fisolation"?
Is that correct?
-You're a true friend.
You're a true friend.
-I thought it was funny.
I love "Sci-Fisolation."
Uh, I want to make sure
I got that.
It's like a spoof
of "Star Trek" almost.
It's like your own version
of "Star Trek."
-It's a spoof homage.
It's like a "spomage."
[ Laughter ]
It basically is a kind of
spoof of "Star Trek."
But we try to keep it as
sci-fisolated as possible.
So, you know sometimes the guys
are coming up with
really good ideas for like
a good-looking laser gun,
and we're like,
"Yeah, that's cool.
That's looks like
a really cool laser gun."
And you're like,
"You know what?
It was funnier when you were
using the remote control."
-[ Laughs ]
Yes!
-We had to pull ourselves back
from being too good.
-I saw a lot of fans of yours
were online talking,
because you were playing,
you know, obviously,
there's a connection between you
and Patrick Stewart with "X-Men"
and now with -- you're playing
kind of a, you know,
captain of a ship,
kind of a "Star Trekky,"
they're like,
"Is there any world
where you would play a young
Jean-Luc Picard?"
-Jimmy, that is
the only world --
that is the only world
that exists
in which I will play
Jean-Luc Picard.
Any other world
is just an alternate reality
in a bad episode of "Star Trek."
-Right.
So it's already --
It's happened.
-It happened already?
-If they don't hire me,
I'm gonna make it on my phone,
which pinged.
Sorry about that.
-[ Laughs ]
Yeah. No. Listen.
I'm calling it right now.
I'm doing the virtual lockdown
equivalent of rubbing my scent
all over Patrick's face, and
saying this territory is mine.
All the other bald actors
can [bleep] off.
It's me.
[ Both laugh ]
-Can we talk about
"The Sandman"?
-Yes, please.
-This is an audible original.
It's a big deal.
A great cast.
Did you record this
before lockdown?
-No, I --
Weirdly, I was meant to do it
in January or February
when I was doing a play
in the West End.
And my voice was, like,
tired from the show.
So I kept saying
to the director,
"Do you mind if we push this
back until after the show?"
And he said "Yeah, of course."
So we pushed it back
until after the show.
And it scheduled perfectly
with the arrival
of COVID-19 in the U.K.
So I wasn't able to record it.
So around about April,
we built
a kind of makeshift studio
in my spare bedroom.
We just moved into a nice,
slightly bigger house,
but we were
in a tiny flat before.
And then,
our only spare bedroom,
which was full of moving stuff,
was just rammed
and full of this little, like,
James-made recording studio.
It took me a day-and-a-half
to build the thing.
It took me a day and a half
to figure out
how to work the thing.
And then, it took about
a day-and-a-half to calibrate
the computer and the baby face
and all that kind of stuff
to make the recording work.
-Of course.
-But weirdly, we recorded it in
like a day-and-a-half,
because I was so late
to the table,
all the other --
all the other, like --
I think it's like a cast
of a hundred or something.
-Yeah.
-They had all recorded
their stuff, and I got to listen
to every single episode
and then lay down my stuff,
so it was absolutely fantastic.
-It's what we need know.
It is, I think, over 11 hours
of audio, of material.
And it's like,
that's what we need.
We need podcasts,
we need shows, we need things.
So I thank you for doing that,
and I want to let everyone know,
"Sandman" is available
on Audible right now.
-Thank you.
-James, I love you, bud.
Thank you so much
for coming on our show.
I want to see you
in person, pal.
-Alright.
Maybe next time.
Thank you so much, bud.
Thanks for being here.
