Erik Ellington: the thrasher interview.

How much do you think luck has played into your skateboard career?

I don't know. Being a negative person I'd like to say 100-percent, but maybe not so much. Maybe 50-50.

I've heard you talk about it before. That's why I bring it up. What have been some of your lucky times that have helped you along the way?

I guess just making the fight decisions. There are a lot of decisions that I could have made that I didn't, and I'm lucky that I didn't make those decisions. I didn't do certain things that I could have done that would have cost me a lot out of where I would have been in my life.

One thing I can think of that was pretty good timing was when you got on Zero. It seems like unless somebody was looking for the kind of vibe that you had, it would have been hard for you to fit in. Think of the other companies of that time. Like, you weren't getting on Planet Earth.

No. I think it was pretty ideal the way that worked out. I mean, I looked up to Jamie and Toy Machine and that whole thing, and he just happened to be putting together a whole new team. I think that worked out pretty perfectly.

Looking back on yourself in that first video and at that time, describe yourself to the kids. What were you into? What was some of your shit at that time?

Well, I guess we were into the whole drop-in thing at that time. We were just young kids and naive, I guess.

Do you remember getting beef for the drop-ins?

Yeah, of course. I got the whole Jamie look-a-like and everything like that. I think me and Scotty Copalman took it really personally.

Yeah? Did you ever have to fight?

No, I don't think so.

This isn't a nickname people use anymore, but why were you known as the Mule in the Zero days?

It was a lot of Jamie having to do with ... I'm kind of lazy by nature, and it kind of takes a lot of--well, nowadays I'm not so bad anymore, but at that time I was kind of carefree as far as work ethic. It started like I was a mule who had to be drug up a hill and the tricks were at the top of the hill. I think that's how he kind of phrased it. I think he and Jim were definitely behind that one.

What were some miracles in your early video parts?

It's weird. I think I was a lot better before I got on Zero, and then I got into the whole way of how we were skating at that time and I kind of lost a lot of my ability. Then I regained it around the Misled Youth days. But there were a lot of miracles that went down.

Obviously you've done a lot of great tricks, but were there some that you just said, "Phew, thank God I made that."

I don't know. There were some, yeah. Not really. In Thrill of it All I didn't really have anything good anyway.

I don't even remember what your part was like.

It was the slam part. Remember? I slammed all over the place! But it was cool, because at that time skating didn't have something like that. Even though you could think about how jacked it was, it was something that skating needed, I think.

Did you want to talk about another company at the time that had a similar vibe, Enemy skateboards? They were sort of like Zero's evil twin.

Oh yeah. I didn't have too much contact with them, except for maybe Patrick Melcher driving his scooter down the street and we'd yell something at him. I don't know. Was he even on Enemy?

Yeah. It was when he had the mane.

Oh, okay. All right. Not too much contact.

What is the environment on Zero where so many people have to get out of there?

Let me think about that. Well, personally, when we started Baker I had moved up to LA, or moved to Huntington Beach and on to LA, so I'd kind of distanced myself, sort of, from the whole thing down there. I had just moved on and just saw a whole different way of things out of the scene of Jamie's work ethic. It's a lot different than a lot of people's, I think. Was it a relief when you got off the team?

In a way, but then I also got back on the team so I left and then ...

Why'd you get back on the team? Were you really just swerving deadlines?

No, not really. I mean, in a way, yeah, but I think I left Zero and then I missed it. I missed Matt and I missed Adrian, everybody on the team, and Jamie as well. I don't really know how to word it but, yeah, I missed riding for Zero so I got back on. Also, I had met my wife and I was going down to San Diego and I was hanging out with all those guys again, and I was like, "Well, maybe I made the wrong decision." Then I got back on and moved back up to LA and realized that maybe I had made the fight decision.

Was it hard to get Baker to take you back?

No. I just talked to Andrew and said, "I want to get back on." I made the wrong choice, you know.

And in the meantime you got to miss out on one of the videos?

Yeah, I did, and luckily, because I wouldn't have been satisfied with my part anyway. So I luckily sort of pulled that one off.

How was it quitting Zero the second time?

Actually, that was maybe even tougher.

Did you have to make a lot of promise when you got back on?

No I remember it seemed I like we were having a lot of team meetings and were real close, and then when I got back on I just realized that wasn't the thing for me. I told Jamie and I think that he understood. Maybe the second time was actually easier, because he realized that was the end of it. Maybe he even realized it when I quit the first time and came back that maybe it wasn't the right thing. We made it work out. Everything's fine.

What's it like dealing with your buddies back home who were on the same path as you but didn't quite make it to the level that you have?

In the beginning it was tough for a lot of people, but it's like, life goes on without that sort of shit. Everybody still meets up once a month or something. I mean, Shane lives right down the street from me, I talk to Scotty every couple days, and my friend Sean Hughes, I talk to him once a week. All my friends back in Arizona, I still see and talk to. I think in the beginning something like that's real hard to deal with. I'm sure. But everybody's doing good in their own way.

Have you ever had to fight anybody back home about that kind of stuff?

No.

Like a loudmouth at the bar?

Yeah. Well, there was this one guy, but that was such a small case. It's like, "Yeah, I remember when you and Scotty were this big, and Scotty ripped you, dude!" Whatever, the guy's probably a cool dude and I've known this guy for a long time, but, that's the only case. Actually, Cody Boat had to wrestle him down. That's just silly, drunk shit.

Do you think Randy Colvin ollied the Wedge?

I think he came real close, but I think if someone had done it, it would have been Rich Munos. That dude was fucking gnarly, man. Longhaired, fucking crazy Indian, man. He was sick.

Tell the story about the Briefcase.

Well, I moved to California and then I heard my friend Vince Vargas had got this tattoo that said "El Calza." It was suppose to mean "The Wedge."

And the Wedge is your beloved skate spot.

Yeah. We all grew up really close to there and we skated there everyday

for like three years. They've got a park there and everything now, but he got "The Wedge" down his leg, and I guess "the wedge" in Spanish is really close to "the briefcase," so it ended up that he got "the briefcase" down his leg. This is like six years ago or something and I thought that was pretty funny so I tattooed "the briefcase" on my leg, with a little briefcase and it said "Wedge" inside it. It's starting to fade away. I've got to get it touched up.

That's beautiful. What was the sketchiest moment you can remember in your childhood, in your formative years? 'Cause you didn't always have the most stable time up, did you?

No, not the most stable. I wouldn't have changed any way that it was, but my dad died when I was 12 and my mom met my stepdad around when I was six, so, you know, I had two dads. Then after my dad passed away, my mom wanted to get out of the cold of Alaska so we moved to Arizona. It was me and my mom out there, and after a couple years out there we moved back to Alaska for maybe a year. Then we would move back, and we moved to Arizona permanently in '92, somewhere around there. There were a lot of things that were great.

I think probably the most memorable, aside from my dad passing away, was our house burned down in Arizona and I ended up living at the Balance warehouse, which was a hole-in-the-wall office, with Aaron Pearcey.

Balance was the local company you rode for?

Yeah. That was the company Scott, me, Pearcey, this guy Dan Novak, Josh Mott, Dennis Etall, Esao Andrews--we all rode for it. Esao's actually the guy who does our graphics now. I grew up skating with him.

So how old were you?

At that time I think I was 16. Yeah.

What were you snacking on as a 16-year-old on a budget living in a warehouse?

Well, there was a Circle K real close so it was like a 40oz at night and whatever. Me and Pearcey, the way we kind of did it back then was we had a supply of boards in the warehouse, which was probably only like 200, but when we would get real low we would just sell those. But we weren't on too much of a budget at the time so we'd get our fill of beer, and every now and then when we'd sell like 10 or 12 boards we'd go get a hotel room at the Motel Six across the street--and we'd be living in the lap of luxury, man, with showers and everything. I remember at the office the bathroom was down the hall, and in the middle of the night it'd be like, fuck, you don't want to get up and take a piss so there'd just be 44oz Big Gulps surrounding the place full of piss. When people would walk in they'd just be like, "I can't believe you guys are living in this joint, man," trying to come up with graphics and going to sleep at four in the morning or just sitting in the office getting drunk. The office was probably the size of a small bedroom.

Did you have a pro model on Balance?

No. Luckily I never did.

Only Pearcey?

Pearcey had one. That was pretty funny. At the time I don't think he was really taking it too seriously, but yeah, he was our big pro at the time.

Who else got a board?

I think Josh Mott had a board. Then after Pearcey moved to Huntington Beach, Weiss, and I think Matt Milligan and a couple other people had boards. That was after me and Scott had left.

Every time you go on tour you'll see all these small local companies with all the local rippers riding for them. If a kid wants to be big time, is there even any reason for them to ride for "Pittsburgh Plankz" or whatever?

Yeah, I think so, because if you're doing it yourself, helping with it, it teaches you a lot about graphics and stuff. With Balance, we put together a commercial for 411, even though it never came out, and we did our own graphics. It helped me out a lot now and it helped me with Zero and it's helped me with Baker. But as far as a small company in a small town making it, it's pretty slim chances, but it's definitely not out of the question. More than likely a kid that grows up in a small town and starts a company with his friends probably won't ride for that company forever, but it's a good learning process.

A lot of kids channel their emotions or energy into skateboarding. Did you have a similar experience?

Yeah, I think so. I always wanted to try and make something of myself whether I did it through--I don't know what I would have done--whatever else I would have done I would have tried to make it work.

But did you have a point where you were just crazy for skating?

Oh, yeah. I've always been like that. I moved to California at a relatively young age. I was like 17 and my mom let me do my own thing since I was pretty young.

What kind of student were you?

Oh good. Real good.

Did you finish high school?

Yeah, graduated.

All right. Not bad.

I think I probably could have gone to college.

Yeah?

Yeah. I don't remember half of it, but that's my short-term memory.

Lance Dawes: Give me a quick run through with how Baker came together.

It was basically the same crew from Warner. You know, all of us skating together everyday and then Jay Strickland, who was the team manager for Birdhouse, he had the thought that he and Andrew would start a board company. Everybody was down to do that so we kind of started it from there.

Lance Dawes: How hard was it for you to quit Zero to ride for this brand new company?

That was a bitch. Jamie Thomas brought me up to where I was at the time. That was really tough for me because, first of all, Zero was something that we all started. Jamie was the big name at the time, but we all started the company. Going from doing that and figuring things out and to growing up, it was tough to say, "I quit, man. Later." But it happened and he understands.

Lance Dawes: Why'd you name it Baker and not the Piss Drunks?

That's got nothing to do with me. That was Ali Boulala's nickname.

Lance Dawes: What, Baker?

Yeah.

Lance Dawes: So they named it after Ali Boulala?

Yeah, pretty much.

The Baker team got a lot of attention a few years ago for being wasteoids and all that stuff. What do you think that legacy is, because there are obviously companies out there still trying to follow that dream. What's it like to see these younger kids now kind of copying what you guys did?

As you get older you realize that you can't get wasted every single night or do all these things, and I think, in a way, it was glamorized a little bit too much, but it's also what kids go through. It's like, you want to get drunk, you're making a little bit of money, you want to go out and have a good time, have barbeques and all this stuff. I think it's really short-lived but I think there's a way to balance it all out. I still get drunk once a week and have barbeques and have the whole crew over, but it's like a lot of people in our crew had to completely stop that because they couldn't just partially do it. They had to be completely absorbed by it. But if you get into it, no matter who you are, you have to make that decision. You either can keep going and end up homeless or completely wasted and not have a career, or you can choose not to--if you have that choice, because a lot of people don't. It's a roll of the dice, though. If you get into cocaine or heroin or whatever, you could be fucked up and some people never get out of that. With that said, I think it was definitely glamorized a bit too much and maybe people took it as the thing to do.

Like the way to get sponsored?

Yeah.

Is there tension on the road now between the wasteoids and the tea-totallers?

Not really.

Is it hard for the team to travel together?

Some people just can't travel with other people. I guess we'll leave it at that. I think Andrew completely understands everything. We went on that summer tour last year, and it was like half of us were getting drunk and the other half were staying sober and ...

Reading books?

Yeah.

Do you ever get caught in the middle with the younger kids because you want to help them out and protect them a little bit, but then they're all 17 and 18 and you don't want to tell them they can't do stuff? Do you find yourself often conflicted with trying to look out for them and also wanting to get wild yourself?

I'm such a bad person to be a role model, because I'll get wasted and then I'll end up fucking up myself, and I'll say, "You probably shouldn't be doing this." But then when I'm wasted with the kids, like Herman or Spanky, then it's a good time. But ultimately it's their decision how far to take that. And I think that they're smart enough that they know where the line should be drawn for themselves.

What's the most ridiculous item of clothing you've ever purchased and worn?

Probably the Patriot or something. It hasn't gone too far.

Is that the American Revolution jacket?

Yeah. I still like that a lot.

You got any leather pants?

No, never went that far. I had the bandana phase I went through about six or seven years ago.

Top hat?

Never got that.

Bow tie?

Nope.

Leather vest?

Nope.

Vest with no shirt?

I've gone that route.

Do you ever wear shorts?

Yeah.

Can you skate in shorts?

Yeah. I like shorts.

I remember for a while you rocked the swooshies. Was that to kind of break away from the rock and rollers for a second?

Yeah, I think that was on a comfort level. I think it started on a tour and it was hot in the Midwest. I don't know what it was.

Have you worn any women's pants?

No. I've never gone that route either.

Blouses?

No.

Have you ever shot a photo with shades?

Yeah. Well no, maybe not a skate photo. I feel kind of corny wearing sunglasses sometimes. You feel like you're putting them on for this big style thing or something.

Leather jacket with no shirt?

I've gone that route, yeah. I think most of these come out of being pretty drunk and you think you're kind of cooler than you are.

If you could put one person on Baker who's not on Baker right now, who would it be?

Trainwreck. I always liked Trainwreck.

What's going on with him?

I'm not sure.

I heard he might be a little heavier.

Yeah. I think he actually lost some weight recently, though. He kind of fluctuates, but I don't know if he's skating yet because he got knee surgery. But he was just a fucking wrecking ball at the time. He'll get more drunk than you, skate better than you--he was just like a machine, man. When you watched him skate it was unbelievable. It's like a legend. He's someone who I wish was still how he was, but you choose to take the routes that you take. I don't know. I think if he hadn't wrecked his knee he still would be killing it, but sure, maybe he'll get back to the way he was.

Who else?

I always wished Ali was on the team.

Yeah, that'd be fun.

He's really entertaining to be with. I like him.

Lance Dawes: Was Warner Avenue around the time when you and your friends invented the big finger board?

No, that was like 10 years before that. That was old stuff.

Lance Dawes: How did that come about?

That was probably ninth grade, 10th grade, sitting around playing with the remote controller just trying tricks after school or whenever, going to bed you try and flip stuff with the remote control, and then LeSalle came up with this thing. We kind of collaborated on it and ended up making like a 10-inch skateboard, a big finger board. Finger boards were like non-existent since '88 or something. Then we started doing this. You take a piece of cardboard with coat hangers shoved down the lines of the cardboard to bend the concave, and big pins with bearings on the big pins.

Lance Dawes: How did you go from Zero and Warner to--where was the next place that you went to? It seems like you went from San Diego to Orange County, and then LA.

There was this one night when we kissed Warner goodbye. There was one night when me and Andrew came up here, had some drinks at the White Horse, stayed the night at this girl's house, and then woke up in the morning so fucking hung over and I looked down the skyline of LA, and thought, "What the fuck are we doing in Huntington Beach, man?" From then on it was like all right, well, then let's get the crew together and move everybody on up to LA. Then we just tried to convince everybody to move up here.

What was the most far out night in the Warner Avenue apartments?

There were a lot of 'em.

Is there a night that will go down in Warner Avenue history as epic?

I think that there were so many times that were good that you can't really pinpoint one of them. There were so many times where everyone would gather their old shit and go down to the Huntington park and make like $150 bucks, then go to Ralph's and fucking fill up a shopping cart with beer and meat and take it straight to the apartment complex, then fill the shopping cart with ice and just have the best times. Ice and beer and have a great time. I remember the night we all skated and went to some Joe's Crab Shack or something, and me and Drew got completely hammered that night and drove down to the Huntington park and painted a huge PD in the Huntington park. It was there for like five months.

Yeah, what do you think when you see the PD's around? Is that weird?

Yeah, it's a little weird but maybe kids want to identify with something and they don't have that. I think it's something that was fun that we had. I mean, times change. That time will never be the same again, and these times now I'm going to look back on as well.

Where's the weirdest place you've seen one?

Maybe in another country at spots. At MACBA you'll see it all over the stairs. I went to Brazil and there's a Brazilian PD crew. There's even a Brazilian Trainwreck. Well, I kind of started calling him that. It's cool because these kids are having the same pleasure out of life that we were having at that time, and it's rad.

What's clear air turbulence?

Low pressure is clouds, rain, and stuff like that, and you get turbulence, but clear air turbulence is when you get the majority of turbulence.

How'd you first find out about that?

Me and my wife were coming back from Brazil and we were flying above the Atlantic Ocean just about an hour out of New York City. We were kind of coming in a bank turn to arrive and the fucking plane just dropped. I don't know how far, maybe 10- to 15-feet down, All the food carts hit the ceiling and people were puking all over the place and screaming, a lady broke her rib.

Were the stewardesses calm, cool and collected?

Fuck no, man. The pilot wasn't even calm and collected. He got on about 15-minutes later in the shakiest voice, like, "I've never seen anything like that before in my 30 years of flying. Uh, I don't know what to say." There were ambulances when we landed in La Guardia, and Lucy and me were like, "Fuck this." She was five months pregnant at the time. I fucking flew up in the air and all my orange juice and food was up in the air everywhere. It was so freaky, man. Everybody on the plane, I think, thought it was going down. We landed at like six in the morning or something, and the stewardesses were like, "Is it too early to get a Bloody Mary or something?" They were freaking out. Lucy and I just decided we were going to stay in New York until we decided to catch a train back. We stayed in a hotel a couple days and then we were like, "Fuck, a train's going to be like a three-day ride back to LA," so I called the airline and I somehow swindled a ticket back because I just ditched out on our ticket. I was like, "Yeah, my wife's pregnant," this and that, we were never going to fly again, so, "we need to have a free flight back to LA." Luckily they gave it to us. That was fine. It's something like such a freak occurrence. I've got to fly today.

Just because we talked about it, that totally decreases your chance of running into a problem. It's all statistics these days. What was it like when you first got rich?

Yeah right. I don't think I ever got rich.

You used to be real poor. So what was it like when you got rich?

When I first started making those $750 checks off my Zero board that was like minimum pay, and, oh fuck, man. I was buying watches and Nikes and all kinds of shit, man. Whatever, I'd buy the beer; I thought I was living the life. I could pay my rent easily. I went out and bought things that I thought were such conveniences for the time.

Lance Dawes: A lot of people think you turn pro ... "Oh, you don't have to skate anymore. These dudes are pro, they're rich, they don't even have to skate." You still have to put in that time.

Personally I think I'm putting in more now than I ever did. You turn pro, usually you can kind of kick back a little bit. I did. Then after a while people start seeing you around and they expect more or they might write you off like you're kind of washed up or something. Then you really need to put in 110-percent. Now I think personally I need to put in more than I've ever put in.

Have you ever had a pro skater tell you you couldn't ride shotgun?

Yeah. I was like 16 or 17. Frank Hirata, that fucking prick. We had just done a demo in El Cajon and I had just gotten shotgun and didn't think anything of it. He came up and he's like, "What are you doing?"

And I was like, "Oh, nothing, man."

And he said, "You're in shotgun."

I was like, "Oh yeah, I called it."

He's like. "You're am. I'm pro." I looked at him and started laughing at him, thinking he was joking with me, and then I realized that this weirdo wasn't joking. I couldn't believe it and then Jamie, actually, stepped in and freaked out on him.

And you got to keep shotgun?

Fuck yeah. I think from then on everybody in that van realized that the guy was a complete weirdo. You know, 'cause who does that, man?

Weirdos. Complete or otherwise. What's your favorite photo you've ever had in a magazine?

There are a lot of them that I think were really cool. There's the bigspin boardslide in San Diego, the sequence. It was a Zero ad. I think it was something that nobody had ever really done at that time in skating. Then there's other things that I'm stoked on how they turned out, things like getting the cover where I was just completely in shock because I never thought I was going to get something like that.

Do you ever go on the Internet? Do you ever check out those chat rooms?

Yeah, I go on those occasionally.

Do you ever write stuff?

No. I never really get into that.

What's the wildest news that you've read about yourself on there?

Just all the drug use or switching companies. Nothing really too out there.

I've never known you to be much of a drug user.

No. I got into stuff, but also I have a grasp on things. I try and keep my things to a minimum.

What goes through your head when you think of your impending fatherhood?

Oh man. It's really exciting. I think that we're going to be good parents. We got a boy on the way, so I guess about a month after the interview's out we should have a little dude running around.

Have you got some names?

Yeah, Julius. Julius Luther Ellington.

Wow.

Yeah. Sounds like a king's name. I'm ervous, but I think that I'm prepared. I'm trying to build this addition onto the house and accommodate a family, and maybe more kids after that if Lucy's into it.

Was it shocking to take on a role as provider? After all the scraping by just for yourself, is it weird to take care of a family now?

Well, I think that it sort of climbed its way to that point. Making my big thousand dollars at the beginning of every month and being a bit selfish with it and spending on my own personal things, then making a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more to where now I think I have an idea of how to budget things and I know what I need to do in order to provide for my family.

So now you feel pretty good?

Yeah. I'm pretty confident in what I can do.

Lance Dawes: By the time this interview runs, the Baker video will be out. For all the people out there that have just watched your part, what's in it that tortured you the most?

Oh, probably the big spin in Carlsbad, because I landed on it a bunch of times but would break my board, and I was like "Oh, well, I'll just go back and do it." And the same thing happens, I went back, landed on it after skating it for like two hours--landed on it, landed on it, break my board. So I was like, "Well, maybe I'll come back again." So I went back again, and it just turned into a Terminator mission. Seriously, I went there eight times.

Lance Dawes: Didn't you make a promo video of you bailing it for the trade show?

Drew sent it to me after the first day I was there for the next weekend to go do it again, like "Erik versus Carlsbad." Since I was landing on it like 50 times he sent me this video. That really shows how much I tried to do it, so I gave it to Robin and Andrew for the Baker trailer for the trade show, and then people watching it were like, "Erik versus Carlsbad tomorrow at noon" or something. I think a bunch of people showed up. But I finally did it and it was like a dream come true, 'cause when you're riding away from something that you've tried for that long there are no words that can explain the feeling.

What kind of job do you want to do after you're not a pro skater?

I'd like to get into being some kind of company owner or part owner. I'd like to go into doing shoe designs and things like that,

What trick can't you do?

Frontside noseblunt slides have always been really tough for me, except for on a red curb or something. For some reason I just can't get the hang of being able to frontside noseblunt slide a flatbar.

And you don't give a shit about a ramp, huh?

No, I do. I was skating the Supreme bowl everyday for a couple months.

What'd you get?

I learned how to Smith grind in it. I could do backside tailslides, but I don't kill it or anything. It's definitely challenging and fun.

You think you'll ever retire as a bowl Barney?

Probably, shit. When I'm 40 I'll probably go out and try to skate a flatbar or a curb and that'll be great, but eventually I'd like to build a bowl and a mini-ramp in a backyard where I can have it and just go fucking roll around.

What street skater do you think is going to have the longest career?

Koston, hands down.

I see Daewon going to 50.

Yeah. He just seems like such an athlete.

How's he going to get washed up?

It's impossible. His DVS part's better than anything I've ever seen of him. And then Koston; I think he's better now than he ever was. Tony Hawk, he seems to be going strong still. Danny Way, Bob Burnquist.

Having a Brazilian wife, how's that opened you up to international flavor in other parts of the world?

I've been to Brazil a couple of times and it's crazy, because being able to travel to a place like that and being with someone who grew up there and seeing the hardships that people go through down there really puts life into perspective for someone who's had it relatively easy. Because you see kids that are six years old huffing glue that got kicked out on the streets when they were five because their parents can't afford them or it's cheaper for them to be without the kid. No shoes, huffing glue! Puck, man, things need to change. At least we've got it pretty good out here.

How's your Portuguese?

Horrible. I try it, and I listen to Lucy talk to her family quite a bit. Her morn calls, and I say, "Hello. How are you?" and then that's the end of it. She tries to communicate and I'm like, "OK, bye."

What was it like going over there and meeting her family for the first time?

I was a bit nervous. She's got three brothers.

Did you put a shirt on under the leather jacket for that?

Yeah. But I have tattoos and I didn't want them to get the wrong idea. I think they see that I treat her right and they're so cool. Her brother came out here twice. He stayed with us for like three months. I think they like me.

You think you'll stay in California?

Yeah, I think so. Where I live fight now I don't feel like I'm in LA 'cause I'm in the woods, so as long as I'm not in the heart of Hollywood where Lucy can't walk down the street with the kid at night then l think we're alright. Maybe 10 or 15 years from now I'll choose to live outside of LA. I think Burbank's a nice area, but in general I think LA's pretty cool.

You sound very domesticated compared to when I first met you.

I am. Definitely.

Okay, last question: How old are you?

Twenty-seven.