Even Bill Lawrence talks about ass words!
Snippets I overheard (as nearly as I can remember them) from the tail end of Zach Braff & Bill Lawrence's interview on NPR's "Fresh Air."
DAVID (the host, who's last name I can't remember): How did you get Natalie Portman & Ian Holm to do Garden State?
ZACH: When you cast a movie, you start with archetypes. You want someone like Natalie Portman or like Ian Holm. Then you make a long list of people you think would fit. I sent them the script. I had no idea they'd actually do it.
ZACH: I'm about to direct my first episode of "Scrubs."
BILL: I went from being kind of irritated that I'd agreed to let him direct - & then I saw his movie & realized what a treasure we have. I've said it before - the most annoying thing about Zach is how talented he is.
DAVID: One of the characters - in my memory it was Turk - has a fantasy about Sarah Chalke's character in this sort of soft-core porn nurse's outfit. And I'm just thinking - there has to be a story there, of how you got that on the air.
BILL: The only story is that we shoot in this creepy old hospital, so no one ever comes to visit us. They come, & it's always muggy & hot, so the network leaves us alone. So a lot of time it's a matter of us waiting to the last minute to hand it over & saying, "This is all we've got!" We've shot a number of sex scenes with Zach & Sarah over the years that have been--
ZACH: I watch some of that stuff & say, "I can't believe they put that on the air."
BILL: Which leads to me having all sorts of lovely conversations with the censors, saying, "Yeah, it'll be tastefully done." My most prized possession - it's a narrow line. On cable they swear & cuss all the time, but on the networks...You can say 'ass.' But one time we'd said it too much in one episode. So this censor sent me a letter - we'd said it I think 6 times, & she wanted us only to say it 3 times. And she listed the page numbers of every time the word appeared in the script, & she'd written the note that said, "Please pick your ass." I framed it & hung it on my wall.
And, my personal favorite, during a discussion of the rumor that something romantic was going on between Zach & Natalie Portman:
ZACH: No, we're really good friends, but that's it.
DAVID (teasing): What about Ian Holm?
ZACH (pause): Yes. I am dating Ian Holm. He's a great kisser.