Bullseye Halloween Special with John Carroll Lynch and Capturing Bigfoot’s Marq Evans

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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SPEAKER_2 (0:16)

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of maximumfun.org and is distributed by NPR.

Jesse Thorn (0:25)

I'm Jesse Thorn. John Carrol Lynch has made a career in part by playing characters who are larger than life and usually very, very scary.

And in doing all of that, Lynch has learned some essential self-care tips, including this one, which he is more than glad to share.

John Carroll Lynch (0:46)

Do yourself a favor and go out a door with a fire axe. You never feel better than you will five minutes after that.

Jesse Thorn (0:55)

From maximumfun.org and NPR, this is Bullseye.

This week, it's a very special, very spooky Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, with John Carroll Lynch of American Horror Story, and with the creator of a brand new documentary about Bigfoot. That's all coming up on Goolseye.

It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn. Just in time for the spooky season, we're bringing you a brand new episode of Bullseye dedicated to the scariest holiday of them all, Halloween. First up on the show, John Carroll Lynch. John Carroll Lynch is a nice man. How can you tell? Well, he gets cast as nice guys all the time. His breakthrough role was in the movie Fargo. He played Norm Gunderson, husband to Marge Gunderson, who was of course played by Francis McDormand. You can sleep.

SPEAKER_5 (1:56)

It's early yet.

John Carroll Lynch (1:58)

Got to go?

Jesse Thorn (1:59)

Yeah.

John Carroll Lynch (2:01)

I'll fix you some eggs.

Jesse Thorn (2:03)

That's okay, honey. I got to run.

SPEAKER_7 (2:05)

You got to eat a breakfast, Marge.

John Carroll Lynch (2:10)

I'll fix you some eggs.

SPEAKER_8 (2:13)

Honey, you can sleep.

John Carroll Lynch (2:15)

Got to eat a breakfast.

Jesse Thorn (2:18)

But folks, this is not a Fargo special. This is a Halloween special. And despite the fact that John Carrol Lynch is such a nice guy, and a guy who often plays nice guys, he is also a guy who gets cast as a lot of big, scary, mean guys.

A sadistic deputy warden in Shutter Island. A murderous party guest in The Invitation, absolutely. Literally the Zodiac killer in Zodiac. And John Carrol Lynch played that guy too. But perhaps the biggest scary guy role for John Carrol Lynch is on American Horror Story, the long-running horror franchise on FX. Lynch plays Twisty, a larger-than-life, disfigured serial-killing circus clown. American Horror Story just launched its lucky number 13th season. You can watch it on FX and Hulu. John Carrol Lynch is always wonderful in it, as he is in everything. Let's get right into our conversation.

John Carrol Lynch, welcome to Bullseye. I am so happy to have you on the show.

John Carroll Lynch (3:31)

Happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Jesse Thorn (3:33)

You are a lot less terrifying as I speak to you through this video conference than you are in American Horror Story.

John Carroll Lynch (3:41)

But if I said I was right behind you, that would be disturbing.

Jesse Thorn (3:49)

Do you like terrify people on Halloween? You must not even have to do much to do that.

John Carroll Lynch (3:55)

I terrify people in odd circumstances, like an elevator will open, and someone will do that. That's happened on more than one occasion. But it also has to do with this size. I'm not a small person, and you're on your phone or whatever, and then the elevator opens and you don't realize.

Then suddenly this shows up.

Jesse Thorn (4:19)

You have this one career track of terrifying man, and you have this one career track of warm sweet man. And like never the twain shall meet?

John Carroll Lynch (4:35)

I don't know about that. I mean, there's been people that have wandered through both of those worlds and all kinds of different ones.

I love the opportunities I've had to play different people in different genres. It's really a lot of fun. It's why I wanted to be an actor in the first place and it's worked out for me. I'm really happy about that.

Jesse Thorn (4:53)

I'm about the same size as you are. The other day, I was in a business context, and someone reminded me that I am to some extent, fundamentally scary to others.

SPEAKER_9 (5:07)

Yes. Yeah.

John Carroll Lynch (5:08)

That's right.

SPEAKER_9 (5:09)

That's right.

John Carroll Lynch (5:11)

I did a movie called Love Happens, and there was a shot in it where I was getting off a bus, I was at part of a grief conference, and I was getting off a bus with Aaron Eckhart, who was the lead of the movie and the person running the grief conference. We were all going to go into a shop together, into a building together.