Overview of How Long Gone with Griffin Dunne
Chris Black and Jason Stewart open with their usual culture-and-chaos banter before welcoming actor, director, and memoirist Griffin Dunne for a wide-ranging conversation that moves from celebrity spectacle and New York gossip to family history, obituary writing, Hollywood’s future, and old-school Hollywood anecdotes. Dunne proves game for the hosts’ playful tone while also getting reflective about aging, relationships, and the changing film industry.
Main Topics Discussed
Pop culture chatter and celebrity spectacle
- The episode opens with jokes about Atlanta, over-the-top marriage proposals, and the weekend’s tabloid-style obsession with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
- The hosts speculate about a possible wedding/event at Madison Square Garden and what the entertainment, food, and guest list might look like.
- They debate celebrity behavior, performative public displays, and how fans either fully embrace or fully reject stars like Taylor Swift.
Griffin Dunne’s life now
- Dunne describes his current life in upstate New York:
- He’s living on a large property he bought in 1999.
- He spends time swimming in a pond, using a sauna, and hanging out with alpacas.
- He jokes about his setup as an ideal retirement life.
- He also mentions spending time in New York City seasonally and balancing city and country life.
Community, immigration, and politics
- Dunne talks about helping lead a fundraising/legal effort for a local young man who has been detained by immigration authorities for a year.
- He describes strong community support, including people traveling to hearings in Brooklyn.
- The conversation turns to broader concerns about immigration policy, local politics, and the visibility of authoritarian symbolism like oversized Trump flags.
Relationships, dating, and divorce
- Dunne says he has been married a couple of times but emphasizes that he leaves relationships on good terms.
- He says he remains friends with his exes and sees that as a sign of emotional maturity rather than conflict.
- He notes that if a current partner is threatened by that, it’s a red flag.
- The hosts jokingly press him on dating older/younger women and social optics.
The Friday Afternoon Club and family memory
- Dunne discusses his memoir, The Friday Afternoon Club, and how it reconnected family members.
- He shares that people from his past and extended family were proud to be part of the book.
- He tells a funny story about the woman he lost his virginity to objecting that he didn’t use her real name in the book.
Obituaries as a form of storytelling
- One of the most substantial parts of the interview is Dunne’s fascination with obituaries:
- He sees them as compact biographies that can open doors to deeper history.
- He explains that he wrote a New York Magazine piece about his obsession with them.
- He discusses the culture around advance obituaries and the fact that major papers prepare them in advance for notable people.
- He worries about AI flattening obituary writing into generic copy and losing the individual voice of great obituary writers.
- He argues that the best obits have a signature “close” that captures the person’s essence.
Joan Didion, cultural memory, and women’s media
- Dunne recounts an early memory of meeting Joan Didion when he was a child and having a testicle accidentally exposed through a bathing suit seam.
- He says her calm, detached reaction reflected the same observational intelligence that made her writing famous.
- He and the hosts discuss Didion’s enduring cultural status, especially among women, and the power of iconography in book promotion and fashion campaigns.
- He also mentions a ladies-only hotel in New York and argues that something like that could still make sense today.
Hollywood, AI, and the future of storytelling
- Dunne expresses concern about:
- Streaming hurting theaters.
- AI replacing craftspeople and cheapening storytelling.
- The loss of the old studio ecosystem where sets, carpentry, and production design were physical, visible crafts.
- He reflects nostalgically on the old film system while acknowledging that change is inevitable.
Drugs, the old scene, and SNL
- Dunne talks candidly about the prevalence of cocaine in the old Hollywood scene and how common and casual it once was.
- He contrasts that era with today’s more discreet drug culture and the rise of fentanyl.
- He also recounts an SNL memory from 1986:
- Damon Wayans was fired after going off-script during a sketch.
- Dunne says the issue was less the content itself than the fact that Wayans broke the rehearsal-based structure of the show.
Notable Takeaways
- Dunne is equal parts raconteur and observer: he can joke about his life while also speaking seriously about memory, legacy, and cultural change.
- Obituaries are central to his worldview: he treats them as meaningful literature, not just death notices.
- He sees Hollywood as being in a fragile transition: AI, streaming, and corporate consolidation are reshaping the business in ways he finds unsettling.
- He’s unusually low-conflict about past relationships: he values clean breaks and long-term goodwill.
- The episode blends absurdity and sincerity well: the hosts’ jokes and Dunne’s real reflections keep the conversation moving between comedy and memoir.
Memorable Moments
- The hosts’ extended riff on Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and a possible MSG wedding.
- Dunne describing his upstate life with alpacas, a pond, and a sauna.
- The story of his childhood testicle accident in front of Joan Didion.
- His obsession with obituaries and how a great one can send readers down historical rabbit holes.
- The Damon Wayans SNL firing story and Dunne’s recollection of live-TV chaos.