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Who's Talking to Chris Wallace

Interview with Chef Jose Andres; Interview with Alex Rodriguez; Chris Wallace Talks to Alex Rodriguez and Judd Apatow. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 02, 2022 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[19:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOANNE FISHER, NAPLES RESIDENT: We're here. And that is the most important thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The most important thing. Quite a reality check from someone who has lost so much.

Well, don't forget that you can tweet me at PamelaBrownCNN. You can also follow me on Instagram. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. I'm Pamela Brown. See you again next weekend. "WHO'S TALKING TO CHRIS WALLACE" starts now.

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN HOST: Welcome to WHO'S TALKING.

Tonight my guest include a world famous chef turned humanitarian, a baseball star turned business mogul, and a movie producer who keeps turning Hollywood on its head.

Up first, Jose Andres right now is helping victims of Hurricane Ian, opens up about why he's changed his focus from high-end restaurants to a high-risk mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: On a gut level, what drives you?

JOSE ANDRES, FOUNDER, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: We can all make America better. We can all make the world better. Sometimes you start with a better food.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Then, baseball legend Alex Rodriguez, who's become quite the business tycoon, shares his thoughts about how to reinvigorate America's past time and opens up about his headline grabbing breakup with pop superstar Jennifer Lopez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Do you think that you're a good husband material or do you think, honestly, you just like the chase?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And later, filmmaker Judd Apatow's movies have had us laughing for years. Now his latest project is something Hollywood has never done before, and he teases me about my taste in movies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDD APATOW, FILMMAKER: I'm learning so much about you and your comedy taste. You don't want the emotional stuff.

WALLACE: I just want funny.

I worked a lot on this question, Alex.

Are you always like this? Are you saying parents are wrong?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

WALLACE: Will you come back?

HENRY WINKLER, ACTOR: Yes. Of course I will.

WALLACE: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: At any given moment World Central Kitchen is hard at work somewhere across the globe, feeding victims of natural disasters or refugees fleeing warzones. 200 million meals in the last 12 years.

We sat down with a man behind this mission, Chef Jose Andres, just moments before he took off for Florida to help communities hit hard by Hurricane Ian. We started by talking about his strategy, how he deals with the chaos on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDRES: We always preposition. We have to preposition. People in need, they -- food and water. The urgency of now is yesterday. And the more we can do before the fastest our response is. It's the least we can do for the people so we have food trucks, we have helicopter, we can use it to reach communities that will be hard to get. We have an amphibious vehicle in position in cases certain communities the only way to access them will be through this kind of specialized vehicle.

But at the end it's very simple. Big problems have very simple solutions. We only do food, we do water, right now it's very much boiling alert in many parts in the southwestern part of Florida, so yes, we have a lot of water preposition like FEMA has done a very good job also prepositioning water. Again, you have to prepare for what is to come because sometimes you may be surrounded by water in the place you are. If you don't have the food, if you don't have the water, you're there but you cannot do anything. So we always are thinking ahead and that's what the team of World Central Kitchen is doing right now.

WALLACE: Given this disaster right now, yes, it's been in the Caribbean but right now it's in Florida, not Haiti, not Pakistan. Is it easier to get food to people or not necessarily?

ANDRES: Well, it's always food somewhere and obviously the people that we will have difficulty reaching are those people that were in the coastlines where right now as we see it's a lot of flooding and those are the people that are almost impossible to reach. But who we can reach are people that are in shelters but sometimes these shelters that they are surrounded by water. We start in Wilmington that we had to be accessing through amphibious vehicles and through boats because it was the only way to get to those places.

You see people forget that water and food is something like it seems is an afterthought in emergencies, and what we are making sure is that what happened in Katrina at the superdome that we had thousands of Americans, four days without food and water, is something will never happen again. That's why being ready and never planning but adapting is what makes you win the day.

WALLACE: Ron Howard did a documentary about you and World Central Kitchen, which had a really good title, "We Feed People." Let's take a look at you and your operation in action.

[19:05:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDRES: I don't want one more (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I'm tired of (EXPLETIVE DELETED), OK. I want the (INAUDIBLE). Somebody has to catch it. Cannot always be me. I'm tired of being the bad guy.

Sometimes owning a restaurant feels like organized chaos because even when you have the menu prepared and everything is ready and the stations are ready, many things happen. Chaos happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Do you think chefs are uniquely qualified to deal with this adaptability with, as you put it, chaos?

ANDRES: Well, I want to make sure that the organization is not only chefs. But obviously, you remember, I say that World Central Kitchen is the biggest organization in the world. In the history of mankind. Why? Because every restaurant around the world is part of World Central Kitchen. Every warehouse with food is part of World Central Kitchen. Every cook, every volunteer, every driver, is part of World Central Kitchen.

What happens is they don't know it yet. But that's why for me, all the infrastructure, everywhere we go in a way is part of world central kitchen. What we do is OK, how can we use this to feed people? How can we use this group of volunteers to feed people? We always have infrastructure in place. Even I say somewhere is more important than (INAUDIBLE). With (INAUDIBLE) it's ideas and our heart. You show up, you look around and all of a sudden the solution is always in front of you.

WALLACE: Now you don't just deal with natural disasters, you were in Ukraine. How soon after the Russians invaded?

ANDRES: World Central Kitchen was in Poland, in Przemysl (PH), 12 hours right after the mission began. I was in Miami. I was able to land there 24, 36 hours right after. Within days we were inside Ukraine. More than 165, 67 million meals. We're reached two million meals a day. 500,000 in the form of hug meals done by 550 restaurants and the rest by batches. We were doing across 40 warehouses across Ukraine buying local produce and having local Ukrainians producing this batch that we were delivering to communities without supermarkets, without infrastructure, communities that were just saved by the Ukrainian military, pushing out the Russian troops with no infrastructure.

What we do is trying to close the gap between the chaos they are and until the supermarkets open again. They go back to their normal lives.

WALLACE: But I don't have to tell you this, wars are different than hurricanes. In April, Russian missiles hit, and we have a picture of it up here, the -- your kitchen in Kharkiv and wounded four of your World Central Kitchen workers in June. A missile blew up one of your food trains in eastern Ukraine. As somebody who has spent a lot of time, and I know you have, on the ground across Ukraine, don't you worry about your safety and the safety of your team?

ANDRES: It's very hard to think of your safety when you see so many elderly woman, even children, that they are every day waking up to do something for others. In Ukraine, obviously, a small team works World Central Kitchen went in, only volunteers but the team was doing an amazing job in Poland. Remember, we were in six countries within a few days surrounding Ukraine, providing food 24 hours a day to all the people that were becoming refugees, especially woman and children and --

WALLACE: But, Jose, when you hear the alarms and you hear, you know, the air raid sirens, I mean, aren't you -- just on a human level, aren't you scared?

ANDRES: And actually only few weeks ago, that's one of the reasons I went back near Kharkiv, little town called Chuhuiv, a missile hit a community center where many people were sleeping, two of them were World Central Kitchen volunteers, and they perish on that missile. That's why everybody needs to remember that what Russia is doing really it's -- they're killing children, they're killing woman. They're killing humanitarian workers that they have nothing to do with war.

WALLACE: So last Sunday, I mean, this is how crazy your life is right now. Last Sunday you're in Puerto Rico delivering food and hot meals and water to a town that had been hit by another hurricane before Ian, Hurricane Fiona, and this town, the bridge had been washed away by the rains and the flooding. Let's take a look at you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDRES: The river is going to raise again. We're going to have to deliver this week and move out in case more water comes down the river, and that's what it takes, it takes a community, my friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: You go out in the field. You're not sitting back at headquarters giving orders, are you?

ANDRES: The most important in our case is not cooking itself, which sometimes can be difficult.

[19:10:02]

The most important thing is the distribution, is getting to the people, and what happens, something amazing happens in real time you learn the situation. If you are in the headquarters, yes, you may be watching the TV, a reporter, but nothing like to feel what people are going through.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Coming up, we turn the page to discuss what's next for Chef Jose as he looks for new ways to help people in need. Why did he decide to run for office?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: How long do you plan to keep at it, both running your food empire and also helping people who need a meal?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: More than 30 years ago Jose Andres came to the U.S. from Spain with just $50 in his pocket. Since then, he's opened dozens of restaurants around the world and just this week, he participated in a White House conference on ending hunger.

[19:15:05]

We continued our conversation looking ahead for what's next for him, his business, and just maybe a future in politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: How do you reconcile these two very different parts of your life that you're going off to help people in one of the worst moments of their life and on the other hand you also feed people at high-end restaurants? How do you reconcile those two things?

ANDRES: Well, at the end of the day, I do believe that we cannot have cities, one part of the city is doing great and the other one people don't have jobs and they barely can feed their families. The same for every country around the world. Listen, I don't know if it is because everybody does amazing things. I

get sometimes guilty that I get too much attention. I can give you hundreds of thousands of names of people that I know every day, without being on TV they are doing it without any recognition. World Central Kitchen is people of many religions but at the end we all share the same goal. That we need to be next to every fellow human in the worst moments.

What I learn in this moments of emergencies is that in the worst moments of humanity, the best of humanity shows up. And this is a very powerful feeling is what I always take back with me. That we're able to show everybody how many good moments of empathy happens in those moments after natural disasters and beyond. This is a beautiful thing to do and to see, and I want to carry that spirit always.

It's very good people out there that they don't know if they are Republican or Democrats, if they are Jewish or Christians. It's people next to people helping people. We the people. And this is very powerful.

WALLACE: You came to this country at age 21 from Spain with $50 in your pocket. You're now 53, and clearly, no signs of slowing down. You attended a White House conference to end hunger, the idea to end hunger in America by the year 2030. You've occasionally talked in the past about considering running for office.

Do you really think you could have the same impact running for office as what you're doing now?

ANDRES: No. When people ask, will you ran for office, and that is to say yes or no, you leave everything up for whatever the future brings. I think I'm a guy that left school fairly young. I think I'm a guy that behaves better with boots on the ground and a guy that tries to connect the dots. I do believe to connecting the dots is maybe a little talent that I have, and that's it. I try to bring one more person out of the world trying to do the best out of the situation, whether in my private business who is going to tell me I will have so many restaurants.

I'm proud of it. The American dream for me is real but I need to make sure that I can be part like many others to provide that same American dream to many people that sometimes they feel forgotten, they feel voiceless.

WALLACE: So I say you're 53. How long do you plan to keep at it both running your food empire and also helping people who need a meal?

ANDRES: Well, the main thing is I don't do it. I said before we the people.

WALLACE: You do planning.

ANDRES: But listen, I am who I am. You're who you are. Everyone listening to us right now. We are who we are thanks to the people that made us who we are. We are better because of them. In my company, I have an amazing team of people that they barely need me. In World Central Kitchen is an amazing team of individuals that they could be anywhere else. They could be in the private sector. They can be in other NGO that maybe is easier, and they decide to be with World Central Kitchen because they love the mission.

They are the ones that are making it happen. While I'm speaking to you, they are the ones right now cooking or driving, finding the people that are going to need help. At the end, it's not me. I see that sometimes the most I do is the little spark. I'm a guy that yes, is -- has the willingness to make things happen but at the end who makes it happen is an amazing team that I'm lacking of toward next to them as one more volunteer, as one more worker, as one more person. That's the way I try to do it.

WALLACE: So how much longer?

ANDRES: Listen. I'm 53. I feel healthy. I lost a lot of weight --

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: Can I tell you something? You have lost weight. I just noticed it. But you're busy working too hard.

ANDRES: Yes, but this is important. Listen, for me to have the opportunity to serve, I was in the Spanish navy and the Spanish military, I don't believe that everybody can complain of what is wrong in your community, in America, in the world. Don't finger-point somewhere else. You can be part of the solution.

[19:20:02]

At the end, when things don't happen and you're looking around and nobody else is around to make that happen, guess what? Guess who is the person that needs to make it happen? Just look at yourself. We all have an opportunity to build longer tables, no high walls, we all can make America better, we can all make the world better. Sometimes you start with a plate of food.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Up next, I sit down with baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez to discuss his controversial career on the diamond. His flashy personal life and what he's doing now you may not know about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Welcome back to WHO'S TALKING.

He's a World Series champion and one of the most famous baseball players of our time but now Alex Rodriguez is taking his talents from the field to the boardroom, and he's scoring big there, too.

[19:25:04]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX RODRIGUEZ, BUSINESSMAN: I think a lot of the athletes that I think you're talking -- I think there is -- they -- I don't have the right, I think, vision and strategy and team and the right alignment with that team. I read something where there was over 50 percent of athletes were going bankrupt after their playing days. And if you just keep it simple, you say baseball, let's keep it simple. Same thing in business.

If all the athletes give all their money to Blackstone and go take a nap for 20 years, that 50 percent number of going bankrupt will go to zero. Blackstone, Berkshire Hathaway. They are the greatest investors in the world, and I think if we want to attack this epidemic, we have to attack it with simplicity and best investors in the world.

WALLACE: You say epidemic, literally half of professional athletes end up broke?

RODRIGUEZ: You know, that's the stat that I've read over and over again, and Chris, I think if you still have to go work with the amount of capital that some of -- we've made, that's a tragedy. But it's a lot easier to go bankrupt or to run into financial issues and I'll give you the math. You take a player that makes $100 million in his career. He plays in L.A. or New York 50 percent taxes so now you're down to 50 million bucks.

You give your lawyer, pay your lawyer 10 percent. Now you're down to $40 million. 5 percent to your agent. You're down to $35 million. Now, you haven't bought a house, you haven't bought a car, and you haven't even gone through your first divorce yet. So there you go.

(LAUGHTER)

WALLACE: Well, it can happen.

RODRIGUEZ: You've got to factor all those things.

WALLACE: All right. Let's take you back out of the $100 million range and the first divorce. You grew up with a single mother and I'm told that you guys used to have to move when the rent would get too high. So how does that kid from that background with no college education, how do you become a big successful businessman?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think a big dream, a big vision. I come from very modest beginnings but my dreams and my vision weren't modest. But specifically with my mom, I saw her as a single mother, my dad left when I was 10. Left back my mother and my two siblings, so the four of us in one two bedroom apartment, and I saw her with two jobs. I saw the struggle. It felt like every 30 days was like every three days, and it was a struggle, and it was painful for me to watch that.

And we had to move, Chris, every 18 months because the landlord kept raising the rents. And I remember as a 12 or 13-year-old boy I got down on one knee in my mom's bedroom while she was at work and I said, Dear Lord, if I ever have an opportunity to trade places with a landlord, I will. And sure enough, about a decade later I bought my first duplex in Miami.

WALLACE: One of your big mentors along the way has been Warren Buffet and who took an interest in you because he had to help ensure your huge contract with the Texas Rangers. Is it true that at one point he tried to teach you about investing, talking about Ted Williams?

RODRIGUEZ: He sure did. And, you know, my relationship with Warren now goes back over 20 years and I thought it was really neat that he ensured my contract with the Rangers. He said Ted Williams was my favorite hitter because he was the most disciplined hitter. That's how I look at investing in businesses.

Now the one difference in baseball, you have to swing at the edges with two strikes. In business, you don't ever have to swing. You can take one swing a year, two swings, one swing every five years and you're fine. You wait until you get your fat pitch but he said Alex, when you get that fat pitch, go get a grand slam, hit a bomb.

WALLACE: Well, all right, let's talk about the bomb because the umbrella for all of your holdings is something called the AROD Corporation and then that includes real estate, private equity, venture capital, sports teams. Give me a sense. I'm sure people are wondering as they listen to this, how big are you when you take the funds, all of the investments, total valuation. Give us a sense of what AROD Corporation is.

RODRIGUEZ: So in talking about Warren Buffet, he's been my mentor and long-term teacher. I spent so many days with him in Omaha and for lack of a better term is a mini Berkshire Hathaway. But we're private. But 75 percent, 80 percent of our business is real estate.

Chris, one of the things that people don't know is that we've acquired over 20,000 multi-family apartments in almost 20 states. And over the last five years, we have acquired almost 10,000 single family homes for rent. And we're making big impacts in these communities both with our returns but also socially giving back to these communities.

WALLACE: What I didn't hear was a number there. Total amount of money in --

[19:30:00]

RODRIGUEZ: I would say if you were to put a value in our enterprise, it's probably somewhere between a billion and two billion with our holdings.

WALLACE: So real money.

Now, one of the things that you're doing, and I've kind of enjoyed this is that you are part of a group that is going to become the majority owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves next year, and one of the players that you've taken on is a fellow named Rudy Gobert who is in the second year of a $205 million contract.

So here's my question: How does it feel to go from the star athlete who is getting paid a fortune to the owner who is paying someone else a fortune?

RODRIGUEZ: It's kind of a conundrum. I don't know how to feel about it.

But look, I'm a huge fan of athletes, I feel like I'm one of them, I get it. And the great thing about the NBA is it is a wonderful league, it is a global sport. It is growing at a tremendous pace with great leadership with Adam Silver, and a great ownership group.

And as the league grows, and the revenues grow, the salaries grow.

I mean, unlike baseball, you have just one thought process. It is let's grow the pie as big as possible around the world, both in popularity and in revenue, and then you split it right down the middle. And as a result of that, these salaries are going to keep getting higher and higher.

I believe you'll have an athlete in the next five years in the NBA, that will make $100 million per year.

WALLACE: Really?

RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

WALLACE: And do you think that's right?

RODRIGUEZ: I mean, we are in the greatest country in the world. And as an athlete, I thought it was right. So as an owner, I have to think that is right.

Now, the one concern, I think that I have, even if I was the player or for our players, is to make sure that their focus remains in basketball, because when you have these type of resources, you know, there's a big responsibility, and you just have to stay focused.

I'm a man with brown skin as well and there are challenges that they have gone through that perhaps I can be -- you know, relate with. And I get athletes and I'm also here to help. I spend a lot of time with our athletes talking about financial literacy, about the challenges, and it is important they have a place where they can go and actually talk.

WALLACE: So it's like -- when you say financial literacy, meaning?

RODRIGUEZ: The importance of how the capital markets work, the importance of how to balance a checkbook, how to read a P&L, the difference between recourse debt and non-recourse debt and invest -- how about this? An asset versus a liability.

Everyone thinks a home is an asset. I think a home is a liability.

The asset is a multifamily, and the reason why the house takes money out of your pocket every month, and a multifamily puts money in your pocket every month. And the more this country knows about financial literacy and can invest in their future in things that produce cashflow, we're going to be better off as a country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Coming up: We get personal A-Rod opens up a J.Lo and the scandal that marred his baseball career.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RODRIGUEZ: The hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life was face my Ella and tell them, "This is the mistake that Daddy made."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And a little later, filmmaker, Judd Apatow on his new project, something that's never been done in Hollywood.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:37:38]

WALLACE: Alex Rodriguez received one of the longest suspensions in baseball history for using performance enhancing drugs.

In our conversation, he talks very candidly about how he has worked to come back from that; and about the future of the game he still loves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: You talk about baseball. The World Series used to get 40 to 45 million viewers a year this last year. This last year, the last few years, it has gotten more in the neighborhood of 10 million viewers for the World Series.

How much trouble is baseball in? And is there anything it can do to kind of restore maybe not 40 million, but to restore some of its popularity?

RODRIGUEZ: Chris, I think long term, I'm extremely bullish, 200 years from now, I think baseball will be here, it will be very healthy. It'll be growing. I think short term, we have some headwinds. And I think there's two fronts to that: Number one, there's a trust and transparency issue. Trust between players and owners, and trust between fans and players.

The other part is the game has gotten slower and meaning more swing and misses, less action. You remember, I remember the days where a game will be two hours, there's a lot of action, and there is pitchability and look, some of the guys that hit the ball the further in my career are some of the worst hitters I've ever seen. And some of the pitchers that threw the hardest are some of the worst pitchers I ever saw.

And unfortunately, our alignment today is promoting much more rock throwers and less pitchers, and much more guys like John Daly can hit the ball country mile, but are not great hitters.

WALLACE: So if you were suddenly the Commissioner of baseball, and I'm talking to -- so, our next few years to try to goose it up, to try to get the ratings for the All-Star game or for the playoffs, the World Series what would you do? RODRIGUEZ: And number one things that would open up the floodgates. I

think people like today demand more access than ever before. We have to be proactive. So, meaning, I will put cameras in guys, the players that are driving to the park. I want to see them at home. Of course, everything -- you know, you can vet everything.

The clubhouses, wide open. The clubhouses, the batting cages, the bullpens, interview players. There was -- recently, Juan Soto was interviewed --

WALLACE: During the All-Star games.

RODRIGUEZ: Yes, it was wonderful --

WALLACE: Even from the outfield, and he'd get ready, but in between pitches, he is sitting there talking to the announcer.

RODRIGUEZ: Yes, and David Cohen asked him a question and he's like, "Oh my God, oh wait. There is a play in right centerfield." He made a great play.

[19:40:09]

RODRIGUEZ: But, my text just started blowing up and for 20 minutes, I was stuck. I was glued to the TV. And I got to know him better. It was win-win. The game wins, the team wins and everyone -- the game wins, which is most importantly.

WALLACE: One of the things that I know that football does is they own Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, you're going to fit Thanksgiving dinner in between the three NFL games. Is there anything baseball could do?

RODRIGUEZ: If you look at July 4th, it's a wide open day. There is no football, there's no basketball, there's no soccer. It's a National Holiday. We celebrate the greatest country in the world and baseball is the American pastime, what a wonderful day to have just four games starting at noon, three, seven and 10. And say, today is going to be all about baseball. And every game, we're going to wire these guys, and we're going to have interviews, and everybody is at home watching baseball while they barbecue with their families.

WALLACE: Let's talk about your career in baseball. Over 22 seasons, and these numbers are astonishing. You hit 696 homeruns, you won three Most Valuable Player Awards, and you were a 14-time All-Star. But when you became eligible for the Hall of Fame this year, your name appeared on 34.3 percent of the ballots and you need 75 percent to get in.

Alex, how do you explain it?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, that's on me. You know, I've made mistakes. I've talked about them, I served the longest suspension in Major League Baseball history --

WALLACE: For taking --

RODRIGUEZ: For my mistakes, yes, it was the most embarrassing moment of my career. And it was a mistake that I have now forgiven myself, but it took me a while.

And Chris, it took a lot of turning the lens inward and doing a lot of therapy and understanding some of the mistakes and why I was making them and how it ties into my childhood.

But when I think about those mistakes, it is the biggest gift and the biggest curse of my life. I look at that and I think about that every single day that I did that to myself. And I hope that because of that mistake, the lesson is I get to be a better father, a better partner, a better friend, a better son, and hopefully other players can learn from my mistakes.

WALLACE: To the degree you feel comfortable sharing, you said that's on me and your childhood and therapy. I mean, help us understand because you know, you're such a gifted athlete, you were such a skilled and accomplished athlete. And you say, why on earth would Alex Rodriguez ever feel he had to cheat? That's my question.

RODRIGUEZ: It's a great question, Chris. And I think about -- and at some point, if I ever write a book or ever do a documentary, I will get into it deeper and deeper. Here is what I would say is, surrounding yourself with the best people that are going to keep you accountable is very important.

The other part is -- and this is not an excuse -- my father leaving at 10 was, I had a big void in my life. You know, I also had from age 15 when they said I was going to be the best player in the country at 15. To the age of 25, I had two coaches, that was Rich Hofman, my high school coach and Luke Panella in Seattle.

And Chris, I lament, I wish I had an extra three years with both of them, because both of them were mentors, and it took a little bit of a father figure. And sometimes you need a good kick in the ass. And I got it at 38 when finally Major League Baseball said, you know what? You're suspended for a year.

The hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life was face my daughter's Natasha and Ella and tell them, "This is the mistake that Daddy made." And here are the lessons that I learned. And I thought it was important as a father to have that moment, Chris, because I grew up getting kind of bullshitted a little bit and I don't want my daughters to ever feel like they have to BS me because you've got to deal with the truth, the earlier the better.

WALLACE: So -- and this might be something you want to say no about. You certainly attract attention. And I want to ask you about one sort of inquiring mind's question about Jennifer Lopez who you went out with for several years. You even set the date to get married and then you broke up last year.

Honestly, does it bother you that within days after you broke up that she was back to seeing Ben Affleck and that she ended up getting married to him and not you?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, first of all, I would say I'm glad I'm not going to ever be a presidential candidate because you would hammer me. You know with Jennifer-- look, it was a good experience and I wish her

and the children who are smart and beautiful and wonderful, I wish them the very best.

WALLACE: That's it?

RODRIGUEZ: That's it.

[19:45:04]

WALLACE: Okay, but I do -- I want to ask you one other questions not about her, because there is a long history of you dating women.

You're young, you're single, why not? And a lot of them famous women. Do you think -- I worked a lot on this question, Alex -- do you think that you're good husband material? Or do you think, honestly that you're just like the chase?

RODRIGUEZ: I think when you look at my life, Chris, I mentioned when I was 15 years old and I think "Sports Illustrated" called me a top player in the country. And at that time, I was Alex Rodriguez and then somewhere along the way, at 24, I get $250 million contract and probably, in Texas, I lost my way a little bit, and I became A-Rod. And I think after the suspension, I've worked myself through a lot of therapy and a lot of work to Alex Rodriguez.

I think --

WALLACE: Wait. That's -- timeout. What's the difference between Alex Rodriguez and A-Rod?

RODRIGUEZ: I think when you think about is the same difference between Alex Rodriguez me pre-suspension and post-suspension. I think pre-suspension, if you ask me what winning looked like, I would have said big contracts, homeruns, World Series. You know, nice cars --

WALLACE: Women.

RODRIGUEZ: Women.

WALLACE: Post suspension, I look at more the team building, being a great father, being a son, and being a friend; high character, loyalty -- all of those things.

So in my 20s, early 30s, probably not the best. I think I'm going to make a wonderful partner or husband and father post-suspension because of the lessons learned of my biggest mistakes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Up next, the man behind some of the funniest movies in recent years, and why his latest project is unlike anything he's ever done.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:51:09]

WALLACE: He is the brains behind some of the biggest comedy hits of the last few decades. From "Anchorman" to "This is 40," to "Knocked Up." c

But his newest film pushes some different boundaries.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: You've got an interesting new movie that you produce called "Bros."

JUDD APATOW, MOVIE PRODUCER: Yes.

WALLACE: It is the first gay romantic comedy from a major studio featuring a cast that's almost entirely people who are LGBTQ. Let's look at some clips from it.

APATOW: Okay.

(BEGIN "BROS" VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to be honest with me.

You like these rawy, meat heat idiots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, they are fighting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You like that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can be tough like your boys. That's what you like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, what's going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, let's go. My bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy Pride.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy Pride.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now I have to go to a Pride Party and you're both too old to be in the pool. Please leave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: So what is the headline here that you got funding to make a gay rom com? Or that it took so long to get funding to make a gay rom?

APATOW: Well, it certainly terrible that there aren't a ton of these and haven't been movies like this over the years. I mean, that is a sad part of the history of film. There are a lot of underserved communities. Universal Studios, they were game to make it as soon as we pitched it.

There wasn't any resistance to making it. But definitely, there should be one of these from the entire history of filmmaking. So, we're both happy, but it feels a little weird that it took this long.

WALLACE: And let me ask you why it took this long. Was there concern? Is there a concern this movie is going to play great with a certain demographic, but maybe a general audience will won't buy into it?

APATOW: I think that the industry in general probably looks for the path of least resistance or they look to do the repeat of things that have succeeded, and so there's not a tremendous amount of courage to break new ground.

WALLACE: You had been criticized over the years for making jokes using gay slurs or trans slurs, which, you know, honestly seemed kind of funny at the time. But in today's world, and maybe even then to some people weren't so funny and then there is this scene I want to show from "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." Take a look.

APATOW: All right.

(BEGIN "THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN" VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID, FICTIONAL CHARACTER: You know how I know that you're gay?

CAL, FICTIONAL CHARACTER: No.

DAVID: You like the movie "Maid in Manhattan."

CAL: You know why I know you're gay?

DAVID: How?

CAL: I saw you make a spinach dip in a loaf of sourdough bread once.

DAVID: You know, I know that you're gay.

CAL: How?

DAVID: You have a rainbow bumper sticker on your car that says "I love it when the balls are in my face."

CAL: That's gay?

DAVID: Goddammit.

CAL: I am ripping your head off right now. It's off. And now I'm throwing it at your body.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: So I remember watching that in the movie theater and thinking that was a hilarious scene. Maybe one of my favorite scenes for that movie. Would you make that same scene today? APATOW: You know, it's a good question. I probably would think about

it, and try to get a sense from people around me you know, how they felt? Certainly at the time, the intention was to show really immature men.

WALLACE: Right.

APATOW: That should know better and it is really more about them than what they're saying. And, you know, the culture has changed where I think part of the audience is saying, you know, we don't want to be goofed on in any way and there is another part of the audience that thinks everyone should get goofed on, that that's part of, you know, what our lives are about.

And I try to just lead with my heart. I really feel like you could do anything, you could say anything if your heart is in the right place. You just need to take a little time now to really think through your jokes and how they affect people.

[19:55:14]

WALLACE: I have a theory that these movies are funnier in the first half when you're setting up the bet, you're setting up the characters, and you're doing all the stuff.

APATOW: The stripes theory.

WALLACE: I didn't know this.

APATOW: The movie stripes, a lot of people say, a hollow part in the second half.

WALLACE: Yes. WHEN they go to Germany with the war machine.

APATOW: Yes, the urban assault vehicle.

WALLACE: It is terrible.

APATOW: Yes.

WALLACE: I'll give you another one, "Super Bad."

APATOW: Yes.

WALLACE: I think "Super Bad," the first half is better than the second half.

APATOW: I'm learning so much about you and your comedy tastes. You don't want the emotional stuff.

WALLACE: No.

APATOW: You don't want the boop like the love stuff.

WALLACE: No.

APATOW: You --

WALLACE: I just want funny.

APATOW: You just want hard funny. You know why? Your job is hard. It's stressful. And you don't have time. You have enough emotions in your job. You want the release.

WALLACE: I'm sorry, but our time is up now.

Another one of my favorites that you produced is Ron Burgundy. And this is one of my favorite scenes in the movie, which is when -- and I was in local TV -- when the local anchorman in San Diego have a street fight about control of the city.

APATOW: Yes.

WALLACE: Here it is.

(BEGIN "ANCHORMAN" VIDEO CLIP)

WES MANTOOTH, FICTIONAL CHARACTER: Now, I will be number one.

RON BURGUNDY, FICTIONAL CHARACTER: No, you won't.

ARTURO MENDES, FICTIONAL CHARACTER: Policia.

BURGUNDY: Boy, that escalated quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: You know, that was a classic scene from that. There's a group of comedians that you've worked with over the years and Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller and Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd. And they're almost like the Judd Apatow -- I said it right again -- Repertory Company.

Is part of it that, you know, they get the joke?

APATOW: Well, I don't think they are part of my repertory company. I mean, they're all kind of amazing.

WALLACE: Right.

APATOW: Most of their good stuff are without me.

WALLACE: But I mean, you --

APATOW: But I like them. I mean, it's more like they're people that I'm a fan of them and I think when you work with people who are great, you just pray you get an opportunity to work with them again.

If you've worked in the Will Ferrell, it's the best time of your life. He's so funny, and he is a great collaborator, and you just hope that you'll match up again with an idea.

WALLACE: Then there is your personal Repertory Company. APATOW: Yes.

WALLACE: Your lovely wife, Leslie Mann, and your daughters, Maude and Iris who have been -- you've put in a bunch of your movies and I'm particularly curious, especially about the girls.

APATOW: Yes.

WALLACE: Do they ever go Hollywood on you?

APATOW: Do they go Hollywood on me? No, they hate me if I ever do anything that is Hollywood-like. Like, if I ever have any confidence in myself, they will take me down so hard. They could not be less impressed.

WALLACE: And how do they take Dad down?

APATOW: Well, like if someone walked up to me on the street and complimented me.

WALLACE: Right.

APATOW: And said, "Oh, that movie made me so happy." The second that person walks away, my children will make fun of that person for the next 10 minutes for being so foolish as to think I'm cool in any way.

WALLACE: But they don't ever say -- Maude doesn't ever say, "Hey, Dad, you know, this is my scene. Don't cut that," or "I don't like the way that I am led in this thing."

APATOW: No, she hasn't. She hasn't done that. But what has been fun is they were in "Knocked Up" when they were really little, and --

WALLACE: "This is 40."

APATOW: In "This is 40" and "Funny People." And now, you know Maude is on "Euphoria" and is really doing amazing work. I just worked with Iris on "The Bubble," and I think because they've eased into the business, they have really gotten amazing at what they do. And they've been around creative, funny people for a very long time and I think without rushing them, they've become really strong in their craft.

WALLACE: Now, I have six children, and none of them are in the news business. And part of that is because I've never wanted any of them to be in the news business, because it's changed a bit over the course of the last half century.

APATOW: Yes.

WALLACE: You don't have that problem about you're setting your poor kids up to be in entertainment.

APATOW: Well, I've always just liked it. So, there was never a part of me that thought, "Don't have the fun I'm having," you know, if you can do strong work and get in, to me, it seems like a very honorable career choice and they worked really hard and have been doing some amazing stuff. So hopefully their careers will continue to blossom.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: There is so much more of our conversation with Judd Apatow, as well as our sit-downs with Jose Andres and Alex Rodriguez.

You didn't catch the full interviews anytime you want on HBO Max.

Thank you for watching and please join us here on CNN every Sunday night to find out WHO'S TALKING next.

[20:00:10]