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• The Leary Firefighters Foundation
• Rescue Me on FX
• Ice Age: The Meltdown

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Tavis: Pleased to welcome Denis Leary to this program. The comedian and actor is back later this month with his hit FX series 'Rescue Me.' You can also hear his voice in what is the biggest film so far this year, 'Ice Age, The Meltdown.' But back to "Rescue Me.' The second season is now out on DVD. The third season premieres May thirtieth. Here now, a scene from Denis Leary's "Rescue Me."

Tavis: (Laughs) Nice to have you here, Denis.

Denis Leary: Thank you for having me here.

Tavis: You okay? So, how do you handle those scenes when your real kids ask you questions like that?

Leary: I might have to ask my son who's here tonight. (Laughs) I think it's approximation of the same thing. You know how it is, if you have kids, especially when it comes to death and dealing with the big questions. Sometimes if you're not expecting it, it kind of, you gotta improv. And it's...

Tavis: But that's what you do, though.

Leary: Yeah. And sometimes you got a great answer, and sometimes they buy it, and sometimes they don't.

Tavis: Yeah.

Leary: But when they get bigger, they don't even ask you, 'cause they've got their own answers. So.

Tavis: I assume that as a comedian, you're supposed to be able to handle moments like that.

Leary: Yeah, and you would think, well, it's actually easier now, 'cause my son's 16 and daughter's 14. So they are actually, surprisingly, they've inherited sarcasm. I don't know where they get it from. (Laughs) So, they, generally speaking, handle it better if I have an answer like that to a question like that, they generally cut me right down. So it's funny.

Tavis: Before I jump to "Rescue Me,' speaking of your two kids, your son and daughter, you've been married for a number of years. Two kids. Which seems to - I was surprised by that. And again, I bought into the hype. But when you think Denis Leary, you think coarse talking, cigarette smoking, in your face. You don't think Dad to two kids.

Leary: I know.

Tavis: Living in Connecticut in the countryside somewhere.

Leary: I know.

Tavis: Do you get that all the time?

Leary: I think some people - yeah, I guess that's a surprise to some people. But I don't know, my family, I inherited my sense of humor from my dad, who was a really, really funny guy and very sarcastic. So on both sides of the ocean, in Ireland and in America, we've always been that way. So to us, it's normal. (Laughs) I guess to the outside world, it doesn't make much sense. But to us it's normal, yeah.

And my son literally has reached the point where he even gets me sometimes. Like, he'll walk by and go, hey, nice pants. And I'll go, oh, you really like these? And then I realize he's, oh, thanks for putting me down. (Laughs) So it's kind of, I'm getting paid back.

Tavis: I guess the question is, how do your kids know when to take Dad seriously? If there's so much sarcasm, 'cause I have friends who are sarcastic, and they're not my parents, obviously, but friends of mine who are sarcastic, and I never know when they're serious, when, you don't know. But as a parent, how is a kid supposed to know when Dad is serious about this?

Leary: Generally with me, it's kind of like the sneer or the level of how loud I say it. But sometimes you're reading the paper, you just gotta say it out, yeah, and they just go, really? It's one of those things, like, yeah, we're going to the beach, get your towel. We're going to the beach. And then they're out in the car with a towel, and you're like, we're not going to the beach, what are you doing? (Laughs) You said we're going to the beach. No, no, no, no. We're not going there. Jeez, what's wrong with you? So. (Laughs)

Tavis: Season number three, "Rescue Me.' Does it feel like that already?

Leary: We're in the middle of shooting episode, I think, five. So, no, I don't think so, because they have a longevity. We take breaks.

Tavis: Right.

Leary: A guy in a cast, Steve Pasquale, said it's kind of like we go to this TV school, because we get these breaks where we don't see each other, and we're all doing other things. And then we come right back in and settle in, and it's like we haven't been away at all. So, we have a couple new cast members this year. Susan Sarandon and Marissa Tomei. We're on this march of Oscar winners, 'cause we already have Tatum O'Neal in the cast.

Tavis: Not a bad cast. Not bad additions.

Leary: Meanwhile, there's three of them, and not one of them has ever brought an Oscar to the set. 'Cause I'll tell you, (laughs) if won the Oscar, I'd be using it as a cigarette lighter. It would go with me everywhere. So when we get a new person like that, the first day they come in, that reminds us that it is season three, because like in Susan's case, she was a fan of the show.

So she comes in asking questions, and she's kind of like oh, there's what's his name. But to us, we're really just at work, and we're so deep into the characters and the history of the characters that we just feel like we're still telling the same long story. Which is great, so.

Tavis: FX does have a strange - maybe I shouldn't say that with the FX executive sitting over there somewhere. But FX does have a strange season schedule for me. But I'm not the actor, you are. How does the schedule and the breaks in between help or hurt when you guys do, in fact, come back together? Continuity wise?

Leary: Well, it helps us because we're on in the summertime, in the late spring, in through the summer. Which is great, because there's less competition, which is great. Both in the media and in terms of the audience turning the TV on. And then I also like having - it works for me, because I'm working through the summer, and, like, my kids are off so they can come to the set. And my son Jack works on the show in the summertime. So I feel like I get to see more of my kids.

Tavis: Isn't that called nepotism?

Leary: Yeah, it sure is.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laughs)

Leary: One of the great things about Democracy.

Tavis: One of the great American traditions, yeah. (Laughs)

Leary: That's right. And at the same time, it's great. Like this year, we followed a fantastic show starring Andre Brauer, called 'Thief,' which is a new show.

Tavis: He was just here not long ago.

Leary: Oh, was he really?

Tavis: Yeah.

Leary: 'Cause that guy's an amazing actor.

Tavis: He is.

Leary: I don't know if you watched the show, but the things that he did on that show were just really astounding. So that's interesting, because if that show sticks, that would be a great show to keep following.

Tavis: I don't know that there's anybody like your Tommy really exists. There could not be a real, live person like Tommy. This guy's got Vicodin addictions; he's got alcoholism issues. Break up with his wife. He's seeing ghosts. Jesus is coming to hang out with him from time to time to visit this guy. Come on, now.

Leary: Well, I hate to tell you that the whole crew is actually based - my technical advisor on the show is one of my oldest friends, a guy named Terry Quinn, who's still a the New York City firefighter. And the crew of guys I came to know in New York were in his firehouse where he worked for many, many years. And they were a disparate group of guys, and multi-national backgrounds, and really a great crew.

But when I put this together, I smudged, I fictionalized some of the guys enough to make them their own, in terms of being on the show. Tommy's a combination of two friends of mine. One is Terry, which is the marriage side, the problems in the marriage. And the other side is this other friend of ours who is the only guy we've never told is one of the characters. (Laughs)

And the funny part is that he watches the show and he always says stuff like, "Wow, that was really on the nose, that thing where you almost set yourself on fire when you poured the vodka on your head?" (Laughs) I don't know where you got that. And you're, like, me neither. So people don't know that things might be them. They think it might be somebody else. But obviously, we've compressed a lot of this.

This is stuff that happened over a much longer period of time. We've compressed it into three years. But a lot of the fires and the stories that take place on the show are taken from real life. Not just this firehouse in the FDNY, but my cousin's firehouse up in Worcester, Massachusetts. And other stories I've picked up from knowing firemen for years. So it's interesting.

Some of the more outrageous things that happen, in terms of the action and in terms of their personal lives, are things that you go, like, I know, that's one of the ones we didn't make up. It just actually occurred. It's a crazy world. I've said this before, and if you don't know firemen, especially firemen who are involved in a city, urban atmosphere in a busy firehouse, and they would tell you this themselves, they are not normal.

They don't see themselves as normal human beings, because the job is so insane, and they're so in love with it that it comes away from the firehouse and they have to go out in real life, obviously, they deal with their family and they deal with taxes and things we do. But they don't process it the same way. Because they look at, in the neighborhood they work in, they look at a heavy person and they go well, I'll hopefully never have to save her in a fire.

They look at a building and they go, (laughs) if that thing goes up, that fourth floor is gonna be. Everything's different in their world. So the only place that's normal is the firehouse and on the truck and in the fire.

Tavis: See, I feel the same way. I share this as lovingly as I can, but for my friends who are firefighters and police officers, I said you gotta be a little insane to want to do that to begin with.

Leary: Exactly, exactly.

Tavis: To wanna go run into burning buildings.

Leary: Right. And eventually, I was talking about this with somebody earlier. Like, all the guys I know that became firemen, including my cousin and a bunch of guys I went to high school with and grew up with, including Terry Quinn in New York, they were miserable in their other jobs in their early twenties. Miserable. Hated their jobs, and really, the day they got the phone call that they were going into the fire department?

Happiest people on the face of the Earth. So it really is adrenaline junkie land. It's like they wanna run in. The night that my cousin was killed in Worcester back in '99, he was filling in for a friend of his who needed a favor. And he went to the firehouse and he was supposed to drive the truck, the rescue truck that night. But he was an action junkie. When you drive the truck, you gotta stay with the truck.

Tavis: Right.

Leary: And he went to one of the guys on the crew, and he said man, I don't wanna drive. In case there's a call tonight, will you drive? And the guy was, like, yeah. And so, he wouldn't even have gone into the building and gotten killed, except that that's where he wanted to be. He wanted the action.

Tavis: This isn't, for you, just an acting gig, as one, I'm sure, has already picked up on who's paying attention to this conversation. This is a passion for you. How did this fire -I wanna talk more about the foundation you started in a moment around this issue of firefighting. How did this become such a passion for you?

Leary: It really started, mean my cousin Jerry was, we grew up together in the same neighborhood, same schools, and all that stuff. But the problem is with people who become a firemen in your family or a friend, they're like a virus. Because as soon as they get in that crew, that crew then, if your mom needs a new porch built, they're all over your mom's house.

If you need something, they're all over your. So they work together and they live together and they play together. So, and they come to the barbecues and this. So you get surrounded and sucked into the crew. And then I do a benefit up in Boston every year called 'Comics Come Home,' which we've been doing for, like, 11 years now. And these guys would build the sets for us so it would be free, so the foundation, at that time, it was the Cam Neely Foundation, a cancer foundation, wouldn't have to pay a crew of electricians and gaffers and carpenters to come in.

So, it was one of those things where I was very aware of the issues he was talking about in terms of not getting paid enough and not having enough money for training and facilities. But of course, it went in one ear and out the other. And it took the tragedy of him dying for me to go, you know what? I should have paid attention. And we went into action to make a difference after he died. To honor his name.

And then when 9/11 happened, besides Terry, there were a couple of guys that I knew that were killed that day. Guys like Terry, it was 60 guys, 50, any firemen, 75 men they might have known that day that died. So Terry was very adamant about us getting involved and helping the families in New York and helping the fire department. So it's one of those things, how do you say no to a lifelong friend or your relatives when they say, we gotta to make a difference here?

We should have done something before, but now we'll make a difference after this tragic event. The great thing is, is that you can't speak to people about firemen and not have them feel like they want to help you. Because we all know, we've all had the experience, or we are all expecting, at some point, we might have to have the experience of being saved or having to call them to come and get our cat or our kid or us out of a situation?

So, there's nothing bad about a firefighter. That's one of the things people talk, well, why do the cops and the firefighters always fight? Well, a cop comes to your door, he might be there to arrest you, question you, look at you suspiciously, or help you. A fireman comes, there's one reason. Pick you up, and take you out.

Tavis: Yeah. You're much closer to this than I am. One of the things I recall, speaking of 9/11 and the heroic role that firefighters and police officers played back then, one of the conversations I was in any number of times, Denis, certainly through my radio commentary, was that a lot of Black people and people of color, and I think, how might I put this?

I hope, at least, in retrospect, I don't know. I hope, at least, the whole system had to rethink this. Because they were so, comparatively speaking, in New York, and around the country, quite frankly, comparatively speaking, so few firefighters of color, and even women who have been denied opportunities historically in fire departments, in police departments.

Leary: Yup.

Tavis: You're closer than I am. You getting the sense, as you travel around and work with firefighters and do benefits and things, that those realities are starting to change?

Leary: No, because the reality is this, and this is an issue I have had with the mayor of New York and the current fire commissioner. But I also have it with fire departments in other parts of the country. And when they ask me, they don't like the answer, but this is the answer that you'll get from any fireman, whether he's Black or White or green or yellow.

Actually, we did a piece about this in the first season. It's a physical job. It's a life and death job. Part of the job is you; it's a physical test. You have to, at one point, run up seven flights of stairs with at least 65 pounds of equipment on, pick up a 150-pound dummy, and carry it out. Now, if you can't do that, you fail the test. That's only one part of it, by the way.

So this job doesn't come down to color or your gender, because if you want to do it and you run up the stairs and you can't do it, doesn't matter what color you are or what background you are or what gender you are. You failed. And they always wanna change the test and make it easier. Well, I don't know about you. I weigh 175 pounds. If I'm stuck on the seventh floor, I want (sounds like) the son of a bitch coming to get me that can take me out.

I don't care if it's a woman or if it's a Martian.

Tavis: But the argument can't be, yeah.

Leary: So, the problem is you can't legislate that we have to have 15 Irish guys, 15 Italian guys, 15 Black guys and 15 women in the department. They have to pass the physical test. And if they can't, first of all, they have to wanna be in that position. And if they can't pass, it's like playing football or hockey. You don't get make the team because you can't take the hits, it's a physical position.

Tavis: You are making the point with the football analogy, though. You can't tell me brothers can't run upstairs. (unintelligible)

Leary: (unintelligible) You can't take anybody, because they complain about the predominance of Irish and Italian and Puerto Rican firefighters in New York City, you can't go out and say, well, hey, get on the bus and we're gonna take you down and you'll take the test. That person has to want to. And there are some women who are desperate to be on the fire department, but they can't pass the test.

I'm sorry. If you wanna a desk job or drive the truck, I'm good with you. But I don't want you going in the fire with me, 'cause you can't cover my ass. And also, if I'm stuck in that fire, I want the biggest person possible coming to get me. So.

Tavis: I'm out of time.

Leary: Okay.

Tavis: Denis and I will debate this off air.

Leary: Right.

Tavis: (Laughs) 'Cause I ain't buying that yet. But I love Denis Leary, and I love "Rescue Me' on FX. Check it out. The new season, just about to get underway. Denis, nice to have you here.

Leary: Thank you for having me, man, I appreciate it.

Tavis: All the best to you. That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A. Thanks for watching. As always, keep the faith.