starring on the very popular series "The Blacklist."

Season eight premieres tomorrow at 8:00 p.m.

right here on NBC.

I am thrilled he's here tonight actually in the studio.

Please welcome James Spader!

[ Cheers and applause ]

-♪ Don't be a hater ♪

♪ It's time for James Spader ♪

♪ It's been a while, you've been missed ♪

♪ You can thank me later ♪

♪ It's time for James Spader ♪

♪ Ain't that the dude from "Blacklist"? ♪

♪ James Spader, time for James Spader ♪

-Come on, James Spader!

Oh, my pal, it's great to see you.

And, yes, thank you so much for being here.

You look fantastic, by the way.

Thank you for dressing up.

You're wearing a suit. You look great.

-You're looking...less so.

[ Laughter ]

-This is the -- I'm more casual.

-Remember when it was only California?

-[ Laughing ] No, it's everywhere now.

-You could wear your Crocs.

-I'm wearing, basically -- These are like --

These are Yeezys.

-This is my first time out in eight months.

Truly. -Wow!

I'm so happy that -- -You're my date night.

-Yes! I will be -- We are your best date you ever --

[ Cheers and applause ]

-They don't have the sake?

-Can we get a little sake or something?

Is this -- I don't --

I couldn't even see you if we did a Zoom interview.

-No, no, no, I couldn't -- This was the only option.

I don't know how the -- You know, I can't --

You know, I don't -- I've had a couple of times

over the last eight months of,

you know, having to do, uh...something.

I just call in on the phone. -Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

-I don't know how to work any of the stuff.

I don't have a laptop or a -- -Yeah.

-I don't know how to do any of it.

-Good, but that's you. I would agree with that.

I'd say, "No, I don't..."

-And I also -- I'm not presentable at home.

[ Laughter ] -Really?

-You know, I really -- Not really.

I-I-I'm... [ Laughter ]

I'm either in the kitchen, cooking...

-Yeah. -...or -- If I'm in the house,

I'm either in the kitchen, cooking, or in the bathroom...

-Mm-hmm, yes. -Or...

[ Laughter ] -Cooking.

-Or in bed. -Cooking. There you go.

[ Laughter ]

Yeah, that's true. So, yeah, don't --

My thing is that everyone wants to do Zoom everything now.

So, whatever it is, they go, "Zoom call?"

I go, "No, you don't have to Zoom."

-Yeah, but I worry that we've got to come back

from this at some point. You know?

Like, I was watching the beginning of the show

in the dressing room. And, you know --

there are a lot of people missing.

Not just audience. But there are a lot of people

missing, in terms of... -Yeah.

-...you know, the functioning of the show and so on.

-Yes, yeah. -And we can't let

the powers that be think that this is

what it's gonna be moving forward,

that it's gonna be, like --

You know, we don't want to get them used to --

We don't want NBC to get used to a skeleton crew.

-No, exactly right. We got to get back.

We got to get back. Exactly right.

This helps us, you being here. [ Cheers and applause ]

-Yeah. -Yeah, I -- What would it be --

What was your life like in quarantine?

-[ Laughing ] -I'm trying to picture it.

-'Cause I -- you know, they had asked at one point whether --

'Cause you and I were supposed to do a show...

-That's right, in March. -...when it got shut down, yeah.

And I think it was a little later, maybe.

I can't remember. But anyway, it didn't work out.

And I think that -- I think I got asked

at some point during lockdown,

or you were doing the show from your home.

-Yep. -And I think I got asked

whether I'd be interested in doing it,

and I was like, "You know, forget that."

-You can't do it, no. -But I tuned in to see --

And, you know, it was a Herculean effort.

I mean... -Thank you.

-...it really, truly, for everyone who, you know --

-I tried. -I mean, really.

You know, and, uh...

I thought that was very industrious and impressive.

You know, that slide? [ Laughter ]

-Yeah. I have a slide. -How did you do that?

-You have to have a slide in your house.

Yeah, that's the one thing -- Yeah.

-That would not go well with my hangover.

[ Laughter ]

-No, it makes it so much easier to get to the kitchen, yeah.

To have breakfast, you just slide down.

-Anyway, so you're doing that. Other people --

Like, John Krasinski, like, invented a network.

-Yeah, that's right, that's right, he did, yeah.

-You know? And I came back to work, like,

my first day back -- back at work,

Christine Bean -- great costume designer

we have on the show -- she conceived and grew

a whole human being during this eight months.

I came in for my fitting, and she was just, like,

heading out the door to go have the baby.

And when we left in March, she wasn't pregnant at all.

So, I mean, what use of time is that?

-Yes. [ Laughter ]

-And then, my first day filming, Megan Boone...

-Yeah. -...who's on the show...

-Of course. -I said, "So, how have you been?

What did you do during the time off?"

She said, "I read all of Shakespeare's tragedies."

-Wow.

And what was your answer?

What did you do during quarantine?

-My youngest son, my 12-year-old,

we'd go out and line up beer cans

on the big rock out on the far end of the garden

and shoot at them with BB guns.

[ Laughter ]

-So, someone had a baby. [ Applause ]

Someone read all of Shakespeare's tragedies.

And you shot beer cans with a BB gun.

-And we'd throw the ball. -[ Laughing ] Yeah.

-You look great. -Thank you.

-Yeah, Questlove looks great. Yeah, thank you.

Also, I worked out a little bit over the --

-You did?

[ Laughter ]

-More with James Spader when we come back, everybody.