-I always love to see -- Yeah, we love you.

I always love seeing you, pal. I want to say congratulations.

You co-wrote and directed your first movie.

-I did. -This is a big deal.

-Thank you. [ Cheers and applause ]

Yeah. -Alright.

What is it called and what can you tell us about it?

-It's called "Hell of a Summer."

It's like a slasher horror but -- with a lot of blood.

But it also has -- It's supposed to be funny, so I hope it is.

-Yeah. I think you can do both. -Yeah.

-Were you nervous about directing or...?

-Definitely, but I also -- I've always wanted to be, like,

making films since I was really little.

And now I'm a little less little.

-Yeah. -So, it makes -- Yeah.

I feel like it makes sense. -Did you talk to

the Duffer brothers and say, "Hey, give me some advice.

What do I do?" These guys are masters.

-Yeah, totally. -Writing and directing.

-Yeah, I texted them, and I was like, "Do you guys

ever get imposter syndrome still when you're directing?"

And they were like, "Yeah." So they still get...

-So, if they get it -- Then, yeah.

-Then we're good. -But you're also acting in it.

-Yeah.

-So you're better than the Duffer brothers.

-No, no, no, no, no. Well, actual--

You know, maybe --

[ Laughter ] -Yeah.

-'Cause they don't act.

-You know what? -Yeah.

-The Duffer brothers have never acted in their own stuff.

And that's why I'm better than them.

-Yes! Exactly right!

Thank you! Finally! You can say it on this show!

-That's not actually true because when I was acting in it,

I was like, "Man, this is going so well."

Then I got into the edit room, and I realized --

I was, like, watching it, and I was like,

"Whoa. I'm not acting in that shot.

I'm not acting in that shot."

It's just basically me watching the movie like this.

-You're reading the lines? -Yeah.

I'm, like, mouthing people --

I'm mouthing along with people's lines.

-You couldn't get out of your director...

-No, apparently not. -Oh, my gosh.

-So, yeah, I don't know if I could maybe do that again.

-Dude, I'm excited. I can't wait.

When that comes out, please come on the show.

We'll talk about it. -Thank you. I'd love to.

-I haven't seen you since season four

of "Stranger Things" came out. Congratulations.

It's the biggest thing in the world.

-Thank you.

-So well done. -Thanks.

-And kudos to the whole cast and the Duffers, as well.

And season five -- this is the last season coming up.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

Are you nervous, excited, sad,

or just waiting for all those emotions?

-It's going to be crazy once it's all done.

I'm just excited to go back and actually finish it.

-They released the name of the first episode.

-Yeah. -It's called "The Crawl."

-I'm not even joking. I found out about that yesterday.

-Really? -Yeah.

-So you don't know? They just did it,

and you go, "Oh, when are you guys going to tell me?"

-No, and I think a lot of people don't believe it

because it just is, like, they don't --

"Of course you know. You're on the show."

But, like, they're really -- they're super cagey.

-Yeah. For a good reason. -I guess so, yeah.

Or else I'd go blabbing on "The Tonight Show."

-Yeah. Exactly.

But I heard also that you -- You have a creative brain.

You have a very artistic brain, a great brain.

And I think you said, as a joke to someone on the staff

or on the crew -- You were doing "Stranger Things."

You go, "You should do a spin-off of blah, blah, blah."

And you said something, and they were like,

"You're kind of right." -Well, yeah.

So, we were on set filming "Stranger Things 4."

And we were all talking about, like, yeah,

if there's going to be, like -- Like, joking.

"Oh, they're all going to have us back in 20 years.

We're all going to be, like, fat and old

and being like, 'Oh, Evan, where are you?'"

You know, that kind of thing.

And then I was like, "Oh, but, if you guys are

actually going to do a spin-off, it should be this."

And I said it, and the Duffers, like,

looked at each other and looked at me, and they were like,

"Could we talk to you for a second?"

And then they pulled me off and they were like,

"That is the idea. Who told you?"

I was like, "No one."

They were like, "What do you mean?

You just, like, came up with it?"

And I was like, "Well, no, I just thought that that

would be a cool way to kind of expand..."

And they were like... -It is.

-Yeah. They were like, "Well, yeah, I don't know."

And they were like -- Yeah, it was really funny.

They were like, "Okay, well, don't tell anyone."

[ Laughter ]

-"And it's our idea." -Yeah, exactly.

-I want to talk about your new movie.

It's called "When You Finish Saving the World."

It was written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg.

Gosh, we love that guy. -Yeah, he's one of the best.

-Oh, my gosh. He's brilliant.

How did you get involved with this one?

-Jesse had written an Audible Original

sort of, like, a --

kind of audiobook play sort of thing and put me in it.

And it was based on that. The movie is based on that.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

It's with Julianne Moore.

It's about this kind of mother and son

who are complete opposites.

Yeah. I don't know. It's an honor to be a part of.

-You also play, like, an aspiring musician in this.

-Yes.

-And, really in real life, you are a musician.

You're a great musician, by the way.

I was telling you -- I was listening to you

on Spotify earlier today. -Yeah. Thank you.

-You wrote some of the songs for this?

-Yeah, I helped write some of the songs.

There's like two or three songs in the movie that I wrote,

but they're less important.

They're the sort of shallow, bad ones, and then --

-No, it's great. They're great.

-No, but then the great ones --

Like, Emile Mosseri, who's one of the greatest

living film composers,

helped, you know -- wrote it with Jesse.

And Jesse did the lyrics and everything.

But, yeah, no, it was amazing to sort of do both.

Like, be kind of treated as a collaborator.

-Does that change your --

the way you write your songs, meeting these composers?

-Yeah, definitely. I remember just being like, "Oh, man.

How similar are my songs to this,

like, really arrogant kid's songs?"

-Yeah. -Yeah, so I started comparing --

The guy that I play, his name is, like, Ziggy.

And he's, like, this pretty sweet kid

but also super-obnoxious and arrogant.

And, you know, he writes these songs

and plays them live on the Internet

kind of like on a TikTok platform.

But, like, no one cares in real life about him

or about what he's doing.

So he's always just like, "Yeah, so, I have

like 20,000 followers, so it's pretty cool."

And everyone's like, "We don't care, dude."

-Yeah.

-But it was very -- Yeah, it's great.

-What is it? It's under Ziggy Katz?

-Yeah, Ziggy Katz.

-Ziggy Katz is what I was listening to today.

-K-A-T-Z. -And the song?

-It's called "Pieces of Gold."

-Just check it out. It's so good.

Dude, I love it, top to bottom. I want to show everyone a clip.

Here's Finn Wolfhard in "When You Finish Saving the World."

Take a look at this.

-♪ That's the way the earthquake crumbles ♪

-Hello?!

[ Drill whirs ]

What the hell are you doing?

-Installing a red beacon light

so people know when I'm live-streaming.

-And by "people," you mean... -I mean you.

-Well, I figured that, yes. -And to a lesser extent, Dad.

-Well, it's nice to be first.

-Yeah, so, when this light is on,

you don't knock or come in or make any noise.

-Oh, and when it's off, I am --

I'm free to go about my business,

to enjoy the rich pageantry of life?

-What? Yeah, sure.

-It's a good system.

-Yeah! Julianne Moore.

We love her. Finn Wolfhard, everybody.

"When You Finish Saving the World"

is in theaters everywhere January 20th.

Meghann Fahy joins us after the break.

Stick around, everybody.