Speaker 1: Personally with long fueldsmen.
Speaker 2: Happy New Year friends.
Speaker 3: I hope you had a fun or relaxing time celebrating
Speaker 3: whatever your vibe was this year. We are back to
Speaker 3: regularly scheduled programming because it is the first official Monday
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty five. The last few episodes were holiday related.
Speaker 3: I did an episode with my best friend Julia while
Speaker 3: we were in Europe, and that was some crazy travel
Speaker 3: stories if you want to get into that one. And
Speaker 3: there was an episode on holiday struggles. You all had
Speaker 3: sent in a bunch of things that you were personally
Speaker 3: dealing with over the holidays, and I wanted to share
Speaker 3: them in hopes that other people out there could relate
Speaker 3: to you and we could all feel a little less
Speaker 3: alone during a really hard time. But, like I said,
Speaker 3: we're back to some regular, normal content here as twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five gets starts arted. I am bringing on actor
Speaker 3: Jesse Hutch. You may recognize him from a multitude of
Speaker 3: things that he's been in, but right now he's in
Speaker 3: a movie that's out in theaters called Homestead, and I'm
Speaker 3: really glad we got to sit down and talk not
Speaker 3: only about acting, but some really crazy life experiences he's had,
Speaker 3: so without any more chatting and talking, let's get into
Speaker 3: this interview. I'm really excited to be joined by Jesse
Speaker 3: Hutch today.
Speaker 2: Jesse, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: I'm doing great. People been asking me have you slept,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, don't ask me that. Then I'll think
Speaker 1: about it, and then I'll have an opinion, and then
Speaker 1: that'll probably cause me to go downhill. So we just
Speaker 1: don't talk about Bruno's.
Speaker 3: That's a fair point, especially when you're in like the
Speaker 3: heat of everything happening. Most people know you for being
Speaker 3: an actor. That's your You've When I went to your
Speaker 3: IMDb page, you had over ninety five listings.
Speaker 2: Is that crazy to you?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I just passed like one hundred and something. Oh
Speaker 1: you did even I was like, okay, yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: like you get a badge or anything for that, but
Speaker 1: you know, personally, I was like, wow, Okay, I guess
Speaker 1: I've been doing this a little while.
Speaker 3: Do you Is it easy to keep track of everything
Speaker 3: you've done or do you even lose track of somewhere
Speaker 3: You're like, I.
Speaker 1: Don't remember doing no Alla. Fans come up to me
Speaker 1: and be like, oh my goodness, I loved you and this.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, I wasn't that. They're like and your
Speaker 1: character name was such and such. I'm like no, They're
Speaker 1: like yeah, and I was like, I don't think sh IMDb. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, yep, yep. You know more about me than
Speaker 1: I know about myself. That's fair.
Speaker 2: Well, that's probably hard to keep a lot of those tracks.
Speaker 2: I mean, over one hundred.
Speaker 3: Is like, in your entire career spanning, you've played a
Speaker 3: variety of different roles, like just like Christmas movies to
Speaker 3: superhero TV shows to now this new one you're in.
Speaker 2: And gosh, you love Christmas. You're in a lot of
Speaker 2: Christmas stuff.
Speaker 1: So I had to look that up. So I just
Speaker 1: did an interview last week and they were like how
Speaker 1: many Christmas movies you've you been in?
Speaker 3: It?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I don't know, like four, and they
Speaker 1: were like, nope, guess again. And I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: this is a trick question. So I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, and they made me look it up. They
Speaker 1: wouldn't even tell me. So I had to look it
Speaker 1: up and I counted and it was eleven.
Speaker 2: You've been in a lot. Do you really love Christmas?
Speaker 2: Where did that come from?
Speaker 1: People have been like you're mister Christmas, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: I didn't, Okay, I mean, I'm not opposed to it.
Speaker 1: I love Christmas, I do. And so somehow that's become
Speaker 1: kind of a genre that I've managed to sort of
Speaker 1: fall into, slip into, and to be honest, I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it because I don't just stay there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you mentioned I move around a lot, and as
Speaker 1: a performer, that's what I need. Like I knew early
Speaker 1: on as a kid that I needed a job that
Speaker 1: didn't entail going to the same place doing the exact
Speaker 1: same thing every day. I'm just just not cut out
Speaker 1: for that. I don't do well. I don't have enough
Speaker 1: patience for that. And so I need to be in
Speaker 1: in an ever changing environment where I meet new people
Speaker 1: and we're telling new stories and we're filming in different locations,
Speaker 1: and that I love. And so I very much am
Speaker 1: appreciative and thankful that I've been able to, as you said,
Speaker 1: be in the CW world and kind of be in
Speaker 1: that superhero world. I've played bad guys, I've played the
Speaker 1: romantic comedy. I've played military and police officer. I've been
Speaker 1: the jerk, you know, and the guy that nobody likes,
Speaker 1: and I like that because that's real life, that's the
Speaker 1: human heart. We all have kind of aspects of us
Speaker 1: that are very different, and so if I get an
Speaker 1: opportunity to share a character that maybe you resonate with,
Speaker 1: or maybe you hate, or maybe you love, then I
Speaker 1: really want to do that the best I can do.
Speaker 3: You ever feel like doing so many different variations of
Speaker 3: characters that they.
Speaker 2: Sometimes might bleed into each other.
Speaker 3: We're in one moment you were really happy in this
Speaker 3: great guy, and then another where you're like, oh, I'm
Speaker 3: supposed to be mean here Has that ever happened while
Speaker 3: you're shooting the scene and you're like, this is the
Speaker 3: wrong character.
Speaker 1: I mean not really, because you have to. You have
Speaker 1: to stay in that character, just be like super unprofessional.
Speaker 1: If I kinda all of a sudden, they're like, what's
Speaker 1: he doing?
Speaker 2: Like who's that?
Speaker 1: That's did you just say that? What's happening? So no,
Speaker 1: you kind of have to stay in the world. Although
Speaker 1: it was interesting recently because I went straight from the
Speaker 1: set at Homestead straight the TV series. So we were
Speaker 1: just finished filming the second episode of the series and
Speaker 1: we went and then I literally flew straight to Northern
Speaker 1: Canada and sort of played the antagonist in a series
Speaker 1: called Win Hope Calls, And so that was different because
Speaker 1: I went from playing this like really strict military guy,
Speaker 1: you know, to super calm and cool headed to now
Speaker 1: I'm playing this other guy who's a little more on
Speaker 1: your face, kind of loves to push your buttons, rub
Speaker 1: it in, you know, find whatever he can on you,
Speaker 1: and show the dirt to everybody. So that was kind
Speaker 1: of a little Yes, it bled over where I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: where am I What? I was just in Utah, Now
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of nowhere in Canada. What am
Speaker 1: I doing? What hotel am I in?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Now, oh that happens. I wake up in hotels and
Speaker 1: I think I'm in a different hotel. Oh wow, So
Speaker 1: I like it totally happens where I wake up when
Speaker 1: I go to use the restroom and I'm like, there's
Speaker 1: a wall there. Wait, okay, the restroom's over here. It's
Speaker 1: super fun.
Speaker 3: So do you just try and look out the wind
Speaker 3: And I'd be like, which city is this?
Speaker 2: How You're like, hold?
Speaker 1: Sometimes it happens. Yeah, it's just like ah, whatever, you
Speaker 1: tell me where to go and when to be there.
Speaker 1: And what to say, and I'll show up and do
Speaker 1: my best.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you also have a really awesome family. Do you
Speaker 3: feel like when you walk off the set, you're like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I have to close this door and this is back
Speaker 3: to my real life or do you feel like the
Speaker 3: character maybe buns into the real life. Maybe not on
Speaker 3: the set, but maybe in real life.
Speaker 1: A little bit. I'm very much a box thinker, so
Speaker 1: I'm like in this box doing this thing, and then
Speaker 1: you know, my wife asked me to do that stuff,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, hold on, to come out of
Speaker 1: the box. What are you asking? Okay, and then I
Speaker 1: go into that box. So it's the same when I act,
Speaker 1: I suppose it, it feels very sort of different. And
Speaker 1: yet I bring my family with me as much as
Speaker 1: I can, So we homeschool our kids, we travel together
Speaker 1: as much as possible. My wife and I really saw
Speaker 1: the fruit of having our kids as close as we
Speaker 1: can for as long as we can, and so we've
Speaker 1: done what we can to change our schedule to really
Speaker 1: take responsibility for that, because you know, at times it
Speaker 1: was freaky. It's like, oh my goodness, we're gonna teach
Speaker 1: all three of them. They're all in different grades. This
Speaker 1: is crazy. My wife does the majority of that and
Speaker 1: she's my superhero. She's amazing with the kids in the house,
Speaker 1: and so when they travel with me, it's it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Like so there is that bleedover and the blend, but
Speaker 1: now it's like, hey, I want you to know Dad
Speaker 1: and our family as a cohesive unit and not just
Speaker 1: like dead works like out in the universe somewhere and
Speaker 1: then he comes home and we only know him as this.
Speaker 1: It's like they get to see me on set and
Speaker 1: how I am there, and I think it's a it's
Speaker 1: just better for our family all around.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it sounds like you guys are all like just
Speaker 3: really close and tight knit, which is really awesome. I
Speaker 3: mean close and tight knit enough that I believe one
Speaker 3: of your daughters was acting with you on Little Women's Christmas.
Speaker 2: Yes, what was that like?
Speaker 1: Oh, that was phenomenal. I felt very proud. I was happy.
Speaker 1: I almost cried on set. It was like really touching
Speaker 1: and she did a fantastic job. I'm so proud of her.
Speaker 1: It's like, it's crazy. She's really good, like just naturally,
Speaker 1: she kind of caught on really fast. She's technically driven,
Speaker 1: she understood the direction that was given to her. She
Speaker 1: was like number six on the call sheet. I was
Speaker 1: like number twelve or something, and that was part of
Speaker 1: the plan. But I was like so proud of her.
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is amazing, Like you go girl. And yes,
Speaker 1: I was one of the party on A Little Women
Speaker 1: Christmas and we sold it to Great American Family and
Speaker 1: it's already aired, so if you haven't seen it, feel
Speaker 1: free to check it out. But you know, it's a
Speaker 1: fun Christmas film. It's also one of the first ensemble
Speaker 1: casts that GIF has had, so mostly like all the
Speaker 1: lead girls and a couple of the guys in and
Speaker 1: of their own rights should be just leading their own movies,
Speaker 1: but they're very generous to kind of get on board
Speaker 1: and be a part of this project.
Speaker 2: Oh that's that's really fun.
Speaker 3: Did you at any point where you're like, oh, I
Speaker 3: don't know that I want my kids enacting a little
Speaker 3: hesitant to allow them to like come into that world.
Speaker 1: Not really, I've never forced them. I've always brought them.
Speaker 1: And I asked her if she wanted to audition, and
Speaker 1: she was like yeah, and she just took it from there.
Speaker 1: So it's been kind of a natural progression. I think
Speaker 1: I still would never force them, like, I still don't
Speaker 1: expect her to. She was like, Hey, that's it, I'm done.
Speaker 1: That's cool. Yeah, I'm all right with that. She's got
Speaker 1: a lot of talents in other areas. And both of
Speaker 1: my boys are kind of interested maybe in stunts. Who knows.
Speaker 1: I mean they're always doing crazy stuff and trying to
Speaker 1: fight and climbing on top of the church.
Speaker 3: And is that because they're seeing dad do this, because
Speaker 3: I know you do a lot of your own stuns, right, yes.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I don't know if they've it's like definitely
Speaker 1: just in the DNA, I think, like I didn't expect that.
Speaker 1: There's things you do growing up that you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's fine, it's that's me. I'm making a choice for myself.
Speaker 1: And now that I have kids, and I'm like, what,
Speaker 1: they just got that out of my wife and out
Speaker 1: of me, Like we didn't even teach them that.
Speaker 2: What just the genetics in there coming out.
Speaker 1: I know, so part of it's a little freaky. You're like, okay,
Speaker 1: I guess they're picked that up. Here we go, yeah,
Speaker 1: Like we literally came out of church and I'm talking
Speaker 1: to another family and all of a sudden, I'm like, dad,
Speaker 1: my dad, and I'm like looking around, I can't see them,
Speaker 1: and I'm like I hear them, Like what the and
Speaker 1: he's literally up on the top of the factory, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. And I'm like, uh, hey, bud, what's going on?
Speaker 1: And there's this dad underneath with his daughter and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: come here. I told him not to be up there.
Speaker 1: And I walk over and this dad's like kind of
Speaker 1: it's freaking out a little bit, and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you should get him down from there's like super dangerous.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, thank you, sorry, I appreciate
Speaker 1: your concern, you know. And I looked up and I
Speaker 1: was like, did you warm up? And his dad looks
Speaker 1: at me like and I was like, well, you might
Speaker 1: want to stretch me. I mean, that's a good twelve
Speaker 1: to fourteen feet I mean, and you're wearing your new
Speaker 1: shoes or how are you good with the shoes? And
Speaker 1: he's like, oh, you're right, dad, these are my new shoes.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to jump off, And
Speaker 1: like I was like, yeah, well, how about you come
Speaker 1: down and we'll go jump off of something over there
Speaker 1: that's a little lower will warm up to this. And
Speaker 1: in that moment I realized that there's a difference and
Speaker 1: no help some people pair it. Yeah, and I didn't
Speaker 1: regret it. I honestly didn't. I was kind of proud
Speaker 1: of him for doing that. At the same time, I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, let's not like have the security team
Speaker 1: out here. But I can't fault them either because I
Speaker 1: did probably crazier things than that when I was growing up.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't think anything anybody can fought you for
Speaker 3: the dentle side of parenting. I think you will definitely
Speaker 3: have kids that are fearless, though, and I think that's
Speaker 3: something really cool. Yeah, you do have a really interesting
Speaker 3: part of your story though before this acting, and we'll
Speaker 3: get into some more acting stuff. But you've had some
Speaker 3: near death experiences. Can you talk about those a little
Speaker 3: bit because those are wild?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they weren't planned first. Yeah. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean some of the injuries that I've had probably are ye.
Speaker 1: I put myself there, you know, I rode the bike
Speaker 1: on top of the train bridge. It was me trying
Speaker 1: to pull something off. It was me free climbing that
Speaker 1: cliff or I used to love climbing Church peoples. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like a thing.
Speaker 3: You've always really had, this like kind of adrenaline side. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it sounds absolutely beyond the stunt.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So I've never drank alcohol, never done drugs.
Speaker 1: Swearing is not my thing. But for some reason when
Speaker 1: I was younger, it just started out that I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: that sounds fun. I'll climb that thing. I can jump
Speaker 1: off there, I can. I'll try white water rafting or
Speaker 1: white water kayaking, and so excuse me, yes, I was
Speaker 1: a whitewater raft guide. I was a couple of years in.
Speaker 1: I was in my first year of college, and it
Speaker 1: just happened to be in the right place at the
Speaker 1: right time and ended up drowning so full on right
Speaker 1: to the end, blacked out, and they found me a
Speaker 1: couple of miles down the river. They estimated I was
Speaker 1: underwater from eleven to twenty two minutes. Wow, and so rightfully,
Speaker 1: so I should be either dead, and or if alive,
Speaker 1: I should be I have complete brain damage or a
Speaker 1: loss of function, you know, physicality, memory, you name it.
Speaker 1: And so the fact that I recovered from that is
Speaker 1: an absolute miracle. And I couldn't call it anything else.
Speaker 1: I can't be like, oh, the water was really cold
Speaker 1: and it froze me, Like it was nothing like that,
Speaker 1: Because how else do you explain that, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean?
Speaker 3: Do you recall the rescue at all?
Speaker 2: Like when people came to.
Speaker 1: Mind you, Yeah, I had moments, moments of it, but
Speaker 1: really small little memories that I have that I'm like
Speaker 1: part of me is even like was that even an
Speaker 1: accurate memory? You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Are you like making it up because it's what you
Speaker 2: feel like happened?
Speaker 1: I know, I just I remember being very cognitive obviously
Speaker 1: going into it. Right by the time I went underwater,
Speaker 1: I was guiding. It was a twelve foot Moravio raft.
Speaker 1: We hit the first wave. I had twelve people in
Speaker 1: my boat. We had another guy in the front. We
Speaker 1: hit it and went straight up and we're just about
Speaker 1: to crest over as you should, and then everybody was
Speaker 1: having a great time and just we didn't have the power,
Speaker 1: and so we started to come back down and we
Speaker 1: started surfing, and so I'm keeping the paddle there and
Speaker 1: I'm keeping it straight and one of the guys that
Speaker 1: are to of the guys that fell off from the
Speaker 1: front as they fell, one of the guys managed to
Speaker 1: grab me. Not his fault. I mean, I'd be grabbing
Speaker 1: on his stuff too if I was falling. It's just like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, you know, he grabbed my life jacket kind
Speaker 1: of me around the back, and then I ended up
Speaker 1: sort of almost like water boarded. It was like I
Speaker 1: kept going into the water, out of the water, in
Speaker 1: the water, out of the water, and eventually I just
Speaker 1: was like, man, I'm getting whooped here, Like I can't
Speaker 1: shake this guy, so I'm gonna have to just bail.
Speaker 1: So I bailed, and I just happened to be right
Speaker 1: in that sweet spot where the veterans that I worked
Speaker 1: with called the green room. So there's a current on
Speaker 1: the top of the river, and then there's another current
Speaker 1: that's maybe twelve to fifteen feet or so below the surface,
Speaker 1: and this rapid was called the colosseum, so it kind
Speaker 1: of fitting right that you think of these battles. And
Speaker 1: I ended up going under right there and went down
Speaker 1: really fast. Both my ear drums kind of could feel
Speaker 1: the pressure. I knew there was a shift. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh that was different, okay. Immediately tried to swim, couldn't
Speaker 1: do it, and just felt like this the water pressure
Speaker 1: was like pushing everything together, and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to swim, and I I had to
Speaker 1: eventually abandon my paddle, which you never do as a
Speaker 1: as a guy that you get, you know, reamed out
Speaker 1: and everybody makes fun of you. But I was I
Speaker 1: knew this was a different situation and I wasn't able
Speaker 1: to get out of this yet, and so I let
Speaker 1: go of the paddle so I could really swim as
Speaker 1: hard as I could, still couldn't break the current. So
Speaker 1: my training told me, all right, chill out, you got
Speaker 1: to go with the flow. I'm not going to beat
Speaker 1: the river. And so I just hung out and hung
Speaker 1: onto it, you know what I mean. And as I'm
Speaker 1: floating along, it's kind of you you go through the
Speaker 1: the process of like, so I'm underwater, you know, I
Speaker 1: like to be done with this soon so I can
Speaker 1: get some oxygen. And I just I tried again. I
Speaker 1: tried to swim, you know, I used more energy, burn
Speaker 1: more of my strength, and then just couldn't get out
Speaker 1: And was like, okay, I have to just literally go
Speaker 1: completely numb to this. I just let everything go. Just
Speaker 1: I'm completely limp and trying to save my energy, right,
Speaker 1: so because I mean, oxygen still in my blood, so
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, the less I can use my muscles.
Speaker 3: I can't believe how much you're aware as all of
Speaker 3: this is happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it was three years into being a guide.
Speaker 1: I'd done it for quite a while. I was also
Speaker 1: in college training for this very thing, you know, being
Speaker 1: an outdoor guide. Swift water rescue technician training I had.
Speaker 1: I was I head searched and rescue training. I had
Speaker 1: wilderness first aid training, which is pretty intense.
Speaker 3: So you had all the tools for a potential survival
Speaker 3: out of this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I've always been I knew going through that
Speaker 1: course that I was a person that I stay pretty
Speaker 1: calm when pressure hits. I actually operate better the more
Speaker 1: stress there is in my life. Sometimes there's certain family
Speaker 1: things where I'm still like navigating. I'm like, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: I just fell apart. I couldn't handle that, Like why not?
Speaker 1: It should be easier than that. But for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: when I'm on the river or I you know, I'm
Speaker 1: on set for twelve fourteen hours a day and this
Speaker 1: pressure hits, I just really feel comfortable, and so part
Speaker 1: of me felt okay. I got this, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And I don't think I was prideful, like
Speaker 1: I didn't have an attitude towards the river which you
Speaker 1: could get as a guide. I found some people you
Speaker 1: get like, oh my god, I'm the man, I'm the woman,
Speaker 1: you know, I got this and now here. And I
Speaker 1: found myself in this situation where I'm like, wow, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm out of options. And so I held my breath
Speaker 1: as long as I could. Eventually my brain's telling me
Speaker 1: that you know, hey, you're gonna be breathing soon. And
Speaker 1: I know that my body and I'd never experienced that before,
Speaker 1: so I was like, I don't know what that's like,
Speaker 1: but I know it's coming because your body is like
Speaker 1: I could feel it right, You're starting to go like
Speaker 1: you You're all your muscles are tensing. You're like and
Speaker 1: I could feel my body wanting to breathe, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: you can't breathe, dude, like you're underwater. And so there
Speaker 1: was this mish mash of like nature and how I'm
Speaker 1: built and then my logic, which is like not the
Speaker 1: right time and not the right place, and that was
Speaker 1: out of clash, and eventually you just start breathing. You
Speaker 1: can't you can't control it anymore. She was just like,
Speaker 1: and that first breath did me in. There was no
Speaker 1: there was no more room after that. It was whatever
Speaker 1: I had left was now filled with water. There's a
Speaker 1: difference between you know, taking this and drinking it and
Speaker 1: or shoving your face into it and going and breathing
Speaker 1: it in. And so that was a new sensation for me.
Speaker 1: It felt like kind of liquid concrete just filled my
Speaker 1: entire body. It quickly became really heavy, and yet I'm
Speaker 1: still floating in water, and I I feel my body
Speaker 1: getting whipped around and you know, the rapids moving me.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, but yet I'm in this undercurrent and
Speaker 1: I just kept breathing and my body kept trying to breathe.
Speaker 1: I was like, and but I had nothing left and
Speaker 1: I wasn't even controlling it, Like I was completely out
Speaker 1: of control. So that's where the moment where my logic
Speaker 1: left and I kind of had a bit of a
Speaker 1: panic where it was like, I'm like, I don't know
Speaker 1: what to do anymore, and uh, it was scary, and
Speaker 1: I felt very disconnected and I felt fear for sure.
Speaker 1: And then quickly after that, I would say the spiritual
Speaker 1: kick then, and I was like, okay, I'm in your hands. Lord,
Speaker 1: I'm done. I can't do anything with this anymore. And
Speaker 1: that's where I had just like the most immense amount
Speaker 1: of peace. But it was quickly followed by like the
Speaker 1: most immense fear that I've ever felt. And I didn't
Speaker 1: know that those things could kind of live that close together,
Speaker 1: and yet I don't think they bled over into each
Speaker 1: other world. It was just like boom, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I was like one hundred percent piece. I knew I
Speaker 1: had done everything I could do. I knew I was done.
Speaker 1: I completely gave it over to the Lord and said
Speaker 1: all right. I remember in my mind going, okay, I'm yours.
Speaker 1: Whatever you want to do from this point on is
Speaker 1: completely up to you. And I could hear the water right,
Speaker 1: it was like, oh, it's kind of peaceful. And then
Speaker 1: I could hear my heart. It was like and my
Speaker 1: heart kept slowing down and slowing down, and then it
Speaker 1: left and then uh, I still remember it.
Speaker 3: And then the fact that you have just such vivid
Speaker 3: experience of this whole thing and yeah, you're able to
Speaker 3: recall it, does that make it harder for you?
Speaker 2: Because that memory is so vivid versus you.
Speaker 3: Just not having any recollection and it happened to you, or
Speaker 3: is it more important for you that you got to
Speaker 3: understand what happened.
Speaker 1: It was a blessing that I'm able to understand what happened,
Speaker 1: because that was My life changed dramatically after that. Eventually
Speaker 1: they found me. You know, I don't know who they were,
Speaker 1: but someone else on another rafting trip ahead of us,
Speaker 1: I believe. And then I just remember these vague images
Speaker 1: of like kind of life jackets. I remember the colors
Speaker 1: of people's life jackets, but I don't remember people specifically,
Speaker 1: and someone hitting my chest and then dragging my body,
Speaker 1: and then remember a ceiling, and then I remember just
Speaker 1: waking up in a pressure chamber in the hospital. It's
Speaker 1: like one of those things that goes quo. And that
Speaker 1: was free because I was like, where am I like?
Speaker 1: And they had to, I guess, bring my equilibrium back,
Speaker 1: so find the pressure where my equilibrium kind of regrouped.
Speaker 1: And then that's my explanation of it. Yeah, And then
Speaker 1: they slowly brought me back because I went down too
Speaker 1: fast and I came up too fast, I think, so
Speaker 1: my ears never actually balanced out properly. There was no
Speaker 1: water left in my lungs. Somehow they were like they
Speaker 1: literally cleared me to leave pretty quick, and I went home.
Speaker 1: I think I maybe didn't go back to work for
Speaker 1: like two weeks. I just kind of was a little numb,
Speaker 1: I think in life and was like what am I doing? Like?
Speaker 1: Do I really love this? Is this really what I
Speaker 1: was made for with? What's my purpose? Who you know?
Speaker 1: Do I want to finish what I've been doing? I
Speaker 1: don't know. And through that I was really afraid of water.
Speaker 1: I had this fear and I was like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: recognize that fear, and I don't want to be fearful
Speaker 1: because the scripture says you've not been given a spirit
Speaker 1: of fear, put of power, of love and a sound mind.
Speaker 1: Then I was like, how do I get that back?
Speaker 1: Did I even ever have it? And so I actually
Speaker 1: called up the head of our river safety. His name
Speaker 1: was Riager, just like the manliest man you can imagine,
Speaker 1: like grew up on the River's like this deep voice,
Speaker 1: like no mess around, old school John Wayne kind of guy.
Speaker 1: And I called him up and I said, man, I'm
Speaker 1: afraid of the water. I said, would you come out
Speaker 1: with me. I think I need to go back to
Speaker 1: that rapid and I need to swim it. And he's
Speaker 1: like yeah. I was like, okay, well, what day and
Speaker 1: time works for you, Because he's the one with the
Speaker 1: crazy schedule, right, this is around the clock, like tourism business.
Speaker 1: It's functioning. And he goes, I think maybe it was
Speaker 1: a Sunday or something, and he's like, all right, well
Speaker 1: we got one trip in the morning, and he goes,
Speaker 1: we'll go in the afternoon. Like okay. So I go
Speaker 1: out and I meet him park, you know, at the
Speaker 1: end of the dirt road out on the main road
Speaker 1: again in his truck. He's got the safety zodiac on
Speaker 1: the back. We don't even speak. We just drive all
Speaker 1: the way down this road. We get there, we unload
Speaker 1: this zodiac, we put it in. He turns to me
Speaker 1: and he goes, okay, when you get up there, give
Speaker 1: me the signal. I said, okay. I walk all the
Speaker 1: way up. The sun goes away, the clouds cover it,
Speaker 1: it starts raining and it gets dark as heck, and
Speaker 1: I'm like what is this? And I'm like freaked. So
Speaker 1: I'm standing on this rock ledge overlooking the Colosseum River
Speaker 1: or the colosseum rapid on the Ottawa River. You know,
Speaker 1: the far shore is technically Quebec, Canada, and the shore
Speaker 1: I'm on his Ontario. So I'm right in the middle
Speaker 1: of this border. There's three standing waves that are you know,
Speaker 1: six to fifteen feet apiece, and you know, on the
Speaker 1: size of this whole wall. And I'm like, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: back here again. And I was like, I gotta do this.
Speaker 1: And I was like trying to prep myself up and
Speaker 1: I'm talking myself into it is just not working. I'm like,
Speaker 1: and it's raining and it's dark, and I'm like, why
Speaker 1: have you for a second. You know, It's like this
Speaker 1: total dramatic personal moment that nobody even sees except for
Speaker 1: maybe reader, but probably not because he's way down there.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I signaled to him and he holds up
Speaker 1: a paddle to signal back, and I'm like okay. And
Speaker 1: the only thing I could do is I had to
Speaker 1: look at the far shore and I had to walk
Speaker 1: off the edge, like literally push myself off this cliff.
Speaker 1: I couldn't even really jump. I was like, okay, I can't, okay,
Speaker 1: so I just I just walked. It was probably sloppy.
Speaker 1: I landed MESSI I hit the water. I come up
Speaker 1: and I'm like, all right, that's it. We're in it.
Speaker 1: There's no way out now. A guy ain't swimming out
Speaker 1: of this.
Speaker 2: The only way to go through.
Speaker 1: The only way through is through. So I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: praise the Lord made that step. And when you're in
Speaker 1: white water, you want to either swim aggressively or you
Speaker 1: got to get on your back and you have to
Speaker 1: try to almost slow down a little bit. You don't
Speaker 1: necessarily want to go to the exact speed of the current.
Speaker 1: So I just leaned into it and swam aggressively at first,
Speaker 1: you know, legs behind me, and swam as hard as
Speaker 1: I could, man, and I hit those waves. And as
Speaker 1: soon as I came up after the first wag and
Speaker 1: popped up, I was like just covered in this light.
Speaker 1: I was freaking out. Was like, yeah, we're good. Like
Speaker 1: there's no way I'm going to the green room this time.
Speaker 1: And I just swam that out and I was just
Speaker 1: getting beat up, and I was loving it. And I
Speaker 1: get to the bottom and he picks me up in
Speaker 1: the zodiac. We put the zodiac back on the trailer.
Speaker 1: We drove all the way out, and nobody said a
Speaker 1: word to each other. He got out of the truck
Speaker 1: and he walked around to the front and he just
Speaker 1: shook my hand and he got back into the truck
Speaker 1: and he drove away, and then I just wept, like
Speaker 1: just lost it, and I was like so thankful. I
Speaker 1: still learned from that this day to this day that
Speaker 1: fear only has the hold on you that you let it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not something that you can't shake. It's
Speaker 1: just something that comes to you and you have to
Speaker 1: just get through it somehow, so you have to find
Speaker 1: out what that strength is. For me, it was honestly
Speaker 1: just a belief in Jesus Christ and my faith in God.
Speaker 1: And it really grew at that time because before that
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I was you know, I was
Speaker 1: a believer and I prayed and I you know, I
Speaker 1: had a certain love for faith. But after that, I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, something something biggers that play. Because there's
Speaker 1: no way I just walk away from that and and.
Speaker 3: Live you and go back through a crazy curring and
Speaker 3: that you had just experienced.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't I mean, did I need to
Speaker 1: do that? I don't know.
Speaker 3: I felt like I had to well, it sounds like
Speaker 3: it was helpful for conquering a fear of something that
Speaker 3: you didn't originally have a fear for.
Speaker 2: I mean, you much like you teach your kids. It
Speaker 2: sounds like you were very fearless.
Speaker 3: You want to try things, You want to live your
Speaker 3: life in the way that you want to live your life,
Speaker 3: and I think that's really awesome, so beautiful.
Speaker 2: It's also hard to.
Speaker 3: Live fearlessly, not just for things that are adrenaline racing
Speaker 3: in your heart pounding. It's hard to be fearless in life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And when.
Speaker 3: You can be fearless in the face of things that
Speaker 3: are very dangerous like that, I think it makes the
Speaker 3: rest of it feel really small and easier to conquer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's definitely a character in you that's built, I think,
Speaker 1: and you don't always know that, right. I mean, how
Speaker 1: do you get experience. You have to go through something
Speaker 1: and then you get the experience. You never get it before.
Speaker 1: You don't get it about reading about it or talking
Speaker 1: to some friends and sort of you know, hashing it out.
Speaker 1: It's like you have to do it. You have to
Speaker 1: go through that hard thing. You have to go through
Speaker 1: the peak, you have to go through the valley and
Speaker 1: when you get to the other side, then you have
Speaker 1: a change in yourself. And you know, my wife's lived
Speaker 1: through a number of things as well. And so at
Speaker 1: some point we're living in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and we're
Speaker 1: two years into COVID, We're trying to raise three young kids,
Speaker 1: and it's just a gnarly time right for all of us,
Speaker 1: and we're like, man, this is whacked, Like, how do
Speaker 1: we raise our kids here? How do we navigating live
Speaker 1: through this? And I had to work fees to go
Speaker 1: through and God kind of was already putting it on
Speaker 1: our hearts as a couple to be like, hey, it's
Speaker 1: time for a change. And we're like, well, what's that change.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that's going to be. Necessarily, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe we switch gears and I go somewhere else in
Speaker 1: audition for a bit, try a different market. I don't know.
Speaker 1: And so anyway, God's like, yep, pack up. We're like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're packing. Where are we going? He's like yeah, We're
Speaker 1: like cool, uh, you know, okay, we have enough clothes.
Speaker 1: Where are we going? And He's like yep, And we're
Speaker 1: like okay. So and then my lawyer calls and he goes, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm just calling to let you know that we're hearing
Speaker 1: rumors down here in LA that you know, canad is
Speaker 1: going to be closing the borders to their own people
Speaker 1: and not let them out. And I'm like, what are
Speaker 1: you talking about? That's is that even legal? He's like,
Speaker 1: that doesn't matter. We're hearing what's happening. And we're like, okay,
Speaker 1: how long, Like is there like a date on this?
Speaker 1: And he goes, I don't know. We're hearing roughly twelve days, wow,
Speaker 1: And we're like okay, so we left in six.
Speaker 3: Well, as an actor, you need to be able to
Speaker 3: move anywhere and like navigate.
Speaker 2: To all these different places.
Speaker 3: So that would have completely shut down your career unless
Speaker 3: it was in Canada, yeah.
Speaker 1: Which was And we didn't know where we were going.
Speaker 1: So we literally just prayed, drove stops and that's all
Speaker 1: we did until we drove for two months, two weeks
Speaker 1: from Vancouver, BC to Florida.
Speaker 2: Okay, by Florida, any.
Speaker 1: We just kind of cut right across the whole country.
Speaker 1: We knew LA wasn't really an option. I'd already lived
Speaker 1: there in the two thousands when I was single and
Speaker 1: I just didn't. I knew that wasn't where we were
Speaker 1: going to raise a family and be. We had friends
Speaker 1: in different places where we were like, okay, well, like
Speaker 1: you know, naturally, let's go try to visit some friends
Speaker 1: along the way. So we did that. My wife was
Speaker 1: friends with another girl, but she'd never matter in person.
Speaker 1: She was in Franklin, and we're like, hey, well we'll
Speaker 1: swing through Franklin at some point. So we drove through Franklin, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: and when we got there, it was like this immense
Speaker 1: piece just hit my wife and I. We were like,
Speaker 1: what the what feels like we lived here a whole lives.
Speaker 1: These people are amazing. The town is like the sun
Speaker 1: like hits everything perfectly. What is happening? Are we just dreaming?
Speaker 1: Maybe we should go to Florida. So we went ahead
Speaker 1: to Florida and while we're there, we're talking about Franklin,
Speaker 1: and then we're like, let's go back to Franklin. So
Speaker 1: we go back to Franklin and then we're there another
Speaker 1: week and we're like, hey, maybe we should go back
Speaker 1: to Texas. So we go back to Texas for Christmas,
Speaker 1: and while we're there, we're like, nope, can't shake Franklin man.
Speaker 1: All right, it's fine a place, and ultimately we found
Speaker 1: a fully furnished place to rent and we left Canada
Speaker 1: with five pieces of luggage, one per family and four
Speaker 1: bins and our stuff is still in a storage locker
Speaker 1: on the West coast. It's been three years and seven
Speaker 1: months almost.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: Do you guys have any plans to go get there?
Speaker 1: Or is it just I've tried. If anybody out there
Speaker 1: has a moving company that would love to help, let
Speaker 1: me know, because I actually called three professional companies and
Speaker 1: not a single one of them followed through. At some
Speaker 1: point with the job, it was like for some reason,
Speaker 1: the door just kept slamming, and I was like, fine,
Speaker 1: I'll leave my tools there. Fine, I mean I'd really
Speaker 1: like them. I'd love to have all my hammers and
Speaker 1: screws and nails and you know, but one day you
Speaker 1: get one day I planned to go there, you.
Speaker 2: Found the city. It didn't come with all of your things.
Speaker 1: Uh huh. I have gone back since and like narrowed
Speaker 1: everything down. So I just went in by myself until.
Speaker 2: At least you visited it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's still there, it's still there. Found some
Speaker 1: dead mice, yeah, I did had I was like, oh no, sorry, sweetheart,
Speaker 1: some of your clothes are gone. Why don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: It's better off, doesn't.
Speaker 1: It's better off you don't see the pictures?
Speaker 3: Yes, now, okay, so getting into acting. So this happens
Speaker 3: in your life.
Speaker 2: And then you go into acting. What was that like?
Speaker 1: I never wanted to be an actor at all. I
Speaker 1: love movies growing up. I did that all a mint.
Speaker 1: I collected the posters. I enjoyed going to movie theaters.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed watching movies at home, you know, get the VHS.
Speaker 1: That was the time I grew up, and I just
Speaker 1: kind of get whisked away in these stories and I
Speaker 1: always loved it. So that was definitely in me. But
Speaker 1: never was I like I'm going to be an actor.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make films, I'm gonna direct and produce. No,
Speaker 1: not even on my radar. After the drowning occurred, I
Speaker 1: really started questioning, like, okay, what am I doing? And
Speaker 1: I was. I had gone back to work after because
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, I gotta, you know, keep making
Speaker 1: money somehow, because I was trying to put myself through
Speaker 1: second year of college and this ad came on the
Speaker 1: radio for something called Model Search America. If anybody ever remembers.
Speaker 2: This image that sounds oddly familiar.
Speaker 1: It was a bit of a money grab, like hey,
Speaker 1: pay money and you can come to the big event
Speaker 1: and maybe get discovered, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't even that. I was literally just cutting carrots
Speaker 1: or something ridiculous in the kitchen and I heard this
Speaker 1: ad come on. I was like, oh, no, you can
Speaker 1: model and meet you know wm E maybe was on there, Wilhelmina.
Speaker 1: Is that a modeling agency. I don't know all these
Speaker 1: modeling agencies. And at the very end it was like
Speaker 1: you could meet the casting director for twenty century Fox
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, they got cool movies. I'm
Speaker 1: going I'm.
Speaker 2: Going thinking about the movies here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I was like I can meet that. Guy's
Speaker 1: like that's cool. Maybe I'll ask some questions or something.
Speaker 1: So I like turned to my buddy and I'm like
Speaker 1: I'm going to the thing and he's like what thing.
Speaker 1: It was like the thing on the radio. And he's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're talking about. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'll see you later and he's like you're leaving now,
Speaker 1: You're gonna get fired, like we had the craziest boss.
Speaker 1: He was from Paris, amazing chef. But he's like, for
Speaker 1: sure gonna he's gonna like hurt me. I'm like, I'm out.
Speaker 1: I get my JELOPI Volkswagon car that I drove, you know,
Speaker 1: and second year of college, and I'm like, dude, and
Speaker 1: I cruised to the nearest big city that this thing
Speaker 1: was happening. That night. I heard it on the radio.
Speaker 1: So I was like, hey, I'm going to that hotel.
Speaker 1: I show up at this hotel. I'm wearing jeans and
Speaker 1: a T shirt probably pretty close to what I'm wearing now,
Speaker 1: and all these people are lined up. There's thousands of them,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh my goodness, what the what is
Speaker 1: happening right now? Is everybody's like dulled to the max.
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't fit in here, but I'm
Speaker 1: like whatever I get in line, everybody's you know, looking
Speaker 1: at me, like you know, this guy, there's like no fashion,
Speaker 1: which I didn't and I still don't really. Uh, you
Speaker 1: have a scarf on and this is this is pretty new.
Speaker 1: I just bought this and that I'm evolving. It only
Speaker 1: took me, you know, a couple of decades. It's fine,
Speaker 1: I'll catch up. If anybody out there has any ideas,
Speaker 1: please send them my way. John Barbados. Actually it's where
Speaker 1: I got this, and it's like one of the best
Speaker 1: fitting coats I've ever had. I was like, this is nice,
Speaker 1: it's okay, So I'm in. Take a little longer, I'm in.
Speaker 1: I I just takes me a while to get there.
Speaker 2: But you obviously didn't need it. So did you get
Speaker 2: discovered at this?
Speaker 1: I'm kind of it was like it was the kickstart
Speaker 1: to something that eventually led me down this path. So yeah,
Speaker 1: ultimately I got, you know, through that sort of round
Speaker 1: of like hey, basically they said, well, you have teeth
Speaker 1: and you can smile, and so yeah, maybe you can
Speaker 1: come to the big event. And I was like okay.
Speaker 1: So I go to the big event and I had
Speaker 1: some pictures and I do all these runway walks, which
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm not a model. I don't know
Speaker 1: why I'm doing this.
Speaker 2: You're like, am I just like walk? You're just like
Speaker 2: walking like normal.
Speaker 1: Probably I just walked out and like stood there and
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I stay here for a couple of seconds,
Speaker 1: like everybody else is doing and I walked at the
Speaker 1: end and I and I smile, and I turn around
Speaker 1: and I leave. And that's what I did basically for
Speaker 1: two days. And all these judges are out there and
Speaker 1: their papers and everybody's panicking. I was like, well, I'm
Speaker 1: along for the ride. And so this was in Rochester,
Speaker 1: New York at the time, and it's at like no
Speaker 1: word of a lie at the very end, and I
Speaker 1: met a bunch of people right and a couple of
Speaker 1: them got some like callbacks. It was called. Their number
Speaker 1: was called, and they're excited and then they were like,
Speaker 1: all right, ladies and gentlemen, that's it for this year,
Speaker 1: thank you for coming out. It's like twenty five hundred
Speaker 1: people maybe at this thing, Wow, packed out and they go, oh,
Speaker 1: hold on, we got one more number. And it's like
Speaker 1: crammed in here, like hang on, and they open it
Speaker 1: and it's like read you know, one, seven, nine, five,
Speaker 1: two four six, this crazy ridiculous long number. And I'm like, what,
Speaker 1: I think that's my number, and they're like for twentieth
Speaker 1: century Fox. And I was like what. So I literally
Speaker 1: went and I met the casting director at the time
Speaker 1: of twentieth Century Fox. His name was Christian Kaplan, and
Speaker 1: I go in and I do this cold read for him,
Speaker 1: and he's like, who are you? Like, where are you from?
Speaker 1: Where's your accent from? Do you have any Your pictures
Speaker 1: are horrible, You're clearly green. You don't know what you're doing. Like,
Speaker 1: but there's something. That's what he said. There's something, And
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say that it'll go anywhere, but
Speaker 1: if you pursue this, maybe something would happen. And that
Speaker 1: was enough for me to just get started, and ultimately
Speaker 1: I called his office at some point. A couple months later.
Speaker 1: I started taking some improv classes that I found nearby
Speaker 1: was all I could find, and uh. He was on
Speaker 1: the phone with a casting director in Vancouver, BC, and
Speaker 1: he said, how far are you from Vancouver? I was
Speaker 1: like six and a half hour flight. He's like, wow, okay,
Speaker 1: well she's willing to see if you want to go there,
Speaker 1: I gotta go bye. I was like, huh okay. So
Speaker 1: I was like all right. My best friends at the
Speaker 1: time helped me gather some money together because we're all
Speaker 1: trying to get through college. Yeah, I'm living off mister noodles.
Speaker 2: And this is not at all part of any plan that.
Speaker 1: You had no plan whatsoever. I'm like, I don't know
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. A fly to Vancouver, and ultimately I
Speaker 1: did a cold read audition for Caren Mayors and Heike Brandstatter,
Speaker 1: who you know. They are the same people that cast
Speaker 1: the X Men movies and the Planet of the Apes films,
Speaker 1: and so that was kind of a second little piece
Speaker 1: of breadcrumb where I went in and I did this
Speaker 1: cold read in front of all these people, and I
Speaker 1: almost like poop my pants. It was crazy. There was
Speaker 1: all these people in the lights and the mark and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. And I
Speaker 1: read these lines with this person that I've never met,
Speaker 1: and then they're like thank you, and I left, and
Speaker 1: I was like, what just happened in there? That was
Speaker 1: like ridiculous. I flew all the way over here for
Speaker 1: thirty five forty seconds maybe yeah, okay, great, and they're
Speaker 1: like thank you, we'll see you. And I leave. Well,
Speaker 1: it turns out she calls me back. I go in
Speaker 1: the next day, nobody's there. I sit down. She goes,
Speaker 1: where are you from? I was like, you know, from Meganville, Ontario?
Speaker 1: What where's that Ontario? Okay? Your pictures are horrible, your
Speaker 1: accent's bad, you have no experience, you're clearly new to this.
Speaker 1: But there's something. And I said, Okay, what do I
Speaker 1: do with that something? And she said, well, you need
Speaker 1: to move here or go somewhere where there's a market,
Speaker 1: and you need to and you need to start training
Speaker 1: and you know, but it's up to you. I can't
Speaker 1: guarantee anything, but there's something. If you want to pursue it, maybe,
Speaker 1: So again, that was another thing, and you know, here
Speaker 1: we are, twenty four and a half years later, I'm
Speaker 1: still falling the breadcrumbs, and I feel like just now
Speaker 1: I'm about to start, Like I feel like it's go time.
Speaker 3: You know, they've always called, at least like for Nashville
Speaker 3: in the music industry, it's this ten year town. It
Speaker 3: takes artists at least ten years to finally kind of
Speaker 3: hit their moment.
Speaker 2: And I would imagine.
Speaker 3: Something similar in the acting entertainment world.
Speaker 2: But even more. I mean, you're competing on multiple.
Speaker 3: Levels, but I for you, what was the most at
Speaker 3: this point, the most impactful acting role you feel like you've.
Speaker 1: Had impact on me or others.
Speaker 3: On you, or others whatever you feel like really changed
Speaker 3: at least maybe a perspective for you or an experience
Speaker 3: for you. Maybe it was an acting and you're like, Okay,
Speaker 3: this is a direction I need to take.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've developed a saying I think over time
Speaker 1: where it's like I give up every day, but I'm
Speaker 1: never going to quit because it very much feels like
Speaker 1: you're in the twelfth round all the time, like you're
Speaker 1: so so close to the end and to victory, but
Speaker 1: you you just aren't quite there yet. And it's been
Speaker 1: a very interesting ride. Every job has been a stepping
Speaker 1: stone that I've definitely learned from as an actor, as
Speaker 1: a human being, as a husband, as a father, you know,
Speaker 1: as a son and a brother, and even as a stranger.
Speaker 1: It teaches me how to be a member of my community,
Speaker 1: because you can't just live your life, and at least
Speaker 1: I don't think you should live your life. Try to
Speaker 1: get to the end and you're the only ones standing there,
Speaker 1: like I did it. You know. If that's the case,
Speaker 1: then I don't believe you did it the right way.
Speaker 1: And so there's been a number of jobs that have
Speaker 1: definitely impacted me personally. Was in a series called Heartland.
Speaker 2: Very long standing series.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and I played a paraplegic who ultimately was
Speaker 1: a cowboy, went off to war, ended up paralyzed from
Speaker 1: the waist down, came back and kind of had to
Speaker 1: live through the anger and the loss of his legs
Speaker 1: and his love for horseback riding. And so I actually
Speaker 1: worked with like the pair of Massage gold medalist and
Speaker 1: I rode horses sitting on top of basketballs. And I
Speaker 1: actually got a wheelchair and went out to public and
Speaker 1: just acted like I was in a wheelchair, like not
Speaker 1: to offend anybody, but I wanted to actually get that perspective.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm not a method actor, but I
Speaker 1: do appreciate learning, and so that was kind of the
Speaker 1: furthest I would go, right, Like if you hired me
Speaker 1: to like play this like drug dealer or something like,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be like going out and trying to do
Speaker 1: hard drugs just to see what it's like. You know,
Speaker 1: like I'm not that addicted, Like I don't need to
Speaker 1: go that that hardcore. But that really taught me a
Speaker 1: lot because I started to see the perspective of other
Speaker 1: people on you the movie that I'm in the series
Speaker 1: I'm in right now Homestead, This I think has been
Speaker 1: something that I'm just like real time seeing people respond it,
Speaker 1: and that's it's like affecting their lives and it has
Speaker 1: affected mind. But now I'm getting to see people in
Speaker 1: the movie theater, you know, Like I'm sitting in these
Speaker 1: red carpet premieres with people and I'm like, I'm hearing
Speaker 1: them laugh, I'm seeing them cry, I'm noticing. And then
Speaker 1: they come up after and they just share their heart
Speaker 1: with you, and You're like, wow, this is meaningful. There's
Speaker 1: something in this story that really touches people. And then
Speaker 1: as a performer, excuse me, you know, as an actor,
Speaker 1: it is a role that people are like you fit there.
Speaker 1: That was you know, that was really good to see.
Speaker 3: Is that one of the coolest compliments you can get
Speaker 3: as an actor, Like you fit there?
Speaker 2: Like that this makes sense, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Does that feel really cool for you to hear that
Speaker 3: from just strangers?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it does. We were in Salt Lake City
Speaker 1: we did a premiere and there was I had three
Speaker 1: like veterans come up to me at separate times and
Speaker 1: tell me that they thought that I served as well
Speaker 1: and like that I played the role where it reminded
Speaker 1: them of people they serve with and guys that they
Speaker 1: were with, you know, and some of them shared some
Speaker 1: stories of friends they lost, you know, and and that's
Speaker 1: a highly impactful I was like, that's the highest compliment
Speaker 1: because as a performer, you really want to honor the
Speaker 1: people that you represent to the best of your ability.
Speaker 1: If you're playing a cook, then try to be the
Speaker 1: best cook you can be, you know, on screen. And
Speaker 1: in this case, I'm playing a Green Beret. And so
Speaker 1: they had the opportunity to train, to train with Jeff Kirkham,
Speaker 1: who helped write the books Black Autumn, which Homestead is
Speaker 1: based on, and to just go out and actually hear
Speaker 1: stories from him and train with him and actually doing
Speaker 1: live fire and you know, we're going from ar to
Speaker 1: pistol and we're running these drills and you start to
Speaker 1: get it into your body and you feel a little
Speaker 1: bit of that world, you know, like just a fraction
Speaker 1: of it, and you're like, wow, this is a wild ride.
Speaker 1: But I love it.
Speaker 2: That's exciting.
Speaker 3: I'm excited for everyone to see Homestead. And that's the
Speaker 3: newest project for you. What is a little taste before
Speaker 3: we get out of here? Because you have so many
Speaker 3: things to go do, and lots of more premieres to do.
Speaker 3: If people want to check out Homestead, Like, what would
Speaker 3: you tell them they're getting? What's the view of Homestead
Speaker 3: that they're going to get by watching?
Speaker 1: I mean, ultimately Homestead. You know, a series of events
Speaker 1: kick off on the West coast. It's a nuclear bomb
Speaker 1: and the power grid goes out, goes down, the internet's out,
Speaker 1: the world starts to fall apart a little bit. And
Speaker 1: so this follows a group of people from all walks
Speaker 1: of life that ultimately end up on a three hundred
Speaker 1: acre homestead. And I play a character, even Lee, who's
Speaker 1: part of the security detail that's hired to protect the homestead.
Speaker 1: And so you have all those avenues. You have those
Speaker 1: who are going to protect with force. You have those
Speaker 1: that want to bring grace, You have those that want
Speaker 1: to help the people outside of the gate. You have
Speaker 1: that are like and you can't trust the people outside
Speaker 1: of the gate. Then you have people that maybe you
Speaker 1: can't trust, some that you maybe you misread them, you know.
Speaker 1: And so I think ultimately Homestead is for everyone. There
Speaker 1: is a character in there that I guarantee you'll connect with,
Speaker 1: and when you connect with them, we're not going to
Speaker 1: take you on a journey of fear. We do present
Speaker 1: potential fears, but what we take you on is a
Speaker 1: journey of hope and a journey of kind of self discovery.
Speaker 1: And hopefully you dream right, hopefully you go, you know what,
Speaker 1: I can do that thing, and i can take charge
Speaker 1: of that in my life, and I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1: That's what I hope people get out of it. And
Speaker 1: so the movies. The movie's good. I'm proud of it.
Speaker 1: Like I love everybody's performances, I love how it looks.
Speaker 1: The music, Oh my goodness, it's like it's really cool
Speaker 1: to be a part of it. When you're done watching
Speaker 1: the film. It opens December twentieth in theaters. There'll be
Speaker 1: a QR code at the end of the movie. You
Speaker 1: can scan it, and if you pay it for basically
Speaker 1: like buy some tickets for other people to go watch it,
Speaker 1: you get to go home that night and actually start
Speaker 1: watching a TV series on Angel. So and the TV
Speaker 1: series is like it like amps it up.
Speaker 3: Okay, I mean this is like, this is a movie
Speaker 3: that turns into a TV series, Yes, which is unusual.
Speaker 2: I haven't heard of that before.
Speaker 1: And we also have something called homestead Family Survival, which
Speaker 1: is us going out and interviewing actual homesteaders. So how
Speaker 1: do you make bread, how do you get chickens? How
Speaker 1: do you maybe you know, if you want to go
Speaker 1: down that road, how do you do it? And then
Speaker 1: we also have homestead gear dot Com, which you can
Speaker 1: actually go start buying everything you need. So we have
Speaker 1: water irrigation systems, we have fire starting kits, we have
Speaker 1: food supplies. There's watches, there's knives. Like, it's pretty wild.
Speaker 2: I'm very integrated into real life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and really we're not just like trying to make
Speaker 1: a story that you watch and then you walk away
Speaker 1: from and you're like that was cool. Forget about it.
Speaker 1: You know. It's actually like something that you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: I can keep learning a little more if I want. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd love to make bread at home. Like you don't
Speaker 1: have to go home and all of a sudden, just
Speaker 1: like you know, put a bunker in your basement, Like
Speaker 1: that's that's not what we're presenting to you. If you
Speaker 1: want to do that, go for it.
Speaker 2: Just understand a little bit more about survival.
Speaker 3: Yeah, in a different way. That's really cool. Well, Jesse,
Speaker 3: thank you so much for sharing pieces of your story
Speaker 3: and also a really really hard one and just all
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 2: But also congratulations on your.
Speaker 3: Success, and I hope for continued success for you, because
Speaker 3: it obviously to me you're already there, you're already on
Speaker 3: your way, but I know for you that's a different experience.
Speaker 3: But congratulations, and thank you for.
Speaker 1: Being here, thank you for having me on listening. I
Speaker 1: truly think that time is one of the greatest currencies,
Speaker 1: So when someone gives their time, I just want to
Speaker 1: respect that, honor it, because once it's spent, it's literally gone.
Speaker 2: So thank you, It's true. Thank you Jesse so many
Speaker 2: words of wisdom.
Speaker 3: I'm going to like leave here with a lot of lessons.
Speaker 3: Jesse's story is so inspiring in many ways, so be
Speaker 3: sure to check out his new movie in theaters, Homestead,
Speaker 3: and follow him on social media at Jesse Underscore Hutch.
Speaker 3: It's spelled at j e ss E Underscore h U
Speaker 3: T CCH. I always love seeing when you guys enjoy
Speaker 3: an episode, so tag me on socials or dm me.
Speaker 3: You can do it at web Girl Morgan or at
Speaker 3: take this personally. Also, I'm trying to figure out some
Speaker 3: fun new guests to bring on here. Experts and people
Speaker 3: who have incredible stories, So reach out to me. Let
Speaker 3: me know who you want to hear from and what
Speaker 3: topics you want.
Speaker 2: Us to discuss.
Speaker 3: But that's all for now, so thanks for being here
Speaker 3: and I hope your new year starts off exactly as
Speaker 3: you want it to.