Speaker 1: Okay, So, Danielle, I don't know if you're aware of this,
Speaker 1: but you're on Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 2: Me, yeah, you are if you had so.
Speaker 1: Obviously, somebody in a room somewhere at some point where
Speaker 1: you know would be funny or amazing or incredible is
Speaker 1: taking actors and teaching that to dance, and we'll make a.
Speaker 2: Show out of it.
Speaker 1: Pick make up a reality show right now? What would
Speaker 1: your reality show be that you would pitch with actors?
Speaker 2: With anything? With anything? What's your reality show?
Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh, my reality show.
Speaker 4: I think we're gonna have to limit it to like
Speaker 4: what would we make actors do?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 5: I think we do need because honestly, I have a
Speaker 5: show that I've I've talked to you guys about that.
Speaker 5: I think it's so sick and I don't know why
Speaker 5: I haven't even just made it myself yet, but like
Speaker 5: it has to be done because it's what I spend
Speaker 5: all of my time doing.
Speaker 3: When I scroll social media, I.
Speaker 5: Am obsessed with comments, the comedy that John Mary Josephin,
Speaker 5: you know, whoever out there can come up with when
Speaker 5: they watch a funny video and the comment they leave
Speaker 5: blows me away.
Speaker 3: I want to watch a show, a.
Speaker 5: Cheap clip style show similar to the Soup or the
Speaker 5: Dish that I used to host, called the comment section
Speaker 5: where you play the viral video or the clip whatever
Speaker 5: it is that's going around.
Speaker 3: The internet, several of them.
Speaker 5: But after you watch the video, you say, now, let's
Speaker 5: check in on the comment section, and you just open
Speaker 5: up the comments and you highlight the people with the
Speaker 5: best comments. Then you have some sort of voting section,
Speaker 5: and whoever won for comment of the Day or comment
Speaker 5: of the video wins ten thousand dollars or like that's great.
Speaker 1: So it's like a maror because funniest home videos but
Speaker 1: America's funniest comment comments.
Speaker 3: Exactly just based on the comments.
Speaker 5: Because, for one thing, if I could watch a twenty
Speaker 5: two minute show and manage to see what are all
Speaker 5: these videos people are talking about because I don't necessarily
Speaker 5: have time to find them all on my own, Oh,
Speaker 5: these are all the videos of the day that people
Speaker 5: were talking about. Great, oh my gosh, the ten best
Speaker 5: comments or the five best comments under everyone that's hysterical,
Speaker 5: Like I would love to get my social media. This
Speaker 5: is the best of the best that happened today in
Speaker 5: one cheap format way.
Speaker 4: You know, what I would recommend to is to keep
Speaker 4: it wholly positive, so.
Speaker 5: Like correct do not taking somebody down, so not yucking
Speaker 5: somebody's yum it is.
Speaker 3: It is spin celebration of.
Speaker 4: The comment section should be celebrated for you know, positive, funny, yes.
Speaker 6: Whatever, not just not.
Speaker 4: Because there might be really funny comments that are ripping
Speaker 4: apart the video or you know, talking about someone's appearance
Speaker 4: or whatever, so you just have to avoid those.
Speaker 6: But I love that idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that good good one one writer.
Speaker 6: I don't know, just at the top of my head.
Speaker 4: I mean, I was trying to think of like actors
Speaker 4: in situations. You know, I love school, I love college.
Speaker 4: I would love to do a show where you take
Speaker 4: like actors and that had never went to college and
Speaker 4: be like, now let's let's follow you let go.
Speaker 1: They did that with what's his name with Tommy Lee
Speaker 1: Tommy Lee, the drummer from the from the crew went
Speaker 1: to college.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I think it'd be great.
Speaker 4: It'd be great and like just give them like a
Speaker 4: full semester and like a subject that they always thought
Speaker 4: they wanted to do, Like you know where you used
Speaker 4: to want to be an archaeologist, right like you, I
Speaker 4: think like watching you like do that for a semester
Speaker 4: and like, you know, really take it seriously as like
Speaker 4: a doc of like what's this experience?
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, that's what what's it.
Speaker 5: Like for them on campus? And yeah, you know, do
Speaker 5: they get recognized? Who'd they become friends with? What do
Speaker 5: the teachers think of them? That's a really good idea.
Speaker 1: I have a couple one of them that I've always
Speaker 1: wanted to do because I love cooking shows, but they're
Speaker 1: all already chefs. I want to have some follow me
Speaker 1: while I actually go to culinary school. Such a good idea,
Speaker 1: Like it's never been one where it's like how do
Speaker 1: you be calm a chef?
Speaker 7: Like?
Speaker 2: I want to do that.
Speaker 1: The other one for celebrities, I want to do celebrity
Speaker 1: aerial dog fighting. What they learned, Like they learn how
Speaker 1: to fly the planes and you learn how to and
Speaker 1: it's you do like dog fighting with you have to
Speaker 1: learn how to fly and then you learn it's like
Speaker 1: aerial dog fighting.
Speaker 5: Gosh, that sounds great. There are so many people with
Speaker 5: fear of heights. Though I think that might be hard.
Speaker 2: I don't have to try it. Though, it would just
Speaker 2: be so much fun.
Speaker 5: I mean, I would try it. It's right at my alley.
Speaker 5: I could die doing it. I could do it at
Speaker 5: high speed. Yes, I'm not afraid of heights and.
Speaker 1: Nuper competitive competitive people down like you know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know actually did it aerial dog fighting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my parents found this company that did it and
Speaker 4: surprised me and my brother with it when we were
Speaker 4: like fifteen sixteen. Where they train you for a whole
Speaker 4: day and you get a hold.
Speaker 3: On today, not a whole day. You have to give
Speaker 3: up a a whole day to.
Speaker 4: You're seeing a classroom. You're sitting in the classroom for
Speaker 4: like six seven hours of six.
Speaker 5: Or seven hours, and then they put you like we
Speaker 5: had to trust you.
Speaker 4: You're in a World War two like era a plane,
Speaker 4: but they have the they have a stick behind you,
Speaker 4: so they're really like flying.
Speaker 2: They're flying it out, but you're you're giving off.
Speaker 6: I have a stick in the front.
Speaker 4: We were actually in control of So once you're up
Speaker 4: there and they're like go and and then they so
Speaker 4: dagerous they had rigged they had rigged the plane so
Speaker 4: that when you shot at each other once you got
Speaker 4: because they teach you exactly what they have to do
Speaker 4: and how you get behind each other. Smoke would come
Speaker 4: out if you, like, you know, hit the other person.
Speaker 6: So my dog.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and uh, I have never been more sick because
Speaker 4: the guy was like, let's do some barrel rolls and
Speaker 4: let's do some loops, and I was like, oh god no.
Speaker 4: But I was probably the most nauseous I've ever been
Speaker 4: in my lib'.
Speaker 1: People that do that throw up, like Tom Tom Cruise
Speaker 1: was throwing up, but during the first up everybody, but.
Speaker 4: So yeah, not really my thing. But Chilotte was totally fine,
Speaker 4: and like he ends up taking flying lessons after that
Speaker 4: because it was so fun.
Speaker 5: And now that I know this, I think we should
Speaker 5: just have like, let's teach celebrities to be surgeons. Like
Speaker 5: you spend a whole day, you get a whole day,
Speaker 5: six or seven hours.
Speaker 2: And you know, a lot of people don't know about
Speaker 2: that real surgery.
Speaker 1: If you touch the sides, the patient buzzes.
Speaker 2: A lot of people didn't know that that's.
Speaker 4: A real factory.
Speaker 2: That's a little factoy for you if you touch the side.
Speaker 3: I love that game. I love that game. Try to
Speaker 3: get the bone out.
Speaker 1: Exactly a little boner around the me collect one thousand
Speaker 1: dollars fee.
Speaker 5: Yeah, what about celebrity lawyers? What about.
Speaker 3: Lawyers trial for trust him with a real trial.
Speaker 4: I think they nail it.
Speaker 3: That person murder.
Speaker 2: God, it's actually there's some great celebrity. There's some great
Speaker 2: possible if.
Speaker 3: You throw all morals out the window. We have got
Speaker 3: some crazy we've done.
Speaker 7: That are out there.
Speaker 3: Listen, guys, I just like ballroom dancing. There's nothing wrong
Speaker 3: with ballroom dancing.
Speaker 7: That is.
Speaker 2: You're right, that's a good one.
Speaker 5: Welcome to Pod meets World. I'm Daniel Fishel, I'm right
Speaker 5: or strong, and I'm Wilforde. As always, our favorite part
Speaker 5: of Pod meets World is how just one small side
Speaker 5: quest conversation can turn into so much more. Oh, Natania Ross,
Speaker 5: you were in a movie called Munchi's two.
Speaker 3: Let's watch it. What's that background actor's name again? That's right,
Speaker 3: it's Dusty. Let's find him.
Speaker 5: And some can even make us cry, like Matthew Foster
Speaker 5: the Make a Wish Kid we were reminded of from
Speaker 5: a random email. It has been an incredible never really
Speaker 5: knowing where the road will take us. So when Rider
Speaker 5: mentioned a recent documentary he loved where much of the
Speaker 5: premise and heart reminded him of what we've done here
Speaker 5: on Podmeats World.
Speaker 3: Jensen said he.
Speaker 5: Knew the director, and the rest is well this podcast
Speaker 5: episode and hilariously, somehow Ryder knows the director too. When
Speaker 5: our guest booked a horror film in nineteen ninety, his
Speaker 5: first job as a kid in Hollywood, he had no
Speaker 5: idea what he was stepping into. Commonly called the best
Speaker 5: worst movie ever, Troll two may have been an ignored
Speaker 5: B movie spectacle when it was released, but it's since
Speaker 5: taken on a life of its own, so much so
Speaker 5: that the child star, now grown up, made a documentary
Speaker 5: to fully understand the insanity he experienced. The film became
Speaker 5: a top Dock of two thousand and nine, but it
Speaker 5: helped him process and grasp what the experience meant to
Speaker 5: him even years later, which yes, sounds very familiar. And
Speaker 5: he's since made another documentary, this time about lavish residential
Speaker 5: haunted houses, which he ever acted in, and has found
Speaker 5: himself back in Hollywood now behind the camera directing scripted films.
Speaker 5: This week, we welcome one of our most unique brothers
Speaker 5: in the fraternity of child actors. He's the star of
Speaker 5: Troll two, the director of Best Worst Movie, and one
Speaker 5: of Writer's childhood friends. It's Michael Paul Stevenson.
Speaker 8: Hello, Hey, how are you.
Speaker 7: Drinking an espresso trying to wake up?
Speaker 3: Yes, good for you.
Speaker 5: I've got a coffee right here in my Philly Forever
Speaker 5: at Ever mug nice.
Speaker 7: We put out.
Speaker 5: We put out the troll to bat signal, and we
Speaker 5: are so happy.
Speaker 7: You responded, Wild movie will never go away.
Speaker 3: No, we don't want.
Speaker 6: It's too good.
Speaker 8: I have a bit of a bit of news that
Speaker 8: may surprise you as well. Uh, Writer, I don't know
Speaker 8: if you remember, but we were pals. We lived, we
Speaker 8: we lived, We lived in Oakwood together.
Speaker 4: This is told me this and I was like, what so, Yes,
Speaker 4: I don't remember. I don't make this connection. We hung out.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's it's wild. Your your your mom, and your
Speaker 8: brother Shiloh. I think you were. I remember your family
Speaker 8: being one of the very few, if not the only,
Speaker 8: same families.
Speaker 7: In Oakwood.
Speaker 8: It was such a crazy did did you have roller blades?
Speaker 6: Did we go rollerblading together?
Speaker 7: And I had I had I had a skateboard. You
Speaker 7: had roller blades? It was a weird, was it was?
Speaker 7: It was an interesting.
Speaker 8: That whole place is such a wild uh yeah, wild,
Speaker 8: wild world. I don't know if you I don't know
Speaker 8: if you've seen there's a documentary actually called The Hollywood
Speaker 8: Complex that is all centered on oak Wood and the
Speaker 8: child actors.
Speaker 7: I grew up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's and
Speaker 7: it's dark.
Speaker 3: It's a good documentary.
Speaker 6: But how long were you there?
Speaker 7: I was there.
Speaker 8: Let's see, from the time I was twelve until about sixteen,
Speaker 8: just like every pilot season.
Speaker 7: So yeah, I was there.
Speaker 5: You're originally from Texas, right, So how did you How
Speaker 5: did you decide to make the move to Los Angeles.
Speaker 8: Well, I actually was born in Texas, but I didn't.
Speaker 8: I didn't live there very long. I was I was
Speaker 8: adopted and grew up in Utah, of all places, And
Speaker 8: in Utah I started.
Speaker 7: Doing stage, doing theater when I was really young. I
Speaker 7: loved it.
Speaker 8: And then somebody from one of those productions said, oh,
Speaker 8: you should do this professionally, and and you know, talk
Speaker 8: to my parents. I was probably seven or eight a time,
Speaker 8: and my parents were like, no way, this is not
Speaker 8: anything we're going to do.
Speaker 7: And I continued to.
Speaker 8: Push and push, and this was in Utah, about places
Speaker 8: because I loved I loved theater, I loved acting, and
Speaker 8: ultimately ended up pushing them into getting an agent when
Speaker 8: I was nine and a half and the first movie
Speaker 8: audition I ever had was Troll two.
Speaker 2: God.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so when you when you were at the oak Wood,
Speaker 4: You're coming off of Troll two, right, Like, what did
Speaker 4: that mean? Did it have any effect like backlash or positive?
Speaker 4: I mean, you did a movie, which is a good sign,
Speaker 4: But did people think of it as a bad or
Speaker 4: it didn't even register?
Speaker 8: I think I think it was one of those films
Speaker 8: that didn't really register at that point. I mean I
Speaker 8: it registered for me, like it was the sort of
Speaker 8: thing where I had hoped and and and braid that
Speaker 8: nobody would see that film, because.
Speaker 4: Back then you knew, like you were immediately like on
Speaker 4: the thought.
Speaker 8: Yeah, So I mean I had I remember the first
Speaker 8: time that I had watched it.
Speaker 7: You know, we made the movie and.
Speaker 8: All of the times that you guys, know, you make
Speaker 8: movies and you don't know when they're going to come out.
Speaker 7: What they're going to be, you have you don't have
Speaker 7: any idea.
Speaker 8: And after we made the movie as a as a
Speaker 8: ten and a half year old, I was like okay,
Speaker 8: like the next time, like you know, next time that
Speaker 8: we all come together as a cast, will be at
Speaker 8: the big premiere and we'll watch our movie together. And
Speaker 8: time went by and kind of was like, oh.
Speaker 7: What where where is that movie? And of all things,
Speaker 7: my parents had had had tracked it down.
Speaker 8: And on Christmas morning, I remember unwrapping presents and then
Speaker 8: actually coming across the strange vhs and uh, you know
Speaker 8: says they said troll too. Because when we made the movie,
Speaker 8: it wasn't it was called Goblin.
Speaker 7: Which god, yeah, and and my.
Speaker 8: Dad was like put it in, like let's watch a movie,
Speaker 8: and it was I mean it was it was not
Speaker 8: even a minute into that and it was like, oh
Speaker 8: my god, this is a bad, bad movie. And so
Speaker 8: and it was kind of a thing where like okay,
Speaker 8: and then you become a teenager and continued acting. But
Speaker 8: I had this one uncle who every like, for some reason,
Speaker 8: Troll two was constantly programmed at the you know, the
Speaker 8: latest hours of night on HBO, like over and over
Speaker 8: and over again. And I had an uncle who would, uh,
Speaker 8: he would he would call me every weekend because he'd
Speaker 8: get the TV guide and he'd be like your crappy
Speaker 8: movie is on again.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: I love now. We laugh about it now. But when
Speaker 3: you when you.
Speaker 5: Got those phone calls, then, what what was the feeling
Speaker 5: you had?
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, like you're you're at an age.
Speaker 8: It's obviously very you know, you're you're impressionable, it's formative,
Speaker 8: you're trying to be.
Speaker 7: I think for me the biggest thing was is.
Speaker 8: I I went on and I acted in other things.
Speaker 7: That I thought would be more remembered or were more.
Speaker 8: Uh what you know, just like deserved more attention. But
Speaker 8: those things and in hindsight I get it, yeah, and
Speaker 8: in those things didn't.
Speaker 7: And so Troll two just continued and it.
Speaker 8: Was very much a like you know, I I I
Speaker 8: remember in the TV guide because there was a rating
Speaker 8: system in the in the old TV guides, and it
Speaker 8: was like, you know, one to four star, there was
Speaker 8: even a half star, and then below a half star,
Speaker 8: it was it was an icon of a turn key.
Speaker 4: Oh geez, oh no, you got the turkey.
Speaker 7: Yeah. So wow.
Speaker 1: First of all, for the record, we've all done them,
Speaker 1: we all have those movies in our past or it's like, oh, that's.
Speaker 6: Part of being an actor, you know.
Speaker 4: I mean that's why I found the documentary so fascinating
Speaker 4: is because I felt like, this is applicable well beyond
Speaker 4: this this one film, you know, and in some ways
Speaker 4: you're the most fortunate of the cast because you were
Speaker 4: a kid, you know, you have the biggest You have
Speaker 4: the most like understandable lack of cultural awareness, right, or
Speaker 4: lack of taste, right. And so that's why I think
Speaker 4: it's so fascinating that you really initiated this journey of
Speaker 4: like exploring that question like what is you know, how
Speaker 4: how do you evaluate the things you're in as an actor?
Speaker 4: And then how do you feel about that? And man,
Speaker 4: I thought you just did such a good job with
Speaker 4: the documentary. And it turns out I'm like a huge
Speaker 4: fan because I also of American Scream. I didn't realize
Speaker 4: that was you. So then when I looked that up,
Speaker 4: I was like, oh my god, I love your work.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 4: You are so good and you're so sensitive to your subjects,
Speaker 4: and I just couldn't believe the way you balanced this.
Speaker 4: You know, where you're you're understanding where everybody's coming from,
Speaker 4: but you're also showcasing some pretty strange people and and
Speaker 4: and there their understanding of their own movie. Have you
Speaker 4: have you stayed in touch with the cast control too,
Speaker 4: or when the documentary came out, did that change the
Speaker 4: relationship with them? I?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean I've I've stayed in touch with with
Speaker 8: some of them. George Hardy, who played my father, we're
Speaker 8: still We're so close and like having having a friendship
Speaker 8: all these years later, Like he's He's a remarkable man
Speaker 8: on the number of levels, just strange and funny and interesting,
Speaker 8: and I just I love I love him to death.
Speaker 8: So I stayed in touch with him. I actually was
Speaker 8: in Italy last year and I hadn't talked to him
Speaker 8: in a few years. But I've stayed in touch with
Speaker 8: Claudio Ferragaso, the director of Tronto.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I have, because like I have a real also
Speaker 7: a real love.
Speaker 8: I've grown to have a real love and appreciation for
Speaker 8: this guy who was so impressionable to me as a
Speaker 8: young kid. And you guys know, making anything in this
Speaker 8: business is hard, and so as I got as I
Speaker 8: got older and I got more distance from the movie,
Speaker 8: I kept thinking about, like God, like this guy somehow
Speaker 8: made this movie about vegetarian goblins in Utah with actors
Speaker 8: who couldn't act, couldn't speak.
Speaker 7: The language, and he made it and it will be remembered.
Speaker 8: And there's a part of the documentary that I always love,
Speaker 8: and it's when he's holding his thirty five million print
Speaker 8: reel for the first time and he's like, I've never
Speaker 8: held my actual movie, and he talks about how important
Speaker 8: it is to just, you know, make something that isn't forgotten.
Speaker 8: And so he's the guy that I've gotten close to.
Speaker 8: And when I was in Italy last summer, I phoned
Speaker 8: him up and we went and had dinner together, and
Speaker 8: it was just one of those moments where you're like,
Speaker 8: this the movie strangely troll two and in bestworce movie.
Speaker 7: Whatever it's it has.
Speaker 8: Given me so much in my life with respect to relationships,
Speaker 8: but gross as as a.
Speaker 7: Filmmaker, to just experiences. I wouldn't I wouldn't trade for anything.
Speaker 4: I mean, I mean, part of the reason why the
Speaker 4: movie is so memorable is is that earnestness that he
Speaker 4: is putting forth.
Speaker 6: I mean, he made exactly.
Speaker 4: It seems like he made exactly the movie he wanted
Speaker 4: to make, and that's what's so, you know, I feel
Speaker 4: like there's a version of the documentary that you made
Speaker 4: where you tracked on the director and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it was a piece of crap. We you know, I know,
Speaker 4: I didn't have the money and we don't have the
Speaker 4: things I wanted whatever, but hey it was fun. And
Speaker 4: instead he's like, no, this is the movie I wanted
Speaker 4: to make. Why are they laughing? I don't get why
Speaker 4: they're laughing when I didn't mean it to be funny.
Speaker 4: And that is a big swing. That's like that's indistry, right,
Speaker 4: and like that's however you feel about the movie, Like
Speaker 4: he made exactly what he wanted to and that is impressive,
Speaker 4: and I yeah, it's fascinating to me that he's still
Speaker 4: doubling down on that.
Speaker 6: I feel like there's a lot of.
Speaker 4: So called cult films, especially in horror, that sort of
Speaker 4: take being a cult film is the easy way out
Speaker 4: because they can't achieve what they were going to so
Speaker 4: they're just like, yeah, let's just have bad effects and
Speaker 4: we'll call it a day, you know, or whatever, and
Speaker 4: we'll just laugh at it. I mean, in a lot
Speaker 4: of ways, I feel like even Cavin Fever kind of
Speaker 4: turned out that way. It was like, I think Eli
Speaker 4: at first wanted to make more of a straightforward scary film,
Speaker 4: realized that's not gonna happen. You know, it's a little ridiculous.
Speaker 4: And then as a cast we kept bringing this energy
Speaker 4: of like where's this And I think while we were
Speaker 4: filming it, Eli and Braceden was like, you know what,
Speaker 4: it's all the tones. I want this movie to be there,
Speaker 4: And he, to his credit, earnestly invested in a million
Speaker 4: different directions. So it's became more of a cult horror film.
Speaker 4: But I don't think it started that way, you know,
Speaker 4: And I think that so I love that that that
Speaker 4: the director was just yeah, like he's still true to it.
Speaker 4: And he wasn't he wasn't offended by your documentary, Like
Speaker 4: he didn't feel like it.
Speaker 8: No, he I mean, I I think there was there
Speaker 8: was there was there was a process where he came
Speaker 8: to understand just what it is. I think he had
Speaker 8: some feelings right off the bat with like trying to
Speaker 8: understand it all. But he's never been anything but supportive
Speaker 8: but just like positive around anything that's.
Speaker 6: Being made period.
Speaker 7: Like he's just he's just that kind of guy.
Speaker 8: So I never you know, and and and and I
Speaker 8: had hoped that like when I made it. You know,
Speaker 8: it's it's sort of like a strange dysfunctional family of sorts,
Speaker 8: right like you make it. You there, there there are realities,
Speaker 8: and there are there are truths that you experienced for sure,
Speaker 8: and some of them are absurd and don't make any sense.
Speaker 7: Connection that I have to all the.
Speaker 8: People and this experience that I had, and it is right,
Speaker 8: you hit it. I mean, you said it so well
Speaker 8: in in respect to the thing that I identified most
Speaker 8: with with him and what I really came to love
Speaker 8: is his sincerity and lack of irony and just being
Speaker 8: genuine and and and and that takes courage, especially when
Speaker 8: you're when you're set up to fail, when it's against
Speaker 8: all odds.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I want to go back to you your
Speaker 5: audition for the movie. You said you you did the
Speaker 5: movie when you were ten and a half. Had you
Speaker 5: ever seen a horror movie?
Speaker 3: Do you remember your audition?
Speaker 8: I mean, I I saw et was one of my
Speaker 8: first the first movies I ever saw. Yeah, I remember
Speaker 8: my audition really well. And I saw Gremlins also as
Speaker 8: well when I was six or five or so, and
Speaker 8: and actually the very first horror movie I saw, which
Speaker 8: I think was even younger than that was I had.
Speaker 8: I had sneakily watched it, uh from the stairs of
Speaker 8: my older sisters having a sleepover with a terrible horror
Speaker 8: movie called chud Oh yeah.
Speaker 7: Geez yeah terrible.
Speaker 8: So but remembering my audition, I remember very well.
Speaker 7: You know, it took place in Parks. It took place
Speaker 7: in a in a hotel in Park City, and I
Speaker 7: remember my agent being.
Speaker 8: Like, this is this is this is for the lead
Speaker 8: and walking into a room and it was just full
Speaker 8: of the smell of European cigarettes. Like I just remember
Speaker 8: just being like, oh my god, we're you know, we're
Speaker 8: in Utah, and Claudio just yelling at me, just being
Speaker 8: you know, I'd read the lines.
Speaker 7: It's like bigger, louder, bigger, bigger, and.
Speaker 8: I just remember doing like going crazy and then and
Speaker 8: then him saying you may leave, and I laughed, And
Speaker 8: like weeks later I got a call that said, you know,
Speaker 8: I got the lead role.
Speaker 5: You didn't have to do a callback or anything. It
Speaker 5: was just the one audish.
Speaker 1: You may leave, you may leave, you leave.
Speaker 5: And so during filming, were you starting to be like, huh,
Speaker 5: I wonder how this is going to turn out? Like
Speaker 5: walk us through a typical day on the set of
Speaker 5: Troll two, and.
Speaker 2: Had you seen Troll one?
Speaker 7: It was Goblin, so we got yeah.
Speaker 8: I mean, I still have my original script and it
Speaker 8: was printed on it looks like an old like matrix printer,
Speaker 8: and you know, it says says Goblin, and for me
Speaker 8: like it was. We actually filmed the movie obviously, like
Speaker 8: out of order, and the first thing that we filmed
Speaker 8: was the scene where my mother is that you know,
Speaker 8: her body is on the kitchen table and she's getting eaten,
Speaker 8: so basically the endless spoilers.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I know, yeah, And I remember just being like, hmm,
Speaker 9: you know, it's not knowing again like a fact or
Speaker 9: any of these sorts of things, and thinking, okay, well
Speaker 9: there must be some some some.
Speaker 8: Some you know, some magic here that I'm not saying.
Speaker 8: But it wasn't a it wasn't really a slowdown and
Speaker 8: be critical about it.
Speaker 7: It was like, like, do your role on this sort
Speaker 7: of thing. And then the other thing I.
Speaker 8: Remember, And it's funny the things you remember when you're young,
Speaker 8: and then the impressions you have is we had we
Speaker 8: had a cheap pizza for lunch every single day, and
Speaker 8: I remember sometimes the pizza. It was like recycled from
Speaker 8: the previous.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 8: And I just remember as a kid being like, why
Speaker 8: can't they afford to give.
Speaker 10: Us good pizza? It doesn't even need to be good.
Speaker 10: Was this was this like a skeleton crew?
Speaker 2: I mean, was it? Was it down and dirty?
Speaker 1: You're running into places like gorilla filmmaking style or what?
Speaker 2: Did it seem like a legit production?
Speaker 7: It seemed That's the thing.
Speaker 8: I mean, That is the thing oft Troll two is
Speaker 8: despite how weird and strange and bad it is, there
Speaker 8: is still an underlying level of competence, right, So it's
Speaker 8: not like it's not like, uh, gorilla style like like,
Speaker 8: it felt very formal with respect to like film production, right,
Speaker 8: and there was a sizeable crew, and there was order,
Speaker 8: and there was all these sorts of things. So what
Speaker 8: it didn't It never had the feeling of oh wow,
Speaker 8: we're we're.
Speaker 7: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 8: In fact, in fact, I think I think that's also
Speaker 8: one of the reasons why none of the older cast
Speaker 8: members ever questioned it, because there was such an authority
Speaker 8: and such a confidence and such an outward like we've
Speaker 8: got this figure it out, we know exactly what we're doing, right, Yeah,
Speaker 8: And you know shot on thirty five the DP like
Speaker 8: he was like full, he was like a caricature of
Speaker 8: a DP.
Speaker 7: Like everything was so so serious. Uh.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's like there's so many bad movies where
Speaker 4: it's just like horrible framing and somebody just up against
Speaker 4: a white wall and like you're just like, well, they
Speaker 4: don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 6: But this movie it's like you know, a.
Speaker 4: Moving down a hallways shot. But then it's just the
Speaker 4: character motivation is making no sense. So like the characters
Speaker 4: just like turning to face the camera for no reason,
Speaker 4: and you're like, Okay, that SHOT's good, but why is.
Speaker 6: He doing that? Like it's that's what makes it so beautiful.
Speaker 7: It's like yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2: But I mean I guess if your goal is to
Speaker 2: make a film.
Speaker 1: That lasts, you did yes, I mean right way, it
Speaker 1: is right, I.
Speaker 6: Mean, any change vegetarianism forever. This is the message got out.
Speaker 8: It is and like it's this sort of thing that
Speaker 8: you can never you can never plan. And also is
Speaker 8: there is a weird magic to it. I mean it
Speaker 8: is a it is it is a movie that cons
Speaker 8: despite you know what it does or it doesn't do,
Speaker 8: and all the things in which it falls or it
Speaker 8: has continued to provide people with this strange level of
Speaker 8: like just joy and humor and it's so weird because
Speaker 8: it just ca I mean I I it is a
Speaker 8: sort of thing where I will continually get messages about
Speaker 8: even younger people now discovering the movie, you know, a
Speaker 8: few months ago or during the during the election campaign
Speaker 8: this last year, Paul share and how did they get
Speaker 8: how did this get made? They did a troll two
Speaker 8: screening and in like in an hour, they raised like
Speaker 8: three hundred thousand dollars for the election. Yes, so there's
Speaker 8: all sorts of positive like and it is like one
Speaker 8: of these things where we as I love movies and
Speaker 8: I love the community experience of watching a movie and
Speaker 8: to to get into a theater that's sold out and
Speaker 8: to see people enjoy this. This this weird, awful movie
Speaker 8: that was made, you know, almost thirty years ago.
Speaker 7: Now it's still one of those things where you're like,
Speaker 7: this is pretty it's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 4: So I want to ask about your transition to behind well,
Speaker 4: transition to making the documentary, I guess, but also when
Speaker 4: you stopped acting, if you officially stopped acting, like were
Speaker 4: those two things happening simultaneously, or did you take a
Speaker 4: break from acting, know that you wanted to be a
Speaker 4: director and then decide to make the doc.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I mean from the time I was a teenager, I
Speaker 8: was making my own skateboarding movies.
Speaker 7: I loved.
Speaker 8: I loved the process of making something I loved. I
Speaker 8: loved photography, I loved shooting and acting. I also loved
Speaker 8: I loved it more when I was doing theater. And
Speaker 8: I think, you know, as I got older, I mean,
Speaker 8: I had a lot of friends.
Speaker 7: I'm sure you're the same writer.
Speaker 8: I have a lot of friends that like, I look
Speaker 8: at where they're at now, and I'm like, Jesus.
Speaker 7: Like it's terrible.
Speaker 8: And I also, as I got older, you know, you
Speaker 8: get scripts and you're like, this is terrible, and so
Speaker 8: it became harder and harder to sort of like, and
Speaker 8: I officially stopped acting. I think the last thing that
Speaker 8: I did was I did an episode of A Touch
Speaker 8: by an Angel when I was twenty two or twenty three.
Speaker 7: And that was the last thing that I did.
Speaker 8: And soon after that, I always wanted to make films,
Speaker 8: and I soon after that, I met my wife and
Speaker 8: we moved to Los Angeles, which is always sort of
Speaker 8: felt like a second home. And I was writing a
Speaker 8: thing that I had no business making, but I was
Speaker 8: very much like in love with but I would never
Speaker 8: get a maid given where I was at in my
Speaker 8: career and.
Speaker 7: Had the dream of being a filmmaker.
Speaker 8: And it wasn't long after that this was the whole
Speaker 8: MySpace era that out of the blue, I started getting
Speaker 8: messages from kids all over the world, not knowing about
Speaker 8: each other, saying here's a photo of our Troll two
Speaker 8: party we had in our basement and we dressed up
Speaker 8: and we pretended to piss on food.
Speaker 7: And I just.
Speaker 8: Remember being like what in the world, and thinking about
Speaker 8: that movie and being like how. And I had a
Speaker 8: moment where I woke up and I remember just thinking.
Speaker 8: I said to my wife Lindsay, I said, I am
Speaker 8: this child star of the worst movie ever made. This
Speaker 8: is a great doc opportunity, and it felt like I
Speaker 8: could make it. It felt like I could just start making it.
Speaker 8: And a couple of months upright citizens we Gay Theater
Speaker 8: in New York, they planned the first Troll two screening,
Speaker 8: and it became like, Okay, this is the first thing
Speaker 8: I got a film for the doc naturally, and then
Speaker 8: it started on a three plus year journey of making
Speaker 8: the film.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So and you were just doing it completely on
Speaker 4: your own. You're just grabbing getting your crew together and oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're you're making skateboard films. So were you a
Speaker 1: Stacey Perlta and Bones Brigade fan? That's what I figured, Yeah,
Speaker 1: same same, I figured those just watching those videos are
Speaker 1: the coolest things in the world.
Speaker 7: Back in the day, it was the best. Yeah.
Speaker 8: And when I was making the doc, I I I
Speaker 8: remember like I made you know, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 8: I gotta figure out ways to get from city to city,
Speaker 8: and so I would I made these simple green shirts
Speaker 8: that said nail Bog on the front and gobbling on
Speaker 8: the back, and uh, every screening I would take hundreds
Speaker 8: of those and they'd sell out, and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 8: that's that's my planing tickets of the great But but
Speaker 8: you know, like I make it sound all and you
Speaker 8: guys know how this is. But like throughout that whole
Speaker 8: journey of making that doc, you have moments.
Speaker 7: Where you're like, am I going to do this? Where
Speaker 7: am I going to go next? All this and and really,
Speaker 7: to the credit, my partner, my wife. I remember many times.
Speaker 8: Because we were having our first child soon right around
Speaker 8: that time, walking run in and being like, I can't
Speaker 8: keep working on this dock, and and and Lindsey being like, no, no,
Speaker 8: you've got to.
Speaker 7: You gotta finish it, you gotta finish it. And so
Speaker 7: we just took it one.
Speaker 8: We just just did what I could and just stayed
Speaker 8: consistent on it until it was until it was over.
Speaker 5: Well, similarly to Podmead's World, you really allowed this project
Speaker 5: to help you process a childhood experience.
Speaker 3: Was it a bigger.
Speaker 5: Undertaking emotionally than you expected?
Speaker 7: Yeah, uh for sure.
Speaker 8: And both like you know, I mean meeting meeting the
Speaker 8: store owner and interviewing him and hearing him tell me
Speaker 8: that he wanted to he wanted to kill me, my gosh.
Speaker 7: And then also like.
Speaker 8: Coming into contact you know, the woman who played my
Speaker 8: mother in the film. She's she is, you know, mentally
Speaker 8: ill now and really suffers, and so I hadn't seen
Speaker 8: her in years and years and years, and so trying
Speaker 8: to process that, and aside from that, also just the
Speaker 8: feeling of of of trying to get something, just trying
Speaker 8: to get my first doc made you know, anytime you
Speaker 8: make something, it's I think for me at least, it's
Speaker 8: always a more emotional thing that you imagine. I think
Speaker 8: sometimes that naivete in the beginning is what helps you
Speaker 8: because you're like, Okay, I'm just going to do this
Speaker 8: and and you know, so.
Speaker 4: I'm curious about that because, like you know, when I
Speaker 4: watch a doc like that, I'm always like I could never.
Speaker 4: I don't think I could do that. Like I don't
Speaker 4: think I could sit in a room and draw these
Speaker 4: people out, you know, and you do it so well.
Speaker 4: You do an American scream too, Like you have a
Speaker 4: way of like sitting with a character, and like were
Speaker 4: you always that way or is that something that you
Speaker 4: discovered that you had to do because you're sitting across
Speaker 4: from like the woman who played your mom, and you're
Speaker 4: just like I have to just sort of let this
Speaker 4: happen and not make this person feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 8: I mean, I don't think it's something that necessarily I.
Speaker 7: Discovered.
Speaker 8: Like I've I've always been really interested in just people
Speaker 8: and curious about individuals and trying to understand them.
Speaker 7: I think the more you do it, the more that.
Speaker 8: Has only taken hold and I think it's a documentary filmmaker.
Speaker 8: I'll actually never I'll never forget because I had actually
Speaker 8: best first movie was invited to the screen at Al
Speaker 8: Masle's little theater in Brooklyn, and I'm a massive fan
Speaker 8: of Grey Gardens and.
Speaker 7: Al actually he had me and my producer.
Speaker 8: We stayed with him in Brooklyn and so we still
Speaker 8: had the recam and just hung out with him. And
Speaker 8: it was one of these moments with like, God, this
Speaker 8: is the guy like an.
Speaker 7: Idle of mind. But he had said, he had told
Speaker 7: me something.
Speaker 8: He said, you know, when you make docs, it's almost
Speaker 8: as though you have a thousand teachers. And it's true
Speaker 8: in that respect, and that like you don't there's a
Speaker 8: very almost sacred relationship you have with a subject and
Speaker 8: you get very close to them, if at least for me,
Speaker 8: to where the level you understand each other, like there's
Speaker 8: really no other relationship you can compare it to outside
Speaker 8: of somebody you know, a partner or somebody.
Speaker 7: You really love.
Speaker 8: And so you get a look into someone's life and
Speaker 8: who they are, worts and all, and there's a real vulnerability,
Speaker 8: there's a real sort of like trust, all these sorts
Speaker 8: of things. But I always feel like for me, it's
Speaker 8: I'm being taught right, Like I always feel like I'm
Speaker 8: getting the better of it. Like I will see an
Speaker 8: American Scream, any of these characters that I'm still close
Speaker 8: with them, and I always feel like there's something that
Speaker 8: I take that's very positive and I'm like, wow, I
Speaker 8: want to be more like that, and I've learned that
Speaker 8: from this person.
Speaker 7: And so.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And I think the more and more you do it,
Speaker 8: the more you're like wow, you just get such an
Speaker 8: interesting look into perspective and the lives that others live
Speaker 8: when you're a documentary filmmaker and you have a relationship
Speaker 8: where you can really share and you know, and grow close.
Speaker 5: In case any of our listeners don't know, I do
Speaker 5: want to let people know your next documentary at was
Speaker 5: The American Scream, a movie about three families who turn
Speaker 5: their houses into extravagant Halloween attractions in Massachusetts. What do
Speaker 5: you think drew you to scares.
Speaker 7: Chuck?
Speaker 8: Yeah, that was an interesting like I you know, I
Speaker 8: like horror films, but I that specific American Scream. There
Speaker 8: was there was a network part of NBC Universal called
Speaker 8: Chiller that was all horror programming and after Best Ferst
Speaker 8: movie came out. They came and they said, do you
Speaker 8: want to do something around Halloween? And they were like,
Speaker 8: we want to do something on Halloween haunted houses. And
Speaker 8: it was basically that brought and in their minds they
Speaker 8: were like top ten, you know, something you would see
Speaker 8: on TV. Top ten haunted houses sort of thing. And
Speaker 8: I have a very, very fond memory of a woman
Speaker 8: in my neighborhood who was considered the weird woman growing
Speaker 8: up that every Halloween, her whole she would transform her
Speaker 8: whole house into the den of terror, and the whole
Speaker 8: neighborhood would would send on this woman's house for that
Speaker 8: one night, and I remember being magical, and then.
Speaker 7: The rest of the year nobody ever talked to her.
Speaker 8: And so when they came to me with that, I
Speaker 8: sort of secretly was like, I don't want to make
Speaker 8: a commercial hunted house film. I want to make I
Speaker 8: want to I want to find these families. And fortunately
Speaker 8: for me, I got so far into making it that
Speaker 8: by the time they really looked at it closely when
Speaker 8: I was making it was too far.
Speaker 3: Yea, the sunk cost fallacy to your adenty that is great.
Speaker 5: Well, Also, I want to talk about your first scripted film,
Speaker 5: Girlfriend's Day, which is written by and stars Bob Odenkirk
Speaker 5: and Amber Tamblin, Natasha Leone and my new friend Andy Richter.
Speaker 3: Yes, you know.
Speaker 5: Andy Richter makes the best banana bread I've ever had
Speaker 5: in my entire life.
Speaker 7: I have no idea.
Speaker 5: It is delicious. The other day, I get to work
Speaker 5: and I see Andy.
Speaker 3: I go, Andy, how you doing? And he goes okay.
Speaker 3: I go, what's wrong?
Speaker 5: Andy goes, well, I thought my rehearsal was at nine,
Speaker 5: but it was at one. And I said, oh my gosh,
Speaker 5: it's you know, one o'clock. I'm just arriving there. I go,
Speaker 5: have you been here all morning? He goes no, I
Speaker 5: made banana bread. I said, you made banana bread in
Speaker 5: this little kitchen. He goes, no, I went home and
Speaker 5: I made banana bread. It's in this little kitchen, though,
Speaker 5: if you want to try it. I was like, hell, yeah,
Speaker 5: I want to try it.
Speaker 3: Go away, I take it. Bade him like, they are
Speaker 3: the best banana bread I've ever read.
Speaker 7: Thank you.
Speaker 3: I really tried a lot of recipes. It was the
Speaker 3: greatest thing ever.
Speaker 7: That's amazing.
Speaker 5: So congratulations on this movie. Did you ever think when
Speaker 5: you were running around the oak Woods. Is this the
Speaker 5: career in life you envisioned for yourself. Did you ever
Speaker 5: picture being this kind of documentary slash movie director.
Speaker 8: I mean I always imagine like a film and just
Speaker 8: has always felt like it was just going to be
Speaker 8: a thing that I did.
Speaker 7: I didn't know what shape or form. And I still
Speaker 7: don't like stories come new thing.
Speaker 8: You just don't don't really see everything that's coming.
Speaker 7: And I think that when.
Speaker 8: You do feel like you have a story, part of
Speaker 8: it is just trying to listen to what that wants
Speaker 8: to be and as opposed to maybe what you wanted
Speaker 8: wanted to be. So and and girlfriends say, also just
Speaker 8: a weird, I mean wild, wild thing where we had.
Speaker 7: We had finished making The Americans.
Speaker 8: Well, we were editing The American Scream in my garage
Speaker 8: and Lindsay my wife, and I my produce, my producing partner,
Speaker 8: and I we were I was doing the dumb thing
Speaker 8: on on a whiteboard where I was writing down the
Speaker 8: names of my favorite comedians that I felt like had
Speaker 8: really strong dramatic sensibilities but hadn't been seen dramatically as
Speaker 8: much as they had in the.
Speaker 7: World of comedy. And we were huge fans of mister Show.
Speaker 2: Yeah such a good show.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so fun.
Speaker 8: And this was like season two of Maybe Breaking Bad.
Speaker 7: So so Bob was just in the background of it.
Speaker 7: We were really excited. We're like, oh, it's Bob and
Speaker 7: I and I wrote I was.
Speaker 8: I did the thing where I was like, right, dream
Speaker 8: actors he would want to work with, and I wrote
Speaker 8: his name down on this on this whiteboard in my office.
Speaker 8: And it wasn't four or five weeks after that that
Speaker 8: there was an interview that I think the Onion or
Speaker 8: the av Club did with him and they were asking
Speaker 8: him about his favorite films and he named best worst movie.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 7: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 8: And so then we connected and we were coming up
Speaker 8: on the premiere of American Scream and completely just I
Speaker 8: was like, hey, it turns out Bob's Bob's son was
Speaker 8: also going through a difficult time in his period of
Speaker 8: his life and he was a huge troll tooth fan
Speaker 8: and loved the movie.
Speaker 7: And YadA, YadA, YadA. So we make we make the
Speaker 7: American Scream. We premiere it. I invited Bob and his family,
Speaker 7: thinking there's no way he's.
Speaker 8: Going to come, and he came and he was like
Speaker 8: an hour early and he's like, I got this really
Speaker 8: weird comedy.
Speaker 7: It's never going to.
Speaker 8: Get made, but I'd love for you to make it
Speaker 8: with me, or let's talk about it.
Speaker 7: And then that started that process.
Speaker 2: So cool.
Speaker 6: Yeah, wild Wild.
Speaker 5: How do you think your experience as a child actor
Speaker 5: helps you behind the camera.
Speaker 7: Oh, that's a good question.
Speaker 8: I think I think really having an understanding and a
Speaker 8: respect and a love and appreciation for how hard it
Speaker 8: is in front of a camera and understanding just the
Speaker 8: language of acting, right, Like I am reminded sometimes when
Speaker 8: I've worked on other projects that a lot of people
Speaker 8: don't understand what it is like to actually be an actor.
Speaker 8: And it's hard for me to not understand that because
Speaker 8: it's been part of me forever, and so it is
Speaker 8: a thing now where I'm like, Wow, it's a real
Speaker 8: gift in.
Speaker 7: That I get it and I understand it.
Speaker 8: I understand how hard it is, I know how to
Speaker 8: you know, I've had that, I've had that experience, and
Speaker 8: I know what it is to do it very badly portally.
Speaker 8: So yeah, I think it's I think I think it's
Speaker 8: you know, you hear sometimes I mean this is more anecdotally,
Speaker 8: but you hear that sort of relations like directors and
Speaker 8: actors and directors not understanding actors and they're sometimes being attentioned.
Speaker 8: I've never really experienced that personally because I have nothing,
Speaker 8: but like acting was my first point into all of it.
Speaker 7: So, you know, it.
Speaker 8: Doesn't feel foreign to me or counter it feels it
Speaker 8: feels like the enabler of all.
Speaker 7: Really.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you mentioned that you have kids. How many kids
Speaker 3: do you have?
Speaker 8: I have three daughters. Wow, yeah, so yeah, my oldest
Speaker 8: actually turns eighteen in a few weeks, which is she's
Speaker 8: I know, I know, it's crazy. She learned to drive
Speaker 8: this lab well summer and a half ago. And it's
Speaker 8: a weird moment to be sitting and I know, you, Daniel,
Speaker 8: you have you you have children.
Speaker 5: As well, right, writer writer has a son and I
Speaker 5: have two.
Speaker 8: Yeah, okay, so you you yeah, you know, and it
Speaker 8: is they you know. So I have an almost eighteen
Speaker 8: year old, fifteen year old and then a nine year
Speaker 8: old nine year old.
Speaker 7: I'm taking the movie night tonight. It's it's it's.
Speaker 8: Amazing to be sitting shotgun as your daughter is driving
Speaker 8: you throughout LA and it's controlling the radio and like
Speaker 8: putting on Stevie Nicks or something.
Speaker 7: You know. Okay, life is okay, it's pretty good, pretty good.
Speaker 5: Do any of your children have they ever expressed any
Speaker 5: interest in acting or being in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 8: So, so here's the thing that's and this is a
Speaker 8: thing where I have, I have, I have I have
Speaker 8: to talk to my therapist more about this and get
Speaker 8: over this thing. Because my my old oldest and my
Speaker 8: youngest really every all of all three.
Speaker 7: Of my kids were really we're really in the theater,
Speaker 7: like we love theater and.
Speaker 8: I'll never forget actually the first time that my old
Speaker 8: so my youngest have never seen Troll two or Best
Speaker 8: Versus Movie.
Speaker 7: My middle child, my middle and.
Speaker 8: My oldest have and they've actually the first screen they
Speaker 8: went to a screening.
Speaker 7: Right, I didn't even tell them what it was about.
Speaker 6: They don't.
Speaker 8: You don't really talk about a lot of this sort
Speaker 8: of stuff at home. You're you're busy, you know, uh,
Speaker 8: with life. And my oldest and my middle they went
Speaker 8: to a screening of Troll two in Montreal for the
Speaker 8: first time.
Speaker 7: They had no idea what they were in for Troll
Speaker 7: two and Bestpersus.
Speaker 8: Movie, and their minds were blown afterwards and outside of that,
Speaker 8: I've never been somebody. And we watched movies, we watched
Speaker 8: docs like I took them to see American Movie at
Speaker 8: the New Beverly over Thanksgiving this, you know, so it's
Speaker 8: been part of their thing, but they they are naturally
Speaker 8: Like my oldest is, she's she just you know, she
Speaker 8: has a film that's that's playing as part of the
Speaker 8: High School Film Festival.
Speaker 7: In New York next month, that got selected. I didn't.
Speaker 7: I didn't. I didn't. I didn't like encourage her.
Speaker 3: She's acting, directing it. What did she do?
Speaker 7: Directed? Acted and put our youngest in it?
Speaker 8: And she didn't. She didn't tell me. I like, I
Speaker 8: kid you not. We didn't talk about it. She she
Speaker 8: just said, I'm working on this thing. And then we
Speaker 8: went and we saw it, and she is very much
Speaker 8: drawn to it, more than my other two. I mean,
Speaker 8: my youngest is she just got so weird. She just
Speaker 8: got the lead role of Annie at a local production
Speaker 8: and and that was the you know, I remember when
Speaker 8: before she was going into audition, She's like, Dad, like,
Speaker 8: do you think I could really get this role?
Speaker 7: And I was like, and I asked her.
Speaker 8: I said, do you think you can get this role.
Speaker 8: And she's like, yeah, I do. And I was like, well,
Speaker 8: why do you think that? And she's like, well I practiced.
Speaker 8: I said, okay, well.
Speaker 7: Done your best, and she got she got the role.
Speaker 8: But it is the thing, and I was talking about
Speaker 8: this with Lindsay It's like, I don't it's hard when
Speaker 8: you see inside the kitchen of this business, right, and
Speaker 8: so there is this thing where it's like I want
Speaker 8: to encourage art and creativity and making things, but I'm
Speaker 8: also a little more cynical now, like truly on a
Speaker 8: number of levels.
Speaker 7: And so it's this sort of tension of.
Speaker 8: Like, yeah, I like like chase your dreams, but also like.
Speaker 2: Oh, like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally get that.
Speaker 7: M h yeah, I'm sure I was dancing with the stars.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. The most fun, the most fun.
Speaker 4: The most fun for her, it's my worst nightmare. We're
Speaker 4: having a blast with it, watching from a far exactly.
Speaker 5: It's really been great and Andy getting to know Andy
Speaker 5: has been getting to know everybody honestly has been really
Speaker 5: really great, and we're all super bonded, and you know,
Speaker 5: it's it's hard.
Speaker 3: It's hard. Yeah, it's so much work.
Speaker 7: I can only imagine.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, my my family. I was out of town
Speaker 8: this last week, but my family had told me they
Speaker 8: had watched they'd started watching the season and my you know,
Speaker 8: Boydant's World and Girl Meets a World. I mean, you
Speaker 8: guys probably get this, but like my teas like watched
Speaker 8: and loved that show like it's it. They were so
Speaker 8: when I was like, oh, you know, do you guys
Speaker 8: know about this, and they're like, of course we know,
Speaker 8: and they you know, they they really like so your show.
Speaker 8: Both shows are still continuing to connect with young people,
Speaker 8: which is pretty awesome.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yesterday I had the weirdest experience. So Alex Earl,
Speaker 5: who's like, you know, a massive social media star, she influencer,
Speaker 5: She's very big on TikTok, and she is very young,
Speaker 5: but like in her twenties young, not you know, teenager young.
Speaker 5: And for TikTok week, she had these two very young
Speaker 5: teenagers in the studio with her teaching her choreography that's
Speaker 5: going to be a part of her dance because they
Speaker 5: they were the originators of this choreography on TikTok, and
Speaker 5: so she brought them in and so I'm talking to Alex,
Speaker 5: I'm like, Alex, I want to do a TikTok with you.
Speaker 5: I'm explaining to her what the TikTok is, and the
Speaker 5: two girls are standing there and I said, Hi, I'm
Speaker 5: Danielle by the way, and I'm thinking, alex Earl has
Speaker 5: no idea who I am.
Speaker 3: Like, alex Earl has never heard of Boy Meets World.
Speaker 5: She's like, I mean, I've seen it on TikTok, I've
Speaker 5: seen clips of it, but like she's never seen the show.
Speaker 5: She doesn't know who I am. She's not a fan.
Speaker 5: I mean she's a fan, like, you know, she likes me,
Speaker 5: but she's not like she had no idea. And I
Speaker 5: turned to the teenagers and both of them are just
Speaker 5: wide eyed. They're like, we are such big fans. I
Speaker 5: was like, really, like what Girl Meets World was my
Speaker 5: favorite show?
Speaker 3: And I'm like, sure enough, you know.
Speaker 5: I mean for a seventeen year old kid who was
Speaker 5: probably seven when we were doing Girl Meets World on
Speaker 5: the Disney Channel that was our demo, Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: To bring the conversation full circle, I mean, that's like,
Speaker 4: I think that's why your doctor spoke to me, is like,
Speaker 4: you don't have control over how these things live, where
Speaker 4: your art ends up especially as an actor, but I
Speaker 4: would say even as a director, as you know, it's
Speaker 4: like you do your best, you put it out there
Speaker 4: and you know it fails, and then ten years later
Speaker 4: it's everybody's talking about it or something that is the
Speaker 4: biggest movie ever and everybody's talking about it, and then
Speaker 4: you know, ten years later, does anybody really remember it?
Speaker 6: Like that happens all the time.
Speaker 3: That doesn't hold up anymore.
Speaker 6: It's true, it doesn't something.
Speaker 4: You know, it's like the reality of like we were,
Speaker 4: we it's just getting older, right, It's like realizing the
Speaker 4: trends and realizing that you can't always predict and you know,
Speaker 4: you have to engage with those trends. You have to
Speaker 4: look at it as a conversation you're having. There's no
Speaker 4: right or wrong answer, you know, there's no like.
Speaker 1: That's the thing that's so beautiful about it is things
Speaker 1: like the room control to these are things that are
Speaker 1: going to last forever and.
Speaker 7: Ever and ever.
Speaker 1: And if that's your goal as an artist is to
Speaker 1: make something.
Speaker 2: That lasts, you've done it. I mean, it's amazing.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So is it one of the great lessons of life
Speaker 5: that we just don't have control over anything?
Speaker 3: So the sooner we get comfortable you I know.
Speaker 5: I mean, listen, if you sign on to do Dancing
Speaker 5: with the Stars with the goal of making it to
Speaker 5: the finals and then snap your hamstring tendon in week two,
Speaker 5: let me tell you what you get used to so
Speaker 5: you know you just like you just have to go
Speaker 5: with it. So thank you so much for being here
Speaker 5: with us. I'm so happy we were able to unite
Speaker 5: you and reunite you and Writer. I have a feeling
Speaker 5: you guys are going to have a friendship reaching out.
Speaker 7: We're going to hang.
Speaker 5: Because we got I can tell you guys speak the
Speaker 5: same language.
Speaker 3: You guys are going to be best buds.
Speaker 2: I'm excited for your podcast.
Speaker 5: Yes, So thank you so much for spending your time
Speaker 5: with us. Really means a lot to us. And the
Speaker 5: best of luck on Girlfriends Day and everything else you have.
Speaker 5: We will be watching everything you do in the future.
Speaker 8: Hey, I really appreciate it and it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 8: And all the best to the three of you as well.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Make sure your family sets a timer to vote for
Speaker 5: me every Tuesday at five pm. Text Danielle the two
Speaker 5: one five two three man.
Speaker 3: He's great, Yeah, great, Writer, He's writer's.
Speaker 4: Funny, Like, you know, it's funny that you know, you
Speaker 4: become friends for a reason, probably at the age of
Speaker 4: ten or eleven, and it's probably a.
Speaker 6: Good reason to stay.
Speaker 3: Totally.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we just for whatever reason, our lives went in
Speaker 4: separate ways. But I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm totally like,
Speaker 4: I honestly don't remember him, but I know that if
Speaker 4: I met him, we were probably spending days together, run around.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, you were probably loving conversation with him.
Speaker 3: Then, yeah, well conversation.
Speaker 2: I want to see that oak Woods doc.
Speaker 6: Yeah show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know that there's been a couple actually I've
Speaker 4: heard about a couple different like profiles of Oakwood.
Speaker 5: But yeah, Jensen said, it's really dark, but it's great.
Speaker 5: Thank you all for listening to this episode of Pod
Speaker 5: Meets World. As always, you can follow us on Instagram
Speaker 5: pod Meets World Show. You can send us your emails
Speaker 5: podmeets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 3: And we've got march in a.
Speaker 2: World where trolls are goblins and vegetarians too. Apparently for
Speaker 2: some reason we don't know troll to march.
Speaker 5: Pod meets Worldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 2: We love you all.
Speaker 1: Pod dismissed Podmeats World is nheart podcast producer and hosted
Speaker 1: by Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen
Speaker 1: Parp and Amy show German executive in charge of production,
Speaker 1: Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara sudbachsch producer, Maddy Moore,
Speaker 1: engineer and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen. Our
Speaker 1: theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you
Speaker 1: can follow us on Instagram at Podmeets World Show or
Speaker 1: email us at Podmets Worldshow at gmail dot com