Speaker 1: So welcome to our park Hopper episode this week where
Speaker 1: we are super excited yeah for today's guest. First of all,
Speaker 1: you might notice that I'm coming from an undisclosed location.
Speaker 1: If these clips go up on the Instagram machine, I
Speaker 1: am as all the Pod Mets World listeners will be
Speaker 1: able to notice. I am in Danielle Fischele's little podcast
Speaker 1: area from pod Meets World. Be free by daniel Fishle
Speaker 1: on this side because the power in my house is out,
Speaker 1: So they graciously invited me to do our park Copper
Speaker 1: episode from here, and I couldn't miss this one for
Speaker 1: a very very specific reason. Sabrina, who's joining us today.
Speaker 2: We are so.
Speaker 3: Lucky to have the one, the only mister Brandon Baker
Speaker 3: is joining us here and we get to talk all
Speaker 3: things Johnny Sunami.
Speaker 1: I can't wait. This is gonna be so much fun.
Speaker 1: We both love this movie and we're so excited to
Speaker 1: actually get a chance to get some of the insights
Speaker 1: of what happened on the film with the man himself.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say with Johnny Sunami himself, but we
Speaker 1: find out that's that's not him.
Speaker 3: I got a little tripped up when I want to
Speaker 3: go introduce him because he is not Johnny Sunami. It's
Speaker 3: not something that I just think is still so crazy
Speaker 3: because obviously there was a big storyline with the Grandpa. Yeah, however,
Speaker 3: it's still strange to me that Brandon's character is not Johnny,
Speaker 3: right right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we gotta we gotta figure that out. Yes, Johnny
Speaker 1: Sunami Junior.
Speaker 2: What if there was a title before?
Speaker 1: Who knows?
Speaker 2: Like they landed on Johnny Ssunami? Who knows? All coming up?
Speaker 1: It's one of those things where you know you've have
Speaker 1: you ever had this thing where you've never heard of something,
Speaker 1: and then once you've heard of it, now you see
Speaker 1: it everywhere? Right, I have that now with Johnny Tsunami
Speaker 1: back on the board. Has I never heard of the
Speaker 1: sequel or didn't know this sequel existed? And now I'm
Speaker 1: seeing stuff about it?
Speaker 2: Is it popping up on your Disney Plus.
Speaker 1: And Disney Plus and people have been emailed me about it,
Speaker 1: and I just keep going like, okay, just don't tell me,
Speaker 1: don't tell me yet. I want to know.
Speaker 3: I was a giant fan of this movie when it
Speaker 3: came out, and I still had no idea and you
Speaker 3: had no idea. What is that about? What is that about, Disney?
Speaker 3: Why were you not targeting.
Speaker 2: Me and making sure that I knew there was more
Speaker 2: of the good.
Speaker 1: Yes, the title should have been Johnny Sinami back on
Speaker 1: the board, Sabrina. That should have been idiot. The movie
Speaker 1: was called but he is here. We can't wait to
Speaker 1: talk about what it was like to shoot Johnny Syinnami,
Speaker 1: if he is in touch with anybody from the show still,
Speaker 1: and of course what he's doing now. So can we
Speaker 1: please all welcome Brandon Baker? Hey, welcome, guys, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us. Where are you joining us from?
Speaker 4: I'm curious Denver, Colorado?
Speaker 2: Nice?
Speaker 1: Nice?
Speaker 4: Hey, Yes, I remember you, Jesus.
Speaker 3: Brandon and I know each other from way back in
Speaker 3: the day. Wait will I messaged him on Instagram and was, hey,
Speaker 3: we uh did a pilot. It was before Cheetah Girls, after.
Speaker 2: Johnny Tsunami, though you had already done Johnny right. I
Speaker 2: think I was.
Speaker 5: Trying to piece that together. I was talking about fiance yesterday.
Speaker 5: I was like, I know who Sabrina Brian. I was like,
Speaker 5: look at this message, and she sent me wondering if
Speaker 5: I knew.
Speaker 4: Who she was Like, I was like, I had a
Speaker 4: crush on this girl when I was like thirteen. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: I was like, come on, I know you're married and
Speaker 4: you have a couple of kids. I did, but yeah,
Speaker 4: of course kids like a classic actor. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3: And the premise will I don't know if you remember.
Speaker 3: Sometime in the early two thousands or late nineteen nineties,
Speaker 3: I can't remember, but TRL was like giant and the
Speaker 3: Disney Chance wanted to kind of do a Disney version
Speaker 3: of TRL, and they were talking to us to be
Speaker 3: like the host for it, and so we were super excited.
Speaker 3: I you know, obviously loved music. And then we get
Speaker 3: there after they were kind of still piecing the show
Speaker 3: together and we did.
Speaker 2: We didn't do an official pilot.
Speaker 3: But we did a little bit at the Disney Channel
Speaker 3: building and then nothing, nothing came from it.
Speaker 2: We were super stoked about it.
Speaker 3: They kind of talked to us like it was a
Speaker 3: like go ahead thing, and then I like, never, no, yeah,
Speaker 3: but that was gonna be such. We were excited about
Speaker 3: the show. It's gonna be fun. And I don't remember,
Speaker 3: I can't remember if Johnny Tsunami came before that or not.
Speaker 3: I know, I feel like it had I feel like
Speaker 3: you were you know already.
Speaker 1: Well, didn't we say that, Johnny some I think when
Speaker 1: we recapp Johnny Tsunami, didn't we say that? It was
Speaker 1: like nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think ioot that in two. So it
Speaker 3: was either right in the middle of that or.
Speaker 2: Before. It would have to be.
Speaker 4: It'd have to do when we're all one to the
Speaker 4: same casting directors all the time.
Speaker 1: I'm sure. Well, Sabrina, when we originally started, even just
Speaker 1: the idea of this podcast, she was like, Giant Ssnami.
Speaker 1: We gotta do Giant Giant Snammy's my favorite movie. We
Speaker 1: gotta do Gianni Snami. So I have to imagine that
Speaker 1: doing the pilot with you was probably one of the
Speaker 1: highlights for Sabrina. It was because she was such a
Speaker 1: fan of your movie.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: I was telling him it was during my It was
Speaker 3: perfect because it was during my surf era. I have
Speaker 3: a picture of my freshman year high school photo book.
Speaker 3: Literally I'm wearing puka shells like I was a I
Speaker 3: love surfing.
Speaker 2: It was like the thing for me, but I also
Speaker 2: loved snowboarding.
Speaker 3: So it was a perfect movie for me to absolutely
Speaker 3: just fall in love with because it was two incredible sports.
Speaker 3: The storyline was awesome, you were adorable. I mean, it
Speaker 3: was just it was there was nothing else to not
Speaker 3: like about Johnny Sunami.
Speaker 2: I love well.
Speaker 1: Speaking of that, I mean, do you have you been
Speaker 1: aware of I mean, there's been this massive resurgence of
Speaker 1: dcms lately, and one of them that's become hugely popular.
Speaker 1: I mean, in the conversation, it's always Johnnysunami, It's Brink.
Speaker 1: It's all of these kind of nineties from Smart House,
Speaker 1: like all these nineties movies that have really come back
Speaker 1: into the zeitgeist. I mean, is this something that you
Speaker 1: are aware of totally?
Speaker 4: It's it's crazy. First of all, thank you guys for
Speaker 4: having me on. Obviously, Sabrina, good to see you. Will.
Speaker 5: I'm fanboying because I grew up always wanting an older
Speaker 5: brother and so stoked, Like ten year old me is
Speaker 5: so stoked myself.
Speaker 1: Hearing so thank that is so cool. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Was Will your older brother in your mind?
Speaker 4: It's like the older brother that like I wish that
Speaker 4: I had. I I'm the eldest, so okay, I think
Speaker 4: I kind of patterned to myself after you or at
Speaker 4: least honestly after Eric, let's be real where I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: if I'm an older brother, actually be like, you know,
Speaker 4: kind of kind of a a said sometimes I'm sorry. Yeah.
Speaker 5: The resurgence of the Disney Channel movies is crazy, man.
Speaker 5: It's it's been something that I've been trying to piece together.
Speaker 5: I think during the pandemic, right when Disney Service came
Speaker 5: out that was huge where obviously we're all watching movies
Speaker 5: at home. Now I'm getting people like dming me saying like, hey,
Speaker 5: oh my god, we're watching movie.
Speaker 4: This is awesome.
Speaker 1: Hey.
Speaker 4: Also now I'm showing it to my son, to my daughter.
Speaker 5: And that's when you're like, this is crazy because, just
Speaker 5: like you're talking about Sabrina, we were just a couple
Speaker 5: of thirteen year old kids from Orange County.
Speaker 4: I was just trying to land a gig, right, I
Speaker 4: was just like trying to get chosen for the team
Speaker 4: that happened to be Johnny's Tsunami, without any clue that
Speaker 4: thirty years from now this would be a thing that
Speaker 4: we're still talking about. So pretty incredible, Like, like, what
Speaker 4: an incredible blessing that I never asked for.
Speaker 5: I mean, people, I just recently talked to a kid
Speaker 5: who's kid, a guy in his like mid twenties Filipino.
Speaker 5: Dude was like, hey, man, I don't think I would
Speaker 5: have gotten into acting had it not been for you.
Speaker 5: Like you're the first person that I saw on screen
Speaker 5: that kind of looked like me. That gave me the
Speaker 5: thought that, like, oh, shoot, I can do this too.
Speaker 5: So little things that where it's like, wow, I have nothing,
Speaker 5: I actually have nothing to do that right, I was
Speaker 5: born looking this way. I got casted because I was
Speaker 5: brown and had long hair or whatever. The fact that
Speaker 5: I'm part of someone else's story in that way is
Speaker 5: so cool. It's like the coolest thing, isn't that?
Speaker 3: Such a bonus of being part of the Disney Channel
Speaker 3: in general is that they create these storylines, Yeah, and
Speaker 3: opportunities for young talent, and there's just such a huge
Speaker 3: push from them to open the boundaries and have you know,
Speaker 3: like you said, you look like me or or your
Speaker 3: character really resonated with what I was going through. You know,
Speaker 3: that's such a huge bonus for actors to get to
Speaker 3: do roles that end up matt like having a meaning,
Speaker 3: they matter, They're not just you know, fun, and that's it.
Speaker 3: They actually really touch people and young the youth, you know,
Speaker 3: the next generation.
Speaker 2: That's unreal. I love that. I love that. That's so cool.
Speaker 4: I think also they've played our shows or our movies.
Speaker 2: Over and over, and yes, a little bit of brainwashing
Speaker 2: does go into it.
Speaker 3: It is a little bit a little like you will
Speaker 3: like this movie Johnny is the best movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think also like we're part of like the
Speaker 4: last or one of the last generations of like monoculture.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, So much is fractured now into these different little
Speaker 4: niche groups of whatever you're into. And back then it
Speaker 4: was like, well we all kind of had just you know,
Speaker 4: twenty cable channels, Disney Channel. If you were in that
Speaker 4: age group, that's what that's what you went to, or
Speaker 4: TRL or Nickelodeon or or whatever.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I also have to add just one thing
Speaker 1: to what you said. Yes, they cast you because you
Speaker 1: were brown and you had long hair, but they also
Speaker 1: cast you because you were really, really good. You stole
Speaker 1: that movie all the way around. And can you take
Speaker 1: us back to the beginning. Do you remember the first
Speaker 1: time you heard about Johnny Tsunami or the audition process.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so at that point, I had a
Speaker 4: little bit of a relationship with like the Disney Channel
Speaker 4: casting I think I think I was either on Even
Speaker 4: Stevens around that time or maybe afterwards, but I kind
Speaker 4: of know those people. My big break was a few.
Speaker 5: Years earlier, as as Mowgli in the Jungle Book, so
Speaker 5: I kind of knew some of the Disney people from there,
Speaker 5: like went off to do like a few of the
Speaker 5: TV shows.
Speaker 4: But that was the first role where I was able
Speaker 4: to have a mom and a dad.
Speaker 5: Because back then I was like ambiguously brown, right, like, Okay,
Speaker 5: you in a roomful of Asian dudes, you look Hispanic,
Speaker 5: and roomful of Hispanic dudes, you look Asian, and like,
Speaker 5: you know, what are you same?
Speaker 2: I was not white, but not Hispanic. It was exactly
Speaker 2: as Asa.
Speaker 4: So usually I was like the love interest for the
Speaker 4: best friend. I never had a last name, and it
Speaker 4: was like, oh, I have a mom and a dad.
Speaker 4: This is really cool. I like, you used to bring
Speaker 4: up from southern California. I love to surf and skate
Speaker 4: and snowboard. So it was like, I mean, you know
Speaker 4: when you because have had these roles where it comes
Speaker 4: through and you're like, oh, I totally know this person is.
Speaker 4: If I don't get this or if I don't get
Speaker 4: too very close to getting this, then I've screwed it up.
Speaker 4: I like, yeah, whatever. So that was one of the
Speaker 4: few ones where like I felt really confident in it.
Speaker 4: Not that I knew that it was in the bag,
Speaker 4: but I knew everybody in there. There's like a lot
Speaker 4: of you know, there's like maybe six or seven rounds
Speaker 4: of auditions, but it was one of those where I
Speaker 4: was like, ah, this is kind of made for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, did they have you submit any videos of you
Speaker 3: surfing or snowboarding?
Speaker 2: Did you have to prove that at all?
Speaker 3: That's kind of tough in LA to eat snowboard or sir?
Speaker 3: So how did they do that section?
Speaker 4: Only enough?
Speaker 5: I don't think I ever had to submit anything. I
Speaker 5: did audition with a cast that I broke jumping off
Speaker 5: a jump snowboarding.
Speaker 1: Okay, well right, and the director I was like an.
Speaker 4: Ex stunt guy who did right, He's like, what happened?
Speaker 4: I was like, I broke it on the jump snowboarding,
Speaker 4: and he's like, oh, that'll be done in like a month,
Speaker 4: He'll be fine. And so he had all the confidence
Speaker 4: in me. Maybe I brought him to skateboard and he
Speaker 4: had me like skate around the room a little bit.
Speaker 4: But yeah, luckily I was able to believe me.
Speaker 1: Yeah he was. He was one of the biggest stunt
Speaker 1: men in town at the time. I mean we were
Speaker 1: looking at his resume and I mean he was doing everything.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was amazing. Okay, So when's the last time
Speaker 1: you actually watched the movie?
Speaker 4: Great question. Probably within the last few years. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean sometimes friends or fiance my fiance will like
Speaker 4: bring it up as a joke, like we're we're going
Speaker 4: to do that.
Speaker 5: I'm like, great, you guys are going to do that.
Speaker 5: I'm going to go do something else. But every now
Speaker 5: and then I'll like indulge and like be like, okay,
Speaker 5: let's do this. And that is one of those movies
Speaker 5: of the things that I've done.
Speaker 4: And there's many things that I've done that aren't terribly
Speaker 4: rewatchable at all, but that's one of the ones where
Speaker 4: I'm like, wow, that was actually like a good movie.
Speaker 4: I do feel proud of that personally, but even outside
Speaker 4: of myself, it's like that is actually just a really
Speaker 4: well made film.
Speaker 1: Yeah, really well made film.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: I how much of the stunts did you end up
Speaker 3: getting to do? I feel compared to some others. You know,
Speaker 3: you can sort of see the surfing one a lot
Speaker 3: more than the actual snowboarding one.
Speaker 2: You could tell when there was a stunt double, But
Speaker 2: how much did you get to go out there and
Speaker 2: like rip it up and have fun? I just said
Speaker 2: rip it up.
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna say anything. I wasn't gonna even bring
Speaker 1: it up Sabrina that you decided to go with rip
Speaker 1: it up.
Speaker 4: But let me tell you about how much I ripped
Speaker 4: it up in this movie.
Speaker 1: Can you can let us know. Let's Sabrina know how
Speaker 1: much you shred. That'd be awesome.
Speaker 2: I'm never gonna live that down. I live that down,
Speaker 2: no a good amount.
Speaker 4: I mean, like, obviously I was like the star of
Speaker 4: the movie.
Speaker 5: So it was like an insurance issue, right, like oh
Speaker 5: anything right, it can like end himself, can't do it?
Speaker 5: So yes, like big fifteen foot waves you know off
Speaker 5: north shore in Oahu.
Speaker 4: Sorry, we need you to be alive for this, you know,
Speaker 4: if you need to like, yeah, I don't know, board
Speaker 4: slide this like fallen tree. You're not going to do that.
Speaker 4: But there was like we were on boards like kind
Speaker 4: of all day. Like they had actually one really fun
Speaker 4: thing like I never haven't done since, but they would drag.
Speaker 5: Us up the mountain on a stomobile, so rather than
Speaker 5: us taking the ski lifts, we'd go down and shoot
Speaker 5: the scenes and then basically almost like we'd like jet skiing.
Speaker 4: There'd be ropes that we'd hold onto.
Speaker 5: Coolan Lead Somempson, Young and Chris Kirson storms and we
Speaker 5: just like snowboard up the mountain.
Speaker 4: Which was like super Red.
Speaker 2: Whoa, that is awesome.
Speaker 1: You mentioned you did, I mean, did you do all
Speaker 1: this stuff before you did the movie? Did you surf?
Speaker 1: Did you snowboard? Did you do everything before you started
Speaker 1: the film?
Speaker 4: Yeah, totally, I definitely did.
Speaker 5: I mean I started skiing when I was like, I
Speaker 5: don't know, seven or eight, moved to snowboarding probably around ten, surfing, bodyboarding,
Speaker 5: that sort of thing.
Speaker 4: I mean, I was a kid. I wasn't like great
Speaker 4: or anything I was, but I was like competent and
Speaker 4: knew how to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's one of the best things I
Speaker 3: love about Orange County, even more than La. It's just
Speaker 3: a little bit farther, is you can be up to
Speaker 3: Big Bear in an hour and a half, and you
Speaker 3: could be at the beach in fifteen minutes. It's it's
Speaker 3: just incredible. You get exposed to different sports because they're
Speaker 3: just so close to us to reach out and pick
Speaker 3: it up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when we were recapping, Sabrina was just telling us
Speaker 1: about all the time she es to rip it up
Speaker 1: on both the snowboard and surfing. So she was pretty
Speaker 1: incredible a ripper as it.
Speaker 2: Goes, Oh, my husband's gonna just tear me apart for this.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, as well he should. So it was filmed
Speaker 1: in Utah, right, and also in.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So how long a shoot was it?
Speaker 4: I want to say, like two months something like that.
Speaker 4: Really know why in like six weeks and you taught
Speaker 4: something like that? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Awesome.
Speaker 1: Now, some of the other people we've had on from
Speaker 1: the different movies have talked about how they have to
Speaker 1: they go to like a boot camp before they start
Speaker 1: the movie where it's intensive rollerblading or something along those lines.
Speaker 1: Did Disney have you doing stuff like that as well?
Speaker 1: Do you have to practice?
Speaker 4: I really don't remember that, to be honest. I mean
Speaker 4: maybe a couple of like runs like a day or
Speaker 4: two before, but was in a boot camp. I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know why they weren't concerned about that, or
Speaker 4: I don't know why they trusted me.
Speaker 3: But look, what was the cast like, you know, you've
Speaker 3: got to shoot with Kirsten Storms, you got to shoot
Speaker 3: with Lee Thomas Young.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how was the relationship with the cast?
Speaker 3: It's so fun to have a young cast that's predominantly
Speaker 3: your age that you get to just get to know
Speaker 3: and have such great memories.
Speaker 2: What are memories like that for you?
Speaker 4: I was like such a good cast. I mean, as
Speaker 4: you guys know, sometimes you're you know, you're there's my
Speaker 4: laundry is done? Sorry, yes, oh I love that.
Speaker 1: Mine does the same thing. It's not the best. It's
Speaker 1: nice your laundry is done.
Speaker 4: The past is really good. It was one of those films,
Speaker 4: in one of those sets where we really just were
Speaker 4: locked in.
Speaker 5: And there are certain films where you are locked in
Speaker 5: and like you see the end product and you're like,
Speaker 5: oh wow, that really didn't translate. And other times where
Speaker 5: like the cast isn't locked in and it actually turns
Speaker 5: out to be like a good work of art. This
Speaker 5: one was kind of a twofer. I think to that point.
Speaker 5: I had done it again in jungle Book, which was
Speaker 5: like me on a green screen with a bunch of animals,
Speaker 5: so there was no kids around. I'd done another TV
Speaker 5: show where I had a bunch of brothers and sisters,
Speaker 5: but they were all like, you know, sixteen, got their
Speaker 5: ged so they're all like adults, and I'm like the
Speaker 5: only kid you know in in the in the schoolroom,
Speaker 5: I guess.
Speaker 2: And so for this to have.
Speaker 4: Kirschen with me, to have Lee Thompson Young was so
Speaker 4: much fun. I remember Lauren Hill.
Speaker 5: This is gonna really as if I'm not old, but
Speaker 5: Lauren Hill's album, like her debut album, came out at
Speaker 5: this at that time, and me and Thomson Young like
Speaker 5: listen to that over and over and bust the Rhymes
Speaker 5: album that came out. Then he listen, I learned every
Speaker 5: single lyric with and he would love like freestyle rap,
Speaker 5: and he would like, try to get me a freestyle rap.
Speaker 5: I cannot freestyle rap, but I have like the best
Speaker 5: memories of trying to be a person who knew how
Speaker 5: to freestyle rap.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, even like my my dad and my
Speaker 4: grandfather movie. It was just I mean, even going back
Speaker 4: to the you know, finding people who look like you.
Speaker 4: It was like, oh, he these like older veteran.
Speaker 5: Asian actors that are really dropping knowledge to me and
Speaker 5: to Lee and to Keirston, but really like finding I
Speaker 5: don't know, like father figures, like I have a dad,
Speaker 5: I love my dad, I have a great dad. But
Speaker 5: also to like have these older men in my life
Speaker 5: obviously on camera, so we're like trying to form some
Speaker 5: sort of like paternal on but even additionally just as
Speaker 5: as men. That was really really cool. Yeah, everyone was.
Speaker 4: Like super giving, super loving.
Speaker 5: Yet again it was really nice to feel like I
Speaker 5: was actually in a family rather than the next door
Speaker 5: in Abrakid, right, So yeah, so I don't know, it
Speaker 5: was like it was one of those times where we
Speaker 5: knew that something special was happening and that actually like
Speaker 5: truly came to be.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We were talking about how both the father and the grandfather,
Speaker 3: they're mainly known for villain characters with the rest of
Speaker 3: their work, and it was so awesome to see them
Speaker 3: both having such great relationships, you know, your grandfather relationship
Speaker 3: with you and then them themselves working out their relationship
Speaker 3: and it was all happy and you know, there was
Speaker 3: no villain aspect to it, which was really cool to
Speaker 3: see actors take on and actually want to do that,
Speaker 3: to go onto the channel and play these kinds of
Speaker 3: roles versus what they are so well known for, you know,
Speaker 3: that was really cool.
Speaker 5: I think they were really excited about that, you know.
Speaker 5: And I was like, Oh, I'm Shane Soon in Mortal Kombat.
Speaker 4: I'm yes, lead the bad guy.
Speaker 5: Now you like the good, kind, loving grandfather, which was
Speaker 5: the cool departure for him.
Speaker 1: And they were also only nine years apart in age, right,
Speaker 1: which we thought was really funny that it was like, wow,
Speaker 1: they're very very similar in age. Oh, that is so funny.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we've talked about Lee Thompson Young obviously, who
Speaker 1: was a Disney Channel star and you could tell why
Speaker 1: the second he steps on any screen, he just lights
Speaker 1: the thing up. What was it like? Can you tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about what it was like working
Speaker 1: with him? I know you guys said you you know,
Speaker 1: you said you you wrapped and listened to music. But
Speaker 1: what was he like as a person, Like.
Speaker 4: One of the coolest people I'd ever met in my
Speaker 4: life at that point, Like he was a year older
Speaker 4: than me. So you're going back to the big brother thing.
Speaker 5: It kind of felt like I had this cool year
Speaker 5: older black brother, which I was just like, So I
Speaker 5: was stoked about that, Like we had this like friendship
Speaker 5: that he even wanted to be friends with me, And
Speaker 5: you're totally right, Like I think as an actor, I
Speaker 5: think I was pretty good.
Speaker 4: Had a natural talent. He had like a charisma where
Speaker 4: you know, just walking in the room and never one
Speaker 4: ever really just was you.
Speaker 5: Know, pulled to him, gravitated toward him in a way
Speaker 5: that like I knew that I didn't.
Speaker 1: Have and he had it.
Speaker 5: And yeah, and he was just like, I don't know,
Speaker 5: a normal guy, really intelligent, sweet, funny, yeah yet again charismatic,
Speaker 5: super sad. You know his story, but yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 5: mean we he ended up going to USC the same
Speaker 5: time I went to UCSB, So we liked stayed in
Speaker 5: contact with see each other randomly at LA parties. I
Speaker 5: would see him at SC he would see me at
Speaker 5: Santa Barbara. So we keep in touch things like that.
Speaker 5: But you know, obviously, life happens, and yeah, that's so
Speaker 5: tough and so sad, and it's honestly been something that
Speaker 5: was was and is still a pretty big part of
Speaker 5: my life, you know, to lose anyone that way. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I know that's kind of a heavy thing to talk about,
Speaker 5: but that's that's real. That's why, you know, And I
Speaker 5: don't know what he was going through, what he was
Speaker 5: struggling with. I don't know what happens to us after
Speaker 5: we leave this life, but yeah, I hope that he
Speaker 5: found like solace, I mean.
Speaker 1: Some kind of piece.
Speaker 4: Yeah, totally, because you know, there's no judgment. I mean, no,
Speaker 4: you're so confused and almost like angry maybe at yourself
Speaker 4: or with the world that these things happened. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm I'm super excited to see him again whenever that happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's one of those things where people
Speaker 1: who aren't in the industry can assume that, oh, you're
Speaker 1: on a big television show, your your career is going
Speaker 1: really well, you're getting everything you want. You don't you
Speaker 1: don't have the right to feel depressed, anxious, any of
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and you just that's you never
Speaker 1: know what another person's going through, and you know, you
Speaker 1: never judge another human being until you you can walk
Speaker 1: a mile in their shoes, and you can't. So it's
Speaker 1: just a good idea to just not judge people, because yeah,
Speaker 1: you just you never know, you never know what someone's
Speaker 1: going through. But he was, Yeah, he was a huge loss,
Speaker 1: because you're right, he was just he lit everything up.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was a shame.
Speaker 5: Luckily nowadays, I mean that happened years ago at this point,
Speaker 5: but now obviously talking.
Speaker 4: About those things is much more prevalent. And let's be
Speaker 4: real about growing up being a kid actor.
Speaker 5: So it's like I do have an understanding at least
Speaker 5: to some degree, some of the miles that he's walked in,
Speaker 5: and thankfully I myself have like gone to therapy and
Speaker 5: extrapolated how.
Speaker 4: Complicated that whole thing was for most of us and
Speaker 4: for me as well.
Speaker 5: I Mean there's that whole cliche of the child actor thing,
Speaker 5: you know, where like your identity is kind of made
Speaker 5: for you before you even hit puberty, that sort of thing.
Speaker 5: So luckily I think that, yeah, that's more people will
Speaker 5: now moving forward have resources and that won't be as
Speaker 5: something that you have to like keep to yourself.
Speaker 4: As much anymore.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I read online his family is actually created or
Speaker 3: at the time fairly close to when everything happened, that
Speaker 3: they created a foundation to help reach out to get
Speaker 3: more education out there, get more you know, help out
Speaker 3: there for people that are going through any kind of
Speaker 3: you know, a mental illness that that that can turn
Speaker 3: you know, and so it's hard to lose people, but
Speaker 3: there are always you know, it's amazing that their families
Speaker 3: taking something tragic and wanting to do something positive in
Speaker 3: the world. That's always incredible. And I feel like one
Speaker 3: of the one of the things to look at this
Speaker 3: movie was that was one of his first real jobs
Speaker 3: that he got, I feel, right, was that? Did you
Speaker 3: guys talk about that on set?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think I think the famous jet Jackson was the
Speaker 1: first one, wasn't it. And then and then he this
Speaker 1: was his first movie, this Verse movie.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, yeah, I mean that's just I mean, you
Speaker 3: were catching him right on the rise and to hear
Speaker 3: that he was such a fun, awesome guy and you
Speaker 3: guys created such an incredible bond that you took into
Speaker 3: college with you. I mean that that's pretty awesome. A
Speaker 3: lot of times these kinds of movies, especially you go in,
Speaker 3: you shoot, you leave. You might see each other on
Speaker 3: a press day, and that kind of turns out to
Speaker 3: be what it is, you know, which is okay, working
Speaker 3: relationships are important too, but for you guys to have
Speaker 3: created such an awesome bond, it's amazing to hear that
Speaker 3: you guys kept in touch and you know, continued to
Speaker 3: be friends throughout your next chapters.
Speaker 2: That's awesome and.
Speaker 1: What we will definitely put up a link to the
Speaker 1: foundation that we were talking about there. And of course,
Speaker 1: if anybody out there is dealing with any problems, get help,
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of ways out there for you
Speaker 1: to reach out and there's people that are trained in
Speaker 1: helping in whatever those causes are, so please don't be
Speaker 1: shy about doing that. But I have another question for you,
Speaker 1: Johnny Tsunami related because we frankly, and this floored Sabrina
Speaker 1: more than me I because I didn't know going in.
Speaker 1: I had just missed this era of the d Coom
Speaker 1: by a little bit y age wise, sure, So the
Speaker 1: thing that floored her was that there was a sequel
Speaker 1: to this movie that she did not even know existed.
Speaker 2: I was unaware. I am sorry, Branched. I feel like
Speaker 2: a terrible friend.
Speaker 3: I had no idea that there was more goodness in
Speaker 3: the world related to Johnny's Tsunami.
Speaker 4: So in your early twenties, you were just watching Disney
Speaker 4: Channel all the time. Oh you got it?
Speaker 3: Well, to be fair, I was working for the channel.
Speaker 3: So it's still kind of irritating that I did not
Speaker 3: know that and I can't believe. So we don't no
Speaker 3: spoil alerts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because we haven't watched it yet, so don't tell
Speaker 1: us too much.
Speaker 2: Yes, we will absolutely watch it. But how was it
Speaker 2: to then? Because how many years had passed a couple?
Speaker 2: Was it super close? They did they book one right away?
Speaker 2: Or how did that come about?
Speaker 5: Well, they did book one right away, and then there
Speaker 5: were the Tsunamis in Southeast Asia maybe three or four
Speaker 5: years afterwards. Like as we're like kind of in pre production,
Speaker 5: Disney was like, oh got it, which is why the
Speaker 5: one is Johnny kappajaala back on board, back on the board,
Speaker 5: that word altogether understand this. So I think we shot
Speaker 5: that as like a junior in college. I think I
Speaker 5: was like twenty twenty twenty one. That so like pretty
Speaker 5: fat sabbatical, so like seven between.
Speaker 4: That was a ton of fun too. It was really nice.
Speaker 4: It was like a reunion for most of us.
Speaker 1: Did the whole cast come back except for Lee Thompson?
Speaker 4: You okay, Wow, yeah, and we shot in New Zealand
Speaker 4: for like two months. Oh my gosh, incredible. So yeah,
Speaker 4: it was. It was a ton of fun.
Speaker 6: It was it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, what we're what we're learning then from Cheetah Girls,
Speaker 1: from this, from Descendants this, it's the sequel where they
Speaker 1: really spend in the cash.
Speaker 2: Yes, they just up the ante and take you to New.
Speaker 4: Zealand get the tax breaks.
Speaker 1: Either way, Yeah, it works, either one works.
Speaker 2: True.
Speaker 4: True.
Speaker 1: We do have to address one possible rumor that we
Speaker 1: read on the internet machine. Wow, and we said we
Speaker 1: were going to talk to you about it when you
Speaker 1: were here. There are rumors that maybe there was something
Speaker 1: between you and Kirsten Storms at the time.
Speaker 4: Is this is this true?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yes, yes there.
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 4: In the sense of, like, are there things between thirteen
Speaker 4: year olds that I can't drive themselves to a date? Exactly?
Speaker 4: I guess exactly.
Speaker 2: Let meet you at the cafeteria at three o'clock.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Date is the question with the with the with
Speaker 1: the little cute quotes. Did you date?
Speaker 4: I yes, No, I mean like we didn't go on
Speaker 4: any dates. I mean, I guess there's a couple of
Speaker 4: times where her mom or my mom maybe dropped us
Speaker 4: off at her house where like her mom's like hung
Speaker 4: out where nothing happened, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean like we were just like a total date.
Speaker 1: That's a date when you're thirteen.
Speaker 4: I think I stole a kiss one time in Utah
Speaker 4: on a stairwell of the hotel that we were staying in,
Speaker 4: you know, in between you know, rapping with thee Thomas
Speaker 4: Young right cool Wednesday evening, you know. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: we were like she was cute, Yeah, of.
Speaker 3: Course, Yeah, the chemistry was definitely there. I feel like
Speaker 3: they could have, you know, dove.
Speaker 2: Into it a tiny bit more.
Speaker 3: I'm like a rom calm just fanatic, so you know,
Speaker 3: there was a little bit of it. But she also,
Speaker 3: to be honest, was not.
Speaker 2: A great girl to you. I feel like she was.
Speaker 2: She dropped you like a bad habit multiple times during
Speaker 2: the movie and.
Speaker 1: Then invites herself to the mountain, gets herself into a
Speaker 1: ton of trouble. You go out of your way or
Speaker 1: Johnny goes out of his way to save her literal life.
Speaker 2: Almost dies the next day, almost dies, and she blames
Speaker 2: it on you. What a jerk? What a jerk that like.
Speaker 4: Deeply rooted, you know, skier bias, you know, which we're
Speaker 4: all try I'm to extrapolate, we're all trying to work,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 2: I mean you jammed down that mountain.
Speaker 4: Not really, No, he was born into that world, into
Speaker 4: that life. So that's exactly blame her for it.
Speaker 1: Once a sky, you know, right.
Speaker 2: Exactly, once a sky all in the jerk.
Speaker 1: Oh that's what's so funny though, because so Sabrina, we're
Speaker 1: starting to notice has a thing about some of the
Speaker 1: girl the girl characters in these movies where she hits
Speaker 1: a certain point and then she's like, and I'm now
Speaker 1: done with you. I'm done with you. We've seen this
Speaker 1: in multiple films. Now it's the new Disney trope of
Speaker 1: the Sabrina's done. I got to the scene and I'm finished. Now.
Speaker 2: I trying to root for them. I try to think
Speaker 2: they're going to be better, and they just disappoint every time,
Speaker 2: every freaking time.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Sabrina. I feel I feel seen good.
Speaker 1: You are You are definitely were We probably should have
Speaker 1: talked about this at the very beginning, but we like
Speaker 1: to jump around. And I'm just curious. You mentioned you
Speaker 1: grew up in Orange County like Sabrina grew up in
Speaker 1: Orange County. What what drew you to the entertainment industry
Speaker 1: in the first place. I mean, was this something you
Speaker 1: knew you always wanted to do or how did you
Speaker 1: end up acting?
Speaker 3: Did you get picked up at South Coast Plaza while
Speaker 3: walking around by some random agents?
Speaker 1: My wife's favorite mall is that your story, Sabrina.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but I have so many especially when
Speaker 3: reality TV started. I mean that's where they get so
Speaker 3: much casting. It's embarrassing. There's people that will walk up
Speaker 3: to kids and go, you've got such a great Oh
Speaker 3: look at this personality.
Speaker 1: Mom.
Speaker 3: Here for seventy thousand dollars, you can get one headshot
Speaker 3: and one acting class and an eight.
Speaker 1: Oh that's awful. Oh that's awful.
Speaker 4: No, it wasn't at South Coast Plaza unfortunately. But yeah.
Speaker 5: I actually grew up doing Polynesian dancing with my family.
Speaker 5: So my mom danced, my sister danced, my dad drummed,
Speaker 5: I danced, and it was this cool like community.
Speaker 4: Thing that I was like a part of.
Speaker 5: One of the girls I used to dance with was
Speaker 5: like an actress and she had a few like small
Speaker 5: parts in small films, and she basically invited me to
Speaker 5: an acting class. My parents asked me, my brother and sister, Hey,
Speaker 5: do you want to try this to like maybe book
Speaker 5: a commercial to help it for college.
Speaker 4: We all said sure, let's give it a try. My
Speaker 4: sister is shy. She hated it, my brother hated it.
Speaker 4: I happened to be good at.
Speaker 5: It, and I was really competitive, honestly, is what it
Speaker 5: came down to. It's like it was a really competitive kid.
Speaker 5: I love sports, and I kind of viewed it as
Speaker 5: a sport where I remember going to like auditions and
Speaker 5: like a sociopath, like a ten year old sociopath, like
Speaker 5: in my head hearing these other like kids like running
Speaker 5: through their lines, and I'm like, this could sucks.
Speaker 4: You know, this could as a ten year old like
Speaker 4: a crazy person. And they're all like chummy and introducing
Speaker 4: and talking to each other because they all know each other.
Speaker 4: And I'm like this kid from Orange County and yeah,
Speaker 4: like when I wanted to be.
Speaker 6: Good, I love that you did. You went in just
Speaker 6: just straight up balls to the wall. I'm crushing every
Speaker 6: other kid who's here. Yeah, but I saw you at
Speaker 6: a few auditions. You never gave that vibe off.
Speaker 3: You were just always super nice but in your head
Speaker 3: you were selling Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: You've got no chance I'm gonna cream you.
Speaker 4: Ten years of therapy latter, I'm like, oh got it.
Speaker 4: I'm a people pleaser. I want love and affection. If
Speaker 4: I do well, things me too same.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent save. Yeah, I feel exactly the same way.
Speaker 4: But it served me well, and you know, kind of
Speaker 4: motivated me to do well and luckily, Yeah, I had
Speaker 4: a little bit of talent and I worked really hard,
Speaker 4: and honestly, that just certain, like you know, films film
Speaker 4: into my lap, like the Jungle Book, things.
Speaker 1: Like well, can we talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 2: I mean, that's actually can we talk about the Jungle Book?
Speaker 1: I mean that Yeah, I mean, you're that's an enormous role,
Speaker 1: especially in the Disney pantheon. I mean that's that's like
Speaker 1: playing Cinderella. That's I mean, that's an enormous, enormous role.
Speaker 1: What was it like getting that movie? Yeah?
Speaker 4: That was that was pretty wild. It was really really cool.
Speaker 5: I think up until that point, I'd been acting, taking classes,
Speaker 5: auditioning for maybe a year. I'd done like a couple
Speaker 5: of like educational videos. I think I've told my parents, like, hey,
Speaker 5: I'm starting to miss hockey practice, which means I can't
Speaker 5: play in the games. I don't think I want to
Speaker 5: do this anymore. They're like, why don't you just try
Speaker 5: it out for like literally one more month. I think
Speaker 5: I told this in like November. They're like, just just
Speaker 5: do it through December and then we'll move on. Of course,
Speaker 5: in December A book, Jungle Book, I auditioned in like
Speaker 5: a shammy, Like my mom fashioned these like shammy so
Speaker 5: like I'm literally wearing a loincloth to this audition with
Speaker 5: these other kids, and like jeans and stuff around the room.
Speaker 4: But one of those serendipitous things.
Speaker 5: Where it's like, yeah, I am ten or eleven, I
Speaker 5: am brown, I did have long hair. It's like, had
Speaker 5: I hit puberty, had I cut my hair, had I
Speaker 5: been a little bit lighter, a little bit darker, and.
Speaker 4: I would have just passed me by.
Speaker 5: And I've been one of those talented kids that never
Speaker 5: booked anything, just like so many other people. So that
Speaker 5: was honestly just pretty awesome, don't get me wrong. Like,
Speaker 5: of course, preparation meeting that incredible opportunity in luck of
Speaker 5: the moment that was super red. Like growing up, I
Speaker 5: wanted I think at five to my parents, I want
Speaker 5: to be a comedian or a zoologist. I was not
Speaker 5: a funny kid.
Speaker 4: I had no idea how to tell you that I
Speaker 4: wanted to be a comedian. But animals. I always loved
Speaker 4: animals and drew them growing up. And so that was
Speaker 4: one of those things where I did train for like
Speaker 4: a month and a half ahead of time, just with
Speaker 4: the animals. And that was just like this incredible moment
Speaker 4: of like whoa, Like, I'm walking next to a tiger
Speaker 4: and a bear. I'm learning how to climb an elephant
Speaker 4: without anyone's help, to ride the elephants, wolves and chimpanzees,
Speaker 4: the whole thing, and yeah, and after that then it
Speaker 4: was like, oh wow, there's like eleven year old kid
Speaker 4: who can like star in a movie. Then it was
Speaker 4: just like, you know, off to the races, my career
Speaker 4: for the next like ten years something like that.
Speaker 1: A second, so it was too dangerous to ride a
Speaker 1: twelve foot wave, but walking next to a tiger and
Speaker 1: a bear is totally fine.
Speaker 2: Hey Brandon, why don't you climb up that elephant over there?
Speaker 5: Well, I don't know if you guys found this on
Speaker 5: the research because maybe this is like stuffed like somewhere
Speaker 5: deep in the hallways of Disney. But I actually got
Speaker 5: bit on set by a chimpanzee.
Speaker 2: I believe it.
Speaker 1: They're evil, So this squirre you're on moneet.
Speaker 2: They are not nice animals.
Speaker 4: They're very intelligent, and yes it bit you on the face.
Speaker 5: So in training for the movie, right like, I'm training
Speaker 5: with obviously wolves and tigers and bears in the whole thing,
Speaker 5: and I trained with the chimpanzees. And the chimpanzees you
Speaker 5: are taught to be basically neutral, right like you they
Speaker 5: hold your hand, you don't hold theirs. You're not supposed
Speaker 5: to be dominant, submissive, anything like that. There is one
Speaker 5: scene in the movie where monkey comes up, puts his
Speaker 5: arms around me and kisses me on the lips in
Speaker 5: like a funny gag scene. We trained for months to
Speaker 5: do this. We do that earlier in the day. We
Speaker 5: have like like a pickup shot that on that day
Speaker 5: where I'm on the ground, my hands around my knees
Speaker 5: and the monkey is supposed to come up and grab
Speaker 5: my hand. But the problem was is that I was
Speaker 5: on the ground. Monkey comes up to me, puts his
Speaker 5: arms around me. I think he's gonna kiss me on
Speaker 5: the lips and bites my face. But the camera is here,
Speaker 5: so like everyone sees the back of the monkeys and
Speaker 5: sees the monkey get up and sees me hold my face. Right,
Speaker 5: So video village has no idea what's going on. The
Speaker 5: trainers rush in. There's three monkeys, there's three chimpanzees in
Speaker 5: the scene. Grab the three chimpanzees, wrestle them in the
Speaker 5: ground because they're afraid they're.
Speaker 4: All gonna jump me. I walk up.
Speaker 5: I get up because it's like a hard pinch on
Speaker 5: my face. Walk over to my mom obviously because I'm
Speaker 5: a ten year old kid, and I show her my face,
Speaker 5: so I guess my face kind of does this so
Speaker 5: she can see me like the meat of my face, right, and.
Speaker 4: Then my mom makes that face to Brina. She's crying.
Speaker 4: I'm crying. I'm like, oh my god, what is happening. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we like went to the emergency room. I think it
Speaker 4: was like maybe twelve stitches across and like a few
Speaker 4: deep in there. We had a like delay production for
Speaker 4: three weeks. Oh the animals on the fourth week, and
Speaker 4: then by a month later they could put enough makeup
Speaker 4: on it to like Sturfham.
Speaker 2: Oh my my god.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: By the way, our producers did not find yeah, which
Speaker 2: is crazy because they're so good.
Speaker 1: They kissed Kirsten Storms nothing about being bitten.
Speaker 3: By almost eaten by monkeys, which, by the way, I
Speaker 3: will never work with that. That story itself just completely
Speaker 3: solidified it. But the monkeys are they freak me out.
Speaker 2: I can't. We used to be No in India, I
Speaker 2: saw them.
Speaker 3: They they're very smart and they were trained to go
Speaker 3: and take people's phones, take people's cameras, take people's sunglasses
Speaker 3: right off their face, and they would like wrestle you
Speaker 3: and freak you out to then get in your purse
Speaker 3: and grab like stuff out of your purse. They're crazy,
Speaker 3: They're too smart.
Speaker 1: I know, that's it. You know, I've trained to rob
Speaker 1: them first. Oh see, that's what you do, and you
Speaker 1: take their stuff first, exactly exactly.
Speaker 2: How crazy is it?
Speaker 1: Though?
Speaker 2: You're on set with so many different animals and it's
Speaker 2: the monkeys.
Speaker 1: You just your off the.
Speaker 2: Monkey once, your poor mom, your poor.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they lost your ship.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 5: I mean I trained for six weeks with a grizzly
Speaker 5: bear or brown bear whatever, where I'm walking next to
Speaker 5: the brown bear for the first week, you know, through
Speaker 5: a fence with a trainer that has like a chain
Speaker 5: link on them. Right, next week the fence is gone.
Speaker 5: The week after that, then the trainer removes the collar.
Speaker 5: Then the week after that, the trainer is gone. Then
Speaker 5: the week after that then it's just an electric fence
Speaker 5: between us. Eventually there's a scene where I go and
Speaker 5: I hug Blue the bear because Blue and motely right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could have totally ended could have just.
Speaker 4: Completely erect me, which yes, my poor mom also mom, whoa.
Speaker 3: What of course, But I mean imagine after this incident
Speaker 3: does happen and her your Mom's like, how do we
Speaker 3: I mean, this is a huge booking, You've signed a contract,
Speaker 3: You've got like how can you even get out of
Speaker 3: that contract?
Speaker 4: In the production? Yeah, it's like it's crazy.
Speaker 2: My heart right now is just.
Speaker 1: I know, it's nuts.
Speaker 4: Yeah, ultimately ultimately monkeys but also a monkey, you know.
Speaker 4: The poor was just like he even like bit me
Speaker 4: in the face and he backed up like confused, like
Speaker 4: I think I just step right now, you know, like
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 1: That wasn't what I was supposed to do, you know,
Speaker 1: but yeah, was that the last time you worked with
Speaker 1: the monkeys and I'm the last time with the moment.
Speaker 2: Okay, good.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine there'd be more. Speaking of incredible people
Speaker 1: to work with. So you've got monkeys, tigers, and elephants,
Speaker 1: which is great, but you also did punks with Henry
Speaker 1: Winkler and Randy Quaid and l But now I hear
Speaker 1: Randy Quaid bites like monkeys. I've heard that, correct. But
Speaker 1: what was it like working with that cast?
Speaker 4: Yeah? That that was That was a ton of fun.
Speaker 5: I think that was the first time that I had
Speaker 5: worked with a bunch of kids, like I think that
Speaker 5: was before Johnnysnami, So it was like there was really
Speaker 5: that energy on set.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I work with Henry Whinkler.
Speaker 1: That was really really cool, the nicest guy in the world,
Speaker 1: by the way, nicest guy.
Speaker 5: At the point where you're like, is this an act?
Speaker 5: Like I don't person nice before? What does this guy
Speaker 5: want from me? But yeah, Kathy Moriarty, I mean, it
Speaker 5: was just it was before I truly knew who I
Speaker 5: was talking to.
Speaker 2: Let's yeah, I.
Speaker 5: Knew who the Fonzie was, but like, oh wow, raging
Speaker 5: well I don't know anyway, but that was really cool.
Speaker 5: Jessica Alba is three years older than me, with the
Speaker 5: same exact birthday. She's three years older than me. I'm thirteen.
Speaker 5: I'm meeting a sixteen year old Jesscalbum.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I noting.
Speaker 4: Everything I could ever imagine a woman to ever be right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, fastal fact, but a sixteen year old esscal Album
Speaker 3: and a thirteen year old brand and prepubescent Brandon.
Speaker 4: There's like an ocean between us.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, different species, your different species at that point.
Speaker 2: Did you have any stairway incidences with her on the set?
Speaker 4: Well, I wish, Actually I do have.
Speaker 5: So My fiance and I met three years ago on
Speaker 5: Hinge on a dating site, and one of my I
Speaker 5: forget exactly how I put it, but there was like
Speaker 5: like a prompt that's like too truth and a lie,
Speaker 5: and one of my truths actually is I slept with
Speaker 5: Jessica Album.
Speaker 4: One night on set. We had a night cheat and
Speaker 4: I shared a trailer with her and her mom and
Speaker 4: my mom. We're all playing like cards. I'm tired, I
Speaker 4: go take a nap. In the middle of the night.
Speaker 4: She comes up and she big spoons me, and my
Speaker 4: heart just completely mouts. So I can actually say that
Speaker 4: I slept with Jessica. I will I will tell this story.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I will never stop the story.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: I'm also guessing the second you mess Jessica alba A
Speaker 1: Sabrina Bryan went right out of your head, Sabrina, Oh my.
Speaker 2: Gosh, that's unreal. I love that's so awesome. That is
Speaker 2: so good, so good. So now now in life, you're
Speaker 2: in Colorado. Are you still snowboarding? Tell me you're snowboarding.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is a little bit life imitating art, a
Speaker 5: bit good. I'm giving ship about oh joy to move
Speaker 5: to the mountains.
Speaker 1: Off to the mountains. You totally did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, are you still wearing the beanie with the like
Speaker 2: fake dreadlocks?
Speaker 4: Look I should, I haven't. I need the only one.
Speaker 1: I don't go break the internet. The second picture and
Speaker 1: a snowboard with that, Oh my.
Speaker 3: Gosh, yes, you should get a sponsor for that before
Speaker 3: you do any pictures.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: Three seasons ago, I tried skiing again because two of
Speaker 4: my best friends out here are skiers, and so for
Speaker 4: an entire season I skied and thought that the same thing, like,
Speaker 4: I cannot take off my helmet of these goggles because
Speaker 4: I'm going to get dreamed on the internet.
Speaker 1: So I have put back the sky.
Speaker 2: Boo, I hate it.
Speaker 4: Boo still snowboarding out here in Colorado. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: So on your Instagram, are do you do? Are you
Speaker 2: a wedding officient? I am?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Can people request you?
Speaker 4: Yeah? It's it's really cool.
Speaker 5: It's like such a random I mean, I feel like
Speaker 5: my life has been a series of like random events
Speaker 5: that have led me to these really cool.
Speaker 4: Roads, and this is one of them. Where I never
Speaker 4: grew up obviously thinking one day I want to be
Speaker 4: this destination adventure elopement officiants. But it does make a
Speaker 4: ton of sense where like I had ten years of
Speaker 4: driving in La traffic Tork, every day I drive up
Speaker 4: the mountains of Colorado to like a beautiful alpine lake,
Speaker 4: you know, where I have to read from a script,
Speaker 4: but I don't have to act anymore. I get to
Speaker 4: like be my authentic self. I've always been someone who's
Speaker 4: love love, whether that's Jessica Alba or Sabrina Bryan or
Speaker 4: you know whatever. But no, but to like be with
Speaker 4: these people on this like.
Speaker 5: Amazing day, like sharing that with them, where I can
Speaker 5: be my authentic self in this beautiful place. It's like
Speaker 5: such a cool like thing that has fallen into my lap.
Speaker 4: And yeah, I love it. I marry people here all
Speaker 4: the time.
Speaker 2: I love that. Well, my little cousin just got engaged
Speaker 2: and lives in Colorado, So.
Speaker 3: Am I get you booked on that because I just
Speaker 3: think that would be so amazing. How far would you
Speaker 3: literally go to Hawaii? And I mean that would be
Speaker 3: the ultimate Johnny Tsunami wedding efficient experience.
Speaker 4: I married two people out in Hawaii last year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no way, did you really? Man?
Speaker 2: Amazing?
Speaker 3: Okay, I love weddings too. I've helped friends plan weddings.
Speaker 3: I love planning my own wedding. Weddings are so magical.
Speaker 3: I love that you're part of that. And you're right,
Speaker 3: you get to be a part of a giant moment
Speaker 3: in so many people's lives, Like you really get to
Speaker 3: to know that you, you know, especially if you've got
Speaker 3: these like words of encouragement helping them throughout their process
Speaker 3: of engagement.
Speaker 2: That's just that's so rad. I love that, I really do.
Speaker 2: I think that's so incredible.
Speaker 1: Do you still recognized? Do they recognize you when if
Speaker 1: you're performing the ceremony? I mean is it like they
Speaker 1: do they know you're past or.
Speaker 4: No, sometimes they do, and sometimes they do, a lot
Speaker 4: of people do, and a lot of people hire me
Speaker 4: specifically for that, which is it? Again? So crazy and
Speaker 4: really yeah, But the other people just see, you know,
Speaker 4: like the.
Speaker 5: Name Brandon Baker and think that I'm probably just some
Speaker 5: like average white guy in Colorado. But that has happened
Speaker 5: to where like I'm standing up there, like at the
Speaker 5: front with the couple, there's like a bride walking, you know,
Speaker 5: down the aisle, and one of the groom's gonna like
Speaker 5: this this happened, and one of the gridsmen like taps
Speaker 5: to their groomsmen. They're like saying something and I can
Speaker 5: hear they're talking to and eventually gets to the groom
Speaker 5: says something to him and he reaches over to me.
Speaker 4: He's like you Johnish, and I'm like yeah, he goes no.
Speaker 5: Family around, right, And everyone erupts and the bride's looking
Speaker 5: over here, and I have to like calm him down,
Speaker 5: like hey, all right, cool, we'll talk about this later,
Speaker 5: get you married. Bride comes down, we do the whole thing,
Speaker 5: we marry them, and everyone's still geeked on it. And
Speaker 5: the bride is there's no idea, So the bride thinks
Speaker 5: that everyone's taking a picture with their efficient because they must.
Speaker 4: Have loved what the officiant said. So it's really funny.
Speaker 5: It's really funny, and I think it's like such a
Speaker 5: cool like cherry on top for the people on that
Speaker 5: day who don't know.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, oh my god, on my wedding day.
Speaker 5: There's like this kid that I grew up watching, This
Speaker 5: thirteen year old kid from this movie is now standing
Speaker 5: in front like marrying us. So just another like really
Speaker 5: cool random life thing.
Speaker 1: Oh that's amazing. Do you do any social media if
Speaker 1: people want to follow you or find you or do
Speaker 1: any of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I need to be on social media a little
Speaker 4: bit more. I've like kind of enjoyed a little bit
Speaker 4: of anonymity, but more and more people have been reaching out.
Speaker 5: And honestly, it's been like nothing but love, which is
Speaker 5: so cool that everyone's so nice about it. But yeah,
Speaker 5: Brandon be Good is my Instagram name. Okay, yeah, come
Speaker 5: and follow.
Speaker 3: You have some recent videos of Polynesian dancing on that too, right,
Speaker 3: is that there's a clips of something?
Speaker 4: Yeah, buddy, yeah, buddy of mine is like a director
Speaker 4: photographer to help on some production recently, but he found
Speaker 4: some old footage of us in polonies and dancing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like it's still happening.
Speaker 4: That's I'm here with you guys. You know, it's like
Speaker 4: pretty well. So yeah, thank you guys for having me
Speaker 4: for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for joining us. And hopefully
Speaker 1: you'll come back when we go back on board because
Speaker 1: we have. We haven't yet, so we'd love to maybe
Speaker 1: maybe next time seeing it. Yeah, maybe next time you'll
Speaker 1: do the rewatch with us. Maybe we'll all watch a
Speaker 1: movie and then and then we can all recap it together,
Speaker 1: which would be I think a blast.
Speaker 4: That would be rad. I'd love to do that.
Speaker 1: Okay, cool, Well, thank you so much for joining us, Brandon,
Speaker 1: and yeah, we're gonna we're gonna hold you to that.
Speaker 1: We're gonna see you next time.
Speaker 4: Wicked sounds good.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for ripping it up with Sabrina.
Speaker 2: I knew it was gonna happen. Sorry about that. I
Speaker 2: will try better next time.
Speaker 1: Oh man, he was rad and tubular and you ripped
Speaker 1: it up. I don't even know what else to say.
Speaker 2: I don't even know where that came from. I think
Speaker 2: you do so embarrassed.
Speaker 1: Hey, embrace your nerddom, Embrace your fandom, my friend.
Speaker 2: But it could not have happened in front of anyone
Speaker 2: worse than you.
Speaker 1: My god.
Speaker 2: You just wait when we get that Kurt Russell interview
Speaker 2: on me. It's going down.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be in a full tuxedo. I'm going
Speaker 1: to be like the picture of class Russell. Come on,
Speaker 1: By the way, I told you he's a wedding officiant
Speaker 1: and in Colorado, we are now legally married.
Speaker 2: Oh got it.
Speaker 1: That's the way it works when you do a podcast
Speaker 1: with with Brandon. Legally married, but only in Colorado. Luckily,
Speaker 1: so where are our spouses? Don't have to worry about it.
Speaker 1: Stay far from We just got to stay away from
Speaker 1: from the rocky mountains off of the future tour we're
Speaker 1: going to do. We are not going to rip it
Speaker 1: up in Denver.
Speaker 2: Oh man.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us for this park
Speaker 1: Hopper episode. And uh you know you can follow us
Speaker 1: at Magical rewind Pod on the Instagram machine. Stay away
Speaker 1: from monkeys, Stay away from monkeys. Go out there and
Speaker 1: rip it up and you can send all of your
Speaker 1: wedding gifts to Colorado and we'll pick them up next
Speaker 1: time we're there. Thank you, bye everybody.