Speaker 1: And I went to them, and I remember the agent
Speaker 1: was like, do you have a resume? And I gave
Speaker 1: it to him, Like do you do any voice over work?
Speaker 1: And I go, yeah, of course I didn't, and I
Speaker 1: just went into it. I go. If you like yummy
Speaker 1: things like peach part Fit, come on live a little,
Speaker 1: have a cup of you Band for dessert, you bad.
Speaker 1: The gorgeous coffee You Band taste great. Just think baking
Speaker 1: and eggs for breakfast and dessert, a nice big sandwich
Speaker 1: for lunch and dessert, or how about a strawberry part
Speaker 1: fit and dessert You Band. Hey, I am Michael Rosenbaum.
Speaker 1: I was Lex lutheran Smallville, and I have a really
Speaker 1: fun podcast called Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, so
Speaker 1: check it out. I'm happy to be here. Hello, they're friends,
Speaker 1: and welcome back to a brand spanking new episode of
Speaker 1: Off the Beat. As always, I am your host Brian Baumgartner. Today, well,
Speaker 1: I'm talking to my new bestie, Michael Rosenbaum, as you
Speaker 1: just heard. Now. You may know him best as Lex
Speaker 1: Luthor on Smallville, or maybe from his hit podcast Inside
Speaker 1: of You, as he so eloquently writes in his podcast
Speaker 1: bio you may see him and say, oh, that guy
Speaker 1: from that thing. But you know, all seriousness. Michael has
Speaker 1: been in everything. He's an incredible actor, Urban Legends, Justice League,
Speaker 1: Guardians of the Galaxy, and uh he's even the lead
Speaker 1: singer of his band son Spin. I find him so interesting.
Speaker 1: He also has some unique interests. He's a voice actor.
Speaker 1: He's a collector. Actually, why don't you just guess? He collects?
Speaker 1: Is it slinkys, is it anything chicken related? Is it
Speaker 1: horror memorabilia, troll dolls, back scratchers. Yeah, one of those
Speaker 1: things he collects and it fills him with joy. The
Speaker 1: answer will be available in the podcast. I also want
Speaker 1: to mention that not only is Michael on my podcast today,
Speaker 1: but as you just heard, I'm on his So make
Speaker 1: sure to check that out inside of you. Look, I'm
Speaker 1: excited to bring him on. He's a new friend, but
Speaker 1: he's a dear friend that didn't rhyme. Let's just do
Speaker 1: this here. He is Michael Rosenbaum. Bubble and Squeak. I
Speaker 1: love it. Bubble and Squeak on Bubble and Squeaker cookie
Speaker 1: every month left over from the nut before. What's up?
Speaker 1: How are you doing? What's up? My new bestie. Oh,
Speaker 1: you dropped a bomb Gardner on me. Baby, you dropped
Speaker 1: a bomb on me. Dude, Michael, I mean two times
Speaker 1: so close together. This is I mean wow. Now next,
Speaker 1: I promised you when we parted ways that I was
Speaker 1: going to make you some chili. That's going to happen.
Speaker 1: Let me be very clear today I'm moving. So my kitchen,
Speaker 1: my implements. What is that? That's not my utensils. They're
Speaker 1: all packed up. So the implements. If you want implements,
Speaker 1: you know my my implements. Will we'll play golf and
Speaker 1: will eat chili. How does that? I'm very excited about that.
Speaker 1: That sounds amazing. I can't eight to uh be invited
Speaker 1: to your house? Do you usually do this over zoom?
Speaker 1: You don't have people at your house. You don't like
Speaker 1: people at your house? Well, you know, I live in Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: Now that's a hike for me. It's a little. It's
Speaker 1: a little. Although I came to you, I came to
Speaker 1: your house. You did, and it was a bit You're right.
Speaker 1: I remember you saying it was a bit of a hike,
Speaker 1: But you had some other stuff going on that day.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just that. It was no it was just
Speaker 1: for you. It was just for you. That's my story.
Speaker 1: I'm sticking with it, you see. So it's was so
Speaker 1: nice getting to talk to you. Now. I'm i'm I'm
Speaker 1: turning the tables a little bit on you because I
Speaker 1: i've one. I find you incredibly interesting, in addition to
Speaker 1: being incredibly sexy. People like Welling. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: I don't know why people I don't know why people
Speaker 1: like Welling. I've go you've golfed with Welling? I have
Speaker 1: you golfed with Welling? I have a golf with Welling.
Speaker 1: I know you like to golf. I can't believe you
Speaker 1: guys having golf together. Yeah. Well, I just started picking
Speaker 1: it up during COVID. There's nothing else to do. So
Speaker 1: everybody started buying clubs. Everybody started to go to the
Speaker 1: golf course. And I played ice hockey my whole life.
Speaker 1: But I remember what you said on my podcast. You said,
Speaker 1: that's the time where there's no phones, there's no external noise.
Speaker 1: You just, for however many hours focus on that, and
Speaker 1: that for you is therapeutic. So I can understand that.
Speaker 1: I understand that. So when I golf, I try to
Speaker 1: do that as well. I try to just talk with
Speaker 1: my friends, enjoy the atmosphere, and it's help. It's it
Speaker 1: is therapeutic. It's like meditation in a way. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't think I knew that you did ice cock hockey.
Speaker 1: You know, that's Correl's game sport. That's really that's what
Speaker 1: he did growing up. Yeah. In fact, he got hurt
Speaker 1: at some point while we were filming playing high He
Speaker 1: played in a like a league in Los angele of us.
Speaker 1: They're like Lee, But yeah, I do. In fact, I
Speaker 1: just ran into someone who played or plays with him.
Speaker 1: I thought he had given it up. Maybe not, but yeah,
Speaker 1: and so he and I have golfed, not a lot,
Speaker 1: but you know, he's got a good swing. He makes
Speaker 1: good contact because yeah, you ice hockey, guys can pound
Speaker 1: the ball um, but he's learning to. And like you said,
Speaker 1: it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot
Speaker 1: of time back back to welling, back to Welling being
Speaker 1: so good looking, because you did you did say that,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know you were. I know I will look.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. But you know what's funny is I
Speaker 1: always felt when I was on Smallville that I was
Speaker 1: gonna get fired because I wasn't good looking enough. I
Speaker 1: didn't match the crips here. I didn't fit the criteria
Speaker 1: for the w B slash g W whatever model. And
Speaker 1: you had Tom was so beautiful and Kristen, who played
Speaker 1: a lot, was so beautiful, and the beautiful pair. Everyone
Speaker 1: was beautiful. And I'm like, this bald guy got this
Speaker 1: bump on my back of my head. I was never
Speaker 1: popular in high school. I just was really feeling like, um,
Speaker 1: they're gonna let me go. So I felt like I
Speaker 1: had to step up my game and act the ship
Speaker 1: out of those scenes in order to stay on board.
Speaker 1: So I always felt like I was threatened by willing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have similar feelings about the w B c W.
Speaker 1: I always felt like any time I would get like
Speaker 1: an appointment to go meet with something, I was like,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna hire me. But now now they hired you.
Speaker 1: So I don't know where the Yeah, yeah, they're in
Speaker 1: the bald guys. Now. You know you have a little
Speaker 1: bit of baldness going, so you they're probably into you now, yeah,
Speaker 1: a little bit. Um. All right, Well, I want to
Speaker 1: talk more about Smallville, but I want to go back first.
Speaker 1: I understand you were born in New York. But who
Speaker 1: ended up being raised in Indiana? Was that a family
Speaker 1: moved to Indiana? Yeah, Dad got a job transfer he
Speaker 1: worked in uh sort of a chemist like and uh
Speaker 1: he brought the whole family to a small town in Newburg, Indiana,
Speaker 1: which had about three thousand, not even three thousand people,
Speaker 1: a lot of corn fields, of burger farm, a Druther's,
Speaker 1: a dairy queen, a tiny Newberg cinema, a pizza king.
Speaker 1: Can't forget that, and the high school was about a
Speaker 1: few miles away. And uh, yeah, we just landed in Newburg, Indiana,
Speaker 1: And thus began my life growing up in the Middlewest. Wow,
Speaker 1: And was that difficult for you? I remember my dad
Speaker 1: was mowing the lawn. You know, it's just blew shit
Speaker 1: all over him, you know, all over his face and
Speaker 1: his body, you know, when he's mowing the lawn, East
Speaker 1: wear goggles. And I remember saying, I don't have any friends.
Speaker 1: He's like, what, I don't have any friends? And he's like, well,
Speaker 1: why don't you go and knock on everybody's door in
Speaker 1: the neighborhood and asked them if they have a kid
Speaker 1: who's eight years old or nine years old you could
Speaker 1: play with and I did, and I went next door. No,
Speaker 1: and finally I got about eight houses down and uh,
Speaker 1: this woman answers Mrs Cutter, and Mrs Cutter. I looks
Speaker 1: at me and go, I go, hey, do you have
Speaker 1: like a nine year old kid that I could play with?
Speaker 1: She goes, you don't look you look too small for nine,
Speaker 1: and I go, well, I am, and then she goes Danny.
Speaker 1: And then Danny became my best friend. And we catch
Speaker 1: fireflies and we tp houses and we play a whiffle ball.
Speaker 1: And I remember when I think back, I said, you know,
Speaker 1: they always say if you're always in in the past,
Speaker 1: you're depressed. It's part of it's depression if you're stuck
Speaker 1: in the past. But I remember I had a dysfunctional family,
Speaker 1: volatility out the ass. But I remember great friends and
Speaker 1: great memories growing up in a small town, or something
Speaker 1: really special about my time in Indiana, and I don't forget.
Speaker 1: And I usually go back once a year. You know,
Speaker 1: I always say I'm gonna move back there, and my
Speaker 1: friends always here say, what are you gonna do? You'll
Speaker 1: get bored there, why would you want to go back?
Speaker 1: But I do miss the Middlewest. I do. It's just
Speaker 1: there's something calm about it when you land. There's something
Speaker 1: just oh man, this is just some them in Indiana,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, so it's nice. Now that's great. You know,
Speaker 1: I've said this before. It seems like all the funny
Speaker 1: people that I know are from like Kansas. I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's like this whole group of people. And you think about,
Speaker 1: you know, the potential that you know, there's not enough
Speaker 1: creative outlets. There's just not as many um, you know places.
Speaker 1: But but that environment growing up and truly just using
Speaker 1: your imagination, needing to entertain yourself, you know, with your friends.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, that's that's awesome to hear. I
Speaker 1: hope you I hope you could do go back. It's
Speaker 1: a tough commute to Indiana, it is, but you know, uh,
Speaker 1: I do think I'll go back one day. I mean.
Speaker 1: The only problem is my mom lives there, so I
Speaker 1: don't know. I want. I'm happy her coming to town.
Speaker 1: I'm I flew her. I'm fly her in Thursday for
Speaker 1: her seventy fifth birthday. And uh, she's a handful. She's
Speaker 1: a handful, so i'd have to live. My sister lives
Speaker 1: there still, so I'm thinking about it. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: All right. Your mom is a writer, is that right?
Speaker 1: Or is a writer? Yeah? She like writes for small
Speaker 1: town paper, Evansville Courier, the Newberg Register. She doesn't do
Speaker 1: it much anymore, but you know, she's pretty liberal. Not
Speaker 1: to say I'm not liberal at all, but she's really liberal.
Speaker 1: And so she used to write these articles in the papers.
Speaker 1: And it used to piss people off. And I used
Speaker 1: to get harassed in school for the articles that my
Speaker 1: mom would write. And it was just like I used
Speaker 1: to im, like, go, why are you putting my name
Speaker 1: in these interviews? And and we had to put up
Speaker 1: with that, and she was just she would just she's
Speaker 1: sometimes write about baseball players. She'd somehow get these interviews.
Speaker 1: She was her own publicist, so she would call like
Speaker 1: major league outlets and like get interviews with the St.
Speaker 1: Louis Cardinals players. And family would all drive to St.
Speaker 1: Louis and go watch a game and she'd be interviewing
Speaker 1: some baseball player for this little paper, and somehow she
Speaker 1: charmed her way in. She's a very charming, manipulative person.
Speaker 1: Let me just say that it's it's clear. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's been there's been three references in four minutes about
Speaker 1: your mixed feelings about your mom. But I hope you
Speaker 1: have a nice Yeah, I hope so too. Look, I
Speaker 1: love her. She was just you know, she had my
Speaker 1: my my brother when she was sixteen. She had my
Speaker 1: sister when she was seventeen, and she got divorced. She
Speaker 1: married my dad, who was eighteen. Uh, you know, they
Speaker 1: grew up really fast. And well, I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: when you have a child, the child must come first.
Speaker 1: They have to be the center of attention and if not,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be well, uh, tortured. And so I think
Speaker 1: that I became a little tortured as the years grew on,
Speaker 1: but I somehow made it through the fog. And here
Speaker 1: I am. Yeah, well that's good. Uh. You went to
Speaker 1: Western Kentucky, right, and you you studied theater arts. So
Speaker 1: when did you start finding a love of theater or
Speaker 1: of acting? Was that was that early or was that
Speaker 1: just what you decided to go to college for. Well,
Speaker 1: I went to college thinking, you know, I'll take some
Speaker 1: acting classes because I I took one in high school
Speaker 1: and I did a play. But I was really insecure
Speaker 1: and got a lot of confidence and Uh. I remember
Speaker 1: the teacher, Mr Dr Combs, and uh, I was taking
Speaker 1: basic techniques of acting. And I went in there and
Speaker 1: I had this baseball cap and this Mets jersey and
Speaker 1: the teacher says, those of you who are here for
Speaker 1: an easy elective, please raise your hand ends And so
Speaker 1: about seven people in the class raised their hands and
Speaker 1: kind of laughed, and I was so close to raising
Speaker 1: my hand as a joke. And he then looks at
Speaker 1: these kids and says, get out of my class. And
Speaker 1: I was like what. And he made these kids leave
Speaker 1: his class and find another elective. And then he asked
Speaker 1: me at the end of class, Mr Rosenbaum, do you
Speaker 1: really want to be an actor? And I go yeah.
Speaker 1: And it took some time, but as I started to
Speaker 1: do plays the children's theater and then bigger plays, and
Speaker 1: hearing that that instant gratification, that the applause from the audience,
Speaker 1: and like I felt accepted for the first time in
Speaker 1: my life. It was validation that I was doing something
Speaker 1: good for the first time. And I fell in love
Speaker 1: with that feeling, that euphoria, that connection, and I just
Speaker 1: I started getting lead roles and I remember it was
Speaker 1: like the end of my junior year. I looked in
Speaker 1: the mirror and I go, you're an actor, dude, You're
Speaker 1: a fucking actor. You say f on the show, Yeah
Speaker 1: you can, oh And I said, you're an f an actor.
Speaker 1: I didn't that done? And then uh, that was it.
Speaker 1: I just kind of I love being a part of something,
Speaker 1: part of this ensemble and pretending I'm someone I'm not,
Speaker 1: and uh, that was a lot cooler than being me. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We talked about that on your podcast and that experience
Speaker 1: and you ultimately uh changed your professor's opinion by the end,
Speaker 1: right by the end, Dr Combs. I remember going to
Speaker 1: his office and I said, I'm thinking about going to
Speaker 1: grad school for you know, for acting, and he goes,
Speaker 1: I think you're ready. I think you should go to
Speaker 1: New York and I just said wow. And I went
Speaker 1: to New York and I had nothing on my back.
Speaker 1: I had an apartment with three people in a one
Speaker 1: bedroom with bunk beds, trying to pay rent. Telemarketing and
Speaker 1: every think sort of kind of came into place. Uh.
Speaker 1: I was having no luck. I did like Dracula at
Speaker 1: the Gross Street Playhouse and some off off Way, the
Speaker 1: hell off Broadway, like New Jersey Broadway and things were
Speaker 1: really working out. And I called Dr Combs and he said,
Speaker 1: let me make a phone call and he called this
Speaker 1: actress Becky Baker and Dylan Baker. They're they're working actors
Speaker 1: and and I went over for dinner and we had
Speaker 1: a great time, and I went back home and I
Speaker 1: waited three days and I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1: So go, I'm gonna call Becky and thank her for dinner.
Speaker 1: And I called and she's like, Michael, hey, can you
Speaker 1: hold on one second. I said sure. She clicks back
Speaker 1: and she says, hey, can you meet with my agency tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I just was talking to them on the other line
Speaker 1: when you called. And I went to them, and I
Speaker 1: remember the agent was like, do you have a resume?
Speaker 1: And I gave it to him, like do you do
Speaker 1: any voice over work? And I go, yeah, of course
Speaker 1: I didn't, And I just went into it. I go,
Speaker 1: if you like yummy things like peach part fait, come
Speaker 1: on live a little, have a cup of you band
Speaker 1: for dessert. You band, the gorgeous coffee. You band taste great.
Speaker 1: Just think baking an eggs for breakfast and dessert, a
Speaker 1: nice big sandwich for lunch and dessert or how about
Speaker 1: a strawberry parfait and dessert? You band and they started laughing,
Speaker 1: introduced me to the camera department. I don't really tell
Speaker 1: the story, and and they sort of sending me out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they started sending me out. But really what happened, if
Speaker 1: I can tell you, I was starting to get voice
Speaker 1: over work, nothing on camera. I had these fangs on
Speaker 1: my teeth that later I got fixed. I kind of
Speaker 1: like like a vampire. And I was I was outside
Speaker 1: smoking a cigarette with this girl. I didn't know who
Speaker 1: she was. I was just having a laugh, carrying on,
Speaker 1: and she goes, oh my god, what do you do.
Speaker 1: I go, I'm an actor. And she goes, you're an actor.
Speaker 1: Who's your agency? I go, H S CM and M
Speaker 1: it was the name of the agency back then. She goes,
Speaker 1: oh my god. I worked for them, but I work
Speaker 1: in the young adults department on a different floor and
Speaker 1: we handle like infant through like one with you know,
Speaker 1: for acting, you should come meet with us another by chance.
Speaker 1: It shows you that be kind to everyone. You never
Speaker 1: know who you're talking to. You never know. I went
Speaker 1: up very true. I went upstairs and the woman was
Speaker 1: on the phone. She was busy. Why why I had
Speaker 1: long hair, pleather jacket. And the girl goes, hey, and
Speaker 1: this is Michael. He's with us for commercials and stuff.
Speaker 1: I want you to meet him. She goes, do you
Speaker 1: have a monologue prepared? I go, hell, yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1: And I just gave her a monologue on the spot
Speaker 1: and she goes, okay, we'll wrap you. And they started
Speaker 1: sending me out and I just I booked a little
Speaker 1: thing here and then I booked a movie called Midnight
Speaker 1: in the Garden of Good and Evil with Clint Eastwood directing.
Speaker 1: It took me out to l A and things just happened.
Speaker 1: I think, if you know, they say when preparation meets
Speaker 1: opportunity or something, if you're prepared when the moment arises,
Speaker 1: it's like, that's luck. I was just so eager, so ambitious,
Speaker 1: so full of life and fun. I don't know where
Speaker 1: that went, but that is what happened. And I sort
Speaker 1: of went to l A and the rest is history
Speaker 1: started just working, you know, here and there. That is
Speaker 1: so awesome. I love to hear that because yes, on
Speaker 1: the surface, right, you get told, oh my gosh, how
Speaker 1: lucky are you? But no, I mean you bring up
Speaker 1: several amazing points in that short story, which is one
Speaker 1: you were just nice to someone too, Let's be honest,
Speaker 1: A big part of this business because of the hours
Speaker 1: upon hours upon hours that you spend with people that
Speaker 1: you want to work with, good people with people that
Speaker 1: are that that you get along with, that you feel
Speaker 1: like are responsible and prepared. And then the fact that
Speaker 1: in both of those two stories that you told one
Speaker 1: someone asked you if you did a voice voiceover. The
Speaker 1: answer was no, but you remember you had that to
Speaker 1: recall in that moment. And then also do you have
Speaker 1: a monologue and you just start doing it, So you
Speaker 1: were prepared and ready, you just needed an opportunity. I
Speaker 1: think that is that is fucking awesome. I love that.
Speaker 1: I think it really you know, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of this is luck. There's so many, as you know,
Speaker 1: tremendously talented actors out there, so many that are undiscovered,
Speaker 1: and it takes a lot of not only not only luck,
Speaker 1: but you really have to put yourself out there. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I'll get a call from uh, you know, Western Kentucky
Speaker 1: and they'll say, we have a student. He's really talented.
Speaker 1: When you meet with him, sure, And sometimes I'll ask
Speaker 1: them this question. I'll say, so, what do you want
Speaker 1: to be an actors? Like, yeah, you know, I figured
Speaker 1: i'd give it a couple of years. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: This is when people start saying that ship like, I'll
Speaker 1: give it a year, give it two years. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I was so like, I was knocking on every door.
Speaker 1: I just this is all I could do. This is
Speaker 1: all I wanted to do. There was just no other
Speaker 1: When people were giving me statistics, you know, odds of
Speaker 1: making it, I was like, not me, you don't know
Speaker 1: who you're talking to. I have got this. I am
Speaker 1: going to be famous. I remember in college, Alexis Combs
Speaker 1: and I after we did uh we did a play,
Speaker 1: and I was on her doorstep. I said, hey, it
Speaker 1: was my senior year, is about to graduate. I said,
Speaker 1: I want you to remember this moment. She goes, what
Speaker 1: I go, I'm gonna make it and I want you
Speaker 1: to remember this moment right here, right now. She goes, Okay,
Speaker 1: I go, I'm serious. I just feel it. It's just
Speaker 1: something that I know is going to happen. I can't
Speaker 1: explain it. It seems egotistical and I'm full of ship,
Speaker 1: but really in my heart. I just feel this like
Speaker 1: you're gonna make it, dude. And she goes, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: and she kind of laughed and she kind of looked
Speaker 1: at me like like he's all right. And she wrote
Speaker 1: me a letter of years later, this beautiful letter and said,
Speaker 1: I just I remember that moment um. It was really nice.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, this is a crazy business. It's
Speaker 1: we're we're lucky to be where we are, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, I I was a lot of times I
Speaker 1: was a replacement. This guy were firing this guy, let's
Speaker 1: hire Rosenbaum. Yeah he's he's responsible, he's good, he'll do
Speaker 1: the job. A lot of times I was that guy.
Speaker 1: And uh, I think small, but was really one of
Speaker 1: the first times where I wasn't a replacement. I had
Speaker 1: to get that part. I had to fight for it.
Speaker 1: I was told that you had a casting submission for
Speaker 1: a pilot called talk Girl, and wow, this was never GREENLT.
Speaker 1: It didn't happen, but it eventually led to the show
Speaker 1: the temp pilot being conceived for you tell me a
Speaker 1: little bit about Well, it's just kind of a short story,
Speaker 1: but uh, it was the one of the first It
Speaker 1: was the first thing that I got the first job,
Speaker 1: and it was for MTV. They were trying to shoot
Speaker 1: a TV show, so they were shooting a pilot and
Speaker 1: it was with Leslie bib and Jackson Brown, Jackson Brown's son,
Speaker 1: Ethan Brown, and me, and I remember for the audition,
Speaker 1: I went in there and my care I had long hair,
Speaker 1: and I was wearing this gas attendant shirt I put on,
Speaker 1: and I just started eating chips while I'm talking to
Speaker 1: the cast and director and reading my lines, eating these
Speaker 1: ships loudly. And she just was like, Okay. They sent
Speaker 1: the tape to whoever they go, we want this kid,
Speaker 1: this is the guy. So I went. I remember I
Speaker 1: got paid five thousand dollars for the pilot. I was rich.
Speaker 1: I was like, five thousand I could pay off nothing. Um.
Speaker 1: So I went and we started filming, and you know,
Speaker 1: I was just always cracking jokes and making the crew
Speaker 1: laugh and everybody was happy. And finally the show didn't
Speaker 1: get picked up, and they said, we'd like to do
Speaker 1: a project with you. And at first they offered me
Speaker 1: a VJ, a video jockey. Like you know, it was
Speaker 1: a lot more money than I was making. It wasn't
Speaker 1: a ton, but it was and I thought. I said
Speaker 1: to my friend Matt, I don't know. He goes, well,
Speaker 1: I go, I don't know, won't that. I want to
Speaker 1: what do you want to do? I go, well, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be an actor. He's like, then you should stick
Speaker 1: with that because this might take you off the path
Speaker 1: and you might be a presenter and vij and and so.
Speaker 1: I said no, And then they did a special project
Speaker 1: with me. It was called the Michael rosen Bond Project,
Speaker 1: which turned into The Temp and the creators of that
Speaker 1: were Louis Throw. Now, I don't know if you know
Speaker 1: Louis Throw. Do you know he's the one on He's
Speaker 1: the one on TikTok that voice goes the money. Don't jiggle,
Speaker 1: jiggle it fold. I'd like to see you wiggle wiggle
Speaker 1: show makes me money. It went wise spread. Everybody was
Speaker 1: singing it, and the and the and the other guy
Speaker 1: was Kent Alterman, who was the president or the head
Speaker 1: of Comedy Central recently, and those two guys that had
Speaker 1: this idea to do an episode of the show where
Speaker 1: a guy takes over for someone's job. Each week, he
Speaker 1: just takes over. I was a zookeeper for a day
Speaker 1: and then I was in Cats on Broadway. Andrew Lloyd
Speaker 1: Webber allowed me to be a cat on Broadway in
Speaker 1: a real show. I had to take six hours of
Speaker 1: choreography lessons. I really learned it. I had the full
Speaker 1: makeup regalia. I could find it somewhere and post it.
Speaker 1: It is hilarious and the show tested well, and but they,
Speaker 1: I guess it was ahead of its time. Uh, they
Speaker 1: didn't pick it up. And for whatever reason they didn't
Speaker 1: pick it up. And Uh, that was it. Really that
Speaker 1: was it. Then the next thing I I auditioned for
Speaker 1: the Tom Arnold Show. It was called the Tom Show
Speaker 1: way back when, and that was I flew into tests.
Speaker 1: I never flying flown first class. I remember being so
Speaker 1: nervous that I couldn't remember my lines. Tom was there
Speaker 1: in the room and he started improvising with me and
Speaker 1: he goes, Heyboddy, how you doing. I was like, good man.
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, you got a hairy chest. Would you
Speaker 1: shave your chest for the role? I go, I'd shave
Speaker 1: your initials in my chest for the role, buddy. And
Speaker 1: we just kind of hit it off and Tom Arnold
Speaker 1: calls me up and long story longer, Uh, this show
Speaker 1: ended up being the worst show on television. But it
Speaker 1: was my first show, and I was so excited every
Speaker 1: day to play like the sixth lead. I mean, I
Speaker 1: had a few lines, but I worked with Ed McMahon.
Speaker 1: Ed McMahon's trailer was right next to me, and every
Speaker 1: day I'd say good morning Ed. He's like, good morning, sir.
Speaker 1: I go, it was so cold last night, and he go,
Speaker 1: how cold was it? I got it was so cold.
Speaker 1: I saw Robin putting his worm in the microwave, weird
Speaker 1: wound stuff, and we He would just humor me, and
Speaker 1: I had such a blast. I used to go in
Speaker 1: the Universal rides because it was at Universal and I launched,
Speaker 1: I'd ride the rides. I was living the life, living
Speaker 1: in a little apartment, not making a ton of money,
Speaker 1: just so happy. It's funny when I'm bringing this up,
Speaker 1: all these happy feelings come back. Tom was just really
Speaker 1: supportive and the show didn't do very well. And in fact,
Speaker 1: my my grandpa recently died and my dad sent me
Speaker 1: this book of his IRIY now his diary IRV late IRV.
Speaker 1: I love him, he'd write. In nineteen sixty nine, the
Speaker 1: Mets won the World Series, and then he wouldn't write
Speaker 1: till nineteen seventy four, and then he wouldn't write n
Speaker 1: And he has a little chapter about me, and it
Speaker 1: says grandson Mikey, he's uh, he's an actor. He recently
Speaker 1: did the Tom Arnold show UG. Then then then he
Speaker 1: did It's all right, I can read it, and then
Speaker 1: again then his next project was a show called Zoe Duncan,
Speaker 1: Jack and Jane a little less UG. And then then
Speaker 1: he goes on to say I did Smallville. He said,
Speaker 1: you know, our grandson has become a small success. I
Speaker 1: think I was on a fucking hitch show, dude, I
Speaker 1: was on a hit show. And he said I was.
Speaker 1: I just thought it was so funny called me a
Speaker 1: small success. He was always very proud. He was always
Speaker 1: so proud, unconditional love. He is always there for me,
Speaker 1: always wrote me letters, and but I never thought he
Speaker 1: thought of me as a small success. Well, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I agree with him, but I find that
Speaker 1: very funny that your grandpa was refewing in his diary
Speaker 1: that he feels the need to write down basically that
Speaker 1: he believes he's proud that you're in it, or at
Speaker 1: least it's worth being noted after not writing for twenty
Speaker 1: three years in the time, but then he says the
Speaker 1: show is shitty. He also he also he also said
Speaker 1: something like, my grandson Michael is a millionaire. My other grandson,
Speaker 1: Eric is not a millionaire. I was like, well, thank
Speaker 1: you for standing stating the obvious that it was so funny.
Speaker 1: Oh um, yeah, well Smallville, I heard you weren't excited
Speaker 1: about it at first. Yeah, well, at first, you know,
Speaker 1: I was. I'm not putting any shows down, but I
Speaker 1: wasn't a big comic book fan. I was more in
Speaker 1: a horror movie scary movies. When you were at my house,
Speaker 1: you saw the horror movies. Yes, you were. Your room
Speaker 1: where we record our podcast is a very impressive temple
Speaker 1: of memorabilia and posters, signed posters by very impressive people.
Speaker 1: You always loved horror. Yeah, you know when when I
Speaker 1: was eight years old, my mother loved horror movies and
Speaker 1: my father didn't because she would rent like Motel Hell
Speaker 1: and make them die slowly and make this eight year
Speaker 1: old watched them with her, and I was horrified, always scared.
Speaker 1: But I just thus began the infatuation, if you will,
Speaker 1: of of horror and that world. And I remember taking
Speaker 1: their VCR and I take my VCR and I would
Speaker 1: take horror movies that I rented and sit in my
Speaker 1: room before in the morning making copies of them. So
Speaker 1: I just fell in love with horror movies. And I
Speaker 1: used to go to HORRORCN engines before I was ever
Speaker 1: anybody and you know, get autographs and uh. Then I
Speaker 1: ended up fast forward doing a movie called Urban Legend,
Speaker 1: which was my first horror movie, and it was pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: I was working with Robert England, Freddy Krueger and kind
Speaker 1: of living the dream. But I've always loved horror movies.
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of an adrenaline rush for me.
Speaker 1: It's like a like a roller coaster. I like to
Speaker 1: be scared. I don't like the gory necessarily. I like
Speaker 1: more psychological or paranormal. Those could be fun. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I just that's that's what I like. We talked about
Speaker 1: The Shining on your podcast. My love of Jack the
Speaker 1: greatest horror movie ever made. The Shining is is probably
Speaker 1: the greatest movie horror movie, everybody. One of my favorite
Speaker 1: movies of all time. And I told you I think
Speaker 1: my favorite scene is when um Shelley Devall's character comes
Speaker 1: up to him and says, yeah, yeah, Jack, there's someone
Speaker 1: in the town. They heard Danny and he looks at
Speaker 1: her go are you out of your fucking mind? I
Speaker 1: just loved it. I mean that was so creepy. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I love Harmones Nightmare in Elm Street. I love the
Speaker 1: original Nightmare and Elm Street. I got to work with
Speaker 1: West Craven on a movie that wasn't great, called Cursed,
Speaker 1: but we had a great time. And he would he
Speaker 1: would like each take, you'd say, Rosenbaum, do it like
Speaker 1: Christopher Walking. So I'd say my lines like Christopher Walking,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna kill you now, and then you go do
Speaker 1: it like Malcolm It go now what you couldn't possibly know?
Speaker 1: And he goes, okay, now do it like Nicholson and
Speaker 1: I go, well, what's it gonna be? You know? And
Speaker 1: I would do the whole thing and he would just
Speaker 1: like he was so fun. He was like a kid.
Speaker 1: I loved Wes Craven. Oh, that's awesome. To answer your question,
Speaker 1: you said I didn't really want small Ville. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I thought it was gonna be like a kind of
Speaker 1: silly Lewis and Clark, or it was gonna be like
Speaker 1: kind of goofy. I didn't know, and my agent sure me,
Speaker 1: said hey, listen, this is gonna be dramatic. And they
Speaker 1: wanted to be good and shot like a movie every week.
Speaker 1: And I remember I've told the story, but you know,
Speaker 1: seven hundred actors audition for that part. I had nothing
Speaker 1: to lose. I was like, well, I'm not gonna get it.
Speaker 1: I go ask them this one question, what are seven
Speaker 1: hundred actors doing wrong? And they came back and said,
Speaker 1: we want a sense of danger, we want a sense
Speaker 1: of charisma, we want a sense of intellect. And I
Speaker 1: remember all I had was three pages of dialogue. That's
Speaker 1: all they gave me. So I said, I'm gonna be dangerous.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be dangerous here, I circled it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be charismatic here. I went in with no care in
Speaker 1: the world. And I remember the casting director. She says, Okay,
Speaker 1: you can sit down and go I'm not gonna sit
Speaker 1: She goes, what do you mean. I go, well, I
Speaker 1: want to stand up for this. She goes, we'll have
Speaker 1: to re light the I go, I'm sorry. She goes, well,
Speaker 1: you'll have to go outside for a few minutes while
Speaker 1: I do that. She was really annoyed, and I was like, funk,
Speaker 1: why I rehearse the standing up? I want to I
Speaker 1: want to stand up. I want to show some power.
Speaker 1: And I came back in and I went in there
Speaker 1: and I left thinking, uh wow, I'll never give that
Speaker 1: grade of an audition again. I was in control, I
Speaker 1: was in absolute power. I was Lex Luthor. And about
Speaker 1: a few days later, they said that Michael, they'd like
Speaker 1: Michael to come and test for the network in the
Speaker 1: studio and I don't know what it is and I
Speaker 1: don't recommend this to any actor. I told them, I go,
Speaker 1: I'm not going in there again. I will bomb. I
Speaker 1: will never do as well as I just did. You
Speaker 1: tell them to rewind the tape and I don't know.
Speaker 1: He says, you're probably not gonna get this. And I
Speaker 1: get a call a week later and they said, you're
Speaker 1: Lex Luthor. I wasn't being a dick. I think I
Speaker 1: was just like, I can never be as good as
Speaker 1: I was. Just now, I can't go in there again.
Speaker 1: They have to just look at this tape and no,
Speaker 1: it was crazy. Have you you've ever done that before
Speaker 1: or since? No, I've never done that since. It was
Speaker 1: just one of those things. I don't know why I
Speaker 1: did it, and I haven't. I haven't done that since
Speaker 1: I've walked out of auditions. I was auditioning for this
Speaker 1: movie and I was about to sign my name into
Speaker 1: read for the part, and I said, yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: feel like it, and I just walked out and I left,
Speaker 1: and then I the movie came out and I freaking
Speaker 1: loved it. I loved the movie. I loved the actor
Speaker 1: who did it. It was Dawn of the Dad, the remake.
Speaker 1: I for some reason, I just wasn't feeling it for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, and I just didn't do it. And uh,
Speaker 1: that was one of my only regrets, I guess. But
Speaker 1: you know, I've definitely been I definitely had some auditions
Speaker 1: where I remember auditioning for Saving Private Ryan good Well,
Speaker 1: Hunting I read for. I remember a lot of big
Speaker 1: movies that I read for and didn't get. But you know,
Speaker 1: and have you ever had the experience. I was just
Speaker 1: thinking about this the other day. You know, The Godfather,
Speaker 1: and there's the basically the Frank Sinatra part, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And he starts crying to the Godfather and he's like,
Speaker 1: I just need this part. This part is going to
Speaker 1: change me. It's going to redefine me. You know, it's
Speaker 1: gonna people are gonna see me in a different way,
Speaker 1: like and trying to you know, and then he Brando
Speaker 1: slaps him and it's like, you know, stop crying. I
Speaker 1: remember that. Have you ever had that feeling on anything
Speaker 1: where you think I have to get this, this is
Speaker 1: gonna change my life, or this is gonna change how
Speaker 1: people see me in the in the business, or like
Speaker 1: this is it. Have you ever had that experience? Well?
Speaker 1: I have had that experience with Roles that I didn't
Speaker 1: think we're gonna make me, but roles that I really
Speaker 1: wanted to get that I felt like I had to get.
Speaker 1: I had to get and they were all against me. Um.
Speaker 1: But Smallville was the first time that when I saw
Speaker 1: the pilot David Nutter, who's one of the most brilliant
Speaker 1: directors there is. He did The Red Wedding, he did
Speaker 1: tons of shows that on TV now. But he came
Speaker 1: in and I did looping for the pilot, you know,
Speaker 1: a d R because some of the sound was good,
Speaker 1: and he showed me the opening and a scene that
Speaker 1: I had mind you, this is this is a guy
Speaker 1: me who I remember calling my father and saying, I'm
Speaker 1: doing this movie and he's like, what movie, who's in it?
Speaker 1: I go, it's an independent movie and he's like, well
Speaker 1: then it's not real. No, no, it's okay. So this
Speaker 1: is the kind of mentality that my parents had and
Speaker 1: not a lot of faith in me, and uh. I
Speaker 1: remember leaving that studio after seeing the opening of Small
Speaker 1: Villa in my my scene where I'm fencing, and I
Speaker 1: called my parents and I said, people are gonna know
Speaker 1: who I am after this role. People are gonna know me.
Speaker 1: I just felt it, and they're like really, I'm like, yes,
Speaker 1: get ready. But I don't know I've chipped away, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean throughout my career, I've kind of done great
Speaker 1: things and shitty things and everything in between. And you know,
Speaker 1: you learned from the shitty things, you learned from the
Speaker 1: great things, and you know you just kind of try
Speaker 1: to keep going. Yeah, and I think ultimately you don't
Speaker 1: ever know. I mean, I I think I've had a
Speaker 1: few of those, even things that I've gotten and then
Speaker 1: it was like, oh, you know, nobody watched or you know,
Speaker 1: got canceled or you know, like whatever. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know what made me think of that? But yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what, Brian, not to interrupt, to interrupt, you
Speaker 1: sot to interrupt. I just thought of this. I forgot
Speaker 1: I was doing this show. It was called Zoe, Duncan,
Speaker 1: Jack and Jane. They fired Jeremy Renner and then they
Speaker 1: fired this other guy and they called me into the
Speaker 1: room and I watched the pilot they had shot with
Speaker 1: Jeremy Renner, and I walked into this room of executives
Speaker 1: and I said, why would you fire that? He was
Speaker 1: so great? And they go and they looked at me.
Speaker 1: They go because of you, because of what you're just
Speaker 1: doing right now. And I remember they bought billboards and
Speaker 1: subway things, and they wanted this to be the next Sign, felt,
Speaker 1: the Young Sign felt. They poured money into it, Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers board everywhere you look, you see my face and
Speaker 1: Selma Blair and David Moscow and as You're a sky
Speaker 1: and I thought, Wow, this is going to be big,
Speaker 1: This is gonna be and it just went nowhere. It
Speaker 1: went nowhere. We did two seasons and the ratings weren't
Speaker 1: very good. The writing got worse because I think the
Speaker 1: creators got fired. Uh. And it was a shame he was.
Speaker 1: But you know that's why I think you learn as
Speaker 1: you get older that nothing's a slam dunk. In fact,
Speaker 1: everything's probably gonna not be a slam dunk. You just
Speaker 1: you just gotta go hit your mark, hopefully get paid,
Speaker 1: see what happens, to do the best you can. Ye,
Speaker 1: you get cast in Smallville. You're not a comic book
Speaker 1: guy as you as you said more in Horror. But
Speaker 1: I mean you're aware of of Gene Hackman. You're aware
Speaker 1: of you know. I mean, you're aware of Lex Luthor
Speaker 1: and this is like an iconic role that has been
Speaker 1: played by iconic actors in the past. Is there an
Speaker 1: added pressure or for you? Are you just trying to
Speaker 1: come up with your version? I mean it sounds like
Speaker 1: you felt confident early on that you came up with
Speaker 1: your version and kind of left the rest alone. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, at a convention of a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, this guy waits in line to see me,
Speaker 1: and then once he gets up to me, goes, Gene
Speaker 1: Hackman was the best Lex Luthor ever. And I looked
Speaker 1: at him and I go, I agree, And then it
Speaker 1: kind of sucked off. What and I do? I I
Speaker 1: love Gene Hackman. You know. I went in thinking, look,
Speaker 1: I'm an actor, make this reel, make this grounded, make
Speaker 1: this genuine. That's what I read in the audition. Just
Speaker 1: do that. Sure, there was like pressure. I was like,
Speaker 1: how could they be casting me on this goofball? I
Speaker 1: had done silly movies, silly TV shows, and now they're
Speaker 1: casting me as Lex freaking Louther. My friends were like,
Speaker 1: I can't see this. What do you? What do they want?
Speaker 1: What's happening? You have certain friends to ground you. That
Speaker 1: was that, But um, I just did it my way.
Speaker 1: I did it the way that I felt, and and
Speaker 1: the creators always told me this has gotta be real,
Speaker 1: this has gotta be genuine, and um no, no twirling
Speaker 1: of the mustache. No, I'm Lex Luthor and I just
Speaker 1: stuck with that. So um yeah, I don't think I
Speaker 1: had as much pressure as I would if there were
Speaker 1: more social media around that time. Was it your idea
Speaker 1: or was it the creator's idea for him to have
Speaker 1: that complexity and depth and be in a way sympathetic
Speaker 1: and charismatic, likable. What what was the discussion surrounding how
Speaker 1: he would be played? I think what they do? I
Speaker 1: think what creators and writers do is they have an
Speaker 1: idea of something and then the actor plays a part,
Speaker 1: and from that they start to see things that that
Speaker 1: actor is creating and the strengths that he has or
Speaker 1: she has. And I believe that as the show slowly
Speaker 1: went on, they started seeing certain things and they started
Speaker 1: writing for me, writing for what they know I could do,
Speaker 1: what I'm capable of, and they didn't know, you know,
Speaker 1: how explosive I could, because there were times when this
Speaker 1: character just explodes and goes through such hell that um,
Speaker 1: I think it was they were just seeing how it
Speaker 1: would work, and then once they saw that it worked,
Speaker 1: they would continue pushing that envelope. But I felt like
Speaker 1: it was always written to be charming, something behind the eyes,
Speaker 1: something a little dangerous, just like those notes that they
Speaker 1: gave me early on in the audition. They wanted to
Speaker 1: sense all those things at any given time, and I
Speaker 1: always kept that in mind. Yeah, how do you feel
Speaker 1: like Lex's and Superman's relationship was different in Small Field
Speaker 1: than than maybe other shows that we've seen or movies. Well,
Speaker 1: it was the first time that we saw the story.
Speaker 1: Before the story this was Clark Kent on his journey
Speaker 1: from adolescence, you know, and Lex Luthor's these guys become
Speaker 1: friends in the small town and slowly as their friends
Speaker 1: they go separate ways. And so that was an interesting dynamic.
Speaker 1: And how do you do it over the span of
Speaker 1: ten years. I mean, they did the best they could,
Speaker 1: and I think there were some great moments and some
Speaker 1: great arcs. But I found it to be really compelling
Speaker 1: and interesting. You know, you'd feel you'd root for Lex.
Speaker 1: There are people that you would really root for Alex
Speaker 1: because you saw what hell he went through as a child.
Speaker 1: And when you see a villain, I think that's the
Speaker 1: biggest problem with movies or TV now, if you're just
Speaker 1: seeing someone be evil, but if you see why they
Speaker 1: became evil, you see their childhood, the hell of it
Speaker 1: they went through, and how they got here, then you
Speaker 1: start to go, oh, but I understand, he shouldn't do that,
Speaker 1: and he's not good, but I you know, And and
Speaker 1: that's what I did love, because I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people did gravitate towards that character, even though they
Speaker 1: know inevitably will become so dark and um, you know,
Speaker 1: I always make the joke it's Clark Kent's fault that
Speaker 1: Lex became evil because he lied to me. If he
Speaker 1: wouldn't have lied about his secret, we would have been
Speaker 1: they've been best friends. We would have ruled the world together.
Speaker 1: Been great. Right. It's complicated, right because everyone knows and
Speaker 1: identifies already as ex luthor being a villain. In fact,
Speaker 1: you're named one of the sixty Nastiest villains of all time.
Speaker 1: But he is in a lot of ways, has some
Speaker 1: similarity to the great great television of this time, which
Speaker 1: was focused on the anti hero. For me, I mean,
Speaker 1: you talk about Walter White or Tony Soprano, you know,
Speaker 1: amazing characters who are sympathetic and at the same time
Speaker 1: incredibly evil. Really, you are in that line lex slash,
Speaker 1: you as in that line of characters created at this
Speaker 1: time that are sort of in that mold. I never
Speaker 1: thought about that, And that's really interesting when you talk
Speaker 1: about those characters. That's true with Walter White. You see
Speaker 1: that he's he's this science teacher, chemistry teacher, and you
Speaker 1: see that he's flawed and picked on by people, and
Speaker 1: he's just kind of going through the motions and just
Speaker 1: can't get any respect. And like then he finds out
Speaker 1: he has cancer or whatever and just a terrible existence,
Speaker 1: and then everything changes and then he becomes this evil guy,
Speaker 1: but you still kind of you want to like him
Speaker 1: throughout the way because like what he went through and
Speaker 1: like he's doing all these things, but he ends up
Speaker 1: at a point where you're just like, Okay, oh my god,
Speaker 1: he's gone too far, right, Yeah, I do like that.
Speaker 1: I think there needs to be more of that. I
Speaker 1: I you know, I want to root for you know,
Speaker 1: it's great if you if you root for the bad guy,
Speaker 1: if you're in a way, um just you know, if
Speaker 1: you could relate to you know, his past or you
Speaker 1: know what he's gone through. I think that's I think
Speaker 1: that's really interesting. That makes for interesting TV. Well, it's
Speaker 1: I don't know that I've shared this. Maybe maybe I
Speaker 1: have shared this. This is about me and I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to be talking to you. But when I was five,
Speaker 1: I was the Wicked Witch for Halloween. And I think
Speaker 1: that this is the time my dad caught some ship
Speaker 1: for it. I mean he never specifically said, like who
Speaker 1: said what, but that like his son is full green
Speaker 1: make up the Wicked Witch of the West obviously in
Speaker 1: the dress and the pat and the whole deal. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't just that, but even early on as a kid,
Speaker 1: those Disney characters, it was always the bad guys, and
Speaker 1: still to this day. I mean, the Wicked Witch of
Speaker 1: the West is the most interesting character, and the Wizard
Speaker 1: of Oz. Let's be clear, those characters are so compelling
Speaker 1: and complex that I think for me as a kid,
Speaker 1: I gravitated toward them and it didn't you know, gender, bad, whatever,
Speaker 1: didn't even matter. It was like what they were just
Speaker 1: such great characters, right. Yeah, the Wicked Witch of the
Speaker 1: West is one of the scariest characters or villains in
Speaker 1: the history of cinema, hands down. I have a giant
Speaker 1: portrait of her. I think Elmira mulch and h. I
Speaker 1: have it downstairs and still to this day, I I
Speaker 1: she scares me, so I don't see anything wrong with that. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: your time on on Smallville comes to an end ten
Speaker 1: ten years. I did seven seven for you. Uh, talk
Speaker 1: to me when you find out it's coming to an end.
Speaker 1: Are you happy at this point? Do you feel like
Speaker 1: your time is done? Yeah? You know, my contract was
Speaker 1: for six years. I signed on for a seventh and
Speaker 1: they wanted me for three more years, and I just
Speaker 1: felt like I had done all that I could, and
Speaker 1: I felt like I was getting bored with the same
Speaker 1: kind of storyline and I've done what I needed to do,
Speaker 1: and so I just decided I'd let them know ahead
Speaker 1: of time that this is my last season. And a
Speaker 1: lot of people thought I quit the show, and I
Speaker 1: was like, no, I actually signed on for another year.
Speaker 1: I just I'm not gonna do ten years of this.
Speaker 1: So it was emotional. In fact, I came back for
Speaker 1: the final episode the series finale, and we did and
Speaker 1: I'm glad I did it. It would kind of like
Speaker 1: put an exclamation point on the end of my run
Speaker 1: on the show and the show itself, but um, it
Speaker 1: was emotional. These people that and you know that us.
Speaker 1: I've spent more time with Natalie, my makeup artist, than
Speaker 1: I have with my mother and my entire life. Right
Speaker 1: in my entire life. I've had more conversations in the
Speaker 1: in two days than I've ever had with my mother.
Speaker 1: She was my mother, she was my family. All these
Speaker 1: the crew, and it was just like, these are people
Speaker 1: that you walk every day. You see, this is your life.
Speaker 1: And so when it ended, it was it was depression.
Speaker 1: I was just like, oh my god, this is an
Speaker 1: end of an era. This is ten months a year
Speaker 1: for seven years. And it took some time to sort
Speaker 1: of like kind of clean that in my system and
Speaker 1: and move on to start directing and do my podcasts
Speaker 1: and do other things, and so, uh, it definitely was
Speaker 1: emotional and um an amazing time of my life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you talked about having no voice over experience earlier, but
Speaker 1: you do Justice League. How many years of Justice League?
Speaker 1: Are you still doing it? No? I did Justice League
Speaker 1: for three or four years, but then I've done like
Speaker 1: Thornberry's the Jackie Chan Chronicles. Uh, there were tons. I've
Speaker 1: done so much voiceover and all that. But what's funny
Speaker 1: is I was doing so well with voiceover and then
Speaker 1: I got in more into acting. I started doing more
Speaker 1: TV and movies, and I kind of let the voiceover
Speaker 1: stuff go away. And now I'm trying to get back
Speaker 1: into it, and it's like this little click. It's hard
Speaker 1: to get back into. I'm like, they have their guys,
Speaker 1: they don't want me anymore, and people like, yes, that's
Speaker 1: your good voice, but well, what do you want me
Speaker 1: to do about it? So I try to get back
Speaker 1: into it. I'd like to do more ride with ease, Chevrolet.
Speaker 1: I'd like to do a Chevrolet spot. Do you do
Speaker 1: a lot? I do some, I don't do a lot.
Speaker 1: I've gotten quite a bit of projects, but I'm still
Speaker 1: not one of I'm not in that click that you're
Speaker 1: referring to. And for those of you who don't know,
Speaker 1: it's because your face is not seen. There are directors
Speaker 1: and cat thing directors and very talented ones who again
Speaker 1: know who's reliable and who's nice to work with. And
Speaker 1: because it's not about seeing the same face over and
Speaker 1: over and people can change their voice, they just call
Speaker 1: the same people. And so it's very difficult. It's very
Speaker 1: difficult to get on that that speed dial. It is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I want to be in that world again. Though.
Speaker 1: It's a fun world. It's cool people, it's a it's easy,
Speaker 1: it's you know, creative. I just I like you don't
Speaker 1: have to put makeup on to do voiceovers. Talk to
Speaker 1: me just a little bit about Impastor. Oh man, I
Speaker 1: love that show. It was the short lived show. Uh
Speaker 1: TV Land wanted to do something darker. It was about
Speaker 1: a guy who was a criminal who poses as a
Speaker 1: gay pastor in the small town. It was a funny
Speaker 1: quirky little show. You can watch the first two seasons
Speaker 1: on Hulu. People really love the show. It's just it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a fletched sort of character and way, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm funny, physical comedy, I'm a pot smoking imbecile,
Speaker 1: and just all the trouble that he gets into and
Speaker 1: in the sweet little town working for this church giving
Speaker 1: fake sermons and came out like four or five years ago.
Speaker 1: I love doing it. It was a great job. And uh,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, they canceled after two seasons. They said
Speaker 1: at the time they just wanted something more female oriented.
Speaker 1: So I was like, well, I guess this isn't it. Well,
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed the show, and uh, I enjoyed the
Speaker 1: show since reading the pilot. Someone sent me the pilot
Speaker 1: to read. Apparently somebody thought someone else would do a
Speaker 1: better job as the as the impastor. I don't know,
Speaker 1: you're a pastor too. I did, Yes, I did, and
Speaker 1: I would have been great in a different way. I
Speaker 1: would have not been you. You would have been you
Speaker 1: would have been you. I would have been me and
Speaker 1: not about you. But I actually I thought the script
Speaker 1: was so great. It was one of those where I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, yeah, I would love to do this.
Speaker 1: I would love because again, it would have been very,
Speaker 1: very different for me. Um, but apparently they went with you.
Speaker 1: That didn't last long. But it was a blast. It
Speaker 1: was a blast, It was a dream job. I wish
Speaker 1: that show would have went on. A lot of people
Speaker 1: wanted that show to continue, and uh, it would have
Speaker 1: been fun. But you know, that's that's life. That's that's
Speaker 1: the industry. That's the industry. I could talk to you forever. Gardens,
Speaker 1: Guardians of the Galaxy. Now you're coming back for part three? Yes,
Speaker 1: some Part three I filmed last year and I also
Speaker 1: filmed this year, So I'm coming back as Martin X,
Speaker 1: who in the comments was one of the original Guardians.
Speaker 1: Now he's a Ravager. I'm I'm sliced alone sidekick coming
Speaker 1: back for Guardians three, which will be out in two
Speaker 1: thousand twenty three. And then I got my podcasts one
Speaker 1: that you were on. I love it. I have been
Speaker 1: going back to listen, favorite favorite interview. Well you Honestly,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying because you're here, but you were fantastic
Speaker 1: when you left. That was like, that was freaking great.
Speaker 1: You're just so charismatic and fun to be around. That's
Speaker 1: why we must eat chili and go golf. And we will,
Speaker 1: we will do that. We will. Besides me though, UM,
Speaker 1: I love Bob oden Kirk, I loved Judd Apatel, I
Speaker 1: loved uh Zach Levy, Stephen M. L from Arrow, I
Speaker 1: love Henry Winkler. Um. I mean there are so many
Speaker 1: great ones that I really love Crispin Glover. Um. But
Speaker 1: it's it's great. You know. What I love about the
Speaker 1: podcast is that we talked about someone's life, but it's
Speaker 1: very candid. It's not very you know, two actors talking,
Speaker 1: but it's more about people and talking about you know,
Speaker 1: mental health and life and how they get by, how
Speaker 1: they face adversity. And so it's called Inside of You
Speaker 1: with micro rosamum. So and you're you're one of my
Speaker 1: favorite guests ever. And uh it was exciting listen. I
Speaker 1: truly I could talk to you all day. We discussed
Speaker 1: we have to keep it to an hour. Maybe they'll
Speaker 1: be apart, maybe there'll be a part two at some point.
Speaker 1: Any anytime I've been known to do that. UM. I
Speaker 1: have so so enjoyed getting to know you both on
Speaker 1: on your podcast and here today, and uh, this is
Speaker 1: the start of a beautiful thing. That's what I said.
Speaker 1: That's what really is to the start of think so too.
Speaker 1: I I adore you, I adore your talent, adore you
Speaker 1: having me on the show. I can't wait to hang
Speaker 1: out with you and your Your producers are very lovely,
Speaker 1: high ladies. Good to see you well. They are amazing. Uh, Michael,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. That was amazing. You know it,
Speaker 1: I know it. Everyone knows it. Thank you, Michael, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Great talking to you. Thank you for
Speaker 1: stopping by. Listeners. Make sure you check out his podcast
Speaker 1: Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum to see what it's
Speaker 1: like when our roles are reversed. I asked him questions,
Speaker 1: he asks me questions. Spoiler alert, It is awesome. While
Speaker 1: you're at it, give us a follow at Off the
Speaker 1: Beat on Instagram. Tell your five closest friends how amazing
Speaker 1: this podcast is. That would be your gift to me.
Speaker 1: Tell five people how much you enjoyed listening to the
Speaker 1: podcast today, and I will consider you my new best friends. Yep,
Speaker 1: that's all. I'll be back next week, same time, but
Speaker 1: with a new guest and a new episode. For your
Speaker 1: well you're listening. Pleasure, We'll see you then. Off the
Speaker 1: Beat is hosted an executive produced by me Brian ba Gartner,
Speaker 1: alongside our executive producer Langley. Our producers are Diego Tapia,
Speaker 1: Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris and Emily Carr. Our talent producer
Speaker 1: is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is Sammy Katz.
Speaker 1: Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great
Speaker 1: friend Creed Bratton,