Speaker 1: I want to talk about the charity event. I missed
Speaker 1: the charity event due to looking like I had a
Speaker 1: flesh eating virus. You did, please tell me about it.
Speaker 2: What was it like?
Speaker 3: First of all, we raised eighty thousand.
Speaker 2: Dollars, oh my gosh for charity.
Speaker 3: Which is great.
Speaker 4: And one of the trapper keepers, Matt's trapper keeper, went
Speaker 4: for nine grand.
Speaker 3: Just because he.
Speaker 5: Included all his notes like on the game, like his
Speaker 5: whole story notes and everything people, so I kind of
Speaker 5: wanted to keep it nine grand.
Speaker 4: But yeah, yeah, So we had so much fun and
Speaker 4: it was funny because one of the things we talked
Speaker 4: about during the so we all, you know, we're playing
Speaker 4: dagger Heart, which is critical roles like the game they
Speaker 4: invented that they've been working on for years years, their
Speaker 4: role playing game system, and Matt gmmed for us, Matt Mercer,
Speaker 4: and we had so much fun. But one of the
Speaker 4: things you get you're allowed to pick your different like
Speaker 4: the things you have in your pockets, all the equipment
Speaker 4: that you have with you.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that I think was it Stacey.
Speaker 4: Did Stacy have a Youth in Film Award? Who had
Speaker 4: the youth that was Ashley Johnson. Ashley had a Youth
Speaker 4: in Film Award.
Speaker 5: No, it was that that wasn't her object, that was
Speaker 5: her background experience.
Speaker 6: We were trying to think, like because we were trying
Speaker 6: to think what skills do we have?
Speaker 5: And it was like, well it should be linked to
Speaker 5: something you've done, and your character is done in their life.
Speaker 5: So if you were come from a sailing family, you
Speaker 5: would know how to tie knots and.
Speaker 6: You know that would be your experience.
Speaker 3: So like I picked up my guy.
Speaker 5: It was like good with card tricks and could do
Speaker 5: like poker, and she's just like, I have a Youth
Speaker 5: in Film Award and we're all like, what is that? Well,
Speaker 5: actually that's okay, and we kept playing with it, and
Speaker 5: how did she use it? She used it in the
Speaker 5: game I think.
Speaker 4: Because she remember she turned into the guy. She she
Speaker 4: was actually able to morph into another character. And her
Speaker 4: experience as an actor when she won a Youth and
Speaker 4: Film Award allowed her advantage on her role to today.
Speaker 5: Worked and she got like a critical role so that
Speaker 5: he was like, okay, I guess you just convinced you know,
Speaker 5: you as this fifteen year old girl just convinced the
Speaker 5: security guards that you're the head of the studio.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: And it made me go through my stuff and find awards.
Speaker 2: You were nominated.
Speaker 4: My nomination for my Youth and Film Award, Yes for
Speaker 4: outstanding contribution to the Entertainment industry recognition of acknowledging. My
Speaker 4: nomination is outstanding Hope for a youth magazine, news or
Speaker 4: Game show for totally Kids Sports in nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 2: Look at that. Thank you very much, SOE for philm Freedom.
Speaker 3: So you missed, you missed a fun night.
Speaker 6: One of the funnest times I've had in a long time.
Speaker 5: It was really.
Speaker 3: Everybody got into it.
Speaker 5: It was surprising how much joy it brought me. It
Speaker 5: was like I came home and I was like buzzing.
Speaker 5: I couldn't go to sleep, and I just wanted to
Speaker 5: play again the next day. And then Christine Laken, who
Speaker 5: had never played before, and Jodie Sweeten, who had never play.
Speaker 3: I started getting texts the next day like can you
Speaker 3: do this again? Yeah, we should get a home we
Speaker 3: have to.
Speaker 6: Now I'm so into it.
Speaker 3: I realized it.
Speaker 5: Like I was trying to explain it to Alex because
Speaker 5: she's never done role playing, and you know, she's always
Speaker 5: kind of been like what D and D.
Speaker 6: I don't quite get this.
Speaker 5: And you know, I think a lot of actors think
Speaker 5: of it as like kind of a waste of time
Speaker 5: or like a waste of their creative energy, you know,
Speaker 5: because it's like, oh, I'm an actor. I pretend to
Speaker 5: be people all the time. So the idea of like
Speaker 5: doing that for fun, but this it specifically tapped into
Speaker 5: playing on the playground with friends when you're a kid
Speaker 5: and you're like just telling a story together and you're like.
Speaker 6: Now you're a pirate and now we're running over here.
Speaker 5: It brings that feeling back, which is a very specific
Speaker 5: type of play, and I just couldn't get over. I
Speaker 5: was like, I just want to do this again and again.
Speaker 5: It was really fun and really funny.
Speaker 6: Oh my god.
Speaker 5: I mean there was one like we're the best, the best,
Speaker 5: my favorite moment. At one point, Christine Laken as her
Speaker 5: objects in her backpack or whatever she decided, and she
Speaker 5: hadn't told us this, but in the middle of the game,
Speaker 5: we needed to like sneak across an area and she
Speaker 5: was like, guys, I have ten backwards baseball hats and
Speaker 5: we could, and Jody Sweeten.
Speaker 3: Just goes wouldn't those just be hats lost it and
Speaker 3: we all just lost it for like.
Speaker 5: Two minutes of not of not being able to tre laughing.
Speaker 3: So I were like, yes, you would just have hats
Speaker 3: and you put them on back. No, no, no, there's
Speaker 3: there's no bills. You can't say this.
Speaker 7: It was.
Speaker 4: It was really really fun. And their system, their dagger
Speaker 4: Heart system, it's very fast. You don't for anybody who
Speaker 4: knows D and D. There's a lot more to D
Speaker 4: and D meaning there's like you have to roll for initiative,
Speaker 4: you have to do it, and they kind of cut
Speaker 4: through all that with dagger Heart, so you're just kind
Speaker 4: of playing. It's a great system. It's really fun. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we had and Matt Mercer is just clearly the best. Yes,
Speaker 4: he's the best game master I've ever seen anybody like
Speaker 4: sEH because he's.
Speaker 5: So committed, he's so responsive, he never hesitates, he just goes,
Speaker 5: and he's so giving but also harsh. Like it was
Speaker 5: hard at times. Yeah, I mean we didn't make our Yeah,
Speaker 5: Will didn't. I didn't make it his character sacrifice to
Speaker 5: save us. I sacrificed myself or three of us also
Speaker 5: got unconscious and new death at times.
Speaker 4: It was I went out in a blazing glory, Joey
Speaker 4: Squawk Powers went out in a blazing glory and blaze
Speaker 4: of glory.
Speaker 3: He really did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it also sounds like a blaze of gory.
Speaker 8: It was.
Speaker 2: It was glory glory.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we were battling aliens.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, studio executives.
Speaker 2: I was sad to miss it.
Speaker 1: I did see one person comment in the live stream
Speaker 1: I think Danielle tore her him string just to avoid.
Speaker 3: This, You're just trying to do first split.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, I'm actually I'm really sad I missed it.
Speaker 1: It looked really fun and it was probably less painful
Speaker 1: than the thing I was.
Speaker 2: I would say, it's going there, Welcome to vad meets World.
Speaker 2: I'm Danielle Offishal, I'm right or Strong, and I'm wil Fredell.
Speaker 1: The side quest of looking to talk to everyone who
Speaker 1: appeared on a Boy Meets World episode has been an
Speaker 1: arduous one. It's a difficult task, but we committed to
Speaker 1: it years ago and were sticking to it. So this
Speaker 1: week we are talking to a busy child actor who
Speaker 1: made not one but two stops on our set that
Speaker 1: without this podcast we would have never seen again, and
Speaker 1: we'd be so bummed because he has quite a story
Speaker 1: to tell. He was the definition of a character actor
Speaker 1: even before he hit his teen years. When people think
Speaker 1: of our industry, it often gets lost that actors can
Speaker 1: make a living and pursue their art without ever needing
Speaker 1: to be a leading man. And today we have an
Speaker 1: example of someone who's been perfecting the drive by for
Speaker 1: over thirty years and he has never had a pause
Speaker 1: on his resume. He's been on TV shows like Family Matters,
Speaker 1: Party of Five, The West Wing, Zoe, One oh One,
Speaker 1: thunder Alley, Patriot, and Workaholics.
Speaker 2: That's it, Yeah, I know right.
Speaker 1: And he's been in movies like Jingle All the Way,
Speaker 1: Karna Corinna, Dear God, and Max Keeble's Big Move. But
Speaker 1: you'll know him best from Little Giants, a Bad News
Speaker 1: Bears inspired Pop Warner football movie from nineteen ninety one
Speaker 1: where he was coached by Rick Moranis and surrounded by
Speaker 1: other adorable young actors spending a few months putting on
Speaker 1: the pads and making a movie together. And we were
Speaker 1: lucky enough to have him in two season four episodes
Speaker 1: Janitor Dad and Quiz Show, and Yes, in.
Speaker 2: Perfect Boy, Meets World fashion He played.
Speaker 1: Kid Number one and Einstein Kid two, completely different yet
Speaker 1: unnamed character. Now we are thrilled to welcome to the
Speaker 1: podcast to mark off another guest star. It's Marcus Toji.
Speaker 9: Hello, how are you.
Speaker 8: I'm good, Good to see you all.
Speaker 2: Nice to see you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here with us. You
Speaker 1: are a two timer on Boy Meets World. Two episodes,
Speaker 1: two different characters, which Boy Meets World did often with
Speaker 1: actors we loved, but yours is especially rare because you
Speaker 1: did them in the same season. So I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you about that. Where did What is your
Speaker 1: origin story to Hollywood, because by the time you made
Speaker 1: it to us on Boy Meets World, you were already
Speaker 1: a seasoned VET.
Speaker 8: Yeah. I mean I started acting. I'm born and raised
Speaker 8: in La. I'm sure a lot of people are, but
Speaker 8: I started acting when I was like three, doing like commercials,
Speaker 8: oh wow. And and then you know, just doing you know,
Speaker 8: guest spot co star stuff on lots of kids TV shows.
Speaker 8: Uh And then I mean I think was it the
Speaker 8: the year before, I like, I just recently listened to
Speaker 8: your podcast with Maddie and uh so he did the
Speaker 8: Sandlot And then the year later they started casting for
Speaker 8: Little Giants, which is a football movie, and but that
Speaker 8: was what everyone was. You know, everyone's eyes were on
Speaker 8: the sandlot because it was so good. Yeah, and so
Speaker 8: we you know, auditioned for that, got it, and then
Speaker 8: you know that's over, and then you go back to
Speaker 8: the grind, you know, just auditioning, and then and then
Speaker 8: I you know, I get onto Boy Meant's World, which
Speaker 8: was like, I mean, there was season four. You guys
Speaker 8: all knew what you were doing. You were you were
Speaker 8: in the thick of it, and so you know, I'm
Speaker 8: just coming on and I'm I'm a younger kid that
Speaker 8: that that Sean is is picking on and uh yeah,
Speaker 8: I mean it was. It was. It was a great
Speaker 8: experience because we all knew the show.
Speaker 1: You know, so you started at three? What was it
Speaker 1: about you? I'm assuming your parents.
Speaker 2: Who was it who said this kid has what it takes? Who?
Speaker 2: And what was it about you they saw?
Speaker 8: So the story is like a little a little fuzzy
Speaker 8: on the details because I just hear it.
Speaker 6: From my mom.
Speaker 8: So my oldest brother. I think it was one of
Speaker 8: those like mall things like some person, yeah pictures.
Speaker 3: And my mom was like a cigar of course.
Speaker 2: Pictures kid, Hey, exactly do you mind if I take
Speaker 2: your picture?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 8: Now, yeah, you can't do that now.
Speaker 1: It used to happen to me at the park, real.
Speaker 8: Crazy your kids and you thing. Yeah so we uh
Speaker 8: so he he didn't do anything. I have two older brothers.
Speaker 8: He he like, I think they took head shots and
Speaker 8: he was like, this is dumb. I don't want to
Speaker 8: do this. And then my middle brother, he actually went
Speaker 8: on some auditions, did some commercials, but my mom always
Speaker 8: had to like drag me along, uh to take him
Speaker 8: to auditions anyways, and I always wanted to go in
Speaker 8: the room because for commercials, like they take all the
Speaker 8: kids in the room and they always come out.
Speaker 2: Laughing yeah you know, oh yeah, and so you know,
Speaker 2: I mean yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, depending on how depends on there, how how
Speaker 8: much pressure your parents put on it and uh. And
Speaker 8: so eventually they're like, yeah, bring him, you know, bring
Speaker 8: him in. And then I had a great time, and
Speaker 8: and then they were like okay, you know, my mom's
Speaker 8: like sure, let's let's sign them up. And my agent,
Speaker 8: you know that agent, uh, sign me up. And and
Speaker 8: then I've been doing it ever since.
Speaker 3: So you don't ever remember not acting exactly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean did you ever take classes or like
Speaker 5: get into acting as a craft or did it just
Speaker 5: keep coming naturally?
Speaker 8: No? No, I uh, I mean, you know, like being
Speaker 8: a kid actor. I mean I feel like everyone you
Speaker 8: all experience this is that your skill, your your like
Speaker 8: natural talent as a kid only takes you to a
Speaker 8: certain point. Yeah, exactly, and then you have to like go, oh,
Speaker 8: I can't be the precocious, you know, six year old anymore.
Speaker 8: I need to be a little I need to deliver
Speaker 8: the line a little bit better. Or now it's I
Speaker 8: can't just do one line, I've got to do five
Speaker 8: lines and then wait, you know, and then do the
Speaker 8: next one. So yeah, so like constantly kind of taking
Speaker 8: class throughout my life. And then I think it was
Speaker 8: in like you take little classes here that you're as
Speaker 8: a kid there you can't be in like.
Speaker 3: A four hour you know, uh workshop script works.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 8: So uh yeah, so I took classes. I mean I
Speaker 8: like school, like even just like elementary school or like
Speaker 8: middle school, high school. I got more. That was the
Speaker 8: time for me, whereas like, well do I want to
Speaker 8: keep doing this or do I not? Because that's the
Speaker 8: perfect time to go I'm out, and I wanted to
Speaker 8: keep doing it, so I got more into you know,
Speaker 8: like theater in high school and then and then from
Speaker 8: there I took classes like the well known classes in
Speaker 8: LA and you know, I learned a lot from them.
Speaker 8: I'm actually like, I should probably go back because because
Speaker 8: acting changes, like you know, just like what's funny right now,
Speaker 8: in five years is gonna be like well, you kind
Speaker 8: of have to follow the trends of what's on TV
Speaker 8: or you know, or film. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, growing up in Los Angeles at your school, were
Speaker 4: you the only actor because we're we're you know, we're
Speaker 4: not from around here where it's like born and raised
Speaker 4: in Los Angeles. So did you have other child actors
Speaker 4: that you were actually going to school with. I mean,
Speaker 4: your school must have been kind of used to the
Speaker 4: idea of, oh, they have to leave for auditions.
Speaker 8: I think no one's like used to it, like like
Speaker 8: like you know, teachers and stuff. But in California, like
Speaker 8: Los Angeles, it is a legit reason to leave school.
Speaker 8: Like it's the same as like sick or breathement. And
Speaker 8: so there was always like, oh, he's gonna be just
Speaker 8: gone for a week for like for something Okay, let's
Speaker 8: see elementary school. I mean, I'm sure there were people
Speaker 8: that were, like there might have been kids who were actors,
Speaker 8: like as like a hobby like where they did it
Speaker 8: for maybe like a year and then quit. And then
Speaker 8: like middle school, I don't think anyone. Uh, but at
Speaker 8: that point, like I had done a few things. I'd argued.
Speaker 8: By the time I was in middle school, I already
Speaker 8: done Boy Meets World and I had done some other things,
Speaker 8: so people kind of like recognize me, so they're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 8: he's that he's that kid. But then that was the
Speaker 8: first place I had like any kind of like theater stuff.
Speaker 8: So like the teacher she was also my English teacher,
Speaker 8: but she was also also the drama teacher, and uh,
Speaker 8: I think she kind of was like seriously, like you're
Speaker 8: going on, like you get to work right by uh.
Speaker 8: And then high school, I think there was quite a
Speaker 8: few people who was like parents were like producers, right,
Speaker 8: and so none of the kids haired like I had
Speaker 8: friends that did homeschool because they would get like bullied
Speaker 8: in in their school, like, oh, kids would just give
Speaker 8: them a hard time and stuff. And I mean I
Speaker 8: was very lucky that it didn't happen because I wasn't special.
Speaker 8: You know, it wasn't like, oh he thinks he's hot,
Speaker 8: but you know, it was like, yeah, well my dad,
Speaker 8: you know, produced blah blah blah. Or I think I
Speaker 8: think a girl I knew his father directed a Break
Speaker 8: into Electric Boogaloo.
Speaker 3: So great movie.
Speaker 4: God, that's when they danced to save the Youth Center.
Speaker 4: So great movie. Great movie.
Speaker 1: One of your first jobs was a guest spot on
Speaker 1: a show called Drexel's Class Right. It was starring a
Speaker 1: big name that Will worked with too.
Speaker 2: Dad Coleman. Yes, what do you remember from that job?
Speaker 8: So that one. I think that was one of my
Speaker 8: first jobs where I was there like the whole week.
Speaker 8: I was like, I was like looking at it, I
Speaker 8: was like, I didn't need to be there the whole week.
Speaker 8: It's the Dabney Coleman is like he's a teacher at
Speaker 8: this like inner city school, and for some reason he
Speaker 8: has to go around being Santa Claus at like malls,
Speaker 8: and so I'm like a kid that you know, like
Speaker 8: comes to the mall like we take a picture, and
Speaker 8: I'm like asking for all these things and he's like, yeah, yeah, whatever,
Speaker 8: just write it down and you know, and then he
Speaker 8: moves on to the to the next kid. But I
Speaker 8: remember it was it was kind of amazing. It was
Speaker 8: that like it was the to be on a multiicam set,
Speaker 8: like you know, you guys, you guys lived it. But
Speaker 8: it's like it's very strange for everybody else to be like, oh,
Speaker 8: that's the school, and right on the other side of
Speaker 8: this wall it's his apartment, you know, and right on
Speaker 8: the other side of that wall is a restaurant, you know,
Speaker 8: and and so it is kind of you know, you know,
Speaker 8: mind boggling to be like I'm gonna walk through one
Speaker 8: door and just end up in a completely different space.
Speaker 8: And then I think one kid had like he it
Speaker 8: was it wasn't a musical, but like he does a
Speaker 8: rap in the middle of this thing. So just watching
Speaker 8: a kid who's not much older than me do something
Speaker 8: like that in front of all these people was was
Speaker 8: pretty cool. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that was pretty inspiring. You were like, look
Speaker 2: what he can do.
Speaker 8: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And then in nineteen ninety four you end up in
Speaker 1: two huge movies. First is Karina Krina with Whoopi Goldberg
Speaker 1: and Rayleiota. That is a big first movie were you.
Speaker 2: Nervous to try something outside of TV.
Speaker 8: Not nervous to get out of TV. It's like it
Speaker 8: was an audition like any other. Yeah, you know, you
Speaker 8: go into a office and you know this person, They're like, hi, okay,
Speaker 8: let's do it.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 8: It was it was a one liner, you know, and
Speaker 8: and uh, it was supposed to be like my mom. Oh,
Speaker 8: the woman who plays my mom is supposed to be
Speaker 8: interviewing for the job that will be Goldberg gets okay,
Speaker 8: and so but she's like I think she yeah, she's
Speaker 8: she is Japanese because in the sixties, like there's plenty
Speaker 8: of like Japanese school, but she only spoke Japanese and
Speaker 8: so she's so Rayleiota is like interviewing her, and she's
Speaker 8: I'm the translator and uh uh as as I as
Speaker 8: I learned a lot of kids were for their you know, uh,
Speaker 8: non English speaking parents.
Speaker 9: Uh uh.
Speaker 8: And you know, she says like, you know, I don't
Speaker 8: do windows, and so I'm like, and no windows, and
Speaker 8: I had to do like an accent and I do
Speaker 8: not speak Japanese. Uh, and I don't have an accent,
Speaker 8: and so it was kind of like, oh, okay, and
Speaker 8: like it didn't have to be good, you know, it's
Speaker 8: like one of those things like his kids like didn't
Speaker 8: have to be good, just had to be good enough.
Speaker 8: But I did get to meet Rayleiota and he was
Speaker 8: very nice, you know, like it's I guess might be
Speaker 8: you would think that big celebrities like don't have time
Speaker 8: for kids, but but in my experience, they were just
Speaker 8: very nice. They're just cordial. They they they realize like
Speaker 8: you aren't unless they learn very quickly that you're a
Speaker 8: piece of boot where they're gonna be nice to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's good.
Speaker 4: I think big actors actually take more time to be
Speaker 4: nice to kids sometimes than other big actors like the
Speaker 4: you know, they're they're nice to the kids, and the
Speaker 4: adults on the side did.
Speaker 3: Not always have really yeah, I never had a bad
Speaker 3: I never had a problem with the adults.
Speaker 5: I've talked about my Bert Reynolds time, and I hear
Speaker 5: Burt Reynolds had a problem with basically everyone in the world.
Speaker 3: It starts exactly yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, coincidentally, we have talked to a lot of Asian
Speaker 1: actors from the eighties and nineties on this podcast. Stephen
Speaker 1: park Ernie, ray Is Junior Keon Young and everyone has
Speaker 1: such unique journeys with such little representation back during that time.
Speaker 1: Who did you look up to on TV or in movies?
Speaker 8: Well, you know, let's see coming up. I mean Ernie
Speaker 8: Race Junior. I'm like, I'm glad you mentioned him because
Speaker 8: like he was teenage. He was Keynoteles and that was
Speaker 8: one of those things like I didn't do martial arts,
Speaker 8: but just seeing him, you're just like, oh cool, like
Speaker 8: it was. It was funny just growing up in that
Speaker 8: time for us, it was like you saw one kid,
Speaker 8: one Asian kid, You're like, oh, hey, it's an Asian
Speaker 8: kid or your my mom would be like, oh there's
Speaker 8: an Asian guy, right, and like uh l A newscasters
Speaker 8: that were like celebrities. You know. It was like it
Speaker 8: was like Rob Fuguzaki or or was it Susan here Asuna.
Speaker 8: You know those are the names. You're just like, oh wow,
Speaker 8: they they're on They're they're on TV. I mean I
Speaker 8: knew some of them, you know, like it all. Although
Speaker 8: he probably doesn't. He doesn't get a lot of uh
Speaker 8: good press because of what he did, but it was
Speaker 8: Getty Watanabe was in he was long duck Dong.
Speaker 3: Yeah, in sixteen Candles.
Speaker 8: Yes, you know, great guy. He played my dad uh
Speaker 8: in like a PBS thing and you know, great guy
Speaker 8: and you know you I look and it's even to judge,
Speaker 8: but you're like, he wanted to be an actor.
Speaker 7: That was the part that came along, and he was
Speaker 7: in the whole movie. Yeah, you know Volunteers too. I
Speaker 7: don't know if you ever saw Tom him in Volunteers
Speaker 7: with Tom Hanks. Oh, no, great movie, Tom Hanks, John
Speaker 7: Candy Getty, wata nab amazing well and then.
Speaker 8: Well, and then you know that that wasn't that was
Speaker 8: like his first big one. But like, yeah, he said
Speaker 8: Volunteers and then he did that. Uh oh it was
Speaker 8: Michael Keaton and it was the Japanese Gun. He's great
Speaker 8: in that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Uh and then uhf with weird Al Yankovic. Like Okay,
Speaker 8: here's what I can name all.
Speaker 4: The movies, and and most of them are that's the thing.
Speaker 4: Most of them have hit that icon status. So yes, yeah,
Speaker 4: problematic when you look back at them, some of them
Speaker 4: through the lens of now.
Speaker 3: But you can't do that.
Speaker 4: You're right, he's an actor who's getting an audition and
Speaker 4: you go in and you you do your best to nail.
Speaker 3: That role, and he did. He nailed every role he played.
Speaker 4: So you know, you have to look at it like that,
Speaker 4: like an actor where you just go in and you're like,
Speaker 4: this is the material I'm given and I'm going to
Speaker 4: take the material off the page and make it even better.
Speaker 3: And he was great at.
Speaker 8: That, and you know it's he the fact that you know,
Speaker 8: the past allows me to be who I like want
Speaker 8: to authentically be. And so like I've turned down an
Speaker 8: audition here there because I'm like, I don't feel like
Speaker 8: this is right. Don't first I don't think it's good.
Speaker 8: And if it was good and not right, then you're like, okay,
Speaker 8: then that it it. You can make it something. Yeah,
Speaker 8: this is like bad and it's not right. What's even
Speaker 8: the point?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 8: And there was some there was some movie that I
Speaker 8: had an audition for that I turned down the audition, Uh,
Speaker 8: and then I saw the movie. They just cut the
Speaker 8: whole part out. And I wouldn't be surprised if it
Speaker 8: was they either A had enough actors that said I'm
Speaker 8: gonna pass, and then maybe it's like, well why are
Speaker 8: all these actors passing all this part? But probably because
Speaker 8: it's not you know good.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, interesting.
Speaker 8: But then who else, well, Dante Bosco, Yeah who uh?
Speaker 8: He and my my older brother, they were about they're
Speaker 8: about the same agent, so they would audition against each other.
Speaker 8: Dante would always get the part. Yeah exactly. Uh. But
Speaker 8: I ran into him. I think it was auditioning for
Speaker 8: the Jake Long like Dragon Hunter. It was an animated show,
Speaker 8: and so I interviewed. I said probably Dante like I'm
Speaker 8: I'm Kirk's younger brother, and he goes, oh, yeah. So
Speaker 8: we talked a little bit and then maybe like at
Speaker 8: Comic Con years ago, he's just walking the floor like
Speaker 8: no one saw him, and they walked and was like, hey, Dante,
Speaker 8: good to see you. I'm cursals. He's like, yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Know, it's good to see you.
Speaker 8: Like my brother's friend knows who I am.
Speaker 3: That was one of those movies, Rufio, that was one
Speaker 3: of those movies.
Speaker 4: There was not a kid actor who did not see
Speaker 4: that movie and just was like salivating, Yeah, one of
Speaker 4: the Lost Boys.
Speaker 8: I was, And I think I was just just too
Speaker 8: young to audition for it, like just like just a
Speaker 8: little bit, you know, like and they had they had
Speaker 8: the Little Last Boy and I think it was like, no, no,
Speaker 8: we got a we gotta everyone's older.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh man.
Speaker 1: Was your family always super supportive of you following this path?
Speaker 2: Were they just thrilled that you were successful from such
Speaker 2: a young age.
Speaker 8: I yes, you know, I think it's one of those
Speaker 8: like getting work helps, you know, helps them feel a way.
Speaker 8: Neither of them are my my my mom is not
Speaker 8: in the industry and my dad wasn't in the industry
Speaker 8: at all, and so, you know, I think they obviously
Speaker 8: they were like cautious, you know, starting, but I think, uh,
Speaker 8: you know, they they might. They would take me to
Speaker 8: the auditions, they would be on set, you know, as
Speaker 8: they're required to. And I think by seeing me work,
Speaker 8: and you know, I think earning money, you know, helped,
Speaker 8: And so they were like, well, we don't you know,
Speaker 8: they're dealing with three kids. They're like, well, the third
Speaker 8: one doesn't need to pay for college, you know, like
Speaker 8: we don't have to pay for him, so let's just
Speaker 8: let's let him keep doing it as long as he
Speaker 8: wants to. And I think that was always I think
Speaker 8: what made them feel better was that they were like
Speaker 8: school requirements, like you had to get good enough grades
Speaker 8: and I was in public school, so you know, like
Speaker 8: they were like the teachers weren't going to go easy
Speaker 8: on you know, mor so there they were gonna So
Speaker 8: they were like, Okay, he has to get good enough
Speaker 8: grades to keep his work permit. If he doesn't do well,
Speaker 8: then he can't audition. And so I had this like
Speaker 8: I had this bar I had to meet, and so, yeah,
Speaker 8: they were always supportive, and but there was always the
Speaker 8: idea that look, if this isn't what you want to do,
Speaker 8: you just get out, you know, if you find something
Speaker 8: else interesting, quit because this is not something you do
Speaker 8: because oh man, the money and the fame.
Speaker 4: You know. Yes, I'm constantly amazed at the number of
Speaker 4: people that not only are the youngest in their families
Speaker 4: that become actors because I'm the same. I'm the youngest
Speaker 4: of three boys and I'm the same. And it was
Speaker 4: that same kind of thing where it's like the youngest.
Speaker 4: I think for some reason, I don't know if we
Speaker 4: we feel the need to perform more to be noticed
Speaker 4: in our family or whatever it is, but it's amazing.
Speaker 8: Well, I've heard two things. One that the young guest,
Speaker 8: you know, because they have the two older siblings and
Speaker 8: the parents. They're better at like reading people. So it's
Speaker 8: like whether they're you know, making jokes to keep the
Speaker 8: peace or just like, oh I better, you know, my
Speaker 8: brother's got to had a bad day. Either stay at
Speaker 8: us away or poke the bear, you know, like you
Speaker 8: can do one or the other. I heard this other
Speaker 8: I don't know if it's true, but I heard that
Speaker 8: all of all the NASA astronauts they've all been first
Speaker 8: or only children.
Speaker 3: Oh's like, fuse to me.
Speaker 8: I want to achieve this amazing well you act well.
Speaker 2: I want to get into the movie.
Speaker 1: Most of our listeners will recognize you from Little Giants,
Speaker 1: an absolute classic.
Speaker 2: Do you remember the audition?
Speaker 8: So it was with Janet Herschinson, who did I think
Speaker 8: quite a few of the Spielberg movies at that time
Speaker 8: legend and uh so she I don't remember the like
Speaker 8: audition and callback. I do remember the the like big call. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 8: I mean it was It wasn't even a screen test.
Speaker 8: It was like they got all the kids they liked
Speaker 8: from across the country because it was a it was
Speaker 8: a nationwide search for the kids. And we went to
Speaker 8: Amblin at Universal Studios and first they they like walk
Speaker 8: us through the office and then you see, I mean,
Speaker 8: they didn't set it up for us, but he's not
Speaker 8: poster for Schindler's List winning all these Academy Awards list.
Speaker 8: And then they they put us in the theater to wait,
Speaker 8: and they're just playing hook just kind of on on
Speaker 8: because they're like, it's gonna be a while. And then they,
Speaker 8: you know, they they take us like you know, row
Speaker 8: by row out and we wait along this this like wall,
Speaker 8: and at the end of the line is Steven Spielberg
Speaker 8: with I think one of the other executive producers. But
Speaker 8: now all the kids are just waiting, and so me
Speaker 8: and the kid who played Zoltec Michael's winer, we're just
Speaker 8: screwing around because we're just bored, you know, waiting on line.
Speaker 8: We know who Steven Spielberg is, it's not it's not like,
Speaker 8: you know, who's this old guy we have to talk to.
Speaker 8: We know who he is, but we're still kids, and
Speaker 8: so I think we were doing like the crane kick
Speaker 8: from Karate Kid then and and then we eventually gets
Speaker 8: to me and Michael, and Stephen goes, what were you
Speaker 8: guys doing over there? You know, what were you guys doing?
Speaker 8: And we just tell you know, like, oh, we were
Speaker 8: just messing around. We're doing the crane kick from Karate Kid.
Speaker 8: And he goes, oh, huh right, And I think you
Speaker 8: know that he said that they said this about other
Speaker 8: kids movies. They just wanted to see kids being kids.
Speaker 8: Ye and if they you know, if it's like everyone's
Speaker 8: like polite and sitting there and being comm it's like cool.
Speaker 8: And then when they get there they like turn it on,
Speaker 8: you know. And I think they just wanted to see
Speaker 8: kids who were just gonna mess around. And maybe, you know,
Speaker 8: the script was not done. The script went through so
Speaker 8: many revisions. I think maybe they also were like, well,
Speaker 8: maybe the kids will inspire us to you know, a
Speaker 8: little bit we can can put in there and then
Speaker 8: get the part actually I just get. I just get
Speaker 8: that I have been cast. And then we go to
Speaker 8: football camp.
Speaker 2: Were you athletic?
Speaker 8: No? So I think that they made a mistake is
Speaker 8: that they put us in football camp so that we
Speaker 8: learned like how to line up and how to play football.
Speaker 8: But I think they forgot that we're supposed to be
Speaker 8: bad at football, and so they trained us and so
Speaker 8: and so I think they like the said when we
Speaker 8: first started filming the too organized. They look like they
Speaker 8: know what they're they're doing. They can't. They're supposed to
Speaker 8: be a bad team, and so they had to kind
Speaker 8: of like just be like, guys, forget whether what we
Speaker 8: taught you. Yeah, yeah, uh yeah, And I think so
Speaker 8: that yeah, I didn't know what part I got. And
Speaker 8: then we're just we're we're at the football camp and
Speaker 8: every day, you know, we do we do school and
Speaker 8: then we do football camp, and then we read through
Speaker 8: the latest revision of the script and they're giving us
Speaker 8: each part like one day I'm Zoltech and one day
Speaker 8: I'm Timmy, and then you know, they just know they
Speaker 8: like these kids. And then at some point it all
Speaker 8: kind of settles in to like, okay, here's here are
Speaker 8: the people who are going to be what I mean.
Speaker 8: They they knew that Seana was going to be ice
Speaker 8: Box and uh, Devin Sawah wasn't originally casts as junior,
Speaker 8: but he came Uh, he came in after football camp,
Speaker 8: so we didn't do football camp with him at all.
Speaker 8: We just had heard the original kid. I don't know
Speaker 8: the story behind it. I was on the younger side. Joshana,
Speaker 8: she knows everything. But they so he wasn't there, and
Speaker 8: then Devin came in like after we started filming, so
Speaker 8: we had no idea who he was.
Speaker 2: Right, she got grown in a little after the Factor.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but it's so smart, Like the way that Spielberg
Speaker 5: casts is because I mean his movies always have the
Speaker 5: best kid actors, you know, Yeah, if he's involved with
Speaker 5: the project, yep. And it's like it's such a skill
Speaker 5: because there are so many great directors who cannot cast
Speaker 5: good kid actors, Like they might be able to cast
Speaker 5: great adults, but they don't do that thing where they're like,
Speaker 5: just be a kid, Like it's okay, I just want
Speaker 5: to watch you be you.
Speaker 6: And it's so cool to hear that he did that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, was shooting this movie like being a part of
Speaker 1: an amazing summer camp. I mean there are tons of
Speaker 1: kids your age. You're hanging out with Rick Moranis and
Speaker 1: Ed O'Neill. I'm sure you've talked about this experience ad nauseum,
Speaker 1: but we want to hear it all.
Speaker 8: No, It amazing summer camp is kind of the exact
Speaker 8: explanation for that, you know, like it was I mean
Speaker 8: it was oversummer. Yeah, and uh, but you're all doing
Speaker 8: you're all part of this like shared experience. And you know,
Speaker 8: the the first part of the film in the town
Speaker 8: we filmed in San Luis Obispo in taco A Royal Grande,
Speaker 8: and uh, so we're we're all out of towners, you know,
Speaker 8: stay in a hotel. Some some kids, you know, like
Speaker 8: they're I think somewhere like from Ohio and you know
Speaker 8: other other places. Actually they might have been from Ohio
Speaker 8: and they're pretending to be in Ohio, but they're in California, yeah,
Speaker 8: and and like North Carolina. And so we're all we're
Speaker 8: all out of towners now. And so we're all sharing
Speaker 8: this hotel. So we're going to the pool and they're
Speaker 8: the productions taking us on field trips and uh and
Speaker 8: then we know the rest of the time we're filming
Speaker 8: and uh and uh, you know it, it's long days.
Speaker 8: And the director great guy. I think this might have
Speaker 8: been his second film. The first one he did was
Speaker 8: Homeward Bound Dwayne Dunham, and he wanted to do lots
Speaker 8: of cover. He was originally an editor for Star Wars.
Speaker 8: He wanted lots of coverage, oh, lots of takes, lots
Speaker 8: of setups and it was just it was. It was dragging.
Speaker 8: And it's funny because I was listening to you guys
Speaker 8: talked to Maddie about Maddie. Someone was mouthing the lines,
Speaker 8: and we would do so many takes that if there
Speaker 8: was the shot of the actor, you would see all
Speaker 8: the kids back there, all of us the line, and
Speaker 8: like every day they would have to come just some
Speaker 8: and be like, guys, stop, just keep your mouth shut.
Speaker 8: You're all saying the words.
Speaker 4: So if you're shooting during the summer, like the prep,
Speaker 4: I can see you had to do school, but by
Speaker 4: the time you were shooting, you didn't have to do
Speaker 4: school during the summer, right, Yeah, during the summer.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so it was like it overlapped with the end
Speaker 8: of school and the and it went long, so it
Speaker 8: went over the beginning of the next school year. So like, yeah,
Speaker 8: at both ends, yeah, both ends we had to do
Speaker 8: some school. But yeah, in the middle, you know, it
Speaker 8: was a school less And then sometimes you're just like
Speaker 8: I think they would always take us two set, whether
Speaker 8: we're working or not, just to kind of like you know,
Speaker 8: otherwise you're just staying in your hotel room, right, and
Speaker 8: then you know the kids are just gonna go crazy.
Speaker 8: So yeah, they would always you know, like bring the set,
Speaker 8: you guys, go you can go hang out in the
Speaker 8: big trailer, the school room trailer and just hang out.
Speaker 8: But they always kind of had something going on.
Speaker 3: That's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what did you do in your downtime? Did you guys?
Speaker 1: Did all of you kids still hang out together and
Speaker 1: go eat?
Speaker 2: Like what did you get to do in the downtime?
Speaker 8: You know, it's like the downtime I don't remember. I
Speaker 8: remember the date, I remember the working and I remember
Speaker 8: being on set, and it was it was the routine,
Speaker 8: I think, you know, that's what it was like. You
Speaker 8: get the set, you put on your like you had
Speaker 8: like two outfits in the whole movie. There's like the
Speaker 8: game at the end, so you got the football pads
Speaker 8: or the the practicing in which case you have football
Speaker 8: pads on, right, So it was like that was the day.
Speaker 8: So you get you'd get to set, you'd get in
Speaker 8: the van, you'd get to set. You know, you'd go
Speaker 8: to your trailer. They're like, okay, get dressed. You'd get
Speaker 8: your outfit on and then you know, you joke around
Speaker 8: with the kids and then you'd sit in the school
Speaker 8: room and wait and then you know, I think the
Speaker 8: parents would all hang out. Yeah, parent all hang out
Speaker 8: and talk and chat and have a great time with
Speaker 8: the kids. You know, we had a great time too,
Speaker 8: But but we did, like I said, we went on
Speaker 8: field trips. So okay, now the memories are flooding in.
Speaker 8: We went to Hurst Castle and took a tour up there,
Speaker 8: so the whole all the kids went up there. Yeah,
Speaker 8: we took a tour of Hurst Castle and then the
Speaker 8: nearby was one of the It was like a go
Speaker 8: kart video game, mini.
Speaker 4: Golf like golf and stuff like golf and stuff. Kid,
Speaker 4: thank you very much.
Speaker 8: We'd go there. We'd go there a lot until I
Speaker 8: guess we got kicked out and then got kicked out.
Speaker 6: The kids are too.
Speaker 8: I had heard was that I think some some crew
Speaker 8: member might have done something like like like on the
Speaker 8: go karts or something. But I'm worried it was us.
Speaker 8: Me specifically, me and my late great friend J. P. Stowyer.
Speaker 8: We were I was too short to drive it, so
Speaker 8: I was in the car with him he could drive it,
Speaker 8: and his hat flew off and we both turned We're like, oh,
Speaker 8: your hat went away, and then he crashed into like
Speaker 8: a Bush like went up onto the like embankment where
Speaker 8: everyone was fine, but we're like, oh no, And then
Speaker 8: it wasn't that long after that then we weren't stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh my god, that's hysterical.
Speaker 1: Well, and then you had been on a lot of
Speaker 1: TV shows by the time you got to us. You
Speaker 1: had been on Our Neighbors, on the Disney Lot, thunder Alley,
Speaker 1: Family Matters, Er, and then you stepped foot on our
Speaker 1: set first as kid Number one in season four's Janitor Dad.
Speaker 2: Had you watched Boy Meets World at all when you
Speaker 2: before you got cast?
Speaker 8: Yes, I mean because you guys were on the TGIF
Speaker 8: block or yeah, yeah, so I did watch it. I
Speaker 8: I am. I think I'm like anti kid sports because
Speaker 8: because we always had practice on Friday nights and I
Speaker 8: would have to, like, I would have to VHS record,
Speaker 8: but you know, Boy Meets World and Family Matters really,
Speaker 8: you know, and then I had to like and then
Speaker 8: I get home and I can finally watch it unless
Speaker 8: my brother like stopped it because he wanted to watch
Speaker 8: something else and you know, be a whole blow up man.
Speaker 2: There were some we had such struggles in the nineties.
Speaker 1: If you weren't home to watch something live, the effort
Speaker 1: you had to put into it, and the amount of
Speaker 1: things that could go wrong.
Speaker 2: Somebody take this over your VHS.
Speaker 4: That channel, but you're halfway through, like you've recorded something
Speaker 4: and you're halfway through, and then it switches to something
Speaker 4: else or just fuzzes out and you're like what John, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2: Then there's no way to see it again, like it's gone.
Speaker 3: It's gone forever, It's gone forever. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 8: Couldn't they just have aired like, hey, here's a repeat
Speaker 8: on Saturdays.
Speaker 1: Maybe they did, But I even feel like it was
Speaker 1: hard to know when the re There wasn't a way
Speaker 1: to know when when.
Speaker 3: Yep, TV guide there you were.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and then later that scrolling channel, Yes, that was helpful. Yeah,
Speaker 8: and then you'd be like, I missed it. I gotta
Speaker 8: wait ten minutes.
Speaker 2: So you watched Boy Meets World before you audition? Do
Speaker 2: you remember your Boy Meets World audition?
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 9: I you know, you you you know what I was
Speaker 9: doing so many auditions that I think as superpower is
Speaker 9: like being able to just let it go.
Speaker 8: You know, and you go on enough like you know,
Speaker 8: co star parts and guest spots that you never get
Speaker 8: and you know, like I just kind of like, all right, yeah,
Speaker 8: I'll just you gotta let it go and if you
Speaker 8: dwell on it, you know, and then your mom and
Speaker 8: then like the debrief after the audition, your mom's like,
Speaker 8: what did you do? What? You know? I remember, Yeah,
Speaker 8: how did it go?
Speaker 2: What did they say? What did you say?
Speaker 8: What did they say? And ask any question? Did they
Speaker 8: ask any questions? Did you ask any questions? And I'm like, what, No,
Speaker 8: what am I supposed to ask questions? I had no
Speaker 8: questions with a question? Yeah, alert, I have to remember
Speaker 8: my lines and a question and so yeah, So I
Speaker 8: don't remember it. I remember being I remember remember being
Speaker 8: on set. I remember being in the green room because
Speaker 8: I I I I rewatched it, and I vividly remember
Speaker 8: watching the scene in the trailer where Sean and Corey
Speaker 8: and the parents are all there and they're arguing, and
Speaker 8: I just remember cracking up so much in the green room,
Speaker 8: and I remember the audience loving it and I and
Speaker 8: I remember the cast laughing. I think that was one
Speaker 8: of those like first times that I remember it being electric,
Speaker 8: where like everyone was on and you can't stop enjoying it,
Speaker 8: you know that that was one of those gifts where
Speaker 8: it's like, oh, this is this is live television. You know,
Speaker 8: this is what it's like, Oh this is this is
Speaker 8: the theater, you know, where your audience was right there
Speaker 8: and they let you know whether they like it or not.
Speaker 8: And then was it. I do remember. I think it
Speaker 8: was like later being like oh yeah, Sean, like in TV,
Speaker 8: in television, Shawn's the first time I remember someone like,
Speaker 8: oh they are of a different economic status. You know,
Speaker 8: he's he he's got his problems and he's got his
Speaker 8: family issues. That doesn't make him, but he's he's the core.
Speaker 8: He's not just the one episode the very special of
Speaker 8: some show. You know. He was like, oh no that
Speaker 8: he his family is not the same as Corey's family, right, Yeah.
Speaker 5: That was a pretty big episode for that actually, Janitor Dad,
Speaker 5: that was the one where I think it was Chet's
Speaker 5: only chests second or third episode.
Speaker 6: Oh no, I guess season four would have been.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he'd have been there on the show. But yeah,
Speaker 3: somebody would.
Speaker 4: Show adults that were in a different economic status, but
Speaker 4: never kids.
Speaker 3: You're right.
Speaker 4: I was just trying to think and it doesn't if anything,
Speaker 4: it was they would do this the savior model, where
Speaker 4: if the kid was poor, then somebody rich would come
Speaker 4: in and you know, different strokes or something. But the
Speaker 4: idea that he was a poor kid. You're right, Sean
Speaker 4: might have been one of the first for a while
Speaker 4: that was ever ever really seen him. Trevor really put
Speaker 4: that together.
Speaker 8: Like, yeah, the lesson for the main kid for Beaver, like, hey,
Speaker 8: don't don't make fun of your friend who doesn't have
Speaker 8: the same thing, right, and then we never see that
Speaker 8: friend ever.
Speaker 3: Again, right exactly.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, so much of kids TV was just entirely
Speaker 1: centered around wish fulfillment. How do we how do we
Speaker 1: just make kids want to watch this because they want
Speaker 1: to envision what it would be like.
Speaker 2: To have this life?
Speaker 1: And so yeah, for Sean, yeah, for Sean to be
Speaker 1: a star of the show and for us to see
Speaker 1: regularly how his life differed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, was really Yeah, I mean it is. I think
Speaker 2: he was one of the first.
Speaker 1: It's really special, and you know, we have felt that
Speaker 1: impact when people come to life.
Speaker 5: People come up to me and Oftener like I was
Speaker 5: the Shawn in my group and they start crying immediately.
Speaker 5: You know, it's like it's very much a like I
Speaker 5: needed you on TV to understand that there was space
Speaker 5: for people like, you know, my family or me.
Speaker 6: It's really touching.
Speaker 2: And then well, just a handful of episodes later, you return.
Speaker 1: Now is I'm Stein Kid competing against us in the
Speaker 1: quiz show episode which had a lot going on with.
Speaker 3: Blon craz episode.
Speaker 2: We would love.
Speaker 1: To hear your memories from this week since, to be honest,
Speaker 1: we did not have a ton of memories.
Speaker 8: So I every time I think about it, like I
Speaker 8: was looking, I was looking for the episodes and I
Speaker 8: was like, okay, yeah, see I think I I briefly
Speaker 8: watched my episode on season four of the first episode,
Speaker 8: and I was like okay, and then I must be
Speaker 8: on like the next season or something, because I know,
Speaker 8: I yeah, I felt like a different kid, like I
Speaker 8: was like no one I was obviously I was smaller,
Speaker 8: you know, I was smaller, I was littler. And then
Speaker 8: I was like yeah, and then when I'm Einstein Kid,
Speaker 8: I'm still a kid, but I have to be like older.
Speaker 8: And then I look at it was like it's the
Speaker 8: same season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just a few episodes later, right, So my.
Speaker 8: In my internally, I'm like, oh okay, I uh I
Speaker 8: got bullied so bad. John Adams left so I went
Speaker 8: to Einstein and then I get there and I'm once
Speaker 8: again foiled, uh by those John Adams guys. No, it
Speaker 8: was it was cool. Uh. I feel like I spent
Speaker 8: uh in that one. I'm not like sitting next to you,
Speaker 8: like I'm not I'm not like you know, I'm not
Speaker 8: with you guys. I'm like sitting on a couch, separate
Speaker 8: in a different area so like we can I can
Speaker 8: see you guys across the way, and uh, I'm with
Speaker 8: two uh, the two other people at Einstein Academy. To
Speaker 8: me at the time, I was like, this, so we're adults.
Speaker 8: Like they didn't they didn't have lines. I was one
Speaker 8: of the lines that these two are adults. They were probably
Speaker 8: like seventeen eighteen briners.
Speaker 2: The grown ups.
Speaker 8: Yeah. And so I'm hanging out with them, you know,
Speaker 8: in between takes or you know, in the green room
Speaker 8: while you guys because there's multiple setups on this one
Speaker 8: set and you guys are in all of them, and
Speaker 8: we just came up for one. I think the it
Speaker 8: was like yeah, coming out, you know, we're just so
Speaker 8: it was just kind of like a weird shock because
Speaker 8: you know, I was like, oh, I'm supposed to be
Speaker 8: on a quiz show. I'm like, oh, this is not
Speaker 8: how I Oh I imagined it, which I'm sure worked
Speaker 8: for the character. But yeah, I mean, you know, they
Speaker 8: come out and I'm also like I was like pre
Speaker 8: pre pewbascent. So then like the host, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 8: she's very pretty, and I'm like, no lines. Yeah.
Speaker 2: We always wonder when this happens.
Speaker 1: When actors came back, did like anybody say to you, Hey,
Speaker 1: so good to see you again. You were just here
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. Did you have to audition again?
Speaker 1: Did they just offer this one to you?
Speaker 8: Do you remember? I'm sure I had to audition again? Yeah,
Speaker 8: I I you remember the I remember the offers. Okay,
Speaker 8: but I think you know, and I felt this way
Speaker 8: other times, is that your agent doesn't say anything, you know,
Speaker 8: like they submit you, and if casting said, yeah, send
Speaker 8: them in and they don't remember you, that's fine. Yeah
Speaker 8: if they do remember you. If they do remember you
Speaker 8: and they still want you, but it's like, don't let them.
Speaker 3: Know that you Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and so I didn't say anything. Uh uh. You
Speaker 8: guys weren't right next to me to be like you
Speaker 8: look familiar, but also like I said, I felt like
Speaker 8: I was maybe I had a tiny growth spurt, lost
Speaker 8: a little bit of weight, you know, to where it
Speaker 8: was just different enough. But yeah, and then you know,
Speaker 8: I'm done. I think that that might have been that
Speaker 8: might have been pre taped. I don't even know if
Speaker 8: that was like on the night of That.
Speaker 5: Makes Show, because we couldn't have the audience there because
Speaker 5: we were shooting Will your character in the audience like
Speaker 5: you and the family were at Wow.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so we use the audience space.
Speaker 8: And then that set went through so many changes. I
Speaker 8: think it just wasn't so so I may not. I
Speaker 8: may have been there at taping, uh, just to like watch,
Speaker 8: but I was not like performing, you know, in front
Speaker 8: of people.
Speaker 2: Do you remember any interactions with any of us?
Speaker 8: I do, you know. I was younger than you guys,
Speaker 8: you know, and so and I was used to being
Speaker 8: like post our guest, you know, coming. I was a
Speaker 8: day player, so like you guys would hang out with
Speaker 8: each other and you know, you said hello and all that,
Speaker 8: but it wasn't we weren't yeah, yeah, yeah. And I
Speaker 8: don't even think I ever I met Will on uh
Speaker 8: any game because.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, because we would never have been working together,
Speaker 4: so probably, yeah, we we didn't even cross paths at
Speaker 4: that time.
Speaker 3: How old?
Speaker 8: Yeah I am forty I will be forty one in
Speaker 8: a month.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, so you're you're four years younger than me,
Speaker 1: and I would the youngest person on set. So season four,
Speaker 1: you were like twelve and I was sixteen, so we were.
Speaker 8: Really close, exactly, Like I don't imagine a sixteen year
Speaker 8: old being like, hey, let's get this twelve year old
Speaker 8: to come, you know, hang out with us. You know, right,
Speaker 8: we're gonna say, we're gonna tell dirty jokes, and you know,
Speaker 8: around a twelve year old kid, that's funny.
Speaker 2: People get in trouble for that, Yeah, exactly as we should.
Speaker 8: Do.
Speaker 2: People ever come up and recognize you from Boy Meets
Speaker 2: World with all.
Speaker 1: The things you've done, does anybody specifically mention Boy Meets
Speaker 1: World to you?
Speaker 8: Well? Occasionally someone will be like, I'm on a rewatch
Speaker 8: you know that watched it, And then the reason I
Speaker 8: heard about that you guys were asking for, you know, like, hey,
Speaker 8: you've been on the show coming is my my friends
Speaker 8: Ron and Aaron are are avid listeners.
Speaker 2: They're they're they're they're r.
Speaker 8: And they were like they were like, hey, we heard
Speaker 8: you should you should email them, and they like gave
Speaker 8: me the email address. Yes, yes, you were on an episode, right,
Speaker 8: And I said I was on too, and they're like,
Speaker 8: definitely for this. Uh but yeah, I mean it's it
Speaker 8: feels like such a lifetime ago.
Speaker 2: But you have literally never stopped working. I mean truly.
Speaker 1: We went over some of your credits and your intro
Speaker 1: and I know that you joke that you're a former
Speaker 1: child actor, current adult actor. How do you think you've
Speaker 1: never managed to have like burnout?
Speaker 8: I think I think it's hitting me now almost got kids,
Speaker 8: I've got okay, you know, it's well also the industry,
Speaker 8: you know, we just had the strikes and COVID and everything,
Speaker 8: and uh, you know I never had burnout.
Speaker 3: You know why.
Speaker 8: I never was the series regular, you know, and so
Speaker 8: there was lots of time to be a kid in between,
Speaker 8: and a lot of time to be, you know, just
Speaker 8: a person. You were always auditioning, which has its own
Speaker 8: set of stress, like, oh, now I have an audition.
Speaker 8: I'm a stress about that. Why haven't I had an audition?
Speaker 8: I'm gonna stress about that, But you know it's uh,
Speaker 8: I didn't. I didn't have the luxury really of being
Speaker 8: a series regular. So I didn't. It wasn't like every day,
Speaker 8: come to set, work, here's a new script. You know,
Speaker 8: do this, you have these you know, these things you
Speaker 8: have to take care of. You know. It was just
Speaker 8: me and then I can be a twenty year old
Speaker 8: and go drinking and carry Yeah. No, twenty one year
Speaker 8: old karaoke every night, and uh so you know that
Speaker 8: that has that benefit. But you know, like I think
Speaker 8: right now, yeah, like I said, the burnout might be
Speaker 8: hitting me now. The February of twenty twenty, I booked
Speaker 8: my first series regular for ABC. Yeah, for ABC, did
Speaker 8: a did a network test. I cost you you know,
Speaker 8: I was cast. They're like, you're gonna be in. You know,
Speaker 8: if it goes, you'll be like six out of thirteen episodes.
Speaker 8: They built a it was gonna be a Western comedy.
Speaker 8: So who it had gone a series? Who knows? But
Speaker 8: and you know I got to visit the set and stuff,
Speaker 8: and then you know we're gonna fill April.
Speaker 2: And then you know what happened in March of twenty twenty.
Speaker 8: Happens and they just never picked it up. And it's
Speaker 8: like and I was my wife was pregnant with our
Speaker 8: first I'm like, wow, I got a series regular, You're
Speaker 8: gonna have a kid. It's gonna be great. And then
Speaker 8: it's like, oh, the world, the world. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 8: and it like that really hits. That hits pretty hard
Speaker 8: and uh and then you know, like since then, I've worked,
Speaker 8: you know, I commercials have always been my thing, So
Speaker 8: I work commercially. I you know, I've done voiceover and
Speaker 8: dubbing and so I keep you know, I'm I'm busy. Uh.
Speaker 8: But it all it's like you always like, oh that
Speaker 8: was I owmote, I saw, I saw the brass ring
Speaker 8: right there, and I almost had it. And and I
Speaker 8: feel like that's you know, the way that I was
Speaker 8: saying that the kid kid actors. As you grow, you
Speaker 8: kind of always constantly have to be you have to
Speaker 8: be training on the next level because what you had
Speaker 8: before will not serve you on the next level. And
Speaker 8: I always kind of feel like I would hit these
Speaker 8: I would hit these pieces and I'd be like almost there,
Speaker 8: like I get a really great you know, you'd get
Speaker 8: a great you know, a couple arc episode, an episodic
Speaker 8: and you're like, okay, cool, like this maybe this will
Speaker 8: lead to something else, and then it it doesn't lead
Speaker 8: to something else, and then you're back to the grind.
Speaker 8: You're like, cool that this is you know, ye I wasn't.
Speaker 8: I'm not delusional, right, So keep going and then you
Speaker 8: get something else. You're like, oh, I got a you know,
Speaker 8: a mini series and I'm gonna do this. And they're like, oh,
Speaker 8: maybe I'll be on next season and you're like, oh, no,
Speaker 8: you're not gonna be on next season. And then they're like, ah,
Speaker 8: you know, it gets it gets uh frustrating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, absolutely, well you did.
Speaker 5: You did ten episodes of one of my favorite shows, Patriot. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and I don't think Will and Danielle know this show.
Speaker 6: It is genius.
Speaker 5: It was I think it only lasted two seasons, right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: you guys have to find this. It was like one
Speaker 5: of those gems my wife and I stumbled upon for
Speaker 5: whatever reason. It was in twenty sixteen, twenty eighteen, Yeah,
Speaker 5: and just could not stop laughing.
Speaker 6: And it's brilliant.
Speaker 5: It's like it's an action comedy show about a spy,
Speaker 5: like an international spy who's also a folk singer because
Speaker 5: he's so traumatized by all.
Speaker 3: The people he's killed. Yes, it's you have to watch it,
Speaker 3: will you will love? Who's the patriot? Who plays the patriot?
Speaker 6: I'm blanking on his name. Who was the main guy?
Speaker 8: Michael Dorman Mike, Yeah, but Marks the guy he has
Speaker 8: to go under cover. Uh.
Speaker 5: His dad has like trained him since he and his
Speaker 5: brother since they were kids, to be killers basically, and
Speaker 5: it's just about how that's messed him up. And he
Speaker 5: has to go undercover at this company, and so.
Speaker 3: He kills Marcus.
Speaker 5: To be a piping engineer so he can get contracts
Speaker 5: in Iran or whatever. But he tries to kill Marcus
Speaker 5: to get them and doesn't do the job. So you
Speaker 5: play the character. You're still alive and he's working with you,
Speaker 5: and you don't remember that he tried to bring you.
Speaker 8: I am a piping engineer And no, no spoilers because
Speaker 8: this is literally the first scene of the show. Is
Speaker 8: he pushes me in front of a truck. Yes, after
Speaker 8: his interview doesn't go great. It doesn't go bad, but
Speaker 8: it doesn't go great. But I'm the other guy, and
Speaker 8: I'm like, it went great.
Speaker 3: Amazon, It's on Amazon Prime. So I.
Speaker 6: Was working on that show for you.
Speaker 8: That was one of the honestly the one of the
Speaker 8: biggest highlights of my entire career. It was such a
Speaker 8: great cast, such a great crew, Like it felt like
Speaker 8: a family, you know. It was it seemed like everyone
Speaker 8: was happy to be there. Whether they were, I don't know,
Speaker 8: but it was, you know, I was in. I was
Speaker 8: back and forth from Chicago that that year. All I
Speaker 8: knew was I was gonna be in three episodes that
Speaker 8: I ended up being in nine, and so back and
Speaker 8: forth from Chicago in the summer, which everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 8: so great, you're here during the summer, and I was like,
Speaker 8: what do you talk about I've never been to Chicago,
Speaker 8: And they're like, winters are terrible, and then I just
Speaker 8: hear about it now. But no, it was it was
Speaker 8: so great, the town is great cast. And then I
Speaker 8: was I was always excited to read the next script. Yeah,
Speaker 8: you know, and and that's you know, it's not like
Speaker 8: the show always ends on a cliffhanger, but there it's
Speaker 8: the story just has to continue, and so I'm like,
Speaker 8: I need to know what happens next. And there's one
Speaker 8: episode like in the middle that I wasn't in, and
Speaker 8: I was like, you know, emailing all the rest of
Speaker 8: the cast, like, can you send me the script? I
Speaker 8: want to read the script. But yeah, it was. And
Speaker 8: then you know, it's when you filming that like a
Speaker 8: second episode, because we did it. Amazon did a thing
Speaker 8: where like you did the pilot. I mean it's very
Speaker 8: much like networked out. You did the pilot and then
Speaker 8: they would kind of like test it and see and
Speaker 8: then you do the the rest of the series. And
Speaker 8: the first scene I'm doing is after I've been hit
Speaker 8: by a truck, but I'm like back at work and
Speaker 8: and I have like a I have brain damage, but
Speaker 8: I have a nurse with me and Charlotte Arnold and
Speaker 8: she was on the Grassy. I didn't I did. I
Speaker 8: didn't watch The Grassy. But for those Canadians out there, uh,
Speaker 8: she has this. She she was in the first episode.
Speaker 8: I don't think she She got a call like a
Speaker 8: week before filming the second episode and she got the
Speaker 8: screwed the day before. She had like a page and
Speaker 8: a half monologue whoa, and she just killed it. Everyone
Speaker 8: on set was like that was amazing. And I'm just
Speaker 8: sitting there likes to be kind of like nothing's happening,
Speaker 8: and I'm just like listening to her and then I
Speaker 8: have kurtwood Smith, so so great, so wonderful guy and
Speaker 8: so intimidating in his like silence yep. And he just
Speaker 8: walks up to me, quietly, towering over me, and and
Speaker 8: just was like, so, you know, he just he just
Speaker 8: has that look of like he doesn't know how to
Speaker 8: read me. And it was just I couldn't help but laugh,
Speaker 8: just because it's so it's so surreal that all this
Speaker 8: is happening and great time, great so now I have
Speaker 8: nothing but great things.
Speaker 6: Good to hear. The show is really wonderful, you guys.
Speaker 5: It's one of those shames that it just to me
Speaker 5: it should have won everything and just gone for ten years.
Speaker 6: I thought it was brilliant.
Speaker 2: Yes, check it out well Marcus.
Speaker 1: My final question for you is you have been doing
Speaker 1: this for thirty eight years, when or can you? Did
Speaker 1: you ever when did you imagine you would be still
Speaker 1: doing the same thing, still having a career this long lasting,
Speaker 1: that you picked your lifelong career at three years old.
Speaker 1: If you were ever going to do something else, what
Speaker 1: would you do?
Speaker 8: Oh? God, well, I mean I have a fan, my
Speaker 8: family has a restaurant.
Speaker 2: There tell us more.
Speaker 8: Well I do I? I do remote work. I do
Speaker 8: back office. I used to be, you know, like there
Speaker 8: every day through COVID, you know, just trying to keep
Speaker 8: everyone alive and you know, going and uh, I mean
Speaker 8: there's that option.
Speaker 2: The rest.
Speaker 8: It's called Feast from the East and it's in West
Speaker 8: Los Angeles kind of like a mile and a half,
Speaker 8: like south of U c l A, like Westwood. We've
Speaker 8: been there, they've been there since eighty one. So you know,
Speaker 8: we love our customers because they kept us alive through
Speaker 8: a recession and a pandemic, and.
Speaker 3: You know, we it looks really good.
Speaker 8: Yeah. The Chinese chicken salad is the main main thing.
Speaker 3: Chicken chicken wings look really Goodeah. Yeah.
Speaker 8: We have had some celebrities come through.
Speaker 2: You're about.
Speaker 8: A couple of times. Yeah. Louise Fletcher was a regular.
Speaker 8: I didn't realize still later I was like, oh, was
Speaker 8: their names? Louise and then I like, you know, I
Speaker 8: was swiping her crumbs like Fletcher and I was like,
Speaker 8: oh my god. Kind of.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Danielle's right, you're about to have another celebrity and
Speaker 4: Rider and I come through as well.
Speaker 3: So that's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 8: I love it. Our customers will be very happy.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 8: And then Jack Black has been going there since he
Speaker 8: was in like high school. That's cool, and so yeah,
Speaker 8: we we we've I'm not like forends with him, but yeah, we've.
Speaker 8: Like my mom's like that, isn't that the guy from
Speaker 8: High Fidelity? And like at that point that was his
Speaker 8: big big thing. I was like, yeah, it's him. Awesome,
Speaker 8: you know, Oh that's cool. Cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Marcus, you have had such an incredible career.
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming and joining us and spending your
Speaker 1: time with us today. It was so nice to catch
Speaker 1: up with you and to hear your experiences, and we're
Speaker 1: just so appreciative that you came and spent your time
Speaker 1: with us.
Speaker 8: Yeah, thank you guys so much. It was it was great,
Speaker 8: great remembering all these things with you.
Speaker 2: Yes, and thanks to Ron and Aaron for making an
Speaker 2: appen Thank you, Mark, it's.
Speaker 8: Great to see you. Bye bye.
Speaker 1: He has I mean, he's never stopped working and like
Speaker 1: he said, he's never had a series regular role.
Speaker 3: Which is unbelievable. I know.
Speaker 1: I mean talk about like that journeyman actor thing we've
Speaker 1: talked about Will where you said that just like it's
Speaker 1: so hard for that to exist anymore.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it almost doesn't.
Speaker 4: I mean, so the idea that he's still doing it
Speaker 4: is he's one of the few because it doesn't exist
Speaker 4: anymore that kind of you can make a good living
Speaker 4: just being on every show.
Speaker 3: I mean, we've we all saw those people growing up.
Speaker 4: We knew those people where it's like, oh, they've been
Speaker 4: on everything, but they've never starred in anything, and that
Speaker 4: just kind of doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 6: So those movie stars are now doing.
Speaker 2: TV smercials and hosting shows.
Speaker 5: Doing the secondary hosting Gabe shows. It's like yeah, it's yeah, yep.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
Speaker 1: of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us
Speaker 1: on Instagram pod meets World Show. You can send us
Speaker 1: your emails at pod meets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: And we've got merch.
Speaker 4: I really want to thank uh, my family, my friends
Speaker 4: for my youth and fillmore nomination.
Speaker 3: I couldn't have done it without you. It's really amazing.
Speaker 6: You give a thank you speech for a nomination.
Speaker 3: That's the This is the best I got right, I'm
Speaker 3: playing it.
Speaker 4: It actually wins, So this is what I've got.
Speaker 1: Mike, Podmetsworldshow dot com writer send us out.
Speaker 6: We love You All pod dismissed.
Speaker 5: Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast producer hosted by
Speaker 5: Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder Strong Executive producers, Jensen Karp
Speaker 5: and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
Speaker 5: producer and editor, TaRaSu Bosch producer, Maddie Moore engineer and
Speaker 5: Boy meets World, Superman East and Out.
Speaker 6: Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon.
Speaker 5: Follow us on Instagram at Podmets World Show or email
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