Speaker 1: Thank you once again for joining us on yet another
Speaker 1: park Opper episode. I don't know why I sound like
Speaker 1: this all of a sudden, I sound like a radio
Speaker 1: guy from like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the forties. There's a hey, thanks so much for
Speaker 2: joining us. But we do thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: We've got a very i'm gonna say it again, very
Speaker 1: special episode. Every episode of Magical Rewe is a very
Speaker 1: special episode, and I kind of like that, Sabrina.
Speaker 2: I do this one.
Speaker 1: We are gonna be talking to an actor that we've
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to for a while now because he
Speaker 1: was involved with Well, we want to talk to about
Speaker 1: this what is rated as the number one dcom of
Speaker 1: all time, and we certainly would like to know what
Speaker 1: he thinks about that, how he heard about the project,
Speaker 1: what drew him to it, all that good stuff he
Speaker 1: played of course, Nick Cooper, or as we like to
Speaker 1: call him, smart House Dad.
Speaker 2: On Smart House.
Speaker 1: So please help us welcome Kevin Kilmer, Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us.
Speaker 3: William, You're welcome. It's really nice to meet you.
Speaker 4: Nice to meet you. Are you ready to talk all
Speaker 4: things Smart House?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 3: I wish I was paid a five dollars bill every
Speaker 3: time I talk about Smart House. I'd actually be very
Speaker 3: I'd be able to put a down payment on a house.
Speaker 4: I bet. I mean, we at the beginning of starting
Speaker 4: this show really posted a lot on our on our
Speaker 4: Instagram and asking fans what are the movies you guys
Speaker 4: want us to watch and talk about? And this is
Speaker 4: top five every.
Speaker 2: Single time, every list, every list.
Speaker 4: It is such a huge movie.
Speaker 3: Now, I thank you. I mean, that's always lovely to hear.
Speaker 3: I hear from so many people that I it's funny.
Speaker 3: Like I was just now going to IMDb going I
Speaker 3: wonder what they rated this, and it's like it's six
Speaker 3: point one out of ten. And I was like, all right,
Speaker 3: he's ready very stupidly idiotic, because so many people have passionately,
Speaker 3: passionately told me that it was so seminal to them
Speaker 3: growing up. I mean I've had many, many, many single
Speaker 3: parent kids who said, look, I was a latchkey kid
Speaker 3: and you were actually like my dad. And I'm like,
Speaker 3: you know, like I the first time there were the
Speaker 3: first few times I heard that, I was like, oh, well, thanks,
Speaker 3: I mean, that's nice to hear. But they were like, no, no,
Speaker 3: really like you were my dad, like my dad wasn't
Speaker 3: around so like, and so it it sort of like
Speaker 3: hit me, like how you know it's funny. I teach
Speaker 3: acting now. I just started teaching last week actually a
Speaker 3: couple to eighteen and nineteen and twenty year olds. And
Speaker 3: you know, I said to them in the first classs
Speaker 3: I said, you know, you really, you know, I thought
Speaker 3: this was like a Disney Channel movie that like would
Speaker 3: be here today and gone in two or three years.
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm now sixty six, you know, and
Speaker 3: that the movie's been around for she's you know, going
Speaker 3: on twenty five years, and it's unbelievable. I mean, I
Speaker 3: would never have ever said. I mean, we worked hard
Speaker 3: on it, you know, sure ar worked. Really we had
Speaker 3: like a real handshake deal. Like I said, you know,
Speaker 3: like we got to make this script better. And he
Speaker 3: was very he said, listen, I'm going to have a
Speaker 3: killer some killer music. I've got a great idea for
Speaker 3: a line dance. You know, he created all that. So
Speaker 3: we trusted each other. But I'll be really honest, and
Speaker 3: this is not throwing shade at Disney or anything, but
Speaker 3: it was, you know, it was a little square kind
Speaker 3: of there was no nuances in it, and we added
Speaker 3: a lot of ambiguities and you know, acknowledging things like
Speaker 3: and I don't even think the scene like between the
Speaker 3: father and son was if it was written, it was
Speaker 3: very different, and then we completely rewrote it. You know, well,
Speaker 3: they were.
Speaker 2: Great, I mean, and that's one of the things.
Speaker 1: First of all, I should let you know why you
Speaker 1: said IMDb might rank it at six point one. Entertainment
Speaker 1: Weekly has it ranked the number one dcom of all
Speaker 1: timecom really of.
Speaker 4: All the time we're talking going against descendants everybody.
Speaker 2: Number one dcom of all time.
Speaker 1: Entertainment Weekly a smart house, and it's number three on
Speaker 1: Collider's list, So it is very highly rated. And one
Speaker 1: of the things we loved about it that we talked
Speaker 1: about is something that you had just mentioned, where it
Speaker 1: was a movie that while some most dcoms don't do,
Speaker 1: it embraced the quiet moments. It embraced the scenes of
Speaker 1: father and son actually having real conversations, which I think
Speaker 1: is one of the reasons why A it's endured and
Speaker 1: B people have loved it so much is because it
Speaker 1: did delve more into that than it did say a world.
Speaker 2: Of magic or something that dcoms would tend to do.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting to hear that you and LeVar Burton
Speaker 1: really worked on that and really sat down to make
Speaker 1: the script what it was. And speaking of that, when
Speaker 1: was the first time you heard about this project? Was
Speaker 1: this just another audition that came across your desk or
Speaker 1: how can you walk us through that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, my my agency sent it over. And at
Speaker 3: the time, at the time, I finished Home Alone three,
Speaker 3: I'd finished Cinderella's Story, I'd finished Raising Helen, and I
Speaker 3: think I'd even done American Pie too then, and you know,
Speaker 3: I was like, you know, do I really want to
Speaker 3: do it? I mean, I'll just tell you and it's
Speaker 3: it sounds so it sounds so yiki right now that
Speaker 3: I was like, I really want to do a Disney
Speaker 3: Channel movie? Now?
Speaker 2: Oh no, we hear this all the time. We hear
Speaker 2: this all the time from actors.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm doing these feature films, you know, I'm like
Speaker 3: working for studios. Why do I want to do? And
Speaker 3: then they said, no, we really you know, like LeVar
Speaker 3: Burton actually I think you know either like you're on
Speaker 3: a very short list, and he would like, you know,
Speaker 3: would you like to take a meeting with him? Because
Speaker 3: he would love to meet with you, and I was like, okay, yeah, sure,
Speaker 3: let's do that. And when as soon as I met LeVar,
Speaker 3: who I'd never met before, the level of thought and
Speaker 3: sophistication and complexity about the way he was approaching it,
Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, this is not gonna be a
Speaker 3: Disney Channel movie. I mean like, yeah, whatever mold they've had,
Speaker 3: he's going to break it, He's going to break it.
Speaker 3: And I was and I was just in a phase
Speaker 3: in my life where I was like, let's bust up
Speaker 3: whatever we expect whenever we go to see a rom com,
Speaker 3: whenever we go to see an action movie, whatever, you know,
Speaker 3: like just change it up type thing. So LeVar, really
Speaker 3: I got really excited. And then I you know, and
Speaker 3: we ended the meeting with me saying, you know, look,
Speaker 3: I I'm willing to, you know, just come here on
Speaker 3: my own time and my own dime, but but can
Speaker 3: we just meet and kind of go page by page
Speaker 3: through this? And he was like absolutely, let's do that.
Speaker 3: So we did, and I think we much improved and
Speaker 3: add those kind of because you know, and this is true,
Speaker 3: like I knew enough and I hope I still know
Speaker 3: enough to know that, you know, if you're let's say,
Speaker 3: let's say you're doing a sci fi movie and there's
Speaker 3: all these effects and all this stuff, you still you're
Speaker 3: only going to remember that sci fi movie if you
Speaker 3: actually carry about the people. And you know, the converse
Speaker 3: is true too, in the sense that if you're doing
Speaker 3: like a low budget indie film that is really character driven,
Speaker 3: if you don't have an interesting way of shooting it,
Speaker 3: if you don't have a great DP, it can get
Speaker 3: sort of like lost in the shuffle as well. So
Speaker 3: we drilled down on the father's son, the father daughter
Speaker 3: even And the thing that's just so spooky about the
Speaker 3: movie is that, yes, there were articles this is like
Speaker 3: the mid nineties or maybe ninety seven, but like there
Speaker 3: were articles about technology going to give us smart houses
Speaker 3: and like that, but none of that existed. So in
Speaker 3: a way it was a good twenty years ahead, maybe
Speaker 3: twenty five years ahead of its time totally. And what
Speaker 3: that would mean to to us when everything is done
Speaker 3: for you and taken over in like how do you
Speaker 3: hang on to what it means to be a family
Speaker 3: and humanity? I mean, I don't want to get into too,
Speaker 3: but there are those like existential things sort of hanging
Speaker 3: out over it in a way that's not talked about.
Speaker 3: That that is sort of cool, you know.
Speaker 1: To me, Well, that was one of the things that
Speaker 1: we were finding over and over and over again as
Speaker 1: we're rewatching these films, is how on the cutting edge
Speaker 1: Disney actually was, not only when it comes to things
Speaker 1: like technology, but when it comes to things like gender equality,
Speaker 1: when it comes to things like sexuality. I mean, these
Speaker 1: were they were way ahead of the curve when it
Speaker 1: came to this stuff. And I'm just curious when you're
Speaker 1: on the set and you're reading these quote unquote inventions
Speaker 1: that have now become in everybody's house.
Speaker 2: I mean, this movie introduced essentially.
Speaker 1: Alexa, chat, GPT, golf, simula, the ring.
Speaker 2: Doorbell, doorbell. I mean, the list just goes on and
Speaker 2: on and on.
Speaker 1: Did you remember reading any of these things just kind
Speaker 1: of going like, well, this is this is ridiculous, this
Speaker 1: is never gonna happen.
Speaker 3: I mean, I actually, I know I didn't do that.
Speaker 3: I think what I did was I had a lot
Speaker 3: of said envy in the sense that, like you, I
Speaker 3: would say, geez, I wish I had this in my house.
Speaker 3: You like, cool if I had this, But I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, credit is and I'm forgetting who this script
Speaker 3: writer is, but credit him her for being ahead of it,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. And credit Disney who you know,
Speaker 3: let's I have to say Disney's Disney for a reason,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. They're tough. There's you know,
Speaker 3: in terms of like whether how you get paid and
Speaker 3: things like that. Salary is always a bit of a
Speaker 3: of a street fight with Disney. And you know, there's
Speaker 3: other things about Disney that are really tough. But on
Speaker 3: the other hand, they really run a really terrific company.
Speaker 3: They are ahead of the curve usually they they're bold.
Speaker 3: They're bold, so you got to, you know, you got
Speaker 3: to give them their flowers. Many they do it. Man,
Speaker 3: there's a reason it's been Disney for what what are
Speaker 3: we going on here? One hundred years now?
Speaker 2: Pretty close to it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I mean they know their target audience. They
Speaker 4: know how to do it so well and like put
Speaker 4: across their messaging in such a way that young kids
Speaker 4: absorb it and actually want to hear it and learn
Speaker 4: those lessons. And I mean they're just incredible and we're
Speaker 4: getting to see so much of it, and they just
Speaker 4: seem to be ahead and they're willing to talk about
Speaker 4: certain things that a lot of people get nervous to.
Speaker 4: I guess too, you know. I mean, this was the
Speaker 4: first one that talked about losing a parent and what
Speaker 4: it's like to go through and how to move forward
Speaker 4: as griefs.
Speaker 2: It's addressing grief in a way that Disney Channel. I
Speaker 2: don't think it'd.
Speaker 1: Ever done before, and not a lot of movies unless
Speaker 1: you're getting into the big you know, we're doing a
Speaker 1: Sophie's Voice kind of movie.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: There wasn't a movie ever targeted at children that dealt
Speaker 1: with grief in a way that was natural. So they
Speaker 1: really were kind of on the cutting edge of all
Speaker 1: that stuff. And another question, so, now you've met with LeVar,
Speaker 1: you're going through the script. Did you have any influence
Speaker 1: over the rest of the casting. Were you able to
Speaker 1: meet some of the kids beforehand or no?
Speaker 3: We had a I think we had a table read.
Speaker 3: So I met Ryan, of course, and I met my Daty,
Speaker 3: my young daughter, well Katie Segall I didn't know. We
Speaker 3: didn't meet Katie. Katie only came for like two maybe
Speaker 3: three days of shooting. It took four weeks. We did
Speaker 3: it in those in those days, you got twenty shooting days.
Speaker 3: So that's five days a week, four weeks, which to
Speaker 3: these days is just stupid lovey, you know, like you
Speaker 3: have to shoot out, you have to shoot it. Like
Speaker 3: Hallmark movies they shoot him in twelve days or something.
Speaker 2: A full script. It's like ten days for a full script.
Speaker 2: It's insane.
Speaker 4: It's still on the DCOM level. Most of the actors
Speaker 4: we've talked to, it's like it ranges from like six
Speaker 4: to eight weeks that they get to work on these movies.
Speaker 4: So four weeks seems really fast for d coom.
Speaker 3: Yeah, although you know, I'm thinking of the early nineties
Speaker 3: when I so I I started my I went to
Speaker 3: New York in eighty five. I came to LA in
Speaker 3: eighty late eighty nine, I went back to New York
Speaker 3: ninety three to ninety five. But I was back and
Speaker 3: forth between the coasts then. But I could the television
Speaker 3: movies that were done in the late eighties early nineties,
Speaker 3: it was like a twenty to twenty two days whatever
Speaker 3: that movie was. I mean, I can tell you I've
Speaker 3: did too many of them to not remember. But that
Speaker 3: being said, even then, they were like, you know, just
Speaker 3: cutting days and cutting days and cutting days, and now
Speaker 3: it's like the come and you know, of course, like
Speaker 3: anything else that reaches the loss of diminishing returns, you
Speaker 3: know what what what do you? What are we turning
Speaker 3: out here? You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: And ted days? What can you turn out? I mean exactly?
Speaker 3: And it's I told tell you it's frustrating because I like,
Speaker 3: for example, I've done both Hallmark Channels and I did
Speaker 3: I did one Hallmark hall of Fame with James R.
Speaker 3: Jones and a very u a place call. It was
Speaker 3: called time Piece and Ellen Burst and and you know
Speaker 3: the Hallmark's got you know, kind of like Disney they
Speaker 3: have there that formula. And you know, I did like
Speaker 3: I don't know, I want to say, three or four
Speaker 3: other Hallmark Channel movies. But like after the last one
Speaker 3: I finished, I was like, really, I don't want to
Speaker 3: do this anymore because there's no it can't possibly be good.
Speaker 3: If it is good, hopefully you have a supporting role
Speaker 3: where you're doing so much work before you shoot that
Speaker 3: what you're turning out on the days. But if you're
Speaker 3: the lead and you're there every day, it's sort of
Speaker 3: like hard to get your prep in As an actor.
Speaker 3: It's hard to you know, you do to do your
Speaker 3: research and get it and really get the rehearsals in.
Speaker 3: So you're just shooting super fast and you're not doing
Speaker 3: a lot of takes. You're doing a master in your makeut.
Speaker 3: You might get too you know, you may get a
Speaker 3: meeting or too shot, and then you get like over over.
Speaker 3: You might get two takes in each of your close
Speaker 3: up over overs and that's it. You're done. Yeah, And
Speaker 3: so you know there's a point and and again this
Speaker 3: goes back to crediting Disney that and look, let's give
Speaker 3: me even more flowers. You know, LeVar Burton, African American man,
Speaker 3: gave the director reins too, gave a lot of leeway
Speaker 3: to a lot of leeway creatively. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 3: to Levar's great credit, he know, he friggin delivered big time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very much.
Speaker 1: So it's also it's a it's a it's a especially
Speaker 1: in the mid nineties, it's a special effects heavy movie
Speaker 1: with no budget. So I mean it's it's one of
Speaker 1: those things where that easily could have been driven off
Speaker 1: a cliff. I mean, you've got you've got a movie
Speaker 1: that you know is let's put it together.
Speaker 2: We're going to do twenty days.
Speaker 1: We've got special effects in a house that we are
Speaker 1: kind of creating on the fly as we go.
Speaker 2: That really could have been a train wreck.
Speaker 1: Instead, it's Man Entertainment Weekly number one d comm of
Speaker 1: all time, and a lot.
Speaker 4: Of it rides on the connection that you have with
Speaker 4: your two kids. What was it like creating that bond
Speaker 4: and working for you as an adult actor working with
Speaker 4: these young actors, How was that connection and what was
Speaker 4: the relationship like there?
Speaker 3: Well, I think you know this is the part where
Speaker 3: in terms of both Katie and Ryan, is that you
Speaker 3: know this is where I give I always give lots
Speaker 3: of credit to my mom. My mom taught for thirty
Speaker 3: years kindergarten and my sister and I when we didn't
Speaker 3: have a sport we were playing, we would walk to
Speaker 3: her elementary school and we would help her in the
Speaker 3: classroom and she my mom had a master's cree in
Speaker 3: early childhood. She had real strict rules about never condescending
Speaker 3: to a child, never talk baby talk to a child,
Speaker 3: Always ask questions, always give them two choices, use the
Speaker 3: Socratic method, and they learned how to wire their brains
Speaker 3: by saying, do you want the red coat or the
Speaker 3: blue coat. You can choose. But you know, no, no,
Speaker 3: not when I talk about the other coat, that's a
Speaker 3: ring thring. It's the red of the blue because it's
Speaker 3: a winter day. And you know what I mean, like
Speaker 3: you talk about it. So my wife always laughs, She's like,
Speaker 3: you know, animals and children friggin love you. I don't
Speaker 3: know what the energy thing I said, Well, really, I
Speaker 3: just really goes back to my mom. It's like I
Speaker 3: worked all those years in my mom's classroom. I was
Speaker 3: a big brother my senior year of high school for
Speaker 3: a little boy who was this you know, latchkey kid
Speaker 3: who had just a mom and he was really missing.
Speaker 3: You know. I would get together with him privately once
Speaker 3: a week, you know, and we would just play play
Speaker 3: games literally, or go somewhere and hang out, go to
Speaker 3: the playground whatever, you know, just talk about stuff, you know,
Speaker 3: get an ice cream together. Then I would you know,
Speaker 3: meet him with his mom at a certain time, you know,
Speaker 3: And so I you know, whether it was I mean,
Speaker 3: I was just as my wife says, you're the Dean
Speaker 3: jan of Dean Joan of dads in the nineties and
Speaker 3: the odds. It's like Dean Jones, who was the Dad
Speaker 3: and all the Disney movies and the sixties. Yeah, you're
Speaker 3: that version. It's like kids love you. They you never
Speaker 3: you know. I just talked straight to them. And so
Speaker 3: when I met, you know, the two of them, I
Speaker 3: said what I've always said any children I worked with,
Speaker 3: whether it was Home Alone three or Raising Hill or whatever,
Speaker 3: I just said, listen, you know we're we're all professionals here.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm going to treat you with complete and
Speaker 3: utter respect. And you got any great ideas, I want
Speaker 3: to hear them. Any ideas, you got any concerns, I'll
Speaker 3: help you with them. You got anything that you're afraid
Speaker 3: of on the set, talk to me. I'll get I'll
Speaker 3: talk to the director. But you know, we got to
Speaker 3: do this together, you know what I mean. And we
Speaker 3: would talk about scenes like and I would say to them,
Speaker 3: I'd say, listen, you know all sorts of things like
Speaker 3: if we're going to get physical, I would I would
Speaker 3: always say to them as early as I could, like
Speaker 3: we're going to be shooting a scene in a couple
Speaker 3: of weeks where like you were wrestling and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Just know that other than my eyes and a couple
Speaker 3: other parts. You can just wrestle with me however you want.
Speaker 3: You know, you can. You want to punch me in
Speaker 3: the arm, that's fine, and you want to you know,
Speaker 3: you want to like come up behind me, lift my
Speaker 3: hair up, you know, have at it, like you know,
Speaker 3: have feel free to act impulsively in the moment and
Speaker 3: let's let's, you know, help each other. But I think
Speaker 3: that you know, again, all credit to my to my
Speaker 3: mom and my dad, you know who always just said,
Speaker 3: you know, treat everybody with respect, including young people who
Speaker 3: you know there's you don't know better. And frankly that
Speaker 3: you know, as we all know, the best actors in
Speaker 3: the world are animals and small children. There they're completely free,
Speaker 3: they have no fat, no filter, and you know, a
Speaker 3: lot of times they make the scenes. I've been a
Speaker 3: hell of a lot better because of who they are.
Speaker 3: And I it's all about making, as Jimmy Cagney said,
Speaker 3: you know, making the audience never forget you because you
Speaker 3: create something very memorable. So you just for all, you know,
Speaker 3: you try and sit all these little fishhooks. I would
Speaker 3: say to them, you know what, if we tried this,
Speaker 3: take doing doing this. If you have me the prompt
Speaker 3: just like one line later on that and maybe I'll
Speaker 3: look at it and do you want to like, maybe
Speaker 3: we can improvise the line. You think it's goofy looking
Speaker 3: or it's silly color, maybe you want to say something
Speaker 3: about that, and we would get these like little magical
Speaker 3: things out of it. You know that whole seat shot
Speaker 3: with the oranges shooting orange. Yeah, oh my god. We
Speaker 3: had so much fun. All of us were like at
Speaker 3: times we were like on the floor and we were
Speaker 3: like whipping oranges around. Of course you guys like stop that,
Speaker 3: you know, like but and of course the thing that
Speaker 3: slid up it was some guy down below, poor guy,
Speaker 3: and like push it up right, like it's like you'd
Speaker 3: never want to know how the cake is made.
Speaker 2: Of course, movie magic, movie magic.
Speaker 3: Movie magic, some grip underneath.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so great.
Speaker 3: And so like we're in between takes, we're like I
Speaker 3: put my hand on top and I go and I'd
Speaker 3: slide it back down and whoa, wha, whoa man, which
Speaker 3: crack them up, and we keep the you know what,
Speaker 3: the thing I find, especially with young actors is they're
Speaker 3: just not used to working. The hours are really long,
Speaker 3: right time, and so you know, I part of my job,
Speaker 3: as you know, their parent or somebody i'm acting with them,
Speaker 3: whatever relationship I have with them, is to keep them
Speaker 3: engaged and keep them happy and keep them going. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, if that takes like stupid dad jokes, or
Speaker 3: if that needs me making a goofball out of myself,
Speaker 3: which I'm really good at doing, especially according to my life,
Speaker 3: you do that because it just brings energy to the
Speaker 3: set and you want to make it fresh, and you
Speaker 3: just you know, look, you know the days are twelve
Speaker 3: hour minimum and sometimes you're going you're shooting sixteen seventeen hours. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it is what it is.
Speaker 4: I know it's always tough, and you guys worked for
Speaker 4: such a short amount of time. But have you ever
Speaker 4: been able to link up with them on like social
Speaker 4: media or have any any interaction? So then you would
Speaker 4: you wouldn't know that Katie's tattoo artist. Now she has
Speaker 4: like a huge tattoo studio and she's like a tattoo artist.
Speaker 4: Really well, yeah, is that wild.
Speaker 2: Covering tattoos and is a tattoo artist?
Speaker 3: Yeah, she is.
Speaker 5: Yes, It's just wild to me to think of this
Speaker 5: cute like little just ray of Sunshine with her little
Speaker 5: blonde bob is Now, like, I can't even imagine what
Speaker 5: she looks like with being.
Speaker 4: A tattoo like owning a tattoo salon, that's so crazy.
Speaker 3: Well she she, I mean both of them had ryan too,
Speaker 3: but she in particular she had great First of all,
Speaker 3: her parents are great. She had great spunk. Yeah, wreckles,
Speaker 3: she had these adorable wreckles. She looked like she looked
Speaker 3: like the Frankly she looked like to me, the face
Speaker 3: of Ireland. That might be just be my but she
Speaker 3: looked like one of those like those tough Irish girls
Speaker 3: who was like all punky, like if you if you
Speaker 3: push her, she like push your right back and jump
Speaker 3: on your back and you know, want to wrestle with you.
Speaker 3: Like she was just all in and and and and
Speaker 3: you know, just great personalities. It was a real pleasure,
Speaker 3: a real pleasure, sincere pleasure working with both of them.
Speaker 4: Oh good.
Speaker 3: It couldn't have been better human beings. And they were
Speaker 3: totally professional. You know.
Speaker 1: Now, you mentioned before that you were in New York,
Speaker 1: and then you started in New York, and then you
Speaker 1: came out to LA and went back to New York.
Speaker 1: How did your journey as an actor start. Were you
Speaker 1: a child actor? Were you a little bit older when
Speaker 1: you started? How did you get into it?
Speaker 3: I was definitely older. I was really deeply depressed. So
Speaker 3: my dad. I grew up in Maryland. I grew up
Speaker 3: in a I was born in the city and we
Speaker 3: moved out of the city when I was about four
Speaker 3: or five, and my mom worked at this Episcopal day school.
Speaker 3: She started volunteering and then she started working there, eventually
Speaker 3: started teaching there, and we got to go to the
Speaker 3: school for free. But my sister and I both were
Speaker 3: keenly aware that we were with kids whose parents had money.
Speaker 3: Our parents had no money. I mean they really did,
Speaker 3: but they learned how to work the system in a time,
Speaker 3: in a day when you could work the system. So
Speaker 3: my mom we got free tuition because my mom worked
Speaker 3: at the school and they weren't paying her very much,
Speaker 3: you know, and we had this really great education. I
Speaker 3: got to do Toad in the Wind in the Willows
Speaker 3: in the sixth grade musical, and I absolutely loved it.
Speaker 3: And we had a cap gun that malfunctioned and I
Speaker 3: improvised a line. I said, you know, the line was written.
Speaker 3: It was like rat says Tody, why did you, you know,
Speaker 3: shoot that gun off? And the line was like, I
Speaker 3: just wanted to see if it would work, and I
Speaker 3: and you know it didn't work. So I said, I
Speaker 3: just wanted to see if it would work, and it didn't,
Speaker 3: you know, like this big comedic moment, you know, but
Speaker 3: beat beep, you know, and the audience roared and I
Speaker 3: got my first laugh. Well, I would like to say
Speaker 3: to you that I then did. I was a theater
Speaker 3: kid from age twelve on. But no, I was the
Speaker 3: only way for me to get to college was to
Speaker 3: get a sports scholarship. So my way out was playing sports,
Speaker 3: and I got recruited for football and lacrosse. I ended
Speaker 3: up playing lacrosse in college Johns Hopkins and and And
Speaker 3: when I got out Hopkins, I had no I do
Speaker 3: what I was going to do with my life. I
Speaker 3: worked for a bank and I started a commercial as
Speaker 3: a commercial credit anialist and I was a commercial loan officer.
Speaker 3: I was there for about three years. I went into
Speaker 3: mortgage banking because of three of my former teammates working
Speaker 3: for this company. They said, we can get you at
Speaker 3: raised and salary. I thought it would last about a
Speaker 3: year to two years, saved my money, moved to New
Speaker 3: York and follow this crazy dream. Because when I started
Speaker 3: at the bank, I started in an MBA program. Hated
Speaker 3: it so much I dropped out after a month, and
Speaker 3: then I took a couple semesters of fiction writing, a
Speaker 3: couple semesters of journalism. I thought I wanted to write
Speaker 3: and I wanted to tell stories and I didn't. But
Speaker 3: then writing is solitary, and I had come from the
Speaker 3: world of team sports and I wanted to be a
Speaker 3: part of a team creating something. And then on a whim,
Speaker 3: I came out of the bank one time on I
Speaker 3: remember it was I was on a lunch break and
Speaker 3: they used to have these free newspapers on the street
Speaker 3: and these boxes, and I go to the box. I
Speaker 3: get this, you know, I'm like looking through it and
Speaker 3: offers you everything. You know, average it's basically advertising. But
Speaker 3: there was an advertisement for introduction to acting class and
Speaker 3: it was like three blocks up from the bank, and
Speaker 3: I thought that's interesting. I've always thought I could be
Speaker 3: a good actor. So I took this class and I
Speaker 3: did the first night, I literally just I was like,
Speaker 3: oh God, this is so cool. Because the woman who
Speaker 3: taught it. She just said, you know, you really got
Speaker 3: to be part journalists. You have to do It's the who, what, where? Why?
Speaker 3: With each character? Who are you portraying? Why? Where are you?
Speaker 3: What time? Is it a period piece or not? You know,
Speaker 3: what do you want? What do you need? What are
Speaker 3: you trying to achieve? And I then took another acting class,
Speaker 3: but this time on camera and it was sit that
Speaker 3: on camera class that a bunch of my fellow classmates said,
Speaker 3: you're so relaxed in front of the camera. Why are
Speaker 3: you so we're all like dying? And I said, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I played a sport where you would either
Speaker 3: be playing in front of, like, maybe at the low end,
Speaker 3: one thousand people, and if it was a national championship
Speaker 3: game twenty thousand people and you turned your head the
Speaker 3: wrong way on the field, you get your head handed
Speaker 3: to you. So, because it can be a pretty and
Speaker 3: especially in our day, it was a pretty violent sport.
Speaker 3: So I said, you know, I'm not I'm used to
Speaker 3: people watching me, so I don't really you know, you
Speaker 3: just focus on what I got to do. Sold everything.
Speaker 3: I took a mortgaging. I ended up in Alabama with
Speaker 3: this mortgage banking company, living in a trailer and living
Speaker 3: on off of a clay road. You know, it's literally
Speaker 3: in a corn field with railroad tracks like one hundred
Speaker 3: meters behind the interne. At three in the morning, when
Speaker 3: the train would go through the whole, the whole thing
Speaker 3: would shake, you know, the whole whole trailer. No insulation
Speaker 3: in the trailer. So when I wake up in the morning,
Speaker 3: like in Alabama gets cold in the winter, you know,
Speaker 3: like you can see breath, you know. And I'm sharing
Speaker 3: the trailer with a mouse who you eat through my
Speaker 3: planner's peanuts. And then I started leaving peanuts out for
Speaker 3: the mouse, and I would talking to the mouse. I
Speaker 3: was like, I gotta get out of here. I'm talking
Speaker 3: to money.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: I go to I sell everything. I sell the car,
Speaker 3: and I had two thousand dollars and I moved to
Speaker 3: New York in nineteen eighty five. I had some my
Speaker 3: sister's former friends from her college who put me up
Speaker 3: so that I could sleep on their floor. And I
Speaker 3: literally slept on the floor. And then I found two
Speaker 3: women who one of whom I had known in high school,
Speaker 3: who said, we have an extra room. You want to
Speaker 3: rent that as a bedroom, and I had an introduction
Speaker 3: some managers and I just started. I got a waiter job,
Speaker 3: I got a doorman job I had later on, I
Speaker 3: got a bartending job. I did cater waitering, and the
Speaker 3: whole time I had an introduction to some managers who
Speaker 3: have basically wanted me to go away. They were like,
Speaker 3: I was in my bank. I was literally in one
Speaker 3: of my bank suits when I met them, and they
Speaker 3: were like all dressed up, and I'm like, people got
Speaker 3: dressed up when they did a job, and I'm trying
Speaker 3: to get you as a manager, and they wanted me
Speaker 3: to go away. And I remember the woman that's another story,
Speaker 3: but she had these Catai glasses on a long straight
Speaker 3: It was like strict. It was straight out of Woody
Speaker 3: Allen's Broadway. Danny wore, this stuff does not exist anymore.
Speaker 3: I mean it was building back in the day. And
Speaker 3: she's smoking, literally she's smoking Virginia's slims that are about
Speaker 3: this long. She's looking with these cat Ei glasses on
Speaker 3: the on the bejeweled string and she goes, okay, honey,
Speaker 3: where's your resume, where's your picture? You know? And I
Speaker 3: and I said, well, I don't I don't have a headshot,
Speaker 3: and I don't have a resume. I'm trying to, you know,
Speaker 3: get all those things. And I told her my story
Speaker 3: and she's like, there's this great moment where she goes,
Speaker 3: so you're not an actor. And I said, she said, well, honey,
Speaker 3: and she's like putting her cigarette. She goes, honey, just
Speaker 3: come back when you get those things. Someday we'll see
Speaker 3: in a few years. And it was like this one
Speaker 3: of these crazy moments where I thought she was just
Speaker 3: being mean and where I came from a farming community,
Speaker 3: if you were you know, if you were being rude,
Speaker 3: you had to call someone out on it. So I
Speaker 3: tried to do it gently, Like I literally remember leaning
Speaker 3: on her desk with one of my ELO's and I
Speaker 3: leaned for it and I said, listen, I'm really good
Speaker 3: at following directions and I come from a business background.
Speaker 3: So if you give me a list of things to do,
Speaker 3: I'll do everything on that list. But I don't have
Speaker 3: a photographer. You say, I need voice and diction, you see,
Speaker 3: I need acting classes. Maybe you can give me some names.
Speaker 3: I'll do everything on the list and then i'll see
Speaker 3: you in a few months. And she looked at me, and
Speaker 3: she went and her name was Anne Steel, and she
Speaker 3: said all right, and she pulls out this big yellow
Speaker 3: pad and she takes her pen and pencil or whatever.
Speaker 3: She goes, do this, do that, do this, do that?
Speaker 3: You know? Hare see you? And I did, and like
Speaker 3: that was like late February of ninety eighty five, and
Speaker 3: then like in April, I get this. In those days
Speaker 3: you had answering services, and my answering service was the
Speaker 3: aptly named bells are Ringing and message from Needletz and Steel,
Speaker 3: and I had met Anne Steele. But Gene Neederletz, her partner,
Speaker 3: said it's from a woman named Gen Needles. I call
Speaker 3: her back. She says, yeah, you met my partner a
Speaker 3: couple of months ago, and she said, you look like
Speaker 3: this thing that they're you're going to use in advertising soon.
Speaker 3: I've met with all the people up at Gray, so
Speaker 3: I want to meet you. So I meet her, and
Speaker 3: then she says, yeah, the people at Gray Advertising say
Speaker 3: they're gonna be meeting people like they look like you
Speaker 3: and commercials, so I want to see what you can do.
Speaker 3: They're called yuppies. I don't know what that word means.
Speaker 3: And you know, whatever it means, I don't care. So
Speaker 3: they had a studio with lights, a camera, the ability
Speaker 3: to play back whatever you recorded, and a piano and
Speaker 3: they and half they were child managers, but their children
Speaker 3: had all grown up. And like I met a very
Speaker 3: young Jason Alexander, I met a very very young I
Speaker 3: met a young, already Emmy Award winning Michael Knight, who
Speaker 3: was on All My Children for you. Of course they
Speaker 3: married people alex Winter Bill and yes they had this
Speaker 3: you know, like talk about this is the dumb luck
Speaker 3: that you know you fall into some group, that this
Speaker 3: is the group, this is the group. So I can remember,
Speaker 3: like all the actors would help me. They taught me
Speaker 3: how commercial copy. They taught me English is spoken four
Speaker 3: by four meter. They taught me how to use emphasize adjectives.
Speaker 3: I started going out for commercials. I started booking them.
Speaker 3: They signed me, and that's kind of how I got
Speaker 3: the start. And then so classes I took every class
Speaker 3: I could. I entered a two year Meisner program and
Speaker 3: I went through Mester training for two years. And I
Speaker 3: remember in September of eighty six, I got four network
Speaker 3: national commercials in one month, and I said, all right,
Speaker 3: I'm hanging up my I'm hanging up my bartending soup.
Speaker 3: I'm hanging up my tuxedo. Because I was caterwaiter in
Speaker 3: those days. I was working for Abigail Kersh catering and said,
Speaker 3: you know no more about Mitzvah's bar metz Was. I
Speaker 3: told myself, I'm making a living as an actor. Yes,
Speaker 3: and then so from September of eighty six until COVID,
Speaker 3: I didn't have to do anything else but but be
Speaker 3: an actor.
Speaker 2: So you really, yeah, you don't hear those anymore.
Speaker 4: That's yes, you do so.
Speaker 3: Many amazing anymore. So much of that doesn't. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm lucky the Fisk Building is still at Broadway in
Speaker 3: fifty seven.
Speaker 2: No, that's because that's I mean. I was. I was
Speaker 2: a child actor.
Speaker 1: I started in Connecticut in eighty six and then wasn't
Speaker 1: going to New York and by eighty seven eighty eight,
Speaker 1: So getting off in Port Authority and walking.
Speaker 2: The streets and go in New York.
Speaker 1: Do you go up into the little cage and you
Speaker 1: close the cage and you go upstairs and they go, sorry, kid,
Speaker 1: you're too fat. I turn around, I go back down.
Speaker 1: I get it on three hour bus ride back to Connecticut.
Speaker 2: I mean, like, none of that. It's just the whole
Speaker 2: business is different.
Speaker 4: Now, so different.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of.
Speaker 1: Success and all the things you did, our fans would
Speaker 1: absolutely come after us if we did not at least
Speaker 1: talk about One Tree Hill a little bit.
Speaker 2: Uh sure, So what was that like? What was that
Speaker 2: job like? And what was it like being on that set?
Speaker 3: It was very fast, I remember, I think that was
Speaker 3: a straight offer. They had seen me do something else
Speaker 3: and thought that I'd be good as Peyton's dad. And
Speaker 3: I think I did over maybe three definitely two seasons,
Speaker 3: but maybe three. I think I did five or six
Speaker 3: of them. And he was always a captain. I mean,
Speaker 3: this just made me laugh. It makes me laugh to
Speaker 3: this day. He was always a captain who was out
Speaker 3: at sea with his boat. I mean I was like, really, really,
Speaker 3: the heck was out to see this much? You know,
Speaker 3: rain is out to see but whatever, And we were
Speaker 3: in Wilmington, North Carolina. It was really really you know,
Speaker 3: it was good. I mean I had a good time.
Speaker 3: I met Ironically, even though I had no scenes with
Speaker 3: chet Michael Murray, I met him. We had a lot
Speaker 3: of back and forth on the set. He was he
Speaker 3: had become a big star. And then I worked with
Speaker 3: him directly, of course, in a Cinderella story playing playing
Speaker 3: the King.
Speaker 1: Yep, the other one we're supposed to ask about. All
Speaker 1: of our producers are like Cinderella Story. Come on, Cinderella Story. Like, okay,
Speaker 1: let's do one tree Hill first, we'll get to Cinderella Store.
Speaker 3: So at any rate, it was they shot quickly. It
Speaker 3: was a well oiled machine when I got there. But
Speaker 3: you know, she couldn't have been nicer. I mean, and
Speaker 3: she's so talented and so nice. And now they're doing
Speaker 3: their reboot.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Wow, amazing of them. And they're children. I'm like, wow, yeah.
Speaker 2: It's like Fuller House.
Speaker 3: Ye yeah, it's like and I'm like, I'm ready to
Speaker 3: be a grandpa, you know, even in my endo, my
Speaker 3: grandpa phase. But it was, uh, you know, I would
Speaker 3: fly down, shoot one or two, fly back to New York.
Speaker 3: It was, you know, like I said, they they were
Speaker 3: under a lot of stress that it become this this huge, huge,
Speaker 3: huge hit. And you know, Hillary became really huge, and
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, U, Chad Lafferty, all those guys,
Speaker 3: they became really really you know, yeah, star.
Speaker 2: Well that's one of those shows.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like it's like a smarthouse where it's
Speaker 1: got fans and fans and fans and just levels of
Speaker 1: fans that have been gone back for you know, years.
Speaker 1: So you've been involved in a lot of these things
Speaker 1: that have had just an incredible amount of longevity.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, another more dumb luck. I mean, what's interesting.
Speaker 3: I went last a year ago right now. In fact,
Speaker 3: I went to the I've never ever done a convention before,
Speaker 3: and they invited me for a Onetree convention. So I
Speaker 3: went to Wilmington and it was really fantastic and it
Speaker 3: was great seeing them again and and we talked and
Speaker 3: caught up. And what's clear from meeting the fans at
Speaker 3: the convention is that everyone you know, and much more
Speaker 3: women of course than men. But it was really a
Speaker 3: mother daughter thing. I mean, I had if I had
Speaker 3: one mother daughter, I had you know, countless examples of
Speaker 3: mothers and daughters say that's that's our show, we watch
Speaker 3: it together, we commiserate. Wow, you know. And I found
Speaker 3: that really interesting too, because that was just I didn't solicit,
Speaker 3: you know, I wasn't asking a question. They were just
Speaker 3: volunteering that. I thought, well, that's really interesting that One
Speaker 3: Tree Hill sort of became like the thing that bond
Speaker 3: bonds a lot of mothers and daughters and and you
Speaker 3: know in an interesting or analogous way that you know,
Speaker 3: smart houses in many ways about father sons. Yeah, Like again,
Speaker 3: the power of storytelling and when you sort of touch
Speaker 3: on something in the zeitgeist that and what I mean
Speaker 3: by that not to sound fancy, because I'm not trying it,
Speaker 3: is that there are these I kind of think, there's
Speaker 3: these themes that are floating through our society and then
Speaker 3: some movie or TV series like really gets into it
Speaker 3: and everybody's like, oh God, that's why I love that show.
Speaker 3: Because they talk about the stuff that we actually are
Speaker 3: dying to talk about. It gives you an excuse, it
Speaker 3: gives you a channel, you know, metaphoric channel to begin
Speaker 3: to share. And you know, that's always to me the
Speaker 3: great examples of why storytelling is so important, or else
Speaker 3: the planet that wouldree insane.
Speaker 2: It would well more insane. So another question. Then, a
Speaker 2: lot of times we.
Speaker 1: Talk about something like a high school musical or the
Speaker 1: movie that Sabrina did, Cheetah Girls, something where right when
Speaker 1: it came out, there was instant recognition instant success that
Speaker 1: it exploded on the channel, you know, entered the kind
Speaker 1: of mainstream right away.
Speaker 2: Did you notice this with smart House as well.
Speaker 1: Was this something where right after it came out you
Speaker 1: noticed people coming up to you or there was publicity
Speaker 1: about it, or did this take a while and kind
Speaker 1: of grow.
Speaker 3: No, I think there was a you know, I was
Speaker 3: more surprised at the longevity, the tale, the long tale
Speaker 3: of it was an initial reaction. I remember, you know,
Speaker 3: people telling me how wonderful they thought it was because
Speaker 3: they had never seen a house like that.
Speaker 2: They were all talking about the house, right, But.
Speaker 3: The tale, the longevity became about all the things that
Speaker 3: we've already talked about about just father son, the father
Speaker 3: daughter kids, reverse engineering problems and becoming their own heroes
Speaker 3: and taking ownership of them of themselves, and and a
Speaker 3: problematic situation and acknowledging grief and everybody missing mom and
Speaker 3: you know that, you know, I'm so grateful for the
Speaker 3: just the lines of like you know, when I think
Speaker 3: when I said, I think it was to my son
Speaker 3: who said, I said, You're not the only one who's
Speaker 3: hurting here.
Speaker 1: Yes, Yeah, that was an incredible scene.
Speaker 4: That was a moment you know it.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's so oh, it's you know, I'm going
Speaker 3: to get emotional because the thing is is that we
Speaker 3: go to movies in the theater and and we watch
Speaker 3: our TV shows because we operate in these silos, even
Speaker 3: between fathers and daughters, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters,
Speaker 3: mothers and sons, two sisters, it doesn't matter. We we
Speaker 3: sort of get in our silos and we sort of
Speaker 3: forget that, you know, that other person's going through hard
Speaker 3: times too, and as their hearts hurting too. So again,
Speaker 3: any story that allows the it sort of becomes like
Speaker 3: a bridge to each other. You know, it's sort of
Speaker 3: the story becomes the bridge itself, and from one side
Speaker 3: to the other, you begin to talk and to share,
Speaker 3: and you begin to you know, I mean a psychotherapist
Speaker 3: would say, you begin to empathize. So great empathy is
Speaker 3: brought up because you know, you start you start confessing,
Speaker 3: think you all my verbs, You confess, you, you share
Speaker 3: you you know you you bear your bones, that you
Speaker 3: bear your soul about something that's really troubling you. And
Speaker 3: then there's talk.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well that's what I think was really awesome. And
Speaker 4: what makes this is a lot different than some of
Speaker 4: the dcoms that we've seen, is we're not just seeing
Speaker 4: the kid's perspective. You are seeing like an adult, and
Speaker 4: it's the lesson for the kid to see that. You know,
Speaker 4: everyone kind of looks at their parents when you're growing
Speaker 4: up like they're superheroes, right, and you just kind of
Speaker 4: it's like you realize and it brings that to the forefront,
Speaker 4: like the raw idea of this person is a human
Speaker 4: who is going to go through things as well. It's
Speaker 4: not just the kids learning, people parents learn. And I
Speaker 4: think now when I watched it this time, I'm a
Speaker 4: parent now and it was like that moment of like,
Speaker 4: oh my gosh, yes, oh god. I mean that it
Speaker 4: took me by surprise of how emotional that that scene
Speaker 4: takes now looking at through like a parent's eyes. Very cool.
Speaker 4: It was awesome.
Speaker 3: Sabrina, thank you for sharing that because you know, again,
Speaker 3: look and you guys know this, You've not only been
Speaker 3: in the industry, but you you know, interviewed a lot
Speaker 3: of actors and I'm sure they've all said the same thing,
Speaker 3: which is like, you know, you're a part of one
Speaker 3: hundred a minimum of one hundred person crew. You know,
Speaker 3: maybe two hundred. Everybody's got to do their job. You're
Speaker 3: doing your job. You know you're you're part of a
Speaker 3: cast that could number in the do you know, a
Speaker 3: couple of dozen or more, and you know you only
Speaker 3: hope that there's a long afterlife and that people it
Speaker 3: resonates for a long time and it just h I think,
Speaker 3: you know, and I'm great again. I'm grateful that you
Speaker 3: guys shared the ratings of I've never frankly, never even
Speaker 3: heard of because I don't I don't go looking for
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff. But I've always gone by what
Speaker 3: people have said to me when they stop me or
Speaker 3: ask if I'm the dad in smart House. And then
Speaker 3: you wouldn't believe what comes out of people. They just
Speaker 3: these confessions, these these these like can I tell you
Speaker 3: what it meant to me? Type of thing? I tell
Speaker 3: you how it helped? Can I tell you how? And
Speaker 3: it's happened so much that you know, there's a part
Speaker 3: of me that's like, I don't give it what Rotten
Speaker 3: Tomato says. I know the power of what it did.
Speaker 3: This is what critics don't count, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: There are you know, idiots because they don't even acknowledge,
Speaker 3: you know, a seminal moment like you just did, Sabrina,
Speaker 3: the power of of just the raw, raw honesty of
Speaker 3: a confession of the heart of a broken heart in
Speaker 3: that moment. And if it's done well, and I think again,
Speaker 3: you know, again, credit to a wonderful script and credit
Speaker 3: to LeVar. When it's done well, I mean, oh my god.
Speaker 3: I mean we're still talking about it, and here we're going.
Speaker 3: You know, in twenty and twenty seven, it will be
Speaker 3: thirty years Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, getting.
Speaker 3: And not that this could ever ever, because it can't
Speaker 3: approach something like it's a wonderful life. But if people
Speaker 3: begin to say to me, we watch Smart House at
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving every year in my house because it's a ritual
Speaker 3: in the same way that you know, Jerry watching Christmas movies.
Speaker 3: Whatever becomes a ritual, I really won't be shocked, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. I know, I know there's a
Speaker 3: whole group of people out there that watch all the
Speaker 3: home alones. They watch one grief, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: That's we we while we're making our Christmas meatballs home
Speaker 4: alone one, two or three. You know that's what That's
Speaker 4: a tradition that I got pulled into with my husband's family.
Speaker 4: They've been doing it their whole life and now I
Speaker 4: we do it at our house because we host Christmas now.
Speaker 4: And that's what it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's one year lives, you know, an
Speaker 3: annual ritual once a year, whatever that ritual is.
Speaker 4: With this incredible resume you have, what is the one
Speaker 4: that you get recognized for the most?
Speaker 3: Oh? Smart?
Speaker 2: Smart?
Speaker 3: There's no doubt even Home Alone three even you know,
Speaker 3: you know, I would say I could put Raising Hellen
Speaker 3: and a Cinderella Story together, tumblone three and By two
Speaker 3: and a couple other things and they would equal Smart House.
Speaker 3: But again, I don't you know. I remember I bumped
Speaker 3: into I want to say, maybe like ten years later,
Speaker 3: right before I left LA to move back East with
Speaker 3: my wife, I ran into the producer of Smart House,
Speaker 3: and he and I had had a lunch afterwards because
Speaker 3: he wanted to know if I'd be open to doing
Speaker 3: a smart house too, and I was like absolutely, But
Speaker 3: for whatever reason, it never happened. I was like, we said,
Speaker 3: the Disney Channel people are over the moon over this.
Speaker 3: That's it's so successful. And you know, and I know
Speaker 3: it was because I've got the residuals to tell you
Speaker 3: how many times. I mean, I'm telling you they wouldn't
Speaker 3: rerun it if it wasn't good. So it it resonates
Speaker 3: and it has stood the test of time. And so
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, I I'm immensely there was
Speaker 3: a time when I would And again this is a
Speaker 3: poor reflection on me, but I'm going to be honest
Speaker 3: about it. Where I was like, you know, I remember
Speaker 3: I used to joke with my wife before she was
Speaker 3: my wife, when she was when we were living together,
Speaker 3: she was and I said, and we were just dating,
Speaker 3: and I said, you know, watch it, I'll be remembered
Speaker 3: for smart house and nothing else, you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: like kind of like that would suck, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, kind of thing because I wanted to do
Speaker 3: such other blah blah blah, but only only with time
Speaker 3: and frankly, to be frank lost, you know when your
Speaker 3: parents die, when people friends of yours from high school
Speaker 3: and college begin to die early, and you begin to
Speaker 3: realize and I now, I'm like, you know, I should
Speaker 3: wash my mouth. That was so because being you know,
Speaker 3: born Catholic, you know I would I would probably go
Speaker 3: back to the old school, you know, punishments of like that,
Speaker 3: because I should be so lucky. I should be so
Speaker 3: lucky to be remembered for something that has all these
Speaker 3: wonderful themes that you've touched upon, and that it still
Speaker 3: helps people and they still want to watch it and
Speaker 3: they still resonates with them. Make come on, they love it.
Speaker 4: They love it too. I remember it coming out. I
Speaker 4: was a Disney kid that grew up racing home on
Speaker 4: the night of d COM's being premiered, you know when
Speaker 4: back when they would premiere on the channel. And I
Speaker 4: remember watching it when I was younger and thinking, Wow,
Speaker 4: could you imagine living in a house like that, you know,
Speaker 4: and and all of that. But then again, rewatching it
Speaker 4: now as a parent, just older life experiences, it was
Speaker 4: like a whole new movie to me, and it was
Speaker 4: just that much better. I mean that really, it just
Speaker 4: was that much better and it was so fun to watch.
Speaker 2: I guess a great movie.
Speaker 3: A couple of times when I bumped into Katie some
Speaker 3: function or another. Long time now, but I remember, you know,
Speaker 3: within within the ten year period after we shot it,
Speaker 3: and Katie would like, look at me, and she goes,
Speaker 3: who'd have thunk? Hawk? Killer. She'd be like, who if
Speaker 3: I said, Katie, you know that bob hair do girl,
Speaker 3: And and you being a smart Alex smart house, you
Speaker 3: know that you said, I never would have guessed, you know.
Speaker 3: And and Katie, you know, she's a brilliant musician, songwriter
Speaker 3: and singer and incredible actor and you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: she's a real artist. And so for Katie to like
Speaker 3: say that, it means something as well, you know, So
Speaker 3: you know she acknowledges it too. I regret that I
Speaker 3: haven't bumped into you know Ryan, you know, over all
Speaker 3: these years, I would I would, you know. I know,
Speaker 3: for for a while there, I used to get the
Speaker 3: question all the time, can you put me in touch
Speaker 3: with Ron? I was like, no, I can't do that.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, I mean, if you want to
Speaker 1: give us a Cinderella story story.
Speaker 3: You know. She it was her first feature film, Hillary's, Hillary's,
Speaker 3: and she was absolutely scared. I mean she was. I mean,
Speaker 3: she had a bodyguard. This guy was huge. She used
Speaker 3: to run lines with her and she would like literally
Speaker 3: like sit on his knees and run the lines in
Speaker 3: the scene. And she was terrified of the big kiss
Speaker 3: with Chad. She didn't know how I literally think that
Speaker 3: was the first time she was ever kissed period, not yet,
Speaker 3: let alone on camera. Right. Wow, that was shot in
Speaker 3: a very fast way as well. But I remember we
Speaker 3: had a really fun time down at the car wash
Speaker 3: when we shot it was down Long Beach somewhere, and
Speaker 3: we shot it down there, and the two young women
Speaker 3: who played the wicked step daughters were hysterical and they
Speaker 3: were so up for like, yeah, we want to get
Speaker 3: full of soap, and you know they're just going to
Speaker 3: like run us through this car wash a million times
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. So I remember that was really
Speaker 3: fun and and we were, you know, later surprised, of course,
Speaker 3: but you know, I think at that point everything that
Speaker 3: Hillary touched when you know gold, Yeah, it was very successful.
Speaker 3: She had a massive and I guess to this day
Speaker 3: so I was a massive following. It was fun working
Speaker 3: with Chad. Chad was so like he was like, you know,
Speaker 3: I got to make room for this Disney movie because
Speaker 3: then I got to go back to North Carolina. I
Speaker 3: was like, boy, you have such a like that. You know,
Speaker 3: you got to your TV star, now you're becoming a
Speaker 3: movie star.
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, I feel bad for you.
Speaker 3: I was like enjoy it all, you know, like stop
Speaker 3: saying it like it's you have a scheduling problem. That
Speaker 3: should be the least of your worries.
Speaker 4: You know, right.
Speaker 3: But he was glad to see me. I was glad
Speaker 3: to see him, and it made there was a very
Speaker 3: great and there was a great shorthand there as well,
Speaker 3: and we got to you know, the director was kind
Speaker 3: enough to let us, you know, improve. I will use
Speaker 3: that word of some lines on the script because I
Speaker 3: always try to do that just to make just to
Speaker 3: put in stuff that sounds more truthful to my ear
Speaker 3: about fathers and sons or any parent child relationship, because
Speaker 3: a lot of it sometimes they're written in a very
Speaker 3: like you know, tell a TV or yeah, like bad TV,
Speaker 3: bad movie way, And I'm like, no, let's like mess
Speaker 3: this up a little bit and ye make it more ambiguous.
Speaker 3: So yeah, no, that was fun as well.
Speaker 2: That's great. Well, I just have to say, first of all,
Speaker 2: thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: But also you've you've mentioned several times how you you
Speaker 1: gave props to LeVar Burton and to the writers, but
Speaker 1: it's also because of the cast.
Speaker 2: I mean, you guys were all just.
Speaker 1: So great and you and Ryan especially your relationship was
Speaker 1: really the crux of the piece, and it was a
Speaker 1: very very you know, we've said this for we're watching
Speaker 1: all the Disney Channel original movies.
Speaker 2: Some of them are more difficult to get through than others.
Speaker 1: If we're being honest, this one was not difficult to
Speaker 1: get through at all. This is a great put it
Speaker 1: on and you're just watching an awesome movie. It just
Speaker 1: happens to be a dcom. That's how I look at it.
Speaker 1: It was, Man, it was really good.
Speaker 3: Last few guys for watching every.
Speaker 2: Yep, yep. We're getting there, so I don't know how
Speaker 2: many we're in now, but there's really good.
Speaker 3: School is really tough home work.
Speaker 4: No, you know what the good thing is is, it's
Speaker 4: been so fun. Most the majority of them are great.
Speaker 4: We've some we have hit some that are just like,
Speaker 4: oh my gosh, I could not wait till this movie
Speaker 4: was over. But for the most part they're really good.
Speaker 4: And it's really fun is doing the interviews because every
Speaker 4: single person we get on loves and feels so honored
Speaker 4: that they were able to be a part of the
Speaker 4: channel because of what all the things we were just
Speaker 4: talking about. When they get to meet fans who loved
Speaker 4: the movie. It's so much more than just the job.
Speaker 4: You realize how much you're impacting and how much of
Speaker 4: an impression you've put on somebody, and it's just it's wonderful.
Speaker 4: And that's my favorite part of it is seeing it
Speaker 4: over and over again. Every actor we get to talk
Speaker 4: to how much they loved being a part of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you guys have been really great. I've loved
Speaker 3: being a part of this. If you need anything in
Speaker 3: the future, don't hesitate to reach out.
Speaker 2: Oh we will. We're gone it.
Speaker 3: We're now.
Speaker 2: We're not done yet with the show.
Speaker 3: I really do. And well, we.
Speaker 2: Really appreciate it. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: We'll see it next time, all right, William all right, man,
Speaker 1: another good storyteller.
Speaker 4: I know, my gosh, this.
Speaker 2: Actor is the storytellers.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: It's just great.
Speaker 4: I mean, think about it. With the resume he has
Speaker 4: this movie. Smart House is the number he said he
Speaker 4: was putting one treat that he was putting, yeah together Cinderella,
Speaker 4: putting them together and saying it's still the one that
Speaker 4: he is recognized by the most.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's incredible. D Combs Man, D Combs, we found it.
Speaker 2: We found it. Found the Golden Dick. We did, we
Speaker 2: did well.
Speaker 1: Thank you everybody for joining us for this incredible interview,
Speaker 1: and thank you.
Speaker 2: Kevin Kilner for joining us, for taking the time and
Speaker 2: for very I mean kind of ignoring your wife's call,
Speaker 2: which is which I love that. Yeah, good looking.
Speaker 4: Dude, cooking dude like hi, jeez, he just I mean,
Speaker 4: and he's a he's an acting coach now, I mean
Speaker 4: what this.
Speaker 2: Is amazing, Sabrinas Minton. Sabrinas Minton, I love it. Thank
Speaker 2: you everybody for joining us.
Speaker 1: You can join us again over on our other feed
Speaker 1: as we watch these wonderful movies and you know.
Speaker 2: Stick with us because well we've still got a lot
Speaker 2: left to go.
Speaker 1: You know, if you actually put them all together, we've
Speaker 1: got about another We figured out another nine hundred years
Speaker 1: of content of watching these movies, and we're so happy
Speaker 1: that you're gonna be sticking with us for all all
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 2: You really can't wait, don't forget.
Speaker 1: You can always join us or follow us, I should say,
Speaker 1: that's the word I'm looking for. You can follow us
Speaker 1: over on the Instagram machine at the Magical rewind Pod.
Speaker 2: Not a good interview, Sabrina, Yeah, we'll see everybody next time.
Speaker 2: Thank you, bye bye.