Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to work in Progress. Welcome
Speaker 1: back Whipsmarties. This week's work in progress is particularly special
Speaker 1: and close to my heart, not only because today's guests
Speaker 1: and I are going to talk about a movie we
Speaker 1: made together, but because today's guest happens to be one
Speaker 1: of my oldest friends from my first job. You may
Speaker 1: remember a little show called One Tree Hill, and today
Speaker 1: we are joined by none other than Brian Greenberg. You
Speaker 1: may not know that Brian was born in Oklahoma, Nebraska,
Speaker 1: and then raised in Saint Louis, Missouri. He graduated from
Speaker 1: NYU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and in his
Speaker 1: New York journey, was on shows like Law and Order,
Speaker 1: booked his big screen debut in a civil action. He
Speaker 1: worked on several amazing TV series, including The Sopranos, also
Speaker 1: Boston Public and Third Watch. He came into my world
Speaker 1: via a wonderful movie called The Perfect Score, which led
Speaker 1: him to work on One Tree Hill and play our
Speaker 1: very favorite Jake Jigalski. He left us to go work
Speaker 1: on a show produced by none other than George Clooney
Speaker 1: for HBO, which we're all still a little sad about,
Speaker 1: but it's okay. He's gone on to make so many
Speaker 1: incredible films, like one of my very favorite rom coms,
Speaker 1: Ever Prime, and Casually. While doing all of this, has
Speaker 1: released a number of albums. He is an incredible singer songwriter.
Speaker 1: He also is a wonderful dad. He and his lovely wife,
Speaker 1: Jamie Chung have two beautiful little boys, and Jamie happens
Speaker 1: to be in this incredible film with us as well.
Speaker 1: The film is called Junction. It is coming out in
Speaker 1: theaters Friday, January twenty sixth. Junction chronicles the modern day
Speaker 1: opioid crisis in America from three different points of view,
Speaker 1: the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, a doctor who prescribes
Speaker 1: the medications, and a patient who is addicted to them.
Speaker 1: Each character is going to have to come face to
Speaker 1: face with all of the decisions they've made, all of
Speaker 1: the complexities of their lives, and what their roles are
Speaker 1: in this epidemic. The movie is powerful and emotional and
Speaker 1: inspiring and at times scary and at times funny. Brian
Speaker 1: and I actually laughed a lot making this film, and
Speaker 1: I'm just so excited to talk with him about it,
Speaker 1: because not only does he star in it, not only
Speaker 1: did he direct it? He also wrote it. It's been
Speaker 1: a passion project of his for the last four years,
Speaker 1: and I'm so proud to be a part of it.
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of him forgetting it made. And I'm sure,
Speaker 1: like me, you have so many questions for him. So
Speaker 1: let's dive in and hear from Brian. Well, this feels
Speaker 1: really exciting. I can't believe that we're sitting here. You know,
Speaker 1: we just went to an event a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: It's a ward season, and you know, everybody's out celebrating movies,
Speaker 1: and you posted that photo of us and you were like,
Speaker 1: our friendship is twenty years old, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, our friendship is almost old enough to
Speaker 1: order a beer in a bar.
Speaker 2: It's crazy. Our friendship could go to war, for.
Speaker 1: Sure, Like, what, yeah, is happening.
Speaker 2: Our freshman, I mean our Yeah, our our friendship is
Speaker 2: would be a sophomore in college or a junior in college.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sophomore in college. I know we all do this
Speaker 1: because we've been friends forever. But you know, you look
Speaker 1: around and you go like, are we really the grown
Speaker 1: ups now? Is that a thing? Who do we ask
Speaker 1: for help when we need it or like advice. Now
Speaker 1: people are asking us for advice and something about you
Speaker 1: saying our friendship is twenty years old. I was like,
Speaker 1: we we really are the grownups.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. I always have to kind of pick
Speaker 2: for myself now. I'm like a father too. I'm always like, oh,
Speaker 2: I have to be like the authority. But you, in
Speaker 2: my mind, I'm still like a kid, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: even like being a director, you're just like, oh, you're
Speaker 2: the one that's supposed to have the answers, Like I'm
Speaker 2: not used to be having that, you know, I know
Speaker 2: what you mean. I still in my mind, I'm still
Speaker 2: like twenty years old.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I feel like there's just a perpetual state of
Speaker 1: being twenty four that lasts through I guess most of
Speaker 1: your adulthood.
Speaker 2: I think what it is when you, you know, when you're
Speaker 2: our age, you realize that like, oh wait, everybody's just
Speaker 2: kind of bullshiting, like nobody really has there is no
Speaker 2: authority figure. It's like no one knows what's going on.
Speaker 2: Like you're like, oh, the older people get it, they
Speaker 2: know what's going on. But then you're becoming the older
Speaker 2: people like, oh, I'm just as clueless as ever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you really realize everybody's just kind of faking it
Speaker 1: till they make it, perhaps forever. Yeah, okay, well we're old.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows it. Thank god. We spent our whole twenties
Speaker 1: locked in a sound stage, so we have great skin.
Speaker 1: But none of that is the point of why we're here.
Speaker 1: The point of being here is to talk about really
Speaker 1: all of the things that led to this amazing project
Speaker 1: that we get to do together. But I actually want
Speaker 1: to go so not just to the beginning, you know,
Speaker 1: four years in the making of you getting Junction out
Speaker 1: into theaters. I actually want to go way back, because
Speaker 1: like way back, because most people who will see that
Speaker 1: you're on the podcast this week will go, oh, I
Speaker 1: know him from this or I got introduced to him
Speaker 1: on that show or in that movie. But I like
Speaker 1: to go back to the beginning and talk to all
Speaker 1: of my guests about who they were as kids, because
Speaker 1: I think everyone always says hindsight's twenty twenty. It's really
Speaker 1: easy from wherever we are to look back and see
Speaker 1: how all the dots connect. And if we go back
Speaker 1: to you being a little kid, say like eight nine
Speaker 1: years old in Omaha, were you into performing or did
Speaker 1: you think you were going to be an athlete? Can
Speaker 1: you see how that whole journey got you here? Or
Speaker 1: does it seem like another life?
Speaker 2: No? Well, yes it does feel like another life. But
Speaker 2: and yes I did think I was going to be
Speaker 2: an athlete and nope, did not become an athlete. But
Speaker 2: you know, I think I really got into at like
Speaker 2: ten years, well eight or nine. I just remember like
Speaker 2: running around Amaha, Nebraska with my shoes off. I never
Speaker 2: wore shoes. I never wore really, yeah, I would just
Speaker 2: like run around and like playing creeks. I was like
Speaker 2: Hugbary Finn or something. You know. It was just like
Speaker 2: so Midwest, and I just remember my imagination was huge.
Speaker 2: I love building forts and creating stories and making little
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, I wanted to be like I remember, I
Speaker 2: wanted to be a baseball player and a mad scientist.
Speaker 2: I was like that. That was just I think back
Speaker 2: in fut just came out and I was really into
Speaker 2: like Doc Brown or something, right, yeah, and then and
Speaker 2: then I started doing like local theater, and I realized
Speaker 2: at a very young age, like around ten, that oh,
Speaker 2: if I'm an actor, I can do all those things.
Speaker 2: And I'm one of those weirdos that I fell in
Speaker 2: love with it at a young age, acting and in storytelling,
Speaker 2: and I've I've kind of dedicated my whole existence in life.
Speaker 2: I found my purpose and I was like, that's it.
Speaker 2: I just narrowed in on it and I never stopped that.
Speaker 2: I have such like a I've had an amazing life.
Speaker 2: I'm very grateful, but I do feel like I've had
Speaker 2: a very narrow focus in point of view my entire life,
Speaker 2: Like I've only through the filter of storytelling and being
Speaker 2: an artist, Like I never pursued anything but that.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. How how did you wind up doing
Speaker 1: a local theater so young? Did you ask your parents
Speaker 1: or did you have a friend getting into it? What
Speaker 1: was what was the sort of bottleneck?
Speaker 2: I'll tell you the origin story, right, Yeah, So my
Speaker 2: parents were, you know, like we were running errands with
Speaker 2: my sister and I my younger sister, and she was
Speaker 2: in ballet and she had an audition for the local
Speaker 2: Nutcracker at the Omaha Ballet at Conservatory, which they do
Speaker 2: every year, and I was with them and they were
Speaker 2: shoes auditioning, and then they came out and asked me
Speaker 2: if I wanted to audition. I was like, I don't dance.
Speaker 2: I don't know then I don't wear shoes, and they're like, oh,
Speaker 2: we need we need boys for the for the for
Speaker 2: the for the play, it'd be great, or for the ballet,
Speaker 2: and so I like went in there. I just remember
Speaker 2: like doing cartwheels and like I had ad HD. So
Speaker 2: I was just like bouncing up the balls and doing whatever.
Speaker 2: And I got the part and of Fritz, which is
Speaker 2: like the main kid, and I got to get off
Speaker 2: school for three weeks and tour and perform and feel
Speaker 2: what it was like to be part of a troop.
Speaker 2: And I just loved it. I was like getting in wardrobe,
Speaker 2: and I mean I wasn't a great dancer, but I
Speaker 2: did love like the facade of like being backstage and
Speaker 2: then coming on stage. That was really cool to me.
Speaker 2: And so I didn't when I came back, I didn't
Speaker 2: really pursue ballet, but I started getting into to like
Speaker 2: local community. There was a theater called Amy Gifford Theater
Speaker 2: Children's Theater which in Omaha, and I remember doing all
Speaker 2: of Her the play there and I just loved it.
Speaker 2: And then my parents, my dad got a new job
Speaker 2: and he moved the family to Saint Louis from Omaha.
Speaker 2: So I was around twelve years old and I didn't
Speaker 2: know anybody really, and I thought, well, hey, you know
Speaker 2: when I did plays, I would meet new people and
Speaker 2: that's a good way to socialize and I love doing that.
Speaker 2: So I just kept doing it. And that's sort of
Speaker 2: I was just like a theater dork wow, all through
Speaker 2: high school and then I, you know, I moved to
Speaker 2: New York when I was eighteen to get serious about it.
Speaker 1: And what was that like? I mean, did going for
Speaker 1: college make it feel a little easier or did you
Speaker 1: through theater and touring in the company, had you met agents,
Speaker 1: did you know how to get a foot in the door,
Speaker 1: or were you like I'm just gonna go figure it out.
Speaker 2: No, it's funny. I mean, my I was so ambitious
Speaker 2: as a kid, like I really wanted to do it.
Speaker 2: And I remember there was a talent scout that came
Speaker 2: through Saint Louis and he he did this workshop in
Speaker 2: New Jersey where he would take young actors and then
Speaker 2: he would you would you would learn from acting coaches
Speaker 2: and teachers and then you could you would do performance
Speaker 2: at the end of like the week or two weeks
Speaker 2: and agents would be there. It's like a showcase. And
Speaker 2: I ended up doing this this camp and I remember
Speaker 2: getting interest from an agent in New York. We performed
Speaker 2: in like an off Broadway. I was like fifteen years
Speaker 2: old or something like that, performed in an off Broadway
Speaker 2: theater and there was some interest for some agents that
Speaker 2: I told my parents. I'm like, hey, you know, these
Speaker 2: agents want me to come to New York and like
Speaker 2: try to audition this summer. I really would like to
Speaker 2: do that. And they're like, why don't you just go
Speaker 2: to camp and be a kid and then if you
Speaker 2: really want to do this, you can do it when
Speaker 2: you're eighteen, And so I'm At the time, I was
Speaker 2: really bummed out and hurt by that, But looking back,
Speaker 2: I'm so grateful because you know, I don't know, I
Speaker 2: just feel like the more like if you can live
Speaker 2: and before you become an actor of the better. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's such a hard business too, So I don't know,
Speaker 2: there's there's I think they knew. I think they intuitively
Speaker 2: knew that that like heartbreak was coming, So don't bring
Speaker 2: it on so early, because this career is full of
Speaker 2: heartbreak In hardship as much as it's full of you know,
Speaker 2: amazing opportunities and we've been so fortunate to keep working
Speaker 2: in this business for so long. But you know we've
Speaker 2: each every actor it's gotten their heartbroken for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that's one of those truths that's sort
Speaker 1: of hidden from public view. People can look at careers
Speaker 1: and go, wow, you know you've worked so consistently or
Speaker 1: you've done so well, you made these things, and you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can count myself one of the lucky ones. And
Speaker 1: still most of my life and career is based on rejection.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, even when you're successful, it's mostly rejection.
Speaker 2: So really it can. It can take its toll on
Speaker 2: you mentally for sure. And living in LA that can
Speaker 2: that can really because you're always it's really unhealthy to
Speaker 2: compare yourself to other people and you can never it's
Speaker 2: easy to never feel like you're making it or good enough.
Speaker 2: There's always another step, there's always another level that I
Speaker 2: think the key to happiness is just to try to
Speaker 2: get off that hamster reel mentally and just try to
Speaker 2: pursue what's in front of you and do your best
Speaker 2: and not being comfortable with anybody except yourself.
Speaker 1: I think that's really wise, and I think your parents
Speaker 1: had such a good instinct to say, let's at least
Speaker 1: wait until you're a legal adult, give yourself just a
Speaker 1: moment to be a kid, because once you're once you
Speaker 1: grow up. You know, air quotes for folks at home,
Speaker 1: you never get it back. And it's cool to hear
Speaker 1: that your parents did that. Mine did the same. And yeah,
Speaker 1: when I really fell in love with theater, you know,
Speaker 1: and I thought I wanted to be a doctor, you know,
Speaker 1: my big dream was to be a heart surgeon. And
Speaker 1: then I an arts requirement at the end of middle
Speaker 1: school and I had to do a play. I was
Speaker 1: so pissed about it. I was like, this isn't for me,
Speaker 1: and uh. And then I went, oh, wait, a play
Speaker 1: is just a book that's alive. Change my whole worldview.
Speaker 1: And then I got so into it that by I
Speaker 1: think the end of my sophomore year, I was asking
Speaker 1: if I could start, you know, going out on casting calls.
Speaker 1: My parents said, absolutely not. If you want to do
Speaker 1: this when you're eighteen, we'll have the conversation. And I'm
Speaker 1: really glad. I'm glad that I got to have a
Speaker 1: sweet normal high school experience without all this pressure added
Speaker 1: to it, because there's enough.
Speaker 2: Pressure out the California right.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you know, ire I grew up in LA
Speaker 1: like you know, Miracle Mile area, and then in junior
Speaker 1: high I started going to school in Pasadena and that's
Speaker 1: where I did junior high in high school. So it
Speaker 1: was nice to just, yeah, have a moment before the
Speaker 1: baptism by fire started.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they were on the same wave life.
Speaker 1: We'll be back in just a minute, but here's a
Speaker 1: word from our sponsors. So what happens when you get
Speaker 1: to New York? Like, are you a wildly responsible student
Speaker 1: at NYU doing all your homework and going on auditions
Speaker 1: or did you just go crazy because you had moved
Speaker 1: to New York City from Omaha and you were like,
Speaker 1: hello world, what was happening you.
Speaker 2: More of that. I was always a little Yeah, I
Speaker 2: like to get after it a little bit. And so
Speaker 2: you know, I got to New York City and there's
Speaker 2: no parents, and you know, there's no campus. You're basically
Speaker 2: just a kid running around New York City that's in
Speaker 2: the Midwest. That was like such a shock. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean I took on. Yeah, I definitely had a
Speaker 2: lot of fun. But I was a pretty good student.
Speaker 2: I would say I was focused on the acting stuff
Speaker 2: for sure. And I was in a conservatory type of
Speaker 2: environment three days a week, like nine to five, you know,
Speaker 2: acting class. The undergrad program, nay was fantastic, but I
Speaker 2: was very ambitious, and I started auditioning right I found
Speaker 2: an agent, started doing commercials, started doing like little guest stars,
Speaker 2: like I got like a word on the Sopranos. I
Speaker 2: got killed in Law and Order, you know, I got
Speaker 2: a movie, you know, a civil action, and so I
Speaker 2: started getting on sets and I was like doing extra
Speaker 2: work so I could. I was like one of those
Speaker 2: kids who was working and also going to school. I
Speaker 2: didn't get a series or anything like that, but just
Speaker 2: like little enough to like learn what it's like to
Speaker 2: be on a set, and enough getting enough credits. So
Speaker 2: after I finished college and I came out to l A,
Speaker 2: I had I didn't. I didn't come to la with nothing.
Speaker 2: I had like some some New York credits, which was
Speaker 2: super helpful to get it. Even though I had one
Speaker 2: word on the Sopranos. They were like, oh, Sopranos.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, it was really.
Speaker 2: Blink. You'll miss me.
Speaker 1: That's so great. So what made you make the.
Speaker 2: Move to la I just thought that. I went and
Speaker 2: visited over a summer, and I got like two jobs
Speaker 2: in the first week I was there. I remember I
Speaker 2: got like the X Files, which I got cut out of,
Speaker 2: but for some reason, I still get residual Thank you
Speaker 2: for the thirty cents.
Speaker 1: I get nothing like a thirty four cent check.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, there was a Boston public I got that.
Speaker 2: Remember that showing Fox back in the day. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: ended up doing that again as another character, but uh yeah.
Speaker 2: And then I went back to New York and I
Speaker 2: was like bartending and struggling, and I'm like, I remember
Speaker 2: one day I was like living in this small apartment
Speaker 2: in the East Village on seven between B and C,
Speaker 2: and and like I heard some water running and I
Speaker 2: opened my bedroom door and there was just like brown
Speaker 2: water falling from the ceiling and someone's the neighbor above us.
Speaker 2: The toilet overflowed and just it's a leak. And I
Speaker 2: was like, I'm out, I'm done. I'm done. When New York, Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's coming from the sky.
Speaker 1: Like about yeah, like congratulations in New York.
Speaker 2: You broke me. And then yeah, I made the move
Speaker 2: to LA. Uh and then yeah, but it's oddly enough,
Speaker 2: like a few years later, I started working a lot
Speaker 2: in New York, and so I'm kind of closed ever since.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's always the interesting thing.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: People have asked, Oh, because you grew up in LA,
Speaker 1: were you in the business young?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: You you know you grew up in LA. You must
Speaker 1: have been working there all the time. No, nothing shoots here. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: we go everywhere but here, And so it's kind of
Speaker 1: interesting to realize that this is sort of the heart
Speaker 1: of it all, but it actually takes place essentially everywhere
Speaker 1: but Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been fortunate. I've actually gotten a few jobs
Speaker 2: out there, which I've been lucky, you know. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: the best when you get at LA New York job.
Speaker 1: Online, Oh my god. Oh well, Chicago has the best food.
Speaker 1: That's a good place. That's a good place to shoot
Speaker 1: because you can go out and just eat delicious things
Speaker 1: all the time.
Speaker 2: If you have to do a scene with your shirt off,
Speaker 2: which I do coming up, Oh yeah, I thought I
Speaker 2: was aging into a character actor. I got to do
Speaker 2: this again.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, but I've been eating deep dish every
Speaker 1: night this week. Oh no, yeah, it's not ideal. Okay,
Speaker 1: so talk about we we're going to talk about our project,
Speaker 1: but we have to give the people what I know
Speaker 1: they want to know. Talk about where One Tree Hill
Speaker 1: fit into your life, because that's where we met. I
Speaker 1: mean you you turned Jake Chigalski into such an iconic character.
Speaker 1: We've talked about this a lot on Drama Queens. Everybody knows,
Speaker 1: by the way, including your wife, who I love so
Speaker 1: much and who's such a good sport. When we're like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, you know that, like everyone was in love
Speaker 1: with your husband. We all cried when he left. She's like,
Speaker 1: I know, he's the best, Jamie's the coolest.
Speaker 2: I mean that's okay.
Speaker 1: Who has like who that's with? Any of us has
Speaker 1: seen it? Jeffrey's never seen it. Hillary teeses them all
Speaker 1: the time. I don't know. I don't know what it
Speaker 1: would be like to be in a relationship with someone
Speaker 1: who was like, oh yeah, I was a huge fan
Speaker 1: of that show. Weird, Yeah it might be weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, So how did it come about?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: I was in La after after New York, and I
Speaker 2: was like, you know, bartending, catering, you know, struggling a
Speaker 2: couple of jobs here and there until I got this
Speaker 2: one movie for Paramount called The Perfect Score and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, starring Chris Evans and scarletor Hanssen, Erica christensensual
Speaker 2: probably casual huge. That job really did. I thought it
Speaker 2: was going to change my life even more, like I
Speaker 2: thought I would never have to audition again. That was certainly,
Speaker 2: but it did actually change my life because it was
Speaker 2: my first studio movie like like.
Speaker 3: A lead in like a lead And then the writer
Speaker 3: of that wrote One Tree Hill, and also the director,
Speaker 3: uh it was the producer of One Tree Hill.
Speaker 2: So they sort of I think they wrote this character
Speaker 2: we had we really got on and they wrote this character,
Speaker 2: Jake Tigelski, and they were like, hey, you want to
Speaker 2: come in and kind of recur and this is the
Speaker 2: I was like, wow, yeah, this is great. I mean
Speaker 2: I think I did like a like a faux audition,
Speaker 2: but like I think they were setting it up for me,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. They were like, oh, I
Speaker 2: think I did. I think I did read but kind
Speaker 2: of knowing that like it's mine to lose, which is
Speaker 2: almost more pressure. I hate when that happens. It's like
Speaker 2: they're like, oh, you got it. Just audition You're like okay,
Speaker 2: And then I've done it this so many times where
Speaker 2: I've just blown it because.
Speaker 1: Because auditioning is terrifying and nerve wrecking and I don't
Speaker 1: know why we do it.
Speaker 2: Oh it, but yeah, and then I ended up doing
Speaker 2: One Tree Hill and they wrote this great character, like
Speaker 2: the most endearing character of all time. You know, a
Speaker 2: single father in high school who's you know, doesn't he
Speaker 2: has a zen like Buddhist quality to him. Uh, just
Speaker 2: really well written character. I mean, honestly, people give me
Speaker 2: the credit, but I'm like, I did I just showed
Speaker 2: up and said the lines and was the guy. You know,
Speaker 2: I didn't. I didn't write it. So it was it
Speaker 2: was it was almost impossible to not root for J. T. Gelski.
Speaker 2: So it was like it was such a it was great,
Speaker 2: and I don't think any of us knew that this
Speaker 2: show was going to be as iconic as as it
Speaker 2: is still to this day. It's crazy. It's like, definitely
Speaker 2: the most the biggest thing I've ever been a part
Speaker 2: of that's like lasted the test of time. It's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty wild because we really didn't we didn't
Speaker 1: have a clue. I think when I think back, what
Speaker 1: really sticks out to me is what great chemistry we
Speaker 1: all had, Like it felt like there was some magic
Speaker 1: in the air whenever we were all together. And you know,
Speaker 1: earlier today, when when we were doing some of the
Speaker 1: prep for the premiere of our movie this week, I
Speaker 1: remember I was saying to you and Jamie that it
Speaker 1: was always really interesting to us because you know, we
Speaker 1: started in July. Hillary and I both have our birthdays
Speaker 1: in July. She and I had just turned twenty one
Speaker 1: a week apart, and we were still like buzzing with
Speaker 1: excitement that we could actually like walk right into bars.
Speaker 1: We didn't need to figure out how to sneak into
Speaker 1: comedy shows or whatever. And you were so cool. You
Speaker 1: were just like, yeah, come on, guys. You were kind
Speaker 1: of leading us around, showing us how to do things.
Speaker 1: And you said it today. You were like you were
Speaker 1: twenty one. I was only twenty four, and my brain
Speaker 1: kind of broke because you really did. Like I know,
Speaker 1: we were all friends, We've always felt like the same age,
Speaker 1: but you had this very stoic sort of coolness to
Speaker 1: you that we all were like, Brian knows what he's
Speaker 1: doing like, if we don't know what to do about something,
Speaker 1: we should probably ask Brian, like he'll have the answer.
Speaker 1: And it's so cozy that you didn't feel that way.
Speaker 2: I didn't feel that way because I only I had
Speaker 2: some experience, like we just went over, like I had
Speaker 2: a couple of things on my belt. But I was
Speaker 2: never a series regular like you were. And I mean
Speaker 2: I did like one big movie and like it wasn't
Speaker 2: even that big, it didn't do that well. So it's
Speaker 2: just like, it's just funny that you thought of me
Speaker 2: as that way, and I just I felt like just
Speaker 2: a kid. But when you're twenty four, there's a big
Speaker 2: in twenty one, there's a big that feels like a
Speaker 2: big age difference at that time. Now, but at that time, yeah,
Speaker 2: I could see how I look up somebody's twenty four.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well now we just all feel like the same age.
Speaker 1: But it is you sort of go like, oh, you've
Speaker 1: really been doing this for a while, and you know,
Speaker 1: you were coming off that movie. And for me, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I'd done projects and some indie movies and
Speaker 1: some TV stuff. I think the longest arc I'd had
Speaker 1: on a show was on Niptock but this was my yeah,
Speaker 1: like this was my first series regular job, and so
Speaker 1: I was just looking around being like, okay, just do
Speaker 1: what everybody else does, pretend you know stuff. And I
Speaker 1: think I got a little bit of a pass being
Speaker 1: from LA. People assumed I knew things, And meanwhile I
Speaker 1: was sitting there like guys three years ago, like I
Speaker 1: was in all girls school wearing a uniform. I don't
Speaker 1: know anything about anything.
Speaker 2: I do remember like it happening very fast, like the
Speaker 2: success of the show. I remember like, yeah, it was
Speaker 2: only a few months, like we started shooting and then
Speaker 2: we aired and then all of a sudden, like we're
Speaker 2: doing TRL and I was like, oh, this is this
Speaker 2: is happening, Like this is a phenomenon. It's like actually
Speaker 2: connecting with an audience. And it happened quick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it happened really really fast, especially because our show,
Speaker 1: So we started filming in July for our friends listening
Speaker 1: at home. Our show was supposed to be a mid
Speaker 1: season premiere that January, and one of their shows wasn't
Speaker 1: working and they canned it and they put us on
Speaker 1: in September.
Speaker 2: Oh, so we only had like an episode or two in.
Speaker 1: The Yeah, so we got thrown on the air really fast,
Speaker 1: and then the show took off and by the time
Speaker 1: we went to TRL, like, the folks at MTV were like,
Speaker 1: we had to hire extra security. We haven't had a
Speaker 1: crowd this big since eminem came, and we were all
Speaker 1: like what eminem us, Like, we had no idea what
Speaker 1: was happening because we were all just you know, in Wilmington,
Speaker 1: like getting peel and eat shrimp after work. We had
Speaker 1: no clue what was happening out in the larger.
Speaker 2: For my point of view, like I wasn't a series regular.
Speaker 2: I was a star so weird. So like I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to tr L like I'm not even like
Speaker 2: you guys were the I wasn't. I was getting paid nothing,
Speaker 2: like I was just like.
Speaker 1: Bro, we were all getting fait nothing. It's okay, yea
Speaker 1: more than me.
Speaker 2: And I didn't even know how to do the next episode.
Speaker 2: I was dying to be a regular. I remember, I
Speaker 2: was like, oh man, maybe they'll make me a regular,
Speaker 2: and they're like the writers, so they gotta have to wait.
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's looking good, but we don't know,
Speaker 2: we don't know, And I was like I was still
Speaker 2: auditioning for other things and meaningful the things. Remember I
Speaker 2: got that other job Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you mean that George Clooney show Casual Gay.
Speaker 2: Well you can't even find that show now, which is weird.
Speaker 2: It's like evaporated to the ether. But it was one
Speaker 2: of the coolest things I've ever worked on, for sure.
Speaker 2: It was the HBO show called Unscripted that George Clooney
Speaker 2: and Steven Soderberg and Grant has Left created and it
Speaker 2: was about actors making it in Hollywood. It was like
Speaker 2: a faux reality show where like I was pretending I
Speaker 2: was playing myself, but it was like a version of myself,
Speaker 2: and yeah, the whole thing. But I remember like HBO
Speaker 2: was like, we want to make you a regular. We
Speaker 2: want to we want to do in this series, and
Speaker 2: we're gonna make you regular. And then as soon as
Speaker 2: like the WB at the time heard that, They're like, oh,
Speaker 2: we want to make Brian a regular, I was like,
Speaker 2: too late. I'll I mean came back and we you
Speaker 2: know a p year.
Speaker 1: You know, well, you that was one of the things
Speaker 1: that was so much fun is every time you had
Speaker 1: some time in between gigs or things, you would come
Speaker 1: back and you know, I remember when you went and
Speaker 1: did Prime and if you haven't seen Prime, like rom
Speaker 1: com fans, what are you doing? It's such a good movie.
Speaker 1: It's Brian and Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep like hell
Speaker 1: that way, hello, what an insane thing. And we were
Speaker 1: just like our friend is a movie star. And then
Speaker 1: you would still come back and hang and it was
Speaker 1: really special. I think to all of us that you know,
Speaker 1: you always made time where you could for the show,
Speaker 1: and I know that it really did create such a
Speaker 1: really special, like lasting effect for all the fans too.
Speaker 2: Well. I loved you guys, I love the character, and
Speaker 2: I just loved working on it was you know, I
Speaker 2: wanted to do it until I actually couldn't you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. It was like I felt like, you know,
Speaker 2: I was on Montreal for three seasons, and I felt like, yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe Jake could have gone on and done more. But
Speaker 2: I felt like it was a really good arc. I
Speaker 2: feel like I did, uh, you know. I felt like
Speaker 2: history was told and it was it was good. I
Speaker 2: mean that show has like so many different iterations, like
Speaker 2: so many different cast members coming in and out. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know. And then I, you know, I went
Speaker 2: off to do other things, but I was I tried
Speaker 2: to make time and come back when I could. That
Speaker 2: was just a crazy time in my life, like there's
Speaker 2: so much coming at me, and it just came to
Speaker 2: a point where like it wasn't feasible anymore. And I
Speaker 2: also felt like the story was told like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get that when you really feel like something
Speaker 1: has has come to the end of its track. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's nice to go out on a high note. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure your knees thanked you that you didn't have
Speaker 1: to play basketball for eighteen hours a day in converse anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they put me in converse as my feet.
Speaker 1: I remember you like we would have days in the
Speaker 1: gym where by the end of it you were just hobbling,
Speaker 1: and I was like, we are too young for you
Speaker 1: to be in this much pain. Somebody get this man
Speaker 1: some insoles.
Speaker 2: Good memory. Yeah, that was Uh, that was brutal being
Speaker 2: in a real sport.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it was fun though, because you're a good
Speaker 1: basketball player. James was such a good basketball player. Obviously,
Speaker 1: so many of the guys who came in, like Naian
Speaker 1: and all the boys were really good, Like they really
Speaker 1: did play. And there were days I remember in the gym,
Speaker 1: like watching you all from the sidelines, being like, God,
Speaker 1: they really are having fun. And it was sweet to
Speaker 1: watch because I think that energy was palpable on screen.
Speaker 2: We love those days because we would just get to
Speaker 2: play ball and then we played ball all the time
Speaker 2: outside shooting too. Yeah, it was great. I have a
Speaker 2: lot of fond memories of that shows. Like I said,
Speaker 2: I've been all in the world. I've done a lot
Speaker 2: of different things, but that's the one job that, like,
Speaker 2: you know, I think people know me for and I'm
Speaker 2: really grateful for it. And I'm just it's so hard
Speaker 2: in this this career to like do anything that connects
Speaker 2: with an audience and that continues to connect with generations
Speaker 2: of audiences. So I'm just really grateful the attorney to
Speaker 2: play that character. I love it and subjumption.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, like, how how do we tell
Speaker 1: folks what the fast forward looks like? Because for the.
Speaker 2: Frames, Oh you became a big TV star, you're very
Speaker 2: sweet and a movie star.
Speaker 1: Well, we're all just out here trying to do things
Speaker 1: we love.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, very successful. Didn't return my calls for years,
Speaker 2: Oh you wish?
Speaker 1: And now a word from our sponsors who make this
Speaker 1: show possible. It is actually really interesting, isn't it like
Speaker 1: that we we all went off and did so much work,
Speaker 1: but we always stayed connected. And do you think that
Speaker 1: being on sets like you were so young, like going
Speaker 1: and working with producers of the Soderberg level, like watching
Speaker 1: Merrill on set? Were you do you really feel like
Speaker 1: you were kind of preparing yourself to write and direct,
Speaker 1: maybe even subconsciously, or was it like something do you
Speaker 1: remember when consciously you decided that that was something you
Speaker 1: wanted to pursue.
Speaker 2: You know, It's funny. I don't remember consciously, but I
Speaker 2: remember consciously like being a sponge at, you know, whenever,
Speaker 2: whenever I'm on a set, I'm always like, every day
Speaker 2: I have two goals like what can I learn? And
Speaker 2: how can I be surprised? And how can I surprise myself?
Speaker 2: You know, And that goes every day on a set.
Speaker 2: You know. I'm always looking to learn, I'm always looking
Speaker 2: to surprise myself. And I think that that what keeps
Speaker 2: me in the quest of being curious and listening and
Speaker 2: and so I didn't know that I wanted to write,
Speaker 2: but I think, you know, when I went to n
Speaker 2: y U They didn't teach us to write our own stuff.
Speaker 2: We were just training to be actors and interpret the
Speaker 2: writer's material and be vessels for the script and that's
Speaker 2: it and just you know, do that. And I think
Speaker 2: it's like five years younger than me, like the Donald Glover's,
Speaker 2: the Mindy Kalings, you know. Uh is like all these
Speaker 2: people like these I'm sorry, they all like started making
Speaker 2: their own stuff. And I'm like, wow, that never occurred
Speaker 2: to me. You know, that wasn't thought like I thought.
Speaker 2: I was just in this lane, you know, and had
Speaker 2: hyper focus on being an actor. So you know, the
Speaker 2: truth is there's a lot of ups and downs in
Speaker 2: a career and I was at a downpoint and I
Speaker 2: wasn't getting the roles that I wanted and I was
Speaker 2: working but not being challenged, I would say, and I
Speaker 2: dig deeper and and I was I don't know this.
Speaker 2: This idea came to me for junction because you know,
Speaker 2: I went in for a routine surgery a few years
Speaker 2: ago and I was prescribed oxy cotton and I became
Speaker 2: somewhat hooked. I want to make it very clear that
Speaker 2: I'm not an addict and I'm an ally but I
Speaker 2: just but I. I did have like a little scary
Speaker 2: time there, you know that I was like, oh, this
Speaker 2: could go either way, you know, And there's a couple
Speaker 2: of months I just don't remember, and and uh and
Speaker 2: so I was was I wanted to I wanted to
Speaker 2: kind of understand the crisis, the opioid crisis, and and
Speaker 2: talk about that in a film. How do I do that?
Speaker 2: So I don't know, I just that's what started inspiring
Speaker 2: me to write. I think it was during during COVID
Speaker 2: I and uh yeah, I just was like, really had
Speaker 2: time and I just want to put all my energy
Speaker 2: into it. And I enjoyed it. And then it's funny, Mom,
Speaker 2: you know that I'm writing. She's like, you know you
Speaker 2: started as a writer. It's like what She's like, Well,
Speaker 2: you know when you're a kid, you used to write
Speaker 2: all those short stories. And I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I guess I did when I was a kid, and
Speaker 2: you know, I wrote music and I was always writing.
Speaker 2: You know, I just didn't really think of myself as
Speaker 2: a writer. But yeah, I forget the question.
Speaker 1: No, I The question was just how how did you
Speaker 1: decide to do this and you know, with this project
Speaker 1: and to become a writer and a director. And I
Speaker 1: think it's really interesting because it kind of goes back
Speaker 1: to my first question, right, like who were you when
Speaker 1: you were little? You do, in hindsight see that parts
Speaker 1: of yourself have always been there, that you've always been
Speaker 1: expressing this part of your creativity, and you know now
Speaker 1: you've got a movie that you wrote, directed and started
Speaker 1: coming out Hello.
Speaker 2: Love It's crazy. I mean, you just I guess being
Speaker 2: an actor for so long, I love it, and I
Speaker 2: continue to love it. I'm on a show right now
Speaker 2: just as an actor, and I'm very grateful and I
Speaker 2: still truly love the craft of acting and I'm very
Speaker 2: dedicated to it. But it is limiting in the sense
Speaker 2: of storytelling, like you can only do use your body
Speaker 2: and voice and interpret these lines. And I just felt
Speaker 2: like I had had other skills to tell a story,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to put them to the test, and
Speaker 2: and I thought that this is the story I want
Speaker 2: to tell. And there's just so many tools, like working
Speaker 2: with actors, working with an editor, working with the DP.
Speaker 2: It's like, it's so fun. And I wanted to do
Speaker 2: set out to direct to see if I really could
Speaker 2: do it, because I was like, maybe I could do
Speaker 2: this maybe I don't know. There is only one way
Speaker 2: to know. You just got baptism through fire and just
Speaker 2: throw stuff into it. And I just wouldn't take no
Speaker 2: for an answer, Like I just kept people trying to get
Speaker 2: me off the project or the producers I brought it to,
Speaker 2: like maybe if you're not directing it, we can get
Speaker 2: a may because you're first time er, nobody cares, don't know,
Speaker 2: you know, you know that kind of thing. I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: I think I can do this. I think I I
Speaker 2: think I want to I do want to do this,
Speaker 2: I want to do this. I'm going to do this.
Speaker 2: And I just like kept that focus and you know,
Speaker 2: eventually found the money and you know, which was huge,
Speaker 2: and that that that validated the project. And then you
Speaker 2: know came on board and you know, so many great
Speaker 2: actors came on board and here we go.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, it's so exciting and you put you
Speaker 1: put such a beautiful cast together. You wrote a really
Speaker 1: beautiful script. You know, when you first called me and said, hey,
Speaker 1: I would love it if you'd come and work on
Speaker 1: this and you know, play my character's ex wife and
Speaker 1: this is what it's about. I was like, yes, and
Speaker 1: you were like, well, read it, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to read it obviously, but like the answer
Speaker 1: is yes, let's go do this movie. And it's just true. Man.
Speaker 1: I think, I think the people who know you and
Speaker 1: love you not only you know, do we love who
Speaker 1: you are as a person, but like we know your
Speaker 1: taste level, and you are a really insightful, really talented human.
Speaker 1: And I knew that this was going to be really special.
Speaker 1: And one of the things I really appreciated about it
Speaker 1: when I sat down to read the script for the
Speaker 1: first time was the way that you humanized addiction through
Speaker 1: your character. You know this, as you said, you experienced
Speaker 1: this guy had a routine shoulder surgery, and you know,
Speaker 1: when you're getting your arm opened up or your back
Speaker 1: opened up, these medications can really make the difference for
Speaker 1: people being able to recover and still be in their lives,
Speaker 1: to not be so immobilized by pain. And yet there's
Speaker 1: like that razor's edge of this medication can help save
Speaker 1: your life after something potentially catastrophic happens, and it can
Speaker 1: also take your life. And I'm really curious. You know,
Speaker 1: you talk about how you didn't wind up in full addiction,
Speaker 1: but you wound up realizing that this medication was in
Speaker 1: you in a way, it was making it was making
Speaker 1: you sick. How do you think you identified the difference?
Speaker 1: How do you think you knew to make a change
Speaker 1: before it had gone too far? Because I asked the
Speaker 1: question really, because this is a crisis, This is an
Speaker 1: epidemic around the country, and I would imagine there's people
Speaker 1: listening today who have either been through this or have
Speaker 1: family going through this and are probably going but yeah,
Speaker 1: how do I know when to say something? Or how
Speaker 1: do I know when to ask for help? So, being
Speaker 1: as in tune with your body and your mind as
Speaker 1: you have to be to be a performer, how did
Speaker 1: you know when you were on the kind of dangerous
Speaker 1: side of that edge?
Speaker 2: Well, my pill intake would just keep going up, becaues
Speaker 2: it would work, you know, like it started one, three, five, ten.
Speaker 2: You know, it's just like you keep popping sip a
Speaker 2: couple of beers. Help that help that kicks in, you know,
Speaker 2: like and then you just then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: it's like four or five months ago by and you're like,
Speaker 2: where am I, What's going on? What's happening?
Speaker 1: And they just keep prescribing them to you until they
Speaker 1: didn't ah, and and you're I basically was cut off.
Speaker 2: And I you know, it's not that hard to go
Speaker 2: and find the pills. But you know, I don't want
Speaker 2: to say that, like I'm stronger than you know people
Speaker 2: who are addicted, because I'm not because I was addicted,
Speaker 2: but I just didn't And it does. The thing that
Speaker 2: people don't understand is that, like when you're on taking
Speaker 2: those those many opioids, it really does complicate and compromise
Speaker 2: your your frontal cortex, so your decision That's why I like,
Speaker 2: why would you ever do something like that? It's because
Speaker 2: they're not thinking, well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're like, it's not me who did it. It
Speaker 1: was a diminished me. It's a diminished person from the
Speaker 1: side effects.
Speaker 2: Your decision making processes compromised. So I could have gone
Speaker 2: to the streets found it. But I am a very
Speaker 2: I don't know. I guess I'm lucky that I'm a
Speaker 2: very headstrong person. And I mean the same thing, I
Speaker 2: used to smoke cigarettes and and I just didn't like
Speaker 2: having that. I needed it for when I was happy,
Speaker 2: when needed it when I'm sad, And it was the
Speaker 2: same thing, like I just I don't like having something
Speaker 2: over me, you know that really it kind of I'm
Speaker 2: not good with authority. I don't like people telling me
Speaker 2: what to do. I don't like it, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. So I don't I don't know. I just
Speaker 2: I think there's something like there's a little bit of
Speaker 2: a fighter in me that wanted to just like fight that.
Speaker 2: And it was hard getting off those bills. I was sick,
Speaker 2: very sick for a few days. And that's not a
Speaker 2: good feeling. And I understand why people don't want to
Speaker 2: feel that way. And it's you're just physically, you know,
Speaker 2: you're sweating your feverish 're like it's like it's like
Speaker 2: the worst flu, and it's you're not just grown up.
Speaker 2: It's like it's not a good feeling, and you'll do
Speaker 2: anything to not feel that way. And that's why people
Speaker 2: go to the streets and you know, final alternatives. But
Speaker 2: I don't know. I guess I'm just I'm lucky. I
Speaker 2: didn't get too far in too deep. I got I
Speaker 2: had a brush with it, you know, yeah, not to
Speaker 2: scare me, but not enough for a full blown addiction. Gratefully,
Speaker 2: because I've lost friends and I know people that have
Speaker 2: passed and it's a really scary thing. So so, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's that was my personal experience with it. But I'm
Speaker 2: very I'm one of the fortunate ones.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did did that sort of full picture experience, knowing
Speaker 1: that perhaps it had gone another month, you would have
Speaker 1: been so sick that you might not have been able
Speaker 1: to stop, knowing that there's folks who you've known and
Speaker 1: loved who aren't around anymore because of this. You know,
Speaker 1: the I would imagine the influx of the news where
Speaker 1: every day there's more stories, and every day there's more
Speaker 1: horrible things happening, and you know, we're watching the pharmaceutical
Speaker 1: lawsuits and we're hearing about the death rates around the country.
Speaker 1: How did all of that make you decide, Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: going to write about this. Not just I've been through this.
Speaker 1: I could advocate for a charity, I could go and
Speaker 1: speak to students, but like, I want to make something
Speaker 1: about this. I want to get this story out of me.
Speaker 1: What was that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think at the time, you know, it takes
Speaker 2: a long time for these films, to independent films to
Speaker 2: get made. Even though I wrote this four years ago,
Speaker 2: you know, it took it took a long time to
Speaker 2: get it made and get the funny and get to
Speaker 2: get it out there. But you know, at the time,
Speaker 2: there were no stories being told about it, and I
Speaker 2: think that's kind of what another thing that was pissing
Speaker 2: me off. And you know, since then, we've been very fortunate.
Speaker 2: I am I'm I'm so happy that other stories are
Speaker 2: being told about this, like Dope Sick. I think it's
Speaker 2: Danny Strong did an amazing job on that who uh
Speaker 2: Me series. But I just wanted to encapsulate it was
Speaker 2: it was one personally. It was a way for me
Speaker 2: to get my head around this sort of overwhelming crisis
Speaker 2: and and try to understand it and and and so
Speaker 2: I would cold call journalists who were understood understood what
Speaker 2: was going on with like the Sacklerts and and Prdue Pharma.
Speaker 2: And you know, I was writing this while the story
Speaker 2: was changing. You know, before they they were uh found
Speaker 2: guilty but and they're still trying to fight it through
Speaker 2: bankruptcy courts. But uh but it was an evolving story
Speaker 2: and I'm not an expert, so I sought out the
Speaker 2: experts to to to help me understand it. And I
Speaker 2: don't know, I just wanted to paint. I didn't want
Speaker 2: to just do attic porn and just show like one
Speaker 2: because we've seen those movies. But you can't tell the
Speaker 2: story without telling that part of it. But I also
Speaker 2: wanted to show, like all the cogs in the wheel,
Speaker 2: in the net, in the big in the in the ship,
Speaker 2: in this ship that is sinking. I just thought you
Speaker 2: had to tell three different points of view to kind
Speaker 2: of encapsulate all of that. And it was my way
Speaker 2: to bring awareness to the to the crisis that at
Speaker 2: the time people were speaking about, to bring humanity to it.
Speaker 2: And I didn't want to do like like I mentioned,
Speaker 2: Dope Sick, because I think it's great, but we didn't
Speaker 2: have the luxury of, you know, seven eight hours to
Speaker 2: tell the story. We had ninety minutes, So I didn't
Speaker 2: do the exposition of this is not the opioid crisis.
Speaker 2: If you want to know how the opioid crisis started,
Speaker 2: don't watch this movie. This is not like an educational film, right.
Speaker 2: I try to make a character film about seemingly good
Speaker 2: people who get caught up in this this evil.
Speaker 1: Machine and now a word from our sponsors. And that's
Speaker 1: one of the things I love about the movie. You know,
Speaker 1: you structure this all in one day, and we see
Speaker 1: these three storylines, you know, these three verticals, if you will,
Speaker 1: and each lead of their own storyline. You know Ashley's character,
Speaker 1: doctor Davis, this doctor who runs a pain clinic, which
Speaker 1: is is it a pill mill? Is it not? Who
Speaker 1: is she? Why is she so motivated? What's going on
Speaker 1: with her kids? What's happening with her finances? We see,
Speaker 1: you know, the patriarch of a big pharmaceutical family whose
Speaker 1: company is being sued over their distribution of opioids. And
Speaker 1: we see your character, Michael, this character, yeah, you know this,
Speaker 1: this man who runs a restaurant and has a beautiful life,
Speaker 1: but everything sideways. The restaurant is risk and his wife
Speaker 1: is now his ex wife. That's me for our friends
Speaker 1: at home. You know, the relationship he has with his
Speaker 1: child is strained. And what I love so much about
Speaker 1: what you put into our storyline is that there's obvious
Speaker 1: pain there. Obviously this couple has been affected by this
Speaker 1: addiction and who knows whatever else, But we vacillate between
Speaker 1: fighting and laughing. You see love between these people. You
Speaker 1: see across all these three storylines. You see who these
Speaker 1: people are. You see who loves them each. You see
Speaker 1: who they go home to. You see that anybody who
Speaker 1: we've made into a statistic or a villain or a
Speaker 1: victim is a whole person.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and that's what I learned.
Speaker 1: I just think it was a really really meaningful way
Speaker 1: to show people how this happens and who it affects,
Speaker 1: and what the ripple effects of this crisis are. And
Speaker 1: even though it's a movie about a heavy subject, there
Speaker 1: is love and there is joy, and there are these
Speaker 1: things that you wouldn't necessarily respect.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because you know, I was I didn't want
Speaker 2: this to be a tough watch all the way through.
Speaker 2: Like we know it's it's it's we know what we're
Speaker 2: getting into with what the subject matter is, and it's inevitable,
Speaker 2: like this is not going to be a comedy. But
Speaker 2: you know, so I think to be true to the
Speaker 2: subject matter, you have to be you know, it had
Speaker 2: it had to be dramatic. But you know, in saying that,
Speaker 2: I didn't want to make it hard on the audience,
Speaker 2: you know, like I wanted to like you'd fall in
Speaker 2: love with these people and enjoy being in a room
Speaker 2: with them and knowing them, and yeah, like you said
Speaker 2: it beautifully like our relationship between Michael and Allison. What
Speaker 2: I love about it is like they are divorced, but
Speaker 2: they love each other. They love each other so much.
Speaker 2: And I don't know, I haven't seen that that. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm sure that exists, but I haven't seen a lot
Speaker 2: of that maybe. And I thought that was a really
Speaker 2: fun to play with. And there was room for comedy.
Speaker 2: And we're joking around. Even in the lowest of the lows.
Speaker 2: There's still jokes being cracked and that's real, that's you know,
Speaker 2: And I didn't. I just think if you want to
Speaker 2: be real and you want to portray an accurate, uh
Speaker 2: you know, characterization of these of these people, like you
Speaker 2: can't paint them as black or white. It's gray. And
Speaker 2: sometimes they do bad things, but they mean well and
Speaker 2: sometimes they you know, it's just complicated. They all have
Speaker 2: their different reasons, even even Lawrence, who's that so the
Speaker 2: quote unquote you know, uh, evil patriarch. You know, he's
Speaker 2: trying to protect his family. He's trying to protect his
Speaker 2: family's legacy. He wants you know, he's got his own
Speaker 2: reasons for doing this. He's got his own ambitions and
Speaker 2: dreams too, and those are human beings and we're all
Speaker 2: complicated and up and and and it's not black and white,
Speaker 2: and I just I'm more drawn to that. That's what
Speaker 2: I'm that's ultimately and I was most interested in writing back. Yes,
Speaker 2: it takes place within the opium, in the world of
Speaker 2: the okioid crisis, but really it's like these characters, these
Speaker 2: nuances that I was I was fascinated by and then
Speaker 2: I wanted an export.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and I love it and it really it
Speaker 1: was so special to finally get to see the movie
Speaker 1: because you know, did.
Speaker 2: You watch it last night? Did you get chanted?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well, I know I watched it. I watched it at
Speaker 1: home on Saturday. I was like, I don't want to
Speaker 1: see it with an audience for the first time. But
Speaker 1: it's just it's really beautiful and it was really interesting too,
Speaker 1: you know, because for me being in it. I love
Speaker 1: when I'm in something and I get swept up in
Speaker 1: it and forget that I'm in it. Yeah, that's always
Speaker 1: really special. And then I get to have this dual
Speaker 1: experience where I get to watch it technically and see
Speaker 1: what takes and what shots round up in it, and
Speaker 1: I just get to be an audience member, and I
Speaker 1: had both of those things, and it flashed me back back,
Speaker 1: you know when we first come on screen together, where
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, I forgot how fast
Speaker 1: we shot this movie.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, seventeen days.
Speaker 1: Seventeen days, a whole movie in seventeen days. So for
Speaker 1: our friends at home, you know, Brian's talking about the
Speaker 1: fact that it took four years to get this movie
Speaker 1: made from top to bottom, and yet we had to
Speaker 1: shoot it in seventeen days. How did you get your
Speaker 1: head around starring in a movie having written it and
Speaker 1: directing for the first time because you didn't have the
Speaker 1: luxury of a three month shoot to do two scenes
Speaker 1: a day. We were jamming through stuff. How did you
Speaker 1: feel prepared for that? How did you keep your head
Speaker 1: screwed on well?
Speaker 2: Hiring actors like yourself who you didn't have to worry about,
Speaker 2: Like I don't like if I didn't give you one note,
Speaker 2: I still know you would have been great, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean? Like just knowing you could bring it
Speaker 2: and I did. It's just took such a relief. I mean,
Speaker 2: of course I tried to, you know, in preparation, we
Speaker 2: talked a lot about the characters, and and you know,
Speaker 2: you just in prep, you trust with your crew and
Speaker 2: and and your producers and your actors, and then with
Speaker 2: the scenes that I'm in with you, like I wasn't
Speaker 2: directing those scenes. I was just in those scenes as
Speaker 2: an actor with you, you know. And I don't remember
Speaker 2: if I gave you a lot of direction on the
Speaker 2: days when we were working together, because I feel like
Speaker 2: I was just kind of in the moment with you,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean maybe we tried different things, but
Speaker 2: I don't know if you might remember more because everything
Speaker 2: was such a blur, But I feel like I just
Speaker 2: kind of like let it go and just was an
Speaker 2: actor because I didn't want to be judging you while
Speaker 2: doing the scene with you. Yeah, it hard for you
Speaker 2: as an actress different. I don't know if you've worked
Speaker 2: with actors who have been directors before. I've never done that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess with Minnie Kaaling, she was like
Speaker 2: the writer and I would work with her that was there.
Speaker 2: She wasn't directing, though, But yeah, so I wonder how
Speaker 2: that was for you as an actor.
Speaker 1: I will say, I think especially when you're kind of
Speaker 1: gorilla shooting like we were, where everything's just so fast.
Speaker 1: It was really nice that we have such a history
Speaker 1: and a familiarity and a shorthand together, because it's much
Speaker 1: easier for me to sort of take the normal pressures
Speaker 1: of the first day on set and throw those away
Speaker 1: with a trusted friend, Like when you have twenty years
Speaker 1: of fill in the blank chemistry, intimacy knowledge, you know,
Speaker 1: language inside jokes with people, it changes your comfort level.
Speaker 1: And so it was kind of cool. I think that
Speaker 1: we were just like, we have no time, We've done
Speaker 1: the thing, we've done the calls in the zooms, we've
Speaker 1: got pages of notes in our scripts, and let's just
Speaker 1: do this. And you know, when I think about our
Speaker 1: last day of shooting, when we finished in the gym
Speaker 1: and the kids had to be wrapped because they have
Speaker 1: their schedules, and then we and did our whole you know,
Speaker 1: gallery shoot in the back room, and then it was like,
Speaker 1: we got two hours, what can we shoot? Let's just
Speaker 1: let's just improv a scene. Let's go, And it was
Speaker 1: so great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well we just like you were so great, and
Speaker 2: I was like, we have you, We've got a two hours.
Speaker 2: What can we do, Like, let's just let's use you
Speaker 2: like in that that's in the movie. There's nothing that
Speaker 2: we shot. There's not a scene that we that was
Speaker 2: scrapped in this movie. I didn't have a second to
Speaker 2: do overtime, you know, like it was so tight like
Speaker 2: some of these shots, and they had one take to
Speaker 2: do it. You know, it with a really tight, tight shoot.
Speaker 2: It's a miracle that it came together it did. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's just like having actors like
Speaker 2: yourself who were just so good and I remember you
Speaker 2: came up with And also like I really tried to
Speaker 2: not have an ego, because how could I have an
Speaker 2: ego as a first time director, Like that's ridiculous. I've
Speaker 2: never done this before. I was confident in the telling
Speaker 2: the story, but I wasn't confident overly confident and pretending
Speaker 2: to know things I didn't know. And my philosophy was
Speaker 2: best idea wins. And I remember you had a line
Speaker 2: pitch that is in the movie that you came up
Speaker 2: with that I think, and I just thought it was
Speaker 2: like a throwback to a line that I said. I
Speaker 2: don't want to spoil it, but it's just like it's
Speaker 2: in the movie and it's a really great moment, and
Speaker 2: you know, that's all you, you know, And I mean,
Speaker 2: I guess I'm credit myself for like letting it happen,
Speaker 2: but like that's all you, you know, I mean, you brought.
Speaker 1: It, but well, thank you. That's the thing, though, it's
Speaker 1: when you collaborate well with people and to your point,
Speaker 1: when everybody shows up and checks their ego and it's
Speaker 1: just ready to go, Like it's so refreshing. That's why
Speaker 1: you can, if you have an extra hour on a day,
Speaker 1: say hey, let's throw three people in a car and
Speaker 1: go make it up as we go along. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: That's what I think I love about independent films the
Speaker 1: most is that, like nobody's showing up on an independent
Speaker 1: movie to pay the mortgage. We're showing up because we
Speaker 1: believe in the project. Yeah, and it does give you
Speaker 1: It's like Gooney's energy, where you're like we're going on
Speaker 1: an adventure and whatever happens, we're in it together and
Speaker 1: it's really special.
Speaker 2: Everybody has to be on that because like and the
Speaker 2: crew included like want the roll up our sleeves. It
Speaker 2: just like this is gonna be tough and no one's
Speaker 2: getting rich and just every we get on the same
Speaker 2: page of like wanting to tell the story. And how
Speaker 2: fun is this? How fun is this that we get
Speaker 2: the main movies and it's hard to get everybody on
Speaker 2: that page when it's like you're doing long days and
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, like no one's getting paid, but
Speaker 2: you know it, I don't know. I love making independent films.
Speaker 2: I love it because I've been on like huge budget
Speaker 2: movies and I just feel like nothing gets done. And
Speaker 2: you're making a movie by like committee as opposed to
Speaker 2: like independent films, where it's like a person's vision and
Speaker 2: you just get in line with that and and like
Speaker 2: you don't have the luxury of time to screw it up.
Speaker 2: You just have to keep shoot. There's an energy to
Speaker 2: it that keeps your toes and it's exciting, and I
Speaker 2: feel like that translates on camera and through you know.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I love it. Yeah, that's truly my
Speaker 2: heart lives.
Speaker 1: I love that so much. How was it for you?
Speaker 1: I mean, not only were you juggling all of the
Speaker 1: biggest plates on set, but you were also making an
Speaker 1: entire movie in seventeen days with two babies at home
Speaker 1: and Jamie, you know, for our friends at home, Jamie Chung,
Speaker 1: Brian's dreamboat of a wife, Like you know, again, we
Speaker 1: talk about all of this a lot on the other podcast,
Speaker 1: but when we watch the show and we all gush
Speaker 1: about you, and then we're like, can you believe we,
Speaker 1: like we're so obsessed with Jamie, Like maybe we even
Speaker 1: love her more than we love him. Who could ever
Speaker 1: love anyone more than Brian? Like Hillary and I just
Speaker 1: giggle because you know, we're obsessed with you, guys, And
Speaker 1: it was such a cool thing as your friend to
Speaker 1: like every once in a while, I had to sort
Speaker 1: of zoom out and go like, look at what he's doing,
Speaker 1: Look at what she's doing. Look at this character she's playing.
Speaker 1: It's so smart and thoughtful and different than something I've
Speaker 1: seen her do before. And like hold on, they have
Speaker 1: two twin babies that they also are dealing with right now,
Speaker 1: Like how did you do it? How did she do it?
Speaker 1: How did you do it? As a couple?
Speaker 2: Did do it a lot this? I gotta just take
Speaker 2: a moment to thank my wife, Jamie Chung, Like this
Speaker 2: movie doesn't get made without her. Tell you how passionate
Speaker 2: I wasn't telling this story and how hard it was
Speaker 2: to make this movie, and I got my chance to
Speaker 2: do it. The kids were six months old, twins. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's a tough ash. And this shot in Rhode
Speaker 2: Island and we lived in Los Angeles at the time,
Speaker 2: and she let me go off and chase my dreams
Speaker 2: and held it down and our family helped helped her out.
Speaker 2: And not only did she held it down with the kids,
Speaker 2: which at a really hard age, she came to Rhode
Speaker 2: Island and knocked it out the park in her role.
Speaker 2: And so I don't know, I'm just I'm eternally grateful
Speaker 2: to her for letting me do this movie. I mean,
Speaker 2: she really did allow me to do this movie. She
Speaker 2: said no, it's too hard, and I get it, but
Speaker 2: she didn't. She supported me, and it's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like that you use that word allowed, because
Speaker 1: I know what you mean. You don't mean it like
Speaker 1: in the parental sense of like you're allowed to do this.
Speaker 1: You mean like she made the allowances, she made the
Speaker 1: space for you to take space for yourself to go
Speaker 1: and achieve something, and that you know. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: talked to you other through a lot of relationship drama
Speaker 1: in twenty years, and like one of the things that
Speaker 1: makes me the happiest as your friend is to see
Speaker 1: this really symbiotic relationship you too have cultivated in your
Speaker 1: marriage where you really can like flow and tip the
Speaker 1: scales to be this total package as a team. And
Speaker 1: to do that, To to do that in the first year,
Speaker 1: where you've gone from a team of two to a
Speaker 1: team of four, is like an exponentially more impressive feat.
Speaker 1: And you managed to do this really impressive thing while
Speaker 1: also both giving incredible performances in this movie. It's like
Speaker 1: layers on layers of impressive love.
Speaker 2: But that's the other That's what it goes back to, Like,
Speaker 2: I you know, you cat. I cast Jane because I
Speaker 2: know she could kill it, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: Like it wasn't just because she's my wife. It's because
Speaker 2: she's an amazing actress and she's my wife. But it's
Speaker 2: like she's an amazing actress and that's a really horrid
Speaker 2: role to come in there and be that endearing in
Speaker 2: that you know, heartbreaking of a character and just doing
Speaker 2: in a scene or two. It's like it's that easy
Speaker 2: work for an actor to pull that off. And she did.
Speaker 2: And I knew she. I knew she had it in
Speaker 2: her on the depth in her But yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: it's uh, it's amazing. It's just truly grateful and not
Speaker 2: just Jamie, but like everybody who came to play it,
Speaker 2: Kaandla Conlin, Ryan Eggles incredible and this is so good,
Speaker 2: oh so good, Griffin Dunn, Josh Peck, I mean, uh k,
Speaker 2: Thomas Hill, Harper Dashed my hug. I mean, everybody is
Speaker 2: so good in this. It's like I can't believe I
Speaker 2: got you all in the movie, right, because it's I've
Speaker 2: worked with first time directors. It's a risk. I don't
Speaker 2: usually do it anymore, to be honest, because I'm like, eh,
Speaker 2: I don't have it in me, you know. So I've
Speaker 2: had some good experiences, I've had some bad experiences, but
Speaker 2: it's usually a turnoff if I hear first time director.
Speaker 2: And so for you wants to come on board and
Speaker 2: just have the trust and faith in me to tell
Speaker 2: the story, It's like I'm eternally grateful. So I owe
Speaker 2: you one oh man always.
Speaker 1: And now a word from our sponsors, how is it now?
Speaker 1: You know we fast forward, I mean almost two years
Speaker 1: from when we shot the movie. Yeah, how does this
Speaker 1: feel to be on the precipice of it coming out?
Speaker 1: And what is it like to now have toddlers? And
Speaker 1: like does it feel crazy like no time has passed?
Speaker 1: But so much time has passed?
Speaker 2: Oh? Man, I know. It's like I've been very busy
Speaker 2: since the kids have been born. I mean, Jamie has
Speaker 2: been very awesome. I'm in Chicago right now shooting a
Speaker 2: series not with my family, and again she's holding it down,
Speaker 2: and so I am just like we have waves, like
Speaker 2: like I've had ways where I've had to sit down
Speaker 2: for a few years. You know. Right now I'm standing up,
Speaker 2: you know, and then I'll have to sit down and
Speaker 2: she'll stand up. And it's just I think that's the
Speaker 2: beauty of being married to an actor. And she's also
Speaker 2: not one of the crazy ones. Oh, we we're all crazy.
Speaker 2: But uh but you know, I feel like she's pretty
Speaker 2: grounded for for for being an actress and like, I
Speaker 2: don't know, I think she just knows this is my
Speaker 2: time to do this and and so she's been very
Speaker 2: helpful and and supportive. But yeah, it's it's been crazy
Speaker 2: watching The Journey of Junction. I just keep pinching myself
Speaker 2: because it's been it's been no the whole way, Like no,
Speaker 2: no one's gonna make a movie about to hope yours.
Speaker 2: No, No one's gonna make your first time director. No, you're
Speaker 2: acting in it too. No, you know you know it's
Speaker 2: like no, no, no, no no. And then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, it's like we start winning festivals. You're like, whoa, Oh,
Speaker 2: I wasn't crazy. You know this is awesome.
Speaker 1: You're not crazy.
Speaker 2: You can see what I was seeing. Like it's not
Speaker 2: not about the awards or any of the acoletes and stuff.
Speaker 2: It's more just like validation have like, oh, yeah, this
Speaker 2: story did need to be told, and and you know,
Speaker 2: I feel like it's connecting with an audience and and
Speaker 2: it's so exciting, Like the press we're getting is amazing,
Speaker 2: and I can't wait for the premiere on Wednesday, and
Speaker 2: you're going to be doing the Today Show and it's
Speaker 2: like all this fun stuff. It's just like this is
Speaker 2: the fun part, you know, this is where you get
Speaker 2: to enjoy the ride and celebrate the hard work that
Speaker 2: we all put into it. So I'm really pinching myself.
Speaker 2: I'm saving the moment because I know after this, it's
Speaker 2: like I don't have another movie lined up to direct,
Speaker 2: Like I don't you know what I mean, I don't
Speaker 2: know what. I might be super depressed a like in
Speaker 2: a week, but right now I'm like on cloud nine.
Speaker 1: Oh I love that. I love that. And you know
Speaker 1: what feels cool too, is you're going to get this
Speaker 1: moment like you're on the ride and it's all celebration
Speaker 1: from here and then you know, you get a beat
Speaker 1: with your family, you get a beat with your babies.
Speaker 1: And it's so cool as your friend to watch you
Speaker 1: in this phase because you're being celebrated in your career
Speaker 1: in the way that you deserve to be. And it's
Speaker 1: been so fun to watch you be a dad because
Speaker 1: you wanted to be a dad for such a long time.
Speaker 1: Is it like everything you thought it would be and
Speaker 1: all the things you didn't know it would be.
Speaker 2: You know what, It's given me a purpose like that.
Speaker 2: I was always I felt like I was waiting to
Speaker 2: be a father for a long time. You know, I
Speaker 2: played Jake j Goils, played a lot of dad. I
Speaker 2: think I had dad vibes, you know, early on, but
Speaker 2: I you know, it took me a long time to
Speaker 2: become a father. And it's so weird. I feel like,
Speaker 2: in a weird cosmic way, like I've just kind of
Speaker 2: cracked the code and like I feel super grounded. I
Speaker 2: feel like I have an extreme purpose in my life.
Speaker 2: I love my boys so much. I'll do anything for them,
Speaker 2: and it's I do it, and I do it. It's
Speaker 2: like it's completely about them now, as much as I
Speaker 2: have all the stuff going on, but it's like my
Speaker 2: focus is you know, as actors, it's all about you.
Speaker 2: Can I get your coffee And it's so nice to
Speaker 2: like live for something else, for something more. Like I
Speaker 2: was bored. I was how many concerts could I go to?
Speaker 2: How many you know, vacations can I go on? And
Speaker 2: you know, I was just getting a little I've I
Speaker 2: felt like selfish. I was like living my life only
Speaker 2: for me, and now I get to go Like I
Speaker 2: hate Disneyland, but I went to Disneyland and it was
Speaker 2: great to watch it through their eyes. You know, I
Speaker 2: get to see the whole world through their eyes and
Speaker 2: then light up when they play with the train set
Speaker 2: and it's just like, I don't know, I feel like
Speaker 2: I've been enlightened, I guess as a way to put it.
Speaker 2: And I feel like the person I always wanted to be.
Speaker 2: I feel like instead of like trying to be that person.
Speaker 2: I feel like I am that person. I don't know
Speaker 2: if that makes sense. And like you, I feel like
Speaker 2: a confidence that's like a in an emotional depth that
Speaker 2: I can really lock into now that I was always
Speaker 2: hoping for now I have as an artist. It's I
Speaker 2: do feel different. I do feel like I'm a different person.
Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Maybe in a way, you're actually just more yourself, like
Speaker 1: you've grown into the fullness of yourself.
Speaker 2: I'm still growing, yeah, but yeah, yeah, that's another way
Speaker 2: I put it. Yeah, I do feel like I've grown
Speaker 2: into the flunced with Yeah, I love it. I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's it's a lot, you know, I mean, having at
Speaker 2: this age and working and doing it's just it's a
Speaker 2: lot of hats and but I'm not bored. Yeah, not bored.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it all. Right. Well, we're
Speaker 1: in this phase obviously where you know, you said it,
Speaker 1: you're kind of floating, like we're at this end stage
Speaker 1: where it's all celebration for this project that's been making
Speaker 1: and right, well that yeah, but they're really great so far.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're at this point where your boys
Speaker 1: are just getting big enough that they can play with
Speaker 1: each other and you're in this groove. But what whether
Speaker 1: it's looking back at this last year or perhaps looking
Speaker 1: forward into what's coming in the spring, Like, what do
Speaker 1: you think right now in your life feels like your
Speaker 1: work in progress.
Speaker 2: It's a good question. I like how you brought it, you.
Speaker 1: Know, all the way around to the title that last question.
Speaker 2: I love the title of that work in progress. It's
Speaker 2: great because I do I don't feel like you ever
Speaker 2: make it. I do always feel like you're you're growing
Speaker 2: and learning. I need to put junction Like in a week,
Speaker 2: I just feel like I can't write or think of
Speaker 2: the next story or I mean even the show that
Speaker 2: I'm on, Like I'm having trouble focusing and just like
Speaker 2: escaping into the role because I'm so still in Junction World.
Speaker 2: And I just need to close the chapter on this
Speaker 2: and celebrate it. And I think after you know, we
Speaker 2: do our little press tour and we do premiere, I'll
Speaker 2: be able to just kind of put it, put it down,
Speaker 2: and really like I can't. It's hard for me. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to write something, but I'm having a lot of
Speaker 2: difficulty because I'm still a Junction World. So yeah, I
Speaker 2: think I'm gonna and I'm gonna allow, but I'm a
Speaker 2: big believer in the subconscious and just letting that. You know,
Speaker 2: it's not have deadlines, but it's also nice to just
Speaker 2: dream and just walk around and have thoughts and like
Speaker 2: listen and see what those thoughts take you. And I'm
Speaker 2: really looking forward to I mean, as much as I
Speaker 2: would love to have my next project set up and
Speaker 2: ready to go in you know, in the summertime, and
Speaker 2: you know, keep that keep that answer, will going, I
Speaker 2: don't have it. Honestly, I don't have the next project
Speaker 2: set up. So I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna dream
Speaker 2: and just and just find it and know that this
Speaker 2: I proved myself that I can do it, and I
Speaker 2: will do it again. It's just gonna be a lot
Speaker 2: harder because now I get your kids and they do
Speaker 2: it's hard to write when you get two kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nap time, that's what that's for.
Speaker 2: Exactly. Well, I love it, and I you can I
Speaker 2: ask you.
Speaker 1: What my work in progress is. Yeah, oh gosh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting. It's like I think for me,
Speaker 1: there's been this coalescing of things that I know. I
Speaker 1: love to learn, I love research, I love social science data.
Speaker 1: I love to know why we function the way we function,
Speaker 1: what things everyone's going through that feel unique but they're
Speaker 1: actually universal. What's finally started to click for me in
Speaker 1: a really interesting way is I feel like all the
Speaker 1: knowledge I've been collecting for a long time has gotten
Speaker 1: out of my head and into my heart. And I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't know that I wasn't like in my body.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that I was intellectualizing a lot rather
Speaker 1: than feeling a lot. And to be in a in
Speaker 1: a phase where I'm like, oh my god, do other
Speaker 1: people feel like all the way to their toes? Has
Speaker 1: everyone just been living like this? This is crazy?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I think. I think I did a lot
Speaker 1: of work and I think the I think now I'm
Speaker 1: I'm like in progress. I'm embodied and it's it's wild.
Speaker 1: I think what it can take to get there in
Speaker 1: a life. But I'm immensely grateful for how present and
Speaker 1: whole everything feels right now. And for the first time
Speaker 1: in my life, I don't feel like I'm in a rush,
Speaker 1: like I'm just moving slow and happy. Yeah, And that
Speaker 1: feels nice.
Speaker 2: You seem happy, and you know, just as your friend,
Speaker 2: I'm so proud of you and just the leader you've become,
Speaker 2: and and and the woman you've become, and just like
Speaker 2: how you've always been championing social justice causes and and
Speaker 2: you're just such a you're such your born leader, like
Speaker 2: I look up to you as a friend, like I'm
Speaker 2: like you set soul, you know, and and and your
Speaker 2: curiosity is is what keeps you going. And I don't know,
Speaker 2: I'm just so proud of you.
Speaker 1: Thanks, But I'm very grateful that you know, twenty years
Speaker 1: ago we got thrown on a basketball court together. You're
Speaker 1: a real one.
Speaker 2: I have thought.
Speaker 1: I know we did good. Huh kidd all right?
Speaker 2: Progress, I know, I know.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see what we're doing in the
Speaker 1: next twenty you write it, let's go, okay, let's do
Speaker 1: another one.
Speaker 2: Oh still comedy now, oh.
Speaker 1: God, please, let's do a rom com.
Speaker 2: I'm actually That's what I'm working on right now is
Speaker 2: wrong com. I want to light it up. I'm like done.
Speaker 2: I thought it was good and important, but I'm ready
Speaker 2: to just not be so serious.
Speaker 1: You know what I want to say forever every time
Speaker 1: we make a movie, I and be like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: said yes before I read it. So I say, yes,
Speaker 1: let's go make a rom com.
Speaker 2: I'm in all right, that helps, okay, right with your
Speaker 2: voice in mind?
Speaker 1: Okay, great? Oh buddy, I love you. I'm so proud
Speaker 1: of you. Thanks for coming.
Speaker 2: Today, Thank you for having me. This is so cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a ball in Chicago. I can't wait
Speaker 1: to see you at the premiere. If you sneak some
Speaker 1: deep dish home on the plane for me, I won't
Speaker 1: say no to it.
Speaker 2: What's your favorite one out here?
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like I always get in trouble,
Speaker 1: but like I really, I was always a lum mal
Speaker 1: Naudi's girl.
Speaker 2: So I gotta try that next.
Speaker 1: Oh it's yeah, yeah, after you're done with that and
Speaker 1: you don't feel the pressure, I'm just I'm going to
Speaker 1: send you my restaurant list with my like my star
Speaker 1: items on the menu at every single one. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got you. I know of some things that are
Speaker 1: off menu at Oshibal that I can't talk about on
Speaker 1: the podcast, but I will text you. Ever.
Speaker 2: It's crazy, Ever, I love it, Buddy, to me, this
Speaker 2: is awesome in the movie. I can't wait for everybody
Speaker 2: to see your performance.
Speaker 1: I can't wait for everybody to see what you made.
Speaker 1: I'm honored to be a part of it. Okay, honey,
Speaker 1: I love you, I'll see you soon. Go