Speaker 1: All right, welcome back to another episode.
Speaker 2: I'm so King and I'm Amelia Hartford.
Speaker 3: And today we have a very special guest that Amelia
Speaker 3: knows really well.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Ali was the first producer to really give me
Speaker 2: an opportunity in one of his films. But he doesn't
Speaker 2: just come from the film background. He's actually a racing
Speaker 2: driver and he managed a team where he piloted what
Speaker 2: was and I think still is today the world's fastest.
Speaker 1: Subaru, world's fastest.
Speaker 2: It's funny. By the time this podcast comes out, I'm
Speaker 2: actually taking over and I'll be piloting that car in
Speaker 2: various races this year.
Speaker 3: Wow, so you will be driving the fastest Suparu.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in the world.
Speaker 3: For those who can't experience going a million miles per
Speaker 3: hour in a SUPERU, you can watch some of Ellie's movies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for instance, what movie were you in?
Speaker 2: I was in California Christmas, the sequel to the first.
Speaker 2: I was in Hollywood Christmas. That's a more. And Hollywood Christmas.
Speaker 1: Wait, California Christmas, Hollywood Christmas.
Speaker 2: California Christmas, the sequel Hollywood Christmas, And that's a more.
Speaker 1: What about Los Angeles Christmas?
Speaker 2: That's next. We'll pitch that one to him. I think,
Speaker 2: you know, this is another beautiful story of coming to
Speaker 2: America having nothing and really building a successful career for yourself.
Speaker 2: This year, he joined the board of Warner Brothers Diversity Program.
Speaker 2: He's spearheading a push for broader inclusivity and filmmaking at
Speaker 2: Warner Brothers. He's a very successful producer. I believe twenty
Speaker 2: four films now. He started as an actor, start as
Speaker 2: an actor, went to racing cars, and then went back
Speaker 2: to producing.
Speaker 3: With no further ado. Ali Afshar, So you guys met
Speaker 3: each other on the film.
Speaker 2: So we met through an old manager of mine. Was like,
Speaker 2: I know of a producer who does He's like a
Speaker 2: car guy, but he also does these cool movies, like
Speaker 2: let me make an introduction. I was like, okay, Rad
Speaker 2: I had seen a history about Sue brus and at
Speaker 2: the time I was building Sue Brews too, and we
Speaker 2: got connected through him and Ali and I hit it
Speaker 2: off and we've kind of been friends. He's been a
Speaker 2: mentor to me and we've been He's put me in
Speaker 2: a couple of his films. When we were talking last
Speaker 2: actually I told you, after nine years of being in
Speaker 2: LA I got my first role, and it was in
Speaker 2: one of Ali's films.
Speaker 1: Which film is that?
Speaker 2: That was that some More was the first one, but
Speaker 2: California Christmas ended up coming out first.
Speaker 1: California Christmas.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, you do it. Seems like Ali, you're doing
Speaker 3: several Christmas theme movies.
Speaker 1: Huh yeah, yeah recently since twenty twenty. We took a
Speaker 1: risk and we did our first. Warner Brothers had asked
Speaker 1: us to do a Christmas movie, so we did one
Speaker 1: in COVID. I think were the first movie to shoot
Speaker 1: in California during COVID. It was May of twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: and they licensed it to Netflix and it went bonkers.
Speaker 1: It became the number one movie in the world for
Speaker 1: two weeks straight. It's called The California Christmas and Emilia.
Speaker 1: We did this that met Amelia yet, so when we
Speaker 1: did the sequel, California Christmas City Lights, we got Amelia
Speaker 1: to do it, and it's just turned into like they
Speaker 1: ordered a handful, then HBO Max ordered a handful. And
Speaker 1: even though we come from a race car action sports
Speaker 1: kind of underdog diversity background movies for our first like
Speaker 1: twenty movies last six or seven and including the when
Speaker 1: we start this week, Oh Christmas, going from an Iranian
Speaker 1: kid that isn't even Christian, didn't even celebrate Christmas.
Speaker 3: So people underestimate these Christmas films because they're very big
Speaker 3: deal it almost they have like a following like horror
Speaker 3: fans almost, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: And arsh are pretty cool because like they're elevated. They're
Speaker 1: not like the Hallmark Lifetime. They're HBO Max there. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of nudity, a little bit of sexuality,
Speaker 1: a little bit of language, a little bit of you know,
Speaker 1: it's not just a cookie cutter what you see on
Speaker 1: the cheesy stuff. It's like a little more Nicholas Sparksy
Speaker 1: if you know who that is a little more notebook
Speaker 1: then a little Christmas. But it's yeah, I mean like
Speaker 1: our guys, we have a star that's been in a
Speaker 1: bunch of Josh Swicker, like he takes his shirt off
Speaker 1: and every middle aged woman and you know, Iowa was like,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody that dreams of that life where they
Speaker 1: didn't have yet it works. So we're a little more
Speaker 1: we're PG. Thirteen R than straight G. And they're not
Speaker 1: really like faith based or anything. They're just like happened
Speaker 1: to be around Christmas.
Speaker 2: But they're still good like feel good movies.
Speaker 1: Totally. Yeah, all our movies are feel good. Yeah, even
Speaker 1: our action ones. Our motto was like shedd a tear,
Speaker 1: but lead with a smile. Even the Ride, the one
Speaker 1: that Chris was in, Luntris was in, or American Wrestler,
Speaker 1: the one about My Life. They're all like heartfelt underdog
Speaker 1: kind of diversity happened by storytelling our first five movies
Speaker 1: that female leads too, Middle Eastern leads, two black leads
Speaker 1: in the following four. And it was well before it
Speaker 1: was like a box to check like it is now,
Speaker 1: you know, La two three years it's been like you
Speaker 1: have to shoot diversity, you have to be inclusive. It's
Speaker 1: like we just did it because it was a better
Speaker 1: underdog story and it just happened to be. Whether it
Speaker 1: was I don't know. I mean, female still falls under that,
Speaker 1: you know, underrepresented, but it's kind of just a cool
Speaker 1: thing that we are kind of like ahead of the
Speaker 1: curve by happenstance. How did you get into the producing
Speaker 1: side of things? For me, I acted quite a bit.
Speaker 1: I loved acting, and I had to take a break
Speaker 1: when I went racing for Super of America for seven years.
Speaker 1: We were traveling and touring and doing like sixty events
Speaker 1: a year or so. I didn't have a chance to act,
Speaker 1: but I missed it. So when I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I want to go back, and when I went back
Speaker 1: to acting, funny enough, my first audition back was a
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers movie that I booked a little part in it.
Speaker 1: But for a minute, we worked with Aston Martin and
Speaker 1: we built these supercharger intercooler systems for Aston Martin's. We
Speaker 1: called them the ESX Supervantages. And a guy bought one
Speaker 1: and he said, Hey, I didn't know you're an actor.
Speaker 1: If you ever want to make a movie, you know.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you're a banker, Like I don't need a
Speaker 1: fucking home loan. He's like, no, you're more on him
Speaker 1: a film financier. I was like what. Three months later
Speaker 1: we made our first movie called Born to Race, which
Speaker 1: is what Emilia loved and used to quote it when
Speaker 1: we first met.
Speaker 2: Ironically, before actually meeting Ali, in my YouTube videos, I
Speaker 2: had been quoting this movie and go figure it as
Speaker 2: one of his. And I was in such shock when
Speaker 2: when we put two and two together that I was
Speaker 2: pulling up old videos and be like ce see and
Speaker 2: I was I was, Oh, I don't recognize the car
Speaker 2: from from the rear and he walks around the front.
Speaker 2: Now I know this car because it's always in the
Speaker 2: review mirror.
Speaker 1: That's cool. Yes, that was our first movie and we
Speaker 1: just kind of like was like, oh, this is easy.
Speaker 1: So because I owned the race team, so I was
Speaker 1: able to like know how to put together pieces and
Speaker 1: people and materials from all over the world to make
Speaker 1: the cars faster. And we did a tour and it
Speaker 1: was entertainment. It wasn't just racing, you know. We had
Speaker 1: rigs and you know, like logistics and visuals and just
Speaker 1: the whole nine yards. So I kind of learned how
Speaker 1: to produce something by owning the race team for you know,
Speaker 1: years and running that, so I knew how to put
Speaker 1: people together. Yeah, the Super of America race Team. Can
Speaker 1: you give me the origin story of how you ended
Speaker 1: up owning a race team? Well? Yeah, sure, I mean
Speaker 1: I was that boring you guys. I loved street racing,
Speaker 1: always was street racing. Had My first car was a
Speaker 1: sixty seven Camaro. It went thirteen ninety and I thought
Speaker 1: that was fucking fast. I was like, oh, hey, Hey, hey,
Speaker 1: not that long ago, but yeah, I wasn't born yet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that that car got me in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 1: I used to street race. I got arrested a whole
Speaker 1: bunch with that car. And then I got into like
Speaker 1: turbo BUI Grand Nationals and started learning a little bit
Speaker 1: about fueling, like fuel injection was new. Then you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: no more carburetors, fuel injected turbos. Fucking what the fuck
Speaker 1: the turbo It's weird shit. But we started going really fast.
Speaker 1: We started building like ten second cars with the Buicks.
Speaker 1: And then when the WX came out, the Super Divres
Speaker 1: came out in America as a two thousand and two model,
Speaker 1: but it was a two thousand and two thousand and one.
Speaker 1: I bought one, actually bought an automatic wagon. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know that My first two was an
Speaker 1: automatic wagon. Couldn't get it to work right. I used
Speaker 1: to have like a little aquarium valve controller for the boost.
Speaker 1: We tied it into the Illinois to control the boosts, like,
Speaker 1: you know, just to control the air to the waistgate.
Speaker 1: But then I got a stick, and with that stick,
Speaker 1: I started running really really fast. I got like guys
Speaker 1: in Australia. I bought a mode from them and I
Speaker 1: had these European tuners come in and because nobody had
Speaker 1: done supers at that time and it was still kind
Speaker 1: of new, but it was in the whole vibe. It
Speaker 1: was literally you guys helping us because it was right
Speaker 1: in that whole fast and furious wave. So when I
Speaker 1: got that opportunity that I talked to you off a
Speaker 1: minute ago, where like they asked me to bring the
Speaker 1: car to a show and the people were driving it
Speaker 1: at the local Suber dealer here, and one of them
Speaker 1: that was driving it really slowly and mellow, and I
Speaker 1: was kind of making fun of him, ended up being
Speaker 1: Tom Dall, the CEO of Super of America, and had
Speaker 1: it invited us to lunch in New Jersey A few
Speaker 1: weeks later. We go out there and and you were
Speaker 1: in LA. Then I moved to LA from early California.
Speaker 2: I feel like you're glossing over the fact that you
Speaker 2: had the world's fastest Super.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we still don't.
Speaker 2: I think so I haven't heard of a faster time.
Speaker 3: I never heard of Super was going even ten seconds.
Speaker 3: I didn't even though they were part of the lot of.
Speaker 2: People don't spend the money on those motors.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well why Supero like you there were all these
Speaker 3: other cars. You went from g body to a super Aro.
Speaker 1: Well I went, I went. It was just because, like
Speaker 1: you know it turbo charge, intercoled, and they were all
Speaker 1: wheel drive and they were fun. And my company ESX
Speaker 1: used to stand for Easy Street Motorsports and I used
Speaker 1: to like building street cars cars you could actually drive.
Speaker 1: So having that symmetrical all wheel drive, low boxer engine,
Speaker 1: flat motor, low weight, I was like, Oh, this is
Speaker 1: gonna be a killer street car. It'll launch really good.
Speaker 1: So that's how we got into it. But for drag
Speaker 1: racing you want to be rear, real drive ultimately, but
Speaker 1: we were building nine seconds, Like I have a nine
Speaker 1: second STI I could drive here, you know. So like
Speaker 1: it was, I built it in O five, it's still
Speaker 1: the same car, hasn't changed. So we were running nines
Speaker 1: back We actually ran an eight ninety in it back
Speaker 1: then in two thousand and six, I think, So that
Speaker 1: was what started it. Plus all the other people that
Speaker 1: were already done. There was like Christian Rado was racing
Speaker 1: for Totis Scion. You had costume forget the name is
Speaker 1: Mazda was the Bergenholtz brothers. There was another kid for
Speaker 1: Chevrolet that did the Cobalt. So all the brands were
Speaker 1: kind of taken, and I just became the Subaru guy.
Speaker 1: You know, we just became suber really, you know, Tom
Speaker 1: Doll and the executives over there really took us under
Speaker 1: their wing, and we made our own line of cars.
Speaker 1: We built. We still build them, like we build like
Speaker 1: thirty or forty batches of Y SXSTI, the little Alley
Speaker 1: After signature series four dealers, you know, like kind of
Speaker 1: like a like a saline Mustang or like a roush Mustagers.
Speaker 2: And people listening might recognize those cars because they were
Speaker 2: red with white stripes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I'm like Iranian in America drag racing a
Speaker 1: Japanese rally car. It's the fucking most Smorgasborg Benetton thing
Speaker 1: you've ever heard. Yeah, So I took classic. I love
Speaker 1: American styling, so I'm like, what's more American than a
Speaker 1: red car with two white stripes? And they didn't even
Speaker 1: come red. We took them. We completely painted it. This
Speaker 1: is before wrapping. We painted them, laid two white stripes
Speaker 1: on them, and they're the most expensive subrews ever sold
Speaker 1: off a super showroom. Still we just built a batch
Speaker 1: like two years ago. How much? How much with eighty grand?
Speaker 1: Seventy five grand for a super sicker price for one
Speaker 1: of those cars before the forty two, right, thirty eight
Speaker 1: to forty.
Speaker 2: Two for which stand to you? Don't I don't know
Speaker 2: anymore to be so, yeah about that.
Speaker 1: Ballpark, Yeah, in the high thirties, low forties, maybe creeping
Speaker 1: in the mid forties, for get one with like sunroof
Speaker 1: and every bell and whistle. Maybe mid forties. Yeah, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: is there a big car culture in Iran? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't. I think so, but I don't haven't. And
Speaker 1: when we left, we can't go back, you know. I've
Speaker 1: never been back. Like, if I go back, I'll go
Speaker 1: straight to jail. I put my foot on the ground.
Speaker 1: It's not a good thing for me. So I've never
Speaker 1: been back. Yeah, I don't think I'll ever go back,
Speaker 1: not under this regime. It's a little touchy, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I played like gay roles. I mean, I'm not gay,
Speaker 1: but I played gay roles. My American rest of movies
Speaker 1: speaks really badly of that regime.
Speaker 3: Well, right, so the fact that you played a gay
Speaker 3: role here, Yeah, you'll go to jail.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they'll kill you hereon if they tell you if
Speaker 1: you go out and Iran say you're gay, they'd kill you. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I'm not even gay, but I'm just saying, you know,
Speaker 1: to of terrorist movies. I've acted in a dozen terrorist movies,
Speaker 1: and you made some Christmas movies and now I make
Speaker 1: Christmas movies exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, so how did you go so then from world
Speaker 2: spouse to subrew selling all these SX cars at the dealers,
Speaker 2: to then financing your first film.
Speaker 1: Well, it was that. It was that my buddy Jared,
Speaker 1: the film financier that we got, that bought one of
Speaker 1: our ESX Superchargers things Aston Martin's, and he said, you
Speaker 1: want to make a movie, introduced me to a couple
Speaker 1: of producers, and that was I made Born a Race,
Speaker 1: and then we did a sequel to it, which isn't
Speaker 1: They're good? We did Borner Race Fast Track. It was
Speaker 1: about road racing, weird Tita and then and that kind
Speaker 1: of like I got the bug. And then from then
Speaker 1: I just knew like I had met a gentleman, you know,
Speaker 1: Lucas Oil. So Forrest Lucas of Lucas Oil actually saw
Speaker 1: the first one, liked it, got involved in the second
Speaker 1: one is a product integration. The finale of the second
Speaker 1: movie is the Lucas Oil Cup. It's like this race
Speaker 1: thing we did. And then he wanted to get into
Speaker 1: the business. So we created a hybrid ESX entertainment slash
Speaker 1: Forest Films for him and we made a dozen films
Speaker 1: with him, and one of them was American Wrestler. They
Speaker 1: got attention of Warner Brothers and got us to the
Speaker 1: lot and that was the first movie they distributed from
Speaker 1: us back in twenty seventeen. So since then, in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: you know, then we started doing our own movies directly
Speaker 1: with Warner with Netflix, with HBO Max, So it's kind
Speaker 1: of evolved and a lot of movies in like, you know,
Speaker 1: seven eight years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I want to hear because you started he
Speaker 3: started as an actor. So from college? What did you
Speaker 3: major in college? Did you drama?
Speaker 1: Major? Irani in biology? Biology? So medical was the original road.
Speaker 1: And then how did so you were in Northridge, then
Speaker 1: you're already in La So how did you decide to
Speaker 1: go into acting? So my brother did, did a stunt,
Speaker 1: started doing stunts in movies and do a little bit
Speaker 1: of acting. And he got me. He said, hey, come
Speaker 1: do this meeting with me. And we went and we
Speaker 1: met this little agent like C minus agent, but the
Speaker 1: guy like me. I was young, you know, like young
Speaker 1: kids are easier to get roles. And he put me
Speaker 1: out there and it was my first job. As my
Speaker 1: second audition, I booked a roll on Saved by the Belt,
Speaker 1: the New One, the New Class, and I was like,
Speaker 1: this is great because I wasn't like a drama nerd.
Speaker 1: I was in some like kid in school doing plays
Speaker 1: and shit. I used to make fun of those others.
Speaker 1: I was a racer. It was a wrestler racer. I
Speaker 1: was more on the jock side, you know. But I
Speaker 1: was like, this is fun. And I got bit by
Speaker 1: that bug and I just started acting. And I did like,
Speaker 1: you know, two three dozen TV shows and movies, a
Speaker 1: lot of guest stars and top A show. It never
Speaker 1: got a recurring I never got to that level, but
Speaker 1: I did, like you know, sorry, I never got a regular,
Speaker 1: but I did like six seven episodes of Jag, and
Speaker 1: I did a couple of leads in movies like Chuck
Speaker 1: Norris is like the bad guy, and it was fun.
Speaker 1: But then right when I was ready to kind of
Speaker 1: make that next step, the racing thing hit so big,
Speaker 1: so I kind of said, oh, man, you know made
Speaker 1: millions of dollars racing, so I couldn't have turned it down,
Speaker 1: So you know, I do. I did miss it, but
Speaker 1: you know, went from racing and acting and racing and
Speaker 1: then now added you know, producing to it because kind
Speaker 1: of all fit together, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: it wasn't never by design, Like I never went to
Speaker 1: school to be like, oh, I'm gonna do this, or
Speaker 1: my parents, I mean, they didn't even know my mom
Speaker 1: had termin cancer my whole life. Like when I was three,
Speaker 1: they said she had six months to live, and she
Speaker 1: made it till I was fifteen, so she made it
Speaker 1: for twelve years. But like they didn't know what class
Speaker 1: I was. It, they didn't know at school, so it
Speaker 1: wasn't like study this. It was more more out of
Speaker 1: like necessity, you know. And then when when she died,
Speaker 1: my dad went to Iran. He got stuck in Iran.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't let him out, so we actually lost our house.
Speaker 1: We were homeless for a minute. We were like stealing
Speaker 1: food from the Vaughns in Woodland Hills, literally, you know.
Speaker 1: So it was just, oh, you can go to a
Speaker 1: junk yard. You can go to pickI Parts in sun
Speaker 1: Lindon and grab some parts and take this buick and
Speaker 1: fix it up and then sell it and make five grand,
Speaker 1: make three grand. And on the side you could race
Speaker 1: the you know, the gypsies, the or the B and
Speaker 1: D racing guys, and you know, and win another five
Speaker 1: hundred or lose five hundred, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: We probably lost more than we didca. Nobody told me
Speaker 1: about traction. They just burned out. Everywhere had this big block.
Speaker 1: We had sixty nine olds four four two. It was
Speaker 1: a big four to fifty five, a big block. Oh dude,
Speaker 1: just burned out. Nobody told us. Put it on slakes.
Speaker 1: You would run like high levens with like bad tires
Speaker 1: and it would run like ten fifties on slakes. Well,
Speaker 1: finally we did it. We're like, that's why we're because
Speaker 1: you know, you're like nineteen twenty. You don't know yet,
Speaker 1: you know, So anyway, say I'm going off on a tangent.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of how it. That's kind of how
Speaker 1: It came from like just necessity and then the racing. Oh,
Speaker 1: people are going to be paying me to build their
Speaker 1: cars because we used to have a shop and we
Speaker 1: had a dynam and we'd build up superrews. Then we
Speaker 1: built those our own line of suber Rus and the
Speaker 1: racing became really big with subru and just kind of
Speaker 1: you know, I still own like twenty thirty cars now
Speaker 1: and just have fun with wide range of cars and
Speaker 1: I'm excited to go back out. You know, I tried
Speaker 1: my race suit on. Its fit, but man, is it
Speaker 1: tight this covid weight. Like you know, I was like,
Speaker 1: because I'm going to be like inhaling the whole time,
Speaker 1: you know, because I don't want to get a two piece.
Speaker 1: I don't want to have the say, a dad suit.
Speaker 1: I don't want a two piece. I still have like
Speaker 1: a one piece. Like I'm cool.
Speaker 2: And you know.
Speaker 3: Your first movie, Born to Race was our obviously car centric.
Speaker 3: Well what's that film about.
Speaker 1: That film's about a young kid. It's basically a super
Speaker 1: commercial super commercial. So it's a young kid that gets
Speaker 1: in trouble street racing and loses his sponsorship and gets
Speaker 1: sent to live with his dad in this small town
Speaker 1: that's all domestic driven. So the bad guy has a
Speaker 1: brand you at that time as a brand you O
Speaker 1: five Mustang, you know, with a five site with a
Speaker 1: five zero Mustang. So it was import versus domestic, big
Speaker 1: city kid, small town and you know, kind of like
Speaker 1: it's stick your fun typical love store love story intertwined,
Speaker 1: but it's about you know, David versus Goliath. And the
Speaker 1: kid ends up going to a real NHR e race
Speaker 1: because we got Nharry to sponsor the movie, which was
Speaker 1: another task by itself. So he gets trouble street racing
Speaker 1: even with the dad, but then the dad's a mechanics
Speaker 1: so he helps him and they go to a real
Speaker 1: the NHR High School Drags, which I actually won in
Speaker 1: ninety one when I because there is such thing as
Speaker 1: an NHI High School Drag. So he goes there, does
Speaker 1: it legitimately and safely, and ends up winning in the
Speaker 1: and if you I'm ruined it for people that haven't
Speaker 1: seen it. But there's a big crash at the end
Speaker 1: and the kid gets out of his car and pulls
Speaker 1: the bad kid out of the Mustang and saves his
Speaker 1: life and it explodes, so he kind of like it's
Speaker 1: kind of a cool ending about these two guys coming together.
Speaker 3: You know, how do I why do I not know
Speaker 3: this movie?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: Twelve, ten twelve something.
Speaker 2: Like that around that time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was our first one. It's called Born Race.
Speaker 1: It became kind of a cult hit. It was number
Speaker 1: one movie on Netflix for on the action adventure series,
Speaker 1: is number one on for for car action and for
Speaker 1: car films, and that then car culture. This movie. So
Speaker 1: it's quarter mile, it's about quarter miles. It's about street racing,
Speaker 1: but it's high school. Yeah, so yeah, it's June. I mean, listen, Amelia,
Speaker 1: I watched it, that movie right, Yeah, but the whole
Speaker 1: movie we did for like eight hunder Grand, No, eight
Speaker 1: under Grand. Yeah, and I got pet Boys, Subaru, Grant
Speaker 1: steering wheels for Rea Holly. Everybody sponsored it. What did
Speaker 1: you do money before eight Undergrad? I didn't know any better.
Speaker 1: It's like, not tell story.
Speaker 2: Where you got people to show up to the race.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm not drinking the Hollywood kool aid, just doing
Speaker 1: it your own way. We posted on it was Facebook.
Speaker 1: There was no Instagram, man at that time. We actually
Speaker 1: posted on Facebook, and I think my Space was dead
Speaker 1: by then. But like we went online and just posted say, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: come out, bring your car to the street races and
Speaker 1: the main races at California Speedway when they still had
Speaker 1: the drag strip, and we'll give you food. Be in
Speaker 1: the movie. And that was it. Like four hundred cars
Speaker 1: showed up.
Speaker 2: Did you have a fear at any point at that
Speaker 2: time that you weren't going to make them back the
Speaker 2: money your first film, taking out such a mass.
Speaker 1: Was like the second producer that one. I wasn't the
Speaker 1: first producer, so it was really wasn't on my back,
Speaker 1: and I did it for free. Actually cost me thirty
Speaker 1: grands because we used my buddy sixty nine Chavelle, tanked
Speaker 1: his motor and training. I had the rebuils monor in
Speaker 1: training for I got him a new one because they
Speaker 1: were doing the burnout in the water box in reverse
Speaker 1: dead in reverse, so almost smoking. I'm like, what are
Speaker 1: you doing with the fucks? So we brew up his
Speaker 1: motor and training. He's a nice guy. So it actually
Speaker 1: cost me money. And I didn't get paid for that
Speaker 1: one because it's more like a learning experience for me.
Speaker 1: So I'll do for free, and I brought money to
Speaker 1: the movie. I brought free money, couple hundred thousand free
Speaker 1: money to the movie. So for me, that was like
Speaker 1: my acting school. That was like my producing school. So
Speaker 1: I wasn't worried about it because it wasn't.
Speaker 2: A strier than college tuition. Thirty five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a good little movie.
Speaker 3: As you know, if you were to give a young
Speaker 3: version of your self advice, right, I wanted to come
Speaker 3: to town and be.
Speaker 1: That's how the manager sold. She goes, you know your dad,
Speaker 1: your mom passed away fifteen, her dad passed away fifteen.
Speaker 1: You love acting, you love cars. She's like the twenty
Speaker 1: year younger version of you're trying to do you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how I meant her. That's how I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: get fine. Yeah, and then she's coolest.
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, because talent's important and it'll keep
Speaker 3: you there. But you know, that's not the only thing
Speaker 3: that is important to become successful in talent. I mean
Speaker 3: you started acting without even knowing that you wanted to
Speaker 3: be an actor. What traits do you think you possessed
Speaker 3: that allowed you to get to where you are today?
Speaker 1: As you would know, wrestling, getting your ass kicked in
Speaker 1: life physically, and you know, like when you're an immigrant,
Speaker 1: a bad immigrant. In the American's eyes, you're getting bullied
Speaker 1: the fuck out of it because they're your country's holding hostages.
Speaker 1: At the time you moved here. It's like the worst
Speaker 1: thing you are is be fucking your onion with and
Speaker 1: then all the terrorists in the nine elevens and shit,
Speaker 1: they've always happened since having your mom die at a
Speaker 1: young age, knowing how short life is, living in high
Speaker 1: school with different friends, being homeless, I think it's the
Speaker 1: hardships that immigrant and paired with hardships just gives you
Speaker 1: a different fight. And then, like my wrestling coach said,
Speaker 1: like he said, listen, if you can wrestle and you
Speaker 1: put your heart in it, win or lose, this will
Speaker 1: be the best thing for your life because you can
Speaker 1: go through anything. Because wrestling, as you know, is so
Speaker 1: fucking hard. It's not fun. Nobody has fun wrestling. It's
Speaker 1: like you just getting your asking the whole time. Even
Speaker 1: when you win, you're bleeding and tired, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So it was just like, tough circumstances give
Speaker 1: you a different kind of fight and a different kind
Speaker 1: of awareness that I think Unfortunately a lot of my
Speaker 1: American friends, they take it for granted. They take like
Speaker 1: the kind of bash America and bash the left or
Speaker 1: bash the right. I'm like, are you kidding? I can
Speaker 1: walk down the street and say hello to her and
Speaker 1: give her hugging a kiss and I'm not gonna get
Speaker 1: put in jail. She's not gonna get killed like the.
Speaker 2: Kiss you guys.
Speaker 1: Just so, I think it's that. I think it's just
Speaker 1: like having those fucked up circumstances and then surviving it
Speaker 1: and learning how to be you know, getting through it
Speaker 1: more specifically with I think that does it just open
Speaker 1: your eyes to be aware of your surroundings, as Forrest
Speaker 1: taught me, as Tom Dahl taught me. The all gave
Speaker 1: me different lessons. All these big CEOs and multi you know,
Speaker 1: self made billionaire guys like I learned from them. So
Speaker 1: I soak it in. I'm like, how did you do it?
Speaker 1: I literally asked them, how did you do it? You know?
Speaker 1: And it's like, be kind, be honest, work hard, which
Speaker 1: is kind of cheesy, but then just be aware of
Speaker 1: what other people want, not not just selflessly in a
Speaker 1: way that could help everybody, you know, super wanted to
Speaker 1: get into this fast and furious world. We literally called
Speaker 1: it the fast and furious world to such a big
Speaker 1: genre and lifestyle, and you know the Ride movie with
Speaker 1: Chris it's the bike life. Life is getting big, you know,
Speaker 1: so like that was a whole bike life thing. So
Speaker 1: like trying to just like kind of being aware of
Speaker 1: what your surroundings are, what people want, what brands want,
Speaker 1: what high net worth people want, what the business wants,
Speaker 1: and putting it all together, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's helpful for ating kids.
Speaker 2: There are people think correct, Yeah, no, I think that's
Speaker 2: super helpful, and I will second to losing a parent
Speaker 2: at a young age. I feel like it does give
Speaker 2: you kind of a drive in a way because at
Speaker 2: a young age, at least for me, I realized that
Speaker 2: I was on my own and I would have to
Speaker 2: create my own future because it wasn't something that was
Speaker 2: going to be handed to me. So I do think
Speaker 2: that there's in a lot of stories where I meet
Speaker 2: people who are highly driven, and in a way I
Speaker 2: would say that you know, you lost your dacause you
Speaker 2: didn't have a relationship with them too. That that, you know,
Speaker 2: is a common trait that I see in people who
Speaker 2: are highly motivated work very hard and also care about
Speaker 2: self help and bettering their future and helping others at
Speaker 2: the same time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also I mean when you don't have parents,
Speaker 1: you gotta survive.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: A lot of it is like you got to you
Speaker 1: got to hustle, like you know, fight or flight. Yeah.
Speaker 3: When you say you know, be you know, be aware
Speaker 3: of your surroundings and be aware of the people around
Speaker 3: you and what they like, it's like part of that
Speaker 3: is like a survival instinct. Yeah, because you know you're alone,
Speaker 3: like you don't have somebody to go home to that
Speaker 3: you know, there's no insurance, like, it's just you.
Speaker 1: Plan being Yeah, well that's why. And you go like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I can make ten dollars by selling this.
Speaker 1: I used to go to drug yards and buy cars,
Speaker 1: fix them up and sell them. That was great. But
Speaker 1: then you're like, wait a minute, you can make a
Speaker 1: little bit more by fixing hot rods, or oh now
Speaker 1: you can go actually race and make more money. And
Speaker 1: then oh wait, you can out make make movies. And
Speaker 1: it's not just about the money. It's ay, I love
Speaker 1: doing that stuff as well, but but it was it
Speaker 1: was a way of like valuing the money and the
Speaker 1: opportunities where I hate to say it, but a lot
Speaker 1: of the you know, like a lot of my American
Speaker 1: friends don't they take it for granted. It's just they're
Speaker 1: born with it. I don't want to say it's like that,
Speaker 1: you know whatever. I'm not woke like that, so I
Speaker 1: don't use the right terminologies, but it's like it's you know,
Speaker 1: they just like they don't put in that extra effort.
Speaker 1: You know. They always yell at me like, oh, you're
Speaker 1: rushing or you're doing things too fat am I? You
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like, let's put it solid ten
Speaker 1: hours in today and see what happens. Let's not put
Speaker 1: six in and just wait. You know, just because it's
Speaker 1: Sunday doesn't mean we can't do something, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like why who made these rules? You know?
Speaker 1: And it gets you to be aware of like you know,
Speaker 1: stay up through the night, you know, and also racing
Speaker 1: when you're racing. We were up many nights through the
Speaker 1: night getting the car ready for the race. The next
Speaker 1: morning it was raining in English Town, New Jersey, and
Speaker 1: the rain they're replacing motors because our tarp thing broke.
Speaker 1: Is like when you do that, it's kind of same
Speaker 1: with wrestling, like that last ten seconds of the third
Speaker 1: round when you can't even breathe anymore, you feel like
Speaker 1: you're gonna throw up, and you still throw that duck
Speaker 1: under or the fireman's carry or whatever. You guys are
Speaker 1: big guys. You didn't throw those Those are two heavy
Speaker 1: but double leg, you know what I mean, or some
Speaker 1: kind of throw.
Speaker 2: It's also cool to see like what you're capable as
Speaker 2: a human being of doing. So Like in the moment
Speaker 2: you may be like, oh, it's my hands are bleeding
Speaker 2: from you know, turning wrenches trying to get this car
Speaker 2: ready for tomorrow. And in the moment you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can't, Why am I doing this? And the next
Speaker 2: day you're like, I'm so glad I did this. That
Speaker 2: was so cool. Now I know I can do it,
Speaker 2: and just constantly pushing yourself.
Speaker 1: Totally totally yeah. And in the moment it's actually afterwards
Speaker 1: the words winner lose. It's like you feel good that
Speaker 1: you did it.
Speaker 3: You know, you think building cars has helped you be
Speaker 3: a good producer, help your producing.
Speaker 1: It's a good question. I mean, it's kind of funny
Speaker 1: because people always ask me, like, how did you get
Speaker 1: into building cars? And I'm a big remote control car fan,
Speaker 1: so I grew up put building the RC cars, you know,
Speaker 1: like those old t MEA kids, those Japanese kids. You
Speaker 1: can't you have put them together. So I have like
Speaker 1: hundreds of them still, I have them from the eighties.
Speaker 1: I have a whole collection, and like those help me
Speaker 1: build the car. And then the car. It does help
Speaker 1: you put pieces together because it's all mechanical. You put
Speaker 1: the engine together, you put the rings in the right way,
Speaker 1: you put the bear, and you put the crank, and
Speaker 1: you tighten it to this amount, and you add you
Speaker 1: had the fuel, you had gas, you had air. It's
Speaker 1: gonna work, you know what I mean, Like whatever you
Speaker 1: use nitrous fuel, air, Yeah, you put it fire to
Speaker 1: it and it's going to work. And the movie is
Speaker 1: kind of movie business is actually easier than cars. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of shipping cars because you're not there trying
Speaker 1: to make the camera roll quicker than ever, you know,
Speaker 1: And our movies aren't like crazy stunt driven like your
Speaker 1: guys are VFX stuff. So we're not like Jim Cameron
Speaker 1: trying to reinvent a way to see blue people floating
Speaker 1: in water. We're just doing We do a lot of
Speaker 1: practical action. You know, when we're racing, we're actually racing
Speaker 1: flipping cars. We're really flipping and we'll throw some VFX in,
Speaker 1: like you know, fires and explosions and stuff. But so
Speaker 1: for me, the building the cars and running the race
Speaker 1: team and the personalities. Talk about producing, it's all about
Speaker 1: the personalities that MIPI fuck. It's like you got eighty people.
Speaker 1: They all are different people, different walks of life, and
Speaker 1: that's the tough one. Is like to get every from
Speaker 1: the star to the craft service guy to not hurt themselves,
Speaker 1: be safe, get along. And my biggest thing to this
Speaker 1: set is like the stickers, like no drama whenever old
Speaker 1: ages used to do that is we're just fucking making
Speaker 1: a movie. Guys. No one's crying ass cancer. It's like
Speaker 1: you probably heard me say that. It's like relax, just
Speaker 1: making a movie. It should be fun. Everybody takes it
Speaker 1: a little too seriously, Like no, dude, it's like you
Speaker 1: know when your parents die at fifteen, or you know,
Speaker 1: challenges you've had, those are challenges. This is no challenge
Speaker 1: at all, you know what I mean? Like, this is
Speaker 1: so what we'll lose an hour? You're the fuck I
Speaker 1: think that that also helped, you know, but knowing how
Speaker 1: things work is always good too, like knowing what it is,
Speaker 1: like knowing how this microphone records to that hard drive
Speaker 1: and how it's gonna get edited. Like if you know,
Speaker 1: then whoever you hire to do it, you know what
Speaker 1: to tell. You're not just some suit coming in saying
Speaker 1: do this when you actually don't know how it works,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. The guy's like, well, the
Speaker 1: data stream isn't that quick. I can't upload it that
Speaker 1: fast thing, you know what I mean. So mechanics definitely
Speaker 1: help with that stuff. Plus for me, it's the adrenaline
Speaker 1: of racing, Like I love going fast, Like I've never
Speaker 1: been drunk in my life, don't do drugs, kind of
Speaker 1: like a nerd in that aspect, you know. I've got
Speaker 1: in trouble with the police, but it's always street racing.
Speaker 1: So that for me is my high, you know. And
Speaker 1: I have I mean the car I have now is lucky.
Speaker 1: When I drove here, I'm lucky if it has seven horsepower,
Speaker 1: you know, But then I have cars I have two
Speaker 1: thousand horse power. So like cars, the freedom they represent,
Speaker 1: the fresh air, the speed, the adrenaline just being able to,
Speaker 1: you know, go out and do it. And I also
Speaker 1: love the aesthetics of like old cars, to have a
Speaker 1: big classic car. Fan of the looks of that stuff.
Speaker 1: Me too. Yeah, what's your favorite? The sixty eight fastback
Speaker 1: Mustang is my favorite? Sixty eight. I love the sixty six.
Speaker 1: You like the lights's going in in the back. I
Speaker 1: like the lights coming out a little bit.
Speaker 3: I like it because it's it was in the bullet Yeah.
Speaker 3: I like that forest green color.
Speaker 1: That's a bad color. Yeah, but I'll never buy it
Speaker 1: because I like to dream. Oh you don't. You don't
Speaker 1: want to have it? Yeah.
Speaker 3: I like to go on Facebook marketplace and offer up.
Speaker 3: And when Craigslist was the thing, yeah, I would go
Speaker 3: and search for these cars and then I would actually
Speaker 3: go visit the owners and you know and yeah, kick
Speaker 3: the tires. And you didn't want to buy it, though,
Speaker 3: are you? Because then it's over?
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 3: You know, it's like because you can. They're not that
Speaker 3: ex I mean, they're expensive, but you can. I mean
Speaker 3: at one time I was I was saying something and
Speaker 3: when the economy wasn't that great, they were like fully
Speaker 3: rebuilt restored. One was like forty forty five grand you
Speaker 3: could daily drive that. I thought about it, and I
Speaker 3: was like, you know, I really like the pursuit.
Speaker 1: Of the hunt.
Speaker 3: And I love going out and meeting these owners that
Speaker 3: put their heart into it and hearing the origin story
Speaker 3: of why they have this car and then like like
Speaker 3: to go home and then do it again.
Speaker 1: Over.
Speaker 2: It's weird, you know.
Speaker 1: It's like you have the cars, you know, I own
Speaker 1: to any cars, same thing. You're like, oh, what you
Speaker 1: get it is? It does put the fire out? Don't
Speaker 1: enough time to drive them all? Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean, and as I get older, like I love
Speaker 3: like restoring these cars, like I have this Hachiroku, this
Speaker 3: Toyota Corolla yea. And for about four months it was
Speaker 3: this like night and day obsession, right, and then meeting
Speaker 3: people in the community that helped me find these like
Speaker 3: rare parts and then you know, they come over and
Speaker 3: they'd like to help me create a wire harness for
Speaker 3: the park lights and stuff. And and I love this
Speaker 3: interaction and that that whole process of bringing this car
Speaker 3: back to life. And as soon as it was done,
Speaker 3: I've never driven it again.
Speaker 1: You know what I thought of It's interesting that you
Speaker 1: say that is lately and I haven't shared this with
Speaker 1: you yet because I have so many cars now, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I think I want to give them away.
Speaker 1: I want to be like you've always loved these bucks,
Speaker 1: this buicks for you, like my good friends, my family,
Speaker 1: just like give them to people because giving feels nice.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, Amelia and I we could We'll always
Speaker 3: stick a car, never know. Yeah, yeah, you have her
Speaker 3: numbers all exactly.
Speaker 2: How many cars trucks included do you have now?
Speaker 1: Thirty?
Speaker 2: I remember? Was it even a year ago that you
Speaker 2: sold your entire fleet and was like, I've doumb a
Speaker 2: car as I'm not buying anymore.
Speaker 1: And a year later, years two years ago? Right was it?
Speaker 2: It was just before filming Hollywood Christmas.
Speaker 1: You're right? Yeah. I had a buddy of the mine
Speaker 1: actually had a dealership here. It's a very cool dealership.
Speaker 1: It's called Motor Cars LA. It's right by off Librea
Speaker 1: and like Santa Monica area. Okay, he needed inventory. He's
Speaker 1: a good friend of mine. He used to work at
Speaker 1: Aston martin the factory, and he bought I had eighteen
Speaker 1: at that time. He bought eighteen cars in one shot,
Speaker 1: and I was gonna see, Okay, what a cool life experiment.
Speaker 1: I must see how long I can go without a car.
Speaker 2: And a year litterious.
Speaker 1: I made it three weeks. I made it three weeks.
Speaker 1: I was like, like ubering places because I've never not
Speaker 1: had a car since I've been sixteen that the cars
Speaker 1: are like a big part of my life. So I
Speaker 1: was like, how long can I go? No cars? No motorcycles?
Speaker 1: He bought them all, So I was like, Okay, let
Speaker 1: me see how what what do you buy them all for?
Speaker 1: For his inventory to sell? Oh, Fay had this place
Speaker 1: called motor Cars La. Making a commercial on your site
Speaker 1: right now for him? He should pay your Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: right there off Libria. It's really cool. He's got cool cars, classics,
Speaker 1: new cars, old cars, million dollar, multimillion dollar, Ford whatever
Speaker 1: leads you called GT forty and Yeah. So he bought
Speaker 1: them all, but it's just is it interesting for me?
Speaker 1: It was like, huh, let's clear your house. I mean
Speaker 1: at Aston Martin fifty five Chevy smoking the bandit trans
Speaker 1: am An XJR one hundred Jaguar. I just bought another
Speaker 1: one I found in Florida. I bought one back that
Speaker 1: only made five hundred of those in two thousand and two.
Speaker 1: I always liked one the ugliest fuck. I don't know
Speaker 1: I like it. But my sue brew brat my race cars.
Speaker 1: He bought everything.
Speaker 3: Do you think your your experience as a actor. I
Speaker 3: don't know what kind of parts you were going at for,
Speaker 3: you know, but as a you know, Iranian immigrants, right,
Speaker 3: did you have challenges in terms of the type of
Speaker 3: roles that you were initially offered.
Speaker 1: I mean the first it was all first First it
Speaker 1: was young, you could do anything. But then after a
Speaker 1: few years, when you're hitting your twenties, it was like
Speaker 1: you're literally Middle Eastern. No, I'm doing Sanji of the
Speaker 1: Indian food delivery guy in a couple episodes of King
Speaker 1: of Queens. I was doing you know, the JAG and
Speaker 1: NCIS episodes, Old Terrorists, Bad Guys, the lead in the
Speaker 1: Chuck Norris movie Bad Guy. It's some Spanish roles because
Speaker 1: back then it was like you just look at it
Speaker 1: wasn't so specific. Now it's like you better be fucking
Speaker 1: this part of Afghanistan and speaking or doing that's it like,
Speaker 1: it's not Middle Eastern anymore. It's very specific because it's
Speaker 1: so touchy now. But so those were like kind of
Speaker 1: a lot of roles. But I did play a lot
Speaker 1: of like I mean, Harris and Three Kings, this and that.
Speaker 1: But I also did like, you know, he's just got
Speaker 1: that into a big rom com. I played my first
Speaker 1: gay role. It was very memorable scenes. It's funny, but
Speaker 1: you know, for me, when nine to eleven hit, I
Speaker 1: was kind of like Supero's golden child and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh shit, like I can't be seen like in movies
Speaker 1: and also have Super given us you know, big contracts,
Speaker 1: and I'm there like fastest super in the world, racing
Speaker 1: on a televised you know, those series were televised, like
Speaker 1: the NHR series was televised, So I stopped doing those. Actually, Argo,
Speaker 1: I booked a role in Argo. I met with Ben
Speaker 1: Affleck and all of them and booked a role, good role,
Speaker 1: but not the main bad guy, but the second bad guy.
Speaker 1: Then I read the script because I didn't give me
Speaker 1: a script yet, and we went through all the chem
Speaker 1: tests and everything. They hired me, and then I read
Speaker 1: the script like, oh no, like this is like horrible,
Speaker 1: and my dad's an Iran and my buddy at CIA
Speaker 1: that was kind of a side pocket wrapping me. He's
Speaker 1: like not worth it. His last movie. Ben's last movie
Speaker 1: was a Jilly or Gilly. It was like at a tank,
Speaker 1: so don't worry about it. It goes to windf and
Speaker 1: it goes and wins in Oscar. Yeah, and they didn't.
Speaker 1: Funny story with that is sat the procting company didn't
Speaker 1: tell SAG that I turned it down because I went
Speaker 1: through a lot of the rounds like I'd filled out
Speaker 1: my paperwork because I didn't have the script yet, So
Speaker 1: they didn't tell SAG that I dropped out. So I
Speaker 1: got a screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Cast, and
Speaker 1: I got a plack and like le thing because they
Speaker 1: still thought I was part of the ensemble, so for
Speaker 1: best Cast, because it won movie the Best Cast a
Speaker 1: couple of awards. Yeah. So after that, the racing hit
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm not doing any more terror
Speaker 1: st roles. And I really haven't done any since since
Speaker 1: nine to eleven. I don't need to anymore.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: I was like, maybe, kid, I'd still do it. But
Speaker 1: I get to make these cool movies and I've been
Speaker 1: like Bennett's War, I was like the third lead. It's
Speaker 1: a motorcycle racing movie. Really cool. Netflix American wrestler second lead.
Speaker 1: I've never been the lead. They that I never been
Speaker 1: number one in one of our own movies. I did
Speaker 1: one called Damn Foreigners for I got cast to that
Speaker 1: as the number one position. But I've done a lot of,
Speaker 1: like you know, in the top fives for our movies,
Speaker 1: maybe half of our movies. I think California Christmas, I'm
Speaker 1: the butler. You're agreeing that, Yeah, yeah, California Christmas, I'm
Speaker 1: their butler. Like it's funny.
Speaker 3: Do you think your experience as an actor and the
Speaker 3: type of roles you were casting gives you a certain
Speaker 3: perspective as a producer on what you create in terms
Speaker 3: of story and diverse casting?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean totally. Yeah. I mean having so many
Speaker 1: hours on set on that side of the camera, knowing
Speaker 1: I can I definitely help with casting. Actually work used
Speaker 1: to working casting. I used to intern for Nan Dutton
Speaker 1: that did like Nash Bridges and stuff. We used to
Speaker 1: work for her for free just to learn about casting.
Speaker 1: So totally knowing the actors, knowing who's good who's bad.
Speaker 1: They can just tell like that, they just look. You
Speaker 1: can see in two seconds, like who's got it, who
Speaker 1: doesn't have it? Whether they're off book or on book
Speaker 1: or missing the mark, you still know they're good. You know,
Speaker 1: they just made the bad decision. So those are good
Speaker 1: making people comfortable on set, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Even our mutual friend Chris. It was great to work
Speaker 1: with him, you know what I mean, because he's a
Speaker 1: good actor and we would like it was cool to
Speaker 1: work with artists, like whether it's like John Voyd or
Speaker 1: you know, or crossovers, not crossovers because like Trace Atkins
Speaker 1: is an actor, now, Chris is an actor. Now these
Speaker 1: guys are been acting for But what makes a good
Speaker 1: actor to you? I mean, I don't know what makes it.
Speaker 1: I just know what it is. Well what is it?
Speaker 1: I mean just the truth? For me, like just just
Speaker 1: being like not acting. Believability, yeah, I mean for me
Speaker 1: is like you know, when you're watching that person, you
Speaker 1: know in two seconds, if they're believable, if they're honest,
Speaker 1: if they're true, if they're actually going there, they're just
Speaker 1: not phoning it in, you know. So I just think like,
Speaker 1: you know, being real, being genuine, being there, present, reacting,
Speaker 1: not acting, listening what you do between the lines. A
Speaker 1: lot of people new actors are just all waiting for
Speaker 1: their line to come, like you know the joke everybody
Speaker 1: hears Will Smith or everybody sees Will Smith and like
Speaker 1: Fresh Prince where he's like mouthing the other person's life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I read his book and he talks about doing that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so funny. But so, you know, but when
Speaker 1: it's cool when you see new ones, and it's really
Speaker 1: cool when you see new people, like we have a
Speaker 1: friend that we met. There was a new actress that
Speaker 1: we gave her a chance, and I think that Riley's
Speaker 1: her first lead was with us, right, Riley, I think so,
Speaker 1: And she's amazing. She's worth like three four movies now
Speaker 1: for other people as well. It's really cool to find
Speaker 1: new talent, like even George from American Wrestler, the kid
Speaker 1: that played me, and we auditioned like two hundred people
Speaker 1: and we ended up hiring a Greek kid because we
Speaker 1: couldn't find any Iranian kid to play me ally an
Speaker 1: American wrestler. So this guy was like he's a little
Speaker 1: bit taller and better looking than me. So I was like, well, fine,
Speaker 1: we'll hire it. But it was like, you know, you
Speaker 1: just like that raw energy and they're just not acting
Speaker 1: for the Graham, you know what I mean. They're not
Speaker 1: trying to just book a job to say I booked
Speaker 1: the job. They're like just real, genuinely enjoy it, like
Speaker 1: wearing that other skin. But you know, that skin, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, can't be unless you're daniel Lewis or some badass.
Speaker 1: That skin can't be too far from your skin, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. It's got to kind of be
Speaker 1: your it's your skin in a different light, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, unless you're some real method you're calling Farreller's,
Speaker 1: you know, or calling further any calling, just pick it,
Speaker 1: calling him, you know. But yeah, so that's that's what
Speaker 1: I think, you know, and also doing it so long
Speaker 1: you just can just tell, you know, you just watch
Speaker 1: people's taps or watching them in person, and it's all
Speaker 1: zooms now. So it's all like watching and you know,
Speaker 1: it's the lean in factor, Like if you're ever watching
Speaker 1: something and like an audition or something and you're like
Speaker 1: lean in slowly, Okay, that person works. And I actually
Speaker 1: do that with our own producers and directors. I watch
Speaker 1: them and see how they're reacting, you know, expose them.
Speaker 1: They're like that's the difference, you know, it's kind of weird.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's no real formula in my opinion. But again,
Speaker 1: I probably don't even do it right. We just do
Speaker 1: what we do. Literally, we do what we do. We're
Speaker 1: like the odd ball. We came up with an idea,
Speaker 1: wrote the script, made the movie with Riley, our friends
Speaker 1: starring in it in like three weeks.
Speaker 2: Shout out Riley, Yeah, shout out Riley.
Speaker 1: Danish the star. Yeah, just I don't know, I kind
Speaker 1: of We don't do the traditional find the filmmaker, get descripted,
Speaker 1: find the talent, kiss ass, kiss ass, this agent then
Speaker 1: like that live's too short. You want to be in
Speaker 1: a movie, you got the money, you have the idea
Speaker 1: is good? Do we think it's good? Fix it, shoot it?
Speaker 1: And so we also do like three or four movies
Speaker 1: a year, five movies a year sometimes, but they're small,
Speaker 1: you know, they're not like they're not fast and furious
Speaker 1: heavy though. Were they like around five five mil? Under fives? Yeah,
Speaker 1: threty five? How many? How many days of production are
Speaker 1: you in them for a film? Any we're up from
Speaker 1: like the light side if there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff sixteen seventeen on the high side twenty two to
Speaker 1: twenty five four weeks pretty fast, yeah, very fast.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So you need a pretty good director, like a
Speaker 3: person that can kind of lead the team. So what
Speaker 3: do you look for in because you say that you
Speaker 3: work with like two three directors and you're really too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're my friend. We used to street race together earlier. Yeah.
Speaker 1: His first job with me was doing a public service
Speaker 1: announcement because I got arrested for the fifth time and
Speaker 1: they judge said you need to make a public service announcement.
Speaker 1: It was like part of my punishment. So I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm alifshar don't street race. That was the first thing
Speaker 1: we did because he made his first movie called The
Speaker 1: Last Race. It was a little short at like glen Oaks.
Speaker 1: That's a place that used the street race here kind
Speaker 1: of by where my shop was. So we met that way,
Speaker 1: became friends and he and his friend his name is
Speaker 1: Alex Ornardovello. He's directed a bunch of our movies. Movies
Speaker 1: you've been in, right, Yeah. I think being talented and
Speaker 1: being good at what you do is good. I don't
Speaker 1: know who I heard it from, was it DeNiro or somebody,
Speaker 1: But also being a good person equally it counts for
Speaker 1: me because you can teach people what to do. So
Speaker 1: we're not like, director, do your thing. We're like, let's
Speaker 1: do our thing. So our producers, our writers, our directors,
Speaker 1: we all could contribute where nobody has ego, like I'm
Speaker 1: probably the biggest asshole there is and I'm not even
Speaker 1: an asshole. But we'll all put our heads together. So
Speaker 1: let's say you don't understand this acting thing, I'll step in,
Speaker 1: or Christino step in, or we need a little more
Speaker 1: stunt thing, We'll bring like a stunt guy will help
Speaker 1: us with how this car action works and stuff. So
Speaker 1: so for us, a loyalty, a friendship, a work ethic
Speaker 1: really works. Obviously, you need to know what lens to
Speaker 1: use and how to get coverage and put a good
Speaker 1: You know, our editor works hand in hand like day one,
Speaker 1: the editors looking at the footage making sure we're not
Speaker 1: missing stuff. We've really had one editor for all o movies,
Speaker 1: one composer all our movies. It's like almost like a
Speaker 1: TV show. We just go to movie to movie. It's
Speaker 1: the same. Eighty percent of the crew is the same
Speaker 1: crew from sound to DPR Rubin Steinberg or DP is
Speaker 1: direct DPEAT. I think every movie except the two or
Speaker 1: three Sean ones, right, Brad Rushing did those two. So yeah,
Speaker 1: just like kind of like, I don't know, I'm probably
Speaker 1: not doing it the best way because I think when
Speaker 1: you talk to the big boys, they like, you know,
Speaker 1: this guy's talented and this type of storytelling. And I'm
Speaker 1: kind of like, I think we can do anything. I'm
Speaker 1: going to do our first four movie now, even on
Speaker 1: the big ones.
Speaker 3: Like I think that style of like the a tour director,
Speaker 3: like having yielding all power and every decision, I don't
Speaker 3: necessarily think that happens anymore because I haven't worked with
Speaker 3: type of structure in a.
Speaker 1: Long long time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it doesn't work like that anymore, especially
Speaker 3: because of the budgets or so the studios are coming in.
Speaker 3: Yet it's very in many ways, it's just a bigger
Speaker 3: version of your system, you know.
Speaker 1: But we use the same people. That's the thing where
Speaker 1: I get, like the studios kind of come to me
Speaker 1: and be like, well, who are you going to get
Speaker 1: to do this? You can't have your same people, And
Speaker 1: I'm like why not? Yeah, you know, they want the
Speaker 1: new Hottest Sun Dance winner, the short film, and I'm
Speaker 1: like I kind of owe it to these guys that
Speaker 1: have been busting us for me for the last ten years.
Speaker 1: Like we're going to do it our way. It's a
Speaker 1: little more Tyler Perry method than big Hollywood method. Right.
Speaker 2: Well, it's yeah, you're on your twenty fourth movie now,
Speaker 2: so and serious and something.
Speaker 1: The series goes good, hopefully we'll you know, make a
Speaker 1: whole budget'll put you in series. I mean, you've worked
Speaker 1: with Ali and his directors, right, so what makes a
Speaker 1: good director?
Speaker 2: You know, when you and I first sat down and talked,
Speaker 2: you were asking me if I'd ever had a bad
Speaker 2: experience with the director, and I couldn't say I ever had,
Speaker 2: because you know, my experience has been working with his team,
Speaker 2: so which I'm so incredibly thankful for because everyone is
Speaker 2: just so great. It's very family oriented and even Neil
Speaker 2: on GT he was such a joy to work with.
Speaker 2: So I feel very fortunate in that space that I
Speaker 2: haven't had a bad directing experience to compare to. But
Speaker 2: I would say what has made it great is having
Speaker 2: people directors wanting to hear what you're bringing to the table.
Speaker 2: It's more collaborative, They're open to trying new things. It's
Speaker 2: you know, a room of patients and a room where
Speaker 2: it's a safe space. So if you want to try something,
Speaker 2: you know, no one's going to get mad at you
Speaker 2: or say you're you're ruining something or braiding you. Everyone's
Speaker 2: kind of like, you know, everyone's see everyone else succeed
Speaker 2: and it's a really good safe space with positive energy.
Speaker 2: And that's why I feel, I mean, I feel very lucky.
Speaker 2: So my again, my experiences with directors thus far has
Speaker 2: been really good.
Speaker 1: And we're lucky to have her too, because, like she said,
Speaker 1: it's irreflective, you know, it's a mirror because she comes
Speaker 1: with a certain confidence in the desire and she's only
Speaker 1: been acting for like a year, you know, already booked
Speaker 1: like three, four or five movies already two or three
Speaker 1: with us, you know, and the GT and all these
Speaker 1: other ones. So like when you have somebody so eager
Speaker 1: willing to put the work in, you know, because there's
Speaker 1: other people that like say stuff and you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: try that take for you, go ahead, but it's not
Speaker 1: going to work. But then you get other friends they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: can you do this? Can you do that? And people
Speaker 1: like Emelia just make it like I like that Discovery
Speaker 1: you know, like you like looking at the cars and
Speaker 1: like not getting them. I like finding new talent, Like
Speaker 1: I find I've found people and like literally on the
Speaker 1: street that have been in our movies, waiters that have
Speaker 1: been like come to be in this movie. Like we
Speaker 1: I like doing that. So, you know, having another a
Speaker 1: girl that's kind of on my trajectory, you know, like
Speaker 1: car racing wants to get into movies, you know, cars
Speaker 1: and that. You know, I'm kind of shoeing her a
Speaker 1: little bit back more to the car sided a little
Speaker 1: bit for the for the racing stuff, you know, but
Speaker 1: because you know, back when I was a kid, like
Speaker 1: there was no social media. We had to win to
Speaker 1: get on the magazine cover, to get on the TV show.
Speaker 1: It wasn't you know. I wish. I almost wish I
Speaker 1: could trade places where now I could do these crazy
Speaker 1: car and just do fun you know, like like everything
Speaker 1: like Rob and His Ridiculousness show and like the you know,
Speaker 1: Travis went off and did his Nitro Circus stuff and
Speaker 1: with Ken Block, Arrest the Soul and like and you know,
Speaker 1: like all this cool stuff. It wasn't about winning. I'm
Speaker 1: just always about winning because that's what at my time
Speaker 1: you had to race the win. It wasn't like it
Speaker 1: wasn't about followers or views or subscribers. So I kind
Speaker 1: of missed that boat. I kind of feel like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I wish it was like twenty years ago. How would
Speaker 1: I do it now? You know what I mean? It'd
Speaker 1: be cool, you know, but hopefully with you, you know,
Speaker 1: we'll combine the two, you know, we'll win. That's the front. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I feel like we'd also be doing a disservice to
Speaker 2: not mention everything you're doing with Warner Brothers on the
Speaker 2: diversity side of things. So yeah, yeah, yeah, congratulations to that.
Speaker 1: Thanks you were doing. Want me to say about.
Speaker 2: It, sure, if you want to talk about it.
Speaker 1: It's one hundred anniversary for Warner Brothers this year, and
Speaker 1: they're doing this cool diversity initiative where they're given six
Speaker 1: underrepresented communities and they're gonna be making remakes of iconic
Speaker 1: Warner movies but a short form like twenty minutes. They're
Speaker 1: going to be making short films. They're gonna get a
Speaker 1: little bit of a budget, but they're going to make
Speaker 1: these cool like the Old School Rebel Was Out of
Speaker 1: Causes and those kind of movies. But it's through their lens.
Speaker 1: When you see the films that are coming out, shows
Speaker 1: that are coming out, do you feel like inclusion and
Speaker 1: diversity has gotten better since you started as an actor.
Speaker 1: I think it's gotten better, but I think it's a
Speaker 1: little too checklisting now, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: you have to, like, I think the worst thing to
Speaker 1: do right now, it'd be like a good looking American person,
Speaker 1: like you're never gonna work, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I think it's I think the pendulum has swung pretty
Speaker 1: good in the right direction, but I think it's like
Speaker 1: I guess it's needed. So I take that back, so
Speaker 1: I don't want to get every real flared up, but like,
Speaker 1: I think it's definitely going in the right direction. You
Speaker 1: can now you see more real people on TV. You
Speaker 1: see a lot more different colors and stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: we have a gentleman. I think we hired in this one.
Speaker 1: We're working out the deal with the stagent today. The
Speaker 1: movie we're doing now that's in a wheel it's gonna
Speaker 1: be our first actor in a wheelchair. And it was
Speaker 1: just like it kind of just makes sense, like hey, this,
Speaker 1: why not you know, this is a cool opportunity to
Speaker 1: do it. But it wasn't like, oh, we need to
Speaker 1: have somebody wheelchair write a role for it. You know,
Speaker 1: the diversity I think could follow the story. But if
Speaker 1: you can get you know, diverse stories coming out from
Speaker 1: those people writing, whoever's writing and creating these stories can
Speaker 1: be you know, we have a couple of Iranian projects
Speaker 1: in the in the pipeline. Talked about one of them
Speaker 1: this morning. It's really nice called American Wings, even though
Speaker 1: it's about an Iranian wrestler again kind of like ours.
Speaker 1: But you know, if more and more people are exposed
Speaker 1: to it, because I mean the Hollywood started with like
Speaker 1: you know, all the big studios were like white Jewish
Speaker 1: American men opened the Wall of Disney, Warner Brothers, They're
Speaker 1: all you know, they all did that. So that's who
Speaker 1: started it. So for all of us other ethnicities to
Speaker 1: get and it's going to take time, it's going to
Speaker 1: take this push. It's going to take you know, us
Speaker 1: telling better stories, just like in the real world, blending
Speaker 1: into the population. You know, what do you think Amelia
Speaker 1: as a white yeah, white American woman, do you agree
Speaker 1: with Ellie? Like, how do you see it?
Speaker 2: I don't think there's enough diversity. I you know, even
Speaker 2: as simple as just being a you know, woman in
Speaker 2: a male dominated space. I felt like there's times where
Speaker 2: I needed to see that representation in order to know
Speaker 2: I could do something. And I feel like with film
Speaker 2: and television, you're telling these stories that you know children
Speaker 2: are looking up to, and you know, they may not
Speaker 2: know that this is possible for them to do if
Speaker 2: they're constantly just seeing the same race leading these films.
Speaker 2: So I feel like it's very important to have that representation. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, if you think about films twenty years ago
Speaker 2: to what you see on TV today, I think it's
Speaker 2: awesome the direction that things are going.
Speaker 1: That's cool. I feel like we covered so much.
Speaker 2: I'd ask about advice, but you kind of asked that,
Speaker 2: asking him as he was younger, what would he tell
Speaker 2: himself today? Yeah, or vice versa.
Speaker 1: Nothing matters.
Speaker 2: Everything matters matters.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna be a flash. Just take the risk, good,
Speaker 1: do your best, and you just do it, dude, Like
Speaker 1: not everything that you think is gonna matter not gonna matter,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Don't be a dick and
Speaker 1: don't you know, keep your morals and ethics clean. But
Speaker 1: it really doesn't matter shit to bother at you ten
Speaker 1: years ago that broke your heart. Then you don't even
Speaker 1: think about now, you know what I mean. It's like
Speaker 1: you might think about the girl because I was a
Speaker 1: positive you know. Just have good experiences, be kind and
Speaker 1: like just do it like no if time is limited,
Speaker 1: any minute, anything can happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah. People remember the way you made them feel, not
Speaker 2: what was said.
Speaker 1: To them or what was given to them or yeah,
Speaker 1: what you look like. Yeah, it's just how you made
Speaker 1: it feel. How old are you forty nine, forty nine? Yeah,
Speaker 1: same age, you're forty nine, fifty. I'm a little older
Speaker 1: than When did you turn fifty? April? Oh so you're
Speaker 1: you're born in seventy two. I'm seventy three. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: turned fifty this year. Yeah, April? What April eighth? In areas,
Speaker 1: of course, you're a good guy. Gemini Aris, we get
Speaker 1: in law. You believe in that stuff? Kind of yeah,
Speaker 1: do you yeah?
Speaker 2: Do you no?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I get along with a lot of It's kind
Speaker 1: of funny, like a lot of my girlfriends have been aries.
Speaker 1: You're Geminis. A lot of my friends, My boss is,
Speaker 1: my mom, my favorite cousins all Aris, they're all aries.
Speaker 3: But it's funny with the horoscope stuff is that it's
Speaker 3: so it leans towards positive like affirmation stuff, but no
Speaker 3: one would ever go back to it. It's like, hey,
Speaker 3: you're a aries, Like, oh it says you're an asshole.
Speaker 3: You're like you're a piece of shit?
Speaker 1: Mind? Does that's just that twins? No, it's a twins.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, you're a Gemini. You're like dual personality.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, mine is good and better, so like
Speaker 1: instead of good and bad, but Gemini gets to bad scorpios.
Speaker 1: My oldest brother literally textbook out there, fight mohawk tattoo
Speaker 1: is crazy, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Like, but then I can bring a I can show you,
Speaker 3: I can line up twenty aries.
Speaker 1: Thats exact same.
Speaker 2: I'm not big on it, but I do feel like
Speaker 2: there's personality traits. I don't know a lot of all
Speaker 2: the signs, but I'm a Leo. When I meet another Leo,
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, I could kind of see it.
Speaker 1: I think it's just so fun too. It's just like,
Speaker 1: what's a Leo? What's the trade of Leo?
Speaker 2: I got strong, go get her, maybe a little stubborn.
Speaker 1: But that's yeah, that's every single like.
Speaker 2: A fire or an air sign.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't have no idea I would. My
Speaker 1: wife would call me fire. Yeah, okay, nice stubborn.
Speaker 2: Leo's are firesides too, so stubborn, like she would say, stubborn,
Speaker 2: really stubborn, hard to get.
Speaker 3: Along way right, It seems so when I read the
Speaker 3: other side areas like gentle, like collaborative, that's me creative exactly.
Speaker 3: But then you can go like aries lazy, selfish, that's
Speaker 3: me too. Depends on the day you catch me, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. Like if I'm hungry, like that's.
Speaker 1: That's funny, if anyone's hungry that yeah, yeah, how do
Speaker 1: you feel about it? But how do you feel about
Speaker 1: like Jackie Chan's roll, remember well, yeah, well I was
Speaker 1: a kid when chill is all black, can't see out.
Speaker 1: It's all like trying to get so so racist, like
Speaker 1: you can't do that now we were talking about trying
Speaker 1: to do Canniball run again. Yeah you know, remember like
Speaker 1: it was meant to be sure or super or something, right,
Speaker 1: I think it was black. You couldn't see out the window,
Speaker 1: and it was old like like just lights and flashing
Speaker 1: funds because they're trying to say, like the Japanese were
Speaker 1: so you know, technology driven. It was like you know,
Speaker 1: and like Jamie Farr that was on mash you know,
Speaker 1: he's the Arab guy with oil erab. You like, this
Speaker 1: is so fucking like staneodtypical. You can't get away.
Speaker 2: I've gone back to watch some commercials I grew up on,
Speaker 2: and that's crazy the stuff that they used to say.
Speaker 1: They do that anymore.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Melbrooks movies. It's interesting that you even bring up
Speaker 3: Jackie Chan. I was talking to somebody about what Jackie
Speaker 3: Chan represents for Asian Americans and to me growing up
Speaker 3: with Jackie Channer knowing Jackie Chan, he represents somebody that
Speaker 3: is an icon from the action foo genre, right, and
Speaker 3: what he represents right in his homeland, right, But in
Speaker 3: America he's almost the N word for us, because yeah,
Speaker 3: you can't call me a chink or goog or you know,
Speaker 3: or some slope now.
Speaker 1: But you can call me Jackie Chan.
Speaker 3: And so it's interesting the racist or these people that
Speaker 3: want to put someone like me down, they yeah, and
Speaker 3: I go, what do you think that's funny?
Speaker 1: You think that's okay for you to do that? As
Speaker 1: I look at.
Speaker 3: Them, and I'm like, what, why would you take something
Speaker 3: so positive? But then they they don't laugh with Jackie Chan.
Speaker 3: They laugh at him, and I'm going, why why are
Speaker 3: you laughing at him? What is it funny that about him? Yeah,
Speaker 3: but that's that's where the seed, like you actually bring
Speaker 3: that up. It's like I always wondered, like, why do
Speaker 3: people think Jackie Chan is a joke?
Speaker 1: Because that's what he accept He did that. Yeah, it's true, right, Well,
Speaker 1: I only he had experience. He wanted to come to
Speaker 1: America like Bruce Lena. Nobody goes Bruce Lena jokey way
Speaker 1: because it was the first of you. But I think
Speaker 1: it's I think if Bruce Lee was alive, maybe they would. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, Yeah, it's interesting. Right So anyway, Okay, you're good.
Speaker 1: All right, we're good. Thanks for coming on, Sally,