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Speaker 1: I remember going into at age twenty six, twenty seven,

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Speaker 1: going into auditions for like Disney shows to play like

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Speaker 1: fifteen year olds, and there were actually there were you know,

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Speaker 1: the room was filled with kids and their parents, and

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Speaker 1: you know, I was so like, I was so embarrassed

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Speaker 1: that I would say, oh, you know, my dad dropped

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Speaker 1: me off. You know, he's coming back to He's coming

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Speaker 1: back to pick me up a little bit. Because it

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Speaker 1: was just like, oh my god, it's me and all

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Speaker 1: of these children, and like, I, you know, I'm a

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Speaker 1: grown man. Hi, I'm Stephen Krueger. I am an actor,

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Speaker 1: and I think I'm going to have a new best

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Speaker 1: friend after today. Well, hello everybody, and welcome. Thank you

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Speaker 1: for tuning in to this week's episode of Off the Beat.

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Speaker 1: I am your host, Brian Baumgartner. This week's guest, as

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Speaker 1: you just heard, has a lot of buzz around him. Yellowjackets,

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Speaker 1: very own. Stephen Krueger is joining me today. Get it buzz,

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Speaker 1: yellowjackets like a bee. You get it, I get it.

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Speaker 1: It's awesome Stephen. What can I say about Stephen? One,

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Speaker 1: He's very cool. Two He's worked on a lot of

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Speaker 1: huge shows like the Originals and Roswell, New Mexico, jumping

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Speaker 1: into everything from vampires to sci fi. Steven has no fear, literally,

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Speaker 1: and that cannot be more true than with his most

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Speaker 1: recent show, Yellowjackets. If you haven't seen it, you should.

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Speaker 1: It's that good. I really really enjoyed it. And wow,

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Speaker 1: it could not have been easy to execute. There are

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Speaker 1: time jumps. The cast filmed in freezing temperatures, and spoiler alert,

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Speaker 1: Stephen literally got his leg chopped off. Maybe not literally,

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Speaker 1: but that did happen on the show. We'll talk about

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Speaker 1: that and much much more. I cannot wait for you

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Speaker 1: to hear our conversation. It's a good one. Let's go

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Speaker 1: right now, my south By Southwest buddy, Stephen Krueger, Bubble

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Speaker 1: and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and squeak, Bubble and squeaker,

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Speaker 1: cooking every moment left over from the nut before. What's up? Stephen?

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Speaker 1: There he is the man, the middlegition. What's happening? Oh man,

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Speaker 1: it's great to see your face. Well, it's good to

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Speaker 1: see yours now before we get started, I may meet

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Speaker 1: you in person. Are you going on a little trip

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Speaker 1: this weekend? Oh? Are you gonna be in Austin? Oh? Well,

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Speaker 1: maybe we'll see each other in person, my man, I

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Speaker 1: think I mean new best friend. Hello. Hi, Well well

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Speaker 1: well we'll have a chat today and then we'll have

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Speaker 1: well maybe a longer chat this weekend. That sounds amazing.

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Speaker 1: What are you doing down there? I'm actually coming to

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Speaker 1: stock you. I don't know if that is. I mean

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Speaker 1: I appreciate right off, because now I can plan a

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Speaker 1: few things just to like keep you on your toes

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Speaker 1: right off the bat. No, I am there in Austin

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Speaker 1: with iHeart, uh talking about this podcast right here. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna do a couple of of panels down there at

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Speaker 1: south By Southwest. So an, it's amazing. Wow, I'm so

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Speaker 1: happy you're gonna be there. This is just part one

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Speaker 1: time of our time together this very week. Well, we

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Speaker 1: better not blow it then in part one. Now, let's

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Speaker 1: not blow up. Yeah yeah, although I can then still

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Speaker 1: cancel the flight. Um, I don't think I'm kid, so

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Speaker 1: I'm locked in there. You go, Well, actually I can't either,

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Speaker 1: so I want to go back. I read you were

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Speaker 1: born in Appleton Lake, city of Appleton, Wisconsin before moving

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Speaker 1: down to Sarah Soda. Now does that make you a

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Speaker 1: Green Bay Packer fan? You know, I think I switched allegiances,

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Speaker 1: which is like kind of a cardinal sin. But I

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Speaker 1: think I've done it. I think I switched allegiances pretty

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Speaker 1: quickly when I when I got to Florida. I mean,

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Speaker 1: to be fair, people ask me where I grew up,

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Speaker 1: and I do say Florida. I do say, Sarah Soda.

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Speaker 1: I think I left Wisconsin when I was like nine

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Speaker 1: years old, so I do equate growing up with Florida.

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Speaker 1: Although it's weird because you know, nine years old is

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Speaker 1: kind of that time when it's like it's like split

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Speaker 1: your childhood, right, I mean, it's literally halfway in between

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Speaker 1: being born and leaving for college. But yeah, I think

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Speaker 1: like within a year or two of moving to Florida,

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Speaker 1: I switched allegiances to the Bucks. Okay, because you know,

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Speaker 1: you don't want to be the person in Florida rooting

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Speaker 1: for the rooting for the Green Bay Packers or you do.

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Speaker 1: But that was a choice you made. That's a choice

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Speaker 1: I made, you know, you know, I got you know, Brian,

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Speaker 1: I got bullied enough in high school. I didn't need

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Speaker 1: I didn't need that added I didn't need that added

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Speaker 1: element to it there. All right, Well that's that's fair enough.

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Speaker 1: I actually have relatives in sarah Sota. Do you really

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Speaker 1: down there? I do, It's been a number of years

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Speaker 1: since I've been down there. The Great Area Town District

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Speaker 1: CSA key down there in sarah Sota. Yeah. Best beach

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Speaker 1: in the country, best best beach in the country, like

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Speaker 1: not my not my personal opinion. Like google it oh Google,

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Speaker 1: Oh Google, Oh that's what Google like actually rated. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you could probably ask chat GBT as well. I don't know,

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Speaker 1: it might give you a slightly different answer, but yeah, Google,

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Speaker 1: Google's never wrong. Um. So, so you grew up in Florida,

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Speaker 1: when did you first start thinking, Oh, acting sounds kind

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Speaker 1: of fun. Was this something you were interested in early on?

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Speaker 1: Or was this this a developed taste? This this was

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Speaker 1: something I was interested in early on. But there's there's

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Speaker 1: a couple of caveats to that. Number One. I actually

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Speaker 1: wasn't interested in it. Um My mother thought that I

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Speaker 1: would be interested in it. Um she she, for whatever

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Speaker 1: reason thought and it's probably just because I was a

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Speaker 1: little rambunctious and uh, you know, was always kind of

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Speaker 1: running around trying to steal the spotlight, and so she

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Speaker 1: probably just wanted an outlet. So that when I came

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Speaker 1: home from school, you know I would be quiet. Um.

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Speaker 1: So she kind of encouraged when I when I started

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Speaker 1: high school, she kind of encouraged, you know, why don't

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Speaker 1: you take why don't you take acting level one and

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Speaker 1: just see what happens. I think you'd I think you'd

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Speaker 1: love it. Um. And I remember fighting around it too.

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Speaker 1: I was like, why do I want to like, No,

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Speaker 1: that sounds that sounds terrible. Let me take you know,

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Speaker 1: like let me take study Hall or like or like

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Speaker 1: Jim or something where I can just dick around for

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Speaker 1: an hour, right um. And so of course, you know,

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Speaker 1: as the as the tale always goes, mother knows best.

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Speaker 1: And uh, I can still remember the extra size and

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Speaker 1: the teacher that we had. She was brilliant. Her name

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Speaker 1: was Terry Wood. She had been in LA for a while,

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Speaker 1: I think done some like soap operas and stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: But she was an incredible acting teacher. And I will

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Speaker 1: never forget the very first day of that first year

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Speaker 1: in high school as a freshman, going into acting class,

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Speaker 1: and there was an exercise where we were all on

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Speaker 1: the stage sitting in a circle, and she kind of

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Speaker 1: laid out this story for us and she said, so

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Speaker 1: your parents gave you one hundred dollars to come to

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Speaker 1: school with. And that hundred dollars and I forget exactly

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Speaker 1: what the details were, but it was something that really

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Speaker 1: drove the stakes up right. That hundred dollars was really

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Speaker 1: really important. It was you know, it was like to

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Speaker 1: fix you know, your car at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: and if you weren't going to pick up your brother, YadA, YadA,

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Speaker 1: YadA whatever. Very high stakes. And you've now misplaced that

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars. You cannot find it. What do you do?

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Speaker 1: And me sitting there, you know, we're all sitting there

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Speaker 1: literally first first day of high school, and so I

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Speaker 1: kind of start doing what I think is acting right.

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Speaker 1: I like start going through my pockets and like starting

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Speaker 1: to look concerned and all this stuff. And meanwhile I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I'm like sideye, glancing at the teacher, like am I

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Speaker 1: doing this right? You know? Like is this what you

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Speaker 1: were is this what you were going for? Like? How

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Speaker 1: how good am I? As an actor? And I remember

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Speaker 1: this one guy in the class. I can still picture

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Speaker 1: his face. His name was Chris, and he got up

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Speaker 1: from the stage and went down to his seat in

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Speaker 1: the audience and started tearing through his backpack and throwing

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Speaker 1: things around. And I remember everybody in the class, including myself,

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Speaker 1: just stopped and watched this guy and immediately and of course,

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Speaker 1: you know that was kind of a lesson, right, It's like, yes,

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Speaker 1: that that is exactly what she was trying to get

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Speaker 1: us to do. And I just remember being so enthralled

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Speaker 1: with like, oh, like that's what acting is. That was

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Speaker 1: like that was insane, Like this guy just got up

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Speaker 1: and started tearing through Like I never in a million

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Speaker 1: years would have thought to do something like that, And

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Speaker 1: so it clicked very very quickly for me. I was like,

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Speaker 1: that's cool, Like I want to I want to learn

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Speaker 1: how to do that. I want to I want to

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Speaker 1: be able to capture some strangers attend and just by

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Speaker 1: doing something like that. And so, you know, it grew

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Speaker 1: and it became something that I really enjoyed doing. But

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Speaker 1: to be totally honest with you, it was a high

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Speaker 1: school hobby. I mean, never in a million years did

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Speaker 1: I I mean I think I read that you you

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Speaker 1: did this in high school but then also went on

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Speaker 1: to study it in college and got your degree and

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Speaker 1: all that stuff that that was in the back of

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Speaker 1: my mind. You know, when I left high school and

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Speaker 1: went to college, I was going to go to law school.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was never going to be an actor professionally,

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Speaker 1: because let's be honest, Brian, who becomes an actor professionally? Right? Well,

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Speaker 1: law school, to be fair, that was my plan. B

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Speaker 1: So you did plays in high school. I did plays,

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Speaker 1: and I also I made a note to ask you

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Speaker 1: about this. I also did competitive speech and debate, and

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Speaker 1: I went to all of the tournaments. And did you

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Speaker 1: do the same thing? Yes? So, I yeah, I saw

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Speaker 1: that note. You moost such nerds. I love this. You

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Speaker 1: joined the speech and debate team. You did duo interp

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Speaker 1: I did. They called it at the time humorous, and

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Speaker 1: there was dramatic interb and I did dramatic intern I

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Speaker 1: bet you did. And actually it was more successful the

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Speaker 1: year that I went to nationals there for dramatic interm. Uh.

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Speaker 1: So you so that that you were serious about that,

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Speaker 1: Like you would do that on the weekends. You would

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Speaker 1: go to the competitions. Oh yeah, and we had to

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Speaker 1: and and my high school had a like, like, the

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Speaker 1: speech and debate team in my high school was legit.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we were in I remember it was like

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Speaker 1: two seasons. Right. I don't know if you guys did

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Speaker 1: this because you were you were in Atlanta, right, so

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Speaker 1: not that far away, that's right. We did like in

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Speaker 1: the fall. You know, there weren't like the the you know,

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Speaker 1: the acting events that the speech. It was more it

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Speaker 1: was more debate. It was like congressional debate, you know,

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Speaker 1: where we would go to like the state capitol and

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Speaker 1: have these tournaments and stuff. So I would do that

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Speaker 1: in the fall, and then in the spring is when

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Speaker 1: it branched out into all those different categories. Right. You

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Speaker 1: guys probably had the same thing where it was like

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Speaker 1: you know, poetry and prose and like all this different stuff. Um,

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Speaker 1: and so yeah, in the spring, yeah, became I actually

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Speaker 1: I actually started to prefer that overdoing plays in high school.

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Speaker 1: I think because of like the competitive nature of it.

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Speaker 1: You know, Like I also played tennis, and so there

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Speaker 1: was just like this competitive itch in me and I

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Speaker 1: was like, yes, I want to act, but I also

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Speaker 1: want to beat people at acting. And so yeah I did.

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Speaker 1: I did duo interpretation, and then like once in a while,

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Speaker 1: my partner wouldn't be available for a tournament, so I

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Speaker 1: would like jump into humorous or dramatic or something like that.

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Speaker 1: And I mean it was a blast, Like it was.

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Speaker 1: Looking back on it, it it really was like the nerdiest

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Speaker 1: possible medium for acting, you know, like like the rules

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Speaker 1: and and and just kind of like the stiffness of

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Speaker 1: it all in duo interpretation. I don't know if you

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Speaker 1: ever saw it, but like you weren't actually allowed to

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Speaker 1: look at your partner. It was like you were both

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Speaker 1: facing out towards the back of the room and it's

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Speaker 1: like you picked up he picked like a spot on

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Speaker 1: the back of the room and that was like, you know,

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Speaker 1: like you were looking at your partner, but it was

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Speaker 1: all facing out to the audience. Yes, yes, I have

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Speaker 1: seen it before. It was really fun. I mean it

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Speaker 1: truly was like it was a good time in the

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Speaker 1: nerdiest acting, dork kind of kind of way possible. Right. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's interesting because so I, like you, it sounds I

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Speaker 1: am a very competitive person and started in sports, so

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Speaker 1: I think there was something about about me that that

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Speaker 1: really got off on that as well. Like, but what's

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Speaker 1: funny for me is that not the intern stuff, but

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Speaker 1: the competition stuff continues through college. There's there's a competition

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Speaker 1: acting competition called the Irene Ryans. I don't know how

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Speaker 1: I just pulled that out. That is impressive. And we

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Speaker 1: did like the one act play competitions. We went and

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Speaker 1: won a national one act play comp and it was

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Speaker 1: all about that. And then I went to college. I

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Speaker 1: went to SMU and the person who was head of

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Speaker 1: the acting program there specifically said, no, we're not doing that.

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Speaker 1: That's not acting. We're here to actually learn the process

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Speaker 1: of acting, which I know, which is so it's funny

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Speaker 1: now like time it. At the time, I was like, oh, no,

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Speaker 1: this is That's a very reasonable approach. I'm here just

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Speaker 1: to learn. I'm here just to learn. But now I'm like, God,

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Speaker 1: I wish I could have crushed this person. People took

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Speaker 1: it so seriously. I'm sure you remember, like it was

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Speaker 1: like I will never forget being at those tournaments and

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Speaker 1: like and like, I don't know if they did it

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Speaker 1: this way when you were there, and we could move

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Speaker 1: on from high school speech and debate to this or

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Speaker 1: not or not. We could just do an entire hour

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Speaker 1: on this. Yes, maybe this is a separate podcast that

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Speaker 1: we need. You know, sometimes I do wonder, like if

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Speaker 1: kids are still doing this and I school, I'm sure

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Speaker 1: that they are, But like I remember being those tournaments

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Speaker 1: and it was like you would do your your initial

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Speaker 1: few rounds or whatever, and then like they would put

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Speaker 1: up like a big poster board that just had your

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Speaker 1: your team number or your your competitor number written on it,

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Speaker 1: and it was like, if you broke onto the next round,

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Speaker 1: then your number would be on the board. So everybody

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Speaker 1: kind of sat around like just you know, biting their fingernails,

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Speaker 1: and they put up this thing, and everybody would rush

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Speaker 1: up to the board and like, oh my god, I'm

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Speaker 1: on there. And then you know, if you if your

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Speaker 1: number wasn't on there, you were just crushed. And it

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Speaker 1: would just go like that until you got to the

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Speaker 1: final round, where it was like, you know, six, you know,

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Speaker 1: six people or six teams were on that thing. I

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Speaker 1: that is so funny that you say that, because I

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Speaker 1: remember that. It feels like, and you're younger than I am,

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Speaker 1: but it feels like nineteen seventy two or something, where

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Speaker 1: like everyone is standing around waiting for a piece of

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Speaker 1: paper to get taped to the wall. I know the

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Speaker 1: internet existed when you were growing when you were doing this. Now,

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Speaker 1: I wonder if that drama is gone. It's probably one app.

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Speaker 1: You know, you probably get like a notification on an

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Speaker 1: app and it's like, you know, you're off. But the

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Speaker 1: exciting part about it was that there was a community,

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Speaker 1: you know, and like even though it was competitive, like

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Speaker 1: when you got to those later rounds of the competition,

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Speaker 1: all the people that had been like eliminated you know,

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Speaker 1: previously would come and watch, so all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: you know, before it was just the teams you were

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Speaker 1: competing against in the room. Now you get to like

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Speaker 1: the quarterfinals, the semifinals, the finals. Now you've got huge

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Speaker 1: rooms full of people that have just come to watch

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Speaker 1: because it's entertaining. And like that was kind of my

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Speaker 1: first sense of, like, you know, outside of high school plays,

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Speaker 1: performing for people, you know, in a very real, like

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Speaker 1: live setting, and it was, I mean, it's exhilarating and

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Speaker 1: and how was that for you? Did you did you?

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Speaker 1: Did you get a high from that? Oh my god,

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Speaker 1: completforming in front of people? Yeah, I mean I absolutely

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Speaker 1: loved it that. I mean, especially doing comedy, as you know,

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Speaker 1: it's like you get that you know, you you you

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Speaker 1: you launch in in that first thirty forty five seconds

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Speaker 1: comes the first joke and you can tell right then

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Speaker 1: if this is going to go well or not, you know,

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Speaker 1: if it's if it's crickets in the room all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, it's like, oh my god, I have nine

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Speaker 1: more minutes of this and this is going to be

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Speaker 1: a disaster. But like if there's a if there's a

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Speaker 1: big laugh on that first joke, it's like, let's go here,

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Speaker 1: we got this. I read you did fifteen years of

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Speaker 1: competitive tennis. Now I was a tennis player as well,

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Speaker 1: and I could say the same thing. Something tells me

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Speaker 1: you were a little bit more more serious than I was.

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Speaker 1: What so this this was because I grew up in Florida.

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Speaker 1: I mean Florida was like Florida was like ground zero

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Speaker 1: for the the hyper competitive, mostly douche you know, young

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Speaker 1: people growing up who were being coached by their parents

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Speaker 1: and going to all the all the fancy academies and whatnot.

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Speaker 1: I mean, because you could play year round. Of course.

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Speaker 1: So did you go to a fancy academy? You know?

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Speaker 1: I started at one and I think it was a

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Speaker 1: combination with Terry. It was Nick Boltary Nick I didn't

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Speaker 1: do that research. Wow, Yeah, yeah, I went to Nick Military.

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Speaker 1: I was there. I worked there for let's see, I

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Speaker 1: think I trained there for like it wasn't long, it

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Speaker 1: was like two months or something. And then I think

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Speaker 1: I realized very quickly that I wasn't good enough to

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Speaker 1: actually be getting coached by Nick himself. You know, that

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Speaker 1: was of course reserved for like the you know, Andy

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Speaker 1: Roddick was only like a few years ahead of me,

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Speaker 1: so I remember he was like a big thing growing up,

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Speaker 1: and like there was people at that level, you know,

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Speaker 1: people that were clearly about to be professional tennis players,

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Speaker 1: and I was like, well, you know, this is kind

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Speaker 1: of stupid. I'm like being trained by these So I

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Speaker 1: ended up going to a smaller one called Billy Stearns.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean I played in high school. I

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Speaker 1: you know, I eventually gave up all my other sports

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Speaker 1: to kind of focus on tennis, and I played year round,

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Speaker 1: you know, a train during the summer Florida summers, of course,

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Speaker 1: when they would let you be on the court for

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Speaker 1: about ten minutes at a time and then you would

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Speaker 1: you know, a mandated break for five minutes. So it

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Speaker 1: was just like constant back and forth. But I mean

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Speaker 1: I loved it. It was you know, there was nothing

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Speaker 1: nothing better than me. I don't know where I got

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Speaker 1: this competitive you know, drive from, but I guess in

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Speaker 1: theory it served me. Well, well, it's interesting because tennis,

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Speaker 1: and I assume you played singles, did singles and doubles. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and you did doubles. So that's kind of like the

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Speaker 1: duo thing. You're choosing these competitive outlets that are usually

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Speaker 1: done solo. But yeah, you're choosing to have a partner. Now.

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Speaker 1: For you, that competition continued to drive you through college

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Speaker 1: and you wanted to go to law school. I guess

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Speaker 1: although I didn't really do anything competitive other than like

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Speaker 1: you know, pledge of fraternity, which I guess, which I

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Speaker 1: guess was like kind of competitive, you know, like got

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Speaker 1: to get into the best fret of course, right, But no,

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Speaker 1: I mean I yeah, who wah wah, you know it?

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I know it. Yeah. You Virginia people, you're

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Speaker 1: so smug about Virginia, are we really? Let me just

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Speaker 1: tell you. You know, what I kept hearing when I

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Speaker 1: went to SMU was that it was built the design

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Speaker 1: was exactly the same as Virginia. No way, That's what

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Speaker 1: I heard. So it's like like the lawn and like

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Speaker 1: all the lawn and stuff, the dome big rotunda. So

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Speaker 1: did we also, you know, you know where a lot

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Speaker 1: of that smugness came from. It's like, we didn't you know, VA,

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Speaker 1: we don't call it a campus. It's called grounds. If

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Speaker 1: that's right. If you say campus, you will be chastised. Um.

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Speaker 1: And then of course we don't call it freshman, sophomore, junior, senior.

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Speaker 1: It was first second. Yeah, so stupid, that's you know,

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Speaker 1: I know it's stupid, but I still I'm an alumni

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Speaker 1: and I'm still like, you know what, that's what we do.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, this is how we roll. It's like the

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Speaker 1: Ohio State University. There's a similar smugness and duchery that

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Speaker 1: is associated with both of that. I'm going I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: get hell from. But schools out to you now, Yeah, look,

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Speaker 1: by the way, I love both schools. They're fantastic, fantastics

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Speaker 1: universities of higher learning. So you go to university, you

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Speaker 1: were just on the law school track. I studied government,

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Speaker 1: I studied history. I studied economics. In no in no

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Speaker 1: sense that I ever did I ever even consider I

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Speaker 1: didn't even take a class. I mean at that point,

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Speaker 1: at that point, acting was completely in my past. I

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Speaker 1: was like, yeah, cool. That was fun in high school. Um,

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Speaker 1: now let's move on to like, you know, grown up things. Okay, yeah,

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Speaker 1: so when did it change? So it changed? Because I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's funny. I often think that, like my entire career

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Speaker 1: was a complete coincidence because I graduated from school and

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Speaker 1: my I hit this plan where like I wanted to

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Speaker 1: take a couple of years off before I went to

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Speaker 1: law school. I don't know why. I think at the time,

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Speaker 1: I realized that, like, you know, law schools and the

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Speaker 1: career track of a lawyer is an interesting thing. It's like,

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Speaker 1: once you go to law school, you're you're kind of

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Speaker 1: stuck on that path because you've got to graduate from

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Speaker 1: law school and then immediately take the bar. You know.

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Speaker 1: You sound like you can graduate from law school and

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Speaker 1: then take the bar two years later it will fail.

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Speaker 1: And then once you take the bar, you kind of

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Speaker 1: have to get a job. You know, you got to

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Speaker 1: go into two a law firm and start your career.

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Speaker 1: You know, again, if you take the bar and then

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Speaker 1: take two years off, nobody's gonna hire you. So I

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Speaker 1: just I kind of intuitively knew that at that age,

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Speaker 1: and I was like, if I'm ever going to take

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Speaker 1: time off, this is the time to do it. And

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Speaker 1: I had gotten an internship at this law firm in

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Speaker 1: LA and it was supposed to be for like recent undergraduates,

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Speaker 1: you know, who were either about to start law school,

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Speaker 1: were going to start law school sometime in the next

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Speaker 1: year or two. So I came out for that. It was,

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Speaker 1: you know, it was an exciting thing. You had to

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Speaker 1: apply to get it. And it was a big, fancy

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Speaker 1: corporate law firm, which is exactly what I thought I

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Speaker 1: wanted to do. So I found myself in LA for

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Speaker 1: this summer and long story short, I mean I kind

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Speaker 1: of just got a bitter taste in my mouth from

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Speaker 1: working at this law firm. I was, you know, I

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Speaker 1: saw a lot of partners at this law firm who

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Speaker 1: were in their fifties and sixties, and they just weren't

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Speaker 1: you know, I mean, they would they would be very

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Speaker 1: honest with me in these little meetings that we would

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Speaker 1: have where they said, you know, I put it bluntly,

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Speaker 1: I've got a lot of money, you know, Like I

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Speaker 1: make a lot of money, but I'm divorced, and I

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Speaker 1: don't know my kids that well. And I'm sixty years

424
00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:37,720
Speaker 1: old and I still work sixty five or seventy hours

425
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,239
Speaker 1: a week, and it was a lot of that, you know,

426
00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:42,520
Speaker 1: and I was just like, is this really you know,

427
00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:44,240
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is actually what I what

428
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:46,199
Speaker 1: I want to do. I thought about maybe, you know,

429
00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:49,240
Speaker 1: being a judge and like doing constitutional law, but you know,

430
00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:50,919
Speaker 1: you don't make very much money doing that, and I

431
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:53,760
Speaker 1: do like money, so you know, that was that was

432
00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:57,000
Speaker 1: always in the back of my mind. So I basically

433
00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:01,600
Speaker 1: after that internship ended, I said, you know what, I

434
00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:05,040
Speaker 1: loved acting in high school. I'm in LA this is

435
00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:08,080
Speaker 1: where it all happens. Why not just like try that

436
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,160
Speaker 1: for a couple of years, you know, in that interim

437
00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:13,040
Speaker 1: two years off and see what happens and uh and

438
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:15,359
Speaker 1: if nothing happens, then you know, no harm. No felt

439
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:16,680
Speaker 1: that was my plan. Anyway, I go, I go to

440
00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:19,920
Speaker 1: law school as intended um and that plan quickly got

441
00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:23,280
Speaker 1: shot down. Which now it's so funny because what an idiot, like,

442
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:26,359
Speaker 1: what a dumb ass I was, you know, isn't it

443
00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:28,200
Speaker 1: funny when we're when we're like twenty two years old

444
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:29,600
Speaker 1: and we're like, yeah, no, I've got this off, Like

445
00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:31,240
Speaker 1: I know what I'm doing. I got this figured out.

446
00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:34,200
Speaker 1: This is this is easy. But I had a meeting

447
00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:38,720
Speaker 1: with um a producer named Brad Fuller, who is I mean,

448
00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:41,359
Speaker 1: he's he's a huge producer. Even at that time. He was,

449
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:43,560
Speaker 1: you know, a big producer with Michael Bay's partner and

450
00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:45,439
Speaker 1: been doing this for a long time. And he's a

451
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:48,359
Speaker 1: he's a family family acquaintance, and so they you know,

452
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:50,280
Speaker 1: kind of set this up. And he was gracious enough

453
00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:52,040
Speaker 1: to sit down with this, you know, twenty two year

454
00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:54,800
Speaker 1: old kid for honestly an hour. I don't know why,

455
00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:56,800
Speaker 1: but I told him this plan and he kind of

456
00:22:56,880 --> 00:22:59,320
Speaker 1: laughed in my face, honestly, and he said, he said, Okay,

457
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:02,320
Speaker 1: not to shit on your dreams or anything, but if

458
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:04,000
Speaker 1: if your plan is to try this for a couple

459
00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:06,840
Speaker 1: of years and see what happens, then don't bother. You know,

460
00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:08,480
Speaker 1: this is not the kind of industry, This is not

461
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:10,359
Speaker 1: the kind of career where you can try it for

462
00:23:10,359 --> 00:23:12,399
Speaker 1: two years and see what happens, because nothing's gonna happen,

463
00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:15,760
Speaker 1: like I promise you that. And so I almost remember

464
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:18,280
Speaker 1: my face like melting, you know, like trying to trying

465
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:20,399
Speaker 1: to like not cry because I thought I had this

466
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:22,199
Speaker 1: all figured out, and then this guy is just like

467
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:25,879
Speaker 1: turning my whole plan upside down. And I remember asking him,

468
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:28,120
Speaker 1: we'll have okay, not two years, like how long? Three years?

469
00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:30,280
Speaker 1: Four years? And he fled out told me ten years.

470
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:33,119
Speaker 1: He said, you need ten years to figure out a

471
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 1: few things, right, and you'll relate to this, right, you

472
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:38,080
Speaker 1: need you need ten years to figure out a if

473
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:40,200
Speaker 1: you even like it. You know, a lot of times

474
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:42,680
Speaker 1: we do this as younger kids and we think, oh,

475
00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:44,920
Speaker 1: this is so fun, and then and then we start

476
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:46,879
Speaker 1: doing it professionally, it's like, no, this is not this

477
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:50,440
Speaker 1: is not nearly as fun as it was. He said,

478
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:51,760
Speaker 1: you need to know if you're any good at it,

479
00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:54,040
Speaker 1: because the same thing. You know, everybody thinks you're good

480
00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:55,399
Speaker 1: when you're a kid, and then you start doing it

481
00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 1: as an adult and they're like, nope, not actually not

482
00:23:58,119 --> 00:23:59,760
Speaker 1: actually that good at this. And then of course if

483
00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:02,000
Speaker 1: you can deal with like the ups in the downs right,

484
00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:03,880
Speaker 1: the roller coasters, and he said, you won't know any

485
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:06,359
Speaker 1: of that really until you're about ten years in. And

486
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:09,360
Speaker 1: funny enough, I would give the exact same advice to

487
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:12,359
Speaker 1: somebody now. I mean, I mean, do you do you agree? Yeah,

488
00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:15,480
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I have sort of a similar theory which

489
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:19,960
Speaker 1: is that the people who live in New York, or

490
00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 1: they live in Chicago, or they live in London or

491
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:27,879
Speaker 1: wherever else and they come to LA for a pilot season.

492
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:32,200
Speaker 1: This for me never made sense. Now it works out, yeah,

493
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 1: somehow for some people it works out. But for me, yeah,

494
00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 1: that well it worked out back when there was a

495
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:42,240
Speaker 1: pilot season. Well that's for one, that's true. But yeah,

496
00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:45,360
Speaker 1: just the idea that I'm just gonna go to LA

497
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:48,160
Speaker 1: and try this for a couple of months and see,

498
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:52,640
Speaker 1: because the likelihood that one you're gonna get a pilot

499
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 1: is not great, and then two that that pilot is

500
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 1: going to get made, and then three that it's going

501
00:24:59,880 --> 00:25:05,199
Speaker 1: to turn into a series. Like I agree, Yeah, you

502
00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 1: have to play. For me, you had to play the

503
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:10,120
Speaker 1: long game, which was why I never came until I

504
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:13,520
Speaker 1: was ready to move smart. I mean, here's the point.

505
00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:17,560
Speaker 1: It is a business. It is a business. It's not

506
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: a flight of fancy. I mean, you know it is.

507
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:23,840
Speaker 1: You sort of mentioned this. It's kind of a young

508
00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:28,680
Speaker 1: person's game, right, and you have the energy, you have

509
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:34,200
Speaker 1: the ability to you know, uh, the desire to sleep

510
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:36,040
Speaker 1: on someone's sofa for a period of time and be

511
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,119
Speaker 1: sort of a okay with that, But I think approaching

512
00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 1: it as a business and taking that long term ten

513
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:47,680
Speaker 1: years whatever whatever that number is, is exactly right. Yeah, yeah,

514
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:49,960
Speaker 1: I mean, And the funny thing is it literally was

515
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:52,399
Speaker 1: a young person's game for me because I you know,

516
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:55,920
Speaker 1: the the second piece of the advice that I got

517
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:59,120
Speaker 1: from from Bread was you know. He then said, Okay, look,

518
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:00,680
Speaker 1: if you decide you want to do did you did

519
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:05,240
Speaker 1: you study this in college? I said, well no, he said,

520
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:06,679
Speaker 1: so you're telling me you just did some plays in

521
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,119
Speaker 1: high school. I was like, yeah, more or less. The

522
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:12,960
Speaker 1: ridiculousness that I was presenting to this like established producer,

523
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,919
Speaker 1: it still haunts me to this day, like truly it

524
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:19,639
Speaker 1: gives me nightmares. But but he said, well, look, you

525
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:22,120
Speaker 1: probably need to spend some time like studying, going back

526
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 1: to school, like learning how to do this. You know,

527
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 1: don't rush out and try to get an agent and

528
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 1: a manager and try to start auditioning. You know, this

529
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 1: is a cutthroat business. You will walk into a casting

530
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:33,640
Speaker 1: office and if you're not up to snuff, they will

531
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:36,160
Speaker 1: take a big black marker and just cross off your name,

532
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: which which is true. I mean, I learned that the

533
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: hard way once or twice. I mean, to this day,

534
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:46,120
Speaker 1: is that is very true. Yeah yeah, people think, well,

535
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:48,359
Speaker 1: I'll just give it a shot. What you know, what's

536
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:50,399
Speaker 1: the harm in going and giving it a shot? And

537
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 1: if you're not prepared. You know, everybody is doing their

538
00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:59,440
Speaker 1: own job within this business, right, it is a business

539
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 1: for that. So you get somebody to convince a casting

540
00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 1: director or a producer to have you seen on a

541
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:11,639
Speaker 1: show when there are thousands of people who want to

542
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,639
Speaker 1: be seen on this show. And we're even seen in

543
00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:16,479
Speaker 1: an audition, seen in an audition back when we were

544
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:18,639
Speaker 1: going into a room and they only had you know,

545
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:21,639
Speaker 1: thirty forty spots to see people that's right seen for

546
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 1: a show. I mean yeah yeah, and you waste their time.

547
00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 1: Oh you'll never walk back in there again. To this day,

548
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:30,479
Speaker 1: I have a casting director or two that will not

549
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: see me like truly to this day. It's it's it's remarkable.

550
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:36,119
Speaker 1: But but I mean, you know, it does exactly what

551
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 1: you just said, it makes, it makes a lot of sense.

552
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:39,520
Speaker 1: And I mean he kind of scared the shit out

553
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:41,399
Speaker 1: of me. So I really did spend a few years

554
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 1: just studying and training. You know, It's not like I

555
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:45,480
Speaker 1: went back to college. Or anything, but just with different

556
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:47,960
Speaker 1: teachers around town. And I really took that seriously. You know,

557
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:49,920
Speaker 1: I kind of treated it like graduate school, even though

558
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,800
Speaker 1: you know, much less expensive of course, and and you know,

559
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,120
Speaker 1: so it wasn't really until I was in my mid

560
00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 1: twenties easily that I was even like trying to go

561
00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 1: out on auditions, you know. So I really got a

562
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 1: late jump on on all of this. And it was

563
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:04,879
Speaker 1: funny because I still looked so young. I mean, I

564
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 1: still you know, I get I get rid of this,

565
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 1: and I'd be like, oh my god, you could probably

566
00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 1: play college age still. But like I remember going into

567
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:16,560
Speaker 1: at age twenty six twenty seven, going into auditions for

568
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:19,719
Speaker 1: like Disney shows to play like fifteen year olds, and

569
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 1: there were actually there were you know, the room was

570
00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:24,879
Speaker 1: filled with kids and their parents, and you know, I

571
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:27,639
Speaker 1: I was so like, I was so embarrassed that I

572
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:29,520
Speaker 1: would say, oh, you know, my dad dropped me off.

573
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:31,000
Speaker 1: You know, he's coming back to he's coming back to

574
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:34,520
Speaker 1: pick me up a little bit, because it was just like,

575
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:36,360
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's me and all of these children,

576
00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:39,959
Speaker 1: and like, I, you know, I'm a grown man. I

577
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: remember playing high school when I was thirty years old

578
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:45,200
Speaker 1: and thinking like, Okay, I think I think this is it.

579
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:47,040
Speaker 1: I think this is my last opportunity to play high

580
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 1: school because at the point, you just like, you know, mentally,

581
00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: you forget what it was like to be in high

582
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,280
Speaker 1: school and be able to portray that. But that's always

583
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 1: kind of been my path, I think in this industry,

584
00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: as I was on a late track. You know, I

585
00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:00,200
Speaker 1: didn't start until till later in life, and I and

586
00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:02,200
Speaker 1: I still look young, so I kind of have this

587
00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:05,520
Speaker 1: weird like dichotomy that I've always been wrestling with. So

588
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 1: when did you When did you finally have the confidence

589
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 1: that you were ready to start going out for shows?

590
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 1: I mean, it happened. I'm not sure there was any

591
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:16,280
Speaker 1: one moment. I remember a young woman in one of

592
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:18,960
Speaker 1: my acting classes that I worked with a few times,

593
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 1: said hey, you know, do you have a manager or

594
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 1: an agent or anything. And she ended up setting me

595
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:24,640
Speaker 1: up with her manager, and and that kind of fell

596
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:26,360
Speaker 1: through after a short amount of time, and then I

597
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:28,800
Speaker 1: got another manager that I was with for a very

598
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 1: long time, and I guess it just kind of started

599
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:34,040
Speaker 1: starting slowly happening, where like this audition and this audition

600
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:36,360
Speaker 1: and then you booked a little costar where it's like,

601
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 1: I mean, I'll still remember for the rest of my

602
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 1: life that very first co star that I got that

603
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:44,200
Speaker 1: was two lines, and I remember getting the call and thinking,

604
00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be on television, Like I'm gonna actually be

605
00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:49,840
Speaker 1: paid to be on television. This is the best moment

606
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:51,720
Speaker 1: of my life. And it was, you know, there was

607
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 1: like one or two lines on a CW show, and

608
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:55,480
Speaker 1: I just thought it was like the coolest, you know,

609
00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 1: the coolest thing ever. And I mean, you know how

610
00:29:57,680 --> 00:29:59,600
Speaker 1: careers go, like they you know, you slowly kind of

611
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 1: build and you book some small parts, and I do

612
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:04,280
Speaker 1: remember there being well, there were a couple of moments.

613
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:06,680
Speaker 1: There was one after I had done a number of

614
00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:09,600
Speaker 1: guest stars that show, Pretty Little Liars came out and

615
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 1: it was like kind of a big deal and I

616
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 1: had never read the books or anything. I didn't really

617
00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:15,240
Speaker 1: know about it, but I remember getting it and starting

618
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 1: to like research it, and I remember thinking like, oh,

619
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 1: this is like a this is like a thing, Like

620
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:20,400
Speaker 1: the people that are on this show as regulars are

621
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: gonna be you know, they're gonna be famous, Like they're

622
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 1: gonna be big, big deals. And I did like three

623
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:25,880
Speaker 1: episodes at the very beginning of the show. But that

624
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:28,040
Speaker 1: was kind of my first taste of like like I

625
00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:30,360
Speaker 1: remember my manager telling me how much money I was

626
00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 1: gonna make and it was like it was nothing, you know,

627
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 1: but like I remember thinking, what, like in for one week,

628
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make that much money, Like holy shit, this

629
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: is incredible, like wow, and like and like the scripts

630
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 1: got delivered to my house by like a courier, you know,

631
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:48,240
Speaker 1: because I had to be at the table read the

632
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 1: next day, and I was like hello, like I am

633
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: all right. It's like we are getting somewhere now. So

634
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 1: it's so funny because yeah, I mean that that experience

635
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:02,400
Speaker 1: of like, wow, this is what I'm getting paid. But

636
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:06,080
Speaker 1: then it's like, oh, right, but I haven't worked in

637
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 1: three months and I will sell them three months after

638
00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:12,880
Speaker 1: this at least, right, So take that one week and

639
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 1: spread that over exactly three months, and you're like oh right. Yeah.

640
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:19,240
Speaker 1: It was like immediately doing the math, I'm like, great,

641
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:21,520
Speaker 1: this much per week times fifty two weeks a year.

642
00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:23,960
Speaker 1: I'm rich. I am right, but like this is awesome.

643
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:25,760
Speaker 1: And then it's like no, no, no, no, you will

644
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:29,920
Speaker 1: be back to unemployed in about three weeks. Yeah, your

645
00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:33,240
Speaker 1: mind's like, wait, why is my car still at the

646
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:37,720
Speaker 1: doe yard. I don't understand. I thought I was getting

647
00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:40,640
Speaker 1: paid all this money then, But yeah, I mean that

648
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 1: that happened and then and then, you know, I did

649
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 1: go through I did go through a trough. And I

650
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:46,640
Speaker 1: remember this. I've talked about this before. I think the

651
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:49,320
Speaker 1: year was twenty and twelve and I had done you know,

652
00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:51,480
Speaker 1: I'd been working for a couple of years at that point,

653
00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 1: pretty consistently on you know, guest stars and things like that,

654
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:56,680
Speaker 1: some recurring roles and money, you know, some money was

655
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:58,479
Speaker 1: coming in. I did some commercials back in the day.

656
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 1: I remember commercials were like a big thing, and you know,

657
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:03,240
Speaker 1: you could actually make a living doing just just commercials.

658
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:06,040
Speaker 1: You know, you would do one national commercial and you know,

659
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:08,719
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, sixty eighty one hundred grand was

660
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:10,880
Speaker 1: was showing up in your mailbox with residuals. It was

661
00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:13,320
Speaker 1: I mean, it was mind blowing to me. But like,

662
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:15,960
Speaker 1: you know, I was starting to kind of feel it.

663
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,920
Speaker 1: But then, for whatever reason, I wasn't getting the bigger roles,

664
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 1: you know, Like I would go out an audition for

665
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 1: them and I would get called back, and like you know,

666
00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:25,440
Speaker 1: would get down to like maybe the last two or

667
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 1: three people, and it just it wasn't happening. And like, um,

668
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:30,440
Speaker 1: you know who I always heard talking about this and

669
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 1: I someday I will meet him and I will thank

670
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:37,160
Speaker 1: him for for giving me hope. Was John Hamm because

671
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 1: I hear him, you know, every every time people talk

672
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:42,920
Speaker 1: to him and interview him. You've talked to him actually, right, yeah,

673
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:45,360
Speaker 1: you know you know him obviously, but like he always

674
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:47,040
Speaker 1: talks about that. You know, he was getting close and

675
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: just never getting the thing. And I remember reading at

676
00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:51,720
Speaker 1: some point he you know, he tested for fifteen or

677
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:55,160
Speaker 1: seventeen pilots and he was, you know, thirty five years

678
00:32:55,160 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 1: old when he got Madmen and I and he specifically

679
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 1: was somebody that I held onto was like, okay, it's

680
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 1: not too late, Like I'm like, this is like this

681
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:03,920
Speaker 1: is actually how it's supposed to go. You know. Like

682
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 1: I had an acting coach named John Rosenfeld that I

683
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:08,120
Speaker 1: worked with for a long time and I'm still very

684
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 1: close with. He had a great quote that I really

685
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 1: took to heart that I think every actor should take

686
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:16,360
Speaker 1: to heart. He said, booking is a mistake. Booking a

687
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 1: job is a mistake. It's it's it's truly an accident

688
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:23,360
Speaker 1: because it oftentimes has nothing to do with the audition

689
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:25,240
Speaker 1: that you're that you're doing, you know, with the work

690
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:27,640
Speaker 1: that you're doing. It's a million other reasons that go

691
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:29,880
Speaker 1: into it. You know that we have no control over.

692
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:32,959
Speaker 1: He said. The thing you can control is getting yourself

693
00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:35,960
Speaker 1: in contention. If you're good and you're doing good work,

694
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,480
Speaker 1: and you put yourself in a position to be one

695
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:41,400
Speaker 1: of those last few, you know in the mix, that's

696
00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:43,480
Speaker 1: the best that you can hope for. And then beyond that,

697
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:46,280
Speaker 1: don't worry about it, Like things will start happening at

698
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:48,280
Speaker 1: some point. And so those those were kind of the

699
00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:50,880
Speaker 1: things that I took to heart, and I thought, you

700
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:52,719
Speaker 1: know what, this this will happen at some point. Just

701
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:55,080
Speaker 1: keep I was also a psychopath, by the way, when

702
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,520
Speaker 1: it came to like researching and preparing it, like, I

703
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:00,600
Speaker 1: know a lot of actors, I feel like actors, I'm

704
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 1: curious with what you think about this. If I would

705
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 1: audition for something, I would then look up exactly when

706
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:10,240
Speaker 1: that episode of television was gonna air, and I would

707
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:12,439
Speaker 1: record it and I would watch it, and I would say,

708
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:14,720
Speaker 1: who got this part? And what did they do differently

709
00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:16,440
Speaker 1: for me? Why did they get that part? And I

710
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:18,759
Speaker 1: did not like I needed to know? And it was

711
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:21,239
Speaker 1: religious like every single and I still do it to

712
00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:23,440
Speaker 1: this day, I believe it or not. Every single thing

713
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:26,399
Speaker 1: I auditioned for that I don't get I watch because

714
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:28,680
Speaker 1: I'm like, what motherfucker got this thing? And what did

715
00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 1: they do that was better than me? And I know

716
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:32,279
Speaker 1: so many actors that are like once they once they

717
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:34,359
Speaker 1: leave that audition room, they're just like forget it, don't

718
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:35,560
Speaker 1: want to think about it, don't want to know who

719
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:36,920
Speaker 1: got it, don't want to don't want to watch it,

720
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,759
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But the advantage I think that

721
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,400
Speaker 1: gave me, and what was really helpful about that was

722
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 1: I oftentimes saw they didn't do anything better than me.

723
00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,319
Speaker 1: You know, like either they did something very similar what

724
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:52,279
Speaker 1: I did, or to be quite honest, they were like

725
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 1: not quite as good as what I thought I did,

726
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:56,879
Speaker 1: and there was some other reason that they got hired. Now,

727
00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,040
Speaker 1: of course, once in a while you do see that

728
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:01,960
Speaker 1: thing where you're like, oh shit, yeah, yeah, that person,

729
00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:05,719
Speaker 1: that person's really good. But then you still learn from it, right,

730
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:08,640
Speaker 1: You're like, wow, I would not have thought to take this, this,

731
00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:10,920
Speaker 1: this role or this material in that in that direction.

732
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:13,760
Speaker 1: So it's it's super educational and I think that actually

733
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:15,640
Speaker 1: helped me quite a bit. I don't know, I don't

734
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 1: know if you ever reached that level of sociopathy, but um,

735
00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:25,239
Speaker 1: I was a sociopath about researching the show. You know,

736
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:31,480
Speaker 1: the genre, the style, um, before going in. I think

737
00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:37,719
Speaker 1: the only thing that I will do now, you know,

738
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:42,239
Speaker 1: I'm gonna really quick if I'm gonna admit it is

739
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:46,680
Speaker 1: if there's something that I'm really interested in now and

740
00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:50,040
Speaker 1: I know that I'm in the mix for and it

741
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:56,319
Speaker 1: doesn't happen, I will demand to know who got it

742
00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:02,040
Speaker 1: and where they live and pray that they are five

743
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:07,319
Speaker 1: five on one hundred and twenty five pounds, like yep,

744
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:11,879
Speaker 1: if you know when when it comes. And I think

745
00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:15,359
Speaker 1: this happened one time. God bless him. I was a

746
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 1: big fan of him as a person and uh and

747
00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 1: as an actor. But like, if Leslie Jordan got it

748
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:28,320
Speaker 1: instead of me, then I'm like, totally cool, that's totally fine.

749
00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:31,839
Speaker 1: They were looking for something else. I felt like my

750
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:35,040
Speaker 1: version was okay, yeah, but there you go. UM that's

751
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:36,600
Speaker 1: how I am. It's like I get something or I

752
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:38,839
Speaker 1: come close to something and then like I see Idris

753
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:41,880
Speaker 1: Elbow got it, and I'm just like, yeah, yeah, well

754
00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:43,919
Speaker 1: sure of course, So that's they were they were looking

755
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:46,520
Speaker 1: for Idris Elp. No, that's obviously never happened, but that

756
00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:49,800
Speaker 1: would be that would be a dream. Oh that's funny.

757
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:52,360
Speaker 1: But then it's like, uh, and I know him a

758
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:54,799
Speaker 1: little bit too. But if you know John Carroll Lynch,

759
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:57,400
Speaker 1: when I see John Carroll Lynch got it, I was like, well, fuck,

760
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:01,560
Speaker 1: I just screwed it up. I clearly just screwed it up.

761
00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:23,160
Speaker 1: It's like your doppelganger gets the role. Yeah, exactly. In

762
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:28,719
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, you finally get a significant role the Originals,

763
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:32,360
Speaker 1: the role of Josh. Now, had you seen Vampire Diaries before?

764
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:34,160
Speaker 1: I hadn't, but of course I had heard of it.

765
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:36,120
Speaker 1: You know, everybody I had heard of it. At that point.

766
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:41,040
Speaker 1: I hadn't watched it. I had. I had auditioned for

767
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:44,879
Speaker 1: the Originals for like the backdoor pilot that they did

768
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:46,600
Speaker 1: in one of the seasons of Vampire Diaries, and I

769
00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:50,399
Speaker 1: didn't get that. And then once the series got picked

770
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 1: up and they called me in for this other role

771
00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:54,640
Speaker 1: that was You're right, that was kind of like my

772
00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:57,560
Speaker 1: first I would call it like maybe significant real break,

773
00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:00,920
Speaker 1: but it wasn't supposed to be, right. It was supposed

774
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:02,959
Speaker 1: to be, which I found out later, and I didn't

775
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:05,080
Speaker 1: I didn't even realize this. I kind of had an instinct,

776
00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:07,200
Speaker 1: but I thought that it was supposed to be like

777
00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:09,520
Speaker 1: three episodes. You know, they even told me, like, you know,

778
00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:12,640
Speaker 1: you're written in three episodes, maybe it goes to four,

779
00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:14,560
Speaker 1: you know, maybe they extend you a little bit. And

780
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:16,959
Speaker 1: then I got there and I started doing this this role,

781
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:19,360
Speaker 1: and I don't know, something just kind of clicked, you know,

782
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 1: whether it was you know, I'm sure it was a

783
00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:22,880
Speaker 1: combination of like the work I was doing and the

784
00:38:23,239 --> 00:38:25,279
Speaker 1: character itself was just something that they kind of needed

785
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:26,840
Speaker 1: on the show. You know, it kind of filled a

786
00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:28,799
Speaker 1: gap on the show. But you know that three or

787
00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:31,799
Speaker 1: four episodes turned into turned into five seasons and my

788
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:36,440
Speaker 1: first series regular, And that was when I first felt like, oh,

789
00:38:36,640 --> 00:38:39,919
Speaker 1: something I did, something I'm doing is at least having

790
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:43,480
Speaker 1: an impact on on the work that I'm getting. You know,

791
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:45,719
Speaker 1: like they saw that I was doing something and they

792
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:50,440
Speaker 1: decided to keep this character around for five seasons, and

793
00:38:50,480 --> 00:38:52,160
Speaker 1: that was that was a good feeling. You know, that

794
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:54,040
Speaker 1: was the first time in my career where I was like, great,

795
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 1: I think that I can I can do this and

796
00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:57,719
Speaker 1: actually make a living. You know. That was the first

797
00:38:57,719 --> 00:38:59,600
Speaker 1: time I didn't have a side job, you know, the

798
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 1: first time I was just living on on acting, which

799
00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:03,839
Speaker 1: I think every actor remembers, you know, that first year

800
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:06,160
Speaker 1: where oh my gosh, I just survived off of what

801
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 1: I was making as an actor. So that that was

802
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:10,120
Speaker 1: a really cool moment. And the cool thing about that

803
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:12,880
Speaker 1: show the Writer's Room. In the first season that show,

804
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:16,120
Speaker 1: of like the ten writers, I think eight or nine

805
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:19,840
Speaker 1: of them have now been showrunners and creators, which is

806
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:23,000
Speaker 1: just insane, you know, like they were all such talented writers,

807
00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:26,120
Speaker 1: and so much credit to our showrunners, who were Julie

808
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:28,680
Speaker 1: Pleck and Michael Narducci for like hand picking this group

809
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:31,359
Speaker 1: of people that were just insanely talented, and a lot

810
00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 1: of them it was, you know, their first or second

811
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:37,040
Speaker 1: job in a writer's room, and all of these people

812
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:39,600
Speaker 1: were brilliant. So I knew that those scripts I was getting,

813
00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:41,799
Speaker 1: I was like, this is this is good, Like this

814
00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:44,479
Speaker 1: is impressive. You know, it's a it's a CW vampire show,

815
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:47,799
Speaker 1: but like, this is really really good. Stuff, and it

816
00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:50,400
Speaker 1: made me want to like dive in even further. You know,

817
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:52,200
Speaker 1: it made me want to take it really seriously and

818
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:55,200
Speaker 1: really kind of dig into the into the work and

819
00:39:55,239 --> 00:39:58,359
Speaker 1: well and behold, that's how I got yellow jackets. So

820
00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:00,680
Speaker 1: you know, things like that tend to tend to work out.

821
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:05,959
Speaker 1: You played a gay character Josh on television before gay

822
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,919
Speaker 1: marriage was even legalized. Yeah, did you feel any sort

823
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:14,279
Speaker 1: of responsibility about that? Was there already added pressure on

824
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:20,520
Speaker 1: that it was a positive representation? Yes, yes, very very positive.

825
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:24,760
Speaker 1: I actually I turned down the audition, uh twice before

826
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:27,120
Speaker 1: I before I went in and actually did it because

827
00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:29,880
Speaker 1: and this was this was my own you know, stupid

828
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:31,799
Speaker 1: bias and prejudice at the time. But for whatever reason,

829
00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 1: I was reading the sides and I was reading the breakdown,

830
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:35,680
Speaker 1: and I had it in my head that they wanted

831
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:40,919
Speaker 1: kind of a flamboyance, you know, very two dimensional gay

832
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:43,439
Speaker 1: character for this role. And I thought, well, A, that's

833
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 1: not something I want to play, and b that's just

834
00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:47,239
Speaker 1: not that's not me, you know, like I'm somebody's gonna

835
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:49,080
Speaker 1: be able to pull that off much better than I can,

836
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:51,360
Speaker 1: you know. And once they told me, you know, no,

837
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:55,239
Speaker 1: this the whole point of this gay character is he

838
00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:58,000
Speaker 1: is a normal college guy. He's got a whole lot

839
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 1: of stuff going on, and oh yeah, he had to

840
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:03,040
Speaker 1: be gay as well. And I thought, well, that's cool,

841
00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:05,640
Speaker 1: Like that's that's something that you don't see on TV.

842
00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:07,879
Speaker 1: I mean, this was twenty thirteen, and you didn't see

843
00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:09,719
Speaker 1: that on TV a whole lot. You know. It was

844
00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:15,239
Speaker 1: like you would have token characters that were diverse or minorities,

845
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:19,399
Speaker 1: whether it was you know, sexuality, ethnicity, you know, all

846
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:22,799
Speaker 1: of that kind of stuff. And so I thought, okay, well,

847
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:24,960
Speaker 1: here's a chance to take a character and having be

848
00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:29,000
Speaker 1: entirely three dimensional and his sexuality is just one of

849
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:33,120
Speaker 1: his personality traits, you know, as as our humans. So

850
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:36,120
Speaker 1: that was it was like a really well rounded, three

851
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:39,080
Speaker 1: dimensional character, and I thought, this is a really cool opportunity.

852
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:41,839
Speaker 1: So yeah, I did. I felt a huge responsibility to

853
00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 1: to kind of make the character whole, you know, and

854
00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:48,080
Speaker 1: not just have it be hey, here's our gay character

855
00:41:48,120 --> 00:41:50,799
Speaker 1: on the show. Yeah, we've seen that so often, and

856
00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:54,480
Speaker 1: it's it's terrible. It's interesting because you know, it's very

857
00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:57,520
Speaker 1: similar in a way to you know, my long conversations

858
00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:00,680
Speaker 1: with Oscar Nunez who played Oscar Martinez on the Office,

859
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:03,399
Speaker 1: and that was you know, that's the that's the thing

860
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,960
Speaker 1: that he talks about all the time as well, which

861
00:42:06,239 --> 00:42:09,480
Speaker 1: I mean specifically for his character. You know, he was

862
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:16,719
Speaker 1: two seasons in before he knew that his character was gay, right,

863
00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:21,120
Speaker 1: And he talks about having this conversation his head which

864
00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:24,239
Speaker 1: was like how does this change me? How does this

865
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:29,120
Speaker 1: change my performance? And ultimately landing on the genius of it,

866
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:33,120
Speaker 1: which was like, well nothing, right, idiot. This is just

867
00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:36,720
Speaker 1: a part of who he is and there is specifically

868
00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:44,439
Speaker 1: nothing yet that's that's right, right, that's right. So I um, yeah,

869
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:49,200
Speaker 1: I I find that very interesting. Um So, when your

870
00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:52,960
Speaker 1: time on The Originals ends fairly quickly, you get cast

871
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:57,839
Speaker 1: in Roswell, New Mexico, also on the CW. Now do

872
00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 1: you feel like there was a connection there between Queen,

873
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:03,359
Speaker 1: your work on The Originals and then moving on to

874
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:05,960
Speaker 1: another show there on the CW. Yeah, well there was.

875
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:10,200
Speaker 1: And what's funny is timeline was Roswell actually came after

876
00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:13,040
Speaker 1: Yellow Jackets. It's it's it was a really weird So.

877
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:16,319
Speaker 1: So here's what happened. I'm about to blow your mind. Okay, So,

878
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:19,040
Speaker 1: so The Originals ends in twenty and eighteen, I kind

879
00:43:19,040 --> 00:43:21,120
Speaker 1: of bounced around and and you know, do you know

880
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:23,560
Speaker 1: a handful of guest stars and stuff, And again I

881
00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:25,480
Speaker 1: go through one of those periods where I'm like, well, shit,

882
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:27,360
Speaker 1: maybe I just got lucky with you know, with that

883
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:29,480
Speaker 1: one show. And that was that was it for me.

884
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:31,160
Speaker 1: You know, it isn't it weird like the mind games

885
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:33,719
Speaker 1: that we would play ourselves, like, you know, I just

886
00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:35,919
Speaker 1: worked for five years, but it's probably never gonna happen again.

887
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:39,000
Speaker 1: So then in two nineteen and like the fall of

888
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:42,160
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, the script for Yellow Jackets came into my

889
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:44,840
Speaker 1: inbox and Roswell had already been on the season for

890
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:46,680
Speaker 1: like or been on the air for like one season,

891
00:43:46,719 --> 00:43:49,440
Speaker 1: I think at this point. Um Roswell was created by

892
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:51,400
Speaker 1: one of our writers in that first season of The

893
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:54,799
Speaker 1: Originals named Karina Fensium, and I was very close with her,

894
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:57,680
Speaker 1: and I auditioned for I auditioned for a role in Roswell,

895
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:01,200
Speaker 1: didn't get it. And then Yellow Jackets came along. And

896
00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:03,200
Speaker 1: when the script came into my inbox and I and

897
00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:04,920
Speaker 1: I read it, I knew it was gonna be good

898
00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 1: because Ashley and Bart wrote it. But I didn't know

899
00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:08,600
Speaker 1: it was gonna be that good. I read it and

900
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:11,120
Speaker 1: was I think every every actor on the show says

901
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:12,799
Speaker 1: the same thing. It was one of, if not the

902
00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:15,560
Speaker 1: best pilot I had ever read. It was mind blowing.

903
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:20,000
Speaker 1: So I auditioned for that, got that, and we filmed

904
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:23,240
Speaker 1: the pilot of Yellow Jackets at the end of twenty nineteen,

905
00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:27,520
Speaker 1: like November and December of twenty nineteen. Oh wow. And

906
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:31,160
Speaker 1: I remember rapping on the pilot and we were all

907
00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:33,320
Speaker 1: kind of curious, like, you know, because this was showtime.

908
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:35,200
Speaker 1: I had never done a you know, like a premium

909
00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:37,839
Speaker 1: kind of network show like that, and so we were

910
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 1: all kind of asking, you know, what's what's the timeline here?

911
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:42,759
Speaker 1: And the answer we got was, oh, by you know,

912
00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:46,160
Speaker 1: by March or so maybe April. We'll have a pickup

913
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:50,319
Speaker 1: decision March or April of twenty twenty. Right, so of

914
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:53,359
Speaker 1: course we all know what happens. Shit hits the fan, uh,

915
00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:57,480
Speaker 1: you know, COVID attacks, the entire industry shuts down. And

916
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:00,279
Speaker 1: what's so funny is I remember signing the con track

917
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:03,000
Speaker 1: for that for that, for that pilot, and they had

918
00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:06,520
Speaker 1: a twelvemonth option on all of the actors, and I

919
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:08,520
Speaker 1: had never signed a contract that had that long of

920
00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:10,399
Speaker 1: an option. And I remember asking my reps at the time,

921
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:12,879
Speaker 1: I said, I said, is this normal, like a whole year,

922
00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:16,240
Speaker 1: like they owned me for a whole year, And they said, yeah,

923
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:18,239
Speaker 1: you know, for for like the kind of premium level

924
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:19,960
Speaker 1: you know, networks and stuff. This is what they do.

925
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:21,799
Speaker 1: But don't worry, like that's never you know, they're never

926
00:45:21,800 --> 00:45:23,640
Speaker 1: gonna take a whole year to decide whether they pick

927
00:45:23,680 --> 00:45:25,399
Speaker 1: the show up, like it'll be it'll be pretty quick,

928
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:29,920
Speaker 1: oh man. Um, So we essentially spent all of twenty

929
00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:32,799
Speaker 1: twenty just wondering if the show was going to get

930
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:35,359
Speaker 1: picked up, you know, and I would have frequent conversations

931
00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:37,879
Speaker 1: with with Ashley and Barred about you know, what's what's

932
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:40,360
Speaker 1: going on behind the scenes, what's and you know, nobody knew.

933
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:43,080
Speaker 1: I mean you remember, it was like networks were kind

934
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:45,239
Speaker 1: of going through and nobody knew what the future of

935
00:45:45,239 --> 00:45:47,560
Speaker 1: the business was. I remember thinking, like a robot's just

936
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:49,360
Speaker 1: going to take over, like it's our act. Are they

937
00:45:49,440 --> 00:45:51,839
Speaker 1: just gonna do animation you know from here on out

938
00:45:51,840 --> 00:45:54,440
Speaker 1: and there's not gonna be any live action stuff. And

939
00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:57,680
Speaker 1: in the meantime, you know, all of the brilliant minds

940
00:45:57,680 --> 00:45:59,759
Speaker 1: in the industry kind of formed that that like think

941
00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:01,879
Speaker 1: tank almost where it was like, how do we get

942
00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:03,640
Speaker 1: things back? You know, how do we get back onto

943
00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:06,239
Speaker 1: a set with the proper protocols and and all that

944
00:46:06,280 --> 00:46:10,320
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, And by like by like July, August, September,

945
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:12,360
Speaker 1: they had kind of started to figure it out, and

946
00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:14,680
Speaker 1: so things were starting to get back to production in

947
00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:18,000
Speaker 1: like September October of twenty twenty, and Roswall was going

948
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:20,279
Speaker 1: back to work and there was like a one season

949
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:24,040
Speaker 1: role on that show and they called me and said, hey,

950
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:26,760
Speaker 1: you know, do you want to play this role? Because

951
00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:28,880
Speaker 1: I've worked with them for so long. It was Karena

952
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:33,000
Speaker 1: Mackenzie and Chris Hollier, another writer on The Originals, and

953
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:36,439
Speaker 1: I said, yes, I would love to, but I don't

954
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:39,160
Speaker 1: know what the hell is happening with Yellowjackets, Like I

955
00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:40,759
Speaker 1: don't know if we're getting picked up. So we had

956
00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:43,560
Speaker 1: to do a whole back and forth or showtime about like, hey,

957
00:46:43,719 --> 00:46:45,640
Speaker 1: what is the deal here? Like is this like I

958
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:47,160
Speaker 1: have I have an opportunity to go to a full

959
00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:49,759
Speaker 1: season of another show? Is this thing happening or not?

960
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:52,480
Speaker 1: And so I was able to do the full season

961
00:46:52,480 --> 00:46:55,920
Speaker 1: of Roswell from like October twenty nineteen to April of

962
00:46:55,960 --> 00:46:59,480
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, and then I had three days from

963
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:03,040
Speaker 1: when I Roswell to drive from Santa Fe, New Mexico

964
00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:07,080
Speaker 1: to Vancouver, Canada to start Yellow Jackets. So, um, it was.

965
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:09,120
Speaker 1: It was intense, but I was able to squeeze them

966
00:47:09,160 --> 00:47:11,440
Speaker 1: both in and I'm very grateful. It was just one

967
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:13,360
Speaker 1: of those magical things where the timing just kind of

968
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:16,120
Speaker 1: worked out absolutely perfectly, which doesn't happen all that often

969
00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:20,160
Speaker 1: in this business. As you know. No, that's that's awesome. Uh.

970
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:24,960
Speaker 1: Yellow Jackets obviously one of the most talked about shows

971
00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:29,840
Speaker 1: last year. I loved it. So this was though a

972
00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:33,600
Speaker 1: straight audition, like you you got an audition for it, Okay,

973
00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:35,279
Speaker 1: it was, and it was many rounds. It was many

974
00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:39,279
Speaker 1: rounds of auditions as well. Um, yeah, they put me through.

975
00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:42,120
Speaker 1: They put me through the ringer for sure. Well it

976
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:46,160
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I know, I know a lot of

977
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:50,040
Speaker 1: things could be faked. Um, there are things on that

978
00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:55,960
Speaker 1: show that can that cannot. It is incredibly physically grueling,

979
00:47:56,120 --> 00:48:01,840
Speaker 1: I imagine psychologically grueling as well. A lot of stuff

980
00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:07,600
Speaker 1: taking place outdoors in the woods in Vancouver. How was

981
00:48:07,640 --> 00:48:10,719
Speaker 1: that the process of shooting? Is that the most difficult

982
00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:14,879
Speaker 1: show just physically and emotionally that you've done to that

983
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:17,520
Speaker 1: to this point. Yeah, yeah, far and away, Far and

984
00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:18,759
Speaker 1: away it was, and that there were a lot of

985
00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:21,359
Speaker 1: different elements that went into it. And I'll give it's

986
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 1: not really a spoiler because it happens so early on,

987
00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:25,359
Speaker 1: but I think the thing you're alluding to is is

988
00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:29,080
Speaker 1: my my leg getting getting chopped off, which happens very

989
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:31,520
Speaker 1: very early on in the show. So um, not not

990
00:48:31,560 --> 00:48:33,680
Speaker 1: too much of a spoiler. And you know what, if

991
00:48:33,719 --> 00:48:35,120
Speaker 1: you haven't seen it, that should make you want to

992
00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:37,040
Speaker 1: go watch it even more, right, But yeah, And they

993
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:38,839
Speaker 1: had told me that was that that was going to happen,

994
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:40,319
Speaker 1: that I was gonna you know, that I was going

995
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:43,920
Speaker 1: to be losing a leg, and you know immediately again

996
00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:46,720
Speaker 1: it comes back to very similar with with the Originals,

997
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:49,000
Speaker 1: where it's like, oh wow, so now I'm playing an

998
00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:52,160
Speaker 1: amptyte And I felt an incredible amount of responsibility there,

999
00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:55,200
Speaker 1: you know, to really research and figure out how do

1000
00:48:55,239 --> 00:48:57,080
Speaker 1: I how do I do this? You know, as as

1001
00:48:57,120 --> 00:48:59,640
Speaker 1: a non disabled person, how do I how do I

1002
00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:03,279
Speaker 1: often represent somebody who has suffered through a traumatic amputation

1003
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:05,800
Speaker 1: like this. So I did a ton of research, you know, physically,

1004
00:49:05,840 --> 00:49:09,200
Speaker 1: psychologically what a person goes through, just leading up to it.

1005
00:49:09,239 --> 00:49:12,040
Speaker 1: And then we get to Vancouver and the other element

1006
00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:14,000
Speaker 1: of this, yes, you mentioned all of it right. We

1007
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:16,000
Speaker 1: were outside in the woods. We were coming in every day,

1008
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:18,480
Speaker 1: and we were putting on our costumes that were dirty

1009
00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:22,080
Speaker 1: and crusty and smelly that they didn't wash intentionally because

1010
00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:24,120
Speaker 1: we were stranded out in the wilderness and we did

1011
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:27,280
Speaker 1: not have laundry machines. You know, it was just gross.

1012
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:28,880
Speaker 1: I mean, we were rolling around in the dirt, it

1013
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:31,040
Speaker 1: was hot. And then the other element to all of

1014
00:49:31,040 --> 00:49:33,839
Speaker 1: this was the border between the Canada and the US

1015
00:49:33,960 --> 00:49:37,680
Speaker 1: was closed for most of twenty twenty one. So we

1016
00:49:37,800 --> 00:49:42,000
Speaker 1: got there and we couldn't leave. We were stuck. We

1017
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:44,760
Speaker 1: couldn't come back home, we couldn't visit our friends or family,

1018
00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:48,719
Speaker 1: nobody could come visit us, and so that was like

1019
00:49:48,760 --> 00:49:51,440
Speaker 1: a whole other element that just I don't think anybody

1020
00:49:51,480 --> 00:49:53,480
Speaker 1: was anticipating. I think we thought that this was, you know,

1021
00:49:53,560 --> 00:49:55,040
Speaker 1: the COVID thing was going to be kind of over

1022
00:49:55,239 --> 00:49:58,400
Speaker 1: by then. But we spent almost that entire first season

1023
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:00,600
Speaker 1: with nobody but each other. It was very much like

1024
00:50:00,600 --> 00:50:02,880
Speaker 1: life imitating art, you know, we were we were stranded

1025
00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:06,680
Speaker 1: there together. And so the silver lining I guess with

1026
00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:08,719
Speaker 1: all of it is that because we only had each other,

1027
00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:11,560
Speaker 1: it really did create this this very strong bond and

1028
00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:14,080
Speaker 1: a lot of chemistry amongst the cast for that first season,

1029
00:50:14,120 --> 00:50:16,440
Speaker 1: which which I think was kind of reflected, you know,

1030
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:20,000
Speaker 1: on screen. But it was a strange situation. I mean,

1031
00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:21,840
Speaker 1: none of us knew what to do. You know. We

1032
00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:24,399
Speaker 1: all went through periods of feeling like we were losing

1033
00:50:24,400 --> 00:50:26,680
Speaker 1: our minds. And then of course it's the first season

1034
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:29,360
Speaker 1: of a show, you know, which, as you know, it's

1035
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:32,000
Speaker 1: hard to know if it's going to be good or not,

1036
00:50:32,200 --> 00:50:35,640
Speaker 1: Like like, did you know I'm always I'm always curious,

1037
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:37,800
Speaker 1: but like, but I actually, I'll be honest, I didn't

1038
00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:40,799
Speaker 1: think that. There were times when I thought, oh, wow,

1039
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:42,040
Speaker 1: like this is going to be good, and I knew

1040
00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:44,879
Speaker 1: that the scripts that we were getting were good, but

1041
00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:48,120
Speaker 1: there was so much self doubt. All of us went

1042
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:50,040
Speaker 1: through periods of like, Wow, this show is not going

1043
00:50:50,080 --> 00:50:52,160
Speaker 1: to be good, Like this show is not going to

1044
00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:53,719
Speaker 1: find an audience. People are not going to like this.

1045
00:50:53,800 --> 00:50:56,479
Speaker 1: I remember asking my agents and managers. Like the last

1046
00:50:56,520 --> 00:50:58,640
Speaker 1: month or two of filming, I said, start looking for

1047
00:50:58,680 --> 00:51:02,920
Speaker 1: something else because this Mike canceled, which just sounds so

1048
00:51:02,960 --> 00:51:06,040
Speaker 1: stupid retrospective. But you just don't know. I mean, I'm

1049
00:51:06,040 --> 00:51:07,880
Speaker 1: always curious with other actors. Did you know that the

1050
00:51:07,920 --> 00:51:09,719
Speaker 1: Office was going to be what it was when you

1051
00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:13,439
Speaker 1: guys were doing that first season in the first few episodes. No,

1052
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:17,200
Speaker 1: I mean, I knew it was special. But the phrase

1053
00:51:17,239 --> 00:51:19,319
Speaker 1: that I always that I remember saying at the time

1054
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:23,120
Speaker 1: was if people give this show a chance, we have

1055
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:27,319
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do something really special. But I you know,

1056
00:51:27,440 --> 00:51:30,040
Speaker 1: of course I had no idea, right, I mean, but

1057
00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:33,640
Speaker 1: the elements that you bring up, and to give people

1058
00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:38,880
Speaker 1: some perspective on this, you were forced to essentially be

1059
00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:43,879
Speaker 1: locked in a hotel room for two weeks, is that right? Yeah,

1060
00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:48,439
Speaker 1: it was two weeks. Two weeks. So, folks, you fly

1061
00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:51,960
Speaker 1: into the Canada and this is what I was told.

1062
00:51:52,160 --> 00:51:54,959
Speaker 1: At first, I thought they locked the door. They don't

1063
00:51:55,000 --> 00:51:56,839
Speaker 1: lock the door, but they don't give you a key

1064
00:51:56,840 --> 00:51:59,360
Speaker 1: to the room. Is this was this your experience? And

1065
00:51:59,400 --> 00:52:02,600
Speaker 1: so if you leave your room, they'll know because you

1066
00:52:02,640 --> 00:52:07,800
Speaker 1: won't be able to get back in and on this show. Yeah,

1067
00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:11,680
Speaker 1: I see how that could really help. That's got to

1068
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:15,120
Speaker 1: have created an incredible bond. It did, I mean in

1069
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:17,560
Speaker 1: in great ways, and I mean, you know, there were

1070
00:52:17,560 --> 00:52:19,840
Speaker 1: times when we clashed, of course, and would get in

1071
00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:24,920
Speaker 1: arguments and hated each other and but but ultimately was

1072
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:27,080
Speaker 1: it really was. But also but for a cast as

1073
00:52:27,120 --> 00:52:30,640
Speaker 1: big as we had, I was amazed at how well

1074
00:52:30,640 --> 00:52:32,839
Speaker 1: we all got along, like truly, like it could have gone.

1075
00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:35,520
Speaker 1: It could have gone very south under those circumstances, and

1076
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:37,680
Speaker 1: it just didn't. Like we all just got along very

1077
00:52:37,760 --> 00:52:40,160
Speaker 1: very well. And you know, it's funny the quarantine thing.

1078
00:52:40,239 --> 00:52:44,360
Speaker 1: I realized afterwards that I did it incorrectly. I'm probably

1079
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:46,520
Speaker 1: like about to admit to a crime here that they

1080
00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:48,960
Speaker 1: may come and like prosecute me for. But like the

1081
00:52:49,239 --> 00:52:51,960
Speaker 1: two elements that you mentioned, one you only had to

1082
00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:55,400
Speaker 1: do the hotel if you flew into the country, and

1083
00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:57,880
Speaker 1: I drove into the country, so I got to go

1084
00:52:58,040 --> 00:53:00,759
Speaker 1: straight to my condo that I had rented for like

1085
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:03,239
Speaker 1: the next six months and quarantine there, which which most

1086
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:04,880
Speaker 1: of the people did. But they would have to do

1087
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:07,000
Speaker 1: three days in a hotel to start, and then they

1088
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:09,400
Speaker 1: got to transfer to their to their you know, condo

1089
00:53:09,480 --> 00:53:12,200
Speaker 1: or apartment or whatever they were renting. Okay, the second

1090
00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:14,960
Speaker 1: thing I screwed up was I didn't realize you weren't

1091
00:53:15,040 --> 00:53:18,359
Speaker 1: literally literally were not allowed to walk out your front door.

1092
00:53:18,520 --> 00:53:20,480
Speaker 1: I thought you like couldn't leave and go out on

1093
00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:24,680
Speaker 1: the street. So every day I was like going down

1094
00:53:24,719 --> 00:53:27,759
Speaker 1: to get food deliveries. I would like exercise by like

1095
00:53:28,080 --> 00:53:30,279
Speaker 1: running up and down the stairwell in the building, and

1096
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:31,960
Speaker 1: then like I would like run up the stairwell and

1097
00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:34,520
Speaker 1: then take the elevator back down and like run up

1098
00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:37,080
Speaker 1: and again and get out of quarantine. And like I'm

1099
00:53:37,080 --> 00:53:38,920
Speaker 1: talking all my cast mates who looked like they have

1100
00:53:39,080 --> 00:53:41,960
Speaker 1: just like you know, spent two weeks in the hole

1101
00:53:42,080 --> 00:53:45,480
Speaker 1: in Shawshank Redemption. They're like, oh my god, that was brutal.

1102
00:53:45,760 --> 00:53:47,840
Speaker 1: You know. One person couldn't get food delivered. She was

1103
00:53:47,880 --> 00:53:50,200
Speaker 1: living on like rice that was like left over from

1104
00:53:50,200 --> 00:53:52,799
Speaker 1: the previous tenants and the thing. And I'm like, I

1105
00:53:52,800 --> 00:53:54,920
Speaker 1: didn't think it was that bad. Like I don't know.

1106
00:53:55,239 --> 00:53:57,600
Speaker 1: I was like I exercised a lot. I was running

1107
00:53:57,680 --> 00:53:59,319
Speaker 1: up and down the stairs. I got food delivered. I

1108
00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:01,280
Speaker 1: came down and said, what's upthing, And they're like, what's

1109
00:54:01,719 --> 00:54:04,319
Speaker 1: we got yellow caution tape taped over our doors so

1110
00:54:04,360 --> 00:54:06,759
Speaker 1: we couldn't leave, and I was like, oh, I'm like,

1111
00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:11,080
Speaker 1: oh I did this very very incorrectly. Oh my gosh,

1112
00:54:11,120 --> 00:54:17,200
Speaker 1: sorry Canada, Sorry Canada. Well good for you, though, I mean,

1113
00:54:17,239 --> 00:54:18,799
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta do what you get. Not a

1114
00:54:18,800 --> 00:54:20,480
Speaker 1: crime if you don't get caught. And I think the

1115
00:54:20,520 --> 00:54:26,719
Speaker 1: session of limitations as well as well passed. Yeah, um dude, uh,

1116
00:54:27,160 --> 00:54:31,839
Speaker 1: season two coming out very soon here March twenty six.

1117
00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:36,799
Speaker 1: You probably can't give me any spoilers, but what happens? Um? Yeah,

1118
00:54:36,840 --> 00:54:39,040
Speaker 1: you want me to tell you how it ends, I'm

1119
00:54:39,080 --> 00:54:40,480
Speaker 1: gonna tell you. I want to tell you who dies

1120
00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:44,759
Speaker 1: and who lives. To not tell anybody, all right, I

1121
00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:48,040
Speaker 1: won't tell anybody, Okay, great? Um, No, it's uh. It

1122
00:54:48,120 --> 00:54:50,719
Speaker 1: can be a very tall order to come back for

1123
00:54:50,760 --> 00:54:53,680
Speaker 1: a second season after you've done a first season of

1124
00:54:53,719 --> 00:54:55,920
Speaker 1: a show that has the kind of success that that

1125
00:54:56,000 --> 00:54:57,680
Speaker 1: we were able to find, and we were lucky enough

1126
00:54:57,680 --> 00:54:59,799
Speaker 1: to find. Um. And I think the unique thing about

1127
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:01,719
Speaker 1: our show it was it was a hit with both

1128
00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:05,040
Speaker 1: you know, kind of critics and audiences. So I think

1129
00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:07,279
Speaker 1: we all felt the weight of those expectations, you know,

1130
00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:10,200
Speaker 1: throughout the entire the entire season. I think that the

1131
00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:12,760
Speaker 1: writers and the creators did an incredible job of pushing

1132
00:55:12,800 --> 00:55:16,560
Speaker 1: the envelope just far enough so that it's not exactly

1133
00:55:16,640 --> 00:55:19,120
Speaker 1: the same as season one, you know, like it's it's

1134
00:55:19,200 --> 00:55:23,520
Speaker 1: it's a new vibe. It's even crazier, it's even more intense,

1135
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:25,960
Speaker 1: but it doesn't jump the shark. You know, it's all

1136
00:55:26,080 --> 00:55:28,879
Speaker 1: rooted in in the base of this story and who

1137
00:55:28,880 --> 00:55:31,560
Speaker 1: these people are. It's just putting these people in the

1138
00:55:31,560 --> 00:55:34,960
Speaker 1: most dire of circumstances and seeing how they react and

1139
00:55:34,960 --> 00:55:40,000
Speaker 1: and you know, the result is pretty shocking. It's insane.

1140
00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:43,400
Speaker 1: I mean, it's actually it's actually insane. Even even filming it,

1141
00:55:43,440 --> 00:55:45,160
Speaker 1: there were moments when we were like, are we really

1142
00:55:45,320 --> 00:55:47,640
Speaker 1: are we really doing? Like are we really doing this?

1143
00:55:48,560 --> 00:55:52,960
Speaker 1: But are we sure about this? And that's what you

1144
00:55:53,120 --> 00:55:58,359
Speaker 1: call a tease the gentlemen, Stephen, thank you so much.

1145
00:55:58,680 --> 00:56:04,280
Speaker 1: I look forward to continuing our blossoming new friendship down

1146
00:56:04,360 --> 00:56:09,160
Speaker 1: in the great state of Texas. March twenty six, Yellow

1147
00:56:09,239 --> 00:56:12,600
Speaker 1: Jackets comes back. I can't wait. Although this is what

1148
00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:15,400
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna get the advanced tapes. Oh you

1149
00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:18,840
Speaker 1: are that's no, that's my goal. Now we don't actually

1150
00:56:18,840 --> 00:56:20,360
Speaker 1: give the tapes out. We have to lock you in

1151
00:56:20,360 --> 00:56:22,600
Speaker 1: a room and you're allowed to view them, and then

1152
00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:24,920
Speaker 1: we use one of those little men in black flashy

1153
00:56:24,920 --> 00:56:27,719
Speaker 1: things on you before you leave. Before you leave the room, well,

1154
00:56:27,719 --> 00:56:31,320
Speaker 1: then I can see it twice. Ye yeah uh, Stephen,

1155
00:56:31,440 --> 00:56:34,200
Speaker 1: thank you so much. I'll see you soon. Thank you, Brian.

1156
00:56:34,239 --> 00:56:36,920
Speaker 1: This was so much fun. I cannot wait to explore

1157
00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:40,879
Speaker 1: our best friendship in Austin, Texas. That sounds great. Were

1158
00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:56,040
Speaker 1: as some boots We'll do. Steven, thank you so much

1159
00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:59,839
Speaker 1: for joining me today. You're the greatest. I cannot wait

1160
00:57:00,520 --> 00:57:05,520
Speaker 1: for this next season of Yellow Jackets, coming March twenty sixth.

1161
00:57:05,719 --> 00:57:10,759
Speaker 1: Buzz buzz buzz. Though I am a little mad, you

1162
00:57:10,800 --> 00:57:15,479
Speaker 1: will give me no spoilers. Listeners, make sure to watch

1163
00:57:15,520 --> 00:57:18,440
Speaker 1: the show and then come back here next week for

1164
00:57:18,480 --> 00:57:25,120
Speaker 1: another episode of Off the Beat. The guest well yeah,

1165
00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:37,280
Speaker 1: there will be one. Off the Beat is hosted an

1166
00:57:37,320 --> 00:57:42,680
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley.

1167
00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:47,200
Speaker 1: Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes,

1168
00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:51,240
Speaker 1: Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan,

1169
00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:55,479
Speaker 1: Papa Zachary and our intern is Sammy Katz. Our theme

1170
00:57:55,520 --> 00:57:59,280
Speaker 1: song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only

1171
00:57:59,600 --> 00:57:59,920
Speaker 1: Creed