Speaker 1: Have you ever thought about how incredibly complex I spit is.
Speaker 1: It may only be water, but just aliva isn't simple.
Speaker 1: That remaining one holds incredibly meaningful information that could change everything.
Speaker 1: And I'm not just talking about your family treat Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Barrett to day Thurston, and on this season of
Speaker 1: Spit and I Heart Radio podcast with twenty three and Me,
Speaker 1: we explore how DNA isn't just about ancestry, it can
Speaker 1: also be key to understanding your health. Hey, you, welcome
Speaker 1: back for today's show. We've got all the nineties nostalgia
Speaker 1: you can handle, but going back to the days of
Speaker 1: T G I F and hanging with the cast of
Speaker 1: the iconic sitcom Boy Meets World. Danielle Fishel Rider, Strong,
Speaker 1: Will Fred dell Or as you might remember them to Panga,
Speaker 1: Seawan and Eric are the host of pod meets World,
Speaker 1: a podcast dedicated to revisiting the show one episode at
Speaker 1: the time. But today the gang has taken a break
Speaker 1: from their rewatch to talk about their experience with twenty
Speaker 1: three and Me and what they learned from their health
Speaker 1: and ancestry reports. Danielle, Writer, and Will are all blown
Speaker 1: away by the amount of information contained in their reports,
Speaker 1: and each one of them is walking away with steps
Speaker 1: to better themselves. It's almost like an episode of their
Speaker 1: role show. For Writer, his DNA showed a likelihood of
Speaker 1: increased anxiety, something he's dealt with for some time. Seeing
Speaker 1: it actually show up in his report has inspired him
Speaker 1: to exercise more, a proven way to lower stress. For Danielle,
Speaker 1: it was learning she was at risk for type two diabetes.
Speaker 1: Having that information top of mind will make her think
Speaker 1: twice next time she's going for her beloved candy or
Speaker 1: her next fast food fixed. And for will Well, information
Speaker 1: about his ancestry has inspired him to ask his parents
Speaker 1: some more questions. Just like to Panga, Sean and Eric, Danielle, Writer,
Speaker 1: and will are looking to learn from their experience is
Speaker 1: better themselves and grow as adults. Let's listen in and
Speaker 1: hear how twenty three and Me's helping them make that happen.
Speaker 1: Welcome to a special episode of Pod Meets World. This
Speaker 1: episode is brought to you by twenty three and Me,
Speaker 1: which you guys have heard us now over almost an
Speaker 1: entire season of Boy Meets World talking a lot about
Speaker 1: our background actors and how important they were to the
Speaker 1: feel of the show to our set environment, how we
Speaker 1: were friends with a lot of them. I'm gonna start
Speaker 1: right off by saying, spoiler alert, there is no Dusty
Speaker 1: in this episode. I'm really bummed about it. We have
Speaker 1: been on a on a worldwide search for Dusty Gould
Speaker 1: see Valley either. Yeah, we haven't heard from see me.
Speaker 1: By the way that came up. You called her see
Speaker 1: me to her face, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, she knew
Speaker 1: her name was see Me. Well, yeah it was. It
Speaker 1: was the people thought that it was like a behind
Speaker 1: her back sort of thing. Oh my gosh, yeah no,
Speaker 1: I mean I think there was something a little mean
Speaker 1: about it at first, but then it just became that's
Speaker 1: the problem. We don't remember her name because we always
Speaker 1: called her see Me and she responded to it like
Speaker 1: that's what we did. Um. It was just because it
Speaker 1: was the first week of the first season that we
Speaker 1: asked her where she was from and she said, see
Speaker 1: me Valley and um, so we were just like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, you're so you're a Valley girl. We'll call
Speaker 1: you see me. Um. But yeah, I would love to
Speaker 1: talk to her. Yeah, and Dusty, we're still on a hunt,
Speaker 1: so you never know, but we are going to talk
Speaker 1: to a few of our other background actors today because
Speaker 1: it is very important for us and everyone to know
Speaker 1: your back ground, speaking of which I am coming to
Speaker 1: you today. So sleep deprived, and I guess it's really
Speaker 1: come to my attention through my twenty three and me
Speaker 1: results that I am less likely to be a deep sleeper,
Speaker 1: which are you? Isn't that what it said? Yes? I
Speaker 1: think I think we can say this from your genes.
Speaker 1: Isn't it cool? By the way, another thing that I
Speaker 1: think is amazing is that it tells me I am
Speaker 1: most I am more likely to be photo sensitive, which
Speaker 1: means I might sneeze when looking at the sun. And
Speaker 1: when I tell you I have never once walked into
Speaker 1: the sun and not sneezed, it's the exact same way.
Speaker 1: But I didn't see that. Where did this say that?
Speaker 1: It's one of your so much to read. I don't
Speaker 1: like like i'ven't explored all all the ins and out
Speaker 1: And that's really That's the really cool thing is that
Speaker 1: there are so many different reports and some of them
Speaker 1: are just really fun, like finding out you're more likely
Speaker 1: to be photo sensitive. I'm also so more likely to
Speaker 1: drink more caffeine than most, and that checks right off right.
Speaker 1: You probably have that too. I'm less likely to drink
Speaker 1: caffeine than most, and I drink no caffeine. I have
Speaker 1: no caffeine in my life whatsoever. And it says I'm
Speaker 1: less like and I am not likely to be an
Speaker 1: especially deep sleeper. I still don't get you. We were
Speaker 1: talking about delta ways or something. Now as I heard
Speaker 1: what you're explaining to me, Danielle, I'm a superhero, did
Speaker 1: you Did you explain it wrong? That's what's said, Uh, superhuman?
Speaker 1: You have mediclorians or whatever it is, that you're a Jedi. Yes,
Speaker 1: first of all, let's not's that's it's in my jeans though,
Speaker 1: that apparently due to my sleep patterns. That's because of
Speaker 1: the underwear. That's because of the underwear. That too, The
Speaker 1: underwear just makes me lucky twenty three and me is
Speaker 1: telling me I'm a weak hold on. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: ancestry just really quick. Did you guys learn anything new
Speaker 1: or yeah? I totally did. So what what was what
Speaker 1: was the story that your family told you and the
Speaker 1: reality of your Well, it's not that my family told
Speaker 1: me something that was just we just heard that we
Speaker 1: were Dutch and Irish and German primarily. Um, that's what
Speaker 1: I knew. And it come came out that I am
Speaker 1: almost Jewish. Nice, I am nine ash can Nazi Jewish. Wow,
Speaker 1: and you didn't know that, no idea whatsoever. And of
Speaker 1: course then when I said that to my my parents,
Speaker 1: my dad was like, well, of course my great grandfather
Speaker 1: was jew or something where we were like, well, why
Speaker 1: didn't anybody tell about that? Yeah? You know, so that
Speaker 1: was completely I'm I'm I'm nine point eight percent European
Speaker 1: and it's mostly northwestern European, so British and Irish. What
Speaker 1: we thought, Um, lots of Irish, lots of lots of British,
Speaker 1: but eighteen point seven percent as ashke Nazi Jewish. So
Speaker 1: no no idea, no idea whatsoever. I was shocked. Writer,
Speaker 1: did you learn anything in yours about specifically about health,
Speaker 1: anything you're more likely to have or not have? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it nailed me. In three categories. It said, I am
Speaker 1: most likely to I am most likely to have restless
Speaker 1: legs restless leg syndrome, which I've had all of my
Speaker 1: life and just had to deal with. More likely for
Speaker 1: increased anxiety, check and severe acne which you guys couldn't
Speaker 1: remember from when I was on I had severe acne. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so did my dad. I remember when I when
Speaker 1: you know, when I started breaking out during boy MEA's work.
Speaker 1: I got it A little bit later. I got it
Speaker 1: more like at fifteen fourteen fifteen, um, when I had
Speaker 1: the really bad acne. So we haven't gotten to it
Speaker 1: on the show, but well we'll start to be able
Speaker 1: to see the the amount of makeup they had a
Speaker 1: cake on my face. It was the worst, the worst.
Speaker 1: But yeah, knowing this then about your your d n
Speaker 1: A makeup now that like, is there something now you're
Speaker 1: going to change about your life? Will you talk to
Speaker 1: your doctor about restless leg syndrome? Is there anything or
Speaker 1: do you take anything for anxiety? Will you start? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well no, The anxiety thing is really interesting because, um,
Speaker 1: I've never really thought of myself as as an anxious person. Um, like,
Speaker 1: especially when I was a kid, I was not an
Speaker 1: anxious kid. Um, But I do. I have noticed lately
Speaker 1: that like I need to exercise, Um, it's hugely important anxiety.
Speaker 1: And what I realized is like if I don't like
Speaker 1: the only the way I manage anxiety and I put
Speaker 1: that in air quotes would be like drink alcohol and
Speaker 1: that's the worst thing you can do to manage anxiety. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, And especially like during the pandemic, there were
Speaker 1: there's these these periods where like there would be you know,
Speaker 1: you're not working, you're not taking your kids to school,
Speaker 1: everybody's sitting at home. It would be like, well, why
Speaker 1: is the day over? Why is it? You know? How
Speaker 1: do we know the days over? We have a glass
Speaker 1: of wine and then you know, and we just got
Speaker 1: into the habit of like, oh, that's just it's five
Speaker 1: o'clock time to drink um. So I definitely only think
Speaker 1: that like being able to recognize that there's in a
Speaker 1: genetic component to like the feelings I have of anxiety
Speaker 1: and that it might just be part of my body
Speaker 1: makes me remember to just move my body to deal
Speaker 1: with it in terms of my body, as opposed to
Speaker 1: thinking like, oh, there's something wrong, I need to like,
Speaker 1: uh change you know the way I think, or no,
Speaker 1: it's just part of my body. Is that I get
Speaker 1: these feelings that other people might not have, you know
Speaker 1: that that and I don't need to associate it with
Speaker 1: like necessarily things I'm I'm I've done wrong or you know,
Speaker 1: I just don't want to. I just don't. I basically
Speaker 1: it allows me to contextualize my anxiety and recognize it
Speaker 1: as like it mostly physical thing, like something that is
Speaker 1: like you know, I'm born with and that I just
Speaker 1: have to contend with and it's and you know, I
Speaker 1: just have to find healthy ways to contend with it. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know that I'm anxiety boy, and I
Speaker 1: was hit with this very bad during during Boy. Me
Speaker 1: thrilled like very during Boy. So then you'll see during
Speaker 1: the episodes, you know, the seasons where I come back
Speaker 1: and I'm really heavy, and it's because I was medicated
Speaker 1: to even record. And the things I always tell people
Speaker 1: now that I've been dealing with it for so long
Speaker 1: is the three most important things for me that help
Speaker 1: more than anything are talking about it, diet and exercise
Speaker 1: and getting off of social media. And the first two
Speaker 1: people are like, I can easily do that, and then
Speaker 1: it's like, well, I'm not gonna get off social media.
Speaker 1: I need it for work. What what do you do?
Speaker 1: I work at a bank. Okay, you don't need your
Speaker 1: social media. You're just addicted to it. But it's it's
Speaker 1: those three things where moving your body exactly what you're
Speaker 1: saying is just so unbelievably important. And it is. It's
Speaker 1: all genetic. I mean, I found out other people in
Speaker 1: my family down the line. They might not have called
Speaker 1: it that at the time. They might have said, you know,
Speaker 1: in the fifties they had spells or whatever because they
Speaker 1: didn't know how to how to diagnose it. But that's
Speaker 1: all that it was was it is, it's genetic anxiety.
Speaker 1: And and but that's one of the things about the
Speaker 1: twenty three and me that was so amazing is those
Speaker 1: little markers. For instance, that what it says when I
Speaker 1: looked at the thing, your average wake up time, judging
Speaker 1: by your genetics, is seven AM. And that's like almost
Speaker 1: exactly every morning when I roll out of bed. Whoa
Speaker 1: literally literally almost exactly every morning. Susan gets up before
Speaker 1: me because she's got early clients. I doze in bed,
Speaker 1: and by about seven forty to seven fifty I'm up
Speaker 1: and out. And when so when this thing comes out
Speaker 1: and it says it's seven forty am, I'm going You've
Speaker 1: got to be kidding me. How is that even possible? So, yeah,
Speaker 1: some of these things are some of them I gotta say.
Speaker 1: It says that I'm not predisposed to being afraid of heights,
Speaker 1: and I'm hugely afraid of heights, but that could also
Speaker 1: be the anxiety part. But there are certain things that this,
Speaker 1: you know, the muscle. Here's the other thing where it
Speaker 1: made me feel like, yes, I am in fact magic.
Speaker 1: Um is it says my muscle composition is common in
Speaker 1: elite power athletes with mine. I'm man, thank you, I'm
Speaker 1: a stallion. Yeah, me too, me too. I'm also though, uh,
Speaker 1: this is not such a positive thing. I am also
Speaker 1: more likely to have to develop type two diabetes. And
Speaker 1: as you guys know, I love my sweets, I love
Speaker 1: my fast food, and so the good news is I
Speaker 1: have generally my upbringing was that of like very healthy
Speaker 1: eating and exercising, so I really try to enjoy those
Speaker 1: things like sweets and fast food in some sort of moderation.
Speaker 1: But it is really good for me to know that
Speaker 1: um as I age because it's I think it literally
Speaker 1: says like from the time you're forty one, which is
Speaker 1: my exact age, up until the time I'm e d
Speaker 1: I am like likely so like really it's a worse
Speaker 1: than a chance, and so It's good for me to
Speaker 1: know those things because that's something I can stay on
Speaker 1: top of with my doctor. Now, Like, let me get
Speaker 1: regular screenings, let me stay on top of that, let
Speaker 1: me make sure I'm watching my diet, and then I'm exercising,
Speaker 1: because maintaining a healthy weight is one way to help
Speaker 1: prevent that from happening. So, I mean, I'm actually really
Speaker 1: excited that I know that. The last time writer and
Speaker 1: I were at your house for a party, there was literally,
Speaker 1: and I'm using that word correctly, a board that had
Speaker 1: donuts hanging all off of it, and the second you'd
Speaker 1: grab a donut, it would reappear as if by magic.
Speaker 1: So I do love doughnuts, donut fan. That's just called
Speaker 1: Sundays around here, diner food. But you're a big diner
Speaker 1: food fans. At least it's Sundays and not every day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just Sundays. Yeah, No, I I do. I love salty,
Speaker 1: I love sweet, I love fried um. I just like
Speaker 1: that kind of food. So first salty or sweet. That
Speaker 1: that was the other thing the app told me is
Speaker 1: that is that I prefer salty over sweet, which is
Speaker 1: absolutely correct. So it does, and it told me this
Speaker 1: is where the history kind of buff and me loves it.
Speaker 1: Told me that I have that I have more Neanderthal
Speaker 1: DNA than most of the other people. Yes, yes, we're
Speaker 1: elite power athlete Neanderthal's magical sleep. This is the coolest
Speaker 1: app in the world. I'm waiting for my laser vision
Speaker 1: which will come. Um, but yeah, this is I was.
Speaker 1: It's so amazed a by how detailed it gets. I
Speaker 1: do want to show you guys my ancestry makeup because, um,
Speaker 1: look at how almost exactly fifty percent of one thing
Speaker 1: I am. Wow you are Yeah, that is my uh,
Speaker 1: that is my um, my Maltese side. That is my
Speaker 1: Southern European side. Wow, look at you. Yeah, that's me
Speaker 1: right there. So I'm I'm kind of all over the place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I am forty nine point five percent Southern European and
Speaker 1: fifty point five percent Northwestern European. That's what I'm north
Speaker 1: I'm sixty two percent Northwestern European, which is which is interesting.
Speaker 1: But I'm also it's like eight percent Italian. I have
Speaker 1: no idea there's Italian anywhere in my family line, Like,
Speaker 1: no idea. What's however, that we're partially Italian? So it's
Speaker 1: really really cool kind of getting these breakdowns. But the
Speaker 1: other things where it's just talking about like whether you're
Speaker 1: lactose in tallerant or not, your make your wake up time,
Speaker 1: you know, whether you like cilantro, like all those kind
Speaker 1: of things. The breakdown is is really neat. I know,
Speaker 1: it is really fun. Well, continuing to get to know
Speaker 1: our background, let us bring in our very first background guest.
Speaker 1: So to give you a little background about background actors.
Speaker 1: The actor the background actor definition is someone who performs
Speaker 1: in a non speaking role, usually in the background of
Speaker 1: a scene. They helped make movies, TV shows, and other
Speaker 1: productions look and feel more authentic and so hospitals, concert
Speaker 1: city streets would be completely empty if not for hiring
Speaker 1: background act Criterias, yes, school cafeterias, holy classrooms. So let
Speaker 1: us welcome our first background actor, g An Torres. It's
Speaker 1: so good to see your faces again. I know this
Speaker 1: is so fun. How did you become a background actor?
Speaker 1: And how old were you? I was I think it
Speaker 1: was eighteen and it was my first year of community
Speaker 1: college and I'm still trying to figure out what to do.
Speaker 1: I was creative, Um, I kind of liked filmmaking, editing
Speaker 1: things like that. Um, maybe I wanted to be an actor,
Speaker 1: but I felt a little shy to be on stage.
Speaker 1: So I remember talking to my dad and he had said, hey,
Speaker 1: why don't you sign up to be a background actor.
Speaker 1: You know they can be on set, you can see
Speaker 1: everything that they do. And I thought, okay, that's a
Speaker 1: good idea. So I went down to the casting agency,
Speaker 1: you know, paid the little fee that you pay, take
Speaker 1: a picture, get all your information, sign up, and that's
Speaker 1: how I started. And so it's I don't know if
Speaker 1: you guys want me to tell you about how that
Speaker 1: whole process goes, and you already know about it, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: So the way they did, at least back in the
Speaker 1: nineties was that you called a hotline and you listen
Speaker 1: for something that maybe you fit. So for me and
Speaker 1: I swear, it's like the only time we're looking young,
Speaker 1: like really paid off. I'd always um looked for eighteen
Speaker 1: to look younger shows, which, of course Boy Meets World
Speaker 1: was one of those shows. And so you listen to recording.
Speaker 1: If you felt like you fit that, you know, that
Speaker 1: type of those specs that they're looking for, you called
Speaker 1: the number and then you gave them your social Security
Speaker 1: number everything. Yeah, apparently like there was no big deal
Speaker 1: back then. So you gave them your social security number.
Speaker 1: That's actually how how they had you filed. And they
Speaker 1: looked you up and they thought, yeah, you fit good,
Speaker 1: you're working tomorrow. Here's your call time, bring you know,
Speaker 1: three sets of clothes. That's where you're going, and that's it.
Speaker 1: And then described my stuff pop in the car next morning.
Speaker 1: And I'm mama, way that's to me. I'm sorry. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at a great picture of the two of us
Speaker 1: together right now. Yeah, I am. I'm looking at an
Speaker 1: awesome picture of the two of us right now. It's
Speaker 1: on on set. That's so cool. That is where were
Speaker 1: you living, What was the what was the commute like
Speaker 1: then from where you were living to where we were shooting.
Speaker 1: So I would never do this commute nowadays. But I
Speaker 1: was in South Orange County. I was down in Mission Gate, Okay.
Speaker 1: And I remember called times being about seven thirty for
Speaker 1: us in the morning in the morning, and I would
Speaker 1: leave my house at six and that was fine, Like
Speaker 1: I could get to the kil A studios by six wow,
Speaker 1: And that was okay. Back then. It is not okay.
Speaker 1: Were you were you a Mission Vie? Here? Were you
Speaker 1: a Diablo? I wasn't. I was okay, my wife was
Speaker 1: a Diablo. I won't tell you really rivals exactly. Oh
Speaker 1: that's so funny. So what other shows were you a
Speaker 1: background actor on? UM? I got booked on two and
Speaker 1: oh uh, let's see a Party of five step by
Speaker 1: Step with Christine Laken. Yes, there is a few those.
Speaker 1: I don't know why those seemed to like stick out. UM.
Speaker 1: A few movies. Babylon five that was really random but cool.
Speaker 1: That was one of the coolest because you actually got
Speaker 1: as an extra. You still got to have makeup done
Speaker 1: and I got to look like an alien and it
Speaker 1: was so not me, but it was great. It was
Speaker 1: so much fun. That's fun. So okay, So you were
Speaker 1: on season three and four of Boy Meets World walk
Speaker 1: people through? Then what would happen? So your call time
Speaker 1: seven thirty am. What happens when you arrived to set?
Speaker 1: What's the process? Like? They arrived a set and then
Speaker 1: the A D would pass out scripts to everyone and
Speaker 1: you'd actually go through we probably spend like a good
Speaker 1: hour maybe, and we'd go through the entire script and
Speaker 1: she would say something like Okay, Jeannie on this line,
Speaker 1: on writer's line, you're gonna go from the top of
Speaker 1: the stairs to locker two, you know, and have a
Speaker 1: conversation with somebody and then you know, let's say, Daniel
Speaker 1: in your line, I was to exit and leave, you know,
Speaker 1: walk off set or whatever. So everyone had, um, you know,
Speaker 1: there's blocking. Yeah, different blocking with different crossings. I think
Speaker 1: it's amazing. I don't know who put it together, because
Speaker 1: it seems like that would take a long time to
Speaker 1: figure out at least twenty extras and where they were
Speaker 1: going and how they're not going to cross in front
Speaker 1: of you, and it just it's like I I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's a dance exactly. And so this would have
Speaker 1: been Deed, right, Yes, so she was our second second
Speaker 1: stage manager, and so she would have been in charge
Speaker 1: of So yeah, I wonder if Deed mapped out all
Speaker 1: of those moves. I mean, it must we have to
Speaker 1: have dd on, Yeah, we will, we should. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: she was so good at it, like she was She's
Speaker 1: just on and she's so friendly. That was one of
Speaker 1: the things that I'm sure was like a really you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, and I don't want to put words in
Speaker 1: your mouth was. Was every ad you worked with on
Speaker 1: sets like wonderful and fun to be around? Or were
Speaker 1: there some that were better than others? She was the best.
Speaker 1: I will say she was the best. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe because I got the opportunity to come back and
Speaker 1: do more shows. But she was amazing, and Mike was
Speaker 1: Mike was great too. I just I think everyone sometimes
Speaker 1: is in work mode and as you guys know, you're
Speaker 1: pressed for time, You've got to get lines done. You know,
Speaker 1: you just gotta really nail it. And I think maybe
Speaker 1: some were just like whatever, do this, But with her,
Speaker 1: she was I don't know, she was on it. She
Speaker 1: was on it, but still like awesome. And I have
Speaker 1: a question, just because I'm curious. Behind you on your
Speaker 1: your your shelf back there is that say Transformers? Or
Speaker 1: am I wrong? You are correct? Thank you? And it's
Speaker 1: a G I Joe. Is a G I Joe? Next
Speaker 1: to that that is G I Joe. We are absolutely friends.
Speaker 1: Which Transformers? Is it? Can I ask from here? Is
Speaker 1: not robots and robots in disguise? Is it? No? It's well,
Speaker 1: it's well, the game is for information protocol. It's I
Speaker 1: can't I can't tell American. Sorry, I think it's Bumblebee
Speaker 1: on the cover. They're sorry. I'm just that's actually my
Speaker 1: career job, So that is what. I'm a creative director
Speaker 1: for a boarding game company called Renegade Game Studios, and
Speaker 1: I am in charge of the Hasbro Yes, I worked
Speaker 1: for Hasbro for years, so I was that's I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I know, I know my Transformer, I know my nerves,
Speaker 1: so I know my g I Joe, my transformers in
Speaker 1: the background. I'm gonna call that out every time. I
Speaker 1: love that. Yeah, so I want to know. Background actors
Speaker 1: are not allowed to talk, but you have to make
Speaker 1: it look like you're talking. Did you have any tricks
Speaker 1: to making it look like you were talking but staying
Speaker 1: totally silent? Um? No, there were no tricks, and there
Speaker 1: were no tricks. But I will say that becoming a
Speaker 1: regular right on the show and working with other regular extras,
Speaker 1: there were times it was almost like we're trying make
Speaker 1: each other laugh without really blowing it. Right. So you're
Speaker 1: gonna have conversations saying ridiculous things to each other at
Speaker 1: the lockers, saying things that just maybe are inappropriate. Yeah
Speaker 1: you're reading lips. Yeah, you're saying things that you can
Speaker 1: go back through the episodes and read your lips. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you might be saying inappropriate stuff appropriate. Oh my god. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1: Did you become friends with all the other actras? Mean,
Speaker 1: did you hang out offset because you were kind of
Speaker 1: regulars there? We did sometimes. Yeah, I went out a
Speaker 1: lot with Wendy Smith. Um. And then there's a few
Speaker 1: of them that I've become Facebook friends with and we
Speaker 1: just keep in touch and we talked about the old
Speaker 1: days of Boy Meets World in certain episodes. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And any episodes stick out in your head that you did, yes,
Speaker 1: and it's actually one with you well, it's um, it's
Speaker 1: with the guitarist oh, um, Lesha Haley. Yes, yeah, shallow Boy. Yes,
Speaker 1: that was a fun episode. That was That was a
Speaker 1: fun episode. She was amazing. I really hope we get
Speaker 1: to have her on the show because she was absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1: That was a fun episode to do. Were you in
Speaker 1: the Were you in the chubby scene where she was
Speaker 1: singing that's cool? Yeah? Oh yeah, you can see me.
Speaker 1: I'm holding a French fry and I I just go
Speaker 1: right into disgust and she starts singing, and I throw
Speaker 1: the French fry down and I get up and walk
Speaker 1: away out of Chubbies. That's a fun action. Oh I
Speaker 1: can't wait to go back and watch that. Laugh. That's cool.
Speaker 1: I think the most pressing question we have were we nice? Yes,
Speaker 1: but like but professional? Right? So I think as an extra,
Speaker 1: you feel like it's like a privilege to be on set,
Speaker 1: and you just you don't wanna You don't want to
Speaker 1: mess that up. So you know I would. I would
Speaker 1: see you guys, And I have no idea if you
Speaker 1: if you remember this face are not? Are not? But
Speaker 1: I just I don't. I would just like smile. But
Speaker 1: I don't think I ever tried to start up conversations
Speaker 1: unless it was like the last show of the season
Speaker 1: and I felt like, Okay, it's cool. Everyone's just happy
Speaker 1: and excited and celebrating and things like that. But um,
Speaker 1: I think you guys probably all were approachable. I just
Speaker 1: didn't want to. I wouldn't. I didn't want to do
Speaker 1: anything to have me not back on the set. Well,
Speaker 1: it's also it's because I think about it now, like
Speaker 1: I just I just wrapped a movie I was directing,
Speaker 1: and it's um, sets are fun environments, or they can
Speaker 1: be fun environments and actors like to talk, and kids
Speaker 1: like to talk, and yet if you think about what
Speaker 1: it would be like to have twelve kids in a
Speaker 1: classroom set, we're also work needs to get done. If
Speaker 1: if they were allowed to just talk and joke and laugh,
Speaker 1: it would be completely out of control. So it's a
Speaker 1: it's um, it's a little bit of like, you talk
Speaker 1: as much as you can before somebody says, all right,
Speaker 1: keep it down, you know, no personal conversations. We need
Speaker 1: to get work done. And so it was it was
Speaker 1: always like a tough balance between wanting to be like,
Speaker 1: so what's your name and where are you from and
Speaker 1: what do you like to do without actually then being
Speaker 1: in trouble because there's no time for that. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think I really don't. I don't remember you guys having
Speaker 1: much conversation right before your liones. Yeah. I think you
Speaker 1: just all seemed very focused, especially you writer. You were like,
Speaker 1: it just seemed like you were so on it, and
Speaker 1: I was he was, he was. So do you tell
Speaker 1: anybody now about your history as a background actor? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I do sometimes. Um, it's been what like twenties for
Speaker 1: a lot of beers. Yeah, so let's just say twenty
Speaker 1: a lot, Yes, twenty a lot. Uh, if I have
Speaker 1: made new friends, like you know my kids. You know,
Speaker 1: you start making new friends with your kids, you know,
Speaker 1: they're their friends and parents and things like that. And
Speaker 1: then let's say I have a few drinks and we're
Speaker 1: watching or whatever, flipping through in Disney Plus and the
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, hey, you should you should put a
Speaker 1: woman's rolled for a second, you know, so like, go,
Speaker 1: should I something? You know, I'll find it episode And
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's so fun, like me, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of a fun conversation. Do you know how many
Speaker 1: episodes you're actually in that you that you can see
Speaker 1: yourself in? Haven't you added it up? I haven't. It's
Speaker 1: maybe close to fifteen, but it's over the course of
Speaker 1: two seasons or yeah. Yeah, I mean obviously there were
Speaker 1: some shows where you didn't have the school scenes, right
Speaker 1: if there was a lot of shooting, and some days
Speaker 1: it was it was just a one one day call
Speaker 1: and one scene and that was it was Dusty there
Speaker 1: with you while you were there. Dusty Gould red hair,
Speaker 1: one of the one of the background actors. He was
Speaker 1: one of the Yeah, he was in the classroom with
Speaker 1: me in the class, probably, and I realized that most
Speaker 1: of the kids in the classroom were miners. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: wanted to keep them young in the classroom, so I
Speaker 1: think they kind of had a step right, because you know,
Speaker 1: they had to go to school. And yeah, we're just
Speaker 1: on a sitting sitting on our chairs and empty stage, waiting, waiting,
Speaker 1: so much downtime on a set. Yeah, yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: for sending us these amazing pictures that I have, this
Speaker 1: great picture. We will post them on our social media
Speaker 1: so that you guys get to see exactly who she
Speaker 1: is and then you can spot her when we get
Speaker 1: to her her episodes and seasons three and four. It
Speaker 1: was really great to catch up with you, Genie. I
Speaker 1: totally remember your face. You haven't changed at all. Thank you, guys.
Speaker 1: You're all the same to me too. It's funny, it's awesome.
Speaker 1: It's really nice to reconnect with you. Thank you for
Speaker 1: all of the Yeah, thanks for coming on our show,
Speaker 1: and thank you for all the work you did for
Speaker 1: us all those twenty plus years ago. Thank you, Thank you, guys.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love your podcast. Been listening. I
Speaker 1: think it's really cool. I love everyone's perspective and and
Speaker 1: you know, what you went through. I think it's really
Speaker 1: neat because I was just a small part of it,
Speaker 1: and it really I don't know, you know, you always
Speaker 1: try and guess and think how everyone else is thinking,
Speaker 1: or what it is their challenges, or maybe they don't
Speaker 1: have challenges and only I have challenges. But it's great,
Speaker 1: it was really great. Thank you so much. It's great
Speaker 1: to see you. All right, all right, guys. Our next
Speaker 1: guest was a background actor on Boy Meets Worlds in
Speaker 1: seasons two through four, and then he came back in
Speaker 1: season six just to watch a taping and was invited
Speaker 1: back to be an extra in that episode. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. So cool. Um, so let's please welcome. I
Speaker 1: think I bleeve Justin if I'm saying your name wrong,
Speaker 1: justin our Mayo. That's absolutely perfect, Yes, all right, justin welcome.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this is insane. Right off the bat,
Speaker 1: I absolutely remember Justin, absolutely do. The second I saw
Speaker 1: your picture, I was like, oh yeah, yeah, absolutely not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I knew exactly you were right away. You did a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of episodes and I completely remember you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. Thanks. Well, of course I think it did
Speaker 1: like fifty maybe, Yeah, you did a whole lot of episodes.
Speaker 1: You were one of the regulars there for most of
Speaker 1: the time, so yeah, I completely remember Justin Wait, so
Speaker 1: you did maybe fifty episodes just within seasons two, three,
Speaker 1: and four. So I just I just watched um. So
Speaker 1: the first episode I did was season two, episode eight,
Speaker 1: banned on the Run, and then I did the rest
Speaker 1: of that season, did season three, season four, and then
Speaker 1: I missed the show so much like I went to
Speaker 1: an audience taping of it when you moved to Radford.
Speaker 1: I watched the show. Then I snuck over to the bathroom,
Speaker 1: which was in a sound stage next door. I hid
Speaker 1: in the bathroom for half an hour, waited for the
Speaker 1: audience to leave and everybody get escorted out. Then I
Speaker 1: walked back onto the sound stage and I saw Steve
Speaker 1: and Deed and they saw me and they jumped up
Speaker 1: and they said, oh my god, Justin what are you
Speaker 1: doing here? And I said, I came to see the show.
Speaker 1: And they said you have to come back and do
Speaker 1: an episode, and I said, please, that would be honest.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, we have So Steve Hayfer and d
Speaker 1: d to Stephano. We talked about them a little bit,
Speaker 1: our stage manager. I'm sure you remember that justin. Yes,
Speaker 1: you guys had so many I don't really remember the
Speaker 1: catch right, but you guys had so many in jokes
Speaker 1: and catchphrases. And you guys are always having such an
Speaker 1: awesome time. It's so funny. One of the pictures that
Speaker 1: we have of you justin you are in the scene
Speaker 1: with Lesha Haley, which is exactly the same scene we
Speaker 1: were just talking about with Genie. There's another background actor
Speaker 1: we have from that set that that Lesha Haley episode
Speaker 1: Shallow Boy was really special. Oh, I remember that. I
Speaker 1: still had my script somewhere in the garage. Wow. I
Speaker 1: think it's because everybody has to react to her playing
Speaker 1: the song. I think that was why it was in Bees.
Speaker 1: She's she does a whole It's like the whole part
Speaker 1: point of the scene is that if she's making a
Speaker 1: scene right, and everybody has to sort of react to it,
Speaker 1: as opposed to other scenes where we're just like talking
Speaker 1: the foreground and everybody's just kind of, you know, living
Speaker 1: normal life. Background. That's the Atlantis Morris set. Oh, you're
Speaker 1: giving some I'm looking at the picture right now. You're
Speaker 1: giving such a great like over the shoulder, look at
Speaker 1: Lesha Haley, this kind of your eyebrow race. You've got
Speaker 1: the boy mes World eyebrow rais and you are sitting
Speaker 1: there looking at her like she's she's off her nut.
Speaker 1: It's great. It's absolutely phenomenal that the second I saw
Speaker 1: that picture, I was like, oh, yeah, I know just exactly.
Speaker 1: They kept coming back to me over and over and
Speaker 1: said bigger, bigger, bigger. But that's how I totally learned
Speaker 1: on that set that you have to go pretty big
Speaker 1: for people to notice things. Sometimes. It's true you would
Speaker 1: have been, especially in that episode, what would have been
Speaker 1: characterized as a featured extra, right, yeah, I mean it
Speaker 1: doesn't you don't get any extra money. It's just a
Speaker 1: it's just a good you know, you're saying really well
Speaker 1: and you do a little bit which is really cool.
Speaker 1: And the longer I was there, the more they threw
Speaker 1: me cool bits to do, like I think there's one
Speaker 1: time you hit a ball off the pool table and
Speaker 1: like kids me in the foot, And then one time
Speaker 1: I played they came in I think a Train of
Speaker 1: Consequences where we're you're on the train the New Year's
Speaker 1: e party. Yeah, and I played the pizza guy and
Speaker 1: Wrider comes up to me and he's like, does anybody
Speaker 1: know anything about deliveries? And then then he like rushes
Speaker 1: me out the door and then comes back and says,
Speaker 1: you know, he's gonna good thing is he's going to
Speaker 1: deliver ms Mrs g Andelle's babies and they'll be they'll
Speaker 1: be in an under thirty minutes or whatever is the joke.
Speaker 1: That's right. I forgot about that. That's so funny, and
Speaker 1: so that's why, right, Yeah, but you and not because
Speaker 1: we were around the same age. You weren't really in
Speaker 1: the classroom, right, you were? You and I were always
Speaker 1: kind of in the same scenes together. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: was too old to be one of the classroom regular kids,
Speaker 1: and they wanted to have you know, kids that were
Speaker 1: people were over eighteen to be you know, the hallway kids,
Speaker 1: Chubbies and whatever else like that. So yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: I'm fifty two now, it's still a bit older than you,
Speaker 1: but I was, yeah close, What are your old? Do
Speaker 1: you know? I'm I'm forty six, So yeah, we're pretty
Speaker 1: so we're decently close. Did you have to eat in
Speaker 1: all those chubby scenes? Um? I think I ate a
Speaker 1: few times in a chubby scene. Mostly I was standing
Speaker 1: up or you know, pretending to be breaking up with
Speaker 1: a girlfriend in the background or something crazy. You know,
Speaker 1: so much fun. Do you have any particular episode or
Speaker 1: scene that you remember the most. Oh gosh, I mean
Speaker 1: I really like the Train of Consequence, so that was
Speaker 1: really funny. And I remember Charisma Carpenter was in that episode.
Speaker 1: I didn't know who that was. I think we're sitting
Speaker 1: back and train me well on Charisma, and I had
Speaker 1: no idea who she was. And it was really fun.
Speaker 1: It was just it was different because it was a
Speaker 1: different set. So there's a really good memory there. And
Speaker 1: the the one with the monkeys was really cool because
Speaker 1: I grew up watching I mean I was a little
Speaker 1: too young to watch the Monkeys originally, but you know,
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, there's only like three channels,
Speaker 1: so I had to watch the Monkeys. You met the
Speaker 1: Monkeys the band. I instantly went to the episode where
Speaker 1: Eric has monkeys. Yeah, okay, that was an episode where
Speaker 1: Eric has monkeys. Y's got the same monkey that that
Speaker 1: Ross has on Friends. That same Marcel monkey was on
Speaker 1: our show. I have no recollection of that. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's where my head went. I was like, oh, you're
Speaker 1: in the episode where I'm with the monkey. Um, So
Speaker 1: I mean, can you tell us a little bit about
Speaker 1: how you started in in the business. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I I absolutely obsessed with movies as a kid, and
Speaker 1: I used to cut out and use paper ads and
Speaker 1: pasted my wall with mouse because I couldn't afford posters.
Speaker 1: So I had a movie ads from the Sunday calendar
Speaker 1: all over my wall. And then I just wanted to
Speaker 1: be an extra in my but I just wanted to
Speaker 1: do something, and I was, you know, just out of college,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know what to do with My sister goes,
Speaker 1: why don't you be an extra? IM like, you can
Speaker 1: do that. She's oh, yeah, why don't you get the
Speaker 1: drama logue and go? She said, go do something free
Speaker 1: and if you like it, um, you're meant to do this.
Speaker 1: So I went and worked on a science fiction movie,
Speaker 1: played a cracked out space guy or something, and it
Speaker 1: worked for like fourteen hours for zero pay, and I
Speaker 1: couldn't wait to do it again. And then eventually I
Speaker 1: got an agent agency. So I was working on like
Speaker 1: nine O two and no and like Step by Step
Speaker 1: and Party of five, and the same that that same
Speaker 1: group of three that age Grange. Right, if you were
Speaker 1: if you if you were eighteen or over eighteen but
Speaker 1: still look young, you could be in the background of
Speaker 1: all those shows. That's what they needed. Oh yeah, like
Speaker 1: seven and Clueless and so many JA was crazy. And
Speaker 1: then it's the best to get on the show and
Speaker 1: be a regular, because to be a regular like nine
Speaker 1: or two one, so basically doing like nine, Party of five,
Speaker 1: Boy meets World. And then I then I do a
Speaker 1: random day and I work on like show Girls for
Speaker 1: three days or something and something random. That's so cool.
Speaker 1: And I got into and I got into SAG and
Speaker 1: and dd I said, DEDI, if I get into SAG
Speaker 1: with you, keep me on the show. She said yes,
Speaker 1: And do you want to hear my SAG story? I
Speaker 1: got into SAG. So I get a call one day
Speaker 1: from from like my age and agency, and they said,
Speaker 1: would you be interested in being Johnny Depps but double
Speaker 1: and I said, um, and and my brain just said,
Speaker 1: you know, normally you might think Beckham. I'll think about that.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, yeah, absolutely, she goes or she said,
Speaker 1: like trying, but yeah exactly. Yeah. So well here's a
Speaker 1: bat and she goes, I said, what is that entail exactly?
Speaker 1: And she said, well, okay, you go I lived in
Speaker 1: I live in Orange County. And she said, okay, um,
Speaker 1: you have to go up to the studio, shows goes.
Speaker 1: I'll call you back in down and give you the details.
Speaker 1: You'll go up there, You'll talk to them for a
Speaker 1: mental interview for a moment. You'll pull down your pants
Speaker 1: and they'll take a bit through of your butt a polaroid.
Speaker 1: They'll they'll give it to a producer and and they'll
Speaker 1: probably give it to Johnny Depp. And and I said,
Speaker 1: so okay, yeah, yeah, I'll do that, I guess, and
Speaker 1: and she hangs on the phone. I go take a shower,
Speaker 1: I get ready, and like what the hell am I doing?
Speaker 1: And then she she calls back an hour lan and
Speaker 1: she goes, oh, they I'm sorry, they just found somebody
Speaker 1: to do that. And I said, okay, but I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh bummer. And I was so disappointed. Man, I could
Speaker 1: have been Johnny Depps. But but and when did they
Speaker 1: get you back? Okay, Well, first of all, do you
Speaker 1: remember when it was from? So it's it's it's don
Speaker 1: Juan DeMarco with Johnny Depp and Marlon Branda film I
Speaker 1: good movie. So two days later I get a call
Speaker 1: and so they threw me a bone and they put
Speaker 1: me on um Don Juan de Marco. So I get
Speaker 1: up there and I didn't realize that was the movie.
Speaker 1: And I was like, Hey, that guy looks like Marlon
Speaker 1: Brando and they're like, that's because that is Marlon Brando
Speaker 1: and as ooh and that's Johnny Depp on Holy Ship.
Speaker 1: So we're in working on scenes and Marlon Brando really
Speaker 1: like loves like the little guy, the low and the
Speaker 1: totem pulp person. He was like talking to me, like
Speaker 1: justin He's like he heard my name. He said, it's
Speaker 1: getting kind of warm in here, don't you think? Is that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was getting kind of warm, and they brought an
Speaker 1: air conditioner just for him, and I got stuck in
Speaker 1: a stairwell with Marlon Brando. So I'm eating snacks and
Speaker 1: Marlon Brando and a a assistant director come in and
Speaker 1: they're arguing and they're like, you say, Marlin, can you
Speaker 1: work at like an extra fifteen minutes? Like I sure,
Speaker 1: I'll work an extra fifty minutes and I'll just come
Speaker 1: in fifteen minutes late tomorrow, and they kept going back
Speaker 1: and forth and Marlin Brandon was just handling this guy
Speaker 1: really easily and really calmly, and the guy turned to
Speaker 1: me and saw me, and he got really mad and
Speaker 1: he he said, you like you need to leave, And
Speaker 1: Marlon Brando said, oh no, no, no, no, no, the
Speaker 1: kids stays. And I was like, holy like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell this story for the rest of my life. So
Speaker 1: he gave one. So Marlon Brando gave one extra girl.
Speaker 1: She played a nurse. He goes, okay, you're you have lines,
Speaker 1: because he was there doing like small talk and they
Speaker 1: were mentioned talking about how to get into SACK. Do
Speaker 1: you know the voucher system? How you got into SAD
Speaker 1: So you needed three SAG vouchers. And for our listeners,
Speaker 1: SAG is Screen Actors, just the union for actors that
Speaker 1: you have to be a member of in order to
Speaker 1: you know, collect your residuals and have your health insurance
Speaker 1: and all that exactly, and get paid eighty bucks instead
Speaker 1: of forty bucks exactly. That's an extra And um, he said, okay,
Speaker 1: you want to get into He he like he was hurt, hurt.
Speaker 1: We were all like trying hard to get into SAG.
Speaker 1: We need are like last voucher. Hes, okay, you have lines,
Speaker 1: You're gonna have lines. You gave this nurse lines. Marlon
Speaker 1: Brando out of nowhere, just gives her lines. So we shoot.
Speaker 1: I go home. Um, I get a call like two
Speaker 1: days later, they really need you on set donal Wanda Market.
Speaker 1: They have to do a reshoot or whatever. I rush
Speaker 1: up to the set. I get there and I was
Speaker 1: non union and I needed one more voucher and I'd
Speaker 1: waited a whole year. I didn't get my third voucher.
Speaker 1: And she signs signs of vouchers handsome to me, and
Speaker 1: she said, go home. You're done for the day. And said,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? She goes, welcome to SAG.
Speaker 1: I said, what do you? I said, this is SAG
Speaker 1: voucher because yeah, somebody up there likes you. Somebody, somebody
Speaker 1: really big is really looking out for you. I said,
Speaker 1: I'm like, are you telling me Marlon Brando one got
Speaker 1: me into SAG. And she's like, I'm not saying that. Goodbye.
Speaker 1: I walked away. Random you into SAG. I think you
Speaker 1: know who knows like And I heard from a couple
Speaker 1: other people that that's what they heard, the same thing
Speaker 1: because either Marlon or Johnny or somebody they were they're
Speaker 1: really cool and you know, and I got into SAD.
Speaker 1: I got to stay on boy Meats World, so I
Speaker 1: had a regular gig because normally when you got into
Speaker 1: SAG is an extra, your jobs just went down because
Speaker 1: you could, you know, because the first I don't want
Speaker 1: to pay you the extra money. Yeah, because only the
Speaker 1: first certain number of people on a SAG TV show
Speaker 1: or or extras have to be SAG, and everybody above
Speaker 1: that number could be non union. So in a crowd scene,
Speaker 1: there's forty SAG people in a thousand non union people.
Speaker 1: So did you stay in the entertainment industry? Do you
Speaker 1: still work in the entertainment industry? Now? I do, Well,
Speaker 1: I have a regular job. I'm a buyer for a
Speaker 1: medical company, but for um so. I had a daughter,
Speaker 1: so eventually I had a quit, quit extra work, and
Speaker 1: but I worked on about three hundred things, and then
Speaker 1: I started to move into local commercials. And then I
Speaker 1: are writing, and I said, if if no one's gonna
Speaker 1: put me in anything, I'll put myself in something. So
Speaker 1: I started writing and directing indie movies. So I directed
Speaker 1: a movie called blood Sucker Jones, which is a like
Speaker 1: a black exploitation movie. So here's something really interesting. When
Speaker 1: I first started, when I was cast on the show
Speaker 1: and I shot my first episode A couple episodes before
Speaker 1: that was the episode called Who's Afraid of Corey Wolf? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And the Halloween one right yeah, And there's a small
Speaker 1: theme in about how he thinks he has to kill
Speaker 1: Tapanga to like become a full fledge werewolf or something.
Speaker 1: And I took that colonel with an idea, and that's
Speaker 1: the plot of the first movie I made, Bloodsuck at Jones,
Speaker 1: but it was about a vampire making um, becoming a
Speaker 1: full fledge vampire. He has to kill his first love.
Speaker 1: So we made that, we got into vessels that did
Speaker 1: pretty good, and then we made a sequel, blood Suck
Speaker 1: at Jones Versus A Creeping Death. Where can we find
Speaker 1: these movies? Where can every one stuff? So they're both
Speaker 1: on Amazon and you can get um but you can
Speaker 1: you can rent them on Amazon. You can rent them
Speaker 1: on Amazon Prime. We used to be there for free,
Speaker 1: but now it's only for antial. But we're rereleasing it
Speaker 1: to put it on a lot of platforms. And then
Speaker 1: I just finished our biggest movie. It's called Zanna Do
Speaker 1: hell Fire and I love these titles, thanks Matt. And
Speaker 1: I wrote it for my daughter, like I was a
Speaker 1: single dad, so I wanted to write a movie about
Speaker 1: a single dad. So it's about a nine year old
Speaker 1: girl who brings her comic book character from the future
Speaker 1: to the present just to hang out, and her evil
Speaker 1: sister follows and all hell breaks loose. That's so cool.
Speaker 1: I want to watch that. And okay, well here's another
Speaker 1: little tidbit. I was gonna make it Union, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to cast you in it as the single dad,
Speaker 1: and then I didn't have enough money, um to make
Speaker 1: it Union, so I didn't. I never ended up contacting you,
Speaker 1: but that my play and was always to get all
Speaker 1: of you in a movie. One day that would be
Speaker 1: maybe we could do blood Sucker Jones three, blood Sucker
Speaker 1: totally many scripts, so but that's still my dream and
Speaker 1: I hope to do that one day for sure. Just
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being here with us and
Speaker 1: telling us about your life now and your experiences as
Speaker 1: a background actor. It really means a lot to us,
Speaker 1: So thanks so much. This podcast is incredible, Like hearing
Speaker 1: all you hearing your feelings about how you thought you
Speaker 1: were going to be fired, and and then I thought
Speaker 1: I didn't get invited back, and then I found out
Speaker 1: the next week it was like an off day, off
Speaker 1: week ago. Well, thank you again, Justin. This has been
Speaker 1: a real, a real pleasure. So thank you for being
Speaker 1: here with us. We wish you the best and we
Speaker 1: can't wait to reconnect on our our movie set. I'm
Speaker 1: sure i'm checking out, please please, thank you, Justin. Jason,
Speaker 1: how are you doing. I'm well, it's great, you guys,
Speaker 1: nice to see you were You were a background actor
Speaker 1: in season three. Tell us a little bit about some
Speaker 1: of the episodes you were a part of, and like,
Speaker 1: what is your favorite memory from being a background actor
Speaker 1: on Boy Meets World. The only episode I really remember
Speaker 1: vividly was there was a scene in the I want
Speaker 1: to say it was in the lunch room or maybe
Speaker 1: in that um that hangout place that that you guys
Speaker 1: always went to, and uh, Corey uh was being bullied
Speaker 1: by this guy and they brought in this like really
Speaker 1: really really tall, good looking like Nordic cooking kid, and
Speaker 1: there was always there was a big height differential which
Speaker 1: was very funny. But they made it even funnier because
Speaker 1: they had this guy who was already quite a bit
Speaker 1: taller than Ben stand on an apple box like watching
Speaker 1: that as like I want to be actor, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to start my career, and just watching the decisions
Speaker 1: being made on the fly, and I thought that was
Speaker 1: so cool. So how old were you were you eighteen?
Speaker 1: Playing younger? I was twenty three? Wow, okay, but if
Speaker 1: you were in Chubby's you could really be any age? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because you guys were in high school by the time
Speaker 1: I was on the show. I don't think I could
Speaker 1: if I get started, yeah, uh doing background work or
Speaker 1: just in the in the business and you know in general.
Speaker 1: Um I had well, I had just moved to l
Speaker 1: A when I was doing extra works, so so I
Speaker 1: moved here in so I was on the show nine six,
Speaker 1: So I didn't know anyone here. I didn't have any friends,
Speaker 1: and I had heard that oh if you could go
Speaker 1: do background work and goes sign up and you know,
Speaker 1: so that's how I paid my bills sort of the
Speaker 1: first here here. Where'd you move from Pennsylvania? Oh? Nice,
Speaker 1: outside of Allentown, you know the billy Joel song. That's
Speaker 1: where of course I know Pennsylvania. Well, both my brothers
Speaker 1: went to school in Pennsylvania. Okay, so that's very cool. Now,
Speaker 1: what made you come out here? What made you come
Speaker 1: out to Los Angeles? Was it just the bug to
Speaker 1: be an actor? It was a little bit of that.
Speaker 1: It was there was a really really big snowstorm. So
Speaker 1: I used to work in radio, and the station I
Speaker 1: worked at back in Allentown, we were known for the
Speaker 1: school closings, like back before the internet, who would do
Speaker 1: the school closing the best form on the radio. So
Speaker 1: I I worked overnight, So I would stay overnight, uh
Speaker 1: and do my shift, and then in the morning I
Speaker 1: would have to stay and help the morning show take
Speaker 1: the calls. So I remember driving home after being completely
Speaker 1: sleep deprived in this blizzard, and I got home, I'm like,
Speaker 1: why why am I here? Why? It's terrible. Yeah. For
Speaker 1: for Jason, just very quickly, for Writer and Danielle, the
Speaker 1: two West Coast kids. So when we were East Coast
Speaker 1: kids growing up, you would wake up on a day
Speaker 1: when there was snow on the ground, and you would
Speaker 1: put on the radio and you would wait for your
Speaker 1: school to be called, and then they tell you if
Speaker 1: you were delayed, or if you're if you had a
Speaker 1: snow day and it was canceled, it was the best.
Speaker 1: So I don't think you had that out here on
Speaker 1: the West Coast, did you, and the mountains and the
Speaker 1: mountain towns, But but you would. You'd sit there and
Speaker 1: you'd wait. It would say like, and the Avon Public
Speaker 1: schools are and if if it was a good dj
Speaker 1: they would pause because they would either be are open
Speaker 1: and running normally and you go, or in which case
Speaker 1: the horse and buggy couldn't get you to school right eat,
Speaker 1: you couldn't get we had slaves, but that's what it was.
Speaker 1: It would be and they'd be like Avon Public Schools
Speaker 1: are closed today and be like, yes, not thinking that.
Speaker 1: Of course, then you had to do an extra day
Speaker 1: in the summer because they just tack it on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it was you just have a day off where
Speaker 1: you'd go sledding or you would play snowball. You it
Speaker 1: was the greatest thing in the world. So it's something
Speaker 1: that is just Jason and I know what this is.
Speaker 1: But if you did not grow up in that, you
Speaker 1: didn't you didn't know. So yeah, it's totally cool. Jason,
Speaker 1: were you a background actor on any other shows. I
Speaker 1: was on Friends a couple of times. Cool. Actually, like
Speaker 1: you can see me really well because it was like
Speaker 1: the season two premier, like when the show was just
Speaker 1: like absolutely white hot at the top of the zeitgeist,
Speaker 1: and it's like great, Ross gets off the plane with Julie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Rachel does this like pratfall on the airport over the furniture.
Speaker 1: I'm right there addressed as a limo driver. How fun.
Speaker 1: I have to watch that again. And uh, I got
Speaker 1: my sag card on Executive Decision, which was a movie
Speaker 1: with Steven Seagal and Kurt Russell, John Leguizamo, everybody jumping
Speaker 1: on the airplane. Yes, beat wrong, pump wasn't. Yes, it
Speaker 1: was great. Yes, it was a great I love the
Speaker 1: title because that sounds exactly like a Steven Seagal movie.
Speaker 1: There's like a hard to kill as an executive decision
Speaker 1: and not it's a spoiler alert, but it's from Seagal's
Speaker 1: only in like the first fifteen minutes and then it's
Speaker 1: killed off. That's a straight up Kurt Russell. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a great movie. It's a great movie. We should
Speaker 1: explain to everybody why having your SAG card is so
Speaker 1: important because it's now come up a couple of times.
Speaker 1: Um and so as writer mentioned, SAG stands for the
Speaker 1: Screen Actors Guild, and you it's it's joining SAG is
Speaker 1: a little bit of a catch twenty two because you
Speaker 1: cannot have a speaking role in television or a movie
Speaker 1: until you are a member of SAG. But you can't
Speaker 1: become a member of SAG until you have a speaking part.
Speaker 1: So we can do one, right, you can do one,
Speaker 1: and then you do you get something that's called lead.
Speaker 1: You get your voucher. Yes, so top being taft heart
Speaker 1: lead in means I think actually you get the option
Speaker 1: to join right away. You can get yeah, and but
Speaker 1: there are other ways to earn your SAG, like you
Speaker 1: get like three SAG vouchers, right, and that what it
Speaker 1: needs to be here a time limit. Can you just
Speaker 1: get three? Okay? Just three? Yeah? When I was doing
Speaker 1: it because STAG and after we're separate unions at the time,
Speaker 1: So win SAG. You you would get three vouchers doing
Speaker 1: background work because they would have a certain allotment of
Speaker 1: union background actors they would have to use, and then
Speaker 1: a certain allotment of non union so if you worked
Speaker 1: on the show as a non union you wouldn't get
Speaker 1: a voucher. But sometimes there was an slot they would
Speaker 1: open up, somebody didn't show up and you would get
Speaker 1: bumped up and you would get to use the union voucher.
Speaker 1: But the day wow, wow, that's so cool. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: I got into SAG because I did. I was a
Speaker 1: member of Equity, which is the theater Union. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if this is still the case, but back then,
Speaker 1: if you were a member of Equity, after you were
Speaker 1: in Equity for a year, you could get you were
Speaker 1: eligible for sex. I think just by being in Lame
Speaker 1: as Rob as a kid, I then became eligible for sex.
Speaker 1: So I never had to do like the voucher at
Speaker 1: Half Heartley thing. I just you know, I think I
Speaker 1: did the same thing. I think well, after being in
Speaker 1: the Harvard Stage, I was in Equity and then I
Speaker 1: was able to join SADE. What year did you join
Speaker 1: SAG writer? Do you remember? Nineteen nine? Daniel Jason? Nineties five. See,
Speaker 1: that's the thing most actors, because it's a very big
Speaker 1: deal as an actor to get your SAG card. It
Speaker 1: still says when you joined too on the card, right,
Speaker 1: But you don't need to look at it. Most actors,
Speaker 1: you ask them like when did you join SAG, and
Speaker 1: they can instantly. I was eighty nine, Like I'll always remember,
Speaker 1: but now I remember, there used to be a screen
Speaker 1: Extras guild, remember that, I think pre like it wasn't
Speaker 1: until the mid nineties that the two guilds merged. It
Speaker 1: used to be that if you were an extra, you
Speaker 1: you were in a separate union and then and then
Speaker 1: it became all under SAG, and that was a big
Speaker 1: deal because that's that's how then you could become a
Speaker 1: SAG member by doing background work. Before that you couldn't
Speaker 1: even do it by doing background work. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: do remember that. Yeah, background work didn't used to count.
Speaker 1: And once you're a member of SAG you get health
Speaker 1: insurance as well, So there's there's again, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a a double edged sword. Joining SAG means you pay dudes,
Speaker 1: So you have to pay kind of a lot of
Speaker 1: money every year in order to stay in SAG. You
Speaker 1: also have to earn a certain amount of money every
Speaker 1: year to stay in ZAG. And there are like two
Speaker 1: levels of earnings. Like you know whether you're going to
Speaker 1: be in Plan A or Plan B and Plan A
Speaker 1: is the better insurance, but it means you also have
Speaker 1: to be earning a significantly larger portion of money a year.
Speaker 1: That's gone. Now. I don't real think there's Plan A
Speaker 1: Plan B anymore. I think there's just one plan that's
Speaker 1: not as good as Plan A and not as bad
Speaker 1: as Plan B. I think they kind of went in
Speaker 1: the middle and now it's one and some people were
Speaker 1: happy with that and some people where. There's been a
Speaker 1: lot of changes at SAG and some of them haven't
Speaker 1: been great. But so, Jason, do you still work in
Speaker 1: the entertainment industry and what are you doing now? Now?
Speaker 1: I'm managing a tour company called Bikes and Hikes l A.
Speaker 1: But I am still in entertainment a little bit. I
Speaker 1: host my own podcast called a Lifetime of Hallmark where
Speaker 1: we review and kind of pick apart Lifetime and Hallmark movies.
Speaker 1: And they're so it's very like earnest and wholesome or
Speaker 1: they are just murdering sex seven. I'm trying to get
Speaker 1: more into hiking. Is your company? Is it like cool
Speaker 1: hikes around l A? Is that what you guys do?
Speaker 1: We we cater to tours from around the world, so
Speaker 1: that we do biking tours and do three daily bike
Speaker 1: tours of l a ones of thirty two mile one
Speaker 1: that goes out to the back, that we do shorter
Speaker 1: ones in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, and then we do
Speaker 1: hikes to the front and back of the Hollywood Sign.
Speaker 1: And that's cool. Arc. Yeah, I might have to join
Speaker 1: you for the one to the Hollywood Sign. I've never
Speaker 1: all the years I've been here, thirty so many years,
Speaker 1: I've never done a hike to the Hollywood Sign. And
Speaker 1: it's something, Yeah, come on, all right, let's do it. Oh,
Speaker 1: we should all go. We should totally do that. That
Speaker 1: would be really cool. Does it ever come up in
Speaker 1: your life that you were a background actor on Boy
Speaker 1: Meat's World. Yeah, because I I have a lot of
Speaker 1: friends that watched it growing up. In some it'll come
Speaker 1: up in conversation. I'll tell them and they're like, what,
Speaker 1: what what? And now? So I live in West Hollywood
Speaker 1: and just that I'm sure people have heard in the
Speaker 1: news that Ben is running for a city council was Hollywood.
Speaker 1: I in my I've lived in we Hope for fifteen years.
Speaker 1: I've never once seen him out. I've run been ten
Speaker 1: times in the past month ten. That's so funny. Have
Speaker 1: you have you talked to him when you've seen him
Speaker 1: out of you The first time I saw him, it
Speaker 1: was right after I found out I was gonna be
Speaker 1: on with you guys, and so I just went up
Speaker 1: to I was like, Ben, Hi, I'm a resident here.
Speaker 1: We hope it also is on Boy Meets World. And
Speaker 1: we just had like a twenty minute conversation. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: So you knew you were a background actor, you didn't
Speaker 1: remember me, but now when he sees me, he recognizes
Speaker 1: me and like makes a point of staying hi. That's
Speaker 1: so cool. That's cool. Good. I'm happy to hear that. Well, Jason,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being here with us. It
Speaker 1: was really fun to catch up with you. And I
Speaker 1: think we'll take you up on that offer to go
Speaker 1: on a hike to the Hollywood time because I've ever
Speaker 1: done it. All right, what was what was the name
Speaker 1: of the podcast, One More Time A Lifetime of Hallmark?
Speaker 1: I checked that out, perfect, Yes, Well, thank you for
Speaker 1: being here with us, Yeah, alright, by I want to
Speaker 1: do I've wanted to do that Hollywood hike because it's
Speaker 1: just such an iconic thing. Going and actually seeing the
Speaker 1: Hollywood Sign, which you see it, you drive by, and
Speaker 1: you just get everybody gets at wherever they live. They
Speaker 1: get so complacent about where they live that they don't
Speaker 1: do the things that, yeah, that show them the joy
Speaker 1: of of the town or city that they live in.
Speaker 1: So that nightmare. Like the roads up to the Hollywood
Speaker 1: Sign are like so congested, like the local residents hate
Speaker 1: it so much because and there's probably no place to park,
Speaker 1: and it's awful exactly trying to make it hard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because people live up there, you know. But that's I'm
Speaker 1: surprised you didn't. It's like that's how I knew I
Speaker 1: was at a rider house. It was like, well, I
Speaker 1: can't the streets are are turning everywhere and I can't
Speaker 1: actually park, So hey, I must be at the rider's house.
Speaker 1: It's just a scant thirteen miles from where I had
Speaker 1: to park my car. That's gonna be nice, man. I like,
Speaker 1: you know, I like to be around trees. I like
Speaker 1: to be so that means being a little off the
Speaker 1: beaten path. My place now is right off a big,
Speaker 1: big road. No no, no no, your place now has decent parking,
Speaker 1: But the other ones it was like, are you. I'd
Speaker 1: have to call you and be like, I'm acclimatizing for
Speaker 1: the night. I'll see you in the morning. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that is I once my car got stuck hanging off
Speaker 1: a cliff outside of Writers right, that's right, because I
Speaker 1: was on the curb. I was backing and it was
Speaker 1: really curved. It was a terrible, terrible thing, and I
Speaker 1: can don't see and it was dark, and I turned
Speaker 1: my wheel and I like went, literally my car was
Speaker 1: dangling off. That's right. I forgot. Did it rip off
Speaker 1: the front of your car too? And we know nothing,
Speaker 1: nothing like happening. I just couldn't get the wheel back
Speaker 1: up onto the things. So the tow truck just had
Speaker 1: to basically bring my car down the We just started
Speaker 1: driving tow trucks to Rider's house. It was just easier
Speaker 1: that way, say a lot safer. Oh my god. That
Speaker 1: was one of our boy Beats World dinners that we had,
Speaker 1: remember one of our boy Meats World dinners. It was
Speaker 1: really fun. Well, I'd love to introduce our next guests.
Speaker 1: Her name is Jessica Bibbo. I hope I said that right.
Speaker 1: Jessica Um. She was one of the background actors that
Speaker 1: Genie are very first guest. Genie had friends that she
Speaker 1: would bring in as being other background actors, and Jessica
Speaker 1: was one of those people. Hi are you. Jessica was
Speaker 1: one of the background actor actors in the famous Danielle
Speaker 1: to Penga cutting her hair episode Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.
Speaker 1: And so you're actually in the bathroom scene with me, right, yes? Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was my first time ever being on the show too.
Speaker 1: That was the first episode. Yes, And I remember they
Speaker 1: picked me, I think because I have obviously big hair.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so the lady picked me and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, like I've never even been here before,
Speaker 1: I've done this. So I and my friend Ginie was like,
Speaker 1: She's like, you got a feature and whatever. Three years
Speaker 1: and so what happened? So was it de de de
Speaker 1: Stefano who pay d out? It was? Yeah, she picked
Speaker 1: me in another um extra I called Wendy and it
Speaker 1: was the three of us and I made me Indy
Speaker 1: bathroom and I I think it was it was such
Speaker 1: a fun experience. I was so nervous the first day
Speaker 1: and it just it was just so much fun to
Speaker 1: be in that episode, especially because it was such a
Speaker 1: big hit. Yeah, and you're so featured in the in
Speaker 1: the bathroom at the sink right there, So, um, what
Speaker 1: do you really like remember about that day? I remember,
Speaker 1: I remember you actually, Um, I was so nervous for
Speaker 1: you because you had to cut your hair on camera
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my gosh, this is like
Speaker 1: I was so nervous for you and like you had
Speaker 1: to get it in the So I really remember that,
Speaker 1: and I just remember thinking like being nervous for you,
Speaker 1: and and just I thought it was it was just
Speaker 1: so fun because it was really my first time on
Speaker 1: a set and so the whole thing like it looked
Speaker 1: smaller than I thought it would. You know how everyone
Speaker 1: always says that's true. It's totally true. It is true.
Speaker 1: I guess it's just something about when you actually see
Speaker 1: the limits of the set, You're like, oh, well that's
Speaker 1: all it is. I'm like it's shorter, and like I
Speaker 1: don't know, like there was there. I had like this
Speaker 1: perception of what it would be and then it was different.
Speaker 1: So I remember that. And then um, I also remember
Speaker 1: I got to get my makeup done, so that was
Speaker 1: super exciting because I was featured. I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 1: get to get my I did. I'm like, you don't
Speaker 1: bother with the hair. No one's gonna know how to
Speaker 1: do that, not my hair, but I did. So. The
Speaker 1: other actor that was featured with you, Wendy. Had you
Speaker 1: ever met her before? Did you know her at all?
Speaker 1: I didn't, but my my best friend Genie was friends
Speaker 1: with her. They worked together every week, and so we
Speaker 1: connected immediately. We're still friends to this day. And because
Speaker 1: I think Jennie was talking about Wendy, yeah, we're all
Speaker 1: still friends and I, you know, I met her that
Speaker 1: one time. I live in Orange County too, so I
Speaker 1: don't see her, but um, we're still connected just because
Speaker 1: of that one day and we still like reminisce about it.
Speaker 1: She was like so excited to be chosen too. So
Speaker 1: are you are you a Mission Viejo as well? I am, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you're also not a Diablo. You were a Cougar exactly. Okay,
Speaker 1: how did you know? That's because we talked to We
Speaker 1: talked to Jeannie and my wife is Diablo, so so
Speaker 1: my kids are going to be Diablos. Okay, there you go, alright,
Speaker 1: and my my uncle and my mom and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of mission video history in this
Speaker 1: there is why we were. My My wife lived off
Speaker 1: a spartan right right across from anton Across from Antonucie
Speaker 1: is Antonucci still there, like the greatest Italian restaurant. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's totally that I used to go. They're growing up
Speaker 1: with my grandfather. I'm Italian, so that was like his spots. Yeah. Sorry,
Speaker 1: little little mission viejo. So it's for my wife. Shout
Speaker 1: out to my wife. Can I ask you a question?
Speaker 1: Had you heard of boy Mets World or seen Boy
Speaker 1: Me's World before you came on the show. I had
Speaker 1: heard of it, um, you know, I was. I was
Speaker 1: older at the time, so I was I don't think
Speaker 1: I had seen it. I had seen it maybe on TV.
Speaker 1: But the funny thing is because I was in college.
Speaker 1: The day after the show aired and I went to school,
Speaker 1: everybody came up to me, I'm not kidding you. I
Speaker 1: saw you on TV, Oh my gosh, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, like so many college people, college age people
Speaker 1: were watching the show, boys, girls, everything, so I was like,
Speaker 1: that's so cool. Yeah. I mean, at first I knew
Speaker 1: about the show was such a big hid Do you
Speaker 1: ever tell people about it? Now? Do you have children?
Speaker 1: Do they know about your past as a background actor.
Speaker 1: My kids like think it's so fun because I showed
Speaker 1: him the picture of the three of us at the bathroom. Um,
Speaker 1: they think it's very cool. They know I'm doing this.
Speaker 1: They can't wait to hear about it. Um And yeah,
Speaker 1: I still I have so many friends who are like,
Speaker 1: I can't believe that that was you. They knew the episode.
Speaker 1: They're like, so they think it's amazing that I was.
Speaker 1: I like, not, I was not the actor, but like
Speaker 1: they think it's like the coolest thing. So, yeah, it does.
Speaker 1: It still comes up. It's so funny. Now you remember
Speaker 1: being nervous for me? Do you remember? Did I seem nervous?
Speaker 1: I think you? If anything, you you were very focused
Speaker 1: and concentrated and maybe a little stressed. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I don't know that was my feeling. It was an
Speaker 1: incredibly stressful day. I remember it. I remember set was
Speaker 1: on edge. We were all like, it was not a
Speaker 1: fun It's I have to say, like, I do not
Speaker 1: have fond memories of it. I have like I get
Speaker 1: like not in my stomach when I think about that
Speaker 1: day on set. Yeah, I think people also thought you
Speaker 1: were gonna cut your hair. Sure. I thought you're gonna
Speaker 1: cut your hair shorter than you did, so when you
Speaker 1: actually cut it, I was like okay. Like it was
Speaker 1: like more of like a like a relaxed, relaxed moment
Speaker 1: for me, because I thought you were going to go
Speaker 1: like up, like bobbing it up. So seeing that you
Speaker 1: lifted it up and cut it, I was like okay.
Speaker 1: I was like that that. I was given very specific
Speaker 1: instructions about where I was allowed to cut, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was was a very stressful day. And Michael came
Speaker 1: out and said, you know, okay, show me where, show
Speaker 1: me where, and I was like like right here, and
Speaker 1: he was like lower and I was like no, because
Speaker 1: I wanted to go a little shorter, and Michael really
Speaker 1: had a spot that he he really wanted me to
Speaker 1: do it. Um. Now I have a question. Has anybody
Speaker 1: asked you because you're holding the scissors at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, you get to decide where the cut happens.
Speaker 1: Did you ever think, even for a moment about cutting
Speaker 1: it in a different spot than people told you to? Well,
Speaker 1: not really, mostly because I didn't want to screw anything
Speaker 1: up for the one take we have on camera. And
Speaker 1: it was like things were very set, you know, we
Speaker 1: had we only had a certain amount of time we
Speaker 1: had we could rehearse it and and then you get
Speaker 1: the one take with the scissors. But it also was
Speaker 1: a little like the way she cut it, she meaning me,
Speaker 1: the way I cut my hair. I just swung my
Speaker 1: hair around and then grabbed it and cut it wasn't
Speaker 1: like so I knew there was a margin of error
Speaker 1: that was kind of out of my control. But I
Speaker 1: definitely didn't want to do anything that was going to
Speaker 1: make anybody mad at me. And I also knew that
Speaker 1: I needed to cut it in a place where there
Speaker 1: was still room for then when I got a real
Speaker 1: haircut where that could still it was still going to
Speaker 1: get shorter from that wherever I cut it, because I
Speaker 1: was going to cut a blunt cut and then you know,
Speaker 1: Lorie was going to put layers in it and stuff.
Speaker 1: So I knew it was going to end up being
Speaker 1: a little shorter than wherever I cut it. So I
Speaker 1: also didn't want my hair to be too short. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a really stressful. Remember the rehearsing and blocking
Speaker 1: of that scene where then Jeff McCracken would yell before
Speaker 1: we got to it because they wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: we got the scene all the way up until the
Speaker 1: point of the cut perfectly. And yeah, I remember being like,
Speaker 1: you can say stop in a normal voice. I'm not
Speaker 1: because Jeff as an actor, Jeff took on. Do you
Speaker 1: remember watching his face when he faces of the emotions
Speaker 1: of the actor on the scene he was on the
Speaker 1: set with, which made him totally find myself doing that.
Speaker 1: Do you do that, Danielle, you're watching the monitor. I
Speaker 1: totally do it too. I'm constant. I'm I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm as exaggerated as Jeff, but I'm definitely like putting
Speaker 1: myself through whatever the actor right when I'm directing. It's
Speaker 1: so yeah, that's what makes I also do it, even
Speaker 1: with hair in the face. Like I was watching you know,
Speaker 1: I just directed a movie. I was telling you about
Speaker 1: it on camera there was a piece of hair in
Speaker 1: one of the actor's faces and I was like, I
Speaker 1: was like, and it was like, Okay, that's not gonna work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I think we we all got that from from Jeff. Jeff,
Speaker 1: are you still in the business. So I did like
Speaker 1: a couple more things after your show, um, like, you know,
Speaker 1: very little things and then I ended up going into
Speaker 1: the skincare business, so I became an esthetician. I have
Speaker 1: my own skincare line now called Skincare, and that's what
Speaker 1: I've been doing literally since. Like I was twunny, simply,
Speaker 1: what's your website skin care? Yeah? Do you go at website? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's just simply just skinkcare dot com. It's all natural.
Speaker 1: It's out of Orange County, so it's doing really well.
Speaker 1: It's good. It's I should send you some please, yes,
Speaker 1: we we will all take it, you guys. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: It works really well. I need it because we were
Speaker 1: talking about how I washed my entire body with head
Speaker 1: and shoulders. Was that in this episode? I can't remember
Speaker 1: at this point. So I need some sort of skincare
Speaker 1: regime because the one apparently good. It's simple, like, it's great,
Speaker 1: it's okay, perfect. I don't have dandrif on my face?
Speaker 1: Do I write her? Do? I? I don't know. Well,
Speaker 1: Jessica was really nice to reconnect with you. Thank you
Speaker 1: for being here with us. I'm I'm so glad you're
Speaker 1: in that iconic scene and set with me. We have
Speaker 1: this adorable picture of the three of us that I'll
Speaker 1: put on and put on the Instagram and thank you
Speaker 1: for being here with us. I love it. It It was
Speaker 1: so good talking to you guys. Thank you for having
Speaker 1: me as well. Thanks for joining us. It's so fun.
Speaker 1: She's so sweet, so sweet, and so many background actors
Speaker 1: from Orange County, Orange County, which makes perfect sense. I
Speaker 1: guess for people who aren't out here that that can
Speaker 1: be a hike. I mean, I'm from Orange County. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's at the very I mean, with great traffic,
Speaker 1: it's still at least an hour. Oh yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: now with with traffic, traffic, it's an hour and twenty minutes,
Speaker 1: and with traffic you're looking at two hours plus. It
Speaker 1: makes the question why not kids in Los Angeles? Like
Speaker 1: why didn't why didn't teenagers in Los Angeles become background?
Speaker 1: Maybe because they kind of grew up around the industry
Speaker 1: and it just took about it. And yeah, and whereas
Speaker 1: like in the Orange County you'd be like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: right over there and get these jobs. That's interesting. Maybe
Speaker 1: I don't know, but it is. That's and then they
Speaker 1: all seem the other thing that's very interesting so far,
Speaker 1: and we we didn't ask Jessica, well, she kind of
Speaker 1: told this this, but it doesn't seem like you kind
Speaker 1: of were on the circuit where it's you did nine
Speaker 1: O two and no, you did step by step, you did,
Speaker 1: you did, It's like you had you did Party of five.
Speaker 1: There are certain shows that you did everywhere. Interesting. Well.
Speaker 1: Our next guest is a woman named Melody Morrero, and
Speaker 1: she was a background actor in seasons two and three,
Speaker 1: but then she was featured in season two, episode twelve
Speaker 1: called Turnaround, and she was given a name Jacqueline. So
Speaker 1: I can't wait to hear about how that happened and
Speaker 1: who Jacqueline was. Hi, Oh my gosh, it is so
Speaker 1: cool to see you guys. It's been almost thirty years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're just set. It's been eight years. That's amazing. A
Speaker 1: few years. It's so good to see you. So you
Speaker 1: were a background actor in seasons two and three, but
Speaker 1: then you were featured as Jacqueline in an episode. So
Speaker 1: how did that come about? I was, Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I was so over the moon that day. They said, Okay,
Speaker 1: we've seen you around, said a lot. You were the
Speaker 1: Um I was the waitress at Chubby's a few times,
Speaker 1: and UM, I don't know. It's just happenstance. I was
Speaker 1: just trying not to stick out too much. But when
Speaker 1: one of the producers came up, I think I forget
Speaker 1: her name. The one of the assistant producers said we
Speaker 1: have a spot for you. Just come with us now,
Speaker 1: and so I was like, okay, whatever you whatever you say,
Speaker 1: and then had me walk with with Eric. Oh really,
Speaker 1: wasn't the two of us together? Is that why I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the picture I have. I have a photo
Speaker 1: of us together. It's so great. So where we dad?
Speaker 1: Where we were Eric and Jacqueline dating at the time,
Speaker 1: is it? Yeah, we were totally a thing. Did you
Speaker 1: write a whole backstory? Is there a history there, scripted
Speaker 1: idea about us dating or the Yeah, they didn't exactly
Speaker 1: go with that, but yeah, I just come around the
Speaker 1: corner of the lockers and Eric, you you walk up
Speaker 1: and say hey, Jacqueline, I was just headed that way
Speaker 1: or something along those lines, and I was so geeked out.
Speaker 1: It was so much fun. Man, that's so cool. I'm surprised.
Speaker 1: That must have been the episode that they had Eric
Speaker 1: girl crazy that one episode. Yeah, No, I'm kidding, that
Speaker 1: was Eric's thing? Was It was so great that we
Speaker 1: got a chance to do that. That's very cool. How
Speaker 1: did you become a background actor? UM? In college, one
Speaker 1: of my friends was telling me about she was going
Speaker 1: to a movie set the next day and I said,
Speaker 1: what are you What are you doing? She said, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm an extra and I was like, okay, I
Speaker 1: have no idea what that means. And she told me
Speaker 1: about what she was doing, and it was Central Casting
Speaker 1: at the time, and I was a young mom in
Speaker 1: college and I had a mouth to feed, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: this will be a cool way to make a little
Speaker 1: bit of extra cash. So I did it, and UM
Speaker 1: did a number of things, but we be Scrolled happened
Speaker 1: to be absolutely my favorite, obviously, But I did it
Speaker 1: for two years, two and a half, Yeah, three seasons almost,
Speaker 1: and I did an episode of Friends and Er and
Speaker 1: a lot of things. But yeah, first it was just
Speaker 1: a way to make some cash. And then I thought,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll get bit by the acting bug. And that
Speaker 1: didn't exactly plan pad out that way, but yeah, that's
Speaker 1: how I kind of stumbled upon this. So do you
Speaker 1: still work in the entertainment industry? What do you do now? No,
Speaker 1: I'm in human resources. Yeah, I went from background acting
Speaker 1: to human resources. So yeah, for what company? For Toyota?
Speaker 1: Oh nice, Yeah, that's cool. It's a great gig. I'm
Speaker 1: about to celebrate twenty three years with Toyota, so but
Speaker 1: pretty much my my very last extra gig was Buffy
Speaker 1: the Vampire Slayer. I was hired by Toyota the next week,
Speaker 1: so I was like, cool, I guess I have a career.
Speaker 1: The acting thing is just not gonna help from Buffy
Speaker 1: the Vampire Slayer to the career you're going to do
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life. That's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: That's kind of cool. Yeah, people like, what was your
Speaker 1: last job? I was like, a vampire slayer? What did
Speaker 1: you do? I'm looking at a picture you sent us
Speaker 1: of me and you and another one of our background
Speaker 1: actors and script am I doing? What earth is this? Pose?
Speaker 1: It's You're the only one who didn't realize that you
Speaker 1: weren't in a chorus line at the time, I Danielle,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but it was adorable and I loved it,
Speaker 1: and clearly I've treasured it for twenty years. So I'm
Speaker 1: so glad you guys are in like matching denim too. Yes,
Speaker 1: I completely recognize you. By the way, I totally recognize you.
Speaker 1: You do not, I swear to God. From the second
Speaker 1: I saw the picture, I completely recognize you because you
Speaker 1: did multiple episodes, and again we were around the same age,
Speaker 1: so we were always kind of together. You were in
Speaker 1: It wasn't like you were in the classroom scenes as
Speaker 1: a kid. Um we were. It was always kind of
Speaker 1: around Eric. So yeah, I recognized you from the second
Speaker 1: I saw the phone. Oh my gosh. Oh that just
Speaker 1: warms my heart. I wasn't sure if you guys would remember,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I'm looking at the picture. I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I totally remember you and being in the hallways with
Speaker 1: you with the lockers and all that stuff. Yeah, that picture.
Speaker 1: I think they made me change my shirt though right
Speaker 1: after they're like, yeah, you both can't. We're denthely, so
Speaker 1: see they're like, Danielle's wearing denim, take it off. That's
Speaker 1: pretty much what would happened. I mean, I'd walk into
Speaker 1: certain outfits and they'd be like, yeah, honey, that's not
Speaker 1: gonna work. So that's so funny. You in So Angeles
Speaker 1: at the time we were you were doing the show. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: I lived near Pasadena, so just a quick quick ride
Speaker 1: on the four or five every day. Yeah, it was local.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to ask you, but I have a
Speaker 1: feeling your favorite scene was probably when you were featured
Speaker 1: as Jacqueline with Will. But do you have any like
Speaker 1: other real specific memory of something that just really stands
Speaker 1: out from your time on Boy Meats World? I do.
Speaker 1: That is definitely my favorite. But there's just a flashback
Speaker 1: to the fifties. You were in that episode two. I
Speaker 1: was in that one. I had a poodle skirt, the
Speaker 1: pony tails scarf um and we were at Chubby's in
Speaker 1: the scene that I was in. So that was one
Speaker 1: of my other favorites. Was just because I got to
Speaker 1: go through full like hair and makeup and wardrobe and stuff.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that wasn't really that was a fun costume.
Speaker 1: So they provide Did they provide the costume for you
Speaker 1: that time? You didn't have to bring your own? That's
Speaker 1: so cool. Yeah, it was cool. I was looking for
Speaker 1: it and I forgot the title of the episode, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a good one. I can't wait till we
Speaker 1: get to those. I don't know. We know so many
Speaker 1: of the flashbacks at different times, but the fifties one
Speaker 1: was the was the was that the toaster one? I
Speaker 1: think that was the forties? I don't remember. We can't
Speaker 1: remember we did the forties. The forties? Was the cat
Speaker 1: that took us from the cat from Sabrina took us
Speaker 1: back in time from episode? I think it was the toaster.
Speaker 1: There's something that the coaster back to the fifties. That's
Speaker 1: when we're like most of the cast of Happy Days
Speaker 1: was on the episode, right, I'm like Shanzarelli or whatever. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're going to get a lot of I'll get a
Speaker 1: lot of emails telling us exactly how it happen. We
Speaker 1: should stop talking about it now, that's so funny. Well, Melody,
Speaker 1: we thank you so much for being here with us,
Speaker 1: and thank you for for being a part of Boy
Speaker 1: Meets World with us all that twenty plus years ago.
Speaker 1: A lot to us. Oh, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: including me. This was so much fun. I was so
Speaker 1: stoked when I got the email. So it's just so
Speaker 1: great to see you all again. It was so great
Speaker 1: to see you. Is there is there anywhere if if
Speaker 1: people want to want to find you could do? Are
Speaker 1: you on social media or anything? Yeah? Yeah, Melody m
Speaker 1: M one three is my handle. I'm pretty sure I
Speaker 1: don't message myself a lot, so I forget so funny.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us. It was great to see you,
Speaker 1: and everybody is so nice. I totally remember, especially when
Speaker 1: I saw the picture, Like at first I was kind
Speaker 1: of and then I completely remember, because again, we had
Speaker 1: the extras were kind of extras. I don't like that connotation.
Speaker 1: The background actors were were like compartmentalized, so it's you
Speaker 1: all had your kind of classroom extras, I said it again,
Speaker 1: which I was never really a part of, so you know,
Speaker 1: like I got to meet Dusty and everybody else. But
Speaker 1: then as we grew up and Eric was more involved
Speaker 1: with other people around as opposed to just being in
Speaker 1: the school, there was a group of background actors where
Speaker 1: I was with a Lot and Justin and Melody. Those
Speaker 1: are all the kind of the same people that were
Speaker 1: around there, which is really neat. So I sort of
Speaker 1: buried this lead. But it actually didn't occur to me
Speaker 1: until we were already recording this episode. But my one
Speaker 1: of my best friends, um, one of my closest friends,
Speaker 1: He's coming over to my house for dinner tonight. He
Speaker 1: was going to bring this up. He was in my
Speaker 1: wedding party. Actually, he was one of my group's been
Speaker 1: at my wedding. His name is Chris Levitts and he's
Speaker 1: a director from a writer director, and I met him
Speaker 1: because I was I acted in a movie that he
Speaker 1: directed in my twenties and that's when we became friends.
Speaker 1: But he was an extra on Boy Leats World, one
Speaker 1: of his first jobs as a kid, and it was
Speaker 1: when he was under age, I think because he was
Speaker 1: a kid actor, so he remember seeing his s but I,
Speaker 1: you know, I talked him about it because I remember
Speaker 1: when we first talked about doing this episode. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you should come on. He actually doesn't have many memories.
Speaker 1: I think he only did one or two episodes, but
Speaker 1: it was one of the first things he said to
Speaker 1: me when we started working either He's like, you know
Speaker 1: we I was actually on your show back of this.
Speaker 1: So I've always been curious if I can see him
Speaker 1: in an episode, So as we do our are it
Speaker 1: would probably be the second or third season, so I
Speaker 1: have to keep an eye out for him somewhere in
Speaker 1: the background of one of our epis. Another one of
Speaker 1: our background actors was cal penn Real Yes really yes.
Speaker 1: In what he was in like a sports scene. Well,
Speaker 1: let's get him on our show. Let's talk about um,
Speaker 1: do you think the chances so so we're watching a
Speaker 1: lot of alone right now. Do you think the chances
Speaker 1: are that Dusty maybe lives a life off the grid,
Speaker 1: which is why he knows nothing about the podcast communing
Speaker 1: with the Bears? Yeah, like maybe we just Dusty has
Speaker 1: no idea because he's like skinning something right now or
Speaker 1: you know, making a fire with sticks or pete. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm still I'm still determined. I'm still holding
Speaker 1: her Dusty for Dusty. So well, this was really a
Speaker 1: great way to wrap up our twenty three and Me episode.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much to twenty three and Me for
Speaker 1: helping us get to know our backgrounds both personally and
Speaker 1: from from boy Meat's world. It was really a really
Speaker 1: smart way of bringing this all together. And like I said,
Speaker 1: I am really I did. Now that I have a
Speaker 1: couple of wellness and health uh you know, some information
Speaker 1: about myself, but now I can take to my doctor
Speaker 1: and can hopefully change the decisions I make for my
Speaker 1: future knowing a few things. And so I encourage you
Speaker 1: to take the twenty three and Me test as well.
Speaker 1: And get to know your background and get to know
Speaker 1: a little bit more about your health and how you
Speaker 1: can help take care of yourself to prevent issues from
Speaker 1: coming up in the future. I also always figured I
Speaker 1: was a superhero, but to actually be told that I am,
Speaker 1: it really changed the whole ball game for me. It
Speaker 1: really did. It's it's it's pretty great to get that
Speaker 1: confirmation finally, so you can get your superhero confirmation at
Speaker 1: twenty three in me dot com. Thank you for joining
Speaker 1: us for Pod Meets World. I am. I don't know
Speaker 1: why I was doing our exit like I was gonna
Speaker 1: say my name again. Mike. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: I'm you. Just listen to a whole episode with me
Speaker 1: like you are. You can follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: pod Meats World Show, and you can also send us
Speaker 1: an email at pod Meats World Show at gmail dot com,
Speaker 1: and as always, we have merch March that was so
Speaker 1: subtle and dot com March baby. Sorry, Pod meets World
Speaker 1: Show dot com. Thank you guys for being with us.
Speaker 1: We will see you next time, will We love you all?
Speaker 1: Pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is an I heart podcast
Speaker 1: produced and hosted by Daniel Fisher. Wilford l and Ryder
Speaker 1: Strong executive producers, Jensen Carpet and Amy Sugarman, Executive in
Speaker 1: charge of production, Daniel Romo, producer and editor, Tara sup
Speaker 1: Buch producer, Jackie Rodriguez engineer and Boy Meets World super
Speaker 1: fan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton
Speaker 1: of Typhoon and you can follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Pod Meets World Show or email us at Pod Meets
Speaker 1: World Show at gmail dot com. And that's it On
Speaker 1: another dope show, Did this episode inspire you to take
Speaker 1: a closer look at your health history, your genetic makeup.
Speaker 1: Who new DNA could reveal so much about our past
Speaker 1: while also holding the keys to certain health insights that
Speaker 1: may impact our future. I continue to be inspired by
Speaker 1: these stories, and I hope you do as well. Catch
Speaker 1: you next time. Listen to Spit, an original podcast from
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and twenty three in the on the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcast