Speaker 1: Danielle cancer update, my favorite.
Speaker 2: Stop talking about it, Danielle.
Speaker 3: We're done with it.
Speaker 1: No, I just wanted to give everyone an update because
Speaker 1: I've kept you guys all abreast. I've kept you all
Speaker 1: abreast of what's been going on with my breast cancer
Speaker 1: diagnosis and treatment. I am officially done with radiation, which
Speaker 1: means I am officially done with what is considered active
Speaker 1: cancer treatment. Surgeries, chemo, which I did not need to have,
Speaker 1: and radiation are all considered active cancer treatments, and so
Speaker 1: I'm done. I don't have to have any more of those.
Speaker 1: I now will just start to moxifen eventually. My doctors
Speaker 1: wanted me to wait until my body had physically healed
Speaker 1: from the damage that radiation does before they put me
Speaker 1: onto moxiphin because tomxifin I will have some side effects
Speaker 1: from and they didn't want to overload me with negative
Speaker 1: side effects.
Speaker 2: So radiation was.
Speaker 1: Actual time there relatively easy. You don't really do anything,
Speaker 1: you just lay there. It's really short, it's super fast.
Speaker 1: I did fifteen rounds of whole breast radiation and then
Speaker 1: five rounds of targeted radiation, which just means they focus
Speaker 1: in on the very small area where my cancer was
Speaker 1: versus treating the entire breast. It will help significantly lower
Speaker 1: my chances of recurrence, which is always good news.
Speaker 2: But boy, I am feeling.
Speaker 1: The effects I am physically. I have a very bad sunburn.
Speaker 1: I also have a rash on top of the sunburn,
Speaker 1: which is just great. So it's very itchy. And also
Speaker 1: you can't itch it because if you even come close
Speaker 1: to touching it you want to cry. So yeah, hurts to
Speaker 1: wear a bra, hurts to not wear a bra. It's
Speaker 1: just hurts to sleep on my side, hurts to sleep period,
Speaker 1: hurts to be awake. It's just yeah, it hurts to
Speaker 1: live right now. But you know what, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: last forever.
Speaker 2: Physically.
Speaker 1: Every day now, I'm supposed to be getting better, fatigue wise,
Speaker 1: I am really very stinking tired. And I had a
Speaker 1: doctor's appointment yesterday. I had a follow up so they
Speaker 1: could see how I'm healing. And I asked, I'm just
Speaker 1: not used to feeling this tired. I'm so so fatigued,
Speaker 1: and they said, oh, yeah, well, you know it's a
Speaker 1: cumulative effect, so you're only right now starting to feel
Speaker 1: the effects of your first radio And I said, so
Speaker 1: how much longer am I going to feel like this?
Speaker 1: And they're like, you'll feel better in two to three months.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, what I'm going to feel this tired for
Speaker 1: two to three months and.
Speaker 2: Then get this.
Speaker 1: They told me that if I want to feel better faster,
Speaker 1: I need to work out and drink water those faster.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, you want me to be tired and take
Speaker 1: care of myself.
Speaker 2: But just unbelievable.
Speaker 1: So I guess I'll try to drink more than twelve
Speaker 1: ounces of water today, which is my normal intakeout.
Speaker 3: That is that is not good?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I did start working out. I worked out yesterday.
Speaker 1: I'm going to work out again on Friday, because he
Speaker 1: said all the working out and drinking water helps my
Speaker 1: body get rid of all the damage that the radiation did.
Speaker 2: So anyway, I'm.
Speaker 3: Have you found the best or me?
Speaker 2: App No? Is that is that the calisenics thing you do?
Speaker 4: The calisthenics thing I do every day and Susan and
Speaker 4: I do it together and it's like fifteen it starts.
Speaker 4: It's like fifteen minutes a day, Okay, super easy. You
Speaker 4: don't need anything, there's no weights, there's no anything. You
Speaker 4: just they do like a twenty eight day program. Today
Speaker 4: is my last day of doing it, and it's super
Speaker 4: super simple.
Speaker 1: So not an ad Are you saying that for twenty
Speaker 1: eight days I could do to calisthenics and then I'll
Speaker 1: and then that's it.
Speaker 2: That's it is just twenty eight days.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 2: You're good.
Speaker 4: Well, that's this one regiment. It's not You're not going
Speaker 4: to be miss universe in twenty eight days. But then
Speaker 4: I don't want a good exercise.
Speaker 2: It gets me to miss universe in twenty eight days.
Speaker 4: Some random kind of drugs I would imagine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The drinking water thing is key. Yeah, And it's also
Speaker 4: I so I heard we will beep. But I about
Speaker 4: a month ago just heard my wife in the kitchen
Speaker 4: say to herself, okay, in like just this voice, maybe
Speaker 4: try drinking some more water, you stupid.
Speaker 3: And I walked in, like who are you talking to?
Speaker 3: And she's like, oh, that was for me, And I
Speaker 3: was like, can we not talk to my wife like that?
Speaker 3: That's that's really really under on her behalf.
Speaker 4: Yes, but she does the same thing where she's like
Speaker 4: and then what she'll remember to do it at nine
Speaker 4: thirty when what happens, and then she has to peet
Speaker 4: nine times in the night.
Speaker 3: It's you got to see.
Speaker 6: Those water bottles that like track how much you're supposed
Speaker 6: to drink, like when you're moving drink.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I actually I own one of those. Do
Speaker 2: I use it?
Speaker 1: Of course not, but yeah I don't. I'm not thirsty
Speaker 1: ever all day until right before I get into bed,
Speaker 1: and then suddenly I'm very parched. I have to drink
Speaker 1: thirty six ounces of water immediately.
Speaker 2: And it tastes incredible good. Why does a water taste
Speaker 2: like that at noon?
Speaker 4: At no at nine thirty ten o'clock at night, you're
Speaker 4: in bed, all tucked and warm. It is the greatest
Speaker 4: tasting thing in the world, is chugging water.
Speaker 3: And it's like, well them, I'm up in an hour.
Speaker 3: That was stupid.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: Sometimes when alth there wakes me up to pe in
Speaker 1: the middle of the night, I'm really happy because I'm like,
Speaker 1: I also needed to go and I was.
Speaker 2: Gonna be too lazy to get out of bed.
Speaker 1: But now that I'm here helping you, I'll just And
Speaker 1: for those wondering why I have to help my five
Speaker 1: year old p it' said he doesn't have a doesn't
Speaker 1: have a bathroom in his room, and so he and
Speaker 1: it's very dark and lonely in the house with a
Speaker 1: mommy helping you to the bathroom.
Speaker 4: Can I make a suggestion, just so he knows what
Speaker 4: he does to you at night? I say, tonight you
Speaker 4: wake up to pee, start yelling his name.
Speaker 2: Put the monitor in his room.
Speaker 3: So he has to come and help you go to
Speaker 3: the bathroom. And then at the end, just be like,
Speaker 3: see this is what it's like.
Speaker 2: Do you like it? He'd probably love it. He'd be thrilled.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he'd be awake exactly. This is why I'm
Speaker 3: not a parent, one of the many reasons. Just put
Speaker 3: it on the list.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Pond Meets World.
Speaker 3: I'm Danielle Fischel, I'm right or Strong, and I'm Wilfordell.
Speaker 1: During our rewatch, we have had a lot of fun
Speaker 1: pointing out some of our favorite Boy Meets World background actors,
Speaker 1: from Dusty Tasie Me to the guy we can't find
Speaker 1: who looks like writer. Some of our fondest memories have
Speaker 1: been reminiscing about the fun times we had with actors
Speaker 1: and actresses you may not have known by name, but
Speaker 1: were around all the time. Actually, one of the most
Speaker 1: fun episodes of this podcast was when we got to
Speaker 1: reunite with and talked to a handful of these talented
Speaker 1: people and heard all about taping Boy Meets World from
Speaker 1: a totally different perspective. So imagine our surprise when we
Speaker 1: found out thirty years later that one of our background
Speaker 1: actors in the season four ROMP Quiz Show would go
Speaker 1: on to become one of Hollywood's most beloved TV and
Speaker 1: movie stars. Well, at first we didn't believe it. Then
Speaker 1: we recapped the episode and yep, there he was front
Speaker 1: and center. We were looking at a very young Cal Pen.
Speaker 1: You know, Cal from an unlimited number of bursting into
Speaker 1: mainstream success in two thousand and four as Kumar in
Speaker 1: the Harold and Kumar franchise, then appearing on shows like House,
Speaker 1: How I'm at Your Mother and the Santa Clauses, with
Speaker 1: movies like Smile and Van Wilder. He'd take a two
Speaker 1: year sabbatical from acting in two thousand and nine to
Speaker 1: serve in the Obama administration as an Associate director of
Speaker 1: the White House Office of Public Engagement. That's about the
Speaker 1: same time I was gift wrapping at a Bloomingdale's for
Speaker 1: Fun and hosting a clip show on the Style Network.
Speaker 2: So we've had similar journeys. This week, we are.
Speaker 1: Honored to talk to the most successful background actor in
Speaker 1: boy Meets World history, someone whose resume we will now
Speaker 1: take all the credit for. Welcome to Pod Meets World,
Speaker 1: our co star Cal Penn Good. Oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: am so excited. I'm so excited that we've made this happen.
Speaker 5: Oh my, thank you, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, thank you for being here.
Speaker 1: I can only imagine that over the years, your door
Speaker 1: has practically been kicked in by people asking you about
Speaker 1: your time on Boyme's World. So the fact that you
Speaker 1: waited to talk about it to be with us really
Speaker 1: means a lot.
Speaker 5: You know, people do ask about it a lot, which
Speaker 5: applies to be And so when I when I saw
Speaker 5: this email, and I know we have mutual friends that
Speaker 5: sort of connected us, I was like, yes, absolutely love
Speaker 5: to come on this podcast. It's like, obviously it was
Speaker 5: an eternity ago, and it was like right when I
Speaker 5: had moved to La but I had such a great
Speaker 5: time that this was like very exciting.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, I want to get to all of all
Speaker 1: of that, and I'm really happy to hear that you
Speaker 1: had such a good time. But before we do talk
Speaker 1: about that, where you moved to LA.
Speaker 2: How old were you? You were you lived and you
Speaker 2: were born in New Jersey.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was born in New Jersey. I got into
Speaker 5: UCLA at their theater and Film school, and so I
Speaker 5: moved at eighteen. I graduated high school and moved across
Speaker 5: the country. It was one of those classically didn't know
Speaker 5: anybody in entertainment or in ol and I sort of thought,
Speaker 5: like I wanted to do more film and TV. I
Speaker 5: had some somewhat of a theater background. I went to
Speaker 5: a performing arts high school outside of New York City,
Speaker 5: and so I just like I moved to LA and
Speaker 5: u c l A is a great program, but it's
Speaker 5: very theater focused, which I didn't realize. What most students
Speaker 5: would do is they would kind of either audition outside
Speaker 5: of the classroom or they would work. Like there were
Speaker 5: a lot of obviously working actors. It was. It was LA,
Speaker 5: So people would be in school and then just go
Speaker 5: off and shoot commercials and stuff. And I'm like, I
Speaker 5: don't know how to do any of this. I do,
Speaker 5: and so that was that was just being a team
Speaker 5: and being out in La Also, I had not a
Speaker 5: car for like the first three years, like.
Speaker 3: Walking the three blocks of Westwood and that's it.
Speaker 5: And it was like you could get like I remember
Speaker 5: trying to go to I got some internship my sophomore
Speaker 5: year in Burbank at I think it was Lucasfilm, so
Speaker 5: like really love it. Yeah, And it took me two
Speaker 5: hours on the bus from Westwood to Burbank. And on
Speaker 5: the third day I was like, yeah, I can't do this.
Speaker 5: I'm not there's no time to study. It's like it's
Speaker 5: dark when you go home.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: I didn't a laptop. It's not like I could like
Speaker 5: do papers on the Boss or something.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Anyway, those are the days.
Speaker 1: You just ate a lot of Dede Reese cookies. That's
Speaker 1: what you had for dinner most nights.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Ady rees whatever. That sandwich shop that's probably four
Speaker 5: dollars now that used to be a book fifty Oh man.
Speaker 2: I'm okay.
Speaker 1: So we want to talk about your experiences on the show,
Speaker 1: but I do also first want to give a shout
Speaker 1: out to a Twitter user I refuse to call it
Speaker 1: X at work with TJ who somehow spotted you because
Speaker 1: a few years ago this was exposed on Twitter that
Speaker 1: you were a background actor on Boy Meets World and
Speaker 1: we had absolutely no idea. Now, did anyone do you
Speaker 1: keep in touch with anyone from the show?
Speaker 2: Did you meet anybody? Did anybody like?
Speaker 1: None of us knew that you were ever on the show,
Speaker 1: which is amazing.
Speaker 5: So I was an extra a few times, okay, And
Speaker 5: I think that's the only one that's like noticeable. I
Speaker 5: didn't know. I didn't keep in touch with anyone. I
Speaker 5: was at UCLA at the time. I would do this
Speaker 5: on my on my days off, mostly because I had
Speaker 5: never been on a real set before, and so everybody
Speaker 5: who I had talked to, and I had plenty of
Speaker 5: friends who were working actors, are like, look, just so
Speaker 5: you know, background work doesn't lead to speaking work. Usually
Speaker 5: they're separate. So as long as you know that that's
Speaker 5: the reality and you're not chasing that path to think
Speaker 5: that you can get a speaking role, it's a great
Speaker 5: way to learn of the TV works and all of that.
Speaker 5: So I started doing it, and you know, there are
Speaker 5: like I love what we do for a living, and
Speaker 5: like entertainment is full of strong personalities. So depending on
Speaker 5: which show you went to, it was either like nightmare,
Speaker 5: I can see why people a real issue with doing
Speaker 5: this type of work. And then you'd also just have
Speaker 5: so much respect for people who are professional background artists.
Speaker 5: And I had a little drama teacher who used to
Speaker 5: tell us that that you know, you'll see when you
Speaker 5: start working there are people who have made their entire
Speaker 5: livelihood out of being background actors, and it's incredible, and
Speaker 5: that their dedication and they know all the rules and
Speaker 5: their union members and the whole thing. So I've met
Speaker 5: a lot of folks like that, and then obviously met
Speaker 5: idiots like me who were like, I don't know, let me.
Speaker 3: See what I can do, right, Well, how did you
Speaker 3: how do you even get jobs?
Speaker 6: Are they? Were they listed in the back of magazines?
Speaker 6: Or like, how do I don't even know how you
Speaker 6: started that?
Speaker 5: There were there were two companies. There were sort of
Speaker 5: sister companies. One was literally called Central Casting if you
Speaker 5: were in the Union, and then that was the background
Speaker 5: acting agency that I think almost every TV show and
Speaker 5: movie used. And then if you were non union, there
Speaker 5: was a company called Senex Casting. Both were based in Burbank.
Speaker 5: I think they were in the same building, and you
Speaker 5: basically went again taking the bus to Burbank. You go
Speaker 5: to Burbank and you you like, pay twenty bucks. It's
Speaker 5: the it's the only time that it's okay to ever
Speaker 5: get it give an agent money when you haven't made
Speaker 5: anything right, right, uh, And they list you in this
Speaker 5: database and then this was you know, this is pre
Speaker 5: uh not pre Internet, but pre like functional Internet. And
Speaker 5: there's a number every day that was updated so many times,
Speaker 5: and you would call in and if you fit any
Speaker 5: of the listings, you would like press another number and
Speaker 5: it would connect you to the agent who was booking
Speaker 5: the background.
Speaker 3: It's like jury duty, totally.
Speaker 5: Very similar. And they would have your picture right so
Speaker 5: they could pull it up and tell you if they
Speaker 5: thought you were the right look or not. And if
Speaker 5: you were, then they would either I guess they would
Speaker 5: email you or tell you exactly where you needed to
Speaker 5: go on which date. And uh so I don't so no,
Speaker 5: I didn't keep in touch, you know, with it. There's
Speaker 5: always a line to write where you I mean, I
Speaker 5: guess I know both sides of this now, but like you,
Speaker 5: you kind of like leave the crew alone so they
Speaker 5: can work, especially if you're a background artist, your job
Speaker 5: doesn't really kick until later, and then you don't want
Speaker 5: to bother any of the any of the actors who
Speaker 5: have speaking roles because they're also prepping for stuff. But
Speaker 5: I will say we did all interact several times.
Speaker 2: Great, please tell us the story.
Speaker 5: We're just great with the background artists. And I think
Speaker 5: part of that was, like, you know, I'm not even
Speaker 5: gonna I've done other I had done other shows, and
Speaker 5: I was an extra on other shows, and I was
Speaker 5: I was about to say, I think it's probably maybe
Speaker 5: because we were all roughly the same age that you
Speaker 5: guys were so nice, But I don't think that's the
Speaker 5: case because I had done other shows. But that definitely
Speaker 5: was not the case.
Speaker 2: You know, what other shows have you worked? I can't
Speaker 2: believe this. I cannot believe. This is just the cool,
Speaker 2: just the coolest thing to me.
Speaker 1: Ever, what other what other shows have you And first
Speaker 1: of all, I need to know also Boy Meets World,
Speaker 1: what other episodes of Boy Meets World were you.
Speaker 3: And we see very featured.
Speaker 5: I honestly don't remember quiz shows that I actually was
Speaker 5: like visit on on screen. There were probably two others. Okay,
Speaker 5: I also did let's see Clueless, Remember the Clueless TV show?
Speaker 3: Of course, Yeah, so they.
Speaker 5: Were also super nice, except the the hours were crazy
Speaker 5: on that show. That was like, they would keep you
Speaker 5: for eighteen and a half.
Speaker 3: Hours, Oh because a single.
Speaker 5: Camera something absurd like that. You're like, I feel like
Speaker 5: this is not.
Speaker 2: Legal.
Speaker 5: Also, I kind of like, you know, I would never
Speaker 5: get to see eighteen hours of production up close at
Speaker 5: you know, you know, when I'm trying to trying to
Speaker 5: break into this industry. So I thought it was I
Speaker 5: thought it was super interesting, but but it was I
Speaker 5: remember remember Clueless being very cold and they didn't feed you.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, long day's cold and you don't get
Speaker 1: to eat It sounds on my nightmare.
Speaker 5: What else I did? Actually I did. I did a
Speaker 5: few episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The caw was
Speaker 5: really nice, the producers were awful, and I remember very clearly,
Speaker 5: and I feel comfortable saying that because I had I
Speaker 5: had a speaking gig on that show. Unrelated, actually there
Speaker 5: was a Yeah, I'd done a bunch of background work
Speaker 5: on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. And then it must have
Speaker 5: been two years later when I finally got an agent
Speaker 5: who by the way, you guys probably know her, do
Speaker 5: you know Barbara Cameron? Of course, she was my first agent.
Speaker 2: That's unbelievable. Candice Cameron's mom.
Speaker 5: Yes, okay, okay, sweetest woman. Like she literally the only
Speaker 5: agent in three and a half years of submitting my
Speaker 5: headshot every single week, the only person who called. And
Speaker 5: I remember walking into her office. Her office was like
Speaker 5: in the back of her house.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, in West.
Speaker 5: Hills, And I had borrowed a car from somebody in
Speaker 5: my dorm and I drove out there and I'm looking
Speaker 5: at the address on like the Thomas Guide print tip
Speaker 5: map that I have for my compier, and I'm looking
Speaker 5: at this house and I was like, this is poor.
Speaker 5: This is what this is, This is not this is
Speaker 5: there's no.
Speaker 2: Way this is a real agent.
Speaker 3: Like this is I'm gonna be taken away by the circus.
Speaker 3: This is what's gonna happen.
Speaker 5: There's something. And then I go in and it's all
Speaker 5: pictures of Kirkan Candice and full house and growing off
Speaker 5: and I was like, okay, this is the opposite of porn,
Speaker 5: right what And then I'm like wait, wait Cameron, Oh
Speaker 5: no way, that's so cool. Right, and then she was
Speaker 5: very sweet and anyway, so she you know, this was
Speaker 5: then two years after I'd done background work on on Sabrina.
Speaker 5: She called and she said, you have this great audition
Speaker 5: for you. And there was a thing in the breakdown
Speaker 5: that said, please make sure that that none of the
Speaker 5: actors you're submitting have ever done background work. So I
Speaker 5: lied to her and I said, no, of course I've
Speaker 5: never done anything.
Speaker 7: That's okay, that's okay, just you know, you want the job.
Speaker 5: It's like, how about these I lied about playing basketball
Speaker 5: so that I could get my SAG card in a
Speaker 5: Nike commercial, like you kind of do what yea?
Speaker 3: My special skills still say, horseback riding. So yeah, never
Speaker 3: been Yeah.
Speaker 5: To the stay, I was like, I mean, if I
Speaker 5: have a month to learn anything, I can just figure
Speaker 5: it out. Yeah. So I got the speaking role in Sabrina.
Speaker 5: They were they were kind of awful even to kind
Speaker 5: of the the actors that have the underfund.
Speaker 3: No, why do you.
Speaker 2: Think they didn't want someone who had ever done.
Speaker 6: Background work because you would have been another student in
Speaker 6: the background or whatever.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I think it's literally for the like a lot,
Speaker 5: I mean your show as well. There were these super fans,
Speaker 5: right who would yeah, who was in each scene or
Speaker 5: yeah yeah, and they would probably look I mean, you know,
Speaker 5: there's endless choice of people who are like eighteen to
Speaker 5: twenty four to play these roles. So all you have
Speaker 5: to do is say, hey, if you've been in the
Speaker 5: background of this show, you can't be in this particular scene. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm just trying. I'm just trying to imagine.
Speaker 1: Like on our show, Dusty was featured in the background
Speaker 1: multiple times, and then they would say, hey, Dusty, go
Speaker 1: ahead and say this line here or there, But like, why.
Speaker 3: Why are the didn't work out?
Speaker 4: It's also it's with Sabrina the teenage, which you're dealing
Speaker 4: with a young witch from Salem, So they don't want
Speaker 4: to take you out.
Speaker 3: Of the reality, right true.
Speaker 4: To see a background actor. They want to keep it real,
Speaker 4: so they want.
Speaker 3: To make sure people don't speak.
Speaker 5: But all of it just to say the contrast from
Speaker 5: from then, you know, being on Boy Meets World was
Speaker 5: like night and day. Was just such a joy to
Speaker 5: come in and you guys were so nice to everybody.
Speaker 5: The crew was wonderful. I can't remember who must have
Speaker 5: been one of the ads or PA's was in charge
Speaker 5: of all the background folks, and they were great, like.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 4: Time.
Speaker 5: I don't I honestly don't remember that the name sounds familiar.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's so great.
Speaker 1: Okay, So did you tell like, did you tell anybody
Speaker 1: at U c l A. That you were doing work
Speaker 1: on Boy Meets World? Did anybody even know what Boy
Speaker 1: Meets World was?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was a big deal. This would have been
Speaker 5: what I think I was on. You guys would know
Speaker 5: the dates better than me, but like ninety seven.
Speaker 2: Maybe, yeah, question was ninety seven?
Speaker 5: I think, yeah, So yeah they knew. I think what
Speaker 5: By the time I had done Boy Means World, I'd
Speaker 5: done other background stints, and you know, you never you
Speaker 5: never see the shot that you're like supposedly in. So
Speaker 5: there were probably five other times I would say to
Speaker 5: like guys in my dorm, like, so tonight I'm gonna
Speaker 5: be on this and nothing obviously no, So I don't
Speaker 5: think I told anybody until after it aired, and then
Speaker 5: you know, I had obviously taped it on VHS and
Speaker 5: was like, okay, look.
Speaker 2: Were you telling your family back in Jersey too?
Speaker 5: I did, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did tell them, And
Speaker 5: I remember my mom was very excited and told a
Speaker 5: bunch of her friends. If I'm remembering this right, they
Speaker 5: watched the rerun because the like, I didn't have the
Speaker 5: clout or the confidence to know that I would necessarily
Speaker 5: be right in the like the first.
Speaker 1: Run, so you waited to like watch it yourself, and
Speaker 1: then you saw yourself and you were like, now I'll
Speaker 1: let them know.
Speaker 5: And a couple of years after this, this, this is,
Speaker 5: this is sort of why I was like scarred. H yeah,
Speaker 5: this would have been right after boy me I got
Speaker 5: my first speaking role, which was one line on the
Speaker 5: Steve Harvey Show that he had also playing a nerd.
Speaker 2: By the way, really, yes, okay, you were you were being.
Speaker 5: Come on, that's fine. But also the very mid nineties
Speaker 5: nerd where it's like.
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 8: Right, and that I remember, I knew I was in
Speaker 8: the scene, told everybody had to watch party in my
Speaker 8: dorm and they cut the line, told me they were
Speaker 8: going to cut the line, so it airs, and obviously
Speaker 8: all my friends then leave and.
Speaker 5: My parents are like, why would you like it? I'm
Speaker 5: sorry they knew before because they were on the East coast,
Speaker 5: so and.
Speaker 2: I cancel the party.
Speaker 5: Count I definitely would have canceled it if if if
Speaker 5: my parents have had up and then Barbara. I remember
Speaker 5: calling Barbara and she just picked up and was like,
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, honey, they didn't tell me in advance. I
Speaker 5: just it's all right. But so it's it also makes
Speaker 5: sense why it wasn't until later that I was able
Speaker 5: to a show friends that I was in boy Mets World,
Speaker 5: and then, you know, years later, I was just surprised
Speaker 5: that people found it because I look so different.
Speaker 7: I think, so funny.
Speaker 2: Do you remember? Okay, so shooting Quiz Show, which is
Speaker 2: the episode we mentioned you're pretty heavily featured in, were
Speaker 2: you in?
Speaker 1: Was that audience? So it's quite a romp. It's a
Speaker 1: show within a show. Was the audience that you were
Speaker 1: sitting in? Where was that on set? Relative to where
Speaker 1: we were shooting the quiz the quiz show set?
Speaker 5: So if I remember this right, it was in your
Speaker 5: actual studio audience, Okay, on tape night, so they needed
Speaker 5: the space to like shoot that stuff. So yeah, we
Speaker 5: pre taped that entire scene, so you.
Speaker 1: Were clapping and cheering towards something where the set you
Speaker 1: were it was not even happening in front of you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that tracks that totally tracked.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I don't.
Speaker 5: Remember it at all.
Speaker 4: Right, really good acting, man, Because yeah, I didn't remember
Speaker 4: until we watched the episode that I go up there too.
Speaker 3: Eric's like in the stands and watching the show as well.
Speaker 3: I had no memory of that at all.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's so funny. Okay, So I want to know.
Speaker 1: You said that you got to interact with us and
Speaker 1: we were all just hanging out. Do you have any
Speaker 1: specific story do you do you have any memories about
Speaker 1: us hanging out talking?
Speaker 2: What did we talk about?
Speaker 5: I don't remember what we talked about, but I remember
Speaker 5: very clearly that it seemed like you guys all really
Speaker 5: a loved this job. Also got along in real life, Yeah,
Speaker 5: which felt really good as a as an aspiring actor,
Speaker 5: because I'm like, Okay, these people are my peers. They
Speaker 5: really do love what they do, and so all of
Speaker 5: the struggle of like, Okay, you've go on these auditions,
Speaker 5: you work odd jobs even when you're in school, you
Speaker 5: save up your gas money, all of that, you're like
Speaker 5: and then this is like, there are good people who
Speaker 5: really like what they do and get to make fun
Speaker 5: things that families can watch together. I just you know,
Speaker 5: I mean, I have the language to describe it now,
Speaker 5: but I just remember that it's the feeling that I had.
Speaker 5: This is really this is really nice and really cool.
Speaker 5: And I think you guys knew so at the time.
Speaker 5: She's still a very close friend genevan Oye.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, my ex girlfriend.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, that's right, that's right. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 5: So she she and I met my freshman year of
Speaker 5: college because her roommate was at UCLA with me, and
Speaker 5: he and I were good friends, and so I had
Speaker 5: already had this, like heard this great reputation about you guys,
Speaker 5: because she was like, Oh, they're so great, You're gonna
Speaker 5: have such a great time. I'm glad you're you know,
Speaker 5: I'm glad you're doing that that show. And so that
Speaker 5: was also really nice that that held up, because you
Speaker 5: know a lot of times that there's a somebody professionally
Speaker 5: is maybe different than there personally, and you know, kind
Speaker 5: of is what it is. But that wasn't the case.
Speaker 5: Everything was was that makes me.
Speaker 2: That makes me so happy. I know too, it makes
Speaker 2: me so I was waiting for the like, well, no
Speaker 2: one would talk to me.
Speaker 5: I mean, look, everybody has bad days. I happened to
Speaker 5: not be there for your bad days exactly.
Speaker 3: You were just there for the few good ones we had,
Speaker 3: which is nice.
Speaker 1: No, I've actually been really pleasantly surprised unless we just
Speaker 1: have handpicked really great uh background actors who only say
Speaker 1: nice things about us. We've interviewed quite a few background actors,
Speaker 1: and for the most part, they have the same story
Speaker 1: that like, when we were around each other, we were
Speaker 1: laughing and we were joking, and we were having casual conversation.
Speaker 1: It seemed like we loved what we did. We were
Speaker 1: getting along like that. That's nice because that's are certainly
Speaker 1: our memory.
Speaker 5: It's true, though, like I'll give you, I'll give you
Speaker 5: a contrast. So probably also around that time, or maybe
Speaker 5: it was after I graduated, I had like two lines
Speaker 5: on R And that's another show actually that I had done.
Speaker 5: Had I done the background work? No, maybe I had,
Speaker 5: but I had two lines on the YAR. Obviously I
Speaker 5: was very excited. I was playing like a young I
Speaker 5: must have been a young medical student or something.
Speaker 2: But not a nerd.
Speaker 5: Not a nerd, not a nerd.
Speaker 6: Graduated out of nerdom.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I remember I was supposed to stitch up
Speaker 5: Eric Lesala's character had a son who like hit his
Speaker 5: head or something, and so I just had to give
Speaker 5: him stitches. And I had two lines and the I
Speaker 5: was very excited, you know, love dr I thought it
Speaker 5: was great, wonderful opportunity. And I show up in the
Speaker 5: director that day. I didn't know if he was having
Speaker 5: a bad day or not, but it was kind of irrelevant.
Speaker 5: He just immediately, like his directing style is to yell
Speaker 5: at you. We did the first thing. And he's like,
Speaker 5: who taught you how to Who taught you how to stitch?
Speaker 5: And I'm like, I don't know what I'm supposed to say,
Speaker 5: because I'm obviously not a doctor, and I years ago
Speaker 5: and I just assumed there would be a consultant who
Speaker 5: would show.
Speaker 7: Me how to do this stitching.
Speaker 5: Would have been happy to meet with the consultant before
Speaker 5: medical stitch, right like, you know. So he just started
Speaker 5: and then apparently my elbow in one take was blocking
Speaker 5: the kid's face and it was just sort of a
Speaker 5: head on shot and I just hear.
Speaker 4: Hey, you.
Speaker 5: Move your elbow. You hello, Hello, I'm talking to you.
Speaker 5: Move your elbow. So I moved my elbow and he goes, yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, people are watching the show for the kid
Speaker 5: not to see you, and I was, God, why do
Speaker 5: you need to talk to somebody that way? Right? Not
Speaker 5: helpful to the process, like don't don't understand what he
Speaker 5: actually wants from me. And so by contrast, I just
Speaker 5: have to say when when people are probably telling you
Speaker 5: guys that you were so nice to background actors and
Speaker 5: to under fives, there's a reason for that that some
Speaker 5: of the other experiences, whether it was something on Sabri
Speaker 5: and The Teenage Witch or you Are, other beloved shows
Speaker 5: were the cast was always wonderful, but I had these
Speaker 5: people in leadership positions who were just awful because they
Speaker 5: could be or you know, I don't have reasons, I
Speaker 5: stressed out or whatever. Contrast, man, really like you really
Speaker 5: saw that when you came to a show like Boy
Speaker 5: Meet's World, it was a really wonderful wow.
Speaker 6: Great.
Speaker 4: So wait, I'm sorry to jump way back, but you
Speaker 4: said you're from New Jersey. So were you going into
Speaker 4: New York for auditions as a kid, like going to
Speaker 4: for commercials and stuff like that.
Speaker 5: I mean no, my parents wouldn't let me. I had
Speaker 5: to wait. This is one of the reasons I think
Speaker 5: I chose U c l A over over n y U.
Speaker 5: I was debating between the tiss the dramas pool here, yeah,
Speaker 5: in New York, and I was like, you know, I
Speaker 5: think I just want to see what like exposure to
Speaker 5: film and TV fully is like. So, no, I I
Speaker 5: went to a performing arts high school. It's still one
Speaker 5: of the few publicly funded arts high schools in the country,
Speaker 5: and so that was obviously a big, a big privilege
Speaker 5: because my parents are immigrants. My dad's an engineer, my
Speaker 5: mom has our masters in chemistry. So no like career
Speaker 5: arts background, right, so very scary for any parent who
Speaker 5: doesn't have an arts background to be like, yeah, you
Speaker 5: should do this, go for it. So I think if
Speaker 5: it weren't for that publicly funded arts program, I maybe
Speaker 5: wouldn't have had even just the tool kid or the
Speaker 5: know how to be like, oh, there's a BFA program here,
Speaker 5: or there's a program at U c l A and
Speaker 5: USC and I can I can apply for it and
Speaker 5: maybe I'm maybe I'm good enough to get in. I
Speaker 5: don't know, you know, But so that was the that
Speaker 5: was kind of the the pre college stuff.
Speaker 4: Man. Yeah, so you did you came out to l
Speaker 4: A cold. I mean when you need cold. It was
Speaker 4: like you didn't even have the audio behind you.
Speaker 3: I mean to LA without a car.
Speaker 5: And at U c l A. There's a parking lottery
Speaker 5: that's really really hard to get, and so I read
Speaker 5: about how hard it was to get a spot in
Speaker 5: the parking lottery, and the end of my freshman year,
Speaker 5: I entered the parking lottery without a car because I
Speaker 5: sort of reasoned, like, if it's this hard to get
Speaker 5: a parking pass, then I'll start entering the parking lottery now.
Speaker 5: That way, by the time I'm able to afford a
Speaker 5: car parking pass, which obviously is not how statistics actually work,
Speaker 5: live for this parking lottery, and I get a parking Yes,
Speaker 5: I didn't have a car. So when I when I
Speaker 5: mentioned earlier that like I borrowed a car from somebody,
Speaker 5: a buddy of mine on my dorm floor, and I
Speaker 5: made an arrangement where I would pay for parking for
Speaker 5: the year and he would let me use his car
Speaker 5: whenever he didn't need it. So smart, he's very smart.
Speaker 8: It did.
Speaker 5: I still couldn't do internships because he needed his car
Speaker 5: more than you know, more than that schedule. But for
Speaker 5: the rare audition or for going to go and to
Speaker 5: an extra gig it came in.
Speaker 3: Really, so did you then did you have to quit
Speaker 3: the job at Lucas Arts to Oh.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just because I couldn't get there and there was
Speaker 5: no because it would have been what a four and
Speaker 5: a half hour round trip. Basically, Oh my gosh, the
Speaker 5: bus didn't make sense. You know. It's honestly, it's one
Speaker 5: of those things. As I got older and was and
Speaker 5: obviously then moved from being a struggling actor to a
Speaker 5: working actor and then having you know, very blessed to
Speaker 5: have the privilege that I have now, it really underscores
Speaker 5: you know, fine, I was an aspiring actor. I elected
Speaker 5: to do that, But what about people who are working
Speaker 5: two or three jobs because they got they got to
Speaker 5: put food on the table. It really was like, you know, okay,
Speaker 5: I'm just a college kid who like wants a film internship.
Speaker 5: But it really underscored for me, like, oh, not to
Speaker 5: make this about like infrastructure. It was like, oh, we
Speaker 5: should invested in buses and public.
Speaker 3: Trans yes, oh, the public transport in la is awful.
Speaker 4: I mean for everybody out there listening, Uh, you know,
Speaker 4: that trip in a car with minimal traffic is what
Speaker 4: thirty five minutes? Yeah, that two hour, two and a
Speaker 4: half hour bus ride is thirty five minutes. So I
Speaker 4: mean that shows what it's like.
Speaker 3: It's yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 5: Yeah wow, So that was that was also my first
Speaker 5: realization of like, oh yeah, I can't I can't walk
Speaker 5: to my lucasfilm internship.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So when you graduate from doing background work and you
Speaker 1: get your first kind of big TV speaking job, is
Speaker 1: that Buffy the Vampire Slayer in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 5: I would that's would have I mean it would have
Speaker 5: been it would have been the Steve Harvey Show.
Speaker 2: But they come, okay, but they got your life right exactly.
Speaker 5: But yeah it was. It was Buffy.
Speaker 2: Okay? And what did you play on Buffy?
Speaker 5: So on an episode of Buffy called Beer Bad? I
Speaker 5: played cave Man And I'm gonna say two things about
Speaker 5: this one. I'll just elephant in the room for any
Speaker 5: like hardcore Buffy fans. That episode I think is still
Speaker 5: consistently rated as the worst episode of Layer really, especially
Speaker 5: for super fans, like that was the worst thing I've
Speaker 5: ever seen.
Speaker 2: What's the episode about. It's called beer Bad, call Beer Bad.
Speaker 5: It's about these four prap boys who turn into cavemen
Speaker 5: when they drink beer that's been tainted with this save
Speaker 5: man potion.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that sounds amazing to know what are they talking about?
Speaker 2: I think this sounds great.
Speaker 5: You know what's crazy about about things like that is like, yes, okay,
Speaker 5: looking back on it, it was kitschy and it was
Speaker 5: whatever a really fun. In order to be transformed into
Speaker 5: a caveman. They did a live cast of our Heads.
Speaker 5: Oh cool show up at like they shot that show
Speaker 5: in Santa Monica is actually way closer to UCLA than
Speaker 5: any of the other stuff. And I remember our call
Speaker 5: time was like three in the morning because they had
Speaker 5: five hours of putting the prosthetic face on you.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 5: Those faces had like little they would call them them
Speaker 5: air bladders where they would they would pump air in
Speaker 5: to make it. Yeah, we're transforming and just all this crazy,
Speaker 5: these crazy special effects. So you you had these super
Speaker 5: long days. They were paying all sorts of crazy penalties,
Speaker 5: which as a as a young actor just getting started,
Speaker 5: I was like, great, and actually, people, you can't feed
Speaker 5: me because I have this thing on and it was awesome.
Speaker 5: And then the director was so cool. He did this
Speaker 5: you know, we we only had speaking, uh like English
Speaker 5: speaking verbal lines when we were the frat boys. As
Speaker 5: we turned into the cavement, it was all grunting, right
Speaker 5: of course.
Speaker 2: Well because it's a documentary and they didn't watch this.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the director sent all four of us, I think
Speaker 5: you brought us in actually for a rehearsal and gave
Speaker 5: us each DVD of this movie called Ring of Fire
Speaker 5: has no noques quester fire Quester for fire.
Speaker 2: Yes, I love this movie.
Speaker 3: It is bonker.
Speaker 7: Oh no, I show this.
Speaker 3: Movie to my screenwriting students, like the first class.
Speaker 6: Because there's not a word of dialogue and yet you
Speaker 6: you get the entire story and it's caveman, it's amazing.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's not good, but it's it's crazy.
Speaker 5: He gave us that film and he said, this is
Speaker 5: what you need to communicate when you're I want to
Speaker 5: be able to understand everything you guys are saying. You
Speaker 5: had these rehearsals and just with this, this grunting for
Speaker 5: like a started. It was awesome.
Speaker 4: I really loved so wait I have to I have
Speaker 4: to know it was the dialogue written out in English
Speaker 4: and then you have to grunt to make like this
Speaker 4: is what we intend for you to say in grunting
Speaker 4: or are you just making it up as you go along.
Speaker 5: I honestly don't remember it, but I would imagine that
Speaker 5: it was written right. Yeah. Yeah, least at least it
Speaker 5: was certainly written in description, because it was a little
Speaker 5: right like there's this scene where we discover a lighter
Speaker 5: and we're amazed that a lighter can create fire because
Speaker 5: here we are needing to preserve fire.
Speaker 3: Of course.
Speaker 5: It must have been Yeah, it must have been written
Speaker 5: out in something.
Speaker 1: Oh man. So after Buffy, it looks, at least on
Speaker 1: IMDb like pretty much after that you were kind of
Speaker 1: off to the races you did, Spin City, angel Er,
Speaker 1: NYPD Blue. By the way, all shows that have a
Speaker 1: lot of background actors, have you always then in every
Speaker 1: project you've gone on to, have you always made a
Speaker 1: point of then being extra kind and considerate to the
Speaker 1: background actors because you know what it's like?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think so, But I think it also sort
Speaker 5: of predates that. And I'm gonna like, I'll throw some
Speaker 5: more flowers your way with this, but I feel like
Speaker 5: it's I don't know very many people who have to
Speaker 5: be told to be kind to somebody right. We either
Speaker 5: under like that's either your worldview joy and empathy and
Speaker 5: you love what you do, or it's not who you are.
Speaker 5: And if it's not who you are, I understand, then
Speaker 5: you have to be told something. But that's not gonna
Speaker 5: result in you being kind. It's just gonna result in
Speaker 5: you not being.
Speaker 4: A dick, right, right, Yes, nice and kind are two
Speaker 4: different things.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I am privileged with you know, just my
Speaker 5: worldview has tended to just be relatively joyous whenever I can,
Speaker 5: so it has. It has irked me when I've been
Speaker 5: on projects where people are not treated respectfully. I think
Speaker 5: one of the nice things about them being in a
Speaker 5: leadership position, whether whether it's your first couple of leads
Speaker 5: or whether you're like finally producing things, is you get
Speaker 5: to set the tone of wanting to you know, certain
Speaker 5: shows or run certain ways. So so that was also
Speaker 5: really nice about I mean, most of the projects that
Speaker 5: you mentioned, or I've had nothing but great experiences on
Speaker 5: people were always really kind. I know that's not everybody's
Speaker 5: experience with all these shows, but that that was mine
Speaker 5: and that's all I can really be to firsthand.
Speaker 4: Right, So, maybe you were on some of the best
Speaker 4: shows ever, I mean and my people. Everything was just
Speaker 4: named there is like banger after banger.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and they were all relatively small parts. Right the
Speaker 5: Spin City, it was like I think I was playing
Speaker 5: there was a flashback with Charlie Sheen's character, and I
Speaker 5: was his. I was his rap boy doing like a
Speaker 5: like a keg stand or something here. By the ways,
Speaker 5: I basically either played a nerder or frap boys and fratuys.
Speaker 2: That's so great.
Speaker 1: That's the range that you want to have when you're
Speaker 1: I mean honestly quite inspiring. So then in two thousand
Speaker 1: and four, Harold and Kumar comes out the first Harold
Speaker 1: and Kumar, and you go from this consistently working character
Speaker 1: actor to one of the most recognizable actors.
Speaker 2: Of the mid aughts. Was this the dream you had
Speaker 2: always wanted? Or after it happened, did you go hmm?
Speaker 1: I kind of enjoyed being a successful journey man, but
Speaker 1: having a little bit of anonymity, I think to jump
Speaker 1: it's such.
Speaker 5: A good question. I don't think I've been asked in
Speaker 5: that way. I mean, y'all are actors, so you you
Speaker 5: get it. The I appreciate that those were journey minerals.
Speaker 5: They were mostly just paying five hundred of the seven
Speaker 5: and fifty that I needed for rent every month. So
Speaker 5: I still threw all those those those parts. I still was.
Speaker 5: I was a runner, I was a production assistant. I
Speaker 5: was working sort of random, random jobs and was very
Speaker 5: happy to very happy to do those those jobs to
Speaker 5: like save up for rent and audition money and stuff.
Speaker 5: But for me, the bridge between those two was a
Speaker 5: movie I did called Van Wilder with and That's think
Speaker 5: that was the first supporting lead that I had in
Speaker 5: a in a movie. And were it not for that movie,
Speaker 5: I don't think I would have gotten the job. And
Speaker 5: Harold Kamar go to WAKEMP and Harold and Kumar everybody
Speaker 5: always forgets. When that movie came out, it it totally
Speaker 5: tanked at the box office. Nobody saw it in a
Speaker 5: lot of places. I think it got pulled early from
Speaker 5: that initial like two week exhibit or commitment because nobody
Speaker 5: was going to see this thing and it was a
Speaker 5: real I mean to say it was a bummer is
Speaker 5: a very light way of saying.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, art breaking, because devastating, Yeah, totally devastating.
Speaker 5: I mean for John Choe and I, he had worked
Speaker 5: certainly a lot more consistently than I had. And he's
Speaker 5: a couple of years older, so he had he had
Speaker 5: more credits, but you know, he was an American pie
Speaker 5: and he had a yeah on Off Center, that sitcom
Speaker 5: on the WB And we both read the script. We
Speaker 5: didn't know each other before doing the movie, but we
Speaker 5: read the script and you know, I was just like, Wow,
Speaker 5: this is so funny. It's the funniest script I've read
Speaker 5: in such a long time, probably ever. And you know,
Speaker 5: in those days that we're talking to, early two thousands,
Speaker 5: so if you if you didn't fit into sort of
Speaker 5: like if you weren't white or black friends, people didn't
Speaker 5: really know if they could cast you. There was something
Speaker 5: you know, today we wouldn't even call it creative thinking,
Speaker 5: but back in the day, it's like, oh, you're taking
Speaker 5: a risk.
Speaker 2: By how risky of you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, out of the box, out of.
Speaker 5: The box casting. So when the script came along, I
Speaker 5: just remember being like, whoa, I get to just play
Speaker 5: the irresponsible but smart stoner wants to go get character.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So so we had a lot writing on it, and
Speaker 5: then and then when nobody came to see the movie,
Speaker 5: a couple of things. It was, I know, your classic
Speaker 5: like Okay, if your movie tanks, you're not really getting
Speaker 5: calls for auditions or anything like that. And then there
Speaker 5: was this added thing of like there were a couple
Speaker 5: of people who are like, yeah, say we told you
Speaker 5: Asian American men just can't open And so then you
Speaker 5: start questioning like is that I feel like that's wrong.
Speaker 5: I feel like my life experience is like he was
Speaker 5: a fan of movies who also like just happens to
Speaker 5: be brown and from New Jersey. It's like I feel
Speaker 5: like everybody I know loves movies to laugh, right, So
Speaker 5: so for about four months, I feel like nothing happened.
Speaker 5: It was just this really down and the dumb time.
Speaker 5: And then the movie ends up on HBO and coming
Speaker 5: out on DVD with no marketing budget and no press,
Speaker 5: and fans just found it on their own. Yeah, and
Speaker 5: when I found it on their own, like I'm not
Speaker 5: just talking about like so all the you know, the
Speaker 5: sort of the haters in town who are like, oh,
Speaker 5: these guys could never open a movie. It was people
Speaker 5: sure La New York, San Francisco, and then Oklahoma and
Speaker 5: Alabama and Iowa and places that would never show up
Speaker 5: on those old school kind of Grids a movie like
Speaker 5: this would do well, and I loved it selfishly, of course,
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh my gosh, this is incredible artistically and
Speaker 5: for my career, but then also as somebody who just
Speaker 5: loves what we do, it's like, see, you guys are wrong.
Speaker 5: People just everywhere we just want to have a good time,
Speaker 5: especially like you think about that today things are so polarized.
Speaker 5: It's one of the reasons I love what we do
Speaker 5: in comedy is like you could still bring people together
Speaker 5: to have a great time. And so I really credit
Speaker 5: when I when I talk about that jump for Harold
Speaker 5: and Kamar, it really was a fan driven thing. It
Speaker 5: wasn't marketing, it wasn't the studio. Obviously, I'm very great
Speaker 5: full of new Line and Warner brotherstunity, but it was
Speaker 5: really such a fan driven thing and that got us
Speaker 5: a second and third movie after that. So I absolutely
Speaker 5: credit that movie with being able to launch a career.
Speaker 3: It was such a good movie. It was such a
Speaker 3: good movie.
Speaker 5: I'm making it it did.
Speaker 4: It had the same you know what it did is
Speaker 4: it had a new generation vibe of like Bill and
Speaker 4: Ted's Oh it just kind of brought you back to
Speaker 4: that buddy comedy, wacky, ridiculousness. I'm in one hundred percent
Speaker 4: wherever you go, I want to go with you guys.
Speaker 4: It was had that same vibe. It was awesome, great.
Speaker 5: What else is cool about that? I mean just just
Speaker 5: talking about how you know when actors support each other.
Speaker 5: You know, we had so many cool cameos in Harold
Speaker 5: and Cargo. Yeah, and it was mostly because John and
Speaker 5: I had worked with all these amazing actors who basically
Speaker 5: we were either a supporting lead or in some way
Speaker 5: kind of worked with them, and there was this feeling
Speaker 5: of like, hey, when you and I remember Ryan Actually,
Speaker 5: Reynolds said this very explicitly when we were on Bean Wild.
Speaker 5: He was like, you know, man, when you get your
Speaker 5: first lead in something, I would love to do something
Speaker 5: supporting in it. So we called him. He played a
Speaker 5: nurse in this hospital. Anthony Anderson has a small part.
Speaker 5: Eddie K. Thomas has lead.
Speaker 2: Like Neil Patrick Harris.
Speaker 3: Neil Patrick Harris, I mean, no deal, but he Yeah.
Speaker 5: He's obviously an integral part of the film. Dave crumbhols like,
Speaker 5: there's just so many great actors in all of these
Speaker 5: that have these cameos. It was really fun to put
Speaker 5: together great.
Speaker 1: What did your family think of these movies and your
Speaker 1: success or at the time when it didn't do well
Speaker 1: in the theaters?
Speaker 2: What did they think of that?
Speaker 5: I think that the not doing well in theaters I
Speaker 5: don't necessarily remember, and I think part of it was
Speaker 5: I don't think my parents were like following box office results, right,
Speaker 5: And I think for a lot of people, I mean,
Speaker 5: you all have friends and family who are not in
Speaker 5: this crazy, wonderful business. When something comes out, if they
Speaker 5: know you, all they know is like your movie is out.
Speaker 5: They love you and they know you, and that's a
Speaker 5: very nice thing. So even if nobody else is watching it,
Speaker 5: they're like, everybody's watching this, right, It's a huge it.
Speaker 5: It's that kind of thing. So so I think, what's funny.
Speaker 5: I remember my mom, you know, when Van Wilder is
Speaker 5: a very I mean like Harold and Corn are very rated,
Speaker 5: our movie the very late nineties, early two thousands brand
Speaker 5: of comedy. And so I decided when I because Van
Speaker 5: Wilder was my first big, big part in the movie,
Speaker 5: I decided, you know, I want to explain to my
Speaker 5: parents the many ways in which acting is a is
Speaker 5: a real job and all the things that go into
Speaker 5: it and how it's a business. So I went home.
Speaker 5: It was probably Thanksgiving that year before I shot the movie,
Speaker 5: and I brought the script, and so I gave my
Speaker 5: parents the script. I'm like, read this Van Wilder movie.
Speaker 5: I just want you to see that there's even a script.
Speaker 5: You know, so many people you must just have fun
Speaker 5: every day at work, and ideally, yes you do, but
Speaker 5: there are writers and a crew, right. So I remember
Speaker 5: giving them the script and going to my childhood bedroom
Speaker 5: and after twenty minutes just hearing my mom yell, this
Speaker 5: is pornography. I obviously come running and I was like, oh,
Speaker 5: right to the topless scene in this movie. I was like, Mom,
Speaker 5: it's not. My dad's like, now I'm interested. So that
Speaker 5: was the bar right that we set, and in that,
Speaker 5: you know, they came to the premiere. They understood what
Speaker 5: type of the review was. But when Harold and Kabar
Speaker 5: comes out, I overheard my mom. I was home again
Speaker 5: for some reason, and I overheard my mom talk into
Speaker 5: my hand. I could only hear her side of the conversation,
Speaker 5: but I remember just thinking her talking about Harold and
Speaker 5: Kamar and saying, no, no, it's not like that. Van Wilder,
Speaker 5: This one's actually good. He has a big part. Like
Speaker 5: in my head, I was like, there's probably more profanity
Speaker 5: and news Harold and Kamar got a castle. But Mom
Speaker 5: is very much like, no, no, he's got a bigger part,
Speaker 5: so we have to see this. I was like, this
Speaker 5: is great.
Speaker 2: So they went to the premiere? Did they did they
Speaker 2: on their own also see the movie in theaters.
Speaker 5: They did see it in theaters. They brought their friends
Speaker 5: and they did a disclaimer. What I didn't realize they
Speaker 5: came to the premiere and the way that we were
Speaker 5: all seated. You know, you get to bring a bunch
Speaker 5: of your friends and your family. My mom was sitting
Speaker 5: next to Jenna, next to Jenna Bunnoy, and I didn't
Speaker 5: tell her. There's the opening scene, I'm naked, like you
Speaker 5: see it from behind. Yeah, it's basically like my bare
Speaker 5: butt act. And Jenna afterwards, like, you know, everyone's applauding.
Speaker 5: They do the thing people do it. Premiere is very
Speaker 5: self congratulatory. Oh the movie was funny, and Jenna just
Speaker 5: like grabs me by the collar and goes You did
Speaker 5: not tell me that we're going to be naked, and
Speaker 5: then I was going to be seated next to your
Speaker 5: It was like, oh, yeah, that was definitely my dad.
Speaker 5: I am sorry, I should have thought that through with
Speaker 5: the seating chart a little bit, but no, they came
Speaker 5: to the Premier and it was very nice, you know,
Speaker 5: especially you know, for an immigrant community. A lot of
Speaker 5: my parents' friends whose kids weren't in entertainment, it was
Speaker 5: very sweet to know that they were. You know, the
Speaker 5: thing I think which drives a lot of a lot
Speaker 5: of parents, whether their immigrants or not, is this fear
Speaker 5: is your kid going to go into a business that
Speaker 5: I don't really understand, understandable fear for parents, And so
Speaker 5: for them to know that they had that fear and
Speaker 5: still be like, we would like to go and support
Speaker 5: the thing that you're doing was really very kind, really sweet. Yes.
Speaker 1: And then so much of your work post Harold and
Speaker 1: Kumar has been in such intense projects like you've done
Speaker 1: twenty four Designated Survivor, American Horror Story and even House
Speaker 1: to an extent, was that an intentional like a career
Speaker 1: turn or is it just that then you decided to
Speaker 1: flex a different muscle.
Speaker 5: I think it's a lot of it was just chance,
Speaker 5: and I'm grateful for it. You know, I remember for
Speaker 5: both twenty four and well for twenty four, Yeah, they
Speaker 5: is it Robert Gordon? Is that his name? Mark Gorton?
Speaker 5: No Robert anyway, what are the Gordons?
Speaker 2: What are the Gordons? Gordon Fisherman.
Speaker 3: Well, there was no You're right, it's there's Mark and
Speaker 3: there's Chuck.
Speaker 5: It would have been Mark then, yeah, I think that's
Speaker 5: of course. Yeah, so he I remember he called and
Speaker 5: they said, we'd like to offer you this part in
Speaker 5: twenty four. It's a four episode arc. We saw you
Speaker 5: in Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle. And our feeling
Speaker 5: is that if you can do comedy of a specific type,
Speaker 5: then you you're definitely able to do drama. And we
Speaker 5: think it's an interesting this is these are the people
Speaker 5: that you dream about working with. Yeah, like, well, you're
Speaker 5: outside the box. Thing is frustrating to hear as an actor,
Speaker 5: but then you meet smart producers and directors who are like,
Speaker 5: actually that's what I want. I've only seen you. See
Speaker 5: you do another thing. And then similar thing with House.
Speaker 5: David Shore is such a talented guy created House and
Speaker 5: I remember going in to read for that and it's
Speaker 5: the first time still probably to this day, you go
Speaker 5: into this room they were casting. I think they were
Speaker 5: casting nine actors to be supporting characters for the first
Speaker 5: half of a new season of House. And of those nine,
Speaker 5: three were going to become series regulars, and so they
Speaker 5: were all doctors, right, And so they basically gave everybody
Speaker 5: the same sides. There were two or three different sides
Speaker 5: they gave everybody. So I was sitting next to both
Speaker 5: men and women age maybe twenty four to eight, and
Speaker 5: we all had one of three sets of sides right,
Speaker 5: for nine different characters. Wow. And I remember the sides
Speaker 5: I was given were for the part of a Mormon doctor.
Speaker 5: I don't know, like, I'm never going to get this
Speaker 5: right right, And then I'm like, get out of your head.
Speaker 5: There might be a reason they gave you these sides.
Speaker 5: Get out of your head. Just go in there, do
Speaker 5: a good job. And I ended up getting, you know,
Speaker 5: one of the nine parts. Then myself, Olivia Wilde, and
Speaker 5: Peter Jacobson became the three series regulars that season, and
Speaker 5: I got to know David really well, and I was like, man,
Speaker 5: now that I know you, I just have to ask
Speaker 5: you this actor question, like why did you give you know,
Speaker 5: fifty actors the same sides, you know, men and women
Speaker 5: and eighteen to eighty or whatever. He said, Well, I
Speaker 5: just I just wanted to make sure that I cast
Speaker 5: the best actors. Yeah right, but like we were all
Speaker 5: ethnically diverse type verse, like everyone was none of us
Speaker 5: looked the same. He's like, I don't really understand the question.
Speaker 5: I just wanted the best actors. I was like, okay, thanks,
Speaker 5: you me, you know. Yeah, And so those were That
Speaker 5: was another great experience of just like these are these
Speaker 5: are people who are so creative and they just really
Speaker 5: on the best actors, the best writers, the best experience
Speaker 5: on set. So I feel really lucky for both of those,
Speaker 5: I mean, especially House. I was on that trip for
Speaker 5: two and a half years. And yeah, really.
Speaker 3: Was twenty four as an intense a set as they
Speaker 3: said it was?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean yes, I think so. And I think
Speaker 5: it was intense as an actor also because you're because
Speaker 5: it's twenty four hours in each each season, right yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: so it's in real time that you're kind of doing
Speaker 5: your scene for the most part, right, their little gaps
Speaker 5: when they cut to the commercial or whatever, but it's
Speaker 5: in it's in real time. So and I played a
Speaker 5: you know, I played this this terrorist who's taking a
Speaker 5: family hostage. And there are two things that I think,
Speaker 5: two things that most of us probably don't love. I
Speaker 5: won't speak for other people, but like, okay, obviously nobody
Speaker 5: loves a terrorist, right And I'm I'm not a big
Speaker 5: gun guy like right handguns, yea. And I'm holding this
Speaker 5: handgun holding a family hostage for four weeks and it
Speaker 5: but because each scene is real time, it really was
Speaker 5: like it was very That's that's probably the only I'm
Speaker 5: not a method actor by any means, but I had
Speaker 5: a hard time sleeping when i'd get.
Speaker 2: Home from I bet.
Speaker 5: Yeah, up, you know you are from playing a character
Speaker 5: like that. Awesome exercise, awesome acting exercise.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Also, there's I didn't have. I worked with Kiefer when
Speaker 5: we did Designated Survival. Yeah, there's only one scene that
Speaker 5: we overlapped on twenty four. It's obviously way before I
Speaker 5: knew him, and I was a big twenty four fan.
Speaker 5: And so at the end, my character gets shot when
Speaker 5: there's this raid and people are running around everywhere and
Speaker 5: I'm supposed to turn a corner and Keifer you know,
Speaker 5: draws his weapon and says drup your weapon. So we
Speaker 5: rehearse it and I'm in character and I'm like in
Speaker 5: the zone and I come around the corner, cameras are
Speaker 5: rolling and he just goes drop your weapon, And in
Speaker 5: my head all I can think is, oh my god,
Speaker 5: that's you for some.
Speaker 3: Just ruined it for myself, takes out of it, that's
Speaker 3: all about.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 1: You would also end up in legendary sitcoms like Big
Speaker 1: Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and you would
Speaker 1: later even create an EP, your own show, Sunnyside with
Speaker 1: super producer Mike Sure.
Speaker 2: What do you love about sitcoms?
Speaker 5: I like baking people laugh so much. I mean I
Speaker 5: grew up on the classic era of I mean you
Speaker 5: can't even really say classic era since TV has changed
Speaker 5: so much, so probably unfair, but it's the nostalgia, right,
Speaker 5: It's the like the Full House Boy meets World Growing Pains,
Speaker 5: like all the shows that you you would you could
Speaker 5: watch with your friends, you would certainly watch with your family,
Speaker 5: but then you talk about it in school the next day. Yeah,
Speaker 5: it's great unifier. And obviously today there are a lot
Speaker 5: more choices of what people can watch, but the idea
Speaker 5: that you can still make people happy and make people
Speaker 5: kind of smile and enjoy themselves is something that I
Speaker 5: really love. I loved it. Look obviously, my like my
Speaker 5: ten year old nephew is not allowed to watch Harold
Speaker 5: Kamar Go to Away Castle yet maybe soon, but he
Speaker 5: can watch this TV series last year called The Santa
Speaker 5: Clauses with Tim Allens, Yes, Christmas show six episodes. Obviously,
Speaker 5: who doesn't love Tim from his sitcoms yea. And so
Speaker 5: that was one where I'm like, this is so different
Speaker 5: than the Harold and Kumar audience, and I love it
Speaker 5: because you get to make a whole different set of
Speaker 5: people laugh and smile.
Speaker 1: Well, that actually leads me. It's a perfect intro to
Speaker 1: my next question. You have a lot of projects that
Speaker 1: involve Christmas. You have Harold and Kumar Christmas and Deck
Speaker 1: the Halls, Mess Holiday and then the Santa Clauses.
Speaker 2: Is this coincidental or intentional?
Speaker 7: Do you?
Speaker 2: Are you just a big Christmas person?
Speaker 5: I mean I am, but I think it's I think
Speaker 5: it's coincidental. Yeah, actually it is concidental. Tell you so well.
Speaker 5: Hot Mess Holiday. Actually, hot Mess Holiday is more of
Speaker 5: a the Volley movie. Okay, happens around Christmas time. Okay,
Speaker 5: I think that was on purpose that we wanted to
Speaker 5: merge the two. In real life, they happen around each
Speaker 5: other November. But I think we merged the themes a
Speaker 5: little morse that could be a little more like celebratory, right,
Speaker 5: and then yeah, Harold and Kumar Christmas. I just remember
Speaker 5: when the writers John Horwitz and Aiden Slasberg called with, like,
Speaker 5: here's the concept for the third movie. And I am
Speaker 5: a big Christmas fan. You know, it's mostly like Home
Speaker 5: Alone Christmas Story era stuff, but definitely national and pooon
Speaker 5: like any Yeah, this comedy I love, but I had Yeah,
Speaker 5: I'd never thought about whether that was on purpose. Also,
Speaker 5: I mean with like the Santa Claus is this, I
Speaker 5: guess we shot it two years ago. You you know,
Speaker 5: we shot over the summer in la and like you're off,
Speaker 5: you get to go to the North Pole every day
Speaker 5: like the sh right right, You sit in hair and makeup,
Speaker 5: you go over your lines, and then you are legitimately
Speaker 5: just in the North Pole. And the only creepy part
Speaker 5: of it was all of the children who played elves
Speaker 5: have their like little pointy ears. They're like, you know,
Speaker 5: when they're in character on the North Pole set I'm cool, Like,
Speaker 5: we're good, right, they call like a twenty minute lighting reset.
Speaker 5: The bell rings, the massive door opens, and suddenly these
Speaker 5: kids with their pointy ears, their creepy shoes are sitting
Speaker 5: having granola bars, talking like adults.
Speaker 7: Like do you like Machia TI? I like, don't take
Speaker 7: me out of it, guys, I got to call my agent.
Speaker 5: No, they were all obviously very sweet, very sweet kids.
Speaker 5: But but I love that you get to get to day.
Speaker 3: It was it still a two and a half hour
Speaker 3: bus ride to the North Pole.
Speaker 2: There's nothing I.
Speaker 6: Love more than fake snow. Like working with fakes no
Speaker 6: makes me so happy. It's like the most Hollywood movie
Speaker 6: magic experience. We're like, wow, it's it's many degrees in LA,
Speaker 6: but we're going to make it look like it's freezing.
Speaker 5: I love that combo they do now of like some
Speaker 5: of it is so analog, low rent, looks like it
Speaker 5: you can see at the mall. And then suddenly there's like,
Speaker 5: is this real snow? Look Actually it's soupisodes that we
Speaker 5: put I don't.
Speaker 3: Want to know, just me, just don't tell me, just
Speaker 3: don't tell me.
Speaker 1: Well, before we let you go, I do have one
Speaker 1: kind of important question for you, as someone who took
Speaker 1: a sabbatical from acting to work in the Obama administration.
Speaker 2: Does Obama know that you were on Boy Meets World?
Speaker 2: Does yeah? Does Obama know what Boy Meets World is?
Speaker 5: I don't know. I can try to get you some confirmation.
Speaker 2: I would like nothing more than to know whether.
Speaker 3: A question yeah to you?
Speaker 1: And I've really I've wondered before, I've wondered does he
Speaker 1: does he.
Speaker 2: Know of Boy's World?
Speaker 5: He and Missus Obama are both very pop culture savvy,
Speaker 5: so like, I know, he obviously knows about that war,
Speaker 5: movies and things like that. I would love to go
Speaker 5: just a little farther back to see, let me see
Speaker 5: what I can dig up.
Speaker 2: Okay, see what you can dig up for us?
Speaker 1: Boy?
Speaker 2: That would really, that would really make me feel good.
Speaker 5: So I ask you, guys a question, what's the if
Speaker 5: you don't mind? Because I've I love that you do
Speaker 5: this podcast, and I love how much love there is
Speaker 5: for your show, which I only see, by the way,
Speaker 5: I only see when you don't know if you know this,
Speaker 5: Like most people go on Twitter to.
Speaker 1: Be mean, right, I know, Twitter's assesspool of mostly awful stuff.
Speaker 5: This is like any time this episode airs anywhere, there's
Speaker 5: like I'm getting tagged in these really sweet wrong about
Speaker 5: how much people love Boy means world.
Speaker 3: Like we have the best fans in the world.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, is this like this must be such an
Speaker 5: incredible podcast to do and to like engage with fans
Speaker 5: old and new, Like do you just love it?
Speaker 6: It's so life affirming, man, It's like yeah, I mean
Speaker 6: because you know, I think for all of us, we've
Speaker 6: gone through periods of like you know, not getting work
Speaker 6: or changing careers or just like what is you know,
Speaker 6: what is the legacy of this this thing that we
Speaker 6: spent so much time doing, and so yeah, doing this
Speaker 6: podcast is just brought it front and center into our
Speaker 6: lives of like oh no, wow, these like it's beloved
Speaker 6: and and you know, being able to discover why and
Speaker 6: how it's just been wonderful. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know being able to It's like there's
Speaker 1: there's a certain amount of time you need away from
Speaker 1: something to be able to see it more objectively.
Speaker 2: And I think we started this podcast at a perfect time.
Speaker 1: In our lives where we're on that the other side
Speaker 1: of middle age where you're able to to have that
Speaker 1: distance from who you were as a teenager where now
Speaker 1: you can look at it and instead of being wounded
Speaker 1: by a certain experience, or instead of reliving it in
Speaker 1: a way that feels too personal, we can look at
Speaker 1: it and go, man, I love that, that's so that
Speaker 1: shape who I am, that changed me there, or even.
Speaker 2: Kind of things that you know, it's felt therapeutic. It's been.
Speaker 1: It has been the highlight of truly one of the
Speaker 1: massive one of the main highlights of my entire career
Speaker 1: is this podcast. I love what we have done here
Speaker 1: so much, and it's just ours and it's been great.
Speaker 4: I also think it it points out that exactly what
Speaker 4: you were talking about, where there comes a time where everybody,
Speaker 4: I don't know, Boy meets World seemed like a time
Speaker 4: back then, and now people are rediscovering it where you
Speaker 4: could just put everything aside, everything else that's going on
Speaker 4: in the world, everything that makes you different from people
Speaker 4: are the same, None of it matters. You put it
Speaker 4: aside and everybody can just enjoy something wholesome. And I
Speaker 4: think that's kind of missing nowadays, where it's just I mean,
Speaker 4: we're not a monoculture anymore. So, the idea of everybody
Speaker 4: watching something and then going to school and talking about
Speaker 4: it doesn't seem to immun occasion you get a stranger
Speaker 4: things or something like that, but for the most part,
Speaker 4: it's we don't have that anymore. So I think people
Speaker 4: being able to go back to a time in their
Speaker 4: lives that didn't seem as complicated, where the most complicated
Speaker 4: question was is Tapanga gonna really ask Corey to marry?
Speaker 4: I mean, that's a wonderful time to go back to.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's been. It's been pretty magical.
Speaker 5: That's so cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're really lucky, and we are really grateful that
Speaker 1: you came and spent your very precious time with us.
Speaker 2: You have been an absolute delight. We have been looking so.
Speaker 1: Forward to talking to you and reconnecting with you, and
Speaker 1: we hope that it's not the last time.
Speaker 2: So I look forward to seeing you again. Thank you
Speaker 2: for being here.
Speaker 5: When you guys are in New York, Okay, that would
Speaker 5: be good.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: By by bye.
Speaker 1: Another person that you go, well, some things are right
Speaker 1: in the universe. When when someone who has a dream
Speaker 1: like living in New Jersey and a performing art high
Speaker 1: school goes I want to go to la and see
Speaker 1: if I can make it an entertainment and then does
Speaker 1: and is that freaking nice and smart and cool?
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's also go back and watch Harold and Kumar
Speaker 4: from strictly a comedic acting standpoint.
Speaker 3: He's phenomenal, so funny, he is hitting beats like he's
Speaker 3: the that's.
Speaker 4: The kind of comedy that I like. Where it's like, oh,
Speaker 4: where where did that rhythm in that joke come from?
Speaker 4: Like where did you pick that up? It's just's awesome
Speaker 4: in a.
Speaker 2: Lot of ways.
Speaker 1: Will things he was saying really remind me of you.
Speaker 1: I think you guys would be I think you guys
Speaker 1: would be good friends.
Speaker 3: Really awesome? Are you kidding?
Speaker 2: I think you guys would be good friends?
Speaker 3: And I Allan will go to McDonald's. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: greatest thing ever.
Speaker 1: Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Speaker 1: Pod Meets World as all. You can follow us on
Speaker 1: Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your
Speaker 1: emails Podmeets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: And we've got merch.
Speaker 3: I can't beat Callum Will go to McDonald's. Merch.
Speaker 4: I can't beat it. I'd love to beat it. I
Speaker 4: had nine of the things in my head, but no,
Speaker 4: that's the new one. That's the standard.
Speaker 3: I'm sticking with it.
Speaker 1: Podmeetsworldshow dot com. We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod
Speaker 1: Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by
Speaker 1: Danielle Fischel Wilfridell and writer Strong Executive producers Jensen Karp
Speaker 1: and Amy Sugarman. Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
Speaker 1: producer and editor, Tara sudbachsch producer, Maddy Moore, engineer and
Speaker 1: Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is
Speaker 1: by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Podmeets World Show or email us at Podmeets Worldshow at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com