Speaker 1: One of my children bit another kid at school.
Speaker 2: So as as somebody who loves your kids, what did
Speaker 2: the other kid do to deserve it?
Speaker 3: Is my question.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I'm telling you. I so.
Speaker 4: About a year ago, we went to uh this little
Speaker 4: play place in the mall and Adler and Keaton were
Speaker 4: running around. One of the reasons we love this play
Speaker 4: place is that it's perfectly enclosed. The kids are totally
Speaker 4: safe in there, and everything's padded and it's like you
Speaker 4: can really like.
Speaker 1: Take off their leash let them run in there. You
Speaker 1: don't even have to put a helmet on them. They're fine.
Speaker 4: And then on the outside are all these tables and
Speaker 4: you can just sit there and work or drink your
Speaker 4: coffee or eat your lunch or whatever you want.
Speaker 1: And so we had let the kids go.
Speaker 4: And run around, and then all of a sudden, Adler
Speaker 4: comes flying around the corner with another kid chasing after him,
Speaker 4: and Adler's like screaming, bloody murder. And it's a different
Speaker 4: kind of scream, you know, playing screaming, which is still annoying,
Speaker 4: but like, okay, I can tell you're playing. Adler was
Speaker 4: like scared, and there was a three year old running
Speaker 4: after him, and as Adler came flying around the corner,
Speaker 4: he like tripped and fell and the kid jumped on
Speaker 4: top of him and picked up Adler's arm and bit
Speaker 4: it like a piece of corn on the car.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. So first he pounced and then he bit.
Speaker 4: And I don't I don't see the bite because it's
Speaker 4: on the floor. But I had seen the coming around
Speaker 4: the corner and the like hysterics, so I had already
Speaker 4: jumped up and was walking over there. And and I
Speaker 4: arrived there was another mom who's not the mom of
Speaker 4: the bier, a different a different parent, who says he
Speaker 4: bit him. And as she's saying this, Adler's holding up
Speaker 4: his arm and I see teeth marks in his arm
Speaker 4: and no broken skin, no broken skin, just but definite
Speaker 4: teeth marks in the arm. And I look down and
Speaker 4: I go, I look at the kid who bit and
Speaker 4: I go, oh my god.
Speaker 1: Just a totally like justin.
Speaker 4: I did not even have time to think of it,
Speaker 4: just natural reaction. The mom who's not the mom of
Speaker 4: the bier goes, okay, no need to shame the child.
Speaker 3: Oh god.
Speaker 4: And first of all, I'm a little like maybe there
Speaker 4: is a little bit of a reason, But okay, I
Speaker 4: understand that kids don't fully they're not well developed. So
Speaker 4: this kid, this is how he's gonna learn not to bite.
Speaker 4: I shouldn't shame, but I'll so like just me saying,
Speaker 4: oh my god, didn't really feel super shaming, but sure whatever. Anyway,
Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, well, can you just give me a
Speaker 4: second to process what just happened. My kid just got bit.
Speaker 4: So of course I pick up Adlar.
Speaker 1: I'm like, are you okay? And he's like, man, all
Speaker 1: this hysterics.
Speaker 4: The family ends up coming over and saying, you know,
Speaker 4: we're really sorry.
Speaker 1: This is he's in a new school we're visiting. He's
Speaker 1: from the East Coast.
Speaker 4: This sumone at school is a bier and he's learning
Speaker 4: it from.
Speaker 2: The people from East Coast because like we didn't he's
Speaker 2: from the East Coast.
Speaker 5: Sorry to get here, excuse.
Speaker 4: I think they were just letting us know he doesn't
Speaker 4: live here, like we're not from here. And so they
Speaker 4: just leave with the kid, which was the right thing
Speaker 4: to do. Get your kid out of here, Yeah, just
Speaker 4: you go handle him, don't leave me to shame him.
Speaker 4: So they leave. Now it was so traumatizing for Adler.
Speaker 4: There were a few, like a few weeks after that,
Speaker 4: where sometimes as he was falling asleep, he'd be like,
Speaker 4: do you remember.
Speaker 1: That time that that kid bit me? That was really scary.
Speaker 1: I I didn't like that, and I was like, I know,
Speaker 1: so we made a big deal.
Speaker 4: It was a big deal, like oh yeah, you'd we
Speaker 4: just know, no matter what you do, not bite. So yesterday,
Speaker 4: oh gosh, Jensen gets a phone call from Keaton's school.
Speaker 4: Keaton bit a friend name it was a nameless friend
Speaker 4: at the time and broke skin.
Speaker 3: Oh geez, he went all in.
Speaker 1: We were like, what happened?
Speaker 4: Apparently they were pretending and Keaton was a spider and
Speaker 4: he in the pretend play.
Speaker 6: He was a character. He was committed, he was method.
Speaker 4: His friend so hard he broke skin. Apparently there was
Speaker 4: no anger, there was no malice. It was it was
Speaker 4: pretend play. The friend, although hurt immediately after, was okay
Speaker 4: and they were friends. Come to find out then, because
Speaker 4: they don't tell you who who whenever some whenever your
Speaker 4: kid gets hurt or your kid hurts another person hippa,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna call it hippo rules. They don't tell you
Speaker 4: friend exactly friend friend.
Speaker 1: These friends are still friends.
Speaker 4: But so this morning I have to talk to Keaton
Speaker 4: about it and I say, so, who you know who
Speaker 4: did you bite?
Speaker 1: And he goes, I don't want to tell you, and
Speaker 1: I was like who is?
Speaker 4: It turns out it's his best friend. Are very good friends,
Speaker 4: Michelle and Poria's son, who you guys know because they
Speaker 4: came with us to Vegas and we made Kean a card.
Speaker 4: I had to have a very long conversation with Keaton
Speaker 4: about how absolutely incredibly serious biting is that even if
Speaker 4: it's make believe there's no reason to bite, it's very
Speaker 4: very and I reminded him. I was like, don't you
Speaker 4: remember when that kid tackled your brother please and bit
Speaker 4: him on the arm.
Speaker 1: It was like traumatizing, and.
Speaker 4: Keaton had this whole thing, but I was a spy
Speaker 4: but I had to It was like no, never ever. Okay,
Speaker 4: Pinky promised me you'll never bite anyone again. So anyway,
Speaker 4: I'm I just feeling that in one year I went
Speaker 4: from shaming a child for biting to being the mother
Speaker 4: of a bier.
Speaker 2: Okay, I have a serious question though, Okay, are either
Speaker 2: Adler or Keaton do they have a sudden aversion to sunlight?
Speaker 3: Or garlic. At this point, I'm.
Speaker 1: Just some basic questions, right, you know what You're not
Speaker 1: wrong to ask?
Speaker 5: Walking around with pop callars, Yeah, exactly, sleep the time
Speaker 5: they want to move to Seattle, there's they're glittering exactly.
Speaker 3: Also, you mentioned something that was a little triggering for me.
Speaker 3: Oh no, I'm going to be totally honest with you.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I've ever told either you or
Speaker 2: ride or this because it is something from my past
Speaker 2: that I try.
Speaker 3: To keep to myself.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, but I was a leash child.
Speaker 7: Wait wait, wait, I was harness was actually run your
Speaker 7: neck exactly.
Speaker 3: It was the body harness, seventies leash thing.
Speaker 6: I don't even know there were around in the seventies.
Speaker 2: I don't think they started in the seventies. I don't
Speaker 2: think they're allowed even allowed anymore, can you?
Speaker 6: I saw it was like in the nineties because yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I Wilfredell was a leash child.
Speaker 1: Wow, So because you were a sprinter, you were a darter.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know what it was.
Speaker 2: I think it was just by the third kid, just
Speaker 2: easier to leash the kid up, tie me to a
Speaker 2: tree so I could hand me a pack of smokes
Speaker 2: and call it a day.
Speaker 3: So you know I was a leash kid.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2: So when you said the leash like take put on
Speaker 2: a helmet, that was I didn't have a helmet, but
Speaker 2: because no one wore helmets of the seventies.
Speaker 1: Of course not.
Speaker 2: It's like, hey, then throw the kid in the back
Speaker 2: of a motorcycle, We're fine.
Speaker 3: But no, I was a leash child.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Wow, Indy had a friend who would just run, like.
Speaker 1: Just didn't like a dog.
Speaker 6: Did you have that like radar to stay near his parents?
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 5: He would just disappear, So they had to start writing
Speaker 5: their phone number on his arm, you know, just a
Speaker 5: case across.
Speaker 9: What about a dog?
Speaker 3: Airt who sponsored us?
Speaker 1: So don't we have an air tag sponsor somebody like that? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we sure do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if your if your child runs away on pod
Speaker 2: Meats World.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's so funny. Welcome to pod Meets World. I'm
Speaker 1: Daniel Fishel, I'm rather strong, and I'm Wilford.
Speaker 4: Over the years, there's been a certain type of television
Speaker 4: show that emerges from the depths of low Nielsen ratings.
Speaker 4: This isn't the Friends or Cheers or Seinfeld's of its day.
Speaker 4: It's the cult classic, the one that may not have
Speaker 4: received the kudos and awards during its initial run, but
Speaker 4: over time, decades later, it somehow survived and outlasted its
Speaker 4: peers shows like Freaks and Geeks, Get a Life, The
Speaker 4: Dana Carvey Show, Boy Meets World, and the show we
Speaker 4: will be talking about today because our guest is none
Speaker 4: other than the beloved QB two from a little show
Speaker 4: called Friday Night Lights. Much like Tapanga, Sean or Eric,
Speaker 4: he'll always be known as Matt Sarason, the scrawnee kid
Speaker 4: who was thrust into the Texas football spotlight when the
Speaker 4: star player went down with a career ending injury during
Speaker 4: the season opener, and somehow that was his first real
Speaker 4: job in Hollywood. He has since gone on to appear
Speaker 4: in dozens of TV shows, including Good Girls and his
Speaker 4: current run as a serial killer on Criminal Minds. And
Speaker 4: he's part of the Mike Flanagan Netflix Cinematic Universe, starring
Speaker 4: in The Great Midnight Mass and appearing in the Fall
Speaker 4: of the House of Usher and The Midnight Club. But
Speaker 4: he's here with us today to talk about what it's
Speaker 4: like to be part of a show that will just
Speaker 4: never go away, despite the fact that it was always
Speaker 4: on the bubble of cancelation. We have a similar best
Speaker 4: case scenario in our lives and we wanted to see
Speaker 4: what he thought. Now approaching Friday Night Light's twentieth anniversary, so.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod meets World.
Speaker 4: Ready to throw a perfect spiral to our hearts.
Speaker 1: It's Zach Gilford.
Speaker 2: Zach, are you.
Speaker 8: Guys are so professional with your setups? I got this
Speaker 8: stupid death though?
Speaker 1: Is that a bunch of booze in the top left?
Speaker 8: Don't worry about what's in the top.
Speaker 6: To some breakfastin.
Speaker 8: It's not using. It's just there for later.
Speaker 1: Zach, thank you so much for hanging out with us.
Speaker 4: We have been trying to get you on the podcast
Speaker 4: for a while because we often talk about modern day
Speaker 4: equivalents to Boy Meets World, and the best example we
Speaker 4: can come up with is Friday Night Lights.
Speaker 9: Well, that's way too kind because y'all show is like
Speaker 9: iconic to me and people don't even know my character.
Speaker 1: Name, So no, that's not true.
Speaker 4: Actually, have you accepted that the first line of your
Speaker 4: obituary will probably say Saracen.
Speaker 8: It will probably say like Sorensen or something like that. No,
Speaker 8: it's like people they're like Matt Scarison. I'm like, enough.
Speaker 5: Now we still get like Boys meets Boys, get the
Speaker 5: title right, and we're like, it's fun.
Speaker 8: It's while ago it.
Speaker 3: Was a show that's like, yeah, exactly, I was on
Speaker 3: the show on the.
Speaker 4: Oh. Well, next year is going to mark the twenty
Speaker 4: twentieth anniversary since the premiere, fifteen years since it went
Speaker 4: off the air. How often does Friday night Lights still
Speaker 4: come up for you?
Speaker 8: I mean all the time. Sorry, I have like fidget toys,
Speaker 8: I can't sit still.
Speaker 3: That's okay, it comes up a lot.
Speaker 8: I mean it's great.
Speaker 9: It's I mean, as you guys know, it's so cool
Speaker 9: to be associated with something that holds such a.
Speaker 8: Special part in people's lives.
Speaker 9: And I think as actors, you're lucky to have one
Speaker 9: project that really kind of strikes with people. And I
Speaker 9: think for me, I always feel kind of like, because
Speaker 9: I play Make Belief for a living.
Speaker 8: To have people validate that for me good. It's really
Speaker 8: nice because I love you believe. You're still getting baking
Speaker 8: and I'm like, don't talk to my kids about it.
Speaker 9: They're like, pretend you're a tiger and you said, Oh
Speaker 9: my god, you're so cute. I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 9: you're so cute.
Speaker 6: Let's try it again. Let's try it again.
Speaker 8: A commitment. I can't.
Speaker 4: I know that you grew up near Chicago. You're not
Speaker 4: a Hollywood kid at all.
Speaker 1: So how did you get into acting?
Speaker 9: I mean I got into it, I mean my story,
Speaker 9: your origin. I remember I saw Diehard Too and Bruce
Speaker 9: Willis was hanging off the wing of a plane, and
Speaker 9: I just.
Speaker 8: Thought, that looks so cool. I want to do that.
Speaker 8: And I realized the only way I'll ever do that
Speaker 8: is if.
Speaker 9: I'm an actor and I make believe to hang off
Speaker 9: the wing of a plane.
Speaker 8: Then I just said I want to be an actor.
Speaker 9: My parents were very supportive, and they were like, well,
Speaker 9: if you want to be an actor, you got to
Speaker 9: go to Northwestern.
Speaker 8: I grew up around Chicago.
Speaker 3: I went to Northwestern.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Bill, Bill Daniels, and Bonnie I think went to Northwestern.
Speaker 8: Oh okay, yeah, yeah, pretty sure.
Speaker 3: That's where they met.
Speaker 9: They brainwashed people into thinking it's one of the top
Speaker 9: acting schools. So I was brainwashed earlier that I had
Speaker 9: to go there, and and everyone was surprised I got
Speaker 9: in me more than anyone, and I went there and
Speaker 9: you know, just took classes, did a bunch of plays,
Speaker 9: and then I just got very very very lucky early
Speaker 9: in my career. And not just lucky like preparation meets opportunity,
Speaker 9: but like they didn't even want me for the show.
Speaker 9: They wanted someone else and they couldn't work out the
Speaker 9: dates with him. This kid was like already pre booked
Speaker 9: on a Disney TV movie that was shooting in New Zealand,
Speaker 9: and I guess his manager had, you know, just kept
Speaker 9: telling NBC, we can work out the dates. We can
Speaker 9: work out the dates, and they kept trying, and they
Speaker 9: finally are like, we shoot this show in like four days,
Speaker 9: and they didn't have time to cast anyone else. And
Speaker 9: I was the first to have tested against him, and
Speaker 9: just by default because people wanted this kid, and Linda Lowie,
Speaker 9: the casting director, was like, well, you need to have
Speaker 9: someone else there. He's like, I don't need anyone else there.
Speaker 9: That's who I want, and they're like, well, just bring
Speaker 9: someone else in. He's like why, and Linda was like,
Speaker 9: well what about Zach.
Speaker 2: He was good.
Speaker 8: He's like, I don't care, bring it. Sorry. He was like,
Speaker 8: I don't care, bring whoever you want.
Speaker 9: And then I was last man standing and got the
Speaker 9: job and just did my best.
Speaker 2: Wow, I'm sorry, I have why why did you start
Speaker 2: with die Hard too?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Not even one.
Speaker 9: I didn't want to walk across broken glass, you know,
Speaker 9: I don't know.
Speaker 8: I just remember that being the moment when I was like,
Speaker 8: that seems fun. Yeah, I want to do that, and
Speaker 8: I guess this is the only way it's going to happen.
Speaker 4: So you did that one test where you tested opposite
Speaker 4: the guy they really wanted I know who?
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 9: No, I actually I had auditioned originally for Taylor Kitchen's
Speaker 9: role for Riggins while I was in New York, and
Speaker 9: it was like a month later because I was before
Speaker 9: the holidays. And then it was January and I was
Speaker 9: in LA for my first pilot season and my manager
Speaker 9: was like, they want to see you again for Friday Lights.
Speaker 8: I said, oh great. When he said this afternoon, I
Speaker 8: was like, I literally just drove into La. I'm not
Speaker 8: even into the place I'm staying yet.
Speaker 9: So I went I printed like I think I have
Speaker 9: the sides in my email somewhere, and I went to
Speaker 9: Starbucks and like hand wrote the sides out and remember these.
Speaker 8: And I go in.
Speaker 9: I talked to Linda Lowie and she's like, okay, great,
Speaker 9: you're a read. I said, yeah, let's go and she
Speaker 9: said you're reading for Matt right, And I was like
Speaker 9: what I thought I was reading for Tim. She's like, oh, no,
Speaker 9: I wanted to.
Speaker 8: See you for Matt.
Speaker 9: And I said, oh, well, can I just look at
Speaker 9: it real quick? Like can I have five minutes you
Speaker 9: can see someone else? And then she said don't don't
Speaker 9: worry about it, and I said no.
Speaker 8: No, I'm very worried. I would love to do this.
Speaker 9: Look, I'll do cold read. Just give it to me,
Speaker 9: like I'll go. And she was like, no, no, I'm
Speaker 9: sure you'll be fine. I'll bring you in for producers
Speaker 9: next week. And I was like okay. So there was
Speaker 9: like many roles, rolls, rounds of you know, going in
Speaker 9: my first time. When I was suposed to go in
Speaker 9: for producers, Pete Berg came story like. I was like, next,
Speaker 9: I was in the on deck chair sitting by the
Speaker 9: door to go in, and he like stormed out on
Speaker 9: the phone and got in the elemantor and the.
Speaker 8: Casting came out and said sorry, he just needed to
Speaker 8: take a phone call. He'll be back in a minute.
Speaker 9: I was like, okay, I mean, I got no order
Speaker 9: to be And so then he came back in and
Speaker 9: there's this kid who I'm convinced just for the lore
Speaker 9: of the story was the kid that he wanted, and
Speaker 9: it was this I call.
Speaker 8: Him football Boy. He's literally holding a football for the audition,
Speaker 8: like bro, like what a nerd? And of course Pete
Speaker 8: Burg goes, who are you. He's like, I'm I don't
Speaker 8: even remember his name.
Speaker 6: Football guy.
Speaker 8: Yeah, he's like, I'm a football boy. And he's like,
Speaker 8: I want to see football boy. And the casting director
Speaker 8: was like, well.
Speaker 9: It's Zach's up. We can see football boy. Next he
Speaker 9: was like, no, I want to see football boy. They're like, okay, Zach,
Speaker 9: you might like I don't mind, Sure, go ahead, st
Speaker 9: I have fun, right, So football boy goes.
Speaker 6: In, go for it, Brad.
Speaker 9: Yeah. Football boy comes out, and then Pete Burg comes
Speaker 9: out again and gets the elevator.
Speaker 8: And leaves again. Oh Goshin comes out again and says.
Speaker 9: I'm so sorry Pete had to leave reading to the
Speaker 9: other producers. Of course, you're like, no, I don't mind
Speaker 9: reading for the producer so I go in, I read,
Speaker 9: and then like, we're gonna bring it back for Pete.
Speaker 8: And then oh gosh, I came back for Pete.
Speaker 9: And then I tested for the studio and got to
Speaker 9: go to the network. And the super fun thing about
Speaker 9: Pete Burg and the way we did that show is
Speaker 9: he likes to improve a lot. So I go in
Speaker 9: for my network test, which is at that point in time,
Speaker 9: it was the version where you go into a room
Speaker 9: and there's all these execs sitting on like window sills
Speaker 9: and like desks and like in one office, and Pete's like,
Speaker 9: all right, I'm gonna read with you, like okay, and
Speaker 9: he gives me the first line of the scene, which
Speaker 9: is with my Grandma, and I give him a second
Speaker 9: and then he just starts.
Speaker 8: Making it up.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 9: I was just like in my head, I was just like,
Speaker 9: I guess I'll just go with it. And he did
Speaker 9: that to everyone. I think part of it was that's
Speaker 9: the way he likes to work on sets. We wanted
Speaker 9: to see, yeah, sure could do it, so you know,
Speaker 9: eventually blah blah blah, football boy couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: And so there it was unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Well, you were great, but you weren't holding the football next, you.
Speaker 1: Know, and no imagination.
Speaker 8: I brought a prop to every audition.
Speaker 4: So now, had you read the book or seen the
Speaker 4: documentary before you read the pilot?
Speaker 8: Both?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'd seen the movie and I loved it. And
Speaker 9: I actually had read the book because I loved.
Speaker 8: The movie so much and I'm a pretty avid reader.
Speaker 9: And Pete said, which is really cool, that when he
Speaker 9: was making the movie, he realized it needed to be
Speaker 9: a TV show because he said, you know, I have
Speaker 9: ninety minutes to tell one story. It's the story of
Speaker 9: the season of this team, and the movie was based
Speaker 9: on a true story, so you have to tell that.
Speaker 9: But he was like, I want to know story about
Speaker 9: this car salesman or you know Connie Britton's she was
Speaker 9: the coach's wife in the movie, and they wanted to
Speaker 9: hear do the show, and she said no several times
Speaker 9: because she's just appt I wasn't in the movie, like
Speaker 9: my goal was on the cutting room floor, and he
Speaker 9: just had to convince her and say, no, no, no, the
Speaker 9: show is going to be it's not about football, which
Speaker 9: became kind of like the big thing with the show, right,
Speaker 9: and you know, obviously she went on to be nominated
Speaker 9: for Emmys and all this sort of stuff.
Speaker 8: It was an amazing role, but it is it's not
Speaker 8: about football.
Speaker 9: It's about this town and this culture and these people
Speaker 9: and how it affects them. And you know, I last
Speaker 9: a couple of years ago, for the first time I
Speaker 9: ever went back and watched some of the show, and
Speaker 9: I was really not surprised but excited.
Speaker 8: How well it held up.
Speaker 9: But it really made me realize, man, like some of
Speaker 9: the actors on that show, like Adrian Pelicky is just
Speaker 9: like the unsung hero of that show.
Speaker 8: I feel like what she brought to this character that's
Speaker 8: supposed to just be like, you.
Speaker 9: Know, the kind of like not slutty, but like promiscuous,
Speaker 9: tall blonde who's not a cheerleader, and how they fleshed
Speaker 9: out that character and she just brought so much to it.
Speaker 9: And then you know, had the infamous season two storyline
Speaker 9: of the murder with.
Speaker 4: Justin Yeah I wanted to get into the murder, oh.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and like only a future Oscar nominated actor and
Speaker 9: Adrian could pull off this plot line because the whole
Speaker 9: time I'm watching him like this storyline is so bad.
Speaker 8: But they're so good at acting it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I want to talk to you about the
Speaker 4: murder because, uh, they decided it was season two, right
Speaker 4: that they decided to bring in the storyline of a murder.
Speaker 8: Well, no, actually it was season one. In the finalite,
Speaker 8: they have no so they do the whole murder, okay.
Speaker 9: And I remember reading it and talking to Sarah auvery
Speaker 9: one of our producers, and I wasn't involved in it.
Speaker 8: That I was like, this seems like a bit of
Speaker 8: a stretch, I know, but we just.
Speaker 9: Think and we just we really wanted a world where
Speaker 9: we really linked Tyra and Landry together because we just
Speaker 9: love those two characters together, and we thought we'd give
Speaker 9: it a try. And she told me before permiere, she
Speaker 9: was like, you're gonna be really happy. We had to
Speaker 9: cut the murder storyline, like it just didn't fit in
Speaker 9: the finale. I was like, oh, thank goodness. And then
Speaker 9: we go back for a season two. They're like, but
Speaker 9: we loved it so much. So this poor guy that
Speaker 9: they murdered in the finale season one, not poor guy,
Speaker 9: he got paid again, but like he had to come
Speaker 9: in and get murdered again.
Speaker 4: Okay, it was a pretty flawless show. Up until the
Speaker 4: point of that storyline, and then it was pretty universally
Speaker 4: agreed this was not good and so how.
Speaker 1: Did they just move on from that?
Speaker 4: Like, let's pretend that didn't happen and not mention it again.
Speaker 2: SOWANSI lands the motorcycle after he jumps the shark.
Speaker 3: That's how you keep going totally.
Speaker 8: I think it's It's one of the beauties of TV
Speaker 8: is you can.
Speaker 1: Just yeah, ten things didn't happen right right.
Speaker 9: And you know we we wel always ust around. Like
Speaker 9: I said, we got to improv a lot, and so
Speaker 9: often in scenes.
Speaker 8: For the duration of the show, we'd be, you know,
Speaker 8: shooting some scene in the locker room or something and
Speaker 8: just out of know everything.
Speaker 9: Oh hey, hey, remember when you murdered that guy?
Speaker 8: That was crazy. I'm glad you got away with it.
Speaker 4: I want to talk to you about I want to
Speaker 4: flatter you a bit, because it is true. You play
Speaker 4: Saracen with such a subtle under just a really subtle performance,
Speaker 4: and you have a lot of layers. When I have
Speaker 4: worked with young actors who aren't super experienced, the usual
Speaker 4: go to is they turn it up to eleven and
Speaker 4: we're always trying to bring people back. How did you
Speaker 4: just kind of instinctually or how did you know to
Speaker 4: play so many off layers and emotions?
Speaker 9: Ah, Man, I don't know. I think I think again,
Speaker 9: I think I got lucky. I think I'm very scared
Speaker 9: to do anything over the top.
Speaker 1: Ever, okay, me too, Not true, Not true.
Speaker 8: So I just try to underplay everything.
Speaker 9: And you know, after a while, as you guys know
Speaker 9: so well on TV, you know your character so well,
Speaker 9: and on the pilot even we got rewrites, you know,
Speaker 9: at that point they were slid under our hotel room
Speaker 9: door and it was blue pages, yellow pages, whatever. And
Speaker 9: I remember going up to Pete Bergen saying, Hey, I
Speaker 9: think can we talk about these rewrites? And he was
Speaker 9: like huh, And I was like, I just feel like
Speaker 9: you gave me too many lines, Like this kid doesn't
Speaker 9: talk a lot, and like now he's like and he
Speaker 9: was like, what are you talking about.
Speaker 8: It's like the rewrits we got to goes. Don't read those,
Speaker 8: We're not gonna shoot those.
Speaker 9: Those are just for the studio because they don't understand
Speaker 9: what's going on, so we have to spell it out.
Speaker 8: So often.
Speaker 9: And I think a lot of this trick down obviously
Speaker 9: from Pete, and then Jeffrey Ryaner who I was, who
Speaker 9: was our producing director, took over and I think really
Speaker 9: took the baton from Pete really well.
Speaker 8: But Kyle was great about it, where you would get
Speaker 8: these long, page long.
Speaker 9: TV monologues that just really laid pipe and explained everything,
Speaker 9: just to make sure the audience really understood what was
Speaker 9: going on inside of a character. And Kylo would be like,
Speaker 9: I'm just gonna say this one sentence, that's it. I'd
Speaker 9: be like, you're right, that is all we need. I
Speaker 9: had this one, I think it was season two. My
Speaker 9: dad comes back from you know, Iraq or something, and
Speaker 9: I just remember being in the he's like working as
Speaker 9: a used car sales and I got him the job
Speaker 9: and I go up and there's been all this friction
Speaker 9: and they gave me this whole long.
Speaker 8: Thing and and part of one line was like Dad,
Speaker 8: look at me. I'm a man now. And I was
Speaker 8: just like, oh god, I'm not going to say that.
Speaker 9: And like what it boiled down to was on said
Speaker 9: I just said, Dad, I got this, and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 9: that's all we need. That's great, that explains it. So
Speaker 9: I think we liked that in that. But really I
Speaker 9: think a lot of us learn from Kyle just how to, like,
Speaker 9: you know, explain, not explain the show what's going on
Speaker 9: with a character, not by explaining it, which I don't know.
Speaker 8: It was the tone of the show. I learned so
Speaker 8: much from it. I think one of my strengths now
Speaker 8: when I'm working is being able to.
Speaker 9: Boil things down kind of like cut some fat. And
Speaker 9: I've been really lucky to work with a lot of creators,
Speaker 9: a lot of writers who are very open to it
Speaker 9: and very much know, like this thing has gone through
Speaker 9: so many drafts and you know the characters so well,
Speaker 9: and now we're collaborating with you. So it's it's always
Speaker 9: fun for me to see, like how how how few
Speaker 9: lines can I say across when I have one? One
Speaker 9: director I worked with several times and I love him,
Speaker 9: and he was like, I also do this thing where
Speaker 9: a lot of times I'll be like, I don't think
Speaker 9: I need to be in this scene.
Speaker 8: I mean, you know you're gonna have to shoot so
Speaker 8: many angles. I don't think I'm important and you could
Speaker 8: get out of here in two hours instead of four.
Speaker 8: And he was like, Zach is the only actor I've
Speaker 8: ever met who doesn't want to act.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so far you've said there's too many lines.
Speaker 3: I don't need to be in the scene. These are
Speaker 3: things on no actors Bengo card Ever.
Speaker 8: I think I also just did so much because that
Speaker 8: was a football shuttle. So there's so many scenes where
Speaker 8: you're in them but not in them. It's like it's
Speaker 8: in the locker room there, you gotta be there.
Speaker 9: So I mean, if I don't know how much you'll
Speaker 9: actually see, but there's so many scenes where you'll probably
Speaker 9: see me in the background just tying my shoe, yeah,
Speaker 9: and then walking out.
Speaker 8: I'm like, if I mean, I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I come in, I grab an apple, and I leave.
Speaker 8: Yeah, exactly. I put on my shoulder pads and so
Speaker 8: I did.
Speaker 9: I recently was directing in an episode of something that
Speaker 9: I was working on, Criminal Minds, and I told our idea.
Speaker 9: I was like, I want in the background one of
Speaker 9: these FBI agents to stop and tie their shoe.
Speaker 1: That's what happens in real life we have.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I was like, I don't want you to tell
Speaker 8: me who it is. I just wanted to happen. It's
Speaker 8: gonna be like a game of where's Waldo? For me?
Speaker 9: And it was just like this game that we played
Speaker 9: and it so is like in the background I can
Speaker 9: see it. I'm so mad because in the cut I
Speaker 9: see the guy walk in and start to bend down
Speaker 9: and just at the angle you can't see it happen.
Speaker 9: It was a really fun game we played.
Speaker 5: So you were you guys improv all through all five seasons.
Speaker 5: You were always allowed to like sort of yeah, I
Speaker 5: mean that that sets you up. I mean I think
Speaker 5: that's amazing. But there are a lot of sets where
Speaker 5: they don't want that. So have you run into the
Speaker 5: problem of like trying to do it on another set
Speaker 5: and like they'll be like, say, what's written?
Speaker 9: Yeah, and a little bit. I will say most most sets.
Speaker 9: I have not been on Gilmore Girls, Oddly enough, I did.
Speaker 9: I auditioned for Aaron Sorkin one, and this feedback was like,
Speaker 9: good job, you knew all the lines.
Speaker 3: Well, that's what it takes to be on a narrow
Speaker 3: sorcin show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, can you talk and say all the lines at
Speaker 2: the same time.
Speaker 3: Great, you're an actor, baste. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 9: But most people love to collaborate and they like really
Speaker 9: respect what actors bring to it, and I think I'm.
Speaker 8: Very fortunate to be a point in my career where
Speaker 8: people know, like they know who I.
Speaker 9: Am and they think I know what they're getting. And
Speaker 9: I always try to now as opposed to just mess around.
Speaker 9: Like there's certain things on set where like I just
Speaker 9: it's in the moment I'm like, oh, this is what
Speaker 9: needs to happen, or it's ever like I'm just going
Speaker 9: to change the scene.
Speaker 8: What's happening right now. The real thing that happened would
Speaker 8: be this.
Speaker 9: But I try to like go through it and do
Speaker 9: my homework before and go to the give them the
Speaker 9: respect of like, hey, I want to change this to this.
Speaker 8: I kind of want to do that.
Speaker 9: I'm feeling here, I'm going to have this kind of
Speaker 9: impulse and they're usually like, all right, great, let's see
Speaker 9: what happens.
Speaker 8: I do remember I didn't know this.
Speaker 9: But so I just finished my run on Criminal Minds
Speaker 9: and it was such an amazing set and they were
Speaker 9: very open to my way of working, which was great
Speaker 9: for me. And apparently they call it rehearsal Zach because
Speaker 9: I don't rehearse. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, what
Speaker 9: is the point I'm not going to do this until
Speaker 9: the cameras are running. They're like, and I'm just like,
Speaker 9: I make fun of the lines the whole time if
Speaker 9: we're rehearsing, which is kind of just like a jerk
Speaker 9: move on my part.
Speaker 8: But so apparently during we had had we were on
Speaker 8: set and.
Speaker 9: There was one line and I came up to Eric
Speaker 9: our show and I was like, hey, Erica, hey this line.
Speaker 9: She's like, You're not going to say it. I was
Speaker 9: like yeah, She's like I could tell on the table
Speaker 9: read you were.
Speaker 8: Never going to say it. I said, I'm literally during
Speaker 8: the table because it was on zoom, she said. I
Speaker 8: turned to the director. I was like, he's never going
Speaker 8: to say this line.
Speaker 9: And then the funny thing is I didn't make the connection,
Speaker 9: but I was so a j Cook, who's one of
Speaker 9: my co stars, was joking about rehearsal Zach and this
Speaker 9: was during the finale, and I was like yeah, and
Speaker 9: I said the story about the table reach. He goes,
Speaker 9: was it the line something about and I was like yes,
Speaker 9: She's like that was my episode. I remember in the
Speaker 9: table read, Eric attorney to me and be like, he's
Speaker 9: never going to say it.
Speaker 1: Bother Oh my gosh, that's so funny.
Speaker 4: Another similarity between Friday Night Lights and Boy Meets World
Speaker 4: is that we were both told that we were.
Speaker 1: Always on the bubble. It must have.
Speaker 4: Been very I mean we've heard nah since then that
Speaker 4: we weren't as much on the bubble as.
Speaker 1: We were told.
Speaker 3: We didn't know that.
Speaker 4: We did not know that. And literally, at the end
Speaker 4: of every season, it was a big who knows, fingers crossed,
Speaker 4: maybe we'll get to do another season.
Speaker 1: Were did you have that same feeling? Were you always
Speaker 1: nervous at the end of a season?
Speaker 8: Oh? Yeah, I mean I think we are canceled twice.
Speaker 9: And then I think it was and then a bunch
Speaker 9: of people sent Light Bulbs to NBC because they were.
Speaker 8: Owned by ge at the time.
Speaker 9: I don't know if they still Oh, and there was
Speaker 9: this ground swell which helped. And then so season's four
Speaker 9: and five, Direct TV swooped in and they basically took
Speaker 9: over half the cost of production and they got to
Speaker 9: air it first on DirecTV in the fall, and then
Speaker 9: it aired on NBC in the spring. So the last
Speaker 9: two seasons, we knew we had two more seasons and
Speaker 9: that was the end. But yeah, it always was like man,
Speaker 9: I hope. I you know, as much as I wanted
Speaker 9: to do the show, I also was like I just
Speaker 9: need to.
Speaker 1: Plan my rent in my yeah and got bills.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 8: And it was me.
Speaker 6: You were always critically doing incredibly well right like.
Speaker 9: And it was really annoying, but it was like, I
Speaker 9: feel like more people watch it now than did then,
Speaker 9: and you know, they are a sour grapes about like
Speaker 9: I think our first season we premiered on Tuesdays and everyone's.
Speaker 8: Like, how could you put Friday Lights on Tuesdays? That's
Speaker 8: confusing and I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, really your calendar.
Speaker 2: But ways, there another similarity that our shows have is
Speaker 2: the fandom, because Friday Night Lights has a rabid fandom.
Speaker 2: So have you had an opportunity, I mean we've we've
Speaker 2: been really lucky in doing some conventions and things like
Speaker 2: that where we can really get in there and interact
Speaker 2: and see how much the show has impacted people. Have
Speaker 2: you had that opportunity to kind of be with some
Speaker 2: of your fans and realize how important Friday Night Lights
Speaker 2: was to them?
Speaker 9: I mean just in like passing people coming up to
Speaker 9: me and stuff. I haven't done any consent or anything.
Speaker 1: I have tried to get Zacha Khan agent.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna do my first one, okay in Detroit next month.
Speaker 8: But I've gone.
Speaker 9: I have a friend who does them a lot, and
Speaker 9: I've gone and visited her just to like break break
Speaker 9: it up for her. And it is funny like people
Speaker 9: they get so confused you.
Speaker 8: I'm like, no photos are free with me.
Speaker 1: I'm just here for the fun of it.
Speaker 8: I'm just here. I'm a big fan to hold the football. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: You shared so much of your storyline with Landry, who
Speaker 4: was played by a young, very green actor named Jesse Plemmons.
Speaker 4: Your chemistry was so real, so believable. What do you
Speaker 4: think made that such a good partnership between you two him?
Speaker 9: I mean, I always say, and I don't mean this jokingly,
Speaker 9: like I lucked out on that show so much because
Speaker 9: most of myself was with Jesse or Kyle or my grandmother.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kyle Chandler who played the coach.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and we went Stevens, Who's like I loved this
Speaker 9: day and just like we had this. I was like
Speaker 9: protective over her and she would bring me newspaper clippings
Speaker 9: from Dallas.
Speaker 8: Where she lived.
Speaker 9: If I was in the newspaper, and she was just phenomenal.
Speaker 9: But Jesse and I, I don't know, we just hit
Speaker 9: it off. And I remember during the pilot I told
Speaker 9: because he's from Texas, he's from Waco, and I was like, hey, man,
Speaker 9: if my accent sounds stupid or fake or whatever, like,
Speaker 9: please tell me.
Speaker 8: He's like, okay, he.
Speaker 9: Never did it, thankfully, but we just hit it off
Speaker 9: and we're still like super close friends to this day.
Speaker 9: And I remember when we were shooting the pilot in
Speaker 9: the first week, during like prep, he had an episode
Speaker 9: of Gray's Anatomy that was gonna air where he was
Speaker 9: like something that made his face look like a lion.
Speaker 9: I don't know, oh crazy anatomy.
Speaker 8: So I was like, oh, I should watch this episode.
Speaker 8: I remember watching him like, oh my god, this kid
Speaker 8: is so.
Speaker 1: Good, right, even with the lion face.
Speaker 9: Yeah, even with the lion face, I could see I
Speaker 9: can see the boy beneath the lion face, and yeah,
Speaker 9: he just was so good.
Speaker 8: And we just hit it off.
Speaker 9: And he's such an old soul. I mean, this makes
Speaker 9: me sound like a loser, but you know, I think
Speaker 9: he was seventeen or eighteen when we shot.
Speaker 8: It, and I was like twenty two. Or twenty three.
Speaker 8: But yeah, we were.
Speaker 9: Just like super close, those super fast friends. And he's
Speaker 9: so funny man. Like again, I feel like I'm edited
Speaker 9: out of those scenes so often because I couldn't keep
Speaker 9: a straight face and due to the improv and it lends.
Speaker 8: Itself so well to his character. He could just say
Speaker 8: the randomest things, but they were so within character that
Speaker 8: you're just like.
Speaker 6: What are you talking about.
Speaker 9: I was to be here and like go with it.
Speaker 9: And the one thing I couldn't I couldn't realize watching
Speaker 9: it back a couple of years ago, some of the
Speaker 9: things that we got to say I am embarrassed and offended.
Speaker 8: By, Like we had to drop the R word. Not
Speaker 8: got to, but we would like drop the R word,
Speaker 8: like you'd say something stupid.
Speaker 9: I'm like, you're really right, and I'm just like this
Speaker 9: was on NBC.
Speaker 8: Oh my god. So yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 9: We just had like an instant chemistry. He's such a
Speaker 9: good guy. He's just the most amazing person to be
Speaker 9: in a scene with. And I remember I've seen probably
Speaker 9: all of his work, but I remember watching Killer the
Speaker 9: Flower Moon and just being so proud of him.
Speaker 8: Nothing I need to, but he's just in scenes with.
Speaker 9: De Niro and DiCaprio, just like holding his own like, yeah,
Speaker 9: I should be here, you should be good for you
Speaker 9: so great.
Speaker 4: Oh, I know we saw Scott Porter at your daughter's
Speaker 4: birthday a few years ago.
Speaker 1: So are you guys still close to Yeah.
Speaker 8: We're still good buddies. Him and I have always been like.
Speaker 9: We lived together for part of the first season because
Speaker 9: I was off. I used to lead like backpacking trips
Speaker 9: or high school kids, and that going into the first
Speaker 9: season after the pilot I worked in I worked in
Speaker 9: New Zealand leading trips for kids, and I was there
Speaker 9: for months, and so I literally flew from New Zealand
Speaker 9: to Texas, you know, a day before we started shooting.
Speaker 9: I had like a duffel bag and I hadn't gone
Speaker 9: down and figured out a place to live. So I
Speaker 9: slept on his couch for like a month, and we
Speaker 9: just got really tight. And then the last season two
Speaker 9: and three or season two, I forget when he left,
Speaker 9: but we were roommates.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we're just like very brotherly.
Speaker 9: And we actually were at the final network test together,
Speaker 9: which was an odd one.
Speaker 8: I don't think they usually do it this.
Speaker 9: Way, but they were testing like six roles, and so
Speaker 9: we're in a conference room and it's me and football
Speaker 9: Boy and you know, it was Minka and whoever else
Speaker 9: was testing for her part, Annie, whoever was testing for
Speaker 9: her part. Jesse was not there, Amy was there, Scott
Speaker 9: was there, and maybe Guias and whoever else we're testing
Speaker 9: for their roles and you're kind of there. You're like
Speaker 9: getting to know people because you're sitting there for hours
Speaker 9: and you're being nice to the person you're testing again,
Speaker 9: but you don't really want to get to know them, right,
Speaker 9: And me and Scott hit it off, and he had
Speaker 9: been flown in from New York, and I was like, do.
Speaker 8: You need a ride home?
Speaker 9: And I didn't know that wasn't something you really did
Speaker 9: in LA, right because I didn't live here, and so.
Speaker 8: I gave him right home.
Speaker 9: We're like, you know, I feel like it should be
Speaker 9: that person and that person, and we named everyone, including me,
Speaker 9: but we were wrong about me.
Speaker 8: But we got But yeah, we've headed off ever since,
Speaker 8: Like the testing process.
Speaker 1: That's so funny.
Speaker 4: I can only imagine people kind of freak out when
Speaker 4: they see QB one and QB two out together.
Speaker 8: Yeah, well, well always QB two always.
Speaker 4: There have been whispers over the last year or so
Speaker 4: about a possible reboot. Would you be willing to come
Speaker 4: back and play a coach or what could you tell
Speaker 4: us about that?
Speaker 8: I mean, I know nothing about it.
Speaker 9: All I know is it's Pete and it's Jason Catoms, who.
Speaker 8: Is our head writer for the run of the show.
Speaker 8: So and I know it's I know it's meant to
Speaker 8: be a complete reboot where it's just the same concept,
Speaker 8: but it's a different town. It's I think there was
Speaker 8: like a hurricane that's ravaged. I don't know, I've just
Speaker 8: heard whispers. As far as I know, none of us
Speaker 8: are supposed to be involved because it's supposed to be all.
Speaker 1: New, like a whole thing.
Speaker 8: Yeah, if there was an authentic version where Matt Sarason
Speaker 8: showed up for some reason, okay, cool.
Speaker 9: But I think the beauty of that show was that
Speaker 9: it felt so real, like so many of us left
Speaker 9: the show.
Speaker 8: And Pete had planned that at the beginning, because he
Speaker 8: was like.
Speaker 9: This is about a high school football team in the
Speaker 9: community around it, and people graduate and they leave, some don't,
Speaker 9: but a lot of you do. And so a lot
Speaker 9: of us left the show. And I think if we
Speaker 9: just found reasons to keep all of us around for
Speaker 9: five seasons or whatever. I would have taken away from it.
Speaker 9: And I think to just like have all of us
Speaker 9: cameo on the show might seem a little wonky and
Speaker 9: take away from it. The funny thing was, you know,
Speaker 9: the first season, we all assumed that Taylor was a senior,
Speaker 9: and like because he was best friends with Jason Street,
Speaker 9: it was a senior blah blah blah, and then nothing
Speaker 9: against it. I love Taylor and his characters great. In
Speaker 9: season two, it's like, oh, he's on the football team again.
Speaker 9: I guess he was a junior last year. And then
Speaker 9: it was season three and we're like, oh, you're still.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 8: What a loser I was because I was treating this
Speaker 8: guy like he's two years older than me, but apparently
Speaker 8: we're peers.
Speaker 4: I also wanted to ask you about your numerous collaborations
Speaker 4: with Mike Flanagan and Netflix.
Speaker 1: You were also in a Purge movie. You did you
Speaker 1: like horror movies before all of this?
Speaker 9: You know, I like good movies, and we're such like,
Speaker 9: I've come to learn such a huge umbrella. I think
Speaker 9: growing up, I just thought it was like slasher films,
Speaker 9: like the thirteenth third we're in Elm Street. But you know,
Speaker 9: it's just all sorts of films, and I do know
Speaker 9: like with Flanning In I had seen Haunting a Hell
Speaker 9: House and thought it was amazing, and I remember binging
Speaker 9: it like the holiday weekend, the Halloween weekend it came out,
Speaker 9: and so when I got that audition, it was, you know,
Speaker 9: super top secret. All I had was the sides. I
Speaker 9: had no idea anything about the show, and so I
Speaker 9: just had to like memorize these two scenes, go in
Speaker 9: and do them and hope for the best, knowing absolutely nothing,
Speaker 9: and working with him was so awesome. Like he is again,
Speaker 9: he's someone who really wants you to memorize his lines.
Speaker 8: He's very much in a tour and to fear them
Speaker 8: all out.
Speaker 9: And I knew that going in, So when I would
Speaker 9: do my homework, I would send him screenshots or photos
Speaker 9: of like my notes and say.
Speaker 8: Can I change this? Can I do that nine ten
Speaker 8: times out of ten? And he'd be like, that's great,
Speaker 8: go for it. All good. And he has.
Speaker 9: Everything shot listed, as I know most directors do, but
Speaker 9: like super shot listed, where he makes this huge poster
Speaker 9: board that's out for the whole crew to see, so
Speaker 9: everyone knows exactly what's gonna happen all day. But at
Speaker 9: the same time, if he had planned a scene where
Speaker 9: I'm standing in the corner, my dad comes in and
Speaker 9: we're talking, and then I was like, I feel like
Speaker 9: I'd be sitting on the bed, like why am I
Speaker 9: standing in the corner, he'd be like, and it totally
Speaker 9: changes the cameras.
Speaker 8: He just yeah, you're right, okay, and like change it
Speaker 8: all up.
Speaker 9: My one favorite thing with him was when I did
Speaker 9: follow the House Usher with him. There was these lines
Speaker 9: where my character is saying a poem in bed to
Speaker 9: his wife, and I guess I'm dumb because I thought
Speaker 9: it was just a poem that my character was making up.
Speaker 9: And I write Mike and I was like, you know,
Speaker 9: I feel like it would flow better if it was
Speaker 9: diplay And I said that, and he's like, yeah, that's
Speaker 9: an actual word poem.
Speaker 8: We're gonna go ahead and give it the way it is.
Speaker 10: Knew what he was doing, but anyway, I was like, oh,
Speaker 10: I want to read the rest of this poem, and
Speaker 10: I googled it and I was like, well, Mike, I'm
Speaker 10: sorry to tell you this, but you guys.
Speaker 9: Wrote the poem wrong them really, that's like I wasn't
Speaker 9: exactly right, but my version is closer to the real thing.
Speaker 8: That fair enough, fair enough.
Speaker 1: That's so funny.
Speaker 4: I mean these projects have like twenty five minute one shots.
Speaker 1: What is it? What is it like working on something
Speaker 1: like that?
Speaker 8: You know, I've always been really lucky.
Speaker 9: Memorizing lines is pretty easy for me, and that's kind
Speaker 9: of the first step for me is I know my
Speaker 9: stuff so that then I can just like do something else,
Speaker 9: or if the lines work perfect, I can just do
Speaker 9: them and be interacting with people as opposed to like
Speaker 9: I mean, it drives me nuts when actors don't. Yeah,
Speaker 9: like as an actor, as a director, I'm like, oh god, please,
Speaker 9: like just.
Speaker 8: Know your lines.
Speaker 1: Yes, this is the one your one job, the one thing.
Speaker 8: My biggest thing I learned in college.
Speaker 9: I had a professor and he was like, know your lines,
Speaker 9: know you're blocking, and don't bump into the furniture.
Speaker 8: That's all you have to do. And it's like kind
Speaker 8: of true. But yeah, those one ares they're so fun.
Speaker 8: I mean they're like a play and you go through
Speaker 8: it a lot.
Speaker 9: And we had this one where I remember midnight mass
Speaker 9: our Big Wonner was on a beach with all these
Speaker 9: dead seagulls and it's going through all the people of
Speaker 9: the town. And yeah, we rehearsed it like four times.
Speaker 8: We shot it. I think we got it in like
Speaker 8: five takes, because once you get.
Speaker 9: It, you're like, well, we were we gonna we just
Speaker 9: did it. We're not gonna cut anywhere, so like let's
Speaker 9: move on. And that scene actually was it was the
Speaker 9: day my son was due to be born, and so
Speaker 9: they're like, we got you set up, like we've got
Speaker 9: Wi Fi over there, so if you need to FaceTime you.
Speaker 8: Know, the birth of your child.
Speaker 9: And I was just like, because it was during the pandemic,
Speaker 9: and like we shot in Cannon all this stuff, and
Speaker 9: luckily he took a while to come so I didn't
Speaker 9: have to run away from set. But I also was like,
Speaker 9: what am I gonna just like in the middle of this,
Speaker 9: Wonner be like, sorry, guys, can everyone is like.
Speaker 1: Give me give me two hours?
Speaker 8: Two hours, we can shoot this tomorrow.
Speaker 9: Right, It all worked out, But really, so much of
Speaker 9: that is like on the steady cam operator. I sorry,
Speaker 9: I'm so bad with names and his years ago, but
Speaker 9: I'm pretty sure his name was James, and this guy is.
Speaker 8: Just like he does.
Speaker 9: He's done all of Mike's big one ers and he
Speaker 9: It really makes you realize, if you haven't already, how
Speaker 9: much the cameraman are just like the unsung heroes set
Speaker 9: and obviously there because you're doing this dance with them
Speaker 9: and figuring it out where you need to be and
Speaker 9: where they need to be and how to like go
Speaker 9: at a pace where like they can keep up with you.
Speaker 8: It keeps the frame right.
Speaker 9: But then even when I started directing, my kind of
Speaker 9: like Mentor had told me he was like Jamie on
Speaker 9: this set, he's like your secret weapon because he he's like,
Speaker 9: don't call cut when the scene's over, like he'll find
Speaker 9: like a transition for you or he'll just like make
Speaker 9: the shot go somewhere where you can use it in
Speaker 9: the edit.
Speaker 8: And and it's and it was such a great little
Speaker 8: tibit of knowledge.
Speaker 9: That they just find so much cool stuff. And then
Speaker 9: I love, like my favorite thing. We do a lot
Speaker 9: of Steay cam on Caural Minds and like watching the
Speaker 9: steadi cam operator learn the scene and so you know
Speaker 9: their first take they're figuring out where everyone is and
Speaker 9: there the lines are and then by the second tape
Speaker 9: and you know you're watching, you're like, oh, no, you
Speaker 9: need to go to in your head. And then you're
Speaker 9: like and he'll be like, can we just go again?
Speaker 9: You're like yeah, and then he's already figured out we're
Speaker 9: a little fascinating, Like you don't even need to.
Speaker 1: Tell them exactly.
Speaker 8: I know.
Speaker 4: That's always my favorite part two of even for multiicam.
Speaker 4: It's just like, you know, watching watching the camera operators
Speaker 4: who've been doing this forever, it's like their first pass
Speaker 4: at it. They may have a question like do you
Speaker 4: want this to be a you know, do you want
Speaker 4: this as a single or do you want a two shot?
Speaker 4: But for the most part, you do it once and
Speaker 4: then they're like, you know what's better, I'm gonna do this,
Speaker 4: and it's just like, yeah, let the experts do what
Speaker 4: they are good at doing.
Speaker 8: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 9: And that's what I learned that on Friday lights so
Speaker 9: much because our kind of way of doing things was
Speaker 9: you know what, like I hired you to do lights,
Speaker 9: I'm gonna let you do lights.
Speaker 8: Ye, yeah, I can tell you how to do lights.
Speaker 8: If I have an idea, I'll whatever. But everyone was
Speaker 8: everyone from the camera to.
Speaker 9: The props that deck was so respected and given agency
Speaker 9: to do their job and not micromanaged. And you know,
Speaker 9: I've been on sets where people are very much micromanaged
Speaker 9: and no one really likes it. Yes, theator's in charge
Speaker 9: and they have a vision, but there's also it's a collaboration.
Speaker 9: And that's what I love about it is everyone's thumb
Speaker 9: print is on it, and from that first draft some
Speaker 9: writer came up with to once it goes through the
Speaker 9: edit and the editor does stuff and then the sound design,
Speaker 9: it's like you got to like give up some control
Speaker 9: and some trust and collaborate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was the first project you directed?
Speaker 8: I didn't get to direct until I was on Criminal Minds.
Speaker 8: And I lucked out.
Speaker 9: There too, because I was only supposed to be there
Speaker 9: for one season, but apparently they liked me and they
Speaker 9: kept asking me back, and it's like cool, but can
Speaker 9: I direct one? They're like okay, And on a show
Speaker 9: like that, I was lucky to come in on the reboot,
Speaker 9: which was called Evolution, and you know, it'd been on
Speaker 9: CBS for fifteen years. It's kind of even freak of
Speaker 9: the week procedural. And when we went to Paramount, when
Speaker 9: I came on, they revamped it. It was only ten
Speaker 9: episodes and it was serialized, and so they very much
Speaker 9: were like, we don't want to do the same thing
Speaker 9: we've been doing for fifteen years. And when I finally
Speaker 9: got to direct, Erica was like, just go make your episode,
Speaker 9: like you can't mess this up, like the show is
Speaker 9: the show, and we want to see like your ideas
Speaker 9: and what you have. And it was really fun and
Speaker 9: she just always supported me, and I did a lot
Speaker 9: more kind of like not a lot, but I had
Speaker 9: a couple of like needle drops in my episode which
Speaker 9: were not really I mean it's not that they never
Speaker 9: have them, but it wasn't like the norm. And I
Speaker 9: had one in my teaser and I got the cut
Speaker 9: of my teaser and I was just like, yes, my
Speaker 9: editor gets it, like I've give them notes and I
Speaker 9: brought it in and showed her like on my directors first.
Speaker 8: Past or whatever. She watched my teaser and she was
Speaker 8: just like holy Zach, like that's a teaser right, Well
Speaker 8: it's so fun.
Speaker 9: But I remember watching I literally like saw it. I
Speaker 9: saw the first cut. I gave him my notes, he
Speaker 9: took them perfectly.
Speaker 8: I watched it.
Speaker 1: I literally go Yes, such a great feeling.
Speaker 9: It's so fun and like, my favorite part of directing
Speaker 9: is when someone comes up to you like, Okay, do
Speaker 9: you want the the blue or the purple napkin?
Speaker 8: I really don't give him what do you like? Whatever
Speaker 8: you want? When it comes to.
Speaker 9: People were like, well, I really like the purple because
Speaker 9: of whatever. I'm like, I think you're right.
Speaker 1: It is the way to go purple.
Speaker 9: I never thought about how that represents royalty. And this is,
Speaker 9: you know, about a serial killer.
Speaker 8: But you're right, you're right.
Speaker 4: You play a psychopath serial killer on Criminal Minds, which
Speaker 4: is obviously a total departure from.
Speaker 3: On a show. Thank god, I thought you were going
Speaker 3: somewhere totally different with that.
Speaker 1: Now just on the show. Were you excited to play
Speaker 1: a bad guy?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean it's always fun to play the bad guy.
Speaker 9: The fun thing about that one is which I think
Speaker 9: was so cool about the character and why I loved
Speaker 9: playing him, was the first season they were so smart
Speaker 9: because you know, he's this prolific serial killer, but you
Speaker 9: never see him do it. You just see him as
Speaker 9: this family man with two kids, and he's this great dad,
Speaker 9: and it just makes you creeped out. Because you're kind
Speaker 9: of like this guy, but then you know all this
Speaker 9: stuff he's done, and then I always said, it makes
Speaker 9: you kind of realize, like, man, this person in the
Speaker 9: grocery store could be a serial killer. Yeah, like it
Speaker 9: it could be a drop off with my kids. And
Speaker 9: so then you know, I got to kind of play
Speaker 9: that and you see kind of it come out. And
Speaker 9: then in season two, I'm in jail and I get
Speaker 9: to play this other side of me where I'm just
Speaker 9: kind of this guy who loves to push people's buttons.
Speaker 8: I'm smarter than everyone. I'm a bit of a smart
Speaker 8: which was.
Speaker 9: Like so fun because at that point of season two,
Speaker 9: I knew the cast and I could just mess with
Speaker 9: them and like this is they let me like just
Speaker 9: go loose. And you know Ajkoch who I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 9: She was one of the first people i'd met when
Speaker 9: I got when I worked on that show, and we
Speaker 9: got along really well, and so I would just mess
Speaker 9: with her and like call.
Speaker 8: Her Fbi Barbie or like Blondie or whatever.
Speaker 9: Like I would just come up with all these names,
Speaker 9: and I could see what I'm messing with them, them
Speaker 9: all being like Zach.
Speaker 8: Together. And then there's this one actor r. J.
Speaker 9: Hakanaka, who is so funny, well he's funny in real life,
Speaker 9: but his character is so like I was ex militarian,
Speaker 9: I'm this and that and there's. I had this one
Speaker 9: scene with him where like him and I are trying
Speaker 9: to break something down and it's something about like some
Speaker 9: number you.
Speaker 8: Call for like escorts or I don't know, it's like
Speaker 8: a sex line or something.
Speaker 9: And I just would go on and on and say
Speaker 9: the randomest like goes off the wall, like inappropriate stuff,
Speaker 9: and he was just like uh huh mm hm oh okay,
Speaker 9: so it's that. So it's like that, And I was like,
Speaker 9: I can't break you, Like, none of this is ever
Speaker 9: gonna make it in the show.
Speaker 8: I'm just trying to get you to crack a smile
Speaker 8: and you're like a robot.
Speaker 4: No, yes, Zach. You have two beautiful children. Do you
Speaker 4: think either one of them will ever want to get
Speaker 4: into acting? And if so, how would you feel about that?
Speaker 8: I hope not. Yeah, I think my daughter will.
Speaker 9: She's apparently in some school play right now, which I
Speaker 9: only say apparently I'm a very bother.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty in school.
Speaker 9: She came home and she's like, yeah, no, I'm in
Speaker 9: Lion King. I'm like, oh cool, Like what is like?
Speaker 9: It's all kind of very cryptic, like, well, what part
Speaker 9: are you? She's like, I don't know today. I hope
Speaker 9: I'm not Scar And I'm like, I don't understand what's
Speaker 9: going on in school. But she she's very i mean
Speaker 9: she loves role play and make believe and all this stuff,
Speaker 9: and she's very artistic. I'm scared that she'll want to
Speaker 9: go into it just because I mean, you guys, how
Speaker 9: old were we all when you did the show?
Speaker 8: Well?
Speaker 1: I was ten when I started acting. Writer was even younger.
Speaker 6: No, I was ten when I started.
Speaker 3: We were all three of us were ten when we
Speaker 3: started a professional.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 9: I mean, you guys have all turned out like normal humans.
Speaker 6: Someone.
Speaker 3: Adjusted enough. It's a perfect way to put it.
Speaker 8: If you have a whole podcast like look at you.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, everyone knows that's the sign out.
Speaker 8: Okay, they have a podcast. Their parents must be proud.
Speaker 4: A little known fact, well not I mean not little
Speaker 4: to most people who know Zach. Zach and Wryter are
Speaker 4: the two people I would say are number one and
Speaker 4: number two, or maybe tied for number one, of people
Speaker 4: who know how to be outdoorsy, and I've said all
Speaker 4: along that I've been interested in. I want to camp,
Speaker 4: but I will only go if I can go with
Speaker 4: Writer's family or Zach, because Jensen and I cannot be
Speaker 4: trusted alone in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Everyone will die, it will be bad news.
Speaker 4: But if I go with either of you, I think
Speaker 4: I'll have food to eat, I'll be able to set
Speaker 4: up shelter.
Speaker 3: Where am I on that list?
Speaker 4: I'm just curious, will your as outdoorsy as I am?
Speaker 11: I met Zach like fifteen years ago. We've been friends
Speaker 11: for a long time, and it was just this.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 11: We sat next to each other at a movie theater
Speaker 11: and we were talking and I go, I'm a big
Speaker 11: fan of Friday the Lights. He goes thanks, and he
Speaker 11: literally was like, you know, I'm thinking about not acting anymore.
Speaker 11: I'm going to become a professional camp counselor. And my
Speaker 11: immediate reaction was, Oh, we'll never be friends. This is
Speaker 11: humanly impossible.
Speaker 1: Not too bad, I dig you.
Speaker 11: He's yeah, he beats Writer, which is hard to do.
Speaker 6: Wow. I wanted to ask about New Zealand. When you
Speaker 6: through that, I was like, what where'd you go? What
Speaker 6: were you doing? That sounds so cool.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 8: I camped all growing up, and like.
Speaker 9: During my like sixteen seventeen eighteen year old summers, me
Speaker 9: and my then girlfriend, we'd go for like months and
Speaker 9: go camping in the Rockies or Canada or something like that.
Speaker 9: And then when I turned twenty one, I started working
Speaker 9: for this company called Adventures Cross Country, which is.
Speaker 8: Kind of like noles are out, We're bound, and you know,
Speaker 8: I got to spend a summer working in Alaska, like.
Speaker 9: Literally where you're just backpacking stuff on your back for
Speaker 9: three weeks at a time.
Speaker 8: We had like a seaplane comeing to like restock us,
Speaker 8: but I did.
Speaker 9: There was a couple of hiatuses of Friday night Lights
Speaker 9: where either I had a chunk of time or like
Speaker 9: something I was supposed to do fell through.
Speaker 8: And this company they'd always I'd be their first call
Speaker 8: if they had.
Speaker 9: To fire someone or something, and so New Zealand literally
Speaker 9: was they called and they were like, hey we had
Speaker 9: to fire someone.
Speaker 8: Was there anyway?
Speaker 9: You go to Australia and New Zealand for like two
Speaker 9: months and I was like I sure can't. That's and
Speaker 9: I worked on other ones, two of them, but the kids.
Speaker 9: There was one where it was like after six weeks,
Speaker 9: one of the kids was like, are you on that
Speaker 9: football show? And I was like, oh, yeah, I am,
Speaker 9: and they're like, oh yeah, you seem so familiar. I'm like,
Speaker 9: oh yeah, that's me. And they're like, all right, well anyway, Zach.
Speaker 9: And then like another kid was like, what do you
Speaker 9: mean you're on the show. I'm like, I don't know,
Speaker 9: like I'm on it. He goes so like you're on
Speaker 9: the team, and I'm like yeah, he goes.
Speaker 8: So if I watch it when I when I see
Speaker 8: and I.
Speaker 3: Was like, this is how television works.
Speaker 8: Yeah, in the background shoes exactly.
Speaker 9: It just like makes no sense because like kids that
Speaker 9: age are showing their own world.
Speaker 8: They're just yeah, well whatever. Anyway, I was this person,
Speaker 8: so wait, how old are the kids on something like that? Anyway?
Speaker 8: From like fourteen to seventeen or eighteens? So cool?
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Do you do you normally?
Speaker 2: Do you return with the same number of kids that
Speaker 2: you leave with or you expected to lose one or
Speaker 2: two along the way.
Speaker 8: You know, I had a pretty good track record. Okay, okay,
Speaker 8: but I have had trips where I had to like
Speaker 8: evat kids.
Speaker 9: I had one where I was working in semite and
Speaker 9: this girl this is literally this is the craziest day
Speaker 9: of my life.
Speaker 8: And I'll try to streamline it for you.
Speaker 9: But we wake up and all of our bear canisters,
Speaker 9: which are like mini kegs which you keep your food
Speaker 9: in because bears can't get into them. A bear had
Speaker 9: taken them, and like they try to throw them against
Speaker 9: trees and stuff to open.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, they're too smart. Sorry smart.
Speaker 9: So we go and we open them and a bunch
Speaker 9: of our food is like exploded and it's ruined.
Speaker 8: So we need more food.
Speaker 9: And one of my co leaders there were three of us,
Speaker 9: her name is Liz. She was like a marathon runner,
Speaker 9: running like the Boston Marathon blah blah blah, and she
Speaker 9: was and we were supposed to summit at Half Dome
Speaker 9: that day, and she was like, all right, I'll run
Speaker 9: down and get more food.
Speaker 8: But I really want to sum at Half Dome first.
Speaker 8: And I was like, wait, if you're gonna get us
Speaker 8: more food, you can do whatever you want.
Speaker 9: Yeah, okay, So we go up half Dome. We have
Speaker 9: this girl start having an asthma attack. We have her
Speaker 9: inhaler and we knew she had bad ass, so we
Speaker 9: also have like a nebulizer for her. So we start
Speaker 9: giving her a nebulizer and I just said, look, if
Speaker 9: this doesn't work, we're screwed. She's really screwed, but we're
Speaker 9: gonna be screwed. And so I was like, we have
Speaker 9: to call a helicopter, Like we can't chance this. So
Speaker 9: she's sitting there like turning blue. Helicopter lands on top
Speaker 9: of a half dome. Medics get out strap or to
Speaker 9: a thin oxygen put it in the helicopter. My other
Speaker 9: co leader, Kim, gets in the helicopter and it.
Speaker 8: Just flies away.
Speaker 9: And so then meeting Liz look at each other like Okay,
Speaker 9: it's just the two of us now, and I'm like,
Speaker 9: and you need.
Speaker 8: To go get us some more food. So it's just
Speaker 8: me And so then she like runs down like the
Speaker 8: mountains into Yo sementy villages. I think it's like a
Speaker 8: nine mile track. I take the kids back to our campsite.
Speaker 8: I start making dinner.
Speaker 9: I'm sitting there, I have like three or four kids
Speaker 9: on the other side of the stove, and I'm I'm like, okay,
Speaker 9: blah blah blah.
Speaker 8: Caesadilla, this is how you make it. And then I look.
Speaker 9: Up and behind a tree like thirty feet behind us.
Speaker 9: This bear comes out from behind a tree, and I'm
Speaker 9: just like and it's like what I'm like, just get
Speaker 9: behind me now, Like what I'm like, get behind me.
Speaker 9: So they all get behind me and we like make
Speaker 9: ourselves big, and you're like, hey bear, hey there, and
Speaker 9: you because you want us to know you're there, but
Speaker 9: you don't want to startle it. And we're like slowly
Speaker 9: back away, and it just starts like kind of like
Speaker 9: pacing towards us. Yeah, they wanted the case idea, and
Speaker 9: they do bluff charges, so it charges us.
Speaker 8: But if you run, it instinctually thinks it needs to
Speaker 8: chase you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 9: I had to just stand there with these kids with
Speaker 9: like pocket knives out as if it were going to
Speaker 9: do anything, and it stopped right here and I could
Speaker 9: like feel its breath on me, Oh my gosh, and
Speaker 9: just slowly like hey, heymar and like back the kids away.
Speaker 9: And once we're far enough away, when it ate our
Speaker 9: case ideas and I got the kids like to our
Speaker 9: campsite and I kind of wait for it to go away.
Speaker 8: And so then the kids are like, oh my god,
Speaker 8: I'm pumped. I'm so jazz Yeah, and it. Finally Liz
Speaker 8: comes back with food. She's like, how do it go.
Speaker 9: I'm like, you have no idea and luckily and you know,
Speaker 9: we're far enough removed. I don't think either of us
Speaker 9: can get in trouble. But uh, she was like, hey,
Speaker 9: I am I put two beers in our bag.
Speaker 8: But I was like, thank god, my life. But yeah,
Speaker 8: that was like one of the craziest days. So we
Speaker 8: had to back that girl.
Speaker 6: We did.
Speaker 8: On another trip, I had to evac a couple.
Speaker 9: Of kids because these poor girls they had strainus, which
Speaker 9: is essentially the strap virus in your anus, and they
Speaker 9: were very itchy and the temfortable, and so my co leader,
Speaker 9: there were only two of us on that one, she
Speaker 9: had to take them out to get them to We
Speaker 9: didn't know what it was. We just knew they were
Speaker 9: very uncomfortable and in that reason, you're not like tough
Speaker 9: it out for five more days, right, So they left,
Speaker 9: and then I have all the kids, and of course
Speaker 9: this is a younger group.
Speaker 8: They were like fourteen. There was a girl who got
Speaker 8: her period for the.
Speaker 9: First time and none of the other girls had their period,
Speaker 9: so I had to like talk her through. I'd be like, okay,
Speaker 9: so you're gonna go over there and like explain how
Speaker 9: to put a tampon.
Speaker 12: God, God, see this is what happens when you go outside.
Speaker 12: You Oh my god.
Speaker 3: This sounds awful.
Speaker 4: I am gonna need to know more about straightus questions.
Speaker 9: You still have to say, I don't have the same
Speaker 9: guidelines we learned in COVID wash your hands?
Speaker 3: How are you to other people as much?
Speaker 9: I think they didn't wash their hands well enough, and
Speaker 9: so the bacteria is just on your hands, and if
Speaker 9: you touch someone that's on there.
Speaker 8: They wipe.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Maybe they got it from dirty leaves, being outdoorsy, you know, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 8: No.
Speaker 9: I am terrified of my son because he's five, and
Speaker 9: he'll go to the bathroom and I'll be like, do.
Speaker 8: You know wipe? He's like, no, I can do it.
Speaker 8: I'm like, no, you can't. Broa you just like really
Speaker 8: take a lot and like wipe, like rub your hip, like.
Speaker 9: I'll brush my kids teeth and wipe my thoughts until
Speaker 9: I'm fully confident that they are capable.
Speaker 4: Correct, I'm exactly the same way I asked the dentist
Speaker 4: recently about Adler because he's six and I still help
Speaker 4: brush his teeth, and I was like, am I supposed to.
Speaker 1: Just be letting him fully brush his own teeth? Now?
Speaker 4: She goes, absolutely not, not if you don't want him
Speaker 4: to have cavities, And I was like.
Speaker 1: Great, and then I'm going to just keep helping. He
Speaker 1: does it.
Speaker 4: He does it teeth brushing, But then I also get
Speaker 4: to go in there for my little round and then
Speaker 4: I'm like, Okay, now at least I know you got
Speaker 4: one decent brushing in there. Well. Anyway, Zach, thank you
Speaker 4: so much for being here with us. I always enjoy
Speaker 4: talking to you. I adore you, I adore your family.
Speaker 4: You and writer would absolutely be friends.
Speaker 8: I'd be down anytime I got you know, I think
Speaker 8: I'm free tomorrow.
Speaker 5: Hard you can't find backpacking site. It's like within like
Speaker 5: driving distance of LA.
Speaker 6: It sucks. Like I've always tried.
Speaker 7: To do like weekend trips with my friends from up north,
Speaker 7: and it's like, man, we always just have to drive
Speaker 7: like six to eight hours, you know, is like the
Speaker 7: only I mean, yeah you can.
Speaker 8: There's if you look it up, you can do him
Speaker 8: in a day.
Speaker 9: There's like the so called six pack, which is right.
Speaker 9: And I had friends we did it for a while,
Speaker 9: but you know sometimes it was like in the car at.
Speaker 8: Four am to drive like two and a half hours.
Speaker 9: So then ike, all, I mean it's fun and it's
Speaker 9: worth it, but yeah, you would think to really get
Speaker 9: out there.
Speaker 7: Yeah, when I've gone up to Bishop and done trips
Speaker 7: out of there every time, I get elevation sickness because,
Speaker 7: like you just because I only have like three days
Speaker 7: and like without failed, like day two.
Speaker 6: I'm just on the trail like throwing up and like
Speaker 6: it sucks, Like I can't do this.
Speaker 8: You're really selling this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my Chipotle yesterday ran out of chicken. I had
Speaker 2: to wait like twenty minutes while they made a new
Speaker 2: batch of chicken, and it was like, drop was a
Speaker 2: hard time dude.
Speaker 5: I just met an editor who actually got bit by
Speaker 5: a bear. He was he was in he was sleeping
Speaker 5: in a hammock. He had like one of those hammock setups,
Speaker 5: and he just he heard the bear and was just like, oh,
Speaker 5: I'm just gonna ignore it, and then it just literally
Speaker 5: came over started pushing against him. He's like, I'll just
Speaker 5: go to play dead, which is not the right thing
Speaker 5: to do, and it just took a bite.
Speaker 6: I know, and then he's like, then I made no.
Speaker 5: I was like, yeah, dude, if a bear was like
Speaker 5: sniffing around for food and you're in a cocoon, you're
Speaker 5: just like a meal.
Speaker 6: Like just And I think he actually did have.
Speaker 5: Something in his pocket, like you know, a mosquito repelling
Speaker 5: or something, because like usually they wouldn't, you know, go
Speaker 5: near a person, but I think he had some.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was just it was just my son.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even a bear.
Speaker 9: Zach.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here with us. Always
Speaker 1: a pleasure to see you.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, thank you for having me. What an honor.
Speaker 9: No, I mean I watched your all show growing up.
Speaker 9: It's iconic to me. So it's edited in any way.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Zach.
Speaker 2: We always do a test run, and so the next
Speaker 2: time we have you on, we'll record it.
Speaker 8: Will Yeah, I love that my bear story we got.
Speaker 3: We're gonna send over notes.
Speaker 1: I love if you could do this podcast in only
Speaker 1: one sentence.
Speaker 8: I mean, do I really do? I really need to
Speaker 8: be honest?
Speaker 3: Well, you're the best Matt's Borings and that's ever played.
Speaker 8: So that's that's I like that one.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Zach. I'll see you talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: He's funny, funny, he is amazing.
Speaker 2: I have one quick change which which some people obviously
Speaker 2: caught and other people didn't. I said a while back
Speaker 2: that Phonsie landed the motorcycle after he jumped the shark.
Speaker 2: And what clearly I meant was he landed on his
Speaker 2: water skis when he was not on the motorcycle. So
Speaker 2: I'd like to just no, he jumped the shark on
Speaker 2: water skis.
Speaker 6: Was jumping theyle.
Speaker 3: He jumped the shark on water skis.
Speaker 8: So there you.
Speaker 4: I wanted to, you know, okay, just make sure yeah,
Speaker 4: you've been holding onto bat this time.
Speaker 8: I have.
Speaker 2: I literally wrote it down, like, brought it down. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Phonzie waterski.
Speaker 3: So there you go.
Speaker 4: Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Speaker 4: Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on
Speaker 4: Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your
Speaker 4: emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: And we've got March Hey.
Speaker 5: March, Hey, March hey, March hey, March.
Speaker 2: Straightus is my new favorite word.
Speaker 8: Actually it is just a.
Speaker 3: I did not ever get straightus.
Speaker 2: I did get strenus, which is something totally different.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, so that you're not.
Speaker 2: You haven't gotten stratus, you never got struck.
Speaker 3: It's the word.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, the World Show.
Speaker 11: Oh are We're making? Are we making strockomer?
Speaker 8: We love you all.
Speaker 7: Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast producer hosted by
Speaker 7: Danielle Fischel, Wilfridell and Ryder Strong Executive producers Jensen Carp
Speaker 7: and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
Speaker 7: producer and editor, Tarasubasch producer, Maddy Moore, engineer and Boy
Speaker 7: Meets World superman Easton Allen. Our theme song is by
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