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Navigating Hollywood with Ryan Padilla
Episode 4117th April 2024 • Film Center News • Derek Johnson II and Nicholas Killian
00:00:00 00:34:59

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Nicholas and Derek Talk to Actor Ryan Padilla about how he got into acting and why his family is so supportive of his chosen career path.

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This is Film Center.

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Your number one show for real entertainment industry news.

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No fluff, all facts.

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Now, here are your anchors, Derek Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.

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Film Center, my name's Derek Johnson II.

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I'm Nicholas Killian.

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And today we have a special guest we're here with.

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Ryan Padilla.

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Ryan, how you doing?

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Great, happy to be here, happy to discuss things with you guys.

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Awesome.

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Awesome.

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First of all Thank you so much for driving the hour and a

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half it took you to get here.

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Yeah, we, as a mobile show, we probably should've just

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went somewhere closer to him.

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I don't know if you knew this was a mobile, we could do mobile.

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Next time we'll be closer to you.

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I'll be sure to write that in the next email.

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Yeah you guys are smart.

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No, it was nothing, I was happy to do this.

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I had space in the schedule, it all worked out.

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I'm happy to be a part of the project, happy to be here and contribute.

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Ryan, you wanna tell us a little bit about where you're from?

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Oh yeah, L.

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A.

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born and raised.

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Oh, a native.

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It seems rare around here.

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Honestly, I get that all the time, especially just hanging out in L.

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A.

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and doing actor y things, going to actor y events.

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Everyone's like, where are you from?

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Where are you from?

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And I'm like, I'm from L.

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A.

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What?

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Where in L.

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A.?

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Family's originally from Boyle Heights, so East L.

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A.

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And then we moved out to Walnut, which is by West Covina

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Diamond Bar, if you're familiar.

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It's right on the outskirts of L.

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A.

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County.

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About like 45 minutes east of downtown no traffic.

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What some people don't understand is that because my parents are they live in

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Tennessee Okay, and I always have to tell them like they're like, oh, it's as close

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to this as in LA And I was like just cuz in LA doesn't mean but you live in LA.

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LA is one of the biggest Humongous places you will go in our city.

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Yeah, mom thinks LA is just California Like whenever it is.

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Let's be honest here, there's SF and then there's la.

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That's California.

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She doesn't really understand because when we were having all those

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earthquakes in Central California back a couple years ago, I'd always

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get phone calls at eight o'clock in the morning being like, are you okay?

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And I was like.

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What are you talking about?

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I heard this earthquake and I was like, mom, that's 300 miles away from me.

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And she was like, so you're okay?

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Yeah, mom.

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I'm I heard he was in Los An it was in California like near Los Angeles.

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I was like That could be anything.

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That could be anything.

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Granted, we did have a few the last year here in SoCal and

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I remember waking up to one.

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It wasn't even bad I had to wake up to one.

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Restroom break anyways.

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And it just started shaking like, Oh, okay.

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I remember my first earthquake when I, cause I'm from Tennessee first

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earthquake when I came out here because my roommates at the time they were,

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I was in film school and they were playing some really loud bass music in

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the living room and I came outside, I came out to my room and was like, Hey

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guys, you can turn down a little bit.

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I'm doing some work in here.

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They're like, yeah, sure.

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I go back in my room and the whole thing just starts vibrating.

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I went to my house what are you guys doing?

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They're like, The TV's not on bro.

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I was like What is going on?

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Yeah, cuz we have hurricanes back home, that's right, we don't have

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earthquakes so when the ground moves we're like It's a little different.

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What do you do?

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It's a little different.

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It's a little different.

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It's really interesting too because I have a lot of friends from out

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of town as well and they're like, I haven't had an earthquake yet.

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I'm like scared.

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Honestly, it's more fun than anything.

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Until the big one comes and takes us all.

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But, up until that point, it's pretty fun.

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When California gets its own island.

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Exactly.

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It's good for LA all over.

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I was working at this rich old folks home years ago, and I was on break,

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and all of a sudden just the whole place started shaking, and all the

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housekeepers, they were all running around, and I was like, I was just

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sitting there, I was like, What do you do?

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I didn't even know what to do.

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I was just like, I just froze.

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I was like nothing falls on me.

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Yeah, my first instinct was to go outside and then my friend was like

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don't do it That's because you're going to be in a stairwell or something like

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that where it's worse You're going to get tripped up on the way to outside.

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Yeah I think the original thing is you're supposed to stand in a doorway

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because that's the strongest part in the room archways Yeah, I don't know who's

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skinny enough to only survive from being outside Got to be, got to get real,

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suck it in real tight, get real skinny.

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And in school, he teaches the duck under, duck and cover, right?

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Like you'd go under your desk and then you'd cover yourself as if that's going

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to protect you from a beam falling down.

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It's the same in the fifties when they were teaching kids,

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Oh, you have to duck under your desk in case of a nuclear blast.

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Yeah, the nuclear blast.

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That's going to do absolutely nothing.

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It makes them Or hide in a refrigerator.

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I remember.

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Oh yeah.

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I remember watching that with my, who's a chemist and he was like, what?

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I was like, what do you mean?

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He goes, I don't understand what just happened.

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I was like, what do you mean?

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He got into the fridge, right?

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And explode.

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He goes, I'm not blind.

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I just don't, I don't get what's happening here.

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That was the moment I was like, Oh no, this one's not going to be it.

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It's just security theater.

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That's all it is.

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So since you're here.

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So you lived in LA your whole life.

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Did you, is this what got you into the acting bug here?

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Honestly, it was just having a healthy interest in growing up.

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My parents loved movies.

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My family cousins that are like 15 years older than me,

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they loved movies and music.

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So my whole family is huge in media, music and film.

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They're not in the industry at all, but they're just cute, avid lovers of it.

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These big connoisseurs.

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Yeah.

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So the conversation.

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For you to be an actor was probably a pretty smooth one, no?

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There wasn't even a conversation.

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My parents I won the lotto with my immediate family,

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with my parents and my sister.

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Just utterly supportive, no matter what, and no matter what's going on,

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just constant support, and That just led to me being able to do whatever I

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want to do, and they'll have my back.

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So that's fantastic.

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Yeah, we don't get a lot of those stories around here.

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Yeah.

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That's granted.

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I do have my quote unquote backup, so I did go there, so they weren't

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worried no matter what I did, but I still played a safe route, went

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to college, got my degree, got my you What did you get a degree in?

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I'm a software engineer, so Oh, so that's why they're so okay with it.

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You have something to fall back on.

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That is true, just in case.

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But I had expressed the interest long before when I was a kid growing up.

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Oh, I want to be an actor, I want to do this, I want to do that.

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I did when I was in like, elementary school, middle school, but then stopped.

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Oh, the mandatory theater.

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Yes, exactly.

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No, the plays.

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You didn't have to be in the plays and stuff.

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Oh, okay.

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All the time.

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But, I did those, and then got into sports when I was in middle

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school switched over there.

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What'd you play?

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Interest.

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Baseball and football.

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Oh, and then positions.

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Did you play baseball?

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Was you're kinda tall.

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You weren't a lineman, were you?

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No, I was not a lineman.

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Skinny?

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No.

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A wide receiver.

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Huh?

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Skinny.

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I was a receiver and a cornerback.

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I was better at a corner for baseball.

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I was left field and second base.

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There's a reason there's no white cornerbacks.

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. Hey, . Hey.

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It's Hey man, you wanna play quarterback?

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Yeah.

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When you got into high school, what happened then?

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High school just.

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Actually, that's when I ended up joining a band and toured a little

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bit with a hardcore metal band.

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I was about to say, I thought you were, I didn't know if you were

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talking about like a band or it's the band, which is in school.

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Because Nicholas played in the band.

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Yeah, I played in the band.

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Which instrument?

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I played trumpet.

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Okay.

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I like trumpets.

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Everybody was hating on the trumpets because we've got all the cool parts.

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Trumpets dope.

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I enjoy trumpet, but yeah, so I played guitar and bass.

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And toured my metal band in high school, so I took that shift, and then went to

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college, got busy with life in college as one kind of gets wrapped up in.

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Sounds like you've just been pivoting your whole life, man.

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I've been doing This guy's been sandboxing, I'm gonna

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do whatever I want to do.

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That's 100 percent what it's been like, just trying everything that I seem to

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enjoy, and trying my best at it, and then seeing what sticks, basically.

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Post college was when I took acting seriously.

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Where did you go to college?

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UC Irvine, down in Orange County.

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Okay.

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Nice.

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How did you like that?

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Oh, it was great.

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UCI has a beautiful campus.

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It's one of the best schools out here.

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And one of the top schools for computer science.

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It was just a great experience.

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Loved it.

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Wasn't a struggle for me, thankfully.

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And because you were just that smart.

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I am a computer nerd.

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Let me get my hour of studying in and then I can go party.

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Pretty much how it worked out.

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That's also when I got into dancing too.

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So I started B boying in college too.

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Oh dude, I was a pro break dancer.

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Oh, all yeah.

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Yeah, really my early years in college when I was 18, 19

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and 20 is pro break dancer.

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Oh, sick.

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And which crew were you in?

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It was in Volatomics.

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Shout out to Knoxville.

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Okay.

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That's our hood.

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That's our, hey, don't know nothing about that.

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I don't, I'm not familiar with the crews in Tennessee.

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Yeah, no, we are.

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We're a local crew there.

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And if you ever get the chance, if you like that whole scene, the B Boy

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scenes, don't forget to check out Rocket Town, Nashville, Rocket Town.

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I remember my parents did not want me to go to one of the, our breaking tours.

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Because, I don't know, for some reason I was studying.

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I actually don't remember, it was something about my grades.

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Even though I never had bad grades, but they were like,

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Oh, your grades might drop, da.

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So I remember being like, okay, cool, I won't go.

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And then immediately going to my BYU mates, I'm like, okay, so we're

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going, just no one post me on social media, and I'll get away with this.

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Yeah, for sure.

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Yeah, definitely.

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And I remember they called me, this was right before, so we're pulling up

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on Rocket Town, because they're having some, one of the tour events there.

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Okay.

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And, they called me, and they were like, Hey, DJ, what are you doing?

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I was like, nothing.

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They're like, it sounds like there's a lot of hip hop music.

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I was like, yeah, let's do one while I'm studying.

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They're like, you're studying to Biggie.

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Yep.

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I'm just like hard ball.

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That's me.

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I just, they got to pass this grade.

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Yeah.

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B boying is great.

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So then you took acting more seriously afterwards.

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And what made you decide that, okay, now I'm, I've done a

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whole bunch of other stuff.

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What made you be like, Oh, I'm just going to go for it now.

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So I was.

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Trying to be a music producer after college as well.

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And so I was doing that at the same time as taking classes like simple classes

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for acting, not just like dipping my toes in and decided, you know what,

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I'm going to go full born acting as well as music production just cause

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I have the time and the ability to.

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So I did both and then one fateful trip to Vegas.

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I brought my, and after, so long story short, had a bunch of music,

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Made a bunch of music, external hard drive dies, waiting to buy a new one.

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I take my laptop that has the original copies to Vegas.

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And we're in Vegas and my laptop gets stolen out of our room.

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Whoa, all of my music is gone.

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No, the originals are gone.

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Originals are gone.

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This is, these are the days before Google drive was active.

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There was like very simple things back then that I didn't use cause neglectful.

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So God yeah, and I was like, I'm not gonna go back and do all of this again.

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We're just gonna try acting completely.

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So I went full time into acting.

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The man was like, I told you no the first time.

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Now I'm really saying no.

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This man has done everything.

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Next I'm gonna prove the theory of everything.

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So I went full bore into it.

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Did all the classes you're supposed to, quote unquote, in L.

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A.

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and stuff.

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Kind of building up that resume.

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Got my first agent, commercial agent.

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And then, slowly built myself from there.

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Life takes on a mind of its own sometimes.

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And that's when things veer off course here and there.

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So I was like on and off for ten years, taking classes here and there.

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And then one day on a music video shoot that I was on, I was like, I'm feeling,

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I was out of class at this point.

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And I was like feeling, I'm losing it.

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My craft is lacking.

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Something's wrong.

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Something's bad.

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I need to hop back in.

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And one of the buddies that I made on this music video turned

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me onto his teacher, Joshua Baton.

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I Who is a stellar working actor, but also amazing acting teacher.

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And so I got turned on to him, went to his class and basically hopped into a

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scene study, which turned into a full on Meisner technique two year program.

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And jumped into that and really cut my teeth in that program and

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kind of relearned what acting is.

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Not even relearned.

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Basically learned how to act from there.

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Cause this is the second time I did Meisner technique.

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And this time it actually stuck.

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For the audience at home, can you explain what Meisner technique is for them?

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So there are several different acting techniques.

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You got Stanislavski, you got Stella Adler's technique, you got

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Meissner, a bunch of different ones you can choose from.

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I just fell into this one Meissner technique, which was taught by

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Sanford Meissner in New York.

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And he bestowed his main students that became the other teachers, like

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the big teachers that would go on to teach all the Oscar winners of today.

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Not all, but several Oscar winners of today.

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And then a plethora of other students, including my mentor,

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Joshua Baton, same teacher.

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And so he became a teacher himself, and thankfully bestowed his knowledge.

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And Meisner Technique is just another way of basically the main quote from

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Meisner's acting that acting is living under truthful, living truthfully

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under imaginary circumstances.

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So that's the whole spiel for Meisner Technique and then trying to break

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away from what It's internalized in what we learn day to day in our daily

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lives from growing up in society and polite society, whatever society we're

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in, environments we're living in.

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We build up these walls and these ways of thinking and acting that, and

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acting as if we're talking right now.

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I'm sitting at a table, just being and existing in a moment, in any given moment.

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And so what Meisner Technique teaches you is how to break down all

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those walls and all those barriers so you're at your rawest form.

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So you learn how to listen, number one, listen, really listen to other people

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and when they talk and when you're in an actual scene, which you even

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get later, way later in the program.

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But how to really listen to somebody and then how to react and

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respond from a raw, natural point.

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And then, from there, we apply that knowledge and that,

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those techniques to a script.

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And learn how to relate ourselves to some words on a page.

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And then how to react and respond truthfully in the moment to the

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other person's words on the page.

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And really listen to them and hear them.

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Do you have any siblings?

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I have one older sister.

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One older sister?

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Mhm.

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The only reason I ask is because I, it's very funny.

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A lot of really good actors that I know usually have siblings.

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And there was an interesting study done by, I think his name's Stephen

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Fellow, Stephen something like that.

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He usually does I like looking at the written reports of like scripts

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and like data and stuff like that.

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So he had this other data points that he made about actors and actresses.

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And all of the top actors and actresses had siblings.

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And one of the interviews Were they older or younger?

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Across the board.

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They just had siblings.

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They just had siblings.

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People to interact with.

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Basically, one of the, one of his interviews, I forget what actress

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said this, but she goes, When you have a sibling, you lie to them all the

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time, so you're pretty good at it.

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I have three sisters.

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I'm like, yeah, this is pretty, yeah.

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It's pretty accurate.

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Yeah, it's pretty accurate.

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With an oversimplification of Meisner, no disrespect to it, because I did it

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for a little bit and I had friends, and it's basically showing you that

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words are meaningless, and that, for example, you would say cardboard.

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But you would say it over and over again, but it with different

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tone, different inflection.

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No.

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So that what you're talking about is the repetition exercise and that's merely

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an exercise to get you out of your own head and really put your focus on

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your partner and learn how to listen.

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That's not Meisner technique.

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That is a exercise that is taught and used when learning Meisner Technique.

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But it's not the core of the technique.

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It is not Meisner Technique.

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That is a piece that you learn in like the first year, and you do that, and

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it's really to get you out of your own head, out of your own mind, and

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really listen and pay attention to how someone says something, and how

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you're going to respond to it as well.

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Okay.

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Being an actor here in LA, first of all, There's a lot of, there's,

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especially recently, there's been this large whole of like new faces when

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it comes to movies and television.

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I used to work and develop it myself.

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I know what it feels like when I see a script where I see something great

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and they're just like, Oh, cool.

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Call Zendaya.

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All right.

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It's funny you say, mention her because one of the other younger actresses on

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Euphoria just complained how she hadn't booked a single thing while Zendaya is

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out booking every movie known to man and making all this money and making

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all this things, all these things while Euphoria is on hold because

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she's off doing everything else.

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And then this other actress.

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Hasn't booked anything because it's tough out there, even for an

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actress that's on Euphoria, and, but she can't do anything about it.

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While, all the while, the Zendayas of the world are off doing their

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own thing, and then holding up.

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I don't know if she's actively holding up production, but that's

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what the actress made it seem like.

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You have, was, this is actually a pretty good segue, because you, when I was

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in, working in development, you have this thing where basically, they don't

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like to take chances as much anymore.

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It's not even like about taking chances, it's more they're just lazy, right?

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And by they, some Hollywood execs.

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The powers that be.

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The powers that be, yeah.

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Cause a lot of them will just say, Oh, I know who this actor is.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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Just greenlight it without even looking at it compared to, Oh, here's an actor.

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Here's a project.

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Do you mind taking, stepping out of your ivory tower and actually

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looking at what's going on?

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And when I worked in development, a lot of times it would say, the

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first two questions, I think I said this before, is it paid for?

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AKA do we have to put up any money, which you usually always have to, but they

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ask anyway, and then also who's in it.

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And a lot of times they would.

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Literally, they would count numbers, be like, okay, here's how many

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new faces we'll put in there.

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Here's how many A listers or whatever.

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Yeah, and the new faces get shorter or smaller and smaller.

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Yeah, so for, because you're a working actor, right?

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What do you think is going to be able to cause that change for them to take I just

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risk a more new people again, because in the nineties, it seemed like that

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we're able to take more risk on newer directors, newer writers, newer actors.

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And some people argue because of DVD sales, but it was just, what makes you

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think they did it more in the nineties?

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I would say that they put them more on, on the front page, I guess it

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would say, because comparative to the seventies and eighties, things

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were like, Oh, like there's always been quote unquote movie stars.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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But in the nineties, there was a huge push.

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There was also a huge change in technology when it came to film,

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then being able to change the digital quote unquote, digital being on tape.

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So there was an argument there that, Oh, it's because technology changed

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that allowed it to get more indie hands.

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Quentin Tarantino, I wouldn't exactly say is exactly indie, but for the most

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part, he did help pioneer certain things.

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Yeah, him and Robert Rodriguez.

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Yeah.

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A lot of people cut their bones in the indie world first, and I don't think,

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just right off the bat, I don't think we're doing it, we're giving new faces

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any less of a chance today than as in the 90s, just by sheer numbers alone,

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because we have so much more content now, that new faces are being seen across

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the board, way more than there were in the 90s, it's just a fact, because we

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have thousands more Programs and things.

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Opportunities.

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Yeah, because there's a huge amount of surplus.

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We have a surplus of opportunities, whether or not that's good or bad.

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I don't know because that's when you start seeing more bad programs.

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And then good programs because there's just so much more.

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Don't you think it makes the good programs look better though?

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For example, if I had one really good program And then two bad ones.

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It's okay.

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This is, this one's just better than the rest.

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Comparative to if you have a good program and then there's a thousand bad ones.

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Wow.

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This one must be really awesome.

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Maybe, but at the same time, I feel like.

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Why even have that comparison?

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Why is it necessary to have a bad program in the first place?

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I get that there's an audience for everything, and I love that.

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And I love that there's movies you can just put on while you're doing the

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dishes, and hear it, and just enjoy it.

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Not everything needs to be the Godfather.

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Not everything needs to be the Godfather, and I love that, and that's great.

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So there is a place for all kinds of different content, no matter what it is.

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And believe me, I'm in it.

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Yeah.

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So I love that.

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Me and dj were talking about this and we've talked to people at warner

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brothers at universal and stuff like that And basically because we were we

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asked we were talking to somebody and we were actually honest when we're

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like, hey, man Why does this best if he was like why some of that bad stuff

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gets done and why it gets created?

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He said because the studios literally just want to keep their name out there.

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That's a big part They literally just want to Want their name out

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there and it for it to be known.

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It doesn't matter if it's bad or not, they just want people to know that Universal

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is still making movies and TV shows.

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It doesn't matter if it's Good Hundred, it doesn't matter if it's bad.

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Hundred percent.

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They just want it to stay in their mouth.

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Yeah.

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Thing you, they make that's thousands of stuff every year.

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Yeah, a hundred percent.

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Like the movie that I just did that just released on Tubi in December

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or January called Prepare to Die.

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So it was co produced by Tubi and Asylum.

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So now Asylum.

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Yeah.

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So Asylum is the producers of Sharknado.

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Yeah.

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Among a bunch of other mockbusters, as they call them.

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And they like to turn out movies constantly.

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I worked on several of the movies.

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I've I worked on Planet Dune, There's an at, I think my

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other friend was on that too.

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, so yeah, there's like an Atlantis movie that they had that I worked on.

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It was something to Atlantis.

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The Robinhood, the second grade, and they, you're correct, they really be

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pumping out this, they turn out movies, so whether or not you feel like they're

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quality content, they have audiences and they're being watched and they make

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money off of it because they did it.

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It's Atlan rim if they, yeah, Atlantic Rim.

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Yes.

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If they didn't make money, they wouldn't.

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Make these.

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So that's their prerogative.

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It's a lot to do with the business.

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So when we go back to your original question about how, why don't we

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think we're seeing new faces or people aren't taking a chance on new faces?

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I think they are.

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It's just, it's always about the business for the people that make the decisions

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for especially the big known companies.

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It's all about the business, the bottom line and they need to have faces.

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They need to have names no matter what.

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And once, until those faces and names that are, Immediately marketable and

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they're gonna make some bankable is I think the proper term For instance the

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movie that I made we had to have names They're not huge names or anything,

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but their names nonetheless, right?

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You can search them on imdb.

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Exactly You'll look them up.

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They come out.

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Oh, yeah Michael madsen was in my movie michael madsen tarantino movies and

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stuff and all kinds of other things I think what's happening is there's

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a transition of The windows right?

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So there's always been a set of windows For 40 years of okay.

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It's gonna go here.

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It's gonna go here.

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It's gonna go here and it's gonna take a full 12 months for all the windows

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and everybody to make their money And then after that we're gonna ship it

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off to the dvd Then we're gonna make it we're gonna act like the dvd is not

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available Then we're gonna make the new one with dvd with the commentary.

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Yep So the thing is With streaming, all of those windows disappear.

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Yeah, so the windows you're talking about, avenues of making money.

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Profitable avenues, got it.

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Okay, so yeah, that disappeared so much revenue across the board.

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It just goes straight to streaming now.

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Which is why we're also in this kind of cyclical nature, where now we're

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going back to regular cable again.

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Like we got rid of cable.

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And streaming is here.

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And now we're going back to basically what cable was, except way more

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expensive because I have to pay for five services that all have commercials.

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Again, Netflix is is going to Amazon already has commercials.

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Hulu's had commercials for ages.

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That's the Hulu.

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At least Hulu's had commerce.

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Yeah.

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Hulu's had commercial was dope about to be.

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Cause I never really used to be until my movie came out.

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It's free.

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There's commercials, less than like Hulu, and most other, and less

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than Cable, and you get all these like cool classic movies and stuff.

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Have you ever heard of Crackle?

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Yeah, I have heard of it.

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I haven't used it, but I know Crackle.

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It's about the same thing.

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I saw Super Mansion when it first came out because I liked Robot Chicken a lot.

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Seth Green made a show called Super Mansion.

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And I was like, dude, Seth Green keeps all stop motion people in business.

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That's great.

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He has a passion and he's good at it.

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So I think that's what the deal is.

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You have the institutions still want to act like it's the 9 12

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month windows that you have.

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Of, oh, okay, it's gonna go here, it's gonna go here, it's gonna go, and it's

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gonna take This whole waterfall model of making money off of one project.

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That was completely smashed when streaming came out.

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Yeah.

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Streaming was the big disruption for the industry.

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And then it continues to be, and then as we saw with the SAG strike

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last year, that it has so much more to deal with and contend with,

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especially when it comes to our talent.

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How do you feel about So first of all, I'm not going to act like the strike

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was over one thing because it wasn't.

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It was over a bunch of stuff.

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It's a bunch of things.

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But especially when it was going on.

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So me and Nicholas were out there picketing.

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We started picketing when the WGA was there.

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And then when SAG joined, it got a lot bigger.

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Yeah.

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However, one thing that I always like to ask actors, what did you think

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about them saying, Oh, you know what?

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We're just going to scan you and then pay you once.

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And then use your body, your likeness, utterly nonsense.

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I learned this early on because just coming from like non union commercials,

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you have these kinds of projects where they can use your footage,

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your photos forever in perpetuity.

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You learn that phrase.

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Throughout the universe.

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Yeah.

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I always say throughout the universe because apparently they

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have some outlets and Saturn.

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Yeah, exactly.

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We've got some moons over Jupiter that are playing a commercial right now.

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Yeah.

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You learn that phrase real fast coming up in that world and hopefully not

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through anything negative, but you learn in perpetuity, stay away from that.

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You're getting paid 300 to be in this commercial or whatever, a photo shoot

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and they get to use it forever and ever.

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So if you become.

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Fingers crossed for everybody, if you become the next Brad Pitt, the next

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Emma Stone, they can still use your likeness or whatever from ages ago.

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They're going to delay that commercial.

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Exactly, which happened to, what's his name, Shang Chi.

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Actually I played Shang Chi and he had those like stock

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photos when Shang Chi came out.

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When he was, he used to be a little, he used to be a model,

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but he did stock photos.

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Yeah.

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When he was still a young actor, younger actor, and he was doing, he did a stock

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photo shoot because that was money.

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That was what gave him his project.

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And then you get to use it forever.

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Blasting it everywhere.

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Exactly.

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Which is insane.

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Cause they upped the prices on using those stock photos because it's him.

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Immediately, 100%.

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It's so ridiculous.

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Especially cause there is, so I went to the HPA awards.

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And I usually go every, I try to go, obviously it wasn't in 2020, there was

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nothing in 2020, but I like talking to a lot of different editors and I,

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one thing that they said, especially last year, they were like, do they not

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understand that let's say, hypothetically actors agreed to this hypothetically.

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Okay.

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They agreed to them being scanned and using them like this, which wouldn't

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happen, but hypothetically they do realize then now the visual effects

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department and like the editing team, and then it has to go back.

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And make it seem like that fictional 3d model of them is

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realistic in the background.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It's still time and money wasted.

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That is yeah.

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It just shifts the industry.

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Yeah.

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But it's also not paying you for your time.

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They could have used you as a body to get a real and now they're safe.

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There's, they're still saving money because they're going to

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save money down in the long run because now they have talent.

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There was a First of all, they don't have to pay you for usage already paying the

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editor to do what he's doing So it's not really adding to that but it's like adding

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time still like the work still needs to get done But they don't like care.

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We were actually interviewing a production designer who works in China and she

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was talking about how Using real world footage like furniture and stuff like

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that was so much cheaper than trying to CGI it Oh, yeah Because we're in China.

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It is.

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And it isn't because nowadays CG is getting so crazy.

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And so what's the word advanced advance, but you're able to get

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your hands on it and learn it.

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And she was talking specifically a little bit, it's a little bit

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different than here in America.

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Cause she was talking specifically about the way it is in China, because so many

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things are made in China that apparently it is literally cheaper to just get it

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from the factory and film it, which that is, she's saying that It's only like that

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in China because in China, yeah, but yeah, cause like here in America, I was pulling

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up my friend or a guy that I know, Brian Tang on IG, who made a couple of films on

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his own and he made this amazing with his whole crew and everything, but he is also

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a visual effects, like honestly, genius.

Speaker:

He does it all himself and he created this whole pod racer trailer for a movie.

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The pod racing scenes from Star Wars.

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So he made an entire.

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Theatrical trailer based on Podracer and it looks straight up Lucasfilm level,

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and it's all his own CGI that he did I'm sure he had some help from a couple

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other people, but no effects houses.

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No, nobody else him right in his room Doing these crazy visual effects.

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So it is so accessible.

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I don't know why I couldn't think of that earlier Oh, it's accessible.

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I was applicable?

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That's not right.

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So accessible nowadays that here and there it depends on what you

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want But, creating a little robot to stand there, and then, maybe move

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a little bit, could look better.

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But, I don't think it's cheaper than doing a CGI little robot

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and making it look real.

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Because there's evidence out there that people can do this in their bedrooms now.

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That's true.

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Which is crazy.

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One thing that, have you watched Corridor Crew?

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Yeah, I love court dork Court cruise.

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Awesome.

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I the B FX artist rock every weekend, man.

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Every weekend.

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They're great.

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So awesome.

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One thing, my dude, Gita Silva goes on their couch sometimes

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does, 'cause he's a stunt guy.

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So he does stunt man react.

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Do you like, do you prefer to do stunts?

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No, I'm an actor.

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I'm an actor.

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Just straight up.

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I love my stunt people.

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My girlfriend does stunts.

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I like every, I love my stunt people.

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They are the most talented people ever and they deserve that freaking Oscar, guys.

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But no, I'm not a stuntman.

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No, I'm an actor.

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Let them do the thing and I'll pretend on camera.

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Do you do a, do you like to do a lot of your own stunts?

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I would love to.

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do it and as much as I.

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looks good.

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I can like in my movie, I did all my own stunts mostly because I had to

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cause there was no money, but we also did fight scenes on the fly and on

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the day and developed things around.

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Each character's abilities.

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So thankfully I do have martial arts background.

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I do stunts as like physically It doesn't cost extra money for

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you to have good choreography.

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Exactly.

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Yeah.

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How do you know that you shouldn't do this stunt?

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What do you what goes through your head that you're like,

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I'm gonna let this stop me.

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I haven't encountered that in my career yet.

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I hope to.

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That would be amazing.

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Oh, hell no.

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I'm not doing that.

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So any Mission Impossible movie?

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Oh, it depends because that is a whole goal of mine.

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No matter what you think about Tom Cruise, he is one of the most

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talented people on the planet.

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Oh gosh, I see him hanging.

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I love Mission Impossible movies.

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Oh my gosh, it's so good.

Speaker:

To be fair, I have to be honest, I am what they call action trash.

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If it is action, I will see it.

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But I do love that movie.

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Same.

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No, I will too.

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I love a good popcorn movie, man.

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I just re watched Face Off.

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Oh, epic.

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Oh, Face Off is great.

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And Con Air.

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I was on a 90's kick.

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One of the things that I think is so crazy is that people who go to work with Tom

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Cruise on Mission Impossible are like, Are amazed at the crazy stuff they have to do.

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Yes.

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Have you not seen?

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They didn't know the fifth mission impossible.

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How are you surprised?

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Bigger and better man.

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Every time you have to jump off a mountain or something.

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My favorite stunt is when he clings to the side of that plane.

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That was a cool one.

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Yeah.

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And I was like, I've never seen that in the theaters.

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Man.

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I know he likes to do practicals, but this looks really practical.

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It's really good.

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It's really good.

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People are like Tom Cruise has a death wish and wants to die on set because

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they're like the crazy part about Tom Cruise is that if the stunt coordinator

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thinks the stunt is too dangerous, he just fires that coordinator.

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Yeah, that's a new stunt coordinator.

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I saw that Matt Damon interview too.

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And he says, how do we do this?

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And he says, because remember, If you don't, I'll just fire

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you and get somebody else.

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Cause this stunt is going to get done.

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Oh, it's going to happen.

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Yeah.

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So I answer your question.

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I think it would just be fear would make my decision for me.

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If I'm too afraid.

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What is it?

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What is the stunt that you've seen that you're like, I think

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that'd be cool to at least try.

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Honestly,

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everything from this last stunt from the last mission impossibles, for sure.

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I love the helicopter sequence.

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I would love to fly a helicopter and do crazy stunt flying.

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I like the part where he goes out the train and hits the glider.

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Oh, what are you talking about?

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There's a bunch of good ones what I don't want to do I don't want to throw

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down go get thrown down some stairs.

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I don't want to fall down some Can I leave that car?

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I don't want to get hit by cars do that.

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It's done guys could do that Keanu Reeves is amazing Like he did so much of his own

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stuff on all the John wicks I'm friends with stunt guys that worked on that and

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stuff and just seeing behind the scenes and talking to him about It's just insane,

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but he is apparently It's getting to him.

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And I don't want it to get to me either.

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He is crazy, man.

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Because the video came out of him and his gun skills and everybody

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was like, Oh, he really is like him.

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Oh, he's super talented.

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So there's a line in there too, because he doesn't do everything.

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He has his doubles and everybody.

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And I would do the same thing.

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But yeah, certain things like that, I don't want to roll down some stairs.

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Maybe a few stairs, sure.

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Not get thrown down doing a flip over.

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I have my, one of my friends, in the last John Wick, there's an escalator and he

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gets he flies, and lands like, 10 feet, 10, 12 feet down the escalator, lands,

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and then tumbles down the escalator.

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That was my friend, on that scene.

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And I'm like, nope.

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Couldn't be me.

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Nope, not me.

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Yeah, that kind of stuff, no.

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Fight scenes, I'd love to do.

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Yeah, just, it really depends, it's a case by case basis.

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I don't want to get blown up.

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Yeah, I think that's fine.

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Maybe get a little on fire, that sounds like fun, actually.

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How about shot?

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That's nothing.

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That's easy.

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Most of that's CGI now.

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Anyways, they just comp in some bullets and impacts.

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It's been really great to have you on the show, man.

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Is there somewhere people can follow you?

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Yeah, you can follow me on Instagram at, Oh my it's Ryan.

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And yeah, feel free to message me if you ever want to chat

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about acting or anything.

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Cool.

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Thank you so much guys.

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This has been film center.

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I'm Derek Johnson.

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Second, I'm Nicholas Killian.

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And we're here with Ryan Padilla and we'll see you next time.

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See ya.

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See ya.

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This has been Film Center on Comic-Con Radio.

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Check out our previous episodes at Comic-Con radio.com.

Speaker:

You can follow the show at Film Center News on all major social media platforms.

Speaker:

Tune in next Wednesday for a fresh update.

Speaker:

Until next time, this has been film Center.

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