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Character Fest with Sy Richardson · Movie Meltdown

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: My name is Alex Cox, and you're listening to Movie Meltdown.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: The following feature has been rated R by the Motion
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Picture Association of America.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: It is intended for mature audiences, and parental discretion is advised.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: It's showtime, folks. Enjoy the show. Our nuclear reactor pumping
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: out one million kilowatts of power. to provide more cooling
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: in the containment chambers.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: To your centers, we have Movie Meltdown.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: Renaissance Man.
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I am Brian
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: and joining me this week is.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Lucy.
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: Look, we went right to you because it's only been
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: a week.
• 1:36
  Speaker 6: I know. I feel like I'm part of the gang again.
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: You are back in full force. And we're coming to
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: you live via digital recording from the Kentucky Theater. No joke.
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: We're in the lobby right now.
• 1:45
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's all ours.
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: We kicked everybody out. We're like, go. Yep. And here
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: we are.
• 1:50
  Speaker 6: Technically, we're in the state theater lobby, but it's all
• 1:52
  Speaker 6: the same thing.
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's got a hallway now. It's interconnected. Fair.
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: I was trying to think earlier, because I don't remember
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: tons of going to see. You were here, so you
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: probably went to a lot of stuff when this was
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: a separate thing.
• 2:04
  Speaker 6: Well, it was closed forever. So I was not, I
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: never went to movies here. I don't know exactly what
• 2:10
  Speaker 6: year the state theater closed. But when it closed, I
• 2:13
  Speaker 6: was a very small person, if not nothing in the
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: ether waiting for my big moment. But I think it
• 2:23
  Speaker 6: for many years was like an X-rated. So even as
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: a child, I would not have come here unless there
• 2:29
  Speaker 6: was some seriously questionable parenting.
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: A really good one, sure.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:33
  Speaker 6: Parenting. Oh my god, I'm so tired. Parenting.
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: You have been at this for days now.
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: I have. Weeks is actually.
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah, this is the second run. Yeah, I'm a little exhausted.
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: Now I was trying to think, because at one point
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: were they doing specifically live acts? Because that's the only
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: thing I remember seeing before they took over from the
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: Kentucky and busted into this side and made it all
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: one thing. Or maybe it was already one thing at
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: that point. But at some point... What's the base player
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: for the stray cats?
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: Is that Slim Jim?
• 3:07
  Speaker 7: No.
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: I don't know who my different stray cats are. I
• 3:09
  Speaker 6: only know two stray cats. I've got Brian and I've
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: got Slim Jim.
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: See, it's the other one.
• 3:13
  Speaker 6: And I got nothing else.
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: And I knew him and now it's left my brain. Oh.
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: And so now he's going to be deeply hurt.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: Given his attitude that day, I don't think he cares.
• 3:23
  Speaker 6: Are we spending a lot of time on this?
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 3:25
  Speaker 6: Or is this a thing we're committed to? We're going
• 3:28
  Speaker 6: to find out this person's name. Should I be talking
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: about something in the interim?
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: So we're at Character Fest, which has nothing to do
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: with the Stray Cats, as far as I know. Although
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: I guess it could at some point.
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: I mean, I'm surprised he wasn't in this movie we
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: saw tonight.
• 3:42
  Speaker 6: Well, you know, the Stray Cats, Harry Dean, Stanton connection.
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: I mean, everything does, in fact, come back around to Harry.
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: As we discussed last time, yes. Did we? I mean,
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: we discussed.
• 3:51
  Speaker 6: But not specifically Stray Cats.
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: Well, no. The time and space all connects in this city.
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: And Harry Dean is the king of it all. Yes, yes, yes.
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: So what about the specific?
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Well, Slim Jim.
• 4:00
  Speaker 6: Slim Jim. Am I getting his name right? Slim Jim Phantom?
• 4:03
  Speaker 6: Is that a person?
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: That sounds like the kind of guy who would be
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: in the Stray Cats.
• 4:08
  Speaker 6: Again, not a rockabilly person, or maybe a music person,
• 4:11
  Speaker 6: or maybe not even a person at all right now.
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: I'm so tired. But he was in bands with Harry.
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: And actually, they just released a record together during COVID,
• 4:24
  Speaker 6: I believe. It might have actually been right before COVID.
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: But he was a band. Were they called the Cheap Dates? Yes,
• 4:29
  Speaker 6: the Cheap Dates. And Jamie James, former guest of the festival,
• 4:33
  Speaker 6: future guest of the festival, I would assume, because he's
• 4:35
  Speaker 6: Jamie James, put out the record. So it's Slim Jim
• 4:38
  Speaker 6: and Harry and Jamie and some other folks who I
• 4:42
  Speaker 6: will not spend an hour Googling, which is what you're
• 4:44
  Speaker 6: sitting here doing, trying to find this random.
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: See, I knew it was a made up rock star name.
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: Lee Rocker. It's so made up.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: It's forgettable.
• 4:53
  Speaker 6: That's hilarious.
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: But he played a show here in this side, not
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: in the Kentucky side. And I just remember it because
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: it was at least at the point it still looked
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: nice in there. So I'm assuming at some point they
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: refurbished things. Yes.
• 5:07
  Speaker 6: So this would be after it was already connected to
• 5:09
  Speaker 6: the Kentucky. I'm assuming that this would have been a
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: Troubadour concert series venture or a wood song.
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: That's why I figured you probably had more of an
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: idea of it. Because I just remember being in that
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: theater and looking around and going, wow, they did a
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: really nice job with this.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 5:22
  Speaker 6: Well, it's a beautiful theater.
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: It is.
• 5:24
  Speaker 6: And it also has the capacity for twinkly lights.
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: Which is really what we're all looking for.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: It is. Yes.
• 5:31
  Speaker 6: I mean, we talk about various fundraising things that are
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: needed for the Kentucky Theater, but I feel like priority
• 5:37
  Speaker 6: one should be bringing back the Twinkly Lights.
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: Twinkly Lights.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 5:40
  Speaker 6: So anyway. But yes, the State Theater, smaller house than
• 5:43
  Speaker 6: the Kentucky Theater, but very charming in its own right
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: with its own very distinct vibe. There's clouds in the sky.
• 5:50
  Speaker 6: There's like this Italianate sort of like.
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: … Very ornate.
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: It's very ornate.
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:58
  Speaker 6: And also Lee Rocker appeared there sometimes. Now that we
• 6:01
  Speaker 6: know the identity of this person, I feel like we
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: need to repeat his name often to make that five-minute
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: search valuable.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: He was fine. Okay, cool.
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: I just remember that being not a movie that I
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: saw there that I thought was kind of weird at
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: the time because I was like, Can we watch a
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: movie now? And luckily, that's what we got to do
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: here today.
• 6:21
  Speaker 6: We did. We've gotten to do it all weekend.
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: You've seen many.
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: I've seen all of them.
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: So do you want to give an overview of that,
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: which is Character Fest?
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: Well, it's year one of Character Fest, and our first
• 6:34
  Speaker 6: and only honoree is Mr. Cy Richardson. And when the
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: idea of Character Fest, well, it was an idea I
• 6:42
  Speaker 6: had a number of years ago. But when I finally
• 6:44
  Speaker 6: was like, let's pull the trigger on this thing, He
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: was the one guest that immediately popped into my mind.
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: And I reached out to former Harry Dean Stanton Fest
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: guest Alex Cox and said, hey, you know, we're thinking
• 6:57
  Speaker 6: about doing this festival. Those would be a spinoff of
• 7:01
  Speaker 6: Harry Dean Stanton Fest. But we would focus on one
• 7:04
  Speaker 6: different character actor every year. And I said, do you
• 7:08
  Speaker 6: think Mr. Cy Richardson would be interested in something along
• 7:10
  Speaker 6: these lines? And instead of responding to me, he then
• 7:13
  Speaker 6: sent an email to me and Cy together that's basically like, okay,
• 7:16
  Speaker 6: here you go. And Cy was like, cool. And I
• 7:19
  Speaker 6: was like, oh, I didn't even ask you, but yay.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: Now I have to do this festival. Well, no, no.
• 7:23
  Speaker 6: I mean, I obviously wanted to, but it was one
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: of those things where it's like, I guess we're doing this.
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: This is happening. It's all on board.
• 7:28
  Speaker 6: But the amazing thing was I started speaking to Mr.
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: Richardson.
• 7:31
  Speaker 6: I still can't call him Cy because he's Mr.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Richardson.
• 7:35
  Speaker 6: He's like, duh. Where am I going? My brain, again,
• 7:41
  Speaker 6: mush right now.
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: His response.
• 7:44
  Speaker 6: His response, oh, he was like, we chatted back and
• 7:47
  Speaker 6: forth about it for a little bit. And then one day,
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: and this was all via email, he said, oh, wait,
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: so this is in Lexington? And I said, yes. And
• 7:54
  Speaker 6: he said, oh, my in-laws are in Lexington. And then
• 7:57
  Speaker 6: that's when I knew that, yes, in fact, Lexington is
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: the center of the universe. And so this has been
• 8:02
  Speaker 6: just the loveliest experience. I said, you know, we would
• 8:07
  Speaker 6: love to have some of your family here for the reception. Um,
• 8:10
  Speaker 6: how many people would you like on the guest list?
• 8:12
  Speaker 6: And he said 35. And as soon as he said 35,
• 8:14
  Speaker 6: I almost started crying because I was like, oh my gosh,
• 8:17
  Speaker 6: we're hosting a family reunion and this is going to
• 8:19
  Speaker 6: be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. So while
• 8:22
  Speaker 6: we're all here watching movies, his family has come in
• 8:25
  Speaker 6: from Richmond, Virginia. I mean, they've come, they have traveled.
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: Uh good portion of them were just standing in this
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: room a little while ago.
• 8:34
  Speaker 6: Yes and they're literally i mean mrs theresa richardson's family
• 8:39
  Speaker 6: is the loveliest family i have ever met and i
• 8:44
  Speaker 6: have met everyone from children to her 96 year no
• 8:48
  Speaker 6: she's gonna be 96 at the end of month year
• 8:50
  Speaker 6: old aunt who i feel like is like a contemporary
• 8:53
  Speaker 6: of mine i mean she was very not a Nonagenarian?
• 8:57
  Speaker 6: Is that what it is? You don't even get to
• 8:59
  Speaker 6: say it that.
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: Much because who do you meet?
• 9:02
  Speaker 6: She's so youthful. So the good news is Mrs. Richardson
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: has wonderful genes on both sides and will hopefully live
• 9:08
  Speaker 6: forever because she is the loveliest person ever. I mean,
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: they're just the sweetest couple. So I feel like I
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: should be gushing about the movies, but right now I'm
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: just gushing about how nice an experience this has been
• 9:19
  Speaker 6: from other angles.
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: I mean, it really was a family reunion because as
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: we were standing here... I heard someone go, I just
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: met a cousin. So they really are like connecting within
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: their own family.
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: But also my other favorite thing about them is that,
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: you know, I mean, these, these are very, like they
• 9:36
  Speaker 6: all went to church together. Like this was, and they
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: were like, we met some people at church and now
• 9:41
  Speaker 6: we're going to bring them to straight to hell. And
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: I was like, wait, Oh, is this a good idea?
• 9:45
  Speaker 6: And I was having like, do you know what this
• 9:47
  Speaker 6: movie is?
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: It's even in the title straight to hell.
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: And there's literally a part where a preacher gets bit. Anyway,
• 9:54
  Speaker 6: no spoilers.
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: No spoilers, I guess.
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: I don't know.
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: That you can spoil.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Straight to hell.
• 9:58
  Speaker 6: But I had concerns that afterward it was just this
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: big love fest where they're like, oh, we had so
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: much fun during the movie. And it continued to be
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: so sweet and wholesome, despite the fact that that's not
• 10:08
  Speaker 6: a sweet or wholesome movie.
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: But anyway. As we covered earlier, no swear words, though.
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: No swear words. So it's good for the whole thing.
• 10:16
  Speaker 6: It's wild to me.
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 10:18
  Speaker 6: So I don't know if you're going to be playing
• 10:19
  Speaker 6: that audio or maybe you cut to that audio now.
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure. Anyway.
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: But yes, no swear words in the movie.
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: We'll get to some later.
• 10:26
  Speaker 6: You think there will be swear words, but there's not.
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: It seems like it would be one of those movies.
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: And yet I really noticed watching it this time.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: Because I was just like, what? They're so going out
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: of their way to do so many strange things in
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: this movie. And I mean that in the best possible way.
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: again I was so the first time I saw it
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: was because Alex was coming and I was like okay
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: I guess I need to watch this movie and I'd
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: seen the cover forever and I finally watched it and
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: was like this is insanity and I love it it
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: is so much fun and then watching it this time
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: I'm like watching all the so many ways that they
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: go out of their way to just do a weird
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: thing for no good reason other than here it is
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: in our movie so I also like that as you're
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: discussing it, we're getting differing stories from Alex Cox versus Psy. Right.
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: Which just adds to the mystery and the insanity that
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: is this movie. So I'm very glad we got to
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: see this and to have our lead, if you will.
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: We'll be covering that in just a minute here. Because, yeah,
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: I mean, the poster's right over there. His name is
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: first on that list so it is interesting when you're
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: a character actor to start moving into that scenario.
• 11:51
  Speaker 6: So well I will say something that I found fascinating
• 11:54
  Speaker 6: is that you know Mr. Richardson speaks at length about
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: how much he enjoys being a character actor and how
• 12:02
  Speaker 6: he doesn't have any interest in playing leads. And then
• 12:05
  Speaker 6: he also said Harry Dean Stanton only wanted to be
• 12:08
  Speaker 6: a character actor and had no interest in playing leads.
• 12:11
  Speaker 6: But if you ask Mr. Richardson what his favorite movie is,
• 12:14
  Speaker 6: it's the one he plays the lead. And if you
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: ask Harry Dean Stanton what his favorite movie is, it's
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: the one where he plays the lead. So I feel
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: like maybe they're both just frustrated leading men, but I
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: won't psychoanalyze anybody. I would love to see Cy Richardson
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: as a leading man. I understand his reasons for not
• 12:30
  Speaker 6: wanting to be, and I have all the respect in
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: the world for those reasons, but he can definitely carry
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: a movie.
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: Most definitely. And an interview. I say we go talk
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: to him right now. We'll take our break, and we'll
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: go sit down with Cy, and we'll be right back.
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: My great-grandfather came to the United States and.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Created an empire of theaters around Indiana and Kentucky and Illinois.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: And this one is the gem of them all. and
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: it was the job of my grandfather, Harry Swito, to
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: build it.
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: The Kentucky Theater is the best thing that we have
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: in Lexington that compares to anything old Hollywood.
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: It's grand and splendid and beautiful, and there's something about
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: the beauty and the grandeur of it that makes you
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: sit up a little taller, and it makes me feel
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: like I'm part of a longer history, a part of
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: a much larger story than my own.
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: My name is Brad Dourif, and I'm listening to Movie Meltdown.
• 14:32
  Speaker 7: Ladies and gentlemen, Cy Richardson.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: Well, I usually try to start with people and just
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: sort of get a sense of them. I think so
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: much of it starts when you're a kid. So I
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: was going to see as far as the arts in general,
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: like where did you grow up and then what were
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: you kind of interested in?
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Okay. I grew up in Chicago, but actually I was
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: born in Cincinnati. A year later, my father started singing
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: with a gospel group and they were in Chicago, so
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: we moved to Chicago. At four years old, I'm at church,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and I crawl underneath the chairs, came to the middle
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: of the aisle, and I start screaming and hollering. The
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: pastor stopped the service, picks me up, brings me to
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the pulpit, and I started singing, Do Lordy, Do Lordy,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Do Lordy, Remember Me. My father was upset because his
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: group was.
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: Up there singing. And you interrupted everything.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so at 10 years old, This lady wanted
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: some Africans in this play she was doing, and I
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: agreed to do it. And so opening of the play,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I'm standing there with the spear next to the king.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: You hear boom, the lights go out and come back up.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: When the lights come back up, I'm dead. So that
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: was my first.
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: Your first big death scene.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, see, so. by the time I'm 16 years old, uh,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I've already recorded my first record. And, uh, my mother
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: would get up, would get off of work. And, uh, on, uh,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: that night on Fridays, she would, uh, uh, get off work,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: come down to the house, uh, relax for a couple
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: of minutes and take me to the nightclub. And so
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: she would have to sit in the nightclub for the
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: four hours that I'm there with my group to sing, uh,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: The sad part about it, I didn't think nothing of it.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: That's my mama. She's supposed to do that.
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: That's true.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: You're a parent.
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: That's what you do.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: But I wanted to be a singer. So by the
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: time I was 26 years old, I decided, I went
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: to the Navy, came out of the Navy, and I
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: decided that I needed to find something to do with myself.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: So I'm driving the city bus in Chicago, and what
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: happened is, A guy told me, he said, you know,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: you can go to college for free because you're a veteran.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: So I went to college for free. Well, while I'm
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: in college, I'm in the math class and this kid,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I call him a kid because he was like 18
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: and I was 26. And I go see this play
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: and he was in the play. And I stared at
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: him the whole time when he came back to class
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: because I had never seen You know, he was one
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: way on stage and different in person. So then I
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: wanted to know more about that. So I hit 29.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I graduated from my junior college in Chicago, and I
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: had a scholarship. I went to Boulder, Colorado. Not Boulder,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: but Denver, Colorado. And in Denver, they wanted to start
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: a black theater company, and they needed a 65-year-old black guy.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: The closest to it was me, and I was 32.
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: So I did the play. Loved it. So I started
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: doing plays there. And when I graduated from college, I
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: checked out this dinner theater. And they did oleos and
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: vaudeville shows. And I auditioned for it. And three days later,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: the guy called me. He says, you're either very talented
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: or a fool.
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: I can claim both.
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: And so.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: What happened is I got in the lines, but I
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: didn't remember them. So I made them up.
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: And it still worked within context?
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so he gave me the job. That's good. For
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: a year and a half, I did oleos and ball
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: field shows. And we did them in St. Louis, Montana, Utah,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: you know, like that. So the last one I did
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: was in St. Louis, Missouri on the Golden Rod Showboat.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: And When we got to, some of the actors said,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: what are you going to do, man? Are you going
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: to Chicago and get into journalism? Because that's what I
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: went to school for. And I said, no, I don't
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: think I want to do advertisement. But, you know, and
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: they said, well, I said, I'm not going to do
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the theater anymore. I said, I got to find something
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: else to do. And it started to snow.
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: Just financially or artistically?
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Financially.
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: Financially, yeah. Which, yeah, I think most artists will agree,
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: that never pays the bills.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: And then it started to snow. And when it started
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: to snow, I said, hmm, you know what I'm going
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: to do? So what are you going to do? I said,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I am going to California and be a character actor.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: And they all looked at me here. They didn't laugh
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: at me. They just looked at me. And I left
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: and came on to California. 30 days after I got
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to California. Well, when I got to California, I had
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: no place to stay. I had $ 50 in my pocket.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: And I didn't know anything about California. I'd only been
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: to California once. And I sung at the Bill Maugh
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Hotel with a choir.
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: So I didn't know it at all. And I thought
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: about my ex-wife. She had a friend who lived with
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: us for 30 days before she moved to California. So
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: I called her and she said, I said, I'm in
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles. I need some place to stay just for
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: 30 days. Then I got my own. So she called
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: the girl and the girl said, yeah, I can stay
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: with her for 30 days. So She gave me the address,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: and I went to the gas station. I said, will
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: you tell me where this address is in Los Angeles?
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: He said, sure, I'll tell you where it is. He said,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: walk to the corner, walk down four blocks, and you're there.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: This is not Los Angeles. It's Santa Monica.
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: It's a lot of subsections once you get in there.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so I ended up staying with her 30 days.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: And I met a guy on the streets who was
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: an actor, and he told me to look in this
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: magazine called Dramalogues. If I get the drama log, go
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: through it. It comes out every Thursday. And I didn't
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: have a lot of money, so I would go to
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the library and read the drama log. So I guess
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I'd do that. And I get this one. They were
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: looking for a black guy, 35 years old. I am
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: now 36. And so I went in. I auditioned for it.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Two days later, I get a call, and it said
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I booked it. And so it was a film called Cinderella.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: And so I booked it. And the first day I
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: went to try out outfits and so forth, I get
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: in the elevator and the elevator opens up. There's six
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: naked women in the elevator. And I got so nervous.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I looked up like this the whole time I was
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: in the elevator.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: Whistling, staring at the ceiling.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: I didn't know it was a soft core porn movie.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I'm new, you know.
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: How many kids in L.A. fall for that?
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: You don't know what you're going to get into. So
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: I booked it, and I played the fairy godmother. So
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: I did that. That was my first film. And the
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: only thing that happened in that film that changed, that
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: made me really think and get my head together, it
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: was that he says, one day he says, look, you
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: see those girls over there? He says, pick one, take
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: home with you. And I looked at him and I said,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: I came to California to make movies and not get laid.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: And he looked at me for a minute or two
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: and he said, okay. So that's how my career started here.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: It's a different set.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: Of standards than some people have. So yeah, it's good.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: The good part about it is four of the next
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: films I did were all Friends of His, but they
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: weren't porn films.
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what I kind of noticed looking at a
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: lot of these. There's so many things that Regardless of
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: whether you're first on the call sheet or not, sometimes
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: it's the people that you meet or you end up
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: in these scenarios and interesting situations that just wouldn't have
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: come about had you not taken regardless of what the
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: part is.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: My favorite one, and I taught an acting class for
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: 10 years, and I always like to tell everyone this story.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I was in New York doing a film called Not Turner.
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: And the lead actor couldn't work one day because he
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: had to be a background actor in a soap opera.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: And so the next day when he came back, I said,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: how come you went into a background job when you're
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the lead in this film? And he looked at me
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and he says, I'm an actor. I said, oh, okay.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: And so when I came back from doing Nocturne, I
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: came back to L.A., I get a call. Some lady
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: named Victoria Thomas said that another casting director told her
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: about me and that she needed a background actor for
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: a film she was doing at UCLA. And since I
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: remember what that guy said, I did it. You know,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: I did it.
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: And I did it.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: And two of her friends who were there at the shoot,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: one was named Alex Cox and the other one was
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: named Charlie Burnett. So when I got there to do
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the background work, One of the actors didn't show up.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: So I, in turn, ended up being a principal and
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: doing that. So I did that.
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: Sometimes that's how it goes.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: So I always like to say, you know, you are
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: an actor. Don't allow money, names to get in the way.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: You know, this is your love. This is what you do.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: And so meeting Alex Cox and Charles Burnett, I've been
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: basically working every cent of what I've done. Seven films
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: for Alex Cox and three films for Charles Burnett.
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I was definitely trying to figure out where Alex
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: got involved. Because, yeah, it starts, I guess, like Repo Man.
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: And then that one, just because of dealing so much
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: with Harry Dean over the years, I guess, what was
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: your take on that shoot? And then what was it
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: like that first time you met Harry Dean Stanton?
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I was nervous. I was nervous.
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: I mean, he's already a pretty established actor by that time. Yeah,
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: he's been doing it for years.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I was nervous because I wanted to make sure I
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: did it right. See, because I had heard that he
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: had the tendency to get in your face if you
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: don't do it right. Yeah, see. And so, I talked
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: to him, you know, and I followed him around and
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: listened to him and You know, didn't ask any questions.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: I just listened to him. And so when it was
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: time for me to shoot, I started shooting. And the
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: day before I was doing the scene with him, he
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: looked at me and winked his eye. You know, and
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I felt good because I figured that wink meant he's comfortable.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: He knows I'm going to do what I have to do.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: But I really enjoyed working with him. But see, that's
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: what I wanted to be. I came to California to
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: be a character actor. I didn't want to be a
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: movie star. And so having the chance to work with
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: him and he was a basic character actor. Then, you know,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: I learned by listening, you know.
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: So specifically came looking for that just because you wanted
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: to be involved in movies or is it something you
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: would have rejected had you started getting more and more, you.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Know, lead roles? I didn't want to be. I wanted
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: to do movies. I didn't want to do commercials. I
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: didn't want to do theater. I didn't want to do print.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to do TV. All I wanted to
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: do was movies. And I basically did that for a while.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: But then I found out that my agent helped me out.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: He said, you have bills to pay and you've got
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: to eat. And he says, you've got to do commercials
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: because one day you can get more. And I started
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: doing commercials.
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: Well, that's what, yeah, I know Lucy and I were
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: talking about that last week of like when you're, when
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: you are essentially whether or not you want to be
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: called a character actor or not, but like when you're
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: just a working actor, how much control do you even
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: have over like, oh, I want to do this project
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: and I don't versus I just need food on the table.
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: So it's like, do you, did you at some point,
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: you know, get to a point where you were like,
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: I'm going to pass on this one? Or is it
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: like if something good comes along and it seems like
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: it's going to work, just kind of roll with it?
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: What I do is I read the script. Sometimes I
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: get a chance to talk to the director or the writer.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: But I do any film as long as it doesn't
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: affect my morals and my ethics. Because I'm an actor.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: So if I'm going to be an actor, I have
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to work. And so I will work, but like I say,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I just... There were some things I didn't do. There
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: were things that came up where I was doing this
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: one thing and the guy told me he wanted me
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: to take my penis out and shake it. And I
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: told him, I'm not doing it. And everything stopped. Everything
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: went still. The DP, everyone just thought, you can't say
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: that to the director. And he looked at me for
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: a while and then he said, okay, let's move on.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: You know how you do it, you know what I'm saying?
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: And that's, that's the way that I looked at that.
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: There is a point crossing the line that that's probably it.
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: We've been working more with, with Alex Cox. I mean, it's,
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: it's specifically where we're going to get to straight to hell.
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: And that one, that one's almost, it's an ensemble, but
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: you're kind of our lead guy. So is that, is
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: that crossing over too much? Was it still okay as
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: you got into that shoot and realizing it?
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: It was okay then because, uh, As you work with
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: people and you learn and you talk to the older
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: directors and so forth, you can star in a film.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: You don't have to be the star. Yeah. And one
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: old time has explained to me, he says, a lot
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: of these kids today, they become stars, they become arrogant.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: You know, he said, they're not really stars, they're just ignorant.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: You have a lot of kids.
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah. And not so many kids, grownups too.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: And so I started doing principal roles and, you know,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: and so forth. And it was okay. You know?
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: Well, I love that. I remember just watching it to
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: talk to Alex Cox when, when he came to the
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: last one years ago. And that is such a, an
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: original concept and like that shooting out. I mean, those
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: just the buildings, like the, that shoot just had to
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: be amazing and probably not comfortable.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, You know who Charles Bronson is, okay? Oh, yeah.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: He's a method actor. And what happens when your situation,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: like you were talking about, you take in this character,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: you deal with this, nothing else matters. It doesn't matter
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: what the set scene looks like. What matters is what
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: you're doing, who you're doing it with, and why you're
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: doing it. And that's what I did. I know I
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: did one film. And I came home and my wife says,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't know who you were. I said, what's your name?
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: She said, Yuri.
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: Changed.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Your face looked different. She said, and I just got
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: away from you for a while.
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: That's impressive. When she doesn't recognize you.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. See, so those things happen. And Charles Bronson mentioned that. Oh, yeah.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: And he, we worked on a film together. And from
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: the moment he walked on the set, he became that character.
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: And he stayed that character until he walked off, walked
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: out the studio. Yeah.
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: He was hard working too. He did, he did a
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: lot of stuff over the years.
• 30:10
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: Well, it was kind of, yeah, I was jumping through
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: different ones. I just recently went back and watched Tape Heads.
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: And that's one of those that like just a time
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: and place. It's like you, you're just the bartender, but
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: like you're across from a young John Cusack. And, uh,
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: You've got Tim Robbins and you've got Fishbone playing behind you.
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: It's such a crazy scenario that you're thrown in the
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: middle of. I was fascinated with that one with the
• 30:35
  Speaker 5: Michael Nesmith. How did you end up getting involved with
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: that whole group of people?
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: I knew that from UCLA. And Emilio Estevez said something
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: one time. And I took that in, and that was
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: something he.
• 30:48
  Speaker 7: Says, be.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Willing to work with your friends, you know, because they
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: need you, and they're hiring you not just to be
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: the actor, but to cover their back.
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: They're going to cover yours, you know. And so I
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: get a call, and they want me to do it.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: I got the script read, and I said, I'm in.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: You know, that's what I do. And I still do
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: that today.
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: You know. I mean, he's a perfect example. It's like
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: you end up starting off early on with Repo Man,
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: and it's not too many years later he's directing a
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: movie and puts you in it.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I'm in the process of doing. At
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: this present time, I've done everything in the motion picture
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: industry but direct-to-feature film. I've directed shorts. I've written five books.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: I've written three scripts. Only one of them was published. And,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: you know, so... I do it all. I consider myself
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: a renaissance man.
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: Definitely.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: When I find something I like, I try it. And
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: what we're doing now is what I'm getting ready to try.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: I've never tried the podcast before, and I keep telling
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: my wife, I think I just check this out and see.
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: It gets addictive, I have to say. There was a
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: time when I learned of it, and before long I
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: was doing it, and now I've been doing it for
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: more years than I can think about, and it's, yeah,
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: it's It's a fun format because it gives you kind
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: of a little time to breathe and get to know people.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Where I live at is in the senior citizen community.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: And this lady, she's 94 years old, and she lived
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: in Japan for 14 years. Yeah. And I said, what
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: does an Italian lady do in Japan for 14 years?
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: And she started telling me stories. And I said to myself, huh.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Maybe I should do a podcast with her. They've got
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of people where I live in the industry.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: They've done things probably all over the world. I think
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: it would be kind of fun.
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: Definitely, yeah. There's so many people that you don't know
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: when you walk past them, but they've got these amazing stories.
• 32:51
  Speaker 5: That's what I've found doing this over the years. I like, again,
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: starting with childhood and then sometimes they end up in
• 33:00
  Speaker 5: the same place, but the journey is always so different. And, yeah,
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: that's one of the ones I was going to ask
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: you about. It's like you have done so many things
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: and you've gotten to a point of teaching. So, I mean,
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: what is it that you found over all of this
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: that's something that you want to as you're teaching kids
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: not just acting but also just, you know, life lessons
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: in general? Like what all have you learned?
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I still mentor young people. But, see, I believe
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: my job as an entertainer is to entertain people inform, inspire,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: and minister. And that's four things I have to do.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: He didn't say this, but in his conversation with John Wayne,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: he brought up stuff like that. He made a point.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: He says he was in a posse and they reached
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: a fork in the road and they didn't know which
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: way to go. And so the miner stood up and
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: pointed to the right. He said, and then the posse
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: went to the right and they caught the bad guy.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: He said, everyone in the film is important because everyone's
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: there to tell, to help tell the story. And I thought, okay,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: I got you, I got you. So I had to
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: look at it differently, you know. And then I met, uh,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Sidney Poitier.
• 34:17
  Speaker 7: Oh yeah.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: And he was my favorite actor since I was eight
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: years old. And so, uh, I mean, his documentary coming
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: up next year too. Yeah. And so, he mentioned, he says, uh, uh,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: If you go see a movie that you're in, and
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: when you come outside and the audience start talking about
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: how good you are, how great you are, he says,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: you haven't done anything. He says, it's nothing. He said,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: but if you come out of the movie where you
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: are in it, and they stop and they ask you
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: about the character, they ask you about the story, he said,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: then you've done your job.
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: And I thought about that. Oh, I got you now. Entertain, inform, inspire,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: and so on.
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: And just disappear into the role. Like you said, your
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: wife didn't even recognize you. Like that's, that's impressive.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Why?
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: And you're, you're, you're born from music too. Like that's
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: what amazed me when, yeah, Lucy was going through stuff
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: and we're like, wait, 16 years old. Like how do
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: you jump from that into, you know, the film industry?
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: And so, yeah, you've done, you've done so much. Is
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: there any specific story? I know we've hit some of
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: the bigger ones, but are there, is there like a,
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: one story that you remember from something that isn't as
• 35:28
  Speaker 5: big a movie that you remember, like the, the shoot
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: itself was way more interesting.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Than, you know, even the finished product sometimes. Working with
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Alex on, um, Oh, wow. He has so many films.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: I can't remember which one it was, but I was,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: I was working with, working with Alex on, um, Walker.
• 35:47
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you heard of that. He, he
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: really loves Walker.
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: I think that's his favorite.
• 35:51
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Me too.
• 35:52
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: And, We were walking down the road, and the painter
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: ran over to him and started telling him what he
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: needed to do with this place and how he needed
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: to change the paint from this to that and do
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: this there. And he listened, and he says, okay. He said,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: go ahead, do it. And then when he left, I said,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: you're the director. Why do you listen to what he says?
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: He says, just remember this. He said, if there's 200
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: people on this project, we're all here for one reason,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: to make a movie. Whether I use it or not
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: isn't important. What's important is that I listen because he
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: may have something that I can use that's better than
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: what I thought of. I said, oh, okay. I got you.
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: That's a sign of a good director.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: Not just one that wants to tell everyone else what.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: To do, but yeah.
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: Figures out, these guys are here, and they have a
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: specific job, and they probably know their job.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So that was it.
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: That's amazing. When you say you've got new stuff coming,
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: do you have new stuff in the works that you
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: want to tell people to look for, or what's the
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: best thing to.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Not yet, because we haven't found the money for these
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: three projects. Oh, yeah. They're searching for it now.
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: Well, you guys get on it and fund his projects.
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: Get the Kickstarters going, and yeah, we'll get them all done. Well,
• 37:16
  Speaker 5: thank you for joining us today. Well, thank you. Thanks
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: for coming to Character Podcast.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: See, by you doing this, you know that you're done.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: You let me know that I can do it.
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: The setup is pretty simple, as you see. But, yeah,
• 37:33
  Speaker 5: once you get into it, it's just kind of finding
• 37:35
  Speaker 5: the right people and finding the right discussions that you
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: want to have. Yeah. Cool. It's pretty fun.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I like it.
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: I like it. So thank you for being part of
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: this one.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: And thank you for thinking of me.
• 37:46
  Speaker 5: No problem.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Most of the stars I've met are egotistical.
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: Um.
• 38:11
  Speaker 8: They think they know more than you do. I was
• 38:15
  Speaker 8: working with one, I'm not going to mention his name.
• 38:18
  Speaker 8: We both had just finished doing a reading together. And
• 38:21
  Speaker 8: when I left, I said, hey, I say, you and
• 38:23
  Speaker 8: I go to the same church and my wife, the usher,
• 38:26
  Speaker 8: does she know your wife?
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: He looked down at me like that, looked up and
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: walked away. Most of the stars have nothing to do
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: with you because.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: You're not on that level.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: And I didn't like that. And I didn't like the vibe.
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: I hope I didn't go in that direction. Stay off
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: that ballpark.
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: So thank you to Cy for joining us. I'm still
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: calling him Cy.
• 39:11
  Speaker 6: That's fine. I just can't do it.
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: We were pretty tight like that. We're starting a new
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: podcast together.
• 39:16
  Speaker 6: Okay. I will be an avid listener.
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: That is my favorite part of that. I don't know.
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: I've talked to a lot of people over the years,
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: both random people that I know and people that have
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: been in the industry. I don't know that it's been like...
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: a sales pitch as much as this. I mean, he was,
• 39:36
  Speaker 5: as it went on, he was just like, maybe I
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: do need to start a pod. Into it. And under
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: most circumstances, I'm like, oh, no. the last thing this
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: world needs is another podcast, but I kind of want
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: to hear size.
• 39:49
  Speaker 6: Oh, a thousand percent. And with that voice.
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah. And, and just Tim, he already has people picked out.
• 39:55
  Speaker 5: He wants to talk to. So I definitely want to, yeah,
• 39:59
  Speaker 5: I want to hear this show. So he, this was again,
• 40:03
  Speaker 5: he's naming off all the things that he's done in
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: his career, but he said he had not done a
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: podcast before.
• 40:09
  Speaker 6: So we, Wait, you've never been a guest on a podcast?
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: That's what he said. So we threw open the door there.
• 40:15
  Speaker 5: And now, as I told him with me, it's a
• 40:17
  Speaker 5: slippery slope. And next thing you know, you got your
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: own show.
• 40:20
  Speaker 6: Very cool.
• 40:21
  Speaker 5: I feel like we've done something for the world now.
• 40:23
  Speaker 6: Well, his wife's entire family is trying to convince him
• 40:25
  Speaker 6: to move back here. So maybe you can help him
• 40:27
  Speaker 6: out with equipment and stuff.
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: I told him it doesn't take much. I referenced the
• 40:32
  Speaker 5: desk here. I'm like, here's the things I'm using. This
• 40:34
  Speaker 5: is it most of the time. So yeah, it's not
• 40:37
  Speaker 5: that hard to piece together. It's what you do with
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: it from there, and I'm not necessarily including myself on
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: the good side of that, but I'm sure he could
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: put it together just fine.
• 40:46
  Speaker 6: I can include you. You can't say it yourself, but
• 40:49
  Speaker 6: I can. You do great work.
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: I keep at it. That's all I can say. As
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: long as we've been doing this. But yeah, he's a
• 41:00
  Speaker 5: fascinating guy, as you well know. You've hung out with
• 41:03
  Speaker 5: him all week.
• 41:04
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, I just, I mean, I'm sure you covered, yeah,
• 41:07
  Speaker 6: I think you just mentioned all of his careers, the
• 41:09
  Speaker 6: many lives he has squeezed into this one life. It's incredible.
• 41:15
  Speaker 6: And now, did he mention his book? Because now I
• 41:17
  Speaker 6: am deep into his book.
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: I think you're his new PR person on the book.
• 41:22
  Speaker 6: Well, happily, because it is fascinating. And I mean, just, yeah.
• 41:29
  Speaker 6: And I haven't really sat down reading it front to
• 41:31
  Speaker 6: back because I was kind of like, you know, sort
• 41:33
  Speaker 6: of cherry picking. And then I was like, wait, wait, wait,
• 41:34
  Speaker 6: what am I doing? I need to just start at
• 41:36
  Speaker 6: the beginning. And then I was like, well, what? Like
• 41:39
  Speaker 6: the family stories? Like, I mean, it's just, and he
• 41:42
  Speaker 6: says everything. I mean, he doesn't.
• 41:43
  Speaker 5: Is it self-published or is it through?
• 41:47
  Speaker 6: I'm not sure. I believe that it's self-published.
• 41:49
  Speaker 5: I'm just wondering, is it like on Hulu?
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: Is it available?
• 41:52
  Speaker 5: I mean, since we're pitching it, I'm like, we should.
• 41:54
  Speaker 6: He said to... Because I had actually looked for it
• 41:56
  Speaker 6: on Amazon and had not been able to find it
• 41:58
  Speaker 6: because I did look for it before he came because
• 42:00
  Speaker 6: I wanted to read it. He said to just Google it.
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: And he said, if you just Google side by side,
• 42:04
  Speaker 6: it'll pop up. So that's apparently the best.
• 42:07
  Speaker 5: Way to do it. Start placing your order right now.
• 42:09
  Speaker 6: But I did purchase another of his books, which was
• 42:12
  Speaker 6: self-published on Amazon because he has all of these guides
• 42:16
  Speaker 6: to acting and about his spiritual journey. I mean, he just...
• 42:21
  Speaker 6: i don't know how.
• 42:21
  Speaker 5: He covers everything.
• 42:23
  Speaker 6: Yeah there's like somehow he gets like five extra hours
• 42:26
  Speaker 6: in a day i guess i accomplish nothing.
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: So i've given up on accomplishing things but yeah even
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: i could tell that just in sitting there i was
• 42:37
  Speaker 5: like i'm just gonna go ahead and start throwing out
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: the big picture questions right because i think you've got
• 42:42
  Speaker 5: a handle on that like you can tell us specific
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: things about this movie or that movie but I think
• 42:46
  Speaker 5: you've got the answers to most things, so let's just
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: give it to us.
• 42:51
  Speaker 6: Yeah, he's great. And, well, if we're going to continue
• 42:54
  Speaker 6: to pitch for him, he has three movie projects.
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: I told him to get Kickstarter going.
• 43:00
  Speaker 6: Yeah, well, I'm actually going to try to connect him
• 43:03
  Speaker 6: with some people tonight. I have some people coming to
• 43:05
  Speaker 6: chat with him about one of the projects. Because I
• 43:07
  Speaker 6: will say, I don't have a lot of regrets in life.
• 43:12
  Speaker 6: But I will say, and not that I could have
• 43:15
  Speaker 6: done anything. Like, I don't even know what I'm talking about.
• 43:17
  Speaker 6: But the thing that I kind of regret the most
• 43:20
  Speaker 6: is that Monty Hellman, later in his life, had a
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: script that he really wanted to have made into a movie.
• 43:26
  Speaker 6: And tried and tried, and... talked about it a lot
• 43:29
  Speaker 6: and I tried to connect him to a couple people
• 43:30
  Speaker 6: but I didn't like really like dig in heels and
• 43:33
  Speaker 6: because I do feel like there's money in Kentucky and
• 43:37
  Speaker 6: like it's a little more untapped than Los Angeles if
• 43:40
  Speaker 6: you figure out how to do it and I feel
• 43:43
  Speaker 6: like the world needed that last Monty Hellman movie and
• 43:46
  Speaker 6: I feel like Monty Hellman needed that last Monty Hellman
• 43:49
  Speaker 6: movie and it makes me very sad that it never
• 43:51
  Speaker 6: came to fruition and I feel guilty as someone a
• 43:55
  Speaker 6: fan and a friend that I didn't help more. So
• 43:57
  Speaker 6: now I'm like, so I were Richardson. We're getting this
• 43:59
  Speaker 6: movie made.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: So Monty wanted to direct that. Yeah. Yeah.
• 44:03
  Speaker 6: I mean, he had the script.
• 44:04
  Speaker 5: I was going to say, can we get the script
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: and still bring it to life? I mean, without Monty directing, obviously,
• 44:11
  Speaker 5: but the script, well, he passed the baton, you know,
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: he's got to, he's got to enlighten people through his work, even.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: After he's gone.
• 44:19
  Speaker 6: That's a good point.
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: Hmm.
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: Speaking of, I was thinking, I know you were saying
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: last time around that it's almost questionable, like trying to
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: pitch the idea of this, but I was also thinking
• 44:34
  Speaker 5: because some people don't want to see themselves as character actors,
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: but I'm like, there's also a second spin going on
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: there of like, we're not just doing it because you're
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: a character actor. The whole purpose of anything like this
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: would be because you're creating great Yes. So maybe that's
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: your spin. That's your focus is like, you know, we're
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: just picking people who create impressive characters on screen, whether
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: you're on screen for five minutes or for two hours.
• 45:01
  Speaker 5: So I think that's the pitch. Yeah.
• 45:04
  Speaker 6: Because it's character fest, not character actor fest.
• 45:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Because I know it seemed a little questionable last
• 45:11
  Speaker 5: time of like, are we going to get ourselves in trouble?
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: Are people going to be mad at us because we
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: call them?
• 45:16
  Speaker 6: Well, but my feeling is honestly, do we want those
• 45:20
  Speaker 6: people do we want the people that get offended when
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: we call them character actors i mean like harry pretended
• 45:25
  Speaker 6: to but he didn't really like he was a.
• 45:28
  Speaker 5: Lot of things i love the man but like he
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: he had so many different things that he would say
• 45:35
  Speaker 5: one thing over here and then you say something else
• 45:37
  Speaker 5: over here and then he'd do an entirely different thing
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: because he's harry and he could do whatever the hell
• 45:40
  Speaker 5: he wanted So, yeah, you can't go by what Harry says.
• 45:44
  Speaker 6: If we approach somebody and say, we love your work,
• 45:48
  Speaker 6: we have a festival that celebrates character actors, and we
• 45:52
  Speaker 6: would love to honor you. If they say, I am
• 45:54
  Speaker 6: a leading man or lady, you monster, then I don't
• 45:59
  Speaker 6: necessarily know I want to spend a weekend with that person.
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: I agree.
• 46:03
  Speaker 5: But I'm just, you know, we were trying to come
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: up with a good presentation.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: But no, no, no.
• 46:07
  Speaker 6: I think you're right. I think that's a very good pitch.
• 46:08
  Speaker 5: It's about creating great characters. Yeah. And he's a perfect example.
• 46:13
  Speaker 5: Going back, we didn't get a chance to talk about
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: Mystery Train, but I rewatched that recently myself. Oh, my favorite.
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: And I love that movie anyway. But he's not even
• 46:24
  Speaker 5: five minutes, maybe? Like, it is such a minute. But, like,
• 46:27
  Speaker 5: his moment, like, then changes everything for this character afterwards.
• 46:32
  Speaker 5: You get such a little window into this guy and
• 46:35
  Speaker 5: like what he's doing. And then it, yeah, it changes
• 46:38
  Speaker 5: everything for the woman he's talking to for the whole
• 46:40
  Speaker 5: rest of that movie.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: Truly.
• 46:42
  Speaker 5: And then it gets passed on to the next girl.
• 46:44
  Speaker 5: And yeah. So if you haven't seen it, go watch it.
• 46:47
  Speaker 6: Oh, I love that movie so much. And I think
• 46:48
  Speaker 6: that he and Screamin' J.A. Hawkins are like the standouts.
• 46:52
  Speaker 6: And that's kind of what I said on Friday night
• 46:54
  Speaker 6: when we had opening night and we showed Repo Man
• 46:56
  Speaker 6: and I did a little introduction where I sort of
• 46:58
  Speaker 6: talked about what it is to be a character actor
• 47:00
  Speaker 6: and different definitions from different people. But my feeling is
• 47:03
  Speaker 6: when I think of what a character actor is, I
• 47:05
  Speaker 6: think of they are the folks who you don't see
• 47:08
  Speaker 6: on the poster before the movie, right? but they're the
• 47:11
  Speaker 6: folks you were talking about after the movie. They're the
• 47:14
  Speaker 6: folks who come home with you and you're thinking about
• 47:16
  Speaker 6: because they just stole the frickin' show.
• 47:19
  Speaker 5: Or even if you are the lead. Again, this poster
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: behind us. Then I love that poster. I've seen that
• 47:24
  Speaker 5: on the video box for years, but it is funny
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: that the rock star is the one on the poster,
• 47:29
  Speaker 5: even though the first name is Psy. It's marketing.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: It's all about marketing.
• 47:35
  Speaker 6: That is what it is.
• 47:37
  Speaker 5: So as we're rounding out this episode and this whole
• 47:42
  Speaker 5: two-week extravaganza, especially for you more than anyone, I was
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: kind of asking the same things. What have you learned
• 47:50
  Speaker 5: from this process?
• 47:51
  Speaker 6: Oh, my goodness.
• 47:52
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 47:53
  Speaker 6: Well, now I'm so curious what his answer was. But
• 47:55
  Speaker 6: I know you don't share it with me because then
• 47:57
  Speaker 6: it's reviewed for the audience.
• 47:57
  Speaker 5: You guys.
• 47:58
  Speaker 6: Everyone else knows but me.
• 47:59
  Speaker 5: Oh, Lordy.
• 48:01
  Speaker 6: What have I learned?
• 48:03
  Speaker 5: What is your takeaway from all of this craziness that
• 48:07
  Speaker 5: you seem to enjoy it. You, you, you find amazing
• 48:10
  Speaker 5: connections and amazing people that are all involved. So is,
• 48:14
  Speaker 5: is that what keeps making this worthwhile every, every time around? Yeah.
• 48:18
  Speaker 6: I mean, I think the takeaway this year, well, I
• 48:23
  Speaker 6: don't know. Cast some shade. Um, I will.
• 48:28
  Speaker 5: Say that you're trying to be more upbeat last time.
• 48:30
  Speaker 6: Um, Usually we have great, amazing guests, and we've had
• 48:36
  Speaker 6: some guests that have become lifelong friends because they're so amazing.
• 48:40
  Speaker 6: I will say that the last couple of weeks, I mean,
• 48:45
  Speaker 6: Alice Nanders, Billy Swan, Cy Richardson, and then Joe Atkins,
• 48:52
  Speaker 6: who's always been a friend of the festival, and Silas House,
• 48:54
  Speaker 6: who's always been a friend. When you work with really lovely, kind,
• 49:01
  Speaker 6: generous folks, it's just a pleasure. There's nothing stressful about it.
• 49:06
  Speaker 6: You may not get to eat all day and you
• 49:08
  Speaker 6: may be rushing about, but there's no part of you
• 49:10
  Speaker 6: that feels stressed out because you're just floating on this
• 49:14
  Speaker 6: bubble of love.
• 49:16
  Speaker 5: And you have great people to help support. You had
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: one that brought food. because you needed just a little while.
• 49:23
  Speaker 6: Ago yes that was just my friend amy that wasn't
• 49:26
  Speaker 6: even a volunteer and showed up with food we realized
• 49:29
  Speaker 6: that mr richardson hadn't had the opportunity to eat between
• 49:32
  Speaker 6: church and being here and.
• 49:35
  Speaker 5: It's a lineup you have a lot of movies and
• 49:37
  Speaker 5: that's a good thing.
• 49:37
  Speaker 6: Right and i said what do you what would you
• 49:40
  Speaker 6: like and so i ordered the food and then my
• 49:42
  Speaker 6: friend amy had been like what can i do to
• 49:43
  Speaker 6: help just let me know and i said well actually
• 49:45
  Speaker 6: you can run by pies and pints and pick up
• 49:47
  Speaker 6: this cauliflower crust pizza that i just ordered and she
• 49:51
  Speaker 6: showed up because she's an angel and that's just what
• 49:53
  Speaker 6: lexington is to be honest i mean we just have
• 49:56
  Speaker 6: a really nice kind supportive community here so Shout out, Amy,
• 50:00
  Speaker 6: for picking up the Pies and Pints pizza. And shout out,
• 50:03
  Speaker 6: Pies and Pints, your future sponsor.
• 50:05
  Speaker 5: You had the perfect pizza that I wanted. Literally.
• 50:08
  Speaker 6: It was kind of miraculous. He was like, well, what
• 50:11
  Speaker 6: I want, you're not going to be able to find.
• 50:13
  Speaker 6: And I said, try me.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: And you were like, let's see.
• 50:15
  Speaker 6: And it was literally two blocks down the street.
• 50:17
  Speaker 5: So there you go. That's how amazing this whole little
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: world here is.
• 50:21
  Speaker 6: And shout out for Hayward for knowing that Pies and
• 50:23
  Speaker 6: Pints had cauliflower crust pizza.
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 50:26
  Speaker 6: I didn't even know that was a thing.
• 50:27
  Speaker 5: I've seen it places. Okay. One of which, I don't
• 50:30
  Speaker 5: remember if that's the same one, but somebody around here
• 50:32
  Speaker 5: has it. Luckily, you found it and it's delivered.
• 50:35
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 50:36
  Speaker 6: And now we're talking about pizza. And now I'm getting hungry.
• 50:39
  Speaker 5: And you're hungry. Wait a minute. So we should wrap
• 50:42
  Speaker 5: it up because you also haven't eaten all day.
• 50:44
  Speaker 6: Yeah. And I got to let out my dog and
• 50:45
  Speaker 6: you got to let out your dog.
• 50:46
  Speaker 5: The most important thing is we have to take our dogs.
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 50:48
  Speaker 6: The most important things.
• 50:49
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 50:50
  Speaker 5: Well. Is there anything to tell people? I know you're
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: working on the new website, but in the meantime, just
• 50:56
  Speaker 5: tell them to go check out Harry Dean for the
• 50:58
  Speaker 5: time being.
• 50:59
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, we've already put up the dates for
• 51:01
  Speaker 6: next year's Harry Dean Standfest because we try to make
• 51:05
  Speaker 6: it around his birthday, but his birthday doesn't always fall
• 51:07
  Speaker 6: on the weekend. But in 2023, it surely does. So
• 51:11
  Speaker 6: we will kick off on his birthday, July 14th, 2023.
• 51:13
  Speaker 6: It will be run through the.
• 51:14
  Speaker 7: 16th, so.
• 51:18
  Speaker 5: And is Character Fest always going to immediately follow it?
• 51:21
  Speaker 6: Absolutely not.
• 51:22
  Speaker 5: Okay, I thought that was an interesting choice this time.
• 51:25
  Speaker 6: The whole reason to do that, as I mentioned, in
• 51:28
  Speaker 6: my head was kind of thinking that we might phase
• 51:31
  Speaker 6: out Harry Dean's Stanton Fest, phase in Character Fest. So
• 51:34
  Speaker 6: that we were still paying homage to Harry, doing it
• 51:37
  Speaker 6: around his birthday, and acknowledging him every year, but having
• 51:41
  Speaker 6: it be sort of a different animal. And then when
• 51:44
  Speaker 6: the whole Billy Swan cry fest thing happened, and I realized, no,
• 51:48
  Speaker 6: we got to do Harry Dean's dance fest forever.
• 51:50
  Speaker 5: Harry Dean is my favorite animal.
• 51:53
  Speaker 6: That's when I was like, okay, so we'll do both,
• 51:56
  Speaker 6: but not, no, not back to back.
• 51:59
  Speaker 5: I thought this was an odd choice if you were
• 52:01
  Speaker 5: going to make yourself do this every year. So it's
• 52:03
  Speaker 5: good to know you can... Spread it out a little bit.
• 52:06
  Speaker 6: God is my witness. Never again.
• 52:10
  Speaker 5: But they are awesome, both in their own little world.
• 52:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so you can write in and tell us when
• 52:15
  Speaker 6: you think Character Fest should be. We kind of have
• 52:17
  Speaker 6: to plan around, like it can't be during Keeneland because
• 52:20
  Speaker 6: then you can't find hotel rooms. There's like a.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Whole bunch of stuff.
• 52:23
  Speaker 5: Things you have to think of when you put.
• 52:24
  Speaker 6: These things together.
• 52:25
  Speaker 5: It can't be in the wintertime.
• 52:27
  Speaker 6: I'm thinking like May after Derby.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 52:31
  Speaker 5: Just kind of buffer it between this one. Just give
• 52:33
  Speaker 5: yourself and everyone else some breathing room.
• 52:36
  Speaker 6: And everybody else.
• 52:37
  Speaker 5: Jump right back into it. Fair. All right.
• 52:39
  Speaker 6: But yeah, write in your suggestions. Not to me, to Brian.
• 52:42
  Speaker 6: You can work it all out and tell me what
• 52:43
  Speaker 6: I'm doing because I don't want to make a decision.
• 52:45
  Speaker 5: Nobody normally sends me things. That's fine. At least I'll
• 52:48
  Speaker 5: be like, oh, an email. It's exciting. Well, let's round
• 52:52
  Speaker 5: it out. As we've discussed, Sai is a man of
• 52:55
  Speaker 5: many careers. So let's go all the way back to
• 52:58
  Speaker 5: the first one.
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: Yay.
• 52:59
  Speaker 5: You've posted at least one of those songs, so what
• 53:04
  Speaker 5: was the best song option there?
• 53:06
  Speaker 6: Oh, Everything's So Good. Everything's So Good.
• 53:09
  Speaker 5: I just figure it's so rare that we have someone
• 53:12
  Speaker 5: who is both a musical act and a fabulous actor.
• 53:16
  Speaker 6: I would go with the song by Lil' June and
• 53:17
  Speaker 6: the Januaries, and you can pick which one you want
• 53:20
  Speaker 6: that to be.
• 53:21
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 53:22
  Speaker 6: But that was his band. And he had like a
• 53:24
  Speaker 6: whole career, like a whole career, not like just like
• 53:26
  Speaker 6: I put on a record as a kid.
• 53:28
  Speaker 5: Before he was old enough to vote, he had a
• 53:30
  Speaker 5: whole career.
• 53:30
  Speaker 6: And then he like started a recording company to like
• 53:33
  Speaker 6: put out the work. And then he wrote for other people.
• 53:35
  Speaker 6: But yeah, I would say definitely play a little June
• 53:37
  Speaker 6: and the Januaries because my mom heard one of those
• 53:39
  Speaker 6: songs and it like transported her back to her like adolescence.
• 53:43
  Speaker 5: It did.
• 53:43
  Speaker 6: It was very sweet. I mean, she was swooning. It
• 53:46
  Speaker 6: was the loveliest thing I've ever seen.
• 53:48
  Speaker 5: You were like, oh, I know that guy. All right. Well,
• 53:52
  Speaker 5: that's how we're going out. So once again, thank you
• 53:55
  Speaker 5: for having us here. Thank you to Cy for talking
• 53:58
  Speaker 5: to me. And yeah, otherwise that about does it. We
• 54:01
  Speaker 5: will return next time. Same geek feed. Thanks for listening.
• 54:26
  Speaker 5: I hear you talking so near. Oh, oh, oh, oh,
• 54:44
  Speaker 5: to me. Oh, don't remind me that you waste your heart.
• 55:03
  Speaker 5: Don't involve me too long. It matters so much about you.
• 55:45
  Speaker 8: So if you don't have any questions and you're curious
• 55:48
  Speaker 8: when you leave here and you think of something, Google
• 55:52
  Speaker 8: Side by Side, The Journey of a Character Actor.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: That's my latest book. And it's on Lulu.com. It's a
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: great read. I recommend it.
• 56:01
  Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 56:07
  Speaker 7: This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and
• 56:10
  Speaker 7: edited by The Oddity Studios, with opening music performed by
• 56:13
  Speaker 7: The Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support
• 56:16
  Speaker 7: the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com.
• 56:19
  Speaker 5: Talk hard! This program is a proud member of the
• 56:27
  Speaker 5: Battleship Pretension Fleet.