Latest / Caught on the Mike... / Actor, director, producer and amazing human being- Sean Whalen

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Actor, director, producer and amazing human being- Sean Whalen · Caught on the Mike...

• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Comedy cross come to life.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: John Whalens joins me on this episode of the podcast.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mind.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Ladies and gentlemen, I am so excited about this episode.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think I have watched a movie that this gentleman hasn't been in.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Joining me today is actor Sean Whalen.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: He has some of the best content on TikTok.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: He's been in some of your most favorite movies, and I have a story I'm going to tell him just in a second.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: But Sean, how the heck are you?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: I am so good.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for that uh very generous introduction.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it, sir.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, as I warned you, I do have some word vomit I'm gonna share.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I believe in this deep, serendipitous nature of this circle of life.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: I became friends with Rebecca Kennedy back in October, had her on my show in January.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: And about a week or two after I have her on my show, I see this post that she made where she announced that she is going to be in your movie Crust that you're making.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh, awesome.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'd love to have Sean on the podcast sometime.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I've been following your content for quite a while.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: Anyways, a few weeks after that, I have a gentleman on my show by the name of Patrick Hicks.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: He creates content on TikTok that is fantastic.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: He goes by Patrick Hicks music stories.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: And in the course of this podcast episode, I said, Who are some of the people that have followed you that have surprised you?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, he mentions Pearl Jam and a few others.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then he says, and there's this actor.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: His name is Sean Whalen.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: He was in my most favorite got milk commercial of all time.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: And we ended up talking about you for a couple of minutes and how much we both love your content.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: We talked about that in the episode.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then strike three happens just this last week.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm cruising social media and I see a post from a past podcast guest, a friend of mine and documentarian by the name of Taylor Morton.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: And what is it that I see?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: A picture of you and Taylor talking about the lost documentary that he's making.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: So all of this put together, I think this episode was serendipitous, sir.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: It was meant to be.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: It was obviously meant to be.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's no way around it.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's no way around it.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: If we fought it, we'd be like shoved into a weird dimension.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's even funnier, is I was like going through your um your IMDB and I saw you were in a movie called The Axe Murders of Vallisca.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm gonna add a fourth one to it.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: I am from Southwest Iowa.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: One of my very good friends is the caretaker of the actual Vallisca Axe Murder House, and he was my second guest on the podcast.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that's amazing.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: I heard that that is not a fun place to stay.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's weird.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: My my uh director wrote it because him and his friends spent the night there, and he just said it was one of the most awful nights of his life.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we would say, dude, what does that mean?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like, I'm good.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: What the heck?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was crazy.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was great.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I loved working with that.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Tony Vellens was such a great movie.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Did you see it?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Did you see the movie?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, but I'm going to now.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you gotta check it out.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's very cool.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many theories around that house, right?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: And we talked about that in that episode.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: My friend Johnny said he felt that the energy over time, as people kind of started to visit the house as a tourist attraction, that it just got worse.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: It it magnified over time.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it it's almost like they summon some of these experiences to that place.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why people who look go, wait, Sean Whalen isn't a whore.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sean Whalen must be in a paranormal.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, Sean, want to go paranormal hunting with me?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I always go, no, no, no.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I got a funny story about that episode.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Is we actually recorded it in the bedroom where everything took place in the axe murder house.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: The only episode I have had to edit line by line because I was having production spikes.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: I was having volume spikes up, volume spikes down.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: The weirdest thing.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I swear to everything holy that that's the honest to God truth.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: You've never had that problem.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, never had that problem anywhere else.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Never.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's so cool.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, see, that's what I'm saying.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I no look, I'm the guy that when I call the tech company of any tech of any kind, they go, I've never heard of this problem before.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and then I've been doing this 40 years.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm that guy.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm the guy going, dude, I'm ghost humming forever.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've never had a demon attach me.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm that guy.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be on my back.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna ruin my life.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going near it.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: No way.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I have no faith that I wouldn't get attached by a demon for sure.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna go down the list.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: People under the stairs, Batman Returns.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: You took on the role of Wormsur in Revenge of the Nerds 3, Friends, Jury Duty, Twister, that thing you do, The Cable Guy, Men in Black, Never Been Kissed, and Charlie's Angels.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: You did an episode of one of my most favorite sitcoms of all time, Scrubs, Rob Zombies, Halloween 2 and Lost.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: How did you get into acting, sir?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: Because you've been in a lot of good stuff.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I was in it was in high school that I mean I had done some in fifth grade.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I did like Tiny Tim and I and I directed and starred in a version of uh Rumpel Stillskin at my elementary school, but then I did Tiny Tim in a pretty big um uh community theater.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or actually it's a real theater company.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that was in fifth grade, and then I really re-engaged in it um in freshman year and high school and just kind of powered through then, got all the awards you could at my high school in terms of a thespian award, the the local community theater did a scholarship with my high school scholarship.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: I got into UCLA Theater department, got into there.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, me and Daphne Zeniga did a did a play together very early.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Space balls.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we got a lot of heat, and she kind of managed it better.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was just so young and naive that I I thought, you know what, this is all too much too soon.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I just needed a few years to kind of catch up.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was very young for my age.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then I went into the groundling theater and uh powered through that really quickly.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I was in their Sunday show, agents came and saw you then.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I I did well in the ground links because I A, did I two two two rules that I look back now and go, this is why you did well.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: One, I had no, I just never listened to like stats.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know how many people don't make it, you know.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like I never, I was just like, this is fun, just like in high school.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's fun just like high school, having fun, doing what I like.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I and I and then my other second thing was I never write anything that's just pedestrian or normal.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I just felt it, I uh like I would write some you go on a date, and your date's crazy.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: She's just you know, and I go, I'd write it, and then I'm gonna throw it away.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, I have to do something weirder.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I did like a weird um, like uh a mariachi conscience of a guy that would like, I don't know if I should do that.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Let me get my friend.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was so weird.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was like me in this very strange outfit, which is obviously not correct these days, and I wouldn't do it again, but it was just those kind of things, and then um um, yeah, and I did Dorothy 50 years later, stuck in Kansas, bitter.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: I did an interpretive dancer to an emotion, a relationship, and world events.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I would just improv a dance in my which I want to bring back to TikTok actually, in a leave.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh, and and I just had so much fun, but then I really didn't know how to audition, so I went to serious acting class, and then I got a coach that kind of married those two together, like knowing when to use the groundling stuff, when to use the theatrical stuff.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the other thing, and because of that ignorance, I had spiked hair and a thin, like Laurel and Hardy face and you know, Stan Laurel face, and but I didn't do it because, ooh, that that's an image.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: I did it because I like my hair split, you know?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what I mean about being uh ignorant.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't like craft anything, I was just my goofy self and was having fun.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I really believe that's why I did well, you know, and kind of launched it.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then when the milk commercial came, Spielberg saw it, killed my commercial career, but then he put me in Twister, which again launches you for you usually when you get a good launch, you the you ride it for like four or five days, and then you have to get another launch or whatever, and kind of goes like that.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was great for five years, and then another five years after that, and then 2001 things changed, and you know, I had kids, I had to go get a side gig for seven years, and and uh which was tough, you know, because people are like, What happened?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but I was still working, it's just I had kids and I had even more money, and the business was changing.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and I and I think I've always I think I just I I'm too scared not to do a good job.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's just scared, I'd be so mortified and embarrassed if I looked back on some and went, Oh, you didn't try at all, you know.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And part of me, it's like the anxiety level that's the good anxiety level, the anxiety level that goes, that'd be awful if you didn't try, and it's not fair to them, and you got paid money, and you know, so I've always tried to do the best job I could.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think I got really good training.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so then the work just kept, you know, going and going.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then you know, it starts Evan Wayne, Evan Wayne, and and you know, I've still been working, but I started getting more into teaching and and then I did some more voiceover stuff, uh leaving stuff because I had a friend that could get me that work, which was great.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was, and then I started doing conventions and things like that, but not as much acting.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And last year I just decided, you know, I want to get into acting again, so I took an acting class again, you know.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever I'd feel subconscious about it, I would always say, you know, Paul Newman and uh what's his wife's name?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Newman and uh you know his wife.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Newman's wife, come on.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm so this is awful.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um Joanne Woodward.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: We're in class their whole day.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: They never stopped ever.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, well, if if they can go, I can go.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I kind of just took the focus back on acting and um and you know, I'd had scripts kicking around, and then you know, last year I kind of serendipity last summer I came back around to Phyllis of Rose, and then you know, we started kicking in the crust.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it was more that it it was I did a ton of stuff on TikTok during the pandemic.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I got on right before the pandemic, right before.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I would do all these funny sketch videos.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, then people would be like, wait, but aren't you Bobby Brady and aren't you Steve Bashemmy?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And aren't you?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, uh the rickety cricket?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, no.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I'd have to get on and kind of explain who I was, and then that kind of talk.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then I just kept doing fun things.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some would do great, you know, some wouldn't.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, a lot of my friends were consistent, like a hundred percent consistent.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're at a million now, I'm only at like 400,000.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, but I definitely feel like I have a community of people, if that makes sense.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, people who like and that's what I've heard from the TikTok creators.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: They go, dude, it doesn't matter the millions of followers.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a community that engages with you on a consistent basis?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually do.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and when I did the Indie Yoga for this movie before, it was like I didn't have uh I didn't know what I was doing really, but I think seriously, the social media aspect really helped.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: But this time it was more of a test because the whole time, man, you should be in more movies.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: You should be like if you're in a live of mine ever, you should be in more movies.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's an underrated actor.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, Hollywood, put him in more stuff.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: This and that and this and that.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you're thinking, like, that's so kind, but at the same time, you're like, you know, and waiting around for that, and then when this came back around and it was time to do the Indiegogo, I thought, well, it's either gonna be a lot of BS or they really mean it.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they really meant it.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: They like when I put on my latest TikTok, I said, I have no idea why I'm getting this so much support.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they all said, Because we've we've said we wanted you in bigger stuff, and if we can help you be in bigger stuff, it's you're not doing it, we're not doing it for you, we're doing it for us because we want to see you in bigger stuff, like and parts and stuff like that.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really humbling to go, wow, they're not they weren't just saying that, you know, they actually invested in me financially after, you know, and some people said very they said you're just genuine and down to earth, you've given a lot of good, so you're finally getting some good back.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I love all of that.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: And while listening to your story, I can't help but think of my own personal trajectory too, because I was the thespian in high school and I got scholarships and the whole nine yards, I was the lead in everything.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: I got typecast as the villain a lot.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's just because of my bravado.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: But funny enough, I didn't pursue that.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: I decided to take a few years off from school and I ended up pursuing music.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: And you want to talk about an industry that's cutthroat and dog-eat dog, there's nothing more cutthroat and dog-eat dog than the music industry.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things that stuck with me is your relentless pursuit of the right thing.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: Because when I walked away from music, I decided that I needed to do it on my own terms.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: And like if I couldn't stand behind what I was doing at that point in time, it probably didn't add value to my life anymore.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I had to pursue other endeavors that filled my cup up.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like now it's now it's this whole podcast thing.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: And it sounds like you've kind of had had those similar ebbs and flows as you were talking about, where you just kind of it's that natural progression throughout life.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's just you have to be able to weather it off.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to say, you know, um, because of course when I'm doing the sales thing, it's like, wow, the harder I work and the more connections I make with these customers, the more money I seemed like the more I did that in acting, um, it doesn't matter.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's still go to someone else.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: But that's what I love about TikTok is that, you know, and I finally, I don't know if you follow me that closely, but I did a rant like I did a rant about like, I don't think I'm down to earth.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think what I'm what I'm sad about is what I'm doing is considered exceptional.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's the bigger issue than me doing what I'm doing.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not doing anything above and beyond what any normal, decent human being should do.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm inviting you into a live chat.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna have you watch me make cookies in my swim trunks.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not what why why say it's like having a party and say, all right, everybody come over to my house and watch me make dinner.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what is that?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if I'm gonna invite you into a live in my, then of course I'm gonna talk to you.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Of course I'm gonna answer the question.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: I finally stopped answering your Using.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not answering anything, I've had to do it for three years, and I'm like, if you know, look me up, you know, look up the name.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: But but I I don't feel like I'm that down to earth.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: What I feel is the expectations and what everybody thinks I should be is sad that you think we should be that way.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and actually, how many people have you um encountered in the business that you feel that way?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Are you just assuming it should be that bad or not?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, I I get more sad that people think what I'm doing is exceptional than me being exceptional.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: But the thing is, is right now, negative content or content with a negative connotation is like low-hanging fruit because it's gonna get the most engagement.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, like I have a rule with my podcast is like I believe, I think everybody is an individual, and you have that right to be an individual.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I won't talk politics and I won't talk religion on my show because you are an individual, so is everybody else.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just sent it out for my for my cast and throat.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: None of that's happening on my set.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: So the thing that I think is really enjoyable about the content you create is you kind of buck that trend and like some of the things like the nicest celebrities that you've worked with, nicest actors and actresses that you've worked with, where it would be really easy to get a lot of engagement if you had gone the opposite direction.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think so, but but here's the other thing is like I just don't have that many.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have that many people who in this industry, and people like in your industry and my industry and stuff like that, I don't need that many people who are jerks, especially now, because in the 90s when I came up, I always say this 30 was talent or 30 was attitude, 70 was talent.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's flipped.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: You need 30.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: That 30 is not minimalized.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're a jerk, and uh because I cast a play and we were all sitting around, we go, Oh my god, this guy is so good, he's just fantastic.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of a jerk to work with.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Next, like, no, it didn't matter the the talent didn't matter.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's the the environment that we're trying to build to have a fun, safe, you know, creative space that that we can all have fun in.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so I don't think that negativity is.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, look, I just was back in in a in western Pennsylvania with a very far right wing uh brother-in-law, and we sat there and he took me out shooting, and I'd never fired a gun and you know, he had he had a whole setup range in his backyard.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that dude made me he wouldn't let he goes, Ah, put that beer down, aren't you shooting?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, so safe, so this, whatever.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I shot everything.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was so fun, I totally get it.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, I was like, Oh my god, if this if I was insecure or was angry or emotional or hadn't eaten and I was at my worst base, this would be the worst thing to happen in my life.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right, you know what I mean?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of cool.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: I got I go, oh, I I I literally get all of it.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: I got all of it in one shooting thing.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I went, okay, this is awesome, but I have a good head on my shoulders.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I can totally see how fun it was.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and my only thing is it was snowing and there was all these tiny little targets, and I don't have the best eyesight anyway, so I couldn't see them like, dude, where are the bottles that have smoke in them?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I want to see what I, you know.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he set up some boxes and stuff, but when I knocked them down, that felt more satisfying.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: But but we sat there together, and there was we we both said to his young son, said, When we were kids, man, and he was just as bummed about this as I was.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: He said, When we were kids, it was a financial difference between people on the way you political and and we never hated each other.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: We just thought, well, I don't like the way you choose your financial ways to do things, and you change he goes, we never hated each other.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: We just that's not for me, and we both were so bumped that we're like, isn't that bad that we like hate each other?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: So and it's so divided.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why we were both we don't go there either.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we had the funnest day together, you know what I mean?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we just enjoy each other's company.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, he's showing me something new, you know, and I got and he was very kind and and helped.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: To let me learn how to shoot it.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, and it was an experience I'd never had.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: So as an actor, when they go, Would you like an experience you never had?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: You go, Yeah, 100%.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's me, I'm gonna learn something.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I totally did.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it was really, it was really um it was a great day.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think that's true.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: You just don't let's that that's what I love about TikTok.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: You find, you know, and I said this on another thing the other day.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever followed Sister Minnie?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: No, I haven't, but I'll check it out.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sister Minnie is a cat owned by this Muslim woman, and she always goes, Sister Minnie, we have to get on the prayer rug.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And sister Sister Minnie's an asshole cat.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: It just like lifts off the prayer rug, and she puts the it's so cute.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: She puts the little hijab on her, and she always knocks it out.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, Oh, sister mini.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: She's doing an exaggerated voice, but it's really funny.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, Oh, sister mini, way.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: But she but what I love is millions of followers.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: No one cares that she's Muslim.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: No one.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about the prayer rug or the my job.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone laughs when she knocks off the hijab or takes a piss, a lunch, you know, whatever it is.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: They laugh because she, like all of us, has or known an asshole cat.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's in common, not anything else.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone laughs.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: They go, oh, every husband leaves the cabinet doors open in the kitchen when they leave.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: They never close them.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, everybody, everybody, and all TikTok was in 2020 to me was everybody finding out what we had in common.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we had indifference.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if it was that way, you could easily just get rid of it.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And just focus on tons of people.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Then you learn stuff from like people who never get on social media.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, so like, hi, I'm a you know, I'm an archaeologist and blah blah.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you learn the coolest stuff for some people who just study animals or you just learn amazing stuff.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I I thought I thought that social tick tock literally saved my mental life.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: But in the meantime, I was being myself, having a good time, and I built this community.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, when I it was time for me to step up and do something creative, they they weren't like because I on Facebook they were all BSing there saying, Oh, well, I'll help you up.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then as soon as I put up my thing six years ago, no one showed up.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: But they did 100 tick tock people did 100%.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: So cool.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: So for my day job, I teach and I lead people for a living.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: I I never say what I do.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: A speech I gave at a meeting recently, and I got everybody to repeat it to me several times throughout the meeting was it's better to run short than to run toxic.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: Going to exactly your point, is it's best to check the negativity at the door.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: If you can't, run shorthanded.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: Just surround yourself with the people that are going to bring you joy or your community, like you said.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: And TikTok does a tremendous job of that.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: There is stuff on the negative side of it, but it's not my algorithm because it's not what I engage with.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the other beauty of TikTok is that the algorithm is so natural and based off its user and predicated off its user.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you can like there was a time that I was getting into very a lot of stories about history, like the music guy dude.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: I posted on his what's his name again?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's Patrick Hicks.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I put on his thing.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: I I wrote one night I sat there so tired, and I'm going to bed.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, This is a story about, and I go, dang it.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm and I'm there for the three minutes.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I literally wrote, like, I was tired.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: I have no desire to watch another TikTok.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Then I hear the famous words, this is a story about, and I go, and you got me, and you got me, and I'm sitting here and I've watched the whole thing.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: And had to rewind because I was dozing.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's how tired I was.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I wouldn't go to bed until I finished this damn TikTok.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because that guy is so phenomenal.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know, the minute and a half you're going, it's it's um, it's um that's what I said to him.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: I go, how did you come up with that concept?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's genius.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Such a good, I know, and then I started my stories going, I'm gonna tell you a story about like a textbook and go, is that all right?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was gonna say, This is how I, you know, whatever, but he he's he's great.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I that's the that's that's the phrase that got a lot of love from people because they're like, Damn, he gets me all the time, too.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's like, oh no, no, don't we're gonna watch.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know what's funny?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, one of my favorite nighttime routines is to turn on the TikTok lives and just to see where people are at in the world and listen to the their surroundings, like what the room atmosphere sounds like, what they're doing, how they're engaging with each other.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: In a in a square in London, like you showing the intersection.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes! I love it.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want us to talk to each other, but if that was true, it's not like I'd go, that's so shocked because people are talking to each other and completely.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how many friends have you made on TikTok?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've made so many, so many people that I'm in.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick's one of them.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I just go, Man, that guy's so cool.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: I never would have been exposed to this kind of stuff.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: But they're also what she's so good at is the they're underhandedly inspiring stories.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, like Cindy Lauper one the other day, and there's no reason she should have made it, none, but she kept going and going, trying new things, you know, highs, lows, everything.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: She kept.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and then they're like WWE.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, All right, and all of a sudden she's it's just it's so fun.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: So let's talk a little bit about this project that you're working on.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'm pretty excited for it.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, this movie crust.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: You're going through your breadth of work, you've done a lot in the horror genre.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so kind of explain to me the concept of crust and how you came up with it.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, like over a decade ago, I was sitting in this meeting with the producer, man, horror is so expensive with all the black.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you guys are overthinking it.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, What do you mean?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: I go, just just do a one location place.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how about a laundromat?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then, like, a sock monster grows out of the socks that are left over, and that's it.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: And never thought about it again.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then I went through a divorce in 2014, but I moved out in 2015.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it was the first time my kids were gonna be living in my you know, divorced dad apartment, having the holidays.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: They had grown up in this house, and we had all these traditions for all through, you know, Halloween, uh, Thanksgiving, and um Christmas.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: We had great traditions.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of heartbreaking to not be in that house with them, and all of it hit me at once.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: I had my new relationship with my now current wife, um, and I it was all just too much, and I went through anxiety and depression, and I think it just hit me.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I do think my, you know, my ex-wife was actually very kind and said, I think you just need to get through the holidays, which ended up to be true.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: But when I got out of the other side, I lots of weird emotions angry, but I didn't know what to do, and I frustrated, and then people were saying, You should have had a pet.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, I can't, I don't know what you're talking about, a pet.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I couldn't, I couldn't figure out how to put on my shoes, let alone, you know, take care of a pet.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I thought it'd be fun to have a pet that like took care of my problems for me, you know, got rid of jerks in my life and stuff.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then I went and shot a movie at with Aaron Mento and Charles Trudobala, it's called Ugly Sweater Party, another movie that Phylissa's in and uh Phyllis of Rose.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: And these guys just were doing it at a house, and they had they set everything up properly, and they had a green screen and did all that.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I walked away and they were great guys having a lot of fun and they were making a movie.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I went, what are you doing?
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: You have to make you can make a movie too.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do that sock monster thing.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I went back and I uh started writing, and it flew out of me.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the you know idea that he's depressed, he's an ex-kid actor, he's um uh he takes all the socks out of the dryer and wipes all his bodily fluids on them.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then when he gets bullied, it's the tears of pain that he drops on the pile of socks that makes it come to light and avenge all his enemies.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: And like Seymour, unlike Seymour in Little Shop of Wars, he doesn't go, Oh, I hate this.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's more like Willard.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: When Willard discovers the rats will fight for him, he's kind of like, well, this isn't so bad, you know what I mean?
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and that's where it goes.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: He has a new relationship with Rebecca Kennedy's character.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he's got his reboot of his old TV show that wants to be done.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're uh pursuing him, and it's uh that's Alan Ruck's character.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: He plays one of the we're the only two surviving people of the 13K because they're all in uh um either dead, suicide, drug, rehab, jail, like all the kid actors, besides these two guys.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very like a dark, like a twisted dark commentary.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it's um we're the only two left in the show, and so Alan Ruck is trying to get me to do the show, and that's all happening while you know I'm dealing with this sock monster, and so it's wackiness and sooth, but it's also has that underpinning of mental health, it has an underpinning of mental health, and because it was born out of the vet, and so like in our crusties, which is our official fan club, we give half to ASPCA because I foster kittens, and the other half is going to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, because we you know, you just got to normalize mental illness.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this whole movie is about people who are just taking trying to take the easy taking the easy way out by drinking or doing stuff or having a sock monster that kills people, like all the easy way out instead of the hard work, which is the it's the hardest thing to face, hardest thing to believe and get through, but the only way out, you know.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and but that's underneath the fun and the silly and the sock monster, and the you know, it is a comedy.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: So so yeah, and I and I'm so happy.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's a dream project.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, my wife said it.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: She said, you know, she said, I'm I want you to make this movie.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: We have to make it happen, and now it's happening.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I love it, and I think it all came together because now I know what to do with Indiegogo, but I finally do have a community.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that they stepped up, it still freaks me out, you know?
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, and I love the idea that it's predicated on the mental health, too.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: I myself am also a divorced dad with two kids.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I divorced in 2012, and I kind of view that as a big turning point.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: I talk about it pretty much endlessly because it was such a good and bad turning point in my life.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: Or bad for the same reasons that you kind of talked about with the holidays and such, but good because I re-emerged from that situation in a lot better place, and I've been able to channel my creativity in a different way.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_02: And it sounds like you did the same thing.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, when I was in a in a bad marriage, when I was unhappy, and she was too, you know, I would just be like, get me to my pension, and then, you know, and then just you know, I'll stick around till that we have grandkids.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like that was it.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: And now with my new wife, my new life, finally, you know, luckily, you know, my my ex-wife and I were super loyal as parents and as kids, so we had that right that made it all harder to separate, probably ended, you know, before we left it, but still, it was just so hard to uh uh take apart the family, you know.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's what felt the hardest.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, then I out of that, now with my new wife, you know, here I am starting directing at, you know, 58 years old.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm uh I'm thrilled.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a new, you're right, it's like a new life.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when you kind of go, man, life is long.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's life and it's long and it's not at the same time.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like you cannot waste time.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: You just can't waste time.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if you start to sink a little bit, know you're gonna get through it, but do the stuff that gets you through it, you know.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can't say, Well, I'm not gonna exercise, I'm not gonna eat right, I'm not gonna get up and get dressed, I'm not gonna go talk to a therapist, I'm not gonna talk to a psychiatrist about medication, I'm not gonna do it.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then no, you know what I mean?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Then then no, nothing's gonna happen.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: But none of them are a quick bullet, and that's what's hard.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think everybody with this instant society has no idea what patience is.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: So then you go, all right, um, to get you on a right medication, possibly, it could take anywhere from three to six months.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: You go, what?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right months to feel better, no way, or you know, and everything I read, I was like, ooh, like the quick fix to anxiety.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: You read a book and it goes, look, if you do this consistently, this could take you almost two years, and you'll be two years, you know what I mean?
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we all want to, but that's the journey.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you get out, the first time I got out of it, I definitely went like this, and then I had another little relapse after I got married in the end of 2021, and uh and and got through that, got with the got everything like worked out all the tools I needed specifically, and a better medication that like because then they did tests and it was like in my genes, so it didn't matter how much I was running, meditating, exercising, doing any none of it mattered because you're doing that all on a thing of molasses, so it's not my first choice.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, yes, medication, but any it depends on who you are, because I don't believe you can do one without the other, you can't get the medication and not do therapy or self-work or get a good book and do some journaling or whatever.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do one without the other.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you you know you might be able to get through with just the without the medication, but if you take the medication, you can't just rely on the medication.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but uh uh and then this, then it was just like an explosion upward.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: I got back into acting class, I started working on the negative talk stopped, and then when crust slowly started to form, I remember laying in bed like in January 1.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, my life's gonna change because I used to play like you know, Wii sports, and I go, Yeah, I'm gonna play for 15 minutes at lunch.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: I play for an hour and a half, you know.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: I go those days are over because now the winning is making a movie, launching a good indie go go, having it, you know what I mean?
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like those are the you cannot rely on that.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember just going to my mind, and I did like I've never been in this office working this hard my dialogue.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and the thing is, is you bring up a really good point because the concept of time changes as you age, and time is the world's most valuable commodity because once you spend it, you don't get that back, never.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_02: So it it's best to apply yourself and use your time in the way that's going to better yourself, better those around you, and like improve that quality of life no matter what.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and and the only way you can do that is to get all your ducks in a row.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not, you know, I couldn't do for others unless I was there's no water to spill out of my pitcher if I don't have it full, you know.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember my brother used to be like that.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like, ah, you know, you have to take care of others, that takes care of you.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, I would have that argument, and then finally he he would gone through a kind of a crisis of stuff, and he came up and he's like, Yeah, I gotta work on myself first, and then like, but it made everything else richer, you know.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but but that's everybody's journey is different.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the only thing that makes me sad is some people stop the journey.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah, yeah, and they they don't have any self-awareness, or they don't, you know, uh they have no a lack.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's it's my job, so I'm lucky.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I who did I see it was like Hugh Jackman or someone like that was going, I just think everybody should take acting classes because it teaches you how to be a person and how to listen to somebody and how to be affected by somebody and how to be open and and not have the fear to say, Yeah, I screwed up, man.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I've screwed up.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: I I shouldn't have done that, I'm really sorry.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: And mean it.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and be accountable and have that strength and and you know, and that's a different definition of masculinity than it was 50 years ago.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: That'd be the exact opposite of what masculine is.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: But now realize because stuff moves so fast, the people who don't move that way, they just peel off, and then people don't have anything to do with them.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: They just well, there's nowhere to go because if we get in a beef, we're in a standstill.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not really friends because we can't move through them and be equally kind to each other or anything like that.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Then we're just acquaintances until we get in a beef and then it's over, you know.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's all that stuff.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I think it's all um, you know, uh it's all really important to just uh keep moving, right?
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: You've got to keep moving.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_02: The winning analogy, if it ever comes up in a debate, is the airplane analogy.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: So you're in an airplane and the air masks drop down.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: The stewardess always tells you to put the air mask on yourself before you put it on somebody else.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 100%.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you and yeah, I it my favorite speech ever in a movie is castaway, you know.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: At the end, when he's come home and he's uh just saying, you know, because we don't see a long chunk in that movie when he gets thin, you know, he gets really thin and and lean and he says, you know, all I did is he tried to commit suicide and it failed.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I didn't even know how to kill myself right.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: He said, But all I could do was get up every day, eat enough, drink enough, and be well enough to see to to remain present for what the tie brought in.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then one brought me that book, you know what I mean?
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then I knew what to do with it, and that's why you have to keep going because something external and internal will all match up.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be ready.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's why the people who do well in acting are the people who keep going, and they just don't end.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everyone's like, Who's your favorite actor right now?
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: I said Anthony Hopkins, because that's how I want to be old.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be old like him, like the father.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you saw the father, but it's it's a masterclass in acting.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: He won the Academy Award for it two years ago.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was a masterclass in acting, and he's 83.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he's better.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, first season of Westworld, did you see that?
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, genius, dude.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: So still and powerful.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: It made it made uh Silence of the Lambs look like Nickelodeon, like so much better now.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so that goes, man, that's how I want to be.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: I want to keep growing and learning so I can be a like a master craftsman, like you know, uh like um Gene Hackman became, you know, before he had to retire.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like when he came back from his big you know, push in the 70s and he was back in the 90s, people were like, This dude's amazing, you know.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's just yeah good.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like that guy's just excellent, you know.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's now my inspiration, you know.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like, oh, I don't want to die.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's I wanna I want to get old like them, I want to be respected like them, I want to be Clint Eastwood old, you know what I mean?
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: Worked with that dude, you know, a couple years ago, and I was like, this guy's he's he gets it, and he knows how to turn in a movie three days early.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: Why let this old like and he's not in the best shape, despite what you think.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's not, but this old almost 90-year-old director worked.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: No other director that old works, none in this country, other countries, yes, but yeah, this country, this dude brings in a movie two to three days early every time.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's hundreds and thousands of dollars.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, these young kids can't do it because he comes with the same people, he has 100% faith in his ability, if he has 100% faith in the people he casts, 100% his costume person, they didn't take any pictures.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, aren't you supposed to take pictures?
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, No.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: He gives me the color palette and he never questions me.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: Never questions a costume because he's been working with for 30 years, right?
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he realizes if they're worried about like that if the pants don't match the shirt, then my job as director is terrible.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: No one really, really goes, oof, those pants don't match.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm out, you know what I mean?
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: So he knows where to put the appropriate energy, you know?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and and so that's you've got all these in Mel Brooks doing, you know, history of the world now with, you know.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you want to get old like that.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Dick Van Dyke.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, that's how I want to get old.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: 100%, you know.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love that.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm not gonna take up too much more of your time, but I got one big question I like asking all of my guests.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because everybody gives a different answer.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: And my question is what is your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than the way it is right now?
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: I always go for the Maya Angelou quote, which is no one's gonna remember who you are or your your track record or success and how many hours you work.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna know how you made them feel in your presence.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's the only thing they're gonna remember.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna remember how you made them feel.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Did I make you feel better?
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: Or did I not?
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to be aware today and tomorrow how you think you make people feel.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, uh, like this is like just today, and I and I thought about this as I was doing it.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: This guy uh Yeah, well he oh me and me and uh my wife and I were both leaving a department store when I walked out and this other woman walked in.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: She had a bag for return.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, doot.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the guard came over and I said, We only got these little coffee things.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't think that and then he goes, No, no, no, it's usually closed.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, It's probably like her came in just when you went out.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Okay, because I was waiting for you to like do the full-on tackle and smash my head against the top, you know.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: And and he just goes, Oh, and I walked away thinking, Oh, I made that guy laugh.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: I I I I gave him a little, you know, I was like, I was waiting for you to do the swap tackle, you know what I mean?
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, and and he and I thought that's that's all I can do, you know.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so to me, if you sit there and and try to make everybody you come in contact feel just a little better, I think that would make the world a better place.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: And at the very least, your worst.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: Mike and I will be chart uh starting a cult.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so what's the timeline for crust?
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_02: When are we gonna see it?
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, timeline for crust is a little quicker than I thought it would be.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh pre-production till April 31st or 30th.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh production May 1st of the 16th.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, like half a month at like a month after that, we will have gone through two edits, one from the editor, one from me and the editor.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh that will make put us into like um maybe July, where we start doing post stuff.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they're really hoping September, October.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're thinking September, August, September to have it done.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then it takes a while to get the deliverables, and you know, then it's hopefully like a bidding war, but I've heard rumblings that there may I've heard rumblings there may be from certain, you know, but again, who knows?
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't I everything sounds good until it's true.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then uh and then so it would probably come out.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, for me, I don't know why, but I've I feel like March.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because I like kind of counter-programming and people like, oh, but Halloween.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: I go.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: What you know I'm gonna do a movie, I'm gonna do a love story about, you know, uh a girl going out to her winter winter home and falling in love with her boyfriend.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna put it on lifetime and it's gonna be a breakout.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: I wanna do something at a time where there's nothing like that.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you think about it, and my um mentorship for that would be everything everywhere all at once.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Came out in February.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, February.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then nobody releases an Oscar film in February, 100%.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I thought, you know what, somewhere like that would be really cool because then I wouldn't have to worry about summer, I wouldn't have to worry about Halloween.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: It could say, you know what?
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to define it, so let's put it in an undefinable time of the year.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let it just be what it is and see what happens.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_02: Ah, that's awesome.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I can't wait to see it.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_02: I am so glad that we connected, man.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's so cool.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm proud to call you a friend now, Sean Whalen.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: The world is a better place with you and it, my friend.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, let's circle around uh after in the summer when I'm editing.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_02: Let's do so.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_02: There's a really funny post script to that conversation.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's Sean and I, when we stopped recording, we did talk for a couple more minutes.