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He-had-a-deplorable-set-of-skills-Top-3 · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to share three little known, ridiculous backstories
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Speaker 1: of three very famous people, and the last one has
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Speaker 1: a very satisfying ending. But before we get into today's stories,
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Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
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Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you come to the right place,
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Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload two or three.
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Speaker 2: Times every week. So if that's of interest to you,
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Speaker 2: please replace the like buttons shreot Bucks with Stanley Nichols.
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Speaker 1: Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all
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Speaker 1: notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads.
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Speaker 2: All right, let's get into today's stories.
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Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy one, a nineteen year old irishman named
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Speaker 1: William began studying physics and computer science at a university
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Speaker 1: in Belfast, Northern Ireland. While he was certainly smart enough
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Speaker 1: to complete the four year degree, after one year of
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Speaker 1: being in the school, he decided to drop out because
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Speaker 1: he felt like this was not the past he wanted
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Speaker 1: to be on, so he moved back home to a
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Speaker 1: town about thirty minutes north of Belfast, where he got
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Speaker 1: a job as a forklift driver and truck driver for the.
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Speaker 2: Guinness Bear factory.
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Speaker 1: And while he loved this job, he still felt like
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Speaker 1: this was not the path for him. He needed to
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Speaker 1: do something more with his life, and so he decided
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Speaker 1: he would pursue what two of his siblings had gone
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Speaker 1: unto do, which was to become a school teacher. He
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Speaker 1: had always admired his school teachers growing up, and he
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Speaker 1: idolized his two siblings that had become teachers, and so
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Speaker 1: it felt like the right fit. And so William applied
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Speaker 1: to a four year teaching college in Newcastle in England,
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Speaker 1: and after he was accepted, he flew to England. He
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Speaker 1: got set up and then he began his studies. The
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Speaker 1: first year was great. He loved what he was doing.
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Speaker 1: He did feel like this is the right fit, and
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Speaker 1: he was getting good grades. Everything was going exactly to plan.
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Speaker 1: But then year two happened and everything went off the rails.
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Speaker 1: A requirement to graduate from this four year teaching college
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Speaker 1: was all the aspiring teachers, starting in their second year
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Speaker 1: had to go teach real students, real lessons. They basically
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Speaker 1: had to go to high schools and elementary schools and
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Speaker 1: fill in for the real teacher and give a real lesson,
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Speaker 1: and they were scored on their ability to do that.
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Speaker 1: But all the aspiring teachers knew that when you gave
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Speaker 1: these real lessons to real students, what really ended up
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Speaker 1: happening was the students did not take the aspiring teachers seriously.
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Speaker 1: They viewed them as kind of like substitute teachers, and
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Speaker 1: so they didn't respect them, and they didn't listen to them.
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Speaker 1: And so typically these real teaching sessions just turned into
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Speaker 1: the aspiring teachers desperately trying to calm down their pupils
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Speaker 1: long enough to get them to listen to their lesson
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Speaker 1: plan for just one second. But normally it didn't work out,
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Speaker 1: and before long the day was over and nothing was
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Speaker 1: really accomplished.
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Speaker 2: So in Williams's second.
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Speaker 1: Year, when it was his turn to go over to
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Speaker 1: a high school and administer his lesson plan, he went
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Speaker 1: over there knowing what he was up against.
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Speaker 2: He did not really.
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Speaker 1: Expect it to go well, but he decided he would
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Speaker 1: go in there with a positive attitude and he would
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Speaker 1: try to do his best. But as soon as he
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Speaker 1: walked into his classroom, he immediately could tell he was
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Speaker 1: going to be overwhelmed. Everybody's standing up and talking amongst themselves,
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Speaker 1: and they turn around and they see William walking in,
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Speaker 1: and they have this moment of realization that their real
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Speaker 1: teacher is not going to be teaching them that day.
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Speaker 1: It's going to be this substitute William, and they all
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Speaker 1: kind of gleefily began laughing and joking and they just
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Speaker 1: turned their backs on William and kept talking amongst themselves.
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Speaker 1: And so William goes inside. He puts his stuff on
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Speaker 1: the desk, and he attempts to get the class to
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Speaker 1: listen to him by saying.
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Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, come on, sit down, time to listen up.
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Speaker 2: I'm your new teacher for the day.
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Speaker 1: But the kids just were not listening. And so finally William,
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Speaker 1: who was a really big guy, he was six foot four,
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Speaker 1: he was in great shape. He kind of postured himself
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Speaker 1: and then yelled at the class, sit down right now.
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Speaker 1: And at this the class did turn around and looked
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Speaker 1: at William and kind of sized him up, and most
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Speaker 1: of them decided, okay, it's time to sit down. And
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Speaker 1: so ninety nine percent of the class goes quiet and
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Speaker 1: sits down, except for one kid. It was this fifteen
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Speaker 1: year old boy who was at the back of the
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Speaker 1: room and he was standing up defiant with his arms crossed,
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Speaker 1: staring at William with a smirk on his face, and
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Speaker 1: all around him all his cronies were sitting down looking
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Speaker 1: up at him, laughing and kind of looking up at
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Speaker 1: William and laughing at him, knowing that a confrontation was
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Speaker 1: about to ensue. And so William is staring at this kid,
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Speaker 1: trying to get him to just sit without saying anything,
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Speaker 1: and this kid is just mean mugging.
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Speaker 2: Him with his arms crossed, and nothing's happening.
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Speaker 1: And so William walks right up to him and kind
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Speaker 1: of leans over his shoulder and says, you need.
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Speaker 2: To go out in the hallway right now. I will
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Speaker 2: meet you out there.
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Speaker 1: And then William turned around and started walking back towards
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Speaker 1: the front of the room, expecting this to have worked,
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Speaker 1: that this fifteen year old kid would have just followed
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Speaker 1: right along and he'd walk right out to the hallway
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Speaker 1: and that would be that. But when he turned back
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Speaker 1: around again, the fifteen year old kid had not moved.
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Speaker 1: He was still standing in the back of the classroom,
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Speaker 1: arms crossed, staring up at William basically saying make me.
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Speaker 1: And at this William lost his mind. He was so
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Speaker 1: mad and so frustrated at how unbelievably disrespectful this kid
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Speaker 1: was being, and really the whole class was being to
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Speaker 1: him that he just trying.
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Speaker 2: To lost it.
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Speaker 1: And he ran up to this kid in the back
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Speaker 1: of the room and he gets right up in his face.
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Speaker 1: And remember William is six foot four, he's a big guy,
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Speaker 1: and he gets right in the kid's face and he's.
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Speaker 2: Like, get out in the hall right now. And this
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Speaker 2: kid doesn't flinch.
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Speaker 3: Instead, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a
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Speaker 3: knife and he holds it right up against William, and William,
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Speaker 3: with any hesitation, just winds up and blasts this kid
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Speaker 3: across the side of the head.
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Speaker 2: Sending him flying over a kid sitting at a desk.
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Speaker 2: He goes flying over this kid and crumbles into the corner.
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Speaker 1: And then when he stands up, he drops the knife
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Speaker 1: and puts his hands up and he's like okay, okay, hug.
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Speaker 2: Out in the hall. And William's like, oh, go out
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Speaker 2: in the hall right now.
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Speaker 1: And so the kid ran out of the classroom. He
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Speaker 1: goes out into the hall, and the whole class is
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Speaker 1: totally silent. No one even wants to look up at William.
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Speaker 1: They're all kind of just looking down at their desk,
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Speaker 1: trying to be as quiet as possible, and William walks
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Speaker 1: back to the front of the class and proceeds.
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Speaker 2: To teach the rest of the lesson.
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Speaker 1: As soon as the high school learned that this aspiring
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Speaker 1: teacher William had basically knocked out one of their students,
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Speaker 1: even though it seemed like it might have been a
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Speaker 1: little bit deserved, they immediately told the teachers College, and
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Speaker 1: the teachers College immediately expelled William. And so now William
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Speaker 1: is suddenly jobless, and he's kind of lost again in
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Speaker 1: the world. He doesn't know what he wants to do now,
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Speaker 1: because he really had committed to being a teacher, and
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Speaker 1: so he goes back to his home in Northern Ireland
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Speaker 1: and he begins thinking about, you know, what is he
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Speaker 1: going to do next? And he keeps having this thought
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Speaker 1: that he should pursue this thing that he's always been
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Speaker 1: interested in, but he had never taken seriously because it
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Speaker 1: felt so risky. But now that basically everything in his
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Speaker 1: life had fallen apart, he had nothing to lose. So
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Speaker 1: he decided, what the heck, I will do the thing
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Speaker 1: that I've always wanted to do, and that was stage acting.
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Speaker 1: And so he went and auditioned with a local theater
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Speaker 1: company in Belfast. He was accepted into the theater troupe,
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Speaker 1: and then four years later he was discovered performing on
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Speaker 1: stage by a Hollywood filmmaker and they cast him in a.
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Speaker 2: Movie and the rest, as they say, is history.
6:54
Speaker 1: William Neeson, better known as Liam Neeson, would go on
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Speaker 1: to star in dozen of huge movies and TV shows,
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Speaker 1: and he's probably best known for his epic role in
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Speaker 1: the movie Taken, where he is this CIA operative with
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Speaker 1: a particular set of skills, and in this movie he
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Speaker 1: punches a lot of people in the face, just like
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Speaker 1: when he was a teacher. In nineteen sixty three, when
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Speaker 1: Tim Dick was just ten years old, he went over
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Speaker 1: to his friend's house and he snuck a bottle of
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Speaker 1: whiskey from one of their shelves. He pulled it out
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Speaker 1: and he poured himself a full glass to the brim
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Speaker 1: with whiskey, and then he downed it in one huge gulf.
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Speaker 1: Tim had grown up idolizing cowboys on TV, and every
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Speaker 1: time he watched them, they would come galloping into some town.
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Speaker 1: They would go into the saloon and they would sit
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Speaker 1: at the bar just thrown back shots of whiskey, and
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Speaker 1: so Tim always assumed whisky must be this totally amazing,
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Speaker 1: refreshing drink for these guys to be drinking it out
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Speaker 1: in the heat of the desert. But unfortunately for Tim,
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Speaker 1: after he slugged this huge glass of whiskey, it was
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Speaker 1: not refreshing. It tasted like gasoline, and his chest felt
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Speaker 1: like it was on fire.
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Speaker 2: But instead of.
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Speaker 1: Being turned off by alcohol and waiting until he was
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Speaker 1: older and of age to try it again, Tim instead thought,
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Speaker 1: you know what, the next time I have whiskey, I
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Speaker 1: just need to water it down a little bit. And
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Speaker 1: so for the next year, Tim continued to periodically sneak
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Speaker 1: whiskey out of his friend's cabinets and he would drink
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Speaker 1: this water down whiskey. And then when he turned eleven
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Speaker 1: years old, his father, who he was very close with,
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Speaker 1: died tragically in a car accident, and Tim really didn't
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Speaker 1: have a good way to cope with the grief of
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Speaker 1: losing his father, and so he turned to drinking even
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Speaker 1: more than he already was.
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Speaker 2: And before long, Tim was like this young kid.
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Speaker 1: Who basically was an alcoholic, but he hid it extremely well.
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Speaker 1: He graduated high school, he graduated college, and really nobody
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Speaker 1: knew he was drinking as.
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Speaker 2: Much as he was.
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Speaker 1: But after he graduated college and he was living on
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Speaker 1: his own in Michigan, there was no structure in place
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Speaker 1: or person in place to stop Tim from going overboard with.
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Speaker 2: His substance abuse. Not only did his drinking get completely out.
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Speaker 1: Of control, but he began using and selling drugs, namely cocaine.
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Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy eight, when Tim was twenty five.
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Speaker 1: Years old, he and his drug dealing partner were scheduled
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Speaker 1: to take part in the biggest drug deal of their careers.
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Speaker 2: They would be.
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Speaker 1: Selling about a pounds and a half of cocaine to
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Speaker 1: a guy named Michael Piper, and he'd be buying it
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Speaker 1: for forty two thousand dollars, which, when you adjust that
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Speaker 1: for inflation, would be like buying it for one hundred
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Speaker 1: and seventy five thousand dollars in twenty twenty one. Tim
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Speaker 1: and his partner were very excited about all this money
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Speaker 1: they were going to make, but they were equally worried
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Speaker 1: about the transaction. A lot can go wrong, and so
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Speaker 1: Tim decided, in order to mitigate their nerves and kind
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Speaker 1: of make this a safer drug deal, he decided they
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Speaker 1: would do the transaction inside of a public airport because
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Speaker 1: Tim had seen that done on TV and believed that
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Speaker 1: would give them an additional layer of safety. And so
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Speaker 1: on the day this deal is going to take place,
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Speaker 1: Tim takes the pounds and a half of cocaine. He
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Speaker 1: puts it inside of a brown a deal his gym bag,
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Speaker 1: and he also throws a key lock inside of this bag.
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Speaker 2: He zips it up, he walks outside.
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Speaker 1: He dumps the bag in the back of his car,
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Speaker 1: and he drives to the Kalamazoo.
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Speaker 2: International Airport in Michigan.
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Speaker 1: When he gets there, he parks in the big parking
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Speaker 1: lot right outside of the front.
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Speaker 2: Doors, and as soon as he's parked, he goes around
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Speaker 2: to the back of his car. He pulls out this
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Speaker 2: brown adeatas bag. He throws it over his shoulder, shuts
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Speaker 2: his trunk, and then he waits for his partner to
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Speaker 2: show up.
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Speaker 1: A couple of minutes later, right on time, his partner
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Speaker 1: pulls into the lock he parks nearby, and then the
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Speaker 1: two of them very casually begin.
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Speaker 2: Walking towards the front doors of this airport.
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Speaker 1: They walk up the steps, they go in the front doors,
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Speaker 1: and as soon as they're inside, they're looking around and
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Speaker 1: they find Michael Piper. He's standing up against the wall,
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Speaker 1: right in the area he had said he would be,
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Speaker 1: And so, without making any sort of contact with Michael,
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Speaker 1: Tim and his partner turn the corner and they go
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Speaker 1: into a nearby locker room. Once they're inside, Tim pulls
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Speaker 1: the lock out of the brown bag and then he
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Speaker 1: puts the bag with the drugs in it inside of
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Speaker 1: a locker. He shuts it and then uses the lockage
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Speaker 1: just pulled out to lock the locker, and then he
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Speaker 1: and his partner leave the locker room. As soon as
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Speaker 1: they go out into the main terminal, they start walking
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Speaker 1: over towards Michael Piper, and as they get closer and closer,
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Speaker 1: Tim's partner breaks off and goes to a bench on
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Speaker 1: the other side of the terminal, and Tim continues walking
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Speaker 1: on right up to Michael, and then when he reaches Michael,
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Speaker 1: he very discreetly hands him the key to the lock
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Speaker 1: on the locker and he tells him which locker number
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Speaker 1: the drugs are in. Michael doesn't say anything. He takes
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Speaker 1: the key and he heads off to the locker room.
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Speaker 1: Tim turns and he goes over to his partner and
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Speaker 1: he sits down on the bench and waits. Meanwhile, Michael
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Speaker 1: goes inside the locker room. He uses the key, he
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Speaker 1: opens up the lock. He opens the locker up. He
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Speaker 1: checks to make sure the drugs are still there.
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Speaker 2: They are. As soon as that's confirmed, he takes the bag.
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Speaker 1: He throws it over his shoulder and he walks back
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Speaker 1: out to the main terminal to meet up with Tim
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Speaker 1: and his partner.
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Speaker 2: Tim and his partner are sitting on the bench.
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Speaker 1: They see Michael coming out of the locker room, and
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Speaker 1: they're expecting Michael to walk over and basically hand them
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Speaker 1: a bag full of forty two thousand dollars, but instead,
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Speaker 1: Michael walks up to them and draws a gun and
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Speaker 1: points it at them and says, I'm a full police officer.
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Speaker 2: You're under arrest. It would turn out this was a
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Speaker 2: sting operation.
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Speaker 1: Michael Piper, the undercover police officer, had been following around
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Speaker 1: Tim and his partner for months in Michigan. At the time,
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Speaker 1: if you were caught trying to sell six hundred and
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Speaker 1: fifty grams or more of cocaine, there was an automatic
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Speaker 1: penalty of a life sentence, and Tim and his partner
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Speaker 1: had just been arrested trying to sell more than six
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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty grams of cocaine and so facing a
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Speaker 1: life sentence, Tim took a deal that gave him a
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Speaker 1: lesser sentence in exchange for information about other drug dealers,
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Speaker 1: and so Tim would ultimately serve two years and four
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Speaker 1: months in a federal penitentiary before he was released. Tim
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Speaker 1: would say his time in prison was absolutely miserable, but
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Speaker 1: it was necessary. It matured him in a major way,
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Speaker 1: and it honed his sense of humor.
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Speaker 2: Tim was always a very funny guy.
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Speaker 1: He was always the class clown and the guy goofing around,
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Speaker 1: but in prison he found it a very difficult task
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Speaker 1: to get these hardened prisoners and prison guards to laugh
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Speaker 1: at his jokes. Eventually, with enough practice and repetition, he
13:02
Speaker 1: could get anybody in that prison to laugh at him.
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Speaker 2: And so by the time he got out, he was
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Speaker 2: like an amazing comedian.
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Speaker 1: And so he decided, you know what, why don't I
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Speaker 1: pursue a career in comedy. Four years later, Tim Dick,
13:14
Speaker 1: better known as Tim Allen, landed the starring role on
13:18
Speaker 1: the hit TV show Home Improvement, and from there he
13:21
Speaker 1: starred in dozens more movies and TV shows, but he's
13:24
Speaker 1: probably best known for his voice acting in the very
13:27
Speaker 1: popular movie series Toy Story, where he plays Buzz light Year. Today,
13:31
Speaker 1: Tim is sober and has been for decades. In nineteen
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Speaker 1: sixty four, during his final semester of college in Wisconsin,
13:42
Speaker 1: a twenty one year old man named Harry decided to
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Speaker 1: take an acting class. He believed it would be an
13:47
Speaker 1: easy a and he'd always been pretty shy, and so
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Speaker 1: he figured this class might be able to help him
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Speaker 1: get over that. But this class wound up having a
13:54
Speaker 1: much larger impact on Harry's life than he ever could
13:57
Speaker 1: have imagined. Not only did he meet his future wife
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Speaker 1: in this class, but he also realized he loved acting,
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Speaker 1: something he never thought he would like, and he decided
14:06
Speaker 1: after college that that was the thing he was going
14:08
Speaker 1: to pursue. And so after he graduates later that year,
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Speaker 1: he and his girlfriend get married, and then they fly
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Speaker 1: out to Hollywood, California, where Harry auditions for Columbia Pictures
14:18
Speaker 1: New Talent Program, which is basically this program that's designed
14:21
Speaker 1: to help new actors and actresses get parts in Hollywood
14:25
Speaker 1: because it's so hard to do that. And so he's
14:27
Speaker 1: accepted into this program. He signs a contract with them
14:30
Speaker 1: that pays him almost nothing, and right away they start
14:33
Speaker 1: shopping him around for different parts in TV shows and movies,
14:37
Speaker 1: but nobody is interested in Harry.
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Speaker 2: Nobody.
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Speaker 1: The only roles he was getting were incredibly minor and
14:43
Speaker 1: usually non speaking, and so it was really not advancing
14:46
Speaker 1: his career. Then in nineteen sixty six, so two years
14:49
Speaker 1: after he and his wife had arrived in Hollywood, Harry
14:52
Speaker 1: received what seemed like his first big break. He was
14:55
Speaker 1: offered a speaking role in a movie, although it was
14:58
Speaker 1: a very minor role. It was a sixty second bit
15:01
Speaker 1: where Harry basically walked on screen in this hotel and
15:04
Speaker 1: he started calling out for a particular guest and when
15:06
Speaker 1: he finds this guest, he walks up and gives him
15:08
Speaker 1: a piece of paper and then he leaves. So it's
15:11
Speaker 1: a forgettable scene, but it's a real scene in a
15:14
Speaker 1: real movie.
15:15
Speaker 2: And so this was a big deal for Harry. And
15:16
Speaker 2: so after Harry goes over to.
15:18
Speaker 1: The studio and he films his whole scene and it's
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Speaker 1: all done, he goes back over to the headquarters of
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Speaker 1: the new Talent program at Columbia Pictures and as soon
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Speaker 1: as he goes inside. One of the producers that was
15:28
Speaker 1: in charge of this new talent program, who had apparently
15:31
Speaker 1: had a chance already to see this sixty second scene
15:34
Speaker 1: in this movie that Harry was in.
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Speaker 2: He calls Harry over and asks him to go up
15:38
Speaker 2: to his office for a second.
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Speaker 1: So the pair go up to his office. They both
15:41
Speaker 1: sit down, and the guy looks at him and says, look,
15:43
Speaker 1: I just got to shoot you straight here. You're not
15:45
Speaker 1: gonna make it in Hollywood. You're not going to be
15:47
Speaker 1: a movie star. When Tony Curtis was told to carry
15:51
Speaker 1: groceries across this room in one of his first movies,
15:54
Speaker 1: everybody knew right away as he's carrying those groceries that
15:57
Speaker 1: that guy he's going to be a movie star.
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Speaker 2: You could see it in the scene, even though all
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Speaker 2: he was doing was carrying groceries.
16:03
Speaker 1: And when you did your scene as the Bellhof walking
16:05
Speaker 1: around the hotel, I just didn't see it.
16:07
Speaker 2: You don't have the X factor. You're not gonna be
16:10
Speaker 2: a movie star.
16:11
Speaker 1: For reference, Tony Curtis, the guy this producer was referencing,
16:14
Speaker 1: was a huge movie star in the nineteen fifties and
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Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, and so Harry after getting this horrible comment
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Speaker 1: made about him, he paused for a second and then
16:23
Speaker 1: he leans across the table and looks at this producer
16:25
Speaker 1: and squints his eyes and says, you know, Tony was
16:27
Speaker 1: such a good actor.
16:29
Speaker 2: Shouldn't we have believed he was just a grocery delivery
16:32
Speaker 2: boy not a movie star.
16:33
Speaker 1: And at this totally smart alec remark, the producer fired
16:36
Speaker 1: Harry on the spot.
16:38
Speaker 2: Harry would go on to.
16:39
Speaker 1: Sign a similar new Talent Program deal with Universal Studios,
16:43
Speaker 1: but again he could not get a real part to
16:46
Speaker 1: save his life, and the feedback he finally got was, Harry,
16:49
Speaker 1: you're just not pretty enough and you're not really that talented.
16:53
Speaker 1: By the mid nineteen seventies, Harry was in his mid
16:55
Speaker 1: thirties and while he still aspired to be an actor
16:58
Speaker 1: and wanted to be an actor, he was making almost
17:01
Speaker 1: no money from acting, and so he decided instead of acting,
17:05
Speaker 1: he was going to become a carpenter. That was going
17:07
Speaker 1: to be his full time job, despite the fact he
17:10
Speaker 1: knew nothing about carpentry, and so he literally, just because
17:13
Speaker 1: he has this interest in carpentry, goes to the library
17:16
Speaker 1: and checks out all these how.
17:17
Speaker 2: To be a carpenter books, and over the next.
17:19
Speaker 1: Couple of weeks he studies these books and does a
17:21
Speaker 1: couple of projects around his own house. And then finally
17:24
Speaker 1: he just felt confident enough, or he was just desperate
17:26
Speaker 1: enough for money that he began going around to his
17:29
Speaker 1: network and asking people in Hollywood if they needed some woodworking,
17:33
Speaker 1: if they needed help from a carpenter. And surprisingly, lots
17:36
Speaker 1: of people took him up on his offer and they
17:38
Speaker 1: hired him to be their carpenter, and before long, Harry
17:42
Speaker 1: was dubbed the Carpenter to the Stars, which was kind
17:44
Speaker 1: of ironic because he actually was not a very good carpenter,
17:47
Speaker 1: and he was regularly seen on the job literally holding
17:51
Speaker 1: a book teaching him how to be a carpenter while
17:54
Speaker 1: doing the carpentry with his other hand. In nineteen seventy six,
17:57
Speaker 1: Harry was a full fledged carpenter and had been for
18:00
Speaker 1: about a year when one of his very close friends
18:02
Speaker 1: named Fred Russ, who was a casting director and film producer,
18:06
Speaker 1: gave him a call and told him he had a
18:08
Speaker 1: very unique opportunity for him. Now, at this point, Harry
18:11
Speaker 1: was not looking for any more acting roles. He kind
18:14
Speaker 1: of figured that ship has sailed, even though he wishes
18:17
Speaker 1: he could be an actor. At this point, he had
18:19
Speaker 1: a wife, he had two sons, and so he's thinking,
18:22
Speaker 1: I got to just keep doing this carpentry thing because
18:24
Speaker 1: I got to pay the bills. So he says to Fred,
18:26
Speaker 1: you know, I appreciate the offer of whatever this is,
18:28
Speaker 1: but if it has to do with acting, you know,
18:30
Speaker 1: I'm just not interested. And Fred, who was one of
18:33
Speaker 1: the very few people in Hollywood who fundamentally believed Harry
18:37
Speaker 1: was destined to be a star, told.
18:39
Speaker 2: Harry, no, no, no, this is different.
18:41
Speaker 1: This is not a pure go out and try out
18:43
Speaker 1: for the part and hope for the best. This is
18:45
Speaker 1: like put yourself in a good position and maybe somebody
18:49
Speaker 1: will discover you're as talented as you really are.
18:52
Speaker 2: And so Harry's like, Okay, tell me about this opportunity.
18:55
Speaker 2: You know I'm interested.
18:56
Speaker 1: And so Fred explained there was this really talented and
18:58
Speaker 1: eccentric film director who's trying to cast an upcoming movie,
19:02
Speaker 1: and the way he went about casting for movies was
19:05
Speaker 1: a little bit strange.
19:06
Speaker 2: Instead of having each of.
19:08
Speaker 1: The actors and actresses show up and individually audition for
19:11
Speaker 1: their parts, he would group batches of actors and actresses
19:15
Speaker 1: and he would have them audition as a group, because
19:18
Speaker 1: that way he could tell if there was chemistry amongst
19:21
Speaker 1: some of the actors and actresses, and he could gauge
19:23
Speaker 1: their individual talent. And so he had all these groups
19:26
Speaker 1: already planned out, but one of the groups was missing
19:30
Speaker 1: one male actor. Somebody had dropped out at the last
19:32
Speaker 1: minute and was not going to be there on the
19:34
Speaker 1: day of the audition. And so when Fred Russ heard
19:36
Speaker 1: through the grapevine that this director was going to be
19:39
Speaker 1: short this one person, he immediately reached out to the
19:41
Speaker 1: director and said, Hey, I got your guy. There's this guy, Harry.
19:45
Speaker 1: He's done a little bit of acting. He's incredibly talented.
19:47
Speaker 1: You got to give him a chance.
19:48
Speaker 2: You know, at the minimum he can come in there
19:50
Speaker 2: and he can at least just.
19:51
Speaker 1: Read the lines and help you do this audition. But
19:54
Speaker 1: I know he's available that day, and I know he
19:56
Speaker 1: would love to help. And so this director tells Fred, Okay,
19:59
Speaker 1: thank you, I love to have him come down. But
20:01
Speaker 1: stressed to him, he is not auditioning for any part
20:05
Speaker 1: in this movie. I'm not bringing in some person and
20:08
Speaker 1: just throwing them in. It takes me a long time
20:10
Speaker 1: to find people that I want to audition, and he
20:13
Speaker 1: is not one of them. He is just there to
20:16
Speaker 1: facilitate the audition. He's just going to read the lines
20:19
Speaker 1: so the other people in his group can do their audition.
20:22
Speaker 1: And so after Fred stopped explaining this situation, Harry was
20:26
Speaker 1: actually kind of annoyed. He was annoyed that Fred had
20:28
Speaker 1: basically already volunteered him and so he couldn't really even
20:31
Speaker 1: say no without making Fred look bad. And he didn't
20:34
Speaker 1: like the idea that this was basically a waste of
20:37
Speaker 1: his time. He was being asked to go read lines
20:39
Speaker 1: but not even try out, so how was this even
20:42
Speaker 1: an opportunity? But Fred told him, look, worst case scenario,
20:45
Speaker 1: you meet some pretty powerful people in Hollywood. This director
20:48
Speaker 1: is a big deal. The people there are going to
20:50
Speaker 1: be big deals in Hollywood. So you'll meet them and
20:52
Speaker 1: maybe they will recognize your talent, or maybe you get
20:55
Speaker 1: some new clients for your carpentry business. So no matter what,
20:58
Speaker 1: you get something out of it. And finally Harry says, okay, fine,
21:01
Speaker 1: I'll go do this thing. And so Harry goes to
21:03
Speaker 1: this audition. He's handed the script and he's reminded repeatedly
21:07
Speaker 1: to not attempt to audition. Don't try to act. Just
21:11
Speaker 1: read the lines. I don't care if you're monotone. You
21:14
Speaker 1: just read these lines because you're not auditioning everybody else is.
21:18
Speaker 2: You're not. Is that clear? And Harry's like, yes, I
21:22
Speaker 2: get it. I'm just reading the lines.
21:23
Speaker 1: And so Harry sits down and he starts reading the
21:25
Speaker 1: lines and he's trying to.
21:27
Speaker 2: Do what they told him to do.
21:29
Speaker 1: But the way he was actually feeling and his actual
21:32
Speaker 1: personality began seeping through. He started coming off as this
21:35
Speaker 1: really grumpy and sarcastic guy that just didn't care about
21:39
Speaker 1: anybody there. He was just totally bitter that he was
21:42
Speaker 1: in the situation he was in. And apparently this is
21:45
Speaker 1: exactly what the director was looking for in one of
21:48
Speaker 1: the characters. He was trying to cast that kind of nonchalant, bravado,
21:53
Speaker 1: macho alpha type guy who just didn't care about anybody.
21:56
Speaker 1: And so, over the course of the day, as he's
21:58
Speaker 1: reading the script over and over and not caring at
22:01
Speaker 1: all about how he's performing, he's just simply reading these
22:04
Speaker 1: lines and just being himself. He was actually doing this
22:08
Speaker 1: amazing job portraying one of the characters. And so they
22:11
Speaker 1: let Harry go. The whole day, no one told him
22:14
Speaker 1: they were looking at him as a potential character. And
22:16
Speaker 1: then at the end of the day, when Harry was
22:18
Speaker 1: about to just throw the script in the trash and
22:20
Speaker 1: leave without talking to anyone, the film director better known
22:23
Speaker 1: as George Lucas, walks up to Harry better known as
22:27
Speaker 1: Harrison Ford, and says, wait a minute, I was wrong.
22:31
Speaker 1: You are perfect for this movie Star Wars. You need
22:34
Speaker 1: to play Hans Solo. And so Harrison Ford said, all right,
22:38
Speaker 1: I'll play Han Solo. And that role as Han Solo
22:41
Speaker 1: propelled Harrison Ford into the megastar that we know him
22:45
Speaker 1: as today. A few years after Harrison had starred in
22:48
Speaker 1: Star Wars and he was this total A list celebrity,
22:51
Speaker 1: he was at a Hollywood studio in one of their
22:53
Speaker 1: restaurants when one of the waiters walked over to him
22:56
Speaker 1: with the silver tray, and on this silver tray was
22:58
Speaker 1: a single business card. Harrison reaches over, he grabs the
23:01
Speaker 1: business card. The waiter walks away, and he looks at
23:04
Speaker 1: the card and handwritten on it is the phrase I
23:07
Speaker 1: missed my bet. And he flipped the card over and
23:09
Speaker 1: it was the name of that producer from the New
23:12
Speaker 1: Talent program that had called Harry into his office and said,
23:15
Speaker 1: you're never going to make it in Hollywood if you're fired.
23:18
Speaker 1: It was that guy, and he had apparently sent the
23:20
Speaker 1: waiter over to make amends because he was eating lunch
23:23
Speaker 1: in the same restaurant. And so Harrison would later say
23:26
Speaker 1: in interviews that at the time he got this card,
23:29
Speaker 1: and to this day that he was doing this interview,
23:32
Speaker 1: he said it gave him immense pleasure that when he
23:35
Speaker 1: looked up from this business card and he understood the situation,
23:38
Speaker 1: he knows this guy's in the room somewhere. As he
23:40
Speaker 1: looked around the room, he couldn't recognize the guy because
23:43
Speaker 1: he didn't know what he looked like.
23:44
Speaker 2: He was a nobody. And so instead of wasting any
23:47
Speaker 2: more time.
23:48
Speaker 1: Looking for this producer, he has looked at the card,
23:50
Speaker 1: chucked it and went back dating his lunch.
23:52
Speaker 2: So that's going to do it. Guys.
23:53
Speaker 1: If you found the secret in today's episode, let us
23:55
Speaker 1: know in the comments section what it is and where
23:57
Speaker 1: you found it.
23:58
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24:00
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24:03
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