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Trekcast: Our interview with Elias Toufixus · Star Trek Podcast: Trekcast

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Track the Galaxy's Most Unpredictable Star Trek podcast. Hey, everyone, this is
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Daniel with Trek Cast. I got a big interview for you guys today.
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We are talking to an actor from some of your favorite video games like Call
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of Duty, Fortnite, Assassin's Screed, to name a few. He's currently
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the main bad guy on Netflix's Blood of Zeus, but we Star Trek fans
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know him better as Locke from season five a Star Trek Discovery. Please welcome
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to Trek Cast, Elias to Fexus. Hey, thanks for being here,
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Elias, anybody, how are you? I'm great. How are you doing.
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I'm good, I'm good. I love these things. Yeah, you're
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you're in the dark room right there. Huh, well it's my sound booth.
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Sounds like this is about as much lighting as I can get in here.
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Yeah, look very ominous, very nice. Well, you know,
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it kind of fits with my first question I got for you. You did
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put on earlier this week on social media that you got a lego Batman set
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for Father's Day and just wondering if you put that thing together yet we did.
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Yeah, yeah, I let with those, you know, I let
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my son, my son buys it. For me and then or my daughter,
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and then they put it together basically I'll help and then I'll just put
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it up in my like right outside here, right outside this booth is like
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I'm a really big nerd and people don't really know. You know. I've
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got the the the NCC seventeen oh one show right there, and the d
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right next to it. I got a Romulan war Bird right next to that,
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and I got a whole bunch of Star Trek figures, and then then
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once you get into other movies, I have a whole bunch of big cinephiles
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with you know, like McCready from the Thing and Robo cop and even have
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a Gene Wilder toy. Like I'm really really into all that stuff. So
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that's why they bought that for me, and they build it and then I
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put it where I think it should go. Okay, what is the possession
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in your collection? You think? You know, I don't know if there's
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a price. I do have this old like I have this, so I
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have this ash that that McFarland toy made. That's like about this big okay,
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evil dead ash. Yep, No, it's the I guess it would
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be the Evil Dead two or an Army of Darkness. Ash O think it's
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Army of darkness, but it's like it's like fifteen inches tall. And I
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have an Edward scissorhands also about fifteen inches tall. And those were made,
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you know, like almost twenty years ago, and I bought them at the
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time with what little money I had. And somehow, you know, all
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the cities and countries I've lived, they've made the trip with me, probably
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those. And now I'm trying to collect things that I'm actually in, like
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characters that I've played, things like that where it's like I have a different
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section for that, my little my own section movement, okay for a lack
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a la a lack figure or their ship or sort of lac ship or something.
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Yeah, it be like this's my own section of characters. I got
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a couple of those already. Well, you know, speaking of films,
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I saw that you were recently a part of the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival.
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Yeah, what was that like being a part of that? I these
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film festivals are interesting because though they want I mean, I would consider myself
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a generously B minus celebrity, but they want they want like people to come
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out and support. And for me it's I'm Greek, where I'm half Greek,
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but it's most of my life. I grew up you know, a
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big like my big fact Greek wedding. That's all true. That was,
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that was my life, and so I like, I like to support as
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much as possible. It's just in Greece in December and then Blood of Zeus
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of course on Netflix. It's a big Greek mythology. So I'm like,
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I'm all kind of surrounded mixed up with the Greek supporting anything Greek. And
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and so they they they knew who I was, and they called me an
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aspect and yeah, I saw a couple of films there that were really,
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really, really good. I don't speak Greek, but it's still the films
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were subjet, but they were really good. That's awesome. Well, you
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know, going on in mythology. It was recently announced by Todd Dashviick that
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you're going to be part of a D and D campaign at STLV. I
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think I agreed. I agreed to that in like a text message thread.
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I think I said like yeah, sure, and then suddenly I'm seeing a
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whole bunch of things like I guess I'm doing this, so yeah, so
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yeah, I'm going to that set to Vegas, right, Yeah, that's
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the Vegas one y. Yeah yeah. I mean I haven't played D and
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D since I was a kid. I used to play it a lot.
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But it'll be fun. It'd be fun school, it'd be fun. Right.
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Yeah, there you go. Well, then, with all that,
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I know you're in a lot of video games, doing a voiceover work and
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all that, do you currently play games yourself? Sure? Yeah, well,
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especially especially now with I have a eleven year old son and have fourteen
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year old daughters, so we play a lot of a lot of video games.
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Personally, I play Rainbow six a lot. Okay, I'm not that
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great. I'm pretty good, but I'm not like some of these guys are
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ridiculous. I play Canadian so I play hockey. I play NHL a lot,
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and you know what else, I play a lot. Speaking of Evil
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Dead, as I play the Evil Dead game, you know, the one
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that's you know where you could play Ash and all the guys from Army of
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Darkness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just basically a you know,
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a slashing game for the rest, but it's there's a strategy to a night
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I'm addicted to it. I play it. Oh, I played every night.
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But there are fewer and fewer players that it's starting to get because you
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have to be online. So it's starting to get sad. I'm like,
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all this matchup is taking a long time. We recently introduced my nephews to
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sper Smash Bros. Oh yeah, and they've been going nuts with that.
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Yeah. Yeah, we have. Also the my son is really into uh
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old school, old school Nintendo. Now. We went we went to a
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store the other day and he bought an old DS light, like that's what
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he wanted to spend his money on. And then he wants to get uh,
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he wants to get an actual nes and he wants to get an actual
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like things that were before I was like even playing. Yeah yeah, and
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he just wants to get all this stuff. He wants to do all this
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old school especially especially Nintendo. Like he wants all to get all the Nintendo
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stuff. So yeah, we're big. We're big into games in this place.
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That's great. You know, watching some old interviews with you, and
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you talked a lot about how you were getting into voice directing. Yeah,
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and I was wondering, is that something you want to continue. And then
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do you want to get into TV and film directing as well? It's a
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good question. I never I did. Again, we were talking before we
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started about stuff that I can talk about and stuff that I can't talk about.
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I'm under NDA for a lot of stuff. But I did sell an
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animated series that I wrote with a couple other people. Oh wow. And
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so I've been producing that and I'm gonna be voice directing it and I'm also
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writing it. So it is definitely something that I have interest in doing,
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bringing my own flair to my own flair, my own take I should say,
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to my own work or other work that we're inventing. Of course I
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want to do that. In terms of voice directing. Voice directing really just
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it really saved me during COVID and the strike, because well, I mean
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when COVID happened, everything shut down. I was doing mostly television on camera
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stuff. I still did a lot of video games, but it was mostly
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my job was getting the most paying the most bills was on camera. And
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that went away for two years, almost two years, and so I was
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like, okay, well now it's only voice work, and voice work is
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good, but it doesn't pay particularly well, unless you're working like a ton
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or you get like a really big commercial of something. So I was also
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kind of getting in trouble there. And then I think I just got somebody
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just offered me. Because I taught so many I'd coached so many actors for
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the last twenty years, somebody just said, do you want to we're shy
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have a voice director, and you want to come do this? And I
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did, and then that just snowballed into more and more and more voice directing,
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and then what ends up happening is there are these companies that video games
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hire to get their actors and their directors, and I started this is what
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you do as a voice director in video games and animation. As you start
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building relationships with those companies and so they pitch you when a new game comes
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to them, they say, well, we have an in house director.
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They have like five directors, like these are the five. And then well,
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I'm one of those five, you know, at a few of these
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houses. So I'm gonna do it as long as I have time, because
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it's fun. Sometimes it's not fun like I did. The game is great,
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right, don't get me wrong, But I did I direct Airsoft's Microsoft
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Air Simulator. Direct the actors and that two great actors. Marie is the
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female, one of my good friends. But it's so boring, like it's
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like, all right, now, pull back on the stick. Now pull
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It's like, and I got they have to have to direct them to do
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that for four hours a day, Like this is not fun. But then
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at the same time, I'll direct like Starfield and it's character stuff that's super
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fun because I'll just be reading with the actor I'm acting anyway. So that
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kind of stuff I'll do forever, as long as they need me, as
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long as they hire me, as long as I have time. When you
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get in that director mindset, though, and then you're on set for you
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know, a TV show or a film, is it hard for you to
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kind of like you start thinking about like what you would do as the director
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in that scene. Yeah, it happens. It's hard. You have to.
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It's a good question because it does genuinely happen, Like you have to
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clamp down, especially working when you're a voice actor. And I'm like one
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one week, like last week, I did directing Monday, directing Tuesday,
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but Wednesday I was working as an actor, right, and a voiceover thing,
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and I kind of already know what they want because I know how it
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works to get what they want. But then I find like, I'm like,
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now I'm gonna redo that I think it should be, and I'm like,
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I should stop. Let them tell me that. You know what I
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mean? Yeah, so I do. It's a good question, because it
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does happen. I do find myself getting caught up in over directing my acting
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because that's what I'm so used to directing other actors. So it's it is
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a take a step back, let them direct it, and then you know
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how to get there. It does happen. It's funny you asked that.
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Yeah, I just I know if it was me, that's what I would
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start doing and I'd have to it. You gotta ran it back in Yeah,
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okay. Well, you know, as we said, you were in
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Star Trek Discovery season five, you played Lock. Originally that role, from
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what I read, was supposed to only be five episodes. Is that correct.
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I think it was even fewer than that. I think maybe a few.
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I just wasn't as as impactful of a role initially, I think from
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what I remember, like I got the role they offered me the role,
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and I would have taken it if it was one episode. You know,
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I wanted to get back on that show so badly. And then I remember
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getting on set. I remember the first episode was really big, no matter
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what, he was a big part of it. And then and I remember
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thinking, I remember thinking, you know, he's not in it that much
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in the next couple of episodes, but they keep talking about him, so
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that's cool. And and then yeah, definitely five of the background stuff that
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was there, but I think it was going to end there. So it
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wasn't five episodes. It was it was by episode five because he wasn't in
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Okay at all, right, So that's why I'm thinking it that way,
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So you're you're we're both right. It was by episode five, I think
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he was done okay. But by the time we were getting through you know,
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episode forge, that one scene in the beginning, I was hearing things
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like, the studio really likes what you guys are doing. The studio really
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likes mom and locks. So I think we're going to stretch it out a
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little longer. And I mean, this is all hearsay, right, it's
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not right. You don't have any actual Nobody called me and said you're giving
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you another episode. It was just it was always kind of malleable, you
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know, It's like, this is happening, and then this is happening,
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and then they're writing at the same time as we're shooting and stuff like that,
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and then yes, but I'm pretty sure it ended up bigger than initially
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started. The initially planned oh okay, right on and then uh so nobody
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sat you down then, like you said, right, and it just they
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kept saying he and come back and we're gonna do more. It was It
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was actually pretty frustrating because I would always be asking, can I see Can
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I see Episode five? Can I see because I knew they were going to
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go into the background of episode five, and I was like, can I
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can I see the script for episode five? Can I see the script?
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And they were always like, no, we don't give it to actors until
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it's done, you know, because probably because actors are annoying, and I
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get that. But what was bothering me about it was that episode five was
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flashbacks, so stuff that happened in the past could have informed the way I
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was playing things. Now follow what I'm saying, yeah, And so it
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was kind of like well, I need to know, and and they never
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really they don't tell the actors much. You kind of have to just go
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with the flow. And I think I was This is why I think that
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they stretched it. They definitely told me that the studio really likes what they're
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doing and they want to see more, but more of us. But I
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think also my they had booked my flight back after five and then they canceled
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that flight or they didn't. I don't know if they canceled, but they
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said, well, we need you to come back again or something. I
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don't remember. It was like two years ago, but I remember thinking I
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would be home at a certain time and saying, oh, I have to
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still stay in Toronto. So that proves that they had stretched out the character.
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And you know, no, they don't. I don't know, I
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answer your question, but then they don't tell you anything. Is that like
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to prevent leaks? Is that what they're going for? The reason is partially
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probably to prevent leaks, but we're all you know under nbas anyway. Yeah,
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I think it's just it's like a writer's thing. They're like, we
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don't want to give anything until we're done. Yeah, you know, it
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did would tell me story hints. But like, I didn't know I was
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going to be on the Enterprise until I got five, right. I had
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heard somebody go. I had heard one of the props people going, oh,
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yeah, when we're back on the Enterprise, we'll do this, And
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I was like, what, what are we back on? Yeah, They're
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like, no, I don't worry about it. And then when I when
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we got when I got five, I'm like, oh my god, I'm
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the freaking So I got to ask because are people listening to this won't see
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this, but is that a Roman Rings T shirt? Yeah? Nice?
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Nice? I got my Cody Rose te shirt in the mail today. Oh
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right on, very cool. Yeah, that's another thing. Me and my
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son are really big into. Actually here's a little scoop is when I was
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about twenty one, I was a pro wrestler for about four months. Oh
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wow. I trained for two months in Montreal where I'm from Montreal with uh
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some Montreal was big in wrestling, big into wrestling, you know, like
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my great uncle was mad Dog Vachamp. Oh wow, okay, and like
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Pat Patterson was around all the time. He's from there, and uh so
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I trained for a bit and then I did one show and one running like
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where I ran in as a heel, tried to hit the heel, I
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tried to hit the face, but I hit the heel and then I got
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beat up and I got chair shot and and all that sound so super fun,
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but I remember by the time four months had been like, I was
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like, I love this, but I don't want to feel this pain all
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the time. And it really you have to have a super passion for pro
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wrests, yeah, because it is so painful, really exhausting, and and
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I have a passion for it, but I believe my passion for it is
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more as a fan than as a as a wrestler. So I just say
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I'll stick with acting. Let's stunt people do that fair enough. Yeah,
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So we did have a question from one of our co hosts who wanted to
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know if you took any sylvenirs from set. I got them to send me
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Lock's jacket it's right there. Uh, And I didn't want to take anything
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because I had ended in seven, So you never want to take something and
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then they suddenly they're like, well we were going to use that, Yeah,
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you know what I mean. So I didn't. I didn't take anything
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but the costume people because the show had rapped completely. I got some costume
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people and prop people and like Sammy stuffy stuff. So they send me a
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box and it was like a lot of a lot of like pins and things
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like that. But I knew all that ship Man. There was a I've
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told the story already, but there was a scene in episode one where Locke
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is trying to trying to open up the lock and Mallel trying to open up
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the clue of the first clue, right and uh, he takes a bag
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and he drops in and he pulls out He's like isoline air processor and uh
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stem cell? Uh you know what I'm saying. And it was everything that
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he would would pull out. I'd be like, Okay, that's this,
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that's this that, And I knew everything that there. And I remember the
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show runner too. There was like I don't think I've ever had an actor
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who knew exactly what every problem was some of the show like well, yeah,
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that's that's a nicecelinear processor. Of course, that's a self ceiling stembol
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of course that is that was from well as a lifelong fan, what was
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your favorite series before Discovery? Before it be part of that I grew up.
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So I grew up loving the original series, but not obviously at the
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same time it was on. But I have a very distinct memory of being
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probably you know, six or seven or something, but they PBS would air
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this, like I don't know if it was PBS, but probably they would
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air the top ten Star Trek episodes and they would just do that once or
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twice a year and as a fundraiser thing, and I would spend the weekends
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watching those. So I got hooked on the original series. And then the
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movies for me, like two to six, particularly especially the Genesis trilogy two
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to four, like those are in my DNA. That's some well I know
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those movies like and they were like everything I loved. And then of course
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I love TNG and then I I really loved Deep Space nine because it kind
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of grew up with me TG I was a little kid, and then Deep
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Space nine it was like I was coming into my teenage years and it was
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kind of like a more mature show, you know. So I got really
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into that. And then I watched Voyager and Enterprise, but sporadically because I
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was going through college and I was like, I didn't I just didn't have
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time at enough cable. I didn't have like I so I kind of only
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watched those sporadically. And then I was super hyped when when Discovery showed up
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because I was living in Toronto at the time, and I'm like, I'm
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a giant star Trek fan, i gotta get on the show. And I
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did, and then they chopped that character up to Hill and I got pissed
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off. Yeah, well, if you were to come back, because I
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mean Curtrik brings back actors all the time. Yeah, is there a specifical
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like alien you'd like to play or a type of character you'd like to play?
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No, because I if I had asked, if I had answered that
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question before Discovery, I'm like, yeah, this or this, and then
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I got to play a friggin the first time you see your brain, So
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there's no particular thing. I'm like, hey, just bring if you want
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to bring me back, I'll gladly come back. I'd like to. I
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mean, I've already burned myself on Discovery in my normal face in episode three
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there, but I'd like to just play a human or maybe just a little
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less prosthetic because it does take a lot out of you. Yeah, prosthetic
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thing. And I was going to ask about that, like being going from
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voice acting to on camera acting to on camera with prosthetics. I mean,
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what is that difference? Like, well, the on camera that I do,
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like I said, I've done, I did more on camera than I
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did voice at first before COVID and the strike hit, but that kind of
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switched. But it's not so much before I get to the prosthetics. It's
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like the techniques are different, obviously, but from an acting point of view,
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you always approach it the same way. You know, the cliche,
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what does the character want, what is he doing to get it? What's
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in his way? How does he feel about this? How does he feel
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about that? How do they feel about him? All that stuff that doesn't
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change even if it's in a voice over booth. They're technical things like don't
20:08
hit them, you know, don't when you're acting. Don't hit the pop
20:11
filter orch some mic things like that, And on set, you know,
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you have to worry about marks, and you have to worry about lighting.
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You have to worry about blocking the the other actors light, and you have
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to worry about how your hair looks and your makeup and all that kind of
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crap. But so the technical stuff is different, but the approach of the
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act of the character is the same. But when you the one thing about
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prosthetics that I really liked. I didn't like getting up at two in the
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morning. I didn't like sitting there for four hours. Although I'm not really
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working when I'm sitting there, I'm just sitting there and they're working with all
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the people doing my makeup, they're the ones who are actually painstakingly working.
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I'm just trying not to fall asleep, sometimes actually falling asleep. And then
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you know, you have to work for twelve hours in this hot and latex,
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especially when you're doing fight scenes and things like that. It's hard.
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These are the first world problems. But there there are hard days and by
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the end you're very, very tired. But the one thing that I found
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freeing about it was I didn't have to worry about I don't like this angle
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in my face, I don't like the way the lighting is hitting me.
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Oh my hair, make sure my hair is not doing something crazy. All
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the stuff that you think about when you're just a normal actor on camera,
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because you always think about that stuff, right, you can't help it.
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If you're really interesting, you're not thinking about it. But most of the
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day you're like, oh, I didn't like that angle. I hate that.
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Why is my face looked at? Like those are the things that you
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always kind of think about, but under that prosthetic, even though it's pretty
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much like here is my face, and my nose is the same except the
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big bump here, so it's pretty much my face. But for some reason,
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I just lost all the inhibition or all like anything. I was worried
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about camera angles things like, I just forgot about it all. And so
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it was like it was not only freeing in that aspect, was like a
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learning maybe I should do this, whether I have this stuff on me or
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not, yeah, because that might free me up as an actor a little
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bit. And so that was the good thing about it. And also,
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you know, he's a freaking badass and I get to be here, yeah,
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so it's yeah, and he's super cool looking and all that stuff.
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So yeah, that's that's really fun and it's fun to walk on set,
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you know, Like I'm not the tallest dude, but I'm not short.
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I'm like five eleven, but they put me in boots like a little bit
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of a heel, so probably walked around like six to one, and I'm
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pretty broad shouldered, and I worked out a lot, and so I would
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walk on that set and I'd be like bam, bam, bam, like
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everyone turns and looks at me. Pretty to come down the aisle with that
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chair exactly. So so it is it is. Once you're in it and
22:51
you're doing it, it is really it was really really fun. I remember
22:53
there were days. I remember specifically sitting there in episode seven and just I
23:00
remember thinking like, yeah, this is tough, but man, this is
23:03
great, Like I love being here and that that speaks to the character,
23:08
of course, and the writing and everything and the producers, but it also
23:12
speaks to like how great of us said it is and how great those those
23:17
people are. And then I was just like, man, I could do
23:19
this, I said, exhausted as I am. I could do this for
23:23
a whole other year if I needed to. YEA, yeah, of course
23:26
I'm not. I'm not dug. Right, that was my first time ever
23:30
doing anything that extensive and it was only for about four and a half months.
23:34
Doug's been doing it for thirty years, right, so I'm sure he's
23:38
way more tired of it. Yeah. Yeah, I remember watching the show
23:45
and after your character had died, but they were still kind of dragging you
23:48
around a little bit little Bernie type thing. And I'm like, this poor
23:52
guy that he has to get up early do all the makeup and I didn't
23:55
do it though, Okay, I was wondering. Yeah. So two things
23:59
about that that was that's funny to me is the first one was when he's
24:03
just his body with the with the Breen helmet. One they asked me if
24:06
I wanted to hang around, and like, you want to hang around and
24:08
just come play the dead body? And I think they kind of wanted me
24:11
to say no, because look, let's be honest, if you're budgeting a
24:14
TV show, you have to pay me what you pay me every episode,
24:18
or you put a dummy there for nothing, right, I think they wanted,
24:22
but they did give me the option. I think they were happy that
24:25
I said no, But I wasn't happy that I said no because the episode
24:27
was directed by Jonathan Fraggin Frakes, right, and I had no idea.
24:30
I left and then he texted me a picture. She's like, this guy
24:33
apparently is on Star Trek. Because even though it's nothing. It was Star
24:36
Trek and I'm like, that's Jonathan friggin Frakes, like he's directing the episode.
24:41
He's like, yeah, he's really nice. I'm like, the son
24:42
of a bitch. I wouldn't meet him yet. Yeah, I've met him
24:45
a few times. Yeah, I've met a lot of the cast at these
24:48
comic cons and events and things like that. They're all to a person,
24:52
they're all great. A TG cast, they're all great, even the original
24:56
series. I know. I've spent a lot of time with Williams and he's
25:00
always he never remembers me, but once I reintroduced myself, then he remembers
25:03
me, and then we have these long conversations. Because Shatner and I grew
25:07
up literally on the same street corner. Oh wow, yeah, in Montreal.
25:11
He grew up obviously like thirty years before I did, but but on
25:15
the same street corner where I grew up. Oh wow, that's crazy.
25:18
Yeah. He's always been a hero of mine a lot of because of that,
25:22
because it's like, oh, if he left this corner and went there,
25:25
I can do it. So the kid that lives there now is watching
25:27
this English all right, Exactly. There's some kid there now who wants to
25:30
be on Star Trink and they might he might get his chance because this thing
25:34
is gonna go on forever. I think, yeah, well yeah, anyway,
25:40
so yeah, that was that was Freak's directed episode. I was mad
25:42
about that. And then the last one, they're like, do you want
25:45
to come up again? They asked me, do you want to come up
25:48
and play the actual lock in the mask? I'm like, guys, just
25:51
use a dummy. My kids are going back to school now. And it's
25:53
like, I'm gonna, you know, come up and sit through five hours
25:56
and makeup and then just lie there. It's like, are you you're not
26:00
bringing them back? Like no, no, no, So they used I
26:03
don't know if they use a dummy or a stuntman or whatever, but it's
26:06
my face over that. Yeah, over that thing. I was convinced that
26:11
they were going to bring you back, but they were gonna kill mall like
26:14
some sort of like Romeo and Juliet type of thing. Yeah, that would
26:17
have been interesting. Yeah, there are all sorts of options. I think
26:18
they were mulling a bunch because that was the other thing that they said is
26:22
I remember when we were on seven. So that's only three episodes left,
26:26
and they were still like, we still don't know if we're gonna bring you
26:29
back, like we might, we might, right, and then they decided
26:34
not not to. There a million things that they could have done. They
26:38
could have done that. One of the writers told me that one of the
26:41
original pitches was that Mall died and Locke went off and tried to save her
26:47
and then went and ruled the Breen. Okay, that was just one of
26:52
the pitches. Yea ever put pen to paper on that, but that was
26:56
that was one of the ideas, and that would have been interesting too.
26:57
All the all the had so many opportunities, so many choices that you could
27:02
have made there well, because originally they were uncertain that that was the final
27:04
season. Yeah, yeah, no, we didn't know. Shoot. I
27:08
remember going to a Christmas party with Doug after we had wrapped that year,
27:14
and Doug was like, yeah, I think we're gonna do a couple more
27:15
seasons and like, I'm dead, I don't care, but you do what
27:19
you want. But yeah, I think the cast had expected at least a
27:23
couple more a couple more seasons. But it's a weird time, man,
27:27
Like with with TV shows, and you know this like on video games.
27:30
You know, every day I'm seeing this video game company just fired two hundred
27:34
people. One of the games I'm really popular for is this game called dis
27:40
x Y. Yeah, and apparently we were in the middle of here.
27:44
They were in the middle of making the third part and they were gonna call
27:47
me and everything was going to go, and then they the company that bought
27:51
them, scrapped the project and fired like a hundred people. What do you
27:56
think is causing that shift? Is it just the financials of Hollywood right now?
28:00
I think it's twofold. It's partially the financials, but partially they made
28:02
their own bed, like they overspent. You'd be amazed. Even working in
28:07
games from a directing and acting point of view, I see, I'm like,
28:10
oh my god, why are you spending this much money? You know
28:12
you don't need to do this. And I watched them just overspend and overspend
28:17
and overspend, and then they then it just catches up, And I think
28:21
that's what happened. I think a lot of companies were sold to bigger companies,
28:23
and the bigger companies are going, what are you doing? You can't
28:26
do this? Scrap scrap scrap, fire and same thing in like Di Zaslav
28:32
with Warner Brothers and TV. You look at something and go, this is
28:36
never gonna make any money. Scrap scrap. I don't know if he's right,
28:38
you know, but that's what they're doing. It's just like these money
28:44
guys came in and just started scrapping things. Yeah, trying to balance out
28:47
between COVID and the strike and all that kind of stuff. Even now,
28:51
like you know, I I said, business right now is so messed up,
28:56
not so much video games, thankfully on working a lot in game,
29:00
but for on camera stuff like there are very few opportunities and a lot of
29:03
actors I know are very very panicked. A lot of writers I know are
29:07
very very panicked. Still even though the strike's over and COVID's over, they're
29:11
just the purse strings are not They're still tight. That's interesting because you know,
29:18
as somebody who's just watching this stuff, like there's so many streaming services
29:21
and so many like places looking for content, you would think that it's just
29:25
plentiful out there. Yeah, no it's not. It's weird. It's very
29:27
weird. They're also worried about as you know, if you know what is
29:32
but it's the crew and they're there. They might strike now, so they're
29:38
worried about that and they want to make sure that gets fixed before that.
29:41
And part of it people think it's like a punishment for striking, like,
29:45
well, we're not going to produce things for a while. For the actors
29:48
with the writers, I don't know. I don't know what the truth is,
29:49
but it is. It is a bit of a mess out there right
29:52
now. That's crazy. Well, I hope it gets better out there for
29:56
everyone. You know, it's tough. So okay, Well, uh,
30:00
I'm pretty much out of questions. If there's anything else you wanted to bring
30:03
up, I don't know my notes your show. Yeah, yeah, that's
30:07
fair. Well, Hey, thanks so much for taking the time. Really
30:11
appreciate it. It was awesome having you. Yeah, you know, I
30:15
can't wait to meet you out there in the in the conventions. So are
30:18
you going to any coming up? I just went to the to the Long
30:22
Island one. Did I meet you? I was there. I think we
30:26
briefly kind of walked by each other, but that's about it. Yeah,
30:29
there was a lot going on, so yeah, it was pretty thatch fun.
30:32
Yeah, have you been to any of like the Creation ones, the
30:33
big ones. I have not one of my best friends lives in Vegas,
30:37
so I might head out to that one. Yeah, kind of, They're
30:41
like Vegas is yeah yeah, and but I know you're in Ohio. Sorry,
30:48
so I I know. Sorry. I was thinking like, there's one
30:52
in Jersey coming up, a Creation one. Yeah, there isn't really a
30:56
lot of Star Trek conventions in my area. I have to go out of
31:00
town for one. Yeah. They're fun, man, and they're gonna be
31:03
going on forever, so you'll well for sure, yeah, for sure.
31:07
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. Neat
31:11
having you, and yeah, thanks so much. Co bye. This is
31:15
Captain Benjamin Cisco of Deep Space nine and Space God to the Bajorans. I
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