Latest / Pop Culture Junkie® / Mr. Fantastic: A Converation with Alex Hyde-White

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Mr. Fantastic: A Converation with Alex Hyde-White · Pop Culture Junkie®

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  [Music]
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  I am here with my bestie and co-host, Olivia.
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  And for this super-powered episode, we want to welcome special guest, Alex Hyde White.
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  Alex Hyde White, who also goes by Punch, is a film and television actor, producer and director,
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  born in Great Britain and raised in Southern California.
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  In 1978, he signed with Universal Pictures as one of the last contract players in Hollywood
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  and has appeared in films like Ishtar, Indiana Jones, and The Last Crusade.
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  Pretty Woman, Catch Me If You Can, Nope.
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  And the ones that we really want to talk about.
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  He played Reed Richards in 1994's The Fantastic Four,
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  and has a cameo in The Fantastic Four first steps.
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  He also appeared in TV series like New Heart, Murder She Wrote,
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  Babel on Five, Party of Five, Agents of Shield, Shameless, and Landman.
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  He's also an author having written the memoir in The Volume, My Life in Film and TV.
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  Welcome, Alex. I mean Punch. Welcome.
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  Wow. Wow. I want to meet that guy.
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  He sounds pretty impressive.
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  That was awesome.
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  Well, we did too. We did too.
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  That was awesome.
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  Ultimately, we're so happy to have you here.
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  I mean, that is just such an impressive career over your lifetime.
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  When I saw Pretty Woman on that list, I just had to know,
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  is Julia Roberts as pretty in person as she is in movies?
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  You know, she's even retained that glamour, no doubt about it.
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  But you know, we were all young and pretty then.
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  And yeah, she was, you know, as like, I don't like walking in a,
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  in a countryside and spring, the day that the flowers are blooming.
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  It was just a very rare occasion to be around the talent
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  who was just beginning to recognize, to be recognized,
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  and to sort of recognize within herself,
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  that she had, she was enjoying it.
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  Had a lot of fun.
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  And, you know, soon after that, I think, you know,
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  a dawned on her.
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  What becoming a Hollywood star was going to be.
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  And she's handled it very, very well.
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  You know, I don't stay.
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  I mean, if I ran into her, it'd be lovely.
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  But it's not like, it's not like we've stayed in touch.
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  But yeah, she was one of nature's gentle women, I would think, you know.
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  I love that.
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  I need a man to say that about me.
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  Nature's gentle woman, like walking into a field of flowers.
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  Yeah, well, yeah.
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  I mean, you know, she was just, I mean, as you know,
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  that's who she is, at least was then, a very instinctive and organic, you know.
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  Love that.
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  Alex, tell us a little bit about how you first got into acting.
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  I was raised sort of in a trunk in the theater.
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  My dad was a British actor who had a long career,
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  started in the 1920s and continued until the sort of the early 80s.
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  He was considerably older.
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  He was what, 55 when I was born.
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  But he was a really interesting, unique,
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  slightly eccentric. He said he had children every 30 years kind of thing.
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  Oh my gosh.
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  Was well known in England.
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  Wilfred Hyde White was his name.
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  Was well known in England.
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  And was known enough in Hollywood to, you know, have a career.
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  And he could, he bought a little house in the early 60s
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  when he co-starred in My Fair Lady, which was a huge,
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  was it really, it's the same story as pretty woman, which is, you know,
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  fitting for a sort of a legacy story that follows us around.
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  And he was in demand enough that he could live in Palm Springs and drive the 100 miles and
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  do these wonderful old universal shows like McMillan and Wife and Columbo and things like that.
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  And he was hired to be in the original Battlestar Galactica, the pilot as one of the council of 12
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  with with Ray Milan, who was at one time. I think it was the biggest mailbox office
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  American star in the 50s. And so they were sitting, you know, and by that,
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  then they were lovely two old half English, you know, gentlemen, enjoying, you know, a cup of tea.
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  So to speak around 12 o'clock in a styrofoam cup. And so, you know, my dad was no fool.
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  These kind of jobs were a lot better than doing eight shows a week in Brighton and some,
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  some recreation comedy. So I was corrupted very early on. There's a wonderful line in Don Henley's
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  what I think Sunset Grill or something that the lure of easy money is a very strong appeal, you know,
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  when you, and it all looked so so magical and fun. And I just for some dumb reason,
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  I felt it was attainable if I applied myself. And I was a pretty bright kid.
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  And so I was given an opportunity during that period because they were looking for boys to fly
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  jets in space on Battlestar Galactica way back in 78, 79. And then that led to a couple of auditions.
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  And they offered me a contract to start at Universal. So, you know, my dad never helped me since.
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  In fact, he kind of regra- Oh dear, what are you doing? What are you doing?
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  See, it's very competitive. But, you know, it was fun. So I sort of got to live right there. My dad
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  actually came to live with me in LA for a while when he was working. And you know, it was great. We got to,
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  we got to spend a lot of close time together in the, in the waning years of his career, the early years
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  of mine. And that was very satisfying. That's wonderful. Yeah. You mentioned contract. And I,
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  I read that you were one of the last contract players. Yeah. What does it mean to be a contract player?
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  Well, it means they're paying you every week. It was $350, I think. And that was an rent for the month.
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  It was like $350. So, you know, they would pay you enough so that you didn't necessarily have to
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  wait tables or drive a cab or other things that might not be worth admitting. But, um,
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  and then they would sort of act as your agent on the lot. And there was enough TV shows going. I
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  mean, there was Quincy. I think I signed on a Monday. And on Tuesday, I was on the set of Quincy,
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  with saying one line. And then two days later, I was in Battlesar Galactica, flying a jet and
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  sitting on an Apple box in front of a green screen. So the reality reality met fantasy pretty quick.
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  There I go. Oh, my God. Is this it? But, um, and then, and then, um, they would sort of promote you
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  within. And then if you got a job outside of Universal, they would get that contract. And they,
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  and maybe make a little money off you. And that word Jamie Lee Curtis, for instance, was with us
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  at that time. And like, you know, her Halloween, which probably wasn't a big movie at that time.
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  But that would have been another studio. And so it was a good way to get discovered to get sort of,
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  um, uh, vouched for in a way, you know, and supported. But there was also a faction of the
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  industry that felt that don't that it wasn't, um, worth doing. But, you know, I'm a sucker for employment.
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  So, um, yeah, I was happy to be a partner in come. You know, you know, it's, it's funny really because
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  an actor never really works. I mean, you know, he has a job every once in a while. You get a job
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  and then you go to work for a few days. And then there's like, you know, days, weeks, months,
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  go by. And then you get another opportunity. It's like, um, you know, a climbing a mountain. It takes you
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  eight months to figure it out and plan it and get up there. And then you're on the summit for what?
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  Half a day before they say we got to get you out of here. And you know, it's very similar
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  life, um, as a, as a, um, as a, I guess, I don't know, journeyman actor, but, but, um, you know,
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  I've played big parts in small movies and I've played small parts in big movies. And this, and,
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  and, and, and the small movies, you know, they last for a few weeks. The big movies, they just can be
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  a couple of days, but tremendously satisfying. Yet I look at it all sort of one big journey. Yeah.
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  Because it's, it repeats itself. It's amazing. The, um, that's part of the, um, the theme of my book was
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  there's a great line in Shakespeare. I think it's in Hamlet. The "Wirly Gag of Time" comes full circle.
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  And it's like, whoa, what's that mean? And, you know, so the great love, "Wirly," what's a "Wirly Gag?" Well, you know,
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  an acting career is a "Wirly Gag." Oh my god. It scares, scares the, scares the, it's out of us.
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  Yeah. That's so interesting is one of the, the last people do you think that the industry
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  is better or worse with, you know, those kind of contract gigs going away?
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  Well, they've come back in a funny sort of way because, um, so many, uh, groups use the same people.
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  So, you know, they're more, more privatized. It's, I think it's harder to break through now as, uh, as an,
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  as an actor, unless you do one of two things, get very lucky young in a Tom Cruise Brad Pitt kind of,
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  or Julia Roberts kind of way. Lucky, meaning, you know, luck is being in the right place at the right time.
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  Talent is the, the ability to get work. So if you look that as a quotient, you add those two together,
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  you get an opportunity and then if it's a hit, then tight, tried and true, uh, rubric of the business,
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  is if it's a hit, then you're popular. Yeah. That's the same, that's the same, then and that's the same now.
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  I think people get more opportunity now, you know, got like Bradley Cooper, for instance, who has become,
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  um, you know, a top name actor director, you know, he started out, I don't know quite where,
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  how, where he started out, probably, you know, fairly modest, but he was playing supporting roles and
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  things and he graduated up. I think it's, it was harder in, um, when I was younger and getting
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  opportunities in indie films, I guess, the greatest example is probably the silly old fantastic
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  four movie that if it didn't work at, if a project didn't work out, didn't, uh, didn't meet or,
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  meet expectation. It was deemed that you were sort of a part of that not working out. Nowadays, I don't,
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  I think actors are insulated by the, the commercial success and, you know, uh, much more, yeah, yeah.
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  Well, I think this much more work is much more product. Yeah. Um, and I've noticed that, um, I think
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  if a young actor's or people say, hey, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm thinking about moving to Hollywood. My first
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  piece of advice has always been, oh, that's great. Take fountain because the rest of the streets are,
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  are, I mean, crowded, but, you know, create content. And, um, I think the business is rewarding, uh,
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  content creators. Um, more, more than they are sort of the traditional actors who've gone to, uh,
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  acting school gone through julie ardent and, and whatnot. So, um, I think a contract system would
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  be very valuable now. Uh, it seems like the contracts are, are, are content deals with Netflix or
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  somebody somebody else, you know, yeah, yeah, million dollar deal with Netflix. But there is star. Yeah.
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  So, you know, um, Lena Dunham, I think, uh, several years ago, uh, broke out with a, with, so every once in a
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  while. But, you know, yeah, you have to be a producer more, more of these days. If you're going to
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  mean actor, you really have to understand that you're producing your, um, yourself. I don't like to say
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  brand. It's not a brand. You're a human being, you know? Yeah. So as you tell the
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  worldly gig of time is rolling around in my head. Yeah. I like it. I mean, I think you see that a lot
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  with like Margot Robbie and her, um, production studio Sydney Sweeney's also, um, had a lot of quotes
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  around how it was very hard for her to make good money early on. Um, and that's why she's gotten
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  into producing and gotting into these brand deals and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. That's,
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  that's so interesting that it still exists, but it's less through the studios. It's more privatized.
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  Yeah. It's more agents and she had to, uh, she had to get a good job though before, before being,
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  um, being, uh, given that chance, didn't she? I mean, Sweeney, look at Pedro. Look at, like a Pedro
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  Pascal. You go and look and you see that sort of a chubby chief. He's a fee cameo. Yeah. Yeah.
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  I mean, he's like, hell, I looked like I worked with him on Murder She Road. He's not quite that old,
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  but I mean, my lord. He's like, whoa. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When you were talking, I was thinking of
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  Pedro Pascal. I mean, he was on so many like SVU episodes. He had like a one episode arc and
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  Buffy. Yeah. And I think we see a lot of that in the 90s and the 2000s where these actors were
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  around and then they just got one movie that really exploded into their career and I love Pedro Pascal.
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  So I mean, everybody loves Pedro. How did you know it? It was game of thrones. Wasn't it that
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  wonderful exotic character that just lit it up? Well, Brian Martell. Yeah. Absolutely.
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  Getting his skull crushed in. And it's interesting to think too, um, when you mentioned like actors
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  who have those contracts with, you know, Netflix or Hulu, I was just thinking the other day,
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  like Haley Joel Osmond. I've seen him in so many Netflix things recently. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know he's kind of having this career come back from being
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  a child star and I'm like, yeah, that's a contract with Netflix going on here. Yeah. Well, you know,
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  yeah, whether it's whether it's explicit or just sort of understood that they like him and you know,
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  look, the business is really casting directors selling their talent that they that they want to help
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  selling them to the producers. And the easier that can be for everybody than, you know, then,
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  then if you happen to be the recipient of that, if you're in that lane and, you know, the older I get,
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  man, I know the older I get, if I could just stay alive and healthy, the fewer, the less competition
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  there is when I was young, I was, you know, I was a decent looking young fella and I had a,
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  I had some sort of pizzazz, I had a gift of the gab of half English, half American, and I came close
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  and there was a lot of competition. I mean, I remember going up to the movie, the movie taps, I think,
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  or, or, you know, and that's and and everybody's in that movie. It's Tom Cruise and all that bit. So,
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  I didn't get those. And so I had to wait and then I sort of got my things and then built on it and
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  Cree and crafted us a career and of experience that is well worth celebrating. I mean, even if I say so
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  myself, because I really enjoyed writing the memoirs and reliving it. But I've realized now that I'm
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  sort of, I don't know, Alex the white or Alex the gray, I'm not a soldier. You know, I'm, I'm in a
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  slightly different arena, still waiting soldiers to be picked. But, well, I'd hire you for an English
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  actor any day because yeah, that's a great one. Sean. Yeah, I get a lot of good work. Very mystery pop
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  with our accents. Like it'll start one day and then it'll become like a completely different
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  accent. We have terrible accents on the show. Unless it's like a newsboy. Sean has got that down.
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  Yeah, great old time act. That's enough goes. It has to come in every episode. I mean, I do believe like
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  being an actor is such a, has such a need for self confidence and self belief and you know, you kind
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  of have to have this thicker, like thick skin to go through it. I mean, of all the roles you've done
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  and all the individuals you've worked with, like what are the most memorable ones for you that you've
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  kind of seen throughout your career that maybe are unique or you know, really stuck out when you
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  were writing your memoir. Well, you know, I approached it from that philosophy of sort of
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  celebrate the peak moments and then tie them together with real life and sort of
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  not be afraid of the truth bearing in mind that reflecting, reflecting back the truth has
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  a tendency to become a bit of a myth. And so you print the myth, but I was not afraid of
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  recalling who I was during these periods of waiting for other opportunities to celebrate.
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  And what comes to mind really, it's, it are the hits. Pretty woman was a wonderful
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  confluence of events that wouldn't have happened for me to join that cast had it not been for
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  Bob Newhart liking me on his CBS sitcom in the in the last couple of years of his
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  Vermont in character. And that that really wouldn't have happened for me if I hadn't been on a role
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  of indie movies and a couple of Roger Korman. There was a period where I was working a lot in the
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  I guess it was $9,899, $9,991 and it culminated with joining the cast of what became one of the
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  defining romantic comedies of the late 20th century. So, you know, it's not simply,
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  you know, I got pretty woman. It's like, I don't know, it's like a bad relationship. It's,
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  it's getting really bad now, but it started like eight years ago, you know? Yeah. So, that's the journey.
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  That's the journey and highlighted by both the peaks of a Newhart and TV getting this
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  great part in in sort of high comedy, which is something that I didn't have many opportunities to do.
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  And I didn't really know if I could do it or not at that level. And that that helped me understand
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  that. And then, of course, when they were casting Pretty Woman, they were looking for someone exactly
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  that who can be not so much comedic, but who could be light yet classy. And I guess, you know,
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  wealthy and you I put on a suit and I have nice hair. It's okay. That's fine. But that was the
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  character and it ended up being the romantic foil to Richard gear in Pretty Woman in a condensed
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  way, but that was the character. And, and you know, that was given to me. I earned it. I earned it by
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  sort of working my way up to that. And then when Spielberg sort of rediscovered me unknowingly
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  that on Catch Me If You Can to hire me just for a day to play the divorce lawyer because there
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  was a hole in their script. There was a hole in their story that they they wanted to fill with
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  him and Jeff Nathanson, the screenwriter for Catch Me If You Can. Why does Leonardo run away and
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  create this life of an imposter? And it's because he was running away from the discord at home,
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  as as as parental. And that wasn't in the original story. Oh, that's so interesting. Yeah, I had auditioned for
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  I think the father of one of his early girlfriend, which ended up being played by Martin Sheen,
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  which is probably the first time I've ever lost a job, the Martin Sheen. But, yeah, so you know,
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  they they agent call back because they look at that. Martin Sheen's playing at other part, but they've
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  they've added this other character and they think that this might work. So I went in and I got it.
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  And you know, I'm sitting on a little, you know, 12 by 15 one bedroom sat on O'Lacey Street Studios
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  in Glendale, which you know, it's not known for necessarily doing big budget films, but it that way.
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  And is Leonardo sitting right here on the bed next to me and there's Chris Walken and in Spielberg.
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  And he introduces me to everybody on the because we all met. I think it was almost everybody's first
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  day except for Leo. And he said, this is Alex and I go, sir, do you mind, Stephen, can I just say
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  something before we start? He goes, well, of course. And I said, Junior, about to 20.
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  And he goes, no, and I go, yeah, he goes, what now? I'm most son. I go, yeah. And so here he is. Like, he's a
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  kid. I love this. Alex. Oh, he was young Henry Jones and he knows. He doesn't miss a trick. He knows
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  exactly. I mean, Stephen's a wonderful, wonderful guy. He's smart. He's, he's a leader in many,
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  many ways. I don't have to say that. But what I can say is that when he's in the sandbox, when he's
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  playing with the kids, he's a kid. He loves making movies. And you know, that was a wonderful moment.
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  Personally, and it's a life, it's a life moment when, you know, you share a laugh with Spielberg.
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  And he sort of promotes you in the moment. And then he said, God, I, then we break because this
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  is in the old days before they invented digital cameras. This was analog film. So, you know,
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  we're there setting up the shot for half an hour. We're walking off and he goes, I said, hey, I,
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  I didn't put it together. I didn't, I didn't remember you from, I didn't put it together from
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  Indie, but you know, I just liked your audition. That's amazing. That's all right. So, right, man,
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  I've seen most of your movies here. We're good. I love that movie. I haven't seen it in ages,
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  but that was a big hit on one of my favorite. Yeah, absolutely great. I touch. It has such a light touch
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  to it. Right. I totally agree. Yeah. Yeah. I saw another movie on your list was Note that cannot
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  recently. I adore that movie too. Can you talk a little bit about your experience? Yeah, it's a great
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  segue because Jordan is, you know, he's the new Spielberg in the sense of crafting stories using sort
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  of tropes and archetypes. And he's right there at Universal. His offices are very close to Amlin.
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  And I was talking to him about that. And Stephen, he's, he's, he's, he went and kissed the ring
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  over at the Amlin. You know, he's, oh yeah, I went over so Stephen and Universal really likes Jordan.
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  And he's a true talent. Of course, you know, he writes his material. And he's a bit like Rod Surling
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  in a way. He loves, he loves that genre of science mystery in a way, science adventure.
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  And I would love to talk about a stable in the in the modern day sort of version of a contract.
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  You know, I don't, I think the time is running out for me to join Chris Nolan's stable because
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  I don't know them. Maybe the older I get in there, man. Some day, Ian McCullough might not be available.
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  Who knows? Right. I met him on a movie. I'd love, I'd love to work in those films. But I, I would,
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  I would be very happy and I wouldn't be surprised in a sort of slightly egocentric way if you forgive me.
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  If I end up working with Jordan again, because we got along really well. And it was, it was a fun experience.
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  Yeah, I think Jordan Peele is so interesting and such an interesting arc, right? To go from like
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  the key and Peele show into writing a movie, directing, and then just really exploding from there.
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  So, you know, props to Comedy Central for giving them the chance and that show, that show was amazing.
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  I don't know how it's hilarious. Oh, it's hilarious.
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  Do you have a genre, Alex, that you feel most comfortable working in? Comedy, action, horror,
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  romance? I like action. I like adventure. And I'm like I say, I'm still in good shape. I like,
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  I'd love to play like a Harrison Ford part. And so action are moving around and even I did it a bit
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  when I was younger. You know, it's a great example because with an exception of a couple of films like
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  Witness or regarding Henry or one or two more, Harrison's Ford energy is that of almost
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  comedic but humorous, almost melodramatic but dramatic. And so it's that light comedy, light drama
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  way that you know, I think is is is where charisma lies, you know.
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  You know, every Daniel Day or Sean Penn, they sort of cornered the market on, you know,
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  exhausting intensity and it's wonderful. And I'm not I'm not a comedian cracker of firecracker of
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  a comedian. And so I like that sort of light drama of pretty woman or even catch me if you can in a way.
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  And then of course, light comedy, which is very close. But I like action adventure movies.
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  Somebody asked me the other day, what would I really want to do in a job? And I go, you know,
• 26:05
  I'd like to sort of, I don't do duos, globe-trotting or even just a European shoot and something that's
• 26:11
  just moving around even a period piece. I like, I like action in terms of being active, you know,
• 26:19
  I like moving it. I like to play tennis, but it's a short court. We move three yards at a time.
• 26:24
  I eat a bigger boat.
• 26:27
  Well, speaking of an action adventure movie that you did, we're going to take a quick break.
• 26:35
  And then talk about the Fantastic Four from 1994.
• 26:39
  So let's talk about the Fantastic Four. You were the first actor to play Reed Richards/MrFantastic
• 26:52
  on film in a movie directed by Oli Sassone. Am I saying that correctly? Yes, you are.
• 26:58
  Oh, I love that picture. That's so wonderful.
• 27:01
  Oh, that's amazing. Blast Gordon almost. Fantastic.
• 27:06
  Unfortunately, the movie never got released. So let's start from the beginning and tell us
• 27:14
  about how you got involved in the Fantastic Four. Well, it might also be, fortunately,
• 27:18
  that movie never got released. So again, I was on a roll and I'd done, I think, two films for the
• 27:30
  Roger Cormes Studios, one that I sort of played a co-lead of a time travel adventure where I'm the
• 27:36
  Robin Hood kind of character. They went back to Medieval, England, and I had these lovely
• 27:42
  hair extensions. I had got a month's field. I think it was. And Roger was great at tapping into
• 27:51
  what were current genres and Willow had come out. And I had a couple of meetings with Ron Howard
• 27:59
  for that part. Of course, which went to Val, like it should have. He was a god at that time.
• 28:05
  But I was bummed. That was exactly the kind of part that I relished playing in a sense of history.
• 28:11
  You know, light comedy. And I loved it. I probably wasn't as good. It probably wasn't as
• 28:19
  able to pull it off, like Val was. But that's okay. But I was bummed. As you can tell,
• 28:25
  that was 35 years ago. And I'm still bummed about it. But, you know, I loved that. And then Roger
• 28:31
  Cormes Studio, a guy named Howard Cohen, I think, was the director and writer,
• 28:38
  wrote the single "Time Trackers," where Kathleen Beller and Will Schreiner, who goes back in time,
• 28:44
  and then she meets and falls in love with Ed Goodman's field. And they hired me to play that part,
• 28:50
  off of an audition, and the fact that Roger trusted me. And that gave me, I suppose,
• 29:01
  an understanding of what it meant to work in those circumstances. You know, not that one really
• 29:10
  needed it. But there really weren't a lot of options for movie and TV. I think maybe cable TV
• 29:20
  started, of course. But prior to that, there were three television networks. And maybe four
• 29:24
  movie studios, and they were going through a bit of a recession. So again, I'm a sucker for employment.
• 29:29
  And, you know, I think one of my manager friends asked me, why are you doing that? And I said, well,
• 29:37
  because they offered it to me, you idiot. I mean, come on. But the great thing that I've always found,
• 29:45
  still to this day about independent film, is if it's a movie, it's usually a passion project
• 29:51
  that somebody has brought to fruition. In case in point, you know, Jordan Peel's early work.
• 29:55
  And when one is up for a part in that movie of any of any significance, you're going to walk
• 30:01
  into that room. They're going to be there, and maybe one or two other people. And it's going to be
• 30:06
  their decision, and they're pretty much going to make it in the moment. Whereas the television can
• 30:10
  be, you know, a committee, and it's a different television. Television shows they run such a pace.
• 30:16
  That, you know, they can cast it at the train station if they need to. But,
• 30:20
  people take into their independent film projects very, very seriously, very close to heart. So,
• 30:28
  when I was called in to, when I was given the script of original Fantastic Four, I didn't know
• 30:37
  too much about it. I wasn't, you know, I was not in New York, East Coast comic book Marvel. Boy,
• 30:42
  I mean, I liked cartoons. It's not like I know everything about this part. You go, oh,
• 30:47
  there. Oh my god. I went into it. Cool. You know, right. I just, I wanted to, I got the moment. And
• 30:54
  I worked really hard on the scene and just learned the lines, learned the lines. And I went in and I
• 31:00
  gave this very natural take. And it just turns out it's like, you know, blind duck hits pole. The
• 31:07
  part was right for me and I was right to the part. And I walked out of that room with the job. And it
• 31:12
  took about a couple of days. I was taking a friend to the airport, Max Caulfield, British actor,
• 31:16
  an old friend of mine. And, you know, Max is a kind of guy who's always trying to keep his
• 31:21
  fear to the casting grindstone punch. You know, have you heard about this film Fantastic Four? You
• 31:27
  know, there's a wonderful plot. And I go, oh, really? I'm driving him to the airport and he goes,
• 31:31
  yes, you know, I've tried to get up. I can't get up for it. But you should, you should talk to the
• 31:35
  used talk to your people. And I go, okay, cool. Thanks. And this was my page. You're went off. I'll tell
• 31:41
  you, come on. What was this? 1922. My page went off. Yeah. You know, I said, Max, we're at LAX right
• 31:47
  there. Max staying the car for a minute. Don't get it toad. I went to the payphone. Made a call.
• 31:51
  Mark Malis, my manager said they've offered you read riches in Fantastic Four. And I go, no,
• 31:55
  shit. He goes, yeah, I go great. Okay. Fine. Do you want to do it? And I go, yeah, come on. Sit up.
• 31:59
  I go back to Max. Hey, Max. I don't think I need to meet on that movie Fantastic Four. Well,
• 32:06
  why not? Is it because they bloody will just offered it to me. It's, oh, all right. Well, thank you
• 32:11
  for the ride. I mean, I'm so British. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I was right for the part.
• 32:21
  Yeah, the part was right for me. Yeah. And I think that there was a sense of urgency. And they just
• 32:27
  didn't have time to hire somebody to, you know, to find a better date and in another working out.
• 32:32
  Is there something about the character of read that you most identify with or that you appreciate
• 32:39
  the most about him? I'm a big Marvel fan girl. Yeah. And I love the Fantastic Four. And read is so
• 32:46
  interesting because he's he's brilliant and often to his own detriment, right? Like it can kind of like,
• 32:53
  I don't know, bite him in the butt sometimes because he's so smart. He comes off a little awkward.
• 32:57
  Is there something that you like the most about him or that you identify with? Well, yeah, I think what
• 33:02
  I, what I really identified with read and I'm a little envious of is that given as long as he sort
• 33:09
  of stays in his lane, given the fact that he literally has a psychological and physical
• 33:15
  ability to expand the air. I don't know how to stretch on this thing, but you know, he can fill the space.
• 33:21
  Okay. He can he can change. Well, he can know he doesn't change. He just elongates himself. So he's
• 33:27
  capable of doing more. Okay. He's capable, literally capable of doing more that he can get away with
• 33:35
  anything as long as he stays in character. And you know, I don't think he really doubts himself
• 33:42
  that much. He's just he always has that worldly gig going on. No, really gig that you know,
• 33:48
  as fast as he goes as fast as he is capable of going and as as flexible as he is to be able to
• 33:57
  take on, you know, more stress on his body. He always wants more and he's never really satisfied.
• 34:04
  So, you know, that can be annoying. That can be a lot of things which are all very human. But ultimately,
• 34:12
  he's going to be the greatest problem solver you're going to find in and pretty much in pop culture, I think.
• 34:18
  100 percent one of the greatest marvel geniuses or pop culture geniuses with independent films.
• 34:25
  I feel like you never really know like if it's going to hit, but it's more like, Hey, I read the
• 34:31
  script. I'm interested in it. Like, you know, I have to take a jump and a guess on this new director
• 34:37
  or this lower budget, like, how are we going to get into that? I watched the movie last night,
• 34:43
  actually. And yes, yes, the 1984 one. Yeah. So, you know, you were a good looking man and are still
• 34:52
  as they were. Yeah. Where is the wrong word? But yeah, no, it was I was raised on like the 2000s,
• 34:59
  fantastic four. So it was it was cool to see the movie itself. But what's crazy about this is it was
• 35:08
  unreleased, right? But it became such a cult classic. And I want to kind of like when did you first hear
• 35:15
  that this movie was like boot like being released and people were. Yeah. A couple of years,
• 35:23
  I think we started filming around Thanksgiving 92 and we finished early in 93 and did some reshoots.
• 35:30
  Which was a little strange because somebody must have felt that the film was good enough to just
• 35:37
  add a little more to the ending, which we did about a month or six weeks later. And I'd learned
• 35:44
  enough during the making of the film that there was an audience out there for this material. And
• 35:52
  went to the producer in the heterogeneous studio, Nice Fellas said, look, I want to put together
• 35:59
  a press tour. And I've got a press agent cowboy friend of mine who was very good at that kind of stuff.
• 36:05
  And so we hired him on at friendly rates. And Roger said, I can't pay for anything, but I can give
• 36:11
  you a thousand stills. And so he printed up a thousand pictures of the picture of that of I guess
• 36:19
  it's this head shop, which is a color shot of me and Rebecca. And I went we went around I went
• 36:25
  around the country and Michael Bailey Smith who played Ben Grimm has become a good friend. He
• 36:30
  was a, God, he was a forming army ranger and a college football player, big guy. He and I, he would
• 36:35
  join me and we'd be this double act shown up at comic book stores in New York or Florida or we went
• 36:42
  to conventions and we did that for almost a year on and off during the season. And boy, oh boy,
• 36:48
  Roger, they also gave us a copy of the trailer that they had made. And so we were out there promoting
• 36:54
  the film in sort of old-fashioned actor manager style. We're taking the show to the audience sort of
• 36:59
  touring the prop. And you know, after a while, when people said, when's it going to come out, you just
• 37:06
  had to start saying, oh, it's going to come out early next year. And you know, I mean, yeah. And it's
• 37:13
  sort of I think what happened was it might have happened anyway, but I really feel that for one
• 37:18
  thing, we took advantage of that that interregnum that in between time when a film was in post-production.
• 37:27
  And I know only the director on his own dime was working over the summer of 93 slowly trying to,
• 37:34
  you know, light it and color correct it and the music guys were working. So, you know, a lot of people
• 37:39
  worked a lot harder on this film than I did, but I was doing my bit, beating the bushes, finding
• 37:45
  the audience and taking these pictures and showing them props of the movie, just telling them like I
• 37:49
  am with you, lovely people, 35 years later. And you know, they were eight, nine, 12-year-old kids
• 37:58
  and their parents and they loved it. And so it might have indeed been a way to
• 38:04
  like proof of concept in a way that, hey, this movie, you better watch out because this movie might
• 38:11
  mess up your franchise if you don't buy it and kill it. Which is the, you know, it's sort of the myth of
• 38:19
  the story. And for the longest, then of course we were, you know, then I think I think was actually my
• 38:27
  publicist who had arranged, we were supposed, actually there was talk of being in the Rose Parade that
• 38:32
  year in New Year's of '94 because it was some like journeys to space or it was some futuristic theme.
• 38:41
  And soon after that, they said, well, you know, we're going to launch it at the
• 38:46
  Mall of American Minneapolis, which was a popular home for early screenings of film.
• 38:55
  Always wanted to go. Yeah, you know, I don't know if we really were. I don't know if it,
• 38:59
  and I don't think anybody put a deposit down on the theater, but who knows? I might have been a fan of that.
• 39:03
  And we got right to that point. And then the earthquake of '94 happened and I was living right by
• 39:10
  the beach, it rocked the earthquake, the earthquake rocked my world. And then about a week later they
• 39:14
  said, okay, fantastic for is, is, is done and not going to happen. So I watched the documentary,
• 39:22
  the doomed one. Yeah. So it kind of talks about, you know, what led to the film not being released.
• 39:30
  Can you talk a little bit about, you know, what you guys heard and, you know, Stan Lee's involvement in
• 39:35
  that? Well, you know, Stan Lee became a very well-known pop culture older statesman, you know.
• 39:47
  Yeah. But when you, when you look at his, the later years of his life, it's not a happy
• 39:53
  situation. He had people around him. And, and, you know, he obviously, I think he deserved better.
• 40:02
  But I didn't know him then. I do remember him coming to the set of the movie at least once. And he,
• 40:08
  I'm pretty damn sure he brought donuts at least. That's what I'm, that's what I'm, I quote. And,
• 40:13
  there was just such a, and it's almost heartwarming in a way because it really what, it, it, it,
• 40:19
  it might be what Marvel was in the beginning. They were sort of naive and blind to the,
• 40:24
  the corruption of the world, you know, they were creating these, they created these alternate
• 40:30
  universes and they, they filled them very credibly and, and, and, and, and, and very thoroughly. And,
• 40:38
  when he would later on when these other fantastic, well, I guess before then the other one started
• 40:45
  coming out, you know, you'd read occasionally. Now Stan Lee says that this other other movie was never
• 40:51
  destined to happen. Well, you know, that's not what I remember Stan. But I, I wasn't going to,
• 40:56
  you know, I mean, what am I going to say? Stan Lee does know what he was talking about. I think,
• 41:00
  you know, he was just, he was friendly and supportive until he was,
• 41:05
  until he wasn't. And you know, a guy like that, you kind of figure, you, you want to, you want to
• 41:13
  take on the man a bit, you know, I think that again, they were so desperate, not so desperate. They were
• 41:20
  so invested in their work, making this transition to film. And that's the, that's the, that's the
• 41:27
  corruption, that's the corrupt of lore of, of this business. People get into movies and TV,
• 41:32
  everybody wants to be an actor or a director. And only if you have enough money, can you be a producer?
• 41:38
  And, and, and they end up being film critics or, you know, acting coaches and all that bit. And
• 41:45
  that's fine. But you got to be careful about having this undercurrent of resentment or this undercurrent
• 41:53
  of, of, I've never really belonged. And I'm kind of angry, you know, okay. When you create something
• 42:00
  that's, that's as important as it's proven to be, like the original Kirby and Lee and all those
• 42:06
  other great folks in their early days of Marvel, then, you know, that's it. And that's your thing.
• 42:12
  It doesn't need to be any more, any more important because they made lousy movies out.
• 42:16
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So have you seen the 2000s, fantastic boys with Chris Evans and,
• 42:25
  yep, and Jessica Alba, Jessica Alba, more, yeah, most importantly.
• 42:30
  You and, you and Griffith, right? The Welsh actor was the first one, right?
• 42:35
  Yep, I think so. Yes. And then Chris Evans, but wasn't that silver surfer?
• 42:42
  So there was two fantastic four movies with Chris Evans as Johnny Torch.
• 42:48
  And then they moved into the fantastic four that came out a couple of years ago that
• 42:55
  Miller, Michael B. Jordan. Yes. Which, you know, he got his other shot at Marvel, of course, but
• 43:01
  not so. Yeah, he was Killmunker in the Black Panther movies. Oh, Black Panther. Yeah, but I mean,
• 43:08
  the big movie, that doesn't need to be a Marvel movie. That was just a, that was a big thing, you know.
• 43:13
  I saw, I look, I went and saw the first one. I was high hopes. And the trouble within you and Griffith,
• 43:19
  a good actor, well cast, the trouble, the trouble of it is that they weren't the fantastic four.
• 43:23
  They had no identity. Yep. And they tried to sort of make it the Ben Grimm, the Michael Chicklis story.
• 43:29
  And I know, I know the writer was a golfing friend of my name, Mark Frost. And, you know,
• 43:35
  I said to him, why the hell did you open that movie with Ben Grimm causing a traffic jam? Yeah.
• 43:40
  Wrecking the bridge and causing a traffic jam. I said a hero is supposed to
• 43:46
  recover from Mayhem, but not create the Mayhem in the first place. Okay. Yeah. So it's okay for Ben
• 43:54
  Grimm or the thing to have this look. The guy changes is like the Hulk. He can have these
• 44:01
  psychological difficulties that he can act out. He can punch a window or stuff like,
• 44:07
  but he cannot go and put innocent people in danger specifically at the opening of the film.
• 44:11
  It just, yeah. It loses credibility. And I just think it was a result of them trying to,
• 44:17
  again, it's almost the same day or there's a day where it's so desperate to make it work that
• 44:23
  they undercut the any sort of creative authority. And it ended up probably being,
• 44:28
  you know, about a camel is a horse made by committee. I totally agree. I think that those movies had,
• 44:37
  I don't know, maybe at the time, you know, seeing them, you're excited. Oh, cool. Fantastic
• 44:43
  Bores on the big screen. But all the characters feel a little one note and a little
• 44:49
  exploitative with Sue. Yeah. She's just kind of the sexy one and her oh, we're closer off.
• 44:56
  And so it's I'm glad that it got the the Marvel treatment that it did with Fantastic Four first steps,
• 45:03
  which you are actually in. Can you talk about that a little bit?
• 45:08
  Have a little bit. Well, you know, it was the working backwards. The wonderful thing about being
• 45:15
  part of the cast and publicity arm of that film was I was welcomed personally,
• 45:25
  right from the beginning, as we all were, there was four of us. And Kevin Feige,
• 45:30
  and I'd lovely chat with him, never met him before. And within 10 seconds of meeting him,
• 45:40
  it was obvious that I was meeting someone who was a fan of a no doubt pop culture, B Marvel product.
• 45:47
  He's probably the you know, the global expert on Marvel. That's, you know, he's so responsible for it
• 45:53
  all, but he was also a fan of my part, my performance in that movie and talking to me about that. And
• 46:02
  which a great way to look, you want to have a nice conversation with an actor, you know, you just
• 46:08
  say, Hey, I really like to hear that movie. Now you happen to own that movie. Yeah. Nice like
• 46:14
  to be. And you know, we're just talking briefly. He said he'd seen the documentary and I said,
• 46:21
  yeah, the documentary was good, you know, and I said, look, it's just, I really liked your film. I
• 46:27
  liked your relationships. The heart felt the heart felt energy, the heart felt relationships. And
• 46:33
  you know, it's really like what you guys did. And I go, well, you know, it's very hard, I think,
• 46:39
  to make a film where there's four leads, you know? And we didn't. We were, we were not, we didn't
• 46:46
  run away from the origin story led by this very busy overhyper smart guy. And these are, then he
• 46:58
  brings the others along, okay? And that's the one thing that the other fantastic four movies didn't have.
• 47:03
  And Kevin was said he worked on the first one when Lauren Schiller-Donna produced, I guess the
• 47:09
  '05 version. And that was lovely because of the common ground there because I'm one of my early
• 47:14
  directors that I worked with who I so admired and wrote about in the book was Richard Donner,
• 47:19
  who Superman director, Lauren's husband and died several years ago, but you know, and so
• 47:24
  one would think that the actor who played the original read Richards in this wicked stepchild
• 47:32
  of a version of a film, meaning Kevin Feige, who now has a copy of me bootlegging my character
• 47:43
  in order to put in the cover of my book, we're suddenly talking about so many, we have such common
• 47:50
  ground. And I realized again, like we were talking earlier, you know, it's, you can be the prince,
• 47:57
  you can be the pauper, and that really doesn't matter if there is a shared humanity, if there is,
• 48:04
  which is something that's very, maybe it's, maybe it's more prevalent now in the industry,
• 48:09
  maybe there's more nicer people now with new generations coming up, but I just found that being a part
• 48:15
  of it and being welcomed and being appreciated, even in a very, very small way, filmically,
• 48:24
  in first steps, was a validation of what up until very recently was either a mistake of a film or
• 48:32
  a happy accident of a film, and it completely turned the narrative, which isn't overused phrase
• 48:38
  these days. But suddenly now the story of my life, Bees of Eve, Fantastic Four has this wonderful
• 48:48
  sort of exclamation point, epilogue. And, you know, again, like with Jordan, I don't see any reason why
• 48:56
  I shouldn't be working for Kevin and Marvel again, because he totally agreed. We kept our mouth shut,
• 49:02
  and did a fun job, and you know, that movie was such a tight edit. There's no fat in that film.
• 49:09
  It's an extraordinary film in a way. It's almost a new presentation of a wonderful
• 49:17
  pop culture kind of story. It's not at all indulgent. When you look at it, it's really very simple
• 49:23
  in its linear structure. You learn about them. There's the galactic threat,
• 49:31
  and then the bully comes to town, and they push them in a hole. That's really what it is.
• 49:37
  They don't even show the accident, which I think is so interesting for Fantastic Four movie.
• 49:42
  No, there's a thing now I think that people are tired of origin stories, because usually
• 49:47
  equals our origin stories. So where's the origin story of this Fantastic Four myth? Hey, it's
• 49:52
  it's in my book. I got a copy of the script. You saw the movie last night, and you know,
• 49:57
  funny enough, you're saying earlier, this movie was never released. It was never seen.
• 50:02
  Olivia Shawna, more people have seen this movie in 34 years than ever would have seen it at a
• 50:11
  big. I absolutely agree. It is crazy to like, I was like, wait, whenever I was doing research to
• 50:18
  chat with you, I was like, wait, this never actually got released. I was just so widely circulated.
• 50:24
  So I didn't realize it either. Yeah, I never realized that because you know, you're, I'm a fan of
• 50:28
  the Fantastic Four and of Marvel, and then yeah, researching this deeper. I'm like, wait,
• 50:33
  no, like this wasn't a widely released movie, because like you said, Olivia, I feel like people
• 50:38
  have seen this. So, and if there's one group of fans who have passion, it is ultimately Marvel,
• 50:44
  right? Yes. So they will gobble up, you know, any comic books, any movies, any lore. So they do have
• 50:51
  a devout fan base, and it's so interesting to like, through this conversation, like, I feel like
• 50:57
  from what you enjoy about the industry's passion and who you've enjoyed working with or people
• 51:03
  who are so passionate about what they do, and not necessarily like so focused on the success of
• 51:09
  something, but the love of making art. And so I do have, how did you guys film? You're stretching.
• 51:18
  Like, what was the, what were the practical effects of that? A great question. I was there for two
• 51:26
  steps of the third step process when the first one was basically rigging like, you know,
• 51:32
  a land of the giant's can opener under my costume and the rigging out to the back. And my arm would
• 51:40
  be back here and it would shoot out. So I would sort of start with real hand, you know, going this way.
• 51:48
  And then they'd cut and then the rigging arm would be like the second part. And then the third part was
• 51:55
  whatever sort of remedial special effects they had to sort of throw the punch. And, you know,
• 52:02
  it looks rickety, but you know, it doesn't look that much worse than the half a million
• 52:10
  dollar special effect that it would cost to be. I really don't look much worse. I mean, an arm is not
• 52:17
  supposed to do that. It's always going to be uncanny valley. And that's always it. Yeah.
• 52:22
  It was a practical thing. But you know, when Pedro has read is, you know, he's doing his tarzan number
• 52:30
  in the beginning of the movie and then the boom, boom, his legs stretching, his arms stretching.
• 52:35
  Yeah. Well, that's, you know, that's cool. I mean, but we couldn't we couldn't do that then. It was all
• 52:41
  very practical, very analog. I love it. It is so interesting because you look at like a big criticism
• 52:48
  the Marvel universe today is so much CGI, right? Where there aren't enough practical effects. And
• 52:56
  then, you know, you look at the 1994, it was all practical effects versus CGI. So yeah, it was,
• 53:02
  it was interesting to see I have the whole time I was like, I got to ask this guy about how his arms stretched.
• 53:06
  And many questions, many thoughts, mostly arms. Yeah, mostly arms.
• 53:13
  Well, you know, the project, our project, our old movie has a, has a, as a, as a warm place. And
• 53:22
  yeah, many people's hearts. And I think a lot of it is because they either were influenced by it,
• 53:28
  liked it or their dads or moms liked it. And they were eight, nine, 10, 13, 14 years old. And now,
• 53:34
  you know, they're either middle management companies. And if they're in the business, they're working
• 53:38
  for a director. They're, they're working their way up in a position of influence in various,
• 53:43
  various avenues and the ones who are in the film business. They're rediscovering it. And it's a way of
• 53:49
  them sort of, um, celebrating their childhood as well. And so, they embrace us. Yeah.
• 53:57
  Celebrating that passion too, that they can see like you mentioned earlier when you make an
• 54:02
  independent film, you put your heart and soul into it. Yeah. Yeah. It's a passion project. So I'm
• 54:07
  sure anybody, you know, who was involved or seasoned now is like, they worked their asses off to
• 54:12
  make this movie. This was, you know, they really cared about this movie. Well, as a Jamie Lee said,
• 54:18
  when she won her Oscar for what, everything everywhere all at once, she said, you know, who would
• 54:22
  have thought that this little movie that we're shooting in Seamy Valley would have come out so good.
• 54:28
  Well, the writers and directors thought it would, you know, and that lucky to get. And, you know,
• 54:35
  she's, she's great. And she's, you know, we started out together and I spoke to her like, I don't
• 54:41
  know, like a year and a half ago, she came into my audiobook studio in LA. I wasn't there, but
• 54:45
  she called afterwards and we had a nice catch up. You know, she's, um, she's a hard work in GAL. And,
• 54:52
  you know, she's discerning, but she's not afraid of it. She'll do anything. I mean, she's not a,
• 54:56
  no, I don't mean she'll do anything in terms of a job, but she'll do anything in service of what she
• 55:00
  wants to do. And she's, she's terrific. Well, again, she's, you know, she's the daughter of troopers.
• 55:05
  Oh gosh, I adore her. When you're in the tribe, you know, you keep the colors.
• 55:10
  So let's talk a little bit about what's next, Alex, and what you're promoting right now.
• 55:17
  Yeah. Well, you know, funnily enough, we're talking this independent film world sort of, um, people
• 55:23
  rather, you know, trying to get projects going. It's happening now. There's two, two films, lovely,
• 55:29
  one is a, I think it's a sort of a light drama, a film to be shot in the Midwest where I play, um,
• 55:40
  I think it's called, um, what is it? A Christmas drawn together. And they've offered me this part
• 55:52
  of a cartoonist father of the hero who is, it's almost like a hallmark, kind of dynamic, the,
• 56:03
  the 20 year old mid 20 late 20s, um, corporate type in the city. She's a big city girl goes home,
• 56:13
  discovers Christmas again. And instead of falling in love with a horse or
• 56:18
  or frosty the snowman, that was a great one. Yeah, right. But I mean, her, but the part is a lovely part.
• 56:25
  And I think it, it came to me because of the very same reason. The guy knows me from
• 56:30
  this kind of work. And he said he was impressed with the, um, our documentary and the way I came off.
• 56:36
  And he pitched me to his producer and director and they just, they've offered me the role. And, you know,
• 56:43
  to say, you know, thank you. It's lovely. I like the script, you know, and in parentheses, I,
• 56:47
  I hope you get to make this movie, you know, no, I have to put it together. But, you know, nice when,
• 56:52
  you know, nothing's a guarantee. And then there's another one. A guy in Atlanta has this
• 56:59
  sort of period piece that he wants me to play this slightly larger than life character. So I got to
• 57:05
  be careful what I wish for because I like you, like you asked me what I want to do. I want to play
• 57:09
  these sort of dying. I want to play one or two more god willing dynamic
• 57:14
  characters that are in action that are actually doing stuff. Not just, um, you know, the,
• 57:20
  the cut to the guy doing a scene to pull the story along. And that's fine. Those are our jobs. And,
• 57:28
  you know, those, those are the things that we do. Like, um, I was, um, given a nice little part in
• 57:34
  Landman when nobody knew what that show was going to be. And then of course, it came out eight months
• 57:39
  later. And it was, it was appointment television. It was just extraordinary. The way that they captured
• 57:45
  that, um, the life of all, uh, uh, uh, in the, in the, in the basin in the, in the, in the, the oil
• 57:51
  slicks. And I played a nice fun English character in the same sort of way that Jordan let me play a
• 57:58
  English character, a quest giver who sends, uh, Daniel on his way. So, you know, these parts
• 58:05
  have significance. They have meaning. They, they're important to storytelling. And when I get to do
• 58:10
  them, I feel like a pinch hitter on an all-star team, you know, I'm getting it back. Yeah.
• 58:15
  Get it back. And it's only going to be one at bat. And I maybe get two or three pitches.
• 58:19
  And boom. Okay. I'll hit or I'm not going to strike out. I promise you, I will not strike out. I
• 58:25
  promise you that. I've got to nail this. Go me in. Let's get no timers game. Let's go. Oh, I love that.
• 58:32
  And can you, um, let everyone know again what the name of your book is? And, um, I guess where people
• 58:38
  can find it. I'm sure anywhere. Yeah. Oh, yeah. My, my, my wind down is Alex Hyde White. If you can
• 58:45
  spell it, you, I'm easy to find. Got a nice website. My audio book shingle is called Punch Audio,
• 58:52
  which, as you can see, is my middle name. And I've been producing audio books now for almost 15
• 58:58
  years. And in a 40 year acting career produced two independent movies, which I'm very proud of. And
• 59:04
  in 15 years, I've produced over 500 audio books through Punch Audio. So I'm going to stick with that.
• 59:09
  And, um, always working on stuff. And we're really, we're really, um, good with independent authors.
• 59:15
  But I, I, I enjoy running the audio book company. And now that I'm, and not in Hollywood chasing, um,
• 59:24
  the, the golden ticket all the time, I've got a little more time because you can work anywhere.
• 59:29
  I mean, I've got agents in Atlanta and London. And a couple of years ago, I released my book,
• 59:33
  which is called In the Volume, My Life and Filment TV. And it is episodic. It's written in episode
• 59:41
  instead of chapters. I call them episodes. And instead of acts, I call them, well, um, well,
• 59:47
  their acts instead of sections. And so I named the five acts of my life story after five of, um,
• 59:54
  the most influential films in my life, you know, things like Star Wars and Patriot Games and Heat
• 1:00:02
  and last of the Mohicans, things like that. And it's, it's a good chronology, a time travel in a way,
• 1:00:09
  a fantasy time travel love letter to pop culture. I'm a pop culture junkie as well. I just did no.
• 1:00:15
  I know it's out there and it's on audio book and it's a, it's a lot of fun. Anybody who
• 1:00:22
  has a fondness for that golden era in a way of, of, um, movies becoming what the, what they,
• 1:00:32
  what they became, but yet yet still hanging on to the old fashion or the analog innocence of it.
• 1:00:38
  That's in there. The sea ups and downs of my life. Um, it's not a celebrity at tell all. It's not a
• 1:00:44
  star letting you in on secrets. I'm not. I'm just, I'm a guy who's, who's, who's, who's,
• 1:00:50
  had a few nice at bats. And, um, I, I enjoyed sort of writing about the game.
• 1:00:56
  I love that. I'm going to have to check out five guys. Uh, uh,
• 1:01:03
  on, uh, it's one of the audiobooks. Oh, okay. I was looking through them and I was like,
• 1:01:10
  I wonder if I bred an A. I and a crazy reader. So I, um, you know, have, I've listened to a lot of
• 1:01:17
  audiobooks in my life as well. But yeah, it's just, we won't reveal this. If five guys are reverse,
• 1:01:23
  be by reverse. There's nothing reverse about it. Yeah. That is right up our alley pond. She was,
• 1:01:32
  uh, those authors are wonderful. The authors of that stuff. They're so fun. I mean,
• 1:01:38
  there's, there's such realists. It's great. Yeah. Take it too seriously. Yeah. Uh, I think that is
• 1:01:44
  just about going to wrap up this fantastic episode of pop culture junkie. Alex,
• 1:01:50
  punch. Thank you so much for joining us today. Um, one more time. Tell our listeners where they
• 1:01:55
  can find you online. Um, what are your social media handles? If you have access. AlexHyde-White.com
• 1:01:59
  is my website. Um, my name is up there on Facebook and Twitter. Uh, I'm learning how to use
• 1:02:06
  Instagram, but, um, I'm going to be at the festival again in January. If anybody's up there,
• 1:02:13
  it's, it's going to be the last one, uh, in park city. I've been going there for 20 years. I,
• 1:02:18
  I love it. And, um, what's left of the independent film world is, um, it's still there. It's not
• 1:02:24
  much anymore, but I'm around and easy to find and I'm happy to send copies of the book or pictures.
• 1:02:30
  Marvel fan love that and we'll send you a pop culture junkie t shirt as well.
• 1:02:35
  Yes, the collector's item. It is absolutely. Um, you can find all things pop culture on our
• 1:02:44
  website popculturejunkie.com. Uh, from there, you can find our podcast and all platforms as well
• 1:02:50
  as our social media links, blog posts and more. Um, you can contact us join our pop culture junkie
• 1:02:56
  support group on Facebook, follow, subscribe, rate and review, all of that and more. And please
• 1:03:03
  join our Patreon because every subscription helps us bring you more great episodes like this one.
• 1:03:10
  Um, find us at patreon.com/popculturejunkiepodcast. Once again, thank you so much. Alex Hyde-White.
• 1:03:18
  Everybody make sure to come back next week or another hit of pop culture.
• 1:03:23
  The Pop Culture Junkie podcast is produced by Jeff Markin and Cheryl Lightfoot for the Pop Culture
• 1:03:33
  Entertainment Network.
• 1:03:35
  So entertain me, entertain me right now.
• 1:03:38
  I need it bad, I need it bad.
• 1:03:42
  Cause I need it bad, I need it bad.
• 1:03:46
  [Music]