Latest / Dos Amigos / “That Topher Show Part 1”
Transcript
- 0:10Speaker 1: Why it's with great joy that I welcome you back
- 0:13Speaker 1: into Those Amigos. I'm Wilmer Valderrama, and you know the
- 0:17Speaker 1: show has started, as you know, these ongoing conversations and
- 0:21Speaker 1: getting to know each other, and and in these conversations, uh,
- 0:25Speaker 1: we discovered there were individuals along the way that that
- 0:28Speaker 1: really kind of marked us, helped us and change us,
- 0:30Speaker 1: and also inspired us in many ways. So it's with
- 0:35Speaker 1: great joy that I introduced the first ever, the first
- 0:39Speaker 1: ever guest yes on on those Amigos. Might be the
- 0:43Speaker 1: last one. We'll see, you know, we'll see how this
- 0:45Speaker 1: one goes. But we're gonna try this thing, you know, Freddie,
- 0:51Speaker 1: I want you to meet so for Grace in the
- 0:54Speaker 1: House for Grace legendary, one of the great, one of
- 0:57Speaker 1: the legendary.
- 0:59Speaker 2: And my thing I was going to do, which I
- 1:01Speaker 2: won't do now, was was because I thought it was
- 1:03Speaker 2: one of those podcasts were just walk in and start talking.
- 1:06Speaker 2: It's clearly not.
- 1:07Speaker 1: We're used to be that way, but they asked us
- 1:09Speaker 1: to I do the show.
- 1:10Speaker 2: I was going to do a whole like like you're
- 1:13Speaker 2: from like seventies show, Yes you were great?
- 1:18Speaker 1: What did you play? I was? I was on the
- 1:21Speaker 1: seventies show were you like we were never seen? Man?
- 1:25Speaker 2: Were you recurring or like?
- 1:26Speaker 1: What were here? I was like really regular anyways. But
- 1:30Speaker 1: but so you guys, haven't you guys haven't met or
- 1:33Speaker 1: maybe cross backs.
- 1:34Speaker 3: We must have crossed, yeah, yeah in the early two thousands,
- 1:37Speaker 3: maybe when we were all out.
- 1:38Speaker 2: Yeah, but I love this show. I love what you
- 1:40Speaker 2: guys are doing. It's such a thank you, you know, and
- 1:43Speaker 2: I feel I feel like such an interloper here. But
- 1:45Speaker 2: I'm happy to be your first guest.
- 1:47Speaker 1: Oh no, and we're so happy to have you man,
- 1:48Speaker 1: and and so happy that with some homework. Oh there,
- 1:53Speaker 1: she I have paper in my hand.
- 1:55Speaker 2: I've never done this before, you know, to help your
- 1:59Speaker 2: your listeners just said some experience, like what it's like
- 2:03Speaker 2: to be a straight white? Now, how boring we are?
- 2:07Speaker 2: I wanted to make this show a little more boring.
- 2:09Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely never that. Never that. But starting into it, right,
- 2:15Speaker 1: you know, a lot of this show over to kind
- 2:16Speaker 1: of tell you kind of you know, what they started.
- 2:19Speaker 1: It was kind of like this deep dives on like
- 2:21Speaker 1: the things that kind of made us.
- 2:22Speaker 2: Right, Like, I know, I've listened to it. That's why
- 2:24Speaker 2: I'm like, what am I doing here. Yeah.
- 2:25Speaker 1: Well, the point is is that you have such an
- 2:29Speaker 1: interesting perspective because I really believe very few people in
- 2:33Speaker 1: entertainment has achieved what you have, specifically when they were
- 2:36Speaker 1: given a responsibility to be a Nan Corona show. And
- 2:40Speaker 1: you know, we were talking about it, you were talking
- 2:43Speaker 1: about it in the past, you know, and I had
- 2:45Speaker 1: said that, you know that tofah, Grays have brought up
- 2:48Speaker 1: to life Eric Foreman in a way that nobody else
- 2:51Speaker 1: could have. And I would say this the rest, but
- 2:53Speaker 1: for the rest of the guys, like you know, kurk
- 2:55Speaker 1: Wit Smith, you couldn't think about anyone playing Red right.
- 2:57Speaker 1: And I think the idea that at a time time
- 3:00Speaker 1: where something so new and so disrupted to TV, you know,
- 3:05Speaker 1: somehow we had the audacity to just come up with
- 3:07Speaker 1: characters and be like, oh, this is what it's going
- 3:09Speaker 1: to be, and then the writers be like, Okay, run
- 3:12Speaker 1: with that. You know. But one of the things that
- 3:14Speaker 1: I've always respected, and I've always said, you know aloud
- 3:17Speaker 1: all the time, is that when I look back at
- 3:20Speaker 1: what you had done with Eric Foreman, it was so
- 3:26Speaker 1: it was unexpected, it was unpredictable, and and it kept
- 3:29Speaker 1: audiences captivated that a leading character on a sitcom doesn't
- 3:34Speaker 1: have to be the straight character, like the character that
- 3:38Speaker 1: doesn't really have the colors and the and and you
- 3:41Speaker 1: you made something.
- 3:42Speaker 2: It is a little bit and I remember on the
- 3:43Speaker 2: page at the beginning, it was a little bit just
- 3:47Speaker 2: the straight guy, like he just like, uh, like I'd
- 3:50Speaker 2: set up everyone and and I remember setting you up.
- 3:54Speaker 2: It was terrible, Like I technically had more lines, but
- 3:57Speaker 2: every time Wilmer spoke, the audience would like stand up
- 4:01Speaker 2: and applaud, and then I'd say another line, and then
- 4:03Speaker 2: Ashton would say something that was like a huge hit
- 4:05Speaker 2: or but over time, and that's the best thing about
- 4:09Speaker 2: doing one of those shows. It's one of the things
- 4:11Speaker 2: I hate when young actors, I mean, they aren't even
- 4:13Speaker 2: that many sitcoms anymore, but uh, when they say I
- 4:16Speaker 2: can't wait to get off of this show I'm doing
- 4:19Speaker 2: and get into films. What I want to say is
- 4:22Speaker 2: like this is the best training ground because when you stink,
- 4:26Speaker 2: and I mean, we know we were there.
- 4:29Speaker 1: Miss There was a lot of hits, but.
- 4:31Speaker 2: Couple a couple of misses in a row at the beginning,
- 4:33Speaker 2: and like, especially for me, I mean, I never remember,
- 4:36Speaker 2: this is your first, your second professional job. I think
- 4:39Speaker 2: you did.
- 4:40Speaker 1: A Pacific Yah, Pacificos Marginal Pages.
- 4:42Speaker 2: Commercially and I had done nothing, So that was that
- 4:46Speaker 2: was your first A little.
- 4:48Speaker 1: Bit about that because you you were you, you had
- 4:50Speaker 1: you were doing theater and oh no, I mean.
- 4:54Speaker 2: School. No, I didn't do anything. I'd done high school
- 4:58Speaker 2: plays and not even that any and it was a
- 5:01Speaker 2: bad drama program.
- 5:02Speaker 1: Were you in high school when you got there?
- 5:04Speaker 2: I was at a boarding school, which plays a lot.
- 5:10Speaker 1: Get into it.
- 5:12Speaker 2: Wilman and I have also identical backgrounds, all right. So
- 5:18Speaker 2: I was going to a boarding school in New Hampshire
- 5:22Speaker 2: and the girl who did the sets, who Wilmer knows, Lindsay.
- 5:26Speaker 2: Her parents were these amazing writers who changed all of
- 5:30Speaker 2: our lives. They'd written on SNL and then they wrote
- 5:33Speaker 2: the Wayne's World movie, Turner, the Brady Bunch movie, which
- 5:37Speaker 2: is great, and Tommy Boy and they're just crushing it.
- 5:41Speaker 2: And then they created Third Rock from the Sun, which
- 5:42Speaker 2: is when I was at school with Lindsay, I was like, Johnow,
- 5:46Speaker 2: this is incredible. Her parents just won the Golden Globe
- 5:49Speaker 2: for sometimes, Like this is crazy.
- 5:51Speaker 1: And then.
- 5:53Speaker 2: They saw this play that I did senior year and
- 5:55Speaker 2: they kind of said, we know you're going to USC
- 5:57Speaker 2: next year, ye can we call? And I was like, man,
- 6:02Speaker 2: I had no idea what they meant. You could not
- 6:04Speaker 2: guess that they meant to be in something. And I'd
- 6:08Speaker 2: only been in a couple of plays. And to let
- 6:11Speaker 2: you know, how uh great a drama program the school had.
- 6:15Speaker 2: We could only do plays. It had no sets, like
- 6:17Speaker 2: this is the first play she did the set that
- 6:20Speaker 2: like she stepped forward and said, like, we'll do like
- 6:23Speaker 2: a wall, right, But it was all plays that like
- 6:25Speaker 2: you know, god Spell in our town because there wasn't
- 6:29Speaker 2: even a theater. It was like we go to like
- 6:31Speaker 2: the church, right, you know, the kids were sitting the pews.
- 6:35Speaker 2: I mean it was like there was and it was
- 6:38Speaker 2: not very good. I mean there clearly was like not
- 6:40Speaker 2: a good theater program. But because of that we it
- 6:45Speaker 2: actually reminded It's funny that you weren't there with me,
- 6:46Speaker 2: but you kind of were in spirit in the sense
- 6:48Speaker 2: that I was doing this with you then, you know,
- 6:50Speaker 2: a year and a half later, but we were just
- 6:52Speaker 2: kind of coming up with stuff we thought was interesting.
- 6:57Speaker 2: Like the teacher who did it didn't even show up
- 6:59Speaker 2: most of the time, so like we just add stuff.
- 7:02Speaker 2: I mean's sacrilege. I literally think it's illegal to add
- 7:05Speaker 2: so much stuff to a play that you're the school's
- 7:07Speaker 2: playing the license or something. But we changed so much
- 7:11Speaker 2: of things that I think maybe the turners saw like, oh,
- 7:14Speaker 2: he's you know, it's not like when you go to
- 7:16Speaker 2: see a good high school play and everyone it's like
- 7:18Speaker 2: a Broadway musical, but but younger people or something like
- 7:21Speaker 2: this was like totally.
- 7:23Speaker 3: Weird, and so it wasn't like necessarily like a theater program.
- 7:26Speaker 3: It was you all just kind of put together.
- 7:28Speaker 2: Like a like a theater club or there was there was, yeah,
- 7:31Speaker 2: there was like there was gonna be a school play
- 7:33Speaker 2: and there were auditions and and uh yeah, I.
- 7:36Speaker 1: Mean it was But were you thinking like acting? Why not? Me? Like,
- 7:41Speaker 1: were you thinking that at all? That would you just
- 7:43Speaker 1: do it with creationally? Like what was your interest in it? Right?
- 7:46Speaker 2: Because I thought it was neat. I mean I did
- 7:47Speaker 2: the video of your book too. I thought anything that
- 7:49Speaker 2: was like kind of creative and extracurricular. But then when
- 7:53Speaker 2: I went to USC the next year, I did none
- 7:54Speaker 2: of that. Like I didn't, but I had so many
- 7:56Speaker 2: friends of the were actors because they all moved to
- 7:58Speaker 2: La to to be in the business or be around it,
- 8:03Speaker 2: and I got rejected from the film school. I thought,
- 8:05Speaker 2: what am I even doing out here now? And then
- 8:08Speaker 2: but have I ever really told you this? So Bonnie
- 8:11Speaker 2: called me. I was in my dorm and some of
- 8:14Speaker 2: the kids were smoking, I mean apropos of the show.
- 8:17Speaker 2: They were smoking in my room and then the phone rings.
- 8:21Speaker 2: I'm like hello, and she's like, hey, it's Bonnie and
- 8:24Speaker 2: this is I was like Bonnie, like, who are Like
- 8:28Speaker 2: do we hook up? Like? And she was like, no,
- 8:32Speaker 2: I'm your friend's mom. I'm I'm Lindsay's mom. I was like,
- 8:37Speaker 2: can you swear on this podcast? I was like put
- 8:41Speaker 2: it away, like we're gonna get attention or whatever. I
- 8:44Speaker 2: was like, no, no, I'm calling you because I mean,
- 8:46Speaker 2: it was so mind blowing to me. I mean, I
- 8:49Speaker 2: knew what they did and totally thought it was cool,
- 8:52Speaker 2: but never thought I still was like, do you mean
- 8:55Speaker 2: for me to be your assistant or like, what are
- 8:56Speaker 2: you talking about. She's like, no, no, Basically, we've we've
- 8:59Speaker 2: had every kid in Hollywood in they're all I mean,
- 9:03Speaker 2: I realize now what she meant was like, they're all
- 9:05Speaker 2: too cool. We want like a real nerd, like like
- 9:09Speaker 2: a fresh from the tree, like like I was currently
- 9:14Speaker 2: not getting laid in college. And I was like all right,
- 9:17Speaker 2: and so I think she said, bring a head shot
- 9:20Speaker 2: and a resume.
- 9:20Speaker 1: This is how green eye like what it is a headshot?
- 9:23Speaker 2: I said, what's it? I said, you know what a
- 9:24Speaker 2: resume is because I had worked at Suncoast Video and
- 9:26Speaker 2: Dunkin Donuts. But I was like, but what is a
- 9:29Speaker 2: head shot? And she was like, oh God, like it's
- 9:34Speaker 2: it's like a picture that goes with your resume. And
- 9:36Speaker 2: when I brought it in, do you know this story? No?
- 9:38Speaker 2: I brought it in. It was a piece of paper
- 9:40Speaker 2: like this and paper clip to it was a picture
- 9:42Speaker 2: of me and my friends at six Flags, like in
- 9:45Speaker 2: the parking lot, like the story before. I've never heard
- 9:49Speaker 2: this my kin code like like no, just a printed
- 9:52Speaker 2: out like four.
- 9:54Speaker 3: Six photos the one that you get from Costco and wow,
- 10:00Speaker 3: like one that you had like in your photo album.
- 10:02Speaker 2: So it was even album. It's just like a photo.
- 10:04Speaker 2: I had it, all right, that's me and uh I
- 10:07Speaker 2: put it. Uh I put it with the resume that
- 10:09Speaker 2: said like you know sun Coast Video like night you know,
- 10:12Speaker 2: like night shift Dunkin Donuts.
- 10:14Speaker 1: I mean these people. I mean, it's the perfect pitch
- 10:16Speaker 1: for Eric Foreman. I mean you really think about it, Yeah,
- 10:18Speaker 1: you're right right making a way away. It's like the
- 10:20Speaker 1: perfect pitch.
- 10:20Speaker 2: I actually I had a lunch with Tom Warner Wants
- 10:24Speaker 2: such a nice guy Lost, and he I think he
- 10:28Speaker 2: admitted to me that they were like, we're just gonna
- 10:30Speaker 2: bring this kid in so you can see what we're
- 10:32Speaker 2: looking for, like we want someone like this. We don't
- 10:35Speaker 2: actually we don't actually want like this guy is not
- 10:38Speaker 2: an actor, Like we can't have him do it. And
- 10:40Speaker 2: then and that's why. And then it went well enough
- 10:44Speaker 2: that I uh, but I'll say in WILLM. Waldrama's book,
- 10:47Speaker 2: which is very good, which I've read cover to cover,
- 10:49Speaker 2: but you skipped through a bunch of it until I
- 10:51Speaker 2: got to the part, you know, I read all which
- 10:58Speaker 2: was written from an awesome perspective by it. I really
- 11:00Speaker 2: loved it was really interesting to me to read that book,
- 11:03Speaker 2: especially about our experience from your point of view. The
- 11:06Speaker 2: best part is for me was that I like walked
- 11:10Speaker 2: in and I mean, why don't you tell the story?
- 11:11Speaker 2: Which when you first, oh.
- 11:14Speaker 1: Dude, this so I was like, so scared to make
- 11:18Speaker 1: a mistake, right, Right, So you walk into an auditioning room, right,
- 11:22Speaker 1: and you're like you sit in the chair that they
- 11:24Speaker 1: somehow pointed at, you know what I mean, Like you
- 11:27Speaker 1: just don't look, and you know you'll wait until they
- 11:28Speaker 1: call your name. You like et everything by the book, right,
- 11:30Speaker 1: You're like being invited into something that was so mysterious.
- 11:34Speaker 1: So I didn't want to do anything that was like
- 11:36Speaker 1: disrespectful or or like foreseen as like egotistic or whatever.
- 11:40Speaker 1: Just want of them, Like I just want to be
- 11:41Speaker 1: a nice boy here, you know. And I'm sitting there
- 11:45Speaker 1: and this dude walks in like he owns the place,
- 11:49Speaker 1: goes straight to the to the refrigerator and like opens
- 11:53Speaker 1: grabs the water and then picks up an apple and
- 11:56Speaker 1: just like sits down. It's like eating what. And I'm
- 11:58Speaker 1: like at the audition, I mean, I was like, for sure,
- 12:02Speaker 1: these fucking guy's not getting the part. Like he's definitely
- 12:04Speaker 1: not getting the part. And he goes in there and
- 12:07Speaker 1: like grasps the water and he's drinking whatever, like doesn't
- 12:10Speaker 1: matter to anybody, and all that stuffen.
- 12:11Speaker 3: He's in there, and I was like, this guy is
- 12:14Speaker 3: his energy is crazy, like I'm thinking, like, I'm thinking, like,
- 12:17Speaker 3: who does that?
- 12:17Speaker 2: Here's what you know. I already had the part. I
- 12:19Speaker 2: didn't know that, but yet I would never I was
- 12:23Speaker 2: scared to.
- 12:24Speaker 3: Of course, so this was audition or so you were
- 12:27Speaker 3: sitting in the back, but no, I was in the
- 12:29Speaker 3: waiting room and he was waiting to mister to.
- 12:31Speaker 2: Read with people who played Laura's Park. So I was like,
- 12:35Speaker 2: I had it. I've been there a couple of times.
- 12:38Speaker 2: But even so, the thing I love about that story
- 12:43Speaker 2: so much is how different our backgrounds are and how
- 12:50Speaker 2: how entitled I probably was, you know what I mean,
- 12:53Speaker 2: like even yes and no.
- 12:54Speaker 1: But I think, you know what, the reason why I
- 12:57Speaker 1: told the story that way is because from my perspective,
- 13:00Speaker 1: was like, oh man, someone like that, like someone that fresh,
- 13:04Speaker 1: you know, is not gonna get this part, you know
- 13:05Speaker 1: what I mean? But literally, I know that he already
- 13:07Speaker 1: in the park. He's been in displays a bunch of times. Right,
- 13:10Speaker 1: he got the part. He obviously you know, knew you.
- 13:12Speaker 2: Have to like this is what I can contribute to
- 13:15Speaker 2: this podcast, because clearly I have a very different background
- 13:19Speaker 2: from you guys. But the one of the most wonderful
- 13:24Speaker 2: things that happened to me is I grew up in
- 13:25Speaker 2: a very myopic, very affluent town in Connecticut. I mean,
- 13:31Speaker 2: it's like just the total opposite of how Wilmer grew up.
- 13:35Speaker 2: And I probably I don't want to get too corny,
- 13:40Speaker 2: but I think it's like like a little miracle that
- 13:44Speaker 2: I got the show. I mean, what a weird way
- 13:48Speaker 2: to even get I mean it's a lottery ticket just
- 13:50Speaker 2: to get a role. I've never auditioned for anything, but
- 13:53Speaker 2: then to be forced into a group of people who
- 13:57Speaker 2: are so that you never would have met, never would
- 14:01Speaker 2: have hung out with, and especially that you and I
- 14:05Speaker 2: had this incredible connection from day one. I mean you
- 14:07Speaker 2: and I really became best friends right off the bat.
- 14:10Speaker 2: And then I would come over to his folks house
- 14:16Speaker 2: and hang out a lot with your sisters.
- 14:18Speaker 1: I lived with my family, you know, so when it's like, oh,
- 14:20Speaker 1: you want to come over, my mom was there, my
- 14:23Speaker 1: dad is there, my mom is cooking the soups, you know,
- 14:25Speaker 1: and like we have and just and.
- 14:26Speaker 2: Just understanding the world from another point of view. I've
- 14:30Speaker 2: been to boarding school, so there were people from different
- 14:32Speaker 2: countries and stuff, but it was also myopic and the
- 14:36Speaker 2: sense of like you know everyone was at a boarding school,
- 14:38Speaker 2: you know what I mean, So what was that like for.
- 14:41Speaker 3: You to go to a Venezuelan slash Colombian house and
- 14:45Speaker 3: to have dinner with this family whose language.
- 14:48Speaker 2: It was incredible?
- 14:49Speaker 1: It was.
- 14:52Speaker 2: You know, you don't know what you don't know. I mean,
- 14:54Speaker 2: that's what I've learned about like growing up. I'm so
- 14:57Speaker 2: glad I got out of that town because I know
- 14:58Speaker 2: a lot of people I grew up with. You know,
- 15:00Speaker 2: I went to college and came right back to that town,
- 15:03Speaker 2: and so that alone was a victory. But then too,
- 15:08Speaker 2: I mean, you knew me. Then if I stayed in college,
- 15:10Speaker 2: I'm like kind of a shy guy, and I wouldn't
- 15:13Speaker 2: have done any of the things. I mean, we did
- 15:17Speaker 2: so many amazing things together. But but when I think
- 15:20Speaker 2: back about it, I mean sometimes i'd sleep over Wilmer's
- 15:23Speaker 2: house because it was because we were like teenagers, yeah,
- 15:25Speaker 2: and like I'd go over there and have like I know,
- 15:27Speaker 2: it was amazing, especially going through this thing where it's
- 15:29Speaker 2: like scary and you're getting famous and you don't understand
- 15:32Speaker 2: what's happening in your life. But then I have such
- 15:34Speaker 2: a good friend and to also have a a eye
- 15:39Speaker 2: opening experience about I don't think I was walking around entitled,
- 15:44Speaker 2: like like within my community, I would have been seen
- 15:49Speaker 2: as a jerk. But I do think I wasn't, you
- 15:51Speaker 2: know what I mean. That's like part of life has
- 15:53Speaker 2: grown up and realizing like where you came from.
- 15:55Speaker 1: You always gonna have to give yourself some credit because
- 15:58Speaker 1: here's the thing you were. You were tossing to be
- 16:01Speaker 1: the center nucleus of what was a prime time Fox
- 16:07Speaker 1: sitcom became the same sense in the act.
- 16:09Speaker 2: I'm glad I was a little entitled. I know you
- 16:12Speaker 2: have to this will happened for me.
- 16:13Speaker 1: Do we talk about this in the show a few times,
- 16:16Speaker 1: where like you have to have some kind of audacity,
- 16:19Speaker 1: to audacity to think that you belong because nothing about
- 16:23Speaker 1: this industry tells you you you do right, Like a
- 16:26Speaker 1: lot of.
- 16:26Speaker 2: The most of the industry made me feel pretty comfortable.
- 16:30Speaker 2: When I was looking at my representation on screen, I thought, yeah,
- 16:35Speaker 2: seems this is what how I grew up. But honestly,
- 16:40Speaker 2: that's why it's so magical for me that I got.
- 16:44Speaker 1: To and it.
- 16:47Speaker 2: I mean, it's not like one of those movies where
- 16:49Speaker 2: someone has like a you know, it's such a natural
- 16:52Speaker 2: real experience. We just connected, you know, comedy and performing.
- 16:57Speaker 2: Is uh English that well at the time, truly, And.
- 17:02Speaker 1: I just learned English four years before that. That actually,
- 17:04Speaker 1: no crazy years before that, because I had gotten to
- 17:06Speaker 1: the country four years before.
- 17:07Speaker 2: When he says learned English, I would say he some
- 17:10Speaker 2: of English, but he was. But the thing, but the
- 17:15Speaker 2: the universal language you spoke was it's like past fail
- 17:18Speaker 2: on show night like. So first I had respect from
- 17:21Speaker 2: him because I was like, oh, this guy is hilarious.
- 17:22Speaker 2: And then I started to get to know you, and
- 17:24Speaker 2: I thought like, yeah, it's just very eye opening. It's
- 17:29Speaker 2: probably it's probably kind of life changing for me more
- 17:31Speaker 2: so than uh it was for you, I bet, even
- 17:35Speaker 2: though I'm sure a lot of.
- 17:36Speaker 1: Nobody because you have to understand so because I had
- 17:39Speaker 1: only been here a couple of years, meeting someone like him,
- 17:44Speaker 1: who also, by the way, his family also took me
- 17:46Speaker 1: in the same way. You know, every time I see
- 17:49Speaker 1: his dad, you know he can you came.
- 17:53Speaker 2: I was like, hey dad, he slept buped. I still
- 17:55Speaker 2: have my childhood bumped and he was.
- 17:58Speaker 1: Connecticut and it took the train over together and I
- 18:01Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, it's like in the movies.
- 18:03Speaker 2: Right, That's what he said, walk through the woods. We
- 18:05Speaker 2: have these woods behind our house, and I guess most
- 18:09Speaker 2: of the movies that are shot about the woods he'd
- 18:12Speaker 2: seen in movies. Yeah, he kept saying like this is
- 18:14Speaker 2: like a set. And my dad was like, what is
- 18:16Speaker 2: this kid talking about? Like these are the woods like
- 18:19Speaker 2: the league fakes?
- 18:20Speaker 1: But I got when you take a walk through his
- 18:23Speaker 1: backyard and he was like, you know, it's like the
- 18:25Speaker 1: trees and it was fall right, so it was like
- 18:28Speaker 1: kind of like gloomy and a little bit spooky, and
- 18:31Speaker 1: it just looked like, oh, this is like like the
- 18:33Speaker 1: American towns that they make movies about, like like you
- 18:35Speaker 1: would see in the movies. Yes, dude, So I'm like, oh,
- 18:37Speaker 1: this is so cool. Makes sense. And you know, got
- 18:39Speaker 1: to being his neighborhood and he's childled home and got
- 18:42Speaker 1: to sleep in the bunk beds and you know, but
- 18:44Speaker 1: that was our life. That was like, you know, most
- 18:47Speaker 1: of it, and we never lost that. We never lost that.
- 18:49Speaker 1: We were always like quoting movies and being clowns and
- 18:53Speaker 1: like just being kids. You know. It's I think it
- 18:55Speaker 1: attributed to how playful we were when we were creating
- 18:58Speaker 1: our characters because you you had to play and safe, dude,
- 19:02Speaker 1: and safe. We were safe because we weren't. We weren't
- 19:06Speaker 1: like you know, we weren't taking each other down for it,
- 19:10Speaker 1: and there's no competition. We all had a very specific contribution,
- 19:13Speaker 1: and we all stood to that lane and we respected
- 19:16Speaker 1: each other's lanes, and and it was just great because
- 19:19Speaker 1: I knew that it was funny if he was, you know, laughing,
- 19:22Speaker 1: and like we were run jokes by each other, like oh,
- 19:24Speaker 1: you think this is funny, you think this is so that.
- 19:26Speaker 1: So that's kind of kind of kind of how I work.
- 19:28Speaker 1: But but yeah, to go back and to think about.
- 19:31Speaker 2: So you had this experience coming to America that must
- 19:34Speaker 2: have been insane. I loved reading about it in your book.
- 19:37Speaker 2: But but in a weird way, my experience was kind
- 19:40Speaker 2: of similar to getting about you because I went like, oh, oh, like,
- 19:46Speaker 2: there's so much that's different, and yet we had so
- 19:49Speaker 2: much that was the same. And then you know, opened
- 19:51Speaker 2: my eyes to lots of different people since when I
- 19:54Speaker 2: met you.
- 20:05Speaker 1: But the thing is like, nobody wanted to see us
- 20:06Speaker 1: as a hit for the first three years, so we
- 20:09Speaker 1: never really thought like, oh, this is gonna be forever.
- 20:12Speaker 1: But at the same time, we were in this really
- 20:14Speaker 1: safe environment that all of a sudden it was like, oh,
- 20:17Speaker 1: you know, we're we're just giving it a shot, and
- 20:20Speaker 1: we're like, we.
- 20:20Speaker 2: Got picked up for two years.
- 20:21Speaker 1: Do you remember that? Yeah, I think that happened when
- 20:23Speaker 1: in the second or third season.
- 20:25Speaker 2: I think in the second scene second, So we were
- 20:29Speaker 2: kind of like, we're here and that's a long time
- 20:31Speaker 2: when you're that age.
- 20:32Speaker 1: Yeah, they were doing twenty five a season, so we
- 20:34Speaker 1: got to.
- 20:34Speaker 2: Sit back and kind of feel kind of like what
- 20:37Speaker 2: that show is supposed to feel like, like it's just
- 20:39Speaker 2: these people hanging out and then and then I man,
- 20:43Speaker 2: I haven't now with kids and stuff. I mean, you
- 20:45Speaker 2: never do this anymore. But to go to be rehearsing
- 20:48Speaker 2: a scene we're gonna hang out with someone and then
- 20:51Speaker 2: go hang out with them and watch TV and do
- 20:52Speaker 2: the same stuff. Like I was just perfect. It was
- 20:56Speaker 2: perfect for me personally, and those are probably great for
- 20:58Speaker 2: the job.
- 20:59Speaker 1: You know. Absolutely.
- 21:00Speaker 3: It's almost like you guys, I remember watching this like
- 21:02Speaker 3: Beatles documentary and they were just talking about like you
- 21:05Speaker 3: don't you don't realize that they were together when they
- 21:07Speaker 3: were kids and then they went through this experience together
- 21:10Speaker 3: that only they.
- 21:11Speaker 2: Know what that analogy. I think we were a little
- 21:16Speaker 2: bit bigger than the Beatles.
- 21:18Speaker 1: I concur what was it like since?
- 21:22Speaker 3: And I've asked Wilmer this, I think it's just amazing
- 21:26Speaker 3: as as as we always talk about that, that that
- 21:28Speaker 3: that the layers continue to get uncovered and I get
- 21:31Speaker 3: to learn more about Wilmer through this experience.
- 21:33Speaker 1: But it's it's.
- 21:35Speaker 3: Dawning more on me how young you two were and
- 21:38Speaker 3: what a special experience it must have been like for
- 21:41Speaker 3: you two. What was it like for you because this
- 21:43Speaker 3: was the first time you ever really tasted fame on
- 21:46Speaker 3: that level, and you guys.
- 21:47Speaker 4: Were to an extent like you guys are like a
- 21:49Speaker 4: cool like show.
- 21:51Speaker 3: It was almost like must have been like being like
- 21:53Speaker 3: a cool rock band, you know, like that that kind
- 21:56Speaker 3: of reception and that kind of fame must have been
- 21:59Speaker 3: real similar, Like how was that for you, especially it being.
- 22:02Speaker 1: The first time your first show.
- 22:04Speaker 2: Well, Wilmer handled it much better than I did. He's
- 22:08Speaker 2: he was already you were like famous in your high school.
- 22:11Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, I was in high school when I yah.
- 22:13Speaker 2: Yeah, but you were like he's just the he is
- 22:18Speaker 2: a duck to water in terms of like, uh, you're
- 22:22Speaker 2: just one of those you know, like I I feel
- 22:23Speaker 2: like I have balls when I'm performing, but then when
- 22:28Speaker 2: I'm not, I'm kind of a shy guy.
- 22:30Speaker 1: You're like more reserved in public. I think I'm a
- 22:34Speaker 1: little bit more jazz hands, you know.
- 22:36Speaker 2: No, no, no, you're just the mayor man. I mean,
- 22:37Speaker 2: you're like, he's he's wonderful to everyone. Like he's the
- 22:40Speaker 2: way when you're not playing a bad guy, the way
- 22:43Speaker 2: his characters are nice and open is the way he
- 22:45Speaker 2: is as a person, and it's it's great to be right,
- 22:49Speaker 2: And that also served for me as kind of a
- 22:51Speaker 2: learning experience. I remember one thing we like, I've never
- 22:56Speaker 2: been to like parties, even I've been to a couple
- 23:00Speaker 2: of parties in college, but they were like when you
- 23:02Speaker 2: had to rush fraternities, so they had to let you
- 23:04Speaker 2: in and then they're like, no, we don't want you,
- 23:07Speaker 2: so like I'd never really been out. And then we
- 23:09Speaker 2: were going to, you know, some of the big clubs
- 23:13Speaker 2: in the world, you know, because the show was doing well,
- 23:17Speaker 2: and I remember going to No, I remember going to
- 23:19Speaker 2: a party like in the Hills with you once. This
- 23:21Speaker 2: is such a good lesson and again, like not a
- 23:24Speaker 2: lesson I would have learned if I was hanging out
- 23:26Speaker 2: with a bunch of people that were like me, that
- 23:27Speaker 2: I went to college with or whatever. But we went
- 23:29Speaker 2: to this party and there was it's probably there were
- 23:32Speaker 2: no girls there that I liked or something. But I
- 23:35Speaker 2: didn't think it was fun, Like it wasn't a fun
- 23:36Speaker 2: group of people, and Wilmer was like dancing with people
- 23:40Speaker 2: and you know, like just making the party better basically. Yeah,
- 23:44Speaker 2: And I I remember saying like, let's get out of here,
- 23:48Speaker 2: because anytime I didn't think it was gonna be the
- 23:50Speaker 2: most fun ever. I was like this, get here, Let's
- 23:51Speaker 2: go to another thing. And Wilmer goes, why don't we
- 23:55Speaker 2: just stay here for another three hours? And I was
- 23:58Speaker 2: like why. You know, He's like, sometimes you got to
- 24:01Speaker 2: just I don't know exactly what your advice was, but
- 24:04Speaker 2: it was like, just this is where you are in life,
- 24:07Speaker 2: like why don't we make this the party kind.
- 24:08Speaker 1: Of And I was like what?
- 24:09Speaker 2: And then I realized it was such a valuable lesson
- 24:12Speaker 2: because we were having fun an hour later, and I
- 24:15Speaker 2: was like, oh, this is because of us and whatever.
- 24:20Speaker 2: I Sometimes I feel like I would have been a
- 24:21Speaker 2: whole other guy, you know what I mean? Like if
- 24:23Speaker 2: I hadn't had certain people in my life, probably probably
- 24:28Speaker 2: much better. Guy.
- 24:31Speaker 3: So what was it like like as as the show
- 24:35Speaker 3: began to ascend, you know, you were talking about how
- 24:38Speaker 3: it was fame wise, but how was it within the
- 24:42Speaker 3: structure of the show did you feel a was it
- 24:46Speaker 3: just more cohesive?
- 24:47Speaker 2: Like?
- 24:47Speaker 3: What was the chemistry like between you all as we
- 24:51Speaker 3: just went in. Was it just like a cool like
- 24:53Speaker 3: theater group like it just was?
- 24:55Speaker 4: It grew?
- 24:56Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, we had such a shorthand, you know, and
- 24:59Speaker 1: we were getting everything and one two takes one two takes.
- 25:01Speaker 2: I can't believe we have an actor to the other
- 25:03Speaker 2: in a while, especially nineties show which I did one
- 25:06Speaker 2: episode up.
- 25:06Speaker 1: Yeah, and we didn't a character to me.
- 25:08Speaker 2: I went to the taping of Wilmers because I and
- 25:10Speaker 2: you came to taping Amon, which is great, but.
- 25:14Speaker 1: We have to yeah, well we have to figure it
- 25:16Speaker 1: out because.
- 25:17Speaker 2: Only wait, wait, not even for the friendship element, which
- 25:19Speaker 2: I would love to be hanging out with you every day,
- 25:21Speaker 2: but just because it's so rare that you have that
- 25:23Speaker 2: kind of connection with someone, understands someone that well.
- 25:27Speaker 1: And artistically like you can build things artistically, you know,
- 25:32Speaker 1: with when with people that they're not only understand like
- 25:37Speaker 1: your your strengths, yeah, but also like help you with
- 25:40Speaker 1: your weaknesses, you know what I mean, Like you're not
- 25:42Speaker 1: out there swinging by yourself when you're doing these You know,
- 25:44Speaker 1: sometimes you get into a movie and you know you're
- 25:47Speaker 1: in the holding everyone's acting, and the people they don't
- 25:49Speaker 1: even want to run lines, right, they do, they don't
- 25:51Speaker 1: want to run lines. They don't want to like, you know,
- 25:52Speaker 1: hit each other off book and you're like, Okay, I
- 25:54Speaker 1: guess I'm mumbo myself here, right, and then.
- 25:56Speaker 2: You know what you make me? Really remember, I don't
- 25:57Speaker 2: think I've ever even spoken to anyone about this. I
- 26:00Speaker 2: think a big part of the first year was being embarrassed.
- 26:04Speaker 2: That was showing you guys what I was bad at,
- 26:07Speaker 2: and also learning what everyone was bad at, which sounds
- 26:10Speaker 2: like I was being judgmental, but actually now that I
- 26:13Speaker 2: realized because it was going so well two or three
- 26:16Speaker 2: years later, that we were all like putting all our
- 26:19Speaker 2: cards on the table kind of a messy way because
- 26:21Speaker 2: then you have.
- 26:22Speaker 1: To write, because that's the only thing that it works. Right.
- 26:24Speaker 1: What do you mean by bad at what you well?
- 26:26Speaker 2: Look, look there was let me go through the list
- 26:28Speaker 2: of what Wilmer's bad at. Do we have enough tape
- 26:30Speaker 2: in the camera?
- 26:31Speaker 1: He still remembers. Let it.
- 26:36Speaker 2: No, It's like, actually, that's funny because I actually wouldn't
- 26:39Speaker 2: know how to vocalize about any of those people what
- 26:42Speaker 2: they're bad at. I mean, essentially they're all very talented,
- 26:45Speaker 2: but it's more like, uh no, I would say, like
- 26:49Speaker 2: I'm trying to talk to.
- 26:50Speaker 1: Finish each other's sentences, right, Like, like I think understanding
- 26:54Speaker 1: the strengths and understanding like.
- 26:55Speaker 2: What you know strengths it was more important because I
- 26:58Speaker 2: knew when to pass you the ball when I didn't
- 26:59Speaker 2: know how to do a joke like that. But then
- 27:01Speaker 2: also I think knowing people's what they're what, it's more
- 27:05Speaker 2: what they're not comfortable with and what they're probably good at.
- 27:07Speaker 2: Like probably some of those people were so young, they
- 27:09Speaker 2: probably have grown to be better at certain things, right,
- 27:11Speaker 2: But at the time, you know, maybe we thought like
- 27:16Speaker 2: people are scared to do stuff and you're doing it
- 27:18Speaker 2: from a live audience or tanager.
- 27:20Speaker 1: You could also fall in the trap of saying like, oh,
- 27:23Speaker 1: I guess this is how I'm being seen, So this
- 27:26Speaker 1: is how I need to then I have to do
- 27:28Speaker 1: that times three, right, and like it's finding the volume
- 27:31Speaker 1: of like, okay, well, how much is too much when
- 27:34Speaker 1: I do the thing that I'm supposed to be doing here.
- 27:37Speaker 1: But I think that's you know, I come full circle
- 27:39Speaker 1: to this. There was a settleness to our show. It
- 27:42Speaker 1: almost felt like a single camera we were playing for
- 27:44Speaker 1: the people at home. And that's very different than a
- 27:47Speaker 1: lot of the sitcoms that that were happening, you know,
- 27:49Speaker 1: like the people sitcoms. We're playing the audience sometimes. But
- 27:52Speaker 1: I think that we learned, you know, you had like
- 27:54Speaker 1: Bunny and Terry Turner, David trainor who by the way.
- 27:57Speaker 2: Oh yeah, look it wasn't I mean, there was. There
- 27:59Speaker 2: were so many great writers camp that show.
- 28:01Speaker 1: And I will and I also give David Trainer, our director,
- 28:04Speaker 1: so much love, respect, emeration and risk, I mean, like
- 28:09Speaker 1: and just like so much ovation because because you know,
- 28:13Speaker 1: you have to grab this really raw, talented group of
- 28:18Speaker 1: young people and you have to mold them into an
- 28:21Speaker 1: actual mainstream primetime sitcom. And I keep saying it because
- 28:25Speaker 1: the people who don't remember that day Sunday Night between
- 28:29Speaker 1: the Seees and some of the X Files. My god,
- 28:32Speaker 1: the responsibility you had to kind of stitch those two
- 28:34Speaker 1: shows together. We didn't feel that pressure until like later
- 28:38Speaker 1: when like Chris Carter and like, since.
- 28:40Speaker 2: I really hated us, yeah, let us know.
- 28:42Speaker 1: It was really really let us know that they didn't
- 28:44Speaker 1: like us.
- 28:44Speaker 3: But how did y'all handle that as a group as
- 28:47Speaker 3: as like you become like the rock stars of TV?
- 28:50Speaker 4: Like, how do you handle that as teenagers? As a
- 28:53Speaker 4: as a group.
- 28:54Speaker 1: Well, it was interesting because for many years as soon
- 28:57Speaker 1: as the show ended, we will go to jers Delly.
- 29:00Speaker 2: Yeah, well when there were different groups of friends, but
- 29:03Speaker 2: Wilma and I would after almost every taping go to
- 29:08Speaker 2: Jerry's famous.
- 29:08Speaker 1: Deli down the streets.
- 29:11Speaker 2: Two blocks away. We'd order French toast, and also we
- 29:14Speaker 2: would have invited some guests because it's like such a
- 29:16Speaker 2: great thing that you work all week and then you
- 29:19Speaker 2: kind of take Friday nights. We'd say, like they show
- 29:21Speaker 2: up at like nine pm to our friend they'd watched
- 29:23Speaker 2: the last part of the show, and then we'd go
- 29:25Speaker 2: with our friends to Jerry's and kind of I realized,
- 29:29Speaker 2: now we're probably kind of coming down from the high
- 29:31Speaker 2: doing that show and tell their story. I'm sorry, I
- 29:37Speaker 2: feel like this is the nice photo document that I'm
- 29:41Speaker 2: getting older because it's like all I want to do
- 29:43Speaker 2: is reminisce and talk about but I the best part
- 29:48Speaker 2: I was just driving past uh our old friend's house.
- 29:52Speaker 2: At Brendan's house. The second year, we were starting to
- 29:57Speaker 2: be like, all right, we got this, like because you
- 29:58Speaker 2: get a summer break, and I think during the summer
- 30:01Speaker 2: break we like digested a little bit like okay, like
- 30:04Speaker 2: that wasn't so awful, and then when we came back,
- 30:06Speaker 2: we felt like we had a you know, a little
- 30:10Speaker 2: bit more of an understanding of what we're doing. It
- 30:12Speaker 2: was starting to go well, and he'd made friends with
- 30:17Speaker 2: some guys that were on another show and they kind
- 30:22Speaker 2: of didn't want to go out and party either or
- 30:25Speaker 2: didn't know what to do with that there.
- 30:26Speaker 1: They were also like awkward about like a Hollywood party
- 30:29Speaker 1: or a red carpet. They were just like they were.
- 30:32Speaker 2: So we started a monopoly group. To answer your question,
- 30:36Speaker 2: the most possibly it was the game Monopoly. One time
- 30:40Speaker 2: we bought Triopoly, which is unsanctioned by Parker Brothers. It's
- 30:44Speaker 2: like it took us ten hours start to finish because
- 30:46Speaker 2: it was like a layer cake that it was insane.
- 30:48Speaker 2: But we we would go over and get pizza and
- 30:53Speaker 2: play Monopoly for six or seven hours and the video
- 30:56Speaker 2: games and you went, I mean, you go, that's no
- 31:00Speaker 2: matter what we thought, we were still in that place
- 31:02Speaker 2: of like what will this experience become? And you go,
- 31:04Speaker 2: you're having the best time. Yeah, right, And it really
- 31:08Speaker 2: was like it was it has a cross section with
- 31:11Speaker 2: really being young and then playing young and then actually
- 31:15Speaker 2: not being young anymore. But it was like such a
- 31:18Speaker 2: perfect gold and you knowed it.
- 31:19Speaker 1: I mean, and like listen to answer, you know, that's
- 31:22Speaker 1: the answer to the question. You know, like how did
- 31:23Speaker 1: we cope with it? They didn't actually now that we
- 31:27Speaker 1: ran away with it and ran away from it, we
- 31:30Speaker 1: kind of just set into like what we were. Yeah,
- 31:34Speaker 1: and we never and I and I say this, like
- 31:37Speaker 1: the cast of the show was the coolest cast period.
- 31:40Speaker 1: Like we didn't have to hang out with other people
- 31:42Speaker 1: to be cool. We didn't care to hang out with
- 31:45Speaker 1: other people. And we were just like we had each other. Yeah,
- 31:48Speaker 1: we had each other man and and you know, and
- 31:50Speaker 1: I and I felt I felt accepted, I feel respected,
- 31:53Speaker 1: you know, I felt like I had real family, Like
- 31:56Speaker 1: I have a real brother in him and and I
- 31:59Speaker 1: felt safe to try and to soar and like and
- 32:02Speaker 1: you know, they gave me the Jews to be like, oh,
- 32:05Speaker 1: I can be more than fans after this, right, you know,
- 32:08Speaker 1: because I would have these conversations and and you know
- 32:12Speaker 1: we both like, in between the summers, we will find gigs, right,
- 32:14Speaker 1: we will find movies.
- 32:16Speaker 2: I remember coming in to see you on Party Monster, Yeah,
- 32:18Speaker 2: and being like this is different when.
- 32:21Speaker 1: You come to the summer Catch to the North Carolina.
- 32:24Speaker 2: I actually flew to North Carolina.
- 32:26Speaker 1: He came to see me on the set of of
- 32:29Speaker 1: Summer Catch with Freddie Prince Junior, Jessica Biell, and Matthew Lillar.
- 32:33Speaker 1: I just saw Matthew Lillard the other night, and he's
- 32:36Speaker 1: just the best reminiscent on that and he's just like
- 32:38Speaker 1: such a sweet, sweet guy. But he came to visit
- 32:41Speaker 1: me on the set of of of Summer Catch. And
- 32:44Speaker 1: we always made a point of like visiting each other
- 32:46Speaker 1: each other sets and and all that. Like I remember,
- 32:49Speaker 1: you know, you had gotten the Spider Man movie and.
- 32:52Speaker 2: You were saying, no need to come, and you showed
- 32:54Speaker 2: up anyway.
- 32:57Speaker 1: I was like, I need to see this dude. I
- 32:59Speaker 1: was like, I wanted to see him as Venom, you know,
- 33:01Speaker 1: And I went to the Sony studios.
- 33:03Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And that was the first iteration of it, right,
- 33:06Speaker 3: like yeah, and and I rolled up and he was
- 33:09Speaker 3: wearing that.
- 33:09Speaker 1: He was wearing the whole thing, and yeah, Like.
- 33:11Speaker 2: It was rough because the suit attached to your face.
- 33:14Speaker 1: So it was like, yeah, it's like pooling on your phone, like, hey,
- 33:17Speaker 1: how are you?
- 33:20Speaker 2: What season was? He's like Bull Tax before Bull Tax,
- 33:22Speaker 2: you know, it's like while you're in there, give me
- 33:27Speaker 2: a little give me.
- 33:28Speaker 1: A little lift, a little lift over your here. But
- 33:31Speaker 1: I remember like geeking the hell out. Yeah, I'm like,
- 33:35Speaker 1: I'm walking walking in to see one of my best
- 33:36Speaker 1: friends and he's wearing the Venom suit.
- 33:40Speaker 2: Well, seeing you, I don't. I'm sure you guys have
- 33:44Speaker 2: a questions in a certain order, But now seeing where
- 33:46Speaker 2: Wilma is in his career, you go, I mean, I
- 33:50Speaker 2: don't not to uh speak ill of anyone else's career,
- 33:55Speaker 2: but the roles that are the really funny, wacky guy
- 33:59Speaker 2: on a sitcom are especially hard to get out of,
- 34:03Speaker 2: Like you know what I mean, Like it's a lot
- 34:05Speaker 2: easier to look at someone who's playing what my character was, Ok,
- 34:08Speaker 2: I see him in other things, like your role was
- 34:10Speaker 2: so hyper specific. I did totally support you and think
- 34:16Speaker 2: you were capable of it, but also thought this is
- 34:17Speaker 2: gonna be like a very hard journey and watch when
- 34:20Speaker 2: I see you. For some reason, our TV tunes, we've
- 34:24Speaker 2: cut the cable, right, so we're only we only watch
- 34:26Speaker 2: stuff on Paramount Plus or whatever. But when we turn
- 34:31Speaker 2: on the TV, there's always I don't know what, there's
- 34:33Speaker 2: some channel that's like on and it's always an ad
- 34:37Speaker 2: for your show, right, Like I would not design it
- 34:40Speaker 2: that way. It's a little just because because you're always
- 34:42Speaker 2: got a gun in someone's face, like my kids are.
- 34:44Speaker 2: We're about to try to watch Disney or watching him
- 34:48Speaker 2: do get from point A to point B. That's so like,
- 34:53Speaker 2: it just hats off to you because I actually think
- 34:55Speaker 2: that's there's a couple of things that are hard about that,
- 34:58Speaker 2: but especially that everyone's saying, like, you know, we go
- 35:02Speaker 2: out and people say do the voice. I was like,
- 35:04Speaker 2: good luck now this one, like yeah, and you did it.
- 35:07Speaker 1: Man. I mean it's like I still get it.
- 35:09Speaker 2: But people are probably now like, yeah, but can he
- 35:11Speaker 2: do comedy?
- 35:11Speaker 3: Right?
- 35:12Speaker 1: Bro? You know what I mean? Yeah? For reals, for reals.
- 35:15Speaker 1: Some people are trying to like, oh, man, come back
- 35:17Speaker 1: to comedy, like you know, what are you doing? Like
- 35:19Speaker 1: what are you doing doing drama? Like you should come
- 35:21Speaker 1: back to comedy. You're funny.
- 35:23Speaker 2: I mean you can do both, man, you can do both.
- 35:25Speaker 1: Yeah, you could totally do both. But I do love comedy.
- 35:28Speaker 1: But I think being able to have gone to all
- 35:30Speaker 1: the different places, I think, what's the most fulfilling thing
- 35:32Speaker 1: I could have ever done. Yeah, I feel I feel
- 35:35Speaker 1: very comfortable popping in and out of things. And I
- 35:37Speaker 1: also feel very comfortable like blending both both of them
- 35:40Speaker 1: into characters and stuff.
- 35:41Speaker 2: But but you live by Screech, you look at Oracle,
- 35:43Speaker 2: you have you know, these roles are like impossible to
- 35:46Speaker 2: shake off.
- 35:47Speaker 1: Yeah, but again, I mean I took a lot of
- 35:49Speaker 1: inspiration that we were one of the first TV casts.
- 35:52Speaker 1: I think it was Dawson's Creek and us the first
- 35:55Speaker 1: cast that during the summer they go do a movie,
- 35:58Speaker 1: like most TV casts were like they just take the
- 36:00Speaker 1: right to take the months off because he's a long thing.
- 36:03Speaker 1: But we were so young, we had the energy. So
- 36:05Speaker 1: on the summer we would go find gigs. You'd go
- 36:07Speaker 1: do a movie with Carle Johansson and you know, and
- 36:12Speaker 1: is that how you knew that the show was really ascending?
- 36:15Speaker 1: That you all started to get well, it was shifting
- 36:17Speaker 1: the paradigm on television and film. We're shifting. Films were
- 36:22Speaker 1: getting smarter understanding that that some TV actors could be
- 36:27Speaker 1: real estate for actual films and they could say, like, oh,
- 36:30Speaker 1: they actually are a draw, they actually are in front
- 36:32Speaker 1: of twenty million people a week. How are we not
- 36:36Speaker 1: leveraging that? That's why James Vanerviek and Katie Holmes and
- 36:38Speaker 1: Joshua Jackson, like all of these guys were out there
- 36:41Speaker 1: doing all these movies.
- 36:41Speaker 2: Whatever happened to Michelle Williams man.
- 36:46Speaker 4: Work?
- 36:47Speaker 2: So did she work after that show?
- 36:49Speaker 1: You what I mean? Williams Like they went out there
- 36:52Speaker 1: and they'd been a beautiful transition and they go back
- 36:54Speaker 1: and forth.
- 37:04Speaker 3: What was the first movie that both of you did
- 37:06Speaker 3: while you were doing seventy show that made you? That
- 37:08Speaker 3: made you say that, that made you go?
- 37:10Speaker 2: I went to see him on Summer Catch That was
- 37:12Speaker 2: that was my first movie. It was the Summer Catch
- 37:15Speaker 2: to the Traffic.
- 37:16Speaker 1: Yeah, that same summer, By the way, Traffic was his
- 37:18Speaker 1: first movie off the off the show, No Way man.
- 37:21Speaker 2: But but but I remember, you know what I could
- 37:25Speaker 2: tell This is so tough because I could tell so
- 37:27Speaker 2: many stories about you. It's almost like I'd rather you.
- 37:33Speaker 2: I never talked about my wife and interviews either, because
- 37:35Speaker 2: I always feel like I'm about to, like I start
- 37:37Speaker 2: saying my wedding vows like it's people like just relaxed.
- 37:40Speaker 2: But I feel the same way. I like, too much
- 37:41Speaker 2: time has gone by.
- 37:42Speaker 1: But but but it was that.
- 37:45Speaker 2: Alone, just coming to just me going to see Summer Catch.
- 37:47Speaker 1: I wasn't even in it.
- 37:48Speaker 2: It was like an incredible experience. And then I was like, Okay,
- 37:51Speaker 2: this is how films work. And then I went and
- 37:52Speaker 2: did a film for the first time.
- 37:53Speaker 1: It was cool.
- 37:54Speaker 4: You didn't just do a film like your first film
- 37:57Speaker 4: Out the Gate was with Soderberg.
- 37:58Speaker 2: That was and what was amazing. I mean, like Wilmer's right,
- 38:04Speaker 2: the thing that people don't give it credit for. Especially
- 38:06Speaker 2: this is what I was saying when young people are saying, like,
- 38:08Speaker 2: wish you could get into films, I'm like, the way
- 38:11Speaker 2: you should use especially a sitcom, which they don't make
- 38:14Speaker 2: that much of anymore, is it it's live but it's
- 38:17Speaker 2: a film. There's filmic elements there's live in front of
- 38:20Speaker 2: an audience elements, so you're learning both. There's the every
- 38:24Speaker 2: week element, so when you're bad, you get to come
- 38:26Speaker 2: right back try it again. And then there's the summer
- 38:29Speaker 2: where you get to go do something. I was playing
- 38:32Speaker 2: a crack addict in that movie. And then you get
- 38:35Speaker 2: to come back to your home base. So you try something,
- 38:38Speaker 2: you go like what was that, You kind of meditate
- 38:40Speaker 2: on it for the year while you're in the safe
- 38:42Speaker 2: role that you know how to play, and then you
- 38:43Speaker 2: have another summer to try something new. It's the greatest
- 38:48Speaker 2: kind of boot camp slash graduate school, right, I think.
- 38:52Speaker 3: Yeah, when you were working with Soderberg, was that like
- 38:56Speaker 3: was there ever a moment when you were like, Oh,
- 38:58Speaker 3: this is like this is how happening, This is like,
- 39:02Speaker 3: you know, this is the show that I'm doing has
- 39:04Speaker 3: led me to this gigantic movie.
- 39:07Speaker 2: I don't think he was outaware of that seventy show
- 39:09Speaker 2: at the time, but I do because it'd only been
- 39:11Speaker 2: on for forty episodes or something, and I don't think
- 39:16Speaker 2: he watched it. But but but what it what I
- 39:20Speaker 2: did realize was for me that I didn't want to
- 39:24Speaker 2: have a career where I was playing the same role
- 39:26Speaker 2: over and over again, which which is, by the way,
- 39:29Speaker 2: the way to be a bigger actor or a bigger
- 39:31Speaker 2: start is if you I mean, I'm I tell my
- 39:34Speaker 2: agents that they were like, oh cool, like every time
- 39:37Speaker 2: you'll start from zero. But I actually do think that
- 39:41Speaker 2: if you want to make money, if you want to
- 39:43Speaker 2: be a big star, you should you should have the
- 39:44Speaker 2: same role and you kind of apply it to each film.
- 39:46Speaker 2: And what I love or what gets me still excited
- 39:49Speaker 2: about acting, it's been years since we started that show
- 39:52Speaker 2: is doing something different every single time. I just played
- 39:56Speaker 2: a just gonna sound like traffic because I played like
- 39:58Speaker 2: a heroin Dealer.
- 39:59Speaker 1: But I but you were dealing know these you were
- 40:01Speaker 1: in No, no, No, I was like the head dealer.
- 40:06Speaker 1: It's a major come up for sure. I think it's
- 40:08Speaker 1: an evolution of the same rendition.
- 40:11Speaker 2: Yeah, he's up in the world. But but I but
- 40:15Speaker 2: I love and then I'll go do something.
- 40:18Speaker 1: But which movie you talk about?
- 40:19Speaker 2: You talk about this is a Netflix show I did,
- 40:20Speaker 2: which by the way, was in Southport where you did
- 40:22Speaker 2: Summer catch All. I was teary eyed about that one.
- 40:26Speaker 1: So cool. Where were where was what you was talking about?
- 40:29Speaker 1: Are you talking about the movie you just say way,
- 40:32Speaker 1: Mar Welbur No, this.
- 40:33Speaker 2: Is a Netflix show called The Waterfront where I'm like, oh, yeah,
- 40:36Speaker 2: but I just got off of a show where I
- 40:38Speaker 2: was playing a good guy for three years. And it's
- 40:40Speaker 2: like to me, I don't know how you guys, I
- 40:41Speaker 2: mean your actors, and probably feel the same way with
- 40:44Speaker 2: your actors, But don't you feel like when you're doing
- 40:48Speaker 2: different things like that is the like, the the differential
- 40:53Speaker 2: is what make keeps that spark live. And if you
- 40:55Speaker 2: did the same things over and over again after a while,
- 40:57Speaker 2: you like, I just feel like I just say I
- 41:00Speaker 2: want to I don't want to do this, or would
- 41:02Speaker 2: just the work would get bad.
- 41:03Speaker 3: I think, yeah, we we we had this conversation. I
- 41:06Speaker 3: think that the whole character actor thing is very synonymous
- 41:09Speaker 3: with our generation, and I don't know, maybe I'm wrong here.
- 41:13Speaker 3: I just don't think it's as important with this newer generation.
- 41:18Speaker 3: I think when we were coming up, we were coming
- 41:19Speaker 3: up watching de Niro and Paccino and Hoffman and then
- 41:22Speaker 3: how they were transforming into these different characters.
- 41:24Speaker 1: They feel like they were telling stories.
- 41:27Speaker 3: Yeah, but that was the thing to do that that
- 41:29Speaker 3: that that was the way to show how good of
- 41:30Speaker 3: an actor you wore is to transform and to be
- 41:33Speaker 3: a character actor, And like, I don't I still see it.
- 41:36Speaker 3: Don't get me wrong, you know, I just I just
- 41:37Speaker 3: don't see it as much. I don't feel like the
- 41:39Speaker 3: importance is as much as actors from our generation.
- 41:42Speaker 1: I mean, do you disagree? No, you might be right.
- 41:44Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't really thought about it. Yeah, I don't
- 41:47Speaker 2: know any of this. I have three kids, don't know
- 41:49Speaker 2: what any these young actors are. I know all the
- 41:51Speaker 2: actors our age and above.
- 41:52Speaker 1: Yeah, did you have you ever worked with a cyburb?
- 41:56Speaker 1: I haven't.
- 41:56Speaker 2: Now, Oh you love it. I mean it's the I
- 41:59Speaker 2: was in the moment I was doing it. I was
- 42:02Speaker 2: sad that it was my first job because I was like,
- 42:04Speaker 2: I know, I can't fully appreciate this the way I should.
- 42:07Speaker 2: I mean, he shoots it. He's literally the guy behind
- 42:09Speaker 2: the camera. He's just all available light. You do like
- 42:13Speaker 2: two takes, you move on. It was we were ahead
- 42:15Speaker 2: of schedule the whole time. He wants to say some
- 42:18Speaker 2: of you will just kind of move the camera and
- 42:20Speaker 2: talk to you.
- 42:20Speaker 1: And I mean it was like, I mean he's just
- 42:23Speaker 1: won the Oscar for that, right, Yeah. I mean that
- 42:28Speaker 1: that movie just swept I remember that. I mean it
- 42:33Speaker 1: just it's like you hadn't seen anything like that in
- 42:35Speaker 1: a long time.
- 42:36Speaker 2: And I think that Erica, Erica became friends with it.
- 42:38Speaker 2: She came and did the show, became a good friend
- 42:41Speaker 2: of ours.
- 42:41Speaker 1: Yeah, who's Who's who? Also had the same passion for
- 42:45Speaker 1: Jerry's DELI.
- 42:45Speaker 2: You know that's right, you had a lot of Jerry.
- 42:48Speaker 1: So she shout out to her. And she's doing amazing
- 42:51Speaker 1: by the way, She's like out there doing amazing shows
- 42:53Speaker 1: and amazing TV. I think she's on Will Trent right
- 42:57Speaker 1: now with oh yeah and doing awesome. I bumped into
- 43:03Speaker 1: her cup like last year, and man, we were reminiscing
- 43:06Speaker 1: so much.
- 43:07Speaker 2: She was like seventeen, yeah, like it was, and we're
- 43:10Speaker 2: doing these scenes where we're like doing, oh whatever, this
- 43:13Speaker 2: drug is together. It was like a made up drug
- 43:15Speaker 2: for the movie. But were all that's like freebasing.
- 43:18Speaker 1: Yeah scene. She had this scene in Traffic that was
- 43:21Speaker 1: so god wrenching and yeah, and she's just because she.
- 43:26Speaker 4: Played Michael Douglas's daughter, right, and he was the head
- 43:30Speaker 4: of the DA right.
- 43:31Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Wow, you haven't seen that film in a while.
- 43:34Speaker 4: What was that like to have like a number one
- 43:36Speaker 4: movie out, a number one TV show and.
- 43:39Speaker 1: Pretty Oscars the first one out of the bat Oscars movie.
- 43:43Speaker 2: Like I went to a couple of fun parties because
- 43:45Speaker 2: of that. I think, how old were you when that
- 43:47Speaker 2: who twenty one or something?
- 43:49Speaker 1: I mean, like it was twenty one, number one movie,
- 43:52Speaker 1: number one show.
- 43:52Speaker 2: I mean, you know it was work nothing that Wilmore
- 43:56Speaker 2: didn't come with me too. I remember showing you. I
- 43:58Speaker 2: had you do a very early screening of Remember You,
- 44:00Speaker 2: and Laura came and you know what, you know what
- 44:05Speaker 2: I'm gonna I hope this doesn't embarrass you. It's so
- 44:06Speaker 2: many years since that film came out, Wilmer, this is
- 44:10Speaker 2: how close we were, And I go, I'm mad. I
- 44:13Speaker 2: don't even have anyone in my life like this now
- 44:15Speaker 2: where I said, how was I in that? And he
- 44:18Speaker 2: told me the one part where I wasn't good and
- 44:22Speaker 2: you were right, And that's so invaluable as an actor,
- 44:26Speaker 2: do you know what I mean? Like to have something
- 44:28Speaker 2: like my own manager probably now wouldn't tell me, do.
- 44:31Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like you were honestly asking me,
- 44:33Speaker 1: yeah I wasn't it. I actually want to ask him
- 44:36Speaker 1: and they just want to just hear, oh you're great,
- 44:38Speaker 1: you know, but he was trying to figure out you're
- 44:40Speaker 1: trying to next take, right, Like we had that relationship.
- 44:43Speaker 1: That's right when you know, like if I do a
- 44:45Speaker 1: joke on the show and he'd be like, do one more,
- 44:49Speaker 1: you know, he would have just you know, he was right.
- 44:50Speaker 2: That's how safe we were with each other. I mean,
- 44:53Speaker 2: no one who's outside of the industry who's watching this
- 44:56Speaker 2: would understand, like it's it's a real faux pa if
- 44:58Speaker 2: someone even just finishes it take and says is that good?
- 45:02Speaker 2: Like just everyone would say, yeah, great job. Like no
- 45:04Speaker 2: one would be like, oh dude, like no, but that's
- 45:07Speaker 2: how safe we were with each other. That you were.
- 45:09Speaker 2: And that was the first film I've been in, so
- 45:10Speaker 2: I actually wanted to know, and I was.
- 45:13Speaker 1: I was really emotional watching you in that movie because
- 45:17Speaker 1: you see, you know, one of your best friends, you know,
- 45:20Speaker 1: Slash Brothers, who you're like literally experiencing. By the way,
- 45:23Speaker 1: by twenty one, we've been doing the show for now
- 45:25Speaker 1: for two years, so whatever, and like he's on screen,
- 45:31Speaker 1: Michael Douglas, Contheter, Sinta Jones, Don cheetos Mine Benissu, Litoral
- 45:37Speaker 1: Jacob bargas.
- 45:38Speaker 2: Jake, He's great, yeah, and I'm like.
- 45:43Speaker 1: There he is, there are It's like it was just
- 45:47Speaker 1: really emotional for me because it tells you it's possible,
- 45:51Speaker 1: right Like also, like you know, I never thought I
- 45:54Speaker 1: was any different, you know until for so his wins
- 45:57Speaker 1: were like my wins, bro, Like shit, we're doing it man,
- 46:01Speaker 1: like that and that and that's something I'll never forget
- 46:04Speaker 1: because to your point, rarely we have that, you know,
- 46:07Speaker 1: we rarely have individuals around us that to remind us
- 46:10Speaker 1: what it was like how it turned out and like
- 46:16Speaker 1: still be here to see you where you're gonna go next.
- 46:18Speaker 1: And that's the part where like, you know, you talk
- 46:20Speaker 1: about getting cornered, like you know, I I live that truth.
- 46:24Speaker 1: And you know, after so many years in the game,
- 46:27Speaker 1: we're going on almost thirty years in the game, you
- 46:30Speaker 1: start thinking about, you know, like who you surround yourself
- 46:34Speaker 1: with in time does its job on? Like who's not
- 46:37Speaker 1: supposed to be there anymore?
- 46:39Speaker 2: Right?
- 46:40Speaker 1: Yeah? And then one day you look around and like
- 46:43Speaker 1: we're still here, right, Like this is there interesting things?
- 46:46Speaker 1: I mean the same thing with Freddie. Freddy's also been
- 46:48Speaker 1: you know as an actor, you know, to see him
- 46:51Speaker 1: work with some of the grades. It's also been you know, emotional, right.
- 46:55Speaker 1: We talk about cultural representation, you talk about you know
- 46:58Speaker 1: people that played roles.
- 47:00Speaker 2: That you're you're a fantastic actor. I mean we just
- 47:03Speaker 2: met when I walked in here. But I'm so thrilled
- 47:05Speaker 2: to thank you. Hopefully we work together at some point. Man,
- 47:08Speaker 2: there's too much gold here, too much, guys, Yes, yes,
- 47:12Speaker 2: but in too.
- 47:13Speaker 1: So fore you're giving us too much gold Man told
- 47:15Speaker 1: him that so rich, so rich when he touched your lips.
- 47:21Speaker 1: So this is this is part one. We cover a
- 47:23Speaker 1: lot of nostalgia here and all that and excited for
- 47:26Speaker 1: for you guys all to experience Part two. I'm Wilmer Valdorama,
- 47:29Speaker 1: I'm Freddie Rodriguez, and this is Doosmos.
- 47:36Speaker 3: Is a production from w V Sound and iHeartMedia's Michael
- 47:40Speaker 3: through That Podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez and
- 47:44Speaker 3: Wilmer of Aaldorama.
- 47:45Speaker 5: Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlon and Sophie Spencer's Abbos.
- 47:49Speaker 3: Our executive producers are Wilmer of Aaldorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
- 47:54Speaker 3: and Leo Klem at w V Sound.
- 47:56Speaker 1: This episode was shot and edited.
- 47:58Speaker 5: It by Ryan Posts and mixed by Sean Tracy and
- 48:00Speaker 5: features original music by Madison Devenport and Halo boy Our.
- 48:04Speaker 3: Cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed by
- 48:07Speaker 3: Deny Holtzkau And.
- 48:09Speaker 5: Thank you for being here third Amigo today. I appreciate
- 48:11Speaker 5: you guys always listening to those amigos.
- 48:13Speaker 3: A more podcasts from my Heart, visit the I Heart
- 48:16Speaker 3: Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your
- 48:19Speaker 3: favorite shows.
- 48:20Speaker 1: So you next week