October 15, 2024 • 50 mins
This week, Tommy is joined by actor Justin Hartley who currently stars in Tracker, the #1 show on television for the 2023-2024 season. The series has reached over 81 million viewers since its February debut, and for good reason. Hartley plays Colter Shaw, a lone-wolf survivalist who travels the country as a reward seeker, using his expert tracking skills to help law enforcement and private citizens find friends, family, and loved ones. Season 2 is out now and we celebrate Hartley’s journey on the series, reflect on some past fan-favorite work like This Is Us, gain insight into his work ethic, discuss how he takes care of his mental health while shooting such an intense role and so much more. This is a special edition episode of my podcast because this interview is from an event I moderated, presented by the prestigious 92nd Street Y New York. The 92nd Street Y New York is a world class center for arts and innovation. They offer extensive in-person and online classes and events, including live talks, concerts, and dance performances. I hope you enjoy this conversation where we really get to see a different side to the artist behind some of your most favorite roles.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey guys, welcome to I've never said this before with
me Tommy di Dario. Today's guest is the wonderfully talented
Justin Hartley, who has been in so many fan favorite
projects including This is Us, you know, a little show
that only took over the entire world. Now he stars
(00:23):
in the CBS hit show Tracker, which just debuted its
second season, and he is unbelievable in this series. There's
a reason why Tracker is the number one show on television.
Oh and here's a fun fact for you. It is
the most watched new series since Desperate Housewives back in
their two thousand and four two thousand and five season, which,
if you don't remember, it felt like that show was
(00:43):
the only thing people were talking about back then.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Justin Ah, he is the real deal and it was
such a pleasure to chat with him.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Our fifty minutes together felt like five because we just
had such a nice conversation. Now, this is a special
edition episode of my podcast because the conversation you are
out to hear it's from an event that I'm moderated,
presented by the prestigious ninety second Street why New York.
You can check them out at ninety two ny dot
org for upcoming events and hey, maybe you'll even catch
(01:11):
me at one. So let's see if today we can
get Justin to say something that he has never said before.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, Justin, I am so happy to be hanging out
with you today. Man. I love the show.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I was telling you that backstage, and before we begin,
I'm going to give you some of your flowers that
you deserve. Okay, you ready for it? I'm ready for
Tracker was the number one television show for the twenty
twenty three twenty twenty four season.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yes it was.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
It has reached over eighty one million viewers since it
debuted in February, and each episode averaged about eleven point
fifty eight million viewers. That just doesn't happen for a
broadcast television show anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So let's give it up for Justin. Well, it's a
it's a it's a group effort. It's a huge team
behind these shows. As you probably know, there are I
want to say, close to two hundred people, like one
hundred and fifty one hundred and sixty just in the
shooting crew of our show. That they all work very
very hard. So it's what you see is this. But
(02:20):
what you start with is a blank page and a
thought and a couple of words, and then you end
up with you know, production and network and studio and
everybody behind one baby I call it, and you end
up with something really great.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Well, when a show like this wins, I feel like
we all win because we need more art like this,
We need the television landscape to keep thriving. And when
a show like this comes along and it has such success,
I feel like it's a whole win for everybody in
the business.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
But I also would.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Imagine there's a lot of pressure that comes with knowing
your number one, right, with needing to be just as
good as the last season, with wanting to do great
work for the fandom. So do you feel that pressure
or are you able to kind of push that aside
and focus on the work, Like how do you balance
the two different things?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I feel it now right about that? No, Yeah, of course,
you know it's there's pressure, for sure, But I think
there's there's a responsibility that comes with it. And when
you when you're asking, I always sort of look at
it like this. I don't know anyone who's not busy.
(03:28):
Everyone's busy, and everyone has their own life People watch
our show for different reasons. They watch it for to escape,
they watch it to get inspired, they watch it for entertainment,
They watch it for the family dynamic, they watch it
for the beauty of it that for the landscape. Whatever
reason it might be that you're watching our show or
that you tune in week after week, you're you're taking
(03:49):
and you're taking an hour out of your life a
week and you're saying, I'm going to watch this show.
That is a I take that as a huge responsibility
to deliver something that is the best thing that I
know how to do. From the time that I wake
up in the morning and go to work to the
time I come home usually later later at night. It
(04:11):
is every frame, It is every thought, It is every
every piece of wardrobe that we choose, every shot, all
the locations we have a studio and a network and
a shooting crew and a post production crew that feel
the exact same way that I do. And when you
have people like that, and I truly mean this, when
you surround yourself with insanely talented people that are dedicated
(04:35):
to something and the same thing that you're dedicated to,
you end up oftentimes with something like this and the
difference I think is we were able to find an
audience and CBS helped us with that. The studio helped
us with that in putting us after the super Bowl,
which was really great. So we delivered this pilot that
everyone kind of fell in love with, thank God, and
then they said, well, we really love it. We're going
(04:55):
to put it after the super Bowl. And then of
course I'm like, wow, this is really great. I'll walk
you through this really quick. My nightmare of a night.
So we have the Chiefs playing and Taylor Swift on tour,
and then there's rumor they're like she's going to be
able to make it to the game, and I'm like,
and we're premiering after the super Bowl that Taylor Swift
(05:16):
is attending, and I kind of kicked my feet up
and I'm this is gonna be great. Everyone's going to
watch this thing. And then the game is so good
that it goes into overtime and then I'm doing I'm
looking at my watch. I'm like, we're asking people to
stay up until like eleven thirty to watch this thing
that this new show that that they're not hooked on you.
I can't lie that worried me. Yeah, me too. That's
a bit late. But you all pulled you all, you
(05:37):
already did it. You all pulled through, and we appreciate it.
We really appreciate it. That was great.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, you know, as the leading man of the show,
there's so much dialogue, there's so much scene work. You're
in almost every single scene, if not you know all
of them. I would say ninety eight percent of the
scenes you're in. How do you navigate that?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Like, how do you.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Navigate getting the job done and knowing you're the face
of it, You're you're the guy, like you are the
tracker and you have to keep on going to deliver
a full season?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Is that a hard balance? You know, it's a lot
of thought goes into it. You have to take care
of yourself in certain ways. There's a lot of people
counting on you. You can't go down. You can't really
get sick. People get sick, but you can't. You have
to take care of yourself in a way. You got
to take your vitamins, you got to get your rest.
There's a great responsibility I think that comes along with that.
You know, if I go down, there's really nothing to shoot,
(06:26):
and like I said, we have hundreds of people that
are now kind of like this, So you can't be reckless,
you can't goof off, you know all that stuff. You're
representing a bunch of people, a bunch of people, and
not only the people that work on the show, but
they're families that they're supporting. So I take that very seriously.
And then you know what, you know what else it is, oh,
thank you one person. It also takes their life seriously.
(06:49):
That person must be from the Midwest or something. There's
just one. Everyone else is drinking this. It's great. But
but also you surround yourself with really talented people, and
so I'm able to when I'm on set and they
call action, I'm able to just act. I have one job.
(07:10):
And that's what Ken and I Ken Olin, the guy
who created the show, with me, that's what we kind
of decided. We were like, look, I can produce and
I'm going to do everything that I can. But when
they call action, when I step onto the set and
they call action, I need to do one thing I
can't do acting and also directing and also producing and
also that because it just takes away from the one
(07:31):
thing that I'm supposed to be doing in that moment.
And they've been really great, my whole team. They've been
really great about letting me do that and understanding that
right now he's doing one thing, will do everything else,
and then when I walk away. Sure it's different. But
I can't sit in on every single meeting. As much
as I would love to, I can't. I mean, I
guess I could, but I don't know who won. No,
(07:54):
but I physically can't because I'm on set. But I
can't give every single note about every single thing that's
going on in my head and at the same time
give one hundred percent to the performance, which is really
what is the most important thing to me, is a performance.
We have great writers, like I said, we have great producers,
we have people that can handle all of that stuff.
But the words have to come out of my mouth
and I have to hit that mark and I just
(08:16):
need to be doing that one thing at that time.
So that's the And look, everyone's different, everyone's different. I've
seen Ben Affleck direct brilliant movies and be brilliant in
those movies. He does it all. That guy is like
a machine. So it's different for every single person. But
for me, that was the most important thing was to
make sure that I don't sacrifice any of the acting
for the other stuff. There on the other hats that
(08:36):
I'm wearing. Well, for the record, Justin Hartley is a
machine as well. So there we go.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Because you do you wear a lot of different hats man.
And I think you know when I look at the
dialogue in this series, it's so heavy, it's so intense.
And are there other actors and artists in the audience today?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Okay, great, this is a question for all of y'all.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I think you'll appreciate this. How do you go about memorizing?
You get these scraps for every episode, right, and I'm
sure this season will have a lot more episodes. You're
turning around things very quickly. You're on a time crunch, right,
It's it's a business as well. You got to get
the shot and keep on moving on because the clock
sticking and dollars are being spent. How do you memorize
to make sure you show up you're prepared, you know
(09:16):
your lines? Do you have different techniques? Do you have advice,
like what works for you? I do have different techniques.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
If I'm not tired at all, and I'm and I've
got a full tank of gas or what you know,
and my batteries full. I will do it birotely. I
do it birotely. It's one word, and then it's two words,
and then it's three words, and it's four and then
it's a sentence, and it's that sentence in one word,
and then it says, and I will I could probably
tell you the first letter of every word of the
first of the whole entire thing, like you know T.
(09:44):
I can do that if but then you get as
a time sort of time crunch starts to happen. I
have a different technique, but it's always about sort of
a gut feeling. I'm never really done with it until
they say moving on, we're on the wrong set, we're
moving on, we're going to that. I've never really done
with it. And oftentimes, and I don't know for the
actors in this room, or actually not even actors, anybody
(10:06):
who works, anybody who does anything. Oftentimes, right you have
an encounter with someone, or you're at work or you're
doing something, and then you go, man, I wish I
would have done that. Oh I should I should have
said that. Oh they really needed me to say that.
And instead I got ah, man, I really, I really
messed that up. I should have done that, And I've
just learned you can't spend a lot of time doing
that in this profession because if you're constantly doing that,
(10:26):
you're never going to be satisfied when it's done and
you're moving on. You're on the wrong set. You're on
the wrong set and it's like a different scene right now.
You carry that with you in a good way, but
you can't dwell on it. And I think for me,
I know when it's time to go to when I
can rest, when I can go to bed. There's a
certain feeling that I have in my body when I
know that I'm ready. If I'm not, I can't get
(10:47):
any sleep. I'll just be up all night anyway, So
I might as well put the extra work in. The
Last thing I want to do is show up on
set and not be prepared. I mean that I have
had nightmares about being in still today day and I'm
twenty eight and I and I I wasn't gonna say anything.
(11:09):
I don't know what is that that there's one the
one person was the only one that didn't laugh. No,
I'm forty seven years old, and I still will to
this day have nightmares about not knowing the not studying
for a quiz in high school. You know, it's just
not a good feeling, and that's something you can control.
It's just time. It's just spending time with it. It takes
(11:29):
as long as it takes. You know. Sometimes you'll read
something and it'll be like four pages and you'll read
it once and you're like, oh, I've got it memorized.
And then there are other times where you just it's
just not clicking for whatever reason. So it takes what
it takes. And then I also say this, I can't
really start working on anything until I have it memorized.
Does that means sense? Like, I really can't. I have
(11:50):
to memorize it, get it all memorized in my head,
and then I can actually start to process it and
work on it and start to understand what it means
and how I'm going to approach it.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So I imagine you memorize very kind of monitor, like you
just get it in your body.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah. I try to. Yeah, Yeah that's interesting. Yeah, it
sounds fun, right, Yeah, but you know what, it's a
lot of work.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It works, and I think and all the actors out here.
I'm tipping my hat to you because what bothers me
so much is when an artist or an actor says, oh,
it's not like we're carrying cancer. We're not brain surgeons,
because you can't compare it. Because what you guys do,
what you all do as artists, is you bring people
so much joy and safety and feeling seen. And that
(12:30):
has just as much weight to me as those other professions.
So it's really important the work that you all do.
That's why I love having conversations thank you like you
because you.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Put in the work.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
You don't just show up and say I'm here on
camera like memorize, You go through rehearsals, you do stunts.
I mean, it's it's just amazing what you guys accomplish
every single day on set. This character, specifically Culture Shaw,
he's he's something. Yeah, he's something. He's an American hero
to so many people who watch the show. I think
he's a kind of hoped to many. An interesting character
(13:02):
because he's helping track people and bringing that closure and
safety to families, but also getting paid. It's a business,
so it's an interesting relationship there.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Right. What do you love about playing him? I love
all of those things. And just HARKing back to what
you just said, you know, that's one of the sort
of things that I always think about, is brain surgeons wonderful.
All that stuff wonderful. But whether you're mopping a floor
or sweeping the floor, or acting in a TV show
or on stage, or acting in a community theater, or
(13:34):
doing brain surgery or that's all you're doing at that moment,
that's the only thing that you have right that is
what you're doing. So if you just focus on that
and you do what you say you're doing as an actor,
I think it's hard for people to deny that you're
actually doing it. I mean sans I always say sans
like shooting someone or wielding a night like, you know,
you really can just do what you say you're doing
as an actor. And anyway, what do I love about him? Gosh,
(13:57):
what don't I love it? I love how complex it
his backstory is. I love that he took all of
those things that happened to him as a kid, and
instead of saying, well, life happened to me, he ends
up kind of happening to life. I love that I
loved playing Kevin Pearson on this is us. I loved it.
It was the highlight of my career until I got
(14:19):
this show. And I'm like, I really, I really love
playing this character. He's so different than Kevin, and I've
fell in love with Kevin and I'll carry him with
me forever. He'll forever be in my heart. But the
opportunity to be able to play a character like this
that is so different, especially in a world where people
want to put you in a box in this industry
as well, they want to go, oh, you did that well,
and so it's a compliment because they see you do
that and they're like, that's what that person does, which
(14:40):
means you maybe you did it well. Maybe that's what
that means. Otherwise they'd be like that, they would know
that guy can't do that. But it's also kind of
bad because you then they only see you a certain
way and it's hard to break out into something else. Right,
But you did it well. We different, very different, very
different a lot of people we all did it together.
But I got the opportunity to do it right and
(15:01):
and it's been great. I love that he doesn't get distracted.
I love I love that, I love that he I
love that he's on his own. I love that he can,
that he's a decision maker. I love that he doesn't
(15:22):
make excuses, and I love that he I love that
he helps people. I love that he's a good guy.
He's not an anti hero. He's just he knows right
from wrong, and he has conviction, he follows it. And
I also love the way they're writing this character where
it's sort of like Rockford Files, but this guy evolves
as he goes. So you when you watch episode two
(15:43):
of season one versus episode two of season two, he's
the same guy, but all the things that he has
learned throughout the seasons, throughout the episodes, throughout his you know, instant,
these encounters that he has with other people, he keeps them,
he takes them with him, and he becomes a better man,
which I think is so great and unfortunately rareer than
(16:04):
it should be. So those are some of the things
I really love about him. I mean, what percentage of
stunts do you do in the show? I try to
do all of them? Try to do all of them.
You're hanging off cliffs, you're well off cars. There soe
bad of the airplane. Now, there are certain things they
won't let me do. And then there are certain things
(16:27):
that I'm sure that could would come up that I
wouldn't want to do. But but so far, yeah, I
mean fights, I think it's important. There's certain things, like
I'm not stupid about it. There are certain things that
I just simply can't do, or my stunt guy would
be better at doing it than I would be doing
it would benefit the show to have him do it.
But there are other instances where and most oftentimes where
(16:47):
if it's safe enough and I can do it now,
our director can put the camera in a different spot
because they don't have to hide anyone's face. They can
just shoot my face, you know, kicking the hell out
of someone or whatever, or diving down off of something
or whatever it might be, and they make it pretty safe.
I mean, you get dinged up. I'm always something's always sprained,
and something's always kind of scratched up, and something's always
(17:07):
achy or whatever it might be. But that's kind sort
of the price of doing business. You know, it's like
anything else, but it's never really dangerous. It's just kind
of like, Okay, you're going to fall off of that thing.
It's not gonna feel great. But you can handle it right,
And I'm was like, Okay, we practiced a couple of times,
and like, how many times are we going to do it? Well,
We'll try to do it under like like less than
four Okay, try to not do it more than four times.
I can probably survive that. And we get it done
(17:29):
and you end up with a shot where you see
the actual actor the character flying through a frame, the
frame and taking the hit as opposed to now you
have to put the camera someone else somewhere else, and
the guys's got his head down somehow, and there's a
wig coming up the guys, you know, and he's twice
as big, and it's like, I'm not even sure if
the shoes match, you know what I mean. So I
think there's a benefit in that. And it's so about
protecting the show.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Really, it's evident that you're so invested in every single
piece of how the show looks. Right, it's not just
about you, it's about the overall picture.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, even hanging.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Out backstage and watching the up episode, you were admiring
the lighting and you were giving notes and it's just
you're so invested in all in and I know you're
an executive producer on this project as well. Are you
able to give you guide in somewhere you want your
story to go? Do you collaborate with the writers or
do you kind of let them do their own thing?
Like what's that line you straddle between letting writers do
(18:21):
the job they're here to do, but also expressing what
your vision is as an EP and the leading man.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I mean, I think it has to do with personnel.
We have our head writer, Elwood Reid, who is really
wonderful and he's a really great writer. He's a talented guy,
comes up with great stories and he knows the character
inside and out. But he's also I think his biggest
asset is he's so collaborative and he's not ego driven
at all. You can tell him anything and he won't.
(18:49):
He doesn't take it. Well. If he does, he does
it alone with tears, but in front of me, he
doesn't take it. He understands where the notes are coming from.
It's not coming from anything other than it's not coming
from some place where I'm saying I can do this better,
because I can't. It's coming from a place where, hey,
have you thought about this? And he's so collaborative and
that goes the other way too. I mean they're the
same way. They're like, hey, you know when cultures in
(19:10):
this situation, you're the actor, but don't you think that,
Oh of course, I hadn't thought of that. You know,
we have so many eyes on this that it's hard
to let things slip through the cracks when you have
so many eyes on it, the people that really care
that sort of have the same vision. But yeah, we
collaborate whatever. I mean, there are certain story areas or
scripts that come in that don't need to be touched,
and then there are certain ones that come in where
(19:30):
you have a couple of maybe a couple of ideas
for they could maybe I don't want to say make
it better, but maybe sharpen it a little bit or
make it more interesting in certain areas. And then there
are certain times where you have notes that just they
fall flat and you're the only one that thought that,
and you kind of have to let those go. So
it's a team.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You've brought up this as us, and my mind keeps
going back to that because obviously the show resonated with
so many people. It's a yeah favorite and will forever
be a fan favorite. When you were wrapping up that show.
You began where on this show?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Right? Yeah, So what was that.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Like for you as an artist to kind of have
to hang up your hat with that character and say
goodbye and make peace with that's it and I'm not
going to see him again, and then getting right into
the mode of preparing for another one, like did you
have time to kind of grieve that loss?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
For lack of a better word, we had a lot
of time, so we knew the show was going to
go six years from like the beginning. In fact, I
think I was told five and then I think it
evolved into six. I could be totally lying to but
that's how I remember it. But we knew for years
and years and years that that show was ending when
it was ending, so we had a you know, a
lot of times you don't get that opportunity. Things just happen.
(20:40):
People go you're not doing it anymore, and you're like, oh, okay,
this was more like, Wow, you get an opportunity to
play this character for six years. It's going to be amazing.
What a ride this guy's going to go on. And
here's kind of what his journey's going to be. And
it evolved a little bit throughout the series. I'd say
quite a bit actually, but it ended up being something
that was I thought that project was remarkable to be
(21:01):
a part of. There's a There's an interesting thing that
happens with that too, though, because if you have a
mind like I do, you pull off the pages of
the calendar, and that calendar starts to get remember those
little desk calendars in the year yah, And as you
pull off the pages, you're like, oh, another day, another day,
another day. And then as that things starts to get
thinner and thinner, you're like, oh, we're almost at the
end of the and it starts to feel different to
rip them off right than it does at the beginning
(21:22):
of the year. So I don't even know what your
question was. I'm just rambling at this point, but yeah, yeah,
I One things I didn't realize, and I'm so happy
that it's happening, is that I didn't really say goodbye
to him, because people remember him and people say things
to me, you know, people are they'll say things about passions.
It's like this soap opera that I did one hundred
million years ago, and people will still say Fox Crane,
(21:44):
which is like the only character I've ever played that
had two animal names as the first and last name,
which is the most interesting thing about him. But but
but people, because some people hold on to that stuff,
and that's kind of cool because you never really have
to let go of it. It's days in everyone's hearts.
It's really remarkable and it's a really cool thing to
have happened in your life.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
And I feel like it's a role that I don't know,
maybe down the line, you would revisit one day.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, you know. I mean we've talked about it. We've
all talked about it, and I don't know if there's
any plans to if there are plans to reboot it.
I haven't been involved in there, which is a whole
another conversation, I guess. But but yeah, I still keep
in touch with all those guys. They're all so great.
They'll be lifelong friends of mine and I would do
anything for them. I love them all. Might we see
any of them on tracker? We? I think we will.
(22:34):
I think we will? Yeah, right, yeah right? Season two? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
For fear of executives from CBS who might be here
coming on stage and body checking me, what can you
tell me that won't get you in trouble, but maybe
that you haven't shared yet.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Let's see what haven't I shared yet? That won't well,
let's get in trouble. Who cares? All right, what do
we got? We have? I think you all know that
Johnson's coming back, Jensen Ancles is coming back. That'll be fun.
My wife, who is here somewhere is coming back. Sophie
Apprentice has come other she is, Sophia is coming back.
(23:11):
And by the way, my mother and my sister are
here in the front. This is moving up for mom
and sistern who else is coming back? We have this?
We have this, this white Whale case that we introduced
in the episode that you all just saw that ends
up taking up like sort of half of our season.
The first half of our seasons up being kind of
about that. There's a job that Culture takes several episodes
(23:33):
into the first part of our season where he ends up.
He's out in the forcing stumbles upon this these campers
go missing, and he's trying to figure out what He's
surveying the scene and trying to figure out getting all
the clues that he can try to figure out where
these people went. There are four of them, so something happened, right.
It wasn't like one one, you know, stray, It was
all four of them are gone. Then there's there's this
(23:53):
man that he finds while he's looking for them. The
man's got a gun. He's got a couple of questions
for this man, and this man ends up telling him
sort of a little bit about his backstory and why
he's there, and he has a white whale case of
his own, and so they kind of help each other.
So for the first time in our series, really you
see Culture teaming up with not just for a moment,
(24:16):
for several episodes, with someone from kind of a different generation,
different totally different way of doing things than Culture does.
And it may or may not help him with his
white whale job that he's been, you know, searching for
a decade. Was that an executive going because George Cheeks
is like, shut up, well, George might not like this question,
(24:39):
but is he maybe going to find love this season
or explore that more? You know, I think he's got
a tough job, you know what I mean. He travels
a lot, and it's something that something that we talk about.
And the guy, like I said, he evolves, He's going
to evolve but I think for right now, I mean,
he's that would be a difficult relationship to have, wouldn't
(25:02):
it a relationship with a guy like that, like a
guy who's traveling all is gone all the time. He's
off the grid also, and plus it's dangerous. He's always
getting shot out or doing doing something you know, crazy.
I mean, you did have some fun season one, episode one. Yeah,
it seems like he only has fun in episode one. Yeah, one,
O one, two oh one, probably three oh one. Like yeah,
if if you're if you're an actress or an actor,
(25:23):
a female actor, and you want to come on tracker
and like three oh one, something's probably going to go down.
Other than that, you're safe. I don't know what that is.
I don't Yeah, I don't know why, why, why that happened,
but it did. And then that whole thing that happened
at the end of that episode that you just saw
ends up being something that we we earn and we
explain and you go, oh, man, okay, I see it's more.
(25:43):
It's more than just a trauma bond thing. There's a
history there.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Hm hmm.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, okay, we have a lot to look forward to. Yeah, yeah,
we go pretty deep in that because now we can.
When you're building a show, you know from the beginning
it's the hardest thing to do because you can't just
dive in. You have to explain who these characters are
to everyone. Pilot are tough. They're tough because you know,
as an audience member, I want to know who this
guy is, like you know, Breaking Bad, Beautiful, Pilot beautiful.
(26:08):
When you watch it, though, you need to know like
the circumstances. Okay, he's got lungcans, but he doesn't smoke,
he's so why did he You have to explain all
this stuff, right, and then as you get into the series,
you kind of know it and you can you just
kind of it just kind of flows. You don't have
to explain every single time that this guy is justin.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
You are someone who's been working a long time, right,
and you've been a part of projects that people love,
and I know you're very grateful to have been a
part of them, and you don't take it for granted,
which is amazing to see. What is something you've learned
about yourself through all of these years as a working actor.
I mean you're going from job to job and you're
hustling and it's a very unconventional business. Is there something
(26:47):
that you've really learned that has helped you kind of
in this in this career, choice, in this path, in
your personal life that you can share with people today
that might help them.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I find the right partner, Find the right partner, find
someone who finds someone who someone who will walk to
the end of the earth with you, who trusts you.
Surround yourself with the best of the best, and don't
worry so much about pleasing everyone, because I think the
people that that get you, that get your heart, didn't
(27:20):
know who you are, that really understand you your kindness.
I don't think any of that factors into it. I
I don't think making sure that you're pleasing other people
really has anything to do with that. I think it's
being present in the moment. It's an easy thing to say,
a very very hard thing to do, but yeah, find
the right partner. And that could be that could be
in a a in a spouse, that could be in
a sister, that could be in a mother, that could
(27:40):
be in anybody your team. Just pour into your team,
find the right people. Surround yourself with people that are
like minded, that appreciate themselves and that appreciate your help,
and that you can ask advice from that you can trust,
and when you have that, you have and your health
the rest of cake.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
And you strike me as someone who's always wanting to learn. Oh,
and you're not afraid to ask a question, are you No?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
And sometimes you end up looking like a fool. But
that's okay, because you know what, I would rather look
like a fool asking a silly question that everyone in
the room knew the answer to than assuming that I
knew the answer to that, and then going about my
business and doing something and messing up in front of
the same people and looking like a complete fool. I'd
rather ask the question.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, I'm sure when you started executive producing too, you
had a lot of things that you had to.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Kind of learn. Oh man, I look. I mean the
difference between me now and me twenty years ago is
I didn't have that. I didn't maybe thirty years ago.
I didn't understand that. And I thought the idea was
just to make sure that people knew that. So I
would read a lot of stuff so I knew. I
knew a lot of stuff. I knew a lot about
a lot of things. I guess kind of from books.
(28:49):
But I had never stood up and told and directed
someone in a TV show and told them, Okay, this
is what I want to do, and given a note
and seeing their response and understand that my I note
to you and how I'm going to talk to you
is completely different than the note I might give that
gentleman right there who's doing the same thing, you're going
to respond to it. He might not, or you might
look at me like, what is he talking about? Where
(29:11):
this guy's over here going, I know exactly what he's
talking about. Everyone is so different, So that's part of
I mean. When I wrote on Smallville, I learned so
much about acting. I used to read scripts differently. I
used to read scripts where they would say, and then
he tugs on I'm making something up. He tugs on
his hood, a green arrowhood or whatever. He tugs on
his hood in a way that makes he's uncomfortable. And
(29:31):
I would read it and I would get a little
bit angry. I'm not gonna lie, and I'd be like,
then tell me how I mean how I'm angry. I'm
not angry. And then I wrote on Smallville and I
realized those notes aren't for me. Those notes are for
the people reading the script, that's for the studio and
the network, and I mean they have to be there.
I was an idiot. I didn't know. And then when
I directed on Smallville, the same thing. I learned how
(29:52):
to sort of how to give you notes and stuff
and how not to offend people. Then I directed on
This Is Us and with those actors who were doing
something completely different, on a completely different level. With it's
just like a completely different animal. And you learn how
to talk to someone like, how are you gonna give
Stirling K. Brown a note? Right? How are you gonna
give Mandy more note? How do you get them? I
(30:12):
walk up to Mylon and give him a note, But
that's your job, and I'll never forget. I wanted something
from this scene when I was directing Mandy in this
scene with her kids, her like teenage kids, and I
think I think Kevin was even there. So I was
directing all of them teenage Kevin was there, and I
remember just I didn't I didn't quite know how to
say the note to her, but I just thought, you know,
she's the character's so annoyed by the way these these
(30:34):
guys are acting. These kids are acting and they're it's
just it's almost disappointing, not the actors, but but the
characters how they're behaving. And I thought to myself, I
don't know what to say to her, because I'm not
a mother. I don't know how. But then I just
remembered and I walked up to her and I just
I did It wasn't even really note. I just said
to her, man, this would be so much easier if
(30:55):
Jack we're here, wouldn't it. And she just froze. And
I didn't realize what I had said, so but I
said it and then she just froze. And then I
saw Mandy freeze and I realized that she got the note,
and I think it was more than I wanted to say,
and I just kind of turned around and I was
just like, okay, leave that alone for a look. And
then I was like, this roll will tail slate on
(31:16):
this thing. Just roll it right now. And I was
like blown away. I mean, I forgot to call cut. Wow,
I forgot to call cut. I was just watching her.
I was just like, holy cow, this woman is having
a moment right now. And I had really had nothing
to do with my note. I had to do with
just actors need reminders sometimes, you know, she was incredible,
(31:38):
and those are the little things that I don't know
if you can tell I get really excited about this stuff.
I just think it's you know, when you watch a
movie and you My wife was just watching a movie
today and she turned it on. It was it was
Game of the Thrones trilogy, right, Lord of the Rings
trilogy and that's sorry, and yeah, we're not crazy and
(32:00):
Lord of the Storler and she goes, oh, this part
always makes me cry. And I go, I go, okay,
I'm I'm gonna grab find my wallet. And then we
got to get out of here because we've got to
go to lunch. And I found my wallet and I
turned around and she was like crying, and she's seen
this thing sixty times, and I'm like, this is the
power of cinema. This is the This is really unbelievable
how it taps into certain things. Right, we need this stuff.
(32:22):
It's exciting.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Do you think directing has made you a better actor?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah? Yeah, why it's I I'm I'm easier to give
a note to I think probably. I think there was
a time in my life where I was you know
what that is though is and if I'm being totally honest,
when someone gives you a note, if a director gives
you a note and you disagree with it, the way
that you respond to the note is either you have
a conversation about it or you don't, and you let
(32:54):
them know that's not I'm not doing that. And that's
why this is why I'm not doing that, because he
you go on and on whatever, and you kind of
put them in their place and they go back because
they can't make you do anything. The words have to
come out of your mouth, right. But all that is
is insecurity. That's all that is. That's something that you,
at least in my experience, when you see the person
walking over to you, and I've been there before, where
(33:17):
you and I are will be in a scene together
and you see the director coming out and they're walking
and in my head twenty years ago, I'm going, God,
hope he doesn't come to me a hope to note
it's not from me, hope, And then I'll see him
veer off to you, and I'm like, thank god. And
then inevitably the director, when he's done with you, turns
to me and gives me my note, right, and then
I learned as a director a lot of times if
(33:38):
I need something from you in a scene, I might
not give you the note. You might hear it, but
I will give the other actor the note. But it's
for you, yeah, for sure. So you just you learn
that all of the notes when a director is this
is just for me, And a director will typically pull
somebody's side if they have a note that this is
(33:59):
private whatever. But if there's a note being given on
set to someone that is in the scene that you
don't even have dialogue with, at least for me, my
experience has been listen to it, get all the information
that might be for you. And if it's not for you,
I bet you can glean something from it. I bet
you can. There's something that you can participate in the
(34:20):
next take with in a different way from that note,
I think. And I feel like that's applicable in any profession. Yeah, Like,
no matter where you work or who your boss is,
taking notes and feedback is all part of it. Yeah,
you have to, and if you're good at it, you're
gonna If you're good at it, it's better for you.
And it's hard to be good at it because their notes,
right yeah, and the notes are usually like would we
get would we'll get script notes? And you know, it's
(34:42):
always the same. It's like the studio will be like
and they don't give us a lot of notes, which
is great, but they'll be like the first like three
lines are just praise and great and it's amazing. We're
so a threat. It's like page one, sentence four, we're
wondering if and then it starts right right, but they're
very good. That that's how you give notes. You have to say, hey,
by the way, we're all in this together. You don't
(35:03):
just start blasting people from the you know, like just
sit there and go here we go once again? You know. Yeah,
but yeah, I think it does. Directing, writing, learning, producing
alongside Ken Olan has made me a better actor, I hope,
And just you know, I don't know less stress. It'll
get done. It'll get done. If we're all here, you know,
(35:24):
it'll get done. And if it doesn't get done, I
don't know, then we're all in trouble. I guess mm hmmm,
yeah we are so far we've done it. So how
do you take time for you when you're filming a
show like this? I mean, you're busy day in and
day out. You mentioned sleep. Do you actually get to sleep?
I mean sometimes, yeah, I sometimes I miss a day
asleep here and there. But it's okay.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Like mentally, how do you stay ready to go and
take some time for you?
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I don't know. It's just about scheduling, you know, and
sometimes you just look at it and you go, like
I said, finding the right partner, I don't get you know,
I don't have anybody wondering why I don't have an
extra thirty minutes for you know, dinner. We're all in
it together. We do everything together. My wife and I
do it all together. I could not do this without her, yeah,
at all. And I mean that. I mean that, and
(36:11):
she knows that. And so it's about letting. It's about,
you know, scheduling and figuring it out and going okay,
I know I need to do. I need to go
to the gym today, I need to do is I
have to eat? I think gets some sleep, But I
might not be able to work out as long as
I wanted to, I might not be able to spend
as much time at dinner, and I might not be
able to sleep as long as I wanted to. Because
right now one has to be the show, you know,
(36:34):
of my time. That's what everyone people are watching. It's important.
So I don't know. That's that's where That's where I
am right now. And it's been okay, I've I'm still breathing.
I feel great. Do I look like shit? You look great? Okay?
So people ask me. People ask me that all the time.
They're like, do you sleep? And I'm like, what do
you mean? Well, you have ninety jobs right now? No,
(36:55):
I know I'm kidding. I know that, but I do
know that. I do know that I look tired, but
it's because I'm exhausted now. But I feel great. Good.
It's a pleasure to do this. Really, I know that's
what you need to do this. It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yeah yeah, well I know everyone here is grateful. And
I have questions from the audience right, go through as
many as we can, Okay, so we'll start with, oh,
good question, what do you think makes a great performance?
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Oh my god? The second part of this I feel
like I have to read. But now I'm kind of blushing.
You are super cute? So are you? Tommy? You are
now I'm cute? All right? Was that our spouse is
over there. Okay, anyway, what do you wow, I'm proud.
(37:43):
What do you think makes a great performance? Just cuteness? Okay,
just about it's all about being cute. Can yeah, I think,
I mean, I think it starts with preparation. Preparation for sure,
understanding what you're saying, the character, an arc of an
arc of a scene, and all of that. But it's
it definitely starts with preparation.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Okay, up next summer. Summer wants to know. Do you
have a favorite line from the script or a favorite
case By the way, my mom and I love you
so much. Also to you that last part was well,
I don't know about that, but I have.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
To read them all. Now. Favorite line or favorite line is.
I like when he says when he says when he
looks at whoever might be missing something, a person, and
he says something to the effect of that he's going
to do everything he can to bring your daughter back
to you, or I'm going to work as hard as
I can. I'm gonna figure out everything I can. I'm
(38:36):
gonna help you. I like when he says that he
says in a different way, and we built this white
whale case as sort of a promise that he promised
to bring her sister back. And then you'll notice in
the show he never ever ever promises ever again, ever
intentionally because he wasn't able to deliver. But I do
like when he stares them right in the eye and
he tells them he's going to do everything in case
(38:57):
he means it everything. I think that so powerful.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Donna, Donna wants to know why is Coulton so stand offish?
Will he let his guard down with Reenie?
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Well, Donna's culter, but that's okay. We all know, we
all know who you meant. Will he let his guard down?
Why is he so what stand offish? Stand offish? He's
not stand offish. He just doesn't answer to that name.
He didn't know, he didn't know you were talking to him.
He didn't know you're talking. Uh, well, he let his
guard down with Reenie. You know, their relationship question. It's
(39:29):
a great question. And I love Renie by the way.
That amazing. She's she's cool, Yeah, she's great, and she
and culture their relationship evolves into something that's really really cool.
It's like something you don't see a lot on TV.
There's always this without giving anything away, gosh, there's a
lot of relationships on TV that I and I enjoy
them that are like sort of like sexual tension and
(39:50):
oh okay, well what does that mean? And you endo
here and right, but you don't see a lot of
just respectful, platonic, awesome relationships, true friends, you know. And
not to say that that's where the store is going
to go down the road, but but I just think
that's so cool to have a and she's a kick
ass lawyer that he has in his corner. So so
there's just a I mean, it makes sense that they
(40:11):
would be in each other's lives in that way.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
What kind of research went to preparing for the role.
Did you talk to real life rear seekers.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
We did a lot of a lot of talking to
people who there are people who do this for a
living and they're typically finding they're also but you know,
there are people who like look for treasures and stuff.
Then they may or may not be there. And then yeah,
I have sisters, so they will find everything, I mean
everything you can't. It's just like they're detectives. But but yeah, yeah,
(40:45):
of course, you know, you try to do as much
research as you can. And then also, my brother is
a police officer. They do a lot of that stuff
as well. And then we have people that we liaise
with on set and we're constantly learning too. He's constantly
doing different things, like trying to like, every scenario is different.
He's a personage this guy if you know the books,
so everything is different. Every given scenario might be a
different percentage of you know, should he stay or should
(41:06):
he go kind of thing? Should he run or should
he hide, find shelter or is it time to like
move and get out of here. So we're constantly learning
and it's fascinating stuff too. It's and everyone has their
own opinion right about what they would do, so it's
cool to sort of talk to people and hear the
military people have a lot of background and stuff like
this as well, which is kind of cool. So there's
always stuff you can learn, for sure.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
I really never had a clue that it was a
profession that people do that.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I don't know how successful they are at it, but well.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Not everyone can be you, you know, all right, Dexter
from Brooklyn into House, All right, what was your best
moment while working on the show ps I would like
to be invited to the after party.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
The after is there an after party. Let's go, let's
do it, let's go. We'll do it, Brookly, there might
be some writers in this room. I mean, these are
really good. I'll tell you. My best moment of the
show was we had just there was a pandemic and
got to miss it and it was a really weird,
really weird time, and everyone kind of shut down. I know,
(42:09):
I locked myself in my house for two years. I
went to work if this is us, and that I
would go home and they would go to work home,
and that's it. And it was really cool to see.
There were actually two moments. It was really cool to
see people back to work and they were in masks
and stuff. But we hadn't worked for so long and
you saw everybody at work and it was just like, wow, okay,
you have one hundred and something people working again. And
then we had a strike, and then we had a
(42:31):
writer strike. Then we had an actors strike, you know,
couple with the writers strike, and it was just kind
of a really a fraud period in our business. To
be honest with you, To come back from that and
see everybody back to work is really awesome as well.
So those are the times when you when you sit
there and you go, man, we worked really hard. There's
a lot of people that were involved in making the
show and creating the show, and I was one of them.
(42:53):
And you look out and you see hundreds of people
that have jobs that are excited to be at work.
That's really cool. That is really cool. Yeah, look at
looking at a crew list and you're flipping through all
these names and you're like, wow, all these people are employed.
That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, it's great. It's a good feeling. Man.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
All right, Megan, Megan is wondering what is your greatest
joy and take away from filming Tracker.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
That people like it, honestly, that people watch it. I
think every performer wants an audience. And I and and
just the fact I love when people say this. I watch,
I hear this all thing. A dude will be like, oh,
I watch it with my daughter, or I watch it
with my wife, or I watch my girlfriend. Women'll be back,
Oh I watch it with my wife, or I watch
it with my husband, or I watch it with my daughter.
I watch it with my grandkids. Oh my grandmother loves
(43:36):
that show. Oh my kids love that show. We love
that show. We all watch it as a family. That's awesome.
That is, that's terrific because then you don't have someone
else in this room watching God knows what, and someone
else in this room watching God knows what. They're all
sitting around and excited about a show that they can
all watch together and then they can talk about it afterwards.
You know, it's cool. So it's all about it. It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Rich from Port Jeff. Are you in a group chat
with the This is Us actors?
Speaker 2 (43:59):
If so? Oh, who is the most active in the chat?
We definitely have more than one. There are probably some
that I'm not even in. I'm into several with them. Yeah,
but the main one who's the most active and the
main one. We're all pretty active in it. I mean,
I guess, man, I don't know who's the most active.
We all chime in. We all chime in from here.
It depends on something's going on, like if someone's in town,
(44:21):
you know, like I'm in town, and then and then
it kind of gets crazy. And then there are days
where there's nothing, and then there'll be like a photo
that someone found and then there'll be like just going
nuts for a while. Everyone's pretty active.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Does anyone leave the group chat, like there's always one
no exit, no now you all right?
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Isn't that weird when people do that? But I love
it. It sends a clear message, well leaving the group chat,
but now you can well now you can mute them
so you don't have to leave. Well that's the move. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
just mute. You don't have to be rude about it, right,
all right?
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Jee Marie from Saga Aft How closely, if at all,
does your life resemble that of your character?
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Meaning? Are you you a real wood z off the
grid kind of man? Sure? Yeah, I mean I'll go yeah,
I'll go deep into the woods. I also like room service,
so I'm gonna be honest with you. I do it all.
I mean I could take care of you. Know what's funny,
(45:21):
My father growing up was really handy with stuff. He
get my brother's really good at building, so my brother
could build a HOUSEB like incredible mind for that stuff.
I never had that when I was a kid. I
was more like, oh, I don't know a storyteller, and
I just didn't have any interest in it. And as
I got older and got my own stuff, and all
my stuff started to break. As homes do you have
(45:44):
to learn how to maintain stuff and take care of things,
and so I've learned quite a bit. I'm pretty handy
now and I never used to be. I think my
sister's kind of like that as well. She does a
lot of things now that I don't think she really
had an interest in doing before she had her own stuff,
which is understandable. So yeah, I think I could survive
in the woods. I would not be like culture Shaw though, No,
I would need to. I would need some like I'd
have to go to like is it Arii or whatever
(46:05):
and get some food rations and stuff. Yeah, I get
some propane tanks. I'd be you know, the airstream seems cool, though,
you know, have you done one? Have you gone? No?
All right, not his character. So I spend most of
my life in a trailer, whether whether it's my cast
trailer or the airstream, I'm always in. It's unbelievable. Yeah,
you're over it. It's a lot of trailer. Yeah, yeah,
(46:27):
I get it. I get it. I get it.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
We have time for one more. This is a nice
note to end on. Did you have any idea of
the show would be so popular?
Speaker 2 (46:35):
No, I know, I knew that we were given a shot,
and I appreciated it when the network told us that
CBS told us that we're going to put us after
the Super Bowl. I appreciated the shot when when twenty
had told us that they were going to option the
book for us, When the studio and the network worked
together on this and made it everything that it that
it was, and they advertised it like crazy, and they
really did a great job of building it. But much
(46:56):
like this is us, and I think probably anything else
you never know, Like for instance, Tracker huge hit, and
if we spun it off, you just don't know if
it's going to find an audience. I don't know if
there's a I mean I know more than I used
to about that. Like I feel like I could build
a show that would that would that would have an audience,
but this level I didn't know. No, I didn't know,
but I'm happy it does. So what's the magic sauce?
(47:17):
Why is it so popular? Well that's between me and Kenolan. No.
I think I think we hit all the right things.
I think you have to find the right level of drama.
You have to find the right level of levity. There
has to be suspense, I think, and there has to
be intrigue in the character. You have to root for
the character. You have to really want the character to
get what he wants. It has to make sense, it
has to the timing of it has to make sense.
(47:38):
And also the you know, you try to find that
elusive audience, which is it's a male audience between like
what is it twenty seven and forty five something like
where they don't watch anything, they just watch football only
or whatever. You have to try to find that audience,
and I think part of doing that is creating a
show that everyone can watch together. So that's the goal.
That's what you try to do. And but if there
(47:59):
was a magic secret sauce, that's just what everyone would do.
I think it's it's just it's just a really well written,
hopefully well performed, beautiful looking show that is kind of
a throwback to an older style of show that we
don't really have anymore. And I think there's an appetite
for more of those. These shows that come on that
are episodic with a serialized element to them, where the
(48:21):
character evolves slowly over time, so you get, oh, you
get benefits from watching it in one after the other.
But there's also a really cool idea where you can
watch episode seven of season four and kind of get it.
You know, that's awesome as well. But I think there's
there's an appetite for more of these shows, like throwback
shows to these characters that we used to see that
(48:41):
we don't really see anymore, and it gives you hope.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
I mean, every episode you watch it and you feel
like by the end of it, and maybe every one
in season two won't end this way, but you walk
away feeling like, man, they did it.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
And it was one it was earned. Yeah, and the
whole family or friends or you know, lovers are all happy,
and I feel like in this day and age, more
of that. Yeah. So thank you. I agree with you.
Thanks well, thank you for the work you put out
into the world, and thank you, thank you for coming.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
Tracker returns on October thirteenth on CBS and Paramount Plus.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
Let's give it up for justin one more time. Thank you,
thank you, Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
I've never said this before is hosted by Me Tommy Dedario.
This podcast is executive produced by Andrew Puglisi at iHeartRadio
and by Me Tommy, with editing by Joshua Colaudney I've
never said this before is part of the Elvis Duran
podcast Network on iHeart Podcasts for more, rate, review and
subscribe to our show and if you liked this episode,
(49:44):
tell your friends. Until next time, I'm Tommy de Dario
Hey guys, welcome to I've never said this before with
me Tommy di Dario. Today's guest is the wonderfully talented
Justin Hartley, who has been in so many fan favorite
projects including This is Us, you know, a little show
that only took over the entire world. Now he stars
(00:23):
in the CBS hit show Tracker, which just debuted its
second season, and he is unbelievable in this series. There's
a reason why Tracker is the number one show on television.
Oh and here's a fun fact for you. It is
the most watched new series since Desperate Housewives back in
their two thousand and four two thousand and five season, which,
if you don't remember, it felt like that show was
(00:43):
the only thing people were talking about back then.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Justin Ah, he is the real deal and it was
such a pleasure to chat with him.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Our fifty minutes together felt like five because we just
had such a nice conversation. Now, this is a special
edition episode of my podcast because the conversation you are
out to hear it's from an event that I'm moderated,
presented by the prestigious ninety second Street why New York.
You can check them out at ninety two ny dot
org for upcoming events and hey, maybe you'll even catch
(01:11):
me at one. So let's see if today we can
get Justin to say something that he has never said before.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, Justin, I am so happy to be hanging out
with you today. Man. I love the show.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I was telling you that backstage, and before we begin,
I'm going to give you some of your flowers that
you deserve. Okay, you ready for it? I'm ready for
Tracker was the number one television show for the twenty
twenty three twenty twenty four season.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yes it was.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
It has reached over eighty one million viewers since it
debuted in February, and each episode averaged about eleven point
fifty eight million viewers. That just doesn't happen for a
broadcast television show anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So let's give it up for Justin. Well, it's a
it's a it's a group effort. It's a huge team
behind these shows. As you probably know, there are I
want to say, close to two hundred people, like one
hundred and fifty one hundred and sixty just in the
shooting crew of our show. That they all work very
very hard. So it's what you see is this. But
(02:20):
what you start with is a blank page and a
thought and a couple of words, and then you end
up with you know, production and network and studio and
everybody behind one baby I call it, and you end
up with something really great.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Well, when a show like this wins, I feel like
we all win because we need more art like this,
We need the television landscape to keep thriving. And when
a show like this comes along and it has such success,
I feel like it's a whole win for everybody in
the business.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
But I also would.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Imagine there's a lot of pressure that comes with knowing
your number one, right, with needing to be just as
good as the last season, with wanting to do great
work for the fandom. So do you feel that pressure
or are you able to kind of push that aside
and focus on the work, Like how do you balance
the two different things?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I feel it now right about that? No, Yeah, of course,
you know it's there's pressure, for sure, But I think
there's there's a responsibility that comes with it. And when
you when you're asking, I always sort of look at
it like this. I don't know anyone who's not busy.
(03:28):
Everyone's busy, and everyone has their own life People watch
our show for different reasons. They watch it for to escape,
they watch it to get inspired, they watch it for entertainment,
They watch it for the family dynamic, they watch it
for the beauty of it that for the landscape. Whatever
reason it might be that you're watching our show or
that you tune in week after week, you're you're taking
(03:49):
and you're taking an hour out of your life a
week and you're saying, I'm going to watch this show.
That is a I take that as a huge responsibility
to deliver something that is the best thing that I
know how to do. From the time that I wake
up in the morning and go to work to the
time I come home usually later later at night. It
(04:11):
is every frame, It is every thought, It is every
every piece of wardrobe that we choose, every shot, all
the locations we have a studio and a network and
a shooting crew and a post production crew that feel
the exact same way that I do. And when you
have people like that, and I truly mean this, when
you surround yourself with insanely talented people that are dedicated
(04:35):
to something and the same thing that you're dedicated to,
you end up oftentimes with something like this and the
difference I think is we were able to find an
audience and CBS helped us with that. The studio helped
us with that in putting us after the super Bowl,
which was really great. So we delivered this pilot that
everyone kind of fell in love with, thank God, and
then they said, well, we really love it. We're going
(04:55):
to put it after the super Bowl. And then of
course I'm like, wow, this is really great. I'll walk
you through this really quick. My nightmare of a night.
So we have the Chiefs playing and Taylor Swift on tour,
and then there's rumor they're like she's going to be
able to make it to the game, and I'm like,
and we're premiering after the super Bowl that Taylor Swift
(05:16):
is attending, and I kind of kicked my feet up
and I'm this is gonna be great. Everyone's going to
watch this thing. And then the game is so good
that it goes into overtime and then I'm doing I'm
looking at my watch. I'm like, we're asking people to
stay up until like eleven thirty to watch this thing
that this new show that that they're not hooked on you.
I can't lie that worried me. Yeah, me too. That's
a bit late. But you all pulled you all, you
(05:37):
already did it. You all pulled through, and we appreciate it.
We really appreciate it. That was great.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, you know, as the leading man of the show,
there's so much dialogue, there's so much scene work. You're
in almost every single scene, if not you know all
of them. I would say ninety eight percent of the
scenes you're in. How do you navigate that?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Like, how do you.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Navigate getting the job done and knowing you're the face
of it, You're you're the guy, like you are the
tracker and you have to keep on going to deliver
a full season?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Is that a hard balance? You know, it's a lot
of thought goes into it. You have to take care
of yourself in certain ways. There's a lot of people
counting on you. You can't go down. You can't really
get sick. People get sick, but you can't. You have
to take care of yourself in a way. You got
to take your vitamins, you got to get your rest.
There's a great responsibility I think that comes along with that.
You know, if I go down, there's really nothing to shoot,
(06:26):
and like I said, we have hundreds of people that
are now kind of like this, So you can't be reckless,
you can't goof off, you know all that stuff. You're
representing a bunch of people, a bunch of people, and
not only the people that work on the show, but
they're families that they're supporting. So I take that very seriously.
And then you know what, you know what else it is, oh,
thank you one person. It also takes their life seriously.
(06:49):
That person must be from the Midwest or something. There's
just one. Everyone else is drinking this. It's great. But
but also you surround yourself with really talented people, and
so I'm able to when I'm on set and they
call action, I'm able to just act. I have one job.
(07:10):
And that's what Ken and I Ken Olin, the guy
who created the show, with me, that's what we kind
of decided. We were like, look, I can produce and
I'm going to do everything that I can. But when
they call action, when I step onto the set and
they call action, I need to do one thing I
can't do acting and also directing and also producing and
also that because it just takes away from the one
(07:31):
thing that I'm supposed to be doing in that moment.
And they've been really great, my whole team. They've been
really great about letting me do that and understanding that
right now he's doing one thing, will do everything else,
and then when I walk away. Sure it's different. But
I can't sit in on every single meeting. As much
as I would love to, I can't. I mean, I
guess I could, but I don't know who won. No,
(07:54):
but I physically can't because I'm on set. But I
can't give every single note about every single thing that's
going on in my head and at the same time
give one hundred percent to the performance, which is really
what is the most important thing to me, is a performance.
We have great writers, like I said, we have great producers,
we have people that can handle all of that stuff.
But the words have to come out of my mouth
and I have to hit that mark and I just
(08:16):
need to be doing that one thing at that time.
So that's the And look, everyone's different, everyone's different. I've
seen Ben Affleck direct brilliant movies and be brilliant in
those movies. He does it all. That guy is like
a machine. So it's different for every single person. But
for me, that was the most important thing was to
make sure that I don't sacrifice any of the acting
for the other stuff. There on the other hats that
(08:36):
I'm wearing. Well, for the record, Justin Hartley is a
machine as well. So there we go.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Because you do you wear a lot of different hats man.
And I think you know when I look at the
dialogue in this series, it's so heavy, it's so intense.
And are there other actors and artists in the audience today?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Okay, great, this is a question for all of y'all.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I think you'll appreciate this. How do you go about memorizing?
You get these scraps for every episode, right, and I'm
sure this season will have a lot more episodes. You're
turning around things very quickly. You're on a time crunch, right,
It's it's a business as well. You got to get
the shot and keep on moving on because the clock
sticking and dollars are being spent. How do you memorize
to make sure you show up you're prepared, you know
(09:16):
your lines? Do you have different techniques? Do you have advice,
like what works for you? I do have different techniques.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
If I'm not tired at all, and I'm and I've
got a full tank of gas or what you know,
and my batteries full. I will do it birotely. I
do it birotely. It's one word, and then it's two words,
and then it's three words, and it's four and then
it's a sentence, and it's that sentence in one word,
and then it says, and I will I could probably
tell you the first letter of every word of the
first of the whole entire thing, like you know T.
(09:44):
I can do that if but then you get as
a time sort of time crunch starts to happen. I
have a different technique, but it's always about sort of
a gut feeling. I'm never really done with it until
they say moving on, we're on the wrong set, we're
moving on, we're going to that. I've never really done
with it. And oftentimes, and I don't know for the
actors in this room, or actually not even actors, anybody
(10:06):
who works, anybody who does anything. Oftentimes, right you have
an encounter with someone, or you're at work or you're
doing something, and then you go, man, I wish I
would have done that. Oh I should I should have
said that. Oh they really needed me to say that.
And instead I got ah, man, I really, I really
messed that up. I should have done that, And I've
just learned you can't spend a lot of time doing
that in this profession because if you're constantly doing that,
(10:26):
you're never going to be satisfied when it's done and
you're moving on. You're on the wrong set. You're on
the wrong set and it's like a different scene right now.
You carry that with you in a good way, but
you can't dwell on it. And I think for me,
I know when it's time to go to when I
can rest, when I can go to bed. There's a
certain feeling that I have in my body when I
know that I'm ready. If I'm not, I can't get
(10:47):
any sleep. I'll just be up all night anyway, So
I might as well put the extra work in. The
Last thing I want to do is show up on
set and not be prepared. I mean that I have
had nightmares about being in still today day and I'm
twenty eight and I and I I wasn't gonna say anything.
(11:09):
I don't know what is that that there's one the
one person was the only one that didn't laugh. No,
I'm forty seven years old, and I still will to
this day have nightmares about not knowing the not studying
for a quiz in high school. You know, it's just
not a good feeling, and that's something you can control.
It's just time. It's just spending time with it. It takes
(11:29):
as long as it takes. You know. Sometimes you'll read
something and it'll be like four pages and you'll read
it once and you're like, oh, I've got it memorized.
And then there are other times where you just it's
just not clicking for whatever reason. So it takes what
it takes. And then I also say this, I can't
really start working on anything until I have it memorized.
Does that means sense? Like, I really can't. I have
(11:50):
to memorize it, get it all memorized in my head,
and then I can actually start to process it and
work on it and start to understand what it means
and how I'm going to approach it.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So I imagine you memorize very kind of monitor, like you
just get it in your body.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah. I try to. Yeah, Yeah that's interesting. Yeah, it
sounds fun, right, Yeah, but you know what, it's a
lot of work.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It works, and I think and all the actors out here.
I'm tipping my hat to you because what bothers me
so much is when an artist or an actor says, oh,
it's not like we're carrying cancer. We're not brain surgeons,
because you can't compare it. Because what you guys do,
what you all do as artists, is you bring people
so much joy and safety and feeling seen. And that
(12:30):
has just as much weight to me as those other professions.
So it's really important the work that you all do.
That's why I love having conversations thank you like you
because you.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Put in the work.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
You don't just show up and say I'm here on
camera like memorize, You go through rehearsals, you do stunts.
I mean, it's it's just amazing what you guys accomplish
every single day on set. This character, specifically Culture Shaw,
he's he's something. Yeah, he's something. He's an American hero
to so many people who watch the show. I think
he's a kind of hoped to many. An interesting character
(13:02):
because he's helping track people and bringing that closure and
safety to families, but also getting paid. It's a business,
so it's an interesting relationship there.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Right. What do you love about playing him? I love
all of those things. And just HARKing back to what
you just said, you know, that's one of the sort
of things that I always think about, is brain surgeons wonderful.
All that stuff wonderful. But whether you're mopping a floor
or sweeping the floor, or acting in a TV show
or on stage, or acting in a community theater, or
(13:34):
doing brain surgery or that's all you're doing at that moment,
that's the only thing that you have right that is
what you're doing. So if you just focus on that
and you do what you say you're doing as an actor,
I think it's hard for people to deny that you're
actually doing it. I mean sans I always say sans
like shooting someone or wielding a night like, you know,
you really can just do what you say you're doing
as an actor. And anyway, what do I love about him? Gosh,
(13:57):
what don't I love it? I love how complex it
his backstory is. I love that he took all of
those things that happened to him as a kid, and
instead of saying, well, life happened to me, he ends
up kind of happening to life. I love that I
loved playing Kevin Pearson on this is us. I loved it.
It was the highlight of my career until I got
(14:19):
this show. And I'm like, I really, I really love
playing this character. He's so different than Kevin, and I've
fell in love with Kevin and I'll carry him with
me forever. He'll forever be in my heart. But the
opportunity to be able to play a character like this
that is so different, especially in a world where people
want to put you in a box in this industry
as well, they want to go, oh, you did that well,
and so it's a compliment because they see you do
that and they're like, that's what that person does, which
(14:40):
means you maybe you did it well. Maybe that's what
that means. Otherwise they'd be like that, they would know
that guy can't do that. But it's also kind of
bad because you then they only see you a certain
way and it's hard to break out into something else. Right,
But you did it well. We different, very different, very
different a lot of people we all did it together.
But I got the opportunity to do it right and
(15:01):
and it's been great. I love that he doesn't get distracted.
I love I love that, I love that he I
love that he's on his own. I love that he can,
that he's a decision maker. I love that he doesn't
(15:22):
make excuses, and I love that he I love that
he helps people. I love that he's a good guy.
He's not an anti hero. He's just he knows right
from wrong, and he has conviction, he follows it. And
I also love the way they're writing this character where
it's sort of like Rockford Files, but this guy evolves
as he goes. So you when you watch episode two
(15:43):
of season one versus episode two of season two, he's
the same guy, but all the things that he has
learned throughout the seasons, throughout the episodes, throughout his you know, instant,
these encounters that he has with other people, he keeps them,
he takes them with him, and he becomes a better man,
which I think is so great and unfortunately rareer than
(16:04):
it should be. So those are some of the things
I really love about him. I mean, what percentage of
stunts do you do in the show? I try to
do all of them? Try to do all of them.
You're hanging off cliffs, you're well off cars. There soe
bad of the airplane. Now, there are certain things they
won't let me do. And then there are certain things
(16:27):
that I'm sure that could would come up that I
wouldn't want to do. But but so far, yeah, I
mean fights, I think it's important. There's certain things, like
I'm not stupid about it. There are certain things that
I just simply can't do, or my stunt guy would
be better at doing it than I would be doing
it would benefit the show to have him do it.
But there are other instances where and most oftentimes where
(16:47):
if it's safe enough and I can do it now,
our director can put the camera in a different spot
because they don't have to hide anyone's face. They can
just shoot my face, you know, kicking the hell out
of someone or whatever, or diving down off of something
or whatever it might be, and they make it pretty safe.
I mean, you get dinged up. I'm always something's always sprained,
and something's always kind of scratched up, and something's always
(17:07):
achy or whatever it might be. But that's kind sort
of the price of doing business. You know, it's like
anything else, but it's never really dangerous. It's just kind
of like, Okay, you're going to fall off of that thing.
It's not gonna feel great. But you can handle it right,
And I'm was like, Okay, we practiced a couple of times,
and like, how many times are we going to do it? Well,
We'll try to do it under like like less than
four Okay, try to not do it more than four times.
I can probably survive that. And we get it done
(17:29):
and you end up with a shot where you see
the actual actor the character flying through a frame, the
frame and taking the hit as opposed to now you
have to put the camera someone else somewhere else, and
the guys's got his head down somehow, and there's a
wig coming up the guys, you know, and he's twice
as big, and it's like, I'm not even sure if
the shoes match, you know what I mean. So I
think there's a benefit in that. And it's so about
protecting the show.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Really, it's evident that you're so invested in every single
piece of how the show looks. Right, it's not just
about you, it's about the overall picture.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, even hanging.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Out backstage and watching the up episode, you were admiring
the lighting and you were giving notes and it's just
you're so invested in all in and I know you're
an executive producer on this project as well. Are you
able to give you guide in somewhere you want your
story to go? Do you collaborate with the writers or
do you kind of let them do their own thing?
Like what's that line you straddle between letting writers do
(18:21):
the job they're here to do, but also expressing what
your vision is as an EP and the leading man.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I mean, I think it has to do with personnel.
We have our head writer, Elwood Reid, who is really
wonderful and he's a really great writer. He's a talented guy,
comes up with great stories and he knows the character
inside and out. But he's also I think his biggest
asset is he's so collaborative and he's not ego driven
at all. You can tell him anything and he won't.
(18:49):
He doesn't take it. Well. If he does, he does
it alone with tears, but in front of me, he
doesn't take it. He understands where the notes are coming from.
It's not coming from anything other than it's not coming
from some place where I'm saying I can do this better,
because I can't. It's coming from a place where, hey,
have you thought about this? And he's so collaborative and
that goes the other way too. I mean they're the
same way. They're like, hey, you know when cultures in
(19:10):
this situation, you're the actor, but don't you think that,
Oh of course, I hadn't thought of that. You know,
we have so many eyes on this that it's hard
to let things slip through the cracks when you have
so many eyes on it, the people that really care
that sort of have the same vision. But yeah, we
collaborate whatever. I mean, there are certain story areas or
scripts that come in that don't need to be touched,
and then there are certain ones that come in where
(19:30):
you have a couple of maybe a couple of ideas
for they could maybe I don't want to say make
it better, but maybe sharpen it a little bit or
make it more interesting in certain areas. And then there
are certain times where you have notes that just they
fall flat and you're the only one that thought that,
and you kind of have to let those go. So
it's a team.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You've brought up this as us, and my mind keeps
going back to that because obviously the show resonated with
so many people. It's a yeah favorite and will forever
be a fan favorite. When you were wrapping up that show.
You began where on this show?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Right? Yeah, So what was that.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Like for you as an artist to kind of have
to hang up your hat with that character and say
goodbye and make peace with that's it and I'm not
going to see him again, and then getting right into
the mode of preparing for another one, like did you
have time to kind of grieve that loss?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
For lack of a better word, we had a lot
of time, so we knew the show was going to
go six years from like the beginning. In fact, I
think I was told five and then I think it
evolved into six. I could be totally lying to but
that's how I remember it. But we knew for years
and years and years that that show was ending when
it was ending, so we had a you know, a
lot of times you don't get that opportunity. Things just happen.
(20:40):
People go you're not doing it anymore, and you're like, oh, okay,
this was more like, Wow, you get an opportunity to
play this character for six years. It's going to be amazing.
What a ride this guy's going to go on. And
here's kind of what his journey's going to be. And
it evolved a little bit throughout the series. I'd say
quite a bit actually, but it ended up being something
that was I thought that project was remarkable to be
(21:01):
a part of. There's a There's an interesting thing that
happens with that too, though, because if you have a
mind like I do, you pull off the pages of
the calendar, and that calendar starts to get remember those
little desk calendars in the year yah, And as you
pull off the pages, you're like, oh, another day, another day,
another day. And then as that things starts to get
thinner and thinner, you're like, oh, we're almost at the
end of the and it starts to feel different to
rip them off right than it does at the beginning
(21:22):
of the year. So I don't even know what your
question was. I'm just rambling at this point, but yeah, yeah,
I One things I didn't realize, and I'm so happy
that it's happening, is that I didn't really say goodbye
to him, because people remember him and people say things
to me, you know, people are they'll say things about passions.
It's like this soap opera that I did one hundred
million years ago, and people will still say Fox Crane,
(21:44):
which is like the only character I've ever played that
had two animal names as the first and last name,
which is the most interesting thing about him. But but
but people, because some people hold on to that stuff,
and that's kind of cool because you never really have
to let go of it. It's days in everyone's hearts.
It's really remarkable and it's a really cool thing to
have happened in your life.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
And I feel like it's a role that I don't know,
maybe down the line, you would revisit one day.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, you know. I mean we've talked about it. We've
all talked about it, and I don't know if there's
any plans to if there are plans to reboot it.
I haven't been involved in there, which is a whole
another conversation, I guess. But but yeah, I still keep
in touch with all those guys. They're all so great.
They'll be lifelong friends of mine and I would do
anything for them. I love them all. Might we see
any of them on tracker? We? I think we will.
(22:34):
I think we will? Yeah, right, yeah right? Season two? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
For fear of executives from CBS who might be here
coming on stage and body checking me, what can you
tell me that won't get you in trouble, but maybe
that you haven't shared yet.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Let's see what haven't I shared yet? That won't well,
let's get in trouble. Who cares? All right, what do
we got? We have? I think you all know that
Johnson's coming back, Jensen Ancles is coming back. That'll be fun.
My wife, who is here somewhere is coming back. Sophie
Apprentice has come other she is, Sophia is coming back.
(23:11):
And by the way, my mother and my sister are
here in the front. This is moving up for mom
and sistern who else is coming back? We have this?
We have this, this white Whale case that we introduced
in the episode that you all just saw that ends
up taking up like sort of half of our season.
The first half of our seasons up being kind of
about that. There's a job that Culture takes several episodes
(23:33):
into the first part of our season where he ends up.
He's out in the forcing stumbles upon this these campers
go missing, and he's trying to figure out what He's
surveying the scene and trying to figure out getting all
the clues that he can try to figure out where
these people went. There are four of them, so something happened, right.
It wasn't like one one, you know, stray, It was
all four of them are gone. Then there's there's this
(23:53):
man that he finds while he's looking for them. The
man's got a gun. He's got a couple of questions
for this man, and this man ends up telling him
sort of a little bit about his backstory and why
he's there, and he has a white whale case of
his own, and so they kind of help each other.
So for the first time in our series, really you
see Culture teaming up with not just for a moment,
(24:16):
for several episodes, with someone from kind of a different generation,
different totally different way of doing things than Culture does.
And it may or may not help him with his
white whale job that he's been, you know, searching for
a decade. Was that an executive going because George Cheeks
is like, shut up, well, George might not like this question,
(24:39):
but is he maybe going to find love this season
or explore that more? You know, I think he's got
a tough job, you know what I mean. He travels
a lot, and it's something that something that we talk about.
And the guy, like I said, he evolves, He's going
to evolve but I think for right now, I mean,
he's that would be a difficult relationship to have, wouldn't
(25:02):
it a relationship with a guy like that, like a
guy who's traveling all is gone all the time. He's
off the grid also, and plus it's dangerous. He's always
getting shot out or doing doing something you know, crazy.
I mean, you did have some fun season one, episode one. Yeah,
it seems like he only has fun in episode one. Yeah, one,
O one, two oh one, probably three oh one. Like yeah,
if if you're if you're an actress or an actor,
(25:23):
a female actor, and you want to come on tracker
and like three oh one, something's probably going to go down.
Other than that, you're safe. I don't know what that is.
I don't Yeah, I don't know why, why, why that happened,
but it did. And then that whole thing that happened
at the end of that episode that you just saw
ends up being something that we we earn and we
explain and you go, oh, man, okay, I see it's more.
(25:43):
It's more than just a trauma bond thing. There's a
history there.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Hm hmm.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, okay, we have a lot to look forward to. Yeah, yeah,
we go pretty deep in that because now we can.
When you're building a show, you know from the beginning
it's the hardest thing to do because you can't just
dive in. You have to explain who these characters are
to everyone. Pilot are tough. They're tough because you know,
as an audience member, I want to know who this
guy is, like you know, Breaking Bad, Beautiful, Pilot beautiful.
(26:08):
When you watch it, though, you need to know like
the circumstances. Okay, he's got lungcans, but he doesn't smoke,
he's so why did he You have to explain all
this stuff, right, and then as you get into the series,
you kind of know it and you can you just
kind of it just kind of flows. You don't have
to explain every single time that this guy is justin.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
You are someone who's been working a long time, right,
and you've been a part of projects that people love,
and I know you're very grateful to have been a
part of them, and you don't take it for granted,
which is amazing to see. What is something you've learned
about yourself through all of these years as a working actor.
I mean you're going from job to job and you're
hustling and it's a very unconventional business. Is there something
(26:47):
that you've really learned that has helped you kind of
in this in this career, choice, in this path, in
your personal life that you can share with people today
that might help them.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I find the right partner, Find the right partner, find
someone who finds someone who someone who will walk to
the end of the earth with you, who trusts you.
Surround yourself with the best of the best, and don't
worry so much about pleasing everyone, because I think the
people that that get you, that get your heart, didn't
(27:20):
know who you are, that really understand you your kindness.
I don't think any of that factors into it. I
I don't think making sure that you're pleasing other people
really has anything to do with that. I think it's
being present in the moment. It's an easy thing to say,
a very very hard thing to do, but yeah, find
the right partner. And that could be that could be
in a a in a spouse, that could be in
a sister, that could be in a mother, that could
(27:40):
be in anybody your team. Just pour into your team,
find the right people. Surround yourself with people that are
like minded, that appreciate themselves and that appreciate your help,
and that you can ask advice from that you can trust,
and when you have that, you have and your health
the rest of cake.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
And you strike me as someone who's always wanting to learn. Oh,
and you're not afraid to ask a question, are you No?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
And sometimes you end up looking like a fool. But
that's okay, because you know what, I would rather look
like a fool asking a silly question that everyone in
the room knew the answer to than assuming that I
knew the answer to that, and then going about my
business and doing something and messing up in front of
the same people and looking like a complete fool. I'd
rather ask the question.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, I'm sure when you started executive producing too, you
had a lot of things that you had to.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Kind of learn. Oh man, I look. I mean the
difference between me now and me twenty years ago is
I didn't have that. I didn't maybe thirty years ago.
I didn't understand that. And I thought the idea was
just to make sure that people knew that. So I
would read a lot of stuff so I knew. I
knew a lot of stuff. I knew a lot about
a lot of things. I guess kind of from books.
(28:49):
But I had never stood up and told and directed
someone in a TV show and told them, Okay, this
is what I want to do, and given a note
and seeing their response and understand that my I note
to you and how I'm going to talk to you
is completely different than the note I might give that
gentleman right there who's doing the same thing, you're going
to respond to it. He might not, or you might
look at me like, what is he talking about? Where
(29:11):
this guy's over here going, I know exactly what he's
talking about. Everyone is so different, So that's part of
I mean. When I wrote on Smallville, I learned so
much about acting. I used to read scripts differently. I
used to read scripts where they would say, and then
he tugs on I'm making something up. He tugs on
his hood, a green arrowhood or whatever. He tugs on
his hood in a way that makes he's uncomfortable. And
(29:31):
I would read it and I would get a little
bit angry. I'm not gonna lie, and I'd be like,
then tell me how I mean how I'm angry. I'm
not angry. And then I wrote on Smallville and I
realized those notes aren't for me. Those notes are for
the people reading the script, that's for the studio and
the network, and I mean they have to be there.
I was an idiot. I didn't know. And then when
I directed on Smallville, the same thing. I learned how
(29:52):
to sort of how to give you notes and stuff
and how not to offend people. Then I directed on
This Is Us and with those actors who were doing
something completely different, on a completely different level. With it's
just like a completely different animal. And you learn how
to talk to someone like, how are you gonna give
Stirling K. Brown a note? Right? How are you gonna
give Mandy more note? How do you get them? I
(30:12):
walk up to Mylon and give him a note, But
that's your job, and I'll never forget. I wanted something
from this scene when I was directing Mandy in this
scene with her kids, her like teenage kids, and I
think I think Kevin was even there. So I was
directing all of them teenage Kevin was there, and I
remember just I didn't I didn't quite know how to
say the note to her, but I just thought, you know,
she's the character's so annoyed by the way these these
(30:34):
guys are acting. These kids are acting and they're it's
just it's almost disappointing, not the actors, but but the
characters how they're behaving. And I thought to myself, I
don't know what to say to her, because I'm not
a mother. I don't know how. But then I just
remembered and I walked up to her and I just
I did It wasn't even really note. I just said
to her, man, this would be so much easier if
(30:55):
Jack we're here, wouldn't it. And she just froze. And
I didn't realize what I had said, so but I
said it and then she just froze. And then I
saw Mandy freeze and I realized that she got the note,
and I think it was more than I wanted to say,
and I just kind of turned around and I was
just like, okay, leave that alone for a look. And
then I was like, this roll will tail slate on
(31:16):
this thing. Just roll it right now. And I was
like blown away. I mean, I forgot to call cut. Wow,
I forgot to call cut. I was just watching her.
I was just like, holy cow, this woman is having
a moment right now. And I had really had nothing
to do with my note. I had to do with
just actors need reminders sometimes, you know, she was incredible,
(31:38):
and those are the little things that I don't know
if you can tell I get really excited about this stuff.
I just think it's you know, when you watch a
movie and you My wife was just watching a movie
today and she turned it on. It was it was
Game of the Thrones trilogy, right, Lord of the Rings
trilogy and that's sorry, and yeah, we're not crazy and
(32:00):
Lord of the Storler and she goes, oh, this part
always makes me cry. And I go, I go, okay,
I'm I'm gonna grab find my wallet. And then we
got to get out of here because we've got to
go to lunch. And I found my wallet and I
turned around and she was like crying, and she's seen
this thing sixty times, and I'm like, this is the
power of cinema. This is the This is really unbelievable
how it taps into certain things. Right, we need this stuff.
(32:22):
It's exciting.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Do you think directing has made you a better actor?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah? Yeah, why it's I I'm I'm easier to give
a note to I think probably. I think there was
a time in my life where I was you know
what that is though is and if I'm being totally honest,
when someone gives you a note, if a director gives
you a note and you disagree with it, the way
that you respond to the note is either you have
a conversation about it or you don't, and you let
(32:54):
them know that's not I'm not doing that. And that's
why this is why I'm not doing that, because he
you go on and on whatever, and you kind of
put them in their place and they go back because
they can't make you do anything. The words have to
come out of your mouth, right. But all that is
is insecurity. That's all that is. That's something that you,
at least in my experience, when you see the person
walking over to you, and I've been there before, where
(33:17):
you and I are will be in a scene together
and you see the director coming out and they're walking
and in my head twenty years ago, I'm going, God,
hope he doesn't come to me a hope to note
it's not from me, hope, And then I'll see him
veer off to you, and I'm like, thank god. And
then inevitably the director, when he's done with you, turns
to me and gives me my note, right, and then
I learned as a director a lot of times if
(33:38):
I need something from you in a scene, I might
not give you the note. You might hear it, but
I will give the other actor the note. But it's
for you, yeah, for sure. So you just you learn
that all of the notes when a director is this
is just for me, And a director will typically pull
somebody's side if they have a note that this is
(33:59):
private whatever. But if there's a note being given on
set to someone that is in the scene that you
don't even have dialogue with, at least for me, my
experience has been listen to it, get all the information
that might be for you. And if it's not for you,
I bet you can glean something from it. I bet
you can. There's something that you can participate in the
(34:20):
next take with in a different way from that note,
I think. And I feel like that's applicable in any profession. Yeah, Like,
no matter where you work or who your boss is,
taking notes and feedback is all part of it. Yeah,
you have to, and if you're good at it, you're
gonna If you're good at it, it's better for you.
And it's hard to be good at it because their notes,
right yeah, and the notes are usually like would we
get would we'll get script notes? And you know, it's
(34:42):
always the same. It's like the studio will be like
and they don't give us a lot of notes, which
is great, but they'll be like the first like three
lines are just praise and great and it's amazing. We're
so a threat. It's like page one, sentence four, we're
wondering if and then it starts right right, but they're
very good. That that's how you give notes. You have to say, hey,
by the way, we're all in this together. You don't
(35:03):
just start blasting people from the you know, like just
sit there and go here we go once again? You know. Yeah,
but yeah, I think it does. Directing, writing, learning, producing
alongside Ken Olan has made me a better actor, I hope,
And just you know, I don't know less stress. It'll
get done. It'll get done. If we're all here, you know,
(35:24):
it'll get done. And if it doesn't get done, I
don't know, then we're all in trouble. I guess mm hmmm,
yeah we are so far we've done it. So how
do you take time for you when you're filming a
show like this? I mean, you're busy day in and
day out. You mentioned sleep. Do you actually get to sleep?
I mean sometimes, yeah, I sometimes I miss a day
asleep here and there. But it's okay.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Like mentally, how do you stay ready to go and
take some time for you?
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I don't know. It's just about scheduling, you know, and
sometimes you just look at it and you go, like
I said, finding the right partner, I don't get you know,
I don't have anybody wondering why I don't have an
extra thirty minutes for you know, dinner. We're all in
it together. We do everything together. My wife and I
do it all together. I could not do this without her, yeah,
at all. And I mean that. I mean that, and
(36:11):
she knows that. And so it's about letting. It's about,
you know, scheduling and figuring it out and going okay,
I know I need to do. I need to go
to the gym today, I need to do is I
have to eat? I think gets some sleep, But I
might not be able to work out as long as
I wanted to, I might not be able to spend
as much time at dinner, and I might not be
able to sleep as long as I wanted to. Because
right now one has to be the show, you know,
(36:34):
of my time. That's what everyone people are watching. It's important.
So I don't know. That's that's where That's where I
am right now. And it's been okay, I've I'm still breathing.
I feel great. Do I look like shit? You look great? Okay?
So people ask me. People ask me that all the time.
They're like, do you sleep? And I'm like, what do
you mean? Well, you have ninety jobs right now? No,
(36:55):
I know I'm kidding. I know that, but I do
know that. I do know that I look tired, but
it's because I'm exhausted now. But I feel great. Good.
It's a pleasure to do this. Really, I know that's
what you need to do this. It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yeah yeah, well I know everyone here is grateful. And
I have questions from the audience right, go through as
many as we can, Okay, so we'll start with, oh,
good question, what do you think makes a great performance?
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Oh my god? The second part of this I feel
like I have to read. But now I'm kind of blushing.
You are super cute? So are you? Tommy? You are
now I'm cute? All right? Was that our spouse is
over there. Okay, anyway, what do you wow, I'm proud.
(37:43):
What do you think makes a great performance? Just cuteness? Okay,
just about it's all about being cute. Can yeah, I think,
I mean, I think it starts with preparation. Preparation for sure,
understanding what you're saying, the character, an arc of an
arc of a scene, and all of that. But it's
it definitely starts with preparation.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Okay, up next summer. Summer wants to know. Do you
have a favorite line from the script or a favorite
case By the way, my mom and I love you
so much. Also to you that last part was well,
I don't know about that, but I have.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
To read them all. Now. Favorite line or favorite line is.
I like when he says when he says when he
looks at whoever might be missing something, a person, and
he says something to the effect of that he's going
to do everything he can to bring your daughter back
to you, or I'm going to work as hard as
I can. I'm gonna figure out everything I can. I'm
(38:36):
gonna help you. I like when he says that he
says in a different way, and we built this white
whale case as sort of a promise that he promised
to bring her sister back. And then you'll notice in
the show he never ever ever promises ever again, ever
intentionally because he wasn't able to deliver. But I do
like when he stares them right in the eye and
he tells them he's going to do everything in case
(38:57):
he means it everything. I think that so powerful.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Donna, Donna wants to know why is Coulton so stand offish?
Will he let his guard down with Reenie?
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Well, Donna's culter, but that's okay. We all know, we
all know who you meant. Will he let his guard down?
Why is he so what stand offish? Stand offish? He's
not stand offish. He just doesn't answer to that name.
He didn't know, he didn't know you were talking to him.
He didn't know you're talking. Uh, well, he let his
guard down with Reenie. You know, their relationship question. It's
(39:29):
a great question. And I love Renie by the way.
That amazing. She's she's cool, Yeah, she's great, and she
and culture their relationship evolves into something that's really really cool.
It's like something you don't see a lot on TV.
There's always this without giving anything away, gosh, there's a
lot of relationships on TV that I and I enjoy
them that are like sort of like sexual tension and
(39:50):
oh okay, well what does that mean? And you endo
here and right, but you don't see a lot of
just respectful, platonic, awesome relationships, true friends, you know. And
not to say that that's where the store is going
to go down the road, but but I just think
that's so cool to have a and she's a kick
ass lawyer that he has in his corner. So so
there's just a I mean, it makes sense that they
(40:11):
would be in each other's lives in that way.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
What kind of research went to preparing for the role.
Did you talk to real life rear seekers.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
We did a lot of a lot of talking to
people who there are people who do this for a
living and they're typically finding they're also but you know,
there are people who like look for treasures and stuff.
Then they may or may not be there. And then yeah,
I have sisters, so they will find everything, I mean
everything you can't. It's just like they're detectives. But but yeah, yeah,
(40:45):
of course, you know, you try to do as much
research as you can. And then also, my brother is
a police officer. They do a lot of that stuff
as well. And then we have people that we liaise
with on set and we're constantly learning too. He's constantly
doing different things, like trying to like, every scenario is different.
He's a personage this guy if you know the books,
so everything is different. Every given scenario might be a
different percentage of you know, should he stay or should
(41:06):
he go kind of thing? Should he run or should
he hide, find shelter or is it time to like
move and get out of here. So we're constantly learning
and it's fascinating stuff too. It's and everyone has their
own opinion right about what they would do, so it's
cool to sort of talk to people and hear the
military people have a lot of background and stuff like
this as well, which is kind of cool. So there's
always stuff you can learn, for sure.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
I really never had a clue that it was a
profession that people do that.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I don't know how successful they are at it, but well.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Not everyone can be you, you know, all right, Dexter
from Brooklyn into House, All right, what was your best
moment while working on the show ps I would like
to be invited to the after party.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
The after is there an after party. Let's go, let's
do it, let's go. We'll do it, Brookly, there might
be some writers in this room. I mean, these are
really good. I'll tell you. My best moment of the
show was we had just there was a pandemic and
got to miss it and it was a really weird,
really weird time, and everyone kind of shut down. I know,
(42:09):
I locked myself in my house for two years. I
went to work if this is us, and that I
would go home and they would go to work home,
and that's it. And it was really cool to see.
There were actually two moments. It was really cool to
see people back to work and they were in masks
and stuff. But we hadn't worked for so long and
you saw everybody at work and it was just like, wow, okay,
you have one hundred and something people working again. And
then we had a strike, and then we had a
(42:31):
writer strike. Then we had an actors strike, you know,
couple with the writers strike, and it was just kind
of a really a fraud period in our business. To
be honest with you, To come back from that and
see everybody back to work is really awesome as well.
So those are the times when you when you sit
there and you go, man, we worked really hard. There's
a lot of people that were involved in making the
show and creating the show, and I was one of them.
(42:53):
And you look out and you see hundreds of people
that have jobs that are excited to be at work.
That's really cool. That is really cool. Yeah, look at
looking at a crew list and you're flipping through all
these names and you're like, wow, all these people are employed.
That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, it's great. It's a good feeling. Man.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
All right, Megan, Megan is wondering what is your greatest
joy and take away from filming Tracker.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
That people like it, honestly, that people watch it. I
think every performer wants an audience. And I and and
just the fact I love when people say this. I watch,
I hear this all thing. A dude will be like, oh,
I watch it with my daughter, or I watch it
with my wife, or I watch my girlfriend. Women'll be back,
Oh I watch it with my wife, or I watch
it with my husband, or I watch it with my daughter.
I watch it with my grandkids. Oh my grandmother loves
(43:36):
that show. Oh my kids love that show. We love
that show. We all watch it as a family. That's awesome.
That is, that's terrific because then you don't have someone
else in this room watching God knows what, and someone
else in this room watching God knows what. They're all
sitting around and excited about a show that they can
all watch together and then they can talk about it afterwards.
You know, it's cool. So it's all about it. It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Rich from Port Jeff. Are you in a group chat
with the This is Us actors?
Speaker 2 (43:59):
If so? Oh, who is the most active in the chat?
We definitely have more than one. There are probably some
that I'm not even in. I'm into several with them. Yeah,
but the main one who's the most active and the
main one. We're all pretty active in it. I mean,
I guess, man, I don't know who's the most active.
We all chime in. We all chime in from here.
It depends on something's going on, like if someone's in town,
(44:21):
you know, like I'm in town, and then and then
it kind of gets crazy. And then there are days
where there's nothing, and then there'll be like a photo
that someone found and then there'll be like just going
nuts for a while. Everyone's pretty active.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Does anyone leave the group chat, like there's always one
no exit, no now you all right?
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Isn't that weird when people do that? But I love
it. It sends a clear message, well leaving the group chat,
but now you can well now you can mute them
so you don't have to leave. Well that's the move. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
just mute. You don't have to be rude about it, right,
all right?
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Jee Marie from Saga Aft How closely, if at all,
does your life resemble that of your character?
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Meaning? Are you you a real wood z off the
grid kind of man? Sure? Yeah, I mean I'll go yeah,
I'll go deep into the woods. I also like room service,
so I'm gonna be honest with you. I do it all.
I mean I could take care of you. Know what's funny,
(45:21):
My father growing up was really handy with stuff. He
get my brother's really good at building, so my brother
could build a HOUSEB like incredible mind for that stuff.
I never had that when I was a kid. I
was more like, oh, I don't know a storyteller, and
I just didn't have any interest in it. And as
I got older and got my own stuff, and all
my stuff started to break. As homes do you have
(45:44):
to learn how to maintain stuff and take care of things,
and so I've learned quite a bit. I'm pretty handy
now and I never used to be. I think my
sister's kind of like that as well. She does a
lot of things now that I don't think she really
had an interest in doing before she had her own stuff,
which is understandable. So yeah, I think I could survive
in the woods. I would not be like culture Shaw though, No,
I would need to. I would need some like I'd
have to go to like is it Arii or whatever
(46:05):
and get some food rations and stuff. Yeah, I get
some propane tanks. I'd be you know, the airstream seems cool, though,
you know, have you done one? Have you gone? No?
All right, not his character. So I spend most of
my life in a trailer, whether whether it's my cast
trailer or the airstream, I'm always in. It's unbelievable. Yeah,
you're over it. It's a lot of trailer. Yeah, yeah,
(46:27):
I get it. I get it. I get it.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
We have time for one more. This is a nice
note to end on. Did you have any idea of
the show would be so popular?
Speaker 2 (46:35):
No, I know, I knew that we were given a shot,
and I appreciated it when the network told us that
CBS told us that we're going to put us after
the Super Bowl. I appreciated the shot when when twenty
had told us that they were going to option the
book for us, When the studio and the network worked
together on this and made it everything that it that
it was, and they advertised it like crazy, and they
really did a great job of building it. But much
(46:56):
like this is us, and I think probably anything else
you never know, Like for instance, Tracker huge hit, and
if we spun it off, you just don't know if
it's going to find an audience. I don't know if
there's a I mean I know more than I used
to about that. Like I feel like I could build
a show that would that would that would have an audience,
but this level I didn't know. No, I didn't know,
but I'm happy it does. So what's the magic sauce?
(47:17):
Why is it so popular? Well that's between me and Kenolan. No.
I think I think we hit all the right things.
I think you have to find the right level of drama.
You have to find the right level of levity. There
has to be suspense, I think, and there has to
be intrigue in the character. You have to root for
the character. You have to really want the character to
get what he wants. It has to make sense, it
has to the timing of it has to make sense.
(47:38):
And also the you know, you try to find that
elusive audience, which is it's a male audience between like
what is it twenty seven and forty five something like
where they don't watch anything, they just watch football only
or whatever. You have to try to find that audience,
and I think part of doing that is creating a
show that everyone can watch together. So that's the goal.
That's what you try to do. And but if there
(47:59):
was a magic secret sauce, that's just what everyone would do.
I think it's it's just it's just a really well written,
hopefully well performed, beautiful looking show that is kind of
a throwback to an older style of show that we
don't really have anymore. And I think there's an appetite
for more of those. These shows that come on that
are episodic with a serialized element to them, where the
(48:21):
character evolves slowly over time, so you get, oh, you
get benefits from watching it in one after the other.
But there's also a really cool idea where you can
watch episode seven of season four and kind of get it.
You know, that's awesome as well. But I think there's
there's an appetite for more of these shows, like throwback
shows to these characters that we used to see that
(48:41):
we don't really see anymore, and it gives you hope.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
I mean, every episode you watch it and you feel
like by the end of it, and maybe every one
in season two won't end this way, but you walk
away feeling like, man, they did it.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
And it was one it was earned. Yeah, and the
whole family or friends or you know, lovers are all happy,
and I feel like in this day and age, more
of that. Yeah. So thank you. I agree with you.
Thanks well, thank you for the work you put out
into the world, and thank you, thank you for coming.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
Tracker returns on October thirteenth on CBS and Paramount Plus.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
Let's give it up for justin one more time. Thank you,
thank you, Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
I've never said this before is hosted by Me Tommy Dedario.
This podcast is executive produced by Andrew Puglisi at iHeartRadio
and by Me Tommy, with editing by Joshua Colaudney I've
never said this before is part of the Elvis Duran
podcast Network on iHeart Podcasts for more, rate, review and
subscribe to our show and if you liked this episode,
(49:44):
tell your friends. Until next time, I'm Tommy de Dario
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