March 5, 2026 • 40 mins
Renaissance man–actor, poet, artist, musician, director & star of the new romantic thriller 56 DAYS–Avan Jogia chats with Kyle about the core memories that inspired his creative path, what it was like catapulting to fame as a teen by himself in LA, a mindblowing real estate coincidence, and why Avan tackles a “creative win” each day ala David Lynch’s “art life” model. Kyle finds out what Avan looks for in a part, what it was like playing Puck & King Tut, Avan’s approach to social media, and his work with director Kane Parsons in the upcoming film BACKROOMS. Don’t miss the guys pay tribute to 56 DAYS with dramatic readings of song lyrics for a guessing game called Bloody Good Verses!.
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Executive Produced for Full Picture Productions by Desiree Gruber & Anne Walls Gordon
Produced by Ben Fingeret, Nora Faber, & Maia Mizrahi
Editing by Mikey Harmon & Nicholas Giuricich
Research by Kimberly Walls
Music by Yatta
Art by Danica Robinson
Additional GFX by Chris Olfers/The Southern Influence
Styling by Dot Bass
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What are we even doing? What are we even doing? Hey, everybody,
it's Kyle McLaughlin. I am your host of What are
We Even Doing? This is a program where we speak
with actors, musicians, poets for some I get to use
that in an information They very exciting people who are
(00:21):
incredibly creative, and we tak creative process Internet, what's important
to them, social media, these kind of things. I get
to ask all sorts of strange questions today we have
I'm excited and this is a true renaissance man we
have here. I want to set you up. I want
to set you up. You're an incredible actor, musician, poet.
I mentioned before teen Heartthrob, which I think we've got
(00:42):
a little bit. Maybe Trump's everything. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Ama Jodj is here with us today.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
And so happy you guys anyway, So glad you're here.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
No, thank you. I'm massively honored to be here. I'm
a huge h I say this. I was going to
save it to him. I'm a massive fan of yours
and your work.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
So cool, thank you, really cool for me, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Good.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I want to dig into this, so I usually start
with just sort of asking you've been doing this for
a long time. Do you remember the moment you were like,
you know what I'm I'm creative and this is where
I'm going to go. And was there a thing or
a moment.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Or absolutely well, I was watching like five years old
and I wanted I was watching parts of Muppets Treasure Island,
and people don't get the Muppets or they get the Muppets,
and it's it's formative, and it's like, I think, divisive
and in the way that like you're I think it
is a line between two groups of people. Either you
understand the concept that is the Muppets or you don't.
I am a massive Muppet person. I've been moved around
(01:38):
Gonez with the great love him, love the oddity and
the he's mercurial. We don't know what he is or
where he comes from, and then we sort of answered
a little bit and some of the things. But he's
a fascinating guy. I like him a lot, and I've
recently adopted. Me and my partner, we've liked Robin, which
is Kermit's nephew.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's his nephew. It's not even his. It's not like
it's you assumed like, oh, the Sun and then Jim
Hanson is a weirdo. It's like, this is his nephew.
You wants to be right, it's funny.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Hapen. Wait a minute, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So I watched Muppet's Treasure Island with Tim Curry and
I was like, I want to be a pirate and
my parents were like that's not a profession anymore. They're like,
you can be an actor. And I said, okay, great,
what is that. I'm interested in being that. So that
was my first sort of like I think, like Foyer
into acting or like the concept of acting. And then
I was homeschooled for a number of years.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
You're based in Vancouver or in environ Vancouver, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
In the was then I was able to really like
explore different types of That's why I think I got
the sort of like you can do any kind of
art form because like then I would play piano and
guitar for large parts of the day. I do like
whatever the school booklets that the government requires you to do,
because it's not like homeschooling here. There's like a pretty
standardized educational like it's not like whatever your parents are
(02:56):
teaching you. Like you still had to like go in
for testing and all this stuff. So I think I
really had a hunger and a curiosity that was luckily
fostered because of my parents.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I was going to say kudos to your parents for
recognizing that and also for recognizing the ADHD components early.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, because it's it's an advantage as much as it
is a disadvantage. I think there's there's no one who
has ever had that diagnosis would be like, I'd rather
be something else. I was given a world that in
which I could foster the positives of it, which is
like actually extreme focus so long as I'm interested extreme focus,
like focus beyond what other people have.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, it's a superpower, it is, I think. I think
so provided that you have the right sort of environment
environment to do with it.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So they were able to And I think it's just
also like long standing like generational ADHD, like you know,
like it's like my parents, my parents, parents I come
from along.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
When you start to figure it out, you look at
them like.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, the illustrious bloodline OFHD.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I love that you have a brother, yeah, yeah, brother brother.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, sat Ivory. We put again as a practice that
we just both love music, and as you said, it
gets harder as you get older to keep your fingers
and all of the creative things that you know bring
you joy that they have this weight to them as
you get older where you're like, well it has to
be forced something. It becomes as sort of like self
policing or self.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Coll just the joy of a joy of like picking.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Up a thing, doing a song, and having fun with
your brother. So I'm trying to re work my brain
in that regard.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Tell me about the dormouse that that was. This looks
very interesting and very cool, and what a great idea.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah, fairy a punk rock fairy tale. I mean, you're
from the Pacific Northwest. We talked about the docks and
how they're important to merge into California.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
That we got Itch Beach, a bitch community. Yeah, you're
carrying it man through the rotten.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Leaves and rain. Yeah. No. So it's a punk rock
fairy tale. That I grew up in Vancouver, in uh,
surrounded in close knicks to low income neighborhoods and and
sort of punk gutter punk, punk rock communities. And I
just thought, like the film noir genre, which explores usually
like see the underbelly of a city. I just didn't
understand how we've never done like a punk rock film noir.
(05:13):
That just seems so logical to me, especially when you
look at films like you know, John Cassavetti's Ones and
like all the sort of like seventies and in sixties
like La Underbelly film noirs, which I adore. I just
feel like I'm like, oh, that really does parallel quite
nicely with like a punk rock world, and like how
could you pull that off? So sort of exploring that
that old that old world.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I think that particularly in
the Pacific Northwest. I know, because I mean I was
in college sort of in that time, and surely it
was like all that grunge stuff and then talk about
you know, and I said, well, this is just kind
of what people look like here all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It's like it must be fascinating too to be living
in what would then eventually go on to be an
archetype of a genre of music. You're just surrounded by
people on plaid and long hair, like you're like, yeah,
this is what everyone looks like around. I have tried
in that too, like Vancouvers, just like people look like,
you know, like they were on bands and sub pop
universe you never heard of, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And it was just just it's just necessity because you're
in a place where the weather changes and changes, so
you got to have layers, you got to wrap your flannel,
you got hair. You know. It's just like people smoke
drink a lot of coffee.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I mean, it's just like smoke rippon cigarettes and drinking coffee.
I mean.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I love that. Yeah, well, I want to talk to
you about your kind of your breakout. Yes victorious, Yeah,
I say so.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I grew. I dropped out of high school officially. I
went homeschool and then went back to high school with
the top hat and caught off gloves and oscar tales.
Having been homeschooled for a number of years.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
This is kind of the way I used to a
little bit. I'm really vibing with it because I was
a little I was on definitely on the eccentric side
of things.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
And then I dropped out of high school officially and
my parents were like, listen, go to l A. You
got six months. If you can get a job as
an I was already working in Vancouver as an actor
on stuff. But if you can get a job at
the mecca, at the big place. Sure, then great, good
for you. You're now if not yet to come home
and you had to finish high school and then you
can go make me try it again. You know, this
is your quest exactly, So my little quest. And I
(07:08):
went to LA and I lived in a trailer behind
someone's house where I paid like three hundred dollars cash,
and I got this show.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Called Victorious, which is a big you.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Know, Nickelodeon show was everywhere and then funny story I
because we shot, I'm not going to give blow up
your spot where you're shot three three blocks away. I
moved into this building.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
No way, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And as soon as we started shooting to walk over.
I pretended to be a photographer so that I could
live in this office building right and get like office
and I wouldn't live and people would vacuum the outside
of the door and I'd be like like showering and
like like try like in the sank, like no kitchen,
like living in this like and I have a bed
that I push up back so I could so I'm like,
I'm a photographer, pulled down the thing and I'm in shoot.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So I lived here for years while I shot.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
The show down just down, just down, just down the home.
Oh no, yeah, it was tricky. I was like this,
I recognized the elevator. I remember every it's you know,
it's they've made it nicer than it was. Again, this
is like the Hollywood of maybe twelve years ago. This
was a little bit ropper of a building. This was.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, it's still on the edge. You want to be
here at night?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah? Yeah, it was here overnight every night. I had weird,
weird neighbors and strange people pumping music at like four
in the morning, and like very weird smell cigarette smoke
in the hall.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
You seventeen. Yeah, that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah. So we shot that for two and it's I
wasn't even that long, two and a half years, three years.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
It's really fun. I mean, yeah, I watched I watched
one of the episodes, which I think it was it
was a pilot.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah. It was a fascinating medium, the multicam, because we
didn't have an audience either.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Oh okay, the audio audience.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Is all filled in later. Yeah, and we had very
much crew and it did feel a little bit like
a play obviously, like the sort of goofy fantastical thing.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, because you didn't go back and you can reach it.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, you like think of something and you can try something.
You know it was it was, but you're a brighter.
That was always a bigger.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And brighter, faster.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
A lot of funnier. And I was like I was
getting I was getting shit kicked out of me, like
genuinely by all the other actors who were like they
knew the medium they'd grown up watching. Yeah, I didn't
have the Nickelodeon. I wasn't raised in that, and these
all the other people on the show were like they
were in America and they were raised on that particular Disney.
They knew that they knew the rhythm that I didn't understand.
I'm getting my ass kicked by these other actors and
(09:25):
I'm like, oh wait, I gotta and I love that
thing is I think we've lost the This is probably funny.
The combat sport that acting is like you know what
I mean, Like it is like when you are getting
beaten by someone who you're across from in a scene.
It's a terrible feeling. And I think we should more
actors should hold onto them because I think it's like
it's gotten a little soft as an industry. It's like, well,
(09:46):
that feeling is good. That means that, Okay, you go
away and you make sure that you get better and
so you can come back and make sure that doesn't
you don't have that feeling again, and that's how you Well.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
It's a challenge, It's definitely. It's definitely a challenge. You
feel like, Okay, there's something's going on here and you
have to make some adjustments and you may not have
the tools yet.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
And I ended up being a character that was observational
of that media, you know, Like I think that because
of the kind of person that I was, I think
they kept on writing bits for me where I was
more like.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
You grounding the show.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I got to say, just like the media, it.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Really was an essential part of It's like the Jim
Helper like that would cut to me to be like
to be like, what is this, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah? It was like the straight man.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
We all parents that are watching that, you know, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I was like like mugging the audience a little bit
in the lens. I think maybe you would empathize or
understand this is because there is so many people who
like attach a certain thing to you with the roles
that you've played. That must be strange, like to in
your waking life as you, you know, do all the
things in your career, it must be strange to like,
what does it feel like to have it as you
(10:51):
moved through time? To have that these versions of yourself
that are so locked in people's minds. That's what it
is to be on a kid's television.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, yeah, you're locked into a certain kind of thing,
you know. I think there is the initial period where
you're excited about the moment and then as you try
to go, Okay, I'm going to go do the next thing,
and the elastic is very tight and he snaps back
really quickly. Plus the you know, the perspective here in
you know, and Holly, what is like, this is what
you do? And I said, yes, you're saying, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Sort of you don't realize cemented into the lexicon people's lexicons.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
It was challenging at the time and from somewhat frustrating.
And then as you grow and then you do other
things and your career expands, hopefully expands, you begin to
look back and you have a fondness that comes with it,
and there is also an acceptance and then a huge
amount of gratitude, and that starts to grow, and that
gratitude continues to grow. The longer I'm in the business,
(11:46):
the larger that portion of it, that component gets.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Like the thing that I've really noticed growing more and
more is just the gratitude for being able to the
thing that got you to the party. Yeah, you know what
I mean, and just the joy.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Of that of that Yeah, yeah, to think what it.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
What it means to people, Like that's something that.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Love, that's your other thing. People come to you and
they they love a certain thing and you or I
might be like, they're not my favorite thing, but.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Your angel, Like what was your experience? Because you're asking
me to evoke what my experience was doing it as
opposed to what it was to receive it for you guys.
You know, like my experience doing it is not the
same thing as you know, maybe necessarily as what it
is too.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
But I think you begin to recognize the second part
because I mean, I'm a fan of certain things and
people and if I see someone I've turned I turned
into like a little kid, I'm just like, oh.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
My god, Oh yeah, giddy.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
It's Jimmy Page like, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I mean so I'm like, oh I and I'm like,
oh that's okay, I get it. That's what's happening here.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And so it takes a minute to recognize yourself. That's
what's happening for them to you.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
But your when you say, career moves and it's like
and that and that was certainly the period of my life.
About that time was really choices were made based on
you know, the career, you know what I mean, not
necessarily like the thing that I should be doing or
would really enjoy doing. Yeah. So I was like and
I went through that and coming out the other side
(13:08):
and you know, still working, and now it's like there's
a different forces at play. The journey is long and
very interesting. But I love the fact because you you
have access in a way to express what you're going
through in a number of different mediums. I mean the
music you talked about, of course, acting, of course poetry,
which is I think a fantastic expression.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I always say, like I need to have an artistic
win once a day. It's like doing the dishes, you know,
like the dishes are dirty, and then you finish the
dishes and you're like, okay, well that was something. I
feel like a burst of probably dopamine because I'm adhd yeah,
I got something done, accomplished, right, And as you know,
acting and directing or whatever, these are long form, arduous.
(13:55):
The feeling of dopamine or delivery or success is so
illusiri and like delayed and strange. So poetry for me
and painting is just I can I can sit down
and I can get something out and I can have
a creative win, and so I can power myself through,
(14:15):
especially these periods where you know you're as actors are
waiting for the phone ring, you feel shop it was
a director you're sending a thousand Directing is sending of
realized and because I'm getting another film off the ground
this year, it's just sending thousands of emails until somebody
says you're making a film, and then all of a
sudden you're directing. But most of it is just like
pushing at the gates. So the poetry thing is that
(14:36):
I get to sit down and and like get it
an idea fully expressed, and then I do that enough
times and then usually I have like a book or
a collection and then I put them, I squeeze all
together and get them out there. And this last one
was the title, you know, you know, Autopsy of an
xteen Heartthrobs is it's meant to be ironic and satirical.
(14:57):
But again, what I've noticed is again this is how
art is interpreted by machinery of social media. I think,
you know, people were looking at it as I think
an earnest sort of reveal of the soul. It was
more than just the satire of like what it is
to even put somebody on that type of what a
silly construct, you know. But yeah, so for poetry for me,
(15:18):
is this sort of daily expression of ability for me
to get out and have a pride of wind. Yeah
you have something like that.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Well, you know what I have something I got to say,
what you're making me think of is that David Lynch.
Because David created every day, he lived what do you
call the art life. Yes, and he was you know,
obviously painting music, screenwriting, sketching. I mean, there was wood chop.
I mean, he he was always making something. And I
think it's this, it's the same, It's that same urge
(15:49):
you know that you just you get up in the
morning and that's what you do and that's who you are.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, you know, yeah, I mean him being a massive
influence on that as a life Mottel and I was like,
I produced this film that Charlie Kaufman directed that Jesse
Buckley was in. We went to Venice Film Festival this
this year, which is really cool. Charlie again another.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Amazing and Jesse's insane and Jesse is one of the actors.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I mean, yeah, I'm just so proud and happy of
her her work and what's going on with her right now.
I took a flight with Charlie at because you're coming
back from a film festial going to AFI I think,
and uh, he sat in the entire flight just sitting
looking out the window. And I was like, oh, that's why.
And I don't you know, he's not doing a bit,
(16:35):
He's not He really genuinely just like thinking looking at
the window. And I sort of saw that and realized, oh,
there's there's a there's something I could practice more that
some of my heroes have always practiced, which is an
ability to be quiet enough to like let the ideas
bubble up.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, you look at David is such a pure example
of it. You know, and even to his work where
there are you know, he's not telling you, he's not
hands smoothing you, feeding you, you know, he's letting you experience.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah yeah, which is just like marvelous, especially as I
know the show is about like sort of the current
goings on, like we've sort of lost the concept of
satire is somehow linked to what you're talking about, which
is like letting the audience have an experience with it,
leading them to a certain place, but then letting them
have their own individual experience. Everything must be explained. I
think this is the David quote, which is like when
(17:28):
you name something, it loses an element of itself. That
is actually and I've always thought that is fascinating because
as soon as you start being like going on pods
or like explaining your art.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
That's why I love the concept of the show, because
it's like, let's talk about the credt process, right, rather
than talk about what you're trying to do with that
thing we lost. It loses an element of itself as
soon as we start to name it.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Well, It's one of the things about your work which
I find fascinating is the complexity and what you do
you know. I mean there are level and layers and
your most recent six days, Yeah, six days is going
to be It's very enigmatic. There's a lot of things
going on there and to the point where I'm like,
that's what I do. Hang on a second, Oh, but
(18:17):
how is that experience of pretty interesting?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yes? Super, I mean I think that book.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I think right book.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, And I'm always looking for parts. Again, enigmatic is
the is always the goal? Can we have two, three,
four things all going on at the same thing, you know,
I know it's a check off guy, Like, I think
that's part of the totally part of the sort of
like roots, the foundational thing is like can pass the salt?
Mean eight things?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
With the show like this where you're you know, I
think what you're watching is somebody's personality Frey because they
have so many versions of themselves inside that they're hiding.
They deeply want to be seen, but are doing nothing
to let that be a reality to you know what
I mean, I think that's a fascinating guy. Yeah, And
it's so like so that's becomes something that is like
(19:05):
exciting for me to do. And what I'm always looking
for in part is to is to be able to
play three guys in one guy.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, I think that's that's that's the goal because they
any given time, that's what's happening in the world.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
So that's how people and people are not consistent.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
How was your relationship with the director? Was it good?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
So good? I had there was four directors. We had,
uh com completely female directors for this, and I've actually
most of my career have been directed by women.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Ok.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yeah, I think largely. I think I don't pretend to
know what the psychology of that is. I think maybe
men often don't hire they don't hire me. I don't
know why women feel like they hire me. I think
I represent something that maybe that they understand where it's
like men. Maybe I don't like male directors are looking
for a different version of themselves on camera because maybe
it's like a personal thing. But well, you're not like me.
(19:51):
So because I think there's maybe like an there is
maybe like an element of because you see it with
directors like you see like the the person they cast,
and then you see them and you're like, well, I
can see how you would cast that guy, because that's
like it's sort of like a version of you in
the film. Whereas women don't do that with me because
they're not casting themselves. They're casting like a like a
version of whatever they think a guy should be in
(20:12):
this thing, this fifty six days thing where we are
playing with trusting men. The whole thing is about do
we don't we our fear of men, our fear of
like the red flags and like what And you know,
we play with what exists in the public consciousness about that,
and we flip it at times because I think by
the end of it, it's like a cat and mouse show.
(20:34):
But there's two cats, you know, Yeah, and you think
there's prey and predator, but like it goes back and forth,
which is really fun.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I felt that on the trailer did you know Dove before?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Were you know, we had never met? We didn't, we
didn't cam read together. Luck of the draw that the
chemistry was there, and I think, you know, I think
a lot is attributed to actors of the chemistry. I
would like to attribute it mostly to casting. The casting
usually doesn't get their flowers in this regard, and it's
a lost art being putting two faces together and just
knowing it's going to work.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah. Yeah, people that do that and they do it well?
Are very special, very important? Yeah, going back to David
working with David and Joanna Ray was his casting agent,
and it was on one of the main ones she
put together just combinations of people for him that just clicked.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I remember going in for a thing for David with
I would imagine the same casting director. Yeah, I remember
the audition was to sit there and describe dreams that
you've had and just talk what a lost art of
just being like, can we get the essence of this
person through their own description of their thing and where
(21:40):
does that fit in our the thing that we're making,
rather than being like are you right for the part?
And let's experience this person and see if they fit
into the world we're creating together. Yeah, you know, do
we need someone who's super sharp and over explained and like,
you know.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
No, you get it on the head, which I think
is so great about David and every actor that's met
with him talks about it, just the fact that he's there.
He's just figures if you're there, you can you connect.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, that's that's done. Yeah Yeah, Or if not, he's
got in front of he'll help you a little bit
along the way. But I know you're you can do it.
It's is the energy vibe? Is it? Do I see it?
Do I feel it? You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
And that's do you stitch into the quote we're trying to.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, which sort of takes as an actor. You're like,
okay's either going to be there or not. I'm just
going to enjoy the conversation.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Speed off of the fastball, You're just like, okay, cool,
just like you know so yeah. So this part was
like again, the chemistry between me and Dove is very
much an amazing work of casting and we're very lucky
and what a cool thing to work with somebody who
I didn't know this because you wouldn't know it because
she's so brilliant, but exploring drama really for the first time.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Kidding.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
She's done some a lot of comedy, she dode.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Some musicals, she does she's a singer.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I mean, she's an incredible singer. You would never have
known that she was really that that good and that dedicated.
It was super fun. We're always trying to hold attention,
you know what I mean. Like it's it's sort of
like whatever the class version of the you know you
got you got every seven seconds. You got to keep
the audience to like little like the content creators or whatever,
like we have to be doing something worth watching because
(23:13):
these people are like you know, they put the baby down,
or like they're going in the movie theater. They got
a babysitter sitting in the see like, we let's go
make something extraordinary happen because you know, what what then?
What are we doing?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
What do we even do? You did something recently which
I think is so fun. You so you did Puck.
Yeah it was a while ago. Yes, yes, yes, but
you were saying to me, we were talking earlier before
we came, before we started rolling the camera, how much
you enjoyed it?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yeah? I really did. I what a free character. It's
fun to play the physical embodiment of like magic and
fun and playing Faye people in general. Going back to
that mercurial, how many how many layers or something can
you put into something that's absolutely like fertile ground and
just sort of across the board. With Shakespeare, I've always
been like interested, especially with seerial that's been touched so
(24:01):
many times, you know, by so many great actors. It
is really becomes this sort of lovely and I wasn't
a Shakespearean up to that point. It was really my.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
First like foyer injurience thing.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, And I was like, you know, it's intimidating and language,
the languages, the language stuff. But again I love poetry,
so it's like, you know, it becomes this sort of
like oh, if.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Your musical and you love poetry, then those words just
like float on top of them, Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And then have access and be open enough that that
some interesting things can pop through that you can experience.
But that's what I because I you know, I talk
to some people who are you know, better than I
in that field and.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
A little more experience, but they're better.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
But this is it. But then again going back to
I like, I want to be better. That's my goal
as a person. And and and part of that is
just knowing what your holes you're trying to fill in
your in your repertoire, you know. And Shakespeare was like, okay,
this is daunting. And I sort of as a general rule,
follow the put your note, you know, swim out a
little deeper than it said. Bowie thinks, swim out a
little deeper. Then you're you're comfortable with your feet. Are
(25:04):
just get a little nervous that are just touching the
bottom and that's basically the right place to Yeah, and
and Shakespeare was like, oh, pitter patter, like so I
gotta do that, And yeah, paint Puck was awesome.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
You make a really good point because I think with
Puck in particular, I think and with what we do,
the sense of play is so important has to be there,
which is you know, more of a child vibe anyway, right, Yeah,
and Puck has got I mean in terms of play,
it's the operative word impish.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, because it's interesting because I always I think I
was intimidated by Like, okay, so what's the starting point
as a young male actor. Everyone like hangs Hamlet in
front of you. Sure like this, you know, massive daunting,
you know, like like, well that's are you going to
do it?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I think you're gonna climb Everest.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Are you really about that livee or A? You're gonna
climb Overest? Yeah, exactly, you know what I mean. Like,
and You're like, I think it's it's like it's not
a great entry point for an actor going to Shakespeare. Yeah,
like easier more because again, like you said, there's like
you know.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
You make it fun.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Make it fun to start, Yeah, make make it fun.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
You know, I think any time for the other Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, And I think there was like there's an actor
like you should do it like twenty five, thirty five,
forty five.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
It was Sir Ben who actually said that to.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Me, because she was like, that's the English tradition. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, we did King tut Together, which was just sort
of like, you know.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
That was so cool. I loved looking at that and
love what you said about the wardrobe. Yeah about me,
and because we'll talk about that too, but go ahead
finish the story.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, well, it's just doing King Tut together. It already
has the sort of like size of like you know,
King Lears and you know, and what Shakespeare talks about
a lot, which is these sort of like men on
the precipice of greatness morally dealing with their own interior worlds.
And so you're doing that across one of the great
theater actors, one of the great actors period. Yeah, you know,
us having lots of conversations about Shakespeare and him being like,
(26:53):
you know, you really should give it a go, and
you would be great in the part, and you have
the right level of whatever it is, like internal can
inflict for that kind of part. But that was a
fun that was a fun project. And also we're just
working with an idle of mine.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Truly, what a great experience, huge.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Huge for me. I mean also like you know, mixed
Indian actor, there's very few of us in their business. Yes,
and he was someone who was able to forge a
path that I've I've walked, yes because of him many.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Other actors observation.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, yeah, because we need It was an amazing to
be able to have that as a roadman.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
And you were talking earlier about your starting in social
media a little bit and you sort of you started
right kind of when social media sort of kicked Yeah,
do you remember you kind of how you kind of
approached that. Was it something that you integrated right away
or was there.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Sort of the wild world west We didn't really know
what we were doing. But I think also like our
relationship with it has evolved and changed a lot, Like
I feel unaware and maybe out of touch with what
gathers people together online. Usually it's it seems to me,
usually it's mistakes. We like mistakes as a society. That's
(28:11):
there's again I'm I've ADHD andeslexia in combination and ironically,
I'm I write a lot.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
So that's an uphill but perfect profession. But yeah, so
this is a wild.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
West back when we started, and it's changed now, and
I think it was way more earnest at the beginning.
It's like, gee, Williker's guys like so excited you love
the show, and you could be that positive and it
would find an audience and they would be like, wow,
we love that you're so positive. And now, you know,
like nihilism has has firmly set itself into you know,
(28:42):
cemented itself into the public consciousness, and so now we
here we are I mean, which by the way, like listen, agreed,
like you know what I mean, Like I understand. But
it's almost like, now, to me, the the rebellion is
you find a glimmer of hope in it all, isn't it.
It's sort of like that's that sort of way that
you can rebel best. Yeah, it's it's not. I find
(29:04):
it very deeply uncool to revel in negativity, especially blue
world being what it is.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
I have to say you're holding the torch online for this.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Yeah, we're doing our best man, we're hanging in the middle.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Man.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, it's you're going to do something which I think
is so cool and bold. Really, you're working with Kane
on this back Rooms, Yes, Kane Parsons, who's super young. Yeah,
doesn't mean he can't do what he needs to do.
But I watched back Rooms and it's fascinating. It's fascinating,
and it's like, Okay, this is cool kind of concept, right,
(29:40):
you got to go with concept? You're like, I got that.
And then I was like, you know, kind of going
along in the journey, and then I was like, what
what just happened with this thing? It's that mind is
interesting enough to sort of say, okay, let's see and
I think A twenty four is going to do this
and I plod them.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I really do.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I mean, when you know about what's happening with it, I.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Think he's in the middle of his process with the edit.
I think, you know, as somebody who is well intimately
understood or well connected to the dream world, he definitely
plays around in the dream world. He certainly. I mean,
he's a younger and he's nineteen years old. Yeah, yeah,
he's twenty now. And we spoke and I just again
you you know, part of being an actor is also
(30:23):
being a baton man. And you just see somebody who
is that concerned with the outcome of the thing. I
don't see any level of like excited to be in
the cool people's club.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
He doesn't.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
You know, the fact that A twenty four is doing
it is awesome, but he would do it. He has
a goal to expand and create this world and it
matters to him. The universe matters to him. And you
just want to you want to ride with a like that?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yeah, yeah, that's totally right.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
You know if I was, I mean, I would talk
about this a lot, like you know, like the reason
why there's a lot of people in kids television right
and like they should have been doing so a lot
of them should have been doing something else. So some
of us, like you know, we're ended up being astrophysicists,
you know what I mean. Like like like but when
you're precocious and you're young, you know what I mean,
you just get like they're like, you should be an
actor because that's the only thing that people are going
to let you do and take you seriously do, right,
(31:13):
because like direct know what I mean, not like you
direct you know, and like you're nine years old, but
that's happening with this with Kine and we end up
just eventually getting on the phone, right and I'm just like, uh,
I don't whatever you need me to do, Yes, I'm
in because I just I believe in you. Yeah, and like,
so whatever you want me to do in this, I
(31:33):
think that you are have the world building that I'm
always looking to be a part of. And as an actor,
when I have my acting hat on, you know, going
to your a garden analogy, you just want to be
the best spade you can be and surrendering to somebody
who has vision for the garden. That's what I want
to do as an actor, and largely a lot of
(31:54):
the time, like you go on set and you're like,
especially the way that I am because I direct, I
have like half my gardener hat on and half off
my spade hat on. And I'm like, yeah, but maybe,
but you know saying this, what are you doing in lite? Like,
I don't care if you have the rules in your
head not. My job is just to delivery on.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
That and then things change, you know, can change. The
other actor is going to give you different stuff to
things happening. But at least you have, you know, you
come in with a certain kind of like this is
what I think we're going.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, yeah, it's a Michael kne thing. But I've memorized
my performance. It's like whatever. It's like, you know, like
you know everything on the internet in the comment section.
If it devolves the Nazis, it's over. If two actors
get together and it ends with a Michael Caine impression, yeah,
I mean for walking impression in his pocket.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
He's just I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
My faird thing is when he does like a little
two mice he touched. Why do you do that?
Speaker 1 (32:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
He licks his little fingers.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
There was a great story I probably not true, but
but he was on stage the you know, in Shakespeare
in the Park. To be or not to be? I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Yeah, does it work?
Speaker 1 (32:56):
I guess it works?
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I am.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
But yeah, you've been such as such a pleasure. Yeah,
we're gonna play a crazy game. Yes, it's called bloody
good versus Oh bloody good. I got my neck. It
really hurts. And I don't know what migraine coming a
migraine mine really hurts. I don't know what's gonna I think,
(33:20):
Oh god, oh, I feel so much better. I don't
need the lave that you know. It was just knife.
It was in my.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Knife knife shop, knife shop.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Oh god, dueling dueling walkins.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
All right, we are back, we're back.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Okay. It's just a segment I designed, but I didn't
want to design this. You guys designed this. Yes, you
got to start. We designed. It's for you. It's called
bloody good versus. Okay, let's talk about that already, people
on border this already. Okay, we're paying tribute to your
new show fifty six days. It's a romantic thriller, yes,
is that right? Okay, So we're going to be performing
lyrics do some popular songs as if we're characters in
(33:59):
a worldromantic thriller and it is spoken word.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Yeah, we're not singing dramatic.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
You could sing. You can sing, but but I think
in my case better than I don't. So the other
we'll have to guess which song the lyrics are from. Okay,
So so if we get it right, we high five GAO.
Get it wrong, you must act out or I must
act out a death scene. So I gotta do it
like a romantic thriller. Okay, should I start? Yeah? Okeah, okay, okay, right, said,
(34:25):
I'll put my guard down for you, said, I'd be vulnerable.
You can break my heart if you want. She said,
take your time. What's the rush? I said, baby, I'm
a dog.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
I know this one. Oh you do?
Speaker 1 (34:45):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Leon Thomas?
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Very good? Oh wow?
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I really felt that that was marvelous.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
It has stood the test of time.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Thank you. So let's let me get the next one
wrong so I can do a death scene. Okay, when
you wake up next to him in the middle of
the night, with your head and your hands nothing more
than his wife, And when you think about me all
of those years ago, you're standing face to face with
I told you so. And I know you hate to say,
(35:16):
but I told you so.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Chapel Rooney from the infamous dance Yeah with the Chapel
Room singing. I still remember that. Shoot. It was frightening
to me because Maya made me get into this hot
dog outfit and I was like, are you sure? And
this is when I crossed over and I just said
I did you understood? You gave up. I kind of
gave in and I was like freeing to me.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
You know it's like and here now we march forward
into the bleak unknown. Yes, absolutely, into the social vortex. Yes,
I mean that's really you. You you hold like a
pillar of the social media like landscape.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
I'm just trying to.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Every single time one of your videos comes up.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Something like heart that. Oh them, nice to hear. Okay,
I'm dumb hiding, sorry, Chris, we can't help it, Chris
walk Now I'm shining like I'm going to be. We
(36:15):
dreaming hard. We came so far now I believe we're
going up, up, up, you know, together together again. We're glowing.
We're glowing, gonna be gonna be gold and gonna be gold.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I don't know if I know this one right. You're
messing with us because you want to die. Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
He wants to do it. Oh the blood is pumping.
Oh my lord, who doesn't want to do a death scene?
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Oh that's a great orson Welles one, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
When he starts he tell me start.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
These monologues, because this is very like in the vein
of what Ortis needs to do on like talk shows,
they just have him read like Shakespeare and stuff back
then and even start with just to get just to
get everyone's attention.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Because I get orson Welles too on my feed. Yeah,
I mean, I love it is the best. All right,
I'm ready. I'm holding here, we go, ready to die.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Tell me you've got something to give. I want it.
I kind of like it when you call me wonderful,
whatever the type of talk it is. Come on, then
I gotta know you're meant to be the man I need.
I gotta know, gotta know.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
I got a fever.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I need to know the kind of man I need
you to be to me.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Oh gosh, and I don't know. Yeah, well good, wait
hold on. Oh yeah, he's got a bit.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
He's got a bit.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Okay, I just got it. I've gotta feva. Oh oh yeah,
that's deep.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
That's deep. Jugular stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Is gonna kill me.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Wow, oh lord, my lords and fun and you came
and wow.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
That's what we do here. We have fun. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Thank you. Man.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
So you've got fifty six days, it's sort of the
next Yeah, it's out. Is there anything else you want
to eighteen mentioned.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
On Prime Video. It's so fun to have a show,
you know, come out and it's gonna have such a
wide audience. And people can like really watch it and
they get it all the same day. So that's really
exciting to me. And yeah, it's been a minute since
I've I've honestly been on this sort of like train
of promoting something as heavily as this, So I'm really
I'm really excited for people to get a hold.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Of good good. I look forward to it. Everyone's gonna
check that out. Thanks, This is gonna be fun. You know,
I don't know if we figured out what what are
we doing? But we gave it a good shot. Oh yeah,
you know, yeah, we'll probably never know.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
We'll probably never know. And but you know, me and
my mom used to sit around the kitchen table and
rant at each other for hours and hours on it,
and we would end the rant with, well, we've solved
it all.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Until tomorrow, until tomorrow, perfect answer. Thank you so much.
What a pleasure. What Are We Even Doing?
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Is a production of iHeartMedia and the Elvis Duran podcast Network,
hosted by me Kyle McLachlin and created and produced by
Full Picture productionists Yay, featuring music by Yata and artwork
by Danica Robinson. For more information about the podcast, please
visit our Instagram and TikTok at wa w ed with Kyle.
(39:48):
Please rate, review, and subscribe to What Are We Even
Doing on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Exclamation point
What are we even doing? What are we even doing? Hey, everybody,
it's Kyle McLaughlin. I am your host of What are
We Even Doing? This is a program where we speak
with actors, musicians, poets for some I get to use
that in an information They very exciting people who are
(00:21):
incredibly creative, and we tak creative process Internet, what's important
to them, social media, these kind of things. I get
to ask all sorts of strange questions today we have
I'm excited and this is a true renaissance man we
have here. I want to set you up. I want
to set you up. You're an incredible actor, musician, poet.
I mentioned before teen Heartthrob, which I think we've got
(00:42):
a little bit. Maybe Trump's everything. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Ama Jodj is here with us today.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
And so happy you guys anyway, So glad you're here.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
No, thank you. I'm massively honored to be here. I'm
a huge h I say this. I was going to
save it to him. I'm a massive fan of yours
and your work.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
So cool, thank you, really cool for me, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Good.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I want to dig into this, so I usually start
with just sort of asking you've been doing this for
a long time. Do you remember the moment you were like,
you know what I'm I'm creative and this is where
I'm going to go. And was there a thing or
a moment.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Or absolutely well, I was watching like five years old
and I wanted I was watching parts of Muppets Treasure Island,
and people don't get the Muppets or they get the Muppets,
and it's it's formative, and it's like, I think, divisive
and in the way that like you're I think it
is a line between two groups of people. Either you
understand the concept that is the Muppets or you don't.
I am a massive Muppet person. I've been moved around
(01:38):
Gonez with the great love him, love the oddity and
the he's mercurial. We don't know what he is or
where he comes from, and then we sort of answered
a little bit and some of the things. But he's
a fascinating guy. I like him a lot, and I've
recently adopted. Me and my partner, we've liked Robin, which
is Kermit's nephew.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's his nephew. It's not even his. It's not like
it's you assumed like, oh, the Sun and then Jim
Hanson is a weirdo. It's like, this is his nephew.
You wants to be right, it's funny.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Hapen. Wait a minute, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So I watched Muppet's Treasure Island with Tim Curry and
I was like, I want to be a pirate and
my parents were like that's not a profession anymore. They're like,
you can be an actor. And I said, okay, great,
what is that. I'm interested in being that. So that
was my first sort of like I think, like Foyer
into acting or like the concept of acting. And then
I was homeschooled for a number of years.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
You're based in Vancouver or in environ Vancouver, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
In the was then I was able to really like
explore different types of That's why I think I got
the sort of like you can do any kind of
art form because like then I would play piano and
guitar for large parts of the day. I do like
whatever the school booklets that the government requires you to do,
because it's not like homeschooling here. There's like a pretty
standardized educational like it's not like whatever your parents are
(02:56):
teaching you. Like you still had to like go in
for testing and all this stuff. So I think I
really had a hunger and a curiosity that was luckily
fostered because of my parents.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I was going to say kudos to your parents for
recognizing that and also for recognizing the ADHD components early.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, because it's it's an advantage as much as it
is a disadvantage. I think there's there's no one who
has ever had that diagnosis would be like, I'd rather
be something else. I was given a world that in
which I could foster the positives of it, which is
like actually extreme focus so long as I'm interested extreme focus,
like focus beyond what other people have.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, it's a superpower, it is, I think. I think
so provided that you have the right sort of environment
environment to do with it.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So they were able to And I think it's just
also like long standing like generational ADHD, like you know,
like it's like my parents, my parents, parents I come
from along.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
When you start to figure it out, you look at
them like.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, the illustrious bloodline OFHD.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I love that you have a brother, yeah, yeah, brother brother.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, sat Ivory. We put again as a practice that
we just both love music, and as you said, it
gets harder as you get older to keep your fingers
and all of the creative things that you know bring
you joy that they have this weight to them as
you get older where you're like, well it has to
be forced something. It becomes as sort of like self
policing or self.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Coll just the joy of a joy of like picking.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Up a thing, doing a song, and having fun with
your brother. So I'm trying to re work my brain
in that regard.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Tell me about the dormouse that that was. This looks
very interesting and very cool, and what a great idea.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah, fairy a punk rock fairy tale. I mean, you're
from the Pacific Northwest. We talked about the docks and
how they're important to merge into California.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
That we got Itch Beach, a bitch community. Yeah, you're
carrying it man through the rotten.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Leaves and rain. Yeah. No. So it's a punk rock
fairy tale. That I grew up in Vancouver, in uh,
surrounded in close knicks to low income neighborhoods and and
sort of punk gutter punk, punk rock communities. And I
just thought, like the film noir genre, which explores usually
like see the underbelly of a city. I just didn't
understand how we've never done like a punk rock film noir.
(05:13):
That just seems so logical to me, especially when you
look at films like you know, John Cassavetti's Ones and
like all the sort of like seventies and in sixties
like La Underbelly film noirs, which I adore. I just
feel like I'm like, oh, that really does parallel quite
nicely with like a punk rock world, and like how
could you pull that off? So sort of exploring that
that old that old world.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I think that particularly in
the Pacific Northwest. I know, because I mean I was
in college sort of in that time, and surely it
was like all that grunge stuff and then talk about
you know, and I said, well, this is just kind
of what people look like here all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It's like it must be fascinating too to be living
in what would then eventually go on to be an
archetype of a genre of music. You're just surrounded by
people on plaid and long hair, like you're like, yeah,
this is what everyone looks like around. I have tried
in that too, like Vancouvers, just like people look like,
you know, like they were on bands and sub pop
universe you never heard of, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And it was just just it's just necessity because you're
in a place where the weather changes and changes, so
you got to have layers, you got to wrap your flannel,
you got hair. You know. It's just like people smoke
drink a lot of coffee.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I mean, it's just like smoke rippon cigarettes and drinking coffee.
I mean.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I love that. Yeah, well, I want to talk to
you about your kind of your breakout. Yes victorious, Yeah,
I say so.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I grew. I dropped out of high school officially. I
went homeschool and then went back to high school with
the top hat and caught off gloves and oscar tales.
Having been homeschooled for a number of years.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
This is kind of the way I used to a
little bit. I'm really vibing with it because I was
a little I was on definitely on the eccentric side
of things.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
And then I dropped out of high school officially and
my parents were like, listen, go to l A. You
got six months. If you can get a job as
an I was already working in Vancouver as an actor
on stuff. But if you can get a job at
the mecca, at the big place. Sure, then great, good
for you. You're now if not yet to come home
and you had to finish high school and then you
can go make me try it again. You know, this
is your quest exactly, So my little quest. And I
(07:08):
went to LA and I lived in a trailer behind
someone's house where I paid like three hundred dollars cash,
and I got this show.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Called Victorious, which is a big you.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Know, Nickelodeon show was everywhere and then funny story I
because we shot, I'm not going to give blow up
your spot where you're shot three three blocks away. I
moved into this building.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
No way, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And as soon as we started shooting to walk over.
I pretended to be a photographer so that I could
live in this office building right and get like office
and I wouldn't live and people would vacuum the outside
of the door and I'd be like like showering and
like like try like in the sank, like no kitchen,
like living in this like and I have a bed
that I push up back so I could so I'm like,
I'm a photographer, pulled down the thing and I'm in shoot.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So I lived here for years while I shot.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
The show down just down, just down, just down the home.
Oh no, yeah, it was tricky. I was like this,
I recognized the elevator. I remember every it's you know,
it's they've made it nicer than it was. Again, this
is like the Hollywood of maybe twelve years ago. This
was a little bit ropper of a building. This was.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, it's still on the edge. You want to be
here at night?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah? Yeah, it was here overnight every night. I had weird,
weird neighbors and strange people pumping music at like four
in the morning, and like very weird smell cigarette smoke
in the hall.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
You seventeen. Yeah, that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah. So we shot that for two and it's I
wasn't even that long, two and a half years, three years.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
It's really fun. I mean, yeah, I watched I watched
one of the episodes, which I think it was it
was a pilot.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah. It was a fascinating medium, the multicam, because we
didn't have an audience either.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Oh okay, the audio audience.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Is all filled in later. Yeah, and we had very
much crew and it did feel a little bit like
a play obviously, like the sort of goofy fantastical thing.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, because you didn't go back and you can reach it.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, you like think of something and you can try something.
You know it was it was, but you're a brighter.
That was always a bigger.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And brighter, faster.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
A lot of funnier. And I was like I was
getting I was getting shit kicked out of me, like
genuinely by all the other actors who were like they
knew the medium they'd grown up watching. Yeah, I didn't
have the Nickelodeon. I wasn't raised in that, and these
all the other people on the show were like they
were in America and they were raised on that particular Disney.
They knew that they knew the rhythm that I didn't understand.
I'm getting my ass kicked by these other actors and
(09:25):
I'm like, oh wait, I gotta and I love that
thing is I think we've lost the This is probably funny.
The combat sport that acting is like you know what
I mean, Like it is like when you are getting
beaten by someone who you're across from in a scene.
It's a terrible feeling. And I think we should more
actors should hold onto them because I think it's like
it's gotten a little soft as an industry. It's like, well,
(09:46):
that feeling is good. That means that, Okay, you go
away and you make sure that you get better and
so you can come back and make sure that doesn't
you don't have that feeling again, and that's how you Well.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
It's a challenge, It's definitely. It's definitely a challenge. You
feel like, Okay, there's something's going on here and you
have to make some adjustments and you may not have
the tools yet.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
And I ended up being a character that was observational
of that media, you know, Like I think that because
of the kind of person that I was, I think
they kept on writing bits for me where I was
more like.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
You grounding the show.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I got to say, just like the media, it.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Really was an essential part of It's like the Jim
Helper like that would cut to me to be like
to be like, what is this, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah? It was like the straight man.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
We all parents that are watching that, you know, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I was like like mugging the audience a little bit
in the lens. I think maybe you would empathize or
understand this is because there is so many people who
like attach a certain thing to you with the roles
that you've played. That must be strange, like to in
your waking life as you, you know, do all the
things in your career, it must be strange to like,
what does it feel like to have it as you
(10:51):
moved through time? To have that these versions of yourself
that are so locked in people's minds. That's what it
is to be on a kid's television.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, yeah, you're locked into a certain kind of thing,
you know. I think there is the initial period where
you're excited about the moment and then as you try
to go, Okay, I'm going to go do the next thing,
and the elastic is very tight and he snaps back
really quickly. Plus the you know, the perspective here in
you know, and Holly, what is like, this is what
you do? And I said, yes, you're saying, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Sort of you don't realize cemented into the lexicon people's lexicons.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
It was challenging at the time and from somewhat frustrating.
And then as you grow and then you do other
things and your career expands, hopefully expands, you begin to
look back and you have a fondness that comes with it,
and there is also an acceptance and then a huge
amount of gratitude, and that starts to grow, and that
gratitude continues to grow. The longer I'm in the business,
(11:46):
the larger that portion of it, that component gets.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Like the thing that I've really noticed growing more and
more is just the gratitude for being able to the
thing that got you to the party. Yeah, you know what
I mean, and just the joy.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Of that of that Yeah, yeah, to think what it.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
What it means to people, Like that's something that.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Love, that's your other thing. People come to you and
they they love a certain thing and you or I
might be like, they're not my favorite thing, but.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Your angel, Like what was your experience? Because you're asking
me to evoke what my experience was doing it as
opposed to what it was to receive it for you guys.
You know, like my experience doing it is not the
same thing as you know, maybe necessarily as what it
is too.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
But I think you begin to recognize the second part
because I mean, I'm a fan of certain things and
people and if I see someone I've turned I turned
into like a little kid, I'm just like, oh.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
My god, Oh yeah, giddy.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
It's Jimmy Page like, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I mean so I'm like, oh I and I'm like,
oh that's okay, I get it. That's what's happening here.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And so it takes a minute to recognize yourself. That's
what's happening for them to you.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
But your when you say, career moves and it's like
and that and that was certainly the period of my life.
About that time was really choices were made based on
you know, the career, you know what I mean, not
necessarily like the thing that I should be doing or
would really enjoy doing. Yeah. So I was like and
I went through that and coming out the other side
(13:08):
and you know, still working, and now it's like there's
a different forces at play. The journey is long and
very interesting. But I love the fact because you you
have access in a way to express what you're going
through in a number of different mediums. I mean the
music you talked about, of course, acting, of course poetry,
which is I think a fantastic expression.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I always say, like I need to have an artistic
win once a day. It's like doing the dishes, you know,
like the dishes are dirty, and then you finish the
dishes and you're like, okay, well that was something. I
feel like a burst of probably dopamine because I'm adhd yeah,
I got something done, accomplished, right, And as you know,
acting and directing or whatever, these are long form, arduous.
(13:55):
The feeling of dopamine or delivery or success is so
illusiri and like delayed and strange. So poetry for me
and painting is just I can I can sit down
and I can get something out and I can have
a creative win, and so I can power myself through,
(14:15):
especially these periods where you know you're as actors are
waiting for the phone ring, you feel shop it was
a director you're sending a thousand Directing is sending of
realized and because I'm getting another film off the ground
this year, it's just sending thousands of emails until somebody
says you're making a film, and then all of a
sudden you're directing. But most of it is just like
pushing at the gates. So the poetry thing is that
(14:36):
I get to sit down and and like get it
an idea fully expressed, and then I do that enough
times and then usually I have like a book or
a collection and then I put them, I squeeze all
together and get them out there. And this last one
was the title, you know, you know, Autopsy of an
xteen Heartthrobs is it's meant to be ironic and satirical.
(14:57):
But again, what I've noticed is again this is how
art is interpreted by machinery of social media. I think,
you know, people were looking at it as I think
an earnest sort of reveal of the soul. It was
more than just the satire of like what it is
to even put somebody on that type of what a
silly construct, you know. But yeah, so for poetry for me,
(15:18):
is this sort of daily expression of ability for me
to get out and have a pride of wind. Yeah
you have something like that.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Well, you know what I have something I got to say,
what you're making me think of is that David Lynch.
Because David created every day, he lived what do you
call the art life. Yes, and he was you know,
obviously painting music, screenwriting, sketching. I mean, there was wood chop.
I mean, he he was always making something. And I
think it's this, it's the same, It's that same urge
(15:49):
you know that you just you get up in the
morning and that's what you do and that's who you are.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, you know, yeah, I mean him being a massive
influence on that as a life Mottel and I was like,
I produced this film that Charlie Kaufman directed that Jesse
Buckley was in. We went to Venice Film Festival this
this year, which is really cool. Charlie again another.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Amazing and Jesse's insane and Jesse is one of the actors.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I mean, yeah, I'm just so proud and happy of
her her work and what's going on with her right now.
I took a flight with Charlie at because you're coming
back from a film festial going to AFI I think,
and uh, he sat in the entire flight just sitting
looking out the window. And I was like, oh, that's why.
And I don't you know, he's not doing a bit,
(16:35):
He's not He really genuinely just like thinking looking at
the window. And I sort of saw that and realized, oh,
there's there's a there's something I could practice more that
some of my heroes have always practiced, which is an
ability to be quiet enough to like let the ideas
bubble up.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, you look at David is such a pure example
of it. You know, and even to his work where
there are you know, he's not telling you, he's not
hands smoothing you, feeding you, you know, he's letting you experience.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah yeah, which is just like marvelous, especially as I
know the show is about like sort of the current
goings on, like we've sort of lost the concept of
satire is somehow linked to what you're talking about, which
is like letting the audience have an experience with it,
leading them to a certain place, but then letting them
have their own individual experience. Everything must be explained. I
think this is the David quote, which is like when
(17:28):
you name something, it loses an element of itself. That
is actually and I've always thought that is fascinating because
as soon as you start being like going on pods
or like explaining your art.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
That's why I love the concept of the show, because
it's like, let's talk about the credt process, right, rather
than talk about what you're trying to do with that
thing we lost. It loses an element of itself as
soon as we start to name it.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Well, It's one of the things about your work which
I find fascinating is the complexity and what you do
you know. I mean there are level and layers and
your most recent six days, Yeah, six days is going
to be It's very enigmatic. There's a lot of things
going on there and to the point where I'm like,
that's what I do. Hang on a second, Oh, but
(18:17):
how is that experience of pretty interesting?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yes? Super, I mean I think that book.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I think right book.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, And I'm always looking for parts. Again, enigmatic is
the is always the goal? Can we have two, three,
four things all going on at the same thing, you know,
I know it's a check off guy, Like, I think
that's part of the totally part of the sort of
like roots, the foundational thing is like can pass the salt?
Mean eight things?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
With the show like this where you're you know, I
think what you're watching is somebody's personality Frey because they
have so many versions of themselves inside that they're hiding.
They deeply want to be seen, but are doing nothing
to let that be a reality to you know what
I mean, I think that's a fascinating guy. Yeah, And
it's so like so that's becomes something that is like
(19:05):
exciting for me to do. And what I'm always looking
for in part is to is to be able to
play three guys in one guy.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, I think that's that's that's the goal because they
any given time, that's what's happening in the world.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
So that's how people and people are not consistent.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
How was your relationship with the director? Was it good?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
So good? I had there was four directors. We had,
uh com completely female directors for this, and I've actually
most of my career have been directed by women.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Ok.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yeah, I think largely. I think I don't pretend to
know what the psychology of that is. I think maybe
men often don't hire they don't hire me. I don't
know why women feel like they hire me. I think
I represent something that maybe that they understand where it's
like men. Maybe I don't like male directors are looking
for a different version of themselves on camera because maybe
it's like a personal thing. But well, you're not like me.
(19:51):
So because I think there's maybe like an there is
maybe like an element of because you see it with
directors like you see like the the person they cast,
and then you see them and you're like, well, I
can see how you would cast that guy, because that's
like it's sort of like a version of you in
the film. Whereas women don't do that with me because
they're not casting themselves. They're casting like a like a
version of whatever they think a guy should be in
(20:12):
this thing, this fifty six days thing where we are
playing with trusting men. The whole thing is about do
we don't we our fear of men, our fear of
like the red flags and like what And you know,
we play with what exists in the public consciousness about that,
and we flip it at times because I think by
the end of it, it's like a cat and mouse show.
(20:34):
But there's two cats, you know, Yeah, and you think
there's prey and predator, but like it goes back and forth,
which is really fun.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I felt that on the trailer did you know Dove before?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Were you know, we had never met? We didn't, we
didn't cam read together. Luck of the draw that the
chemistry was there, and I think, you know, I think
a lot is attributed to actors of the chemistry. I
would like to attribute it mostly to casting. The casting
usually doesn't get their flowers in this regard, and it's
a lost art being putting two faces together and just
knowing it's going to work.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah. Yeah, people that do that and they do it well?
Are very special, very important? Yeah, going back to David
working with David and Joanna Ray was his casting agent,
and it was on one of the main ones she
put together just combinations of people for him that just clicked.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I remember going in for a thing for David with
I would imagine the same casting director. Yeah, I remember
the audition was to sit there and describe dreams that
you've had and just talk what a lost art of
just being like, can we get the essence of this
person through their own description of their thing and where
(21:40):
does that fit in our the thing that we're making,
rather than being like are you right for the part?
And let's experience this person and see if they fit
into the world we're creating together. Yeah, you know, do
we need someone who's super sharp and over explained and like,
you know.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
No, you get it on the head, which I think
is so great about David and every actor that's met
with him talks about it, just the fact that he's there.
He's just figures if you're there, you can you connect.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, that's that's done. Yeah Yeah, Or if not, he's
got in front of he'll help you a little bit
along the way. But I know you're you can do it.
It's is the energy vibe? Is it? Do I see it?
Do I feel it? You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
And that's do you stitch into the quote we're trying to.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, which sort of takes as an actor. You're like,
okay's either going to be there or not. I'm just
going to enjoy the conversation.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Speed off of the fastball, You're just like, okay, cool,
just like you know so yeah. So this part was
like again, the chemistry between me and Dove is very
much an amazing work of casting and we're very lucky
and what a cool thing to work with somebody who
I didn't know this because you wouldn't know it because
she's so brilliant, but exploring drama really for the first time.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Kidding.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
She's done some a lot of comedy, she dode.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Some musicals, she does she's a singer.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I mean, she's an incredible singer. You would never have
known that she was really that that good and that dedicated.
It was super fun. We're always trying to hold attention,
you know what I mean. Like it's it's sort of
like whatever the class version of the you know you
got you got every seven seconds. You got to keep
the audience to like little like the content creators or whatever,
like we have to be doing something worth watching because
(23:13):
these people are like you know, they put the baby down,
or like they're going in the movie theater. They got
a babysitter sitting in the see like, we let's go
make something extraordinary happen because you know, what what then?
What are we doing?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
What do we even do? You did something recently which
I think is so fun. You so you did Puck.
Yeah it was a while ago. Yes, yes, yes, but
you were saying to me, we were talking earlier before
we came, before we started rolling the camera, how much
you enjoyed it?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yeah? I really did. I what a free character. It's
fun to play the physical embodiment of like magic and
fun and playing Faye people in general. Going back to
that mercurial, how many how many layers or something can
you put into something that's absolutely like fertile ground and
just sort of across the board. With Shakespeare, I've always
been like interested, especially with seerial that's been touched so
(24:01):
many times, you know, by so many great actors. It
is really becomes this sort of lovely and I wasn't
a Shakespearean up to that point. It was really my.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
First like foyer injurience thing.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, And I was like, you know, it's intimidating and language,
the languages, the language stuff. But again I love poetry,
so it's like, you know, it becomes this sort of
like oh, if.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Your musical and you love poetry, then those words just
like float on top of them, Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And then have access and be open enough that that
some interesting things can pop through that you can experience.
But that's what I because I you know, I talk
to some people who are you know, better than I
in that field and.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
A little more experience, but they're better.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
But this is it. But then again going back to
I like, I want to be better. That's my goal
as a person. And and and part of that is
just knowing what your holes you're trying to fill in
your in your repertoire, you know. And Shakespeare was like, okay,
this is daunting. And I sort of as a general rule,
follow the put your note, you know, swim out a
little deeper than it said. Bowie thinks, swim out a
little deeper. Then you're you're comfortable with your feet. Are
(25:04):
just get a little nervous that are just touching the
bottom and that's basically the right place to Yeah, and
and Shakespeare was like, oh, pitter patter, like so I
gotta do that, And yeah, paint Puck was awesome.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
You make a really good point because I think with
Puck in particular, I think and with what we do,
the sense of play is so important has to be there,
which is you know, more of a child vibe anyway, right, Yeah,
and Puck has got I mean in terms of play,
it's the operative word impish.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, because it's interesting because I always I think I
was intimidated by Like, okay, so what's the starting point
as a young male actor. Everyone like hangs Hamlet in
front of you. Sure like this, you know, massive daunting,
you know, like like, well that's are you going to
do it?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I think you're gonna climb Everest.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Are you really about that livee or A? You're gonna
climb Overest? Yeah, exactly, you know what I mean. Like,
and You're like, I think it's it's like it's not
a great entry point for an actor going to Shakespeare. Yeah,
like easier more because again, like you said, there's like
you know.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
You make it fun.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Make it fun to start, Yeah, make make it fun.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
You know, I think any time for the other Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, And I think there was like there's an actor
like you should do it like twenty five, thirty five,
forty five.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
It was Sir Ben who actually said that to.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Me, because she was like, that's the English tradition. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, we did King tut Together, which was just sort
of like, you know.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
That was so cool. I loved looking at that and
love what you said about the wardrobe. Yeah about me,
and because we'll talk about that too, but go ahead
finish the story.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, well, it's just doing King Tut together. It already
has the sort of like size of like you know,
King Lears and you know, and what Shakespeare talks about
a lot, which is these sort of like men on
the precipice of greatness morally dealing with their own interior worlds.
And so you're doing that across one of the great
theater actors, one of the great actors period. Yeah, you know,
us having lots of conversations about Shakespeare and him being like,
(26:53):
you know, you really should give it a go, and
you would be great in the part, and you have
the right level of whatever it is, like internal can
inflict for that kind of part. But that was a
fun that was a fun project. And also we're just
working with an idle of mine.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Truly, what a great experience, huge.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Huge for me. I mean also like you know, mixed
Indian actor, there's very few of us in their business. Yes,
and he was someone who was able to forge a
path that I've I've walked, yes because of him many.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Other actors observation.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, yeah, because we need It was an amazing to
be able to have that as a roadman.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
And you were talking earlier about your starting in social
media a little bit and you sort of you started
right kind of when social media sort of kicked Yeah,
do you remember you kind of how you kind of
approached that. Was it something that you integrated right away
or was there.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Sort of the wild world west We didn't really know
what we were doing. But I think also like our
relationship with it has evolved and changed a lot, Like
I feel unaware and maybe out of touch with what
gathers people together online. Usually it's it seems to me,
usually it's mistakes. We like mistakes as a society. That's
(28:11):
there's again I'm I've ADHD andeslexia in combination and ironically,
I'm I write a lot.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
So that's an uphill but perfect profession. But yeah, so
this is a wild.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
West back when we started, and it's changed now, and
I think it was way more earnest at the beginning.
It's like, gee, Williker's guys like so excited you love
the show, and you could be that positive and it
would find an audience and they would be like, wow,
we love that you're so positive. And now, you know,
like nihilism has has firmly set itself into you know,
(28:42):
cemented itself into the public consciousness, and so now we
here we are I mean, which by the way, like listen, agreed,
like you know what I mean, Like I understand. But
it's almost like, now, to me, the the rebellion is
you find a glimmer of hope in it all, isn't it.
It's sort of like that's that sort of way that
you can rebel best. Yeah, it's it's not. I find
(29:04):
it very deeply uncool to revel in negativity, especially blue
world being what it is.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
I have to say you're holding the torch online for this.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Yeah, we're doing our best man, we're hanging in the middle.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Man.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, it's you're going to do something which I think
is so cool and bold. Really, you're working with Kane
on this back Rooms, Yes, Kane Parsons, who's super young. Yeah,
doesn't mean he can't do what he needs to do.
But I watched back Rooms and it's fascinating. It's fascinating,
and it's like, Okay, this is cool kind of concept, right,
(29:40):
you got to go with concept? You're like, I got that.
And then I was like, you know, kind of going
along in the journey, and then I was like, what
what just happened with this thing? It's that mind is
interesting enough to sort of say, okay, let's see and
I think A twenty four is going to do this
and I plod them.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I really do.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I mean, when you know about what's happening with it, I.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Think he's in the middle of his process with the edit.
I think, you know, as somebody who is well intimately
understood or well connected to the dream world, he definitely
plays around in the dream world. He certainly. I mean,
he's a younger and he's nineteen years old. Yeah, yeah,
he's twenty now. And we spoke and I just again
you you know, part of being an actor is also
(30:23):
being a baton man. And you just see somebody who
is that concerned with the outcome of the thing. I
don't see any level of like excited to be in
the cool people's club.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
He doesn't.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
You know, the fact that A twenty four is doing
it is awesome, but he would do it. He has
a goal to expand and create this world and it
matters to him. The universe matters to him. And you
just want to you want to ride with a like that?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yeah, yeah, that's totally right.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
You know if I was, I mean, I would talk
about this a lot, like you know, like the reason
why there's a lot of people in kids television right
and like they should have been doing so a lot
of them should have been doing something else. So some
of us, like you know, we're ended up being astrophysicists,
you know what I mean. Like like like but when
you're precocious and you're young, you know what I mean,
you just get like they're like, you should be an
actor because that's the only thing that people are going
to let you do and take you seriously do, right,
(31:13):
because like direct know what I mean, not like you
direct you know, and like you're nine years old, but
that's happening with this with Kine and we end up
just eventually getting on the phone, right and I'm just like, uh,
I don't whatever you need me to do, Yes, I'm
in because I just I believe in you. Yeah, and like,
so whatever you want me to do in this, I
(31:33):
think that you are have the world building that I'm
always looking to be a part of. And as an actor,
when I have my acting hat on, you know, going
to your a garden analogy, you just want to be
the best spade you can be and surrendering to somebody
who has vision for the garden. That's what I want
to do as an actor, and largely a lot of
(31:54):
the time, like you go on set and you're like,
especially the way that I am because I direct, I
have like half my gardener hat on and half off
my spade hat on. And I'm like, yeah, but maybe,
but you know saying this, what are you doing in lite? Like,
I don't care if you have the rules in your
head not. My job is just to delivery on.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
That and then things change, you know, can change. The
other actor is going to give you different stuff to
things happening. But at least you have, you know, you
come in with a certain kind of like this is
what I think we're going.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, yeah, it's a Michael kne thing. But I've memorized
my performance. It's like whatever. It's like, you know, like
you know everything on the internet in the comment section.
If it devolves the Nazis, it's over. If two actors
get together and it ends with a Michael Caine impression, yeah,
I mean for walking impression in his pocket.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
He's just I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
My faird thing is when he does like a little
two mice he touched. Why do you do that?
Speaker 1 (32:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
He licks his little fingers.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
There was a great story I probably not true, but
but he was on stage the you know, in Shakespeare
in the Park. To be or not to be? I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Yeah, does it work?
Speaker 1 (32:56):
I guess it works?
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I am.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
But yeah, you've been such as such a pleasure. Yeah,
we're gonna play a crazy game. Yes, it's called bloody
good versus Oh bloody good. I got my neck. It
really hurts. And I don't know what migraine coming a
migraine mine really hurts. I don't know what's gonna I think,
(33:20):
Oh god, oh, I feel so much better. I don't
need the lave that you know. It was just knife.
It was in my.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Knife knife shop, knife shop.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Oh god, dueling dueling walkins.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
All right, we are back, we're back.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Okay. It's just a segment I designed, but I didn't
want to design this. You guys designed this. Yes, you
got to start. We designed. It's for you. It's called
bloody good versus. Okay, let's talk about that already, people
on border this already. Okay, we're paying tribute to your
new show fifty six days. It's a romantic thriller, yes,
is that right? Okay, So we're going to be performing
lyrics do some popular songs as if we're characters in
(33:59):
a worldromantic thriller and it is spoken word.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Yeah, we're not singing dramatic.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
You could sing. You can sing, but but I think
in my case better than I don't. So the other
we'll have to guess which song the lyrics are from. Okay,
So so if we get it right, we high five GAO.
Get it wrong, you must act out or I must
act out a death scene. So I gotta do it
like a romantic thriller. Okay, should I start? Yeah? Okeah, okay, okay, right, said,
(34:25):
I'll put my guard down for you, said, I'd be vulnerable.
You can break my heart if you want. She said,
take your time. What's the rush? I said, baby, I'm
a dog.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
I know this one. Oh you do?
Speaker 1 (34:45):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Leon Thomas?
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Very good? Oh wow?
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I really felt that that was marvelous.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
It has stood the test of time.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Thank you. So let's let me get the next one
wrong so I can do a death scene. Okay, when
you wake up next to him in the middle of
the night, with your head and your hands nothing more
than his wife, And when you think about me all
of those years ago, you're standing face to face with
I told you so. And I know you hate to say,
(35:16):
but I told you so.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Chapel Rooney from the infamous dance Yeah with the Chapel
Room singing. I still remember that. Shoot. It was frightening
to me because Maya made me get into this hot
dog outfit and I was like, are you sure? And
this is when I crossed over and I just said
I did you understood? You gave up. I kind of
gave in and I was like freeing to me.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
You know it's like and here now we march forward
into the bleak unknown. Yes, absolutely, into the social vortex. Yes,
I mean that's really you. You you hold like a
pillar of the social media like landscape.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
I'm just trying to.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Every single time one of your videos comes up.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Something like heart that. Oh them, nice to hear. Okay,
I'm dumb hiding, sorry, Chris, we can't help it, Chris
walk Now I'm shining like I'm going to be. We
(36:15):
dreaming hard. We came so far now I believe we're
going up, up, up, you know, together together again. We're glowing.
We're glowing, gonna be gonna be gold and gonna be gold.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I don't know if I know this one right. You're
messing with us because you want to die. Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
He wants to do it. Oh the blood is pumping.
Oh my lord, who doesn't want to do a death scene?
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Oh that's a great orson Welles one, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
When he starts he tell me start.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
These monologues, because this is very like in the vein
of what Ortis needs to do on like talk shows,
they just have him read like Shakespeare and stuff back
then and even start with just to get just to
get everyone's attention.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Because I get orson Welles too on my feed. Yeah,
I mean, I love it is the best. All right,
I'm ready. I'm holding here, we go, ready to die.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Tell me you've got something to give. I want it.
I kind of like it when you call me wonderful,
whatever the type of talk it is. Come on, then
I gotta know you're meant to be the man I need.
I gotta know, gotta know.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
I got a fever.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I need to know the kind of man I need
you to be to me.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Oh gosh, and I don't know. Yeah, well good, wait
hold on. Oh yeah, he's got a bit.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
He's got a bit.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Okay, I just got it. I've gotta feva. Oh oh yeah,
that's deep.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
That's deep. Jugular stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Is gonna kill me.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Wow, oh lord, my lords and fun and you came
and wow.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
That's what we do here. We have fun. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Thank you. Man.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
So you've got fifty six days, it's sort of the
next Yeah, it's out. Is there anything else you want
to eighteen mentioned.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
On Prime Video. It's so fun to have a show,
you know, come out and it's gonna have such a
wide audience. And people can like really watch it and
they get it all the same day. So that's really
exciting to me. And yeah, it's been a minute since
I've I've honestly been on this sort of like train
of promoting something as heavily as this, So I'm really
I'm really excited for people to get a hold.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Of good good. I look forward to it. Everyone's gonna
check that out. Thanks, This is gonna be fun. You know,
I don't know if we figured out what what are
we doing? But we gave it a good shot. Oh yeah,
you know, yeah, we'll probably never know.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
We'll probably never know. And but you know, me and
my mom used to sit around the kitchen table and
rant at each other for hours and hours on it,
and we would end the rant with, well, we've solved
it all.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Until tomorrow, until tomorrow, perfect answer. Thank you so much.
What a pleasure. What Are We Even Doing?
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Is a production of iHeartMedia and the Elvis Duran podcast Network,
hosted by me Kyle McLachlin and created and produced by
Full Picture productionists Yay, featuring music by Yata and artwork
by Danica Robinson. For more information about the podcast, please
visit our Instagram and TikTok at wa w ed with Kyle.
(39:48):
Please rate, review, and subscribe to What Are We Even
Doing on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Exclamation point
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