David Henrie: Selena Gomez’s Marriage, Wizards, and Faith

Actor David Henrie joins Raymond Arroyo for an unforgettable conversation about Selena Gomez’s marriage to Benny Blanco, the revival of Wizards of Waverly Place, and the faith and family values that guide his life. Henrie shares never-before-told stories from his Disney days, his unique bond with Selena, and how becoming a husband and father reshaped his career. From his early child actor experiences to meeting the Pope in Rome, Henrie opens up about resilience, fatherhood, and why faith is at the center of his mission.

Discover how the Wizards Beyond Waverly Place Season 2 came to life, what to expect next, and the powerful lessons Henrie has carried from Hollywood to home.

If you grew up watching Wizards of Waverly Place or you’re inspired by stories of faith, family, and second chances, this Arroyo Grande episode is one you don’t want to miss.

👉 Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more conversations on culture, faith, and life lived fully.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Actor David Henry's kicking off his second season of Wizards
Beyond Waverley Place and his co star Selena Gomez just
got married. He tells all and the secrets of his
success on this edition of the Arroyo Grande Show. Come on,

(00:24):
I'm Raymond Arroyo. Welcome to Arroyo Grande. Go subscribe to
the show right now. I know it's annoying, but just
turn the notifications on and then I want have to
mention it again. I don't want you to miss anything.
And if you want to support our work Raymond Arroyo
dot com, you can donate there. From two thousand and
seven to twenty twelve, he played Justin Russo on the
Disney hit Wizards of Waverley Place, and he recently revived

(00:47):
the series as a producer. Along the way, he starred
and hit movies, produced and directed his own projects, and
built a family. His Wizards costar Selena Gomez recently got
married to Benny Blanco. David Henry was at the wedding.
That's where our conversation started. Have you met Benny Blanco?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:08):
I have you approve?

Speaker 2 (01:10):
You know? Okay? So the first time I went yes,
But the first time I went to dinner with him,
we went to an Italian food place and I was like,
all right, I'm Italian. I'm going to let this guy order.
Let's see how he does here. You know, it's a
big deal. We have an Italian meal with Italians is
me and my wife Selena, Benny and a couple of
our mutual friends.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
And did she bring him to sort of get your
approval of him?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
I think there was a implied approval there, like she
set it up. It was like, you're going to meet him,
it's a thing, and he had heard all about me,
and so you know, we had a great freaking time.
This guy can order food like nobody's business. This guy
knows Italian food. He knows food like crazy. And you
know why I liked him because I think he really

(01:53):
cares for her, and he's really supportive and empowering of her.
And he's got this idea that he should you sacrifice
for her. And I think those are all really good things,
really really good things. And he loves his mother. I
always say, like I tell my daughters this, like when
I you meet a guy one day, like, look how
he treats his mom. He loves his mother. That's a

(02:15):
big deal. There's no contention there, and that was really
important to me. So yes, I think he will make
her happy.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
I love it. You joined SAG at five years old.
Screen Actors Guilt at five years old. I was always little, lad.
What was it? What first drew you into this whole
acting thing? Did you have stage parents? No?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I mean I think many folks out there can relate
to having a kid they think is funny. And I
grew up in a big family, big Italian household, and
I was just the funny one like I would entertain,
I would make people laugh. We do little plays for
the family. And one day on TV, we're all sitting
around watching TV and a commercial came on for child

(02:57):
actors and come to Hollywood and there's a man and
there's this whole special on this one particular manager in California.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
This already sounds like it sounds like a horror movie.
I'm already It totally.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Should be, and you should be alerted when you see
those things, because most of the time they're scams, right,
But I there was this person seemed normal, and so
I begged my parents to call them. My mom called
them and said we happen to become in a California
you're a manager. My son would really, you know, really
wants to do this. I think he's talented. Looking back

(03:29):
on it, it's what every parent thinks of their kid, right,
And this should have been a total scam, but it
all works out. I go in to meet the manager.
I auditioned for the manager. My mom and dad are
there can making sures very safe. And the manager goes, hey,
before you go back to Arizona, which is where I
grew up, you should go on this audition for Burger King.
It's a commercial. Go on this commercial audition for Burger King.

(03:51):
And I go on this audition. I walk in the
room and it's all a bunch of like stage kids.
They weren't very normal. They were like these little robot kids.
And I was just a normal, you know, hockey player
athlete kid from Arizona, and I just liked entertaining. And
so I walk in the audition room. The guy's got
a maple, leaves jersey on. We start talking hockey. At
the end of it, he goes, all right, can you

(04:12):
do a couple of lines? And I said the lines
and he goes, well, you're a normal kid, aren't you?
And I was like, yeah, man, this is like my
first thing. Like I'm it's kind of fun, you're nice,
you like hockey. I like this thing. And he goes, well,
do you want the job? And I was like heck, yeah,
I love that there. Thing's great. And I did it.
And next thing, you know, I get this like huge
residual thirty grand or something like that for like a kid.

(04:35):
You know, it was crazy, and my parents were very good.
And the number one thing I tell parents of kids
who they think should act or are talented is you
you were going to potentially screw this kid up if
you take this too seriously. Treating a kid actor is

(04:55):
like treating a kid in a sport. Let them have fun,
let them have their time, let them enjoy, but always
let them know we don't need this. This is not
You're not the breadwinner. You're not any of that. The
second the parental dynamic flips and the kid is the
breadwinner that parents need, the kid quitting their jobs or
moving across the country. The second any of that happens,
it's your la for a time. You're setting yourself up

(05:16):
for a disaster. That's exactly right, and you're gonna scar
this poor kid. I was blessed that my parents didn't
need me at all. In fact, my dad was always like,
the second year done, we're out of California. Some of
those people scare me. So I was very did move
to California when you were nine? We're back and forth? Yeah,
we're We always had a house in Arizona, and then
we had a house in California, and we stayed in California.
My dad was back and forth for real estate. But

(05:40):
I was always raised with an atmosphere that was very supportive,
very loving, and they didn't need me to do this.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
How how did the Wizards of Waverley Place come into
your life?

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Tell me about the backstory of very very good question.
Yea very good question, kind of kind of a crazy story.
So I had, you know, the good fortune of working
a lot as a kid, and Disney will track kids
that are working in adult shows and kids that are
doing more studio level content. They have their eye on them, right,

(06:10):
And so I was doing shows on Fox and on CBS,
so I've been working, so they had their eye on me.
They offered me a role on that so Raven, which
was Raven Simone and I did that. I did many
episodes of that and that went very well. So they're
already familiar with me. And then they brought me in
to be like the next Shila buff On because he

(06:31):
did a show called Even Stevens and they wanted a
male led show for them, which was called The Amazing O' Mallies.
And so they cast me, and then they go, we
need to find someone to play her twin sister, and
they do a nationwide search for someone and they go,
we found this wonderful girl out a Texas named Selena Gomeas.
We think she's going to be a great number two
on the show. So we do this pilot. We do

(06:51):
this show called The Amazing o Mallies, it's not Wizards
of Waverley Place, and they test it. It doesn't test well.
They call me back and they go, David as well,
they don't want male leads. Oh, they thought it was
They thought they wanted a male lead, and then the
testing came back and said we need female lead. So
they said, David, you know you did your job, thank you,

(07:12):
but we're going to let you go. We're going to
create a whole new show called Wizards of Waverley Place
and Selena's going to be the lead of it, and
we're going to find something else for you down the line.
We'll figure it out. So I go, okay, that's fine,
and I started going out for other shows as an actor.
What I got a call back a couple months later
and they go, you know what, David, we tried to
audition people for your role and it just didn't work.

(07:33):
You're the guy. Can you come back and be number
two now instead of number one and jump back into
the picture And you know what. I looked at it
and it wasn't the original vision. But at the end
of the day, I always wanted to be a part
of the Disney family. I wanted to I also wanted
to write, I wanted to direct, and they were willing
to empower those elements of my life. So I became

(07:54):
the youngest writer in Disney Channel history. I got on
the show is then called Wizards of Waverley Place, and
it became the hit that it was meant to be. So,
you know, God works in mysterious ways, and I don't
I don't know if my life would have gone the
way that it went if that original show went And
I'm very happy with how it's turned out. Yeah, I'm
very happy.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
It's incredible. It's also it's also a smart lesson, and
part of what part of what the show we do
on this show is we delve into the life lessons
and the practical examples that people can actionably put into
their own lives. That is a great one that you
unwittingly just told Sometimes the path you think you're on

(08:33):
is really that path, and you kind of have to
wait for the turn to have it.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
You're one hundred percent right, you just don't know, and
you got to be open to those unexpected opportunities. One
door closes, one door opens, And it's like it sounds,
you know, cliche, but it's true. Like if that original
show went, I don't know if I would have met
my wife. I don't know if i'd have my children
that I have now. I don't know if my life
would have taken the path that it went. Truly, I

(08:57):
don't think it would have. So looking back, I'm like,
I literally, thank god, it wasn't what I wanted.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
O'Malleys didn't work, closed out of town? Thank God? Yeah,
tell me you, I mean, you're in a unique position.
That's so Raven. My daughter Maria, I remember watching That's
So Raven and then slavishly watching you all in the
Wizards of Waverley Place. So you, I know you had
a devoted fan base because they would come to my
house and watch on masks and binge watch before there

(09:24):
was streaming, might add, but tell me, we also know
a lot of the kids in this universe child actors
Disney child actors burn out and flame out. What happens there? What?
What is that? A? Is it just rebellion against feeling

(09:44):
I've been cast as goody two shoes and I got
to break out of this? Or is it something else?
And how did you avoid it?

Speaker 2 (09:51):
It's a So those are great questions, and I think
for your listeners out there, especially parents who are like
wanting to go down the child acting path with their kids.
I've thought a lot about this, going to write a
book on it one day, because I've seen. I've seen
the good, the bad, and the ugly, truly of the
child acting world. And I have friends that are very
successful actors now that made it out positively, and I
have friends that really went downhill and are still dealing

(10:13):
with it to this day. I mean, I just visited
a dear friend in the hospital who tried to commit suicide.
Please pray for hi. I'm not going to say his name,
but pray for him. That suffered the dark side of
being a child actor. And here's the crux of it.
You are getting involved in something as a kid. Your
brain is not ready to handle the pressures of a

(10:34):
professional environment. God didn't make children to be professionals. He
made them to be children. So you're in an atmosphere
that's counter to your nature. And so as you're coming
into puberty, as you're coming into your boyhood or your girlhood,
you're in this environment that you're not supposed to be.
So if you don't have the right parental structure guiding
you through that and helping you navigate that in a

(10:56):
very intentional and safe wayting yourself up for disaster. It's
not this business where you go, you know what, it
can be a kid actor. I'm gonna have fun, We're
gonna go to Hollywood auditions, and I'm gonna work and grind,
and it's like a very dangerous place that if you're
not intentional, you're not protective, it can set your kid
up for a very difficult future. I mean I had

(11:17):
a CPA and a lawyer and agents and managers before puberty.
Like that's not normal. No, thank god, I had parents
that literally went, we're going to protect you. You're going
to be taken care of. We're not touching your money.
It'll be safe in a place.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
You weren't the breadwinner, which often happens with a lot
of these child actors, particularly the biggest ones.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
I've seen it play out. I've seen a play out
where they get to eighteen years old, seventeen, sixteen years old,
they go, wait, where's my money? How much were you
paying yourself? Hold on, wait, I'm in charge. I'm the
one making the money, and I don't need I don't
want you as a manager. They're crying out, saying, I
want you as a parent. You're not supposed to be
my manager, Like, and I'm not supposed to be the breadwinner.

(11:55):
Kids can't articulate this, but they feel it. There's a dynamic.
I went through it with my own mom, because my
mom she coached me on all my kid auditions. You
and Lorenzo, me and my brother, Yeah, fear the walking
Dead Agents of Shield. I mean he's a big, big actor. Yeah, yeah,
my mom coached me, and you do that. So we'd sit,
we'd run the lines with her, she'd give us direction,

(12:16):
and she was very good. She's a very good coach. However,
when I was twelve, thirteen, fourteen, it got to a
place where I instinctively was rebelling. I didn't want that dynamic.
And my mom goes at one point, she did a
great thing as a mother. She said, David, this is
not worth our relationship. So I'm done. I'm completely done

(12:37):
with it. You do your own thing, find your own coaches,
you know, or not, do whatever you want, but I
will never coach you again. And she did it, and
it was the best thing we could have done because
I was Now I can look back on it and
see it clearly, but at the time I was screaming
out saying I want you as a mom, I don't

(12:57):
want you. I don't want to listen to you as
a professional.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Ah.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
And she sensed it and she said, this is not
worth it. We're done with that, and it was the
best thing. I'm the best relationship with my mother, very
Sicilian Italian mother. We have the best relationship and that
came because of that. That could have went sideways. It
really could have, and I've seen it go sideways.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, it is a trend. I mean, you see it
in these particularly these young actors who are so beloved
in these roles that our daughters in many cases attach
themselves to and want to emulate. And then within a
five year span it's blitz creep. It's over and it's

(13:36):
such a train wreck. And you do wonder what fuels that,
And I guess a part of it is that rebellion
and that parental inversion.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
And also I wanted to add to something you said,
because that's a big part of it as well. This
is probably the final ingredient. So in this environment, you're young,
you don't know who you are. You're trying to figure
out your own identity in an atmosphere you're not made for,
and you're also being told who to be. So your agents,
your managers, your lawyers, your directors, your producers, they're all saying,
we need this out of you, we want you to

(14:08):
be this certain person, and here's how you to do publicity,
and here's the image you should take. You know, our
generation is such a Millennials and younger have such a
difficult time trying to find their identity and they have
identity crisis is more than ever. And imagine then being
thrown into a professional environment where everyone's telling you how
to behave you don't know who you are. So you
put all those ingredients together and it's a recipe for disasters.

(14:30):
So when kids break out of Disney, you know they've
been They took the job, they agreed to it. This
is something they wanted to do. So you're supposed to
behave a certain way. You're not supposed to tarnish the brand,
right And as an adult you can understand that. As
a kid, you it's a hard thing to assimilate. So
then when you're done with it, you go, oh wait,
I don't have to do that anymore. Who am I.
I'm going to go the opposite way. I'm going to

(14:50):
go do something totally different. So I wanted to add
that because you alluded to that in your question. I
think that's an important grade.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Always call it, and forgive me. I call it the
Julian Andrews complex, because the great Julie Andrews, she is
Maria von Trapp, she is Mary Poppins. People forget during
a very sad period in the late seventies early eighties,
she and her husband Blake Edwards, a great director, decided
to do kind of very flagrant. She did topless scenes
in movies. And I get why she did it. As

(15:21):
an actress, She's trying to shake the old image. But
guess what, they love you in that old image and
the good The difference is she was a grown woman
as opposed to a young girl now or a young
woman yes, seventeen, sixteen eighteen, trying to break out of
that expectation. Yes, and I know how stultifying that can be.
I mean, as public figures, we know this. People expect

(15:44):
David Henry to be something in a certain way, and
you're bigger than that. We are all. We all have
different bandwidth. Yes, you know, tell me about the Wizards.
You're on air for what nine seasons we did?

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Well, it should have been nineteen. We did one hundred
and thirty episodes, which was the longest running Disney Channel show.
I think maybe to this day someone will correct me
if I'm wrong, but yeah, it was. It was a
lot of episodes, some well over one hundred hundred and
twenty hundred and thirty something like that. The way that
they categorize seasons was different back then, so nowadays that
could be if you do ten episode seasons, that's well
over ten seasons. But it was one hundred, I mean,

(16:16):
five six years of life something like that. It was.
It was a lot.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
And why twelve years later, I know you and Selena
Gomez both wanted to revive this series. Yes, what a
what took so long? And b why do it twelve
years later?

Speaker 2 (16:31):
You know, in my own professional and personal life, I
just don't force anything. Like things have to happen organically.
They have to make sense organically. I'm not a big
fan of like forcing something through. Probably could have gotten
it earlier, but it happened organically. Honestly. Selena and I
would just get together. I'd gotten married, I started having kids.

(16:51):
She and my wife became close. She loves my children.
So she'd just come over to the house and we'd
just be talking about where our characters were. We'd have
a glass of wine, we'd have dinner, just be enjoying life.
Right And after like years of this, I turned to
her one dinner and I was just like, Selena, we
have a show like this stuff we've been talking about.

(17:11):
This is a show like let's just do this without
wine in front of Disney, like, let's just get together,
let's chat with them, and let's see what they say.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
And we did.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
We formalized it more than that, and we sat with
the executives. We pitched and they really responded to the
we have a.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
General vision for the show at this point, Oh totally.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah. We had a strong vision, strong outline. We had
a real pitch, we had slides, we had a presentation.
It was like a real thing. It was a real thing,
and they said, we love it. It's not the right time,
but come back later. So we paused. We came back
maybe a year and a half later, revisited it, and
they said, you know, this is the right time. We
felt we're ready to go now. And you know, Selena

(17:52):
and I really most importantly look at ourselves as the
guardian of the spirit of the original show and trying
to bring that to a whole new audio but at
the same time giving a big, warm hug to that
original fan. Yeah, and that's that's what we've been doing.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
Tell me about the response to this, I mean, I'm amazed.
I know personally, some college kids who grew up with
the original show they're binge watching it now on their phones.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Yeah, on their phones right, not on their
their VCR or their their TVO like back in the day.
You know, it's when you're reviving a show, it's almost
like you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.
It's so hard to please everybody. There's been so many revivals,
so many rebooths, so many sequels to pieces of IP
people loved that have just failed miserably. And you know

(18:37):
this going in, it's like you have a very there's
a narrow window here that you got a thread, and
if you can do that, then you're gonna have a
big hit on your hands. So we were aware of
all the failure scenarios and we just tried our hardest
to stick to the core themes but try to embrace
a new audience at the same time give that hug
to the original fan. And it was a coordinated effort

(18:59):
with wonderful writers that were fans of the original show
with their kids. They grew up watching it with their children,
so they're very familiar with the original IP. And you know,
for Selena and I, it was really just guarding the
familial themes of the original show, the timeless familial values.
The Russos have each other's backs, always bringing this to

(19:20):
a new generation with a new set of circumstances. And
the one genius thing that I think our writers did
a really good job at was bringing a new element
in that could learn these new values, and this new
element represents the new generation. It was a girl who
doesn't have a family, so it's this orphan arc. You
bring in this young kid who's rebellious and wild, and

(19:43):
you bring her into an atmosphere she does not want
to be a part of or trust, which is a
stable family.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
And your character didn't necessarily want to go back neither.
He goes reluctantly.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
I had moved on, And so you start people almost
at the opposite of the value system that people are
used to, and with the viewers, we rediscover that. And
that was the secret sauce to like making college kids
walk like. The watch through numbers were crazy, like they
all watched the show. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, even
from Variety and like Hollywood Reporter, all these places that

(20:17):
you see it come up and you're like, oh no,
they're gonna They're gonna kill us, or they're gonna love it.
What's happening? You know, they really loved it. And I
think you can feel the heart that we put into this,
the timeless familial values that are being learned in the show.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
Yet again, Wow, what was it like that first day
you walk onto set? It's the Russo Reunion. I was
so nervous. It had to be weird.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
I was so nervous. I was so nervous because I
know the pressure and there's a big investment from Disney
and they're they're they're stepping out with the show. They're
trying to they're using our show to bring in other
shows behind it and recapture like a golden era of Disney.
So it's like we're opening the door not just for
our show, but for shows behind it that are coming
through the door as well. So like the moment before

(20:58):
that first action, my heart was raising. It was like
I felt it going like this, and I said a
little prayer. I literally just said, you know what, none
of that matters. God, You've given me a set of
skills and I'm going to honor you by doing a
great job with them. And so everything went away. My

(21:21):
heart rate came down and I just said, I'm going
to crush this moment right here, this moment. You know,
if you build this thing up too big in your head,
then the pressure crushes you. But I said, one scene
at a time, one line at a time. I don't
know if I can do the whole show. It's so
big in my mind. But you know what, I'm just
going to do this scene and I'm going to crush,
you know, use what God's given me to do a
great job in this moment. And that's that. And it

(21:44):
went great. It went great. My heart was out of
my chest.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
No, it's been a huge hit. Tell me. I know
when you and Selena reunited in those early episodes, and
I know she's coming back in the second season, which
people said, oh that's Itsue's doing one show and out,
she'll never be back again. Not true.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
She loves like her. I've been so blessed with our
friendship and the show meant so much to her, the
original show, like she honestly, that's some of you know,
she's said this publicly, like those are some of her
best memories in that that show. You know, it did everything,
It launched her career, it built everything that she has now,

(22:24):
so this matters to her so much, so much. She
has been a wonderful partner in ally all throughout the
way and major decisions in the show. She's were just
on the phone a few days ago talking about season
two stuff, like she even while she's shooting other things,
she still cares and she's still there.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
That's an odd thing for somebody to go back. And
I mean, particularly look if she you know, if she
was just cutting a few albums on the side and
you know, eating bonbonds, you'd think, oh, well, she needs
something to do with her time. The woman's got other shows,
she's shooting in movies, and I mean, she's she's a
busy person as you are. Why do you think she

(23:03):
was interested in coming back? And what's the secret to
the chemistry that you too enjoy?

Speaker 2 (23:08):
You know, that's a great that's a really good question.
We've always had a sibling relationship. She has a shell. No, no,
we never did.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
No, we never did.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
She had your funny.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
She had yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
No, we never did it. She has a sister now
growing up, you know, she but her sister's much younger,
you know, and she came out from Texas and she's
just she was thirteen years old, you know, and she
she was she's a she's a little girl. I was
a little older than her, and I'm from a big
Italian family. So my job. I always looked at my

(23:47):
job as just creating a family atmosphere on set, and
and we we had that on our set, and I
think it was a very safe place for her on set,
And it was a very place filled with love, and
which is a rare thing, very rare thing. Like if
you ask all of our crew members to this day,
these all the people that worked on our set, they

(24:10):
say it's some of their best memories. Like it was
a wonderfully familial, loving set. The atmosphere was fantastic, And
I think that represents a very special place in her
heart because she's gone off and she's done so many,
so many big things, so many so much that she
has in life. And I think all of us were.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
Thinking, she's witnessed all this murders in that what's happened
to those two early men, yeaherly men.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
So I think, you know, all of us, when we
get to a certain point in life, we look back
on fond memories, and that show did have a very
fond memory had a great reception, and I think she
looks at kids now and she goes, you know what,
I want to share that with a new generation, because
I think she sees this generation more than ever could
use some nice Raymond. The stories that we've heard that

(24:58):
that we didn't even know the effect that this had
on audiences. This is crazy what we've met kids. Selena
and I both have met kids all over the world
that have said, Hey, I was in a really dark
place in my life and I was having suicidal thoughts
and your show happened to be on in the background,
and I sat and I watched it, and it took
me out of that mode and I didn't engage the thoughts,

(25:20):
and your show kind of saved me, saved my life,
saved my life literally. And then you meet another kid
who's from a broken household, who has a terrible home life,
and he comes up and he's like, Hey, I got
pretty crappy dad and a pretty crappy mom, But your
show showed me that there are parents out there who
care and who want to have a good family and

(25:40):
who will be there relentlessly for their children. And so
I thought, maybe I want that one day like, I've
heard this literally all over the world stories like this,
So it's like the shows can if you make an
uplifting and positive show, it really can make a difference.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
I agree with you one hundred and twenty percent. And
we don't have enough programming like that. I mean, that's
part of why I wanted to do this. You know.
I came across something. We have the World War Two
Museum in New Orleans and there's a Bob Hope exhibit
Bob Hope, the great comedian Bob Hope toward the contry
to the world, entertaining the troops during war, and there

(26:20):
was a quote on the wall and it struck me
so deeply when I read it, and I thought, you've
got to remember this, because this is really why you
do what you do. And he said, we went around
the world to remind the guys what normalcy looked like
and what they were really fighting for. And I thought,
that's what we should be doing in media every day,

(26:43):
reminding people of the good and the normal and the
true and showing them what's worth fighting for. It seems
to me, in many ways that's what you're capturing and
holding onto in this show.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
Honestly, like for me personally, yes, and for me personally
and all the things that I do and produce in
my company like that, to showcase beauty, truth and goodness,
to bring that normalcy in an entertaining way to people.
That is what drives me like that. That literally is
my mission statement in life. I love how Bob Hope
said that because that is so true.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
It kind of it shook me when I read it.
I said, that's exactly what we should be doing. We
need to be doing in every facet the media. That
should be it. Now, I know you had some difficulties
you in your wife. You were trying to get pregnant
and yeah, a series of miscarriages. Look, I know what
that's like. It's an awful, depressing, gutting thing. And then

(27:37):
you're in Rome. What happens. This is a Selena story too,
by the way. This is Along for the Rise, Along
for the Right.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
So me and Selena Gomes and my wife go to
meet the pope.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
This sounds like it's an own mini series. Selena Gomes,
David Henry and his wife go to meet the pope.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yes, if I added a rabbi and a pastor, and
that makes it like a joke, right, Wizard and wizard, Yes,
it's like we're setting up a barroom jow. But no me.
I had a buddy who said, hey, you know, I
heard about what you're going through with your miscarriages. I
happened to know the pope pretty well. He was making
a movie on him. He said, I'd like you to
come meet him and see if you can get a
special blessing. I happened to be having dinner when I

(28:16):
got that information, and I turned just I said, hey,
can I bring a friend? And I was like, you
want to come? I was like, you want to come?
You want to come to room? My buddy's going to
take us, and I said, hey, can selenagovs coming? He
was like yeah, of course, Like this will be this'll
be great. So we all go to Rome to meet
the pope, and I learned how to say in Italian,
Papa Francesco, peti piache periva um bombino, just please pray

(28:41):
for us that we can have a baby. And I
mentioned a little more about the miscarriages, and and he
took my wife and nice hands and he put them
under his, so we sandwiched our hands in between his
and uh. He said don't worry. You'll have a baby soon.
He said a prayer, He said a special blessing over us,
and then he put his arms on both of our
shoulders and said another blessing in prayer over us. And

(29:05):
I'm not kidding you. Nine months later, Pia Filamina Francesca
is born in Francesca for Pope Francis. And yeah, he he,
You know, for anyone wondering about the the activity of
the chair, the chair works. The chair Peter works, so
still operable, it still has power. Yeah, I mean crazy, right,

(29:27):
And then you have the other children, and then and
then I have two more kids. Now we have three children.
You know, keep us in your prayers. She my wife
still struggles with miscarriages. But yeah we got we got
three kids now six, four and two, and they're they're wonderful.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
How has being a dad and a husband chain shifted
deepened the work you're.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Doing or the work you're called to do, you know,
it's everything. Like I meet a lot of young people
that are like I have to wait to a certain
point to be able to have kids. The opposite was
true for me. Like the second I started having kids,
it's like my brain, I don't know nature adaptation, I
don't know what it is. Like. The second I started

(30:07):
having kids, my brain shifted gears and I got so
much more focused, so much more precise, so much more intentional.
It made me question myself, who am I? What do
I stand for? What I want my kids to look
up to? What am I going to pass down to them?
What am I going to achieve? Like it all kind
of clicked in my mind and I got this fire
under me.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Well, it turns you into a man, It turns you
into it. I always tell people, if you want to
be a man, go have a family. Go find a wife,
and go have a family. You'll quickly discover what manho
is supposed to be and the reason for your life.
What are you doing this for?

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yes, one hundred percent. And you rise to the occasion.
You will rise to the occasion, like the time to
have kids is now, Like do it now, don't wait,
Like waiting is the You will never be ready. You
will never ready, You'll never have enough money, you'll never
be ready. It just just do it.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
I do know some guys who waited, waited, waited, they're
like six to you on the second life, and now
they've got the children now they're too old too. They
can't get out of the chair. They wave to the
children while other people care for them. That's not the road, guys.
I mean, look, God bless them, but do it while
you're young, while you can keep up with them, because
they will teach you, you grow with them.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
You are one hundred percent right. And I literally just
got a call from a buddy on set who goes
so after our talk, my wife got pregnant. We're gonna
we're gonna do this now. Because I told him, I
was like, he's like twenty eight or twenty nine. I go,
you have a finite amount of energy in my friend,
I'm thirty five now, and when I was twenty seven
when we had our first kid, even to now, my
energy level is a little different. You only have so much.

(31:37):
God built this this way. He didn't build us to
have kids in our fifties and sixties like he built
us have kids at an early age. Because you have
a finite amount of energy and you want to spend
that energy with those kids. You're not going to get
that in your fifties and sixties.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
How do you balance? And this is the hardest thing
I think for a dad your age. Yeah, I was
that dad. When you're having children in your thirties, unsing
the demands of work and the time you want to
give your daughter and sons. That's a tough you know.
I remember writing books and there was a window, a

(32:10):
dormer window above my office and I was kind of
in a basement office and there was there's that great
Stephen Sondheim. I've always cried when I tell this story.
There's a Stephen Sondheim song called Finishing the Hat, and
the lyric goes and it's about an artist who's painting
a hat and he says, I'm finishing the hat, finishing
the hat, looking at your life through a window while

(32:32):
you finish the hat. And it used to stick like
a knife in me when that would come up on
my playlist, because I was watching my babies out on
the play sets playing. But you got to finish the
book because that's what keeps them fed and keeps us going.
But there is that tension between a dad and and
and the work and be there for the thing.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Yeah, it's something I'm working on as we speak. I literally,
my wife and I literally just had a whole conversation
about this because I think it's the problem of I
guess the well intentioned dad is like, I am going
to go out there and provide and I'm going to
kill it, and I'm gonna do whatever I can to
set these kids up for success, and I'm going to
go bust my butt to do it. And while you're
doing that, you can miss you know. It's the it's

(33:13):
the song about the hat, like you're going to miss
things go by, Like for me, when we're at our
best and I'm not, I'm working on this as we speak,
like I'm no perfect. I'm working on this. I feel
like you you you you should give me. I need
to hear your advice. But for me, it's like having
a few non negotiables like a weekly date. A weekly
it doesn't have to be like a whole dinner or anything.
Just take them for you know, a coffee or you

(33:35):
and the pigs. Just me and one of them. Yeah,
not my wife, not just me and one of them.
Do something by ourselves like that's not that's a non negotiable.
And I'm getting better at making that a thing. But
they crave that time like they crave it.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
They do. No, it's it's critical, it's critical. And again
you talked about it earlier. You have a finite amount
of time. You think you have forever, You really don't.
I can tell you where I'm paying asser. They're all gone,
all my babies are gone. You feel it, you know.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
This morning, Raymond, when I woke up, I was the
first one out of the house because I had an
early morning. And I saw my wife in bed with
all three children petzold all over the bed in weird ways,
laying all over her, and my wife's barely sleeping right,
but they're just strewn about. And I took a picture
of it, and I sent it to her, and I said,
these moments will You'll be craving this one day. You will,

(34:25):
And as hard as it is now, you'll be craving
this one day. I have such a beautiful little scene.
I literally stared there, stood there and stared at it.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
So I was like, no, it's good to see those moments,
and it's hard to see them when you're in a
rush and you're moving, when you're trying to get things done.
I totally understand. Tell me about your faith and how
your faith has changed what you're doing. I know it's
important to you.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah, No, absolutely. You know that that's part of that
maturing process for me. You know, I finished this big
Disney show. I finish, I have this career, but I
feel this longing in my heart in my late teens
and early twenties. And I have all this money and
I have the things they say you should have to
feel good and feel successful, but I had this longing.
My heart was restless, and I went on a journey.

(35:06):
I went on a search and but the grace of
God found found Christianity, gave me direction, It gave it
gave me the hope, which was an objective claim of
something you can pursue for ever and it won't be easy,
but there's means that can help you along your race.
Italian Catholic culturally like kind of I had. I had

(35:28):
no belief. I mean, in my teen years Catholics totally,
I was crazy. In my teen years, I was off
the rails and and you know, I found it and
I started pursuing it, and it gave me the direction
that that I was craving and it gave me purpose
to this day. Like now, I you know, I just
formed an entertainment fund that where it's called the Novo
Inspire fund and it's all about promoting truth, goodness, and

(35:51):
beauty in the culture through powerful storytelling. So we're going
to make all sorts of content that will will give
positive messages. And I think that's what people want, messages
of unity, of objective world systems and views that are
universal that aren't time specific. I think people want that
right now.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
And is that part of the reason? You think? Young
men we're seeing this The demographic show us young men
in Europe in the United States are the growing demographic
for faith, going to church, returning to sacraments, interest in
the Bible. It's all mainly young men. Yes, what is

(36:31):
that phenomenon about.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
I'm so excited about this because I think I saw
statistic recently and I hope it's true. But that said
that twenty twenty four was the first year in the
Catholic Church that eighteen to like forty year old men
were the majority and in like a half a century
or something like that, And that's a cool stat And
I think the reason is because men we crave structures

(36:59):
and system and we crave orthodoxy. We I think the
past forty fifty years the Church has been very nice
and very fluffy and very not embracing the nature of
a man. We seek, We seek I don't know if
conflict is the right word, but we seek a battle.
We seek truth. It's in our nature to want to

(37:22):
get out there and do something, you know, And I
think men didn't see that calling in a lot of
the church's Protestant and Catholic throughout the United States. It
got so fluffy and nice that it felt weak. And
I think you're seeing the opposite happen now where there's
this massive pushback in this rise in orthodoxy in all

(37:44):
church communities, Protestant and Catholic, the ones that are bringing orthodoxy,
that that lit flame back into the occasion. This is
why you're seeing men gravitating. I mean, if you look
at the look at the traditional Latin Mass, the Latin
mask community exploding, I know, thirteen percent growth year over year.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
What do you think of driving that? It is?

Speaker 2 (38:07):
We grew up a fatherless generation. My generation grew up
with the father's your friend, and like, we didn't grow
up with the desperate guidance that we needed as men
to help shape us into men. The traditional Latin Mass
what that offers is that guidance, is that structure we
felt like we missed out on an inheritance that was

(38:27):
rightfully ours. We conforts like me came to the table
and we went. I remember I was randomly invited to
a Latin mass. Had no idea what it was. I
was just going to daily mass. And I felt like, man,
where are the where's the real teaching, where's the fire?
Where's the fervor? These people are more dead than they're alive,
Like where's the excitement? Am I crazy to be excited
and be Catholic? Like? Am I crazy? And then I

(38:47):
got invited to this old mass and everyone was like me,
and there was kids, there was young people there, there
was friends and wives, young families that by the time
you're in your twenties you got a few kids. I
was like, what is this? This is amazing? And then
I learned about it and I'd.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Never call it the I call it the Roman Rite.
You should never call it the old Mass. It's the
eternal Mass. Yes, this thing is forever new. It's like
on fire.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
It's on fire, and I feel like it's exploding because
people like me are walking into it and we're learning
about the history and we're going we were robbed of
this this should have been handed down to us. This
is the Mass of the Saints. And by the way,
I don't I go to any mass that's that's valid,
illicit and available. I'll go to all of it. You're
seeing this in the Nova Soto as well, when they're

(39:30):
putting back up the altar rails and they're putting the
tabernacle where it belongs, and they're bringing in bells and smells.
In liturgical beauty, we gravitate towards it. We want that,
and it's exploding. So I think it's an exciting time,
a very exciting time in the church.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
Her now, I agree. Tell me about Cross Catholic Outreach
a group you're involved in. Yes, so I see you
posting on social media such beautiful stuff from Guatemala, from Brazil.
Tell me what that is? How you got involved?

Speaker 2 (39:57):
So I've been. You know, I'm an I'm an interesting
If you look at me from like a brand perspective,
you're like, who is this guy? Because I have a
big following at fifteen million followers. But I grew up
in Disney, grew up very much in the secular world.
But I have a big following and my heart is Catholic.
I'm Catholic and I love that, and so I've been
struggling with just personally, how do I not how do

(40:21):
I thread this needle of loving my audience and being
respectful but at the same time being myself, you know,
and nothing there's nothing worse than an actor with a message, right,
It's like just dance monkey, And I think we all
know and understand that. So I'm aware of that, and
I don't want to be that guy. So it's a
fine line for me that I've been balancing in my mind.

(40:43):
But I am Catholic and it is my heart, and
I want to be authentic to my following and be myself, right,
I don't want to not be myself. So I met
Cross Catholic as an organization and I got to witness
them and acting the corporate works of mercy all over
the world. And when I saw that, I said, that
is so universal, that is so powerful, That is so
such a gesture of love. That's the perfect way to share,

(41:07):
you know, to share the good news with my following,
because it is such a beautiful way to spread the
heart of the good news. And that that is why
I felt called to it, Because I said, I'm in
this conundrum, how do I do this? And then insert
cross Catholic outreach. That to me is like that's perfect
because who is not going to admire helping those in need?

(41:33):
And it's been I'm an ambassador for them. It's been
a wonderful journey. I'm going on another mission trip this
year with them. We're trying to decide the country right now.
But I went to beIN a compublic. I went to
Guatemala and just had great experiences. I got to bring
my wife as well. She got to meet a lot
of the folks there, so it was it was wonderful.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
Now, you just did a series in Rome on beauty
and truth and goodness and history. You took the family along. James,
your four year old did not have the greatest experience
at an Italian restaurant. I don't mean to bring up
dark mood. Yeah, but being Sicilian, you know, yes, yeah,
he in.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
An anaphylectic reaction. So it turns out that so here's
what happened. We went to this restaurant. We check every
menu because I know he has tree nuts, pine nuts,
pisatuous cashews. He's an a fly. He's terribly allergic to
these things right. So going to Italy, I was ready
to be very careful. So we look at the menu
as we go. Hey, pasta pomodoro, very simple, tomato sauce, pasta,

(42:32):
no nuts. Nothing. I spoke to the waiter. I said, hey,
this is pasta pomodoro. My sense severe allergies. That's it, right,
sanza pine nuts, sons of pine nuts. No, no pine
nuts pi. And they said, yeah, sure, fine, Great it's
no pine Nuts's just pasta, tomato sauce.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Great.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
Brings it out, he starts eating it, his lips blow up,
his tongue starts to swell at the table, and yeah.
And I literally go what the hell to the to
the the waiter and he goes, oh, I don't know,
I don't know. I go call the police, Call the police.
Immediately he runs back in the kitchen, the place the
pasta was boiled. The water. They had just made ravioli

(43:08):
which had pine nuts in it. Oh, the ravioli burst
in the pot and at the bottom of the pot
was pine neuts. So it's made in the same thing
that pinnuts was made out. Again, so I learned a
big lesson. Make sure the water is separate, fresh new water.
If you're ever making pasta with severe alergies, like make
sure that's separate. And thank god the EpiPen was there
because I epipenned him. It stopped it in its tracks immediately.

(43:31):
But oh man, there's a minute where you don't know
if it's going to work or not because EpiPens can fail. Yes,
So in that minute, I'm looking in his eyes and
I'm going, this could be the last time I'm staring
in my son's eyes, Like that's a very real possibility here.
And so I'm just looking at him, praying like please
help him, and think, God, it's stopped it in his tracks.
He's totally fine. He was himself within an hour. And

(43:54):
that's how I started doing that docu series called Seeking Me.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
The beginning, it was like day two, Oh my god.
Oh that means it's going to be a good shoot.
Anytime you get those look everything I ever touched David.
In fact, I told my friend Jonathan, who is my
collaborator and sidekick and arms here when we started this,
I said, you were going to have obstacles you have

(44:19):
never faced in your entire life because of the nature
of what you're doing. If it wasn't worth anything. It'd
be the easiest shoot possible. And I envy those people
who have shoots and projects like that.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
But I couldn't agree. More like, I literally turned because
the crew the next day was so concerned. They're like,
do you need time off? D da da da da?
And I say, guys, I take this as a great sign.
I take this as a sign that we're doing something right.
We need to continue forward. More stuff's going to come,
but we need to continue forward. My son's okay, it's
all good. Let's crush this. And it was a fabulous shoot.
I can't wait for everyone to see it.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Yeah, it'll be beautiful. I can't wait to see it myself.
The Wizards of Waverley Place renewed for a second season,
the most watched premiere. Yeah, in Disney Plus history. I
asked for a series. Why do you think they keep
coming back them? What do we expect the next season? Yeah,
give me a little something. It was.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
It was a blessing that that it was. It was,
it set the record, and that was it was so
well received. But now for the second season, we got
that on our shoulders. Yeah, it's kind of like you're
a victim of your own success because people are expecting
a lot. So I'm really excited about this because.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
Is this like a gay Potter crossover that's happening. That'd
be cool. Okay, that'd be very cool.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Crossover is a great idea. Maybe you do a crossover
third season. So going into the second season, I said, okay,
the first season was always like a prequel because the
way the first season was structured, no one knew about
my characters past my children and my wife. No one
knew that my character was a wizard. No one knew
I had these secrets, and it was it was me
reintegrating into that old self and redefining him and being

(45:57):
honest with my family and apologetic and everything so clean
with my family, learning how to be a family again. Right,
So that was the first season, and now the second season,
my kids realize, wait a minute, dad, if you're a wizard,
then we're wizards. Then we have power now too. So
what's cool about the second season is the second season
is almost like the first season of the original show,

(46:18):
where we now have a wizard competition. We have children
who realize their wizards and they go, wait a minute,
we're all competing with one another to become the family Wizard.
There can only be one. So it's cool about the
second season is it's really like the first season and
it was a last season was a prequel this season,
and I'm very aware of all the feedback from the

(46:40):
fans in terms of what about this character, what about
that character? You're bringing them back? What's happening here? And
I will say, we're very aware of it, and you
can't do everything in one season, and stay tuned, is
all I'll say. It can't say too much, but stay two.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
So a little news there will be a returning beloved character.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
I mean, so here's how I'll answer that, right, And
I'm sorry I can't be as precise as you'd like.
We know the characters that you're really rooting for. We're
very aware, and I really want you to watch this season.
You can speculate as to who it is, but we're
very excited to take our time and bring people back

(47:21):
in ways that are incredibly incredibly meaningful. Mic drop moments.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Okay, get ready, okay, what do you want to do
next after this?

Speaker 2 (47:32):
Is olva? It's a great question, Raymond. So I'm focused
on producing projects that are true, good and beautiful.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
I know that, but what do you want to do
as an actor?

Speaker 2 (47:42):
As an actor?

Speaker 1 (47:42):
So I have it?

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Okay, So I'm really excited about this. So I have
a kids show that we're developing right now that's going
to be coming out. It can't announce where it is,
but I'll tell you the show. It's called Halo Heroes
and it's honestly a show for my children. So my
kids don't have a lot to watch. They're six, four
and two. There's not a lot of safe programming out there,
and educational programming. So I wanted to take a wishbone

(48:06):
structure or a wildcrat structure and bring it to the faith.
So we created a show called Halo's Heroes. It's Me,
my brother, and Jonathan Rumy and it's essentially a show
where two Catholic adventurers go visit a place led by
their mentor who's Jonathan Rumy, and he sends these brothers
to a place where the saints actually walked, and he says,

(48:28):
you guys are having conflicts in your brotherly life, You're
going to go walk in the footsteps of a saint
and I'm going to transport you back in time and
you're going to go on an adventure with that real saint,
so it's live action and animation.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Don't let Jonathan send you on the Saint Cecilia. Oh yeah, adventure.
You lose your head and you don't want to do that.
That may not be There are a few of the saints.
I'm thinking, how do you do that? Saint Rita? Yes, eyeballs,
Maybe skip that one? Yeah, okay, yeah, of course I
go right to that macomm Yeah. Maybe I go to
somebody else who might be for adults, teens and adults. Yes, okay,

(49:04):
there is an a Royal Grande questionnaire that I asked
everybody who sits here. He's a rapid fire, but they're
very important. David Ham, I'm ready. Who is the person
you most admire?

Speaker 2 (49:14):
My father? Oh?

Speaker 1 (49:16):
Why?

Speaker 2 (49:18):
You know? He faced great financial hardship in two thousand
and eight. He came from nothing. He built a very
successful real estate company in Arizona. Again, came from nothing
and lost it all, lost everything. I saw him. We
had cars pulled out of our driveway. He had, you know,
literally hundreds of homes being built at the time in

(49:40):
eight in Arizona, and he lost everything and he had
a friend commit suicide. Actually, he lost so much money
and he didn't quit. He didn't quit, He wasn't crushed.
I mean, if I lost everything that I've worked for
right now with my wife and kids, I just built
a home in Arizona for my family, home in Idaho
for my family. Like if I lost that, I did,

(50:00):
literally built my mom's dream home. Gone lost it, handed
the keys back to the bank before he even moved in.
And he lost everything, and he did not give up.
He said this, I'm going to pursue something else. Now,
he changed careers and he pursued a completely different career
and he became a producer, actually started getting in film

(50:21):
and TV, and that led to us joining forces. And
now we started a company together and we worked together.
But my father, because I saw how much stress the
lawsuits that everything. I mean, anyone who had he had
two he had two hotels, massive hotels, like anyone who
had a lot of property in Arizona in particular, were
really hurt, were really hurt, I mean illegally by the banks.

(50:42):
A lot of the stuff that they did was not ethical,
and yeah, it was bad.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
So my father, who do you despise?

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Despise I despise, you know, because I just made a
series on beauty and I was in Rome and I
saw all the most beautiful stuff. Yeah, abstract artists.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Only one person, a whole class of people.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
Pollock just throw the artists. Wow, you know. And I
know I'm gonnaupset a lot of people over that statement, but.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
I'm with you one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
You know, it's just it's nothing.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
It's a blight to the eye.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
It's an eyesore, and it's it's it's it's it's it
lacks symmetry, clarity, radiance, proportion, beauty like it is. I'm
so confused. I'm so confused. I see it and I'm
literally confused. Yeah, you know it because you put a
child in front of a Pollock painting and then in
a carbage you just watch the reaction.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Yeah, the children. The child always knows.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
The child knows, like I sho, look at the reaction.
It's built in us.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
So I just right, Okay, what's your best feature?

Speaker 2 (51:49):
My humility? No, my humility? Yeah no, no, no, I
I feel like that that that's that's not fundation like
at that. But but my you know, I I work
really hard on trying to understand everyone I'm in front of.
And so even if I'm in front of someone that

(52:09):
I disagree with, I just try really hard to know
that they are understood.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
Except I know, I'm.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Just I'm still in front of a pollock painting once,
and this is a buddy of mine's house, and he
paid like thirty million dollars for this painting, and it
was a male symbol, but it was just confusing strokes
of the brush and then it was a phallic male
symbol at the bottom and a skull at the top.
And he goes, what do you think? And I'm like,
I get it. Life and death, right, that's what we're
going for. But I explain it to me like it like,

(52:42):
is that what we're doing here? Like, and he went
on this whole thing, and I was like, here's why
it doesn't make sense to me. If you remove your
explanation from it, then I'm just coming upon horror, a
bunch of fluff, Like horror, ugly horror.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
Isn't what I always say when when people are paying
one thousand dollars this eat on Broadway, everything is standing
ovation by the end, because I just dropped a grand
it's gotta be great. You know, the price tag drives
up the excitement and enthusiasm for the work, whether it merits.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
It or not. Where if I stand in front of
a Carvaggio and no one's explaining it to me, I
can sit there and I can go WHOA. I could
sit there for an hour and get something new every minute.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
It's reaching you in a different way.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
It's reaching you in a different way. Yes, yes, yes, yes, okay.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
The greatest virtue is what humility?

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Well, Charity the great the greatest, the greatest supernatural virtues. Charity,
the greatest natural virtue. The root is humility.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
What do you fear?

Speaker 2 (53:42):
So many things? Rejection, failure, being looked at as lowly.
These are things I struggle with. Yes, these are things.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
I started to look at you as slowly.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
As a kid who as a kid who kind of
paved his own path and doing his own thing. You know,
you're always fighting. I think you always see yourself as
like a I gotta make it. I gotta make it,
and you're in my business. There's no stability.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Is that the burden of the child actor? Totally totally later,
but you can't do it as a child totally.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
You're totally dealing with that. Oh, as a kid, you're
you're you audition for ten things. You might get one.
If you're really good, you might get one. But you're
constantly being told no, you're not good enough. And so
it's still it's something I work on to this day.
I'm constantly going, I got to get rid of that.
I gotta get rid of that baggage. And I'm constantly
working to heal that. And I had good parents, so
it's like imagine coming up in this business with and

(54:36):
having no parents, Like you're, you're in a tough situation.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
What's your favorite book and the last one you read?

Speaker 2 (54:42):
Ooh, okay, that's a great question. I'm I'm reading a
couple pretty heady books right now. I'm reading a book
called by Tanga Ray called Mystical and Aeschetical Theology the
Spiritual Life. It's a pretty dry read. And then reading
one called How the Church Built the Western World.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
Oh yeah, that's a good book.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
That's a really enjoyed worry. That's a fun one.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
The other one very dry, very hard.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
The title is so promising, but then you start to
read it.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
Always feel that about Mystical, Mystical anything, the mystics, mystical theology.
It all starts to dissolve. As the words are going
into your mind, that's my gold and wet sand.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
You're just that's exactly right.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
But then you come across somebody like a Mother Angelico
or John Paul the Second, and you're confronted with the
reality of what they're what they're trying to capture on
the page. Yes, it is pretty, it's a shocking and
amazing thing to see up close. But reading about it
is just no. I mean, it gains like reading about
a flight. It's just not as fun as taking one problem.
What does David Henry know that no one else knows?

Speaker 2 (55:49):
These questions are great? What do I know that no
one else knows? I feel like people know a lot
a lot about what I know.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
I mean, hm, no, through earned experience and your position,
there are things you know that no.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
One We've We've touched on a lot of this child
actor business, and I think I have a really unique
view on on going through that process and trying to
turn that into something positive. I think have a really
unique view on that and then incorporating you know, your
faith into into coming out of that. I have a

(56:26):
very unique. You know, there's not there. There's not many
people who have gone through the business and achieved levels
of success and and come out with their with their
faith intact or even found it, found it in the process.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Well, come out sober without face tattoos. I mean, yeah,
you know, this is pretty amazing. I'll take it. Yeah,
I'll take it. Okay, best advice you ever received? What
was it?

Speaker 2 (56:48):
There's a lot of guys, I've gotten a lot of
good advice. Let's think here. Uh, you know, for a
lot of people in the faith space, they'll like this quote.
There's no mission without margin. So unless you're straight nonprofit, like,
if you're on a mission, you got to take care
of people along the way. You got to make sure

(57:08):
that you're returning people their money, you're achieving your mission.
It's a hard balance. I just I love that phrase
and I love that statement. Another one that I really
like for younger people is friendship is like an elevator.
It brings you up or it brings you down. And
that was my buddy Alejandro Monteverde who directed Sound of Freedom,
and that one has stuck with me because you really
are who you surround yourself, absolutely and you really become that.

(57:32):
And so if you're surrounding yourself with people who are
smarter than you, stronger than you, better than you, more
virtuous than you, you become, you're gonna be called, You're
going to You're gonna rise to that occasion. I think
that's a really important for people to surround themselves with
young people, especially surround yourself with people you want to become.
My dad always told me that too. He goes, if
you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the
wrong room. Like, make sure that you're in a room
with very smart and these people will bring you up.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
Yeah, no, they sharpen you. My great grandmother used to say,
show me your friends, They'll show you what you're made of.
Amen to a great line.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Your biggest regret.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
My biggest My biggest regret, My biggest regret is that
I left the faith at an early age. I mean,
that's my biggest regret. Like I would have loved to
have I formed bad habits right when I went off,
when I went my teen years and I went off
the I went off the rails a bit like that,
get bad habits, And I would have loved to have

(58:27):
stuck with that in an early age, I would have
had that concretized in me. That would have been good.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing? Uh?

Speaker 2 (58:36):
You know, Raymond, I didn't go to college. I don't
have a degree. Like I'm like, what would I do?
It'd be something with something in sales, something with selling,
because if I get motivated by something, I can move
people in in something I believe in. So something with
selling a vision. I don't know real estate selling, you know,
something with something with a vision, or.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
The family business.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
Yes that family I wor gone in the family business.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Yeah. Final question, what happens when this is over?

Speaker 2 (59:09):
It's a great question because every actor, every actor fears
this question. It's the greatest fear because they get on
a show and for the first time they have stability.
They're on something that works for an extended period of
time and that might go for years. Like actors don't
know that, they don't know what they're doing next month.
So this is a deep question. It is because when

(59:30):
the show ends, it's a tough place for an actor
because you go, what am I doing next? What if
I never work again? What am I doing? So for me,
I'm looking forward to getting to create and forge it,
and you're still alone. Gave me this advice was like,
he goes, you can only audition for so many things, kid,
like take control of your future, take control of where

(59:52):
you want to go. And for me, I'm really excited
about this fund that I have and getting to make
content that I think will really end packed millions of people.
So I'm excited. I'm working on it as we speak,
and I'm excited to continue to stand that up.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Okay, David Henry, always the friend. Thank you with delight.

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Okay, here's the hole. David Henry, like a lot of us,
had a preconceived idea of what success looked like, but
that all got turned upside down and he suddenly found
himself in a very different show than the one he
had imagined. That would not only be his breakout role,
but it led to his longtime friendship with Selena Gomez
and his branching out into other areas of the business.

(01:00:34):
You have to at times roll with events and be
flexible enough to recalibrate as you go. If you do
like David, you'll find your way if you're grounded. And
the other smart thing he did was marry and have kids,
Young gen Zers. Get Cracking The Wizards Beyond Waverley Place
Season two hits Disney Plus on October eighth, And I'm

(01:00:56):
so glad you spent time with this. Why live a dry,
now constricted life when if you fill it with good things,
it can flow into a broad, thriving Arroyo Grande. I'm
Raymond Arroyo. Make sure you subscribe to the show like
this episode. I hope you'll come back, and thanks for
diving in. We'll see you next time. Arroyo Grande is
produced in partnership with DP Studios iHeart Podcasts and is

(01:01:20):
available on the iHeartRadio, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts