Ep28 Ali Afshar

Sung and Emelia sit down with actor turned race driver turned movie producer, Ali Afshar. Ali shares how struggles in his younger years as an immigrant family laid the foundation for his drive, focus, and ultimately his incredible success. They also talk about representation and diversity in films, finding passion, and Subarus.

This episode was recorded in February 2023.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, welcome back to another episode.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm so King and I'm Amelia Hartford.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
And today we have a very special guest that Amelia
knows really well.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah. Ali was the first producer to really give me
an opportunity in one of his films. But he doesn't
just come from the film background. He's actually a racing
driver and he managed a team where he piloted what
was and I think still is today the world's fastest.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Subaru, world's fastest.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's funny. By the time this podcast comes out, I'm
actually taking over and I'll be piloting that car in
various races this year.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Wow, so you will be driving the fastest Suparu.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, in the world.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
For those who can't experience going a million miles per
hour in a SUPERU, you can watch some of Ellie's movies.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, for instance, what movie were you in?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
I was in California Christmas, the sequel to the first.
I was in Hollywood Christmas. That's a more. And Hollywood Christmas.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Wait, California Christmas, Hollywood Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
California Christmas, the sequel Hollywood Christmas, And that's a more.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
What about Los Angeles Christmas?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
That's next. We'll pitch that one to him. I think,
you know, this is another beautiful story of coming to
America having nothing and really building a successful career for yourself.
This year, he joined the board of Warner Brothers Diversity Program.
He's spearheading a push for broader inclusivity and filmmaking at
Warner Brothers. He's a very successful producer. I believe twenty

(01:37):
four films now. He started as an actor, start as
an actor, went to racing cars, and then went back
to producing.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
With no further ado. Ali Afshar, So you guys met
each other on the film.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
So we met through an old manager of mine. Was like,
I know of a producer who does He's like a
car guy, but he also does these cool movies, like
let me make an introduction. I was like, okay, Rad
I had seen a history about Sue brus and at
the time I was building Sue Brews too, and we
got connected through him and Ali and I hit it
off and we've kind of been friends. He's been a

(02:14):
mentor to me and we've been He's put me in
a couple of his films. When we were talking last
actually I told you, after nine years of being in
LA I got my first role, and it was in
one of Ali's films.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Which film is that?

Speaker 2 (02:25):
That was that some More was the first one, but
California Christmas ended up coming out first.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
California Christmas.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, okay, you do it. Seems like Ali, you're doing
several Christmas theme movies.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Huh yeah, yeah recently since twenty twenty. We took a
risk and we did our first. Warner Brothers had asked
us to do a Christmas movie, so we did one
in COVID. I think were the first movie to shoot
in California during COVID. It was May of twenty twenty,
and they licensed it to Netflix and it went bonkers.
It became the number one movie in the world for

(02:55):
two weeks straight. It's called The California Christmas and Emilia.
We did this that met Amelia yet, so when we
did the sequel, California Christmas City Lights, we got Amelia
to do it, and it's just turned into like they
ordered a handful, then HBO Max ordered a handful. And
even though we come from a race car action sports
kind of underdog diversity background movies for our first like

(03:16):
twenty movies last six or seven and including the when
we start this week, Oh Christmas, going from an Iranian
kid that isn't even Christian, didn't even celebrate Christmas.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
So people underestimate these Christmas films because they're very big
deal it almost they have like a following like horror
fans almost, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
And arsh are pretty cool because like they're elevated. They're
not like the Hallmark Lifetime. They're HBO Max there. You know,
there's a little bit of nudity, a little bit of sexuality,
a little bit of language, a little bit of you know,
it's not just a cookie cutter what you see on
the cheesy stuff. It's like a little more Nicholas Sparksy
if you know who that is a little more notebook
then a little Christmas. But it's yeah, I mean like

(03:54):
our guys, we have a star that's been in a
bunch of Josh Swicker, like he takes his shirt off
and every middle aged woman and you know, Iowa was like,
you know, everybody that dreams of that life where they
didn't have yet it works. So we're a little more
we're PG. Thirteen R than straight G. And they're not
really like faith based or anything. They're just like happened

(04:15):
to be around Christmas.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
But they're still good like feel good movies.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Totally. Yeah, all our movies are feel good. Yeah, even
our action ones. Our motto was like shedd a tear,
but lead with a smile. Even the Ride, the one
that Chris was in, Luntris was in, or American Wrestler,
the one about My Life. They're all like heartfelt underdog
kind of diversity happened by storytelling our first five movies
that female leads too, Middle Eastern leads, two black leads

(04:42):
in the following four. And it was well before it
was like a box to check like it is now,
you know, La two three years it's been like you
have to shoot diversity, you have to be inclusive. It's
like we just did it because it was a better
underdog story and it just happened to be. Whether it
was I don't know. I mean, female still falls under that,
you know, underrepresented, but it's kind of just a cool

(05:03):
thing that we are kind of like ahead of the
curve by happenstance. How did you get into the producing
side of things? For me, I acted quite a bit.
I loved acting, and I had to take a break
when I went racing for Super of America for seven years.
We were traveling and touring and doing like sixty events
a year or so. I didn't have a chance to act,

(05:24):
but I missed it. So when I said, you know what,
I want to go back, and when I went back
to acting, funny enough, my first audition back was a
Warner Brothers movie that I booked a little part in it.
But for a minute, we worked with Aston Martin and
we built these supercharger intercooler systems for Aston Martin's. We
called them the ESX Supervantages. And a guy bought one
and he said, Hey, I didn't know you're an actor.

(05:45):
If you ever want to make a movie, you know.
I'm like, you're a banker, Like I don't need a
fucking home loan. He's like, no, you're more on him
a film financier. I was like what. Three months later
we made our first movie called Born to Race, which
is what Emilia loved and used to quote it when
we first met.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Ironically, before actually meeting Ali, in my YouTube videos, I
had been quoting this movie and go figure it as
one of his. And I was in such shock when
when we put two and two together that I was
pulling up old videos and be like ce see and
I was I was, Oh, I don't recognize the car
from from the rear and he walks around the front.

(06:23):
Now I know this car because it's always in the
review mirror.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
That's cool. Yes, that was our first movie and we
just kind of like was like, oh, this is easy.
So because I owned the race team, so I was
able to like know how to put together pieces and
people and materials from all over the world to make
the cars faster. And we did a tour and it
was entertainment. It wasn't just racing, you know. We had
rigs and you know, like logistics and visuals and just

(06:48):
the whole nine yards. So I kind of learned how
to produce something by owning the race team for you know,
years and running that, so I knew how to put
people together. Yeah, the Super of America race Team. Can
you give me the origin story of how you ended
up owning a race team? Well? Yeah, sure, I mean
I was that boring you guys. I loved street racing,
always was street racing. Had My first car was a

(07:10):
sixty seven Camaro. It went thirteen ninety and I thought
that was fucking fast. I was like, oh, hey, Hey, hey,
not that long ago, but yeah, I wasn't born yet. Yeah,
so that that car got me in a lot of trouble.
I used to street race. I got arrested a whole
bunch with that car. And then I got into like
turbo BUI Grand Nationals and started learning a little bit

(07:31):
about fueling, like fuel injection was new. Then you're like, oh,
no more carburetors, fuel injected turbos. Fucking what the fuck
the turbo It's weird shit. But we started going really fast.
We started building like ten second cars with the Buicks.
And then when the WX came out, the Super Divres
came out in America as a two thousand and two model,
but it was a two thousand and two thousand and one.
I bought one, actually bought an automatic wagon. I don't
know if you know that My first two was an

(07:51):
automatic wagon. Couldn't get it to work right. I used
to have like a little aquarium valve controller for the boost.
We tied it into the Illinois to control the boosts, like,
you know, just to control the air to the waistgate.
But then I got a stick, and with that stick,
I started running really really fast. I got like guys
in Australia. I bought a mode from them and I
had these European tuners come in and because nobody had

(08:13):
done supers at that time and it was still kind
of new, but it was in the whole vibe. It
was literally you guys helping us because it was right
in that whole fast and furious wave. So when I
got that opportunity that I talked to you off a
minute ago, where like they asked me to bring the
car to a show and the people were driving it
at the local Suber dealer here, and one of them
that was driving it really slowly and mellow, and I

(08:33):
was kind of making fun of him, ended up being
Tom Dall, the CEO of Super of America, and had
it invited us to lunch in New Jersey A few
weeks later. We go out there and and you were
in LA. Then I moved to LA from early California.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
I feel like you're glossing over the fact that you
had the world's fastest Super.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, I think we still don't.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
I think so I haven't heard of a faster time.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
I never heard of Super was going even ten seconds.
I didn't even though they were part of the lot of.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
People don't spend the money on those motors.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah, well why Supero like you there were all these
other cars. You went from g body to a super Aro.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Well I went, I went. It was just because, like
you know it turbo charge, intercoled, and they were all
wheel drive and they were fun. And my company ESX
used to stand for Easy Street Motorsports and I used
to like building street cars cars you could actually drive.
So having that symmetrical all wheel drive, low boxer engine,
flat motor, low weight, I was like, Oh, this is
gonna be a killer street car. It'll launch really good.
So that's how we got into it. But for drag

(09:27):
racing you want to be rear, real drive ultimately, but
we were building nine seconds, Like I have a nine
second STI I could drive here, you know. So like
it was, I built it in O five, it's still
the same car, hasn't changed. So we were running nines
back We actually ran an eight ninety in it back
then in two thousand and six, I think, So that
was what started it. Plus all the other people that
were already done. There was like Christian Rado was racing

(09:48):
for Totis Scion. You had costume forget the name is
Mazda was the Bergenholtz brothers. There was another kid for
Chevrolet that did the Cobalt. So all the brands were
kind of taken, and I just became the Subaru guy.
You know, we just became suber really, you know, Tom
Doll and the executives over there really took us under

(10:09):
their wing, and we made our own line of cars.
We built. We still build them, like we build like
thirty or forty batches of Y SXSTI, the little Alley
After signature series four dealers, you know, like kind of
like a like a saline Mustang or like a roush Mustagers.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
And people listening might recognize those cars because they were
red with white stripes.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah, because I'm like Iranian in America drag racing a
Japanese rally car. It's the fucking most Smorgasborg Benetton thing
you've ever heard. Yeah, So I took classic. I love
American styling, so I'm like, what's more American than a
red car with two white stripes? And they didn't even
come red. We took them. We completely painted it. This
is before wrapping. We painted them, laid two white stripes
on them, and they're the most expensive subrews ever sold

(10:47):
off a super showroom. Still we just built a batch
like two years ago. How much? How much with eighty grand?
Seventy five grand for a super sicker price for one
of those cars before the forty two, right, thirty eight
to forty.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Two for which stand to you? Don't I don't know
anymore to be so, yeah about that.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Ballpark, Yeah, in the high thirties, low forties, maybe creeping
in the mid forties, for get one with like sunroof
and every bell and whistle. Maybe mid forties. Yeah, well, yeah,
is there a big car culture in Iran? I don't know.
I don't. I think so, but I don't haven't. And
when we left, we can't go back, you know. I've
never been back. Like, if I go back, I'll go
straight to jail. I put my foot on the ground.
It's not a good thing for me. So I've never

(11:24):
been back. Yeah, I don't think I'll ever go back,
not under this regime. It's a little touchy, right, Yeah,
I played like gay roles. I mean, I'm not gay,
but I played gay roles. My American rest of movies
speaks really badly of that regime.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Well, right, so the fact that you played a gay
role here, Yeah, you'll go to jail.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, they'll kill you hereon if they tell you if
you go out and Iran say you're gay, they'd kill you. Wow. Yeah,
And I'm not even gay, but I'm just saying, you know,
to of terrorist movies. I've acted in a dozen terrorist movies,
and you made some Christmas movies and now I make
Christmas movies exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Well, so how did you go so then from world
spouse to subrew selling all these SX cars at the dealers,
to then financing your first film.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Well, it was that. It was that my buddy Jared,
the film financier that we got, that bought one of
our ESX Superchargers things Aston Martin's, and he said, you
want to make a movie, introduced me to a couple
of producers, and that was I made Born a Race,
and then we did a sequel to it, which isn't
They're good? We did Borner Race Fast Track. It was
about road racing, weird Tita and then and that kind
of like I got the bug. And then from then

(12:30):
I just knew like I had met a gentleman, you know,
Lucas Oil. So Forrest Lucas of Lucas Oil actually saw
the first one, liked it, got involved in the second
one is a product integration. The finale of the second
movie is the Lucas Oil Cup. It's like this race
thing we did. And then he wanted to get into
the business. So we created a hybrid ESX entertainment slash

(12:52):
Forest Films for him and we made a dozen films
with him, and one of them was American Wrestler. They
got attention of Warner Brothers and got us to the
lot and that was the first movie they distributed from
us back in twenty seventeen. So since then, in twenty nineteen,
you know, then we started doing our own movies directly
with Warner with Netflix, with HBO Max, So it's kind

(13:13):
of evolved and a lot of movies in like, you know,
seven eight years.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yeah, but I want to hear because you started he
started as an actor. So from college? What did you
major in college? Did you drama?

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Major? Irani in biology? Biology? So medical was the original road.
And then how did so you were in Northridge, then
you're already in La So how did you decide to
go into acting? So my brother did, did a stunt,
started doing stunts in movies and do a little bit
of acting. And he got me. He said, hey, come

(13:46):
do this meeting with me. And we went and we
met this little agent like C minus agent, but the
guy like me. I was young, you know, like young
kids are easier to get roles. And he put me
out there and it was my first job. As my
second audition, I booked a roll on Saved by the Belt,
the New One, the New Class, and I was like,
this is great because I wasn't like a drama nerd.

(14:07):
I was in some like kid in school doing plays
and shit. I used to make fun of those others.
I was a racer. It was a wrestler racer. I
was more on the jock side, you know. But I
was like, this is fun. And I got bit by
that bug and I just started acting. And I did like,
you know, two three dozen TV shows and movies, a
lot of guest stars and top A show. It never
got a recurring I never got to that level, but
I did, like you know, sorry, I never got a regular,

(14:27):
but I did like six seven episodes of Jag, and
I did a couple of leads in movies like Chuck
Norris is like the bad guy, and it was fun.
But then right when I was ready to kind of
make that next step, the racing thing hit so big,
so I kind of said, oh, man, you know made
millions of dollars racing, so I couldn't have turned it down,
So you know, I do. I did miss it, but
you know, went from racing and acting and racing and

(14:48):
then now added you know, producing to it because kind
of all fit together, you know what I mean. But
it wasn't never by design, Like I never went to
school to be like, oh, I'm gonna do this, or
my parents, I mean, they didn't even know my mom
had termin cancer my whole life. Like when I was three,
they said she had six months to live, and she
made it till I was fifteen, so she made it
for twelve years. But like they didn't know what class
I was. It, they didn't know at school, so it

(15:09):
wasn't like study this. It was more more out of
like necessity, you know. And then when when she died,
my dad went to Iran. He got stuck in Iran.
They wouldn't let him out, so we actually lost our house.
We were homeless for a minute. We were like stealing
food from the Vaughns in Woodland Hills, literally, you know.
So it was just, oh, you can go to a
junk yard. You can go to pickI Parts in sun
Lindon and grab some parts and take this buick and

(15:32):
fix it up and then sell it and make five grand,
make three grand. And on the side you could race
the you know, the gypsies, the or the B and
D racing guys, and you know, and win another five
hundred or lose five hundred, you know what I mean.
We probably lost more than we didca. Nobody told me
about traction. They just burned out. Everywhere had this big block.
We had sixty nine olds four four two. It was
a big four to fifty five, a big block. Oh dude,
just burned out. Nobody told us. Put it on slakes.

(15:53):
You would run like high levens with like bad tires
and it would run like ten fifties on slakes. Well,
finally we did it. We're like, that's why we're because
you know, you're like nineteen twenty. You don't know yet,
you know, So anyway, say I'm going off on a tangent.
So that's kind of how it. That's kind of how
It came from like just necessity and then the racing. Oh,
people are going to be paying me to build their
cars because we used to have a shop and we
had a dynam and we'd build up superrews. Then we

(16:15):
built those our own line of suber Rus and the
racing became really big with subru and just kind of
you know, I still own like twenty thirty cars now
and just have fun with wide range of cars and
I'm excited to go back out. You know, I tried
my race suit on. Its fit, but man, is it
tight this covid weight. Like you know, I was like,
because I'm going to be like inhaling the whole time,

(16:35):
you know, because I don't want to get a two piece.
I don't want to have the say, a dad suit.
I don't want a two piece. I still have like
a one piece. Like I'm cool.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
And you know.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
Your first movie, Born to Race was our obviously car centric.
Well what's that film about.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
That film's about a young kid. It's basically a super
commercial super commercial. So it's a young kid that gets
in trouble street racing and loses his sponsorship and gets
sent to live with his dad in this small town
that's all domestic driven. So the bad guy has a
brand you at that time as a brand you O
five Mustang, you know, with a five site with a
five zero Mustang. So it was import versus domestic, big

(17:26):
city kid, small town and you know, kind of like
it's stick your fun typical love store love story intertwined,
but it's about you know, David versus Goliath. And the
kid ends up going to a real NHR e race
because we got Nharry to sponsor the movie, which was
another task by itself. So he gets trouble street racing
even with the dad, but then the dad's a mechanics
so he helps him and they go to a real

(17:46):
the NHR High School Drags, which I actually won in
ninety one when I because there is such thing as
an NHI High School Drag. So he goes there, does
it legitimately and safely, and ends up winning in the
and if you I'm ruined it for people that haven't
seen it. But there's a big crash at the end
and the kid gets out of his car and pulls
the bad kid out of the Mustang and saves his
life and it explodes, so he kind of like it's

(18:07):
kind of a cool ending about these two guys coming together.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
You know, how do I why do I not know
this movie?

Speaker 1 (18:15):
No?

Speaker 2 (18:15):
No.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
Twelve, ten twelve something.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Like that around that time. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, it was our first one. It's called Born Race.
It became kind of a cult hit. It was number
one movie on Netflix for on the action adventure series,
is number one on for for car action and for
car films, and that then car culture. This movie. So
it's quarter mile, it's about quarter miles. It's about street racing,
but it's high school. Yeah, so yeah, it's June. I mean, listen, Amelia,

(18:40):
I watched it, that movie right, Yeah, but the whole
movie we did for like eight hunder Grand, No, eight
under Grand. Yeah, and I got pet Boys, Subaru, Grant
steering wheels for Rea Holly. Everybody sponsored it. What did
you do money before eight Undergrad? I didn't know any better.
It's like, not tell story.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Where you got people to show up to the race.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yes, I'm not drinking the Hollywood kool aid, just doing
it your own way. We posted on it was Facebook.
There was no Instagram, man at that time. We actually
posted on Facebook, and I think my Space was dead
by then. But like we went online and just posted say, hey, guys,
come out, bring your car to the street races and
the main races at California Speedway when they still had
the drag strip, and we'll give you food. Be in
the movie. And that was it. Like four hundred cars

(19:23):
showed up.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Did you have a fear at any point at that
time that you weren't going to make them back the
money your first film, taking out such a mass.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Was like the second producer that one. I wasn't the
first producer, so it was really wasn't on my back,
and I did it for free. Actually cost me thirty
grands because we used my buddy sixty nine Chavelle, tanked
his motor and training. I had the rebuils monor in
training for I got him a new one because they
were doing the burnout in the water box in reverse
dead in reverse, so almost smoking. I'm like, what are
you doing with the fucks? So we brew up his

(19:52):
motor and training. He's a nice guy. So it actually
cost me money. And I didn't get paid for that
one because it's more like a learning experience for me.
So I'll do for free, and I brought money to
the movie. I brought free money, couple hundred thousand free
money to the movie. So for me, that was like
my acting school. That was like my producing school. So
I wasn't worried about it because it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
A strier than college tuition. Thirty five.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, it was a good little movie.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
As you know, if you were to give a young
version of your self advice, right, I wanted to come
to town and be.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
That's how the manager sold. She goes, you know your dad,
your mom passed away fifteen, her dad passed away fifteen.
You love acting, you love cars. She's like the twenty
year younger version of you're trying to do you. Yeah,
that's how I meant her. That's how I was like, oh,
get fine. Yeah, and then she's coolest.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
I was like, yeah, because talent's important and it'll keep
you there. But you know, that's not the only thing
that is important to become successful in talent. I mean
you started acting without even knowing that you wanted to
be an actor. What traits do you think you possessed
that allowed you to get to where you are today?

Speaker 1 (20:48):
As you would know, wrestling, getting your ass kicked in
life physically, and you know, like when you're an immigrant,
a bad immigrant. In the American's eyes, you're getting bullied
the fuck out of it because they're your country's holding hostages.
At the time you moved here. It's like the worst
thing you are is be fucking your onion with and
then all the terrorists in the nine elevens and shit,
they've always happened since having your mom die at a

(21:09):
young age, knowing how short life is, living in high
school with different friends, being homeless, I think it's the
hardships that immigrant and paired with hardships just gives you
a different fight. And then, like my wrestling coach said,
like he said, listen, if you can wrestle and you
put your heart in it, win or lose, this will
be the best thing for your life because you can

(21:30):
go through anything. Because wrestling, as you know, is so
fucking hard. It's not fun. Nobody has fun wrestling. It's
like you just getting your asking the whole time. Even
when you win, you're bleeding and tired, you know what
I mean. So it was just like, tough circumstances give
you a different kind of fight and a different kind
of awareness that I think Unfortunately a lot of my
American friends, they take it for granted. They take like

(21:52):
the kind of bash America and bash the left or
bash the right. I'm like, are you kidding? I can
walk down the street and say hello to her and
give her hugging a kiss and I'm not gonna get
put in jail. She's not gonna get killed like the.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Kiss you guys.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
Just so, I think it's that. I think it's just
like having those fucked up circumstances and then surviving it
and learning how to be you know, getting through it
more specifically with I think that does it just open
your eyes to be aware of your surroundings, as Forrest
taught me, as Tom Dahl taught me. The all gave

(22:27):
me different lessons. All these big CEOs and multi you know,
self made billionaire guys like I learned from them. So
I soak it in. I'm like, how did you do it?
I literally asked them, how did you do it? You know?
And it's like, be kind, be honest, work hard, which
is kind of cheesy, but then just be aware of
what other people want, not not just selflessly in a
way that could help everybody, you know, super wanted to

(22:49):
get into this fast and furious world. We literally called
it the fast and furious world to such a big
genre and lifestyle, and you know the Ride movie with
Chris it's the bike life. Life is getting big, you know,
so like that was a whole bike life thing. So
like trying to just like kind of being aware of
what your surroundings are, what people want, what brands want,
what high net worth people want, what the business wants,

(23:11):
and putting it all together, you know what I mean.
I don't know if that's helpful for ating kids.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
There are people think correct, Yeah, no, I think that's
super helpful, and I will second to losing a parent
at a young age. I feel like it does give
you kind of a drive in a way because at
a young age, at least for me, I realized that
I was on my own and I would have to
create my own future because it wasn't something that was
going to be handed to me. So I do think

(23:36):
that there's in a lot of stories where I meet
people who are highly driven, and in a way I
would say that you know, you lost your dacause you
didn't have a relationship with them too. That that, you know,
is a common trait that I see in people who
are highly motivated work very hard and also care about
self help and bettering their future and helping others at

(23:58):
the same time.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah, and also I mean when you don't have parents,
you gotta survive.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
A lot of it is like you got to you
got to hustle, like you know, fight or flight. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
When you say you know, be you know, be aware
of your surroundings and be aware of the people around
you and what they like, it's like part of that
is like a survival instinct. Yeah, because you know you're alone,
like you don't have somebody to go home to that
you know, there's no insurance, like, it's just you.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Plan being Yeah, well that's why. And you go like,
wait a minute, I can make ten dollars by selling this.
I used to go to drug yards and buy cars,
fix them up and sell them. That was great. But
then you're like, wait a minute, you can make a
little bit more by fixing hot rods, or oh now
you can go actually race and make more money. And
then oh wait, you can out make make movies. And
it's not just about the money. It's ay, I love
doing that stuff as well, but but it was it

(24:45):
was a way of like valuing the money and the
opportunities where I hate to say it, but a lot
of the you know, like a lot of my American
friends don't they take it for granted. It's just they're
born with it. I don't want to say it's like that,
you know whatever. I'm not woke like that, so I
don't use the right terminologies, but it's like it's you know,
they just like they don't put in that extra effort.

(25:06):
You know. They always yell at me like, oh, you're
rushing or you're doing things too fat am I? You
know what I mean, Like, let's put it solid ten
hours in today and see what happens. Let's not put
six in and just wait. You know, just because it's
Sunday doesn't mean we can't do something, you know what
I mean, Like why who made these rules? You know?
And it gets you to be aware of like you know,
stay up through the night, you know, and also racing

(25:27):
when you're racing. We were up many nights through the
night getting the car ready for the race. The next
morning it was raining in English Town, New Jersey, and
the rain they're replacing motors because our tarp thing broke.
Is like when you do that, it's kind of same
with wrestling, like that last ten seconds of the third
round when you can't even breathe anymore, you feel like
you're gonna throw up, and you still throw that duck
under or the fireman's carry or whatever. You guys are

(25:49):
big guys. You didn't throw those Those are two heavy
but double leg, you know what I mean, or some
kind of throw.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
It's also cool to see like what you're capable as
a human being of doing. So Like in the moment
you may be like, oh, it's my hands are bleeding
from you know, turning wrenches trying to get this car
ready for tomorrow. And in the moment you're like, oh,
I can't, Why am I doing this? And the next
day you're like, I'm so glad I did this. That
was so cool. Now I know I can do it,
and just constantly pushing yourself.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
Totally totally yeah. And in the moment it's actually afterwards
the words winner lose. It's like you feel good that
you did it.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
You know, you think building cars has helped you be
a good producer, help your producing.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
It's a good question. I mean, it's kind of funny
because people always ask me, like, how did you get
into building cars? And I'm a big remote control car fan,
so I grew up put building the RC cars, you know,
like those old t MEA kids, those Japanese kids. You
can't you have put them together. So I have like
hundreds of them still, I have them from the eighties.
I have a whole collection, and like those help me
build the car. And then the car. It does help

(26:47):
you put pieces together because it's all mechanical. You put
the engine together, you put the rings in the right way,
you put the bear, and you put the crank, and
you tighten it to this amount, and you add you
had the fuel, you had gas, you had air. It's
gonna work, you know what I mean, Like whatever you
use nitrous fuel, air, Yeah, you put it fire to
it and it's going to work. And the movie is

(27:08):
kind of movie business is actually easier than cars. There's
a lot of shipping cars because you're not there trying
to make the camera roll quicker than ever, you know,
And our movies aren't like crazy stunt driven like your
guys are VFX stuff. So we're not like Jim Cameron
trying to reinvent a way to see blue people floating
in water. We're just doing We do a lot of
practical action. You know, when we're racing, we're actually racing

(27:28):
flipping cars. We're really flipping and we'll throw some VFX in,
like you know, fires and explosions and stuff. But so
for me, the building the cars and running the race
team and the personalities. Talk about producing, it's all about
the personalities that MIPI fuck. It's like you got eighty people.
They all are different people, different walks of life, and
that's the tough one. Is like to get every from

(27:50):
the star to the craft service guy to not hurt themselves,
be safe, get along. And my biggest thing to this
set is like the stickers, like no drama whenever old
ages used to do that is we're just fucking making
a movie. Guys. No one's crying ass cancer. It's like
you probably heard me say that. It's like relax, just
making a movie. It should be fun. Everybody takes it

(28:10):
a little too seriously, Like no, dude, it's like you
know when your parents die at fifteen, or you know,
challenges you've had, those are challenges. This is no challenge
at all, you know what I mean? Like, this is
so what we'll lose an hour? You're the fuck I
think that that also helped, you know, but knowing how
things work is always good too, like knowing what it is,
like knowing how this microphone records to that hard drive
and how it's gonna get edited. Like if you know,

(28:32):
then whoever you hire to do it, you know what
to tell. You're not just some suit coming in saying
do this when you actually don't know how it works,
you know what I mean. The guy's like, well, the
data stream isn't that quick. I can't upload it that
fast thing, you know what I mean. So mechanics definitely
help with that stuff. Plus for me, it's the adrenaline
of racing, Like I love going fast, Like I've never
been drunk in my life, don't do drugs, kind of

(28:52):
like a nerd in that aspect, you know. I've got
in trouble with the police, but it's always street racing.
So that for me is my high, you know. And
I have I mean the car I have now is lucky.
When I drove here, I'm lucky if it has seven horsepower,
you know, But then I have cars I have two
thousand horse power. So like cars, the freedom they represent,
the fresh air, the speed, the adrenaline just being able to,
you know, go out and do it. And I also

(29:14):
love the aesthetics of like old cars, to have a
big classic car. Fan of the looks of that stuff.
Me too. Yeah, what's your favorite? The sixty eight fastback
Mustang is my favorite? Sixty eight. I love the sixty six.
You like the lights's going in in the back. I
like the lights coming out a little bit.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
I like it because it's it was in the bullet Yeah.
I like that forest green color.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
That's a bad color. Yeah, but I'll never buy it
because I like to dream. Oh you don't. You don't
want to have it? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
I like to go on Facebook marketplace and offer up.
And when Craigslist was the thing, yeah, I would go
and search for these cars and then I would actually
go visit the owners and you know and yeah, kick
the tires. And you didn't want to buy it, though,
are you? Because then it's over?

Speaker 1 (29:57):
That's true.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
You know, it's like because you can. They're not that
ex I mean, they're expensive, but you can. I mean
at one time I was I was saying something and
when the economy wasn't that great, they were like fully
rebuilt restored. One was like forty forty five grand you
could daily drive that. I thought about it, and I
was like, you know, I really like the pursuit.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Of the hunt.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
And I love going out and meeting these owners that
put their heart into it and hearing the origin story
of why they have this car and then like like
to go home and then do it again.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Over.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
It's weird, you know.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
It's like you have the cars, you know, I own
to any cars, same thing. You're like, oh, what you
get it is? It does put the fire out? Don't
enough time to drive them all? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (30:41):
I mean, and as I get older, like I love
like restoring these cars, like I have this Hachiroku, this
Toyota Corolla yea. And for about four months it was
this like night and day obsession, right, and then meeting
people in the community that helped me find these like
rare parts and then you know, they come over and
they'd like to help me create a wire harness for

(31:03):
the park lights and stuff. And and I love this
interaction and that that whole process of bringing this car
back to life. And as soon as it was done,
I've never driven it again.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
You know what I thought of It's interesting that you
say that is lately and I haven't shared this with
you yet because I have so many cars now, you know,
I'm like, I think I want to give them away.
I want to be like you've always loved these bucks,
this buicks for you, like my good friends, my family,
just like give them to people because giving feels nice.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Well, I mean, Amelia and I we could We'll always
stick a car, never know. Yeah, yeah, you have her
numbers all exactly.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
How many cars trucks included do you have now?

Speaker 1 (32:03):
Thirty?

Speaker 2 (32:04):
I remember? Was it even a year ago that you
sold your entire fleet and was like, I've doumb a
car as I'm not buying anymore.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
And a year later, years two years ago? Right was it?

Speaker 2 (32:13):
It was just before filming Hollywood Christmas.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
You're right? Yeah. I had a buddy of the mine
actually had a dealership here. It's a very cool dealership.
It's called Motor Cars LA. It's right by off Librea
and like Santa Monica area. Okay, he needed inventory. He's
a good friend of mine. He used to work at
Aston martin the factory, and he bought I had eighteen
at that time. He bought eighteen cars in one shot,
and I was gonna see, Okay, what a cool life experiment.

(32:37):
I must see how long I can go without a car.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
And a year litterious.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
I made it three weeks. I made it three weeks.
I was like, like ubering places because I've never not
had a car since I've been sixteen that the cars
are like a big part of my life. So I
was like, how long can I go? No cars? No motorcycles?
He bought them all, So I was like, Okay, let
me see how what what do you buy them all for?
For his inventory to sell? Oh, Fay had this place
called motor Cars La. Making a commercial on your site

(33:02):
right now for him? He should pay your Yeah, it's
right there off Libria. It's really cool. He's got cool cars, classics,
new cars, old cars, million dollar, multimillion dollar, Ford whatever
leads you called GT forty and Yeah. So he bought
them all, but it's just is it interesting for me?
It was like, huh, let's clear your house. I mean
at Aston Martin fifty five Chevy smoking the bandit trans

(33:23):
am An XJR one hundred Jaguar. I just bought another
one I found in Florida. I bought one back that
only made five hundred of those in two thousand and two.
I always liked one the ugliest fuck. I don't know
I like it. But my sue brew brat my race cars.
He bought everything.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
Do you think your your experience as a actor. I
don't know what kind of parts you were going at for,
you know, but as a you know, Iranian immigrants, right,
did you have challenges in terms of the type of
roles that you were initially offered.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
I mean the first it was all first First it
was young, you could do anything. But then after a
few years, when you're hitting your twenties, it was like
you're literally Middle Eastern. No, I'm doing Sanji of the
Indian food delivery guy in a couple episodes of King
of Queens. I was doing you know, the JAG and
NCIS episodes, Old Terrorists, Bad Guys, the lead in the
Chuck Norris movie Bad Guy. It's some Spanish roles because

(34:14):
back then it was like you just look at it
wasn't so specific. Now it's like you better be fucking
this part of Afghanistan and speaking or doing that's it like,
it's not Middle Eastern anymore. It's very specific because it's
so touchy now. But so those were like kind of
a lot of roles. But I did play a lot
of like I mean, Harris and Three Kings, this and that.
But I also did like, you know, he's just got
that into a big rom com. I played my first
gay role. It was very memorable scenes. It's funny, but

(34:37):
you know, for me, when nine to eleven hit, I
was kind of like Supero's golden child and I was like,
oh shit, like I can't be seen like in movies
and also have Super given us you know, big contracts,
and I'm there like fastest super in the world, racing
on a televised you know, those series were televised, like
the NHR series was televised, So I stopped doing those. Actually, Argo,

(35:00):
I booked a role in Argo. I met with Ben
Affleck and all of them and booked a role, good role,
but not the main bad guy, but the second bad guy.
Then I read the script because I didn't give me
a script yet, and we went through all the chem
tests and everything. They hired me, and then I read
the script like, oh no, like this is like horrible,
and my dad's an Iran and my buddy at CIA
that was kind of a side pocket wrapping me. He's

(35:20):
like not worth it. His last movie. Ben's last movie
was a Jilly or Gilly. It was like at a tank,
so don't worry about it. It goes to windf and
it goes and wins in Oscar. Yeah, and they didn't.
Funny story with that is sat the procting company didn't
tell SAG that I turned it down because I went
through a lot of the rounds like I'd filled out
my paperwork because I didn't have the script yet, So

(35:41):
they didn't tell SAG that I dropped out. So I
got a screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Cast, and
I got a plack and like le thing because they
still thought I was part of the ensemble, so for
best Cast, because it won movie the Best Cast a
couple of awards. Yeah. So after that, the racing hit
and I was like, I'm not doing any more terror
st roles. And I really haven't done any since since

(36:02):
nine to eleven. I don't need to anymore.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
I think.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
I was like, maybe, kid, I'd still do it. But
I get to make these cool movies and I've been
like Bennett's War, I was like the third lead. It's
a motorcycle racing movie. Really cool. Netflix American wrestler second lead.
I've never been the lead. They that I never been
number one in one of our own movies. I did
one called Damn Foreigners for I got cast to that
as the number one position. But I've done a lot of,
like you know, in the top fives for our movies,

(36:25):
maybe half of our movies. I think California Christmas, I'm
the butler. You're agreeing that, Yeah, yeah, California Christmas, I'm
their butler. Like it's funny.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
Do you think your experience as an actor and the
type of roles you were casting gives you a certain
perspective as a producer on what you create in terms
of story and diverse casting?

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, I mean totally. Yeah. I mean having so many
hours on set on that side of the camera, knowing
I can I definitely help with casting. Actually work used
to working casting. I used to intern for Nan Dutton
that did like Nash Bridges and stuff. We used to
work for her for free just to learn about casting.
So totally knowing the actors, knowing who's good who's bad.
They can just tell like that, they just look. You
can see in two seconds, like who's got it, who

(37:08):
doesn't have it? Whether they're off book or on book
or missing the mark, you still know they're good. You know,
they just made the bad decision. So those are good
making people comfortable on set, you know what I mean.
Even our mutual friend Chris. It was great to work
with him, you know what I mean, because he's a
good actor and we would like it was cool to
work with artists, like whether it's like John Voyd or
you know, or crossovers, not crossovers because like Trace Atkins

(37:30):
is an actor, now, Chris is an actor. Now these
guys are been acting for But what makes a good
actor to you? I mean, I don't know what makes it.
I just know what it is. Well what is it?
I mean just the truth? For me, like just just
being like not acting. Believability, yeah, I mean for me
is like you know, when you're watching that person, you
know in two seconds, if they're believable, if they're honest,
if they're true, if they're actually going there, they're just

(37:52):
not phoning it in, you know. So I just think like,
you know, being real, being genuine, being there, present, reacting,
not acting, listening what you do between the lines. A
lot of people new actors are just all waiting for
their line to come, like you know the joke everybody
hears Will Smith or everybody sees Will Smith and like
Fresh Prince where he's like mouthing the other person's life.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
Yeah, I read his book and he talks about doing that.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, it's so funny. But so, you know, but when
it's cool when you see new ones, and it's really
cool when you see new people, like we have a
friend that we met. There was a new actress that
we gave her a chance, and I think that Riley's
her first lead was with us, right, Riley, I think so,
And she's amazing. She's worth like three four movies now
for other people as well. It's really cool to find
new talent, like even George from American Wrestler, the kid

(38:35):
that played me, and we auditioned like two hundred people
and we ended up hiring a Greek kid because we
couldn't find any Iranian kid to play me ally an
American wrestler. So this guy was like he's a little
bit taller and better looking than me. So I was like, well, fine,
we'll hire it. But it was like, you know, you
just like that raw energy and they're just not acting
for the Graham, you know what I mean. They're not
trying to just book a job to say I booked

(38:56):
the job. They're like just real, genuinely enjoy it, like
wearing that other skin. But you know, that skin, in
my opinion, can't be unless you're daniel Lewis or some badass.
That skin can't be too far from your skin, you
know what I mean. It's got to kind of be
your it's your skin in a different light, you know
what I mean, unless you're some real method you're calling Farreller's,
you know, or calling further any calling, just pick it,

(39:18):
calling him, you know. But yeah, so that's that's what
I think, you know, and also doing it so long
you just can just tell, you know, you just watch
people's taps or watching them in person, and it's all
zooms now. So it's all like watching and you know,
it's the lean in factor, Like if you're ever watching
something and like an audition or something and you're like
lean in slowly, Okay, that person works. And I actually

(39:39):
do that with our own producers and directors. I watch
them and see how they're reacting, you know, expose them.
They're like that's the difference, you know, it's kind of weird.
But yeah, it's no real formula in my opinion. But again,
I probably don't even do it right. We just do
what we do. Literally, we do what we do. We're
like the odd ball. We came up with an idea,
wrote the script, made the movie with Riley, our friends
starring in it in like three weeks.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Shout out Riley, Yeah, shout out Riley.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Danish the star. Yeah, just I don't know, I kind
of We don't do the traditional find the filmmaker, get descripted,
find the talent, kiss ass, kiss ass, this agent then
like that live's too short. You want to be in
a movie, you got the money, you have the idea
is good? Do we think it's good? Fix it, shoot it?
And so we also do like three or four movies
a year, five movies a year sometimes, but they're small,

(40:24):
you know, they're not like they're not fast and furious
heavy though. Were they like around five five mil? Under fives? Yeah,
threty five? How many? How many days of production are
you in them for a film? Any we're up from
like the light side if there's not a lot of
stuff sixteen seventeen on the high side twenty two to
twenty five four weeks pretty fast, yeah, very fast.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
Yeah, So you need a pretty good director, like a
person that can kind of lead the team. So what
do you look for in because you say that you
work with like two three directors and you're really too.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah, they're my friend. We used to street race together earlier. Yeah.
His first job with me was doing a public service
announcement because I got arrested for the fifth time and
they judge said you need to make a public service announcement.
It was like part of my punishment. So I was like,
I'm alifshar don't street race. That was the first thing
we did because he made his first movie called The
Last Race. It was a little short at like glen Oaks.

(41:14):
That's a place that used the street race here kind
of by where my shop was. So we met that way,
became friends and he and his friend his name is
Alex Ornardovello. He's directed a bunch of our movies. Movies
you've been in, right, Yeah. I think being talented and
being good at what you do is good. I don't
know who I heard it from, was it DeNiro or somebody,
But also being a good person equally it counts for

(41:35):
me because you can teach people what to do. So
we're not like, director, do your thing. We're like, let's
do our thing. So our producers, our writers, our directors,
we all could contribute where nobody has ego, like I'm
probably the biggest asshole there is and I'm not even
an asshole. But we'll all put our heads together. So
let's say you don't understand this acting thing, I'll step in,
or Christino step in, or we need a little more

(41:56):
stunt thing, We'll bring like a stunt guy will help
us with how this car action works and stuff. So
so for us, a loyalty, a friendship, a work ethic
really works. Obviously, you need to know what lens to
use and how to get coverage and put a good
You know, our editor works hand in hand like day one,
the editors looking at the footage making sure we're not
missing stuff. We've really had one editor for all o movies,

(42:16):
one composer all our movies. It's like almost like a
TV show. We just go to movie to movie. It's
the same. Eighty percent of the crew is the same
crew from sound to DPR Rubin Steinberg or DP is
direct DPEAT. I think every movie except the two or
three Sean ones, right, Brad Rushing did those two. So yeah,
just like kind of like, I don't know, I'm probably
not doing it the best way because I think when

(42:38):
you talk to the big boys, they like, you know,
this guy's talented and this type of storytelling. And I'm
kind of like, I think we can do anything. I'm
going to do our first four movie now, even on
the big ones.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
Like I think that style of like the a tour director,
like having yielding all power and every decision, I don't
necessarily think that happens anymore because I haven't worked with
type of structure in a.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Long long time.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
Yeah, I mean it doesn't work like that anymore, especially
because of the budgets or so the studios are coming in.
Yet it's very in many ways, it's just a bigger
version of your system, you know.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
But we use the same people. That's the thing where
I get, like the studios kind of come to me
and be like, well, who are you going to get
to do this? You can't have your same people, And
I'm like why not? Yeah, you know, they want the
new Hottest Sun Dance winner, the short film, and I'm
like I kind of owe it to these guys that
have been busting us for me for the last ten years.
Like we're going to do it our way. It's a
little more Tyler Perry method than big Hollywood method. Right.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Well, it's yeah, you're on your twenty fourth movie now,
so and serious and something.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
The series goes good, hopefully we'll you know, make a
whole budget'll put you in series. I mean, you've worked
with Ali and his directors, right, so what makes a
good director?

Speaker 2 (43:49):
You know, when you and I first sat down and talked,
you were asking me if I'd ever had a bad
experience with the director, and I couldn't say I ever had,
because you know, my experience has been working with his team,
so which I'm so incredibly thankful for because everyone is
just so great. It's very family oriented and even Neil

(44:09):
on GT he was such a joy to work with.
So I feel very fortunate in that space that I
haven't had a bad directing experience to compare to. But
I would say what has made it great is having
people directors wanting to hear what you're bringing to the table.
It's more collaborative, They're open to trying new things. It's

(44:30):
you know, a room of patients and a room where
it's a safe space. So if you want to try something,
you know, no one's going to get mad at you
or say you're you're ruining something or braiding you. Everyone's
kind of like, you know, everyone's see everyone else succeed
and it's a really good safe space with positive energy.
And that's why I feel, I mean, I feel very lucky.

(44:50):
So my again, my experiences with directors thus far has
been really good.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
And we're lucky to have her too, because, like she said,
it's irreflective, you know, it's a mirror because she comes
with a certain confidence in the desire and she's only
been acting for like a year, you know, already booked
like three, four or five movies already two or three
with us, you know, and the GT and all these
other ones. So like when you have somebody so eager
willing to put the work in, you know, because there's
other people that like say stuff and you're like, okay,
try that take for you, go ahead, but it's not

(45:16):
going to work. But then you get other friends they're like, hey,
can you do this? Can you do that? And people
like Emelia just make it like I like that Discovery
you know, like you like looking at the cars and
like not getting them. I like finding new talent, Like
I find I've found people and like literally on the
street that have been in our movies, waiters that have
been like come to be in this movie. Like we
I like doing that. So, you know, having another a

(45:36):
girl that's kind of on my trajectory, you know, like
car racing wants to get into movies, you know, cars
and that. You know, I'm kind of shoeing her a
little bit back more to the car sided a little
bit for the for the racing stuff, you know, but
because you know, back when I was a kid, like
there was no social media. We had to win to
get on the magazine cover, to get on the TV show.
It wasn't you know. I wish. I almost wish I

(45:57):
could trade places where now I could do these crazy
car and just do fun you know, like like everything
like Rob and His Ridiculousness show and like the you know,
Travis went off and did his Nitro Circus stuff and
with Ken Block, Arrest the Soul and like and you know,
like all this cool stuff. It wasn't about winning. I'm

(46:18):
just always about winning because that's what at my time
you had to race the win. It wasn't like it
wasn't about followers or views or subscribers. So I kind
of missed that boat. I kind of feel like, oh man,
I wish it was like twenty years ago. How would
I do it now? You know what I mean? It'd
be cool, you know, but hopefully with you, you know,
we'll combine the two, you know, we'll win. That's the front. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
I feel like we'd also be doing a disservice to
not mention everything you're doing with Warner Brothers on the
diversity side of things. So yeah, yeah, yeah, congratulations to that.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Thanks you were doing. Want me to say about.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
It, sure, if you want to talk about it.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
It's one hundred anniversary for Warner Brothers this year, and
they're doing this cool diversity initiative where they're given six
underrepresented communities and they're gonna be making remakes of iconic
Warner movies but a short form like twenty minutes. They're
going to be making short films. They're gonna get a
little bit of a budget, but they're going to make
these cool like the Old School Rebel Was Out of

(47:13):
Causes and those kind of movies. But it's through their lens.
When you see the films that are coming out, shows
that are coming out, do you feel like inclusion and
diversity has gotten better since you started as an actor.
I think it's gotten better, but I think it's a
little too checklisting now, you know what I mean, Like
you have to, like, I think the worst thing to
do right now, it'd be like a good looking American person,

(47:34):
like you're never gonna work, you know what I mean.
I think it's I think the pendulum has swung pretty
good in the right direction, but I think it's like
I guess it's needed. So I take that back, so
I don't want to get every real flared up, but like,
I think it's definitely going in the right direction. You
can now you see more real people on TV. You
see a lot more different colors and stuff. You know,
we have a gentleman. I think we hired in this one.

(47:55):
We're working out the deal with the stagent today. The
movie we're doing now that's in a wheel it's gonna
be our first actor in a wheelchair. And it was
just like it kind of just makes sense, like hey, this,
why not you know, this is a cool opportunity to
do it. But it wasn't like, oh, we need to
have somebody wheelchair write a role for it. You know,
the diversity I think could follow the story. But if
you can get you know, diverse stories coming out from

(48:16):
those people writing, whoever's writing and creating these stories can
be you know, we have a couple of Iranian projects
in the in the pipeline. Talked about one of them
this morning. It's really nice called American Wings, even though
it's about an Iranian wrestler again kind of like ours.
But you know, if more and more people are exposed
to it, because I mean the Hollywood started with like

(48:37):
you know, all the big studios were like white Jewish
American men opened the Wall of Disney, Warner Brothers, They're
all you know, they all did that. So that's who
started it. So for all of us other ethnicities to
get and it's going to take time, it's going to
take this push. It's going to take you know, us
telling better stories, just like in the real world, blending
into the population. You know, what do you think Amelia

(48:59):
as a white yeah, white American woman, do you agree
with Ellie? Like, how do you see it?

Speaker 2 (49:05):
I don't think there's enough diversity. I you know, even
as simple as just being a you know, woman in
a male dominated space. I felt like there's times where
I needed to see that representation in order to know
I could do something. And I feel like with film
and television, you're telling these stories that you know children
are looking up to, and you know, they may not

(49:27):
know that this is possible for them to do if
they're constantly just seeing the same race leading these films.
So I feel like it's very important to have that representation. Yeah,
I mean, if you think about films twenty years ago
to what you see on TV today, I think it's
awesome the direction that things are going.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
That's cool. I feel like we covered so much.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
I'd ask about advice, but you kind of asked that,
asking him as he was younger, what would he tell
himself today? Yeah, or vice versa.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Nothing matters.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Everything matters matters.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
So you're gonna be a flash. Just take the risk, good,
do your best, and you just do it, dude, Like
not everything that you think is gonna matter not gonna matter,
you know what I mean. Don't be a dick and
don't you know, keep your morals and ethics clean. But
it really doesn't matter shit to bother at you ten
years ago that broke your heart. Then you don't even
think about now, you know what I mean. It's like
you might think about the girl because I was a

(50:18):
positive you know. Just have good experiences, be kind and
like just do it like no if time is limited,
any minute, anything can happen.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Yeah. People remember the way you made them feel, not
what was said.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
To them or what was given to them or yeah,
what you look like. Yeah, it's just how you made
it feel. How old are you forty nine, forty nine? Yeah,
same age, you're forty nine, fifty. I'm a little older
than When did you turn fifty? April? Oh so you're
you're born in seventy two. I'm seventy three. Yeah, I
turned fifty this year. Yeah, April? What April eighth? In areas,
of course, you're a good guy. Gemini Aris, we get

(50:52):
in law. You believe in that stuff? Kind of yeah,
do you yeah?

Speaker 2 (50:55):
Do you no?

Speaker 1 (50:57):
Yeah? I get along with a lot of It's kind
of funny, like a lot of my girlfriends have been aries.
You're Geminis. A lot of my friends, My boss is,
my mom, my favorite cousins all Aris, they're all aries.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
But it's funny with the horoscope stuff is that it's
so it leans towards positive like affirmation stuff, but no
one would ever go back to it. It's like, hey,
you're a aries, Like, oh it says you're an asshole.
You're like you're a piece of shit?

Speaker 1 (51:23):
Mind? Does that's just that twins? No, it's a twins.
You're like, oh, you're a Gemini. You're like dual personality.
I'm like, yeah, mine is good and better, so like
instead of good and bad, but Gemini gets to bad scorpios.
My oldest brother literally textbook out there, fight mohawk tattoo
is crazy, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
Like, but then I can bring a I can show you,
I can line up twenty aries.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Thats exact same.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
I'm not big on it, but I do feel like
there's personality traits. I don't know a lot of all
the signs, but I'm a Leo. When I meet another Leo,
I'm like, oh, I could kind of see it.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
I think it's just so fun too. It's just like,
what's a Leo? What's the trade of Leo?

Speaker 2 (52:04):
I got strong, go get her, maybe a little stubborn.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
But that's yeah, that's every single like.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
A fire or an air sign.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
I don't. I don't have no idea I would. My
wife would call me fire. Yeah, okay, nice stubborn.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Leo's are firesides too, so stubborn, like she would say, stubborn,
really stubborn, hard to get.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
Along way right, It seems so when I read the
other side areas like gentle, like collaborative, that's me creative exactly.
But then you can go like aries lazy, selfish, that's
me too. Depends on the day you catch me, you
know what I mean. Like if I'm hungry, like that's.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
That's funny, if anyone's hungry that yeah, yeah, how do
you feel about it? But how do you feel about
like Jackie Chan's roll, remember well, yeah, well I was
a kid when chill is all black, can't see out.
It's all like trying to get so so racist, like
you can't do that now we were talking about trying
to do Canniball run again. Yeah you know, remember like

(53:11):
it was meant to be sure or super or something, right,
I think it was black. You couldn't see out the window,
and it was old like like just lights and flashing
funds because they're trying to say, like the Japanese were
so you know, technology driven. It was like you know,
and like Jamie Farr that was on mash you know,
he's the Arab guy with oil erab. You like, this
is so fucking like staneodtypical. You can't get away.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
I've gone back to watch some commercials I grew up on,
and that's crazy the stuff that they used to say.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
They do that anymore.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
Yeah, Melbrooks movies. It's interesting that you even bring up
Jackie Chan. I was talking to somebody about what Jackie
Chan represents for Asian Americans and to me growing up
with Jackie Channer knowing Jackie Chan, he represents somebody that
is an icon from the action foo genre, right, and

(54:01):
what he represents right in his homeland, right, But in
America he's almost the N word for us, because yeah,
you can't call me a chink or goog or you know,
or some slope now.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
But you can call me Jackie Chan.

Speaker 3 (54:16):
And so it's interesting the racist or these people that
want to put someone like me down, they yeah, and
I go, what do you think that's funny?

Speaker 1 (54:26):
You think that's okay for you to do that? As
I look at.

Speaker 3 (54:30):
Them, and I'm like, what, why would you take something
so positive? But then they they don't laugh with Jackie Chan.
They laugh at him, and I'm going, why why are
you laughing at him? What is it funny that about him? Yeah,
but that's that's where the seed, like you actually bring
that up. It's like I always wondered, like, why do

(54:52):
people think Jackie Chan is a joke?

Speaker 1 (54:55):
Because that's what he accept He did that. Yeah, it's true, right, Well,
I only he had experience. He wanted to come to
America like Bruce Lena. Nobody goes Bruce Lena jokey way
because it was the first of you. But I think
it's I think if Bruce Lee was alive, maybe they would. Yeah,
you're right, Yeah, it's interesting. Right So anyway, Okay, you're good.

(55:17):
All right, we're good. Thanks for coming on, Sally,