September 11, 2025 • 40 mins
Wilmer and Freddy sit down with bestselling author and former dialect coach Samara Bay to explore how our voices reflect who we are and who we want to be. From her early love of Shakespeare to coaching stars like Gal Gadot and politicians on the campaign trail, Samara shares how she helps people speak with confidence, care, and authenticity. They talk about her concept of “caring out loud,” the power of the right word, and how to lose the shame around how we sound. It’s a fun and thoughtful dive into visibility, voice, and finding the courage to show up as yourself.
“Dos Amigos” is a comedic and insightful podcast hosted by two friends who’ve journeyed through Hollywood and life together. Wilmer Valderrama and Freddy Rodriguez push through the noise of everyday life and ruminate on a bevy of topics through fun and daring, and occasionally a third amigo joins the mix!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, everybody. This is Freddie Rodriguez.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And I'm Wilmer Valderrama. Welcome to the DOOS podcast. I'm
Michael Tuda Podcast Network. I heeart our partners and fearless
leaders and disruption of podcasting.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
But we're nearing, We're near Indiana.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
We're here in the end.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
That's right, that's right. We've had a plethora of wonderful guests. Yes,
and today our guest is someone very personal to you, right.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes, very very personal. And this is a very vulnerable,
very vulnerable place for me. Yes, because we know how
that turned out, by the way I sound explained, by.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
The way it is. But Samara Bay, you know, you.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
See, you know we always explain this to our guests
when they're here, and that our guests are quite intentional.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Right, Like we're we don't, we don't.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
This is not one of those shows we're like, oh,
you know this book so and so, like we have
to have some type of connection tool or guess whether
it's in mutual respect or whether it's like a specific
subject or that so and in this specific subject.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
You were many hats. Best author is one, Yes, and
you have a book. What is the name of your book?
Speaker 5 (01:21):
I have a book called Permission to Speak.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
That's right, And I asked that many times in time
you were you likesion, But tell everyone who's listening a
little bit of uh, you know what your career is,
what you've done, and I know you're onto other things too,
and we love to hear that as well.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Yeah, okay, So two main things. One is how we
know each other and the other is how it has
evolved very organically in the many many years since we
work together. But basically, in a nutshell, I have a
background as a dialect coach and that is.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
A rare, weird, niche job in.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Hollywood that no one even thinks about it until they're like, wow,
that actor sounded really amazing and not like themselves at all,
and that one didn't.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
I'm sorry, how do you how do you wake up
one day and say I want to become a dialect coach?
Because you're right, it is a very niche It is
a very unique occupation.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
What made you become a dialect coach?
Speaker 5 (02:19):
I'll tell you. I think the absolute heart of it
is loving actors, like really having like a deep loving
respect for what the process is of taking words written
by it usually not you and putting them into your
mouth and making them a whole ass human. And if
there's an accent on top of that, because either English
is your second language and the producers, directors, whatever want
(02:40):
a different sound coming out of you, or you're playing
a very specific role that requires like oh, I'm from
Boston and I'm playing somebody from West Texas, then there
is a respect also for like, well, what's that culture's
what are we doing with this? How story are we talent?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And it's quite and it's quite a collaboration, but really
a partnership. You know, you you both have to go
on this journey to discovery what does this guy sound like?
Like I've had not like coach in Spanish because I
was like, okay, where in Mexico is my character is
supposed to be from? What is the Spanish? Because it
can't just be like any generic Mexican accent. There's like
(03:20):
there's like twelve different Mexican accents, right, you know. So
I think that's one of the things, like I think
it's really important is when you partner I was home
like Samara, It's like you really are like, Okay, we're
going to have to figure this guy out.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
And often when I'm pulling like audio tracks from the internet,
from YouTube to be like, is this what we're going for.
It's not just like the sounds like vowel sound, consonant sound.
It's like the it's like the vibe of the person.
Does this match the vibe of the character you're playing?
Is this going to help us tell that story of
this person in this you know, maybe in this emotional
state or maybe in this like aspirational moment of their
(03:52):
life where they're getting out from where they were, you know,
like these are the stories that we tell with our voice.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
So you're talking about your love with actors. Where did
that start?
Speaker 6 (04:01):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (04:01):
You guys. I was just home this weekend in northern
California and I went to this Shakespeare festival that is
some version of the one eighties Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz,
there's a University of California campus there. My dad started
as a professor there in the seventies teaching astrophysics, and
so I grew up there and was brought along with
(04:23):
them to this Shakespeare stuff.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
When I was like ten, well, your dad used to
you bring it to this?
Speaker 7 (04:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (04:29):
My parents were like, I think we have a precocious
kid on our hands.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
Let's see if she can handle this.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
And then it was like these beautiful, very modern imagine
like you know, like bos Lhrman, Romano, Juliet type of Shakespeare.
It just made me feel like, Okay, A, I feel
very alive. Whatever's happening. B. I'm looking around everyone else
does C. We're like breathing together. D. I don't know.
Whatever's happening on the stage feels like it's like something
(04:53):
about the human condition. Right. All that was happening. And
obviously when I was ten, I wasn't like a bathet,
but I was It's like this, whatever this is, this
is what I want to do, and it's I mean,
it's cracked me up over the you know, intributing at
thirty whatever years to be like, oh I my definition
of this has changed a lot. The other half of
what you were getting at is dialect coach, dialect coach.
(05:16):
And then this sort of pivot happened when I got
brought into coach women who are running for office in
the twenty eighteen midterms just totally pro bonoun right, and
it made me realize that so many other times I
hadn't really totally put it together. But like my actors
would ask me to help them with like a speech
at the United Nations or a speech for an awards
ceremony or something where they're playing the character of themselves.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
But that's different than dialect.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
This is different, but it would bring up the ways
in which, like dialect work was always and I don't know,
like you know, you get to tell me from the inside,
But for me, as as I worked with all these
different clients, was always about half like sounds and let's
get this right and let's get it in your body
and whatever, and half let's create an environment where you
(06:04):
can like play and get and be bad at something
before you're good, which I think is like not enough
of us have that safe space in our lives ever,
And like what is it to breathe as someone else?
Or what is it to breathe while doing something new
that is making us get all activated? But like stay
in it anyway, And that's public speaking as much as
it's dialectoral.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
You know, it's I love you trigger something that I've
done a bunch of keynote stuff. And what's really helped
me is comedy.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Because being funny in it and not just being funny.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And it's like when you do comedy, you understand the setup,
you understand the build.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Up, you understand the punchline, the execution.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
But in real life that's not how you tell stories.
You don't tell stories to the massage. You to a
story to your friends. So you're not really thinking about
which is the operative word, which is the you know
that's what.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
So love you just an operative word.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You're using correct terminology and uh, you.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Know, well I was coached by.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
That was trademarks.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
It's resonated, something stuck around. But but I think it's
a very very fascinating thing when you think about, Okay,
an actor has to speak of the U N. He
has to do a couple of things, and that sound
like an actor who's just faking it, right, But most importantly,
if you you know, if you're the United Nations, you
(07:30):
have a certain passion for what you're about to speak about,
and the right pronunciations of the technical terms and most
importantly the operator words is probably going to be really
important when you say that, Like in storytelling, the level
of urgency, the level of I don't want to say theatrical,
because nothing about that speech is fake. But but there
(07:50):
is there is a performance in order for it to
transcend beyond the ping of that.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
I made up this term in my book because I
just didn't it didn't exist for what you're talking talking
about called carrying out loud. And the idea is not
just that we care about shit. We do often when
we're speaking on a stage or in any kind of
a metaphorical stage. This it's because we care, but many
of us, all of us, are socialized to hide when
we care because it's terrifying to me, Like I care
(08:18):
about this, right, this is the vulnerability that actors are
like used to doing.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
But so the idea with carrying out loud is just
to offer like some language for what this process is
that any of us can engage in where we're like, Okay,
I care about this thing. I'm not gonna have to
talk about it like I care about it?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Right?
Speaker 5 (08:35):
How do I do that without like either pushing too
hard overcarrying acting like we care and then it feels theatrical.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Over carrying over carrying. Yes, So there's two things. Right,
you're very passionate about the subject. When you're too overly
passion you lose people because people are like you're preaching
to me.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
Now, Yes, I like to think of it as a spectrum.
So on the one hand, over here, you're like, I
care about this a lot. We lovingly call this pushings
poa I mean metaphor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I care about it.
But you know, we can tell when someone's pushing and
it's it's not that they don't even it's not it's
(09:13):
not that they don't care. Maybe it's that we can't
read anymore because there's so much messy going on in
front of them. And then on the other end of
the spectrum is I care a lot, but I'm going
to pretend like I don't because and often this is
like going into our throat and just being like, yeah,
I mean it's cool whatever, like this is kind of
my my life's work. But like if you don't like it,
it's fine, right.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
So it's like it's like overacting in a scene almost right,
put it out there.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
If you're in, you're in. If you're not, it's cool.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
I mean, it's such an obvious like defense mechanism. It's
so it's so like survival based. It's in a way,
I just want to like love on anybody listening who's like, oh,
should I do that?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Right?
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Of course we do that. It's an incredibly valuable learned
skill to be like I care, but like not really
if that's inconvenient for anybody here. But if there's a
spectrum and over here is over and overhears under, then
what is the sweet spot in the middle. If we're
getting up on a stage and we're time, what matters
to us? How do we access consistently so we can
trust ourselves that level of care so that that that
(10:06):
word passion you used right comes out and it isn't
like this thing that pushes people away because it's too much,
or this thing that makes people not totally seem interesting.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Yeah, so you're almost like a good director is what
I'm what I'm going massaging the Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
That's a lot of it because I'm now I'm almost
entirely now doing public speaking coaching, and often it's for
business leaders. It's right, it's not Hollywood anymore. And you know,
it's a huge mm applies because.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
It's just you or like, wow, these are the crazy question.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, when you get to that level of coaching, Yeah,
to coach individuals that are at that sea level, do
you feel two questions one is are they more introverted
and they're not good with their words because they're just
geniuses what they have in front, so they can operate,
but they just don't publicly speak, or they're just credible
(11:00):
communicators that they're just like they know how to delegate
in an interesting way because they're that leadership, or like,
you know, you don't what I'm trying to ask. If
there's two there's two different powers and there are two
different people you're gonna get at that.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's I Yes, I think those
are the two categories too. For me, it's like either
folks who were thrust into the CEO role and the
public side of it, or even just the like all
hands like meetings with their.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Or like they are gray CEO but they never thought
there was.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Hot and they and they self identify as an introvert,
or they self identify as I hate public speaking, which
of course does like so much allbody. I hate speaking
is a job and then and then it's a story
we tell ourselves, and then we look for evidence and
right like this is a brain's word beautiful, but you
need somebody to like disrupt that, or yeah, they just
(11:50):
want to be like absolutely, like Olympic level pig performance
and I love that too, right where they're like there's
more to learn, or I'm continuing to challenge myself and
speak on bigger stage. Maybe like I'm used to speaking
at the conferences for my industry, but now I want
to speak to the press. Now, I want to speak
to the public. Now I want to be a thought
leader and like really claim my thought leadership and that
(12:11):
kind of up level.
Speaker 6 (12:13):
You know.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
Again, it's story, like the stories we tell ourselves and
how we can change them.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
To make They're just fascinating when you see like attorneys
or you know, the head of the sheriff's department or
whatever and they have to you know, talk a by
the gravity of a situation at a press how do
you convey to the public, you know, public urgency or
emergency or just a regular update on an ongoing case.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Like what are your thoughts? You're saying you have so
many thoughts.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
My main thought is it's not what anybody prioritizes when
they're when they're becoming that position. And then you see
in those moments of public crisis where the audience is
just like watching I'm thinking, for example, of the fires
here in La right when the audience is like watching
being like I need some thing, like I need to
be cared.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
For like.
Speaker 7 (13:05):
Microphone than you, you know, but like either one, it's
either I want to flight attendant who makes me feel
really comfortable or I want just like no bullshit, like
just literally.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
And everyone's relying on this cop or this whatever to
like comfort them right, to like convey that emotion this right,
and so like all of a sudden, they're thrust it
in that position, is what you're saying.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
And do you think in their throat at those moments
and they're like, I mean blast but if and they're like,
we're all on the case and we really got your back.
We're all in the audience being like there's I don't
I can't name it, but that's not enough.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Right, bringing us back a little bit to the beginning,
and so of at all, I want to just drop
a few names that you've worked with, because I saw
this list here and I saw my name there, and
(14:02):
I'm just gonna go impressive, Yeah, Galgadot, right, Pierce Prossman,
an Olympic Cruz, Ricky Martin, Terry Crews, Terry Crews.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
I thought he was just on here.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
He has so many questions. Rachel mccadams, Wilmer Valdorama, that.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Guy, that guy.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Guy o'donno and Angelica Houston Wilmer abod Orama.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Was that like the low in your career you did
not get that.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Have you listened to that guy lately?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Not the guy? Yeah, that's the one that got away.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
I mean the production Like what if that had gone
we would have like been together for years.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
I don't know if he sounds like he went through
a dialing coach.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
At some point in the game, was like, look, you
either either you want wilmermo Dorama or you want you
don't want Wilmerdama, you know, and then eventually it worked.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
But I have so many questions. So you were saying
two thousand in seventeen, is that no? No, I'm like that.
You guys are.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, so really really far away in the landland far away.
Yeahre Hollywood was a little different, right, So if you
were of any dissent somehow, if you're on network TV,
you need to sound American because people thought if you
had an accent on primetime television, no one was going
to understand.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
You, right, I mean, I joke although obviously it is haha,
not funny that half of my work was actually just
soothing the nervous system of producers like they were just like,
oh no, Middle America will be turned off by X
y Z. And I'll be like, we got you.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
And I wanted what was the you want to share?
What project was that we did?
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Well, it was a pilot that never went so no
one will ever know. But here's this is the specific
part about what's the pilot.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I would know about the pilot. Ye, I mean it's
so annoying because no annoying. They didn't get picked up
because it was it was lovely.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
But I will say here was the challenge on that one.
Tell me if this is your memory, you were it
was a family drama to families.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Military is a military show called four Stars, and he
was about two four star general families, right, So it's
like a four star general and a four star general.
They you know, they they went to war together and
all that stuff whatever, and now their families are in
the family and business there in the military. And one
is a reporter you know, and in Washington and all
(16:34):
that stuff, and the other one is a young colonel
played by the always Greade will and uh and you
have Stephen Bauer played my dad and Bruce Greenwood played
I mean, it was like the cast was just phenomenal
and it's a beautiful I just saw the pilot again.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Because I was thinking of that idea. It was so good.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
And we filmed in deep in like Seami Valley for Iraq,
which was fascinating.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Which was amazing. That scene was crazy.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So it was so the It was a beautiful family
drama that also had international turmoil type of.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
You know, a compliment to the story.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
You know, there was also there was also like an
action you know aspect to it, but it was also
about the core of the families and all that and
it fell into the whole. Around this time, CBS would
on cancer shows. There was no slots, so it was like,
no matter how great your pilots were, if things were performing,
you might not only get one slot a year, two
slots a year to put in something new. They still
(17:30):
were making pilots though, so but I was supposed to
be someone who had just kind of you know, grown
up service, you know, whether universe.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
It was cast with a brother and maybe a sister
and a mom and a dad who all had American accents.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yeah. Right, so then.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
So the question is, would be the story of this
guy who just has this little bit of a leftover
right venezuelan sound like, no problem except if it confuses
the audience, which in this case it might actually have.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
And so hard he cooked it up. He's like, you
know what did you know this? Like at some point
did you want to write write in the line?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
He just decided, you know what, I'm gonna have a
little bit of a slight accent.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Oh he did that for you?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Oh wow, Yeah, because because.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
The truth is like the performance, like they'd be like,
the performance is great, but that one word, so I
would end up doing like you can.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Talk about the process of a guy like coach on
set is like like creating, how do I have no
idea how to put this? Creating a this like a
protective this for my actor where I am completely honest
with them, but I'm also not prioritizing a tiny bit
of sound over the like emotional truth of the scene.
Like we're on the same team. But if they're hearing
(18:48):
sounds and they're telling me to go in and give
him this note, he knows and I know that we're
playing this game and it's a dance.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
But you were involved, and even though she was involved,
Steven still felt like he had.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
The Well, I just I was ruggling with very specific words,
a lot of military formal stuff that I just have
never said out there.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
And literally they wanted to miss sound American overnight and
like you sound you know you are the most American's
very excited, but like you know what I'm saying. My
agent would call this a dialect emergency and it always
cracked me up.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
But the idea of a dialect.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Emergency is like the night before, the producers are like
Ohan over there.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Wa, but heres what was really interesting?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So kind of going back and I want to explain
to audiences a little bit more of how this works,
right because I think everyone's like, wait, somebody teaches you
how to talk like an American accing like you know,
so I just want to, you know, so specifically, what
happens is when they're they're actors that are not either
born and raised here or they have a crazy New
(19:52):
York accent, but they need to sound like they're from
La or you know, or they have a Puerto Rican accent,
but they got to sound Mexican can like, there are
certain tools that you have to kind of acquired, but
beyond those tools, you have to have some kind of
coaching because if you've never been exposed to that type
of communication, I mean that that type of uh you
(20:15):
know of dialect, then you know it's going to take
a second.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
It's going to take a lot of repetition, it's going
to talk a lot of rehearsal.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
But sometimes they don't realize this thing until like you're
in rehearsals and you're shooting next week.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And they're like, would you be open? This is how
they come to you. Would you be open like maybe
having someone bring.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And they ask your agent because they don't ask the
producers never want to be the bad guys. They ask
your agents and they'll call your agent and they're like, hey,
so has a little bit of an accent. Is it
is it? Does he can he lose his accent and
make it more American? And my agent calls me and
says like, hey, they really want.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
You to lose your action a right? Cool?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And for a lot of times what happens is I
can do it to the script, but the moment mean
that I'm flowing and I have to add live something.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
That's why I start drawing outside the lions.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That's what my accident, absolutely, because you've worked on those specifics,
so those things that you know, and then all of
a sudden, I'm feeling and I'm vibing and I'm flowing,
and all of a sudden, I'm making something a little
saucy aired And.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Then we start with your the magical moments that we
in the audience want to see. So now we're cross
purposes because because he's like, shit, don't do those. Oh wait,
but no, do those.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
And that's one of the reasons why I said this
is such a it's very fun for me. This is
also one of these very vulnerable moments for actors where
they have to kind of take the ego aside.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
And this is not like it has nothing to do
with you.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
It has everything to do with the vision and the
structure of what a filmmaker or a writer or a
producer wants for their project, right, right, And they know
you're the guy for the job, right, they know you're
the guy for the role.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
By the way you got the job.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, and by the way, like they there were you know,
they were very excited, and I think you know, and
CBS excited to work with me, and it's the first
time I worked with CBS, and you know.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
So we're like, let's go, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
And they wanted this family to be to have a
Latin descent, you know, they wanted to but you know,
they wanted to be American Latinos, which means like they
don't have an accent, you know.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
That'd being said. We started thinking like what if it
was I know, he.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Was on a base you know, in South America for
like the first his infant years. We started like, you're
coming up with all these storylines in the background that
that gave him kind of the ability to say, hey,
you know, he has an accent because he was kind
of raised on the base with locals from a different
Latin writing country or something.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
But the point I'm making is that eventually they'll make
a phone call and they say like, hey, would you
be open and working with the coach, And the answer
is always yes, right, because let's let's go, let's do it.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
And that's how we met, and we had a you
know a lot of these great.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Conversations, Like I it was funny, it is like my
vocaulary for English is really good, but my my pronunciations.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Just like that, like who I am? You know, it's
just like what you.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Know how it sounds like now I now I have
any easier time because I've been working for a lot
longer and like you know, I've been speaking English for
a lot longer, you know. But at those times when
I when I had to do something that was not
necessarily calling for someone like me, someone to be something
like you know, like a military guy or something, we
would have to do the coaching and then we started
(23:25):
the exercise. But like, but you can talk a little
bit more about the process. So then you arrive on
stead and here's the actor.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Were you, Here's here's your here's your actor, and okay,
let us know when it when it's fixed.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Were you part of Like were you like on CBS's
list of dialog Like how did you.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
To you tell me?
Speaker 5 (23:55):
We never know? I mean I had an agent and
and I had a reputation frankly right, like it's often
word of mouth, and I know I was I think
still am. It's just I'm saying it in past tense
because I'm not doing this work as much anymore. But
like I think I was on the top of the
list for CIA, the big agency. You know, it's like
it's like they would just be like, go to her,
she you know literally with I think that they think
(24:18):
is she doesn't fuck up her actors, because so much
of the work is not just the vowels and consonants.
It's making sure that you don't lose your your confidence
and your sense of play.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And compliment to you.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Like a lot of acting coaches that are brought as
an emergency to said because someone is having a tough
time getting there.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
You know, also is a really that you.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Kind of share a very similar kind of structure. You know,
you kind of have to really. I always this is analogya.
I've used it a few times, probably on the show too,
but in life in general, it's it's like a picture
and a catcher.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
The catcher is a psychologist. He's a therapist to the picture.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
He's got to come in massage the pitches out of
your picture. Because in baseball, if that picture is the
stress or he gets in his head, can get out
of it.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
There goes the game. Right, He's like he's gonna blow
it at the mount right.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
So the catcher comes up with a smile when he's like, hey, good, good, good,
that's really good. Good speed on that ninth curve on that. Now,
let's give me a straight because in this one we're
gonna do blah blahah you know, or like, hey, you're
coming in a little low on this, don't be afraid
to go through it a little harder.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Let's go, baby, let's go.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
We got this right, So that gets the picture. Okay, cool,
it's me and him playing catch.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Right, right, but catch. But pictures are like actors.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
There is I don't the word is not delicate, but
there is sensive. There is a sensitivity to the to
the finesse.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Yeah you know.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And that's why when we had our episode about directors, yeah,
uh huh, the sensitivity of how you address your actors. Yeah,
it's very very important.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yeah you know. But the point is you have to
have like the picture catcher mentality.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
But often it happens in these tiny, little like ninja
moments where you know, in between takes, like cut, we're
going again, hair and makeup, come in and do like
a little whatever, dab dab, and I whisper in your
ear and then we all go together. If I'm whisper,
if I wisp like a good whisper. Maybe is like
it's the just that you know, you know, you're you're
(26:32):
almost there, You've.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Got this, You've got this.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
A bad one is why do you keep messing that up?
Or like eighty billion other right, we could go with
eighty billion other game?
Speaker 3 (26:40):
You were you've nailed it ten times. I don't know
what's happening?
Speaker 5 (26:43):
Yeah, what the fuck are you doing?
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (26:46):
And literally like I I often you know, have like
have like the number one on the call sheet, like
in a way I hold there. I have so much power, right,
like it's important not to use that. It's really really
what that moment is.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
That we're trying to She's like a yeah, so the
director comes to give you a thought and then oh
yeah she has a mad thing to do. So like
you have two Now you have two people and sometimes
a writer coming at you.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
So now you have your dialary coach, Now you have your.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Director, and now you have the writer that just wants
to tell you why it's important to leave it as written.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
And the director just gave a note of like try
a different ways. So now you're really you know, processing,
and then I'm there. Often what happens actually for a
good dialect coach who like reads the room. Is that
I'm holding back, right, You got to let obviously, you
got to let them give their note first, and then
I decide a if my note is worth going in
after that be if my note is going to help
what the director just said or heard it?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
So are you are you listening to what the director?
Speaker 5 (27:49):
If I can? Right, Yeah, it matters right because I
am there for them, like I really am. Not as
much as my job is to protect the sound, get
those zunes right, My real job is tell a good story.
My real job is like make the director's vision. Make
your heartbeat to the speed of the audience, you know,
(28:11):
like we're here to make arts.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I'll tell you something some an actor probably has never
told you, but maybe it has, and you tell me
if it did. There's a time where your nerves get
so you're I've been doing this for twenty years quite
by the time that you know, then I've done it
for almost seventeen years or something in my career.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Right, So I trust my instinct as an actor.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I know that I'm about to kill it like I
come in as a killer. I'm coming in on the
set and I'm prepared and I'm ready, let's go, you know,
and then you have this other layer. She's like, Okay,
I got what I need to do for the character.
I know who the character is. Now he has to
sound this way, which is not who I sound like, right,
(28:53):
And so you end up doing a take and immediately
you look over to video village and the actor stuging
to producer is fine. The actor is talking to SCRIPTI
that's fine because I know I know those two things.
But the moment the actor the director talks to the
dally coach, he.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Has a problem.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
I know.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
That's when I know, here comes the fucking note. And
I'm sititting there like I see the lean over or whatever.
And sometimes what happens is the directors like did they
nail it or not know it because he's not looking.
He's not here in the accent right. And by the way,
sometimes the directors don't even hear it.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
Or sometimes what we're actually working on is like a
really specific like I said West Texas earlier. You know,
it's like the director doesn't know I'm the keeper.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Of the sound, yes exactly.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
And the actor and I are like in our own
little dance because we're the ones who've been listening NonStop
to clip that tells us how these people sound, you
know whatever, and the director, Yeah, it is just looking.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Do you ever just let do you ever just go
Well that wasn't one hundred, but it'll but it'll fly.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
You ever do that?
Speaker 4 (30:00):
And so like the action is maybe eighty percent?
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Yeah, I mean I joke that. Like, as with any
crew member, by the way, the dialect coach's job is
to be super obsessed with the one thing I'm there
to do and also simultaneously deprioritize it the instant it
doesn't matter. Yeah, and so I like, my makes my
heart be like my job wait, no, chill, no, my job,
but chill and like that. But that is the thing, right,
(30:23):
We have to be able to deprioritize it when it's
just not what the moment's about.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Have you ever done that and then watched the thing
that you were coaching on and then and then like
the thing that you were like, it's like eighty percent,
it's okay, and then you see it on TV and
you're like.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Ah, here's the inside.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
I hear it.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Third way, There is a third way, which.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Is ABR alright, Also, then is it an ADR that's right.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
So then is it your call to go, hey, he
has to eight rs?
Speaker 5 (30:49):
I mean with my dream producers, yes it is. They're like,
let me send you the rough cut and you give
us notes, right, or like tell us what scenes we're
gonna need to go in on. Usually I'm thrown in
at the last second for d R. But yeah, I
mean that's so that's happened. I mean I got my
start doing ad R.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
That's happened.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
Where you see the actors performance and you're like, you gotta,
you gotta.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
Okay, the actress performance is a dramatic way of putting Yeah, yeah,
a few waywards sounds.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Performing the sound the only perform this network.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
You're exactly right. Well, also, wait, since you said that,
I just feel like it's it's important to say that
so much of the job when you're when I am
on a set is like, yes, these are the guardrails,
let's stay within that. This is the sound we need
to do for the story. We're talking so much of
real life and accent work is messier than that. And like,
I don't even accent work. I should just say accents, right,
And you know, and we know that so much of
(31:58):
what is beautiful about how each of us sounds and
how literally every one of us sounds different from everyone else.
Is that the sounds coming out of our mouth reflect
the life we've actually lived, the places we've lived, the
people we've spent the most time with, the people we admire,
the people we want never to sound like like that's
our life coming out of our mouth. So you know, yeah,
(32:21):
my job on set is like, this is the right
sound and this is the less right sound, But in
real life that's not that's not the thing, right. And actually,
part of my job has been my job that I
made up, the part where I'm like, actually just coaching
and consulting folks is often to help them see their
own inner biases around sounds and be like, can we
what if we backed off on that? What if we
check that bias and we're like, you sound exactly right
(32:44):
for the message you're going to give on that stage.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
It's you.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
And that's why literally gain. The book is called Permission
to Speak, and the cover has the word permission six
times on it. It's like, that's because the permission matters
more than the.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Speaking, right, right.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
I know you fell in love with actors when you
were ten watch Shakespeare.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
But what was this specifically.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
About accents that made you go into into dialect codes?
Speaker 5 (33:06):
Okay, I have two quick answers. One is I got
an MFA in acting, so I really was trying to
pursue acting. Oh cool, if you ever like have I
or whatever like like I'm available.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
You sound like likely sealball. That is the most random question.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah, I see it.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Yeah, I mean, let me do some preser.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
What's a little video, we'll circle back, let's we'll talk
about that after the episode.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
But the other answer is, if I'm being like a
totally honest dork about this, I loved impressions when I
was little. I love Marilyn Monroe and I would do
her voice. I would do British voice right, like there
was I wasn't getting them right. But I was so
curious even then about the relationship between how we sound
(33:57):
and how we get treated in life. Oh, that's interesting,
and the idea that we could change how we sound.
I mean, my fair lady. This classic musical is literally
about somebody with a lower class, like a coded for
class lower class British accent, who, because of a like
social experiment by a mean dialect coach learns how to
(34:19):
sound fancy and her life opens up. And I watched
that as like a ten year old being like I
am learning something about the world from this. Wow, not
necessarily something that I want to emulate, right, I'm not like,
let me please be that asshole dialect coach. It came one,
but that idea that when we change how we sound,
(34:39):
our world changes for better and for worse, like really
really like.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Feels like it feels like an interesting code, like a
key to different different.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Under And now I've done you know, I did a
lot of research on like social linguistics, which is like
literally how the sounds that come out of our mouth
happened because of the society we're because of the room
we're in, because right, like we all know we sound
different when we talk to like a three year old
then we talked to a grandmother than we did when
we talk to a lawyer who's mad. Then we like,
is one version real and the other ones are fake?
Or are humans made to have these different versions of
(35:14):
ourselves that come out in different rooms? And you know
that's complicated and there's you know, aspects of that like
code switching that feel really heavy. But also like we
can celebrate it because obviously this is like an evolutionary
trait in.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Humans, right, And what was that? The most interesting thing
you found when you when you when you took up
social linguistics was was that.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
You know, I'll tell you one other thing. Thank you
for giving me like permission to be like a nerd
about social But here's here's the heart of it. And
it's in a way, it's kind of what I just said,
but I'm saying it differently because I love this. I
love this. It's like a gift for me. Maybe all
of us social linguists will say that every habit any
of us have ever picked up our arms and us,
(35:58):
the acts and stuff, the ways in which we sound more,
you know, like our hometown and we've just talked to
our mom and we don't when we haven't. Every habit
any of us have ever picked up in how we sound,
we've picked up for a reason. It has served us
in some way.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
In a bad or a good way.
Speaker 5 (36:16):
It has served us. It has like helped you know,
somebody will say, oh, I can't I hate that, I
say like so much. Make me stop saying like, and
I'll be like, we can get a little more bit
more conscious about your likes and what those are, what
those like hedging terms are doing. But also can we
just love on that? Like where did we pick it up?
Who do you love that? Sounds like that? Who are
(36:37):
you reflecting back? How has that helped you to connect
with people in those other rooms, in those other relationships,
in those moments before this one?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Right?
Speaker 5 (36:45):
And like if there's shame wrapped up in that, can
we deshame that?
Speaker 7 (36:49):
Right?
Speaker 5 (36:49):
Right?
Speaker 4 (36:50):
But they're obviously raising that question because although it may
have helped them, they feel that it's actually hurting them
as well.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
Often it's like I'm trying to up level. I'm now
you know, in this more professional context.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
And they're watching themselves give the speech or they get
really self conscious. Yeah, and they're just like, oh my god,
I said like like a million times. Yeah, I think
but the old our producers do that, does.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
That a lot?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (37:15):
I mean, are you calling someone out?
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Ye's he says, my lot.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
But he's just because he's so smart, he's just like
he thinks about so many different ideas.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
He has had a tough time. Hello, I was talking
about a producer that we work with.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Yes, you know, you're just so smart.
Speaker 5 (37:32):
I'm as a great example. I'm as a great example.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
I am the king of But you know what an is?
Speaker 5 (37:39):
I mean, linguistically speaking, it's just a little like you're
dropping a little sign post that says a not quite
donely processed, and often it allows your audience to process too.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Can I tell you what I think in like his?
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Because I have the same issues myself when I do
when I speak in the uh I'm saying, So what
I'm doing is I'm buying myself time to piece together
a sentence that I want to sound smart.
Speaker 5 (38:08):
So do you mean that you don't do it when
you're feeling more loose?
Speaker 2 (38:11):
When I feel more confident and I'm running with my stuff,
I rarely used to like or.
Speaker 5 (38:18):
So this is thank you for that example, because this
is like the old timey and I'm like insert irol.
The old timy approach to public speaking is count your
ums in us. Stop doing that, like police yourself, stop it.
And my approach is like, what's going on in the
inside psychologically that's making you feel like you have to
prove yourself right because all of us have a version
(38:40):
of ourselves. That's like, how do I prove myself well,
I should, I should like shave off all the parts
of me that.
Speaker 6 (38:45):
Are super weird, but you should bring that.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
I should say that my biggest words that I have.
And then there's the other version of ourself that's with
our favorite people, and how do we bring that version
of us?
Speaker 4 (38:54):
But you may be right, but like the perception that
the overall perception is that if you do too many
elms or too many likes, that it's there's a negative
perception behind that, right, But you're saying, although there's a
negative perception behind that, you should embrace it anyway.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Is that?
Speaker 4 (39:09):
Is that?
Speaker 5 (39:09):
What? No, I'm actually saying, Yes, And you know what
I'm really saying is what Wilmer said, which is which
is brilliant, just reflecting your brilliance, which which is what
you said, which is what actually happens in the human body,
is that when we are feeling more relaxed, more confident,
(39:30):
like we have less to prove, like we're around our
favorite people and they get us even if we're not.
If we give ourselves permission to show up that way, yeah,
we am the end a less.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Yeah, that's incredibly fascinating. But before we continue on, we
are going to take a pause.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
This is the end of episode one of two. Because
you're giving us so much time. That's so thank you
for listening and watching. Uh those some egos and wim
with I'm Freddi Rodriguez. See you on the next one.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Dose Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
Michael through That podcast network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez,
and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts
and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by
Madison Devenport and Halo Boy.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
by Deny Holtz Clau and.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Thank you for being at Third Amigo today. I appreciate
you guys always listening to Those Amigos.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
More podcasts from my heart, visit the ir heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
See you next week.
Hey, everybody. This is Freddie Rodriguez.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And I'm Wilmer Valderrama. Welcome to the DOOS podcast. I'm
Michael Tuda Podcast Network. I heeart our partners and fearless
leaders and disruption of podcasting.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
But we're nearing, We're near Indiana.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
We're here in the end.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
That's right, that's right. We've had a plethora of wonderful guests. Yes,
and today our guest is someone very personal to you, right.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes, very very personal. And this is a very vulnerable,
very vulnerable place for me. Yes, because we know how
that turned out, by the way I sound explained, by.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
The way it is. But Samara Bay, you know, you.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
See, you know we always explain this to our guests
when they're here, and that our guests are quite intentional.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Right, Like we're we don't, we don't.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
This is not one of those shows we're like, oh,
you know this book so and so, like we have
to have some type of connection tool or guess whether
it's in mutual respect or whether it's like a specific
subject or that so and in this specific subject.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
You were many hats. Best author is one, Yes, and
you have a book. What is the name of your book?
Speaker 5 (01:21):
I have a book called Permission to Speak.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
That's right, And I asked that many times in time
you were you likesion, But tell everyone who's listening a
little bit of uh, you know what your career is,
what you've done, and I know you're onto other things too,
and we love to hear that as well.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Yeah, okay, So two main things. One is how we
know each other and the other is how it has
evolved very organically in the many many years since we
work together. But basically, in a nutshell, I have a
background as a dialect coach and that is.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
A rare, weird, niche job in.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Hollywood that no one even thinks about it until they're like, wow,
that actor sounded really amazing and not like themselves at all,
and that one didn't.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
I'm sorry, how do you how do you wake up
one day and say I want to become a dialect coach?
Because you're right, it is a very niche It is
a very unique occupation.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
What made you become a dialect coach?
Speaker 5 (02:19):
I'll tell you. I think the absolute heart of it
is loving actors, like really having like a deep loving
respect for what the process is of taking words written
by it usually not you and putting them into your
mouth and making them a whole ass human. And if
there's an accent on top of that, because either English
is your second language and the producers, directors, whatever want
(02:40):
a different sound coming out of you, or you're playing
a very specific role that requires like oh, I'm from
Boston and I'm playing somebody from West Texas, then there
is a respect also for like, well, what's that culture's
what are we doing with this? How story are we talent?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And it's quite and it's quite a collaboration, but really
a partnership. You know, you you both have to go
on this journey to discovery what does this guy sound like?
Like I've had not like coach in Spanish because I
was like, okay, where in Mexico is my character is
supposed to be from? What is the Spanish? Because it
can't just be like any generic Mexican accent. There's like
(03:20):
there's like twelve different Mexican accents, right, you know. So
I think that's one of the things, like I think
it's really important is when you partner I was home
like Samara, It's like you really are like, Okay, we're
going to have to figure this guy out.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
And often when I'm pulling like audio tracks from the internet,
from YouTube to be like, is this what we're going for.
It's not just like the sounds like vowel sound, consonant sound.
It's like the it's like the vibe of the person.
Does this match the vibe of the character you're playing?
Is this going to help us tell that story of
this person in this you know, maybe in this emotional
state or maybe in this like aspirational moment of their
(03:52):
life where they're getting out from where they were, you know,
like these are the stories that we tell with our voice.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
So you're talking about your love with actors. Where did
that start?
Speaker 6 (04:01):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (04:01):
You guys. I was just home this weekend in northern
California and I went to this Shakespeare festival that is
some version of the one eighties Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz,
there's a University of California campus there. My dad started
as a professor there in the seventies teaching astrophysics, and
so I grew up there and was brought along with
(04:23):
them to this Shakespeare stuff.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
When I was like ten, well, your dad used to
you bring it to this?
Speaker 7 (04:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (04:29):
My parents were like, I think we have a precocious
kid on our hands.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
Let's see if she can handle this.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
And then it was like these beautiful, very modern imagine
like you know, like bos Lhrman, Romano, Juliet type of Shakespeare.
It just made me feel like, Okay, A, I feel
very alive. Whatever's happening. B. I'm looking around everyone else
does C. We're like breathing together. D. I don't know.
Whatever's happening on the stage feels like it's like something
(04:53):
about the human condition. Right. All that was happening. And
obviously when I was ten, I wasn't like a bathet,
but I was It's like this, whatever this is, this
is what I want to do, and it's I mean,
it's cracked me up over the you know, intributing at
thirty whatever years to be like, oh I my definition
of this has changed a lot. The other half of
what you were getting at is dialect coach, dialect coach.
(05:16):
And then this sort of pivot happened when I got
brought into coach women who are running for office in
the twenty eighteen midterms just totally pro bonoun right, and
it made me realize that so many other times I
hadn't really totally put it together. But like my actors
would ask me to help them with like a speech
at the United Nations or a speech for an awards
ceremony or something where they're playing the character of themselves.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
But that's different than dialect.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
This is different, but it would bring up the ways
in which, like dialect work was always and I don't know,
like you know, you get to tell me from the inside,
But for me, as as I worked with all these
different clients, was always about half like sounds and let's
get this right and let's get it in your body
and whatever, and half let's create an environment where you
(06:04):
can like play and get and be bad at something
before you're good, which I think is like not enough
of us have that safe space in our lives ever,
And like what is it to breathe as someone else?
Or what is it to breathe while doing something new
that is making us get all activated? But like stay
in it anyway, And that's public speaking as much as
it's dialectoral.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
You know, it's I love you trigger something that I've
done a bunch of keynote stuff. And what's really helped
me is comedy.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Because being funny in it and not just being funny.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And it's like when you do comedy, you understand the setup,
you understand the build.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Up, you understand the punchline, the execution.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
But in real life that's not how you tell stories.
You don't tell stories to the massage. You to a
story to your friends. So you're not really thinking about
which is the operative word, which is the you know
that's what.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
So love you just an operative word.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You're using correct terminology and uh, you.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Know, well I was coached by.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
That was trademarks.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
It's resonated, something stuck around. But but I think it's
a very very fascinating thing when you think about, Okay,
an actor has to speak of the U N. He
has to do a couple of things, and that sound
like an actor who's just faking it, right, But most importantly,
if you you know, if you're the United Nations, you
(07:30):
have a certain passion for what you're about to speak about,
and the right pronunciations of the technical terms and most
importantly the operator words is probably going to be really
important when you say that, Like in storytelling, the level
of urgency, the level of I don't want to say theatrical,
because nothing about that speech is fake. But but there
(07:50):
is there is a performance in order for it to
transcend beyond the ping of that.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
I made up this term in my book because I
just didn't it didn't exist for what you're talking talking
about called carrying out loud. And the idea is not
just that we care about shit. We do often when
we're speaking on a stage or in any kind of
a metaphorical stage. This it's because we care, but many
of us, all of us, are socialized to hide when
we care because it's terrifying to me, Like I care
(08:18):
about this, right, this is the vulnerability that actors are
like used to doing.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
But so the idea with carrying out loud is just
to offer like some language for what this process is
that any of us can engage in where we're like, Okay,
I care about this thing. I'm not gonna have to
talk about it like I care about it?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Right?
Speaker 5 (08:35):
How do I do that without like either pushing too
hard overcarrying acting like we care and then it feels theatrical.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Over carrying over carrying. Yes, So there's two things. Right,
you're very passionate about the subject. When you're too overly
passion you lose people because people are like you're preaching
to me.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
Now, Yes, I like to think of it as a spectrum.
So on the one hand, over here, you're like, I
care about this a lot. We lovingly call this pushings
poa I mean metaphor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I care about it.
But you know, we can tell when someone's pushing and
it's it's not that they don't even it's not it's
(09:13):
not that they don't care. Maybe it's that we can't
read anymore because there's so much messy going on in
front of them. And then on the other end of
the spectrum is I care a lot, but I'm going
to pretend like I don't because and often this is
like going into our throat and just being like, yeah,
I mean it's cool whatever, like this is kind of
my my life's work. But like if you don't like it,
it's fine, right.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
So it's like it's like overacting in a scene almost right,
put it out there.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
If you're in, you're in. If you're not, it's cool.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
I mean, it's such an obvious like defense mechanism. It's
so it's so like survival based. It's in a way,
I just want to like love on anybody listening who's like, oh,
should I do that?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Right?
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Of course we do that. It's an incredibly valuable learned
skill to be like I care, but like not really
if that's inconvenient for anybody here. But if there's a
spectrum and over here is over and overhears under, then
what is the sweet spot in the middle. If we're
getting up on a stage and we're time, what matters
to us? How do we access consistently so we can
trust ourselves that level of care so that that that
(10:06):
word passion you used right comes out and it isn't
like this thing that pushes people away because it's too much,
or this thing that makes people not totally seem interesting.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Yeah, so you're almost like a good director is what
I'm what I'm going massaging the Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
That's a lot of it because I'm now I'm almost
entirely now doing public speaking coaching, and often it's for
business leaders. It's right, it's not Hollywood anymore. And you know,
it's a huge mm applies because.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
It's just you or like, wow, these are the crazy question.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, when you get to that level of coaching, Yeah,
to coach individuals that are at that sea level, do
you feel two questions one is are they more introverted
and they're not good with their words because they're just
geniuses what they have in front, so they can operate,
but they just don't publicly speak, or they're just credible
(11:00):
communicators that they're just like they know how to delegate
in an interesting way because they're that leadership, or like,
you know, you don't what I'm trying to ask. If
there's two there's two different powers and there are two
different people you're gonna get at that.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's I Yes, I think those
are the two categories too. For me, it's like either
folks who were thrust into the CEO role and the
public side of it, or even just the like all
hands like meetings with their.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Or like they are gray CEO but they never thought
there was.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Hot and they and they self identify as an introvert,
or they self identify as I hate public speaking, which
of course does like so much allbody. I hate speaking
is a job and then and then it's a story
we tell ourselves, and then we look for evidence and
right like this is a brain's word beautiful, but you
need somebody to like disrupt that, or yeah, they just
(11:50):
want to be like absolutely, like Olympic level pig performance
and I love that too, right where they're like there's
more to learn, or I'm continuing to challenge myself and
speak on bigger stage. Maybe like I'm used to speaking
at the conferences for my industry, but now I want
to speak to the press. Now, I want to speak
to the public. Now I want to be a thought
leader and like really claim my thought leadership and that
(12:11):
kind of up level.
Speaker 6 (12:13):
You know.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
Again, it's story, like the stories we tell ourselves and
how we can change them.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
To make They're just fascinating when you see like attorneys
or you know, the head of the sheriff's department or
whatever and they have to you know, talk a by
the gravity of a situation at a press how do
you convey to the public, you know, public urgency or
emergency or just a regular update on an ongoing case.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Like what are your thoughts? You're saying you have so
many thoughts.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
My main thought is it's not what anybody prioritizes when
they're when they're becoming that position. And then you see
in those moments of public crisis where the audience is
just like watching I'm thinking, for example, of the fires
here in La right when the audience is like watching
being like I need some thing, like I need to
be cared.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
For like.
Speaker 7 (13:05):
Microphone than you, you know, but like either one, it's
either I want to flight attendant who makes me feel
really comfortable or I want just like no bullshit, like
just literally.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
And everyone's relying on this cop or this whatever to
like comfort them right, to like convey that emotion this right,
and so like all of a sudden, they're thrust it
in that position, is what you're saying.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
And do you think in their throat at those moments
and they're like, I mean blast but if and they're like,
we're all on the case and we really got your back.
We're all in the audience being like there's I don't
I can't name it, but that's not enough.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Right, bringing us back a little bit to the beginning,
and so of at all, I want to just drop
a few names that you've worked with, because I saw
this list here and I saw my name there, and
(14:02):
I'm just gonna go impressive, Yeah, Galgadot, right, Pierce Prossman,
an Olympic Cruz, Ricky Martin, Terry Crews, Terry Crews.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
I thought he was just on here.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
He has so many questions. Rachel mccadams, Wilmer Valdorama, that.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Guy, that guy.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Guy o'donno and Angelica Houston Wilmer abod Orama.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Was that like the low in your career you did
not get that.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Have you listened to that guy lately?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Not the guy? Yeah, that's the one that got away.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
I mean the production Like what if that had gone
we would have like been together for years.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
I don't know if he sounds like he went through
a dialing coach.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
At some point in the game, was like, look, you
either either you want wilmermo Dorama or you want you
don't want Wilmerdama, you know, and then eventually it worked.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
But I have so many questions. So you were saying
two thousand in seventeen, is that no? No, I'm like that.
You guys are.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, so really really far away in the landland far away.
Yeahre Hollywood was a little different, right, So if you
were of any dissent somehow, if you're on network TV,
you need to sound American because people thought if you
had an accent on primetime television, no one was going
to understand.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
You, right, I mean, I joke although obviously it is haha,
not funny that half of my work was actually just
soothing the nervous system of producers like they were just like,
oh no, Middle America will be turned off by X
y Z. And I'll be like, we got you.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
And I wanted what was the you want to share?
What project was that we did?
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Well, it was a pilot that never went so no
one will ever know. But here's this is the specific
part about what's the pilot.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I would know about the pilot. Ye, I mean it's
so annoying because no annoying. They didn't get picked up
because it was it was lovely.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
But I will say here was the challenge on that one.
Tell me if this is your memory, you were it
was a family drama to families.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Military is a military show called four Stars, and he
was about two four star general families, right, So it's
like a four star general and a four star general.
They you know, they they went to war together and
all that stuff whatever, and now their families are in
the family and business there in the military. And one
is a reporter you know, and in Washington and all
(16:34):
that stuff, and the other one is a young colonel
played by the always Greade will and uh and you
have Stephen Bauer played my dad and Bruce Greenwood played
I mean, it was like the cast was just phenomenal
and it's a beautiful I just saw the pilot again.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Because I was thinking of that idea. It was so good.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
And we filmed in deep in like Seami Valley for Iraq,
which was fascinating.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Which was amazing. That scene was crazy.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So it was so the It was a beautiful family
drama that also had international turmoil type of.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
You know, a compliment to the story.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
You know, there was also there was also like an
action you know aspect to it, but it was also
about the core of the families and all that and
it fell into the whole. Around this time, CBS would
on cancer shows. There was no slots, so it was like,
no matter how great your pilots were, if things were performing,
you might not only get one slot a year, two
slots a year to put in something new. They still
(17:30):
were making pilots though, so but I was supposed to
be someone who had just kind of you know, grown
up service, you know, whether universe.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
It was cast with a brother and maybe a sister
and a mom and a dad who all had American accents.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yeah. Right, so then.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
So the question is, would be the story of this
guy who just has this little bit of a leftover
right venezuelan sound like, no problem except if it confuses
the audience, which in this case it might actually have.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
And so hard he cooked it up. He's like, you
know what did you know this? Like at some point
did you want to write write in the line?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
He just decided, you know what, I'm gonna have a
little bit of a slight accent.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Oh he did that for you?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Oh wow, Yeah, because because.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
The truth is like the performance, like they'd be like,
the performance is great, but that one word, so I
would end up doing like you can.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Talk about the process of a guy like coach on
set is like like creating, how do I have no
idea how to put this? Creating a this like a
protective this for my actor where I am completely honest
with them, but I'm also not prioritizing a tiny bit
of sound over the like emotional truth of the scene.
Like we're on the same team. But if they're hearing
(18:48):
sounds and they're telling me to go in and give
him this note, he knows and I know that we're
playing this game and it's a dance.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
But you were involved, and even though she was involved,
Steven still felt like he had.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
The Well, I just I was ruggling with very specific words,
a lot of military formal stuff that I just have
never said out there.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
And literally they wanted to miss sound American overnight and
like you sound you know you are the most American's
very excited, but like you know what I'm saying. My
agent would call this a dialect emergency and it always
cracked me up.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
But the idea of a dialect.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Emergency is like the night before, the producers are like
Ohan over there.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Wa, but heres what was really interesting?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So kind of going back and I want to explain
to audiences a little bit more of how this works,
right because I think everyone's like, wait, somebody teaches you
how to talk like an American accing like you know,
so I just want to, you know, so specifically, what
happens is when they're they're actors that are not either
born and raised here or they have a crazy New
(19:52):
York accent, but they need to sound like they're from
La or you know, or they have a Puerto Rican accent,
but they got to sound Mexican can like, there are
certain tools that you have to kind of acquired, but
beyond those tools, you have to have some kind of
coaching because if you've never been exposed to that type
of communication, I mean that that type of uh you
(20:15):
know of dialect, then you know it's going to take
a second.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
It's going to take a lot of repetition, it's going
to talk a lot of rehearsal.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
But sometimes they don't realize this thing until like you're
in rehearsals and you're shooting next week.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And they're like, would you be open? This is how
they come to you. Would you be open like maybe
having someone bring.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And they ask your agent because they don't ask the
producers never want to be the bad guys. They ask
your agents and they'll call your agent and they're like, hey,
so has a little bit of an accent. Is it
is it? Does he can he lose his accent and
make it more American? And my agent calls me and
says like, hey, they really want.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
You to lose your action a right? Cool?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And for a lot of times what happens is I
can do it to the script, but the moment mean
that I'm flowing and I have to add live something.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
That's why I start drawing outside the lions.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That's what my accident, absolutely, because you've worked on those specifics,
so those things that you know, and then all of
a sudden, I'm feeling and I'm vibing and I'm flowing,
and all of a sudden, I'm making something a little
saucy aired And.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Then we start with your the magical moments that we
in the audience want to see. So now we're cross
purposes because because he's like, shit, don't do those. Oh wait,
but no, do those.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
And that's one of the reasons why I said this
is such a it's very fun for me. This is
also one of these very vulnerable moments for actors where
they have to kind of take the ego aside.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
And this is not like it has nothing to do
with you.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
It has everything to do with the vision and the
structure of what a filmmaker or a writer or a
producer wants for their project, right, right, And they know
you're the guy for the job, right, they know you're
the guy for the role.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
By the way you got the job.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, and by the way, like they there were you know,
they were very excited, and I think you know, and
CBS excited to work with me, and it's the first
time I worked with CBS, and you know.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
So we're like, let's go, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
And they wanted this family to be to have a
Latin descent, you know, they wanted to but you know,
they wanted to be American Latinos, which means like they
don't have an accent, you know.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
That'd being said. We started thinking like what if it
was I know, he.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Was on a base you know, in South America for
like the first his infant years. We started like, you're
coming up with all these storylines in the background that
that gave him kind of the ability to say, hey,
you know, he has an accent because he was kind
of raised on the base with locals from a different
Latin writing country or something.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
But the point I'm making is that eventually they'll make
a phone call and they say like, hey, would you
be open and working with the coach, And the answer
is always yes, right, because let's let's go, let's do it.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
And that's how we met, and we had a you
know a lot of these great.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Conversations, Like I it was funny, it is like my
vocaulary for English is really good, but my my pronunciations.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Just like that, like who I am? You know, it's
just like what you.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Know how it sounds like now I now I have
any easier time because I've been working for a lot
longer and like you know, I've been speaking English for
a lot longer, you know. But at those times when
I when I had to do something that was not
necessarily calling for someone like me, someone to be something
like you know, like a military guy or something, we
would have to do the coaching and then we started
(23:25):
the exercise. But like, but you can talk a little
bit more about the process. So then you arrive on
stead and here's the actor.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Were you, Here's here's your here's your actor, and okay,
let us know when it when it's fixed.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Were you part of Like were you like on CBS's
list of dialog Like how did you.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
To you tell me?
Speaker 5 (23:55):
We never know? I mean I had an agent and
and I had a reputation frankly right, like it's often
word of mouth, and I know I was I think
still am. It's just I'm saying it in past tense
because I'm not doing this work as much anymore. But
like I think I was on the top of the
list for CIA, the big agency. You know, it's like
it's like they would just be like, go to her,
she you know literally with I think that they think
(24:18):
is she doesn't fuck up her actors, because so much
of the work is not just the vowels and consonants.
It's making sure that you don't lose your your confidence
and your sense of play.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And compliment to you.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Like a lot of acting coaches that are brought as
an emergency to said because someone is having a tough
time getting there.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
You know, also is a really that you.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Kind of share a very similar kind of structure. You know,
you kind of have to really. I always this is analogya.
I've used it a few times, probably on the show too,
but in life in general, it's it's like a picture
and a catcher.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
The catcher is a psychologist. He's a therapist to the picture.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
He's got to come in massage the pitches out of
your picture. Because in baseball, if that picture is the
stress or he gets in his head, can get out
of it.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
There goes the game. Right, He's like he's gonna blow
it at the mount right.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
So the catcher comes up with a smile when he's like, hey, good, good, good,
that's really good. Good speed on that ninth curve on that. Now,
let's give me a straight because in this one we're
gonna do blah blahah you know, or like, hey, you're
coming in a little low on this, don't be afraid
to go through it a little harder.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Let's go, baby, let's go.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
We got this right, So that gets the picture. Okay, cool,
it's me and him playing catch.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Right, right, but catch. But pictures are like actors.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
There is I don't the word is not delicate, but
there is sensive. There is a sensitivity to the to
the finesse.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Yeah you know.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And that's why when we had our episode about directors, yeah,
uh huh, the sensitivity of how you address your actors. Yeah,
it's very very important.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yeah you know. But the point is you have to
have like the picture catcher mentality.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
But often it happens in these tiny, little like ninja
moments where you know, in between takes, like cut, we're
going again, hair and makeup, come in and do like
a little whatever, dab dab, and I whisper in your
ear and then we all go together. If I'm whisper,
if I wisp like a good whisper. Maybe is like
it's the just that you know, you know, you're you're
(26:32):
almost there, You've.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Got this, You've got this.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
A bad one is why do you keep messing that up?
Or like eighty billion other right, we could go with
eighty billion other game?
Speaker 3 (26:40):
You were you've nailed it ten times. I don't know
what's happening?
Speaker 5 (26:43):
Yeah, what the fuck are you doing?
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (26:46):
And literally like I I often you know, have like
have like the number one on the call sheet, like
in a way I hold there. I have so much power, right,
like it's important not to use that. It's really really
what that moment is.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
That we're trying to She's like a yeah, so the
director comes to give you a thought and then oh
yeah she has a mad thing to do. So like
you have two Now you have two people and sometimes
a writer coming at you.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
So now you have your dialary coach, Now you have your.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Director, and now you have the writer that just wants
to tell you why it's important to leave it as written.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
And the director just gave a note of like try
a different ways. So now you're really you know, processing,
and then I'm there. Often what happens actually for a
good dialect coach who like reads the room. Is that
I'm holding back, right, You got to let obviously, you
got to let them give their note first, and then
I decide a if my note is worth going in
after that be if my note is going to help
what the director just said or heard it?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
So are you are you listening to what the director?
Speaker 5 (27:49):
If I can? Right, Yeah, it matters right because I
am there for them, like I really am. Not as
much as my job is to protect the sound, get
those zunes right, My real job is tell a good story.
My real job is like make the director's vision. Make
your heartbeat to the speed of the audience, you know,
(28:11):
like we're here to make arts.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I'll tell you something some an actor probably has never
told you, but maybe it has, and you tell me
if it did. There's a time where your nerves get
so you're I've been doing this for twenty years quite
by the time that you know, then I've done it
for almost seventeen years or something in my career.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Right, So I trust my instinct as an actor.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I know that I'm about to kill it like I
come in as a killer. I'm coming in on the
set and I'm prepared and I'm ready, let's go, you know,
and then you have this other layer. She's like, Okay,
I got what I need to do for the character.
I know who the character is. Now he has to
sound this way, which is not who I sound like, right,
(28:53):
And so you end up doing a take and immediately
you look over to video village and the actor stuging
to producer is fine. The actor is talking to SCRIPTI
that's fine because I know I know those two things.
But the moment the actor the director talks to the
dally coach, he.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Has a problem.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
I know.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
That's when I know, here comes the fucking note. And
I'm sititting there like I see the lean over or whatever.
And sometimes what happens is the directors like did they
nail it or not know it because he's not looking.
He's not here in the accent right. And by the way,
sometimes the directors don't even hear it.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
Or sometimes what we're actually working on is like a
really specific like I said West Texas earlier. You know,
it's like the director doesn't know I'm the keeper.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Of the sound, yes exactly.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
And the actor and I are like in our own
little dance because we're the ones who've been listening NonStop
to clip that tells us how these people sound, you
know whatever, and the director, Yeah, it is just looking.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Do you ever just let do you ever just go
Well that wasn't one hundred, but it'll but it'll fly.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
You ever do that?
Speaker 4 (30:00):
And so like the action is maybe eighty percent?
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Yeah, I mean I joke that. Like, as with any
crew member, by the way, the dialect coach's job is
to be super obsessed with the one thing I'm there
to do and also simultaneously deprioritize it the instant it
doesn't matter. Yeah, and so I like, my makes my
heart be like my job wait, no, chill, no, my job,
but chill and like that. But that is the thing, right,
(30:23):
We have to be able to deprioritize it when it's
just not what the moment's about.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Have you ever done that and then watched the thing
that you were coaching on and then and then like
the thing that you were like, it's like eighty percent,
it's okay, and then you see it on TV and
you're like.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Ah, here's the inside.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
I hear it.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Third way, There is a third way, which.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Is ABR alright, Also, then is it an ADR that's right.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
So then is it your call to go, hey, he
has to eight rs?
Speaker 5 (30:49):
I mean with my dream producers, yes it is. They're like,
let me send you the rough cut and you give
us notes, right, or like tell us what scenes we're
gonna need to go in on. Usually I'm thrown in
at the last second for d R. But yeah, I
mean that's so that's happened. I mean I got my
start doing ad R.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
That's happened.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
Where you see the actors performance and you're like, you gotta,
you gotta.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
Okay, the actress performance is a dramatic way of putting Yeah, yeah,
a few waywards sounds.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Performing the sound the only perform this network.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
You're exactly right. Well, also, wait, since you said that,
I just feel like it's it's important to say that
so much of the job when you're when I am
on a set is like, yes, these are the guardrails,
let's stay within that. This is the sound we need
to do for the story. We're talking so much of
real life and accent work is messier than that. And like,
I don't even accent work. I should just say accents, right,
And you know, and we know that so much of
(31:58):
what is beautiful about how each of us sounds and
how literally every one of us sounds different from everyone else.
Is that the sounds coming out of our mouth reflect
the life we've actually lived, the places we've lived, the
people we've spent the most time with, the people we admire,
the people we want never to sound like like that's
our life coming out of our mouth. So you know, yeah,
(32:21):
my job on set is like, this is the right
sound and this is the less right sound, But in
real life that's not that's not the thing, right. And actually,
part of my job has been my job that I
made up, the part where I'm like, actually just coaching
and consulting folks is often to help them see their
own inner biases around sounds and be like, can we
what if we backed off on that? What if we
check that bias and we're like, you sound exactly right
(32:44):
for the message you're going to give on that stage.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
It's you.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
And that's why literally gain. The book is called Permission
to Speak, and the cover has the word permission six
times on it. It's like, that's because the permission matters
more than the.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Speaking, right, right.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
I know you fell in love with actors when you
were ten watch Shakespeare.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
But what was this specifically.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
About accents that made you go into into dialect codes?
Speaker 5 (33:06):
Okay, I have two quick answers. One is I got
an MFA in acting, so I really was trying to
pursue acting. Oh cool, if you ever like have I
or whatever like like I'm available.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
You sound like likely sealball. That is the most random question.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah, I see it.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Yeah, I mean, let me do some preser.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
What's a little video, we'll circle back, let's we'll talk
about that after the episode.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
But the other answer is, if I'm being like a
totally honest dork about this, I loved impressions when I
was little. I love Marilyn Monroe and I would do
her voice. I would do British voice right, like there
was I wasn't getting them right. But I was so
curious even then about the relationship between how we sound
(33:57):
and how we get treated in life. Oh, that's interesting,
and the idea that we could change how we sound.
I mean, my fair lady. This classic musical is literally
about somebody with a lower class, like a coded for
class lower class British accent, who, because of a like
social experiment by a mean dialect coach learns how to
(34:19):
sound fancy and her life opens up. And I watched
that as like a ten year old being like I
am learning something about the world from this. Wow, not
necessarily something that I want to emulate, right, I'm not like,
let me please be that asshole dialect coach. It came one,
but that idea that when we change how we sound,
(34:39):
our world changes for better and for worse, like really
really like.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Feels like it feels like an interesting code, like a
key to different different.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Under And now I've done you know, I did a
lot of research on like social linguistics, which is like
literally how the sounds that come out of our mouth
happened because of the society we're because of the room
we're in, because right, like we all know we sound
different when we talk to like a three year old
then we talked to a grandmother than we did when
we talk to a lawyer who's mad. Then we like,
is one version real and the other ones are fake?
Or are humans made to have these different versions of
(35:14):
ourselves that come out in different rooms? And you know
that's complicated and there's you know, aspects of that like
code switching that feel really heavy. But also like we
can celebrate it because obviously this is like an evolutionary
trait in.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Humans, right, And what was that? The most interesting thing
you found when you when you when you took up
social linguistics was was that.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
You know, I'll tell you one other thing. Thank you
for giving me like permission to be like a nerd
about social But here's here's the heart of it. And
it's in a way, it's kind of what I just said,
but I'm saying it differently because I love this. I
love this. It's like a gift for me. Maybe all
of us social linguists will say that every habit any
of us have ever picked up our arms and us,
(35:58):
the acts and stuff, the ways in which we sound more,
you know, like our hometown and we've just talked to
our mom and we don't when we haven't. Every habit
any of us have ever picked up in how we sound,
we've picked up for a reason. It has served us
in some way.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
In a bad or a good way.
Speaker 5 (36:16):
It has served us. It has like helped you know,
somebody will say, oh, I can't I hate that, I
say like so much. Make me stop saying like, and
I'll be like, we can get a little more bit
more conscious about your likes and what those are, what
those like hedging terms are doing. But also can we
just love on that? Like where did we pick it up?
Who do you love that? Sounds like that? Who are
(36:37):
you reflecting back? How has that helped you to connect
with people in those other rooms, in those other relationships,
in those moments before this one?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Right?
Speaker 5 (36:45):
And like if there's shame wrapped up in that, can
we deshame that?
Speaker 7 (36:49):
Right?
Speaker 5 (36:49):
Right?
Speaker 4 (36:50):
But they're obviously raising that question because although it may
have helped them, they feel that it's actually hurting them
as well.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
Often it's like I'm trying to up level. I'm now
you know, in this more professional context.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
And they're watching themselves give the speech or they get
really self conscious. Yeah, and they're just like, oh my god,
I said like like a million times. Yeah, I think
but the old our producers do that, does.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
That a lot?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (37:15):
I mean, are you calling someone out?
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Ye's he says, my lot.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
But he's just because he's so smart, he's just like
he thinks about so many different ideas.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
He has had a tough time. Hello, I was talking
about a producer that we work with.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Yes, you know, you're just so smart.
Speaker 5 (37:32):
I'm as a great example. I'm as a great example.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
I am the king of But you know what an is?
Speaker 5 (37:39):
I mean, linguistically speaking, it's just a little like you're
dropping a little sign post that says a not quite
donely processed, and often it allows your audience to process too.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Can I tell you what I think in like his?
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Because I have the same issues myself when I do
when I speak in the uh I'm saying, So what
I'm doing is I'm buying myself time to piece together
a sentence that I want to sound smart.
Speaker 5 (38:08):
So do you mean that you don't do it when
you're feeling more loose?
Speaker 2 (38:11):
When I feel more confident and I'm running with my stuff,
I rarely used to like or.
Speaker 5 (38:18):
So this is thank you for that example, because this
is like the old timey and I'm like insert irol.
The old timy approach to public speaking is count your
ums in us. Stop doing that, like police yourself, stop it.
And my approach is like, what's going on in the
inside psychologically that's making you feel like you have to
prove yourself right because all of us have a version
(38:40):
of ourselves. That's like, how do I prove myself well,
I should, I should like shave off all the parts
of me that.
Speaker 6 (38:45):
Are super weird, but you should bring that.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
I should say that my biggest words that I have.
And then there's the other version of ourself that's with
our favorite people, and how do we bring that version
of us?
Speaker 4 (38:54):
But you may be right, but like the perception that
the overall perception is that if you do too many
elms or too many likes, that it's there's a negative
perception behind that, right, But you're saying, although there's a
negative perception behind that, you should embrace it anyway.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Is that?
Speaker 4 (39:09):
Is that?
Speaker 5 (39:09):
What? No, I'm actually saying, Yes, And you know what
I'm really saying is what Wilmer said, which is which
is brilliant, just reflecting your brilliance, which which is what
you said, which is what actually happens in the human body,
is that when we are feeling more relaxed, more confident,
(39:30):
like we have less to prove, like we're around our
favorite people and they get us even if we're not.
If we give ourselves permission to show up that way, yeah,
we am the end a less.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Yeah, that's incredibly fascinating. But before we continue on, we
are going to take a pause.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
This is the end of episode one of two. Because
you're giving us so much time. That's so thank you
for listening and watching. Uh those some egos and wim
with I'm Freddi Rodriguez. See you on the next one.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Dose Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
Michael through That podcast network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez,
and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts
and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by
Madison Devenport and Halo Boy.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
by Deny Holtz Clau and.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Thank you for being at Third Amigo today. I appreciate
you guys always listening to Those Amigos.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
More podcasts from my heart, visit the ir heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
See you next week.
Hosts And Creators
Wilmer Valderrama
Freddy Rodriguez
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