October 20, 2025 • 56 mins
We love a good side quest on Pod Meets World, especially if it involves one of the “Worst Movies Ever Made.” Rider unknowingly reconnects with Michael Stephenson, a fellow veteran of the Oakwood Apartments and child star in, turned documentarian of, the infamous “Troll 2.”
Michael shares the story of how he auditioned for the movie, which should’ve been his first sign of how it would turn out.
And we hear how Michael, decades later, took fans behind the scenes with his documentary “Best Worst Movie,” reuniting the cast to look at how something becomes the “best worst movie.”
Sometimes it’s the weirdest experiences that teach us the most. So, join Pod Meets World, and a story for the ages, for their newest interview episode…
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Okay, So, Danielle, I don't know if you're aware of this,
but you're on Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Me, yeah, you are if you had so.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Obviously, somebody in a room somewhere at some point where
you know would be funny or amazing or incredible is
taking actors and teaching that to dance, and we'll make a.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Show out of it.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Pick make up a reality show right now? What would
your reality show be that you would pitch with actors?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
With anything? With anything? What's your reality show?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Oh, my gosh, my reality show.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I think we're gonna have to limit it to like
what would we make actors do?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
I think we do need because honestly, I have a
show that I've I've talked to you guys about that.
I think it's so sick and I don't know why
I haven't even just made it myself yet, but like
it has to be done because it's what I spend
all of my time doing.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
When I scroll social media, I.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
Am obsessed with comments, the comedy that John Mary Josephin,
you know, whoever out there can come up with when
they watch a funny video and the comment they leave
blows me away.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I want to watch a show, a.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Cheap clip style show similar to the Soup or the
Dish that I used to host, called the comment section
where you play the viral video or the clip whatever
it is that's going around.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
The internet, several of them.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
But after you watch the video, you say, now, let's
check in on the comment section, and you just open
up the comments and you highlight the people with the
best comments. Then you have some sort of voting section,
and whoever won for comment of the Day or comment
of the video wins ten thousand dollars or like that's great.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So it's like a maror because funniest home videos but
America's funniest comment comments.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Exactly just based on the comments.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Because, for one thing, if I could watch a twenty
two minute show and manage to see what are all
these videos people are talking about because I don't necessarily
have time to find them all on my own, Oh,
these are all the videos of the day that people
were talking about. Great, oh my gosh, the ten best
comments or the five best comments under everyone that's hysterical,
Like I would love to get my social media. This
(02:27):
is the best of the best that happened today in
one cheap format way.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
You know, what I would recommend to is to keep
it wholly positive, so.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Like correct do not taking somebody down, so not yucking
somebody's yum it is.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
It is spin celebration of.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
The comment section should be celebrated for you know, positive, funny, yes.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Whatever, not just not.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Because there might be really funny comments that are ripping
apart the video or you know, talking about someone's appearance
or whatever, so you just have to avoid those.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
But I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, I love that good good one one writer.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
I don't know, just at the top of my head.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
I mean, I was trying to think of like actors
in situations. You know, I love school, I love college.
I would love to do a show where you take
like actors and that had never went to college and
be like, now let's let's follow you let go.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
They did that with what's his name with Tommy Lee
Tommy Lee, the drummer from the from the crew went
to college.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
Yeah, yeah, I think it'd be great.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
It'd be great and like just give them like a
full semester and like a subject that they always thought
they wanted to do, Like you know where you used
to want to be an archaeologist, right like you, I
think like watching you like do that for a semester
and like, you know, really take it seriously as like
a doc of like what's this experience?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Like, yeah, that's what what's it.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Like for them on campus? And yeah, you know, do
they get recognized? Who'd they become friends with? What do
the teachers think of them? That's a really good idea.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I have a couple one of them that I've always
wanted to do because I love cooking shows, but they're
all already chefs. I want to have some follow me
while I actually go to culinary school. Such a good idea,
Like it's never been one where it's like how do
you be calm a chef?
Speaker 7 (04:06):
Like?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I want to do that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
The other one for celebrities, I want to do celebrity
aerial dog fighting. What they learned, Like they learn how
to fly the planes and you learn how to and
it's you do like dog fighting with you have to
learn how to fly and then you learn it's like
aerial dog fighting.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Gosh, that sounds great. There are so many people with
fear of heights. Though I think that might be hard.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I don't have to try it. Though, it would just
be so much fun.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
I mean, I would try it. It's right at my alley.
I could die doing it. I could do it at
high speed. Yes, I'm not afraid of heights and.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Nuper competitive competitive people down like you know, yeah, yeah,
you know actually did it aerial dog fighting.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yeah, my parents found this company that did it and
surprised me and my brother with it when we were
like fifteen sixteen. Where they train you for a whole
day and you get a hold.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
On today, not a whole day. You have to give
up a a whole day to.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
You're seeing a classroom. You're sitting in the classroom for
like six seven hours of six.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Or seven hours, and then they put you like we
had to trust you.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
You're in a World War two like era a plane,
but they have the they have a stick behind you,
so they're really like flying.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
They're flying it out, but you're you're giving off.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
I have a stick in the front.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
We were actually in control of So once you're up
there and they're like go and and then they so
dagerous they had rigged they had rigged the plane so
that when you shot at each other once you got
because they teach you exactly what they have to do
and how you get behind each other. Smoke would come
out if you, like, you know, hit the other person.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
So my dog.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Yeah, and uh, I have never been more sick because
the guy was like, let's do some barrel rolls and
let's do some loops, and I was like, oh god no.
But I was probably the most nauseous I've ever been
in my lib'.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
People that do that throw up, like Tom Tom Cruise
was throwing up, but during the first up everybody, but.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
So yeah, not really my thing. But Chilotte was totally fine,
and like he ends up taking flying lessons after that
because it was so fun.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
And now that I know this, I think we should
just have like, let's teach celebrities to be surgeons. Like
you spend a whole day, you get a whole day,
six or seven hours.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
And you know, a lot of people don't know about
that real surgery.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
If you touch the sides, the patient buzzes.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
A lot of people didn't know that that's.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
A real factory.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
That's a little factoy for you if you touch the side.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I love that game. I love that game. Try to
get the bone out.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Exactly a little boner around the me collect one thousand
dollars fee.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Yeah, what about celebrity lawyers? What about.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Lawyers trial for trust him with a real trial.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I think they nail it.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
That person murder.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
God, it's actually there's some great celebrity. There's some great
possible if.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
You throw all morals out the window. We have got
some crazy we've done.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
That are out there.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Listen, guys, I just like ballroom dancing. There's nothing wrong
with ballroom dancing.
Speaker 7 (07:11):
That is.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
You're right, that's a good one.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Welcome to Pod meets World. I'm Daniel Fishel, I'm right
or strong, and I'm Wilforde. As always, our favorite part
of Pod meets World is how just one small side
(07:37):
quest conversation can turn into so much more. Oh, Natania Ross,
you were in a movie called Munchi's two.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Let's watch it. What's that background actor's name again? That's right,
it's Dusty. Let's find him.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
And some can even make us cry, like Matthew Foster
the Make a Wish Kid we were reminded of from
a random email. It has been an incredible never really
knowing where the road will take us. So when Rider
mentioned a recent documentary he loved where much of the
premise and heart reminded him of what we've done here
on Podmeats World.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Jensen said he.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Knew the director, and the rest is well this podcast
episode and hilariously, somehow Ryder knows the director too. When
our guest booked a horror film in nineteen ninety, his
first job as a kid in Hollywood, he had no
idea what he was stepping into. Commonly called the best
worst movie ever, Troll two may have been an ignored
(08:33):
B movie spectacle when it was released, but it's since
taken on a life of its own, so much so
that the child star, now grown up, made a documentary
to fully understand the insanity he experienced. The film became
a top Dock of two thousand and nine, but it
helped him process and grasp what the experience meant to
him even years later, which yes, sounds very familiar. And
(08:55):
he's since made another documentary, this time about lavish residential
haunted houses, which he ever acted in, and has found
himself back in Hollywood now behind the camera directing scripted films.
This week, we welcome one of our most unique brothers
in the fraternity of child actors. He's the star of
Troll two, the director of Best Worst Movie, and one
(09:15):
of Writer's childhood friends. It's Michael Paul Stevenson.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
Hello, Hey, how are you.
Speaker 7 (09:28):
Drinking an espresso trying to wake up?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yes, good for you.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
I've got a coffee right here in my Philly Forever
at Ever mug nice.
Speaker 7 (09:38):
We put out.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
We put out the troll to bat signal, and we
are so happy.
Speaker 7 (09:42):
You responded, Wild movie will never go away.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
No, we don't want.
Speaker 6 (09:49):
It's too good.
Speaker 8 (09:53):
I have a bit of a bit of news that
may surprise you as well. Uh, Writer, I don't know
if you remember, but we were pals. We lived, we
we lived, We lived in Oakwood together.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
This is told me this and I was like, what so, Yes,
I don't remember. I don't make this connection. We hung out.
Speaker 8 (10:16):
Yeah, it's it's wild. Your your your mom, and your
brother Shiloh. I think you were. I remember your family
being one of the very few, if not the only,
same families.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
In Oakwood.
Speaker 8 (10:34):
It was such a crazy did did you have roller blades?
Speaker 6 (10:37):
Did we go rollerblading together?
Speaker 7 (10:39):
And I had I had I had a skateboard. You
had roller blades? It was a weird, was it was?
It was an interesting.
Speaker 8 (10:46):
That whole place is such a wild uh yeah, wild,
wild world. I don't know if you I don't know
if you've seen there's a documentary actually called The Hollywood
Complex that is all centered on oak Wood and the
child actors.
Speaker 7 (11:01):
I grew up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's and
it's dark.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
It's a good documentary.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
But how long were you there?
Speaker 7 (11:13):
I was there.
Speaker 8 (11:14):
Let's see, from the time I was twelve until about sixteen,
just like every pilot season.
Speaker 7 (11:23):
So yeah, I was there.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
You're originally from Texas, right, So how did you How
did you decide to make the move to Los Angeles.
Speaker 8 (11:31):
Well, I actually was born in Texas, but I didn't.
I didn't live there very long. I was I was
adopted and grew up in Utah, of all places, And
in Utah I started.
Speaker 7 (11:43):
Doing stage, doing theater when I was really young. I
loved it.
Speaker 8 (11:48):
And then somebody from one of those productions said, oh,
you should do this professionally, and and you know, talk
to my parents. I was probably seven or eight a time,
and my parents were like, no way, this is not
anything we're going to do.
Speaker 7 (12:07):
And I continued to.
Speaker 8 (12:08):
Push and push, and this was in Utah, about places
because I loved I loved theater, I loved acting, and
ultimately ended up pushing them into getting an agent when
I was nine and a half and the first movie
audition I ever had was Troll two.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
God.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Yeah, so when you when you were at the oak Wood,
You're coming off of Troll two, right, Like, what did
that mean? Did it have any effect like backlash or positive?
I mean, you did a movie, which is a good sign,
But did people think of it as a bad or
it didn't even register?
Speaker 8 (12:47):
I think I think it was one of those films
that didn't really register at that point. I mean I
it registered for me, like it was the sort of
thing where I had hoped and and and braid that
nobody would see that film, because.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Back then you knew, like you were immediately like on
the thought.
Speaker 8 (13:09):
Yeah, So I mean I had I remember the first
time that I had watched it.
Speaker 7 (13:16):
You know, we made the movie and.
Speaker 8 (13:17):
All of the times that you guys, know, you make
movies and you don't know when they're going to come out.
Speaker 7 (13:21):
What they're going to be, you have you don't have
any idea.
Speaker 8 (13:24):
And after we made the movie as a as a
ten and a half year old, I was like okay,
like the next time, like you know, next time that
we all come together as a cast, will be at
the big premiere and we'll watch our movie together. And
time went by and kind of was like, oh.
Speaker 7 (13:45):
What where where is that movie? And of all things,
my parents had had had tracked it down.
Speaker 8 (13:51):
And on Christmas morning, I remember unwrapping presents and then
actually coming across the strange vhs and uh, you know
says they said troll too. Because when we made the movie,
it wasn't it was called Goblin.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
Which god, yeah, and and my.
Speaker 8 (14:14):
Dad was like put it in, like let's watch a movie,
and it was I mean it was it was not
even a minute into that and it was like, oh
my god, this is a bad, bad movie. And so
and it was kind of a thing where like okay,
and then you become a teenager and continued acting. But
I had this one uncle who every like, for some reason,
(14:37):
Troll two was constantly programmed at the you know, the
latest hours of night on HBO, like over and over
and over again. And I had an uncle who would, uh,
he would he would call me every weekend because he'd
get the TV guide and he'd be like your crappy
movie is on again.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
I love now. We laugh about it now. But when
you when you.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
Got those phone calls, then, what what was the feeling
you had?
Speaker 7 (15:10):
I mean, you know, like you're you're at an age.
Speaker 8 (15:14):
It's obviously very you know, you're you're impressionable, it's formative,
you're trying to be.
Speaker 7 (15:20):
I think for me the biggest thing was is.
Speaker 8 (15:22):
I I went on and I acted in other things.
Speaker 7 (15:26):
That I thought would be more remembered or were more.
Speaker 8 (15:30):
Uh what you know, just like deserved more attention. But
those things and in hindsight I get it, yeah, and
in those things didn't.
Speaker 7 (15:40):
And so Troll two just continued and it.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
Was very much a like you know, I I I
remember in the TV guide because there was a rating
system in the in the old TV guides, and it
was like, you know, one to four star, there was
even a half star, and then below a half star,
it was it was an icon of a turn key.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Oh geez, oh no, you got the turkey.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
Yeah. So wow.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
First of all, for the record, we've all done them,
we all have those movies in our past or it's like, oh, that's.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
Part of being an actor, you know.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I mean that's why I found the documentary so fascinating
is because I felt like, this is applicable well beyond
this this one film, you know, and in some ways
you're the most fortunate of the cast because you were
a kid, you know, you have the biggest You have
the most like understandable lack of cultural awareness, right, or
(16:39):
lack of taste, right. And so that's why I think
it's so fascinating that you really initiated this journey of
like exploring that question like what is you know, how
how do you evaluate the things you're in as an actor?
And then how do you feel about that? And man,
I thought you just did such a good job with
the documentary. And it turns out I'm like a huge
fan because I also of American Scream. I didn't realize
(17:02):
that was you. So then when I looked that up,
I was like, oh my god, I love your work.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
Man.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
You are so good and you're so sensitive to your subjects,
and I just couldn't believe the way you balanced this.
You know, where you're you're understanding where everybody's coming from,
but you're also showcasing some pretty strange people and and
and there their understanding of their own movie. Have you
have you stayed in touch with the cast control too,
(17:26):
or when the documentary came out, did that change the
relationship with them? I?
Speaker 8 (17:32):
Yeah, I mean I've I've stayed in touch with with
some of them. George Hardy, who played my father, we're
still We're so close and like having having a friendship
all these years later, Like he's He's a remarkable man
on the number of levels, just strange and funny and interesting,
and I just I love I love him to death.
So I stayed in touch with him. I actually was
(17:54):
in Italy last year and I hadn't talked to him
in a few years. But I've stayed in touch with
Claudio Ferragaso, the director of Tronto.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
Yeah, I have, because like I have a real also
a real love.
Speaker 8 (18:14):
I've grown to have a real love and appreciation for
this guy who was so impressionable to me as a
young kid. And you guys know, making anything in this
business is hard, and so as I got as I
(18:35):
got older and I got more distance from the movie,
I kept thinking about, like God, like this guy somehow
made this movie about vegetarian goblins in Utah with actors
who couldn't act, couldn't speak.
Speaker 7 (18:48):
The language, and he made it and it will be remembered.
Speaker 8 (18:55):
And there's a part of the documentary that I always love,
and it's when he's holding his thirty five million print
reel for the first time and he's like, I've never
held my actual movie, and he talks about how important
it is to just, you know, make something that isn't forgotten.
And so he's the guy that I've gotten close to.
And when I was in Italy last summer, I phoned
(19:17):
him up and we went and had dinner together, and
it was just one of those moments where you're like,
this the movie strangely troll two and in bestworce movie.
Speaker 7 (19:27):
Whatever it's it has.
Speaker 8 (19:30):
Given me so much in my life with respect to relationships,
but gross as as a.
Speaker 7 (19:36):
Filmmaker, to just experiences. I wouldn't I wouldn't trade for anything.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
I mean, I mean, part of the reason why the
movie is so memorable is is that earnestness that he
is putting forth.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
I mean, he made exactly.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
It seems like he made exactly the movie he wanted
to make, and that's what's so, you know, I feel
like there's a version of the documentary that you made
where you tracked on the director and he's like, yeah,
it was a piece of crap. We you know, I know,
I didn't have the money and we don't have the
things I wanted whatever, but hey it was fun. And
instead he's like, no, this is the movie I wanted
to make. Why are they laughing? I don't get why
(20:09):
they're laughing when I didn't mean it to be funny.
And that is a big swing. That's like that's indistry, right,
and like that's however you feel about the movie, Like
he made exactly what he wanted to and that is impressive,
and I yeah, it's fascinating to me that he's still
doubling down on that.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
I feel like there's a lot of.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
So called cult films, especially in horror, that sort of
take being a cult film is the easy way out
because they can't achieve what they were going to so
they're just like, yeah, let's just have bad effects and
we'll call it a day, you know, or whatever, and
we'll just laugh at it. I mean, in a lot
of ways, I feel like even Cavin Fever kind of
turned out that way. It was like, I think Eli
(20:49):
at first wanted to make more of a straightforward scary film,
realized that's not gonna happen. You know, it's a little ridiculous.
And then as a cast we kept bringing this energy
of like where's this And I think while we were
filming it, Eli and Braceden was like, you know what,
it's all the tones. I want this movie to be there,
And he, to his credit, earnestly invested in a million
(21:10):
different directions. So it's became more of a cult horror film.
But I don't think it started that way, you know,
And I think that so I love that that that
the director was just yeah, like he's still true to it.
And he wasn't he wasn't offended by your documentary, Like
he didn't feel like it.
Speaker 8 (21:27):
No, he I mean, I I think there was there
was there was there was a process where he came
to understand just what it is. I think he had
some feelings right off the bat with like trying to
understand it all. But he's never been anything but supportive
but just like positive around anything that's.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
Being made period.
Speaker 7 (21:51):
Like he's just he's just that kind of guy.
Speaker 8 (21:53):
So I never you know, and and and and I
had hoped that like when I made it. You know,
it's it's sort of like a strange dysfunctional family of sorts,
right like you make it. You there, there there are realities,
and there are there are truths that you experienced for sure,
and some of them are absurd and don't make any sense.
Speaker 7 (22:14):
Connection that I have to all the.
Speaker 8 (22:16):
People and this experience that I had, and it is right,
you hit it. I mean, you said it so well
in in respect to the thing that I identified most
with with him and what I really came to love
is his sincerity and lack of irony and just being
genuine and and and and that takes courage, especially when
(22:41):
you're when you're set up to fail, when it's against
all odds.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
Right.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
So yeah, I want to go back to you your
audition for the movie. You said you you did the
(23:05):
movie when you were ten and a half. Had you
ever seen a horror movie?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Do you remember your audition?
Speaker 8 (23:11):
I mean, I I saw et was one of my
first the first movies I ever saw. Yeah, I remember
my audition really well. And I saw Gremlins also as
well when I was six or five or so, and
and actually the very first horror movie I saw, which
I think was even younger than that was I had.
I had sneakily watched it, uh from the stairs of
(23:35):
my older sisters having a sleepover with a terrible horror
movie called chud Oh yeah.
Speaker 7 (23:42):
Geez yeah terrible.
Speaker 8 (23:45):
So but remembering my audition, I remember very well.
Speaker 7 (23:49):
You know, it took place in Parks. It took place
in a in a hotel in Park City, and I
remember my agent being.
Speaker 8 (23:57):
Like, this is this is this is for the lead
and walking into a room and it was just full
of the smell of European cigarettes. Like I just remember
just being like, oh my god, we're you know, we're
in Utah, and Claudio just yelling at me, just being
you know, I'd read the lines.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
It's like bigger, louder, bigger, bigger, and.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
I just remember doing like going crazy and then and
then him saying you may leave, and I laughed, And
like weeks later I got a call that said, you know,
I got the lead role.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
You didn't have to do a callback or anything. It
was just the one audish.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
You may leave, you may leave, you leave.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
And so during filming, were you starting to be like, huh,
I wonder how this is going to turn out? Like
walk us through a typical day on the set of
Troll two, and.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Had you seen Troll one?
Speaker 7 (25:01):
It was Goblin, so we got yeah.
Speaker 8 (25:08):
I mean, I still have my original script and it
was printed on it looks like an old like matrix printer,
and you know, it says says Goblin, and for me
like it was. We actually filmed the movie obviously, like
out of order, and the first thing that we filmed
was the scene where my mother is that you know,
(25:32):
her body is on the kitchen table and she's getting eaten,
so basically the endless spoilers.
Speaker 9 (25:37):
Yeah, I know, yeah, And I remember just being like, hmm,
you know, it's not knowing again like a fact or
any of these sorts of things, and thinking, okay, well
there must be some some some.
Speaker 8 (25:56):
Some you know, some magic here that I'm not saying.
But it wasn't a it wasn't really a slowdown and
be critical about it.
Speaker 7 (26:04):
It was like, like, do your role on this sort
of thing. And then the other thing I.
Speaker 8 (26:11):
Remember, And it's funny the things you remember when you're young,
and then the impressions you have is we had we
had a cheap pizza for lunch every single day, and
I remember sometimes the pizza. It was like recycled from
the previous.
Speaker 7 (26:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (26:31):
And I just remember as a kid being like, why
can't they afford to give.
Speaker 10 (26:35):
Us good pizza? It doesn't even need to be good.
Was this was this like a skeleton crew?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I mean, was it? Was it down and dirty?
Speaker 1 (26:51):
You're running into places like gorilla filmmaking style or what?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Did it seem like a legit production?
Speaker 7 (26:57):
It seemed That's the thing.
Speaker 8 (26:58):
I mean, That is the thing oft Troll two is
despite how weird and strange and bad it is, there
is still an underlying level of competence, right, So it's
not like it's not like, uh, gorilla style like like,
it felt very formal with respect to like film production, right,
(27:20):
and there was a sizeable crew, and there was order,
and there was all these sorts of things. So what
it didn't It never had the feeling of oh wow,
we're we're.
Speaker 7 (27:31):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 8 (27:32):
In fact, in fact, I think I think that's also
one of the reasons why none of the older cast
members ever questioned it, because there was such an authority
and such a confidence and such an outward like we've
got this figure it out, we know exactly what we're doing, right, Yeah,
And you know shot on thirty five the DP like
he was like full, he was like a caricature of
(27:53):
a DP.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
Like everything was so so serious. Uh.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
I mean, it's like there's so many bad movies where
it's just like horrible framing and somebody just up against
a white wall and like you're just like, well, they
don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
But this movie it's like you know, a.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Moving down a hallways shot. But then it's just the
character motivation is making no sense. So like the characters
just like turning to face the camera for no reason,
and you're like, Okay, that SHOT's good, but why is.
Speaker 6 (28:18):
He doing that? Like it's that's what makes it so beautiful.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
It's like yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
But I mean I guess if your goal is to
make a film.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
That lasts, you did yes, I mean right way, it
is right, I.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
Mean, any change vegetarianism forever. This is the message got out.
Speaker 8 (28:38):
It is and like it's this sort of thing that
you can never you can never plan. And also is
there is a weird magic to it. I mean it
is a it is it is a movie that cons
despite you know what it does or it doesn't do,
and all the things in which it falls or it
(29:01):
has continued to provide people with this strange level of
like just joy and humor and it's so weird because
it just ca I mean I I it is a
sort of thing where I will continually get messages about
even younger people now discovering the movie, you know, a
few months ago or during the during the election campaign
(29:21):
this last year, Paul share and how did they get
how did this get made? They did a troll two
screening and in like in an hour, they raised like
three hundred thousand dollars for the election. Yes, so there's
all sorts of positive like and it is like one
of these things where we as I love movies and
I love the community experience of watching a movie and
(29:44):
to to get into a theater that's sold out and
to see people enjoy this. This this weird, awful movie
that was made, you know, almost thirty years ago.
Speaker 7 (29:54):
Now it's still one of those things where you're like,
this is pretty it's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
So I want to ask about your transition to behind well,
transition to making the documentary, I guess, but also when
you stopped acting, if you officially stopped acting, like were
those two things happening simultaneously, or did you take a
break from acting, know that you wanted to be a
director and then decide to make the doc.
Speaker 7 (30:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (30:20):
I mean from the time I was a teenager, I
was making my own skateboarding movies.
Speaker 7 (30:30):
I loved.
Speaker 8 (30:30):
I loved the process of making something I loved. I
loved photography, I loved shooting and acting. I also loved
I loved it more when I was doing theater. And
I think, you know, as I got older, I mean,
I had a lot of friends.
Speaker 7 (30:48):
I'm sure you're the same writer.
Speaker 8 (30:50):
I have a lot of friends that like, I look
at where they're at now, and I'm like, Jesus.
Speaker 7 (30:55):
Like it's terrible.
Speaker 8 (30:57):
And I also, as I got older, you know, you
get scripts and you're like, this is terrible, and so
it became harder and harder to sort of like, and
I officially stopped acting. I think the last thing that
I did was I did an episode of A Touch
(31:18):
by an Angel when I was twenty two or twenty three.
Speaker 7 (31:21):
And that was the last thing that I did.
Speaker 8 (31:26):
And soon after that, I always wanted to make films,
and I soon after that, I met my wife and
we moved to Los Angeles, which is always sort of
felt like a second home. And I was writing a
thing that I had no business making, but I was
very much like in love with but I would never
(31:46):
get a maid given where I was at in my
career and.
Speaker 7 (31:52):
Had the dream of being a filmmaker.
Speaker 8 (31:54):
And it wasn't long after that this was the whole
MySpace era that out of the blue, I started getting
messages from kids all over the world, not knowing about
each other, saying here's a photo of our Troll two
party we had in our basement and we dressed up
and we pretended to piss on food.
Speaker 7 (32:15):
And I just.
Speaker 8 (32:15):
Remember being like what in the world, and thinking about
that movie and being like how. And I had a
moment where I woke up and I remember just thinking.
I said to my wife Lindsay, I said, I am
this child star of the worst movie ever made. This
is a great doc opportunity, and it felt like I
could make it. It felt like I could just start making it.
(32:39):
And a couple of months upright citizens we Gay Theater
in New York, they planned the first Troll two screening,
and it became like, Okay, this is the first thing
I got a film for the doc naturally, and then
it started on a three plus year journey of making
the film.
Speaker 7 (32:58):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Yeah, So and you were just doing it completely on
your own. You're just grabbing getting your crew together and oh.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, you're you're making skateboard films. So were you a
Stacey Perlta and Bones Brigade fan? That's what I figured, Yeah,
same same, I figured those just watching those videos are
the coolest things in the world.
Speaker 7 (33:19):
Back in the day, it was the best. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (33:23):
And when I was making the doc, I I I
remember like I made you know, I was like, Okay,
I gotta figure out ways to get from city to city,
and so I would I made these simple green shirts
that said nail Bog on the front and gobbling on
the back, and uh, every screening I would take hundreds
of those and they'd sell out, and I was like, Okay,
(33:45):
that's that's my planing tickets of the great But but
you know, like I make it sound all and you
guys know how this is. But like throughout that whole
journey of making that doc, you have moments.
Speaker 7 (33:57):
Where you're like, am I going to do this? Where
am I going to go next? All this and and really,
to the credit, my partner, my wife. I remember many times.
Speaker 8 (34:08):
Because we were having our first child soon right around
that time, walking run in and being like, I can't
keep working on this dock, and and and Lindsey being like, no, no,
you've got to.
Speaker 7 (34:19):
You gotta finish it, you gotta finish it. And so
we just took it one.
Speaker 8 (34:23):
We just just did what I could and just stayed
consistent on it until it was until it was over.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
Well, similarly to Podmead's World, you really allowed this project
to help you process a childhood experience.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
Was it a bigger.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
Undertaking emotionally than you expected?
Speaker 7 (34:45):
Yeah, uh for sure.
Speaker 8 (34:49):
And both like you know, I mean meeting meeting the
store owner and interviewing him and hearing him tell me
that he wanted to he wanted to kill me, my gosh.
Speaker 7 (35:07):
And then also like.
Speaker 8 (35:08):
Coming into contact you know, the woman who played my
mother in the film. She's she is, you know, mentally
ill now and really suffers, and so I hadn't seen
her in years and years and years, and so trying
to process that, and aside from that, also just the
(35:28):
feeling of of of trying to get something, just trying
to get my first doc made you know, anytime you
make something, it's I think for me at least, it's
always a more emotional thing that you imagine. I think
sometimes that naivete in the beginning is what helps you
because you're like, Okay, I'm just going to do this
(35:50):
and and you know, so.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
I'm curious about that because, like you know, when I
watch a doc like that, I'm always like I could never.
I don't think I could do that. Like I don't
think I could sit in a room and draw these
people out, you know, and you do it so well.
You do an American scream too, Like you have a
way of like sitting with a character, and like were
you always that way or is that something that you
discovered that you had to do because you're sitting across
(36:15):
from like the woman who played your mom, and you're
just like I have to just sort of let this
happen and not make this person feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 7 (36:22):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 8 (36:23):
I mean, I don't think it's something that necessarily I.
Speaker 7 (36:30):
Discovered.
Speaker 8 (36:31):
Like I've I've always been really interested in just people
and curious about individuals and trying to understand them.
Speaker 7 (36:41):
I think the more you do it, the more that.
Speaker 8 (36:44):
Has only taken hold and I think it's a documentary filmmaker.
I'll actually never I'll never forget because I had actually
best first movie was invited to the screen at Al
Masle's little theater in Brooklyn, and I'm a massive fan
of Grey Gardens and.
Speaker 7 (37:04):
Al actually he had me and my producer.
Speaker 8 (37:09):
We stayed with him in Brooklyn and so we still
had the recam and just hung out with him. And
it was one of these moments with like, God, this
is the guy like an.
Speaker 7 (37:15):
Idle of mind. But he had said, he had told
me something.
Speaker 8 (37:18):
He said, you know, when you make docs, it's almost
as though you have a thousand teachers. And it's true
in that respect, and that like you don't there's a
very almost sacred relationship you have with a subject and
you get very close to them, if at least for me,
to where the level you understand each other, like there's
(37:40):
really no other relationship you can compare it to outside
of somebody you know, a partner or somebody.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
You really love.
Speaker 8 (37:46):
And so you get a look into someone's life and
who they are, worts and all, and there's a real vulnerability,
there's a real sort of like trust, all these sorts
of things. But I always feel like for me, it's
I'm being taught right, Like I always feel like I'm
getting the better of it. Like I will see an
American Scream, any of these characters that I'm still close
(38:08):
with them, and I always feel like there's something that
I take that's very positive and I'm like, wow, I
want to be more like that, and I've learned that
from this person.
Speaker 7 (38:17):
And so.
Speaker 8 (38:20):
Yeah, And I think the more and more you do it,
the more you're like wow, you just get such an
interesting look into perspective and the lives that others live
when you're a documentary filmmaker and you have a relationship
where you can really share and you know, and grow close.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
In case any of our listeners don't know, I do
want to let people know your next documentary at was
The American Scream, a movie about three families who turn
their houses into extravagant Halloween attractions in Massachusetts. What do
you think drew you to scares.
Speaker 7 (38:53):
Chuck?
Speaker 8 (38:57):
Yeah, that was an interesting like I you know, I
like horror films, but I that specific American Scream. There
was there was a network part of NBC Universal called
Chiller that was all horror programming and after Best Ferst
movie came out. They came and they said, do you
(39:17):
want to do something around Halloween? And they were like,
we want to do something on Halloween haunted houses. And
it was basically that brought and in their minds they
were like top ten, you know, something you would see
on TV. Top ten haunted houses sort of thing. And
I have a very, very fond memory of a woman
in my neighborhood who was considered the weird woman growing
(39:40):
up that every Halloween, her whole she would transform her
whole house into the den of terror, and the whole
neighborhood would would send on this woman's house for that
one night, and I remember being magical, and then.
Speaker 7 (39:54):
The rest of the year nobody ever talked to her.
Speaker 8 (39:56):
And so when they came to me with that, I
sort of secretly was like, I don't want to make
a commercial hunted house film. I want to make I
want to I want to find these families. And fortunately
for me, I got so far into making it that
by the time they really looked at it closely when
I was making it was too far.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Yea, the sunk cost fallacy to your adenty that is great.
Speaker 5 (40:31):
Well, Also, I want to talk about your first scripted film,
Girlfriend's Day, which is written by and stars Bob Odenkirk
and Amber Tamblin, Natasha Leone and my new friend Andy Richter.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Yes, you know.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
Andy Richter makes the best banana bread I've ever had
in my entire life.
Speaker 7 (40:49):
I have no idea.
Speaker 5 (40:51):
It is delicious. The other day, I get to work
and I see Andy.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
I go, Andy, how you doing? And he goes okay.
I go, what's wrong?
Speaker 5 (40:58):
Andy goes, well, I thought my rehearsal was at nine,
but it was at one. And I said, oh my gosh,
it's you know, one o'clock. I'm just arriving there. I go,
have you been here all morning? He goes no, I
made banana bread. I said, you made banana bread in
this little kitchen. He goes, no, I went home and
I made banana bread. It's in this little kitchen, though,
if you want to try it. I was like, hell, yeah,
I want to try it.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Go away, I take it. Bade him like, they are
the best banana bread I've ever read.
Speaker 7 (41:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
I really tried a lot of recipes. It was the
greatest thing ever.
Speaker 7 (41:26):
That's amazing.
Speaker 5 (41:27):
So congratulations on this movie. Did you ever think when
you were running around the oak Woods. Is this the
career in life you envisioned for yourself. Did you ever
picture being this kind of documentary slash movie director.
Speaker 8 (41:43):
I mean I always imagine like a film and just
has always felt like it was just going to be
a thing that I did.
Speaker 7 (41:50):
I didn't know what shape or form. And I still
don't like stories come new thing.
Speaker 8 (41:54):
You just don't don't really see everything that's coming.
Speaker 7 (42:00):
And I think that when.
Speaker 8 (42:02):
You do feel like you have a story, part of
it is just trying to listen to what that wants
to be and as opposed to maybe what you wanted
wanted to be. So and and girlfriends say, also just
a weird, I mean wild, wild thing where we had.
Speaker 7 (42:22):
We had finished making The Americans.
Speaker 8 (42:24):
Well, we were editing The American Scream in my garage
and Lindsay my wife, and I my produce, my producing partner,
and I we were I was doing the dumb thing
on on a whiteboard where I was writing down the
names of my favorite comedians that I felt like had
really strong dramatic sensibilities but hadn't been seen dramatically as
(42:48):
much as they had in the.
Speaker 7 (42:48):
World of comedy. And we were huge fans of mister Show.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah such a good show.
Speaker 7 (42:52):
Yeah, so fun.
Speaker 8 (42:54):
And this was like season two of Maybe Breaking Bad.
Speaker 7 (42:58):
So so Bob was just in the background of it.
We were really excited. We're like, oh, it's Bob and
I and I wrote I was.
Speaker 8 (43:05):
I did the thing where I was like, right, dream
actors he would want to work with, and I wrote
his name down on this on this whiteboard in my office.
And it wasn't four or five weeks after that that
there was an interview that I think the Onion or
the av Club did with him and they were asking
him about his favorite films and he named best worst movie.
Speaker 6 (43:28):
Wow.
Speaker 7 (43:29):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 8 (43:30):
And so then we connected and we were coming up
on the premiere of American Scream and completely just I
was like, hey, it turns out Bob's Bob's son was
also going through a difficult time in his period of
his life and he was a huge troll tooth fan
and loved the movie.
Speaker 7 (43:48):
And YadA, YadA, YadA. So we make we make the
American Scream. We premiere it. I invited Bob and his family,
thinking there's no way he's.
Speaker 8 (43:55):
Going to come, and he came and he was like
an hour early and he's like, I got this really
weird comedy.
Speaker 7 (44:03):
It's never going to.
Speaker 8 (44:03):
Get made, but I'd love for you to make it
with me, or let's talk about it.
Speaker 7 (44:08):
And then that started that process.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
So cool.
Speaker 6 (44:11):
Yeah, wild Wild.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
How do you think your experience as a child actor
helps you behind the camera.
Speaker 7 (44:19):
Oh, that's a good question.
Speaker 8 (44:22):
I think I think really having an understanding and a
respect and a love and appreciation for how hard it
is in front of a camera and understanding just the
language of acting, right, Like I am reminded sometimes when
I've worked on other projects that a lot of people
don't understand what it is like to actually be an actor.
(44:45):
And it's hard for me to not understand that because
it's been part of me forever, and so it is
a thing now where I'm like, Wow, it's a real
gift in.
Speaker 7 (44:52):
That I get it and I understand it.
Speaker 8 (44:56):
I understand how hard it is, I know how to
you know, I've had that, I've had that experience, and
I know what it is to do it very badly portally.
So yeah, I think it's I think I think it's
you know, you hear sometimes I mean this is more anecdotally,
but you hear that sort of relations like directors and
(45:18):
actors and directors not understanding actors and they're sometimes being attentioned.
I've never really experienced that personally because I have nothing,
but like acting was my first point into all of it.
Speaker 7 (45:30):
So, you know, it.
Speaker 8 (45:32):
Doesn't feel foreign to me or counter it feels it
feels like the enabler of all.
Speaker 7 (45:38):
Really.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
Yeah, you mentioned that you have kids. How many kids
do you have?
Speaker 8 (45:42):
I have three daughters. Wow, yeah, so yeah, my oldest
actually turns eighteen in a few weeks, which is she's
I know, I know, it's crazy. She learned to drive
this lab well summer and a half ago. And it's
a weird moment to be sitting and I know, you, Daniel,
(46:03):
you have you you have children.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
As well, right, writer writer has a son and I
have two.
Speaker 8 (46:08):
Yeah, okay, so you you yeah, you know, and it
is they you know. So I have an almost eighteen
year old, fifteen year old and then a nine year
old nine year old.
Speaker 7 (46:20):
I'm taking the movie night tonight. It's it's it's.
Speaker 8 (46:24):
Amazing to be sitting shotgun as your daughter is driving
you throughout LA and it's controlling the radio and like
putting on Stevie Nicks or something.
Speaker 7 (46:33):
You know. Okay, life is okay, it's pretty good, pretty good.
Speaker 5 (46:39):
Do any of your children have they ever expressed any
interest in acting or being in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 7 (46:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (46:46):
So, so here's the thing that's and this is a
thing where I have, I have, I have I have
to talk to my therapist more about this and get
over this thing. Because my my old oldest and my
youngest really every all of all three.
Speaker 7 (47:03):
Of my kids were really we're really in the theater,
like we love theater and.
Speaker 8 (47:11):
I'll never forget actually the first time that my old
so my youngest have never seen Troll two or Best
Versus Movie.
Speaker 7 (47:18):
My middle child, my middle and.
Speaker 8 (47:20):
My oldest have and they've actually the first screen they
went to a screening.
Speaker 7 (47:24):
Right, I didn't even tell them what it was about.
Speaker 6 (47:26):
They don't.
Speaker 8 (47:27):
You don't really talk about a lot of this sort
of stuff at home. You're you're busy, you know, uh,
with life. And my oldest and my middle they went
to a screening of Troll two in Montreal for the
first time.
Speaker 7 (47:39):
They had no idea what they were in for Troll
two and Bestpersus.
Speaker 8 (47:41):
Movie, and their minds were blown afterwards and outside of that,
I've never been somebody. And we watched movies, we watched
docs like I took them to see American Movie at
the New Beverly over Thanksgiving this, you know, so it's
been part of their thing, but they they are naturally
Like my oldest is, she's she just you know, she
(48:02):
has a film that's that's playing as part of the
High School Film Festival.
Speaker 7 (48:09):
In New York next month, that got selected. I didn't.
I didn't. I didn't. I didn't like encourage her.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
She's acting, directing it. What did she do?
Speaker 7 (48:20):
Directed? Acted and put our youngest in it?
Speaker 8 (48:25):
And she didn't. She didn't tell me. I like, I
kid you not. We didn't talk about it. She she
just said, I'm working on this thing. And then we
went and we saw it, and she is very much
drawn to it, more than my other two. I mean,
my youngest is she just got so weird. She just
got the lead role of Annie at a local production
(48:46):
and and that was the you know, I remember when
before she was going into audition, She's like, Dad, like,
do you think I could really get this role?
Speaker 7 (48:55):
And I was like, and I asked her.
Speaker 8 (48:58):
I said, do you think you can get this role.
And she's like, yeah, I do. And I was like, well,
why do you think that? And she's like, well I practiced.
I said, okay, well.
Speaker 7 (49:05):
Done your best, and she got she got the role.
Speaker 8 (49:09):
But it is the thing, and I was talking about
this with Lindsay It's like, I don't it's hard when
you see inside the kitchen of this business, right, and
so there is this thing where it's like I want
to encourage art and creativity and making things, but I'm
also a little more cynical now, like truly on a
(49:30):
number of levels.
Speaker 7 (49:30):
And so it's this sort of tension of.
Speaker 8 (49:32):
Like, yeah, I like like chase your dreams, but also like.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
Oh, like.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Yeah, totally get that.
Speaker 7 (49:44):
M h yeah, I'm sure I was dancing with the stars.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
Oh my gosh. The most fun, the most fun.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
The most fun for her, it's my worst nightmare. We're
having a blast with it, watching from a far exactly.
Speaker 5 (50:01):
It's really been great and Andy getting to know Andy
has been getting to know everybody honestly has been really
really great, and we're all super bonded, and you know,
it's it's hard.
Speaker 3 (50:13):
It's hard. Yeah, it's so much work.
Speaker 7 (50:17):
I can only imagine.
Speaker 8 (50:19):
Yeah, yeah, my my family. I was out of town
this last week, but my family had told me they
had watched they'd started watching the season and my you know,
Boydant's World and Girl Meets a World. I mean, you
guys probably get this, but like my teas like watched
and loved that show like it's it. They were so
(50:39):
when I was like, oh, you know, do you guys
know about this, and they're like, of course we know,
and they you know, they they really like so your show.
Both shows are still continuing to connect with young people,
which is pretty awesome.
Speaker 5 (50:53):
Yeah, yesterday I had the weirdest experience. So Alex Earl,
who's like, you know, a massive social media star, she influencer,
She's very big on TikTok, and she is very young,
but like in her twenties young, not you know, teenager young.
And for TikTok week, she had these two very young
teenagers in the studio with her teaching her choreography that's
(51:16):
going to be a part of her dance because they
they were the originators of this choreography on TikTok, and
so she brought them in and so I'm talking to Alex,
I'm like, Alex, I want to do a TikTok with you.
I'm explaining to her what the TikTok is, and the
two girls are standing there and I said, Hi, I'm
Danielle by the way, and I'm thinking, alex Earl has
no idea who I am.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Like, alex Earl has never heard of Boy Meets World.
Speaker 5 (51:36):
She's like, I mean, I've seen it on TikTok, I've
seen clips of it, but like she's never seen the show.
She doesn't know who I am. She's not a fan.
I mean she's a fan, like, you know, she likes me,
but she's not like she had no idea. And I
turned to the teenagers and both of them are just
wide eyed. They're like, we are such big fans. I
was like, really, like what Girl Meets World was my
(51:58):
favorite show?
Speaker 3 (52:00):
And I'm like, sure enough, you know.
Speaker 5 (52:01):
I mean for a seventeen year old kid who was
probably seven when we were doing Girl Meets World on
the Disney Channel that was our demo, Yeah.
Speaker 7 (52:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (52:12):
To bring the conversation full circle, I mean, that's like,
I think that's why your doctor spoke to me, is like,
you don't have control over how these things live, where
your art ends up especially as an actor, but I
would say even as a director, as you know, it's
like you do your best, you put it out there
and you know it fails, and then ten years later
it's everybody's talking about it or something that is the
(52:34):
biggest movie ever and everybody's talking about it, and then
you know, ten years later, does anybody really remember it?
Speaker 6 (52:40):
Like that happens all the time.
Speaker 3 (52:42):
That doesn't hold up anymore.
Speaker 6 (52:43):
It's true, it doesn't something.
Speaker 4 (52:45):
You know, it's like the reality of like we were,
we it's just getting older, right, It's like realizing the
trends and realizing that you can't always predict and you know,
you have to engage with those trends. You have to
look at it as a conversation you're having. There's no
right or wrong answer, you know, there's no like.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
That's the thing that's so beautiful about it is things
like the room control to these are things that are
going to last forever and.
Speaker 7 (53:09):
Ever and ever.
Speaker 1 (53:10):
And if that's your goal as an artist is to
make something.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
That lasts, you've done it. I mean, it's amazing.
Speaker 7 (53:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (53:18):
So is it one of the great lessons of life
that we just don't have control over anything?
Speaker 3 (53:24):
So the sooner we get comfortable you I know.
Speaker 5 (53:29):
I mean, listen, if you sign on to do Dancing
with the Stars with the goal of making it to
the finals and then snap your hamstring tendon in week two,
let me tell you what you get used to so
you know you just like you just have to go
with it. So thank you so much for being here
with us. I'm so happy we were able to unite
(53:51):
you and reunite you and Writer. I have a feeling
you guys are going to have a friendship reaching out.
Speaker 7 (53:57):
We're going to hang.
Speaker 5 (53:58):
Because we got I can tell you guys speak the
same language.
Speaker 3 (54:03):
You guys are going to be best buds.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
I'm excited for your podcast.
Speaker 5 (54:08):
Yes, So thank you so much for spending your time
with us. Really means a lot to us. And the
best of luck on Girlfriends Day and everything else you have.
We will be watching everything you do in the future.
Speaker 8 (54:20):
Hey, I really appreciate it and it's been a pleasure.
And all the best to the three of you as well.
Speaker 3 (54:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (54:28):
Make sure your family sets a timer to vote for
me every Tuesday at five pm. Text Danielle the two
one five two three man.
Speaker 3 (54:41):
He's great, Yeah, great, Writer, He's writer's.
Speaker 4 (54:46):
Funny, Like, you know, it's funny that you know, you
become friends for a reason, probably at the age of
ten or eleven, and it's probably a.
Speaker 6 (54:55):
Good reason to stay.
Speaker 3 (54:56):
Totally.
Speaker 4 (54:57):
Yeah, we just for whatever reason, our lives went in
separate ways. But I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm totally like,
I honestly don't remember him, but I know that if
I met him, we were probably spending days together, run around.
Speaker 5 (55:07):
Absolutely, you were probably loving conversation with him.
Speaker 3 (55:11):
Then, yeah, well conversation.
Speaker 2 (55:14):
I want to see that oak Woods doc.
Speaker 6 (55:16):
Yeah show.
Speaker 4 (55:17):
Yeah, I know that there's been a couple actually I've
heard about a couple different like profiles of Oakwood.
Speaker 5 (55:22):
But yeah, Jensen said, it's really dark, but it's great.
Thank you all for listening to this episode of Pod
Meets World. As always, you can follow us on Instagram
pod Meets World Show. You can send us your emails
podmeets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
And we've got march in a.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
World where trolls are goblins and vegetarians too. Apparently for
some reason we don't know troll to march.
Speaker 5 (55:46):
Pod meets Worldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 2 (55:49):
We love you all.
Speaker 1 (55:50):
Pod dismissed Podmeats World is nheart podcast producer and hosted
by Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen
Parp and Amy show German executive in charge of production,
Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara sudbachsch producer, Maddy Moore,
engineer and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen. Our
theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you
(56:11):
can follow us on Instagram at Podmeets World Show or
email us at Podmets Worldshow at gmail dot com
Okay, So, Danielle, I don't know if you're aware of this,
but you're on Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Me, yeah, you are if you had so.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Obviously, somebody in a room somewhere at some point where
you know would be funny or amazing or incredible is
taking actors and teaching that to dance, and we'll make a.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Show out of it.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Pick make up a reality show right now? What would
your reality show be that you would pitch with actors?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
With anything? With anything? What's your reality show?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Oh, my gosh, my reality show.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I think we're gonna have to limit it to like
what would we make actors do?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
I think we do need because honestly, I have a
show that I've I've talked to you guys about that.
I think it's so sick and I don't know why
I haven't even just made it myself yet, but like
it has to be done because it's what I spend
all of my time doing.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
When I scroll social media, I.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
Am obsessed with comments, the comedy that John Mary Josephin,
you know, whoever out there can come up with when
they watch a funny video and the comment they leave
blows me away.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I want to watch a show, a.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Cheap clip style show similar to the Soup or the
Dish that I used to host, called the comment section
where you play the viral video or the clip whatever
it is that's going around.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
The internet, several of them.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
But after you watch the video, you say, now, let's
check in on the comment section, and you just open
up the comments and you highlight the people with the
best comments. Then you have some sort of voting section,
and whoever won for comment of the Day or comment
of the video wins ten thousand dollars or like that's great.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So it's like a maror because funniest home videos but
America's funniest comment comments.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Exactly just based on the comments.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Because, for one thing, if I could watch a twenty
two minute show and manage to see what are all
these videos people are talking about because I don't necessarily
have time to find them all on my own, Oh,
these are all the videos of the day that people
were talking about. Great, oh my gosh, the ten best
comments or the five best comments under everyone that's hysterical,
Like I would love to get my social media. This
(02:27):
is the best of the best that happened today in
one cheap format way.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
You know, what I would recommend to is to keep
it wholly positive, so.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Like correct do not taking somebody down, so not yucking
somebody's yum it is.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
It is spin celebration of.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
The comment section should be celebrated for you know, positive, funny, yes.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Whatever, not just not.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Because there might be really funny comments that are ripping
apart the video or you know, talking about someone's appearance
or whatever, so you just have to avoid those.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
But I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, I love that good good one one writer.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
I don't know, just at the top of my head.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
I mean, I was trying to think of like actors
in situations. You know, I love school, I love college.
I would love to do a show where you take
like actors and that had never went to college and
be like, now let's let's follow you let go.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
They did that with what's his name with Tommy Lee
Tommy Lee, the drummer from the from the crew went
to college.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
Yeah, yeah, I think it'd be great.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
It'd be great and like just give them like a
full semester and like a subject that they always thought
they wanted to do, Like you know where you used
to want to be an archaeologist, right like you, I
think like watching you like do that for a semester
and like, you know, really take it seriously as like
a doc of like what's this experience?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Like, yeah, that's what what's it.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Like for them on campus? And yeah, you know, do
they get recognized? Who'd they become friends with? What do
the teachers think of them? That's a really good idea.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I have a couple one of them that I've always
wanted to do because I love cooking shows, but they're
all already chefs. I want to have some follow me
while I actually go to culinary school. Such a good idea,
Like it's never been one where it's like how do
you be calm a chef?
Speaker 7 (04:06):
Like?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I want to do that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
The other one for celebrities, I want to do celebrity
aerial dog fighting. What they learned, Like they learn how
to fly the planes and you learn how to and
it's you do like dog fighting with you have to
learn how to fly and then you learn it's like
aerial dog fighting.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Gosh, that sounds great. There are so many people with
fear of heights. Though I think that might be hard.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I don't have to try it. Though, it would just
be so much fun.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
I mean, I would try it. It's right at my alley.
I could die doing it. I could do it at
high speed. Yes, I'm not afraid of heights and.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Nuper competitive competitive people down like you know, yeah, yeah,
you know actually did it aerial dog fighting.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yeah, my parents found this company that did it and
surprised me and my brother with it when we were
like fifteen sixteen. Where they train you for a whole
day and you get a hold.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
On today, not a whole day. You have to give
up a a whole day to.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
You're seeing a classroom. You're sitting in the classroom for
like six seven hours of six.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Or seven hours, and then they put you like we
had to trust you.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
You're in a World War two like era a plane,
but they have the they have a stick behind you,
so they're really like flying.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
They're flying it out, but you're you're giving off.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
I have a stick in the front.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
We were actually in control of So once you're up
there and they're like go and and then they so
dagerous they had rigged they had rigged the plane so
that when you shot at each other once you got
because they teach you exactly what they have to do
and how you get behind each other. Smoke would come
out if you, like, you know, hit the other person.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
So my dog.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Yeah, and uh, I have never been more sick because
the guy was like, let's do some barrel rolls and
let's do some loops, and I was like, oh god no.
But I was probably the most nauseous I've ever been
in my lib'.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
People that do that throw up, like Tom Tom Cruise
was throwing up, but during the first up everybody, but.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
So yeah, not really my thing. But Chilotte was totally fine,
and like he ends up taking flying lessons after that
because it was so fun.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
And now that I know this, I think we should
just have like, let's teach celebrities to be surgeons. Like
you spend a whole day, you get a whole day,
six or seven hours.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
And you know, a lot of people don't know about
that real surgery.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
If you touch the sides, the patient buzzes.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
A lot of people didn't know that that's.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
A real factory.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
That's a little factoy for you if you touch the side.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I love that game. I love that game. Try to
get the bone out.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Exactly a little boner around the me collect one thousand
dollars fee.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Yeah, what about celebrity lawyers? What about.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Lawyers trial for trust him with a real trial.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I think they nail it.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
That person murder.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
God, it's actually there's some great celebrity. There's some great
possible if.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
You throw all morals out the window. We have got
some crazy we've done.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
That are out there.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Listen, guys, I just like ballroom dancing. There's nothing wrong
with ballroom dancing.
Speaker 7 (07:11):
That is.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
You're right, that's a good one.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Welcome to Pod meets World. I'm Daniel Fishel, I'm right
or strong, and I'm Wilforde. As always, our favorite part
of Pod meets World is how just one small side
(07:37):
quest conversation can turn into so much more. Oh, Natania Ross,
you were in a movie called Munchi's two.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Let's watch it. What's that background actor's name again? That's right,
it's Dusty. Let's find him.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
And some can even make us cry, like Matthew Foster
the Make a Wish Kid we were reminded of from
a random email. It has been an incredible never really
knowing where the road will take us. So when Rider
mentioned a recent documentary he loved where much of the
premise and heart reminded him of what we've done here
on Podmeats World.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Jensen said he.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Knew the director, and the rest is well this podcast
episode and hilariously, somehow Ryder knows the director too. When
our guest booked a horror film in nineteen ninety, his
first job as a kid in Hollywood, he had no
idea what he was stepping into. Commonly called the best
worst movie ever, Troll two may have been an ignored
(08:33):
B movie spectacle when it was released, but it's since
taken on a life of its own, so much so
that the child star, now grown up, made a documentary
to fully understand the insanity he experienced. The film became
a top Dock of two thousand and nine, but it
helped him process and grasp what the experience meant to
him even years later, which yes, sounds very familiar. And
(08:55):
he's since made another documentary, this time about lavish residential
haunted houses, which he ever acted in, and has found
himself back in Hollywood now behind the camera directing scripted films.
This week, we welcome one of our most unique brothers
in the fraternity of child actors. He's the star of
Troll two, the director of Best Worst Movie, and one
(09:15):
of Writer's childhood friends. It's Michael Paul Stevenson.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
Hello, Hey, how are you.
Speaker 7 (09:28):
Drinking an espresso trying to wake up?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yes, good for you.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
I've got a coffee right here in my Philly Forever
at Ever mug nice.
Speaker 7 (09:38):
We put out.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
We put out the troll to bat signal, and we
are so happy.
Speaker 7 (09:42):
You responded, Wild movie will never go away.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
No, we don't want.
Speaker 6 (09:49):
It's too good.
Speaker 8 (09:53):
I have a bit of a bit of news that
may surprise you as well. Uh, Writer, I don't know
if you remember, but we were pals. We lived, we
we lived, We lived in Oakwood together.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
This is told me this and I was like, what so, Yes,
I don't remember. I don't make this connection. We hung out.
Speaker 8 (10:16):
Yeah, it's it's wild. Your your your mom, and your
brother Shiloh. I think you were. I remember your family
being one of the very few, if not the only,
same families.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
In Oakwood.
Speaker 8 (10:34):
It was such a crazy did did you have roller blades?
Speaker 6 (10:37):
Did we go rollerblading together?
Speaker 7 (10:39):
And I had I had I had a skateboard. You
had roller blades? It was a weird, was it was?
It was an interesting.
Speaker 8 (10:46):
That whole place is such a wild uh yeah, wild,
wild world. I don't know if you I don't know
if you've seen there's a documentary actually called The Hollywood
Complex that is all centered on oak Wood and the
child actors.
Speaker 7 (11:01):
I grew up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's and
it's dark.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
It's a good documentary.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
But how long were you there?
Speaker 7 (11:13):
I was there.
Speaker 8 (11:14):
Let's see, from the time I was twelve until about sixteen,
just like every pilot season.
Speaker 7 (11:23):
So yeah, I was there.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
You're originally from Texas, right, So how did you How
did you decide to make the move to Los Angeles.
Speaker 8 (11:31):
Well, I actually was born in Texas, but I didn't.
I didn't live there very long. I was I was
adopted and grew up in Utah, of all places, And
in Utah I started.
Speaker 7 (11:43):
Doing stage, doing theater when I was really young. I
loved it.
Speaker 8 (11:48):
And then somebody from one of those productions said, oh,
you should do this professionally, and and you know, talk
to my parents. I was probably seven or eight a time,
and my parents were like, no way, this is not
anything we're going to do.
Speaker 7 (12:07):
And I continued to.
Speaker 8 (12:08):
Push and push, and this was in Utah, about places
because I loved I loved theater, I loved acting, and
ultimately ended up pushing them into getting an agent when
I was nine and a half and the first movie
audition I ever had was Troll two.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
God.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Yeah, so when you when you were at the oak Wood,
You're coming off of Troll two, right, Like, what did
that mean? Did it have any effect like backlash or positive?
I mean, you did a movie, which is a good sign,
But did people think of it as a bad or
it didn't even register?
Speaker 8 (12:47):
I think I think it was one of those films
that didn't really register at that point. I mean I
it registered for me, like it was the sort of
thing where I had hoped and and and braid that
nobody would see that film, because.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Back then you knew, like you were immediately like on
the thought.
Speaker 8 (13:09):
Yeah, So I mean I had I remember the first
time that I had watched it.
Speaker 7 (13:16):
You know, we made the movie and.
Speaker 8 (13:17):
All of the times that you guys, know, you make
movies and you don't know when they're going to come out.
Speaker 7 (13:21):
What they're going to be, you have you don't have
any idea.
Speaker 8 (13:24):
And after we made the movie as a as a
ten and a half year old, I was like okay,
like the next time, like you know, next time that
we all come together as a cast, will be at
the big premiere and we'll watch our movie together. And
time went by and kind of was like, oh.
Speaker 7 (13:45):
What where where is that movie? And of all things,
my parents had had had tracked it down.
Speaker 8 (13:51):
And on Christmas morning, I remember unwrapping presents and then
actually coming across the strange vhs and uh, you know
says they said troll too. Because when we made the movie,
it wasn't it was called Goblin.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
Which god, yeah, and and my.
Speaker 8 (14:14):
Dad was like put it in, like let's watch a movie,
and it was I mean it was it was not
even a minute into that and it was like, oh
my god, this is a bad, bad movie. And so
and it was kind of a thing where like okay,
and then you become a teenager and continued acting. But
I had this one uncle who every like, for some reason,
(14:37):
Troll two was constantly programmed at the you know, the
latest hours of night on HBO, like over and over
and over again. And I had an uncle who would, uh,
he would he would call me every weekend because he'd
get the TV guide and he'd be like your crappy
movie is on again.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
I love now. We laugh about it now. But when
you when you.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
Got those phone calls, then, what what was the feeling
you had?
Speaker 7 (15:10):
I mean, you know, like you're you're at an age.
Speaker 8 (15:14):
It's obviously very you know, you're you're impressionable, it's formative,
you're trying to be.
Speaker 7 (15:20):
I think for me the biggest thing was is.
Speaker 8 (15:22):
I I went on and I acted in other things.
Speaker 7 (15:26):
That I thought would be more remembered or were more.
Speaker 8 (15:30):
Uh what you know, just like deserved more attention. But
those things and in hindsight I get it, yeah, and
in those things didn't.
Speaker 7 (15:40):
And so Troll two just continued and it.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
Was very much a like you know, I I I
remember in the TV guide because there was a rating
system in the in the old TV guides, and it
was like, you know, one to four star, there was
even a half star, and then below a half star,
it was it was an icon of a turn key.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Oh geez, oh no, you got the turkey.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
Yeah. So wow.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
First of all, for the record, we've all done them,
we all have those movies in our past or it's like, oh, that's.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
Part of being an actor, you know.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I mean that's why I found the documentary so fascinating
is because I felt like, this is applicable well beyond
this this one film, you know, and in some ways
you're the most fortunate of the cast because you were
a kid, you know, you have the biggest You have
the most like understandable lack of cultural awareness, right, or
(16:39):
lack of taste, right. And so that's why I think
it's so fascinating that you really initiated this journey of
like exploring that question like what is you know, how
how do you evaluate the things you're in as an actor?
And then how do you feel about that? And man,
I thought you just did such a good job with
the documentary. And it turns out I'm like a huge
fan because I also of American Scream. I didn't realize
(17:02):
that was you. So then when I looked that up,
I was like, oh my god, I love your work.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
Man.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
You are so good and you're so sensitive to your subjects,
and I just couldn't believe the way you balanced this.
You know, where you're you're understanding where everybody's coming from,
but you're also showcasing some pretty strange people and and
and there their understanding of their own movie. Have you
have you stayed in touch with the cast control too,
(17:26):
or when the documentary came out, did that change the
relationship with them? I?
Speaker 8 (17:32):
Yeah, I mean I've I've stayed in touch with with
some of them. George Hardy, who played my father, we're
still We're so close and like having having a friendship
all these years later, Like he's He's a remarkable man
on the number of levels, just strange and funny and interesting,
and I just I love I love him to death.
So I stayed in touch with him. I actually was
(17:54):
in Italy last year and I hadn't talked to him
in a few years. But I've stayed in touch with
Claudio Ferragaso, the director of Tronto.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
Yeah, I have, because like I have a real also
a real love.
Speaker 8 (18:14):
I've grown to have a real love and appreciation for
this guy who was so impressionable to me as a
young kid. And you guys know, making anything in this
business is hard, and so as I got as I
(18:35):
got older and I got more distance from the movie,
I kept thinking about, like God, like this guy somehow
made this movie about vegetarian goblins in Utah with actors
who couldn't act, couldn't speak.
Speaker 7 (18:48):
The language, and he made it and it will be remembered.
Speaker 8 (18:55):
And there's a part of the documentary that I always love,
and it's when he's holding his thirty five million print
reel for the first time and he's like, I've never
held my actual movie, and he talks about how important
it is to just, you know, make something that isn't forgotten.
And so he's the guy that I've gotten close to.
And when I was in Italy last summer, I phoned
(19:17):
him up and we went and had dinner together, and
it was just one of those moments where you're like,
this the movie strangely troll two and in bestworce movie.
Speaker 7 (19:27):
Whatever it's it has.
Speaker 8 (19:30):
Given me so much in my life with respect to relationships,
but gross as as a.
Speaker 7 (19:36):
Filmmaker, to just experiences. I wouldn't I wouldn't trade for anything.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
I mean, I mean, part of the reason why the
movie is so memorable is is that earnestness that he
is putting forth.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
I mean, he made exactly.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
It seems like he made exactly the movie he wanted
to make, and that's what's so, you know, I feel
like there's a version of the documentary that you made
where you tracked on the director and he's like, yeah,
it was a piece of crap. We you know, I know,
I didn't have the money and we don't have the
things I wanted whatever, but hey it was fun. And
instead he's like, no, this is the movie I wanted
to make. Why are they laughing? I don't get why
(20:09):
they're laughing when I didn't mean it to be funny.
And that is a big swing. That's like that's indistry, right,
and like that's however you feel about the movie, Like
he made exactly what he wanted to and that is impressive,
and I yeah, it's fascinating to me that he's still
doubling down on that.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
I feel like there's a lot of.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
So called cult films, especially in horror, that sort of
take being a cult film is the easy way out
because they can't achieve what they were going to so
they're just like, yeah, let's just have bad effects and
we'll call it a day, you know, or whatever, and
we'll just laugh at it. I mean, in a lot
of ways, I feel like even Cavin Fever kind of
turned out that way. It was like, I think Eli
(20:49):
at first wanted to make more of a straightforward scary film,
realized that's not gonna happen. You know, it's a little ridiculous.
And then as a cast we kept bringing this energy
of like where's this And I think while we were
filming it, Eli and Braceden was like, you know what,
it's all the tones. I want this movie to be there,
And he, to his credit, earnestly invested in a million
(21:10):
different directions. So it's became more of a cult horror film.
But I don't think it started that way, you know,
And I think that so I love that that that
the director was just yeah, like he's still true to it.
And he wasn't he wasn't offended by your documentary, Like
he didn't feel like it.
Speaker 8 (21:27):
No, he I mean, I I think there was there
was there was there was a process where he came
to understand just what it is. I think he had
some feelings right off the bat with like trying to
understand it all. But he's never been anything but supportive
but just like positive around anything that's.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
Being made period.
Speaker 7 (21:51):
Like he's just he's just that kind of guy.
Speaker 8 (21:53):
So I never you know, and and and and I
had hoped that like when I made it. You know,
it's it's sort of like a strange dysfunctional family of sorts,
right like you make it. You there, there there are realities,
and there are there are truths that you experienced for sure,
and some of them are absurd and don't make any sense.
Speaker 7 (22:14):
Connection that I have to all the.
Speaker 8 (22:16):
People and this experience that I had, and it is right,
you hit it. I mean, you said it so well
in in respect to the thing that I identified most
with with him and what I really came to love
is his sincerity and lack of irony and just being
genuine and and and and that takes courage, especially when
(22:41):
you're when you're set up to fail, when it's against
all odds.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
Right.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
So yeah, I want to go back to you your
audition for the movie. You said you you did the
(23:05):
movie when you were ten and a half. Had you
ever seen a horror movie?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Do you remember your audition?
Speaker 8 (23:11):
I mean, I I saw et was one of my
first the first movies I ever saw. Yeah, I remember
my audition really well. And I saw Gremlins also as
well when I was six or five or so, and
and actually the very first horror movie I saw, which
I think was even younger than that was I had.
I had sneakily watched it, uh from the stairs of
(23:35):
my older sisters having a sleepover with a terrible horror
movie called chud Oh yeah.
Speaker 7 (23:42):
Geez yeah terrible.
Speaker 8 (23:45):
So but remembering my audition, I remember very well.
Speaker 7 (23:49):
You know, it took place in Parks. It took place
in a in a hotel in Park City, and I
remember my agent being.
Speaker 8 (23:57):
Like, this is this is this is for the lead
and walking into a room and it was just full
of the smell of European cigarettes. Like I just remember
just being like, oh my god, we're you know, we're
in Utah, and Claudio just yelling at me, just being
you know, I'd read the lines.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
It's like bigger, louder, bigger, bigger, and.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
I just remember doing like going crazy and then and
then him saying you may leave, and I laughed, And
like weeks later I got a call that said, you know,
I got the lead role.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
You didn't have to do a callback or anything. It
was just the one audish.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
You may leave, you may leave, you leave.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
And so during filming, were you starting to be like, huh,
I wonder how this is going to turn out? Like
walk us through a typical day on the set of
Troll two, and.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Had you seen Troll one?
Speaker 7 (25:01):
It was Goblin, so we got yeah.
Speaker 8 (25:08):
I mean, I still have my original script and it
was printed on it looks like an old like matrix printer,
and you know, it says says Goblin, and for me
like it was. We actually filmed the movie obviously, like
out of order, and the first thing that we filmed
was the scene where my mother is that you know,
(25:32):
her body is on the kitchen table and she's getting eaten,
so basically the endless spoilers.
Speaker 9 (25:37):
Yeah, I know, yeah, And I remember just being like, hmm,
you know, it's not knowing again like a fact or
any of these sorts of things, and thinking, okay, well
there must be some some some.
Speaker 8 (25:56):
Some you know, some magic here that I'm not saying.
But it wasn't a it wasn't really a slowdown and
be critical about it.
Speaker 7 (26:04):
It was like, like, do your role on this sort
of thing. And then the other thing I.
Speaker 8 (26:11):
Remember, And it's funny the things you remember when you're young,
and then the impressions you have is we had we
had a cheap pizza for lunch every single day, and
I remember sometimes the pizza. It was like recycled from
the previous.
Speaker 7 (26:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (26:31):
And I just remember as a kid being like, why
can't they afford to give.
Speaker 10 (26:35):
Us good pizza? It doesn't even need to be good.
Was this was this like a skeleton crew?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I mean, was it? Was it down and dirty?
Speaker 1 (26:51):
You're running into places like gorilla filmmaking style or what?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Did it seem like a legit production?
Speaker 7 (26:57):
It seemed That's the thing.
Speaker 8 (26:58):
I mean, That is the thing oft Troll two is
despite how weird and strange and bad it is, there
is still an underlying level of competence, right, So it's
not like it's not like, uh, gorilla style like like,
it felt very formal with respect to like film production, right,
(27:20):
and there was a sizeable crew, and there was order,
and there was all these sorts of things. So what
it didn't It never had the feeling of oh wow,
we're we're.
Speaker 7 (27:31):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 8 (27:32):
In fact, in fact, I think I think that's also
one of the reasons why none of the older cast
members ever questioned it, because there was such an authority
and such a confidence and such an outward like we've
got this figure it out, we know exactly what we're doing, right, Yeah,
And you know shot on thirty five the DP like
he was like full, he was like a caricature of
(27:53):
a DP.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
Like everything was so so serious. Uh.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
I mean, it's like there's so many bad movies where
it's just like horrible framing and somebody just up against
a white wall and like you're just like, well, they
don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
But this movie it's like you know, a.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Moving down a hallways shot. But then it's just the
character motivation is making no sense. So like the characters
just like turning to face the camera for no reason,
and you're like, Okay, that SHOT's good, but why is.
Speaker 6 (28:18):
He doing that? Like it's that's what makes it so beautiful.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
It's like yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
But I mean I guess if your goal is to
make a film.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
That lasts, you did yes, I mean right way, it
is right, I.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
Mean, any change vegetarianism forever. This is the message got out.
Speaker 8 (28:38):
It is and like it's this sort of thing that
you can never you can never plan. And also is
there is a weird magic to it. I mean it
is a it is it is a movie that cons
despite you know what it does or it doesn't do,
and all the things in which it falls or it
(29:01):
has continued to provide people with this strange level of
like just joy and humor and it's so weird because
it just ca I mean I I it is a
sort of thing where I will continually get messages about
even younger people now discovering the movie, you know, a
few months ago or during the during the election campaign
(29:21):
this last year, Paul share and how did they get
how did this get made? They did a troll two
screening and in like in an hour, they raised like
three hundred thousand dollars for the election. Yes, so there's
all sorts of positive like and it is like one
of these things where we as I love movies and
I love the community experience of watching a movie and
(29:44):
to to get into a theater that's sold out and
to see people enjoy this. This this weird, awful movie
that was made, you know, almost thirty years ago.
Speaker 7 (29:54):
Now it's still one of those things where you're like,
this is pretty it's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
So I want to ask about your transition to behind well,
transition to making the documentary, I guess, but also when
you stopped acting, if you officially stopped acting, like were
those two things happening simultaneously, or did you take a
break from acting, know that you wanted to be a
director and then decide to make the doc.
Speaker 7 (30:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (30:20):
I mean from the time I was a teenager, I
was making my own skateboarding movies.
Speaker 7 (30:30):
I loved.
Speaker 8 (30:30):
I loved the process of making something I loved. I
loved photography, I loved shooting and acting. I also loved
I loved it more when I was doing theater. And
I think, you know, as I got older, I mean,
I had a lot of friends.
Speaker 7 (30:48):
I'm sure you're the same writer.
Speaker 8 (30:50):
I have a lot of friends that like, I look
at where they're at now, and I'm like, Jesus.
Speaker 7 (30:55):
Like it's terrible.
Speaker 8 (30:57):
And I also, as I got older, you know, you
get scripts and you're like, this is terrible, and so
it became harder and harder to sort of like, and
I officially stopped acting. I think the last thing that
I did was I did an episode of A Touch
(31:18):
by an Angel when I was twenty two or twenty three.
Speaker 7 (31:21):
And that was the last thing that I did.
Speaker 8 (31:26):
And soon after that, I always wanted to make films,
and I soon after that, I met my wife and
we moved to Los Angeles, which is always sort of
felt like a second home. And I was writing a
thing that I had no business making, but I was
very much like in love with but I would never
(31:46):
get a maid given where I was at in my
career and.
Speaker 7 (31:52):
Had the dream of being a filmmaker.
Speaker 8 (31:54):
And it wasn't long after that this was the whole
MySpace era that out of the blue, I started getting
messages from kids all over the world, not knowing about
each other, saying here's a photo of our Troll two
party we had in our basement and we dressed up
and we pretended to piss on food.
Speaker 7 (32:15):
And I just.
Speaker 8 (32:15):
Remember being like what in the world, and thinking about
that movie and being like how. And I had a
moment where I woke up and I remember just thinking.
I said to my wife Lindsay, I said, I am
this child star of the worst movie ever made. This
is a great doc opportunity, and it felt like I
could make it. It felt like I could just start making it.
(32:39):
And a couple of months upright citizens we Gay Theater
in New York, they planned the first Troll two screening,
and it became like, Okay, this is the first thing
I got a film for the doc naturally, and then
it started on a three plus year journey of making
the film.
Speaker 7 (32:58):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Yeah, So and you were just doing it completely on
your own. You're just grabbing getting your crew together and oh.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, you're you're making skateboard films. So were you a
Stacey Perlta and Bones Brigade fan? That's what I figured, Yeah,
same same, I figured those just watching those videos are
the coolest things in the world.
Speaker 7 (33:19):
Back in the day, it was the best. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (33:23):
And when I was making the doc, I I I
remember like I made you know, I was like, Okay,
I gotta figure out ways to get from city to city,
and so I would I made these simple green shirts
that said nail Bog on the front and gobbling on
the back, and uh, every screening I would take hundreds
of those and they'd sell out, and I was like, Okay,
(33:45):
that's that's my planing tickets of the great But but
you know, like I make it sound all and you
guys know how this is. But like throughout that whole
journey of making that doc, you have moments.
Speaker 7 (33:57):
Where you're like, am I going to do this? Where
am I going to go next? All this and and really,
to the credit, my partner, my wife. I remember many times.
Speaker 8 (34:08):
Because we were having our first child soon right around
that time, walking run in and being like, I can't
keep working on this dock, and and and Lindsey being like, no, no,
you've got to.
Speaker 7 (34:19):
You gotta finish it, you gotta finish it. And so
we just took it one.
Speaker 8 (34:23):
We just just did what I could and just stayed
consistent on it until it was until it was over.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
Well, similarly to Podmead's World, you really allowed this project
to help you process a childhood experience.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
Was it a bigger.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
Undertaking emotionally than you expected?
Speaker 7 (34:45):
Yeah, uh for sure.
Speaker 8 (34:49):
And both like you know, I mean meeting meeting the
store owner and interviewing him and hearing him tell me
that he wanted to he wanted to kill me, my gosh.
Speaker 7 (35:07):
And then also like.
Speaker 8 (35:08):
Coming into contact you know, the woman who played my
mother in the film. She's she is, you know, mentally
ill now and really suffers, and so I hadn't seen
her in years and years and years, and so trying
to process that, and aside from that, also just the
(35:28):
feeling of of of trying to get something, just trying
to get my first doc made you know, anytime you
make something, it's I think for me at least, it's
always a more emotional thing that you imagine. I think
sometimes that naivete in the beginning is what helps you
because you're like, Okay, I'm just going to do this
(35:50):
and and you know, so.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
I'm curious about that because, like you know, when I
watch a doc like that, I'm always like I could never.
I don't think I could do that. Like I don't
think I could sit in a room and draw these
people out, you know, and you do it so well.
You do an American scream too, Like you have a
way of like sitting with a character, and like were
you always that way or is that something that you
discovered that you had to do because you're sitting across
(36:15):
from like the woman who played your mom, and you're
just like I have to just sort of let this
happen and not make this person feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 7 (36:22):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 8 (36:23):
I mean, I don't think it's something that necessarily I.
Speaker 7 (36:30):
Discovered.
Speaker 8 (36:31):
Like I've I've always been really interested in just people
and curious about individuals and trying to understand them.
Speaker 7 (36:41):
I think the more you do it, the more that.
Speaker 8 (36:44):
Has only taken hold and I think it's a documentary filmmaker.
I'll actually never I'll never forget because I had actually
best first movie was invited to the screen at Al
Masle's little theater in Brooklyn, and I'm a massive fan
of Grey Gardens and.
Speaker 7 (37:04):
Al actually he had me and my producer.
Speaker 8 (37:09):
We stayed with him in Brooklyn and so we still
had the recam and just hung out with him. And
it was one of these moments with like, God, this
is the guy like an.
Speaker 7 (37:15):
Idle of mind. But he had said, he had told
me something.
Speaker 8 (37:18):
He said, you know, when you make docs, it's almost
as though you have a thousand teachers. And it's true
in that respect, and that like you don't there's a
very almost sacred relationship you have with a subject and
you get very close to them, if at least for me,
to where the level you understand each other, like there's
(37:40):
really no other relationship you can compare it to outside
of somebody you know, a partner or somebody.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
You really love.
Speaker 8 (37:46):
And so you get a look into someone's life and
who they are, worts and all, and there's a real vulnerability,
there's a real sort of like trust, all these sorts
of things. But I always feel like for me, it's
I'm being taught right, Like I always feel like I'm
getting the better of it. Like I will see an
American Scream, any of these characters that I'm still close
(38:08):
with them, and I always feel like there's something that
I take that's very positive and I'm like, wow, I
want to be more like that, and I've learned that
from this person.
Speaker 7 (38:17):
And so.
Speaker 8 (38:20):
Yeah, And I think the more and more you do it,
the more you're like wow, you just get such an
interesting look into perspective and the lives that others live
when you're a documentary filmmaker and you have a relationship
where you can really share and you know, and grow close.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
In case any of our listeners don't know, I do
want to let people know your next documentary at was
The American Scream, a movie about three families who turn
their houses into extravagant Halloween attractions in Massachusetts. What do
you think drew you to scares.
Speaker 7 (38:53):
Chuck?
Speaker 8 (38:57):
Yeah, that was an interesting like I you know, I
like horror films, but I that specific American Scream. There
was there was a network part of NBC Universal called
Chiller that was all horror programming and after Best Ferst
movie came out. They came and they said, do you
(39:17):
want to do something around Halloween? And they were like,
we want to do something on Halloween haunted houses. And
it was basically that brought and in their minds they
were like top ten, you know, something you would see
on TV. Top ten haunted houses sort of thing. And
I have a very, very fond memory of a woman
in my neighborhood who was considered the weird woman growing
(39:40):
up that every Halloween, her whole she would transform her
whole house into the den of terror, and the whole
neighborhood would would send on this woman's house for that
one night, and I remember being magical, and then.
Speaker 7 (39:54):
The rest of the year nobody ever talked to her.
Speaker 8 (39:56):
And so when they came to me with that, I
sort of secretly was like, I don't want to make
a commercial hunted house film. I want to make I
want to I want to find these families. And fortunately
for me, I got so far into making it that
by the time they really looked at it closely when
I was making it was too far.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Yea, the sunk cost fallacy to your adenty that is great.
Speaker 5 (40:31):
Well, Also, I want to talk about your first scripted film,
Girlfriend's Day, which is written by and stars Bob Odenkirk
and Amber Tamblin, Natasha Leone and my new friend Andy Richter.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Yes, you know.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
Andy Richter makes the best banana bread I've ever had
in my entire life.
Speaker 7 (40:49):
I have no idea.
Speaker 5 (40:51):
It is delicious. The other day, I get to work
and I see Andy.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
I go, Andy, how you doing? And he goes okay.
I go, what's wrong?
Speaker 5 (40:58):
Andy goes, well, I thought my rehearsal was at nine,
but it was at one. And I said, oh my gosh,
it's you know, one o'clock. I'm just arriving there. I go,
have you been here all morning? He goes no, I
made banana bread. I said, you made banana bread in
this little kitchen. He goes, no, I went home and
I made banana bread. It's in this little kitchen, though,
if you want to try it. I was like, hell, yeah,
I want to try it.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Go away, I take it. Bade him like, they are
the best banana bread I've ever read.
Speaker 7 (41:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
I really tried a lot of recipes. It was the
greatest thing ever.
Speaker 7 (41:26):
That's amazing.
Speaker 5 (41:27):
So congratulations on this movie. Did you ever think when
you were running around the oak Woods. Is this the
career in life you envisioned for yourself. Did you ever
picture being this kind of documentary slash movie director.
Speaker 8 (41:43):
I mean I always imagine like a film and just
has always felt like it was just going to be
a thing that I did.
Speaker 7 (41:50):
I didn't know what shape or form. And I still
don't like stories come new thing.
Speaker 8 (41:54):
You just don't don't really see everything that's coming.
Speaker 7 (42:00):
And I think that when.
Speaker 8 (42:02):
You do feel like you have a story, part of
it is just trying to listen to what that wants
to be and as opposed to maybe what you wanted
wanted to be. So and and girlfriends say, also just
a weird, I mean wild, wild thing where we had.
Speaker 7 (42:22):
We had finished making The Americans.
Speaker 8 (42:24):
Well, we were editing The American Scream in my garage
and Lindsay my wife, and I my produce, my producing partner,
and I we were I was doing the dumb thing
on on a whiteboard where I was writing down the
names of my favorite comedians that I felt like had
really strong dramatic sensibilities but hadn't been seen dramatically as
(42:48):
much as they had in the.
Speaker 7 (42:48):
World of comedy. And we were huge fans of mister Show.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah such a good show.
Speaker 7 (42:52):
Yeah, so fun.
Speaker 8 (42:54):
And this was like season two of Maybe Breaking Bad.
Speaker 7 (42:58):
So so Bob was just in the background of it.
We were really excited. We're like, oh, it's Bob and
I and I wrote I was.
Speaker 8 (43:05):
I did the thing where I was like, right, dream
actors he would want to work with, and I wrote
his name down on this on this whiteboard in my office.
And it wasn't four or five weeks after that that
there was an interview that I think the Onion or
the av Club did with him and they were asking
him about his favorite films and he named best worst movie.
Speaker 6 (43:28):
Wow.
Speaker 7 (43:29):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 8 (43:30):
And so then we connected and we were coming up
on the premiere of American Scream and completely just I
was like, hey, it turns out Bob's Bob's son was
also going through a difficult time in his period of
his life and he was a huge troll tooth fan
and loved the movie.
Speaker 7 (43:48):
And YadA, YadA, YadA. So we make we make the
American Scream. We premiere it. I invited Bob and his family,
thinking there's no way he's.
Speaker 8 (43:55):
Going to come, and he came and he was like
an hour early and he's like, I got this really
weird comedy.
Speaker 7 (44:03):
It's never going to.
Speaker 8 (44:03):
Get made, but I'd love for you to make it
with me, or let's talk about it.
Speaker 7 (44:08):
And then that started that process.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
So cool.
Speaker 6 (44:11):
Yeah, wild Wild.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
How do you think your experience as a child actor
helps you behind the camera.
Speaker 7 (44:19):
Oh, that's a good question.
Speaker 8 (44:22):
I think I think really having an understanding and a
respect and a love and appreciation for how hard it
is in front of a camera and understanding just the
language of acting, right, Like I am reminded sometimes when
I've worked on other projects that a lot of people
don't understand what it is like to actually be an actor.
(44:45):
And it's hard for me to not understand that because
it's been part of me forever, and so it is
a thing now where I'm like, Wow, it's a real
gift in.
Speaker 7 (44:52):
That I get it and I understand it.
Speaker 8 (44:56):
I understand how hard it is, I know how to
you know, I've had that, I've had that experience, and
I know what it is to do it very badly portally.
So yeah, I think it's I think I think it's
you know, you hear sometimes I mean this is more anecdotally,
but you hear that sort of relations like directors and
(45:18):
actors and directors not understanding actors and they're sometimes being attentioned.
I've never really experienced that personally because I have nothing,
but like acting was my first point into all of it.
Speaker 7 (45:30):
So, you know, it.
Speaker 8 (45:32):
Doesn't feel foreign to me or counter it feels it
feels like the enabler of all.
Speaker 7 (45:38):
Really.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
Yeah, you mentioned that you have kids. How many kids
do you have?
Speaker 8 (45:42):
I have three daughters. Wow, yeah, so yeah, my oldest
actually turns eighteen in a few weeks, which is she's
I know, I know, it's crazy. She learned to drive
this lab well summer and a half ago. And it's
a weird moment to be sitting and I know, you, Daniel,
(46:03):
you have you you have children.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
As well, right, writer writer has a son and I
have two.
Speaker 8 (46:08):
Yeah, okay, so you you yeah, you know, and it
is they you know. So I have an almost eighteen
year old, fifteen year old and then a nine year
old nine year old.
Speaker 7 (46:20):
I'm taking the movie night tonight. It's it's it's.
Speaker 8 (46:24):
Amazing to be sitting shotgun as your daughter is driving
you throughout LA and it's controlling the radio and like
putting on Stevie Nicks or something.
Speaker 7 (46:33):
You know. Okay, life is okay, it's pretty good, pretty good.
Speaker 5 (46:39):
Do any of your children have they ever expressed any
interest in acting or being in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 7 (46:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (46:46):
So, so here's the thing that's and this is a
thing where I have, I have, I have I have
to talk to my therapist more about this and get
over this thing. Because my my old oldest and my
youngest really every all of all three.
Speaker 7 (47:03):
Of my kids were really we're really in the theater,
like we love theater and.
Speaker 8 (47:11):
I'll never forget actually the first time that my old
so my youngest have never seen Troll two or Best
Versus Movie.
Speaker 7 (47:18):
My middle child, my middle and.
Speaker 8 (47:20):
My oldest have and they've actually the first screen they
went to a screening.
Speaker 7 (47:24):
Right, I didn't even tell them what it was about.
Speaker 6 (47:26):
They don't.
Speaker 8 (47:27):
You don't really talk about a lot of this sort
of stuff at home. You're you're busy, you know, uh,
with life. And my oldest and my middle they went
to a screening of Troll two in Montreal for the
first time.
Speaker 7 (47:39):
They had no idea what they were in for Troll
two and Bestpersus.
Speaker 8 (47:41):
Movie, and their minds were blown afterwards and outside of that,
I've never been somebody. And we watched movies, we watched
docs like I took them to see American Movie at
the New Beverly over Thanksgiving this, you know, so it's
been part of their thing, but they they are naturally
Like my oldest is, she's she just you know, she
(48:02):
has a film that's that's playing as part of the
High School Film Festival.
Speaker 7 (48:09):
In New York next month, that got selected. I didn't.
I didn't. I didn't. I didn't like encourage her.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
She's acting, directing it. What did she do?
Speaker 7 (48:20):
Directed? Acted and put our youngest in it?
Speaker 8 (48:25):
And she didn't. She didn't tell me. I like, I
kid you not. We didn't talk about it. She she
just said, I'm working on this thing. And then we
went and we saw it, and she is very much
drawn to it, more than my other two. I mean,
my youngest is she just got so weird. She just
got the lead role of Annie at a local production
(48:46):
and and that was the you know, I remember when
before she was going into audition, She's like, Dad, like,
do you think I could really get this role?
Speaker 7 (48:55):
And I was like, and I asked her.
Speaker 8 (48:58):
I said, do you think you can get this role.
And she's like, yeah, I do. And I was like, well,
why do you think that? And she's like, well I practiced.
I said, okay, well.
Speaker 7 (49:05):
Done your best, and she got she got the role.
Speaker 8 (49:09):
But it is the thing, and I was talking about
this with Lindsay It's like, I don't it's hard when
you see inside the kitchen of this business, right, and
so there is this thing where it's like I want
to encourage art and creativity and making things, but I'm
also a little more cynical now, like truly on a
(49:30):
number of levels.
Speaker 7 (49:30):
And so it's this sort of tension of.
Speaker 8 (49:32):
Like, yeah, I like like chase your dreams, but also like.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
Oh, like.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Yeah, totally get that.
Speaker 7 (49:44):
M h yeah, I'm sure I was dancing with the stars.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
Oh my gosh. The most fun, the most fun.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
The most fun for her, it's my worst nightmare. We're
having a blast with it, watching from a far exactly.
Speaker 5 (50:01):
It's really been great and Andy getting to know Andy
has been getting to know everybody honestly has been really
really great, and we're all super bonded, and you know,
it's it's hard.
Speaker 3 (50:13):
It's hard. Yeah, it's so much work.
Speaker 7 (50:17):
I can only imagine.
Speaker 8 (50:19):
Yeah, yeah, my my family. I was out of town
this last week, but my family had told me they
had watched they'd started watching the season and my you know,
Boydant's World and Girl Meets a World. I mean, you
guys probably get this, but like my teas like watched
and loved that show like it's it. They were so
(50:39):
when I was like, oh, you know, do you guys
know about this, and they're like, of course we know,
and they you know, they they really like so your show.
Both shows are still continuing to connect with young people,
which is pretty awesome.
Speaker 5 (50:53):
Yeah, yesterday I had the weirdest experience. So Alex Earl,
who's like, you know, a massive social media star, she influencer,
She's very big on TikTok, and she is very young,
but like in her twenties young, not you know, teenager young.
And for TikTok week, she had these two very young
teenagers in the studio with her teaching her choreography that's
(51:16):
going to be a part of her dance because they
they were the originators of this choreography on TikTok, and
so she brought them in and so I'm talking to Alex,
I'm like, Alex, I want to do a TikTok with you.
I'm explaining to her what the TikTok is, and the
two girls are standing there and I said, Hi, I'm
Danielle by the way, and I'm thinking, alex Earl has
no idea who I am.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Like, alex Earl has never heard of Boy Meets World.
Speaker 5 (51:36):
She's like, I mean, I've seen it on TikTok, I've
seen clips of it, but like she's never seen the show.
She doesn't know who I am. She's not a fan.
I mean she's a fan, like, you know, she likes me,
but she's not like she had no idea. And I
turned to the teenagers and both of them are just
wide eyed. They're like, we are such big fans. I
was like, really, like what Girl Meets World was my
(51:58):
favorite show?
Speaker 3 (52:00):
And I'm like, sure enough, you know.
Speaker 5 (52:01):
I mean for a seventeen year old kid who was
probably seven when we were doing Girl Meets World on
the Disney Channel that was our demo, Yeah.
Speaker 7 (52:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (52:12):
To bring the conversation full circle, I mean, that's like,
I think that's why your doctor spoke to me, is like,
you don't have control over how these things live, where
your art ends up especially as an actor, but I
would say even as a director, as you know, it's
like you do your best, you put it out there
and you know it fails, and then ten years later
it's everybody's talking about it or something that is the
(52:34):
biggest movie ever and everybody's talking about it, and then
you know, ten years later, does anybody really remember it?
Speaker 6 (52:40):
Like that happens all the time.
Speaker 3 (52:42):
That doesn't hold up anymore.
Speaker 6 (52:43):
It's true, it doesn't something.
Speaker 4 (52:45):
You know, it's like the reality of like we were,
we it's just getting older, right, It's like realizing the
trends and realizing that you can't always predict and you know,
you have to engage with those trends. You have to
look at it as a conversation you're having. There's no
right or wrong answer, you know, there's no like.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
That's the thing that's so beautiful about it is things
like the room control to these are things that are
going to last forever and.
Speaker 7 (53:09):
Ever and ever.
Speaker 1 (53:10):
And if that's your goal as an artist is to
make something.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
That lasts, you've done it. I mean, it's amazing.
Speaker 7 (53:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (53:18):
So is it one of the great lessons of life
that we just don't have control over anything?
Speaker 3 (53:24):
So the sooner we get comfortable you I know.
Speaker 5 (53:29):
I mean, listen, if you sign on to do Dancing
with the Stars with the goal of making it to
the finals and then snap your hamstring tendon in week two,
let me tell you what you get used to so
you know you just like you just have to go
with it. So thank you so much for being here
with us. I'm so happy we were able to unite
(53:51):
you and reunite you and Writer. I have a feeling
you guys are going to have a friendship reaching out.
Speaker 7 (53:57):
We're going to hang.
Speaker 5 (53:58):
Because we got I can tell you guys speak the
same language.
Speaker 3 (54:03):
You guys are going to be best buds.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
I'm excited for your podcast.
Speaker 5 (54:08):
Yes, So thank you so much for spending your time
with us. Really means a lot to us. And the
best of luck on Girlfriends Day and everything else you have.
We will be watching everything you do in the future.
Speaker 8 (54:20):
Hey, I really appreciate it and it's been a pleasure.
And all the best to the three of you as well.
Speaker 3 (54:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (54:28):
Make sure your family sets a timer to vote for
me every Tuesday at five pm. Text Danielle the two
one five two three man.
Speaker 3 (54:41):
He's great, Yeah, great, Writer, He's writer's.
Speaker 4 (54:46):
Funny, Like, you know, it's funny that you know, you
become friends for a reason, probably at the age of
ten or eleven, and it's probably a.
Speaker 6 (54:55):
Good reason to stay.
Speaker 3 (54:56):
Totally.
Speaker 4 (54:57):
Yeah, we just for whatever reason, our lives went in
separate ways. But I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm totally like,
I honestly don't remember him, but I know that if
I met him, we were probably spending days together, run around.
Speaker 5 (55:07):
Absolutely, you were probably loving conversation with him.
Speaker 3 (55:11):
Then, yeah, well conversation.
Speaker 2 (55:14):
I want to see that oak Woods doc.
Speaker 6 (55:16):
Yeah show.
Speaker 4 (55:17):
Yeah, I know that there's been a couple actually I've
heard about a couple different like profiles of Oakwood.
Speaker 5 (55:22):
But yeah, Jensen said, it's really dark, but it's great.
Thank you all for listening to this episode of Pod
Meets World. As always, you can follow us on Instagram
pod Meets World Show. You can send us your emails
podmeets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
And we've got march in a.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
World where trolls are goblins and vegetarians too. Apparently for
some reason we don't know troll to march.
Speaker 5 (55:46):
Pod meets Worldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 2 (55:49):
We love you all.
Speaker 1 (55:50):
Pod dismissed Podmeats World is nheart podcast producer and hosted
by Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen
Parp and Amy show German executive in charge of production,
Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara sudbachsch producer, Maddy Moore,
engineer and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen. Our
theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you
(56:11):
can follow us on Instagram at Podmeets World Show or
email us at Podmets Worldshow at gmail dot com
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong
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