Phil Glasser Meets World

It’s hard to discuss the importance and cultural impact of Boy Meets World without mentioning the creative enigma that is Ubaldo, the partying nerd in Season 2’s “The Uninvited.” And now the man behind the character speaks, when Phil Glaser joins Pod Meets World.

 

All jokes aside, Phil’s journey in child acting began in front of Steven Spielberg as the iconic voice of Fievel Mousekewitz in “An American Tail” and included a shared role on stage with one of our hosts.

 

He’s since transitioned behind the camera as a producer on movies and hit TV shows like MobLand and Mare of Easttown - but it all began as Ubaldo, the coolest dork in town.

 

Learn all about this interesting journey and his memories from set, on an all new PMW…

 

Follow @podmeetsworldshow on Instagram and TikTok!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:19):
I have a friend who was like a professional squash
player when she was younger, like a champion, I'm not sure,
like some international squash champion. It's like how she got
into college and and now her daughter, who's the same
age as Indie, is playing squash and getting very good
and already touring the country. And you know, and we

(00:41):
went down to the Queen Mary and where they have
in Long Beach, and they set up a halloween like
a whole it's called the Dark Harbor, and you have
made every year. It is so awesome having been to yeah,
having this year, having been to Universal Horror Nights, Haunted Haybrides,
and the Dark Harbor. Dark Harbor was by far my favorite.

(01:03):
Ye same kind of thing, like they have mazes and
you know, it's just so much fun.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
And you don't believe in this stuff, but apparently one
of the most haunted places in all of California.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
He's right, Queen Mary. It's so fun. It's so fun.
So we went down with this friend and her daughter
and we all got rooms, so we like stayed overnight
and we had a last but one of the things
that they had at the carnival was acts throwing. Yeah,
I had the funniest moment because you know, like with Indy,
like India is exhibiting a lot of performance talent, Like

(01:36):
he's very much an actor. He just wants to make
people laugh. He can sing really well, he can play piano,
and you know, I've always had this sort of like
relationship with it where I kind of just want to
get out of his way, you know, like I don't
want to put pressure on him. I don't want to,
you know, because there's obviously both of his parents are actors.
Whenever he does anything like he doesn't play, everyone's like wow,

(01:56):
because of your parents, we can see where this comes from,
you know. So I've always just like let him do
his thing, let other teachers talk to him about it.
Like I don't engage, you know, I'm just like yeah,
I mean I we play together and we made movies together.
But other than that, like I don't you know hands,
I don't give him notes, I don't you know. I
just let him do his thing. I was watching my friend, Oh,

(02:18):
we get up there to do ax throw it, and
so we wait in line, and then India and I
are up and you only get like five throws, right,
So I throw my axe just flails. Indy throws his
it flails, and I'm like, okay, let's try your good,
you know, and we're both trying. We get five shots.
I think like maybe I sunk like two of them.
You know, Indy, it's all just bouncing off. We're horrible,

(02:38):
and I'm just like, ah, that's fine. We walk off.
And then I watched my friend get up there, my
friend Ivy and her daughter, and they throw the first
axe and Ive's immediately like all right, Loretta, come on,
you can get that ax in there. You can do this.
Come on, girl like and immediately starts coaching, and I
watched the two of them get like better and better. Yeah,
Like I see this day this like mother daughter dynamic

(03:01):
where I'm like, oh, this is what it's like when
they play squash, right, Like she is like champion, bro dude,
she is like raising a champion like. And it was
like immediately like, oh, we're gonna do this. We're gonna
do this right and Loretta, you're gonna focus and we're
gonna And I sat there and I was like, oh,
that's like this whole other side of parenting that like
I've just totally like so now I'm like, what is

(03:24):
the equivalent where I can like coach and yeah, how
can I be like, all right, what's your objective in
the scene, buddy, what do you what's your motivation? We're
gonna all right, all right, acting is reacting. Let's see it,
let's see it. Come on, let's do another take. Okay,
you can do better. I want to see tears. I
want to see it. Okay, come on, can you get this?
But there's like part of me that was a little like,

(03:45):
oh right, I feel this pressure to like not engage.
But there's the other side, which is if you see
somebody has an ability you coach, you know that, you
know because I do know a lot, like we do
know a lot about this. I direct, I know how
to talk to kids. And I was like, oh, maybe
I should should be engaging more actually doing this. But

(04:05):
call that you call that, yeah, I think it'd be
great exactly. Anyway, So now I'm trying to I'm trying
to incorporate like coach, acting, coach, writer dad, that's like
my new my new things. I was like, you know,
there's a there's a there's a little bit of like, hey, buddy,
you can do better or whatever. You know, without being
too judger to judgmental, not without making him feel bad,

(04:27):
but also you know, coaching like encouraging and being like
you can I know you can do this, I know.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
I always thought coach was a weird term for something
to do with acting, Like acting, teacher, I think works
better than coach because coaching, it's like.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
There is a at least with a lot of sports
like acts.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Throwing is a perfect example. It's repetitive. There is a
like a mechanical muscle memory, and it's muscle memory, and
it's counting the number of flips and it's so it's
like you can drill that and drill that and drill that.
But it's so much more abstract with acting that it's like, yeah,
you can do scene studies at night if you want
to be that. I remember dating a girl that that

(05:04):
was the first night we went out after dinner.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
I was like, so what do you want to do?
She's like, do you want to go home to your
house and do some scene study? I was like, I'm
hoping that's you from it was Carrie Russell.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
No, but like that's what she wanted to do when
we got together, was scenes. She then went out to
become a very successful.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Act because Meryl Street exactly, but so there is I.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Mean, I but coaching always seemed to me like they
were going to be there, like exactly like I said.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Like, cry, come on, I don't believe. I don't buy it.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Well, but I also run. You run.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
There's a risk you run as being parent slash coach
because eventually you look at you know, Tiger Woods or
the Williams sisters. If you start to resent the the
sport or the activity, and then it's your parent who's
pushing you, you blow that line. Like to me, I

(06:00):
would think, all right, I do know a lot, but
there are also acting teachers who know a lot, and
I can put them in with an acting teacher where
maybe if I'm just the parent, I don't have to worry.
I don't have to take that risk of my kid
eventually resenting me.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
They can.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
This has been my that's been my approach all the
way along. But I also, I mean, yeah, I mean,
I'm joking, but I also have just realized like I
should open up to Indye a little bit, like I
should talk to him about it, like the things I
do know, like that I have discovered where you know,
it's like I don't know, like maybe every take can
be different. Maybe you don't need to lok, you know,
I don't know, just like little notes that I can
or things that.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
I can throw out, you could because so come at
it from what do you wish you had?

Speaker 1 (06:41):
When you exactly Well, that's what I realized, is like, uh,
I had a lot of bad acting teachers. And I
think maybe he does too, you know, because a lot
of like I think about how many people talk to
us and gave us notes that didn't know what they
were talking about. Of course they would just be like
you know, and and I remember sitting in classes like
not things that I would stay in. But you know,
because we were very lucky, I got kind of out

(07:03):
of that scene. But like if you stayed in like
local theater or local they would give you the word.
Like I remember the first time my brother and I
had an audition and our agent or local agent invited
us to our office because we were going to meet
Warren Batty for Dick Tracy, like were screen testing for
Dick Tracy. I had only put myself on tape and
sent the vhs down to LA and then they were

(07:24):
screen testing me and Shiloh. So that morning our agent
we were flying down to la and our agent, our
local agent at Santa Rosea, called us and was like,
we need to talk. We need to you know, make
sure you guys know what you're doing. And of course,
like she brought in her like somebody who had worked
with her. I think it was like a family member
or whatever who had worked on films, and he was
going to give us notes. He literally explained how to
hit your mark. He was like, they're going to draw

(07:45):
a tea on the ground and you're gonna walk to
that and don't say your lines until you hit the tee.
And we were like, oh okay, And of course went
down to meet Warren Batty and they started improvising and
we were a complete mess, and it was all did
you hit the tea?

Speaker 5 (08:01):
I did not.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
There was no mark, was no mar There was no mark.
I mean basically, this guy had been an extra on
some things, you know, or worked in commercials, and like
that was the extent of his like professional knowledge to
give us, which is, you know, I don't blame him,
but it was like here we were at ten, like
going to.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
Do these rending time right before you go into a
meeting learning about something that's not even going to be there.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Nope, and not even that important. Like that's the easy
part of acting to teach, that's that, you know. The
hard part is like just be yourself, just relax, just express,
just you know, all the things and feel free and
there's no wrong answer, there's just have fun and all
those things. So yeah, I think about like what I
can start having the conversations I can start having with
India about like what it's what's actually like to act
and maybe just share some wisdom. I swear to God,

(08:44):
when you started the story, I thought you're gonna be
like an Indie is amazing at squash.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
No, No, believe it or not. My kid is not
into sports. Guy, that's weird. That's weird.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
I find it hard to believe. I think Indy's going
to grow.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
Up to love sports ball.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
By the way, Danielle, I do have to say, I
know you're dealing with a little sickness today.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Makes the voice sexy.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
I gotta say sorry, you got the cat like the
Kathleen Turner rasp going on just saying.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Thanks will, Hey, honey, what are you doing? You got
another pall mall. That's right. I go non filter.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
If you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
It become New Yorker parent.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Everyone from you.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
You never call my boys sexy when I'm sick, Will it's.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Because it's your voice is sexy all the time, and
I can't keep saying it.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
We're tired of hearing it.

Speaker 5 (09:39):
You know.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Welcome to bod Meets World. I'm Daniel Fischel.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
I'm a right as strong and that was sexy.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
Yeah, Wi, as you could probably guess. Producer and husband
of this podcast, Jensen will not rest and tell everyone

(10:10):
who's had a character name on Boy Meets World joins
us to talk about the show.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
I can't talk.

Speaker 6 (10:16):
About the shoot. You got to talk about the shoal
about you did the loop dip. That's one of my
favorite stories.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
With my friend Brandy and I drove from drove from
Vancouver to Banff and we were two girls before good navigation,
just lost in Canada, driving around and I was like,
I don't I think we're not on the right I
don't think we're this is the right thing. I think
we're in the wrong spot. And she kept saying, no,
let's just keep going, keep going going. Finally, we come

(10:48):
like for miles of not seeing anything. We come across
this tiny little like gas station, one pump and convenience
store thing and I'm like, we have to go in
and ask for help. And we go in and I'm like, Hi,
we are trying to you know, showing her the map
which we're coming from here, we're trying to get to here,
and she goes, oh ah, you took the loop. Yeah,

(11:13):
you talk the loop. No, you're not supposed to take
the loop.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
We talked about him for the rest of the trip.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Finish the loop.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
I was like, how do we unloop? Can you unloop us?

Speaker 5 (11:29):
Us?

Speaker 3 (11:29):
And he get us back and yeah, I live here now.
Anyway back to it.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
So, anyone who's had a character name on Boy Meets
World joins us to talk about the show, and boy
are we thankful for it? This week we're chatting with
a name that made all of us perk up during
our season two recaps. It rang many bells, and for
many reasons. First off, he played the hilariously named Ubaldo
in Boy Meets World's season episode The Uninvited. He's the

(12:02):
overly eager partygoer who somehow scores an invite to Melissa's
exclusive Sean Free Hangout. Secondly, he shared the same childhood
theater role of one Right or Strong Just a Southwest
flight away from San Francisco in The La Company. And thirdly,
how can you forget the kid who was the voice
of fiveful Mouskowitz in the Iconic and American Tail Movies.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
With a credit like that, you are forever goaded.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
Now he's behind the camera, producing movies and joining us
internationally from set.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
If you can believe it? Can we take.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Credit for his modern day Hollywood success because of his
early turn as Ubaldo.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
No, but we will anyway.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
Welcome to Pod Meets World, Philip Glasser, Yah.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Go on, how you doing good? How are you?

Speaker 4 (12:51):
It's a long time, It's been a long time. We
are told that you are joining us from London on set.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
Basically I am, I'm in my trailer little well, well,
we are very appreciative.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
I think it goes without saying that whatever you are
currently producing is not as important as talking to us
about the one Boy Meets World episode where you played
a character named Ubaldo at a house party.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
Obviously obviously not.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
We will eventually talk about what you're producing, but not
to start to start, I want to talk about your
Hollywood origin story. I know you're a valley kid, like
most child actors at a time, but how did you
convince your parents to find an agent and then sit
in one on one traffic for auditions?

Speaker 5 (13:42):
You know, it was it was a family thing. So
my brother, an older brother, is about seven years older,
and he acted, so, you know, like every kid brother,
you want to do what your big brother does. And
I was only four years old and somehow, you know,
I was that kid who was always waving his hand
and get crazy. And my brother's agent said, oh, he's

(14:03):
got a good personality, he should try. From addition, so
my mother knew a little bit about it, she was
a casting director. So I went out for a Wells
Fargo Bank commercial my very first I did. I got
the part, so I'm like, okay, that's an interesting and
then literally, yeah, like a year or two later, I
was five and a half, maybe about to turn six,

(14:26):
audition for this cartoon movie for Steven Spielberg. And I
had no idea that I was about to become a
crazy character that would be around for a very long time.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
You were you were six years old when you recorded
fivele I.

Speaker 5 (14:44):
Started recording at six. I did it so I was eighteen,
so coly was a little slow for me.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
My gosh.

Speaker 5 (14:54):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
So your first job was a national Wells Fargo commercial
and your next job was a Steven spiel Berg movie Bible.

Speaker 5 (15:01):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Okay, yes, I think that sounds like the normal trajectory
for most actors in the industry.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (15:09):
The problem is I peaked at like eight though I
speaked way too.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
It's all downhill from there.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
Did you read for Spielberg?

Speaker 5 (15:20):
So I actually put myself on tape, okay, and then
and then I came back in and I did Actually
I never went in and met them and did another
tape like in a booth they put me and then
they said you're in, and this time you have to remember.
So this was like nineteen eighty four. Animation movies weren't big,
Like I want to say. Snow White was the highest

(15:41):
grossing movie at all time, and it made like twenty
something million dollars. You know, Don Bluth was an iconic
animator from Disney's and all the Disney movies and Pete's
Dragon and everything, And he teams up with Steven to
tell this story that was essentially somewhat about Stephen's grandfather,
whose real name was Bible, I was Spielberg. Yeah, and
you know, we do this movie and then all of

(16:03):
a sudden, they were the first guys to really bring
celebrities because he had Don Bluth, he had Madeline Kahn,
Christopher Plumber and then Amy Irving were all in the movie.
And that wasn't a common thing back then to have
celebrities and animated movies. And this movie comes out eighty six,
it makes like seventy million dollars, which were probably like
close to a billion dollars in today's world, and everyone's like,

(16:25):
whoa we get nominated for the Oscar for somewhere out there,
and it was just absolute chaos ever since.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
Wow, oh my gosh, So how did you how did
you know what to do in the in the studio?

Speaker 3 (16:40):
Like it's your first voiceover job.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
Other voices in this movie, Madeline conn Christopher Plumber, Don
Delawiz and here you are a six year old with
your first trech voiceover job.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
How did you? How did you know what to do?
Who helped you?

Speaker 5 (16:54):
Well, you know what I mean. Stephen and Don were
in every one of my recording sessions, so that was
super helpful. But what they did for me is because
I was so young, So was Madeline Kahn, so is
Christopher Plummer. I recorded with them my lines, so I
always had someone to sort of react with, which is
super uncommon when you're doing voice Yeah, so I had.
I was really spoiled. I got to work with all

(17:16):
these iconic legends, you know, as a little kid who
made it super easy for me.

Speaker 4 (17:22):
And so what happens when the movie takes off is
every like, is everyone at school freaking out that they
know Fible.

Speaker 5 (17:30):
There was a little bit of that. I think there
was some bullying too. I think people are looking for
a tale. You know, kids are interesting. Oh yeah, so
you know I was still you know, going to like
la Us the public school, right, you know, and it
wasn't you know, it wasn't a thing. And then after
that just voiceovers became such a big part of my life.
I was doing like four cartoon series at the same time. Wow.

(17:52):
So I went from that the Tiny Tuons Christian he
put me on that for a while, and then I
was on Pound Puppies, the original one if you remember,
with Ruth Buzzy. Yeah, yeah, they did Creepy Crawlers, PJ
Sparkles and like a do other stuff, and men got
into the ADR world and joined like one of these

(18:12):
loop groups, and it was just I literally worked almost
every day, which was absolute chaos.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Well it was.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
It was a great time in the industry because it
was it was one of those times where and then
they got out of it and now they're slowly starting
to get back into it in voiceover where children actually
did children's voices. Yea, so it's like you would listen
to Charlie Brown and all those and the Peanuts gang
were all kids. And then after a while they were like,
well we should get adults to do kids, especially in

(18:38):
that kind of early eighties era, and so eighty four
eighty five they did start casting kids again. And it
makes a huge difference when it's a kid doing a
kid's voice.

Speaker 5 (18:47):
Yeah, it's so true. And they were everything was authenticity
with Steven and Don Like their big thing is you
had to be able to sing, Like that was a
big thing. They weren't going to do the Disney model
where you can get somebody else to read. If you
couldn't sing, you couldn't do the role. I had to
like sing somewhere out there. The very first time I
went in like, no, thank you. So it was it

(19:10):
was crazy. I had no idea what it was going
to become. Nobody did. But you know, the thing that
actually came out of it, besides all this other great
voice overtook as something that writer and I, you know,
share is I got a call from Cameron McIntosh's office.
They said, who does the voice for Fible? They called
my agent and they said, we want you to audition
for this show Lame is Roll. And I heard of

(19:32):
it because it was in New York. This is nineteen
eighty seven. American Tale came out in November of eighty six,
and I went in and met with like Cameron Richard,
g Alexander and John Caird And the next thing I know,
I'm at the Schubert Theater doing a week absolute kay off.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Oh my god, and then you and then it went
to you. Yeah, I was up in San Francisco. But
but before that, I want to go back. I just
want to hear what it was like to work with
with Spielberg and Don Like, what were they like as
far as giving direction and how were they to work
with they?

Speaker 5 (20:07):
You know, they were awesome. Stephen was. I want to
say his son, Max was not that much younger than
me at the time. He was like a dad. He
would show up in at and the first meeting we
ever had was at his office at Amblin, which is
one of the cool offices, and you know, he was
just like we hung out and like he has this

(20:28):
video arcade of all of his movies that are made
into video games, and we literally like played video games,
like hung out, like he was talking with my dad
was showing us like all the charts and you know,
all the pictures and like sort of treatments and what
they were doing with the characters. And we just started recording.
And back then it would take a good two years

(20:48):
to make an animated movie. So we'd record a bunch,
they'd animate some, we'd record some more animate, you know,
sing the songs, and then do very little ad R.
The neat thing they really did is they would video
this is back with the old huge DHS cameras. They'd
video your recording sessions to really make the intimation of

(21:09):
your mouth correct. When they wanted your lips bringing the
apps that was in Bond blue like special to be perfect.
So they'd watch us record the lines and video us
so really help with the animation, which is really neat.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
That's so cool, so cool.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yeah, mouth people don't realize how important mouth they called
the mouth flaps are in animation. Yea, where if you
get a breakdown because a lot of the animator is
the thing that maybe not back in the day, but
now a lot of the animators don't speak English because
they're being animated in Japan or Korea or China, and
so what will happen is they literally just have a

(21:45):
chart of what the mouth looks like when it makes
certain letters. So an O makes this letter, an A
makes this letter, so they can animate around the actual
vowels that you're saying, and so by filming you doing
it there literally can animate the actual mouthflap to match
the word, which again you can tell the difference when
you see one of those schlock Fest eighty cartoons that
I loved, where it was the mouthflap would just be

(22:07):
doing this and a voice would come out and sometimes
it would stop talking and the voice would still be
going yeah, or a different voice would come out of
the mouth flaps like they just didn't care, And you
can tell it makes a big difference, the attention to detail.

Speaker 5 (22:19):
Yeah, you're one hundred percent right, all right.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
So singing this iconic song, how was it were you?
Did it just come out or was it like a
long time lots of takes?

Speaker 5 (22:44):
Yeah, I mean they came over to my house and
taught it to me, you know, at like you know,
James Horner came with. I think the writers were Berry
Man and Cynthia while cract and they write, and they
taught me how to singer. I sing like four songs
in the movie, but this one was like the big one,
and I'll never forget it. I did the first take

(23:05):
my voice cracked, and that's the one they actually ended
up using because and I'm like, no, no, I'll do
it again. I'll do it again. I think I did.
But it was so authentic and Stephen like absolutely loved it,
and he's like, no, that's it. That's exactly why we
want someone to really sing it themselves, because you're in
that character. Now we've established it, and that's the one

(23:27):
that kind of went. I had no idea that we'd
be playing still at weddings, probably still to this day,
you know, And you know, it was the most unique
thing and I still get it to stay every once
in a while from people. Is you know, shortly after
the first movie, we had the first Goal four and

(23:47):
that song was such a big song for people whose
parents were deployed constantly. People always coming up to me
saying that song was so important to me during the
war when my mom or dad was over in Iraq,
and you know, and then anything like that makes me
feel so good about anything I could have done that
could have helped somebody else. Yes, I still to this day,

(24:08):
like comic cons people will tell me about it, you know,
and still so it's uh. I had like once again,
I had no idea anything that's gonna come up and
then oh cool, I get to work with the guy
who made Jaws and e T. I think it's the
coolest thing in the world. But I had no idea
what it would become.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
I have I have a question for you from the
the technical side of it, because back in the day,
I mean now, as a voiceover actor, I mean, you
know this as well as anybody else. We do four
hour sessions. It's they don't want to beat you up
too much. You're gonna do four hours and you're gonna
be out. Was it the same back in the day,
especially as a young performer whose vocal cords hadn't really
yet developed. You're singing, you're doing your vo Are they

(24:49):
giving you two three hour sessions or are you there
all day?

Speaker 5 (24:53):
You know, I think it varied. I think sometimes, you know,
this songs took a little bit longer because you know
that you have you're saying with somebody else and they
have to get it right too, it's not just you.
And some of the sessions, probably because of my age,
took a little bit longer, you know. I mean I
could read, but you know, I wasn't a thespian at
this point. I'm six, right, So you know, I think

(25:16):
they had to be patient, and it was it was
so much. It was a tremendous amount of dialogue. Yeah,
I mean, you know, so they had everything on like
these poster boards in big lettering to make it super easy,
and Don would go through with me, and so with
Steven sometimes and the other actors. Like I said, they
were just it was like having a bunch of like parents.
They were so kind, like Don Delaise, you know, it

(25:38):
was one of the sweetest human beings I've ever worked with.
In my life, and he was like just having this
giant eddie bear of an uncle that would just make
everything fun. He'd tell a joke, he would make the
entire experience fun, just like he is in all this.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Character that's so cool.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
That is amazing and so mixed in with other voiceover
gigs and an eventual American Tales sequel and TV show.
Is your start in live action TV? Guest starring playing
a young Danny Tanner.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
On Full House?

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (26:09):
Do you remember working with Bob Zagat at all and
what it was like playing a younger version of him?

Speaker 5 (26:15):
I did, I did. It was during lames. So the
big thing is they wouldn't cut my hair because that
was the big thing. To get rash you had to
work like a straight urgent. You couldn't get your haircut.
They had to pin up a bunch of stuff. But
it was supposed to be, you know, back in the
sixties or seventies when they grew up, so it wasn't
a big deal for the flashback, and it was, I mean,
it was awesome, It wasn't great. I think it was

(26:35):
like season two. It wasn't a very old show. Maybe
season three. Yeah, And you know, I went on was
able to do the show. I had my undershody cover
my performances that I couldn't do that week, and it
was It was awesome. Bob was great, everybody in the
cast was great. They talked about like bringing us back
for another one, and then I just never ended up

(26:55):
happening because it was such a cute episode showed how
we all met, how they became brands.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
All right, so I want to I want to hear
about your lam Is experience. So what was that like?
Was that your first like theatricals was the first time
on stage? First time? And how was it my first time.

Speaker 5 (27:11):
On stage of it Is? I had no idea what
it was going to be. It was a new thing.
I went to this place. It was this church somewhere
off sense of Bovard. Sorry I lost my train of
thought earlier. And they had like a church and they
took a big square put the big circle thing like
with the automatic turntable on it, and we just went
in there and then all of a sudden they're like, okay,

(27:32):
you do this, You do this, and you get the stuff.
You start meeting all the Pupil's a lot of people
that came from New York because it was the third
show went London, that's New York, that's Los Angeles, and
we trained there with I think William Solo was our
Valjean Jeff McCarthy was the javert, and k Cole was

(27:53):
our our miss Tardier, and then Gary Beach who on
a few tonys was our mister Thenardier. And we just
started training and the next thing you know, we're opening
up at the Schubert Theater and it was just once again,
I had no idea. I didn't even know what the
show was. I had no clue. I'd never done it.

(28:13):
But I'm like, oh, this is fun. And you got
to go around, run up and down, you know, barricades,
and sing all these songs. Back then, you know, everything
was still in it with the turntables. When they got
rid of the turntable, you know, you didn't have the
Gavroche death scene, all the big stuff.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
I know they cut it out. Now, my god, he
dies London. It's so frustrating because they used to. They
used to. The whole like conceit of the original show
is that they the whole stage would rotate and lazy
Susan right, it was incredible, like the so the show
was just this flaw. So what what that meant is

(28:48):
that the barricades came in and created a wall halfway
through the stage, but it could rotate to show you
the other side. So the key moment when Gavroche decided
to go and volunteer to like get more bullets for
them because they're running out of AMMO. He goes over
the barricade. The whole thing turns and then it's this
incredibly tense scene where he's like singing to himself acapella
while he's like gathering bullets and he gets shot and

(29:09):
dies on stage. It's like one of the coolest and
as a kid, it was the greatest thing to play.
Got to Die, And nowadays they just cut it out.
You just see GeV Rush go over the barricade. You
hear it, and it's like, oh, so those kids are
missing out. Man, they don't They don't have the glory
like we did.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah again, if you can't, you can't do kid murder
on stage anymore?

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Where are we?

Speaker 5 (29:34):
It was the best part. I mean throwing there's this
thing when you're dying and you have to try to
throw the bag back over the get the bullet bag
back over the barricade, which was all part of you know, competition.
For me, as like an eight year old, I thought
it was the coolest thing in the world. Trying to
have to do it tonight. I mean, it doesn't change
the scene. Just getting that from the barricade, it's a
big Oh.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Did other cast members offer you rewards if you did it?
That's the way to do. For me, they were like,
if you make it, you get a candy bar. And
so it was like and there was like which and
like me and then I and my the other Gevro,
she had like his favorite candy bar.

Speaker 5 (30:10):
For me.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
It was like dark chocolate milky ways. And I knew
that if I could make.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
The eight year old, are you eight years like a
dark chocolate mound, dark chocolate milky way.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Man, I only got it a few times. I've never
made it. I never made it sports ball exactly, sports
ball throw.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
A baseball practice, all right?

Speaker 3 (30:33):
So I want to get into Boy Meets World.

Speaker 4 (30:36):
You appear in our second season episode The Uninvited, all
about Sean not getting a house party invite while Corey
does get one.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
Do you remember auditioning for the role?

Speaker 5 (30:46):
I did? I did I auditioned for it? You know,
I remember who your casting director was, Sally Dally Seiner. Okay, yeah,
you know what audition like everyone else, like full House
or anything. And I called that I knew the show.
I met Ben before because we grew up not far
from each other.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
Oh okay, and then obviously after that.

Speaker 5 (31:07):
Showing, I became really good friends. You know, Ben was
on my altar my wedding for a moment, so complicated story.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
Wait wait wait, okay, so you auditioned for you auditioned
for the role.

Speaker 5 (31:18):
I just running on.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
Can No, that's okay.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
So you get the role, you come on to set,
you you you do the week. Do you have any
specific memories about the week other than maybe you obviously
became close to Ben.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
So did you spend a lot of time with Ben?

Speaker 5 (31:32):
Yeah? I spent some time with him, you know, I
mean I think I met all you guys. You know,
we did the show. As we did it was that
like little thing. I knew the girl Jonna Stewart, I
think it was her name that played like the girl
that was throwing the party. I knew her because we
did another job together. Okay, and uh, you know it
was just it was. It was cool. It was a
fun show to be on. You know, I got to
play like door key number seven or whatever the nerd

(31:57):
at a party, and you know, worked that great. It
was fun. The show. You guys are all awesome. The
show was easy to do. It was fun. Everyone was nice.
And and then Ben and I just kind of stayed
in contact through the years, you know, because we lived together,
we had a lot of mutual friends, especially the oak Woods,
and then we kind of re met through life because

(32:18):
I moved into the oak Woods and that was kind
of it. And then we became really good friends for
a long time.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
And then Ben was in your wedding.

Speaker 5 (32:27):
He was supposed to be in my wedding, but just
kind of I don't know. We were best friends for
a long time and then just kind of disappeared kind
of one day, and I still don't know what happened.

Speaker 4 (32:39):
Oh, we can't relate to that, so sorry, I'm just
going to glossy.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Phil and I had a long talk about this at
a at a convention where we were just kind of
commiserating about the loss of a friend. I guess understood
way to put it, where the unexplained loss of a friend.
Let's put it that where you just kind of don't
know what the hell happened.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
So yeah, hil, Yeah, So wait, did you you moved
into the oak Woods as your first apartment, like on
your own?

Speaker 5 (33:10):
So I did. I moved there my first year. I
was sixteen when I moved out. Wow. I remember they
had all those Jackie Cougan laws back then where they
would lock up your money in a lock box for
like sixteen and eighteen, so, you know, sadly for my parents,
I woke up at sixteen and I had like seven
figures in my bank account. Was just a terrible, terrible

(33:31):
young sixteen year old that graduated high school a semester earlier,
a year early. And I moved in with these two
other actors, got in Ki Erickson, who was the kid
from the Commission if you remember that, Jeff, and then
this other guy named Chap that's last name. He married
Sybil Shepherd's daughter, Okay, and we lived there, you know,

(33:54):
during pilot season, and it was just absolute chaos.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
I always asked your remember your building? Do you remember
what you were in?

Speaker 5 (34:02):
So the first building I was in E and the
moved by the South Clubhouse the next time, I lived
in a studio with two other guys, two other.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Peter studio.

Speaker 5 (34:16):
Studio apartment. It was too bad. But the Murphy so
this guy named Stuart Stone, well, yeah, sos Stu and
I lived in the bed and his buddy that that
I met from him, Devin Salo, lived on the couch.
The three of us literally lived in an apartment together. They

(34:38):
had just literally got off the boat from Canada. It
was it was very different. They were now the oak Woods,
though in itself was absolute chaos. Like everyone I felt
like lived there. It was me. It was like Jessica
bial was living there, Brian it was who was it?
I was talking with Ben Foster and Jewel State. I

(35:00):
was actually saw Ben in New York a few weeks
ago and we were literally talk having the conversations like
you were like the first person I met. I moved
to LA I hope that's you. We were just crazy.
We were just kids that you know, and made this
money when we were kids from acting. There were no
absolutely no roles.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
Yeah, it was like the Island of the Lost Boys.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
It was Thunderdome. It was great.

Speaker 5 (35:25):
Yes, that's exactly right. That's a great analogy.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, do you remember Edd Bevis.

Speaker 5 (35:32):
Oh yeah, it was los en Aga, right, it was
right next to the primary place.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yep, the Stinking Rose.

Speaker 5 (35:43):
Yeah, what was the primary place called that?

Speaker 3 (35:46):
Lowry's have Lowry's? Does the Stinking Rose still exist?

Speaker 1 (35:52):
I think so? Maybe not.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
It's gone.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
It's been twenty years since I went there.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
God, so crazy, I've been there forever.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Well.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
We also recently watched a Halloween episode of Sabrina where,
for an unexplained reason, all the kids from her school dressed.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
As James Dean and you were one of the James Dean's.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
Did anyone else think it was weird that dozens of
boys dressed as James Dean in the late nineties?

Speaker 5 (36:21):
On set, it was, you know, I think there was
a bunch of us in white T shirts, so like
the folded up shirt and jeans and okay, it was
a blast. She was the first season of the show,
and I knew Nate a little bit who was on
the show. And then they brought me back for another
episode that was a totally different role. Oh smart, So

(36:41):
I ended up doing two roles in that first season.
I was kind of always in a scene with the
Harvey character who Nate Richard played, Yeah, but then that
was it after that season. But another show that was
just you know, super fun to do, great cast. Actually
Melissa's kids and Eye her kids and my kids go
to the same school. I've seen her floating around a

(37:04):
little bit in Nashville now. But that's been a small world.
A lot of people have moved there. Ben Foster moved
to Nashville now, and it's it's become quite quite a
hum for people.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
Yeah, but how much more fun was Boy Meets World
than Sabrina?

Speaker 5 (37:17):
Though? Way more fun?

Speaker 4 (37:19):
Yeah, Okay, I just wanted to make sure that we
got that out of the way. So you also end
up on a show that comes up a lot on
this podcast, a Saved by the Bell style sitcom about

(37:41):
basketball Hangtime alongside Dick but Kiss, Reggie THEUS, and our
pal Hillary Tuck. But this one had so many cast
shake ups. Were you safe from those recastings or is
that what happened to you too?

Speaker 5 (37:56):
I was the end, so I did the last three seasons,
so I ended the show, so I didn't have any recasting.
But I came after Anthony Anderson, so I was with
Jay Hernandez, who was kind of the big became the
big name after the show, so it was myself. It
was still like Danielle Tucher, Danielle Ducher who ended up

(38:16):
marrying Jay Hernandez in real life. That started. That romance
started behind the scenes of the show. Then there was
Megan Parlan was I think one of the originals. Those
were the only two that I think, and Adam Frost
that stayed through all six or seven seasons. But it
was you know, it was part of the TGIF or

(38:36):
Whenever not TJF, Saturday Morning, RUC Thing Peter. There was
like City Guys and Stay by the Bell of the
New Class and One World and we were just one
of those shows. We filmed at Sunset Gower Studios and
tapes every week. You know. It was a blast. I
mean I enjoyed it. I got to play kind of

(38:56):
this idiot role named Eugene Brown and it was kind
of the goofball. But for whatever reason, I always got
really good looking girlfriends. Yeah, it was. It was an
absolute blast. I mean we had lots of NBA stars
that guest star in it, so it was pretty cool.
Like Kobe Bryant was on it. Wow, Tim Hardaway was

(39:20):
on when I was on it was. It was. It
was pretty fun. I mean we literally played basketball and
got to act and then you know those live but
you guys did it for so many years. Those live
audience shows are an absolute blast, especially when you record.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Did you like playing basketball? Were you an athletic kid?

Speaker 5 (39:35):
I enjoyed it. I wasn't great in it. I played
more hockey than anything growing up, I was, which is
such a random sport for a valley kid. But I yeah,
there was this it's a plexwim it opened there and
like was that North North Hills or somewhere in there,
like Roscoe and haven Hurst, And I used to always
just like to play. When you know, when Gretzky came
to LA, hockey got huge. Yeah, I became a huge fan.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
And it sounds like you kind of an honorary Canadian.
You have so many Canadian friends. This was I did.

Speaker 5 (40:05):
I found the two Canadian guys. And by the way,
the first two guys, kai And and Chad were also Canadian.
So that's what a lot of the oak Woods were though.
There was a massive Canadian population because that's where everyone
would like come for pilot season and audition.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (40:25):
Yeah, I guess you could say, Canadian.

Speaker 7 (40:28):
I lived with those guys, second with Devin and Stewart
for almost three years. Because we moved out of the
oak Woods to this I bought a town home and
in sinow.

Speaker 5 (40:41):
Man. You know, it's pretty crazy there as well.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
I can only I can imagine. Are you still in
touch with either of them?

Speaker 5 (40:50):
I still talked to Stewart all the time. I talked
to Devon here and there, not as much as I
used to back in the day, but I still talk
to him. But Stewart and I will main friends for
a long time. You still He's a directs a show
now wrestling show. He travels to the country view it.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
I know, and I Stu and I have been in touch.
I love Stu.

Speaker 5 (41:08):
Yeah, Stu. Stu is like the guy that you there's
something wrong with if you don't like Stewart. It's the
nicest human being. He's a good say. Him and I
have always remained friends like we all still get along,
you know, obviously, I just don't. I just don't see
that this much anymore. He's he's When I left California, man,
I moved to Tennessee. It was in the proof all
I saw where like Stuart did a bunch of my movies.

(41:28):
When I started producing.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
How did you make the jump to producing?

Speaker 5 (41:32):
You know, I was doing after Hangtime ended. I was
a little kind of like acting. It wasn't like the
most exciting show in the world to do. It wasn't
Boy Meets World. Naturally, you guys asked me to be
a regular. So I went and did a movie that

(41:52):
I got from the show, which was called Poolhall Junkies.
It was a really fun movie I did with Michael
Roseenbaum Christopher Walking, and it was actually Steiner's last movie,
and it was so much fun to make this movie.
It became like a really cool independent movie, more of
a cold class than a big release. I'm like, you
know that this is a great way to go out.

(42:13):
Movie's awesome. I'm in my early twenties and my brother
had already moved on to behind the scenes. And you know,
I did really well in like international sales, and I
went to ask his advice. I was going to film
school at UCLA, trying to do all this at the
same time, of course, which was hard, right, And I
asked his sort of advice, like what do I do?

(42:35):
Should I you know, I'm thinking I tried doing directing
the film school wasn't really my thing, not much of
a writer. But he's like, look, you could produce and
I said, okay, cool. So I said, well, how do
I do this? And he's like, I going to help
you get a job in international sales. And I'm like,
I don't want to do international sales. I want to produce,
and he's like, trust me do international sales. So kind

(42:56):
of after going back and forth, he said to me,
what do you think is the most important thing about
being a producer And I said, making a good movie,
says incorrect. He's like, making your investors money back, yep,
that's how you keep producing films. And I'm like it
was the best advice I ever got, and I did it.
I took his advice and I sold international licenses for
movies for about eighteen months to two years, and then

(43:19):
that company got bought by a German company that I
was working for called Splendid Pictures. I went in and
moved over to their production side and just kind of
worked my way up on that side from the studio level,
and they were part of They had to deal with
MGM Wow, and the first movie I was working on,
my boss I was, you know, essentially his junior executive.

(43:41):
But and so usually you go to set, you know,
and sort of be the studio producer whenever. And I
get set sent in this movie called narc with Raleiona
and Jason Patrick. Sure. I had no idea. I've never
done it before a producing perspective, and I just kind
of figured it out, you know, sometime was the best
way to learn is just to put yourself there. Yeah,

(44:02):
And I was the studio sort of representing for the film.
The movie obviously gets in the sun Dance and some
awards then came out in theaters. It was Joe Carnahan's
first movie that they ever directed, and it was just
from there on, I just kind of wok with it
and I just fell in love with it. I'm like,
this is kind of like, to me, movies as a
producer was like a giant messed up Ribbik's cube. The

(44:24):
more messed up it was, the more exciting was to
sort of put back together. And that's just sort of
got me into it. And I just started working and
doing it and doing one after the other, first for
the studios, and I went out independently and then started
doing overhead deals with studios and I did it for
it's been almost twenty years now.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
All right, So it's it sounds like you've done all
different types of producing and I mean, you know, producer
is one of those titles that like I feel like,
you know, people in the industry kind of understand, but
even even within the industry, it's hard to understand. But
certainly outside of the industry, it can mean a variety
of different roles. It's a catcher, yeah, right, So it's
coming from like the executive side or the studio side,

(45:04):
and you've also have been like an on set producer.
It sounds like, so what do you what is what
do you like to do, what kind of producing do
you love to do? What do you try? And like
what is your goal?

Speaker 5 (45:15):
I have to be there to get my hands dirty,
to be on set, I think to me, as an actor,
I hated producers that were mailing it in or we're
sitting in their trailer or not. They weren't good enough
to come to set for that day when the star
wasn't there. I don't work that way. I've always operated
different that when I start a movie, you know, I'll

(45:37):
meet with my top sort of five or seven leads,
dinner with them and just have a conversation with them
and say, like, what kind of set do you like,
what's your world, what's your environment, Just to get to
know them a little bit better because we all have
different personalities, and because that's the one thing no one
ever did for me as an actor. Obviously a big
enough starter warrant that, but it's so important because we

(45:58):
have such different lifestyle that we all come from. But
to me, if you can get that right and I
can help lead my crew to have a better understanding
when the show starts, it makes a much different show.
People work better together, you can understand people like stuff
goes wrong. But you know, we're dealing with the show
that I'm working on right now. You know it's I

(46:20):
came and I did the same exact thing, and it's
been such a great from what I've heard from last
season to this season, not into the first season of
the show. It's such a different environment.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
What show are you working on right now?

Speaker 5 (46:33):
It's it's a show on Paramount Plus called mob Land,
Oh with Tom Hardy, Helen Muir and in Pierce Brosan.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
Wow, people love this.

Speaker 5 (46:43):
Yet it's a great show. It was a monster last year,
big hit, and I was doing another show for the
company called Mayor of Kingstown, the Jeremy Renner. I produced
that last season. So we did really good with our
numbers and they said, hey, do you want to come
produce one, but you have to go to London. I'm like, absolutely,
you know, I love the show and it's been here.

(47:05):
We started filming a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Ago and yeah, Phil, Phil told me at the convention
we were at that he was going to go with me,
and at the last second they decided Pierce Brosnan was
the way to go for the crazy.

Speaker 5 (47:18):
We had to go a little older.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
I fig and I get it.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
No no, no two good looking for cameras when I
think you said for me, yeah.

Speaker 5 (47:30):
Oh man, craziness.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
Well, one of your other first big producing credits was
on The Illusionist, starring Ed Norton, Paul Jamadi, and Jessica Biel.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Or was it, Danielle.

Speaker 4 (47:41):
I know, I want to know how much of your
time back then was spent explaining to people that The
Illusionist and The Prestige were different, different movies.

Speaker 5 (47:52):
That was, and by the way, that was the box
office success of The Illusionists. It was a smaller company
that released it, and they knew if they wanted this
movie win, they had to release it first. That's really
the truth. They both were excellent movies, but the Illusionists
got to the box office first, and that's why I
crushed the Prestige.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
So this was an Armageddon deep impact kind of situation.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (48:14):
Correct. We had an independent studio versus studio. It was
this group called Yari Film Group and nobody really ever
heard of. And you know, we made other good movies
there because I had overhead deal there, and like Crash,
they made Crash, they made, you know, a bunch of
other good stuff. This movie. I made another movie with
them with Jamie Kennedy called Kicking It on School there
and they're like, oh, we got to get this out quick,

(48:37):
otherwise we're going to get crushed. It was Christian Bale
and Prestige Coming Out was also excellent. Both good movies,
and we filmed them pro in Prague and it's literally
it was such a regunion because I hadn't seen Jessica
Bill since the Oak years and we we we we

(48:57):
ran into each other on that so it was kind
of fun see everybody and just it was an astonishing movie.
It was really good. No idea.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
As you're sitting on these sets, You're you're sitting there
with you know, these huge actors and these these you know,
big productions. Do you ever get the itch is the
hands start twitching again where it's like, oh, man, I
maybe I would have done that part a little differently,
or if I could just jump in front of that.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Camera one more time. Is that something you ever deal with?

Speaker 5 (49:23):
It's come up a lot. It's usually one of the
other actors because search do two lines of this just
my director, and I'm like, you know, I can't. I
just you know what, it was a chapter. It was
an amazing part of my life. I wouldn't be doing
this now if it wasn't for first, first and foremost
Boy Meets World, then Fible whatever.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
Really did it for you?

Speaker 5 (49:48):
It did Listen they said, you know, look you're good. Great,
that's why that's why you're not a regular well you
to Peter Endel, so like, you know, it just it
was that thing that I'm just like, you know, I
was so happy with everything that I accomplished, you know,

(50:08):
my first twenty years doing being in the show business
and being an actor, that there was nothing to look
back at. I started to feel it. Obviously, it's later
in years, my later acting years. It was actually I
think the last time I saw you, Danielle was at
in Sync concert when you were dating. Yeah, I came

(50:29):
to Universal Amphitheater and then I came and like, look
this up. We went backstage and everything, and that sort
of like for me, I was a few years older
than Ben, so I was just like, you know, I
don't know of acting then, not that I started to
like sort of feel up there and I was still
doing a show. I was on hang Time at the time,

(50:50):
but that was kind of like one of the first
things that I'm like, I don't know if this is
my thing. I love all the stuff that comes with it,
but I don't know if it was designed for me.
And then I kind of was waked watching people do things,
and I started paying more close attention to producers to
directors as I was getting older in my early twenties. Yeah,

(51:10):
I'm like, yeah, maybe this is for me. And like
I said, my big brother, who's had a massive success
in this business, you know, was my sort of my
guiding lights kind of point me that way.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
So great, awesome, everyone is obviously concerned about the future
of Hollywood. You have made both studio films and independent movies.
Where do you see things going.

Speaker 5 (51:32):
Well, Look, it's it's harder to make an indie movie nowadays,
but the studio movies aren't made like they used to be. Obviously,
streamings kind of taken over the platform as we've seen,
and the streaming has become the new sort of television.
And you know by a lot of the shows that
I've been working on, we're bringing the movie stars into
TV now.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (51:53):
So it's making it a little more difficult to do
these movies because they'd rather do these TV shows. They
do ten episodeses and make the same money they're going
to make, if not more, on a movie that they
have to spend six months doing, right, we can shoot
them out in three or four months. So it's hard.
I mean, Look, the biggest key that I think they're

(52:13):
doing a really good job to try to keep off is,
you know, keep AI under control, and that could be
that could be obviously a concern for everyone. But the
competition of the TV show now, it's it's so different
from when we were doing it growing up. It's like,
I make a movie every week on this show, I
don't make a TV show. You the first two episodes

(52:35):
of the season, Guy Ritchie is directing. So you have
this massive director directing. Who's he's you know directing? You know,
these massive budgets with three movie stars, right, And then
I sit there and I watch behind the monitor and
I'm first of all, I'm like, still like a kid
in the Candy Star. I'm like, I'm working with three
movie stars. Yeah, who are Just to watch the chemistry?

(52:56):
I mean, Helen Mirren blows my mind. I think the
balanted my wife.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
My wife often says I'm the She's the only one
that she's worried about for me leaving her is Helen Mirren.

Speaker 5 (53:09):
You know what's funny. I get this from all my friends.
You're not wrong. They all they'll make the same They're like, dude,
Ela Miron is so hot. Dude, you're so lucky. I'm like,
you know what, Yeah she is. You're right, She's an
absolute sweetheart.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
That's awesome.

Speaker 5 (53:25):
Yeah, it's been. It's been a blast.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
Philip.

Speaker 4 (53:27):
If you could go back in time and tell young
Philip on the set of Boy Meets World, completely immersed
in the role of Ubaldo, if you could tell him
one thing, what would you go back and tell young you,
I should have.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
Done something to become a regular on this show. I
think I could knocked into you, Baldo, because I loved
working on your show. I think that's why I really
screwed it up. I didn't show anything where Michael went. Yes,
that's sick Glass. I see what Spielburg saw. I think
if I would have on back, I would have. You know,
maybe maybe some Shakespeare classes got a little bit more

(54:04):
thespian into you. Ball though, should really take him over
the top.

Speaker 4 (54:08):
Is there something about the three of our careers that
make you think you could have done better had you
been a regular on.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Boy Meets World.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
I'm a little.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
Confused about why that feels like such an accomplishment.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
You too, could be on Dancing with the Stars right now.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
You could have been eliminated from Dancing with the Stars
in week eight while hosting multiple podcasts and being said.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
True, I mean, you couldn't be doing this.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
I've been in the same underwear since last week, so
you know what, I.

Speaker 5 (54:40):
Just think I was watching you guys. You guys have
such a good vibe on that ship.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
Yeah, we are going back.

Speaker 5 (54:46):
You know, I come back for other tapings just when
I was just through the years, I'd come to see you guys,
you know, just being friends of bed whatever. You guys
are doing your take guide and watch and then we'd
go out after or something like that. But you know,
you guys just always nice. You like, you know, you
do a lot of these shows and you're a guest star.
At times, it started the showing to talk to you. Yeah,

(55:07):
you know you can get on some of these shows.
You guys weren't like that at all. I like literally
remember talking to you, talking to Will then writer and
I were talking about Lia Miz. Like, you know, there
was instant stuff to talk about with people, and you
know that's a super comfortable thing when you're a guest star. Yeah,
you don't get that on every show. I promise you that.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
Yeah that makes sense.

Speaker 4 (55:27):
Well, Philip, thank you for taking some time out of
your very busy schedule working on a most credible show
with absolute movie stars. I am just so grateful you
came and spent your time. It was nice to reconnect
with you, and gosh, I hope we get to see
you again in person when we have our next pod
meets World, slash Boy meets World Shindig hangout, which will

(55:49):
either be at writer or Will's house.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
We hope you'll We hope you'll be there.

Speaker 5 (55:54):
I would love to. I'm here. I'm here in London
till March, and then I'm back in the States for
a bit. Otherwise my wife will stab me.

Speaker 4 (56:02):
Yeah right, say that's a long time. You're there till March.
Does she get to come visit?

Speaker 5 (56:06):
Yeah? So I have three boys. My oldest is twenty
and twenty one. Both those guys live in New York
and I have a thirteen year old that we adopted
at birth. He's still in school and so he's a
he plays football and he loves football. But they try
to come, like you get like the four day weekends

(56:27):
for the flat for that because you can fly next
thing now, Nashville is so big, you fly straight on
them from there. Yeah, they're going to come to Thanksgetting
week and then we're going to go down to Paris
or take to take my little guy to euro Disney.
He's never been there.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
Oh my god, the week, it's going to be so great.

Speaker 5 (56:43):
Yeah. So it's it's you know, and I try to
get home when I can. This show is just so
complicated to figure out my schedule with but I try
to get home as much as I can. It's it's worked.
I've been doing it three much of their life, you know,
producing all these films and stuff and tea. Get a
little bit more of an organized schedule, which I like
more than an independent movie. You have no idea what happened, right,

(57:07):
but it's been great. It's you know, I've been married
twenty five years. Super happy about it.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
Congratulations, what a success.

Speaker 5 (57:14):
Thank you, thank you very much. Thanks for having me on. Well,
thanks for reaching out.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
This is of course. Of course we'll keep talking.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
And my wife and I love London, so the next
time we're there, hopefully you'll be there and we'll go
to jim Conna for the night.

Speaker 5 (57:26):
Listen. I have a two bedroom apartment. You got a
three room to stay.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Oh that's awesome, Marl.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
Thank you, Philip. It was great to see you.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
Good to see you man.

Speaker 5 (57:36):
It's great seeing you guys.

Speaker 4 (57:37):
Okay, bye, Wow to hear he is a twenty two
year old and a twenty one year old.

Speaker 5 (57:43):
I know.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Oh my gosh, so it's so smart to have kids younger.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
God didn't do so much.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
There's one thing to do with than that.

Speaker 5 (57:51):
Even Yeah, the kids at all.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
I know, we know, we know, we know, but man,
what a career.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
Here's what a career.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Yeah, I mean the fact that he went from I
mean because his brother was absolutely right. International sales is
where you learn the nuts and bolts of like how
movies actually get financed, how movies actually make money. It's
so smart. The fact that he went there first and
then went back to set worked his way back to
being on set means that he's got like the ultimate
producer's overview, like he's experienced it all right. And I

(58:20):
love that his attention is still about actors on set
and artistry like being there. It's so impressive. What a
cool dude he is.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
Yeah, we hung out. I forget where we were. It
might have even been in Nashville, but he was great.

Speaker 4 (58:33):
It's so amazing how many different jobs in the entertainment industry.
If you've been an actor first, just it completely changes
the way you approach what you do. Yes, and that
so much of what that entails is setting the right environment,
absolutely creating an atmosphere on set that people want to

(58:55):
work hard to be a part of.

Speaker 5 (58:57):
YEP.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
Yeah, you know, like I was thinking about even him
just saying he takes he takes a few people to dinner,
five to seven people to dinner and talks to them
about where they're coming from and what kind of environment
they want to have on set. Think about how just
that one meeting maybe three to four hours, if you're
having a real long dinner, three to four hours of
your time and maybe some you know, a little chunk

(59:20):
of change on a nice meal changes your entire production.
You now go into this feeling like a part of
a team where someone has your back, and even if
something does go wrong, you're like, we can.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
Make it work.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
I just you know, like it just creates it changes everything.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
Yeah. No, when my brother and I were directing a
pilot and we had a twelve year old kid starring
and he was like in every scene, and like the
second we got the kid cast, we were like, all right,
we got to go to dinner with him and his parents.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
And our producers were like what why, And even the
parents were like, wait, the directors want us to be there,
and we were like, yes, we want to go, and
we did. We had like the greatest dinner with his
mom and his dad and him and like everything else
was gravy. Like the rest of the production was so
smooth because we could just turn to them and be
like hey, and it was like this instant camaraderie in
the sense of like we're on your side, parents, and

(01:00:11):
we're on this kid's side, we have his back. And
then they were committed and we were just it was
off to the racist, but it was one of those things.
It's like we only knew that because we had been
kids where our parents had been ignored on a set
or we had not felt welcome or comfortable, and it
changes everything.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Yeah, totally, totally.

Speaker 5 (01:00:26):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us
on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us
your emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com,
and we've got.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Merch less merchables, don't steal the red.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Thank you. I thought you were just sing somewhere out there.
I don't remember it. Oh yes I do. We're loveking
something because I'm a man. Buye some merg I remember
what it is? Yeah, something about it? Yeah exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
Podmeetsworldshow dot com writer Send us out.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
We Love You All pod dismissed. Podmeats World is an
iHeart podcast producer hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfridell and Ryder
Strong Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in
charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Taras Sudbach, producer,
Maddi Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World Superman Easton Allen.
Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow

(01:01:26):
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