February 16, 2024 • 43 mins
In this episode of Studio 22, Brock and Will sit down with legendary Actor and Producer, Frank Grillo. Frank has been active in Hollywood for over 30 years. Some of his best-known roles include playing Brock Rumlow AKA Crossbones in the Marvel Comic Universe, Diaz in the Grey and Roy Pulver in Boss Level.
Franks new film, Lights Out is available to watch in theaters or on streaming February 16th, 2024.
In this episode, the boys dive deep into Franks career from the start. Frank remembers the time he almost landed a huge role in the show Friends by complete accident. He shares how he got his start by acting in soap operas, long before he was the action star we know him as today.
Frank details his process in preparing for some of his most iconic roles. He always looks for the best teacher to prepare him for each role, whether it be MMA training for his film, Warrior or an accent coach for Lamborghini.
Later, Frank shares stories from behind the scenes of the Marvel Comic Universe. He remembers working with Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and the rest of the Marvel Avengers cast and crew. He shares how he was able to make Crossbones a memorable character in the franchise even though it was supposed to be small role.
As one of the few Hollywood actors with notable screen time in both the Marvel and DC Universes, Frank is in a class of his own. He reveals the differences behind the scenes between the two franchises and shares his favorite parts about working with both.
This is a great episode for any aspiring actors or filmmakers, any fans of action movies and any MCU/DC fans.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to Studio twenty two.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Studio twenty two. I'm your host, Will Meldman,
joined by always Brock o'heron. We are here with legendary
actor and action star Frank Rillo.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Frank, how are you?
Speaker 4 (00:23):
I don't know if I'm legendary, but I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Man hey Man, in our in our book, You're legendary.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Bro, It's all that matters to me.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah. I was looking at your IMDb and I've seen
so many of the films that you've done. They're amazing.
But I was like, man, if I had two months
to sit down and just watch all your stuff, I
don't think I get through everything.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Oh I know, you know what you know that's a
good thing and sometimes a bad thing. And I'll tell
you guys something. I don't know if you married or not,
but I was married for twenty years and about four
years ago I got divorced here in California, and I
decided to give her my house the beach, and a
money every month, a lot more money. And I had
to work when I when I was done with the
(01:05):
divorce in a four year period, and then COVID came,
I had to do a lot of movies that I
not necessarily wanted to do. And yeah, but I'm okay now,
I'm okay.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
That's good man. You bounce back. Yeah, yeah, you know. Yeah,
you look at your IMDb and twenty was it like
twenty one, twenty two? Definitely twenty three and twenty four.
You got a lot, man, You've got a lot. I
did you got my whole career in one year, dude.
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Bro, that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's fun man, And thank you for sending the lights
out screener so we could check that out.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Your new film, Yeah, yeah, did you did you get
a chance to see it?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Oh? Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Oh cool? Yeah yeah, you know it's one of those
gretty kind of throw a bunch of great people together
and uh and and make one of those fun kind
of stubculture movies and and just it was great people.
That's why I did it. You know, Makai five, I
love I love mackay Fire, another New Yorker Garman know,
Ronnie and Scott Atkins and Jamie King. It was, it was.
It was not easy to do, but but fun.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
It's action packed, it's gritty, it's fun, it's you know,
I really did.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I really did enjoy it. That's really cool.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Cool, Yeah, that's good. There's those jobs you take for pay,
and then there's ones that, like you're saying, when you
get to work with people you like, man, and that's
what makes it all worth it. I think.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yeah, you know, I got a partner. You know, my
name is Joe Carney, and he did Smoking Aces in
the Gray and we did Boss Level together and Wheelman
and Cop Shopping Ship. And when I'm on set, like,
no matter what happens, when I got my dude next
to me, it's like, we got this problem, you know
what I mean. Other times you're around people who are
(02:42):
a little you know, uh sensitive, and uh you know,
if you have a problem, it's a problem.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah. So yeah, right, I like. I like the people
that you can just show up and you know, you
just if you need to get shit done, you get
shit done, dude. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
And if it's not working you you don't you don't
pay it. You say, Okay, what do we do to
fix this?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah? Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Like any that's you know, my old man's an immigrant
from Italy and when something went wrong, it didn't panic.
He's just like we'll find a solution. Let's find the solution. Yeah, yeah,
the only choice, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I mean, film is such a collaborative art form, right,
It's all about that team and working together to achieve
the same goal.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Right, It's it's at its hottest level.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It is.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
But but at times you can be surrounded by incompetence
and you've got to impose your will, retect yourself. You
got to impose your will. And then you know, to
some people, you're an asshole, and to other people, especially
when they see the finished product, they go, oh, I
see what happened, and it's a good thing, and it's
a good thing you did what you did. Otherwise we
would have been we'd have been screwed. So so it's
(03:48):
it's an interesting you know, people think you just show
up and say words.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, it's not that Yetah, it's it's not that infinitely
more difficult to make a film than people think. Man,
And like you're saying, there's not really that. There's the
dynamics of ego and different personality types and so many
moving parts. You know, then if can ca all of a sudden,
you get weather and you got rain coming through the rooftop,
and all kinds of different things happen to get you
get thrown every curveball in the book, but exactly saying
that's how you handle it right, that's right, you know.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Jacanahean and I made a movie called Boss Level. Its graves,
Me and Mel Gibson and Naomi Wattson. We had forty
four days. We had forty four days on the schedule
to make the movie Wow, two nights, two nights before
principal photography. The producers call us up and they said,
we can't. We can't do forty four days. We don't
have the money. It's twenty seven days or you got
(04:35):
to pull the plug. Now we're in Atlanta. We're in
Atlanta with one hundred and eighty people, like we were
supplying jobs, two hundred and eighty people, and we're like,
we got to go home and figure this out. So
we were living together. We went down in the basement
we had to set all made and miniature model and
we stayed up all night. We drank about three bottles
(04:55):
of Jack Daniels and thinking we came we came to
a came to schedule where we squeezed it out twenty
seven days. Yeah, that is any any other time, any
other time you had to shut the movie down, you
could have a third and we and we made a
great movie to to the wow, to the point where
at the end of the movie, Mail the Great Mel
Gibson was directed some amazing movies. Yeah, he said to us,
(05:18):
I don't know how you did that. I don't know
how you guys did it. And I'll say, I said,
I tell you how we did it together. You know,
we had we had each other's backs and so and anyway,
I digress. But that's that's when it's at its best. Yeah,
you know what I mean, when you when you trust
the people standing next to you.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
And by the way, I love that movie too, and
that concept. Yeah yeah, And like that concept of you're
in a video game, you have you know, a certain
amount of lives and you're like going to playing at
groundhog Day. It's it's such a fun concept. And to
think you guys did that in less than a month.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
When he said, and by the way, you know all
the repeat action when I die every day, we didn't
use the same footage. I did different every time. I
was exhausted after that movie. I was supposed to fly
down and do a movie with Neil Blumpcamp in South Africa.
I had to go into the hospital from exhaustion. I
was I was spent. Yeah, it was crazy and uh
(06:15):
but I thought the movie for what it is, I
thought it came out really cool.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I had the pleasure of meeting uh Selena Lowe. Actually,
oh yeah, she's great. She was fantastic in it.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Right, that was yeah, she talks a good girl.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah yeah, she talked about how much she loved the
experience and all that.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
It was kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
It's great, good. Yeah. You talked about exhaustion, man, And
and you do a lot of action films space, I
mean even Lights Out, there's tons of action, you know,
a lot of fighting, a lot of martial arts. And
how much goes into preparation for you because you're obviously
in freaking great shape. I mean I see you at
the gym right now and again, and you're crushing it
and you you've had you've been in shape your whole career. Man,
what goes into yeah, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Uh, you know the thing, the thing we do. My
partner in crime is a guy named Greg Fitzpatrick. Greg
was stunt coordinator and stunt double for Ben Stiller on
all his movies and Downy and Robert Downey Jr. In
all in his movies. And he's, uh, he's about as
good as he gets, right. And he's also a fighter.
He's roy Tai kickboxing boxing. We trained together. So a
(07:20):
movie like this where there's no time and very little preparation,
him and I go to work, and you know, we
want to make the fights authentic, so we basically say
this is how it's gonna go, right, and this is
where the camera's gonna go, and this is what you're
gonna do, and this is what you're gonna do. And
for the most part, people understand that we've been doing
(07:41):
this for a long time at a high level, so
they kind of let it go. Sometimes you deal with egos,
but in Captain America, you have a month, two months.
Every day you're with the boys rehearsing over and over
and over and over and over, and you know, it's
it's a fine tune machine.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
I like doing I like doing it both ways. It's
fun both ways, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, it's high level problem solving, man, I get and yeah,
to me, like that's what it is. Yeah, it gets
my juices going. It gets me like it's it's how
do we solve this problem as efficiently and effectively and
then be able to tell a great story at the
same exact time. You know a lot exactly right, Yeah,
what you're saying though, a lot of that comes with experience, right,
like when when did you what was your first like
action role? You know? Like I was, I was reading
(08:26):
up and it said you started in plays, right, you
did plays in high school, and then you're doing some
commercial work and then you got one TV.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
But yeah, bro, I was just a struggling actor. I
was a guy. I didn't even take it seriously for
a while. I mean, I started out in soap operas
by accident. Like my all my friends came to LA
to be a actors. I just came to La, right,
yea and so and my first my first experience was
(08:52):
I went with my buddy Ricky to an audition for
a show called Friends.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Now.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
I went with him because I drove him there because
he didn't have a and I was sitting with him,
right and the girl came out. He went. The girl
came out and said are you when are you next?
And I go no, I'm because no, no, you you should?
Are you an actor? I go yeah, And I went
in and she gave me a piece of paper and
I just kind of read it off the paper, right,
(09:18):
and she said stay here. And the other person came
out was a producer and they I read it for
them and they said, we need you to stay here.
And I was reading for a role called Joey Wow
my friends. Right now. Obviously I didn't get it, but
I went through a process like that screen testing. I
had never done anything yeah, and that was kind of
(09:39):
like I went, oh, maybe I could do this.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, right, And.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Like anything like fighting or any sport or riding dirt bikes,
when I wanted to do it, I had to go
to the best person to learn how to do it.
Like when I wanted it, I thought it was going
to be a professional motocross writer. I had to find
the best motocross coach to teach me about riding motocross.
When I wanted to fight. When I want to fight
Muay Thai, I go to fucking I go to Thailand
(10:05):
with Bookoo, the best Multai fighter on the planet, and
I want to trade with that guy, right, So I
did the same thing, Like I sought out the best
teachers that I that I could find to kind of
crash course me in what this was about. But it
wasn't until I did the movie Warrior with Nick Notphi
and I was around Nick Nopi a lot. He had
(10:26):
a big binder and that was his character and I
was like, what the fuck is he doing? And that
that's when I know. That's when I said, wait a minute,
I want to be that. I want to be that actor.
I want to be that kind of an actor. I
want to go deep into this or I don't want
to do it, like it's kind of it's kind of
stupid if you're just kind of I don't know, showing
(10:46):
up and saying lines right, you want to understand what
this was and and that kind of started it. But
I did everything from soap operas to sitcoms. I did
everything I could possibly do until my buddy Gavin O'Connor
put me in War at the ripe old age of
fucking forty something and I still looked like I was
twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
It was so convincing. Like ASU the guys called me
to be come and coach them on the wrestling team.
I'm like, hey, guys, I'm.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Not really, that's incredible.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
That's when it started to get deep.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
I did a movie called Pride and Glory with my
buddy Gavin O'Connor, with Ed Norton, Con O'Farrell and John Boyd,
and again I was watching these guys do it in
a whole different way.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, and I was like, I want to.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
I want to. If I'm not going to do that,
I'll go do something else.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah. But that's such a cool like mindset to have too,
because you're you're just giving more to the craft at
that point, you're giving more to the audience. And like
that's like like if I want to go to the
theater and go see a movie that I'm excited about,
if the person just showed up and you know, maybe
they were drinking all night or whatever, and you can
tell that you kind of just went through the lines,
weren't committed to the character whatever. That's not entertaining to me, man.
That's like, do you tell you took me out of it?
(11:57):
What you're doing is taking people more in right.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Right, And and you as an actor know like you
might be excited about a concept for a film and
you put on put on the movie, and you're like, terrible,
these people are terrible. But now I watched some I
watched some Australian series last night that my girlfriend had on.
I'm like, oh my god. I could see the words
on the page, and so like every job, every comma
(12:21):
and dot dot dot, I could see it. I can
see it's terrible.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
They they just.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Showed up like they got the job and they just
showed up. And so so the the it's a long
way of coming back to this. I've been fighting my
whole life, from wrestling to boxing, muay Thai, jiu jitsu.
I've been doing jiu jitsu for twenty years before anybody
knew what jiu jitsu or UFC was. And so when
I got the opportunity to combine that with like warrior,
(12:45):
it was the role that kind of and you although
it was a small role, everybody saw it and so
I I became in their eyes this certain guy which
Hollywood lax, guys, guys, dudes, and I got some role,
I got some parts, you know, like it started to
happen a bit, but I was old man. That's why
(13:08):
I tell people there's no rules. I hear people called
I'm thirty three. I'm like, tell why.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
No, man, I mean to be fair, dude, I deal
with that every now and I've I've been in the
industry for about ten years now, and I think every
now and again, I'm like, it's slow. COVID was slow.
I mean, actually, one of those roles that I did
save my life. Man, it brought me back out of it,
brought me back in, and I'm like, dude, this is
why I do it. I love this man doing the
righteous gem zones. But it's to your point though, like
even after the strike and everything, it's it's not work
(13:36):
for everybody all the time, that not everyone has that luxury, right,
this is such a gift to do this, you know, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
At at any level, because you get to when you
get to a certain level. But things you're being offered
you don't want to do, yeah, right, And like, like
my agents CIA have recently said to me, hey, you
got to stop doing these movies now. Like when I
got divorced, I did some shit that I shouldn't have done,
but I had to. I had to, and the money
was crazy. It was like, you know, that's when you
get the money. When the movie's not so good, so so,
(14:04):
but now it's like, you know, it's diminishing returns, because
if you do too many of those, you're done. You're done.
Then you're kind of like, you know, sadly because you're
still a great actor. Guys like you know, Eric Roberts
are forced to do some things Like I remember Eric
Roberts from from back in the day when when when
he did paupla Greenwich VILLI she's he's amazing actor, but
(14:26):
but now he's there's a cautionary tale to that story.
And and you don't want to be the cautionary tale,
you know what I mean. So it's it's it's you know,
at this point in my life, I got to be careful.
How about that? I got to be careful about what
I do and don't do. And you know, I'm about
to go do this movie which is based on a memoir.
(14:46):
It's a beautiful story and there's no fighting and there's
no no killing, and it's based on this guy's life,
this journey he adds across. It's like a coming of
age story for a middle aged guy. And I can
be more excited to just go and act, you know
what I mean? Just to go do that and go
deep into somebody's you know, you know, spiritual, emotional, and
(15:10):
physical and intellectual journey. That's that's you know, as an actor,
that's what you want to do. I could fucking throw
punches all day.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Now, It's so what no, man, Yeah, and there's that like,
you know, people see what you're good at, they want
to see more of it, right, and they kind of
you got in that line. But dude, you have the
skill set to do anything. Man, you know, like.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, because of that process.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Yeah, it is about the work. It's just about the work.
Like I'm I don't know what talent is, like like
tom Brady's talent guy, But tom Brady works hard. There's
a lot of guys that that were much more talented
than tom Brady when he was young. Right then he
then he worked real hard and he worked harder, and
then he worked really hard. And so for me, it's
like I get a script, I'm going to read it
(15:53):
fifty times. There's a script in every room anywhere I
sit down, I pick it up right so that I'm
more prepared than that guy. I'm more prepared than like
I can sit down and talk about all the characters,
and I know what they all say and why they
say it. So it's about work. It's about work ethic.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I love that Tom Brady analogy of you know, talking
about how hard you're working and your process.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And and I love the.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Film Warrior and knowing that you know, you took that
from Nolty and that really resonated with you.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
That's really cool to hear.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Yeah. Yeah, and and and you know other actors should know,
like that role wasn't on the page. It wasn't on
the page. The whole third act wasn't there. He was
in the cage, never said anything. Gavin O'Connor said, my brother,
this is what I want you to do. I want
you to create Frank Campana, I want you to create
(16:49):
everything you would say to him. And I went down
and lived with Greg Jackson, who is the best MMA
coach on the planet. He let me come down and
live with him. In the gym was George st Keith Jardine,
got Cowboys, Sarney, a guy named John Jones, and so
I got to I got to live there for a
month and I came back. I said, Gavin, I got
(17:12):
this guy and he's very important to the movie. And
he did. He became important to the movie.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I mean, that's on that's like Peter Berg level, like
method training, and that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Yeah, and that's Pete's a good friend of mine, Like
he's a good friend of mine. No, yeah, Yeah, Gavin O'Connor,
Joe carnahean, Pete Burg all part of the same We're
all part of the same kind of friend group.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Very cool. It makes sense, makes sense. Yeah, So speaking.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Of uh, well, I guess we were earlier Marvel and
you know, playing Crossbones and being in that world. And
I love hearing about the amount of preparation that you
went in. You know that went into it. But what's
it like kind of filling those shoes of a huge
Marvel character and like being in that world And was
there a lot of prep that went into that as well?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah, there was a lot of prep. There's a lot
of refeirs, a lot you know, I wanted to know
as much of what the character was. I wanted to
not make him just a cardboard cutout of a character.
And he's not a very big character. You know, he's
a tertiary character. And you know you're on set with
Captain America and I and you know, those are the
guys you know. And so it's interesting. Crossbones isn't on
(18:19):
screen very long, but and Crossbones changed my career. Cross
Bruns is on screen for like twelve minutes in three
movies right now. Brock Rumlow is first his the iteration
of who he is before his Crossbruns. He was in
the movies a bit more. But Crossbones in the uniform
isn't in the movie that much. And I knew that,
and I said to myself, I have to make sure
(18:41):
this guy pops. I have to make sure in a
world where there are superstars with better costumes, I got
to make this guy pop. And so what dialogue I had,
I turned it upside down and I played with it
and I made it funny and I made it fun
and somehow that character in the minds of the audience
(19:04):
is an in terrograble part of those movies. Oh yeah,
he's not in the movie. He's not in the movie.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
That and that's you know, it's awesome hearing you say that,
because he is bigger than life, right, and like, yeah,
it's essentially you were a part of what most fans
consider the best films of the most successful film franchise
of all time, right, and now that that was the
(19:31):
thirty or whatever movies, it's like, what's it feel like too,
to be like in you know, Winter Soldiers, Civil War.
They're considered the best ones, right, Yeah, I think script
wise and story wise, I think they were the best ones.
And they were shot very practical. There wasn't a whole
ton of you know.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Special effects, and uh yeah, I take pride in saying
that those were good movies. Yeah, those weren't just more
good Marvel movies like, those were good movies. And I
think and I was just with Joe Russo and Anthony
Russo and Kevin Feige and Luke Desposito, and I'll say
this being friends with them, I think they lost their
(20:09):
way a bit and just it was about it was
about how much they could put out. But when you
go back and watch With the Soldier, that's a film. Yes,
that's just a movie man, And I mean Robert Redford
and it was mind boggling. But again I said to myself,
you gotta pop, You gotta find the way to pop,
or you're just gonna get lost in the shuffle. And
(20:31):
and that's a great thing for actors to know, not.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
About how big the role is about what you do
with it. It's about what you can do with it.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Man.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
So yeah, now I'm now I'm in dc So now
we just finished Creature Commandos, the animated series, which is
a hard r Gunn wrote every episode, directed every episode.
Great cast. I'm really great that. And I'm doing Rick
Flax Senior, and I'm in the DCU world. And now
I'm in a lot of things that are coming in
(21:00):
the next year and two. I can't talk about them,
but it's going to be real fun. Yew, we'll play
that guy.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, that's so exciting. That's so exciting.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
We'll have to get you on in a year when
when it's all coming out and talking about that's cool. Man,
What's what's honestly like as an actor? You know, what's
your favorite process of making film? Man? When did you
like when did it like hate you that this is
the fucking best job in the world.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Yeah, you know again, I started out like it's soap
operas I did. I was on a stickcom and and
it was all kind of a blur to me. And
and then when I when I started the process of
understanding what a script was, and how to score a script,
and the structure of the script and how important that
(21:45):
was and how lines were unimportant, and just to learn
your circumstances and all that stuff that I guess you
go to Yale Drama School to learn that I didn't
get to go to. But all of that that stuff
that is it's the it's the foundation to the whole thing.
It's the best part of it, man. And then when
(22:05):
you get in uh, you know, a roundtable situation with
the script and you got your and you're just kind
of reading it and throwing ideas. It's that the journey
to the set is far more interesting than the set itself. Man.
It's the journey. It's all the practices, all the rounds
of sparring, you know, all the laughs in the gym,
(22:25):
and it's the cuts and the bruises and all that stuff,
and all the learning of the nuances of fighting. When
you get to the ring, it's just like, now it's
my job. I got to go do this and do
it well, yeah, do you know what I mean? But
it's yeah, But when I learned how to prepare, it's
when I really fell in movement.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
That's incredible. I love hearing that.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah. Man, the more that I've dive dove into this,
into this world, you know, into uh in Hollywood and
filmmaking everything, I found that the best you know, actors,
the best you know even directors and creators are the
ones are the best at researching. Man, the best I
said at really like diving deep into someone's psyche or
what makes them tick and who they are and like
(23:06):
down to their personality type, you know, Like, right, the
more work you can do in that, and when you
go and you're ready to perform, it's it's you already
did it. It's already you it. You know.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
That's that's right.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
And you know what, it never ends. Man, Like as
much work as you do, you can still do more work.
And you know, I you know, I panicked recently. About
three years ago, I did a movie called Lamborghini, about
the life of virtual Lamborghini, and that was being shot
in Italy and Daris was playing the role. He dropped
out because of scheduling and Bobby Moresco, the director who
(23:39):
won an Oscar for Traffic, he called me and he said, look,
I got a movie. We shot about a quarter of
it with the kids Bandaris can't do it. I think
you could do it. I go whin and he said,
you got to be in Italy in six days. I said,
how do you How am I going to do that?
He goes, He goes, I think you can do it?
(24:02):
And I go, you think I could do this? I go,
all right, I'll do it. I read it and then
I said, all right, I can do this. I said,
get me an accent coach on the on set. I
I need an accent coach. And I need to receive
my hairline. I need to do some stuff, makeupplies, I
need beautiful suits. You promised me that I'm there, and
he did and he did it all and he promised
(24:24):
me all that, and I went and it was kind
of flying by the seat of my fucking pants. You know.
I read the book that his son wrote with the
movies based on so you know, I had a little
bit of information, but other than that, I was like,
I can't there's no more information I'm gonna get. I
don't have time now. I got to use my imagination.
And that's the greatest tool of an actor, is your imagination.
(24:45):
And so not a perfect movie, but a really good
movie and well made, and I had a great time again,
not throwing punches or killing people, or or shaving the
world or blowing the world up, but wearing fancy suits
and being an Italian little I'm in Roll, I'm in Rome,
I'm in Tusty, I'm like you know. So as an actor,
(25:07):
it's like sometimes you don't have the preparation time. So
it's just a it's a it's an interesting it's an
interesting life, man, as you know, it's it's got a
lot of ups and downs. The very best of them
are worried about their next jobs, the very best of them,
I promise you, and and uh, but I wouldn't have
(25:27):
it any other way. I wouldn't do any other thing
for a living. Well I probably couldn't.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
But yeah, that's awesome to hear.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Like how much prep or you know, cautions you can
take when going into something super short notice?
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Yeah right, it's like action coding.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
But even like reading the book right, like I feel
like a lot of people may not even do that right,
No way, Yeah, read a book exactly exactly. It's even
those things that you know would essentially be like animal
last second prep for you are still things that people
are overlooking out there and I think is really valuable
(26:06):
for young actors or aspiring actors to hear.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Let me tell you something I'm getting, you know, So
my first day, I'm there on the ship with Gabriel
bern I mean, you know, these are heavyweights. Mira Sorvino's
playing my wife. I think she went to the Golden Oscar.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
So it's like you got to show you're not just
showing up. You got to show up knowing that you're
you know, standing across formidable people. And they they do
the work. There's no accident to success. They do the work.
I promise there's no Nobody doesn't do the work. You
might not like them as an actor, but if they're successful,
I promise you they're doing a lot of work. Yeah,
(26:42):
And so that's that kind of that's the that's the
through line to it all. Just you got to do
the work. And that's what I tell I got three kids,
I beat the shit out of them when it comes
to doing the work, and do the work.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah, hell yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I Mean that's the best advice you give somebody, really
when it comes to their own success, their career and
taking control of your own life. Man, if you want
something the way you get there is to outwork everyone
else like and to be at.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
The all day long. Yeah, well day long and create
positive Actor Jordan Peterson, who's very controversial, but you know,
he says, start with fucking making your head and tell
you something I tell my kids, especially my oldest guys
twenty six, directed his first movie. But he.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Lives with me currently.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
But you know, he leaves his room in the morning
and it's a shithole, and I said, hey, buddy, that's
indicative of your brain. That's indicative of what's going on
in your mind. You're scattered, man, I said, I would
never leave my room. I just stepping over clothes in
your room to get to the door. I mean, no, man,
You've got to be organized. You have to understand it
(27:44):
starts here. So I kind of instill that in too
my kids.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
To be honest. That's such great advice too, because I
had you know, you mentioned a lot of finding the
best people, right. So I've had mentors in my life
too that have have helped me along the way in
so many different walks of life. But one of the
things that one of them taught me is exactly that
it's like, well, are your dishes done, or did you
make your bed? Did you do this right? And it's
like the reason is because if you're not, you're you're psyche,
you're subconscious, whatever is going to be focusing. And one,
(28:09):
it's a representation of your your mind, right, but it's
also if you're if that stuff's not clear when you're
supposed to be doing the work, you know, you got
to go home and you gotta h you know, sink
full of dishes. It's like that's gonna distract you from
the from the purpose, you know, from what your purpose ry.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
That's exactly right, and and and and by the way,
it takes two minutes of your time to make the bed,
why why why do they do it in the military.
Not because they need to have fucking it's because that's
where it starts, right, and it's got to be good.
You're right, take pride in it, you know, take pride
in and making the bed. And I'm telling you so.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
Many people like do things to avoid.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Yeah, man, you know, it's but it's interesting having kids, man,
especially I had three boys.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Yeah, oh no, my family's three boys.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
It's it's it's it's a responsibility.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, for sure, there's uh, there's this quote I love
by Aristotle. He says we are what we habitually do. Excellence, then,
is not an act, but a habit. So we're creatures
of habit, right. Everything that we have and do in life,
and what who we surround ourselves with, we create habits.
And if you surround yourself with people that have shitty habits,
you're gonna pick up some shitty habits. It's just the
way that we're wired, right. So making a habit of
(29:16):
making your bed right in the beginning of the day
and starting off with a healthy habit on the right foot,
you're just setting yourself up for success, you know. And
it's so funny because people think like, oh no, you
gotta make your bed like whatever. You know, it doesn't
sound that important. It sets you up for the whole day,
I'll tell you.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
It's the same thing with eating, you know. You know, hey, man,
it's fun to drink, but it's two things. It's poison
and it will get in the way. It will get
in the way, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (29:42):
You don't eat well. If you don't eat.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Well, you put anything in your body, it will get
in the way, you know. And so my whole gym
is about I want to be as efficient for as
long as I can be, you know what I mean,
Because there's you know, young studs like you right behind me,
you know what I mean, you know, and and pretty
(30:05):
soon I'm gone, that's it.
Speaker 5 (30:07):
You know, it's your time, it's your turn, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah, but it's but that's the thing too, Like there's
guys like you that are doing and that have done it,
and you're paving the path, and it's like, look, guys,
this is the blueprint. You know, this is the reason
I've had the success I've had. So pay attention and
when the time comes, your time will come eventually. But
like and then it comes down to again, just not quitting.
That's that's one of the hardest things in this. I
feel this. I got so many friends. Yeah, that's that's
(30:32):
what I tell the people. I was like, I wouldn't
do this career path, you know, as an actor if
I didn't know I could make it. And the reason
I know I can make it is because I know
I'm never gonna quit, you know, damn.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
And that's it.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
By the way, that's listen, what's the worst thing in
the ring you could fucking do it's picking knee, man,
give up.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
You know what's his name?
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Fucking Ryan Garcia got a fucking shot to the livery sat.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
Down World Championship fight. You sat down.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
The guys I trained with their old timers, they lost
their mind. Yeah, right, do not quit, You do not quit. Yeah,
And that's that's a metaphor for life. I mean, it's
a cliche to talk about boxing in life, but it's true.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
You don't quit.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
You put in the work, you know what I mean,
don't complain nobody gives them.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yeah, that's true to that point to someone else has
a worse. Man, that guy that didn't quit has a
broken rib and he's you know, broken eye socket and
he's still going. You know right, that's right. It's it
really comes down to that mindset and just being a
force of just never stopping. And I think if someone's
gonna come knocking at your door and they're knocking, they're
slamming the door, and they're kicking it and they're kicking it,
(31:40):
eventually they're going to get in, right.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So it's just it's how hard are you willing to go?
I think, man?
Speaker 5 (31:46):
And that's it. Man, It's like you know.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Look, I got a thirty one year old girlfriend, thank
you very much, and she's an actor, and you know,
I listened to her. I listen there sometimes like like
she can't believe she's not further along, And I'm like, whoa,
what are you doing to make yourself that somebody needs
(32:08):
to put you in something to take a chance on
spending their money on you? How because everyone's got a
pretty face. Everybody in this fucking town is in shape
and kind of good looking.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
Do you know what I mean? What are you doing
every day to be better?
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Right, so that when you do show up, you stick
out a bit and somebody says, oh I need that.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Yeah right, I love that. And that's just exactly to
your point about what you're saying about. You know, you
might have a character like Brock and Avengers and these
other in Captain America, but it's like you might have
a short time. But what am I doing to stand out?
What am I doing to make myself known and remembered?
Speaker 4 (32:48):
You know?
Speaker 5 (32:49):
Right?
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Man, I'm up against sucking Chris Evans. I mean, he's
the best fucking white guy I've ever seen.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
He's a great dude, And you know what I mean,
and it's like, what am I gonna do?
Speaker 4 (33:04):
You know, I'm a I'm a five foot ten Italian
dude from New York.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
There's no attack Captain America where I came from.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Well, you figured it out, man, you figured it out,
that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Well, we're some of your favorite moments on set with
Chris and on set of the films. Was it just
tons of training and tons of prep or were there
some Yeah?
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah, the training is always fun and you know, and
you know, we it's a great group of guys. It's
the top of the food chain, do you know what
I mean. Sam Hargrave, who was not even the stunt coordinator,
he went on to become uh he directed extraction and
like he became, he's become a hot director. We're around
a lot of talent and fighters. They're old fighters. Sam
(33:48):
Hargrave doubled Tom Hardy in Warriors.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Wo wow.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (33:53):
Sam's a badass fighter, man, badass fighter.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Like I think he was like a purple belt in
jiu jitsu and so these are these are really capable people,
you know. So you know a lot of it was
in between being on set that was the most fun
because you it's like being in college with your your
football team.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
It's a great time. Man.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Just a lot of dudes and the guys who weren't
in the movie who were like you know, extras or
or stunt guy like they're douds.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
There's a bunch of dudes.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Man.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
It was fun.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
It's like being in the army.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
How does how does that experience kind of compare and
contrast with, uh, with lights Out? Because lights Out it
certainly has tons of action and tons of cool stuff
going on.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
So I feel like, yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Know, fortunately, I love Mackay Pfeiffer. We're good friends. We've
done another movie together since. So that was a good experience.
But you know, this is a movie where it's it's
not a lot of money, uh, but there's a lot
of art.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
Some people know what doing. Some people don't know what
they're doing. Some people who you wished knew what they
were doing didn't know what they were doing. And I
have a thing about me. When I get frightened, I
get angry. And so if I'm creatively frightened, I get mad.
When I get mad, sometimes I say, and I'm a
(35:20):
little bit you know, rough around the edges.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
That happened in this movie a little bit.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
But the producer, Brandon was so open creatively and a
creative spirit himself that he managed I think he managed
to really keep this all to a place where we
made a cool little genre movie, do you know what
I mean. But it was difficult, but the people great.
You know, all the actors were amazing. They're great actors,
and so they're very they're very competent.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
But the experience was not marvel.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Sounds like a good time for sure, with all that
action and the and the good people.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
For sure.
Speaker 5 (36:02):
Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
Listen, they all, they're all they're all like children, they're
all different. You love them all for different reasons, right,
Some of them give you a pain in the ass,
and and others are just like, wow, that's my golden child.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yeah, that's all it is.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
Yeah, but you do love them all and you and
the people are you know, it's about the people.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
People are all, you know, we're all here just trying
to do good, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, I mean I've I've I've experienced that to myself,
where there's even films that I don't think are going
to see the light of day that I've been a
part of, but I met the best people, coolest people,
and now people I'm working with outside and different projects,
different films, uh from that one, you know. So again
it's you find like that we're all here, man, We're
all dreamers. We all want to make tell great story.
(36:48):
You know, we want to like, we want to watch
movies as much as we want to make them, you know,
and share that with everybody. And I think when you
find that that commonality behind everyone here, dude, that's when
you start finding people like, dude, well not only do
you like you know, uh, cage fighting and filmmaking and
drinking or whatever the whatever. The through line is, right,
I like you man, Like, we got a lot of
common man, we start hanging there.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
That's how most of my friendships today are. What they're from,
is that commonality. You know, we're all kind of like
the fucking lost cosmic orphan.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
We're all looking for something, man like. It's a weird
it's a weird thing to be an actor. It's like,
you know, there's there's this there's this connection that we
all have because we're all kind of misfits. Yeah, so
you know a lot of them are handsome and pretty misfits.
Speaker 5 (37:35):
But it's nonetheless you know that's funny.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yeah, there's that there's something behind not like I cannot
commit to a nine to five man, I cannot, Like
it's just my mind. It just doesn't it doesn't compute,
you know. And I tried it.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
I tried it, you know, I went.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
I went to school for finance and a good school,
and during that whole thing, I just I'm not I
can't do it.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
I'm not doing I'll sell drugs.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah, yeah, man, it's something you got to do something different. Yeah,
but it's it's it's hard to explain that because I've
been on there's been a few sets too where I
just know people had a terrible experience. I say, our
director was just miserable and didn't know what he's doing,
didn't treat people right, whatever it is, and it was
their first time, and I remember saying, like them telling
(38:24):
me that they're never going to work on another film again.
I was like, Damn, that sucks, because this is the
best thing in the world. It just happens everybody.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Everybody wants to be in the movie business. Everybody, everybody
I wants to be in the movie business. Successful people
wanted to athletes finance. Everybody wants to be in the
movie business. It's a gift to be in the movie.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
But yeah, absolutely absolutely. Is there a script or a
character or something that you've had in your back pocket
for you know, twenty years or whatever it may be
that you've you've always want to do you haven't tackled yet.
Is there something like that?
Speaker 4 (38:53):
You know people asking this all the time, and I
wish I had really a cool answer, And no. I
love kind of be surprised by stuff, Like I have
two things right now. One is the is the limited
TV series High Level Skit and another one is this
this movie American Whino And if you have a minute,
(39:15):
the memoirs worth reading. I'm just excited when I get
surprised by what people have created. Yeah, and then I
get to kind of take my interpretation and take it
where it goes.
Speaker 5 (39:27):
And you know, so I don't I you know, I
wish I did. I wish that didn't.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
Yeah, there's this guy I want to play this like
hear people see such interesting things.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
I'm like, fuck, I got to make something up.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
But I mean you're also like you're also kind of
doing it right, like being able to be in Marvel
and then now d C. I mean these are like
such sought after legendary things, right, So, like is there
from what you can talk about like comparisons of how
James Gunn is kind of running DC and then how
those Kevin and all them are running Marvel there's some time.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
Yeah, I mean I think what what what James and
Peter are doing because they're a great team. Is the
actors that kind of signed on for their first project,
which is Creature Commandos.
Speaker 5 (40:12):
You know, this is their studio. Now they want those
voice actors. They hired them as actors, so they want
them to infiltrate the whole DCU world.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
Very cool, right, and so you wind up like we
just got off the phone last week and you want
your your It's like you're everywhere and all kinds of things,
and it's really fucking exciting, and they want you to
build the character with them.
Speaker 5 (40:36):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
It's not like this is who Spider Man is and
this is you know, it's like and I think I
think for the most part.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
Marvel led the talent that they hired, which is the
best in the business.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Yeah, uh, you know, I mean Downey created that out
of nowhere Sea.
Speaker 5 (40:51):
I mean, he's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I mean, you can't you can't imagine someone else doing that.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
No, No, And I think people say no, anybody could
do Captain. I go, no, not now, Chris Evans is
Captain America. I mean, certainly him's worth his thre Yeah,
I mean the guy was I mean, have you ever
been in person? Have you ever seen the guy in Persson?
Speaker 1 (41:10):
No?
Speaker 4 (41:11):
No, he's like six four six five, maybe the best
booking dude I've ever seen in my life. Also also built,
maybe better than thor Yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:22):
It's like who you gonna get?
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, that's amazing, that's it. Yeah. Instead of a character,
I'm thinking more is that you've worked with some of
the most amazing talent in the world.
Speaker 5 (41:35):
Man.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
And is there anybody that you haven't worked with yet
you want to work with?
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Yeah, you know, and it's more of a nostalgic thing,
you know. I think I've become really good buddies with Stallone.
And you know, he said he's I was just with him,
he said, god busts mid seventies stud Yeah, and uh,
and we were gonna do something together. We were going
to do the remake of one of his films as
a limited series he was going to direct called Nighthawk.
(42:01):
I was gonna I was gonna play his character, but
then he got Tulsi Kings and it's got him.
Speaker 5 (42:06):
It's got him all over the place.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
So I'm looking to go and do something with fly,
uh you know before we're both Dade.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Yeah, I would look forward to seeing that. Man. You
guys would be great together and anything you do. Yeah,
he's cool.
Speaker 5 (42:22):
I love him.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Hell yeah, well you know, I know it's uh, I
know we only got you for a limited time. But
I really did appreciate, you know, seeing Lights Out, and
I loved it as a fun action film that I
think people are going to be really excited about.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
And this was, you know, such a treat. I mean,
how exciting.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Man.
Speaker 4 (42:43):
You guys are awesome. Man, it's it's it's good to
talk to brethren.
Speaker 5 (42:46):
You know.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
It's like, uh, you know, when you when you find
the as they say that the other members of your tribe,
you know right away and you know you know what
you can say and you can't stay. So I appreciate
I appreciate talking to you.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Guys likewise, man, and really quick, do you want to
share where the movie is coming out Lights Out, and
where people can find it February sixteenth, Right.
Speaker 5 (43:08):
Yeah, lights Out, February sixteenth.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
It's in a few theaters, but it's basically across all platforms.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
It'll be available pretty easily.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
And you know, it's fun. It's a fun eighty eight
minutes or whatever it is. And you know, as long
as you're like me, that's all I care about.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
That's all it matter is. Man. Now, dude, appreciate it,
you'd rather, dude, really appreciate your time. Man, Thanks for
coming on and sharing your stories with us, and dude
for your freaking awesome body of work that you've gifted
the world with over over your life. Man, thank you, brother.
We'll tell due absolutely rosome. All right, Man, a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Thanks for tuning in to Studio twenty two.
You're listening to Studio twenty two.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Studio twenty two. I'm your host, Will Meldman,
joined by always Brock o'heron. We are here with legendary
actor and action star Frank Rillo.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Frank, how are you?
Speaker 4 (00:23):
I don't know if I'm legendary, but I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Man hey Man, in our in our book, You're legendary.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Bro, It's all that matters to me.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah. I was looking at your IMDb and I've seen
so many of the films that you've done. They're amazing.
But I was like, man, if I had two months
to sit down and just watch all your stuff, I
don't think I get through everything.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Oh I know, you know what you know that's a
good thing and sometimes a bad thing. And I'll tell
you guys something. I don't know if you married or not,
but I was married for twenty years and about four
years ago I got divorced here in California, and I
decided to give her my house the beach, and a
money every month, a lot more money. And I had
to work when I when I was done with the
(01:05):
divorce in a four year period, and then COVID came,
I had to do a lot of movies that I
not necessarily wanted to do. And yeah, but I'm okay now,
I'm okay.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
That's good man. You bounce back. Yeah, yeah, you know. Yeah,
you look at your IMDb and twenty was it like
twenty one, twenty two? Definitely twenty three and twenty four.
You got a lot, man, You've got a lot. I
did you got my whole career in one year, dude.
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Bro, that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's fun man, And thank you for sending the lights
out screener so we could check that out.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Your new film, Yeah, yeah, did you did you get
a chance to see it?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Oh? Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Oh cool? Yeah yeah, you know it's one of those
gretty kind of throw a bunch of great people together
and uh and and make one of those fun kind
of stubculture movies and and just it was great people.
That's why I did it. You know, Makai five, I
love I love mackay Fire, another New Yorker Garman know,
Ronnie and Scott Atkins and Jamie King. It was, it was.
It was not easy to do, but but fun.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
It's action packed, it's gritty, it's fun, it's you know,
I really did.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I really did enjoy it. That's really cool.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Cool, Yeah, that's good. There's those jobs you take for pay,
and then there's ones that, like you're saying, when you
get to work with people you like, man, and that's
what makes it all worth it. I think.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yeah, you know, I got a partner. You know, my
name is Joe Carney, and he did Smoking Aces in
the Gray and we did Boss Level together and Wheelman
and Cop Shopping Ship. And when I'm on set, like,
no matter what happens, when I got my dude next
to me, it's like, we got this problem, you know
what I mean. Other times you're around people who are
(02:42):
a little you know, uh sensitive, and uh you know,
if you have a problem, it's a problem.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah. So yeah, right, I like. I like the people
that you can just show up and you know, you
just if you need to get shit done, you get
shit done, dude. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
And if it's not working you you don't you don't
pay it. You say, Okay, what do we do to
fix this?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah? Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Like any that's you know, my old man's an immigrant
from Italy and when something went wrong, it didn't panic.
He's just like we'll find a solution. Let's find the solution. Yeah, yeah,
the only choice, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I mean, film is such a collaborative art form, right,
It's all about that team and working together to achieve
the same goal.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Right, It's it's at its hottest level.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It is.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
But but at times you can be surrounded by incompetence
and you've got to impose your will, retect yourself. You
got to impose your will. And then you know, to
some people, you're an asshole, and to other people, especially
when they see the finished product, they go, oh, I
see what happened, and it's a good thing, and it's
a good thing you did what you did. Otherwise we
would have been we'd have been screwed. So so it's
(03:48):
it's an interesting you know, people think you just show
up and say words.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, it's not that Yetah, it's it's not that infinitely
more difficult to make a film than people think. Man,
And like you're saying, there's not really that. There's the
dynamics of ego and different personality types and so many
moving parts. You know, then if can ca all of a sudden,
you get weather and you got rain coming through the rooftop,
and all kinds of different things happen to get you
get thrown every curveball in the book, but exactly saying
that's how you handle it right, that's right, you know.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Jacanahean and I made a movie called Boss Level. Its graves,
Me and Mel Gibson and Naomi Wattson. We had forty
four days. We had forty four days on the schedule
to make the movie Wow, two nights, two nights before
principal photography. The producers call us up and they said,
we can't. We can't do forty four days. We don't
have the money. It's twenty seven days or you got
(04:35):
to pull the plug. Now we're in Atlanta. We're in
Atlanta with one hundred and eighty people, like we were
supplying jobs, two hundred and eighty people, and we're like,
we got to go home and figure this out. So
we were living together. We went down in the basement
we had to set all made and miniature model and
we stayed up all night. We drank about three bottles
(04:55):
of Jack Daniels and thinking we came we came to
a came to schedule where we squeezed it out twenty
seven days. Yeah, that is any any other time, any
other time you had to shut the movie down, you
could have a third and we and we made a
great movie to to the wow, to the point where
at the end of the movie, Mail the Great Mel
Gibson was directed some amazing movies. Yeah, he said to us,
(05:18):
I don't know how you did that. I don't know
how you guys did it. And I'll say, I said,
I tell you how we did it together. You know,
we had we had each other's backs and so and anyway,
I digress. But that's that's when it's at its best. Yeah,
you know what I mean, when you when you trust
the people standing next to you.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
And by the way, I love that movie too, and
that concept. Yeah yeah, And like that concept of you're
in a video game, you have you know, a certain
amount of lives and you're like going to playing at
groundhog Day. It's it's such a fun concept. And to
think you guys did that in less than a month.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
When he said, and by the way, you know all
the repeat action when I die every day, we didn't
use the same footage. I did different every time. I
was exhausted after that movie. I was supposed to fly
down and do a movie with Neil Blumpcamp in South Africa.
I had to go into the hospital from exhaustion. I
was I was spent. Yeah, it was crazy and uh
(06:15):
but I thought the movie for what it is, I
thought it came out really cool.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I had the pleasure of meeting uh Selena Lowe. Actually,
oh yeah, she's great. She was fantastic in it.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Right, that was yeah, she talks a good girl.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah yeah, she talked about how much she loved the
experience and all that.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
It was kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
It's great, good. Yeah. You talked about exhaustion, man, And
and you do a lot of action films space, I
mean even Lights Out, there's tons of action, you know,
a lot of fighting, a lot of martial arts. And
how much goes into preparation for you because you're obviously
in freaking great shape. I mean I see you at
the gym right now and again, and you're crushing it
and you you've had you've been in shape your whole career. Man,
what goes into yeah, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Uh, you know the thing, the thing we do. My
partner in crime is a guy named Greg Fitzpatrick. Greg
was stunt coordinator and stunt double for Ben Stiller on
all his movies and Downy and Robert Downey Jr. In
all in his movies. And he's, uh, he's about as
good as he gets, right. And he's also a fighter.
He's roy Tai kickboxing boxing. We trained together. So a
(07:20):
movie like this where there's no time and very little preparation,
him and I go to work, and you know, we
want to make the fights authentic, so we basically say
this is how it's gonna go, right, and this is
where the camera's gonna go, and this is what you're
gonna do, and this is what you're gonna do. And
for the most part, people understand that we've been doing
(07:41):
this for a long time at a high level, so
they kind of let it go. Sometimes you deal with egos,
but in Captain America, you have a month, two months.
Every day you're with the boys rehearsing over and over
and over and over and over, and you know, it's
it's a fine tune machine.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
I like doing I like doing it both ways. It's
fun both ways, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, it's high level problem solving, man, I get and yeah,
to me, like that's what it is. Yeah, it gets
my juices going. It gets me like it's it's how
do we solve this problem as efficiently and effectively and
then be able to tell a great story at the
same exact time. You know a lot exactly right, Yeah,
what you're saying though, a lot of that comes with experience, right,
like when when did you what was your first like
action role? You know? Like I was, I was reading
(08:26):
up and it said you started in plays, right, you
did plays in high school, and then you're doing some
commercial work and then you got one TV.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
But yeah, bro, I was just a struggling actor. I
was a guy. I didn't even take it seriously for
a while. I mean, I started out in soap operas
by accident. Like my all my friends came to LA
to be a actors. I just came to La, right,
yea and so and my first my first experience was
(08:52):
I went with my buddy Ricky to an audition for
a show called Friends.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Now.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
I went with him because I drove him there because
he didn't have a and I was sitting with him,
right and the girl came out. He went. The girl
came out and said are you when are you next?
And I go no, I'm because no, no, you you should?
Are you an actor? I go yeah, And I went
in and she gave me a piece of paper and
I just kind of read it off the paper, right,
(09:18):
and she said stay here. And the other person came
out was a producer and they I read it for
them and they said, we need you to stay here.
And I was reading for a role called Joey Wow
my friends. Right now. Obviously I didn't get it, but
I went through a process like that screen testing. I
had never done anything yeah, and that was kind of
(09:39):
like I went, oh, maybe I could do this.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, right, And.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Like anything like fighting or any sport or riding dirt bikes,
when I wanted to do it, I had to go
to the best person to learn how to do it.
Like when I wanted it, I thought it was going
to be a professional motocross writer. I had to find
the best motocross coach to teach me about riding motocross.
When I wanted to fight. When I want to fight
Muay Thai, I go to fucking I go to Thailand
(10:05):
with Bookoo, the best Multai fighter on the planet, and
I want to trade with that guy, right, So I
did the same thing, Like I sought out the best
teachers that I that I could find to kind of
crash course me in what this was about. But it
wasn't until I did the movie Warrior with Nick Notphi
and I was around Nick Nopi a lot. He had
(10:26):
a big binder and that was his character and I
was like, what the fuck is he doing? And that
that's when I know. That's when I said, wait a minute,
I want to be that. I want to be that actor.
I want to be that kind of an actor. I
want to go deep into this or I don't want
to do it, like it's kind of it's kind of
stupid if you're just kind of I don't know, showing
(10:46):
up and saying lines right, you want to understand what
this was and and that kind of started it. But
I did everything from soap operas to sitcoms. I did
everything I could possibly do until my buddy Gavin O'Connor
put me in War at the ripe old age of
fucking forty something and I still looked like I was
twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
It was so convincing. Like ASU the guys called me
to be come and coach them on the wrestling team.
I'm like, hey, guys, I'm.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Not really, that's incredible.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
That's when it started to get deep.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
I did a movie called Pride and Glory with my
buddy Gavin O'Connor, with Ed Norton, Con O'Farrell and John Boyd,
and again I was watching these guys do it in
a whole different way.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, and I was like, I want to.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
I want to. If I'm not going to do that,
I'll go do something else.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah. But that's such a cool like mindset to have too,
because you're you're just giving more to the craft at
that point, you're giving more to the audience. And like
that's like like if I want to go to the
theater and go see a movie that I'm excited about,
if the person just showed up and you know, maybe
they were drinking all night or whatever, and you can
tell that you kind of just went through the lines,
weren't committed to the character whatever. That's not entertaining to me, man.
That's like, do you tell you took me out of it?
(11:57):
What you're doing is taking people more in right.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Right, And and you as an actor know like you
might be excited about a concept for a film and
you put on put on the movie, and you're like, terrible,
these people are terrible. But now I watched some I
watched some Australian series last night that my girlfriend had on.
I'm like, oh my god. I could see the words
on the page, and so like every job, every comma
(12:21):
and dot dot dot, I could see it. I can
see it's terrible.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
They they just.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Showed up like they got the job and they just
showed up. And so so the the it's a long
way of coming back to this. I've been fighting my
whole life, from wrestling to boxing, muay Thai, jiu jitsu.
I've been doing jiu jitsu for twenty years before anybody
knew what jiu jitsu or UFC was. And so when
I got the opportunity to combine that with like warrior,
(12:45):
it was the role that kind of and you although
it was a small role, everybody saw it and so
I I became in their eyes this certain guy which
Hollywood lax, guys, guys, dudes, and I got some role,
I got some parts, you know, like it started to
happen a bit, but I was old man. That's why
(13:08):
I tell people there's no rules. I hear people called
I'm thirty three. I'm like, tell why.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
No, man, I mean to be fair, dude, I deal
with that every now and I've I've been in the
industry for about ten years now, and I think every
now and again, I'm like, it's slow. COVID was slow.
I mean, actually, one of those roles that I did
save my life. Man, it brought me back out of it,
brought me back in, and I'm like, dude, this is
why I do it. I love this man doing the
righteous gem zones. But it's to your point though, like
even after the strike and everything, it's it's not work
(13:36):
for everybody all the time, that not everyone has that luxury, right,
this is such a gift to do this, you know, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
At at any level, because you get to when you
get to a certain level. But things you're being offered
you don't want to do, yeah, right, And like, like
my agents CIA have recently said to me, hey, you
got to stop doing these movies now. Like when I
got divorced, I did some shit that I shouldn't have done,
but I had to. I had to, and the money
was crazy. It was like, you know, that's when you
get the money. When the movie's not so good, so so,
(14:04):
but now it's like, you know, it's diminishing returns, because
if you do too many of those, you're done. You're done.
Then you're kind of like, you know, sadly because you're
still a great actor. Guys like you know, Eric Roberts
are forced to do some things Like I remember Eric
Roberts from from back in the day when when when
he did paupla Greenwich VILLI she's he's amazing actor, but
(14:26):
but now he's there's a cautionary tale to that story.
And and you don't want to be the cautionary tale,
you know what I mean. So it's it's it's you know,
at this point in my life, I got to be careful.
How about that? I got to be careful about what
I do and don't do. And you know, I'm about
to go do this movie which is based on a memoir.
(14:46):
It's a beautiful story and there's no fighting and there's
no no killing, and it's based on this guy's life,
this journey he adds across. It's like a coming of
age story for a middle aged guy. And I can
be more excited to just go and act, you know
what I mean? Just to go do that and go
deep into somebody's you know, you know, spiritual, emotional, and
(15:10):
physical and intellectual journey. That's that's you know, as an actor,
that's what you want to do. I could fucking throw
punches all day.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Now, It's so what no, man, Yeah, and there's that like,
you know, people see what you're good at, they want
to see more of it, right, and they kind of
you got in that line. But dude, you have the
skill set to do anything. Man, you know, like.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, because of that process.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Yeah, it is about the work. It's just about the work.
Like I'm I don't know what talent is, like like
tom Brady's talent guy, But tom Brady works hard. There's
a lot of guys that that were much more talented
than tom Brady when he was young. Right then he
then he worked real hard and he worked harder, and
then he worked really hard. And so for me, it's
like I get a script, I'm going to read it
(15:53):
fifty times. There's a script in every room anywhere I
sit down, I pick it up right so that I'm
more prepared than that guy. I'm more prepared than like
I can sit down and talk about all the characters,
and I know what they all say and why they
say it. So it's about work. It's about work ethic.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I love that Tom Brady analogy of you know, talking
about how hard you're working and your process.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And and I love the.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Film Warrior and knowing that you know, you took that
from Nolty and that really resonated with you.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
That's really cool to hear.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Yeah. Yeah, and and and you know other actors should know,
like that role wasn't on the page. It wasn't on
the page. The whole third act wasn't there. He was
in the cage, never said anything. Gavin O'Connor said, my brother,
this is what I want you to do. I want
you to create Frank Campana, I want you to create
(16:49):
everything you would say to him. And I went down
and lived with Greg Jackson, who is the best MMA
coach on the planet. He let me come down and
live with him. In the gym was George st Keith Jardine,
got Cowboys, Sarney, a guy named John Jones, and so
I got to I got to live there for a
month and I came back. I said, Gavin, I got
(17:12):
this guy and he's very important to the movie. And
he did. He became important to the movie.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I mean, that's on that's like Peter Berg level, like
method training, and that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Yeah, and that's Pete's a good friend of mine, Like
he's a good friend of mine. No, yeah, Yeah, Gavin O'Connor,
Joe carnahean, Pete Burg all part of the same We're
all part of the same kind of friend group.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Very cool. It makes sense, makes sense. Yeah, So speaking.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Of uh, well, I guess we were earlier Marvel and
you know, playing Crossbones and being in that world. And
I love hearing about the amount of preparation that you
went in. You know that went into it. But what's
it like kind of filling those shoes of a huge
Marvel character and like being in that world And was
there a lot of prep that went into that as well?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah, there was a lot of prep. There's a lot
of refeirs, a lot you know, I wanted to know
as much of what the character was. I wanted to
not make him just a cardboard cutout of a character.
And he's not a very big character. You know, he's
a tertiary character. And you know you're on set with
Captain America and I and you know, those are the
guys you know. And so it's interesting. Crossbones isn't on
(18:19):
screen very long, but and Crossbones changed my career. Cross
Bruns is on screen for like twelve minutes in three
movies right now. Brock Rumlow is first his the iteration
of who he is before his Crossbruns. He was in
the movies a bit more. But Crossbones in the uniform
isn't in the movie that much. And I knew that,
and I said to myself, I have to make sure
(18:41):
this guy pops. I have to make sure in a
world where there are superstars with better costumes, I got
to make this guy pop. And so what dialogue I had,
I turned it upside down and I played with it
and I made it funny and I made it fun
and somehow that character in the minds of the audience
(19:04):
is an in terrograble part of those movies. Oh yeah,
he's not in the movie. He's not in the movie.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
That and that's you know, it's awesome hearing you say that,
because he is bigger than life, right, and like, yeah,
it's essentially you were a part of what most fans
consider the best films of the most successful film franchise
of all time, right, and now that that was the
(19:31):
thirty or whatever movies, it's like, what's it feel like too,
to be like in you know, Winter Soldiers, Civil War.
They're considered the best ones, right, Yeah, I think script
wise and story wise, I think they were the best ones.
And they were shot very practical. There wasn't a whole
ton of you know.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Special effects, and uh yeah, I take pride in saying
that those were good movies. Yeah, those weren't just more
good Marvel movies like, those were good movies. And I
think and I was just with Joe Russo and Anthony
Russo and Kevin Feige and Luke Desposito, and I'll say
this being friends with them, I think they lost their
(20:09):
way a bit and just it was about it was
about how much they could put out. But when you
go back and watch With the Soldier, that's a film. Yes,
that's just a movie man, And I mean Robert Redford
and it was mind boggling. But again I said to myself,
you gotta pop, You gotta find the way to pop,
or you're just gonna get lost in the shuffle. And
(20:31):
and that's a great thing for actors to know, not.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
About how big the role is about what you do
with it. It's about what you can do with it.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Man.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
So yeah, now I'm now I'm in dc So now
we just finished Creature Commandos, the animated series, which is
a hard r Gunn wrote every episode, directed every episode.
Great cast. I'm really great that. And I'm doing Rick
Flax Senior, and I'm in the DCU world. And now
I'm in a lot of things that are coming in
(21:00):
the next year and two. I can't talk about them,
but it's going to be real fun. Yew, we'll play
that guy.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, that's so exciting. That's so exciting.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
We'll have to get you on in a year when
when it's all coming out and talking about that's cool. Man,
What's what's honestly like as an actor? You know, what's
your favorite process of making film? Man? When did you
like when did it like hate you that this is
the fucking best job in the world.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Yeah, you know again, I started out like it's soap
operas I did. I was on a stickcom and and
it was all kind of a blur to me. And
and then when I when I started the process of
understanding what a script was, and how to score a script,
and the structure of the script and how important that
(21:45):
was and how lines were unimportant, and just to learn
your circumstances and all that stuff that I guess you
go to Yale Drama School to learn that I didn't
get to go to. But all of that that stuff
that is it's the it's the foundation to the whole thing.
It's the best part of it, man. And then when
(22:05):
you get in uh, you know, a roundtable situation with
the script and you got your and you're just kind
of reading it and throwing ideas. It's that the journey
to the set is far more interesting than the set itself. Man.
It's the journey. It's all the practices, all the rounds
of sparring, you know, all the laughs in the gym,
(22:25):
and it's the cuts and the bruises and all that stuff,
and all the learning of the nuances of fighting. When
you get to the ring, it's just like, now it's
my job. I got to go do this and do
it well, yeah, do you know what I mean? But
it's yeah, But when I learned how to prepare, it's
when I really fell in movement.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
That's incredible. I love hearing that.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah. Man, the more that I've dive dove into this,
into this world, you know, into uh in Hollywood and
filmmaking everything, I found that the best you know, actors,
the best you know even directors and creators are the
ones are the best at researching. Man, the best I
said at really like diving deep into someone's psyche or
what makes them tick and who they are and like
(23:06):
down to their personality type, you know, Like, right, the
more work you can do in that, and when you
go and you're ready to perform, it's it's you already
did it. It's already you it. You know.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
That's that's right.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
And you know what, it never ends. Man, Like as
much work as you do, you can still do more work.
And you know, I you know, I panicked recently. About
three years ago, I did a movie called Lamborghini, about
the life of virtual Lamborghini, and that was being shot
in Italy and Daris was playing the role. He dropped
out because of scheduling and Bobby Moresco, the director who
(23:39):
won an Oscar for Traffic, he called me and he said, look,
I got a movie. We shot about a quarter of
it with the kids Bandaris can't do it. I think
you could do it. I go whin and he said,
you got to be in Italy in six days. I said,
how do you How am I going to do that?
He goes, He goes, I think you can do it?
(24:02):
And I go, you think I could do this? I go,
all right, I'll do it. I read it and then
I said, all right, I can do this. I said,
get me an accent coach on the on set. I
I need an accent coach. And I need to receive
my hairline. I need to do some stuff, makeupplies, I
need beautiful suits. You promised me that I'm there, and
he did and he did it all and he promised
(24:24):
me all that, and I went and it was kind
of flying by the seat of my fucking pants. You know.
I read the book that his son wrote with the
movies based on so you know, I had a little
bit of information, but other than that, I was like,
I can't there's no more information I'm gonna get. I
don't have time now. I got to use my imagination.
And that's the greatest tool of an actor, is your imagination.
(24:45):
And so not a perfect movie, but a really good
movie and well made, and I had a great time again,
not throwing punches or killing people, or or shaving the
world or blowing the world up, but wearing fancy suits
and being an Italian little I'm in Roll, I'm in Rome,
I'm in Tusty, I'm like you know. So as an actor,
(25:07):
it's like sometimes you don't have the preparation time. So
it's just a it's a it's an interesting it's an
interesting life, man, as you know, it's it's got a
lot of ups and downs. The very best of them
are worried about their next jobs, the very best of them,
I promise you, and and uh, but I wouldn't have
(25:27):
it any other way. I wouldn't do any other thing
for a living. Well I probably couldn't.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
But yeah, that's awesome to hear.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Like how much prep or you know, cautions you can
take when going into something super short notice?
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Yeah right, it's like action coding.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
But even like reading the book right, like I feel
like a lot of people may not even do that right,
No way, Yeah, read a book exactly exactly. It's even
those things that you know would essentially be like animal
last second prep for you are still things that people
are overlooking out there and I think is really valuable
(26:06):
for young actors or aspiring actors to hear.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Let me tell you something I'm getting, you know, So
my first day, I'm there on the ship with Gabriel
bern I mean, you know, these are heavyweights. Mira Sorvino's
playing my wife. I think she went to the Golden Oscar.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
So it's like you got to show you're not just
showing up. You got to show up knowing that you're
you know, standing across formidable people. And they they do
the work. There's no accident to success. They do the work.
I promise there's no Nobody doesn't do the work. You
might not like them as an actor, but if they're successful,
I promise you they're doing a lot of work. Yeah,
(26:42):
And so that's that kind of that's the that's the
through line to it all. Just you got to do
the work. And that's what I tell I got three kids,
I beat the shit out of them when it comes
to doing the work, and do the work.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah, hell yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I Mean that's the best advice you give somebody, really
when it comes to their own success, their career and
taking control of your own life. Man, if you want
something the way you get there is to outwork everyone
else like and to be at.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
The all day long. Yeah, well day long and create
positive Actor Jordan Peterson, who's very controversial, but you know,
he says, start with fucking making your head and tell
you something I tell my kids, especially my oldest guys
twenty six, directed his first movie. But he.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Lives with me currently.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
But you know, he leaves his room in the morning
and it's a shithole, and I said, hey, buddy, that's
indicative of your brain. That's indicative of what's going on
in your mind. You're scattered, man, I said, I would
never leave my room. I just stepping over clothes in
your room to get to the door. I mean, no, man,
You've got to be organized. You have to understand it
(27:44):
starts here. So I kind of instill that in too
my kids.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
To be honest. That's such great advice too, because I
had you know, you mentioned a lot of finding the
best people, right. So I've had mentors in my life
too that have have helped me along the way in
so many different walks of life. But one of the
things that one of them taught me is exactly that
it's like, well, are your dishes done, or did you
make your bed? Did you do this right? And it's
like the reason is because if you're not, you're you're psyche,
you're subconscious, whatever is going to be focusing. And one,
(28:09):
it's a representation of your your mind, right, but it's
also if you're if that stuff's not clear when you're
supposed to be doing the work, you know, you got
to go home and you gotta h you know, sink
full of dishes. It's like that's gonna distract you from
the from the purpose, you know, from what your purpose ry.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
That's exactly right, and and and and by the way,
it takes two minutes of your time to make the bed,
why why why do they do it in the military.
Not because they need to have fucking it's because that's
where it starts, right, and it's got to be good.
You're right, take pride in it, you know, take pride
in and making the bed. And I'm telling you so.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
Many people like do things to avoid.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Yeah, man, you know, it's but it's interesting having kids, man,
especially I had three boys.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Yeah, oh no, my family's three boys.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
It's it's it's it's a responsibility.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, for sure, there's uh, there's this quote I love
by Aristotle. He says we are what we habitually do. Excellence, then,
is not an act, but a habit. So we're creatures
of habit, right. Everything that we have and do in life,
and what who we surround ourselves with, we create habits.
And if you surround yourself with people that have shitty habits,
you're gonna pick up some shitty habits. It's just the
way that we're wired, right. So making a habit of
(29:16):
making your bed right in the beginning of the day
and starting off with a healthy habit on the right foot,
you're just setting yourself up for success, you know. And
it's so funny because people think like, oh no, you
gotta make your bed like whatever. You know, it doesn't
sound that important. It sets you up for the whole day,
I'll tell you.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
It's the same thing with eating, you know. You know, hey, man,
it's fun to drink, but it's two things. It's poison
and it will get in the way. It will get
in the way, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (29:42):
You don't eat well. If you don't eat.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Well, you put anything in your body, it will get
in the way, you know. And so my whole gym
is about I want to be as efficient for as
long as I can be, you know what I mean,
Because there's you know, young studs like you right behind me,
you know what I mean, you know, and and pretty
(30:05):
soon I'm gone, that's it.
Speaker 5 (30:07):
You know, it's your time, it's your turn, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah, but it's but that's the thing too, Like there's
guys like you that are doing and that have done it,
and you're paving the path, and it's like, look, guys,
this is the blueprint. You know, this is the reason
I've had the success I've had. So pay attention and
when the time comes, your time will come eventually. But
like and then it comes down to again, just not quitting.
That's that's one of the hardest things in this. I
feel this. I got so many friends. Yeah, that's that's
(30:32):
what I tell the people. I was like, I wouldn't
do this career path, you know, as an actor if
I didn't know I could make it. And the reason
I know I can make it is because I know
I'm never gonna quit, you know, damn.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
And that's it.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
By the way, that's listen, what's the worst thing in
the ring you could fucking do it's picking knee, man,
give up.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
You know what's his name?
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Fucking Ryan Garcia got a fucking shot to the livery sat.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
Down World Championship fight. You sat down.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
The guys I trained with their old timers, they lost
their mind. Yeah, right, do not quit, You do not quit. Yeah,
And that's that's a metaphor for life. I mean, it's
a cliche to talk about boxing in life, but it's true.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
You don't quit.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
You put in the work, you know what I mean,
don't complain nobody gives them.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yeah, that's true to that point to someone else has
a worse. Man, that guy that didn't quit has a
broken rib and he's you know, broken eye socket and
he's still going. You know right, that's right. It's it
really comes down to that mindset and just being a
force of just never stopping. And I think if someone's
gonna come knocking at your door and they're knocking, they're
slamming the door, and they're kicking it and they're kicking it,
(31:40):
eventually they're going to get in, right.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So it's just it's how hard are you willing to go?
I think, man?
Speaker 5 (31:46):
And that's it. Man, It's like you know.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Look, I got a thirty one year old girlfriend, thank
you very much, and she's an actor, and you know,
I listened to her. I listen there sometimes like like
she can't believe she's not further along, And I'm like, whoa,
what are you doing to make yourself that somebody needs
(32:08):
to put you in something to take a chance on
spending their money on you? How because everyone's got a
pretty face. Everybody in this fucking town is in shape
and kind of good looking.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
Do you know what I mean? What are you doing
every day to be better?
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Right, so that when you do show up, you stick
out a bit and somebody says, oh I need that.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Yeah right, I love that. And that's just exactly to
your point about what you're saying about. You know, you
might have a character like Brock and Avengers and these
other in Captain America, but it's like you might have
a short time. But what am I doing to stand out?
What am I doing to make myself known and remembered?
Speaker 4 (32:48):
You know?
Speaker 5 (32:49):
Right?
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Man, I'm up against sucking Chris Evans. I mean, he's
the best fucking white guy I've ever seen.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
He's a great dude, And you know what I mean,
and it's like, what am I gonna do?
Speaker 4 (33:04):
You know, I'm a I'm a five foot ten Italian
dude from New York.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
There's no attack Captain America where I came from.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Well, you figured it out, man, you figured it out,
that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Well, we're some of your favorite moments on set with
Chris and on set of the films. Was it just
tons of training and tons of prep or were there
some Yeah?
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah, the training is always fun and you know, and
you know, we it's a great group of guys. It's
the top of the food chain, do you know what
I mean. Sam Hargrave, who was not even the stunt coordinator,
he went on to become uh he directed extraction and
like he became, he's become a hot director. We're around
a lot of talent and fighters. They're old fighters. Sam
(33:48):
Hargrave doubled Tom Hardy in Warriors.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Wo wow.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (33:53):
Sam's a badass fighter, man, badass fighter.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Like I think he was like a purple belt in
jiu jitsu and so these are these are really capable people,
you know. So you know a lot of it was
in between being on set that was the most fun
because you it's like being in college with your your
football team.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
It's a great time. Man.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Just a lot of dudes and the guys who weren't
in the movie who were like you know, extras or
or stunt guy like they're douds.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
There's a bunch of dudes.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Man.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
It was fun.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
It's like being in the army.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
How does how does that experience kind of compare and
contrast with, uh, with lights Out? Because lights Out it
certainly has tons of action and tons of cool stuff
going on.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
So I feel like, yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Know, fortunately, I love Mackay Pfeiffer. We're good friends. We've
done another movie together since. So that was a good experience.
But you know, this is a movie where it's it's
not a lot of money, uh, but there's a lot
of art.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
Some people know what doing. Some people don't know what
they're doing. Some people who you wished knew what they
were doing didn't know what they were doing. And I
have a thing about me. When I get frightened, I
get angry. And so if I'm creatively frightened, I get mad.
When I get mad, sometimes I say, and I'm a
(35:20):
little bit you know, rough around the edges.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
That happened in this movie a little bit.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
But the producer, Brandon was so open creatively and a
creative spirit himself that he managed I think he managed
to really keep this all to a place where we
made a cool little genre movie, do you know what
I mean. But it was difficult, but the people great.
You know, all the actors were amazing. They're great actors,
and so they're very they're very competent.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
But the experience was not marvel.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Sounds like a good time for sure, with all that
action and the and the good people.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
For sure.
Speaker 5 (36:02):
Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
Listen, they all, they're all they're all like children, they're
all different. You love them all for different reasons, right,
Some of them give you a pain in the ass,
and and others are just like, wow, that's my golden child.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yeah, that's all it is.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
Yeah, but you do love them all and you and
the people are you know, it's about the people.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
People are all, you know, we're all here just trying
to do good, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, I mean I've I've I've experienced that to myself,
where there's even films that I don't think are going
to see the light of day that I've been a
part of, but I met the best people, coolest people,
and now people I'm working with outside and different projects,
different films, uh from that one, you know. So again
it's you find like that we're all here, man, We're
all dreamers. We all want to make tell great story.
(36:48):
You know, we want to like, we want to watch
movies as much as we want to make them, you know,
and share that with everybody. And I think when you
find that that commonality behind everyone here, dude, that's when
you start finding people like, dude, well not only do
you like you know, uh, cage fighting and filmmaking and
drinking or whatever the whatever. The through line is, right,
I like you man, Like, we got a lot of
common man, we start hanging there.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
That's how most of my friendships today are. What they're from,
is that commonality. You know, we're all kind of like
the fucking lost cosmic orphan.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
We're all looking for something, man like. It's a weird
it's a weird thing to be an actor. It's like,
you know, there's there's this there's this connection that we
all have because we're all kind of misfits. Yeah, so
you know a lot of them are handsome and pretty misfits.
Speaker 5 (37:35):
But it's nonetheless you know that's funny.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yeah, there's that there's something behind not like I cannot
commit to a nine to five man, I cannot, Like
it's just my mind. It just doesn't it doesn't compute,
you know. And I tried it.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
I tried it, you know, I went.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
I went to school for finance and a good school,
and during that whole thing, I just I'm not I
can't do it.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
I'm not doing I'll sell drugs.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah, yeah, man, it's something you got to do something different. Yeah,
but it's it's it's hard to explain that because I've
been on there's been a few sets too where I
just know people had a terrible experience. I say, our
director was just miserable and didn't know what he's doing,
didn't treat people right, whatever it is, and it was
their first time, and I remember saying, like them telling
(38:24):
me that they're never going to work on another film again.
I was like, Damn, that sucks, because this is the
best thing in the world. It just happens everybody.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Everybody wants to be in the movie business. Everybody, everybody
I wants to be in the movie business. Successful people
wanted to athletes finance. Everybody wants to be in the
movie business. It's a gift to be in the movie.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
But yeah, absolutely absolutely. Is there a script or a
character or something that you've had in your back pocket
for you know, twenty years or whatever it may be
that you've you've always want to do you haven't tackled yet.
Is there something like that?
Speaker 4 (38:53):
You know people asking this all the time, and I
wish I had really a cool answer, And no. I
love kind of be surprised by stuff, Like I have
two things right now. One is the is the limited
TV series High Level Skit and another one is this
this movie American Whino And if you have a minute,
(39:15):
the memoirs worth reading. I'm just excited when I get
surprised by what people have created. Yeah, and then I
get to kind of take my interpretation and take it
where it goes.
Speaker 5 (39:27):
And you know, so I don't I you know, I
wish I did. I wish that didn't.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
Yeah, there's this guy I want to play this like
hear people see such interesting things.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
I'm like, fuck, I got to make something up.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
But I mean you're also like you're also kind of
doing it right, like being able to be in Marvel
and then now d C. I mean these are like
such sought after legendary things, right, So, like is there
from what you can talk about like comparisons of how
James Gunn is kind of running DC and then how
those Kevin and all them are running Marvel there's some time.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
Yeah, I mean I think what what what James and
Peter are doing because they're a great team. Is the
actors that kind of signed on for their first project,
which is Creature Commandos.
Speaker 5 (40:12):
You know, this is their studio. Now they want those
voice actors. They hired them as actors, so they want
them to infiltrate the whole DCU world.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
Very cool, right, and so you wind up like we
just got off the phone last week and you want
your your It's like you're everywhere and all kinds of things,
and it's really fucking exciting, and they want you to
build the character with them.
Speaker 5 (40:36):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
It's not like this is who Spider Man is and
this is you know, it's like and I think I
think for the most part.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
Marvel led the talent that they hired, which is the
best in the business.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Yeah, uh, you know, I mean Downey created that out
of nowhere Sea.
Speaker 5 (40:51):
I mean, he's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I mean, you can't you can't imagine someone else doing that.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
No, No, And I think people say no, anybody could
do Captain. I go, no, not now, Chris Evans is
Captain America. I mean, certainly him's worth his thre Yeah,
I mean the guy was I mean, have you ever
been in person? Have you ever seen the guy in Persson?
Speaker 1 (41:10):
No?
Speaker 4 (41:11):
No, he's like six four six five, maybe the best
booking dude I've ever seen in my life. Also also built,
maybe better than thor Yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:22):
It's like who you gonna get?
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, that's amazing, that's it. Yeah. Instead of a character,
I'm thinking more is that you've worked with some of
the most amazing talent in the world.
Speaker 5 (41:35):
Man.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
And is there anybody that you haven't worked with yet
you want to work with?
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Yeah, you know, and it's more of a nostalgic thing,
you know. I think I've become really good buddies with Stallone.
And you know, he said he's I was just with him,
he said, god busts mid seventies stud Yeah, and uh,
and we were gonna do something together. We were going
to do the remake of one of his films as
a limited series he was going to direct called Nighthawk.
(42:01):
I was gonna I was gonna play his character, but
then he got Tulsi Kings and it's got him.
Speaker 5 (42:06):
It's got him all over the place.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
So I'm looking to go and do something with fly,
uh you know before we're both Dade.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Yeah, I would look forward to seeing that. Man. You
guys would be great together and anything you do. Yeah,
he's cool.
Speaker 5 (42:22):
I love him.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Hell yeah, well you know, I know it's uh, I
know we only got you for a limited time. But
I really did appreciate, you know, seeing Lights Out, and
I loved it as a fun action film that I
think people are going to be really excited about.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
And this was, you know, such a treat. I mean,
how exciting.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Man.
Speaker 4 (42:43):
You guys are awesome. Man, it's it's it's good to
talk to brethren.
Speaker 5 (42:46):
You know.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
It's like, uh, you know, when you when you find
the as they say that the other members of your tribe,
you know right away and you know you know what
you can say and you can't stay. So I appreciate
I appreciate talking to you.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Guys likewise, man, and really quick, do you want to
share where the movie is coming out Lights Out, and
where people can find it February sixteenth, Right.
Speaker 5 (43:08):
Yeah, lights Out, February sixteenth.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
It's in a few theaters, but it's basically across all platforms.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
It'll be available pretty easily.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
And you know, it's fun. It's a fun eighty eight
minutes or whatever it is. And you know, as long
as you're like me, that's all I care about.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
That's all it matter is. Man. Now, dude, appreciate it,
you'd rather, dude, really appreciate your time. Man, Thanks for
coming on and sharing your stories with us, and dude
for your freaking awesome body of work that you've gifted
the world with over over your life. Man, thank you, brother.
We'll tell due absolutely rosome. All right, Man, a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Thanks for tuning in to Studio twenty two.
Host
Will Meldman
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