XRGC: Frankenstein, Predator Badlands, and Interview with Predator Actor Dimitrius Koloamatangi

In this week’s episode of group chat, hot aliens are BACK! Jason and Rosie are joined by the Scream Queens Carmen and Joelle to gush about Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein and debate whether Jacob Elordi is too hot to play the monster. Then Rosie chats with Ian and Aaron about the latest entry in the Predator franchise and why not every bit of worldbuilding needs a backstory. Finally, Rosie interviews Dimitrius Koloamatangi, the actor who portrayed the Predator in the new film.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Worrying.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
On today's episode, there will be spoilers for Frankenstein, which
is over a century old, So if you're gonna get
spoiled on Frankensteiner, it.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Might as well be here and Predator bad Lands. Hello,

(00:34):
idam is.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Jasconcepcion and I'm Rosey Night and welcome to XRG, our
weekly group chat roundtable with producers and special guests to
talk about all the things we're excited about our movies, TV's, comics,
and pop culture.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
In today's episode, we are bringing in the Scream Queens
Fagiamo del Toro's Frankenstein. It's a big combo guys. Me
and Jason loved it. I'm excited to dig in. In
segment two, I'm bringing in Aaron and Ian super producer
chatter about Predator bad Lands and guess what, somebody's got

(01:06):
a spicy take. Segment three, it's me and I'm gonna
be interviewing the star of Predator bad Lands, Demetrius Schusta Kolamatangi,
who is definitely after this movie want to watch? Then,
of course we'll be ending it as always with thank Galactus.
It's Friday and we're all gonna share are things that
we can't wait to do this weekend. But first, Frankenstein,

(01:33):
let's bring in Carmen and Joel's.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Welcome to the program.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
How are you, ladies?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Let us quickly. I'll quickly recap the plot, which is that,
you know, Victor Frankenstein uh is going to the Arctic
to kill his creation, but then his creation ambushes him,
and while he's grievously wounded, he then tells in flashback

(02:04):
the captain of the ship like, all right, you want
to know what's going on with this crazy creature. I
got a story.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
I got a long ass story.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
He tells him the whole thing, and it involves his
sad childhood and the crimean war and how he got
hired by this crazy rich guy to like, uh, you know,
U dissolve the boundary between life and death, and he
how he built this creature but then felt really weird
about it very soon after, and then you had various

(02:38):
fights and arguments with the creature who wanted Victor to
build him a mate, but then Victor don't want to
do it, and now he's been chasing the creature all
around the globe, trying to kill him. And here we are,
I really like this screen queens. Let's start with you, Carmen.
What'd you think of of Frankenstein.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
Well, it's no secret that Gearmel del Toro is my
favorite director of all time. When I saw Pans Labyrinth
as a kid, that like really, I was like, oh,
movies are like a thing, you know. So I went
into this fully being prepared to love it, and I
did love it. I think, for me, this is how

(03:18):
a historically accurate.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Movie should be done. And I don't mean that this
was a historically accurate movie. I just don't enjoy.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
Watching something that is so like intentionally made to be
historically accurate that it loses all kind of substance and creativity.
So I really enjoy here that we're it's almost like
we're doing historically accurate through drag, and it's like I
feel like we're understanding how the past was through a
modern context. They're talking a lot about class dynamics, they're

(03:49):
talking about war, they're talking about like you know, and
the other thing I really love about this movie is
that And I would have to go back and really
understand the Otherkenstein movies, but this one was not sympathetic
to Victor, and I thought that that was finally great. Yes,
it was not sympathetic to Victor. It was like, you're

(04:09):
actually a monster. Mia Goth's character Elizabeth, is that right?
She uh is kind of like our voice of reason
in the movie. I thought it was a great movie,
and of course I'm always as the as the director
of the department of how it looks.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
It looked fantastic. My eyes were feasting. My only critique
for the.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
Movie was that I wish that the cg I didn't
look so like Netflix y.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
You know, I agree, let's talk about that once we
get the full Yeah, panibly because I had a similar take,
especially after seeing the recent Netflix feature by Catherine Bigelow
House of Dynamite, I have the same kind of concerns
about the netflixy look of the features. But Joelle, your
thoughts on front Kittstein twenty twenty.

Speaker 5 (04:57):
Front, Uh, While hot Monsters are back, We're gonna talk
Predator after this. And I'm happy for our our six
foot three slash four guys out here really just living.
I really appreciate that. Thank you Deltauro for never letting
us down on that front. Kate Holly did the costumes
and they're exquisite. I think we're going to look at

(05:19):
a really really tight race between this and The Sinners
and possibly Heada For costumes, those are my three top
picks for best costumes of the Oscars this year so far.
I think what Headed did with like It's Head, it
takes place over one night. That costume transforms so much
over the course of that night. It's just so beautiful.
But what they did here, and if you've seen the movie,

(05:42):
you know at one point Emily's bringing this red dress
if she's playing piano, it's completely laced up in the back.
The storytelling that you're getting out of these clothes, out
of what the monster wears, out of Victor's like.

Speaker 6 (05:52):
Very uptight clothes is great.

Speaker 5 (05:54):
I will also say, guys, the queer subtext is queer subtexting.

Speaker 6 (05:58):
It's everywhere. It's good, and it's.

Speaker 5 (06:02):
It's it's almost evil mustache tourly gay, which is really
some of my favorite gays.

Speaker 6 (06:06):
I love when we can get a little yucky, it's
a good time.

Speaker 5 (06:10):
I think that this movie kind of goes in the
cannon of like quality horror. I don't know if it's
a great film yet. I need to watch it a
second time. I think it's really solid. I had a
lot of fun watching it.

Speaker 7 (06:21):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (06:21):
It got me on the Jacob Alardie train I was
before I was like, okay another Yeah, too many white.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Meant to me.

Speaker 5 (06:26):
At one time Internet there was like white boys, not anti.
There were just twenty white boys. I couldn't tell them
a part and I was like, you were all of
these men and everybody's thirsting after I didn't know, but
now I see the talent. It's really jumping out. I'm like,
get that guy more roles. He deserves them. So yeah,
I really really look forward to watching this movie again.
I had a good time watching it. Rosie was right

(06:49):
next to me and she was shedding tears and I
was like, this is really Resonated's like very was the
guy next.

Speaker 6 (06:52):
To her like gasping hers.

Speaker 5 (06:54):
He was like so emotionally rot so oh he was.
I think it's really resonates with folks. So I had
a great time in the movies.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Rosie and he thought my thoughts are very similar. So
I'm going to just let you go and then yeah,
then I'm gonna lay out some slight notes and conversation
starters to kind of unpack this film where a little bit,
But Rosie your thoughts.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Uh, yeah, I mean I loved it. I went in
with actually like very low expectations, even though I do
love Panslabyrinth, I love Kronos, I love Early GTT. That
was a huge part of my you know, cinematic kind
of yning and aspirations as a kid were inspired by him.
I did not love his last couple of movies, and

(07:36):
even like historically movies that I did enjoy, like Shape
of War, I do think there's some really great, like
interesting critiques that have changed the way I feel about that.
So I went into this with like, no, no, no, no, Pinocchio.
I love must be serious Pinocchio.

Speaker 8 (07:51):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
It's animated. I love that movie. It's amazing. I did
not like Nightmare ally, but but I feel like this
is a case of the right director making the right movie. Yes,
Like when I was a kid, everyone was the you know,
oh Tim Burton should make Ellis in Wonderland. That would
be so cool, And it was like idea. It speak

(08:14):
exactly like the idea was. It would look a certain way,
it would feel a certain way, and when he did it,
it was something completely different. This, to me, was a
perfect match like I love the original book. I love
the version of the monster we get here that is
very different to any version we've seen before. I too
have been Jacober Lordie pilled. I was not anti a Lordie.

(08:34):
I was Alodi questioning. I have not watched enough Euphoria.
I did not know the range. But there were moments
in this movie where I was crying, just simply when
it changed to the monster's perspective and we got these
kind of epic moments of him adventuring alone and kind
of these this self discovery and this freedom. Those moments

(08:55):
really moved me before we even got to the stuff
that was kind of more textually emotion all. I think
for me, I loved that it was more of a
gothic romance gothic movie than a horror, which I think
may surprise people when they see it now. That is
not to say there are not horrifying moments. There were
a lot of guys.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah, we're very unsettling.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah so good. Yeah, but it's still not necessarily your
kind of like stalking monster style horror, which we've seen
some really hilarious reviews of people who clearly have never
read Mary Shelley's iconic Frankenstein, who were like, oh wait,
the monster's not the bad guy. So I love I
loved it. I do think I agree on the CG point.

(09:38):
I agree that I would have loved to see a
little bit more miniatures, but for the fact that it
was made by Netflix. I do think that the sumptuousness
of the clothes and the setting, and the fact we
got it into the theaters at all, even though I
do think they've flubbed the release, makes me have a
lot of love for this movie. It hit right for me. Jason,
tell us your note.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
I mean, I agree with everything that it, everything that
everyone said. I've always I've been on a Lordy I
thought that, you know, I think he's I think he
is making really interesting decisions which you would not expect
from like a standard hot guy actor. And I really

(10:19):
appreciate that. And even in Euphoria, the way he plays
a very standard jockey kind of good looking guy character,
there's like complexity there, at least honestly one of my
favorite parts of that show, which I find to be
like like a car crash, like a mess you can't
look away from, you know. And so I've always been

(10:42):
I've been on the Lordy Train, and I agree broadly
with everything that everybody said. Here are the things I
want to talk about. Think, Yeah, it's it's interesting. Don't
you think this movie in twenty twenty five, like, it's
very much While it's very anti Victor, which I agree with,
it's also very like pro making of the monster process.

(11:05):
It's very much it's very much pro like, hey, if
you can, you should, don't you think like it ends
in a place where you're like, the monster's a delightful
the creature is a delightful guy, Like make another one
where I kind of left feeling like, listen, Victor was

(11:26):
like a bad vessel for this. Sure, but if you
get a more ethical guy to do this terrible procedure, maybe,
and that's a very interesting stance to take. I feel like,
at least that's the way I came up.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
I think because of.

Speaker 5 (11:43):
The way that he acquired the bodies and the absolute
like massive mounds of bodies it took to make this
one person there the film says, there's no ethical way
to do this, like we got it, look like we
got lucky.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
But okay, don't you think the distance of the creature
is like a thinking feeling sensitive guy.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Conveys like, hey.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Maybe it was worth it, which I find very complex
and interesting.

Speaker 5 (12:12):
I think we got lucky that this one is not
a holicidal maniac. This one's got like a nice heart
and he really care in the same way we're you're
about to get into Predator, Like this one dude is
different from all the others.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Different.

Speaker 8 (12:26):
Literally.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
I do love that read, though, Jason, because I do
think that that speaks so much to how fantastic a
lord he is in this.

Speaker 9 (12:38):
Role, Like you really all like, like, this guy's better
than Victor, so wouldn't you want to have more people
like him in the world.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
But then again, the kind of thesis of the movie
is like only monsters play god, so you're not supposed
to know.

Speaker 5 (12:55):
I say what I wanted most after the movie ended
was me a gosprit, Like.

Speaker 7 (13:00):
So.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
How do you get that if Vicdor is no around
doing his chawn o'haw kind of what I'm saying, like
it just in the Age of AI.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Where like every day reading a different story where it's
like what if the things comes alive and call them?
You know, Tom Brady trying to clone his dog.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Well, Barbara streisand famously did she did.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Tom Brady says, it does.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
I agree that the that the thesis is like playing
God is bad, but it it definitely muddies the waters
when the outcome of playing God is like this really
nice guy, wonderful, it's wonderful, sensitive man that we've created
that we are yearning for him to have like a

(13:45):
partner created.

Speaker 6 (13:47):
I guess through this exact same process.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
That's all.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Like, I'm not saying there's a right or wrong answer.
I'm just saying I was really fascinated by that tension
of there be of like the movie and the in
the book itself, like clearly taking the stance like don't
play God, but also like making it complex with like
but it was great. But it turned out.

Speaker 5 (14:07):
And let's talk about like the women a little bit,
Like I really like Carmens would like to hear you know.
I know you guys are fans of the original text
and the genre and this director who has done women
pretty well over the course of his career as far
as like writing them and making them full human beings.
Can you guys speak at all to like what's different
from the book and then what works about me a
gosp portrayal?

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Oh baby, they did make some big changes for sure,
but I did think for me like it works, Like
I like the changes. There is so much more connection
between her Elizabeth and the monster, and we take out
the you know, the biggest change here for this you know,

(14:47):
one hundred year old book. Sorry guys that invented sci
fi if you haven't read it by a teenage girl,
you know, Elizabeth is is murdered in that book by
the monster.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
And on the wedding night day.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
So what I kind of love is I love that
Heia Giamma del Toro kind of gives us that wicked
esque reimagining of like, well, what if that's what Victor's
family right, because they were embarrassed that they literally like
Victor killed his own brother, Henry, and then now you

(15:21):
know what happened to his wife, Oh, a monster that
you brought to life from the dead bodies of other
people stole her away? Sure, no, she died, like and
I kind of it works for me.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
So I also really like the the incredibly edipian like
a move of having goth play not just Lady Elizabeth,
but also Victor's late mother who died giving birth to

(15:52):
his younger brother. She did creating this incredible. Of course
you're you're remembering this through him. These are his remembrances, right,
And so it adds this wonderful layer of of weirdness
and complexity to Victor two, where he's seeing Elizabeth as

(16:14):
he saw his mother. Yeah, seeing his late mother as
this kind of uh, you know, life giving figure who
then tragically he loses. And it adds a note of
strangeness and yes, an obsessiveness to his relationship with Lady
Elizabeth that I found really cool because kind of like

(16:38):
walks through the story in the book, it's like here
and gone.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
And also like I think one of the coolest things
about that is like Mia goth loves doing this like
this was obviously influenced by her double role in X,
where she played both the final goal and the killer,
and the killer was an older lady, so she got
back into that hair and did prosthetics and I think
she does such a good job. And Jason, I love
that he brought that up because I do think there

(17:03):
is this kind of Oscar Isaac brings this kind of
heed of polish like mummies boy, kind of childish energy
that never goes away, and I think it shapes a
lot of why people have been like, oh, maybe I'm
not feeling oscar Isic in this role because he's so
He's sniveling and grotesque. He loves to be awful, and

(17:25):
I think that's amazing when you have the charm, you know.
Because also, can I just say, guys, Yamatatura went out
of his way to do like a wide legged Gerald
from Witcher esque box sequence that has the girl. He's
ready in two days to be zooming in on the bar.

(17:46):
I've seen a part of Squill so the fact he
was able to play on the hunkiness and appeal while
also kind of making him feel so gross. I also
want to say I love Mia Goth's character in this
and I love her role because I think that they
make Elizabeth like, instead of being a foil to Victor,

(18:07):
she is his conscience. She is like, what the fuck
is wrong with you? At all points?

Speaker 2 (18:12):
What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (18:13):
And it's really enjoyable to see that.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
I love that. Sorry, I'll just say quickly. And I
also love her relationship with the with the creature, two.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Of them together unbelievable.

Speaker 5 (18:26):
You understand the romance, which is why you want the
rhyme guy.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Sense because also I think they do such a good
job of showing the ways Joel, like you said, Elizabeth
is wrapped up and kept in this cage of you know,
properness and arranged marriages and the way women have to behave.
She is the butterfly in the case. And then Frankenstein's monster.
He also gets to be in that space as a

(18:56):
more direct version of being in prison, being shaped by men.
And it makes so much sense at every point that
they connect with each other. And I personally love that.
Giammo was like, it's like one hundred and twenty years old,
Like I'm changing the ending, like yo, Gamma to Tori.

Speaker 5 (19:13):
You can do that, change yeah, very quickly.

Speaker 6 (19:17):
Where do we think this ranks among del Toro's films?
Are we top? Top three, middle bottom three?

Speaker 4 (19:25):
Definitely top five For me, it's in the top five.
I still's good place. I know that Shape of Water
is controversial. I do love Shape of Water.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
It's a great movie.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
I think Pans Labyrinth is probably my top I would
put Shape of Water. I would put Crimson Peak a
number three for me.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, I'm going to put it. I'm also going to
put it in the top five, but I'm going to
solidly in the top five.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
That's what I'm saying. I think it kind of shifts.
How about you, Joel, Yeah, I'm gonna go, uh top three.

Speaker 6 (19:55):
I think I really really love this movie.

Speaker 5 (19:58):
I think, you know, crim and Peaks not really for me. Uh,
even though it's we should rewatch beautiful, I will. But
I think he was really cooking and in his bag,
and like, if you've ever seen pictures of del Toro's place,
you're like, this is just your home, this is where
you live, sir. And to be able to project that
onto screen is great. I think if you can see
it in mood eaters, do it. If not, watch it
on your Netflix, make sure you watch it and support

(20:20):
it so Netflix knows that they should keep.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Giving chat is mad. We didn't shout out Hellboy too.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
By the way, I love.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
All Fam and Gray. I'm not gonna lie guys, Helboy
one and Helboy too. That's probably in my top five
with Kronos Pans, Labyrinth and this. I love Crimson Peak,
but I think this actually distills a lot of what
Crimson Peak did really well into a more accessible story.
I think there are so many kids who are gonna
watch this and be like, oh, I actually love Frankenstein is.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
My favorite director, you know, like yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Question to Carmen's note about the CG. Yeah, I recently
watched as I As I mentioned above, I recently watched
Catherine Bigelow's The Wonderful director Katherine Bigelow's A House of Dynamite,
A house made of dynamite.

Speaker 8 (21:12):
I'm forgetting the exact wording, maybe.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
And my my takeaway was nice thriller succession looks better
than this. And there were moments, and there were moments
when I was watching, when I was watching Frankenstein, where
I was like, this feels flat it yeah, yeah, visually
it looks like Netflix, like there's you know, so much
of del Torro's work is these rich dark shadows that

(21:38):
feels like you're getting you could get sucked into them,
creatures emerging from this darkness, and it just felt not
It just fell flat. Is does Netflix, like, what's the deal?
Do their movies just look kind of like shit?

Speaker 5 (21:52):
And it just like, yeah, get you se thing of rules,
which we can maybe go over in a group chat
later because it's pretty in depth, specific cameras angles like yeah,
rules on light. The cinematography is so contained that a
lot of cinematographers refuse to work for Netflix because they
think it reduces the quality of their final like product.
I think Netflix has to come off of this, particularly

(22:13):
when it comes to like if you're going to continue
to hire these exquisite film directors like this look out
of their way, Like what are you doing?

Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, it's stupid, especially with this movie. There are moments
when you're in the theater, you know, we also at
the Egyptian pretty much the only place you can see
it that it's not you know, Common saw it luckily
at her local there in Atlanta after it was not
there for a while. Like when you watch it on
the big screen, there are whole sequences and costumes where

(22:39):
you're like, yes, this is del Toro, del Toro at
his best, and then you get a couple of those
flat CGI Netflix shows scenes power explosion. It was very
It was way bigger, I think than it needed to be.
It looked more like it kind of may.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
Remember when we had miniature and.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
I love miniatures, and I think as well, like Del
Toro got so much of himself on the screen here.
Despite that, I think that might inspire other creatives. But
I also am interested. I want to hear Yama del
Tora talk about this in five years. I want to
know what the actual experience of making it was tell her,
because I bet that there was so many fights. Even

(23:22):
to cast a Laudie you know who said he just
cast him by his eyes. You know, that's a hard
thing to sell to execs. You know, look at his eyes.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
There's a lot of folks that I've seen JACOBLORDI go, like,
I get it.

Speaker 10 (23:35):
I agreed, but but I don't know if a Netflix
exact would necessarily go yes, his eyes are so soft
and beautiful.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Why are we covering the hunkiest guy on TV that
kids love all in makeup? You know? Like, I bet
there was a lot of conversations to be had, but
generally I loved it. I'm very happy for all the
girls who wanted to fuck ugly big Scar Bill Scar's
Gary too, because I feel like, now you guys have
a sexy monster to fuck like. You can get deranged,
unhinged monster fucking out in a way that's more romantic,

(24:09):
more sexual, more loving. You don't have to die at
the end.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Up next a discussion of Predator band lance and an
interview with the Predator himself.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Hello everybody, and we are back. I am bringing in
super producers Ian and Aaron to join me on the
planet of Genna, known as the Death Planet for their
thoughts on Predator bad Lands.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
What up?

Speaker 1 (24:49):
How are you doing?

Speaker 8 (24:50):
Guys?

Speaker 11 (24:50):
Pretty good? Pretty good? I enjoyed the movie, you know,
I thought it was pretty pretty fun. It was a
great It was a great like action pack pop corn film?
Did it like blow Me Away? Is it the best
movie I've ever seen? That's going a bit far. But
I really enjoyed it, and I think it did what
it needed to do for the franchise, in for Dan Trackenberg,

(25:13):
I think. But Aaron, what are your thoughts?

Speaker 1 (25:15):
I'm curious, Aaron. I'm also interested because I would say
I bought my friend to this, who's not usually a
horror person, because it was PG thirteen, So I'm interested
in your non horror take on this.

Speaker 8 (25:27):
I mean, I don't think this was a horror movie.

Speaker 12 (25:30):
And I actually rewatched Predator one recently and much scarier.
That is, like the tension in that is so good
and so yeah, and look this story. I loved it
when it was called Mandalorian season one and when it
was recashed here it was like, Okay, yeah, it kind
of works.

Speaker 8 (25:47):
Still, I thought the movie was fun.

Speaker 12 (25:51):
My biggest issue with it was like, look, I think
the greatest villain in movie history maybe is the Raptors
in Jurassic Park and the t Rex and Jurassic Park.
I don't want to know anything about the t Rex
of the Raptors like that makes making them sympathetic. That
doesn't do it for me. That ruin not a Jurassic
World fani correct.

Speaker 8 (26:10):
I don't wanteah blue.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
I will say I think that's a bad point, but
I will also say something that I think that's a
true critique that I think people will have. Right. Yeah,
but I humanized honest about saying they always said from
the beginning, this is going to be about a young
predator called Deck played by Demetrius Schusta Columa TANGI who

(26:37):
I'm guessing they did not say that about the beginning,
but he was eventually cast trying to basically like prove
his worth. It's a protagonist predator, which we've never had before.
So for me, I was well set up for the
kind of choices the movie made. I will also say, well,
I really loved about it. Aside from the fact that
it's super colorful, super crazy. I really like that it's

(27:01):
very YA coded, and I know that's not necessarily gonna
be like a big draw for people, but I do
think it's very interesting that a movie like this, in
a franchise like this is taking. You couldn't say this
is a YA film. It doesn't fit into a lot
of the things it doesn't have, like a romance is
a central plot point, but there are a lot of

(27:22):
tropes and setups that they use that feel incredibly YA.
And I think that's also because both the el Fanning
character of thea who is this kind of idealistic but
broken wail on your tani bot, and then this young
predator named Deck who is the runt who is essentially
on this planet to prove that he's good enough to

(27:44):
be part of his clan. They are obviously on a
coming of age for sure, So that aspect worked really
well for me. Ian, what was the reaction, like what
cinema did you see it? And did you see in
Burbank or the Grove? I was surprised.

Speaker 11 (28:00):
I didn't get a chance to so I.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Didn't see you.

Speaker 8 (28:03):
I was Ian was cloaked when you came Ian was like.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Cloaked through the predating. Our audience was full of people laughing. Yeah,
this is a funny movie, a secretly funny.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
There were a lot of.

Speaker 11 (28:14):
Good funny moments, and you know, like, I think it's
a testament to to el Fanning in particular because you know,
obviously the Predator speaking in Yaucha the whole time, El
Fanning is speaking in English. But there were some good moments,
like at one point, even though the Predator does crack
a joke and el Fanning was like, wait, was that
like an attempt at humor? I didn't know you guys
had that in your culture, you know. So there are
way more funny moments than I was expecting. But I

(28:36):
think that goes to the bigger point that you made
about how it is very wyat coded. It's like this
coming of age story, and they really do a strong
job of humanizing the Predator, which is can be kind
of awkward at times because we're used to having them
be this you know, stalker, hunter killer, like and then

(28:59):
now all of a sudden they're cracking jokes and we're like, work.

Speaker 8 (29:01):
When is it not awkward?

Speaker 11 (29:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (29:03):
Like, because I personally I don't need predator making dras jokes,
you know, like.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
Guess what I got news for you? As the cannon
head here in the room. Predator has often sided with
humans throughout. That's human AVP. I get it. You didn't
need like the comedy like version.

Speaker 12 (29:23):
Of I don't want a predator to grieve, Like I
want the predator to be this scary, invisible thing that
is hunting you, and instead we get like, oh my
brother was cool, but like my dad's and you know, yeah,
but can I.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Just say something? You say, that's what you want.

Speaker 10 (29:42):
But how many Predator movies have you watched where it's
exactly like that?

Speaker 8 (29:46):
How many? I mean, so Predator one two?

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Have you watched Predator two with? Get?

Speaker 8 (29:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (29:57):
I mean, like I think the the part that well,
I mean even if you just go back to Dan's
previous two Prey and Killer of Killers, both of which
I thought were incredible pieces of work. Yes, they have
the Predator as this silent killer thing where we're focused
on other characters we care a lot about, which I

(30:19):
think they do a great job with it, Like I
would have loved this movie if but we're about something
other than a predator.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
That's not the movie.

Speaker 10 (30:27):
They literally were honest about, well, this movie was about
the entire time.

Speaker 8 (30:31):
That's totally fine.

Speaker 12 (30:32):
Like just because like I still saw it, that doesn't
mean I can't dislike it. I mean I still gave it,
Like you know, it's still like three out of five stars,
two and a half out of five. It's like it's
an enjoyable Yeah, it's an enjoyable, fun movie. I just
think like this hurt the lore in my mind more
than it helped.

Speaker 11 (30:53):
Interesting.

Speaker 8 (30:54):
It expanded on it in a way that I didn't enjoy.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
I was gonna say, ian expand because there is a
little better mansion here, which is why I think for
Predator fans, I actually think this may end up hitting
a sweet spot they want exactly. So.

Speaker 11 (31:08):
I've rewatched both Predator and Predator two over the weekend
before I saw this movie, and I think it's pretty
clear that Dan Trachtenberg was heavily influenced by Predator two.
In particular, Predator two establishes the premise that, oh, the
Predators have been going to other planets for centuries, going
on these hunts. That we see the trophy room for

(31:29):
the first time in Predator two on the ship where
there's all these different skulls that comes back. That's a
very direct link in this movie. There's another trophy room,
the t Rex skull with the t Rex skull, you know,
there's a Xenomorph skull and Predator two. So they established
that link between the franchises very early on a little
wink in a nod, and then there's other nods to

(31:50):
the alien franchise as well. Here. Obviously Whalen Utani is
the biggest one, the censor from Whale and Utani, but
I love that it also just reinforces that Lauren legacy
of Whale Utah going tough these other alien planets to
try to collect life forms to use his weapons.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
To exploit, exploit exactly.

Speaker 11 (32:07):
But then even like the loader fight at the end
was like a very clear nod to aliens. So it's
like a lot of fun little references in moments. But
I also like that it is a self contained story.
You don't need to have seen any of the other
movies to understand it. But yeah, definitely no, Yeah, there's
no homework involved. But I do like that we see
you know, more Yaucha Prime, the Home World, which we

(32:28):
saw a little bit of and Killer of Killers, so
you can tell, like Dan Trackenberg really wants to expand
that out, like what's the Yaucha culture? And you know,
we see this dynamic between the father and the son
and the brothers.

Speaker 8 (32:39):
Don't expand that.

Speaker 11 (32:41):
I mean, that's that's that's that's fair. I guess you
could say if you don't want to know more about
the culture and the history of this alien species. But
I mean, to your point, Aaron, I do agree, like,
especially after watching Predator and Predator two. For Predator especially,
I think the the vouch is only on screen for
like ten and it's total of that whole movie.

Speaker 8 (33:01):
If that, Yeah, you know, the.

Speaker 11 (33:03):
Majority of the tension and the horror comes from this unknown, unseen,
invisible stalker killing people one by one. And so obviously
you don't get any of that in this movie because
it's from the Predator's perspective. But you know, it's a
different movie, trying to tell a different kind of story,
but expanding the lore and the backstory of the after

(33:25):
because in Predator, you know, we don't know where the
hell this thing came from or why it's here. We
just know it's hunting these marines.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
And also, like the original Predator is like a Vietnam analogue, right,
So you know, it's kind of always about how these
movies expand. I think, you know, forty years into this franchise,
I think this is a pretty great big swing movie
that for me, like I love Found Family, Aaron, it
definitely does have Mandalorian coding, but I think in a

(33:52):
way that is very positive. Like Mandalorian was just lone
wolphon Cob in space. You know, this is is what
if the Mandalorian wasn't just you know, a simple uh
you know, killer for hire who, By the way, can
I say as well, many people did not want to
know more sure Mandalorian.

Speaker 12 (34:10):
For sure, you have a villain as iconic as Boba
Fette that's so mysterious.

Speaker 8 (34:15):
People were very nervous to learn more about him. Exactly.

Speaker 12 (34:18):
I think it's like that's the same kind of vibe
I'm getting here, whereas I loved Mandalorian, Like.

Speaker 8 (34:23):
For me, it works.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
You know, I love Mandalorian too, But I would also say,
like for me, when this is kind of what we
talk about with Marvel stuff. But there's so many different
Predator movies, including you know, Predators and The Predator. I'm
a I'm a the predator. I'm a predators guy and
the predator, Hey, I think yes, like stylingator. Yes, yeah,

(34:48):
actually that one and and also very scary. So I think,
like Joelle put in the group chat, you know, this
is like a very different version of the Yaucher. So
I think it's actually an interesting way to expand the
law while not impacting the fact that all the other
predators are like the Wendy Williams style, the killer that
just like shows up and just kills you at any chance. Like,

(35:12):
I think this teaches us more about For example, something
I speak to Demetrius about in our interview is the language.
This is a Yaucher language. We've never heard it before.
In this way, they actually worked with the guy who
was I think the MENTI and kind of next in
line of the guy who created the Navy language. Which

(35:33):
is funny because I kind of think this has a
lot of Avatar coding, but is better. It's a very
Disney movie than James Cameron Disney Avatar. It's very it's
very Fox and you know what, I think it's pretty
incredible that Tracktenberg was able to make a movie as
unique as Prey and then follow it up with the
secret animated movie nobody knows and then go oh hey,
and here's the might make fifty million on opening weekend,

(35:56):
like everyone can see it PG thirteen version. But what
I is really cool is they don't get to a
PG thirteen version by not having action, not having killing.
They just set it on a planet that is so
alien that all the blood is neon the all the
animals you're killing and creatures you're killing are crazy. Now,
I will say I do think as well, guys, if

(36:18):
people liked all the creatures in Alien enough, this is
very that coded, it's very monster verse as well.

Speaker 12 (36:25):
Yeah that was I was. I was a little down
on some of the creature usage too. That was one
of the things that in a way, the third act
I think is the weakest. Like I don't love that's fair.
I don't love the Predator going back to the ravine
and pulling out one berry and then suddenly snake worm
guy is his shoulder cannon and sacrifices himself like that.

(36:45):
Just some of that felt really rushed to me, and
I thought, yeah, his mask looks like Mankind the wrestler.

Speaker 8 (36:52):
I was like, get that ship out of here.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Cool was cool, and I can't I believe you're such
a hate.

Speaker 11 (37:01):
I do like that. You know, obviously they established this
is like the death Planet. There's all these different plants
and animals and creatures that will kill you at any chance.
He loses all his gear, and it is very on
the nose that he's like, oh, all these things that
I saw thirty minutes ago, I can use those as
my new weapons. So like it was a little on
the nose, but for the story, it makes sense.

Speaker 8 (37:23):
Like, okay, a video game.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
Are you on a video game? Because I will say both.
My friend who watched it, she's a harsh crik. She
did give it three out of five, which I thought
was pretty good, but she definitely said like it was
so video game coded. The points she wanted to play.
She was like, I want to play, I want to
see this kind of happen. I want to be involved

(37:46):
in it. And I actually wonder a little bit if
that might take people out of it because it is
very I think we've talked about this game before. I
don't know Ian if you've played it. I think Aaron,
you did play it, but has Horizon this Aro don
Zero Down or whatever. I played that game like non
stop when I got my PS five and this movie
is very coded to that. I yeah, I'm gonna I'm

(38:08):
gonna finish off.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Guys.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Thank you for joining me, Aaron, thanks for having a
hot Tays.

Speaker 11 (38:12):
I have one more point than please.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
I was gonna actually say, let's let's finish up with
like our final point on the movie and go for it.

Speaker 11 (38:19):
My last thing is just in terms of the actual
like asthetics and the way the Predator looked, I think,
especially coming right off of watching Predator and Predator two,
where it was all practical with the animatronic mask and everything. Obviously,
I'm sure some of the yaucha faces were practical, and
then they put CGI on top of it. In my opinion,

(38:40):
I think they went a little too far with the CGI.
It was like a little uncanny Valley, Like the Predators
were like too smooth and like polished looking. It didn't
have that same like grimy animatronic feel that especially in
Predator and Predator and Predator two had, So that was
like kind of my biggest complaint about the film. The
Predators like look too good and like too smooth. But

(39:02):
I will say a lot of emotion was carried through
the eyes, which was important, but yeah, the mouth and
the manibles and stuff, it just looked like too fake
to me.

Speaker 12 (39:10):
Which kind of you have to do when you're when
this character goes from being on screen, like you said,
for ten minutes partially invisible and cloaked being the main character.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (39:18):
I actually kind of thought I was really pessimistic about
the look I thought from the trailers, and I thought
I enjoyed it, like the cig of the faces because
I felt like each of them looked unique at least,
which I really appreciate, Like he and his brother had
very different faces, which.

Speaker 8 (39:33):
I was cool they did do that part work, Yeah, yeah, yes.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
And I think as well, like so the actor played Deck,
he actually did bring he when they were recording it.
It was like all prostags and then his face and
they they mow capped his face and that's kind of
how you get more of the emotion and the expressory. Yeah,
because we often also don't see the face of the
predator until the end because their mask is so iconic, right,

(39:58):
So I do think there was a lot of things
hear that they attempted and tried differently, and for me,
the big swings like really work. So I'm really excited
to see how audiences react to it, and because the
critical response has actually been Pray good, which I wasn't
one hundred percent sure on because it is really different.
But yeah, just really excited for people to see this.

Speaker 12 (40:19):
You did this for the Guermo section before with Franken Sein.
Where does this ring for you? Between Pray and Killer
of Killers?

Speaker 1 (40:25):
I think it's Prey, then This, then Killer of Killers.
I love Killer of Killers, but I love I really
thought it was just I think that this and Pray
are so good to showcase the differences between what you
can do in a shared universe rather than the Marvel
where everything feels the same and interchangeable. This is a
world where the predator of prey exists and the predator

(40:48):
of bad Lands exists, and it feels to me like
in a world where they're going to all these different
planets and dealing with all these different prey, there would
be different worlds, you know. But Pray so one of
the coolest movies ever made, so still up there for me.

Speaker 11 (41:03):
Yeah, of those three, I would put Prey at the top.
I really enjoyed Killer of Killers and that like anthology
way they did it, but it still ties into the
larger lore and it connects to some of the older films.
So I think I'll put that second. I'll put this
one third, not to say that it's a bad movie,
just compared to those other those other two are.

Speaker 7 (41:20):
Just so good.

Speaker 11 (41:21):
Yeah, So I would put it at third out of
those three.

Speaker 12 (41:24):
Yeah, And I would say as oh yeah, er, I
mean same ranking as Ian Pray Pray is so good
and I love that so much, and it was so
scary and like so much tension in it, and so
that is one hundred percent the best way.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
I believe that there are going to be Prey and
bad Lands double bills in the movie theater, So if
you did not get to see Prey in the movie thea.

Speaker 12 (41:47):
Speaking of seeing it in the theater, what do you
think the box office takeaway from week one will be
for this?

Speaker 1 (41:53):
My hopeful feeling is that it weigh over, proper forms
and makes like fifty mil. Because honestly, there has there
wasn't a big movie for Halloween. This is kind of
a good in between. It's kind of spooky, but it's
an action movie. Plus it's PG thirteen so everyone can
go and see it. And the Predator is known so
I'm gonna go forty five to fifty hopeful Ian, how

(42:14):
about you?

Speaker 11 (42:15):
Yeah, I think if it clears like forty, I think
that'll be a solid opening weekend. You know, it's you're
hard pressed to find a movie to crack that on
a consistent basis these days. But I think I think,
like a hmm, especially coming off of the success of
Prey and Killer of Killers, Dan Trackenberg is like kind
of on a heater right now, So I think people

(42:36):
will be excited to see this. So yeah, I think
I think forty is like kind of a realistic, you know,
high end number.

Speaker 8 (42:42):
It could it could hit.

Speaker 12 (42:43):
I think it's going to be twenty million if that,
I think you think sixty. Mad Max Firiosa couldn't even
barely got twenty five million.

Speaker 11 (42:51):
I nobody wanted to see that movie.

Speaker 8 (42:53):
Yeah, but you had two stars that you're like visibly seeing.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
So Mad Max Furiosa is, by the way, great movie,
insane movie, but super inaccessible. Like five minutes into that movie,
you know whether or not you're gonna like it. Five
minutes into this movie, audiences are given an emotional reason
to connect and an emotional storyline to follow. That is
simple and understandable, and that I think is the difference.

Speaker 8 (43:17):
Now will they get will they get into the theater
to get that?

Speaker 1 (43:20):
That's the question. Well, what I love about this? And
let's end on this because this is gonna be really
fun to follow up on. Variety played it safe, predicting
twenty five mil and Deadline predicted sixty. So I just
feel like this is like nobody knows and that's very
exciting to me.

Speaker 11 (43:36):
Yeah, we shall see. But overall, if you're a fan
of the Predator franchise in general, or you just like
a good popcorn action movie, you will enjoy this, So
go give it a chance. Go check it out.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Also, so you guys, you love in the discord Aaron's take,
So I want to hear your take on Aaron's take
in that discord. Go see it.

Speaker 8 (43:55):
Do you agree with him?

Speaker 13 (43:56):
Is he right?

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Is he wrong? I think he's talking to a point
that a law of Predator fans are gonna feel. But
my feeling is the movie overcomes it with its own
quality and kind of heart. So yeah, and afterwards, I
will be back with an interview with the star of
the movie, Dimitrius Schusta Kola Matangi, who is an incredible

(44:18):
young performer and one of the loveliest interviews we've had
in a while. So yeah, come back to that in
a minute.

Speaker 13 (44:23):
Guys, Hey, how's it going.

Speaker 7 (44:41):
It's going well today, fantastic.

Speaker 13 (44:46):
Yeah, I'm doing good too. I'm excited to talk to you.
It's nice.

Speaker 7 (44:49):
I'm excited to talk to you.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
We love to talk about the people who actually make
movies happen, so it's like a really exciting thing to
get to talk to someone who's not only the lead
but also a creature actor. So I would love to
start just by asking you, what's like your acting origin story?

Speaker 13 (45:04):
Where did you.

Speaker 7 (45:04):
Begin acting origin story?

Speaker 14 (45:07):
I feel like I've always been a little bit of
an actor, you know, as a kid, just growing up.
I just love entertaining people, you know, making people smile,
making people laugh, you know, whatever I can to just
brighten up someone's day.

Speaker 7 (45:19):
I was always trying to do.

Speaker 14 (45:20):
But in terms of my professional acting career, I started
My first job was in twenty nineteen where I filmed
a little thing back in New Zealand. It was two
part series and I had like three scenes in it,
and I like died, But yeah, it was kind of
my introduction to the world of acting, you know, and

(45:41):
being on set, and from there it was just kind
of investing in myself, putting myself through you know, acting
courses here and there, trying to soak up as much
game as I could about the industry, and yeah, I
just kind of started climbing.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
And how does it feel then, like six years later,
to be, you know, the lead in this kind of franchise.

Speaker 7 (46:05):
It's surreal.

Speaker 14 (46:06):
If I'm honest, it's hasn't really sunk in fully. I
think everything's just been go, go go, so haven't had
time to just you know, stand back and smell the flowers.
But it's been honestly an amazing journey, you know, to
get here. It's hard at times trying to just hustle
as an actor, but yeah, it's very rewarding and you

(46:28):
learn a lot about yourself because.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
You're also constantly just thinking about people, like all different
kinds of people, different kinds of humans. So then in
your head you're like, okay, so what am I?

Speaker 14 (46:38):
But yeah, but that's such a fair point. I think
that's something that I really love about acting, is that
like learning the psychology of people, you know, and their behaviors,
what drives somebody to do what they do, why are
they the way they are?

Speaker 7 (46:56):
And honing in on the why of everything?

Speaker 14 (46:59):
That was something that I kind of just take away now,
you know, in my life it's just you know, there's
always a reason behind something, There's a why to literally everything.

Speaker 7 (47:08):
So you just got to navigate that. And yeah, I
didn't find out what's going on exactly.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
But like, how so something like the panthers, you're drawing
from like real history, right about Polynesian panthers, and so
like something like that you can research, you can learn
when you're approaching something like that, who isn't necessarily human?
And the whole notion of this movie is like there's
no humans, it's all alien. Yeah, how do you find

(47:35):
that character? What was that like for you?

Speaker 14 (47:38):
A fantastic question and it was a very new process,
I guess for myself, not new in terms of I
guess how I was approaching character.

Speaker 7 (47:49):
I feel like every story.

Speaker 14 (47:52):
Is a story, you know, so as an actor, you
kind of see it from whatever perspective you're a you know,
whatever perspective of your characters, and that's how you try
and view the story. But yeah, getting into the psychology
of Yaucher you know, it was just literally learning the
Yaucher culture, you know, immersing myself and all of the

(48:14):
previous Predator installments, getting myself all these comics, just trying
to understand the deeper reason of you know, why do
they go on hunts? Why is hunting so big for them?
Is this like a I think they just love violence
or is it something you know what I mean? So
it was, yeah, just a lot of a lot of

(48:34):
time spent on just understanding what makes these creatures them
and then from there I was able to it was
able to inform everything else.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
You know.

Speaker 14 (48:45):
It was yeah, knowing that they're they're worried spirits. You know,
they're from a long lineage and ancestry of hunters who
hunt for status. You know, this is how this is
their this is their money to them. You know, they're
able to acquire so much prestige you know, on their hunts.
Suit with that, you know, you carry yourself differently, you

(49:08):
speak differently, your energy is different.

Speaker 7 (49:10):
It's it's a whole process, you know, and.

Speaker 14 (49:13):
It's a it's a little yeah, I love any I'm
sorry I could speak on little no.

Speaker 13 (49:18):
I love it.

Speaker 7 (49:18):
Well.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
We're very lucky because a lot of as our listeners
will know, like a lot of junket interviews are four
minutes and we get twenty. So I'm not in life.

Speaker 13 (49:26):
So I'm like you were talking, we got time exactly.
So I love.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
That you went back and looked at kind of the
classics stuff because for so many people that's what you know,
they grew up on and we're all but with Dan,
he has done a great job of kind of reimagining
it with Prey and now if this kind of expanding
the law. When you were looking back at those comics
or the movies, was there something that surprised you or

(49:51):
like struck you about the predator kind of law or
the space that you were stepping into.

Speaker 14 (49:58):
I think one aspect of the predator law that I
was intrigued by was the fact that so the reason
they take trophies they used to be enslaved, like yeah,
like years and years and years ago, so they were
able to overthrow their presses by you know, hunting them down,
and the first trophy they took was off of their

(50:20):
masters that were enslaving them. So I was like, man, yeah,
it's a deep like thing that they still carry on,
you know, to this day. It's something that pays homage
to those who went before them. So I was like,
I'm even getting goosebumps thinking about it right now.

Speaker 2 (50:36):
You know.

Speaker 14 (50:36):
It's such a powerful aspect to their to their characters,
and yeah, it was. That was a cool thing that
I learned about them. So yeah, just finding all those
kind of little nuggets and also understanding that, like you said,
Dan is taking the franchise into a whole new realm.
You know, He's breathing a whole new life into these characters.

(50:58):
So I didn't I didn't want to just copy and
paste you know what has been done. You know, I
had to do my research in terms of understanding what
made these characters iconic in the first place, Why did
people fall in love with these characters and use those
elements while also injecting my own unique energy and my
own unique storytelling abilities into these characters, because yeah, it's

(51:22):
Dick's character himself was unique.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
You know, what I was gonna say is a totally
different version. Like we often see the predator, who is
the titular predator, right, but the whole pitch with this
that Dan's always been getting people excited with this, Well,
now the Predator is hunted, right, So what does that
look like and what does it mean to get to
be you know, rooting for the predator. Though throughout the

(51:45):
movies that does happen, especially in like AVP and stuff
like that. You know, like we do occasionally root for
the predator. But what was that like? Like having to
find this kind of heart and journey because this is
not a Deck is not somebody who is respected as
a hunter or recognized as a hunter, and he has
to really go on a journey of earning that in
a way we haven't seen other predators kind of do. Yeah,

(52:08):
could you talk a little bit about building that?

Speaker 14 (52:10):
Yeah, So that was even cool to explore because all
of the previous predator films we've seen these like these
predators are already blooded, so bloods. You know, they've already
left their yaut Prime. They've already gone and you know, hunted,
and they've they've already established themselves within their own clans.

(52:31):
Deck has never left Yauch Prime. He has you know,
never even seen the outside of his home. So with that,
he's already not like he has that naivety about him,
you know, he he he thinks he knows like everything,
he thinks he is the best hunter, and as you should,
you should always believe that you're the best. But without

(52:52):
the experience, you know, there's always that undertone of man,
can I really do? And with Dick being the underdog
and being the runt of his family, it just adds
more motivation, you know, it pushes him into a whole
different realm where he not coming across defensively, but yeah,

(53:16):
he has something to prove, he has a point to prove.
All these other predators we've seen, you know, they've they've
already proven, you know, so they they walk in a
different kind of like their energy is different, whereas when
you're trying.

Speaker 7 (53:28):
To prove yourself, you're you're up.

Speaker 14 (53:30):
You know you You're That's all you can think about,
That's all that's on your mind. Then embodying that was
intense at times. It's emotionally draining.

Speaker 7 (53:41):
A little bit. But yeah, we had ways to, Yeah, just.

Speaker 14 (53:48):
Make him as authentic as we could, you know, and
have people relate to the themes of what he's he's
going through.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Well, I was going to say, like you talked a
lot about finding your own in you are also coming
from a place where you've only been acting for like
six years, which is a long time, right, It is
a long time, and it's like but in that way,
you're kind of like Deck because then you're coming into
this and you have to prove yourself as well as
like a leading man as a creature actor, which was like,

(54:16):
is that something you ever expected?

Speaker 14 (54:18):
This is the first Yeah, never done creature acting or
acting as a non human.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
Yeah, were you able to bring like your own experience
of moving up into this new kind of Hollywood space
and bringing your drive and showing people what you could
do two Deck's character?

Speaker 7 (54:37):
Yeah, of course.

Speaker 14 (54:38):
I think as an actor, you have to use your
own experiences, you know, to inform your characters and find
ways that you can make.

Speaker 7 (54:48):
It real for yourself so that.

Speaker 14 (54:50):
Others can, you know, find that realness you know within
it as well. So you know, like you said, I've
always just felt like an underdog in general growing up.
I've never been like instantly good at anything, Like I've
had to work, you know, to make sure that I'm
at least operating at the same level or above, you know,
as the people around me. So that was something that's

(55:12):
just natural for me to try and outwork you know,
everyone around me. Because I have to work a little
bit harder to even you know, be on the same
level as some people. So I think using those kind
of experiences. I'm also Polynesian, and you know, we come
from a lineage of warriors. You know, we embody the
spirit of warriors. So even using those aspects that I've

(55:33):
always had growing up and filtering that into Dick in
a way that is still coming across as like Yaucher,
you know, but it comes from a place of truth.
I think it's it's very important, and it makes it
feel authentic and people can appreciate the realness of that.
You know, it just adds texture to your character, and yeah,

(55:54):
I feel like you can really see that.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
Absolutely and you get to kind of have this this
kind of double act with you know, al and having
I believe on the back you were actually carrying her.
Could you talk a little bit about the physicality of
this performance too, because obviously there's a lot emotionally that
you were able to connect to and bring and bring

(56:17):
that kind of underdog spirit. But with out what was
that like, because that again is a completely different way
of acting.

Speaker 7 (56:25):
Yeah, it was a lot. I think honestly, it was
just understanding each scene for what it was.

Speaker 14 (56:34):
And why we are doing each you know, why we're
doing what we're doing.

Speaker 7 (56:39):
And then yeah, it was really like new.

Speaker 14 (56:43):
To me acting with someone but not seeing them or
like fate, like we're talking away from each other, you know,
so you're not actually like connecting here. So even that
element of it was quite interesting what we were able
to kind of do with that because she's in her
own world, you know, thinking about what he is thinking about,
and then I'm in my world with my mission, and

(57:04):
it's kind of it felt honestly like you know how
you have those the demon and the angel on your shoulders,
That's what it felt like. She was like that voice
in the back of my ear.

Speaker 7 (57:15):
She was my.

Speaker 14 (57:16):
Conscience selling me I don't think you should go there,
or like, you know, doing all that little stuff.

Speaker 7 (57:21):
And Dick's just on his own kind of path.

Speaker 14 (57:25):
But yeah, it was it was a cool, like challenge,
you know, to to do that, because.

Speaker 7 (57:31):
I feel like there was a lot of things that
were quite challenging.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
I bet it sounds like it was a really challenging
big project.

Speaker 14 (57:36):
Yeah, a little, But like like I said, all of
those challenges, I guess I was just using to inform
you know, more of my character. You know, it would
be hot in the suit and uncomfortable. You can't really
move properly, so you had to really fight to you know,
stay in the scene, stay performing, you know. And it

(57:56):
was Yeah, it literally just worked with how Dick is
so it made sense exactly. So I was just trying
to use as much as I could and not see
it as a distraction or see it as hard, you know,
but see it as this is how it is, let's
roll with it.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Yeah, So you you mentioned this your first time doing
non human acting. Did you find like, is that something
you're excited to pursue? Like do you now have dreams
of playing like Frankenstein's monstyle creature from the back lagoon? Like?
Did it allow something a different side of your acting
to come out?

Speaker 14 (58:29):
I'll be honest, I think it expanded my skill set
in terms of an actor, and it gave me a
lot of confidence in terms of knowing that, yeah, like
it will take a lot to pull me out of
a scene, you know, it will take a lot to
kind of get me to a place where I'm like, nah,
I can't do this, Like that was something I really
valued from getting out of this. But yeah, in terms

(58:50):
of playing other, I honestly just love story. I love
stories and I love characters. Even being Polynesian, you know,
we ire storytelling. We were from a generation of orators, So.

Speaker 7 (59:04):
I just I'm invested in whatever the story is.

Speaker 14 (59:06):
So yeah, if there's a character where the story is
written and you know, yeah, and the characters as layered
and has a bit of new once to them, you know,
it's exciting. You know, it's a story that should be
told with you know, messages that people can relate to.
You know, people can watch and just forget about their

(59:27):
lives for now and a half or two hours, you know,
and just fully be prison You know, those are things
that I want to I want to work on it
and be a part of.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Yeah, that's the best the stuff.

Speaker 13 (59:36):
We all need an escape exactly.

Speaker 7 (59:38):
It's a crazy time in this world. So it's it's
always good.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
It definitely is okay. So is there a moment that
you're most now you know people are seeing it and stuff.
Is there a moment you're most excited for people to
see on screen?

Speaker 7 (59:50):
Oh, like a particular scene.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Or it can be like a character, be a scene,
a stunt you really work hard on like whatever, feeling
like they you can't wait for people to see on
that big screen.

Speaker 14 (01:00:03):
I think the first act is like something that I'm
really proud of as an actor, but also in terms
of this story. It informs literally everything that you know
about the.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
Most we've ever seen of the Predator like space and
yeah and world, so it's totally unique in that way.

Speaker 14 (01:00:25):
Yeah, so I'm excited for I guess the Uji Predator fans,
you know, you've been like craving a story like this
where they get to see, you know, the like multiple
predators on their planet, hear the language.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
People are so excited about that. Like Reddit people are
just like I've been writing fan canons of Future Bride
my whole.

Speaker 13 (01:00:47):
Life, you know, So I think you're right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
I think people are gonna love that.

Speaker 14 (01:00:51):
It's so funny because just from the trailers, I've had
people messaging me like trying to translate the language already
and asking me like like writing out a sentence. There
was literally a message I got the other day were
like he wrote a Yaucher sentence and it was pretty
much perfect, And I was looking at it like maybe
it hasn't even come out, you bro, how are you
even speaking the language?

Speaker 7 (01:01:12):
Like, what the heck?

Speaker 14 (01:01:13):
So it's it's so cool to see like people so
invested and like loving, you know, the character and the
whole franchise.

Speaker 7 (01:01:22):
So yeah, I'm excited for them too.

Speaker 13 (01:01:24):
Amazing, and I'm excited for you. Congratulations, this is.

Speaker 7 (01:01:27):
Gonna be Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Just start really exciting stuff.

Speaker 13 (01:01:31):
I think it's a really special memorod.

Speaker 7 (01:01:33):
I appreciate that so much.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
And we're back. Let's wrap up by sharing one thing
we're all excited to read, play, watch, or listen to
this weekend. Let's start with Carmen.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
Carmen, Well, I I'm the last person on the XRV
crew that has yet to see Pretator bad Land. Well,
actually that's not true. Jason hasn't seen it. So I'm
going to see it this weekend. Yes, I'm very pumped
seeing it tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (01:02:09):
Oh yeah, Joelle, I've been working on growing my vinyl collections,
so do Wism just came in, So I think I'm
going to be listening to this front to back a
fantastic life changing album. Oh yeah, Ericado by Doism isn't
titled Yeah, classic classic Ian.

Speaker 11 (01:02:30):
I've been on a big cyberpunk twenty seventy seven Kick
Lately and never beat the game when it originally came out,
and so I've been playing a lot of it in
the past few weeks. I'm playing on PC, so I
just got deep into modding. It's like a completely different game.
So I'm I'm super into it, and uh, I'm probably
gonna play a lot of that this weekend. Yes, Jason,

(01:02:51):
we can make the titdy jiggle physics jokes like whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:02:55):
Yes, it's not those kind of mins.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
We got to see them on, so I want to
see them on.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
Aaron.

Speaker 12 (01:03:10):
I have been playing ad Hoc's new game, Dispatch, which
is a like storytelling game by ad Hoc came from
basically the bones of Telltale, and uh, this game is incredible.
You play a superhero dispatcher and you have a number
of heroes on your roster. You make decisions, you lose
some heroes, you gain some heroes that the voice cast

(01:03:33):
is incredible. It is Aaron Paul is the main character.
Jeffrey Wright is your like former Wow hero friend. You
have Laura Bailey Recession Indicator from Critical Role, and then
the voice cast that he also has some of my
favorite like content creators like Joel Haver, who's my favorite

(01:03:53):
YouTube creator, is one of the characters, which is great.
And episodes five and six came out Wednesday, the fifth
and episode seven and eight Final Things come out next week.

Speaker 8 (01:04:04):
The game is incredible.

Speaker 12 (01:04:05):
I highly recommend anyone who is interested in like not
an action packed game, but a storytelling game.

Speaker 8 (01:04:10):
It is so good. I love it.

Speaker 5 (01:04:12):
I've been watching some of the contints on social It's
so good. It's really funny, filthier than I thought it
would be.

Speaker 12 (01:04:18):
Yes, it is, it is. It is funny and it
is uh there. You can choose to censor things and
like very famously. The first episode opens with you fighting
a super villain and uh just he just hangs dong
like real early on.

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
Okay, Aaron, I love he's hanging. I will be I
will be comboing. Oh wow, the jiggle.

Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
What are the physics like on that hand?

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
Jiggle physics? Don't, Aaron, that's good idea boo. I'm in
do it's retracing on the dog. I will be watching
probably a lot of anime I'm doing. I'm putting together
a couple of different big lists for IGN as we

(01:05:16):
head to the end of the year, so I'm going
to be watching a lot of anime from this year
again and a lot of anime that's coming out next year,
and I'm very excited about that.

Speaker 8 (01:05:25):
Are looking forward to next.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
I will I'm probably most looking forward to like returning series,
so we will get a new series of Apocryphy Diaries,
which I love. We are going to have a new
Ghost in the Shell made by Science Saru, who are
just coming off Standard AD, so I'm really excited about that.
We are also going to have like Oscehi Noco, and
some of the bigger breakouts are coming back with sequel

(01:05:51):
seasons this next year. So it's going to be a
really good year for anime and I will be at
ign with the best of this year anna working on
the most anticipated for next year, So watching lots of
anime and reformatting my screenplay because guys, guess what. I
bought Final draft pro for my stream writing.

Speaker 8 (01:06:09):
I did it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
I did it. I'm very proud, and I formatted my
whole script. I did. I wrote the script and then
I got a message back from my screenwriting teacher today
and she was like, congratulations on having a script that
has never been formatted like this by anyone before, and
I was like, what, how did this happen? So I
will be re I will be trying again on final car.

(01:06:31):
It's a lot of a learning curve, guys, but get it.
It is if you want it. It was on sale.
I got it like one hundred and twenty to have it.
You gotta have it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
You gotta say like I've There are other you'll often
see these other like free or browser based ones. Sadly,
it's so hard to format in the way people want
the format without final draft, you're just gonna need it.

Speaker 8 (01:06:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Also, I was using I was using the mac jupe
called Highland two and they update and lost like three
of my finished scripts, so it was, yeah, it was
it was time to go. Luckily they were just made
for TV movie scripts that I have done a lot
of work on, so it should be easy to rewrite.
But yes, guys, I will be doing that too, so

(01:07:15):
fun homework. And also you know, watching a lot of anime,
so can't really complain. It's gonna be a good weekend.

Speaker 6 (01:07:23):
Well, I have to.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
I have to deliver a draft of my book December first,
a revised draft that I'm working on now. So since
we're talking about apps. Let's talk about the Ulysses app,
which is what I write in across all my Apple platforms,
and it's great. I write my podcast scripts in there,
I write my podcast outlines in there. You can you know,

(01:07:45):
organize everything by different folders, which I do. You can
set like a word count, a daily word count goal,
which was very helpful to me earlier on in the
book writing process, Like I would set it for like
three pages of like anything, and as long as I
hit that, like, I felt good. I think it's a
great app. It's I was previously using I a Writer

(01:08:05):
until it nuked all of my work somehow, and Ulysses
has not done that. Kno cost scares, although that was
my own thing. So I'm just gonna be writing in
the Ulysses app.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
This this these apps have. Do they not have Cloud backup? Story?

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
They do, but it's often an issue.

Speaker 1 (01:08:29):
It's often impacted when they lose it. It's like they like.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
If you so like if you update iOS or a
new version of Apple comes out right and then there's
some sort of lag in the updating to cloud and
then now the versions are different, and if you open
your Ulysses on your desktop, that isn't on the updated

(01:08:52):
like operating system, and then you open it on your
laptop and now there's an issue between the two and
that's how it can happen. Off that said, despite the scares,
Ulysses has not ever fully shit the bed on me
in a way that was not recoverable, So I appreciate.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
That also, guys, seeing as Jason is working on a
book that you can actually pre order, which my book
has not been announced yet. It is in the Monster
Kaiju space, so that's great. But Jason's book that he
is working on right now is called Sad Androids and
you can pre order it. And I have read some
of it and it's so good, So pre order that book.

Speaker 8 (01:09:26):
Pre order that book.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening to this
episode of XRGC. We've Got Tomorrow with the Biggest News
of the Week by x ray Vision is hosted by Jason
Cepcion and Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
Our supervising producer is Abu Safar.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
Our producers are Common Laurent Dean Jonathan.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
And Fay Wag A theme song is by Brian Vasquez,
with alternate theme songs by Aaron Kaufman.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
Special thanks to Soul Ruba, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and
Heidie Are Discord moderator M.