April 24, 2023 • 49 mins
On this week's episode: An interview with "The Covenant" actor Christian Ochoa Lavernia, a review of his new film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim, as well as listing the movies that were so bad that James and Jamie were forced to leave the theater, and casting calls!
New England's film industry is booming with multiple projects constantly under production. Projects include commercials, television shows and full-length feature films.
Jamie and James are hosts of The Hub on Hollywood. The podcast focuses on New England's growing film industry, as well as entertainment news and reviews.
SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM & TikTok!
https://linktr.ee/hubonhollywood
bdowdcasting.com
bostoncasting.com
cpcasting.com
slatecasting.com
kendallcoopercasting.com
ldipro.com
New England's film industry is booming with multiple projects constantly under production. Projects include commercials, television shows and full-length feature films.
Jamie and James are hosts of The Hub on Hollywood. The podcast focuses on New England's growing film industry, as well as entertainment news and reviews.
SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM & TikTok!
https://linktr.ee/hubonhollywood
bdowdcasting.com
bostoncasting.com
cpcasting.com
slatecasting.com
kendallcoopercasting.com
ldipro.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
On this week's episode, a reviewof the new Jake Jillenhall movie The Covenants,
and an interview with one of thestar actors from the film. We
also talk about the movies that wereso bad that we walked out of the
theater, and the Power Rangers areback in a new movie, but is
it worth watching? This is theHub on Hollywood. I'm James, I'm
Jamie. It is Morphin time.Let's go, Let's go. All right,
(00:32):
Jamie, welcome back another We havea really great show this week.
Not only do we have some fun, really cool reviews, but we also
have this great interview with, aswe mentioned, an actor from the new
Jake Jillenhall movie The Covenants, Yes, Christian Ochoa Lavinia, who has one
of the speaking roles, one ofthe main speaking roles in this incredible movie
(00:55):
that is about the Afghan War andthe very many tracks laters that worked with
the US military during that twenty yearcampaign. We're very excited to talk to
Chris about his time on set andhis journey as an actor. Also happens
to be one of my friends fromhigh school, so we're very excited,
no big deal, just so excitedfor his success. And for his family,
(01:22):
and he's got just this beautiful attitudetowards life which we can't wait to
share with you. So stay tunedfor that interview a little later on in
this episode. But we've got acouple of other things we want to talk
about first. Yeah, that's right. So moving from actors from Miami,
let's talk about actors from Boston.The good old boys Ben Affleck and Matt
(01:42):
Damon. They are the gifts thatjust keeps on giving. Just like last
week, we're mentioning that they wereon this movie media tour talking about air,
talking about their other projects, andBen Affleck popped on The Drew Barrymore
Show, which is a really funshow. I think she's a really good
actor actress turned TV talk show andhe still haven't seen it. That's pretty
(02:04):
good. But in this last episodeof Drew, Ben says that he and
Matt Damon blew through all the moneythey made selling the scripts for Goodwill Hunting
in just six months. It's prettyunbelievable. So he says they sold the
scripts to a studio for six hundredthousand dollars. That's back then money,
(02:25):
which I'm sure adjusted with inflation muchmore but he says after that six hundred
thousand dollars purchase or selling him,he and Matt split it three hundred thousand
dollars each ways. Their agents gotthirty thousand dollars, leaving them with two
hundred and seventy thousand dollars. Thenthey paid one hundred and sixty thousand dollars
in taxes, so after that theywere left with one hundred and ten thousand
(02:49):
dollars. After that they decided tobuy fifty five thousand dollars jeep Cherokees,
and then they spent the final fiftyfive thousand dollars paying for this party house
in the Hollywood Hills by the HollywoodBowl, and they said after six months
they were back to being broke.It doesn't surprise me that, you know,
(03:10):
young guys in their twenties who havefound big success blew through that money.
Like, I don't know what elseyou would do, but it's a
good thing they got more movie rolesafterwards. I think that maybe perhaps the
first thing you should get is afinancial advisor. Yeah, that might help
a little bit. But if youthink about it, though, after taxes
(03:31):
that killed them, I mean,it's that that is not necessarily a lot
of money, right, and you'vegot to make that stretch. So it's
definitely a not an amount of money. I think that would last you a
lifetime. You've got to keep working, but you would think that maybe it
would last more than six months.Yeah, they especially, you know,
I understand you, you're the newguys in Hollywood, You're the new big
(03:52):
thing, and you want to livein the Hollywood Hills. But they were
paying five thousand dollars a month inrents at this party house, and so
there are there are areas where youcan, you know, cut back save
money. I understand buying cars,which is cool, you know, if
you need a car, and especiallyespecially in LA you need a car,
so I understand that too. Butat the same time, like you don't
know if you're going to get anotherbig movie. You know, odds aren't.
(04:15):
They were because they won an oscarfor goodwill hunting, but you know,
nothing's guaranteed. So it's just funny. You just see these guys from
Boston go to Hollywood and in sixmonths, you know, burned through their
wallet. Again. Good thing they'revery talented and got more got more work.
Yeah, I was gonna say they'redoing just fine for themselves. I
think it all worked out in theend. M And I bet they had
(04:35):
a lot of fun in there.They're what they're green jeep Cherokees. You
said, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what's funny too. It's
funny because, as we mentioned lastweek in the in the on the Hub
on Hollywood, Ben Affleck was saying, Matt Damon was the roommate from hell.
So they could have used some ofthat money to pay for like cleaning
services, right yeah, get amaid for your your Hollywood Hills apartment that
(04:58):
you're renting. You gotta buy andthe renting you're just throwing your money away.
Financial advisor, Okay, financial advisor. If you're gonna like start it
big and start making these big,big bucks, like I want to get
someone to help you. I wonderif you talk to mom and dad back
home, they would have been like, no, you're not going to touch
that money. You're gonna put thatunder your mattress, like I think they.
I think their parents or their familywould have held them accountable, like
(05:20):
no, no, no, misterbig shot Hollywood. You leave Boston and
you go over there spending all thismoney, like no, put it under
your mattress. That's funny. Soum, let's talk about this next thing,
because this is a blast from thepast. I think everybody in the
nineties who grew up in the ninetiesas a child, as a kid growing
(05:40):
up, they watched The Power Rangers, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and
it's gone through so many different generations, so many different actors. But I
understand that a new movie on Netflixbrought back some of the Ogs. Oh
my goodness, oh MG. Anymillennial you know who grew up in the
nineties, early two thousands, youknow you ran home from school every day
(06:05):
in order to catch The Power Rangersthat week. And now you can hop
onto Netflix in your living room andwatch the brand new Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Now and Forever movie that has justcome out. Is it worth watching,
I think is the big question.I watched it with my husband this morning,
(06:27):
and I have got to say itis a resounding yes. For the
action. Of course, we've gotsome of the OG characters, as you
were mentioning, We've got Zach,We've got Billy and who are the main
protagonists here? And great homages tothe rest of the original cast. Two
(06:50):
of whom we lost. We havelost Jason David Frank most recently. There
are in memoriums to them, butthey do just a fabulous job of bringing
back the corniness, everything that youloved, the campiness, the corniness,
(07:13):
everything that you loved about the originalseries that you know back when you were
a kid, was just like soamazing, so dramatic, like you were
actually like afraid for these characters,like and just of course the costumes.
We've got Rita Repulsa back as arobot with the original voice actress, you
(07:35):
know, lending her prowess to thatrole, and I would say she's actually
kind of scary this time around.And we've got new generations as well.
We've got the daughter of Treney who'sback and gets to be a part of
this adventure. I have not cheeredand laughed so hard for a film in
(07:59):
such a long time time. Myhusband and I we just had so so
much fun nice watching this film.So we'll have a full review next week
for the Power Rangers movie on Netflix. But you know, if you are
a millennial, or perhaps someone whoraised a millennial, anyone who loved or
(08:20):
watched the original Power Rangers, thisnew film on Netflix does such great justice
to the original spirit of everything thatis Power Rangers, and you gotta go
watch it right now. Don't walk, run to your couch, Run to
your pouch, hop in with yourfavorite snack, and just be transported.
(08:41):
Yeah. I know, I knowa lot of kids are growing up this
morphin time. I know a lotof kids growing up. They loved the
Red Ranger, they loved the GreenRanger as their favorite, but my favorite
Rangers were the Black and Blue Rangers. I had the toys I had,
like the plush like doll that likethe Black Ranger doll that I will sleep
with as a kid. And soyes, it's cool that even though they're
(09:03):
not they were not like the mostprominent, like you know, like again,
everyone loved the Red and Green Rangers, but the Black and Blue were
my personal favorite. So it's goodto see them in the spotlight taking taking
charge as the main protagonists in thisfilm. So cool, mighty, Morphintime,
love it, Yes, might beMorphantime, ultra cheesy. David Yost,
Walter, Manuel Jones, Amy JelJohnson not a part of this one.
(09:26):
We have talked to her on theHub on Hollywood. So let's try
to get another power Ranger up hereon the hub on Hollywood, James.
We'll try. We would reach outand well, if you hear this episode,
tweet this link, Tweet this episodelink to the Black and Blue Ranger.
We'll try to get them on.But um, you you love this
movie, you said, run toyour couch and watch it on Netflix.
(09:48):
However, there are movies in thepast that we've seen that made us running
out of the movie theater because theywere so bad. Reddits had a discussion
about this a thread asking you know, have you ever seen a movie at
a theater that was so bad thatyou walked out? And many people listed
the worst movie experiences and some ofthese are not a big surprise. So
(10:09):
I can go down the quick list, and I'm sure you can guess some
of these, some of these terriblemovies. But we'll start with Cats,
the remake, the new Cats movie, the Digital Atrocity Catrocity that came out
a couple of years ago. Battlefieldor Earth starring John Travolta, was a
really popular one when it came topeople bashing it saying just how bad it
(10:31):
was. And the next one isone that I think that you will wholeheartedly
agree with was a terrible movie,which was the last Airbander directed by m
Night Shamalan. I have never experiencedin a movie theater the excitement drain out
of a room, like like Iwent opening night with all of these Airbander
(10:56):
fans and everyone was so week scitedand so pumped and dressed up, and
it was like air being let outof a balloon. Like by the end
of it, people were literally yellinglike his name is Zang because they decided
like his name needed to be pronounceddifferently, and like people were just yelling
in anger, and they left sodistraught, including myself. So I absolutely
(11:20):
agree with that one. I havetwo others on my personalist James that can
you tell me if these are onthe list? Yeah? But wanted to
walk out of Indiana Jones and TheCrystal Skull. Oh that's a good one.
Yeah almost almost. My husband almostleft me over that when I wouldn't
stop ranting about it for a weekand a half. And The Rise of
(11:43):
Skywalker Star Wars. The Rise ofSkywalker wanted to run walk out of that
one the only one movie I've everactually truly walked out of because it was
so awful to me. And thatwas Aquaman. That was the first Aquaman
that just came out fell asleep atthe end of all. I missed the
entire third act of the film.One. It was a little long.
(12:03):
I think it's like two hours andthirty or forty minutes long. But I
fell asleep during the last battle.So I woke up with like I woke
up to like this battle field oflike underwater like madness. I'm like,
I have no idea what's going on. Yeah, it's just just so long
and boring and uninspired. Like Ijust couldn't take it anymore. I'm like,
I'm not sitting through the rest ofthis CGI crap, Like I don't
(12:26):
care about any of the relationships anyof the characters, Like this is just
I just left. I'm like,I got better things to do. It
was there one that you've actually walkedout of. So there are two that
come to mind when when I walkout. And usually I give many movies
a benefit of the doubt, butthere are some that just are so bad
that I couldn't sit in the seatsany longer. One was this movie called
(12:50):
Getaway in twenty thirteen. Did youknow that Ethan Hawk and Selena Gomez were
in a movie together. No,yes, they were in a movie together
and Packing twenty thirteen. It's abore fest. It's supposed to be.
You know. Ethan Hawk is thiswashed up former race car driver. He
comes home one day, his houseis ransacked, his wife is missing,
(13:11):
and then like there's this mysterious voicewho tells him, like who calls him
and tells him you had to dothis, this and this and in order
to get your wife back and makesure she's alive. And then he runs
into this They describe her as ayoung woman and she was like of age
at this time, but she looksbut Selena Gomez looks such like a baby.
You just look at this like thisis like a little teenager girl who
(13:33):
like tries to car jack Ethan Hawk, but then Ethan Hawk gets the upper
hand and then like the voice islike, okay, now use her,
and you guys are gonna work togetherto you know, solve this puzzle or
whatever so his wife can live.And it's just a bad movie. It
was just it was the first actwas so bad. I'm like, I
don't care about any of this,and my dad and I left The other
(13:54):
movie that my dad and I alsowalked out on was Anger Management, starring
Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson. Thatone is not my cup of tea.
I don't know that one just wasnow working for either one of us,
and we walked out, got ourmoney back, don't recon Oh, I'm
impressed that. I'm impressed that yougot your money back. I've never even
tried to do that. Yeah,sometimes it depends. And so if you
(14:15):
go into a movie and it's maybestill fifteen minutes, like to say,
the movie started and you're only fifteenminutes in, if you go back,
they'll give you a refund, butyou can't, like after a thirty or
hour an hour. At that point, it's like you've already seen like half
the movie, and so you haveto you have to make that decision.
That's why many people don't decide towalk out on a bad movie, is
because they like, oh, I'vealready committed too much time and I'm probably
(14:35):
not gonna get my money back,so might as well just watch this movie
and in agony. So I'm curious. I did. Yeah, yeah,
I did know that there's some peoplethat you know, walk out of movies
because of false advertising essentially, likewhat they show in the trailer is not
what comes out right, is notwhat they're experiencing in the in the cinema.
(14:56):
I had one friend who went togo see Frozen with his kid with
his son, and they ended upwalking out because they thought they were expecting
a movie about a snowman. Theywere expecting the movie to be about olaf
Right because they had used this snowmanso much in the advertisement, but he
didn't actually come out until like fortyfive minutes into the movie. Wow,
(15:18):
So that was an unexpected one.But yeah, so what kind of movies
have you guys walked out of thatwere just so so terrible it was not
even worth your time anymore, screwmy money, Like, throw your popcorn
down and just storm out of thetheater. Let us know down in the
comments again. You can find useverywhere. We are on Facebook, We
(15:39):
are on Twitter, Instagram, andTikTok at hub on Hollywood. Leave your
comments, let us know. Yeah, what are some of those movies that
had your blood and butter in nearpopcorn boiling so much that you that you
walked out. You can also notonly can you catch us on YouTube listen
there, but you can also listento us on any of the major podcasting
(16:00):
streaming services like Apple Podcast, Spotify, ihar Radio. Be sure to leave
us a five star review. Itreally does help out the podcast and get
us out there and we try toget more, you know, more publicity,
more interviews on this show, andwe actually have a really good one
coming up right. Yes, Iam so excited that we can bring this
interview to you with mister Christian OchoaLavinia, an rising star in Hollywood who
(16:32):
got to play a character called EduardoChoo Chow Lopez in the film The Covenant
starring Jake Jillenhall and dar Salem.This film is not based on a single
true story, but rather an amalgamationof many stories between the US military and
(16:56):
Afghan interpreters who risked their lives inthis conflict in this twenty year war UM
to support us and to fight theTaliban and to fight for their families UM
and for and support our efforts there. Thousands of these interpreters UM were promised
visas in exchange for their work.Many were left behind, and that is
(17:22):
what this film is trying to drawattention to. UM. So this is
a guy Ritchie film. We'll havea full review after this interview. But
Christian Ochoa Lavinia um a phenomenal guy. Yeah, and I understand that you
change. And I understand that yougot this interview right before he was going
(17:45):
to the Red carpet event, soit was kind of we were doing our
best with the interview, but theremay be some dropouts or whatnot, but
that was because he was going tothe to the Red carpet, So you
know, yeah, he's made tiousto give us his time right making time
for us in between appointments as heand his family, UM and his mom
and his sister were all preparing towalk the red carpet for the pretty premiere
(18:07):
of Covenant with them. So Iget many pictures of him with with the
you know, the cast, mand phenomenal interviews that he gave on that
day and that he gave to us. So without further ado, here's Chris
and I am joined by a veryexciting rising star in Hollywood, the Cuban
(18:30):
boy from Miami and old friend ofmine, Chris Ochoa live Lam. Funny.
Yeah, it's funny, like noone ever from high school knew me
by that name. But the reasonwhy I did it was I am in
Ochoa and I always was. Butmy mom's sided families Laverniam and truthfully,
(18:52):
um, they were who raised me. Where was my mom's side of the
family. Other my mom kept thename Ochoa so that my sister and I
didn't feel alienated from our mom.But really she's might, she's might La.
So my grandpa who raised me,he was like kind of my dad
figure. And if you will,um, he was Lavernia. He was
a Lavernia. Everybody would call himLaverna. And it's a beautiful name.
(19:15):
It's a French name means born inthe spring. And Ochoa, which is
really cool, is bask and itmeans wolf ooh yeah, Christian wolf born
in the spring. Yeah. Soanyway, I felt like it was important
to honor that part of my familyand stuff. And I love my Ochoa
side of the family, I reallydo. Um, But really I was
(19:37):
raised by the Lavernia side of thefamily. That's awesome. And so that's
where people can find you, rightat Christian Ochoa Lavernia on the socials,
right socials. Yeah, yeah,yeah, I AMDB and all that stuff.
So Chris, you now you've beenworking very hard, and you've got
a handful of big credits under yourbelt now and film and television, and
(20:00):
you know you've been working so hard. So let's start off with this huge
role hitting theaters in just a coupleof days April twenty First, The Covenant
starring Jake Jillenhall, directed by GuyRitchie. Why don't we start off with
how did you find out that youlanded this role? And who are you?
(20:23):
Yeah? Absolutely, I also wantto say what you said was perfect,
But I also do want to saystarring Jake jillen Hall and Darceline,
who is the heart of this film? He really is. He is the
heart and soul of this film andhe is such an amazing man. He's
out of Denmark and he came onthis film. And really the movie was
(20:45):
actually called The Interpreter for many that'swhat we called it, and it wasn't
until recently that they changed the namesto Covenant, which I think is powerful
right because it means like the promise, really and that's what the movie is
about. But it was really calledThe Interpreter. So the film is about
It's really about dar Salim's character umAhmed, who's who's at the center of
it, right, Um, andreally interesting enough, my wife was costume.
(21:10):
Oh this is fun, this isgonna be a fun story. My
wife was caught in designing the film, and I'm like, this is post
pandemic, right. I'm like thirtypounds heavier and drinking, drinking a beer,
going to the you know, kitchento get a beer, and I
have my headsets on because I'm playingwar Zone with my buddies back in Miami.
Right. I still kept in touchwith a lot of friends from high
school and we still we play warZone right on PlayStation. I'm PlayStation Rackxbox.
(21:32):
That's a whole contention. Whatever itis, what it is it whatever.
Um. So I'm going to thekitchen and I'm grabbing a beer and
I see, uh, you know, my wife working on something. And
she was costume designing the film.She's a costume designer. She's already costume
designing his film. What's what's workingon there? On? She's like,
uh, she's you know, she'sEnglish. She's like, well, I'm
I'm doing um, you know,sucking resets. Yeah. I'm like okay,
(21:55):
cool. I'm like, can Ijust say like a sly comment.
I'm like you know, if Iwas one of those soldiers, I'd be
wearing a baseball cap, right,and she's like, uh, they don't
wear based on caps. I'm like, yeah, they fucking do. And
then she's like whatever. But nextthe gym, I'm at the gym and
I'm a man on a mission,right, I'm like, I'm gonna show
her, and I start googling allthese pictures of people, um wearing hants,
right, baseball caps and soldiers orwhatnot. I'm like, boom boom
(22:17):
bam, boom boom, and she'slike, oh shit, okay, let
me go, let me, letme go church a little hard or whatever.
But it wasn't like it was fun. It was fun competition because I'm
like, I know this, andsome she schools me more than I ever
school her. She dunks on meall the time. So like it's respect
and um so she um, wefind this little tidbit out. She's doing
her research and as if you canhear me, muffled is because I'm smoking
(22:41):
a cigar, am I not?Can you confirm this? Yeah? I
can confirm that. I was goingto mention that at some point too.
It's like the occasional pauses that's becausehe's popping away at this giant cigar,
uh you know, being the youknow, very Cuban. Ye. So
they're called El Septem cigars in laUm. I almost dropped it. Yeah,
(23:03):
um so anyway, I am soI speaking of cigars. The reason
I brought that up is because Igo I used to go to a cigar
shop in California called the Old OaksCigar Shop in Thousand Oaks. Great guys
Albert and our scene. If theyever hear this, I love them,
and uh so I used to goevery Friday Saturday. I used to play
with my my manager Um at thetime. I used to play um backgammon
(23:26):
for hours. We would go there, smoke cigars, play back bah bah
blah blah blah. So like twelveo'clock to night, a bunch of older
dudes, really awesome dudes, someof the best people I met that night.
It was packed, super busy.So I go to the back table
and uh there is two gentlemen sittingthere, a younger guy and the kind
of an old guy about my ageand a younger guy and uh whatever,
they're sitting So we're Brad and Iare sitting down and we're talking. These
(23:48):
guys kind of they're gregarious, right, so they jump into conversation. We
we then we ended up talking forfive hours and I learned from one of
the gentlemen. His name is DanSchmidt, and he was he was in
the military, you know, purpleheart, you know, like I mean
all these words, and one ofthe nicest guy's ever met. That turned
into a friendship in Los Angeles,which I love with. My favorite friendships
in Los Angeles are the ones thathad nothing to do with the entertainment industry,
(24:10):
just real, genuine human being humanbeings. And he'd grab a bottle
of wine. He's very formal.He was like, Christian, I've got
a nineteen ninety seven Murdo, ohwhatever. And I'm like, he's like,
would you like to come and joinme and drink. I'm like,
absolutely, Dan, Oh, youknow, like one of those things.
And we'd drink and then get drunkand I'd stay over. So we had
that kind of friendship and then uh, it's one of those where like I'd
go over his house and he livedso far that I get drunk. I'm
(24:32):
like, I'm not gonna drive home. I'm gonna stand on the couch,
so like, hey, damn,He's like, yeah, stay on the
couchman. So I would call himmy my wife who wasn't my wife at
the time, and I'm like,hey, I'm staying in Dan's ales.
We had too much wine. SoI'm like, do you remember that guy?
Do you remember him? She's likeyeah, I'm like, dude,
he's like an almanac of anything army, everything army. And I was like,
you want me to just email himand then maybe you can ask him
(24:52):
a couple of questions. She's like, sure to make a extremely long story
short because I can go on.He ended up he ended up ended up
being the military advisor on the film, and then he brought in and in
this kind of thing that they figuredout Dan and my wife figured out,
oh, these guys are Special Forcesbecause he's like, well, if they're
pulling that kind of missions, they'reGreen Berets. So then that guy brought
(25:15):
into the fold. Then the productionthemselves started using Dan from there. He
brought an actual Green Berets. Andthen there was one Kawa Malawi who's actually
was a Green Beret for many yearsand he's actually over in Texas now and
he's got like a tactical service wherehe teaches people how to use, you
know, firearms tactically, how toenter rooms and whatnot. And he actually
has worked in other films for it, and he was so involved in the
(25:37):
film and the kind of creation ofthe ideas because Guy has a lot of
great ideas. But obviously, youknow, Guy's making a movie which is
on something. I want understand anybodythat listens to us now when you watch
a military film and you argue andyou're mad about, like, well,
that's not exactly how they do it, because you can't. You can't always
do it exactly how you do it. It's a little Number one, it's
it's Hollywood. It showed business.And number two, there's a lot of
(26:00):
clearances you can't get past. Soof a certain a certain patch um isn't
on rights or something on the thingis it's usually because they weren't allowed to
do it that way. I thinkone of our special forces patches is kind
of shifted a different way because youcan't you can't do it verbatim. There's
clearances. So that's one thing.Anyway, so involved in the film that
(26:25):
Guy made him one of the characterson the film just because he was there
and he knew it. He wasSpecial Forces, So guys like fuck,
just fucking just like you're you know, put on uniform and be one of
the guys. That way he wason with you know. We got yeah,
we got trained, we got everything. But Colo was there literally every
shooting moment that we had so thatwe can do it. So his powers
combined with Dan Schmidt, they cametogether and they made this film as authentic
(26:49):
as humanly possible, from the perspectiveof costumes, from the perspective of movement
of the soldiers, and storytelling.You know. So it was really interesting.
Right I'm responsible for the film,but you know, the power of
suggestion is so powerful. Exactly.Can you talk to us a little bit
about some of your favorite experiences onthis set and what you took away from
(27:12):
this story. Working with Guy Ritchiewas Honestly, he's been my favorite directors.
I've been listening to the Snatch soundtrackum during college at FIU, when
I was walking around campus, whenI was working out, when I was
running, you know, and Ithe song is Diamond by Clint like I
Can Tell You, like Angel byMassive Attack. All part of that soundtracks
(27:33):
became a soundtrack to my life.Really, you have Lockstockings too, smoking
barrels, all these films you know, Sherlock and everything. Guys, guy's
got his style, just as WesAnderson has his style, and Nolan has
his, Richie has his and is. It's something I've loved forever. So
number one to being a guy Ritchiefilm. Wow, holy shit, I
(27:53):
can't believe it. That's like,pinch yourself and be grateful that you were
given the opportunity. Secondly, JakeJill Hall was an actor that I have
always admired my whole career, someoneI want to emulate because like, I
feel like he's a leading man thatplays character roles, and that's kind of
like what I feel I can bebecause I feel like my stature in the
way I look, Everyone's like,oh, you're a leading man. I'm
(28:14):
like, no, I'm I'm acharacter actor. And they always say the
joke out here in Hollywood is thecharacter actors want to be leading men,
and leading men want to be characteractors. But I'm like, he can
both. You know, you canbe you can be Johnny Depp, you
can be right, you know.So to see him played, but he
plays this very grounded and honestly justlike watching him, Like a lot of
my scenes are with Jake, SoI got to watch him work and see
where I'm similar, see where I'mdifferent, see where I can get better.
And that was incredible. And thenyou know, working with my wife,
(28:38):
obviously I should have come first.Sorry, but that was amazing and
it was all, it was all. You know, I didn't get this
job because of her. I gotthis job. I knew about this job
because of her. So I reachedout to my team and I'm like,
hey, guys, they're a castingAmerican soldiers and they're casting a bunch of
brutes. So when I'm in England, so let's make this happen. And
I got to audition and for abouttwo months I was waiting here and then
(28:59):
I finally hurt and I got Sothat was by us moses of energy and
manifestation, it happened. And thenworking with the guys man are Seline like
what a what a what an incrediblehuman being or an incredible actor. Jason
Wong, who's done a few filmswith Guy, He's one of my Special
Forces guys. Sean Sager Reese YatesBobby's Showfield. Working with Dan Schmidt,
(29:22):
this guy that I met smoking cigars, you know, drinking wine in La.
He was a sanctuary for me inLa really, because you know,
it's hard to meet good, goodpeople sometimes in that city where everybody's trying
to make it, every's trying tofigure out what you can do for them.
And Dan was just like, heyman, you got a bottle of
wine. And really that's all itis at the end of the day,
when you when you're looking for afriend, right, someone to to just
(29:44):
share those moments with, you know. Working with him was phenomenal and and
honestly, there's something about Spain thatI love. You know. I met
my wife working in Spain and andthen I got to go back to Spain
to work with her. And uh, you know, being in Aligante,
which I thought the people were beautiful, I thought the city was beautiful.
It's incredible moments. And listen,working on a film like this, like
(30:07):
when you're working on a Guy Ritchiefilm, right, you think you're working
on a you know, oh,it might fucking hell, you know,
Hia, you know there smoking atoh, thank you smoking about It's not
that it wasn't that it's kind oflike a departure from that that guy gangster
that we love, that we loveand he can put that out to the
day he dies and I'll watch everysingle one of them. It was a
(30:29):
departure in a sense. Um Andwhen it was testing, when the movie
was testing, was rating so high, and specifically what was interesting, it
was rating so high with women becausewomen usually don't. It doesn't war films
do not score high with women,that is a fact. And it was
scoring in the ninety seven and eightpercentile um. So it is truthfully,
at the end of the heart ofthis film is a love story of sacrifice,
(30:51):
friendship and um. You know,honestly, it doesn't matter where you're
from, what creed, religion,race, it doesn't matter brotherhood and sisterhood,
how important it is to protect eachother is at the end of the
day. What I've learned the moreI've traveled, and thank God I've been
able to travel because of my job. It takes me to incredible places.
(31:12):
You realize that no matter where we'refrom, we all want the same thing.
We want love, we want security, we want family, and we
want peace of mind. You know, no matter what your religion says no
matter what your government says. Soto actually work on a film that where
that is the message, I believethat's the heart of it. It is
(31:32):
an extreme honor because I try towork on projects that I truly believe in
what the message is. Right.So that was I would say, the
one of the coolest things I gotto do. Speak your truth. That
is that is beautiful. That's whatI think a lot of people should be
doing. And you touched on ita little bit, like you know,
manifesting your reality and you know andworking hard and having that perseverance and you
(31:55):
you know, you've really from thebeginning. I want to talk a little
bit about your journey right in actingbecause I think when we were when we
were right afy you I remember goingto a job fair with you and you
were like you were looking for likeFBI CI are like, yeah, I
remember, You're like, I'm gonnabe a spy. Yeah. Now you
kind of get to be theist characterto be alone. Nailed it. You
(32:19):
nailed it. I wouldn't do asee mission impossible. And uh I drove
back home that night like with afire, fire my ass. So I
came out and fire my ass Icalled my mom and I go, Mom,
what's the one thing you said Ishould have always done in my life
my career? And she's like,you should have been actor. You did
drama in middle school, and howwe're doing? I was. I did
a Midsummer's Night's Stream and I playedbottom right. He's a character that turns
into a donkey halfway and I lovedit. He's like, you were so
(32:39):
good at that. She's like,and just even though you didn't do theater
high school, because when I gotto Valla, they gave me a had
to. I had to make achoice. You're like, you played baseball
or do theater? Kend you boththink that I was an athlete growing up.
I love sports. I still do, but I was an athlete.
So I chose baseball because like that'swhat I thought, you know, like
that's what I love doing. Andso I gave up the acting. But
she's like, you were so alwaystheatrical, you know, with people and
(33:01):
with around You're always putting on ashow. She's like, you should have
done that. I'm like, andthen I'm like, I'm gonna do it.
So I moved back to Miami.I started working at a restaurant with
my buddies. That my buddy,there's my big brother in my fraternity.
Is it Georgio Rapikavoli. He hasa restaurant in Miami now called Eating House.
Before it was like this established restaurant, we were a pop up restaurant.
(33:22):
And that's that can be its ownpodcast about the growth of that and
how happy and proud I am ofthe boys. But basically started working at
a restaurant, started a little bylittle going back, and you know,
started modeling and stuff because in Miamithat's the market, right, modeling,
you know, save and whatever.This isn't that. But then you know,
I started really going to acting classesand there's that lah. Then I
(33:42):
finally auditioned for Burn Notice, andI auditioned for Magic City. Actually I
didn't get to the role, butI remember Lorie Wyman, who's like the
big casting director in Miami. She'slike, why haven't I seen you before?
And I'm like, hey, Lorie, I've been trying to make it
in here. I promise and uh. I auditioned for Burn Notice a few
months later, and I booked myfirst guest star role. That's the role
that kind of propelled me to say, okay, ready to leave to LA
(34:06):
with this and my all the studentfilms I've been doing. My real it
was not the greatest of reals,but at least I'll right at the top
of it, so that can help. Right, So I moved. I
moved over to LA and I willget into that story as a long one,
but I will say. What Iwill say is that it was many
years of hardship, many years ofloneliness, many years of work. I
(34:27):
mean, I was a you know, I was a way serber actor.
You know, I worked at twodifferent restaurants. I've worked six, seven
days a week so I can paythe bills, you know, even though
I would do some acting jobs andpeople some of my tables recognizing me from
shows I was on. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I was on
that show. So how would youlike that? Cook? Sir? All
right? Cool, Oh, niceto see you. You know, but
it is what it is. Butyou have to understand, Like I read
(34:47):
something once it was like it waslike a Dustin Hoffman type. I'm not
quite sure, but he said hesaid I wasn't the most talented person to
get on the bus to LA.But I never got back on. So
it's about really, you know,it's about dropping your ego out here,
coming and work and doing the work, learning how to it's a business,
(35:10):
learning how the business works. Butalso like you know, when you're acting,
don't take yourself so serious. Andit's like I went through a lot
of lessons, you know, whenI made when I made my life just
about this career, and I basedall my happiness on my success on it
or not, I was never happy. But when I learned to find the
happiness elsewhere in my life, whetherit was my wife, my stepson,
you know, watching always Sunny inPhiladelphia every night to go to bed,
(35:34):
you know, things like that,that you find happiness outside of it,
then you really truly say, youknow what, everything else is extra?
And then I realized once I calmeddown, everything else started coming to me.
And because I wasn't forcing it,you know. So But if you
want, you know, acting isit is. It is a full time
thing in the sense that you haveto put your heart and soul into it
because forever, yes that I getI've had like one hundred and fifty hs
(35:54):
maybe more, you know, doyou think about it? Auditioning is the
job once you get it it's thefun part, but auditioning is the job.
You need to audition, get thejob auditioning. So yeah, that's
kind of the story. I mean, as as as concise as I can
be. I love the energy andthe spirit that you bring to it,
(36:15):
and I think that a lot ofpeople can apply that to their journey and
them trying to become actors or breakinto the space or or chief whatever it
is that they want to achieve forthemselves, you know. And we learned
so much along the way, andpart of why we started this podcast,
the Hub on Hollywood. We callourselves Hollywood East out here in Boston,
(36:37):
New England, Massachusetts. So manyprojects coming out here every year. There's
more opportunities, and lots of peopleare so so passionate about movies and filmmaking
and bringing stories and characters to life. So we always have casting calls on
our shows like that, and todaywe have chrissochoa. Um, So,
(36:58):
I just want to before I letyou go, because you've got a big
premiere tonight, right I got mymom and it's something to do tonight.
I got my moment's sister inside rightnow and getting their makeup done and getting
ready instead of getting all dolled upand stuff. Big part of you know,
the pleasure of this is not somuch that it's my first premiere,
is that it's my mom's first premiere. Because if I'm anybody, I'm anything
(37:20):
because of her. So this,this is her victory. That's what's she
wearing. Am I allowed to do? You know? No, you don't
know. It's okay whatever you thoughtthat was beautiful, but I couldn't tell
you. So I know that you'vebeen on, Um tell us a little
bit about just just list off someof the projects you've been in and a
(37:40):
couple of the ones that are comingup. Um, I know you've got
a couple of projects that are comingup in the next couple of months,
not not just Covenant. So Igot Covenant coming out on Friday, April
twenty first, and then I havea Silo on Apple TV coming out on
May fifth on Apple TV. AmazingShow. Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins Common.
Yeah, Rush Sheet, he's amazing. He's become a really close friend
(38:04):
of mine. Um. Just so, I mean, Rashida Jones, I
mean, it's got such an incrediblecast in people, and it was one
of the favorite, my favorit projectsI ever worked on because everybody just got
on. There wasn't one bad egg, you know, yes, projects happened.
One bad egg. There's no there'sno bad egg. And that job
is fun. I started awesome andthen next year, sometime around I don't
know when because it hasn't been said, I'm on the second season of Halo
(38:27):
for Paramount Plus. So that's gonnabe fun on Halo. Oh yeah,
stay tuned for that. I mean, before that, some really cool stuff,
man. I was very honored tobe on an episode of Will and
Grace, which I grew up watching. Um, that was so much.
And you know, I did pitch, which I get to I got to
play a defected Cuban American baseball player, which was I mean so part of
like my culture, which was incredible. Um. I was on a show
(38:52):
called Bounty Hunters for Sky one inEngland, which is actually really funny,
but a lot of Americans are intoit because they don't have Sky. Rosie
Perez, who I grew up likein hiring and loving and whatnot her and
Jack Whitehall, who's a big Britishcomedian but he's like kind of making his
way. He was in that movieJungle Cruise with the rocker Disney and uh
man, I know just those thingshere and there, right, because it's
like, no, no job,no small job is a small job.
(39:14):
You know, everything leads to thenext thing. You're building your credits,
You're building your fans, right.You gotta build fans. You gotta get
people that love you. Directors,producers and not just the big ones like
oh, the director and the producer. Everybody on the set is It's just
as important as the director and producer. I don't care what you say.
You know, whether you're the guy, um you know on the trucks or
you're or you're you're part of thecrafty feeding the people because nothing makes people
(39:36):
happier than giving them food. Likeeverybody's is important. So you're making fans
all over the place, right,and you're working hard and uh so every
job I ever had was a blessing. Um, and it was a step
closer, you know. And I'mnot nowhere and you're done and I'm just
getting started. But um, whatwhat is your dream role? Before I
let you go? What? Whatdo you need to check off of your
(39:58):
bucket list? What do you wantto play? I wish I could tell
you that, but I don't.I keep those close to the chests.
Okay, nosse exactly, but listen, I will say what I do want
to be. If I could beany actor, i'd be. I would
love the career of like Johnny Deppbefore last year or whatever year was,
(40:23):
but in the sense that like heyou know, he's as good as Jack
Captain Jack Sparrow as he is hisWhitey Boulger right when he's playing that Boston
guy, and like that kind ofrole that you can just jump into anything
and people believe it. And Ithink that's my That's what I want to
be, and that's how I kindof owned my craft. Right. It's
not just to be the funny guyor just to be the serious guy,
(40:45):
because for so many years I wantedto be just like Tom Hardy, which
I still do. He's such afucking badass Pinky Blinder's baby, you know
what I'm saying. But um,I want to be able to do that.
But I also want to be ableto jump into something and be a
complete clown. All right. ChrisOchoa, thank you so much for sparing
(41:06):
the time on Red Carpet Day thepremiere of this film to speak with us
here on the Hub on Hollywood.We talked a little bit earlier about films
that you you know, that justrankled you and made you want to leave
the theater. This is not oneof them. This is one of these
that you will laugh, you willcry, and you would just be compelled
(41:28):
to the very end and leave feelingjust more profound more connected to humanity.
It was just a wonderful job donein the telling of this story. You
really get that feeling of the bondsmade in war that transcend everything, really
and also the hopelessness, the despair, the power of the human spirit,
(41:53):
the power of love. And we'renot talking about romantic love here, We're
talking about the the love of yourfellow man. It's a story of saving
and being saved and owing so muchto someone, and not only the hopelessness
of war, right, but thehopelessness of bureaucracy, of what so many
(42:15):
of these translators faced in the brokenpromises of the US military, and what
a travesty that was. And guyRichie just does such a phenomenal job of
pulling you down into this feeling andputting you into these characters positions that you
(42:38):
can't help but walk out of itwith a greater understanding. So I just
believe it's such an important film andit's such a great film, and you
really need to go see it andexperience it in theaters right now. The
Covenant, No, that's fantastic tohear, because this is one of the
(42:58):
movies of twenty twenty three that I'mlooking forward to to watching. Also a
big guy richie movie fan, andJake Jalen Hall anything with him in it.
He gives his all in every filmthat he's in, so you know,
it's it's always like a sure thing. But The Covenant out in theaters
right now, hopefully out on streamingservices soon as well, because as as
(43:20):
I mentioned, I'm a new dad, so I'm gonna be watching more things
at home in the comfort of mycouch while holding a little gremlin, a
little grimlin baby. I'll take thatpart out while holding a little baby.
You can keep it. I mean, yeah, everybody everybody who has a
kid understands. Look, you lovethem. They're beautiful, they're part when
they get hungry. When they whenthey get hungry, they they transform.
(43:44):
Yeah. Yeah, And I justwanted to add one last thing about the
Covenant. It starts a little bitslow, I'd say it is my only
critique, but then it grabs youby the collar and boy, are you
in for a ride? So um, let us know if you've seen I
know, right whoo. Let usknow if you've seen The Covenant? What
(44:06):
did you feel about it? Didyou enjoy it? Let us know your
experience in the theater watching The Covenantdown below. Thank you for joining us
on the Hub on Hollywood. Yeah, and stick around after the episode because
we have more casting calls, localcasting calls here in New England that will
help you, just like Chris Ochoa, find yourself on the big or small
(44:27):
screen and everything in between. Beforethe Hub on Hollywood, I'm James,
I'm Jamie. See you next time. Goodbye. All right. On this
week's casting calls, we got alot of cool ones and some cool cattle
ones too that we will get toin just a minute. But first,
(44:49):
starting off, we have Boss andCasting looking for Asian, Latina and Black
women eighteen to twenty years old withacting experience. This is where a feature
film nothing to sneeze at, soreally cool stuff. Union and non union
opportunity. It is a paid gig. This shoots um in June through July,
(45:09):
and so, if you are awoman, Asian, Latina, black
woman eighteen to twenty years old,send in your headshot, your photo,
resume, bio, where you live, and your content information. Send that
to Boston Casting. Submit one thenumber one at gmail dot com and in
the subject line put best place shootslash your name. I'm twenty one.
(45:34):
You think I could make it?You think yeah, you made you made
the cut. You made the cut, definitely, I'm not twenty one days?
Okay, all right? Slate Casting. They're looking for non union talent
of all ethnicities twenties to forties forbackground work in a fun commercial portraying restaurant
patrons and staff. This is againnon union, so you are going this
(45:57):
is going to be shooting on Mayfirst. Also, if cast, if
you're interested and fully available for theshoot date, please send an email with
your name, phone number, cityin town you live, in headshot,
close up and a head to toephoto two. You're gonna want to send
all of that to Slate Casting Extrasat gmail dot com and in the subject
(46:21):
line right restaurant extras. Boston Castinglooking for Japanese men for a commercial.
This is a non union gig lookingfor somebody in their twenties to fifty years
old. This shoots eight hundred andfifty bucks for the shoot and fifty bucks
for the fitting. This takes placenext month on the eighth and ninth.
(46:42):
So if you are a Japanese man, send in your information, email,
current photos where you live. Sendthat to Boston Casting sub mid one,
the number one at gmail dot comand in the subject line put Japanese mail
twenties through fifties. Slash your nameall right in. Slate is also looking
for families in the DMC that's theDC, Maryland and Virginia area. They're
(47:06):
looking for Asian and Latino families whohave kids between the ages of five and
nineteen. It pays really well ifyou are cast. No acting experience necessary,
though. This is a non unionproject. If that sounds like you
or someone you know in the DCarea, you're going to want to send
a few family photos, named contactinformation, ages of the kids, city
(47:30):
and state you live in and sendthat all to Slate Real People Casting at
gmail dot com. All right,This next one, we are looking for
some cool cats. Literally. BostonCasting is looking for cats who are comfortable
being outside on a harness. NowI have my own cat, JB.
Special Agent Jack Bauer. However,she does not do well outside and she
(47:52):
also especially does not do well ona harness, so she's missing her opportunity.
But if you know a cat whois comfortable with both for this commercial
project and past twelve hundred bucks,send in photos age of your cat comfort
level in their harness photo. Ifyou want to be considered to work with
your cat, where you are basedand your information, send that to pets
(48:15):
at Boston Casting dot com. Petsat Boston Casting dot com in the subject
line put cat casting slash your name? Is that really JB's name? Like?
That? Is that what it standsfor? Jack? Her legal name
on the adoption papers is special AgentJack Bauer, but she goes by JB.
(48:37):
How am I only just knowing that? I'm only just discovering that.
That's amazing, right, So ifyou've got your own little furry special agent,
definitely put in for this opportunity.Thank you for joining us on the
Hub on Hollywood. Stick with usnext week for more amazing interviews, local
entertainment news, and news about James'scat. Apparently, sorry, I mean
(49:00):
casting calls, catting calls, umhere on the help on Hollywood. Thanks
for being with us, like usshriffs, gotta have using next to me,
everything in between. Love. Untilthen we'll see. I'm Jamie,
I'm James back.
On this week's episode, a reviewof the new Jake Jillenhall movie The Covenants,
and an interview with one of thestar actors from the film. We
also talk about the movies that wereso bad that we walked out of the
theater, and the Power Rangers areback in a new movie, but is
it worth watching? This is theHub on Hollywood. I'm James, I'm
Jamie. It is Morphin time.Let's go, Let's go. All right,
(00:32):
Jamie, welcome back another We havea really great show this week.
Not only do we have some fun, really cool reviews, but we also
have this great interview with, aswe mentioned, an actor from the new
Jake Jillenhall movie The Covenants, Yes, Christian Ochoa Lavinia, who has one
of the speaking roles, one ofthe main speaking roles in this incredible movie
(00:55):
that is about the Afghan War andthe very many tracks laters that worked with
the US military during that twenty yearcampaign. We're very excited to talk to
Chris about his time on set andhis journey as an actor. Also happens
to be one of my friends fromhigh school, so we're very excited,
no big deal, just so excitedfor his success. And for his family,
(01:22):
and he's got just this beautiful attitudetowards life which we can't wait to
share with you. So stay tunedfor that interview a little later on in
this episode. But we've got acouple of other things we want to talk
about first. Yeah, that's right. So moving from actors from Miami,
let's talk about actors from Boston.The good old boys Ben Affleck and Matt
(01:42):
Damon. They are the gifts thatjust keeps on giving. Just like last
week, we're mentioning that they wereon this movie media tour talking about air,
talking about their other projects, andBen Affleck popped on The Drew Barrymore
Show, which is a really funshow. I think she's a really good
actor actress turned TV talk show andhe still haven't seen it. That's pretty
(02:04):
good. But in this last episodeof Drew, Ben says that he and
Matt Damon blew through all the moneythey made selling the scripts for Goodwill Hunting
in just six months. It's prettyunbelievable. So he says they sold the
scripts to a studio for six hundredthousand dollars. That's back then money,
(02:25):
which I'm sure adjusted with inflation muchmore but he says after that six hundred
thousand dollars purchase or selling him,he and Matt split it three hundred thousand
dollars each ways. Their agents gotthirty thousand dollars, leaving them with two
hundred and seventy thousand dollars. Thenthey paid one hundred and sixty thousand dollars
in taxes, so after that theywere left with one hundred and ten thousand
(02:49):
dollars. After that they decided tobuy fifty five thousand dollars jeep Cherokees,
and then they spent the final fiftyfive thousand dollars paying for this party house
in the Hollywood Hills by the HollywoodBowl, and they said after six months
they were back to being broke.It doesn't surprise me that, you know,
(03:10):
young guys in their twenties who havefound big success blew through that money.
Like, I don't know what elseyou would do, but it's a
good thing they got more movie rolesafterwards. I think that maybe perhaps the
first thing you should get is afinancial advisor. Yeah, that might help
a little bit. But if youthink about it, though, after taxes
(03:31):
that killed them, I mean,it's that that is not necessarily a lot
of money, right, and you'vegot to make that stretch. So it's
definitely a not an amount of money. I think that would last you a
lifetime. You've got to keep working, but you would think that maybe it
would last more than six months.Yeah, they especially, you know,
I understand you, you're the newguys in Hollywood, You're the new big
(03:52):
thing, and you want to livein the Hollywood Hills. But they were
paying five thousand dollars a month inrents at this party house, and so
there are there are areas where youcan, you know, cut back save
money. I understand buying cars,which is cool, you know, if
you need a car, and especiallyespecially in LA you need a car,
so I understand that too. Butat the same time, like you don't
know if you're going to get anotherbig movie. You know, odds aren't.
(04:15):
They were because they won an oscarfor goodwill hunting, but you know,
nothing's guaranteed. So it's just funny. You just see these guys from
Boston go to Hollywood and in sixmonths, you know, burned through their
wallet. Again. Good thing they'revery talented and got more got more work.
Yeah, I was gonna say they'redoing just fine for themselves. I
think it all worked out in theend. M And I bet they had
(04:35):
a lot of fun in there.They're what they're green jeep Cherokees. You
said, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what's funny too. It's
funny because, as we mentioned lastweek in the in the on the Hub
on Hollywood, Ben Affleck was saying, Matt Damon was the roommate from hell.
So they could have used some ofthat money to pay for like cleaning
services, right yeah, get amaid for your your Hollywood Hills apartment that
(04:58):
you're renting. You gotta buy andthe renting you're just throwing your money away.
Financial advisor, Okay, financial advisor. If you're gonna like start it
big and start making these big,big bucks, like I want to get
someone to help you. I wonderif you talk to mom and dad back
home, they would have been like, no, you're not going to touch
that money. You're gonna put thatunder your mattress, like I think they.
I think their parents or their familywould have held them accountable, like
(05:20):
no, no, no, misterbig shot Hollywood. You leave Boston and
you go over there spending all thismoney, like no, put it under
your mattress. That's funny. Soum, let's talk about this next thing,
because this is a blast from thepast. I think everybody in the
nineties who grew up in the ninetiesas a child, as a kid growing
(05:40):
up, they watched The Power Rangers, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and
it's gone through so many different generations, so many different actors. But I
understand that a new movie on Netflixbrought back some of the Ogs. Oh
my goodness, oh MG. Anymillennial you know who grew up in the
nineties, early two thousands, youknow you ran home from school every day
(06:05):
in order to catch The Power Rangersthat week. And now you can hop
onto Netflix in your living room andwatch the brand new Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Now and Forever movie that has justcome out. Is it worth watching,
I think is the big question.I watched it with my husband this morning,
(06:27):
and I have got to say itis a resounding yes. For the
action. Of course, we've gotsome of the OG characters, as you
were mentioning, We've got Zach,We've got Billy and who are the main
protagonists here? And great homages tothe rest of the original cast. Two
(06:50):
of whom we lost. We havelost Jason David Frank most recently. There
are in memoriums to them, butthey do just a fabulous job of bringing
back the corniness, everything that youloved, the campiness, the corniness,
(07:13):
everything that you loved about the originalseries that you know back when you were
a kid, was just like soamazing, so dramatic, like you were
actually like afraid for these characters,like and just of course the costumes.
We've got Rita Repulsa back as arobot with the original voice actress, you
(07:35):
know, lending her prowess to thatrole, and I would say she's actually
kind of scary this time around.And we've got new generations as well.
We've got the daughter of Treney who'sback and gets to be a part of
this adventure. I have not cheeredand laughed so hard for a film in
(07:59):
such a long time time. Myhusband and I we just had so so
much fun nice watching this film.So we'll have a full review next week
for the Power Rangers movie on Netflix. But you know, if you are
a millennial, or perhaps someone whoraised a millennial, anyone who loved or
(08:20):
watched the original Power Rangers, thisnew film on Netflix does such great justice
to the original spirit of everything thatis Power Rangers, and you gotta go
watch it right now. Don't walk, run to your couch, Run to
your pouch, hop in with yourfavorite snack, and just be transported.
(08:41):
Yeah. I know, I knowa lot of kids are growing up this
morphin time. I know a lotof kids growing up. They loved the
Red Ranger, they loved the GreenRanger as their favorite, but my favorite
Rangers were the Black and Blue Rangers. I had the toys I had,
like the plush like doll that likethe Black Ranger doll that I will sleep
with as a kid. And soyes, it's cool that even though they're
(09:03):
not they were not like the mostprominent, like you know, like again,
everyone loved the Red and Green Rangers, but the Black and Blue were
my personal favorite. So it's goodto see them in the spotlight taking taking
charge as the main protagonists in thisfilm. So cool, mighty, Morphintime,
love it, Yes, might beMorphantime, ultra cheesy. David Yost,
Walter, Manuel Jones, Amy JelJohnson not a part of this one.
(09:26):
We have talked to her on theHub on Hollywood. So let's try
to get another power Ranger up hereon the hub on Hollywood, James.
We'll try. We would reach outand well, if you hear this episode,
tweet this link, Tweet this episodelink to the Black and Blue Ranger.
We'll try to get them on.But um, you you love this
movie, you said, run toyour couch and watch it on Netflix.
(09:48):
However, there are movies in thepast that we've seen that made us running
out of the movie theater because theywere so bad. Reddits had a discussion
about this a thread asking you know, have you ever seen a movie at
a theater that was so bad thatyou walked out? And many people listed
the worst movie experiences and some ofthese are not a big surprise. So
(10:09):
I can go down the quick list, and I'm sure you can guess some
of these, some of these terriblemovies. But we'll start with Cats,
the remake, the new Cats movie, the Digital Atrocity Catrocity that came out
a couple of years ago. Battlefieldor Earth starring John Travolta, was a
really popular one when it came topeople bashing it saying just how bad it
(10:31):
was. And the next one isone that I think that you will wholeheartedly
agree with was a terrible movie,which was the last Airbander directed by m
Night Shamalan. I have never experiencedin a movie theater the excitement drain out
of a room, like like Iwent opening night with all of these Airbander
(10:56):
fans and everyone was so week scitedand so pumped and dressed up, and
it was like air being let outof a balloon. Like by the end
of it, people were literally yellinglike his name is Zang because they decided
like his name needed to be pronounceddifferently, and like people were just yelling
in anger, and they left sodistraught, including myself. So I absolutely
(11:20):
agree with that one. I havetwo others on my personalist James that can
you tell me if these are onthe list? Yeah? But wanted to
walk out of Indiana Jones and TheCrystal Skull. Oh that's a good one.
Yeah almost almost. My husband almostleft me over that when I wouldn't
stop ranting about it for a weekand a half. And The Rise of
(11:43):
Skywalker Star Wars. The Rise ofSkywalker wanted to run walk out of that
one the only one movie I've everactually truly walked out of because it was
so awful to me. And thatwas Aquaman. That was the first Aquaman
that just came out fell asleep atthe end of all. I missed the
entire third act of the film.One. It was a little long.
(12:03):
I think it's like two hours andthirty or forty minutes long. But I
fell asleep during the last battle.So I woke up with like I woke
up to like this battle field oflike underwater like madness. I'm like,
I have no idea what's going on. Yeah, it's just just so long
and boring and uninspired. Like Ijust couldn't take it anymore. I'm like,
I'm not sitting through the rest ofthis CGI crap, Like I don't
(12:26):
care about any of the relationships anyof the characters, Like this is just
I just left. I'm like,I got better things to do. It
was there one that you've actually walkedout of. So there are two that
come to mind when when I walkout. And usually I give many movies
a benefit of the doubt, butthere are some that just are so bad
that I couldn't sit in the seatsany longer. One was this movie called
(12:50):
Getaway in twenty thirteen. Did youknow that Ethan Hawk and Selena Gomez were
in a movie together. No,yes, they were in a movie together
and Packing twenty thirteen. It's abore fest. It's supposed to be.
You know. Ethan Hawk is thiswashed up former race car driver. He
comes home one day, his houseis ransacked, his wife is missing,
(13:11):
and then like there's this mysterious voicewho tells him, like who calls him
and tells him you had to dothis, this and this and in order
to get your wife back and makesure she's alive. And then he runs
into this They describe her as ayoung woman and she was like of age
at this time, but she looksbut Selena Gomez looks such like a baby.
You just look at this like thisis like a little teenager girl who
(13:33):
like tries to car jack Ethan Hawk, but then Ethan Hawk gets the upper
hand and then like the voice islike, okay, now use her,
and you guys are gonna work togetherto you know, solve this puzzle or
whatever so his wife can live.And it's just a bad movie. It
was just it was the first actwas so bad. I'm like, I
don't care about any of this,and my dad and I left The other
(13:54):
movie that my dad and I alsowalked out on was Anger Management, starring
Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson. Thatone is not my cup of tea.
I don't know that one just wasnow working for either one of us,
and we walked out, got ourmoney back, don't recon Oh, I'm
impressed that. I'm impressed that yougot your money back. I've never even
tried to do that. Yeah,sometimes it depends. And so if you
(14:15):
go into a movie and it's maybestill fifteen minutes, like to say,
the movie started and you're only fifteenminutes in, if you go back,
they'll give you a refund, butyou can't, like after a thirty or
hour an hour. At that point, it's like you've already seen like half
the movie, and so you haveto you have to make that decision.
That's why many people don't decide towalk out on a bad movie, is
because they like, oh, I'vealready committed too much time and I'm probably
(14:35):
not gonna get my money back,so might as well just watch this movie
and in agony. So I'm curious. I did. Yeah, yeah,
I did know that there's some peoplethat you know, walk out of movies
because of false advertising essentially, likewhat they show in the trailer is not
what comes out right, is notwhat they're experiencing in the in the cinema.
(14:56):
I had one friend who went togo see Frozen with his kid with
his son, and they ended upwalking out because they thought they were expecting
a movie about a snowman. Theywere expecting the movie to be about olaf
Right because they had used this snowmanso much in the advertisement, but he
didn't actually come out until like fortyfive minutes into the movie. Wow,
(15:18):
So that was an unexpected one.But yeah, so what kind of movies
have you guys walked out of thatwere just so so terrible it was not
even worth your time anymore, screwmy money, Like, throw your popcorn
down and just storm out of thetheater. Let us know down in the
comments again. You can find useverywhere. We are on Facebook, We
(15:39):
are on Twitter, Instagram, andTikTok at hub on Hollywood. Leave your
comments, let us know. Yeah, what are some of those movies that
had your blood and butter in nearpopcorn boiling so much that you that you
walked out. You can also notonly can you catch us on YouTube listen
there, but you can also listento us on any of the major podcasting
(16:00):
streaming services like Apple Podcast, Spotify, ihar Radio. Be sure to leave
us a five star review. Itreally does help out the podcast and get
us out there and we try toget more, you know, more publicity,
more interviews on this show, andwe actually have a really good one
coming up right. Yes, Iam so excited that we can bring this
interview to you with mister Christian OchoaLavinia, an rising star in Hollywood who
(16:32):
got to play a character called EduardoChoo Chow Lopez in the film The Covenant
starring Jake Jillenhall and dar Salem.This film is not based on a single
true story, but rather an amalgamationof many stories between the US military and
(16:56):
Afghan interpreters who risked their lives inthis conflict in this twenty year war UM
to support us and to fight theTaliban and to fight for their families UM
and for and support our efforts there. Thousands of these interpreters UM were promised
visas in exchange for their work.Many were left behind, and that is
(17:22):
what this film is trying to drawattention to. UM. So this is
a guy Ritchie film. We'll havea full review after this interview. But
Christian Ochoa Lavinia um a phenomenal guy. Yeah, and I understand that you
change. And I understand that yougot this interview right before he was going
(17:45):
to the Red carpet event, soit was kind of we were doing our
best with the interview, but theremay be some dropouts or whatnot, but
that was because he was going tothe to the Red carpet, So you
know, yeah, he's made tiousto give us his time right making time
for us in between appointments as heand his family, UM and his mom
and his sister were all preparing towalk the red carpet for the pretty premiere
(18:07):
of Covenant with them. So Iget many pictures of him with with the
you know, the cast, mand phenomenal interviews that he gave on that
day and that he gave to us. So without further ado, here's Chris
and I am joined by a veryexciting rising star in Hollywood, the Cuban
(18:30):
boy from Miami and old friend ofmine, Chris Ochoa live Lam. Funny.
Yeah, it's funny, like noone ever from high school knew me
by that name. But the reasonwhy I did it was I am in
Ochoa and I always was. Butmy mom's sided families Laverniam and truthfully,
(18:52):
um, they were who raised me. Where was my mom's side of the
family. Other my mom kept thename Ochoa so that my sister and I
didn't feel alienated from our mom.But really she's might, she's might La.
So my grandpa who raised me,he was like kind of my dad
figure. And if you will,um, he was Lavernia. He was
a Lavernia. Everybody would call himLaverna. And it's a beautiful name.
(19:15):
It's a French name means born inthe spring. And Ochoa, which is
really cool, is bask and itmeans wolf ooh yeah, Christian wolf born
in the spring. Yeah. Soanyway, I felt like it was important
to honor that part of my familyand stuff. And I love my Ochoa
side of the family, I reallydo. Um, But really I was
(19:37):
raised by the Lavernia side of thefamily. That's awesome. And so that's
where people can find you, rightat Christian Ochoa Lavernia on the socials,
right socials. Yeah, yeah,yeah, I AMDB and all that stuff.
So Chris, you now you've beenworking very hard, and you've got
a handful of big credits under yourbelt now and film and television, and
(20:00):
you know you've been working so hard. So let's start off with this huge
role hitting theaters in just a coupleof days April twenty First, The Covenant
starring Jake Jillenhall, directed by GuyRitchie. Why don't we start off with
how did you find out that youlanded this role? And who are you?
(20:23):
Yeah? Absolutely, I also wantto say what you said was perfect,
But I also do want to saystarring Jake jillen Hall and Darceline,
who is the heart of this film? He really is. He is the
heart and soul of this film andhe is such an amazing man. He's
out of Denmark and he came onthis film. And really the movie was
(20:45):
actually called The Interpreter for many that'swhat we called it, and it wasn't
until recently that they changed the namesto Covenant, which I think is powerful
right because it means like the promise, really and that's what the movie is
about. But it was really calledThe Interpreter. So the film is about
It's really about dar Salim's character umAhmed, who's who's at the center of
it, right, Um, andreally interesting enough, my wife was costume.
(21:10):
Oh this is fun, this isgonna be a fun story. My
wife was caught in designing the film, and I'm like, this is post
pandemic, right. I'm like thirtypounds heavier and drinking, drinking a beer,
going to the you know, kitchento get a beer, and I
have my headsets on because I'm playingwar Zone with my buddies back in Miami.
Right. I still kept in touchwith a lot of friends from high
school and we still we play warZone right on PlayStation. I'm PlayStation Rackxbox.
(21:32):
That's a whole contention. Whatever itis, what it is it whatever.
Um. So I'm going to thekitchen and I'm grabbing a beer and
I see, uh, you know, my wife working on something. And
she was costume designing the film.She's a costume designer. She's already costume
designing his film. What's what's workingon there? On? She's like,
uh, she's you know, she'sEnglish. She's like, well, I'm
I'm doing um, you know,sucking resets. Yeah. I'm like okay,
(21:55):
cool. I'm like, can Ijust say like a sly comment.
I'm like you know, if Iwas one of those soldiers, I'd be
wearing a baseball cap, right,and she's like, uh, they don't
wear based on caps. I'm like, yeah, they fucking do. And
then she's like whatever. But nextthe gym, I'm at the gym and
I'm a man on a mission,right, I'm like, I'm gonna show
her, and I start googling allthese pictures of people, um wearing hants,
right, baseball caps and soldiers orwhatnot. I'm like, boom boom
(22:17):
bam, boom boom, and she'slike, oh shit, okay, let
me go, let me, letme go church a little hard or whatever.
But it wasn't like it was fun. It was fun competition because I'm
like, I know this, andsome she schools me more than I ever
school her. She dunks on meall the time. So like it's respect
and um so she um, wefind this little tidbit out. She's doing
her research and as if you canhear me, muffled is because I'm smoking
(22:41):
a cigar, am I not?Can you confirm this? Yeah? I
can confirm that. I was goingto mention that at some point too.
It's like the occasional pauses that's becausehe's popping away at this giant cigar,
uh you know, being the youknow, very Cuban. Ye. So
they're called El Septem cigars in laUm. I almost dropped it. Yeah,
(23:03):
um so anyway, I am soI speaking of cigars. The reason
I brought that up is because Igo I used to go to a cigar
shop in California called the Old OaksCigar Shop in Thousand Oaks. Great guys
Albert and our scene. If theyever hear this, I love them,
and uh so I used to goevery Friday Saturday. I used to play
with my my manager Um at thetime. I used to play um backgammon
(23:26):
for hours. We would go there, smoke cigars, play back bah bah
blah blah blah. So like twelveo'clock to night, a bunch of older
dudes, really awesome dudes, someof the best people I met that night.
It was packed, super busy.So I go to the back table
and uh there is two gentlemen sittingthere, a younger guy and the kind
of an old guy about my ageand a younger guy and uh whatever,
they're sitting So we're Brad and Iare sitting down and we're talking. These
(23:48):
guys kind of they're gregarious, right, so they jump into conversation. We
we then we ended up talking forfive hours and I learned from one of
the gentlemen. His name is DanSchmidt, and he was he was in
the military, you know, purpleheart, you know, like I mean
all these words, and one ofthe nicest guy's ever met. That turned
into a friendship in Los Angeles,which I love with. My favorite friendships
in Los Angeles are the ones thathad nothing to do with the entertainment industry,
(24:10):
just real, genuine human being humanbeings. And he'd grab a bottle
of wine. He's very formal.He was like, Christian, I've got
a nineteen ninety seven Murdo, ohwhatever. And I'm like, he's like,
would you like to come and joinme and drink. I'm like,
absolutely, Dan, Oh, youknow, like one of those things.
And we'd drink and then get drunkand I'd stay over. So we had
that kind of friendship and then uh, it's one of those where like I'd
go over his house and he livedso far that I get drunk. I'm
(24:32):
like, I'm not gonna drive home. I'm gonna stand on the couch,
so like, hey, damn,He's like, yeah, stay on the
couchman. So I would call himmy my wife who wasn't my wife at
the time, and I'm like,hey, I'm staying in Dan's ales.
We had too much wine. SoI'm like, do you remember that guy?
Do you remember him? She's likeyeah, I'm like, dude,
he's like an almanac of anything army, everything army. And I was like,
you want me to just email himand then maybe you can ask him
(24:52):
a couple of questions. She's like, sure to make a extremely long story
short because I can go on.He ended up he ended up ended up
being the military advisor on the film, and then he brought in and in
this kind of thing that they figuredout Dan and my wife figured out,
oh, these guys are Special Forcesbecause he's like, well, if they're
pulling that kind of missions, they'reGreen Berets. So then that guy brought
(25:15):
into the fold. Then the productionthemselves started using Dan from there. He
brought an actual Green Berets. Andthen there was one Kawa Malawi who's actually
was a Green Beret for many yearsand he's actually over in Texas now and
he's got like a tactical service wherehe teaches people how to use, you
know, firearms tactically, how toenter rooms and whatnot. And he actually
has worked in other films for it, and he was so involved in the
(25:37):
film and the kind of creation ofthe ideas because Guy has a lot of
great ideas. But obviously, youknow, Guy's making a movie which is
on something. I want understand anybodythat listens to us now when you watch
a military film and you argue andyou're mad about, like, well,
that's not exactly how they do it, because you can't. You can't always
do it exactly how you do it. It's a little Number one, it's
it's Hollywood. It showed business.And number two, there's a lot of
(26:00):
clearances you can't get past. Soof a certain a certain patch um isn't
on rights or something on the thingis it's usually because they weren't allowed to
do it that way. I thinkone of our special forces patches is kind
of shifted a different way because youcan't you can't do it verbatim. There's
clearances. So that's one thing.Anyway, so involved in the film that
(26:25):
Guy made him one of the characterson the film just because he was there
and he knew it. He wasSpecial Forces, So guys like fuck,
just fucking just like you're you know, put on uniform and be one of
the guys. That way he wason with you know. We got yeah,
we got trained, we got everything. But Colo was there literally every
shooting moment that we had so thatwe can do it. So his powers
combined with Dan Schmidt, they cametogether and they made this film as authentic
(26:49):
as humanly possible, from the perspectiveof costumes, from the perspective of movement
of the soldiers, and storytelling.You know. So it was really interesting.
Right I'm responsible for the film,but you know, the power of
suggestion is so powerful. Exactly.Can you talk to us a little bit
about some of your favorite experiences onthis set and what you took away from
(27:12):
this story. Working with Guy Ritchiewas Honestly, he's been my favorite directors.
I've been listening to the Snatch soundtrackum during college at FIU, when
I was walking around campus, whenI was working out, when I was
running, you know, and Ithe song is Diamond by Clint like I
Can Tell You, like Angel byMassive Attack. All part of that soundtracks
(27:33):
became a soundtrack to my life.Really, you have Lockstockings too, smoking
barrels, all these films you know, Sherlock and everything. Guys, guy's
got his style, just as WesAnderson has his style, and Nolan has
his, Richie has his and is. It's something I've loved forever. So
number one to being a guy Ritchiefilm. Wow, holy shit, I
(27:53):
can't believe it. That's like,pinch yourself and be grateful that you were
given the opportunity. Secondly, JakeJill Hall was an actor that I have
always admired my whole career, someoneI want to emulate because like, I
feel like he's a leading man thatplays character roles, and that's kind of
like what I feel I can bebecause I feel like my stature in the
way I look, Everyone's like,oh, you're a leading man. I'm
(28:14):
like, no, I'm I'm acharacter actor. And they always say the
joke out here in Hollywood is thecharacter actors want to be leading men,
and leading men want to be characteractors. But I'm like, he can
both. You know, you canbe you can be Johnny Depp, you
can be right, you know.So to see him played, but he
plays this very grounded and honestly justlike watching him, Like a lot of
my scenes are with Jake, SoI got to watch him work and see
where I'm similar, see where I'mdifferent, see where I can get better.
And that was incredible. And thenyou know, working with my wife,
(28:38):
obviously I should have come first.Sorry, but that was amazing and
it was all, it was all. You know, I didn't get this
job because of her. I gotthis job. I knew about this job
because of her. So I reachedout to my team and I'm like,
hey, guys, they're a castingAmerican soldiers and they're casting a bunch of
brutes. So when I'm in England, so let's make this happen. And
I got to audition and for abouttwo months I was waiting here and then
(28:59):
I finally hurt and I got Sothat was by us moses of energy and
manifestation, it happened. And thenworking with the guys man are Seline like
what a what a what an incrediblehuman being or an incredible actor. Jason
Wong, who's done a few filmswith Guy, He's one of my Special
Forces guys. Sean Sager Reese YatesBobby's Showfield. Working with Dan Schmidt,
(29:22):
this guy that I met smoking cigars, you know, drinking wine in La.
He was a sanctuary for me inLa really, because you know,
it's hard to meet good, goodpeople sometimes in that city where everybody's trying
to make it, every's trying tofigure out what you can do for them.
And Dan was just like, heyman, you got a bottle of
wine. And really that's all itis at the end of the day,
when you when you're looking for afriend, right, someone to to just
(29:44):
share those moments with, you know. Working with him was phenomenal and and
honestly, there's something about Spain thatI love. You know. I met
my wife working in Spain and andthen I got to go back to Spain
to work with her. And uh, you know, being in Aligante,
which I thought the people were beautiful, I thought the city was beautiful.
It's incredible moments. And listen,working on a film like this, like
(30:07):
when you're working on a Guy Ritchiefilm, right, you think you're working
on a you know, oh,it might fucking hell, you know,
Hia, you know there smoking atoh, thank you smoking about It's not
that it wasn't that it's kind oflike a departure from that that guy gangster
that we love, that we loveand he can put that out to the
day he dies and I'll watch everysingle one of them. It was a
(30:29):
departure in a sense. Um Andwhen it was testing, when the movie
was testing, was rating so high, and specifically what was interesting, it
was rating so high with women becausewomen usually don't. It doesn't war films
do not score high with women,that is a fact. And it was
scoring in the ninety seven and eightpercentile um. So it is truthfully,
at the end of the heart ofthis film is a love story of sacrifice,
(30:51):
friendship and um. You know,honestly, it doesn't matter where you're
from, what creed, religion,race, it doesn't matter brotherhood and sisterhood,
how important it is to protect eachother is at the end of the
day. What I've learned the moreI've traveled, and thank God I've been
able to travel because of my job. It takes me to incredible places.
(31:12):
You realize that no matter where we'refrom, we all want the same thing.
We want love, we want security, we want family, and we
want peace of mind. You know, no matter what your religion says no
matter what your government says. Soto actually work on a film that where
that is the message, I believethat's the heart of it. It is
(31:32):
an extreme honor because I try towork on projects that I truly believe in
what the message is. Right.So that was I would say, the
one of the coolest things I gotto do. Speak your truth. That
is that is beautiful. That's whatI think a lot of people should be
doing. And you touched on ita little bit, like you know,
manifesting your reality and you know andworking hard and having that perseverance and you
(31:55):
you know, you've really from thebeginning. I want to talk a little
bit about your journey right in actingbecause I think when we were when we
were right afy you I remember goingto a job fair with you and you
were like you were looking for likeFBI CI are like, yeah, I
remember, You're like, I'm gonnabe a spy. Yeah. Now you
kind of get to be theist characterto be alone. Nailed it. You
(32:19):
nailed it. I wouldn't do asee mission impossible. And uh I drove
back home that night like with afire, fire my ass. So I
came out and fire my ass Icalled my mom and I go, Mom,
what's the one thing you said Ishould have always done in my life
my career? And she's like,you should have been actor. You did
drama in middle school, and howwe're doing? I was. I did
a Midsummer's Night's Stream and I playedbottom right. He's a character that turns
into a donkey halfway and I lovedit. He's like, you were so
(32:39):
good at that. She's like,and just even though you didn't do theater
high school, because when I gotto Valla, they gave me a had
to. I had to make achoice. You're like, you played baseball
or do theater? Kend you boththink that I was an athlete growing up.
I love sports. I still do, but I was an athlete.
So I chose baseball because like that'swhat I thought, you know, like
that's what I love doing. Andso I gave up the acting. But
she's like, you were so alwaystheatrical, you know, with people and
(33:01):
with around You're always putting on ashow. She's like, you should have
done that. I'm like, andthen I'm like, I'm gonna do it.
So I moved back to Miami.I started working at a restaurant with
my buddies. That my buddy,there's my big brother in my fraternity.
Is it Georgio Rapikavoli. He hasa restaurant in Miami now called Eating House.
Before it was like this established restaurant, we were a pop up restaurant.
(33:22):
And that's that can be its ownpodcast about the growth of that and
how happy and proud I am ofthe boys. But basically started working at
a restaurant, started a little bylittle going back, and you know,
started modeling and stuff because in Miamithat's the market, right, modeling,
you know, save and whatever.This isn't that. But then you know,
I started really going to acting classesand there's that lah. Then I
(33:42):
finally auditioned for Burn Notice, andI auditioned for Magic City. Actually I
didn't get to the role, butI remember Lorie Wyman, who's like the
big casting director in Miami. She'slike, why haven't I seen you before?
And I'm like, hey, Lorie, I've been trying to make it
in here. I promise and uh. I auditioned for Burn Notice a few
months later, and I booked myfirst guest star role. That's the role
that kind of propelled me to say, okay, ready to leave to LA
(34:06):
with this and my all the studentfilms I've been doing. My real it
was not the greatest of reals,but at least I'll right at the top
of it, so that can help. Right, So I moved. I
moved over to LA and I willget into that story as a long one,
but I will say. What Iwill say is that it was many
years of hardship, many years ofloneliness, many years of work. I
(34:27):
mean, I was a you know, I was a way serber actor.
You know, I worked at twodifferent restaurants. I've worked six, seven
days a week so I can paythe bills, you know, even though
I would do some acting jobs andpeople some of my tables recognizing me from
shows I was on. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I was on
that show. So how would youlike that? Cook? Sir? All
right? Cool, Oh, niceto see you. You know, but
it is what it is. Butyou have to understand, Like I read
(34:47):
something once it was like it waslike a Dustin Hoffman type. I'm not
quite sure, but he said hesaid I wasn't the most talented person to
get on the bus to LA.But I never got back on. So
it's about really, you know,it's about dropping your ego out here,
coming and work and doing the work, learning how to it's a business,
(35:10):
learning how the business works. Butalso like you know, when you're acting,
don't take yourself so serious. Andit's like I went through a lot
of lessons, you know, whenI made when I made my life just
about this career, and I basedall my happiness on my success on it
or not, I was never happy. But when I learned to find the
happiness elsewhere in my life, whetherit was my wife, my stepson,
you know, watching always Sunny inPhiladelphia every night to go to bed,
(35:34):
you know, things like that,that you find happiness outside of it,
then you really truly say, youknow what, everything else is extra?
And then I realized once I calmeddown, everything else started coming to me.
And because I wasn't forcing it,you know. So But if you
want, you know, acting isit is. It is a full time
thing in the sense that you haveto put your heart and soul into it
because forever, yes that I getI've had like one hundred and fifty hs
(35:54):
maybe more, you know, doyou think about it? Auditioning is the
job once you get it it's thefun part, but auditioning is the job.
You need to audition, get thejob auditioning. So yeah, that's
kind of the story. I mean, as as as concise as I can
be. I love the energy andthe spirit that you bring to it,
(36:15):
and I think that a lot ofpeople can apply that to their journey and
them trying to become actors or breakinto the space or or chief whatever it
is that they want to achieve forthemselves, you know. And we learned
so much along the way, andpart of why we started this podcast,
the Hub on Hollywood. We callourselves Hollywood East out here in Boston,
(36:37):
New England, Massachusetts. So manyprojects coming out here every year. There's
more opportunities, and lots of peopleare so so passionate about movies and filmmaking
and bringing stories and characters to life. So we always have casting calls on
our shows like that, and todaywe have chrissochoa. Um, So,
(36:58):
I just want to before I letyou go, because you've got a big
premiere tonight, right I got mymom and it's something to do tonight.
I got my moment's sister inside rightnow and getting their makeup done and getting
ready instead of getting all dolled upand stuff. Big part of you know,
the pleasure of this is not somuch that it's my first premiere,
is that it's my mom's first premiere. Because if I'm anybody, I'm anything
(37:20):
because of her. So this,this is her victory. That's what's she
wearing. Am I allowed to do? You know? No, you don't
know. It's okay whatever you thoughtthat was beautiful, but I couldn't tell
you. So I know that you'vebeen on, Um tell us a little
bit about just just list off someof the projects you've been in and a
(37:40):
couple of the ones that are comingup. Um, I know you've got
a couple of projects that are comingup in the next couple of months,
not not just Covenant. So Igot Covenant coming out on Friday, April
twenty first, and then I havea Silo on Apple TV coming out on
May fifth on Apple TV. AmazingShow. Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins Common.
Yeah, Rush Sheet, he's amazing. He's become a really close friend
(38:04):
of mine. Um. Just so, I mean, Rashida Jones, I
mean, it's got such an incrediblecast in people, and it was one
of the favorite, my favorit projectsI ever worked on because everybody just got
on. There wasn't one bad egg, you know, yes, projects happened.
One bad egg. There's no there'sno bad egg. And that job
is fun. I started awesome andthen next year, sometime around I don't
know when because it hasn't been said, I'm on the second season of Halo
(38:27):
for Paramount Plus. So that's gonnabe fun on Halo. Oh yeah,
stay tuned for that. I mean, before that, some really cool stuff,
man. I was very honored tobe on an episode of Will and
Grace, which I grew up watching. Um, that was so much.
And you know, I did pitch, which I get to I got to
play a defected Cuban American baseball player, which was I mean so part of
like my culture, which was incredible. Um. I was on a show
(38:52):
called Bounty Hunters for Sky one inEngland, which is actually really funny,
but a lot of Americans are intoit because they don't have Sky. Rosie
Perez, who I grew up likein hiring and loving and whatnot her and
Jack Whitehall, who's a big Britishcomedian but he's like kind of making his
way. He was in that movieJungle Cruise with the rocker Disney and uh
man, I know just those thingshere and there, right, because it's
like, no, no job,no small job is a small job.
(39:14):
You know, everything leads to thenext thing. You're building your credits,
You're building your fans, right.You gotta build fans. You gotta get
people that love you. Directors,producers and not just the big ones like
oh, the director and the producer. Everybody on the set is It's just
as important as the director and producer. I don't care what you say.
You know, whether you're the guy, um you know on the trucks or
you're or you're you're part of thecrafty feeding the people because nothing makes people
(39:36):
happier than giving them food. Likeeverybody's is important. So you're making fans
all over the place, right,and you're working hard and uh so every
job I ever had was a blessing. Um, and it was a step
closer, you know. And I'mnot nowhere and you're done and I'm just
getting started. But um, whatwhat is your dream role? Before I
let you go? What? Whatdo you need to check off of your
(39:58):
bucket list? What do you wantto play? I wish I could tell
you that, but I don't.I keep those close to the chests.
Okay, nosse exactly, but listen, I will say what I do want
to be. If I could beany actor, i'd be. I would
love the career of like Johnny Deppbefore last year or whatever year was,
(40:23):
but in the sense that like heyou know, he's as good as Jack
Captain Jack Sparrow as he is hisWhitey Boulger right when he's playing that Boston
guy, and like that kind ofrole that you can just jump into anything
and people believe it. And Ithink that's my That's what I want to
be, and that's how I kindof owned my craft. Right. It's
not just to be the funny guyor just to be the serious guy,
(40:45):
because for so many years I wantedto be just like Tom Hardy, which
I still do. He's such afucking badass Pinky Blinder's baby, you know
what I'm saying. But um,I want to be able to do that.
But I also want to be ableto jump into something and be a
complete clown. All right. ChrisOchoa, thank you so much for sparing
(41:06):
the time on Red Carpet Day thepremiere of this film to speak with us
here on the Hub on Hollywood.We talked a little bit earlier about films
that you you know, that justrankled you and made you want to leave
the theater. This is not oneof them. This is one of these
that you will laugh, you willcry, and you would just be compelled
(41:28):
to the very end and leave feelingjust more profound more connected to humanity.
It was just a wonderful job donein the telling of this story. You
really get that feeling of the bondsmade in war that transcend everything, really
and also the hopelessness, the despair, the power of the human spirit,
(41:53):
the power of love. And we'renot talking about romantic love here, We're
talking about the the love of yourfellow man. It's a story of saving
and being saved and owing so muchto someone, and not only the hopelessness
of war, right, but thehopelessness of bureaucracy, of what so many
(42:15):
of these translators faced in the brokenpromises of the US military, and what
a travesty that was. And guyRichie just does such a phenomenal job of
pulling you down into this feeling andputting you into these characters positions that you
(42:38):
can't help but walk out of itwith a greater understanding. So I just
believe it's such an important film andit's such a great film, and you
really need to go see it andexperience it in theaters right now. The
Covenant, No, that's fantastic tohear, because this is one of the
(42:58):
movies of twenty twenty three that I'mlooking forward to to watching. Also a
big guy richie movie fan, andJake Jalen Hall anything with him in it.
He gives his all in every filmthat he's in, so you know,
it's it's always like a sure thing. But The Covenant out in theaters
right now, hopefully out on streamingservices soon as well, because as as
(43:20):
I mentioned, I'm a new dad, so I'm gonna be watching more things
at home in the comfort of mycouch while holding a little gremlin, a
little grimlin baby. I'll take thatpart out while holding a little baby.
You can keep it. I mean, yeah, everybody everybody who has a
kid understands. Look, you lovethem. They're beautiful, they're part when
they get hungry. When they whenthey get hungry, they they transform.
(43:44):
Yeah. Yeah, And I justwanted to add one last thing about the
Covenant. It starts a little bitslow, I'd say it is my only
critique, but then it grabs youby the collar and boy, are you
in for a ride? So um, let us know if you've seen I
know, right whoo. Let usknow if you've seen The Covenant? What
(44:06):
did you feel about it? Didyou enjoy it? Let us know your
experience in the theater watching The Covenantdown below. Thank you for joining us
on the Hub on Hollywood. Yeah, and stick around after the episode because
we have more casting calls, localcasting calls here in New England that will
help you, just like Chris Ochoa, find yourself on the big or small
(44:27):
screen and everything in between. Beforethe Hub on Hollywood, I'm James,
I'm Jamie. See you next time. Goodbye. All right. On this
week's casting calls, we got alot of cool ones and some cool cattle
ones too that we will get toin just a minute. But first,
(44:49):
starting off, we have Boss andCasting looking for Asian, Latina and Black
women eighteen to twenty years old withacting experience. This is where a feature
film nothing to sneeze at, soreally cool stuff. Union and non union
opportunity. It is a paid gig. This shoots um in June through July,
(45:09):
and so, if you are awoman, Asian, Latina, black
woman eighteen to twenty years old,send in your headshot, your photo,
resume, bio, where you live, and your content information. Send that
to Boston Casting. Submit one thenumber one at gmail dot com and in
the subject line put best place shootslash your name. I'm twenty one.
(45:34):
You think I could make it?You think yeah, you made you made
the cut. You made the cut, definitely, I'm not twenty one days?
Okay, all right? Slate Casting. They're looking for non union talent
of all ethnicities twenties to forties forbackground work in a fun commercial portraying restaurant
patrons and staff. This is againnon union, so you are going this
(45:57):
is going to be shooting on Mayfirst. Also, if cast, if
you're interested and fully available for theshoot date, please send an email with
your name, phone number, cityin town you live, in headshot,
close up and a head to toephoto two. You're gonna want to send
all of that to Slate Casting Extrasat gmail dot com and in the subject
(46:21):
line right restaurant extras. Boston Castinglooking for Japanese men for a commercial.
This is a non union gig lookingfor somebody in their twenties to fifty years
old. This shoots eight hundred andfifty bucks for the shoot and fifty bucks
for the fitting. This takes placenext month on the eighth and ninth.
(46:42):
So if you are a Japanese man, send in your information, email,
current photos where you live. Sendthat to Boston Casting sub mid one,
the number one at gmail dot comand in the subject line put Japanese mail
twenties through fifties. Slash your nameall right in. Slate is also looking
for families in the DMC that's theDC, Maryland and Virginia area. They're
(47:06):
looking for Asian and Latino families whohave kids between the ages of five and
nineteen. It pays really well ifyou are cast. No acting experience necessary,
though. This is a non unionproject. If that sounds like you
or someone you know in the DCarea, you're going to want to send
a few family photos, named contactinformation, ages of the kids, city
(47:30):
and state you live in and sendthat all to Slate Real People Casting at
gmail dot com. All right,This next one, we are looking for
some cool cats. Literally. BostonCasting is looking for cats who are comfortable
being outside on a harness. NowI have my own cat, JB.
Special Agent Jack Bauer. However,she does not do well outside and she
(47:52):
also especially does not do well ona harness, so she's missing her opportunity.
But if you know a cat whois comfortable with both for this commercial
project and past twelve hundred bucks,send in photos age of your cat comfort
level in their harness photo. Ifyou want to be considered to work with
your cat, where you are basedand your information, send that to pets
(48:15):
at Boston Casting dot com. Petsat Boston Casting dot com in the subject
line put cat casting slash your name? Is that really JB's name? Like?
That? Is that what it standsfor? Jack? Her legal name
on the adoption papers is special AgentJack Bauer, but she goes by JB.
(48:37):
How am I only just knowing that? I'm only just discovering that.
That's amazing, right, So ifyou've got your own little furry special agent,
definitely put in for this opportunity.Thank you for joining us on the
Hub on Hollywood. Stick with usnext week for more amazing interviews, local
entertainment news, and news about James'scat. Apparently, sorry, I mean
(49:00):
casting calls, catting calls, umhere on the help on Hollywood. Thanks
for being with us, like usshriffs, gotta have using next to me,
everything in between. Love. Untilthen we'll see. I'm Jamie,
I'm James back.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.