Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Love lou Diamond Phillips. Uh so thrilled to have him.
He's on the line. Thanks so much for being with us, Loup.
Thank you, Michael.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
You know, I guess you.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Know, I remember being a teenager and Richie Allens died
as a teenager, and you're probably so sick of talking
about that, but your portrayal of Ritchievallens is so memorable,
you know. And I always think about that when somebody
has their best work early on, but that's not the
case with you. I mean, I'm thinking of a character
you did in Law and Order, Victor Gaitano.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Wo.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, you're you're portrayaling young guns. I've seen you in Goliath,
The Ranch, Blue Bloods, and others, and I got to
make an observation because you're a very very nice man,
but you play you play a really good bad guy.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Thank you. Uh, it's so funny.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
There's a lot of fantastic bad guys throughout the years,
you know, I've met, I've you know, worked with, and
they're always the nicest people.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
You know, I think it's I think it's therapy for us,
a channel the dark right out.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I was just gonna say, I would think it's probably
harder to portray something similar to yourself when something's so
different you can get lost in it.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, then it's acting, you know, you know, it's it's funny.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
I mean the Victor Katana role was a bit of
an amused boosh for me to play Richard Ramirez and
the Nightstalker. Yeah, and people go, how do you do that?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
How do you know?
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I mean, it's it's it's a very intellectual approach, you know.
I mean, you know, I don't think you can method
that because that they'd be a little psychotic. But you know,
I mean it's it's uh, it goes back to your
theater training, and it goes back to building the character
and doing your research and then the magic if you
put yourself in that character shoes and you you think
and you operate like they do, you know, for a
(01:42):
finite amount of time. So those are a lot of fun.
Those are a lot of fun. And that is, you know,
as I said, a pure acting job.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
You know what, what is the work? You're most proud of.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
The fact that I've been doing this for forty years.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
No, that's not easy, yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Yeah, no, I mean, you know, the people have come
and gone and and I've I've been one of the
lucky ones, but I've also you know, and I'm still here.
I mean that there are you know, so many friends,
you know, Patrick Swayze, Luke Perry, you know, just oh
my god, Malcolm Jamal Warner recently, it's just like good god.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Uh, you know, to wake up in the morning and
a walk on the planet.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Is what is the hardest part? Is it juggling all
the challenges. I mean, you've done stage, TV movies all well,
you've acted, written, directed. It kind of all comes together
any too. We're going to talk about that in a second.
But is it managing because you've mentioned some others that
didn't fare out as well, they're not still with us.
(02:42):
Is it managing fame or managing the work? What is
it that's managing all of it? Yeah, No, it's it's
it's finding a balance, you know.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
And I think when you know early on, like you said,
you know, you can get overwhelmed by it, and and uh,
I think you know, learning to relax, learning that that
the business isn't the the you know, be all and
end all to it.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And and you know.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I think being grateful and knowing that I'd be doing this,
you know, in community theater, you know, for free.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
If I was, if I was, you know, if I
had never gotten lucky, because I do love it.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
And but it's it is the pacing yourself, you know,
and and getting your priorities, you know, right, whether it's
family or you know, being a father, you know, just
or being a normal person. It's you know, it's it's
a constant I don't want to say struggle. But you
have to be, you know, mindful. You have to be
mindful because you were if you were very young when
(03:37):
you did I was twenty.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Four when I did that. And by the way, it's thirty.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
The July twenty fourth is the thirty eighth year anniversary
of the premiere of The Thing.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Thank you for reminding me that I'm mortal. I'll be
dead soon.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
And it's crazy, man, but that was such an extraordinary
story and performance.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
And I mean just boom, you were a household name.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, thank you man.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
That's a lot to handle at twenty four.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
It was, it was, it was crazy.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
It's so funny because I think about it, because I'm
reflecting on this on this day, because the night before
Danny Valdez, who played my uncle and was also the
associate producer on the film.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
He literally said, we're going to hand you the keys
to the candy store your teeth.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
You know. And and it was good advice. Man, it
really early.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
But the caps look good. Lou Diamond Phillips is with us.
Talk to us about am I saying it right at two?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah? At two?
Speaker 4 (04:28):
You know it's it's the famous phrase at two brute
from the play Julius Caesar by Shakespeare.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And and that that sums it up.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
It's I play a director who has mounted a regional
theater production of a of at two.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
He's a purist, an idealist, a bit pretentious. But he
also thinks that the hunky young guy who got the
role through nepotism, uh, who's playing Brutus, is stooping his wife.
So and let the torture begin, exactly and fine experience
othello like fashion, the jealousy and the rage and the
(05:04):
insecurity and all all of that.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Start to uh to escalate, and you know there's a
blood path pretty much.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yes, Uh, props fabulous.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Unfortunately we have seen that props in movies and yeah,
well yeah it is the real deal. And yeah, there
are a lot of daggers. There's a lot of daggers
flying around and too uh uh so you know, without
spoiling anything, it gets very twisted.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
What does it remind I mean, how would you describe this?
You know, I thought a little bit of what was
the drummer They were all in drummer school. The guy
that does the insurance commercially is such a great actor?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Uh JK.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Simmons.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Is a little bit of that to it, isn't there
kind of don't you think? Yes?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Because sure, because Brent is is that demanding, is that
he's a sociopath, you know, I and uh really, I
mean it's all about the theater and about the art
and everything else, and and you know he takes that
to the end degree. But it also reminds me of
you know, like like the Revenge, you know, thriller horror
movies that Vincent Price did yes back in the day,
(06:12):
and those were those were always so elevated and so wonderful.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So it was, yeah, a bit of a throwback.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
I mean some people have said it's like the Shining NEETs,
you know, Birdman.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
That's a pretty good one. I like that.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
We'll go with that. Lou Diamond Phillips joining us. It
too is the new movie.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Check it out.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
By the way, you got to work with somebody I
think is just terrific. I remember him in Oh, what
was the movie about Fox? What's wrong with my memory today?
I did you do that exercise I learned online that
supposedly connects the.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Two sides if you're a brain.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
But oh, the movie about Fox News and Roger Ayles.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
He was in that. He played h Rupert Murdoch.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Oh there, oh, there you go.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I can't remember the name of it. Now it's gonna
I'll remember it immediately after we're done. But Malcolm McDonald
was in that. He played Rupert Murdock. He's just such
a great actor.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
He's amazing.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
And I mean complease going back back to you know
the iconic clockwork Orange you know, uh Stanley Kubrick. So yeah,
I knew I was in the presence of greatness and
I knew it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
And Malcolm's wonderful.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I mean that chemistry that you know, that sort of
bone on me, that that that you see on screen
is very very much, uh the nature of our relationships.
So uh, because we did these long takes and these
wide shots and everything and it wasn't all cut up,
you know. Uh so, so you had to be prepared
and you had to come and uh you know that
that tennis matches is exactly what you're watching.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
By the way, it was bombshell. Getting old is no fun.
Don't even start. Don't start with me.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
No.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I was just gonna say, uh, it really is kind
of everything. Uh that the stage, I mean, you had
so much to draw on this. It's a great story. Uh,
I bring up you and Malcolm McDonald, but there's a
lot of people that are not going to know that
they're going to be introduced to, including one of the
lead performers.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Just really amazing young. It's very very well done.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Thank you. Yeah. No.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
And the rest of the cast is quite young. They're
wonderful and they really brought it.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
The heart is in there and it's it's such a
special little film. It's just so left of center. It's
not down the middle. It's not anything that you know
you're you're seeing. And that's that's why I love doing
it and had hopes that it was going to get
out and so now it's it's available to find this audience, which.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I love, and it's gonna be what primarily through HBO or.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
No, it's it's on video on demand on tons of platforms,
I think, including Fandango. You can rent it, you can
buy it streaming on July twenty fifth and for hopefully
weeks after. Yeah, so look forward on demand and lou
Diamond Phillips for a body of work that I hope
you can realize. Me and my staff we were going
through everything and I was bringing up Goliath and Ranch,
(08:52):
which are two shows.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
I really love Goliath.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I mean, of course land Man, now we got to
get you on land Man.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Let you play somebody Dark.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
I'm waiting by the phone for Billy Bob to call.
I mean, my gosh, he is. Don't you love Billy Pop.
He's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But then they started bringing up the Law and Order character,
and I was like, oh, I remember that character, and
we thought for what began is such a innocent portrayal
of a set. I mean, can you imagine what Richie
Balance might have done had he not gone down that day?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I mean they had so much.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Music imagined it a lot. Yeah, I mean he was
a pioneer.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
I mean one of the first people to you know,
to do rock and roll in Spanish, and he was
experimenting with global music. I mean he predated the Beatles
with that, he predated Paul Simon and you know Graceland.
I mean, Richie gave rise to you know, to Carlos Santana,
which was also why it was such an honor to
have Carlos do our score, you know, and to have
(09:45):
him produce all the music. I mean, really just just
an amazing stuff. I mean, Richie, Richie, we'd we'd still
be talking about him today.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, he wouldn't be that old. He was seventeen years old.
He didn't look seventeen. He didn't write like he was seventeen.
He didn't sing and performed like he was seventeen. He was.
It was a freak of nature and you played that
so well. But the bottom line of our conversation was,
nobody plays a dark bad guy like one of the
nicest guys you'll ever meet, Loud Diamond Phillips and boy
it comes together and it too.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
I encourage everybody to get it on demand. Take my
word for it. You're gonna love it.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Luke, God bless you, thank you so much, thanks so
much for having me.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
What a what a Wonderful Man.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
July twenty fifth, Today it's now available.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Put that on you.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
I know a lot of you're gonna go see The
Fantastic Four in the theater. Download on demand it too,
because nobody plays a bad guy like Lou Diamond Phillips.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
What a throw.