Danny Ramirez Recs The Pod

Danny Ramirez talks his directorial debut for Baton, playing Falcon and what keeps him locked in to the craft of acting.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up y'all? Daniel, Mirror is the falcon and I'm
gonna get wrecked with straw hat goofy?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Wake up?

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Did you time to go to work?

Speaker 4 (00:10):
All right? Can we talk about back in it? Get it?
Wake up? I get it that get it that goal
with everyone saying that up next, it's talking about that,
the vocals a goal, that making that hit that.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
So well that my neighbor is a movie the way
then that role they say the people.

Speaker 4 (00:25):
Baby, you know, I'm making everybody upset because we the
best we get and I.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Know, gonna get bread, Gunna get bread, Gonna get bread,
cunning get bread, Gonna get breath, get bread.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
Dude, thank you so much for coming on to this.
I feel like this has been like a long time coming,
and you we've.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Been trying to We've been trying to get it on
the books.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
Man. Yeah, but honestly, you're a busy dude, like you
got a lot going on right now.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Man, moving Yeah, I mean you're more than movie. You're flying,
That's true. I came with that.

Speaker 5 (00:59):
That was so bad.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
That was so bad. I think I think it was good.
I'm gonna hold on to that.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
I'm sometimes being on the nose is exactly what you need.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
It's exactly what I respect that and you know what,
like I don't I don't mean the flirt, but like
the smile kind of sold it, like the bad joke,
and then he looked at camera and smiled.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
I said, he also, as I'm hearing the information, I'm
processing like it. Actually, it's it's easier for me to
celebrate other people process like going through the moment. And
so just saw thunderbolts.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, yeah, Okay, lewis.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
One of my best friends right or die ex roommate,
and so seeing him as century also, yes, dude, but
it's the impact of what that is, and like the
scale and the story and it's easier to digest like, oh,
this is massive.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yes, when I see it from the outside, Okay, I
get that.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Being in it, I was just like, oh, it's still
just me. I'm it's I'm playing a character named Hawkeen
and this is really great and I get to sit
in this really playful energy for a while. But I
don't get to process it, like because it's massive and
so yeah, so when you said that joke, I got

(02:08):
to sit.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
In in a little bit of that.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
I feel that outside looking in. And that's I appreciate
that we could talk about Thunderbolts in a little bit
because I do feel like Thunderbolts is a movie that
is surprising people but also kind of like exciting people
in a way they weren't expecting because it is a
new property. It is a new kind of like superhero
team that people are used to that haven't been reading
comic books. And when I saw it, I was like, Yo,

(02:32):
this is one way different than what I think the
MCU has done in like at least a feature length format.
But also it's just mental health is important, and I
think you you start thinking like wow, it's mental Health
Awareness Month, and like Thunderbolts comes out with this with
this message, and I think it's really important. So we
can get into all that right now. But right now,
I want to talk about you, because, like I said,

(02:53):
you're blowing up right now.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Man. I mean I haven't watched.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
You since Assassination Nation, you know what I'm saying, Like
that was the movie at first I saw you in,
and to see your growth from there to hear like obviously,
we could talk about top Gun, Maverick and you being fanboy.
We could talk about you know, you're now walking tourists
the falcon.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
You're in last of us.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
Right now, like all of these things, like your faces everywhere.
You're about to make your directorial debut with Baton. You're
in the eye of the storm right now. Do you
ever get conscious of being in the eye of the
storm or is it just kind of like a day
in the life for you where it doesn't really mean
that much. You're just trying to keep your head down
and keep working.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
I think it's a combination of both.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
I think leaving Top Gun and what that meant for
me as an artist, as an actor and as a
storyteller point blank, which was I think we the six
of us, seven of us got absolutely spoiled by working
with someone like Tom Cruise yeap the moment you your
philosophy changes on We're not changes, but is your you

(03:57):
kind of see a master at their craft in how
they work and why they work and why they approach
things they way they do. And by the end of
that those ten months for us, I think we'd looked
at we'd look around if we all sat together in
the room right now and realize like where we started
and where we ended, and what the rest of our
careers needed, and so to work with a creator like

(04:19):
Craig Mason or Julius Ona or Mark Mylot who directed
Episode two, that in some ways is kind of where
I'm like, well, duh, yeah, Like I only want to work.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
With the best. Quality is quality is quality is quality.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
You can't fake that, you can't And so the rest
since leaving the set on top on that last day,
it was understanding like the way I want to approach
my craft is and working with the best storytellers, the
best department heads, the best across the board in order
to be able to push this forward. And so when

(04:54):
it comes down to playing like a supporting character like
someone like Manny, it's understanding that the process itself.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Is going to be the most fulfilling of it, which
is I would get to see how Craig Mazing works.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
I get to understand how he creates this world to
be able to take that and continue collecting information.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
So then by the time that I.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Take the wheel for a Baton for instance, or the
following projects that are going to come after that, I
then get to kind of pass that same philosophy down
and try to push this medium forward collectively. Because obviously
it's if we kept trying to do movies like we
previously have in the past, we kind of like plateau
and stories or stories and like to be kind of limited.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
But I think it's in what is this next step?
And so.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
That's kind of like the eternal question of like these
storytellers that've had the privilege of working with, like Sam
Levinson first movie and him, I'm like, that kind of
sets the bar of like, oh, this is how we
throw down Carcels Rev cinematographer. Yeah, it's and he's now
done unbelievable work, roommates with Kevin Harrison Junior when he

(06:02):
was doing Waves and Loose and Schultz and and so
in some way, I'm like, all right, this is information
that now has turned into a responsibility and it is
day to day because that's kind of the standard that
I want to hold myself to. The There's been scripts
that I've written that people are like, oh, that's good,
and I'm like, it's not good enough. Let's let's keep

(06:24):
like give me some real, real solid notes that really
dive into And so I think that's where it's become
a norm, is like waking up with this standard and
this belief that we could still push this medium forward.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
How I'm going to partake in that, I'm not sure yet.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, but I think it's an actively exercising that brain
and figuring out like, Okay, well I've seen Joe Kaczynski
and his approach and doing this, and Chris and doing that,
and Claire Deony doing this. I'm crazy years ago, like
how do I know them?

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah? They know you personally now.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, it's just like they're friends, and it's a crazy
idea to think of it that way. She had a
friend send me a selfie with Jerry Bruckheimer, and I
was like.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
We were literally just talking about him.

Speaker 5 (07:11):
Oh, man, just talking about him. He's one of my
favorite producers man people.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yeah, awesome.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
But it was a moment that I was like, wait,
I just got a sense of selfie because someone was
talking about me to Jerry. Yeah, and Jerry was like
in the in the and so it's like, that's that's
stuff that I'm like, it has become weird to kind
of accept it.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
It's the day to day, but also.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Bird's eye you realize like it's still an immense privilege
and I don't take a single moment for granted right right.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
See, I love the way you're talking right now because
one knowing about you and like kind of like studying you,
you're you're you're a bit of an athlete, not just
a bit like athlete was being an athlete was a
huge part of your life. And the way you speak
and the way you you talk about your craft is
very much like how athletes talk about how they want
to improve. And I remember being on that set with

(08:07):
Tom Cruise and just hearing him talk. I could til
it rubbed off on you because the way he spoke.
The one thing I kept thinking in my mind was
like this is this must have been what it was
like to listen to Kobe Bryant talk about basketball, like
that attention to detail, that that rigorous work ethic, Like
you know, like how do I build upon what came
before learning from Michael Jordan and things that sort. So
if I had to make a comparison, I would say,

(08:27):
like Tom Cruise would be like Michael Jordan in a
sense that you will be the Kobe and then.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
But Tom is.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Basically a little about mama mentality.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
Yeah exactly, And like I can feel that coming off
of you, So like you know, I get really giddy,
like hearing you talk about just taking in information, especially
after the episode that we just did with Joel, since
it was all about like inspiration and how do you
like take inspiration and build off of that. I want
to know, like you as like an actor, you was
Danny Ramirez having that athlete mentality. What was something that

(09:00):
you feel in your career has been helped by your
athlete mentality?

Speaker 3 (09:05):
I think rejection because athletes lose a lot more.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
I mean, granted some bill the idea of like going
to practice and like like even Bill Russell, I'm sure
somebody pinned them on the glass like he must have
got it's like you, there's a lot more. And maybe
that's actually comparable to doing a scene with an actor

(09:31):
and Joston back and forth, but not really, because there's
a feeling you get when you miss a shot as
an athlete, or you get blocked, or you lose the game,
whether it's little league or high school or in college
that I think that's the takeaway from losing. Is your
coach or your parent whoever, is like all right, cool,

(09:51):
like now regroup and like get back after it. Whereas
I think in had I never experienced that rejection in
the initial stages of act.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Might have felt like I personally was.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Getting rejected, and I think that is it was a
growth of that because it is you. For the most part,
you're what you're the character you are and inhabiting. At
that moment, you are borrowing from yourself and you're at
the vessel that is not right for this part. But
I think I would have taken that a little bit
harder instead of realizing, like, okay, cool, like we regroup,

(10:27):
maybe this is a losing season. Like my first year auditioning.
I remember I just signed an agent and I did
it kind of like in a sporty way, which was
I was at NYU.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
The audition that I did to get into.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
NYU was the first I mean, the monologue was the
first monologue I ever memorized, and I used that to
paid like twenty bucks to do a monologue for an
agent and NYU doesn't want you to audition while you're
at school. In my head, I'm like, I don't know
I'm gonna do this, like because I got to pay

(11:01):
for what I.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
Just right I'm paying you guys. You guys got a student.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Loans, like like I got to figure out and so
I thought, I'm like, all right, cool, I'll pay twenty bucks.
It's like playing a game of pickup. I get to
throw down once I get to work on my game.
I ended up signing with that person, and for a
year they only sent me, for the most part on
like network auditions, and I don't know how to do

(11:26):
that really, okay, what is a number audition? It like
like blue Bloods or got It, got It and stuff
that like I would have taken in the heartbeat at
that moment that I had a year when I didn't
get a single callback, and I was like, all right, cool.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Like my junior year in high school football, I went
oh and ten, you know what that feels.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
And I was like, I know what that feels like.
And that offseason I grinded. And then the next year
we started off five and zero and then we lost
five games, so we ended up five. But but I
was like, but I felt that the cultural shift, the
mentality shift, and I realized the difference of oh and
ten and five and zero and that and the time
of growth in that.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
And so.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
After that year, I then started getting callbacks, but the
only callbacks I'd get were like I basically booked.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
A role and I don't think I've ever said this
in Lady Bird. Yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
And then they they did a local hire and so
they couldn't fly me from New York to Sacramento.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
So, but I was like, but I tasted it.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
And then I the same week, I was the voice
of the Walking Dead video game, I think the Walking
Dead three. I did twelve sessions and so I was like,
I felt the victory. And then they rewrote them to
be like thirty something years old, and so they needed
a moreture voice.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
But I felt the victory. Yeah, I tasted it.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
And then there was Monster that Kelvin Harrison ended up doing.
Before he did it, it was Kenny Leon. And when
Kenny Leon, Anthony Mandler directed the one that came out.
But Kenny Lee I was directing at some point, and
you cast me in it. He left to go to
a different project. Whole cast gets reset. All this happened
within two three weeks. I'm but I tasted yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
And and so from going to one year of not
getting callbacks, so then I don't think I missed the callback.
For the next three years, for the most part, everything
was like I'm like, I get it. I understood it.
The game slowed down, yeah, I understood more so for me,
I needed the lessons of being okay to fail and
then being able to inhabit a character within like like

(13:34):
it was almost a blessing that I didn't get any
of those, because I would have gotten into that world unprepared,
not as grounded. I would have lost who I have
turned now into a performer and kind of what I
like to do, Like for instance, walking tourist feels a
little bit big for what I usually like to do
right right right, But I would have only been able
to get there and believable in that space had I

(13:55):
taken these ten years. But I think that's what the
athlete mentality kind of helped in, knowing that a loss
isn't forever, and it's also not personal. It's somebody else
handling their business. Granted sometimes it's another team. I'm kidding,
it is personal. I would take every single one of

(14:15):
those ships personally. Let me, let me, let me actually like,
let me not muddle the message. But also I took
every single one of those personally, and whenever I didn't
get a call back, I was like, all right, bet
I'd write it down. I do, like the when Aria
Stark started doing that list.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Later on later on in my life, I was like, Okay,
who's in my list again?

Speaker 4 (14:34):
Right?

Speaker 1 (14:35):
It was people, it was companies, it was yeah, entire networks.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
Everything.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
In order to be able to like one day.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
Be like, you know, I mean, you gotta take it personal,
you know what I'm saying, Like, if you're not taking
it personal, like, are you really taking it serious? You
know what I'm saying. It's like you just did a
Jordan quote. I took that personally. You know.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
I realized the moment I said it wasn't personal, I'm like,
it might not be, but I took it.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
Let's keep it us, ye, And it matters like how
you take it personal. Like you're you're a humble dude,
You're a nice dude. You're not out here blaming the
world for like the losses that you took. You're saying,
all right, I took that loss. Let me internalize that,
let me go out there, let me like build off
of that I did.

Speaker 5 (15:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
I didn't want to put responsibility on myself too though.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
Yeah, which is.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Not to cut you off really well. Yeah, but the
reason why Baton came to be was because I'm like,
all right, the roles that I want and I know
I could do. I could throw down with every single
one of the Flavor of the Month kids that have
come out for the past like five years. It happens
right right right, someone does a really great indie, the
keys are handed to them different for if you're lat
any more black.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
It's just yeah, you see it all the time. Yeah,
it's what happened to Lucas Hedges.

Speaker 4 (15:42):
I would love to see him in more stuff.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah, you know, like I think.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
About but it's uh like, for instance, Calvin's done it.
These have done nineteen laps of being a phenomenal leading man,
and the the keys of the kingdom are a little
bit restricted, but it's gonna happen.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
Yes, wait, wait, wait my beasts man.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
But so Baton came to be because I was like,
the roles that I want to do, they're not coming across.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
I'm not getting the.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
It's not necessarily just that everything was a stereotype, but
just it didn't have the substance. It wasn't either the
lead of a with the filmmaker that I want to
work with. It wasn't this type of role by the
time it got to me would have already like been
given to somebody else. And I realized, I'm like, the
type of quality work I want to do isn't going
to be dropped on my doorstep. And so I could

(16:35):
be as mad as I want, but I could also
get after it and understand that there is.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
A pocket that needs to be filled.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, and so that's where I'm like, let me take
that responsibility now that I'm aware.

Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yeah, that's really inspiring, man, because like you, you know,
from the outside looking in, and thank you so much
for sharing that, because you know, from the outside looking in,
people are I'm sure are just saying you're walking tourists,
like you're about to be in a vendors doomsday, like
you worked with Tom Cruise on top, like you're on
top of the world, last of us killing it. But
for you to still say, instead of like waiting for

(17:05):
the opportunities to come, I'm gonna make my own opportunity.
And that's like where some of the most inspiring things
come from. And what I what I really like about
you and what I you know, reading up on Baton
because you know no trailer yet know nothing like that
you guys, you're about to start working on it. Reading
up on your character, I could feel how personal it
is to you, right, Like he's a soccer player. You know,
he's going back to Miami.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
You know. Even one of your.

Speaker 4 (17:27):
Like again going back to walking tourists, he's from Miami
as well. It's something I picked up on. I know
you went to school in Miami and you know. So
I'm like, I can feel all the pieces of Danny
that are in this. You know what I'm saying, So
talk to me about like how personal Baton is for
you and why it is important to kind of like
put yourself in work.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Well, it was in that same moment that I realized like,
all right, I got this was twenty eighteen when I
wrote the first draft. I was like, all right, I know.
The how my way into the work does is a
lot of me being put into it and a lot
of the energy that I that I've things that I
want to meditate on. And during that specific time, I

(18:09):
was like, acting is such a and I was comparing
it a lot of sports. I was like, acting the
way that I'm approaching it's and the reason why I
started acting was because it was craft based, and so
when I played wide receiver in high school, I.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
Was like it was craft based.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
It was like the footwork getting off the line, the hands,
like how I ran a.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
Route in soccer. It was everything about like it was.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Viewing the sport as an art form, right, And so
I was like, all right, that's the type of actor.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
That I want to be.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
It's a lot of isolated time, and I was when
I was at NYU, I was like counting my ten
thousand hours. I was like, ten thousand hours makes you master,
like or at least leaves you in the way better spot sorry,
And I was like, all right, if every hour I'm counting,
it's just an hour that I've worked on my game.

(18:59):
For the most part, my by myself. And at the
same time, my mom is like favorite person on the planet.
She was working at a detention center and then now
as a child psychologist, but she went to school the
same year I went to school. So when I went
to NYU, she started like, Wow, she went to college
because she's like, don't want to count the people's money

(19:19):
as an accountant, Like, let me like give back to
the community in the way that feels fulfilling, right, And
so I was like, damn here, I am pursuing this
like individualist career and my mom is going full community mode.
And my sister said somewhere in the middle where I
just thought that that dynamic was incredible, and I was like,

(19:40):
all right, there's something within this that like I could
dive into. And so I wrote the fear fantasy of
what would have happened had I lost my mom at
a time that I wouldn't have been able to take
these lessons and walk away with this while pursuing my dream,
and which I think is every athlete, every human, every

(20:03):
artist of the humans story of like like balance.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
And my favorite stories ever.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, and so many sports stories we don't necessarily see
the athlete and outside of the game, we don't see
the pressures of of all they have the balance, like
the financial pressures, the familial pressures, intra relationship dynamics.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
The only movie I've seen done that was The Fire
Inside that recently came out with Bryan Tyree Henry. Oh.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah, yeah, that's the That's the only movie that I've
seen in my reference that I do quite a bit
is Whiplash.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, He's my favorite sports movie the past twenty years.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
Oh, I haven't just heard ascribed as a sports movie.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
I mean every so I go around, like I went
through to a bunch of colleges to talk to some athletes,
and that is been required.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Viewing for like two or three of them.

Speaker 4 (20:52):
That's a good one.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
And so when actually when I when I was graduate
in MYYU, Miles came back to do a masterclass. We
did the same studio, Stone Street Studios, and the last
week of my NYU Life senior year, he comes in
and we have some sides from that the Djokozinski movie.
He was doing the Firefighter what's it called the Jokers

(21:14):
movie with Miles the first one they're a firefighters or firefighters,
they're firefighters.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
I totally forgot.

Speaker 4 (21:23):
I'm like blanket on that one. The only firefighter movie
if at the Pete Davison.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
The only okay, only the Brave. So they had only
the Brave sides. They hadn't shot it yet. And so
he came back and he's like, all right, so these
are the sides you're gonna do for the class. And
so it was like seventy people in the studio were there, camera,
set up a reader and then you and I was
the first one to go up, because when I first

(21:51):
started at that studio, I was like, all right, who's
working from n YU right now? It was just Miles Teller.
For the past few years had been just Milestyler, and
there's obviously like Rachel Brosne had been working and then
the massive alumni list of NYU. But I was like,
Miles Teller has the closest to the career that I want.
And he did this studio for semesters, the only person

(22:13):
to have ever done and while you stille Street four semesters,
and so I was like, all right, easy, I'm gonna
do four semesters successfully clues, but four semesters. He comes
in by chance my fourth semester, and because the teachers
and everyone knew that I did four semesters, are like, Dan,
you should go first, And so I went up first.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
I did the sides.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
And he's like, no notes, we could be working together
right now. And then in front of everyone, I was
like I bett and.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
So then other people go up.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
He gives them notes all this stuff, and at the
end of the class, I go up to Miles and
I'm like yo, or actually we walk to each other
and he's like, yo, that was really good. Let me
know if you're ever in LA And I was like,
bet we exchanged information and I'm like, fuck, I need
a reason to get there. I'm gonna hit him up. Then, Oh, actually,

(23:05):
during that week I had Lady Bird, I had the
Walking This was that week where you lost when I
got all three at this I got all three. I
hadn't lost it yet, right, And so I'm like, I'll
probably fly out. And that was like in the fall.
Summer passes. I graduate. He comes back to receiving the
award from n YU called the Granite Award. It was
the first annual Granite Award. And he's there, he's doing

(23:29):
press for Bleed for this and I'm still in New
York as a graduate, as an unemployed graduate, graduated student.
I come by and I see him.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Pre award show and he's like, yo, Dan, what's up man.
I'm like, oh shit. He remembers me.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
This is great and he's like, Yo, how those movies go?
And I'm like, oh, what funny you speak on this?
But this got recast a new director of this. It
was they you could imply me. They did a local
higher only and then they recast a video game for older,
and he's like, all right, perfect, that's great.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
Oh and I'm like, what do you mean I just
lost bro, Yeah, and he's like, no, no.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
It's BET's This is a great lesson to learn in
regards to like we're going to go back to previously,
in regards to like that this that's not personal, that
this business is not personal in that way, and this
is a great moment to learn that you could take
it personal, which is what I do, but it's not
personal and so it's not necessarily saying anything about you,

(24:31):
but this is there's so many pieces that move. And
he's like, you got like a fast track version of
learning that, right, And so that honestly did help. A
couple of months past, I go to La. I'm like
day one, I'm like, yeah, what's up. I'm in La
And he's like, well, I can't hang during this time,
but you got to meet this person. And it ended

(24:53):
up being my manager, my first manager, and so he
sent me with my first manager, and that I was
with him for two years top gun with them, and
then so by the third annual Granite Award, which I received, okays,
Miles sends a video that they played at the ceremony
and it was during the time we were filming Top Gun,

(25:16):
and so there's a couple of planes in the background.
He's like, yo, I know I told you that we
could be working together, but I didn't say this soon.
Don't come from my jobs yet. And so it was
a cool, like full circle moment just in those three years.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
That's a beautiful story. Man.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (25:31):
Okay, I'm gonna have to come down from that because
like that, that's the type of story that you want
when it comes to honestly, they can make a movie
about that where it's like the failure. I won't even
call it the failure, the pitfalls, I guess you could say,
and then the success and then you're putting in the
work to make sure that you're like in the places
where you need to be. That's really cool. Thank you
for sharing that. I want to talk to you about

(25:52):
kind of like you know now here you are, you're
making your own movie. You've done the indie Stufflast night
I watched Look both Ways.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
I had a lot of fun with that. I like
a good like rom com type of energy type of movie.
And again, you're so charming in that it's like ridiculous,
like you you put on your Miles Tellor drumming had
on it for that one.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
But so bummed that they didn't use as much drumming
as I practice.

Speaker 4 (26:19):
I was excited.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
I was like, hop, I was so excited.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
I was hopping on the seat and I'm like, oh,
I look ridiculous in the frame. They probably cut all
your seats. They should.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
I should have just like sad down, I should.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
Yeah, this look a little bit more cool. You were excited.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
You were an excited graduation week. Shout out to the
people who watch look both ways, bro.

Speaker 4 (26:38):
But I was watching and again going back to like
Assassination Nation and then seeing you in this movie and
now you're in like these big blockbusters and everything. I
just want to know, like, what is the learning curve
of going from something with like indie money to now
these big blockbusters where you have trainers. I'm assuming you
you know there's like a crazy schedule, Like I just

(27:00):
want to know what is the learning curve on that.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
I think the learning curve is.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
It's figuring out how to maintain its stamina because a
shoot that takes ten months for the same screen like
it's two hours. Let's say it's a two hour movie.
Ten months for two hour movie. It's more days for
less things. And so there is something beautiful about having
a twenty five day shoot, your in motion, your inflow,

(27:31):
you understand your character, and if you're on those twenty
five days your solid You're good. Yeah, But how do
you then now extend with that same character depth over
the course of six months, right or the course of seven.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
You have a week off?

Speaker 1 (27:45):
How do you stay locked in during that week off
from the last time you shot a scene to this one?
And so I think that's really the learning curve is
just how to maintain the level of focus. But outside
of that, I mean it's the same, Like I have
the same person for my character, and I kind of
I've been told by an ext girlfriend that I kind
of sit in the energy of the person I'm playing
because I'm like, I don't think a method.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
I find my believable way into like to fully embodying
the person, whether it's for look both ways. For instance,
I read like ten parenting books and I saw a
bunch of parenting videos of how to be a young dad,
and I became super nurturing during that time. I was
just like for Friends for everyone, I was like a caretaker.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
I was more tuned. And that was right after I'd done.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
This movie No Exit, And so for No Exit, it
was like, actually, the thing is I pair those two
together because I went.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
Back to back. I did No Exit wrapped.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
During the pandemic, then flew directly to Austin from New
Zealand to start look both Ways to day Wow, And
so those two I pair because for No Exit, I
was reading the Will to Change by Bell Hooks, and
so I was like, I almost tried to do the
antithesis of the book says, and so I that was like.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
My ying yang.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
So for No Exit, I needed to clean to cleanse,
would look both ways and and then selfishly learn as
much as I could as a human. But yeah, I
think it's and then jump into something like clardiny or
assassination like I think it's just the length of time,
but nothing changes in regards to my approach to the

(29:27):
work right right, And then then when you work with
like a claridiny versus like a joke is it's just
quality is quality like they it's different means to similar objectives.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
In regards to what ends up in the frame.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
Right, right, maybe it's cooler to maybe get paid more
sometimes or like it's it's as small as like and
some of the bigger stuff is like you're it's the
same amount of time commitment, and it's.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
Just like explosions cost more.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah yeahah, that's an education for at a studio level
would be very expensive, right, And so I think those
are like the small adjustments. But outside of that, it's
your preparations. Your preparation. That's like, if it's there for you,
it's there for you, and if it's not, you're gonna
fail in both mediums, yeah, or the same mediums, both
different approaches, but yeah, I don't know, I don't necessarily

(30:21):
think of it that way.

Speaker 4 (30:22):
Yeah, yeah, what what do you personally do to like
stay locked into something that takes a lot of time
to shoot?

Speaker 3 (30:30):
For instance, drink cap.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Joaquin's energies actually stuck with me a little bit longer, Yeah,
because there is like a it was energy that I
had more as a kid, and so I get to
at one point I was always the class clown and
the loudest in the room, and then I lost that
for like six years, and then a bunch of my
friends were like, yeah, you're like the mature one.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
You're like the reserve reserve what I'm reserved, Like you
don't know me?

Speaker 1 (30:59):
And it was like during like, yeah, there was this
moment that it was like I was a little bit
more isolated. I was less of who Joaquin is. That
when it came around to prep, I was like, you know,
let me tap back into that. Yeah, they're like if
a couple of people were saying, it must be true.
And it was because I was like isolating in the
work I was putting in the hours, I was reading
a bunch, which wasn't who I was when I was younger,

(31:21):
and so I was like, that makes sense. Let me
go back to the moment mode where I could pair
someone that's reading a lot but also still in that
youthful energy. But for that I just got to have
like fun. I had to go out and train and
practice and joke around with stunts and kind of be

(31:42):
the levity in the room, go over to producer village
and kind of just catch up crack up with them, right,
and just gave myself this freedom to And it was
easy with Anthony because he brings so much of that
that I'm like, oh, let me just borrow some of
that energy and let me take you guys work really
well off each other, for sure.

Speaker 3 (31:59):
Thank you man.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
But it made it kind of easier to stay in that.
But during like let's say I had like one week
off or two weeks off, because it was like a
four month shoot overall, I was able to be like, Okay, I.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
Know it's two weeks.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
I can't stay in this or I'm gonna burn out.
And so if I have these two weeks or a week,
let me use the weekend to kind of slow down.
Then Monday through Wednesday, I'll go right. I've been watching
a bunch of director parks work, so simply for mister Vengeance, Lady, Vengeance,

(32:34):
old boy. Yeah, And so that's kind of more naturally
where I like to sit anyway, And so I'm like,
this week, I'm just gonna exercise that, and like when
I write, I'm gonna write something in this tone. So
then by Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I could start revving
the engine again to be able to be light and
playful and like the naiveness he brings, I think is
also something that a lot of the times when we

(32:56):
try to buy it off more than we could Chew
and so that was really good inner to be in,
and it feels like you wake up and like life's
good when you have it gets like minimal responsibility, but
you want the responsibility because you don't know what that
responsibilit is gonna entail all live script. But then my
second script I wrote was during a week and a
half period I had off, and so I wrote this

(33:19):
film Pursue the Touch that Jeremy Harris is producing, and.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
I wrote that I don't know how much I could say,
but I wrote that the exclusive man, I'll say this.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
I'll say actually, I'll say this story. Now it's who's
to say what happens, but this is exclusive. We could
maybe connect this to Thunderbolts somehow because Lewis was involved.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
I had a week.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Off and a half off in Atlanta during Captain America,
and I was like, hmm, there's too much time to
like sit in Joaquin's energy. And I had just finished
the entire filmography of the stuff that Julius sent me,
so he sent a lot of films that we were referencing.
And then I just got addicted to director Park and

(34:05):
I was like, sympathy for mister vengeance is amazing. Okay,
you could tell he's having a blast. You should check
it out. What was it called Sympathy for Mister Vengeance?
All right, and it's fucked up, but every frame I
was like, he's having fun.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
Like I could tell he's like having a blast.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
And so I'm like, I hadn't written in like eight months,
and so I'm like, let me write a five page exercise,
no outline, nothing, just this line. This word has to
justify the next. This sentence has to justify the next.
I don't know where we're going, Okay, I don't know
what it's about.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
It's like it's building.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
And so that's what I was like, I'm gonna do
this for five pages and then I'm gonna write something
that I'm going to direct Lewis Pullman. Okay, And so
I texted Lewis'm like, yeah, I'm gonna write something for you.
If it's good, it's good. If it's bad, it's bad.
But I'm gonna send to you that same day, I
took these neotropics for the first time. Okay, So they're
called it's called alpha brain.

Speaker 5 (35:00):
Yeah, I've taken out for brain. Yeah yeah, yeah, it's
on it.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
So look I don't. I don't know if it works,
but in my head during those I wrote it in
three days, locked in during those three days, whether the placebo.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Was I thought it was limitless.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
And the thing is I was also I didn't realize
what I was doing because it was time off and
I wasn't working out right. I wasn't having like and
I on set I woke up at five am and
then have a long day and come back.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
I wasn't doing that.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
So I was also waking up at nine in the
morning with a fucking cold brew Nitro cold brew and
that and then some vitamins. So it was just like
I hit a window.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
I tried to recreate this window all the time you
did drink the secret stuff, and I told Lou, I'm like,
I'm gonna write this for you.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
But so the idea was to do that after the
five page warm up, I'm write five shitty pages. So
I started writing these five pages without the outline, just
like and by the time I got to the fifth page,
I was like, I don't want to see where this goes. Yeah,
And I was like, I have no outline, I have
no idea what it's about. Accept these five pages and

(36:10):
I ended up in those three days writing one hundred
and thirty page scripts.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
It just flew off the It just literally I.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Was like, all I got to do is follow the
same rule. This justifies the next inherently. I've read the
hundreds of scripts.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
In my life. I've watched hundreds of movies. I know
you kind of no story.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
And what I learned in Baton was that because I
used to be afraid of writing, I used to be
afraid of sharing writing. Like if I had to go
up and share my shit in language arts class or
like a poem in language arts class, I'd shut down.
I'd be like, I'm good at it, and I'm good
at math, but like for me to vocalize that these
are my thoughts terrifying. But through Baton I learned I'm like,

(36:52):
all right, what do I admire about those crazy uncles
and Anthony Mackie crazy uncle that take take fifteen twenty
people in the room, family whoever and tell a story,
and I'm like, how do I capture that energy and like
that freedom that they have they feel no judgment. We've
already heard the story thirty times because every family gathering

(37:14):
the same uncle tells the same story, and so I
was like, how do I tell get that energy, because like,
some of those are the best stories you ever hear?

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Oh, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
And so with that, I was like, all right, I
learned that freedom in Baton, and so let me give
myself the crazy uncle energy to tell a story that
is grounded and.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
Fucked up and twisted.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
And I'm exploring it as I go and I'm embellishing,
but at the end of the day, it's following these
justified train tracks. And because I was writing for Lewis,
it gave me the freedom of being like, oh, I'm
already not going to.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
Judge the character that's my boy.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Yeah, And.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Then I send it to my team and then my
team was like no, Danny, and I was like what,
you can't give this to Lewis. They're like, this is
the best role you've written for, like the best rule
you've had. Yeah, you cannot get And I was like word,
and they're like, yeah, don't touch it. I sent to
my producing partner. He's like, don't touch it. Oh wow,
And so that first draft, who sent to Jeremy and

(38:10):
Jeremy's like, don't touch it, okay, and so we're that's
the one that we're working on now. We're trying to
find the director and all that.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
But like through.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
That, that like kind of taking a time off from
Joaquin to be myself and write. And I mean, I
love todd Field. I love like hit the texture of
how he works as well, and so I'm always continuously
trying to find who I'd be as a storyteller for
stuff that's not like a baton, And that's kind of
what all this influence for Captain America.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
Allowed me to write.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, And then after the I read it again the
fourth the fourth day. So after the three day fucking
binge read it the fourth I was like, all right,
I guess it's good. Then my team gets back to
me later that week about it and like this is great.
And then three days before filming again, I'm like, all right,
let me get back into this mode. And I didn't
resurface for the to the script until after and I

(39:05):
was like, oh damn, this is like I got to
try to recreate this. But that's kind of that was
a little side story. But Lewis freed me in that,
and we have other projects that we're doing together that
we're developing together, but this one specifically was just so
funny because he was also on set and so I
don't think he got to read it by the time
I took it back.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
Okay, so now he does he still think like the
walls for him? Does he know? No? He knows? Sorryis no.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
But the thing is, who's to say life, Like, uh,
movies have so many iterations and lives to them that
like it could still be a movie that he ends
up doing, like for whatever, Like for instance, I didn't
realize like it was supposed to be Matt Damon being
Manchester by the Sea.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
Yeah, I had no idea, and that was his passion product.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
I was his baby was set up and he couldn't
do it, and.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
He's all right, Casey, yeah, Oscar for it.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, And so I think, I mean, it's so and
I think that's going back to the lesson of learning
of like how many pieces move, how the finances of
something change, how the director changes produce.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
Yeah, that I'm like, there's a neutral way to move
about it that helps every now and then we don't
take things.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
But yeah, it very very interesting. I want to I
want to get into because like we talked so much
about like how it sounds like Joaquin influences you a lot,
even you know, when you're done, when you're in the
middle of it. What I want to get into because
you and Lewis are actually going to be in a
movie together in Avengers Doomsday, and I'll be remiss if
we didn't talk about the chair announcement. You know, like

(40:43):
one I saw a video of someone asking you, like, hey, like,
what happens when you get the call for have you
got it yet? For you were like, Oh, I hope, So,
I hope, I hope they get it you Okay.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
So I'm gonna go back about one moment, by the way,
that was that was an alpha brain on it ad
I will say this because I still don't know it
works so but so no, so I had no idea.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
Throughout all CAP. I would actually like, there's this ride that.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
We took on on Disney's PJ to a different spot
for press, and I asked Anthony, I'm like, yo, like,
so I'm jumping around for this story. But the first
thing we shot for Captain America was the hospital. That
scene that was my first day one.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
That was thank you.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
That was to me. I was like, Oh, that's.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
My north Star, that's more of.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Where I am as a performer that I feel like
because there's times that like Danny would fight Joaquin by
the way, there's times I'm like.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Yo, what's up, bro? Then I would just be like
stop it.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
But then there's times that I'm like, oh, that's who
I am, and that's who I was also, but that
that that scene in the hospital, I'm like, but that's
the energy that's like me as an actor right now.
I was like, I want that responsibility. I want to
step up to the plate and fail, regroup and come
back or succeed. And I think that's where I'm like,
I get Joaquin more so after that scene than I

(42:10):
did the entire show. So during the show, I think
I was I understood where he was energetically, and I
played everything to the reality of the scene with Anthony
and bouncing off and back and forth. But that scene
where he's like I want that, that's why you're my favorite.
That's why I looked up. And so at the end
of that scene, which is the first thing we shot,

(42:31):
he basically is like, Yo, get the suit ready, and
the entire on that PJ I was like, Yo, hey
suits ready, suit's ready?

Speaker 4 (42:41):
You said it.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
You said it. And so he's like, bro, you're in it,
and I'm like nah, but like, have you been confirmed?

Speaker 1 (42:49):
He's like no, but I said this thing and he's
like he still he laughs about it now. But I
was like, yeah, but it's not official, right, have you
read that I'm in it? And he's like no, know,
but like, dude, I told you to get your suit
ready you're gonna be And I was like, no, no, no,
that's sent official. You haven't read anything can happen, like
who knows.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
There's two movies that come out in between. People have
been confirmed. We had a whole movie confirmed.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
It's like anything like in the they could have killed
me off as like as a news story in Fantastic
Core they still canning can happen in the ULTI they
still can't.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
And so.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
I had no idea during press throughout the end of it.
And then they finally I think, called me before the
chair announcements to start trying to figure out like actually
after the press, I mean to the premiere, they're like, yo,
when's baton happening? And I'm like, dance for TB Day

(43:49):
and they're like all right, that that and and then my,
my team started getting into it, and it was already
a part of their thoughts, but they just wanted to
be formal about then you and I baton trying to
figure out the schedule of that and so it's very respectful.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
And then they told me.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
But then I did a day press at the studios
and I was told there's gonna be an announcement and
they told me like that it was gonna be this
really unique way and it was gonna take some time.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
It took a lot of time, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
But it was gonna be really like abstract because it
was gonna be just names first. But I think there
was a leak that happened about like, hey, there's an
announcement coming tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
Yeah, yeah, we knew about it before.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
Yeah, happened, and so I think that kind of changed,
but like it's still I think it was a brilliant.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
Brilliant strategy. But I totally forgot about that.

Speaker 4 (44:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
And so the day of the chairs, the day of the.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
Chairs, I'm at home and I got a text like, YO,
tune in.

Speaker 4 (44:49):
I'm like, tune into what bro, Yeah, what's happening?

Speaker 1 (44:51):
And oh my god, that's right, And so I scramble
and I see the second chair, and then from that
point on, I'm like, oh, this is cool.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
I'd go have my little breakfast. The music swelled up.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
I run over and check it out, and then I
was like, I was surprised by every single name there.

Speaker 3 (45:06):
And then.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Then Lewis's name pops up, and I get crazy, like
I'm hyped, I'm celebrating, I'm doing little videos, I'm dancing,
and then I'm like doing a little like one of
the takes of the videos. I had no idea I
was coming after, and then my name pops up and
then it's just like because I was like, it could

(45:30):
have been anywhere. It was like and then I get
the text after saying like, yeah, we did that on purpose,
and I was.

Speaker 4 (45:34):
Like, oh, nice, Well that's actually pretty, that's actually something
but to know.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
But it was also like, I mean, forever, Lewis and
I are going to have this little clip of our
time in the MCU with our names next to each other,
which is cool.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
See now I'm hoping. I'm hoping since this is the multiverse,
the Fantastic Four from what twenty fourteen with Miles tell
her in it is mister Fantastic he still has a
chance to kind of like slide into the story. That'd
be crazy and I'd be crazy that in Yu Alum
just all in one scene probably who else.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
There's a couple n Yu alum in it. I mean there, Shoot,
I haven't s with Mackie.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
Yeah, yeah, we had We had a Bin Wong on
the show for his new film like Karate Kid, and
he was the n Yu kid as well. So just
getting all the nyus up.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Here, it's crazy, I mean, but the thing is in
the same way of like what we learned from Tom
right Tom, if you work with him, from Diego Bonetta
to whoever like you, you walk away with this philosophy
of storytelling. And of course because it's so pointed, it's
it's so strong, and it's like there's pillars.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
To his philosophy.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Then you go to a school like n Yu or Juilliard,
and it makes sense.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
As to why there's a track record of people coming
out of there.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
There's also that North Carolina, the majors went to it.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
I think there's a school of the Arts.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
I'm not I'm not too sure about them.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
But there's a bunch of people coming out of that
one as well. And so you realize like sometimes it's
just about how clear that forsophis and like how people
could take that with them, because I'm sure there's other
programs that are as funded, if not more fund Yeah,
but there's no staying power because I think I don't know,
there's in the same way as an athlete, like you

(47:15):
get the wrong teacher, they teach you the wrong habits, right,
Like you're playing under a coach that teaches dbs how
to open their hips and it's actually not that good.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
Go to the pros like oh wait a minute, yeah, or.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
If you get a chance to go to program there's
people that.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
Are just like so good at their fundamentals and then
some that yeah, I don't know where I was going at,
but I was.

Speaker 4 (47:35):
Going it was going somewhere. But it's fine, We're just
having a conversation.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
I gotta tell you.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
I watch the entirety of that live stream. I want
to say the entirety Like the thing that like I
want to say this with like all like the respect
that I say is because like I had to dip right,
it is like I was locked into this announcement and
then I have to go pick up my daughter, like
I have to take her to school, and I was like,
come on, like hear and then so I had to

(48:04):
go take my daughter to school.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
And then like I had, like in the car, I have.

Speaker 4 (48:07):
The Bluetooth fun and I was listening to like the
music cues, and so I'm trying to guess what name
it is off of the music cues.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
And I'm driving.

Speaker 4 (48:17):
I guessed a couple of them, because you know, I'm
a big like two thousands kid, I grew up like
ninety two, grew up in the two thousands, and so
as soon as I hear that like X Men theme,
I'm not looking my I'm driving safe I'm listening to
I'm like.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
So now I'm like, I gotta go home and find
out who that was.

Speaker 4 (48:33):
And I hear multiple X Men themes, and so I
get back to my computer. I got my whole live
stream still running and everything, and I go rewind, I go.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
Magnato, like you know, Patrick Stewart, what.

Speaker 4 (48:44):
I'm freaking out, dude, Like I'm absolutely freaking out. So
I was like really upset that like it was taking
so long because I didn't get to experience that like
in real time, like and make the content off of that.
But at the same time, man, Like, I want to know,
because you said you were surprised by every name that
was there, what was your reaction to seeing like og
x Men kind of like show up, because I know

(49:05):
you watched the X Men growing up as well, Like.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Yo, I just got like selfishly, I was like, I
guess the star opposit of these legends.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Yeah, And I was like this is sick, just because
because it was also like right after why am I
getting this time?

Speaker 4 (49:19):
Right?

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (49:20):
It was right after doing cat Press and the premiere,
and like we had already kind of lived in in
that for a bit that I think it was a
part of this like general excitement of the time. Like
I was just I was and I was like, yeah,
I guess, like I guess the simulation is broken, and.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
I guess these are my new co stars.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
And I got to do it with my best friend,
and so it was this place that I think and
I say it in and I watched the whole thing,
but it was like to ground myself into it, I thought,
more so.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
From the producer side of it, I was like, this
is brilliant.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
I think there was something about like the same reason why,
like you're like god Damn, I gotta go pick up
my daughter and I gotta come back. And then the
way that the chairs worked out, I was.

Speaker 4 (49:59):
Like, you still, it's like, can't miss Oh it was
a whole day. Yeah, literally, I can't hold this thing.
And I sat there all day y except for the
time I have to go pick my daughter, Like I
have a live shtom where I'm just sitting there like
Who's next, whos next? Free There's a whole I'll show
it to you after this, but.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
There's a whole.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
Reaction to me is when they announced Alan Cummings Nightcrawler.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
Yeah, I screamed, bro. I was like, oh shit, like
I was going nuts.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
So you're right, like it was one of those like
you know, people had its criticisms of it, like this
could have been an email. I'm sure you saw all
that type of stuff.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
But yeah, but that's also like this is going back
into like pushing the medium, like no one's ever done.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
This, no, no, And so we were like, yeah, oh, we're.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Gonna do the same Toyota commercial forty times over driving
through the same mountain.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
Sorry shout out to Yoda.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
Left.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
My mom had at Toyota camera her whole life and
she still does actually now she's.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
Got a Marano whatever.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
But no, like it's like the same iteration of something,
and so that's where I'm like, okay, sure, but this.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
Was brand new, it was fresh.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
It was a list of names in the chair, but
it was also like a cultural moment. Yes, and if
we're gonna send doing it any other ways.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
Yeah, you know again, anybody who was like like criticizing it,
I would you know, they were like.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
Oh yeah, like this could have been even know da
da da.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
But at the same time, like we're locked in, and
so a lot of times when you saw people making
that criticism, they will also in the same breath go
but I'm here like like I'm here for it, and
like I saw the whole thing, and it's like, yes,
that's what it was designed to do, because this is
something that we're all excited about, like Doomsday is gonna
be one of the most talked about movies the year
comes out, And very similar to like what I think

(51:29):
Christopher Nolan does really was like whenever he puts out
a cast list, that shit goes viral like nobody's business.
And Marvel just basically did their version of a Christopher
Nolan but in a much more like, you know, like
eventful way where Christopher Nolan will probably just put out
the list like day to day. They said who's next,
Who's next, Who's next? And I'm a copywriter, like I

(51:49):
used to work in advertising for like five years, so
like from this standpoint, I was like, I get what's
going on?

Speaker 3 (51:54):
Gut, what's going on?

Speaker 1 (51:54):
That was basically doing a whole like a being like,
all right, this is an extra day of D twenty three.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
That then you're in tune in and it's a single stream.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
Yeah, it's an event. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
And then a couple of days after there's all those
memes about the Yeah, and that's what you want. Yeah,
shout out to the whole team there. I think they
they did an amazing job because again, like if you're
we're in the cast, we didn't.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
Know yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
And that's where I think across the board, I mean
probably there's like maybe three or four cast people that
knew everybody h yeah, I got I called Lewis, I'm
like yo, yeah, yeah, like are you seeing this and
s like what Broe?

Speaker 3 (52:37):
No, it was it was cool. That's dope, man, that's
really dope.

Speaker 4 (52:40):
All right.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
So I want to.

Speaker 4 (52:41):
I really have to tell you this as well as
you know, it's someone who has been you know, following
them Marver City Bank Universe from the jump. Honestly, that's
like where my platform was kind of built, like talking
about a Falcon and the Winter Soldier. All my followers
know about that time and like me diving into that,
and I've been watching you for a while on that
and so it was really cool to see you get
your feature MCU debut on the big screen with Anthony

(53:02):
Mackie as my captain America, you know, but also you're
representing like Latino representation and now you're the soul like
Latino on the Avengers team proper right, which is super
duper special. And there was a moment where, like, you know,
I took my girlfriend to like watched the movie and
she doesn't watch Marvel like at all, but like you know,
she loves me, so like we're watching together, so it's
like cat for me, like walking for you, because she's Dominican,

(53:24):
so she's just kind of like watching this and she
was so attached to you, bro, like it was ridiculous.
Like every like that scene where you get shot out
the sky, she kept going anytime you were in danger.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
Honestly, she kept going wucky, no, like no, wucky.

Speaker 4 (53:42):
She was like, he's our only one.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
I was like, yeah, you're right.

Speaker 4 (53:48):
I was like, you're right, Yeah, don't die walk it,
you know. So, Like I think it's really cool that
I get to see, like in real time, like you
know what Black Panther kind of like meant for us,
what Anthony means for us as Captain America, and now
like what you mean for a lot of Latinos watching
the MCU. Like there's a lot of like Latino representation
from Sochi to Oscar to you know yourself, Like there's

(54:10):
a lot of people in it, but like to be
the sole Latino avenger like on the team proper. Like
I know you probably got this question a lot, but
I gotta know, like how heavy is that crown exactly?
Or do you feel that at all?

Speaker 1 (54:26):
I've been asked how heavy the crown is. I've been
asked how heavy the crown is. But before jumping into
that answer, I will say when I got the call
twenty nineteen, it was before all, Like it was before Sochi.
It was before yeah, yeah, it was before everybody.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
For I think it was like right before to note, well,
what's already like nay, more right, the more right. Because
Black Panther came out in twenty twenty one, I want
to say, you can in fact check me.

Speaker 3 (54:52):
On that twenty twenty one.

Speaker 4 (54:53):
So I got this call, so he was probably capped
twenty two oh as as Yeah, So because.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
I got the call being like that that didn't matter.

Speaker 5 (55:04):
The way historical.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
Timeline we guys.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Because Falconver Soldier got pushed a little bit. Pandemic kind
of pushed us. And so I was just because a
lot of people didn't reference it as the first and
then be like no, and so I was like, all right,
let me like, I don't want to find anybody, and
so but I just I sat on that information for
like it took six years to actualize, which is crazy,

(55:31):
like when I think of twenty nineteen twenty five, I'm
just like, but yeah, I was sitting on that information
for I had finished Top Gun. My audition was a
week after Top Gun wrapped. I went right into it,
did one audition, got the job a week later. But
I got the call being like, hey, we've whenever we
go around the world with a movie in the MCU,

(55:55):
people are always asking like when's the first one coming,
when's the first one coming? And it with a great
pride that like I got to make this call to
say that.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
He's finally here.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
And so I heard that literally twenty nineteen, and so
I was like, let's go, like.

Speaker 3 (56:11):
When do I get my suit immediately? Twenty five in six.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
But within that time, and I think I learned so
much about the patients of this. Again, we're going back
to the same lesson of Miles being like operates in
its own way, don't take a personal top gun.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
Our delay as well.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
We shot at twenty eighteen, came out twenty twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (56:34):
Wasn't I want to say two fact check me out.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
It was gonna come out like three times.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
Yeah. Well, I think that was like my first oscars
that I went to. I want to say I was.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
Twenty twenty two, three, two, twenty one, twenty one, No, no, no,
we talk about.

Speaker 4 (56:51):
Two.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
Oh my god, Oh my god, it's been three years. Yeah, yeah,
even more.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
Maybe that's oh wow, yeah yeah, because it was supposed
to originally come out. I think the first poster we got,
so I've printed out posters that say twenty twenty she
is a Toping Maverick in theaters twenty twenty.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
Yeah, and then we kept pushing, and.

Speaker 5 (57:08):
So I remember it just kept pushing and pushing because
you know, I was waiting for it.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Yeah, No, we all were all.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
Yeah, I was glad that it got pushed because, like,
you know, there was a lot of movies that came
out during that time that deserved the theatrical release. They
ended up going straight to streaming. And not to say
there's nothing wrong streaming has been some great movies that
have been put out in that way. But you know,
for example, movies like Soul Back to the Pixar thing
you know, came out in twenty twenty should have been
you know, a wide release. Freaking Predator Pray Pray Pray

(57:35):
was one of those, you know, And so hearing about
top Gun and then like knowing who's like attached to it,
you want that to be on the biggest scream possible.
So whenever they said it was pushed back, it was
one of the rare instances where I was like, Okay, cool,
let's like wait for this blowover so everyone can like
see it as much.

Speaker 3 (57:49):
I think personally, like I that's some of my.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Those two pauses were probably some of the best things
that happened to me. I think one, it'll like I
was able to learn, first of all, how to sit.
I was sitting on what felt like a rocket, right.
I'm like, I knew that we did amazing work from
the first day were on set for TopKing, We're like,
this is cinema history, first time in the faighteen and

(58:14):
I land and I go sit down and I'm like,
I was in the fen and we filmed it with
these cameras that were specifically built by clad Miranda won
the world's best EPs, and I just got to do that.
And so there was moments that I'm like, but I

(58:34):
think then sitting on that one like continue to teach
me the patients of what this career is. I think
it did put ego to the side, because there's so
much of me early on that I was like, well,
what's gonna my career is going to be like when
all these things come out? And after a while I realized,
I'm like, but that's not going to be who I am.
My identities outside of the value that people put into
the movies I do. And so it allowed me to

(58:54):
separate those two. And so for the how heavy was
the Crown at the time that I got Joaquin Torres
and I knew that he turned into Falcon from the
comics and there's so we were trying to figure out
some things of that. As the film comes out this year,
I'm already kind of like I've lived this for six years,

(59:15):
and so it was something that was normal to me.
I had done so much work for it. I had
gone through different iterations of Joaquin in my head, and
so it was really the the videos where and then
also like those videos were like little kids were hyped
about them, yeah, and I was like that's right.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
Yeah, Like I grew up with nobody.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
I grew up with no super Like when I want
to be a superhero, I was like, I Goku.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
Because I had I had crazy hair. I was like,
that's my dog, Like.

Speaker 4 (59:48):
We were looking at Piccolo.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
Yeah that's crazy. Yeah, It's just like it's the representations
wasn't there.

Speaker 3 (59:56):
And so there was like a week that I vegeta,
but I'm like, no, whoa, whoa WOA everybody had.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Everybody had, your self worth is higher, there's a there's
a happier approach to life.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
Beg everybody feels like every now and then. But sometimes
I'm like, I get them. I was like, I get you.
Now he's the prince. He deserves more, and he was
just angry.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
You know, you get angry sometimes.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
Yeah, But.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
I think it it's it's going to get back to
the responsibility things. There's so many things that are tied
together that it's like understanding that we didn't have that
growing up. Now thankfully there's a lot more of us,
but it's still realizing the impact that has on the kid.
I think is what gives people permission to be great,

(01:00:44):
and so I had to find that permission elsewhere. I
had to I mean the Miami Hurricanes. The reason why
there's such the problem in my life is because it
was these eighteen nineteen twenty year olds that were exceptional
what they did right down the block, and they were
a part of the world, like the best team ever assembled.
Two thousand of my Americans shout out. And so because
of that, I'm like, they're right down the block and

(01:01:05):
they're phenomenal.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
I could be that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
When I saw them play, I'm like, I could. They're
so close to me, I could see I could be there.
And so my mom and started sending me these kids
that she goes in and takes care of.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
And I don't know, I don't know much about her
job in regards to like the technical terms of it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
But when she does like play therapy, and then they
find out like, oh yeah, that's like the mom of
waking in Torres, Like I've sent like little videos like
sending my happy birthday or like I hope you're well,
like all these things, and like when she relays to me,
their excitement is where I'm like, whoa, this is this
is heavy. This is something really impactful. And that's not

(01:01:50):
even looking at it from like the economic standpoint or
how big the market.

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
Is or all the the.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
Like the impact that we have with our dollar, but
it's like really just the human impact that having someone
that represents you in excellence and what that means. And
Joaquin is incredibly intelligent. He's tech savvy, he's gritty, he's
got cohones, and he wants to prove himself. And I
think us as Latin Americans, first generation American second or

(01:02:21):
third or immigrants, we want that responsibility to be like, hey,
look we could do this. We're very good at the
things we do. And so when I started seeing that
that energy played off, and specifically that final scene. I'd
have people facetiming with your nephews and be like, yo,
like they don't believe it. I know the falcon and

(01:02:43):
I was like, bro, it's Danny r right. They're like, specifically,
my cinematographer was like, yeah, they don't think I'm working
with you. I'm like, what do you mean, bro, like
FaceTime prove it? Yeah, your uncle's dope.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:02:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
So stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
It's been the real the time that I feel this
impact then and then just really sometimes just like on
a slow day when you're like, Okay, let's assess how
far we come, where are we going, what do we
got to do? And then sometimes like a day like
to day, when revisiting just how many moments had to
be magical for me to even be here, I'm just like, damn.
That's like in the same way of information being a

(01:03:19):
responsibility to those that are aware of it. Yeah, I
think this position is one of responsibility now that I
have it, and then thinking macro and thinking it's necessarily
to make the impact in the second but down the line,
it's it's having to put on a different little little hat.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
But it doesn't feel heavy, honestly, Yeah, because.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
It's the acting side of it is It's like it's
a role that I really enjoy and so it's just
it feels really light actually right right to.

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
Be able to be him.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
The things outside of that, I think I'm also allowing
them to play out. It's an ever evolving world and
like the dynamics are constantly changing. I I hope it
allows me to tell the stories I want to tell
down the line, like, I hope it within whatever it
means in Hollywood and in the studio world.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
I'm excited at every day.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
More of the world is getting to know who I am,
and I'm excited to be a part of something like
The Last of Us because of that as well. And
it just yeah, quality, man, I think that boils down
to that calm dude.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
You know what I'm saying, You're a very calm Don't
tell me that too much because I'm It's just it's
just what I can. I can.

Speaker 5 (01:04:37):
I jump in one thing. I got you because you
know what you said something earlier. You mentioned Maki multiple times, right,
And I was having a conversation with a mutual friend
of ours and we've talked about this too. I appreciate
what Mackie has done and how I feel like he
has paved the way for a lot of actors of color,
but I also feel like people don't give him his flower.

(01:05:01):
He has been Yeah, he's been working consistently for what
twenty five thirty years? Yeah, showing up, and I feel
like I feel like people don't hold space for him
the same way they hold like a.

Speaker 4 (01:05:15):
Will Smith like I did.

Speaker 5 (01:05:16):
Yeah, And again, this is not like comparators, right, It's
just that this is somebody who is doing things that
hadn't necessarily been done, creating opportunities for other people. And
I just wanted to want I've shouted this out so
many times, but I just wanted to get your thoughts
because you've you're friends with them, you've worked with him,
and I'm I'm just wondering, do you do you see that?

(01:05:36):
Do you do you feel that?

Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
Like? Fully, I think it's.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
And not only has been He've been doing this for
a minute. The sound clip is gonna be like, oh,
he's not only been been doing it for as long
as he has.

Speaker 3 (01:05:52):
Every project that he's.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
Been a part of has been phenomenal.

Speaker 3 (01:05:56):
So he's been doing it and again in this.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
Conversation of going back to quality and quality quality and
working with amazing storytellers. He's been around that. He's like,
he's embodied that, he's added to that. He's You're You're
not in these projects by happenstance a couple of times, right,
Like you might be in one by accident, but when
your career is banger after banger after banger, there is
something that one year also you're part of why it's

(01:06:19):
a banger, right. But specifically with Anthony, we had there's
this interview that we did, I think for Empire.

Speaker 3 (01:06:25):
About the lack of flowers he's received.

Speaker 1 (01:06:29):
And and in some ways I think him being from Louisiana,
Kelvin being from Louisiana, Tarzan being from Louisiana.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
They're like he's paved the way for both.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Of them as young black men in Hollywood. And the
funny part is like working with Anthony, I maybe told
him this once, but like Calvin Tarzan look up to
him incredibly because he comes from like from the same
the same reason as to mia A Hurricanes. For me,
they're like, yo, we had a hero right there that
was doing it, proved we could do it. Take Anthony

(01:07:02):
out of the equation said Anthony, Anthony, maybe Tarzan and
Kelvin are like, oh, maybe we shouldn't do this right.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
And so I've seen the literal.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
Impact that people are incredibly close to me that like
what trail blazing means. And again, Julliard trained actor, so
he had the best train you could possibly get. And
so when you hire Anthony Mackie at your base, at
your floor, you're having one of the best trained actors
of all time from the best acting school of all time.

(01:07:32):
And then from that you had the experience he's had.
What he brings his charm is charisma, Like he's a
movie star at the same time as he's a craftsman
at the same time as he's a character actor.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
Like there's.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
There's definitely weaknesses in this industry, and when it takes
this long for someone like Anthony to get his flowers,
it just highlights that, Yeah, I just saw him in
a studio, the studio, his studio. It's one of my
favorite episode. In the beginning, I loved his churn because
I was like, all right, I literally I was like,
what is he getting? I was like because in my

(01:08:08):
head I was like, oh, this is the studio where
they're using actual personalities, and I'm like, they're bringing Anthony Mackie.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
He's not Anthony's not being himself. And I was literally
like agreeable. He was like.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
What's happening? And so when he does that churn, I was.

Speaker 3 (01:08:24):
Like, ah, I knew it. I knew you.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
Thought that was a dog I be making him for
like since I saw that episode.

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
I didn't like it when he wrote it. I didn't
like it when he shot it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:34):
I didn't like it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
When I watched it, it was so good and I
was like, that's it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:38):
Yeah, man, I've been watching Anthony like Hood Classic Anthony day.
He's like I remember him at Crossover and you could
take that to.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
The bank scene.

Speaker 4 (01:08:47):
You've never seen cross Watch Crossover. Wayne Brady is the
villain and so you would love it. It's an athletes
movie about. It was during the time of animale basketball,
oh Ship, Oh yeah yeah. The professor Hot Sauce. Hot
Sauce was the main character, was amazing. He was the
secondary antagonist. Wayne Brady was like the main antagonist and
it was like, you know, Hood classic about this guy

(01:09:07):
didn't have a lot of money, would play ball street
ball to make the money and everything. It was like
in a you Got served type of sense. But Anthony
Mackie is the shining star in that movie.

Speaker 3 (01:09:15):
You know he does that.

Speaker 4 (01:09:16):
He does. He plays Papa Doc in eight Mile. He's
one of the few people to make eminem choke.

Speaker 3 (01:09:21):
He also was you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:09:25):
It like, so like I remember growing up with Anthony Mackie,
and like he went from kind of like this reliable
face that you would see on the screen, you know
who he is. And then again I feel like and
I hate and I hate to even like say it
like this, but like it feels like he hasn't been
getting noticed until like Falcon came up, right, and then
he was like on that like big stage in that way.
But it's like, nah, man, he's been a Detroit locker.

Speaker 3 (01:09:50):
It's whichever whichever avenue.

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
Yeah, like picking shoes, Like let's say you're some of this,
Like I can't be him because of this, Well no,
he got that. Yeah, well can't be because of this
He's got He's done that too. And so I think,
whichever way you cut it, exceptional work.

Speaker 4 (01:10:03):
Yeah, he's he's an exceptional talent. Now I know, we
only got a little bit of time left. I want
to be very mindful of your time. I only got
two questions, all right, one of which I feel like
we are in a unique position in time that we
both can share a unique Tom Cruise story because you've

(01:10:25):
worked with him very closely, and Tom Cruise is we
talked about at the top of the show. He's very
like once he knows you, like he knows you, and
like you know, but I want to I want to
start with mine, and then you could tell me if
you have one like a Tom Cruise like story that's
like very unique to you that made you go like, oh.

Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
This is Tom.

Speaker 4 (01:10:41):
But going back to when I went to the set
a couple of months ago, he was showing us this, uh,
this rig that they had when he was filming Mission Impossible.
It's an underwater rig.

Speaker 3 (01:10:51):
The scene of tank in a tank.

Speaker 4 (01:10:53):
Yeah, and I don't want to spoil too much about it,
but they were literally, well that's good. That means, that
means it's a good interview. But there's a moment where
you know it's him and the cue. They're both underwater
and they're both kind of like like mapping out the
shots that they want to get and you know. It's
me and a couple of other like creators kind of
like sitting there and we're watching, like the water is

(01:11:13):
like right in front of us. Two steps we can
fall in, right. We see everyone kind of like clear out,
and we see Tom like coming towards us like a
shark in the water, like underwater, just like swimming right.
And then we're just like, what's about to happen? And
Tom cruise like and in some type of slow mow
movie comes out of the water. Right, somebody, random person

(01:11:35):
just comes in with a chair, sits it down. He
doesn't even look at the person. He says thank you,
sits down the chair, starts undressing, and he's like, so
we've been mapping out this scene for like four months
when everyone's really on their game, and he's undressing and
shanging his clothes, and this is the first time a
lot of people have like interacted with Tom. I've probably
interacted with him like twice at this point, but even
I'm just kind of like, what's happening right now? Right,

(01:11:58):
Like one of the biggest, the biggest movie star in
the world is just casually undressing in front of us.
He just pulled a what's that movie Fast Times the
Richemont High and like got in front of us.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
It was just like, yeah, so that's the thing about
this movie.

Speaker 4 (01:12:10):
Da and all of us, we're not hearing a word
he's saying, We're just awestruck. And then he just kind
of looks me at a subject, keeps talking to everybody,
and I'm just like.

Speaker 3 (01:12:19):
What am I a mission of possble right now? Is
this the movie? And that's probably one of.

Speaker 4 (01:12:24):
The most visceral moments that I've ever had with Tom,
where it was like he just seemed like an otherworldly force.

Speaker 3 (01:12:32):
He didn't seem like a person.

Speaker 4 (01:12:33):
He seemed like I saw a halo, I saw like
an aura behind him. It was like the weirdest thing.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Well it's Jay has a similar story the first table
route you have her top Gun. We were all there
and Tom comes out in his motorcycle. He arrives in
his motorcycle and.

Speaker 3 (01:12:47):
Jay says that this is how Jay saw it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:49):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
Jay says, he saw the motorcycle park and almost as
it parked and it turned off, he saw Tom glad
off of.

Speaker 3 (01:12:58):
It, and then he had a leather jacket on, so
it's even cooler.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
And he walks through the door and takes off his
helmet in one fell soup. His hair is perfect and
just and goes right into a handshake. And I was like,
I didn't see this, but Jay tells the story. He
said it droughout all the interviews of like just how
cool he was and how out of this world he was.
I have one, Well I was gonna go with one.

(01:13:23):
I'll go with both actually, okay, in that same subject.
And I think this is where because for me, I
try to like I don't put people on pedestels.

Speaker 4 (01:13:33):
Yeah, ever I get not the same. Yeah, I try
not to do it all.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
Like I mean, it's hard for me not to put
an athlete on a pedestel because like they're.

Speaker 4 (01:13:41):
Like modern day iron Man type like mythical figures almost
in a way, you know, like gladiators.

Speaker 1 (01:13:46):
I view it as like things that I can't do.
So I sadly enough, I don't have a forty eight
inch vertical right.

Speaker 3 (01:13:53):
No matter how much I try.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
That is just flying I cannot And that was actually
flying that way like a flying movies.

Speaker 4 (01:14:01):
That's where you're pocket.

Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
But that's where I think where Tom as an athlete,
there's things he can't do, like breathe like the under ground,
like underwater breathing for like not breathing for six minutes, yes,
or more or however it's like it's like to the
level of like, Okay, that's that's probably less people have
done that than had a forty inch vertic problem. So
I do put that on the pedestal without a doubt.

(01:14:23):
But in people that I work with, I try to
be like, Okay, Danny, they're a human, you're a human approach,
like attuned to them in the way that they would.
Don't put them like in this light that feels from
out of this world, because like what if everyone does
that and then they like they're here trying to like
operate a human as a human, but everyone's like you're
a god. And so I try to do that every

(01:14:45):
single time. And luckily the first time that we were
on the Navy base, I think the first time I
actually met him was the first base who went to
a week into prep and we went in to get
fitted for different things. We're gonna be on the F
eighteen for in a few months.

Speaker 3 (01:15:04):
And it's the six of us.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
It's yeah, it's Miles Monica, Glenn J. Tarzan, No and
tarzan enjoined this yet Lewis and myself and and we're
there waiting in the hallway and someone's like, you know,
Tom's coming. Tom's coming, and Tom flew his plane and but.

Speaker 3 (01:15:25):
But on the base, on the basis. But we're like at.

Speaker 1 (01:15:29):
This point, it's like, all right, he's getting here like
five ten minutes. And I was like, all right, cool,
let meet Tom Cruise in the movie that he's in.

Speaker 4 (01:15:34):
But you think he's about to walk her.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
In and uh so, And we're waiting in the hallway
a little bit long, like for someone's entrance. We're five
minutes waiting for an entrance. Is like it was mainly
out of like the nerves of the PA, right, I
will say this, it's never based on Tom. And so
he gets in and as he's saying hi to some

(01:15:56):
some of the people from the Navy that are that
are helping us out, there's this moment where he takes
a sip from a water bottle and there's like a
couple droplets on the floor, and so I see a
non perfect poor basically a.

Speaker 3 (01:16:12):
Non perfect drink of him.

Speaker 1 (01:16:14):
And then as he's talking, I see that the couple drops.
I see him smudge it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:21):
With his foot.

Speaker 1 (01:16:25):
But then I was like, instantly, I was like, I
do that too, I spill on a lineoleum or whatever,
and then I dry it with my foot And it
was instantly I was like, great, Tom Cruise, the human.

Speaker 3 (01:16:39):
That is my like my leader in this endeavor.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
And I viewed him as like throughout the entire time
and like now as a mentor, and I'm incredibly lucky
that he's supportive.

Speaker 3 (01:16:50):
Of all of us.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
But that was a moment that almost an opposite of Jays.
I needed something that was like right eye I like,
and and that was it. It was seeing like drink
from his water bottle and the water drop has happened,
and then see him do that's good. And I was like,
That's all I needed. But on the other end, the
story I was going to say was because you said

(01:17:12):
unique specifically, he's been incredibly supportive of all of us,
Glenn's entire journey, Monica's, Jay's Lewis myself, Tarzan, I mean,
Tarzan's working with him again across the board and from
the beginning he's like, hey, any questions, doors open for

(01:17:33):
any for any department head editor Eddie Hamilton or Klaudia
Miranda or anybody. And so after humanizing him right away,
I was like, I bet you said any doors open,
you'd help whenever. And so I started asking everything I
could and he was answering everything he could. And by
the end of the process, when we graduated from top Gun,

(01:17:59):
essentially whenever I had one of my first pitch tex
sept it together, I was like, fuck it, I'm gonna
send it.

Speaker 3 (01:18:05):
I'm gonna see what's up. Send it to him. He
replied faster than j elis faster than Glen Powell, and
they replied fast.

Speaker 1 (01:18:13):
But he was just like, I'd also take a look
at this in the fifth page because I personally don't
believe in that specific part in regards to because it
was something about speed, right, and I had equated speed
to danger in it because I was thinking, like, all right,
movie language, and it's like, sometimes speed equals opportunity because

(01:18:35):
your I adapt to this notion of speed, this window
that might seem small to someone that doesn't understand it
in regards to like let's say it's car racing, for instance,
that window for someone that's fast as fuck means opportunity
instead of danger. And he's just I just reframe this
and maybe who's to say what that affects the rest
of your story? And I was like, gold damn across

(01:19:00):
the board. He's like with the baton, He's helped out
incredibly through that. He keeps the top of mind essentially
like Danny, make sure you're doing this, make sure you're
doing that. When you overprepare, how are you going to
dynamically shoot these things? And he connects with particular people

(01:19:21):
that are aligned and he he's him and Chris McQuary, McHugh.
They've opened up Mission Missions edit bay, and so I
get to jump on and see the decisions they make,
why they make them, Him and Neddie Hamilton then just
kind of see how they craft these tense sequences. I
asked every question I can in the edit bay. I

(01:19:43):
visited him on the new set that he's on right now.
I don't know if I could say what it is,
but it's it was what he was doing at the
same time as a mission or not at the same
time right over and with the best department heads OSCAR
nominated directors, and he's.

Speaker 3 (01:19:59):
Like, come on and stay a week, And so I
stayed a week.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
I was there every day permission as well, and so
not just that, obay, And so he's opened the like
he's pulled back the curtains on how not just me
as an actor on the set of Top Gun, which
he allowed to do anyway, He's like, stay here as
long as you want, and he had this actually stay
even on days we weren't flying.

Speaker 3 (01:20:23):
And so.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
Again it turns into this idea of like, all right,
how many people have been allowed to be on these
sets to just absorb and freely ask because there is
a privilege of being an actor, of course that I'm like, oh,
maybe someone else can't be this annoying or like can't
be like behind this curtain, like looking at what lens
are putting. And honestly, it felt like an incredible gift

(01:20:47):
that and he also announces it to everyone in the
cast and crew, like, hey, by the way, they're gonna
be shadowing us for a couple of days. And so
that information and the knowledge then becomes a responsibility of
being like if there is was privileged enough to go
to get into NYU because of soccer, privileged enough to
work with these filmmakers, and as they start collecting all

(01:21:08):
this and like, then there's a responsibility to act on
this knowledge and push the medium forward.

Speaker 3 (01:21:13):
But to me, like my stories.

Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
That Tom unbelievable mentor really cares about film and cares
about people believing in it. And I think he's incredibly
generous in that way. And so that was the one.
There's another thing, but that was basically so good man.

Speaker 4 (01:21:34):
I got one last question then we can get you
out of here, because, like you know, the object of
the show get record stra at goofy is like, I
feel like movies can teach us a lot about like
who we are as people. And I feel like a
lot of like you asked, boy, what's your favorite movie?
They tell usually okay, I kind of get who you are.
It just based off of that, right, But what I
like to ask, because you already given me a recommendation

(01:21:54):
Syphony of Vengeance. I believe it Syphony for mister Vengeance.
I wrote it down. Then I'll watch it. Thank you
so much for that.

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
I have another one though, because I did see the email.

Speaker 4 (01:22:02):
Okay, so do you have a movie?

Speaker 3 (01:22:09):
Thank you for that? You cat prepared, definitely prepared. I
was more like, oh fuck, I say.

Speaker 4 (01:22:18):
It's funny how I asked this question. A lot of
people just like go like, oh my God, like I
gotta do this. Like even Ryan Coogle was like, come on, bro,
I got like thousands like it's but I put them
on the spot with that one.

Speaker 3 (01:22:27):
But he said.

Speaker 4 (01:22:29):
Uh, the original Solaris he gave us. He gave us
quite a few actually, but original. Bet give me what is?
What is some movies you could recommend for me.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
To watch right now, not necessarily for you to watch,
but that you should watch.

Speaker 3 (01:22:43):
Everyone should watch. No, no, you should. It's the same answer.

Speaker 1 (01:22:46):
Actually, uh the movie that got me into it all
or into the idea of loving this oh.

Speaker 3 (01:22:53):
City of God. Yes, that was one. Shout out mister Green.

Speaker 1 (01:22:59):
So mister Green was a history teacher that he would
he was next to mister Pinnata, who is the baseball coach,
and mister Prinano was my government teacher. And so days
that mister Pineto wasn't in school or had to go
do something, he'd be like, all right, go to mister
Green's class, and mister Green would play a movie for
two classes.

Speaker 4 (01:23:19):
I was a senior, you know, okay.

Speaker 3 (01:23:21):
And he plays City at God one day.

Speaker 1 (01:23:25):
And I was like, what the fuck? Yeah, those unbelievable
and it like it shifted like.

Speaker 3 (01:23:32):
Like I would watch whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
Whatever was in the theaters or TV shows. I'd really
had been blinded to a lot of the stuff. Yeah,
I'd fully been blinded by that, even though I had
family from like I I would watch motors, pedals or
stuff that, like whatever was kind of went through the grapevine.
But that city there in class, nothing to do but

(01:23:57):
watch this movie instead of doing American government work.

Speaker 3 (01:24:00):
I was blown away by it. He also would play.

Speaker 1 (01:24:03):
Boston Legal, okay, which I thought, I'm like, that's his
way of teaching us government.

Speaker 3 (01:24:08):
Nice. I'll watched Boston Legal. So it was a city
of god.

Speaker 4 (01:24:11):
You know, there's a sequel series by the way, on
Max that they continued the story.

Speaker 3 (01:24:15):
No way.

Speaker 4 (01:24:15):
Yeah, it's like we saw.

Speaker 1 (01:24:17):
Every like we binged everything during that class. Yeah, man,
I hope, mister, mister, I appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (01:24:25):
Then I'd go with a Rival.

Speaker 4 (01:24:28):
I just watched Rival for the first time like two
months ago.

Speaker 3 (01:24:32):
I rewatched it once or twice a year.

Speaker 4 (01:24:33):
I'm about to start because that is a fantastic, phenomenal
frickin movie.

Speaker 1 (01:24:37):
It is so and then because of that, Denny has
like I'd say, oh, this is gonna mess people in
Sandy's in Sandy's in cent trigger warning.

Speaker 3 (01:24:46):
In Sandy's So good.

Speaker 4 (01:24:49):
I mean prisoners is also another one of Denys Like yeah,
like like.

Speaker 3 (01:24:54):
I think it's one of his magnum.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
Does send me a mad email or d M when
you see in Sandy's.

Speaker 4 (01:24:59):
Okay, oh man, that's it's so good.

Speaker 3 (01:25:07):
Yeah, I mean it probably will send you.

Speaker 1 (01:25:08):
As a storyteller, I mean like there's like spiral and
like fractal and like different builds of story beyond even
like three acts, but the way Nolan and DENI work
with fractal timing and like and and it was in
that temporal but just in the way they play with
the how linear a story? Yeah, it's yeah, it's.

Speaker 3 (01:25:31):
There is a.

Speaker 1 (01:25:33):
Something I really connect with because that's kind of how
I see the world and this what like I if
I look at a beautiful whatever occurrence is happening today,
that's beautiful and it's amazing. I take it for that moment,
but I'm like, oh man, I wonder like two years
ago with that flower would have thought of itself before
it bloomed, and then I would have gone back to
when it was just a little bud. And so I
like whenever I see and that's why I think a

(01:25:55):
rival it's one of the most beautiful love stories.

Speaker 3 (01:25:59):
Yeah and yeah every single time. I mean, what else.

Speaker 4 (01:26:04):
That that arrival? Revere like fucked me up. I'm not
even gonna lie, Like I was like, this is not
not wait a minute, the kid was.

Speaker 3 (01:26:12):
It was just one of those dude, it's so good.

Speaker 1 (01:26:16):
I already said, Simothy for mister vengeance. What's on my
board right now? There's a couple that.

Speaker 3 (01:26:24):
I mean, everyone's this is obvious. It's just because it's
popping in my head. Whiplash.

Speaker 4 (01:26:28):
Whiplash as a sports movie.

Speaker 3 (01:26:29):
View it as a sports movie.

Speaker 4 (01:26:31):
I think DAVEI and Tazelle is like best movie. Not
to say like I think Mavalon is like also really great.

Speaker 1 (01:26:35):
So bro, what really diego? How is my boy now?
And I love him for it?

Speaker 4 (01:26:40):
But that could have been.

Speaker 1 (01:26:41):
You we were talking for a while, okay, yeah, but
but it was one of those that, like, I there's
a different exclusive.

Speaker 5 (01:26:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:26:48):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:26:49):
Was was on it with back and forth with the
possibility of doing it for like a couple a lot
a lot of months. But then Matt talked about it
and I was like, yo, you written and it was,
and this is why I instantly I was like, whoever
gets this one, I'm directly support of for the rest
of their career for everything. But I was like, you've

(01:27:11):
written the best role for a Mexican or Mexican American person,
and maybe.

Speaker 3 (01:27:18):
For at a studio scale. In this way, that's a
character piece.

Speaker 1 (01:27:23):
Maybe in the history, like it's obviously in the present day,
the present day is the biggest yeah, but in that
like I'm saying, like the present day is the most
important because.

Speaker 3 (01:27:32):
We're living it whatever, which is whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:27:38):
But because of that, I was like, I told him
at the end of that the first time we met,
I'm like, if it's not me cast it authentically, I
was like, please, like this is like on the page
like and then when they announced Diego, I cheered because
I was like okay, And then I literally I was like, yo,

(01:27:59):
hell yeah, bro there, whatever you need, I'm here. You're
in la like whenever you get to hit me up.
And then we've been buds ever since. Whenever we're in
the same city, we connect trying to figure out stuff
to work on together. But that was one that I'm like,
it's going back to the representation of it all, Yeah,
someone has to And Anthony said this in an interview recently.

Speaker 3 (01:28:20):
Someone's got to pick you, and then someone's also got.

Speaker 5 (01:28:23):
To like he said it on the Pivot podcast and
I loved it. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:28:30):
To pick you.

Speaker 5 (01:28:30):
But yeah, he's like he was just it was basically
just about being prepared, being prepared and being ready. But
someone do all doing all the work, but someone still
got to say you're the one.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
You're about like the idea of fairness and about like
earning things. He's like, no, at the end of the day,
someone's always picked somebody. Someone's always been the person picking
and so in the same way, someone's got to take
the stand and be the first to write something. And
so where as if we would have got in the
Babylon in like twenty ten or twenty two thousand and eight,

(01:29:05):
the protagonist wouldn't have been Diego, it would have been
uh right, yeah, I mean honestly, like like anybody that
wasn't nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:29:16):
Who was also in Babylon too.

Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
But you know what I'm saying, Yeah, I was gonna
say Toby McGuire, Toby, Yeah, Tobah, Actually.

Speaker 5 (01:29:22):
That would have been Yeah, that's perfect, exactly right.

Speaker 1 (01:29:25):
Great, Gatsby, right, yeah, yeah, the same, same, same vibistic
about yeah yeah, and he's phenomenal. And I love Toby
in that he's he's actually surprised me when he showed up.

Speaker 3 (01:29:36):
It surprised me too, So yeah he sent it.

Speaker 4 (01:29:38):
Hell yeah, listen, I hate to I hate to like
derail this, but Spider Man's one of my all time
favorite characters.

Speaker 3 (01:29:43):
And Falcon but.

Speaker 5 (01:29:48):
Put some boots.

Speaker 4 (01:29:50):
But I went to that premiere for Babylon and like
when I saw Toby MacGuire, I was like so like shocked,
like in the film, and Toby is just one of
those guys like it's it was him. It was Ryan
Coogler and then like Kobe Bryan Whereas like if I
ever see them, like, I got to tell them like
what Spider Man two meant for me. It's one of
those movies that changed my brain chemistry and what made
me fall in love with like film Spider Man two.

(01:30:11):
So like I already did it the Sam Raimi at
Multiverse of Madness and so I remember I was like
eating some candy because they had candy at the APPA
party and somebody goes.

Speaker 3 (01:30:19):
Oh, is that Toby over there?

Speaker 4 (01:30:20):
Bro? My head whipped so fast, like almost broke my neck.
I said, where saw him? Bro And without even thinking,
my legs just started like move to him right and
like I know that Toby isn't one to like just
like talk to everybody, and I don't want to invade
his space. I literally gave him like the necessary amount
of space, and I said, like, Toby, like you know,

(01:30:40):
I know, I don't want to bother you. I don't
want to take too much of your time thirty seconds.
I just want to let you know that, like Spider
Man two is the reason why I'm standing in front
of you right now, It's the reason why I love film.
Like that performance taught me so much about life, and
your performance is a huge part of that. Gave him
like my whole thing was in and out with like
fifteen seconds, and he just gave me this look like
like it was the first time someone's ever told him that,
which I'm sure it wasn't, like you know, but he

(01:31:02):
just gave me this look where he was just kind
of like, oh, ship, well, thanks man, like I really
appreciate that. And then I was like, and you could
say no and fuck off in that order. I would
love to get a picture with you if you don't
want to, I'm dipping. He goes like, get over here.
And I got a picture with Toky maguire that day,
So I was happy to like have that moment with him.
And I really thought that movie Babylon was gonna like

(01:31:23):
get more, should should have premiere.

Speaker 1 (01:31:26):
Yeah, it's like anything to support this film. Yeah, it's
Toby's Also, he's one of the kinds of people when
the yeah, super kind, he's he really cares about the cribby,
cares about story, and I mean the a couple of
times we've met, I'm like, oh, he I can't wait
for him to come back.

Speaker 4 (01:31:40):
Yeah, yeah, he he does seem to pick and choose,
like where he comes is the best part.

Speaker 3 (01:31:45):
It's great, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:31:46):
I mean, he has his fan base with me, including
but like seeing him come back in that in a
movie that I thought for sure was gonna be like
Oscar nominated blockbuster.

Speaker 1 (01:31:55):
You know, we're gonna look back on that and be like.

Speaker 4 (01:31:57):
I think, Yeah, I think a lot of people are
starting to you know how you can feel when like
that cult classic like things start to come up, like
it happened with Shaw Shane, can happen with like a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:32:05):
Of that's that moment where Diego runs out and he's
looking for her as she's left him.

Speaker 3 (01:32:11):
Yep, bro I ball I balled.

Speaker 4 (01:32:15):
It is so good and it has one of the
best endings in movie history, the way like it kind
of ends and shows like the history of cinema, one
of the best endings cinema. It literally is it's like
it speaks to the messiness of like creating something like
pure and like even though it could get a little crazy,
the road can be a little bumpy, the end result
is what kind of like becomes a part of what

(01:32:36):
comes after, and it goes exactly what you're talking about.
It's all about like that building and like you know,
it's to what's next.

Speaker 1 (01:32:42):
And it goes back to Miles's lesson on the like
this attachment to these roles and to the way the
like all that allowed me to then in that moment
be like, oh, hell yeah, we're we're rocking, Like this
is Diego's gonna crush it. And the thing is like
it's a it's a luxury. It'd be a bummer if

(01:33:03):
there's just one person blazing like that would be that
means that no one's really thinking about the other stories.
There's only one that comes every now and then, and
it'll be you. And so there's now like a it's
really exciting to start to know that one there is
a dynamic shift when there's more of us in the room. Yes,
there are now more and more Latino events, which the

(01:33:25):
first time I went to one, I remember saying, I like, yo,
I I've never been to like a a Hollywood event
that was just latinos.

Speaker 3 (01:33:33):
And then this older actor was like, neither have I.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
Oh, And I was like, oh shit, wow, And I
was like because I was like, oh, there's the first
annual blank because now there's a couple and they're like, no,
this is the first one.

Speaker 4 (01:33:47):
Like ever like this.

Speaker 1 (01:33:51):
And now there's three that happened every year and every
single time it's it's it's Latino Hollywood there.

Speaker 4 (01:33:58):
And uh.

Speaker 1 (01:33:59):
And it's exciting to see from it's been three years
really that these have been happening and seeing like the
progression of some people that are younger than me and
what they're getting now and some people that are older
than me and what's happening then and understand what that it's.

Speaker 3 (01:34:12):
It's it is in success where.

Speaker 1 (01:34:15):
More people like it's the bund there's a but yeah,
and that's the way it should be viewed.

Speaker 3 (01:34:19):
But I think those lessons. When I was at NYU,
there is nobody.

Speaker 1 (01:34:22):
It was Oscar Isaac can Drive Pedro had yet to
be Game of Thrones. We had Johnny Ozama prior and
before that, like a bunch of trail blazers that had
little windows open up for them and then they're instantly shut.

Speaker 3 (01:34:35):
But oh, Drive is won by the way synth soundtrack.
It's just I listened to that all the time. Yeah,
it's saying whenever I'm driving, like at night. I listened yesterday.

Speaker 4 (01:34:46):
Actually, oh did you Yeah, yeah, that's a great one.

Speaker 1 (01:34:49):
It's uh, I'm trying to remember his name, Zinsky Kinski,
the director, No, no, no, the h.

Speaker 3 (01:35:00):
The sound yea yeah, yeah yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:35:02):
But I saw that the day I started sales an act.
That was a movie that got me to really I was.
I had a soccer game in Atlanta in college. I
had just had a spring daynkle. So by the time
that I had already done my first extra thing where
I saw Rizomed and I was supposed to be on
the comeback, my ankle fell a little better. Coach subbed
me out.

Speaker 3 (01:35:23):
I was pissed. I packed up my ship.

Speaker 1 (01:35:27):
I left midway through the game, got in my car,
and so this is like, this is some shit that
you get kicked off the team for which I would
looking back on it, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:35:36):
Like, absolutely shit did that. But I left.

Speaker 1 (01:35:39):
It was like three pm in Atlanta and in the
fall of twenty eleven. I parked my car, like still
kind of sweaty because of the game, but like in
my like sweats I go into this mall that's empty.
There's a couple of employees there because like some people
that meandrew during the day, and there's this Bugatti. I

(01:36:03):
forgot what Rapper ended up buying a couple.

Speaker 3 (01:36:05):
Of months later.

Speaker 5 (01:36:06):
It was a flow Rider that bought that one.

Speaker 3 (01:36:08):
It was a red and gray Bugatti Veyron. You can
find out who it is proper.

Speaker 1 (01:36:14):
But it's sitting there in the middle of the mall
and there's a velvet rope around it, and I'm in
the middle of like an existential crisis.

Speaker 3 (01:36:20):
I'm like, it's not working out for me soccer wise
right now. I'm injured. I just the dumbest thing. I
walked off a game.

Speaker 4 (01:36:28):
It was it was like.

Speaker 1 (01:36:30):
It wasn't with the there was like a rehab game too,
and so it was like kind of like a it
was in pre season, but it was like my rehab
game essentially for the ankle. And I'm like, I'm an idiot.
There's no way I'm allowed to back. And I'm like,
I'm here in Atlanta. I don't want to be in
the school. It's expensive. I don't know what I'm doing

(01:36:51):
with my life, not gonna go play pro at this rate.
It's not nowhere near like that happening, especially if I'm
out of school. There's other stuff happening in my life
that I then like, I just go up to the Bugatti.
I opened the door and it's opened, and then I
step over the velvet rope and I get into the
Bugatti and I sit in it and I just start bawling.

(01:37:16):
I just start bawling in the Bugatti. Yeah, and part
And I don't know why. I think it was like
this feeling of like, oh, anything that I'm going to
start doing from now is like this thing is going
to be unattainable. Not that I was never materialistic in
a way that like I didn't care about a Bugatti
or fancy things. But I was just like, no matter

(01:37:37):
how much I wanted it, I'm not gonna be able
to sit in this Bugatti just because like I was, like,
to sit in a Bugatti's just insane. Now that's my memoir,
to sit in Bugatti.

Speaker 4 (01:37:48):
I think balling into Bugatti is like a poem ball
in the Bugatti.

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
I just I was like, you need a crap, You
need something that you're you care about, something you can
build on. And if it wasn't sports, I didn't know
what it was gonna be. I had no idea, and
so it was one of those moments that I'm like,
I'm one, maybe gonna have to restart, go back home,
figure myself out. Acting was I had been slightly introduced

(01:38:13):
to it earlier in that semester with when I was
the extra in the movie, and I had read a
couple of books, but I hadn't hit the ground run
your conceptualized that I could succeed.

Speaker 3 (01:38:22):
And then I went to the theaters and I watched
Drive and saw Drive loved it and saw Oscar Isaac
and Drive and.

Speaker 1 (01:38:34):
I was like fuck yeah, And then I left and
then that like of the albums that mean the world
to me. Granted I forgot his name, but Kavinski and
j Cole's Sideline.

Speaker 3 (01:38:46):
Story, Yeah, yeah, that was that era.

Speaker 1 (01:38:48):
But those were like, like that seemed drive to me.
Was that important. That was like and it weirdly connects
back into like the the permission you get and Oscar
Isaac being in that film gave me permission to be like, oh,
if he could do it, I could do it. But
it was yeah, that same day, and and the coaches
and like they talked about it. They're probably happy now

(01:39:12):
that I wrote them into the script. But yeah, it
was one of those moments that like it, like it.
It felt so immense of like this is a fork
in the road, and I'm aware that this moment right
now is a fork in the road moment for me.

Speaker 4 (01:39:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:39:26):
And so sitting in that in that Bugatti, it's I
think of it.

Speaker 5 (01:39:31):
It's so surreal and I think it's Birdman's Bugatti. Bird Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:39:37):
Man, Yeah, Berman bought that Bugatti. I cried, I wonder
if anyone's crying that, what are these tears stains doing
here that ship?

Speaker 1 (01:39:50):
Like it's like the type of crime that you can't
see anything. It's not just the crime that you're like
you're able to see it was like, yeah, any one,
like it's like where your eyes are like red. I
was like one of the only people in the theater
that day because it was like three pm. I tried
to recently go back to find what weekend it must
have been like, as it showed.

Speaker 4 (01:40:09):
How you can like kind of like track it.

Speaker 5 (01:40:11):
This day.

Speaker 3 (01:40:15):
I saw drive changed the course of my life and he.

Speaker 1 (01:40:18):
Yeah, but I ended up coming back and played out
the rest of the year. But I needed to get
out of it.

Speaker 4 (01:40:23):
You knew at that point.

Speaker 3 (01:40:25):
That's when like you were yeah out And.

Speaker 1 (01:40:27):
Then I think I did like some stuff on like
those random things you signed up for to do these
student films like uh and it wasn't backstage yet, but
it was something else. But yeah, that was thank you, Oscar.

Speaker 4 (01:40:39):
Appreciate nice man. Well, I appreciate that you're both in
the marvels a man, you know universe. Now you're popping off, bro, like, like,
I'm honestly very grateful to sit here and talk with
you about all this stuff. I can go for like
another two hours, but my daughter's gonna be one of
those kids like where daddy where daddy at?

Speaker 3 (01:40:55):
You know, baby, those in a deep conversation. He's built
this so you forget time exist.

Speaker 1 (01:41:00):
It was one of those things that like the camera
is overheated and because we've been pushing two.

Speaker 3 (01:41:06):
Hours, h don't feel like it, bro, It don't feel
like walking that shit. Sorry.

Speaker 4 (01:41:11):
I think I think this is why, like both of
our people kept moving our schedule, because they say, if
y'all get together, it's just gonna It's not.

Speaker 1 (01:41:18):
Like I'm glad it happened, man, me too.

Speaker 4 (01:41:20):
Man. Appreciate you, Appreciate you, man absolutely, Thank you guys
so much for watching another episode of Get recordstra had
GOOFU and my boy Danny Ramirez. Make sure you guys
check them out in all his movies and the Last
of Us hopefully he hasn't got killed off yet, but
make sure you guys check out this podcast first when
it comes out on Substacked, and then we're gonna be
everywhere on YouTube, Apple and Spotify wherever you catch a

(01:41:40):
podcast at and cannot be your movie guy.