Welcome to Episode 27 of the Actor’s Guide to The End of the World! Apologies for the late upload, but this one is packed and well worth the wait. This episode was recorded BEFORE Trump announced possible tariffs on foreign film production, but coincidentally this episode we discuss the complexities of the current entertainment industry and whether it is a Hollywood vs the World issue. So apparently we do predict the future... more to come.
E-Kan tells us what he thought about the hottest show on Broadway, Glengarry Glen Ross, starring Bon Odenkirk, Kieran Culkin, Bill Burr, and Rían’s friend John Pirruccello- make sure to listen to our Hidden Gems at the end of the episode to hear how he snagged them!
There’s positive news for the California film industry and Stay In LA as two crucial bills to reform film tv tax credits just got pushed through to the next round, but there's still a long road ahead. The guys dig into the fierce competition for film and tv production across the world and the deeper issue - Is it really Hollywood vs the world, or do we all succeed if Hollywood succeeds? Does Hollywood deserve to be protected? And did E-Kan really compare the Hollywood industry to the great pyramids of Egypt? Yes he did. This will be part of ongoing conversation you don't want to miss.
Jeremy Renner walks away from Season 2 of Hawkeye because Disney offered half of what he made the first season and calls them "penny pinchers". Is this an actor fighting for what he's worth or just entitlement? And how is this relevant to the working actor? E-Kan and Rían differ in opinion and it'll make you think.
And E-Kan shares insights from a panel with two of TV's top directors, one of which directed him on Bosch: Legacy. Some things discussed- what a director's job SHOULD be, the differences between film and tv, how much say do they have in who gets cast.
But the burning question on Rían's mind - what does "holding space" actually mean?
Follow us wherever you find your podcasts, including video on YouTube and Substack.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/jeremy-renner-hawkeye-season-2-salary-1236205536/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/california-film-and-tv-tax-incentive-bills-1236148381/
TV Director Panel with Deborah Kampmeier and Hagar Ben-Asher- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x_sbaKjIh0
Hidden Gems:
Glengarry Glen Ross $45 tickets (listen to the end)
https://youtu.be/z7-p3XIzoAE?si=kAULbdLSlUWTNBFI
Da Michele Pizza in Hollywood - https://damicheleusa.com/
(00:00) Intro
(02:30) Glengarry Glen Ross
(05:50) Two Film/TV bills get pushed up in California
(06:50) Stay in LA Rally
(11:18) Is California taking Hollywood for granted?
(13:00) Hollywood vs the World
(17:20) Is Hollywood still an institution?
(18:40) Jeremy Renner walks away from Hawkeye
(22:30) TV Director Panel
(28:30) Hidden Gems
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
One of the directors, she said, "I'm a
guest to their dinner
party as a TV director."
Don't try to change
the menu as the guest.
The lead actors and the
cast are all the ingredients,
and her job is to bring the best bottle
of wine to make everything pop.
One that made me roar.
So I was home in Ireland, and my dad's
(00:21):
kind of like staring
at the window like this,
and I said, "What are you doing?"
He goes, "I'm holding
space for the window cleaner."
Hey everyone, welcome to the Actors'
Guide to the End of the World podcast,
where we talk about acting in Hollywood
in a way people understand.
I'm your host, E-Kan Soong, and this is...
Rían Sheehy Kelly, how's it going?
What's up, buddy?
Oh, dude.
We are back. We are
(00:42):
ready for another episode.
Before I forget, we have new things
coming for the podcast.
We're going to be unveiling this month,
so make sure you stay tuned.
Follow us wherever you
find all your podcasts.
We're on YouTube. We're on Substack at
Actors' Guide podcast.
Make sure to follow us on all social
media at Actors' Guide podcast.
And if you get a
(01:02):
chance, leave us a review.
Leave us a comment.
Really helps the podcast.
Unless it's bad, then it doesn't help the
podcast. Don't do that.
Yeah, yeah. That doesn't help that much.
But anyway, as always...
We still love you anyway.
Exactly. As always, we
will love you anyway.
So, on the show for today, I got to see
(01:24):
Glengarry Glen Ross on
Broadway with Kieran Culkin,
everyone's favorite golden boy.
And if you stick around, I could tell you
how I got cheaper
tickets to get that show.
We also talk about stay in LA.
We talk about the progress that
California is making,
keeping productions in California.
We talk about Jeremy Renner having choice
comments for Disney,
(01:45):
calling them penny pinchers.
Uh-oh. Drama.
And also, we talk about a TV director
panel, some secrets from
some of our best TV directors.
A little insight into TV directing and
what the fuck does holding space mean?
And today's show is brought to you by...
(02:06):
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Give yourself a boost
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You're going to go from Tom Cruise to Terry Crews. Now in Crocs. I know better than that.
(02:50):
Also, Bill Burr.
Bill Burr.
So it was a great show.
Well, obviously it's a famous play, but
it's a limited engagement.
I think they got extended to June.
I mean, I'm not a play buff, as we all
know, but it is one of the hottest
tickets in New York.
They're selling like hotcakes.
(03:10):
And I will say, and this is a little
tease for my hidden gem, I
was able to get cheap tickets.
There's only one way to get
cheap tickets for the show.
You're going to have to stick to the end.
We have hidden gems at the end of every
episode where we have little tidbits of,
you know, fun little secrets or things
from our lives that we
want more people to know.
So it's a little way that we thank people
(03:31):
for listening to the end.
Anyway, so that's my hidden gem.
They don't have a digital lottery and
they don't have rush tickets.
So it's one of the few
shows that don't have that.
And a lot of people were given a little
side eye that it's, you know,
Glenn, Gary, Glenn Ross that
is not doing discount tickets.
(03:52):
No, no, absolutely.
And I'm not, I'm not going to give away
the secret of how you
got those cheap tickets,
because I know it's your hidden gem, but
I will say this, that a little hint,
somebody has a black eye and is winded.
So that's all I'll say.
That's all I'll say.
It may or may not be
legal how I got those tickets.
I thought it was great.
(04:12):
It moves really fast.
I mean, you can imagine the clip, David
Mamet, I'm not going to lie.
Bilbur crushes.
He's a sneaky good actor, Bilbur.
I think so too.
I mean, obviously he's very, you know,
humble, but he's been
acting, studying, acting.
Obviously this is a big step because, you
(04:33):
know, you're starring on
Broadway next to Bob Oden,
Kirk, Karen Culkin and a
bunch of other great actors.
But, uh, Bilbur crushed.
Uh, I will say, and this is just because
we've been talking
about Karen Culkin a lot.
Someone made a comment saying Karen
Culkin was low energy and
they kind of didn't really,
(04:55):
they didn't resonate with
his performance as much.
The first act, I actually saw what they
were complaining about.
And I was like, it was just, it just felt
like it wasn't suited to his strengths.
And, you know, next to other huge scenes
with Bob Oden, Kirk,
Bill Burr and all that,
there was something about it where I was
(05:15):
like, Oh, I don't know.
It's not just, it just
wasn't popping for me.
Right.
But I will say the second
act completely paid off.
Um, everyone crushes
and I had a great time.
Yeah.
A little shout out to your friend, John.
He also did a great job.
(05:36):
I'm so excited.
I'm so thrilled for John.
I'm so excited for him.
He's such a wonderful guy.
I really, I'm such a massive fan that I'm
thrilled that he's doing this.
And, um, okay.
So stay in LA has made a big push these
past couple of weeks.
We have two crucial bills have been
pushed to the next level.
We have 120,000 letters that have been
(05:57):
sent in, uh, to lawmakers.
These bills are specifically aimed
towards making tax credits more
effective in California and also
increasing them Adrian Nazarian.
Just this past week, LA city council
unanimously passed a measure that aims
to make permitting and production to be
cheaper and more seamless.
(06:18):
So this is completely separate from those
bills, but Adrian Nazarian is very vocal,
very much a part of this.
They're trying to get
practical things like permitting.
Just can you make it easier?
Rean and I actually saw each other in
real life for the first time in a long
time last month at a stay in LA rally.
I really enjoyed it.
(06:38):
It was a, it was a really fun event.
Um, there was a lot of
actors there, a lot of crew there.
People did speeches.
There was representatives of all the
major unions, state
senators, you know, local reps.
By the way, we actually posted some of
this, some of the footage
from the rally on our social
media so you can go check that out and
some of the highlights.
So it was, it was a really great event.
(07:00):
I didn't really know what to expect from
it, but, but you
know, the message was to,
to keep production in LA, to attract
production back to LA,
to make this place a good,
you know, an affordable place and a
thriving place again to film in.
One of the really good speeches was an
actor called PJ Byrne,
who I know a little bit who gave a great
(07:21):
speech and he's really been
pushing hard to get
production back to LA.
It was a really good event and there was
a lot of enthusiasm.
There was a lot of support.
I wasn't clear.
Initially I was like, what is the, you
know, what's the, the focus of it?
But it, I mean, if, and correct me if I'm
wrong, but it seemed to be like
contact your local representatives, push
(07:43):
them to get these bills passed to,
to get production in LA.
And like one of the things that, uh, that
I took away from it was it's, it's, it's,
some people were saying like that
California has taken the,
the movie industry for granted because
it's always been here and
they haven't really made
(08:03):
enough effort to, to retain production
here or to make it
affordable or to make it.
Cause you know, LA is getting killed by
so many other markets
in terms of tax breaks.
And we've talked about this a fair bit,
but it's so expensive to film in the city
that, um, just production has left and
gone to Atlanta and gone to
New Mexico and gone to all
these other regional places. And lately,
(08:26):
and you know, I'm a
little conflicted about this
because it's gone to places like Ireland.
There is a ton of
production in Ireland right now.
Which, so I'm kind of, I'm in a strange,
uh, I'm sort of
straddling two worlds here because,
you know, I just spent six months working
in Ireland and now I'm back in LA.
Like, uh, it's, but, but I, I, you know,
(08:50):
I really appreciate it. The,
what I was able to pick up from the event
and like get a greater
sense of what it means to people
and the efforts by which people are
trying to, to get these things through
and to try and try and
make this a thriving city for production.
Again, we heard a lot of
people who are on crew talking
about the need of their fellow
(09:12):
colleagues, but, uh, to your point, we
did get a lot of education
from lawmakers about these are the bills
that we're focusing on. We
need to, uh, get the rest
of the assembly members on board. And
this idea that the Hollywood worker
community is not the 1%.
(09:33):
It's middle-class working class. We need
to stress that. And we need
to get these bills pushed.
PJ lists the places that he had filmed in
in the last few
years. And he went through
a long list of different countries and
cities that he had filmed
it. Like we met in Ireland
when he was filming there, you know, we
were on the same project.
(09:54):
It was incredible though.
The list of countries that he had filmed
in the last few years. And like, he's
sort of representative
of a lot of people here that, and these
are like people who work,
but have to go out of town and
leave their families. And they're the
lucky ones who are working.
You know what I mean? Who do get
to go out of town to work, but it's
still, you know, it's still
stressful and that's what they
(10:14):
have to do to, to pay the bills. And, and
it's really tough on crew
that don't always have that
option to travel to work because local
crews are being employed
in all of these places. So
that's, that's even more impactful
because, you know, below
the line workers are really,
really suffering and really struggling.
And we've seen on the,
you know, the crew stories,
(10:35):
Facebook or whatever, a lot of people
leave in the industry. Like
a lot of people just can't
sustain it anymore. It's just, it's just
not happening for them.
Yeah. No, that's a great
point. And the other thing, what PJ said
that really stuck out was
all these different regions
that he's working and just imagine all
the taxes that
California is not getting. Yeah.
And that's, that's a great point. That's
(10:57):
a great point. I just
shot in Atlanta and you know,
I'm paying taxes to Georgia. You, you
brought up a great point. California
taking Hollywood for
granted because it just so happened that
there was a soundbite of
Ben Affleck saying that same
exact thing just this past week,
California has been taking Hollywood for
granted. And this is,
(11:18):
this is going on for years. And it just
so happened that it's getting to the
point of no return where
how much is California going to fight to
keep productions in LA?
Yeah. And PJ's key message to
the state and to lawmakers, you know, was
you get the money back. You
know, if you put, if you give
production, these tax breaks, you get the
money back, you know, in,
(11:39):
in, in tax dollars through,
you know, through people's earnings
through dollar spent, you know, that's,
uh, that was a key part
of that message that it makes sense to do
this stuff. And Ireland,
Ireland went through that as
well. There was, um, Ireland is very
competitive, obviously, uh,
tax wise and, and, and for
production, it's competitive in a lot of
(11:59):
ways. It's got good, it's
got, you know, a lot of highly
skilled crew. It's got good actors. It's
got big tax breaks. Um, and
which, which started a number
of years ago. And then there was a period
of time where it looked like
they were going to pull back
some of those, I remember. Um, but it's
actually, it attracts so much
(12:20):
more into the country and it
boosts the economy that like, it makes
sense to offer these
things. I mean, this, you know, I
talked about this before, but it's like
the, uh, for an advisor was trying to
produce a movie over
there and they were told, we can't, we
don't have the crew for you.
We'd have to fly them in from
somewhere else because we just don't have
enough crew to go around
at the moment with so much
production there. So like I say, I'm, I'm
(12:42):
sorry to, I'm sort of got
between two worlds on this
because, you know, I loved going home to
work. I want to, I actually
wanted to, I actually wanted
to get into this. So, um, a lot of our,
you know, if you've been
listening, we, we've been talking
about a lot of LA Hollywood local issues.
Our audience is actually
fairly international. And
(13:04):
when I say international, I mean Irish.
So for us to talk about
these California issues, I, I've
always been meaning to talk about this
and it, I think this is
the time to talk about it.
It's conflicting because if you go on, on
crew stories and you say,
um, these, these conversations
can easily get political. If you go on
(13:26):
crew stories and say, Hey,
we need to keep productions
in LA and studios are running off to
blah, blah, blah. And, and, and so on.
And then, uh, workers in
Vancouver and Georgia and the UK are all
like, well, we got to eat
too. Like, I mean, the industry
is actually kind of slowing down for all
(13:47):
of us. There's a lot of
workers. There's only so much
work. So you see how there, it can
sometimes conflict a little
bit. I'm just wondering if
it's idealistic to think that we could
support California and LA
local, not make it political
and not imply that other regions like
Atlanta, UK and Australia
(14:09):
are the enemy stagnation or the
issues of the Hollywood studio system. I
don't look at this as a
zero sum game. I don't know if
that makes any sense. You do. I don't, I
know that phrase, but I've
never fully understood it.
I've probably used it. Probably is the
incorrect. You probably used
(14:29):
it to sound smart at parties.
Right. You want to finish off that pizza?
Well, yeah, it's a zero sum
game. So yeah, I'll take it.
No idea. No idea. I don't look at this
particular issue as a zero sum game,
meaning that for one of
us to win, the other needs to lose.
That's what it means. Someone has to win
and someone has to lose.
Exactly. Just look at it in the terms of
(14:51):
actors. I could easily say, which it's
very understandable.
I relate if, if someone else gets a part,
that means I lost that
part. You realize how that
mentality can get really, it can get very
tiresome after a while,
meaning that it's me or you.
(15:12):
If you win, I lose. And vice versa.
That's a zero sum game. Oh yeah. Of
course. These two guys
pushing their LA initiatives. I'm kind of
just want to open up
that conversation because
that conversation does not exist on crew
stories. When you got
these negative, these comments,
just fighting at each other across the
world. I know what you mean, but
everybody just has to,
everybody's just fighting for their own
(15:32):
piece of it, you know, for
their own sorts of their own
survival.
I get it. I mean, I
wouldn't take that personally.
There are obviously great movies and
great films made all across the world.
I am not against diversity.
Oh, good.
You can't not against diversity, guys,
just to just mark that down.
(15:53):
I'm pro diversity, everyone, just so we
got that on the record.
What I'm saying is, is, is I just have a
appreciation for things that have been
around for a very long time.
In what way?
Nothing's perfect.
If you guys listen last week,
I was just traveling in Egypt.
I was walking around in cities and
(16:16):
ruins that have been
preserved and recovered for
since 2000 B.C.
OK, so that's
three thousand four thousand years.
I'm just walking around it.
OK.
And I didn't need to be Egyptian.
(16:36):
To understand.
Oh, my God, these stories and these
people have been
preserved for all these years.
I didn't feel like they're the other.
And just because I was an Egyptian, I
didn't care about their history.
If I was going to go into Dublin and you
showed me this coffee shop was around
(16:59):
since 1930 and it's been here and it's
been part of our town and,
you know, part of our
community, I would appreciate it.
I would actually really care.
I didn't need to be
Irish to appreciate that.
You know what I mean? Yeah.
So my point in America, because our
history is so short,
I do have appreciation
for the few longstanding institutions
(17:21):
that we kind of have.
That's how I look at it. Yeah.
So like essentially like, you know, the
American, the Californian equivalent
of, you know, the pyramids of Egypt is
like the Warner Brothers line.
That's the. That's the.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, that might be that
might be a compliment.
But yeah, for years, people from all over
the world come to gawk at the Hollywood
(17:43):
Walk of Fame and our piss
filled streets of Hollywood.
It's not the pyramids,
but it's the best we have.
Yeah, you can absolutely appreciate it
and appreciate the history of it.
It doesn't give it any
more protection necessarily.
I mean, it's like the
auto industry in Detroit.
You can look at the history and go,
Detroit was built on this rich, you know,
(18:03):
car industry, but it doesn't stop
industry from leaving town.
You're right. Hollywood might not be an
institution anymore.
Because to be honest, what we have right
now is all the incredible
storytellers and filmmakers that we had
are being taken over by tech companies.
Are we taking Hollywood for granted?
We're going to see the industry has been
(18:25):
around for 100 years
and then they broke it.
So we'll see how bad they want to fix it.
I just think that like it's up to every
jurisdiction to protect their own
native industry if they can't, you know.
On this note about Hollywood being taken
for granted, this just came out.
Jeremy Renner walked away
from doing Hawkeye season two.
(18:45):
They offered him half
the money from season one.
He called Disney penny pinchers.
He walked away.
He says it's going to be and also keep in
mind he had that horrific snow plow
incident. So he recovered,
which is really impressive.
He says it's going to take me twice the
amount of work for half the money,
(19:06):
eight months of my time and
do it for half the amount.
And he's like, I'm sorry. Why?
Do you think I'm only half the Jeremy
because I got ran over?
Is that why you want to pay me half of
what I made on the first season?
I would love to know the amount.
And I think this is the other part of
that conversation where if we do have
productions migrating out, if you're not
(19:29):
going to take a job,
there's going to be other
actors that are going to take it.
Whatever salary from five years ago.
You know, it might
not be the same anymore.
Well, I was talking to a producer a
little couple of weeks ago
and he was saying the part of the issue
is no, I don't know.
This is just his his take on it is that
(19:51):
actors taken seven figures need to start
taking six figures if they're
you know, if production
is if production is to be.
Brought back in any kind of real way,
like that's part of the cost.
And I look, that's just his take on it.
He's coming at it from a different
perspective perspective.
I totally understand that.
You know, we're not dealing in anything
like those numbers, you and I yet.
(20:12):
So, you know, I.
I don't know. Jeremy Renner
is in a different position.
I get that.
It's probably not a statement that's
going to garner a lot of support.
I don't think because I think most people
are not dealing with that kind of level.
(20:34):
Oh, that's funny that you say that.
I actually I actually I
actually applaud him for that.
Really? I actually I actually love the
fact that he did that.
OK. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, no, I mean, this is this is
actually a great point
because I feel like there's
two sides of it. And I'm glad that you
brought that up because
we have talked about it
in the past. Reminds me of Rob Lowe.
When we brought up Rob Lowe, he talked
(20:55):
about his game show in
Ireland and he talked about
his show in New York that he didn't want
to move to New York for.
I look at both sides of this conversation
and I don't think
there's a right or wrong.
I think if you're in a position where you
got kids, got family, you know,
life is precious and you
recover from a a horrific injury.
(21:16):
I think you could do whatever you want.
I think it's just the understanding that,
hey, with the industry the way it is,
I'm willing to walk away from a job and
I'm going to have to deal with that.
You and I are in the same position.
If I do a job in Atlanta, it's not going
to pay me the same as in L.A.
And so I feel like
it's still very relevant.
I feel like we're all
making that decision.
(21:36):
Absolutely. And he's absolutely you know,
he has every right to choose for himself
what he wants to do or doesn't do.
And I understand not being held hostage
by, you know, by a
studio or by a production.
And no matter what level you're at, you
have to decide what
your what your worth is.
That's kind of like where this tricky
territory is about
fighting for what we're worth
(21:57):
and also trying to get fair wages.
Do you know what I mean? Yeah.
And that that's kind of like why I bring
up this, because when I hear
Jimmy Renner saying no to the studios, he
stands by what he feels like he's worth.
And he made a decision.
And the question is, is whether actors
are fighting hard
(22:17):
enough for what we're worth.
So last thing we're going to talk about
is I saw this panel TV directors.
It happened to be here in New York, so I
figured I'd go check it out.
It's actually a
director that I worked with.
Her name is Hagar Ben Asher.
She was also with another
director, Deborah Campmeyer.
(22:39):
And it's so funny when we talk about
mingling at these events.
I thought maybe I would say hi and maybe
this was this was my plan.
Maybe I would ask a question and then
just say, oh, yeah,
it's great to see you.
I was, you know, we happen to work
together during the Q&A
when they had the actors ask questions.
The first person that was up asked the
(23:01):
question that I was going to ask.
And I was like, oh,
well, so much for that.
That's it. That's all I got.
So I just quietly just
listened and it was a great panel.
Yeah, that was my
shot. That was my big shot.
So you didn't you didn't speak to her?
You know, when they have a director, they
don't want to get they don't want
the directors to get hounded afterwards.
So they literally shoot the directors out
(23:22):
after the Q&A was done.
And then and then the actors could leave.
So there wasn't an opportunity.
All right. You know, this is
becoming a regular segment.
So tune in next week to find out who else
you can't did not say hi to.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
At an event.
If you saw last week's episode, I was a
panel and I chose not to mingle
with Michael Fassbender,
Jeffrey Wright, Jody Turner Smith.
(23:43):
And I'm just keeping that going on
because I figured,
hey, if it ain't broke,
why fix it? I thought it
was really educational.
I thought it was really interesting.
It's actually online and I sent it over
to you and you got a
chance to look at it.
And we'll we'll put the
link in the description.
Hagar Ben Asher was so nice,
so caring on set that
listening to the panel
(24:04):
to see her talk about the the art and her
job, it made perfect sense.
For those that might not know, TV
essentially is more of a showrunner,
writer's medium versus film, where that's
really where the director
has most of the control.
TV director, you're going
on to someone else's set
(24:25):
for episodes at a time, maybe just one.
Yeah. Also, TV moves way faster.
Like it's a much faster, you know, it's a
much faster work environment.
So, yeah, tell me tell me what your
thoughts were when you were watching it.
It was really interesting.
I found a very one, one big takeaway I
thought I took away from it was
one of the directors, I forgot which one
(24:45):
she said that when she started,
she because she used to act and she said
when she started directing,
she realized that she's
like, oh, it was never about me.
Like she used to think that, you know,
when she didn't get roles or whatever,
it was something to do with her.
She goes, she goes,
once I started directing,
I realized that like it was nothing to do
with me, that once a director sees a role
a certain way or sees a
certain person as that role,
(25:06):
there's nothing that you can
do to really change their mind.
They also talked about when you hire the
wrong person, you know,
when you hire the wrong person and you
realize that they're not right
for the role, that then you have to fire
them or you have to fully accept
that this is exactly the way it's
supposed to be and
fully accept that person
for who they are and not try and change
(25:27):
them to your vision of the character
that this person is now the character.
So I thought that was really interesting.
So the other thing, and when we were
talking about the metaphor
that a set is like a dinner party,
one of the directors
actually used this metaphor.
She said, I'm a guest to their dinner
party as a TV director.
(25:48):
She goes, I don't try to
change the menu as the guest.
The lead actors and the
cast are all the ingredients.
And her job is to bring the best bottle
of wine to make everything pop.
Yeah, to bring out the
best flavor. Yeah, exactly.
Love that metaphor.
And I think both of them were saying that
when it comes down to it,
(26:10):
a lot of directors talk too much.
Sometimes you could do a
lot more with with less.
This actually didn't make it into the
video because it was
in the Q&A afterwards.
They revealed that they have very little
input on who gets cast.
One of the directors said
they make their top two choices.
And then other than that, it's out of
their hands, which I
(26:30):
thought was interesting.
The director often doesn't
have a saying who gets cast.
And then she talked about like, you know,
they talked about TV
directing and how it's kind of a triangle
between like the actor,
the director and the showrunner.
It's a different sort of process.
I loved, I think it was the
director that you worked with.
She talked about meeting,
(26:53):
setting up a time to meet actors if she's
directing an episode of something.
She'll watch all of it, watch all the
seasons and then meet with,
try and meet with the actors if she can
for coffee or if it's
if they're too busy
meeting their trailer.
So I thought that was cool and get a
sense of who they are as a person.
I just found it really interesting.
They did say hold space a lot.
There was a lot of the use
of the phrase hold space,
(27:14):
which I'm never
entirely sure what it means.
It's like those things that just sort of
pop up where suddenly everybody
saying it or everybody's talking about it
and I don't know where it came from.
And I feel like I'm trying to
what are we all doing this now?
What does this mean?
I'll tell you one that made me roar.
So I was home in Ireland, you know,
recently and my dad's kind of like
staring at the window like that.
(27:35):
And I'm staring at the window like this.
And I said, what are you doing?
He goes, I'm holding
space for the window cleaner.
I just thought he'll
drop these lines sometimes.
Let me bridge this back to the panel.
We talked about that episode when we
talked about worst experiences.
It just happened to be
a unpleasant experience.
It wasn't by far the worst that someone
(27:56):
has ever experienced.
To juxtapose that with these two TV
directors and the way that they talked.
Their job is to serve the production.
And protect the actor.
In whatever way that is, be
completely free, protected,
(28:18):
feel like they're seen and completely
comfortable to be vulnerable.
Stop acting.
Whatever the actor needs
to not feel self-conscious.
That's that's holding space.
Let's do hidden gems.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
So my hidden gem is is how
I did a Glingy or Glen Ross.
So the only way and this is thanks to the
(28:40):
friendly people at Reddit.
Wait, did you you got this off Reddit?
You got this tip off Reddit.
Oh, yeah. Oh, 100 percent.
Glen, Glen, Glen Ross does not do digital
rush, does not do lottery tickets,
which is insane.
The only way to get cheap tickets for
Glen, Gary, Glen Ross
is standing room only.
(29:00):
Let's say the show is at 2 p.m.
You show up.
Whatever it could be an hour, it could be
an hour and a half before the show
to stand in line before that show.
Here's the catch.
First of all, you also
wait indoors, which is nice.
Here's the catch.
The show has to sell out.
(29:22):
You do not know if the show
sells out until it sells out.
So you look at the tickets online, but
also the you won't know
until you go to the box office.
They will give you your ticket or sell
you a ticket 15 minutes before the show.
Let's just say that I
showed up on a Saturday matinee.
I showed up way early.
They thought I was insane.
(29:42):
Box office guy goes, hey, just so you
know, we don't know if
the show is sold out.
So you're going to be waiting.
We're not going to give a ticket until 15
minutes before the show.
I waited, answered emails, did work, read
a book and all that stuff.
Slowly, people start
to read the whole book.
How early were you?
Exactly. The first one in line.
It was totally worth it.
15 minutes before the show, they said,
(30:02):
yep, we sold out and I
got a ticket for $45.
Great seat.
Literally first first standing room only.
There's plenty of space,
but obviously you're standing.
And then when you say great sees, it was.
Well, yeah, well, well, great.
Yeah, great, great spot.
Yeah, great view.
OK, no obstruction.
That's a good point. No obstruction.
(30:23):
You're in the back of the mezzanine or
whatever it's called.
You can stand in the aisle if you wanted
because there's no one behind you.
And it's totally worth it.
And that's the catch.
You've got to do this.
First of all, the show is hot, so they're
probably going to sell
out for a lot of them.
But you never know.
You really never know.
So it's the role of the dice.
I showed up way early.
(30:44):
Some people behind me showed up like an
hour early and they still got
a standing room only ticket.
So, yeah, anyway, play your cards.
Give it a shot.
And that's the only way to get cheap
tickets for Glenn Gary
Glenn Ross right there.
That's great. That's a great idea.
And is it like a little bullpen kind of
(31:04):
thing where like it doesn't matter
how early like you didn't get a better
spot than a person who came behind you?
Did you? Oh, actually, I did.
I did get it. You did because because you
are even in standing room only.
It's like the equivalent of spots where
like you're in this place and they're
behind you or whatever.
Exactly. So your ticket
actually dictates what.
It's designated spots for
each standing room only ticket.
(31:26):
Oh, that's good to know.
My hidden gem is way less impressive than
that, but it is a pizza.
I went up to hang out with my friend,
Owen Macon, who loves a shout out.
That's part of that. That's part of the
way I get people to
listen to this podcast.
I just shout out my friends so they'll so
they'll keep listening.
And I'll call you, give you a shout out.
So they'll listen to the episode anyway
was up in Owen's place.
(31:47):
And he ordered pizza and he ordered it
from a place called.
I'm going to make a bollocks of this dad.
Michaela pizza in Hollywood.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, no.
Yeah, they're they're awesome.
It was an excellent pizza.
We got three different
pieces, but they were all fantastic.
And it was like that.
I don't know. It was just
a really excellent pizza.
(32:08):
If you're in
Hollywood, good Italian place.
Excellent. I love the dough.
I love the toppings.
But you went you guys met and got it at
the restaurant in Hollywood.
No, we got to deliver it to his place.
Oh, OK. OK.
I was going to say they the courtyard is
beautiful in Hollywood.
(32:28):
It's a great restaurant.
Yeah, it's, you know, but so I'm done.
OK, in Hollywood.
Good, good, good
Italian pizza for you there.
Fun little fact, they're they're from
Naples and they came over to L.A.
and had that location.
They blew up from the
movie Eat, Pray, Love,
because Julia Roberts
goes to that restaurant.
So it's actually the original in Naples.
(32:50):
Oh, OK. So it's not a hidden gem.
It's a it's a it's a very
much an out in the open gem.
But also, oh, it's
Owen's partner is Italian.
So I trust I trust his I trust his, you
know, his Italian knowledge by proxy.
Now, that's a good point.
Well, there you go.
There you go. There were no.
All right, guys. Well, that's our show.
(33:12):
Hope you enjoyed it.
Follow us wherever you find your podcast
at Actors Guide podcast
and on all social media.
And we'll see you next
week. See you next week, guys.
One of the directors, she said, "I'm a
guest to their dinner
party as a TV director."
Don't try to change
the menu as the guest.
The lead actors and the
cast are all the ingredients,
and her job is to bring the best bottle
of wine to make everything pop.
One that made me roar.
So I was home in Ireland, and my dad's
(00:21):
kind of like staring
at the window like this,
and I said, "What are you doing?"
He goes, "I'm holding
space for the window cleaner."
Hey everyone, welcome to the Actors'
Guide to the End of the World podcast,
where we talk about acting in Hollywood
in a way people understand.
I'm your host, E-Kan Soong, and this is...
Rían Sheehy Kelly, how's it going?
What's up, buddy?
Oh, dude.
We are back. We are
(00:42):
ready for another episode.
Before I forget, we have new things
coming for the podcast.
We're going to be unveiling this month,
so make sure you stay tuned.
Follow us wherever you
find all your podcasts.
We're on YouTube. We're on Substack at
Actors' Guide podcast.
Make sure to follow us on all social
media at Actors' Guide podcast.
And if you get a
(01:02):
chance, leave us a review.
Leave us a comment.
Really helps the podcast.
Unless it's bad, then it doesn't help the
podcast. Don't do that.
Yeah, yeah. That doesn't help that much.
But anyway, as always...
We still love you anyway.
Exactly. As always, we
will love you anyway.
So, on the show for today, I got to see
(01:24):
Glengarry Glen Ross on
Broadway with Kieran Culkin,
everyone's favorite golden boy.
And if you stick around, I could tell you
how I got cheaper
tickets to get that show.
We also talk about stay in LA.
We talk about the progress that
California is making,
keeping productions in California.
We talk about Jeremy Renner having choice
comments for Disney,
(01:45):
calling them penny pinchers.
Uh-oh. Drama.
And also, we talk about a TV director
panel, some secrets from
some of our best TV directors.
A little insight into TV directing and
what the fuck does holding space mean?
And today's show is brought to you by...
(02:06):
Tired of looking up
at your romantic lead?
Need a step letter to
kiss your romantic co-star?
Tired of just being Danny DeVito and
twins and not Arnold
Schwarzenegger and twins?
Give yourself a boost
with Hollywood Heels Insoles.
You're going to go from Tom Cruise to Terry Crews. Now in Crocs. I know better than that.
(02:50):
Also, Bill Burr.
Bill Burr.
So it was a great show.
Well, obviously it's a famous play, but
it's a limited engagement.
I think they got extended to June.
I mean, I'm not a play buff, as we all
know, but it is one of the hottest
tickets in New York.
They're selling like hotcakes.
(03:10):
And I will say, and this is a little
tease for my hidden gem, I
was able to get cheap tickets.
There's only one way to get
cheap tickets for the show.
You're going to have to stick to the end.
We have hidden gems at the end of every
episode where we have little tidbits of,
you know, fun little secrets or things
from our lives that we
want more people to know.
So it's a little way that we thank people
(03:31):
for listening to the end.
Anyway, so that's my hidden gem.
They don't have a digital lottery and
they don't have rush tickets.
So it's one of the few
shows that don't have that.
And a lot of people were given a little
side eye that it's, you know,
Glenn, Gary, Glenn Ross that
is not doing discount tickets.
(03:52):
No, no, absolutely.
And I'm not, I'm not going to give away
the secret of how you
got those cheap tickets,
because I know it's your hidden gem, but
I will say this, that a little hint,
somebody has a black eye and is winded.
So that's all I'll say.
That's all I'll say.
It may or may not be
legal how I got those tickets.
I thought it was great.
(04:12):
It moves really fast.
I mean, you can imagine the clip, David
Mamet, I'm not going to lie.
Bilbur crushes.
He's a sneaky good actor, Bilbur.
I think so too.
I mean, obviously he's very, you know,
humble, but he's been
acting, studying, acting.
Obviously this is a big step because, you
(04:33):
know, you're starring on
Broadway next to Bob Oden,
Kirk, Karen Culkin and a
bunch of other great actors.
But, uh, Bilbur crushed.
Uh, I will say, and this is just because
we've been talking
about Karen Culkin a lot.
Someone made a comment saying Karen
Culkin was low energy and
they kind of didn't really,
(04:55):
they didn't resonate with
his performance as much.
The first act, I actually saw what they
were complaining about.
And I was like, it was just, it just felt
like it wasn't suited to his strengths.
And, you know, next to other huge scenes
with Bob Oden, Kirk,
Bill Burr and all that,
there was something about it where I was
(05:15):
like, Oh, I don't know.
It's not just, it just
wasn't popping for me.
Right.
But I will say the second
act completely paid off.
Um, everyone crushes
and I had a great time.
Yeah.
A little shout out to your friend, John.
He also did a great job.
(05:36):
I'm so excited.
I'm so thrilled for John.
I'm so excited for him.
He's such a wonderful guy.
I really, I'm such a massive fan that I'm
thrilled that he's doing this.
And, um, okay.
So stay in LA has made a big push these
past couple of weeks.
We have two crucial bills have been
pushed to the next level.
We have 120,000 letters that have been
(05:57):
sent in, uh, to lawmakers.
These bills are specifically aimed
towards making tax credits more
effective in California and also
increasing them Adrian Nazarian.
Just this past week, LA city council
unanimously passed a measure that aims
to make permitting and production to be
cheaper and more seamless.
(06:18):
So this is completely separate from those
bills, but Adrian Nazarian is very vocal,
very much a part of this.
They're trying to get
practical things like permitting.
Just can you make it easier?
Rean and I actually saw each other in
real life for the first time in a long
time last month at a stay in LA rally.
I really enjoyed it.
(06:38):
It was a, it was a really fun event.
Um, there was a lot of
actors there, a lot of crew there.
People did speeches.
There was representatives of all the
major unions, state
senators, you know, local reps.
By the way, we actually posted some of
this, some of the footage
from the rally on our social
media so you can go check that out and
some of the highlights.
So it was, it was a really great event.
(07:00):
I didn't really know what to expect from
it, but, but you
know, the message was to,
to keep production in LA, to attract
production back to LA,
to make this place a good,
you know, an affordable place and a
thriving place again to film in.
One of the really good speeches was an
actor called PJ Byrne,
who I know a little bit who gave a great
(07:21):
speech and he's really been
pushing hard to get
production back to LA.
It was a really good event and there was
a lot of enthusiasm.
There was a lot of support.
I wasn't clear.
Initially I was like, what is the, you
know, what's the, the focus of it?
But it, I mean, if, and correct me if I'm
wrong, but it seemed to be like
contact your local representatives, push
(07:43):
them to get these bills passed to,
to get production in LA.
And like one of the things that, uh, that
I took away from it was it's, it's, it's,
some people were saying like that
California has taken the,
the movie industry for granted because
it's always been here and
they haven't really made
(08:03):
enough effort to, to retain production
here or to make it
affordable or to make it.
Cause you know, LA is getting killed by
so many other markets
in terms of tax breaks.
And we've talked about this a fair bit,
but it's so expensive to film in the city
that, um, just production has left and
gone to Atlanta and gone to
New Mexico and gone to all
these other regional places. And lately,
(08:26):
and you know, I'm a
little conflicted about this
because it's gone to places like Ireland.
There is a ton of
production in Ireland right now.
Which, so I'm kind of, I'm in a strange,
uh, I'm sort of
straddling two worlds here because,
you know, I just spent six months working
in Ireland and now I'm back in LA.
Like, uh, it's, but, but I, I, you know,
(08:50):
I really appreciate it. The,
what I was able to pick up from the event
and like get a greater
sense of what it means to people
and the efforts by which people are
trying to, to get these things through
and to try and try and
make this a thriving city for production.
Again, we heard a lot of
people who are on crew talking
about the need of their fellow
(09:12):
colleagues, but, uh, to your point, we
did get a lot of education
from lawmakers about these are the bills
that we're focusing on. We
need to, uh, get the rest
of the assembly members on board. And
this idea that the Hollywood worker
community is not the 1%.
(09:33):
It's middle-class working class. We need
to stress that. And we need
to get these bills pushed.
PJ lists the places that he had filmed in
in the last few
years. And he went through
a long list of different countries and
cities that he had filmed
it. Like we met in Ireland
when he was filming there, you know, we
were on the same project.
(09:54):
It was incredible though.
The list of countries that he had filmed
in the last few years. And like, he's
sort of representative
of a lot of people here that, and these
are like people who work,
but have to go out of town and
leave their families. And they're the
lucky ones who are working.
You know what I mean? Who do get
to go out of town to work, but it's
still, you know, it's still
stressful and that's what they
(10:14):
have to do to, to pay the bills. And, and
it's really tough on crew
that don't always have that
option to travel to work because local
crews are being employed
in all of these places. So
that's, that's even more impactful
because, you know, below
the line workers are really,
really suffering and really struggling.
And we've seen on the,
you know, the crew stories,
(10:35):
Facebook or whatever, a lot of people
leave in the industry. Like
a lot of people just can't
sustain it anymore. It's just, it's just
not happening for them.
Yeah. No, that's a great
point. And the other thing, what PJ said
that really stuck out was
all these different regions
that he's working and just imagine all
the taxes that
California is not getting. Yeah.
And that's, that's a great point. That's
(10:57):
a great point. I just
shot in Atlanta and you know,
I'm paying taxes to Georgia. You, you
brought up a great point. California
taking Hollywood for
granted because it just so happened that
there was a soundbite of
Ben Affleck saying that same
exact thing just this past week,
California has been taking Hollywood for
granted. And this is,
(11:18):
this is going on for years. And it just
so happened that it's getting to the
point of no return where
how much is California going to fight to
keep productions in LA?
Yeah. And PJ's key message to
the state and to lawmakers, you know, was
you get the money back. You
know, if you put, if you give
production, these tax breaks, you get the
money back, you know, in,
(11:39):
in, in tax dollars through,
you know, through people's earnings
through dollar spent, you know, that's,
uh, that was a key part
of that message that it makes sense to do
this stuff. And Ireland,
Ireland went through that as
well. There was, um, Ireland is very
competitive, obviously, uh,
tax wise and, and, and for
production, it's competitive in a lot of
(11:59):
ways. It's got good, it's
got, you know, a lot of highly
skilled crew. It's got good actors. It's
got big tax breaks. Um, and
which, which started a number
of years ago. And then there was a period
of time where it looked like
they were going to pull back
some of those, I remember. Um, but it's
actually, it attracts so much
(12:20):
more into the country and it
boosts the economy that like, it makes
sense to offer these
things. I mean, this, you know, I
talked about this before, but it's like
the, uh, for an advisor was trying to
produce a movie over
there and they were told, we can't, we
don't have the crew for you.
We'd have to fly them in from
somewhere else because we just don't have
enough crew to go around
at the moment with so much
production there. So like I say, I'm, I'm
(12:42):
sorry to, I'm sort of got
between two worlds on this
because, you know, I loved going home to
work. I want to, I actually
wanted to, I actually wanted
to get into this. So, um, a lot of our,
you know, if you've been
listening, we, we've been talking
about a lot of LA Hollywood local issues.
Our audience is actually
fairly international. And
(13:04):
when I say international, I mean Irish.
So for us to talk about
these California issues, I, I've
always been meaning to talk about this
and it, I think this is
the time to talk about it.
It's conflicting because if you go on, on
crew stories and you say,
um, these, these conversations
can easily get political. If you go on
(13:26):
crew stories and say, Hey,
we need to keep productions
in LA and studios are running off to
blah, blah, blah. And, and, and so on.
And then, uh, workers in
Vancouver and Georgia and the UK are all
like, well, we got to eat
too. Like, I mean, the industry
is actually kind of slowing down for all
(13:47):
of us. There's a lot of
workers. There's only so much
work. So you see how there, it can
sometimes conflict a little
bit. I'm just wondering if
it's idealistic to think that we could
support California and LA
local, not make it political
and not imply that other regions like
Atlanta, UK and Australia
(14:09):
are the enemy stagnation or the
issues of the Hollywood studio system. I
don't look at this as a
zero sum game. I don't know if
that makes any sense. You do. I don't, I
know that phrase, but I've
never fully understood it.
I've probably used it. Probably is the
incorrect. You probably used
(14:29):
it to sound smart at parties.
Right. You want to finish off that pizza?
Well, yeah, it's a zero sum
game. So yeah, I'll take it.
No idea. No idea. I don't look at this
particular issue as a zero sum game,
meaning that for one of
us to win, the other needs to lose.
That's what it means. Someone has to win
and someone has to lose.
Exactly. Just look at it in the terms of
(14:51):
actors. I could easily say, which it's
very understandable.
I relate if, if someone else gets a part,
that means I lost that
part. You realize how that
mentality can get really, it can get very
tiresome after a while,
meaning that it's me or you.
(15:12):
If you win, I lose. And vice versa.
That's a zero sum game. Oh yeah. Of
course. These two guys
pushing their LA initiatives. I'm kind of
just want to open up
that conversation because
that conversation does not exist on crew
stories. When you got
these negative, these comments,
just fighting at each other across the
world. I know what you mean, but
everybody just has to,
everybody's just fighting for their own
(15:32):
piece of it, you know, for
their own sorts of their own
survival.
I get it. I mean, I
wouldn't take that personally.
There are obviously great movies and
great films made all across the world.
I am not against diversity.
Oh, good.
You can't not against diversity, guys,
just to just mark that down.
(15:53):
I'm pro diversity, everyone, just so we
got that on the record.
What I'm saying is, is, is I just have a
appreciation for things that have been
around for a very long time.
In what way?
Nothing's perfect.
If you guys listen last week,
I was just traveling in Egypt.
I was walking around in cities and
(16:16):
ruins that have been
preserved and recovered for
since 2000 B.C.
OK, so that's
three thousand four thousand years.
I'm just walking around it.
OK.
And I didn't need to be Egyptian.
(16:36):
To understand.
Oh, my God, these stories and these
people have been
preserved for all these years.
I didn't feel like they're the other.
And just because I was an Egyptian, I
didn't care about their history.
If I was going to go into Dublin and you
showed me this coffee shop was around
(16:59):
since 1930 and it's been here and it's
been part of our town and,
you know, part of our
community, I would appreciate it.
I would actually really care.
I didn't need to be
Irish to appreciate that.
You know what I mean? Yeah.
So my point in America, because our
history is so short,
I do have appreciation
for the few longstanding institutions
(17:21):
that we kind of have.
That's how I look at it. Yeah.
So like essentially like, you know, the
American, the Californian equivalent
of, you know, the pyramids of Egypt is
like the Warner Brothers line.
That's the. That's the.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, that might be that
might be a compliment.
But yeah, for years, people from all over
the world come to gawk at the Hollywood
(17:43):
Walk of Fame and our piss
filled streets of Hollywood.
It's not the pyramids,
but it's the best we have.
Yeah, you can absolutely appreciate it
and appreciate the history of it.
It doesn't give it any
more protection necessarily.
I mean, it's like the
auto industry in Detroit.
You can look at the history and go,
Detroit was built on this rich, you know,
(18:03):
car industry, but it doesn't stop
industry from leaving town.
You're right. Hollywood might not be an
institution anymore.
Because to be honest, what we have right
now is all the incredible
storytellers and filmmakers that we had
are being taken over by tech companies.
Are we taking Hollywood for granted?
We're going to see the industry has been
(18:25):
around for 100 years
and then they broke it.
So we'll see how bad they want to fix it.
I just think that like it's up to every
jurisdiction to protect their own
native industry if they can't, you know.
On this note about Hollywood being taken
for granted, this just came out.
Jeremy Renner walked away
from doing Hawkeye season two.
(18:45):
They offered him half
the money from season one.
He called Disney penny pinchers.
He walked away.
He says it's going to be and also keep in
mind he had that horrific snow plow
incident. So he recovered,
which is really impressive.
He says it's going to take me twice the
amount of work for half the money,
(19:06):
eight months of my time and
do it for half the amount.
And he's like, I'm sorry. Why?
Do you think I'm only half the Jeremy
because I got ran over?
Is that why you want to pay me half of
what I made on the first season?
I would love to know the amount.
And I think this is the other part of
that conversation where if we do have
productions migrating out, if you're not
(19:29):
going to take a job,
there's going to be other
actors that are going to take it.
Whatever salary from five years ago.
You know, it might
not be the same anymore.
Well, I was talking to a producer a
little couple of weeks ago
and he was saying the part of the issue
is no, I don't know.
This is just his his take on it is that
(19:51):
actors taken seven figures need to start
taking six figures if they're
you know, if production
is if production is to be.
Brought back in any kind of real way,
like that's part of the cost.
And I look, that's just his take on it.
He's coming at it from a different
perspective perspective.
I totally understand that.
You know, we're not dealing in anything
like those numbers, you and I yet.
(20:12):
So, you know, I.
I don't know. Jeremy Renner
is in a different position.
I get that.
It's probably not a statement that's
going to garner a lot of support.
I don't think because I think most people
are not dealing with that kind of level.
(20:34):
Oh, that's funny that you say that.
I actually I actually I
actually applaud him for that.
Really? I actually I actually love the
fact that he did that.
OK. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, no, I mean, this is this is
actually a great point
because I feel like there's
two sides of it. And I'm glad that you
brought that up because
we have talked about it
in the past. Reminds me of Rob Lowe.
When we brought up Rob Lowe, he talked
(20:55):
about his game show in
Ireland and he talked about
his show in New York that he didn't want
to move to New York for.
I look at both sides of this conversation
and I don't think
there's a right or wrong.
I think if you're in a position where you
got kids, got family, you know,
life is precious and you
recover from a a horrific injury.
(21:16):
I think you could do whatever you want.
I think it's just the understanding that,
hey, with the industry the way it is,
I'm willing to walk away from a job and
I'm going to have to deal with that.
You and I are in the same position.
If I do a job in Atlanta, it's not going
to pay me the same as in L.A.
And so I feel like
it's still very relevant.
I feel like we're all
making that decision.
(21:36):
Absolutely. And he's absolutely you know,
he has every right to choose for himself
what he wants to do or doesn't do.
And I understand not being held hostage
by, you know, by a
studio or by a production.
And no matter what level you're at, you
have to decide what
your what your worth is.
That's kind of like where this tricky
territory is about
fighting for what we're worth
(21:57):
and also trying to get fair wages.
Do you know what I mean? Yeah.
And that that's kind of like why I bring
up this, because when I hear
Jimmy Renner saying no to the studios, he
stands by what he feels like he's worth.
And he made a decision.
And the question is, is whether actors
are fighting hard
(22:17):
enough for what we're worth.
So last thing we're going to talk about
is I saw this panel TV directors.
It happened to be here in New York, so I
figured I'd go check it out.
It's actually a
director that I worked with.
Her name is Hagar Ben Asher.
She was also with another
director, Deborah Campmeyer.
(22:39):
And it's so funny when we talk about
mingling at these events.
I thought maybe I would say hi and maybe
this was this was my plan.
Maybe I would ask a question and then
just say, oh, yeah,
it's great to see you.
I was, you know, we happen to work
together during the Q&A
when they had the actors ask questions.
The first person that was up asked the
(23:01):
question that I was going to ask.
And I was like, oh,
well, so much for that.
That's it. That's all I got.
So I just quietly just
listened and it was a great panel.
Yeah, that was my
shot. That was my big shot.
So you didn't you didn't speak to her?
You know, when they have a director, they
don't want to get they don't want
the directors to get hounded afterwards.
So they literally shoot the directors out
(23:22):
after the Q&A was done.
And then and then the actors could leave.
So there wasn't an opportunity.
All right. You know, this is
becoming a regular segment.
So tune in next week to find out who else
you can't did not say hi to.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
At an event.
If you saw last week's episode, I was a
panel and I chose not to mingle
with Michael Fassbender,
Jeffrey Wright, Jody Turner Smith.
(23:43):
And I'm just keeping that going on
because I figured,
hey, if it ain't broke,
why fix it? I thought it
was really educational.
I thought it was really interesting.
It's actually online and I sent it over
to you and you got a
chance to look at it.
And we'll we'll put the
link in the description.
Hagar Ben Asher was so nice,
so caring on set that
listening to the panel
(24:04):
to see her talk about the the art and her
job, it made perfect sense.
For those that might not know, TV
essentially is more of a showrunner,
writer's medium versus film, where that's
really where the director
has most of the control.
TV director, you're going
on to someone else's set
(24:25):
for episodes at a time, maybe just one.
Yeah. Also, TV moves way faster.
Like it's a much faster, you know, it's a
much faster work environment.
So, yeah, tell me tell me what your
thoughts were when you were watching it.
It was really interesting.
I found a very one, one big takeaway I
thought I took away from it was
one of the directors, I forgot which one
(24:45):
she said that when she started,
she because she used to act and she said
when she started directing,
she realized that she's
like, oh, it was never about me.
Like she used to think that, you know,
when she didn't get roles or whatever,
it was something to do with her.
She goes, she goes,
once I started directing,
I realized that like it was nothing to do
with me, that once a director sees a role
a certain way or sees a
certain person as that role,
(25:06):
there's nothing that you can
do to really change their mind.
They also talked about when you hire the
wrong person, you know,
when you hire the wrong person and you
realize that they're not right
for the role, that then you have to fire
them or you have to fully accept
that this is exactly the way it's
supposed to be and
fully accept that person
for who they are and not try and change
(25:27):
them to your vision of the character
that this person is now the character.
So I thought that was really interesting.
So the other thing, and when we were
talking about the metaphor
that a set is like a dinner party,
one of the directors
actually used this metaphor.
She said, I'm a guest to their dinner
party as a TV director.
(25:48):
She goes, I don't try to
change the menu as the guest.
The lead actors and the
cast are all the ingredients.
And her job is to bring the best bottle
of wine to make everything pop.
Yeah, to bring out the
best flavor. Yeah, exactly.
Love that metaphor.
And I think both of them were saying that
when it comes down to it,
(26:10):
a lot of directors talk too much.
Sometimes you could do a
lot more with with less.
This actually didn't make it into the
video because it was
in the Q&A afterwards.
They revealed that they have very little
input on who gets cast.
One of the directors said
they make their top two choices.
And then other than that, it's out of
their hands, which I
(26:30):
thought was interesting.
The director often doesn't
have a saying who gets cast.
And then she talked about like, you know,
they talked about TV
directing and how it's kind of a triangle
between like the actor,
the director and the showrunner.
It's a different sort of process.
I loved, I think it was the
director that you worked with.
She talked about meeting,
(26:53):
setting up a time to meet actors if she's
directing an episode of something.
She'll watch all of it, watch all the
seasons and then meet with,
try and meet with the actors if she can
for coffee or if it's
if they're too busy
meeting their trailer.
So I thought that was cool and get a
sense of who they are as a person.
I just found it really interesting.
They did say hold space a lot.
There was a lot of the use
of the phrase hold space,
(27:14):
which I'm never
entirely sure what it means.
It's like those things that just sort of
pop up where suddenly everybody
saying it or everybody's talking about it
and I don't know where it came from.
And I feel like I'm trying to
what are we all doing this now?
What does this mean?
I'll tell you one that made me roar.
So I was home in Ireland, you know,
recently and my dad's kind of like
staring at the window like that.
(27:35):
And I'm staring at the window like this.
And I said, what are you doing?
He goes, I'm holding
space for the window cleaner.
I just thought he'll
drop these lines sometimes.
Let me bridge this back to the panel.
We talked about that episode when we
talked about worst experiences.
It just happened to be
a unpleasant experience.
It wasn't by far the worst that someone
(27:56):
has ever experienced.
To juxtapose that with these two TV
directors and the way that they talked.
Their job is to serve the production.
And protect the actor.
In whatever way that is, be
completely free, protected,
(28:18):
feel like they're seen and completely
comfortable to be vulnerable.
Stop acting.
Whatever the actor needs
to not feel self-conscious.
That's that's holding space.
Let's do hidden gems.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
So my hidden gem is is how
I did a Glingy or Glen Ross.
So the only way and this is thanks to the
(28:40):
friendly people at Reddit.
Wait, did you you got this off Reddit?
You got this tip off Reddit.
Oh, yeah. Oh, 100 percent.
Glen, Glen, Glen Ross does not do digital
rush, does not do lottery tickets,
which is insane.
The only way to get cheap tickets for
Glen, Gary, Glen Ross
is standing room only.
(29:00):
Let's say the show is at 2 p.m.
You show up.
Whatever it could be an hour, it could be
an hour and a half before the show
to stand in line before that show.
Here's the catch.
First of all, you also
wait indoors, which is nice.
Here's the catch.
The show has to sell out.
(29:22):
You do not know if the show
sells out until it sells out.
So you look at the tickets online, but
also the you won't know
until you go to the box office.
They will give you your ticket or sell
you a ticket 15 minutes before the show.
Let's just say that I
showed up on a Saturday matinee.
I showed up way early.
They thought I was insane.
(29:42):
Box office guy goes, hey, just so you
know, we don't know if
the show is sold out.
So you're going to be waiting.
We're not going to give a ticket until 15
minutes before the show.
I waited, answered emails, did work, read
a book and all that stuff.
Slowly, people start
to read the whole book.
How early were you?
Exactly. The first one in line.
It was totally worth it.
15 minutes before the show, they said,
(30:02):
yep, we sold out and I
got a ticket for $45.
Great seat.
Literally first first standing room only.
There's plenty of space,
but obviously you're standing.
And then when you say great sees, it was.
Well, yeah, well, well, great.
Yeah, great, great spot.
Yeah, great view.
OK, no obstruction.
That's a good point. No obstruction.
(30:23):
You're in the back of the mezzanine or
whatever it's called.
You can stand in the aisle if you wanted
because there's no one behind you.
And it's totally worth it.
And that's the catch.
You've got to do this.
First of all, the show is hot, so they're
probably going to sell
out for a lot of them.
But you never know.
You really never know.
So it's the role of the dice.
I showed up way early.
(30:44):
Some people behind me showed up like an
hour early and they still got
a standing room only ticket.
So, yeah, anyway, play your cards.
Give it a shot.
And that's the only way to get cheap
tickets for Glenn Gary
Glenn Ross right there.
That's great. That's a great idea.
And is it like a little bullpen kind of
(31:04):
thing where like it doesn't matter
how early like you didn't get a better
spot than a person who came behind you?
Did you? Oh, actually, I did.
I did get it. You did because because you
are even in standing room only.
It's like the equivalent of spots where
like you're in this place and they're
behind you or whatever.
Exactly. So your ticket
actually dictates what.
It's designated spots for
each standing room only ticket.
(31:26):
Oh, that's good to know.
My hidden gem is way less impressive than
that, but it is a pizza.
I went up to hang out with my friend,
Owen Macon, who loves a shout out.
That's part of that. That's part of the
way I get people to
listen to this podcast.
I just shout out my friends so they'll so
they'll keep listening.
And I'll call you, give you a shout out.
So they'll listen to the episode anyway
was up in Owen's place.
(31:47):
And he ordered pizza and he ordered it
from a place called.
I'm going to make a bollocks of this dad.
Michaela pizza in Hollywood.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, no.
Yeah, they're they're awesome.
It was an excellent pizza.
We got three different
pieces, but they were all fantastic.
And it was like that.
I don't know. It was just
a really excellent pizza.
(32:08):
If you're in
Hollywood, good Italian place.
Excellent. I love the dough.
I love the toppings.
But you went you guys met and got it at
the restaurant in Hollywood.
No, we got to deliver it to his place.
Oh, OK. OK.
I was going to say they the courtyard is
beautiful in Hollywood.
(32:28):
It's a great restaurant.
Yeah, it's, you know, but so I'm done.
OK, in Hollywood.
Good, good, good
Italian pizza for you there.
Fun little fact, they're they're from
Naples and they came over to L.A.
and had that location.
They blew up from the
movie Eat, Pray, Love,
because Julia Roberts
goes to that restaurant.
So it's actually the original in Naples.
(32:50):
Oh, OK. So it's not a hidden gem.
It's a it's a it's a very
much an out in the open gem.
But also, oh, it's
Owen's partner is Italian.
So I trust I trust his I trust his, you
know, his Italian knowledge by proxy.
Now, that's a good point.
Well, there you go.
There you go. There were no.
All right, guys. Well, that's our show.
(33:12):
Hope you enjoyed it.
Follow us wherever you find your podcast
at Actors Guide podcast
and on all social media.
And we'll see you next
week. See you next week, guys.
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