January 28, 2025 • 37 mins
Welcome to the Actor’s Guide to the End of the World Episode 13! … a little later than usual because of a big weekend for Philly (Go Birds).
While Rían braces for possibly the worst storm in Ireland’s history (he’s okay), he tells us about the first time he faced an American winter (he was not okay). Los Angeles gets ready for another wild week, and E-Kan gets a little more into the air quality of the fires and what we need to know about 9-11 and a previous study on California wildfires. Also, incarcerated firefighters are getting paid almost nothing to fight the fires and what Kim Kardashian has to say about it.
Not surprisingly TikTok is still around, and they also banned one of E-Kan’s videos. You can be the judge how fishy it was. We also learn a little history lesson courtesy of Oscar-nominated actors of “The Apprentice” Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, and Donald Trump. Also, how the “The Apprentice” film shows how art and film can intersect with the society and politics. The guys share how difficult it is to stay engaged and not get overwhelmed by politics and 24/7 news cycle, and what do you do when it feels like there’s nothing you can do.
The Oscar nominations just got announced, and the guys will discuss the top storylines from the nominations, history being made with Emilia Perez and others, and notable Golden Globes moments. Also a nice reminder - if you steal a few scenes, you might end up getting burned alive by Leo Dicaprio. And E-Kan and Rían realize what award shows are really about and why they’re so captivating.
New episodes every Monday!
Follow us wherever you find your podcasts, including Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Substack and on all social media at @actorsguidepodcast
https://www.asbestos.com/featured-stories/9-11-lingering-health-effects/#:~:text=Since%20the%209/11%20attacks,illness%20with%20over%2029%2C000%20cases.
https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/10/wildfires-and-health-los-angeles/
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/10/09/907099868/smokey-skies-are-the-new-normal-are-they-making-us-sick
https://deadline.com/2025/01/kim-kardashian-la-wildfires-incarcerated-firefighters-wages-1236255068/
https://www.statnews.com/2024/06/07/smoke-exposure-california-wildfires-52000-early-deaths-study/
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/10/09/907099868/smokey-skies-are-the-new-normal-are-they-making-us-sick
Time stamps:
(00:00) Intro
(04:00) Ireland’s worst storm in their history
(05:25) Rían’s first American winter
(07:20) California’s Air after the wildfires
(09:15) What we can learn from 9-11
(13:15) TikTok is back and how they banned E-Kan
(16:35) How all the apps are getting wacky
(19:00) How do you stay above the noise and when things get overwhelming
(23:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I didn't know what the word cold meant
(00:01):
until I moved to Chicago.
I brought a light jacket because I
thought it'll be cold there.
I better bring a jacket.
So I brought a light jacket and I was
walking around the streets.
I got so cold.
I forgot what city I was in.
I just got totally disoriented and I was
just, I couldn't, I
thought, you know, I was like,
I'm in the wrong city.
There's something wrong.
My hands are sore and I'm
(00:22):
shivering and I went into Macy's.
Mikey Madison, she was one of the young
Manson girls in Once
Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Part of its small performance, directors
like Sean Baker are going to remember.
The one who was breaking into the house,
she got burned alive by Leo DiCaprio.
So it's one of those things where it's
(00:42):
like you steal the show a
couple of times and next
thing you know, you're getting burned
alive by Leo DiCaprio.
That's a dream.
Exactly.
That's why we do this.
Hey guys, this is the actor's guide to
the other world podcast.
I'm E-Kan Soong and this is.
Rían Sheehy Kelly, how are you doing?
What's up buddy?
We got another episode for you.
This is going to be a good one.
Maybe maybe.
(01:03):
Yeah, maybe maybe we never really know.
Yeah, we're always optimistic over here.
So we're wherever you find your podcast.
We're on YouTube.
We're also on sub stack and on all social
media at Actors Guide podcast.
And as of this week, still on TikTok.
Still on TikTok.
We might mention that later, but
apparently TikTok still exists.
(01:25):
Back up, back up and running everyone.
It's like nothing ever happened.
I say the people at Red
Note are like, here we go.
Incoming.
Hitting.
They thought they were going to be the
zoom of the pandemic.
I just bought $500,000 Red Note.
It doesn't sound like this.
That was a bad idea.
We got a lot to get to this episode.
(01:45):
We talk a little bit more about the
wildfires in California.
Unfortunately, we just want to talk about
a few bullet points that you need to be
aware of with the air quality.
I'm just worried about a
lot of my friends in L.A.
And we just we want more
people to know about it.
We talk about ways that you can help when
things get crazy, when disaster strikes.
It's feeling overwhelming.
(02:05):
What can you do when it feels like
there's nothing to do?
We talk a little bit about the Oscar
nominations that just dropped today.
As of recording this, a little bit more
about the TikTok ban that never happened.
One of my shorts was
actually flagged on TikTok.
We have no idea why.
(02:25):
Ikan was declared an
enemy of the Chinese people.
No, I was enemy of the state.
What state that was,
we don't we do not know.
We do not know yet.
I don't know. So stick around.
As always, we put time stamps in all
these episodes so you can jump around.
Our sponsor this week
is Word of the Year.
Are you ready to find your word with a
very expensive coach and just two to four
(02:46):
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And if you download this template, you'll
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of how you want to be
this year. Don't let 2025 go to shit.
This is actually a real thing.
We just looked it up.
Word of the year.
Rean, tell me what's going on over there.
You said that there is a
possible huge storm coming up.
What you got your own weather, weather
(03:07):
issues over an island.
You're never safe.
We're never safe.
So potentially a worst
storm ever to hit Ireland.
Potentially, this is the this is what
we're being told on the news.
However, that doesn't sound good.
No, that doesn't sound good.
But there is a big storm coming.
There's a red alert
wind warning from 2 a.m.
tonight until sort of 3 p.m.
tomorrow across the whole country.
(03:28):
Red alert winds.
So a wind event rather than rain.
But yeah, they've closed all the schools.
Yeah, they've closed
all the schools tomorrow.
Most people aren't
going into work tomorrow.
They've advised people to
work from home if they can.
So we're in for it. Wow.
Similar wind levels to, you know, the
(03:51):
fire winds to the Santa
Ana's in LA last week.
So a lot of crazy weather events
happening like the
floods in Europe this summer,
this past summer that were catastrophic.
Ice storms, you know, fires in LA.
Worst ever storm in Ireland.
Like it's it feels very
fucking sinister right now.
I think it's also interesting what your
(04:12):
guys and I mean, Ireland's disaster
preparation is is everyone work from home
and close the schools.
So this is in preparation because your
your warning is for tomorrow.
Yet you close the schools
just to get ahead of it.
Yeah. Now, I will say we're not we're not
good at dealing with any kind of extreme
weather here like any time it snows.
(04:34):
Country has a bit of a meltdown.
We don't get a lot of extreme weather.
So when it happens, it's quite serious
and everybody just kind of freaks out.
For example, the temperatures that
Chicago has every
single year and the amount of
snow that they get even now
would cripple this country.
So we're just not prepared to
deal with it in the same way.
That's funny.
We make fun of over in the East Coast in
New Jersey, New York.
We don't get snow days.
(04:55):
We're we're going.
We're going to school work.
We're trudging through it.
Chicago is a brutal winner and snow.
I assumed that Ireland was the same.
No, not no. No, no,
no, we're no different.
Because we barely, we
barely ever get snow.
To be honest, Ireland
is a pretty mild country.
We don't have that we don't have that
hardiness, that physical toughness.
What we have is mental toughness to deal
(05:15):
with gray overcast skies.
300 days a year.
When I moved to Chicago
first, I moved in January.
I didn't know what the word cold meant
until I moved to Chicago.
I brought a light jacket because I
thought it'll be cold there.
I better bring a jacket.
So I brought a light jacket and I was
walking around the streets.
I got so cold.
I forgot what city I was in.
(05:36):
I just got totally
disoriented and I was just I couldn't.
I thought, you know, I was
like, I'm in the wrong city.
There's something wrong.
My hands are sore and I'm shivering.
And I went into Macy's.
I thought I'd come to the wrong city.
I didn't know where I was.
I was kind of getting turned around like
basically my body was just shutting down
because I'd never
experienced a cold like this.
Ducked into Macy's.
(05:57):
But the warmest winter jacket I could
find zipped it up and
then bought a wooly hat.
And I sat in Macy's on a bench just
trying to warm up for about half an hour.
Like a psychopath.
Maybe it's just like, what?
Who is this joker?
I'm you probably got this
tons while you were in Chicago.
But did everyone say,
why are you such a wussy?
You're from Ireland.
Oh, they didn't say that to you.
(06:19):
No, they didn't say that to me.
They didn't assume that
you could handle the cold.
And they're like, why are
you why are you whining?
Isn't Ireland just as bad as Chicago?
They didn't say that.
Yeah, a few people might have said that.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, OK.
OK. You know, as far as extremes go, I
don't think I'm a survivor.
You know, I've
discovered this about myself.
(06:40):
Oh, that's why Santa Monica in California
works out well for you.
It's lovely and pleasant there.
I don't handle the desert well at all.
I just can't handle it.
I get so dehydrated.
I just I overheat.
I'm just so I don't I think I think if
there's like the zombie apocalypse
and people are foraging for food and, you
know, yeah, we're driving around
a pickup truck with an AK 47 inside, I'm
(07:02):
probably just going to just end it.
You'd be you'd be
like, OK, guys, you win.
You know, take it.
Chicago is the other city
that we both have experience in
because I lived in
Chicago for four years.
I went to school there, so I know what
that winter is like.
And it's unlike it's rough.
Yeah, we are going to
get back to California.
(07:22):
Now, we got a lot of great comments about
our last week's episode
about what's going on with the wildfires.
And a lot of people are telling me we
want you guys to talk about this more
because L.A. is they see a
lot of people without masks.
A lot of people in areas that aren't
(07:44):
technically burn sites.
They say the air looks clear.
Well, the thing is, is
what's actually in the air.
You can't see it or
smell it in this past week.
My friend who's not in the not in a burn
site area is coughing up a lung.
She normally uses an asthma inhaler.
She needs five.
(08:06):
This past week, she's sick as a dog, very
active, and she's not in a burn area.
She's actually in my area.
I have another friend who's
not in a burn area in my area.
Just happen to get a nosebleed literally
just out of nowhere.
First time in 15 years, it could be from
anything, but it just happened to be
the first time in 15
years you got a nosebleed.
My point is, is it's been 10 days.
(08:28):
It's been barely two weeks.
I hate to be the bad guy.
I really do.
I'm not a complete clean Puritan.
I eat sugar.
I eat red meat.
I occasionally use plastic.
But my point is, is if something is going
to kill me, I'm the type of guy
who wants to know about it.
(08:49):
It does look bad.
It's difficult.
I have sympathy for people because, I
mean, you know, people have to.
Most people have to stay in
it and can't get out of it.
We're saying wear a mask.
I don't know a lot of people who are
wearing masks, but again, I'm not there.
So I'm not seeing it.
You know what I mean?
I just wanted to get through this little
PSA quick because we didn't even talk
about 9-11 yet in 2016.
(09:10):
So literally the 15 year anniversary,
Christine Todd Whitman, former governor
of the proud state of New Jersey, she was
the head of the EPA during 9-11
environmental protection agency.
She told the public the air around ground
zero in New York was safe to breathe.
After 15 years, she admitted for the
(09:33):
first time she was wrong.
We will put this
article in the description.
I'm just seeing wind of all this stuff
now where I'm just like, Hey guys, are
you guys seeing the
same thing I'm seeing?
It took them 15 years to admit that
ground zero was dangerous for first
responders and people
living in lower Manhattan.
630,000 registered members had developed
(09:54):
conditions after exposure.
Chronic illnesses, asthma, pulmonary
disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease,
cancers, non melanoma,
skin cancer was number one.
Prostate cancer, breast
cancer, lymphoma, lung cancer.
If you guys watch this on video, I'm
going to put the graphic of all this
horrible stuff.
Don't worry.
We'll get through it quick.
Respiratory diseases and cancer have
(10:16):
caused the most deaths among first
responders in the past 20 years.
So that's what the
symptoms actually look like.
This is 9-11.
Okay. Now, argument's sake.
Someone could easily say, I've had this
conversation with friends.
Some people actually said, well, I don't
think wildfires, I don't think these
(10:36):
wildfires would be as bad as 9-11.
And I'm like, um, I kind of assumed that
these wildfires would be worse than 9-11.
Considering the acreage of the Palisades
fire and Eaton fire are way
bigger than Manhattan altogether. You have all those houses as opposed to
the world trade center and you have
many, many, many floors.
(10:57):
I mean, I didn't do the math on it, but
I'm just saying, I want to have
assumed that 9-11 is worse.
So let's look at this one.
There's a study between 2008 and 2018
about the chronic exposure to wildfire
smoke.
This was done specifically on the
California wildfires in those 10 years.
Also in the 2018 big wildfire that
(11:17):
happened, um, the California wildfires
um, 50, 50, 5,000
people died prematurely.
In 2018, a 76% jump in
childhood asthma exacerbations.
So there's definitely a correlation there
as far as wildfire smoke,
chronic exposure, uh,
(11:39):
these symptoms happened.
Uh, they checked in a lot of times for,
for a lot of these symptoms.
A lot of times after a year, it didn't
get better after a year.
It actually got worse.
Um, so that's what we're looking at.
I think John Stewart did, um, a lot of
advocacy for first responders.
(12:14):
I would agree with you on the fact that
like, because it wasn't
just a wildfire, it was
an urban fire in the Palisades and in
Altadena, there's so much
stuff burned up in there that
we have no idea about.
So yeah, I'd be concerned
going back into that environment.
(12:35):
Anyway, that's my bad news.
I just had to get
that out after last week.
It's a good new segment for the podcast.
That sounds bad news at
the top of every episode.
Oh yeah, I know.
We didn't even get to the industry yet.
That's our dose of
bad news for this week.
All right, so moving on, we're not going
(12:56):
to get into huge TikTok news.
Of course, it just
pops up back and forth.
We're going to be dog walked all year,
all 90 days, whatever
extension someone's going
to file.
We just admit we're all
getting dog walked here.
What does that mean?
I never heard that.
I kind of just made it up.
I thought so.
You played it off with
such confidence though.
I was like, is this another recon?
(13:18):
I just coined a new thing.
The more that we say
it, the more I like it.
It's like, sit, boo, boo, sit.
Sit, boo, boo, sit.
Good dog.
So everyone comes flocking back to TikTok
and happy as a clam.
And then there's a nice little, I don't
know if you saw this,
there's a nice little happy
warning saying, hey,
Trump saved you guys.
(13:39):
Trump saved TikTok.
I saw that.
I'm sorry, I'm still in my head here.
If I ever, if I ever am at a board
meeting, which is, let's
face it, unlikely, I'm going
to use that phrase.
I'm just going to go, guys,
we're getting dog walked here.
Am I right?
Who's with me?
I posted a short.
It was about the Apprentice film.
(13:59):
The Apprentice film
was about Donald Trump.
It starred Sebastian Sann, Jeremy Strong.
Both of them got nominated for an Oscar.
We will talk about that in a little bit.
This short that I posted on Instagram and
TikTok was innocuous.
I post these screenings about these
screenings all the time.
It's two actors talking about the film.
(14:21):
It's not inflammatory, but it is talking
about Trump's reaction to the film.
Donald Trump called them human scum.
Okay.
The actress.
Yeah.
Sebastian Sann and Jeremy Strong.
And this is actually in my short.
The entire production.
The entire production.
Oh, sorry.
In the screening in the Q&A.
Okay.
He called them human scum.
(14:42):
Chuckle, chuckle, laugh, laugh, laugh.
And you could see this entire thing in my
short if you check it out.
Jeremy Strong points out.
Yeah, it's kind of funny, but the phrase
that he uses human
scum, that is a phrase that
Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot used to talk
about his detractors.
(15:03):
Historically, it has significance and
it's a very troubling phrase.
I see how this kind
of went by in the news.
Obviously this is one of a million things
throughout the election.
This movie came out in
October before the election.
I post on Instagram.
A lot of people watched it.
They didn't mind it.
(15:24):
Post a TikTok this
weekend before the ban.
Didn't think anything of it.
Two days later, I checked.
It was flagged for community guidelines.
Violating community guidelines.
This is during the weekend
prior to the ban of TikTok.
Does it get more specific than that?
Or does it say, does it just say, it
(15:44):
doesn't tell you what
community guidelines.
No, just violating community guidelines.
Could be anything.
Violating community guidelines.
It's on Instagram.
Meta had no problem with it.
On TikTok, it was flagged.
You've heard this thing about you can't
search the hashtag fuck Trump on TikTok.
You've heard that, right?
Like he will not.
(16:12):
Also, a lot of my friends and people I
know were posting that
their Instagram accounts
had followed Trump and Pence.
Automatically followed Trump and Pence.
And then I saw something that Instagram
released saying that
was not done on purpose.
However, all the unfollows
(16:33):
may take some time to process.
Wait, that was Instagram or TikTok?
Instagram.
I didn't know that.
I didn't realize.
I didn't even check my Instagram.
I checked mine.
It wasn't following them.
But I noticed when I went on their
accounts, loads of my
friends were following them.
And it wasn't a legacy account.
It wasn't the VP legacy account if you
had been following that before.
(16:54):
We was actually following Pence and...
Or not Pence, what
you call him, JD Vance.
But it was people following JD Vance and
people following Donald Trump's account.
Because there was 150 of my friends were
following them and
you're like, "There's no
way.
There's no way."
And on that note, this is just one of a
(17:16):
bigger segment of what
is actually going on here.
Obviously, this is just the start of the
new presidency in 2025.
We won't get into it that
much, but we're talking about meta.
Zuckerberg is doing a lot
of rubbing elbows with Trump.
He's making comments
like, "Hey, I love UFC too.
I'm a tough guy."
(17:37):
He literally said he wants to incorporate
more masculine energy in the office.
Literally those words.
So, yeah, here we are.
Just Zuckerberg ready to make that play
to be Elon number two.
And this is just what we're looking at.
It's a tricky balance, I think.
(17:59):
And I've talked to a
lot of people about this.
I mean, shutting that noise out, not
looking at the news because it's so
relentless, particularly
now and I think it's
going to be for a while.
It's just this kind of relentless thing
where, "How do you protect your sanity?
Do you not look at the news at all?"
(18:20):
Or as a friend of mine put it today, he
goes, "Be cautious of apathy."
He goes, "Don't let
apathy take over either."
I'm so glad that you brought that up.
I don't know if I'm glad
that I brought that up today.
I mostly try to stay immune to it.
So that's a perfect example where I'm one
of those people that could easily say, "I
(18:42):
don't want to follow the news.
I know it's unpleasant.
I keep it at an arm's distance and I
don't want it to
destroy me and I don't want to
die of apathy or just
have given up completely."
I think that's very hard, especially
today when we have access to everything.
You can see everything and you can feel
(19:03):
like everything is catastrophic.
Everything is overwhelming, but how do
you actually pick
through the noise and where
do you start?
I have some friends that
I think do it quite well.
I look at them and
they'll do things like that.
Like for example, after the fires, they
were out volunteering
at clothes banks and food
(19:24):
banks and things like that.
So they're doing something physical.
I think that's a
really great place to start.
The argument, there's an argument whether
posting stuff on social
media helps or doesn't
help.
Some people think it helps more than I
hear other people say,
"Well, there's no point."
(19:45):
I do think it makes people aware of
things because I get a lot
of information from that.
I'll see people posting on
social media and it'll take me.
I'll go to links and I'll read up on
things that I don't know about.
I think in some ways,
yeah, that is important.
It's picking through
what's true and what's not.
(20:08):
I don't like the thought of ignoring
anything because it's going
on, but then I get caught,
like, "How do I help?
What do I do?"
I like when people post things like,
"Here's how you can
assist in a practical way."
Even during the strikes, during the actor
strike, people are
posting, "Here's how you
can help."
I love stuff like that that's practically
based or organizations
(20:30):
that you can contribute
to that do make a difference.
I do struggle with that.
I do struggle with that.
How do I ... Climate change,
I freak out about that a lot.
Yeah, we've been talking about it.
What can I control?
Where do I find out
where's my circle of influence?
What can I control?
What can't I control?
What do I have to let go of?
(20:51):
What do I have to accept?
I think we talked about it before, but it
was that Buddhist
idea of all suffering is
rooted in not being
in the present moment.
I'm either worrying about the future, I'm
lamenting the past,
or there's some kind of
fear in me about something that may
happen or won't happen.
(21:12):
I think it's just a balance.
I think it's just back and forth between
taking action and letting
go, taking action, letting
go.
If you hit it, there
are so many ways to help.
Ultimately, there might not be one best
way, but it's nice if
(21:34):
you could do anything.
If you have a huge social media influence
and you're Kim
Kardashian, that would be nice
to talk to your 13
million, 35 million followers.
That actually could help out a lot.
Or if you don't have the money and you
say, "Well, I have the time.
Let me go help volunteer at a shelter."
I think they both can do a lot of good
(21:57):
where people are just
hoping that someone can help.
I think there's no one
right or wrong way to do it.
It's like, "Hey,
hopefully you could do something."
It's hard.
I do like when people speak up.
I do like when I hear people in the
public eye highlight things.
(22:18):
They get such heat for it sometimes.
People give them so much shit with their
guru, you should stick to whatever.
Stick to being an actor.
Why are you talking about politics?
Why are you talking about these causes?
I'm like, "Because I have a platform.
Why would you not use it for things that
you believe make a difference?"
I forgot to mention this last week.
Speaking of Kim Kardashian, there are
(22:40):
inmates who are fighting
the firefighters right now.
This is in Deadline.
We'll put the article in the description.
A lot of people don't want these
incarcerated inmates to
be fighting the fires.
They don't want them to be out of jail
breathing outside air,
(23:01):
yet they are helping put out
these fires.
Then, you see a lot of these stories and
the incarcerated inmates.
They go, "We just want to help people.
We know that we're in here for a reason.
We just want to help
people and do some good."
This is an ongoing fire.
We just had two fires break out.
Some people don't want
these people fighting the fires.
These people are paid $10.24 a day.
(23:21):
The lowest grade incarcerated firefighter
can make as little as $5.80 a day.
The reason why I'm bringing this up, Kim
Kardashian, she's been
working with inmates for years.
She is calling attention to this, trying
to get higher wages
for the firefighters, for
incarcerated firefighters.
(23:43):
A lot of people can be skeptical, cynical
about this whole thing.
At this point, Kim Kardashian probably
doesn't give a shit.
She is trying to get these people who are
risking their lives currently right now a
little more than $10 a day.
Anyway, this actually does lead into our
(24:04):
conversation about the
Oscars and the award show.
It just so happened that Oscar
nominations literally just
got released as we're taping
this.
The top bits, now we're not going to go
through every nomination
because a lot of these nominations
were very similar to the Golden Globes.
We are going to talk a little
bit about the Golden Globes.
We're not going to dive into all of it,
but there are a couple
(24:24):
things that pop out here.
There is a lot of history being made with
these Oscar nominations.
Amelia Perez is still crushing the most
nominated non-English film of all time.
It has more.
I want to say 13.
It beat Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
for most nominations
(24:46):
for a non-English film.
That's a big deal.
That is a big deal.
Zoe Zaldana sings.
By the way, Zoe Zaldana
also won a Golden Globe.
Also best actor, first
trans best actor, Amelie Perez.
Oh, yeah, Carla Sofia Gasson.
(25:06):
First trans Oscar nominee.
That's huge.
I'm good at that.
Nick Hap didn't get a Best
International Feature nomination.
I really thought it might.
So I will be
boycotting this year's Oscars.
Thank you.
Another interesting bit for Conclave.
I actually just happened to
see Conclave with my family.
(25:26):
My dad loves period
drama, historical things.
So it's always nice during Oscar season.
A lot of these films are things that my
dad and my family would want to watch.
Conclave is basically
the election of a new pope.
They go through a very rigorous process.
(25:49):
You have great acting, John Lithgow, Ray
Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, all of them.
It sounds boring, but it's not.
I just have to say that because you're
like, oh, this is another pope movie.
Isabella Rossellini got nominated for
Best Supporting, her
(26:09):
first ever nomination.
I don't know if people realize this.
She's the daughter of Ingrid Bergman.
So this is also kind of
news where the son or daughter.
Yeah, I know.
I didn't know that either.
The son or daughter of an Oscar winner is
actually pretty rare.
And Isabella Rossellini is nominated for
Best Supporting Actor for that role.
(26:32):
Here's the thing.
Just one thing about The Apprentice.
No one watched it on both sides,
regardless of where you felt politically.
Unfortunately, no one watched it.
Democrats, liberals,
conservatives, Republicans.
And it was a good movie.
It was a good movie at the Q&A screening.
Ron Howard presented it.
He was not involved in the movie.
He just loved it so much.
(26:52):
He wanted to present it.
I understand going into the election,
people either didn't want
to hear more about Donald
Trump or they were afraid that it was
going to attack him.
It was a really nuanced, good movie.
It was eye opening.
I can understand a lot of liberals were
(27:13):
like, how dare you humanize him?
So this is where this is where we are,
where on both sides of
the fence, they just didn't
see it, didn't give it a chance.
And it's still I think it's still
figuring out where to get streamed.
But right now, the two actors, Jeremy
Strong and Sebastian Sand
(27:33):
got nominated for an Oscar.
They got nominated for an Oscar,
considering that it didn't
make a lot of money and few
people saw it.
That's saying a lot.
There's going to be a lot here this Oscar
season with Amelia Perez, the first trans
actor getting nominated.
And now The Apprentice film, Trump's
going to have some
things to say about this.
(27:54):
And one other thing, Jeremy Strong said a
brilliant thing at the at the Q&A.
His take was this is
how we interact with it.
This is a perfect example of how you use
art and film to
creatively interact with that.
And maybe we can learn something and and
get an insight into what
we're going through right
now.
(28:15):
I do want to throw out a Nora here.
A Nora is is I mean, it did really well.
We talked a little bit about it.
Sean Baker's I'm sorry, Sean Baker's
independent films are always
riveting, really well done,
usually tiny budgets.
And he makes Oscar worthy films.
(28:36):
A Nora's no different.
You should check it out.
He is the first.
Actually, no, I don't
want to say he's the first.
He got nominated for four Oscars.
This really is a guy who does a lot.
Best picture, screenplay,
editing and best director.
So he actually is one
of the editors as well.
(28:58):
To get nominated for four Oscars, that's
up there with Orson
Welles and the Coen brothers.
So that's that's pretty big deal.
You're a Borisov is one of the one of the
Russians in the in the film.
He's the first Russian in five decades to
get nominated in acting.
He got nominated as a
(29:19):
supporting for that.
I'm not going to lie.
When I heard that there was someone from
a Nora, a Russian from
Nora to get nominated,
I thought it was another
actor who was also amazing.
But this guy really
subtle, nuanced performance.
First Russian in five
decades to get nominated.
Mikey Madison, who plays the
lead, the female lead, Nora.
(29:43):
She was one of the young Manson girls and
once upon a time in Hollywood.
A lot of people.
I mean, also, that was us.
Awesome Butler before Elvis, I think.
Yeah.
She was one of the daughters of Pamela
Adlon in Better Things, who is Pamela.
Alan is a very close
friend to Leslie Kahn.
A lot of our coaches
coached on that show.
(30:03):
See all these small little roles.
Everyone's kind of like stealing the show
or a director catches.
It catches a director's eye.
These even if it's small performance.
Directors like Sean
Baker are going to remember.
And so Mikey Madison, one of the crazy
Manson girls, is the one
who was breaking into the
house and got was freaking out and she
(30:26):
was kind of like on drugs.
She got burned alive by Leo DiCaprio.
You steal the show a couple of times and
next thing you know,
you're getting burned alive
by Leo DiCaprio.
That's a dream.
That's what we do.
And then years later, exactly.
That's what we do.
Four years later, she's
nominated for an Oscar.
I noticed as well that Demi Moore is
nominated for the substance.
Have you seen the
substance by any chance?
(30:47):
It's funny you say that.
Last week was the first episode that we
did not talk about the
substance and I actually
was just about to bring it up.
Thank you, Ryan.
Of course you were.
I did want to bring up the substance.
Corley Fargot is the ninth woman to get
nominated for directing.
The ninth woman in history.
(31:09):
I did want to talk about Demi Moore, but
I'm actually going a little further back.
Not only did Demi Moore get nominated for
an Oscar for the
substance, she also won the
Golden Globe.
We're not we unfortunately, because with
everything going on, we
didn't really dig into every
little bit of Golden Globes.
(31:30):
And the reason why I want to bring it up
is because way, way, way
back when we were doing
the first couple episodes,
Golden Globes were happening.
We were kind of making jokes about the
Golden Globes of the Sketches Awards.
Golden Globes might be a little
questionable, but I don't
want to take any shine off of.
We were talking about the bigger question
for up and coming working actors hustling
(31:54):
along, not being not famous or anything.
When we watch these shows, what are they?
What's the big deal?
We were talking about what the big deal
is with Oscar award
shows and whether you want
the respect or you want the prestige.
I think it's captivating because it's a
great freaking story.
(32:15):
I was just going to say that.
It's the story.
Okay, that's it.
It's always the story.
Okay, good.
Her speech, she said she's
been doing this for 45 years.
She's never won anything.
30 years ago, a producer told her she was
a popcorn actress, but
she'll never be a real
Oscar, never be award winning actress.
(32:35):
She almost believed it and she was done.
She was almost okay with that fate.
And then she finds the substance script
and next thing you
know, this comes along.
And she says this win was a marker for
her, a marker of she
felt whole and then it was
a reminder that she felt belonging.
She felt like she belonged.
(32:57):
It's a really great story because you
have people like Demi Moore
who feels like an underdog.
She actually is an underdog.
And I think when you look at all these
actors, that's kind of
like what we get from after
seeing the Golden Globes in these awards.
Everyone's an underdog.
(33:17):
This is a long shot.
It's so hard to do for anybody.
It doesn't matter
whether you're Bradley Cooper.
We know that Bradley Cooper is definitely
chasing after an
Oscar, but it's not assumed
and it's really hard for him.
Every one of us is an underdog saying
there's no way it can be me.
And Demi Moore is another one of them and
it could be very well you.
(33:39):
It could very well be you growing up in
Ireland saying this
is like, this is weird.
Am I really going to get an Oscar and me
like, you know, getting
to acting later, you know,
growing up in New Jersey.
No one actually thinks that they're going
to necessarily win it
because it's so hard.
And I feel like that's the captivating
story of us watching these award shows.
(34:02):
We watch sports for the same reason.
Right now, NFL playoffs are happening and
you watch the best
athletes in the world do
something that's really, really hard.
And when we watch these award shows, you
watch something happen
that is so unlikely and all
the odds are against you and you just
want to see what happens.
(34:23):
And you see it in like a speech will go
viral, like an
acceptance speech will go viral.
Like for example, like for everything
everywhere all at once when
Michelle Yeoh won and when
I'm going to butcher
his name, Ki-Hee-Kwon.
His speech was incredible because here
was a guy and when he
talked about he lost his
(34:45):
insurance, you know, he lost his health
insurance because he didn't.
We talked about that in a previous
episode where we talked
about making your minimum
for your entire health insurance.
He thought he was done, you know, he just
he wasn't making any money out of it.
And this is the kid from Indiana Jones
and then Michelle Yeoh
wins and ask like, Alan
Farrell does an
incredible acceptance speech.
Anytime he's won an award, his speeches
(35:06):
are brilliant because he's so genuine.
I love to bring that up to he's such a
breath of fresh air.
And I will add, he was
very vocal during the strikes.
He was there on the picket line a lot.
He was doing great speaking in gay or he
was speaking freely.
A lot of great sound bites.
He was fighting.
He was fighting on the picket lines.
(35:28):
And on that note, this speech this week
at the Golden Globes, he
gave a shout out, which
basically melted everyone's heart.
He gave a shout out to craft services.
I believe her name was Caroline.
He gave a special shout out to craft
services because they were freezing.
He's wearing 300 pounds of prosthetics.
And she always had a coconut water so he
(35:49):
wouldn't pass out in faint.
And so that's that support for the crew.
And that's just knowing
that, hey, this is a team effort.
And he gave her a special shout out.
Yeah.
So I actually went to the drama school
that his brother runs.
His brother, Aiman Farrell runs a drama
school with a lady called
Jill Doyle, and they run
(36:09):
the National Performing
Arts School in Dublin.
Wow.
That's where I learned.
That's where I
started doing classes first.
The first acting classes ever talking.
That's cool.
I attended that.
I was there for a few years
and I learned a lot from there.
That's where I started out.
So I have a very special place in my
heart for the MPAS and
(36:30):
for Aiman and for Colin.
But you're right.
I love the story of it.
That to me is the kind of buzz of it.
And when you say somebody was a small
part in a movie, you
know, in like once upon a
time in Hollywood and then four years
later winning an Oscar or
however many years later
winning an Oscar, that means something
(36:51):
because that's that's the
that's the lottery ticket
of this profession.
When we first started discussing it, we
were like, well, I
mean, do we really think of
an Oscar?
Bradley Cooper thinks of an Oscar, but do
we think of an Oscar?
You see how a lot of us
actors feel the same way.
It's very we're all thinking about that
(37:11):
story of like this is so unlikely.
We see the depths of the lows.
We see the little highs.
We trudge along and you kind of work for
years and years and years
and you're kind of working
for credibility and all that stuff.
And ultimately, every actor, most of them
are going through this
experience and there's
a bonding thing about it.
Let's let's put a pin in it here.
(37:33):
Thanks for thanks for listening, guys.
If we'll be here next week, catch us,
leave us a comment and
we'll catch you next week.
Absolutely.
I didn't know what the word cold meant
(00:01):
until I moved to Chicago.
I brought a light jacket because I
thought it'll be cold there.
I better bring a jacket.
So I brought a light jacket and I was
walking around the streets.
I got so cold.
I forgot what city I was in.
I just got totally disoriented and I was
just, I couldn't, I
thought, you know, I was like,
I'm in the wrong city.
There's something wrong.
My hands are sore and I'm
(00:22):
shivering and I went into Macy's.
Mikey Madison, she was one of the young
Manson girls in Once
Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Part of its small performance, directors
like Sean Baker are going to remember.
The one who was breaking into the house,
she got burned alive by Leo DiCaprio.
So it's one of those things where it's
(00:42):
like you steal the show a
couple of times and next
thing you know, you're getting burned
alive by Leo DiCaprio.
That's a dream.
Exactly.
That's why we do this.
Hey guys, this is the actor's guide to
the other world podcast.
I'm E-Kan Soong and this is.
Rían Sheehy Kelly, how are you doing?
What's up buddy?
We got another episode for you.
This is going to be a good one.
Maybe maybe.
(01:03):
Yeah, maybe maybe we never really know.
Yeah, we're always optimistic over here.
So we're wherever you find your podcast.
We're on YouTube.
We're also on sub stack and on all social
media at Actors Guide podcast.
And as of this week, still on TikTok.
Still on TikTok.
We might mention that later, but
apparently TikTok still exists.
(01:25):
Back up, back up and running everyone.
It's like nothing ever happened.
I say the people at Red
Note are like, here we go.
Incoming.
Hitting.
They thought they were going to be the
zoom of the pandemic.
I just bought $500,000 Red Note.
It doesn't sound like this.
That was a bad idea.
We got a lot to get to this episode.
(01:45):
We talk a little bit more about the
wildfires in California.
Unfortunately, we just want to talk about
a few bullet points that you need to be
aware of with the air quality.
I'm just worried about a
lot of my friends in L.A.
And we just we want more
people to know about it.
We talk about ways that you can help when
things get crazy, when disaster strikes.
It's feeling overwhelming.
(02:05):
What can you do when it feels like
there's nothing to do?
We talk a little bit about the Oscar
nominations that just dropped today.
As of recording this, a little bit more
about the TikTok ban that never happened.
One of my shorts was
actually flagged on TikTok.
We have no idea why.
(02:25):
Ikan was declared an
enemy of the Chinese people.
No, I was enemy of the state.
What state that was,
we don't we do not know.
We do not know yet.
I don't know. So stick around.
As always, we put time stamps in all
these episodes so you can jump around.
Our sponsor this week
is Word of the Year.
Are you ready to find your word with a
very expensive coach and just two to four
(02:46):
sheets of paper colored pencils?
And if you download this template, you'll
find your touchstone
of how you want to be
this year. Don't let 2025 go to shit.
This is actually a real thing.
We just looked it up.
Word of the year.
Rean, tell me what's going on over there.
You said that there is a
possible huge storm coming up.
What you got your own weather, weather
(03:07):
issues over an island.
You're never safe.
We're never safe.
So potentially a worst
storm ever to hit Ireland.
Potentially, this is the this is what
we're being told on the news.
However, that doesn't sound good.
No, that doesn't sound good.
But there is a big storm coming.
There's a red alert
wind warning from 2 a.m.
tonight until sort of 3 p.m.
tomorrow across the whole country.
(03:28):
Red alert winds.
So a wind event rather than rain.
But yeah, they've closed all the schools.
Yeah, they've closed
all the schools tomorrow.
Most people aren't
going into work tomorrow.
They've advised people to
work from home if they can.
So we're in for it. Wow.
Similar wind levels to, you know, the
(03:51):
fire winds to the Santa
Ana's in LA last week.
So a lot of crazy weather events
happening like the
floods in Europe this summer,
this past summer that were catastrophic.
Ice storms, you know, fires in LA.
Worst ever storm in Ireland.
Like it's it feels very
fucking sinister right now.
I think it's also interesting what your
(04:12):
guys and I mean, Ireland's disaster
preparation is is everyone work from home
and close the schools.
So this is in preparation because your
your warning is for tomorrow.
Yet you close the schools
just to get ahead of it.
Yeah. Now, I will say we're not we're not
good at dealing with any kind of extreme
weather here like any time it snows.
(04:34):
Country has a bit of a meltdown.
We don't get a lot of extreme weather.
So when it happens, it's quite serious
and everybody just kind of freaks out.
For example, the temperatures that
Chicago has every
single year and the amount of
snow that they get even now
would cripple this country.
So we're just not prepared to
deal with it in the same way.
That's funny.
We make fun of over in the East Coast in
New Jersey, New York.
We don't get snow days.
(04:55):
We're we're going.
We're going to school work.
We're trudging through it.
Chicago is a brutal winner and snow.
I assumed that Ireland was the same.
No, not no. No, no,
no, we're no different.
Because we barely, we
barely ever get snow.
To be honest, Ireland
is a pretty mild country.
We don't have that we don't have that
hardiness, that physical toughness.
What we have is mental toughness to deal
(05:15):
with gray overcast skies.
300 days a year.
When I moved to Chicago
first, I moved in January.
I didn't know what the word cold meant
until I moved to Chicago.
I brought a light jacket because I
thought it'll be cold there.
I better bring a jacket.
So I brought a light jacket and I was
walking around the streets.
I got so cold.
I forgot what city I was in.
(05:36):
I just got totally
disoriented and I was just I couldn't.
I thought, you know, I was
like, I'm in the wrong city.
There's something wrong.
My hands are sore and I'm shivering.
And I went into Macy's.
I thought I'd come to the wrong city.
I didn't know where I was.
I was kind of getting turned around like
basically my body was just shutting down
because I'd never
experienced a cold like this.
Ducked into Macy's.
(05:57):
But the warmest winter jacket I could
find zipped it up and
then bought a wooly hat.
And I sat in Macy's on a bench just
trying to warm up for about half an hour.
Like a psychopath.
Maybe it's just like, what?
Who is this joker?
I'm you probably got this
tons while you were in Chicago.
But did everyone say,
why are you such a wussy?
You're from Ireland.
Oh, they didn't say that to you.
(06:19):
No, they didn't say that to me.
They didn't assume that
you could handle the cold.
And they're like, why are
you why are you whining?
Isn't Ireland just as bad as Chicago?
They didn't say that.
Yeah, a few people might have said that.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, OK.
OK. You know, as far as extremes go, I
don't think I'm a survivor.
You know, I've
discovered this about myself.
(06:40):
Oh, that's why Santa Monica in California
works out well for you.
It's lovely and pleasant there.
I don't handle the desert well at all.
I just can't handle it.
I get so dehydrated.
I just I overheat.
I'm just so I don't I think I think if
there's like the zombie apocalypse
and people are foraging for food and, you
know, yeah, we're driving around
a pickup truck with an AK 47 inside, I'm
(07:02):
probably just going to just end it.
You'd be you'd be
like, OK, guys, you win.
You know, take it.
Chicago is the other city
that we both have experience in
because I lived in
Chicago for four years.
I went to school there, so I know what
that winter is like.
And it's unlike it's rough.
Yeah, we are going to
get back to California.
(07:22):
Now, we got a lot of great comments about
our last week's episode
about what's going on with the wildfires.
And a lot of people are telling me we
want you guys to talk about this more
because L.A. is they see a
lot of people without masks.
A lot of people in areas that aren't
(07:44):
technically burn sites.
They say the air looks clear.
Well, the thing is, is
what's actually in the air.
You can't see it or
smell it in this past week.
My friend who's not in the not in a burn
site area is coughing up a lung.
She normally uses an asthma inhaler.
She needs five.
(08:06):
This past week, she's sick as a dog, very
active, and she's not in a burn area.
She's actually in my area.
I have another friend who's
not in a burn area in my area.
Just happen to get a nosebleed literally
just out of nowhere.
First time in 15 years, it could be from
anything, but it just happened to be
the first time in 15
years you got a nosebleed.
My point is, is it's been 10 days.
(08:28):
It's been barely two weeks.
I hate to be the bad guy.
I really do.
I'm not a complete clean Puritan.
I eat sugar.
I eat red meat.
I occasionally use plastic.
But my point is, is if something is going
to kill me, I'm the type of guy
who wants to know about it.
(08:49):
It does look bad.
It's difficult.
I have sympathy for people because, I
mean, you know, people have to.
Most people have to stay in
it and can't get out of it.
We're saying wear a mask.
I don't know a lot of people who are
wearing masks, but again, I'm not there.
So I'm not seeing it.
You know what I mean?
I just wanted to get through this little
PSA quick because we didn't even talk
about 9-11 yet in 2016.
(09:10):
So literally the 15 year anniversary,
Christine Todd Whitman, former governor
of the proud state of New Jersey, she was
the head of the EPA during 9-11
environmental protection agency.
She told the public the air around ground
zero in New York was safe to breathe.
After 15 years, she admitted for the
(09:33):
first time she was wrong.
We will put this
article in the description.
I'm just seeing wind of all this stuff
now where I'm just like, Hey guys, are
you guys seeing the
same thing I'm seeing?
It took them 15 years to admit that
ground zero was dangerous for first
responders and people
living in lower Manhattan.
630,000 registered members had developed
(09:54):
conditions after exposure.
Chronic illnesses, asthma, pulmonary
disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease,
cancers, non melanoma,
skin cancer was number one.
Prostate cancer, breast
cancer, lymphoma, lung cancer.
If you guys watch this on video, I'm
going to put the graphic of all this
horrible stuff.
Don't worry.
We'll get through it quick.
Respiratory diseases and cancer have
(10:16):
caused the most deaths among first
responders in the past 20 years.
So that's what the
symptoms actually look like.
This is 9-11.
Okay. Now, argument's sake.
Someone could easily say, I've had this
conversation with friends.
Some people actually said, well, I don't
think wildfires, I don't think these
(10:36):
wildfires would be as bad as 9-11.
And I'm like, um, I kind of assumed that
these wildfires would be worse than 9-11.
Considering the acreage of the Palisades
fire and Eaton fire are way
bigger than Manhattan altogether. You have all those houses as opposed to
the world trade center and you have
many, many, many floors.
(10:57):
I mean, I didn't do the math on it, but
I'm just saying, I want to have
assumed that 9-11 is worse.
So let's look at this one.
There's a study between 2008 and 2018
about the chronic exposure to wildfire
smoke.
This was done specifically on the
California wildfires in those 10 years.
Also in the 2018 big wildfire that
(11:17):
happened, um, the California wildfires
um, 50, 50, 5,000
people died prematurely.
In 2018, a 76% jump in
childhood asthma exacerbations.
So there's definitely a correlation there
as far as wildfire smoke,
chronic exposure, uh,
(11:39):
these symptoms happened.
Uh, they checked in a lot of times for,
for a lot of these symptoms.
A lot of times after a year, it didn't
get better after a year.
It actually got worse.
Um, so that's what we're looking at.
I think John Stewart did, um, a lot of
advocacy for first responders.
(12:14):
I would agree with you on the fact that
like, because it wasn't
just a wildfire, it was
an urban fire in the Palisades and in
Altadena, there's so much
stuff burned up in there that
we have no idea about.
So yeah, I'd be concerned
going back into that environment.
(12:35):
Anyway, that's my bad news.
I just had to get
that out after last week.
It's a good new segment for the podcast.
That sounds bad news at
the top of every episode.
Oh yeah, I know.
We didn't even get to the industry yet.
That's our dose of
bad news for this week.
All right, so moving on, we're not going
(12:56):
to get into huge TikTok news.
Of course, it just
pops up back and forth.
We're going to be dog walked all year,
all 90 days, whatever
extension someone's going
to file.
We just admit we're all
getting dog walked here.
What does that mean?
I never heard that.
I kind of just made it up.
I thought so.
You played it off with
such confidence though.
I was like, is this another recon?
(13:18):
I just coined a new thing.
The more that we say
it, the more I like it.
It's like, sit, boo, boo, sit.
Sit, boo, boo, sit.
Good dog.
So everyone comes flocking back to TikTok
and happy as a clam.
And then there's a nice little, I don't
know if you saw this,
there's a nice little happy
warning saying, hey,
Trump saved you guys.
(13:39):
Trump saved TikTok.
I saw that.
I'm sorry, I'm still in my head here.
If I ever, if I ever am at a board
meeting, which is, let's
face it, unlikely, I'm going
to use that phrase.
I'm just going to go, guys,
we're getting dog walked here.
Am I right?
Who's with me?
I posted a short.
It was about the Apprentice film.
(13:59):
The Apprentice film
was about Donald Trump.
It starred Sebastian Sann, Jeremy Strong.
Both of them got nominated for an Oscar.
We will talk about that in a little bit.
This short that I posted on Instagram and
TikTok was innocuous.
I post these screenings about these
screenings all the time.
It's two actors talking about the film.
(14:21):
It's not inflammatory, but it is talking
about Trump's reaction to the film.
Donald Trump called them human scum.
Okay.
The actress.
Yeah.
Sebastian Sann and Jeremy Strong.
And this is actually in my short.
The entire production.
The entire production.
Oh, sorry.
In the screening in the Q&A.
Okay.
He called them human scum.
(14:42):
Chuckle, chuckle, laugh, laugh, laugh.
And you could see this entire thing in my
short if you check it out.
Jeremy Strong points out.
Yeah, it's kind of funny, but the phrase
that he uses human
scum, that is a phrase that
Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot used to talk
about his detractors.
(15:03):
Historically, it has significance and
it's a very troubling phrase.
I see how this kind
of went by in the news.
Obviously this is one of a million things
throughout the election.
This movie came out in
October before the election.
I post on Instagram.
A lot of people watched it.
They didn't mind it.
(15:24):
Post a TikTok this
weekend before the ban.
Didn't think anything of it.
Two days later, I checked.
It was flagged for community guidelines.
Violating community guidelines.
This is during the weekend
prior to the ban of TikTok.
Does it get more specific than that?
Or does it say, does it just say, it
(15:44):
doesn't tell you what
community guidelines.
No, just violating community guidelines.
Could be anything.
Violating community guidelines.
It's on Instagram.
Meta had no problem with it.
On TikTok, it was flagged.
You've heard this thing about you can't
search the hashtag fuck Trump on TikTok.
You've heard that, right?
Like he will not.
(16:12):
Also, a lot of my friends and people I
know were posting that
their Instagram accounts
had followed Trump and Pence.
Automatically followed Trump and Pence.
And then I saw something that Instagram
released saying that
was not done on purpose.
However, all the unfollows
(16:33):
may take some time to process.
Wait, that was Instagram or TikTok?
Instagram.
I didn't know that.
I didn't realize.
I didn't even check my Instagram.
I checked mine.
It wasn't following them.
But I noticed when I went on their
accounts, loads of my
friends were following them.
And it wasn't a legacy account.
It wasn't the VP legacy account if you
had been following that before.
(16:54):
We was actually following Pence and...
Or not Pence, what
you call him, JD Vance.
But it was people following JD Vance and
people following Donald Trump's account.
Because there was 150 of my friends were
following them and
you're like, "There's no
way.
There's no way."
And on that note, this is just one of a
(17:16):
bigger segment of what
is actually going on here.
Obviously, this is just the start of the
new presidency in 2025.
We won't get into it that
much, but we're talking about meta.
Zuckerberg is doing a lot
of rubbing elbows with Trump.
He's making comments
like, "Hey, I love UFC too.
I'm a tough guy."
(17:37):
He literally said he wants to incorporate
more masculine energy in the office.
Literally those words.
So, yeah, here we are.
Just Zuckerberg ready to make that play
to be Elon number two.
And this is just what we're looking at.
It's a tricky balance, I think.
(17:59):
And I've talked to a
lot of people about this.
I mean, shutting that noise out, not
looking at the news because it's so
relentless, particularly
now and I think it's
going to be for a while.
It's just this kind of relentless thing
where, "How do you protect your sanity?
Do you not look at the news at all?"
(18:20):
Or as a friend of mine put it today, he
goes, "Be cautious of apathy."
He goes, "Don't let
apathy take over either."
I'm so glad that you brought that up.
I don't know if I'm glad
that I brought that up today.
I mostly try to stay immune to it.
So that's a perfect example where I'm one
of those people that could easily say, "I
(18:42):
don't want to follow the news.
I know it's unpleasant.
I keep it at an arm's distance and I
don't want it to
destroy me and I don't want to
die of apathy or just
have given up completely."
I think that's very hard, especially
today when we have access to everything.
You can see everything and you can feel
(19:03):
like everything is catastrophic.
Everything is overwhelming, but how do
you actually pick
through the noise and where
do you start?
I have some friends that
I think do it quite well.
I look at them and
they'll do things like that.
Like for example, after the fires, they
were out volunteering
at clothes banks and food
(19:24):
banks and things like that.
So they're doing something physical.
I think that's a
really great place to start.
The argument, there's an argument whether
posting stuff on social
media helps or doesn't
help.
Some people think it helps more than I
hear other people say,
"Well, there's no point."
(19:45):
I do think it makes people aware of
things because I get a lot
of information from that.
I'll see people posting on
social media and it'll take me.
I'll go to links and I'll read up on
things that I don't know about.
I think in some ways,
yeah, that is important.
It's picking through
what's true and what's not.
(20:08):
I don't like the thought of ignoring
anything because it's going
on, but then I get caught,
like, "How do I help?
What do I do?"
I like when people post things like,
"Here's how you can
assist in a practical way."
Even during the strikes, during the actor
strike, people are
posting, "Here's how you
can help."
I love stuff like that that's practically
based or organizations
(20:30):
that you can contribute
to that do make a difference.
I do struggle with that.
I do struggle with that.
How do I ... Climate change,
I freak out about that a lot.
Yeah, we've been talking about it.
What can I control?
Where do I find out
where's my circle of influence?
What can I control?
What can't I control?
What do I have to let go of?
(20:51):
What do I have to accept?
I think we talked about it before, but it
was that Buddhist
idea of all suffering is
rooted in not being
in the present moment.
I'm either worrying about the future, I'm
lamenting the past,
or there's some kind of
fear in me about something that may
happen or won't happen.
(21:12):
I think it's just a balance.
I think it's just back and forth between
taking action and letting
go, taking action, letting
go.
If you hit it, there
are so many ways to help.
Ultimately, there might not be one best
way, but it's nice if
(21:34):
you could do anything.
If you have a huge social media influence
and you're Kim
Kardashian, that would be nice
to talk to your 13
million, 35 million followers.
That actually could help out a lot.
Or if you don't have the money and you
say, "Well, I have the time.
Let me go help volunteer at a shelter."
I think they both can do a lot of good
(21:57):
where people are just
hoping that someone can help.
I think there's no one
right or wrong way to do it.
It's like, "Hey,
hopefully you could do something."
It's hard.
I do like when people speak up.
I do like when I hear people in the
public eye highlight things.
(22:18):
They get such heat for it sometimes.
People give them so much shit with their
guru, you should stick to whatever.
Stick to being an actor.
Why are you talking about politics?
Why are you talking about these causes?
I'm like, "Because I have a platform.
Why would you not use it for things that
you believe make a difference?"
I forgot to mention this last week.
Speaking of Kim Kardashian, there are
(22:40):
inmates who are fighting
the firefighters right now.
This is in Deadline.
We'll put the article in the description.
A lot of people don't want these
incarcerated inmates to
be fighting the fires.
They don't want them to be out of jail
breathing outside air,
(23:01):
yet they are helping put out
these fires.
Then, you see a lot of these stories and
the incarcerated inmates.
They go, "We just want to help people.
We know that we're in here for a reason.
We just want to help
people and do some good."
This is an ongoing fire.
We just had two fires break out.
Some people don't want
these people fighting the fires.
These people are paid $10.24 a day.
(23:21):
The lowest grade incarcerated firefighter
can make as little as $5.80 a day.
The reason why I'm bringing this up, Kim
Kardashian, she's been
working with inmates for years.
She is calling attention to this, trying
to get higher wages
for the firefighters, for
incarcerated firefighters.
(23:43):
A lot of people can be skeptical, cynical
about this whole thing.
At this point, Kim Kardashian probably
doesn't give a shit.
She is trying to get these people who are
risking their lives currently right now a
little more than $10 a day.
Anyway, this actually does lead into our
(24:04):
conversation about the
Oscars and the award show.
It just so happened that Oscar
nominations literally just
got released as we're taping
this.
The top bits, now we're not going to go
through every nomination
because a lot of these nominations
were very similar to the Golden Globes.
We are going to talk a little
bit about the Golden Globes.
We're not going to dive into all of it,
but there are a couple
(24:24):
things that pop out here.
There is a lot of history being made with
these Oscar nominations.
Amelia Perez is still crushing the most
nominated non-English film of all time.
It has more.
I want to say 13.
It beat Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
for most nominations
(24:46):
for a non-English film.
That's a big deal.
That is a big deal.
Zoe Zaldana sings.
By the way, Zoe Zaldana
also won a Golden Globe.
Also best actor, first
trans best actor, Amelie Perez.
Oh, yeah, Carla Sofia Gasson.
(25:06):
First trans Oscar nominee.
That's huge.
I'm good at that.
Nick Hap didn't get a Best
International Feature nomination.
I really thought it might.
So I will be
boycotting this year's Oscars.
Thank you.
Another interesting bit for Conclave.
I actually just happened to
see Conclave with my family.
(25:26):
My dad loves period
drama, historical things.
So it's always nice during Oscar season.
A lot of these films are things that my
dad and my family would want to watch.
Conclave is basically
the election of a new pope.
They go through a very rigorous process.
(25:49):
You have great acting, John Lithgow, Ray
Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, all of them.
It sounds boring, but it's not.
I just have to say that because you're
like, oh, this is another pope movie.
Isabella Rossellini got nominated for
Best Supporting, her
(26:09):
first ever nomination.
I don't know if people realize this.
She's the daughter of Ingrid Bergman.
So this is also kind of
news where the son or daughter.
Yeah, I know.
I didn't know that either.
The son or daughter of an Oscar winner is
actually pretty rare.
And Isabella Rossellini is nominated for
Best Supporting Actor for that role.
(26:32):
Here's the thing.
Just one thing about The Apprentice.
No one watched it on both sides,
regardless of where you felt politically.
Unfortunately, no one watched it.
Democrats, liberals,
conservatives, Republicans.
And it was a good movie.
It was a good movie at the Q&A screening.
Ron Howard presented it.
He was not involved in the movie.
He just loved it so much.
(26:52):
He wanted to present it.
I understand going into the election,
people either didn't want
to hear more about Donald
Trump or they were afraid that it was
going to attack him.
It was a really nuanced, good movie.
It was eye opening.
I can understand a lot of liberals were
(27:13):
like, how dare you humanize him?
So this is where this is where we are,
where on both sides of
the fence, they just didn't
see it, didn't give it a chance.
And it's still I think it's still
figuring out where to get streamed.
But right now, the two actors, Jeremy
Strong and Sebastian Sand
(27:33):
got nominated for an Oscar.
They got nominated for an Oscar,
considering that it didn't
make a lot of money and few
people saw it.
That's saying a lot.
There's going to be a lot here this Oscar
season with Amelia Perez, the first trans
actor getting nominated.
And now The Apprentice film, Trump's
going to have some
things to say about this.
(27:54):
And one other thing, Jeremy Strong said a
brilliant thing at the at the Q&A.
His take was this is
how we interact with it.
This is a perfect example of how you use
art and film to
creatively interact with that.
And maybe we can learn something and and
get an insight into what
we're going through right
now.
(28:15):
I do want to throw out a Nora here.
A Nora is is I mean, it did really well.
We talked a little bit about it.
Sean Baker's I'm sorry, Sean Baker's
independent films are always
riveting, really well done,
usually tiny budgets.
And he makes Oscar worthy films.
(28:36):
A Nora's no different.
You should check it out.
He is the first.
Actually, no, I don't
want to say he's the first.
He got nominated for four Oscars.
This really is a guy who does a lot.
Best picture, screenplay,
editing and best director.
So he actually is one
of the editors as well.
(28:58):
To get nominated for four Oscars, that's
up there with Orson
Welles and the Coen brothers.
So that's that's pretty big deal.
You're a Borisov is one of the one of the
Russians in the in the film.
He's the first Russian in five decades to
get nominated in acting.
He got nominated as a
(29:19):
supporting for that.
I'm not going to lie.
When I heard that there was someone from
a Nora, a Russian from
Nora to get nominated,
I thought it was another
actor who was also amazing.
But this guy really
subtle, nuanced performance.
First Russian in five
decades to get nominated.
Mikey Madison, who plays the
lead, the female lead, Nora.
(29:43):
She was one of the young Manson girls and
once upon a time in Hollywood.
A lot of people.
I mean, also, that was us.
Awesome Butler before Elvis, I think.
Yeah.
She was one of the daughters of Pamela
Adlon in Better Things, who is Pamela.
Alan is a very close
friend to Leslie Kahn.
A lot of our coaches
coached on that show.
(30:03):
See all these small little roles.
Everyone's kind of like stealing the show
or a director catches.
It catches a director's eye.
These even if it's small performance.
Directors like Sean
Baker are going to remember.
And so Mikey Madison, one of the crazy
Manson girls, is the one
who was breaking into the
house and got was freaking out and she
(30:26):
was kind of like on drugs.
She got burned alive by Leo DiCaprio.
You steal the show a couple of times and
next thing you know,
you're getting burned alive
by Leo DiCaprio.
That's a dream.
That's what we do.
And then years later, exactly.
That's what we do.
Four years later, she's
nominated for an Oscar.
I noticed as well that Demi Moore is
nominated for the substance.
Have you seen the
substance by any chance?
(30:47):
It's funny you say that.
Last week was the first episode that we
did not talk about the
substance and I actually
was just about to bring it up.
Thank you, Ryan.
Of course you were.
I did want to bring up the substance.
Corley Fargot is the ninth woman to get
nominated for directing.
The ninth woman in history.
(31:09):
I did want to talk about Demi Moore, but
I'm actually going a little further back.
Not only did Demi Moore get nominated for
an Oscar for the
substance, she also won the
Golden Globe.
We're not we unfortunately, because with
everything going on, we
didn't really dig into every
little bit of Golden Globes.
(31:30):
And the reason why I want to bring it up
is because way, way, way
back when we were doing
the first couple episodes,
Golden Globes were happening.
We were kind of making jokes about the
Golden Globes of the Sketches Awards.
Golden Globes might be a little
questionable, but I don't
want to take any shine off of.
We were talking about the bigger question
for up and coming working actors hustling
(31:54):
along, not being not famous or anything.
When we watch these shows, what are they?
What's the big deal?
We were talking about what the big deal
is with Oscar award
shows and whether you want
the respect or you want the prestige.
I think it's captivating because it's a
great freaking story.
(32:15):
I was just going to say that.
It's the story.
Okay, that's it.
It's always the story.
Okay, good.
Her speech, she said she's
been doing this for 45 years.
She's never won anything.
30 years ago, a producer told her she was
a popcorn actress, but
she'll never be a real
Oscar, never be award winning actress.
(32:35):
She almost believed it and she was done.
She was almost okay with that fate.
And then she finds the substance script
and next thing you
know, this comes along.
And she says this win was a marker for
her, a marker of she
felt whole and then it was
a reminder that she felt belonging.
She felt like she belonged.
(32:57):
It's a really great story because you
have people like Demi Moore
who feels like an underdog.
She actually is an underdog.
And I think when you look at all these
actors, that's kind of
like what we get from after
seeing the Golden Globes in these awards.
Everyone's an underdog.
(33:17):
This is a long shot.
It's so hard to do for anybody.
It doesn't matter
whether you're Bradley Cooper.
We know that Bradley Cooper is definitely
chasing after an
Oscar, but it's not assumed
and it's really hard for him.
Every one of us is an underdog saying
there's no way it can be me.
And Demi Moore is another one of them and
it could be very well you.
(33:39):
It could very well be you growing up in
Ireland saying this
is like, this is weird.
Am I really going to get an Oscar and me
like, you know, getting
to acting later, you know,
growing up in New Jersey.
No one actually thinks that they're going
to necessarily win it
because it's so hard.
And I feel like that's the captivating
story of us watching these award shows.
(34:02):
We watch sports for the same reason.
Right now, NFL playoffs are happening and
you watch the best
athletes in the world do
something that's really, really hard.
And when we watch these award shows, you
watch something happen
that is so unlikely and all
the odds are against you and you just
want to see what happens.
(34:23):
And you see it in like a speech will go
viral, like an
acceptance speech will go viral.
Like for example, like for everything
everywhere all at once when
Michelle Yeoh won and when
I'm going to butcher
his name, Ki-Hee-Kwon.
His speech was incredible because here
was a guy and when he
talked about he lost his
(34:45):
insurance, you know, he lost his health
insurance because he didn't.
We talked about that in a previous
episode where we talked
about making your minimum
for your entire health insurance.
He thought he was done, you know, he just
he wasn't making any money out of it.
And this is the kid from Indiana Jones
and then Michelle Yeoh
wins and ask like, Alan
Farrell does an
incredible acceptance speech.
Anytime he's won an award, his speeches
(35:06):
are brilliant because he's so genuine.
I love to bring that up to he's such a
breath of fresh air.
And I will add, he was
very vocal during the strikes.
He was there on the picket line a lot.
He was doing great speaking in gay or he
was speaking freely.
A lot of great sound bites.
He was fighting.
He was fighting on the picket lines.
(35:28):
And on that note, this speech this week
at the Golden Globes, he
gave a shout out, which
basically melted everyone's heart.
He gave a shout out to craft services.
I believe her name was Caroline.
He gave a special shout out to craft
services because they were freezing.
He's wearing 300 pounds of prosthetics.
And she always had a coconut water so he
(35:49):
wouldn't pass out in faint.
And so that's that support for the crew.
And that's just knowing
that, hey, this is a team effort.
And he gave her a special shout out.
Yeah.
So I actually went to the drama school
that his brother runs.
His brother, Aiman Farrell runs a drama
school with a lady called
Jill Doyle, and they run
(36:09):
the National Performing
Arts School in Dublin.
Wow.
That's where I learned.
That's where I
started doing classes first.
The first acting classes ever talking.
That's cool.
I attended that.
I was there for a few years
and I learned a lot from there.
That's where I started out.
So I have a very special place in my
heart for the MPAS and
(36:30):
for Aiman and for Colin.
But you're right.
I love the story of it.
That to me is the kind of buzz of it.
And when you say somebody was a small
part in a movie, you
know, in like once upon a
time in Hollywood and then four years
later winning an Oscar or
however many years later
winning an Oscar, that means something
(36:51):
because that's that's the
that's the lottery ticket
of this profession.
When we first started discussing it, we
were like, well, I
mean, do we really think of
an Oscar?
Bradley Cooper thinks of an Oscar, but do
we think of an Oscar?
You see how a lot of us
actors feel the same way.
It's very we're all thinking about that
(37:11):
story of like this is so unlikely.
We see the depths of the lows.
We see the little highs.
We trudge along and you kind of work for
years and years and years
and you're kind of working
for credibility and all that stuff.
And ultimately, every actor, most of them
are going through this
experience and there's
a bonding thing about it.
Let's let's put a pin in it here.
(37:33):
Thanks for thanks for listening, guys.
If we'll be here next week, catch us,
leave us a comment and
we'll catch you next week.
Absolutely.
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