March 20, 2025 • 33 mins
What makes a career legendary and how do you balance life, art, and knowing when to kick your feet up? This week on Locales Only, we’re taking a cruise down PCH with Hollywood heavyweight Kim Coates! Known for his roles in The Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, and American Primeval Kim gives us an inside look into how he prepared for his role as Brigham Young, his balance of culture growing up in Canada and moving to the US, and most importantly knowing when to take a break and enjoy your success. So buckle up and enjoy the conversation, welcome to Locales Only.
Big thanks to Fletcher-Jones Motorcar of Newport Beach for sponsoring the show and building out the all-electric Mercedes-Benz EQE as our rolling podcast studio!
Big thanks to Fletcher-Jones Motorcar of Newport Beach for sponsoring the show and building out the all-electric Mercedes-Benz EQE as our rolling podcast studio!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Hey, Keim and Eric with Locals Only. How you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Eric? My man? How are you? I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, I'm writing your Neighborhod. I'm going to be pulling
up in just a minute in a white Mercedes. I'll
see you outside. Thanks man. Hey, Welcome to Locals Only.
I'm Eric Hale, and if you don't know me, I'm
the guy that founded Local magazine fourteen years ago in
my garage. It's been my job for all those years
(00:28):
to tell you the coolest places to eat in all
of southern California, fun things to do. So you have
date nights that aren't boring, and we've talked to some
really interesting people. Now we have a podcast, and we're
lucky enough to call this Mercedes Benz EQE all electric
sedan courtesy of Fletcher Jones Motor Cars in Newport Beach,
our mobile podcast Dodde. So sit back, buckle up, and
(00:49):
enjoy the conversation. Welcome to Locals Only. Turning right here
on the pause, there you go. Almost missed you again.
(01:16):
Just you're taking your life right now in your hands.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
How are you for crying alone? The fuck is going on?
This is my house, this is your house. This is
my block. So today we are we are solos.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It's going to be us today cruising around.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Uh, what do you got on, buddy, Matt? Happy? Is
what shirt? Nice?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Thank you very much. Here, let's take a look at
that just so people can see, because we're an Alta
Dina right now in your neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Just so people can understand. It's been a it's been
a very tragic time. Yeah, in my beautiful community of
Alta Dina. Mother nature has no friends nor enemies. She
does what she does. Yeah. I was in New York
at the time, Eric, with my premiere of American Primeval,
(02:07):
which got canceled rightly, so out of the respect of
the fires, right right, because it was just in the
Pacific Palisades and here the Eaton Canyon fire that you know.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You can you can see, yeah, so well, and it's
just kind of it's so hit and miss because the
neighborhood's beautiful and it's standing, and then just these embers
would hit a house and just randomly touch them on
fire just throughout this whole neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, this, this neighborhood that I'm in particularly was just
like you just said, but a little bit north and West.
It's it's like a nuclear bomb went off. It is,
it is all wiped out. It's it's just so beyond
comprehension and sad. Obviously, I came to LA when my
house survived thanks to a fast acting neighbor and my
(02:52):
two girls and their husband and boyfriend. My gardener's water
on my house. Yeah, so you saw it. I mean,
it's uh, I'm very lucky, but I'm very sad for
the community that said everyone's pulling together. Eric, you know
you've been reading about it. Everyone's all the gofund me.
I've been out out in the community two or three
days in a row, giving, giving, giving as much as
(03:15):
I can. And it's going to take a long time
to rebuild. But we're we're tough up here, and there's
a lot of love.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I would echo with that and also say that I
found out a lot about how much LA has community,
because sometimes people talk about L as an aut of community.
We're a collection of communities. There's hundreds of these little neighborhoods.
But when that happened, it was like everybody had La
on their back, right, and everybody was like, we're all LA. Now,
whether you're in Orange County or in Santa Barbara. I
felt like everybody was just here pull and doing whatever
(03:45):
they could send in a toothbrush, a meal, you're.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
So right, and and and in sports you saw it.
I mean, all the football games are going on. It
was all dedicated to Los Angeles and the relief programs
that they had that they had going on through Red
Cross and everything else. Uh, just the awareness of it
all was was incredible, and I think that that says
a lot about the l A community.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I would love to talk about everything that you have
going on.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Because it's a lot Like Eric, I'm one hundred and
seven years old. That looks so fucking good.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I think you might be a vampire. You might be.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
No, there's no doubt about it, because.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
You're just running at full steam right now, like you're
going on right like every show you're on, the new
show is coming out, this this, and justin too much
of another show.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Coming I know. It was. Uh. Look, it's funny because COVID,
which seems like such in the rearview mirror with what
we've all been through now in America and everywhere around
the world, when COVID had the whole thing shut down,
everything shut down. We were all living through that, okay.
And then and then things start to percolate a little bit.
(04:54):
I did you know the White House Plumbers? Yeah? Uh
with with with HBI and and and that was kind
of an incredible time during COVID getting vaccinated, getting checked,
getting tested every day, every day, every day, Woody harrelse
In justin Thureau. I mean, what what an incredible time
that was. And then from there, you know, I just
(05:16):
haven't stopped.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That's what it seems like.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I mean, this this one that I have out, it's
too violent for you?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Which one are we talking to? America Prime?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It's too violent?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Let me tell you that show. I thought, were you
surprised at how well that did? Because I think a
lot of people were you kind of It has this
title and it's about a certain point in history. But man,
it is heavy and well done. The action scenes are
well done, and it's just it's deep and dark. Man,
it's ro It makes you go, is this what the
(05:47):
Old West was?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Really like? It really was? And in fact, when I
did all the press with everybody else on that show,
the other leads, we were told by Netflix, or at
least you know, guide by Netflix, to go you know,
it's not really a Western it's a history class. It's
an actual history class of eighteen fifty seven of a
(06:11):
true event called the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Everything you saw
on the Mormon ledger of it all is true. Really,
that's really what happened to play Bring him Young was
was a gift. I mean, I'm not religious at all.
I think I'm spiritual happily. But to get into that
(06:32):
man's head and read all the books that I did,
and had Peter Berg call me up, see, it just
seemed like so long ago. Eric, I mean, it was
twenty and twenty two in November when I got offered
Brigham Young, and I go, wait, bring him I.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Know, because you're like, there's a school named after him?
Was my first thought. And I've read history like around
that era, like burying my heart. It wounded me, you know,
by general custure and all these different things, right, but
you don't really realize who that person was. And I'm
not saying anything to begrudge or be smirched that religion
or his you know, that person. But when you kind
(07:07):
of get a closer look at him, you're like, wow,
this was like.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
When you dig into yeap when you dig into him,
he definitely saved that religion. After Joseph Smith was killed
and in Illinois prison, the twelve Apostles all, you know,
all had a little speech and brig him Young gave
the speech that it's all documented that his voice sounded
like Joseph Smith. He got the ga the ga the gavel.
(07:30):
He became the new prophet of the of the Mormon religion,
and and and brought them from Missouri over the mountains.
They headed west. They were dying of fevers, of this,
that and the other, all these carriages, and they settled
in Utah. And when they got to Utah, the story
goes that he literally, you know, he looked around and
(07:51):
have you been to Utah?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I've been to Utah?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Okay. So the mountains stunning, stunning, beautiful, but nothing was
growing there. It was a salt bed of nothingness. You
couldn't grow a blade of grass. Bringing me on shows
up with all his people he called the flock, and
he shows up and he goes, this is the place.
This is where we're settling. Everyone's trying to survive and
to shoot that show in Santa Fe, which looks very
(08:16):
much like Utah, with the mountains and whatnot. That was real,
snow bro, those are your real walls, brother, you were
thinking that you weren't faking any of that stuff. You know.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I think the part I liked about it. I really
was drawn to your character. I really was. And I
think what was hard to portray in when you're going
at a period piece, right, is probably the solemness of that. Like,
I know you did all you just told me, you
did all of this research. You knew about the character
and stuff like this, but there had to be like
(08:49):
a solemness. There had to be a lot of It
was torture kind of going through everyday life, you know,
whether just going to the bathroom or you know, just
getting up and going about your stuff. It wasn't easy
like today's life. So you had to figure out a
way to channel that and still be kind of like
you got your suit on your class and you're leading
a whole people. But at the same time you're using
(09:09):
an outhouse, So you got to get this whole like.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I had a good outhouse.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
But I'm just saying it was a it was a
miserable time. So you have to play this like very quiet,
you know.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
For sure, Yeah, very very good. But Eric, come on,
you saw the show I wasn't. I mean Betty Gilpin
and Taylor Kitsch and those incredible actors who were out
in the wild, out in the snow bringing Young's hardest
part of his day was getting on top of my
seventeen hands eye stud of a horse called Phoenix. That
(09:44):
was as hard as it got physically. Man, I love
to ride. We got Cowboy camp in, I met all
my Mormon militia, Joe and Alex and the boys, and
we got to hung out, hang out and got to
know one another. And Peter Berg cannot cannot say enough
about his brilliance. He's a true artist. For him to
(10:08):
pre like to cast it, to stage it all, to
know where to go, know what to say to these actors.
We all came prepared. The prep was incredible. And then
to shoot it for five months and then we went
on strike. The Sage was on strike in twenty twenty three,
so we had to stop production. Even though I was done.
(10:30):
Shaye Wigham brilliant, most of my stuffs was Shay. We
were done, but then they had to we were on strike,
so they couldn't complete this show until feb March of
twenty twenty four, So by the time we actually finished
this sixth part limited series, it was, you know, almost
the summer of twenty twenty four. So then the music
(10:51):
and this, that and the other. That's why we didn't
release it until January twenty twenty five, because it just
took forever to complete this thing. But I'm I can't
remember being this proud of an overall production, credible, Mark Contoni,
the first a d Judy Dickerson, my vocal coach, Johnny,
(11:12):
everybody hair makeup, they were so incredible, Virginia with the wardrobe,
and like I said, Peterberg and Netflix, they just went
for it. And it's a long winded answer to your question,
but yes, I'm very proud of it, I think, and
I think you said pretty pretty excited to see what
it's got coming up with the stuff down the line.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Now in my group chat, I got some friends in
my group chat shout out Jason, Joey and Anthony. But
when I first said hi, when I first told them
that you're gonna be on the show, I expected somebody
to respond with, you know, sons of anarchy. That would
be the first one. And the first text back was
water World Drifter. Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I think I was, like, you know, thirty five when
I did Wa War and if you honestly this is
this is the way it happened. I mean, I'm Canadian
proud and American too, Canadian first. And I gotta tell
you when I when I was at Stratford playing Macbeth,
I was twenty seven years old, John Neville's directing me.
(12:17):
I'm I'm I'm killing it, I guess. And all these
New York agencies see in my work in Ontario, outside
of Toronto, they said, you've got to come to New York.
I saw I'm with a big agency right away. I
knew nothing about America really or about it, but I
knew I wanted to be in the best arena that
I could possibly be in.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So there's a lot of layers to your career. And
I think a lot of people might say, oh, he's
been in a lot of things. Yeah, But I feel
like almost each one of those, if it was a
layer cake, they all help you build into who you're becoming.
And maybe actors start getting so busier later in life
because they have the chops because they've literally done all
these different or they survived.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Fucked me. I mean if I you can never tell,
are you an actor? By the no, you're very handsome man.
Oh thank you, Yeah, you could be an actor. Okay, Eric,
think about it. Especially when you can never it is
silver silber. You can never tell an actor to get
(13:18):
out of the business. It's got to come from the
actor themselves. You can't go you know what, maybe I
you know you can't. An artist knows when it's time
to do something else if it's not working out. And
for me and Matt Craven and Billy Fickner and all
these guys who are now in the sixties, we're Tommy Flanagan.
(13:40):
I mean, I can go on and on, Mark Boon, Junr.
We had Ron Perlman, one of my best friends in
the world. These these guys have hung in and hung
in and because fuck it, we're we're good. Yeah, and
we're persistent, and we never gave up. And Eric, I
never knew the power of television until Suns of Anarchy, right.
(14:03):
I always said, no, I don't want to be a
regular entertain and that's.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Kind of like it's not I think that it was
a prime for television. It was probably the nineteen fifties
and sixties when everybody in the world was watching it.
But you know, this Sons of Anarchy was kind of
at that pre social media taking off phase where everybody
still was tuned into the to that that's where they
got up there entertaining.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
You know when it changed for me as the Sopranos.
When The Sopranos open on HBO in those late nineties,
it's the first time I actually watched a television show
in a while on TV. I was a movie guy, movie, movie, movie,
and I saw that show and I went, what is
going on? That is the most exciting movie every week?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It's like it was a one hour movie every week
every week. I showed it to my wife maybe two
years ago. She'd never seen it, and she would we
would be out shopping or at dinner. She's like, we
need to go home and watch an episode.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Might Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
It was much the must see TV right.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So from that things started to change. That that whole cable,
the FX USA, HBO Showtime, they started to do some
really incredible you could swear, you could show some nudity,
you could be real with with life and stuff like
a movie, not like the network television that was going
on at that time, and so to be cast in
(15:22):
Sons of Anarchy by Chris Sutter brilliant was for me
an eye opening thing because before that I was, Oh,
you're you're the guy from Waterworld. Oh you're the guy
from You're the guy from you know the Goon, or
you're the guy from Blackhawk. Downright, I became I became
Kim Coates.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
From Sons of an From that show, it established you correct, right,
people recognized I've.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Been recognized before, but oh, you're that guy, Oh you're.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
That what's that? I mean, Hollywood's littered with that, right,
that's nine of the great actors on TV. You look
at him and go, what's what?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
What's his name?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
What's his name? But that does the show, You're right,
that had the power to transform career.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
It did, and they and they all the press back then.
I'm glad you brought that up. About social media. It
started in two thousand and eight, and in that that
seven or eight year period, there was five shows that
changed television on cable. It was Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad,
The Walking Dead, Mad Men, and Game of Thrones. Those
(16:23):
five s And think about it, Eric, how different they
all are?
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Totally different. Right, they all have the series effect. They're
all the one hour yeah, major production, almost like making
a film. Yeah, but yeah, they're totally different, totally.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
They're their own unique writing circumstances. It's all very unique.
While we're would Bury. Yeah, and they shot a little
s o a up in here.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Oh really dead City, Dead City. So this is I mean,
this is a franchise that really dominated for a long time,
right for and then it I think a lot of
us were saying, man, this would be so cool if
they did it here, and if they did it here,
and if they didn't here, and then they must have
heard because then they started doing it in California and
then they were doing it here. So this is a
(17:11):
Walking Dead or a part of that. I guess that cannon,
but it's it's all in it is Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, this one is I mean, I don't know what
is there. There's there's like two or three spin offs, right, Yeah,
there's a couple. There's there's the one that I'm in,
and then you know Fear.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
There was Fear the Walking Dead, which was kind of.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Out that's on now, but there is now I think
there's like, well, Scott Gimple, he's the one you should
talk to. He's the guy who created the whole whole thing.
But The Walking Dead has the the one that I'm
in Dead City, and then there's the Norman Riitis one
that they're filming over in Spain right now. They run
in France. Now they're in Spain. Those are the two
main offshoots that are still filming. So yeah, I get
(17:58):
a call by Eli, the showrunner of Dead City last
year like maybe March and like these trees, a bro,
like they all survived. He's incredible, beautiful Christmas trees, mother nature.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Wow, resilient.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
It just is anyway. Yeah, so it was like feb March.
I got a call from my people. Eli wants you
to come on to the second season to cause a
little havoc as a bad guy, right, as a guy
that he's written with you and mind. And I'm telling you, Bro,
(18:38):
I said, well, I need to read it. So they
sent me two episodes of the eight and this guy
was written for me. I mean, he just was. He
He's an absolute, conniving, mischievous dink. He's tough, he's a coward.
(18:58):
He's rich, he knows how to play everyone's strings. He's
a multi multi multi millionaire who's survived the apocalypse in
Manhattan and now has risen to the city with a gang.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So like a gang leader.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
He's a gang leader. There's three or four gangs that
are going on.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Character are built for you.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Feb March. Yeah, so he's a gang leader and he
is living in Manhattan, three or four gangs. And of
course Maggie Lauren Cohen and Megan Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who
are two of my best mates. They're both brilliant. I
love them both both so much. They arrive in Manhattan
(19:42):
and what you're about to see over eight episodes. They
did six episodes in the first season, eight in this one. Yeah,
it's gonna blow your fucking mind. It's just the special effects,
what they do for Manhattan and how they film it.
The studio that we had in Boston where we filmed
(20:03):
it was like no other hard grilling shootings in the summertime.
Made June July very hot, muggy, but a small price
to pay for. Uh, for something that I listen, I'd
never seen a show like The Walk. I didn't want.
I don't watch anything. I don't watch my own shit. Okay,
(20:25):
I just don't and and so for me to get
into that world, into Scott's early world of the Walking Dad,
and see the first couple of shows and how it
progressed into what it's become. Right, what a franchise.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Oh, it's incredible now. I felt like as it kind
of got along, it became more about the personal relationships.
It became more about the humans than the zombies. They're
they're just like the kind of the virus that's walking around.
But it's how we treat each other is really the story, right,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I mean, think about Sons of anarchy. If there wasn't
a human relationship, it was like a soap opera. I
mean really truly, if you didn't care about the characters,
or hate the characters, or love the characters, or or
the relationships within the characters, then you really don't have
the motorcycles of the violence. It's about the character. Chrith
Satter was very, very adamant that this was a character
(21:17):
driven show.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Did you ever wonder if the title wasn't about the humans,
not the zombies the Walking Dead.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I never did.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I just thought because I mean that just kind of
came to me. But they were kind of the ones
living out they were the walking dead. They were the
ones that were eventually gonna die. They were just walking
around kind of going through this. So maybe they were
the tortured souls, not the ones that pass.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, no, I never thought of that. And also, you know,
when you're on a zombie show, you got to know
the rules.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Give me the zombie rules.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Well, you got to know the rules. You gotta know
how to kill them. You gotta know what works what
doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
And every zombie has, every zombie show has different ways
to kill the zombies. They can be different speeds. How
dare they like the ones in Generation Z Brad Pitt
they were so fast. I'm like, they're gonna this is
over in like an hours.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
They were way too quick.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, way too quick. And that's what I loved about said,
I feel like I could get one of them.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, yeah, you feel like you can stay away from them.
They gotta they got to gang up on you, right,
they gang up in you. You're in trouble. But there's
no way I can't outrun.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Oh yeah, I feel like you can almost like limp
away from most of the zombies, like come here, come on,
all right, push them over.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
No, I can't wait for May fourth. It's May fourth, bro,
that's right, hey, right right around the corner. Yeah, I'll
be flying in New York last week of April with
with the other leads and we'll do a lot of
press and a lot of podcasts like this. So you're
killing it. Eh, Oh, you're a bit of a rock star.
I mean, no, you're killing it. It's a very cool.
(22:49):
It's a cool thing, thank you. So much different with
driving around.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, you get to and you don't have to go
to a scheduled invent You just kind of like, yeah, yeah,
I thought of it, and then Mercedes was nice enough
to give us this car and threw a few cameras
in and it's been fun.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
And how many shows have you done now?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
About twenty five of these? Yeah, I've done that. I
did one just yesterday. I had these two great chefs.
They have a restaurant in Inglewood called two Home A's.
They just started it two years ago. Yeah yeah, but
they like, they've only been doing it for two years
and they already made the La Times one on one
restaurants twice in their first two years. So they were
(23:30):
in the car just and we have all kinds of
fun guests. So it's just you know, it's fun to
go around and meet people and no, I tell different stories.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, my publicists they sent I mean I heard of
you for sure. Yeah, but then they started sending me
you know your they sent me one of the one
of the shows that you did. It is funny and
just thank you and driving around and a completely different
part of La too, right. I think it was like
down by the beach and just just it's just different.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Thanks for you. So okay, So we've talked early career. Yeah,
we've talked very recent career, and we've talked a little
bit about you know, Alta Dina, tell me about you
grew up in Canada.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Right, look, yeah, being from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. That's where Gordie
Howe was born. Actually Floral, but yeah, Saskatoon. I'm you know,
you come out of your mama and you're a boy.
Girls and boys now, but back then, you come out
of your mama and you're a hockey player. You play hockey,
that's just what you do. And so I was a
hockey player. I wasn't good enough to make the NHL,
(24:32):
but I could play. Yeah, and you realize when you're
fourteen fifteen. If you don't make the Saskatoon Blades the
junior eighteen, you're not going to make. So you do
something else. So I went to college and took some
history classes. I wanted to teach history. I was a
history major until I stumbled into acting. So yeah, man,
I mean, I love going home. I love my country.
(24:53):
I love I love working there. I mean I did
a big play. I went back to the stage in
two thousand eighteen at Jess Butterworth play called Jerusalem. Some
Mark Rylance starting and when all the Tonys and and
and Lawrence Olivier wards in England for this play called Jerusalem.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
How do you You mentioned so many different things going on,
and I feel like they're at the same time, even
though maybe they're just getting to the screen around the
same time. Is it hard to get into so many
different characters, Like I'm back to back. I feel like
they're so they're similar, but they're very different.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I mean er, I'm one hundred and seven. I get
to say no all the time. I'm so lucky with
my career. It's all worked out. I don't have to
audition much anymore. Just with the big Marvel movies, which
I never seen to get I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah, I could say, and I could see you the Mark.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Come on, be like, come on, what have funny? Violent?
Violent funny? That's Kim Coates. Get your shipped together anyway.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Maybe in the DC University, maybe golf darn it. Yeah,
come on, guys, give him Nicole anyway. No, I don't
have to audition anymore. And that's pretty lucky.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
So suns is over twenty fourteen. Right back in the movies, hardcore, hardcore.
I did this thing called Bad Blood up in Canada
which Netflix hute shit on Netflix. We won again. I
won Best Actor, Best Show, Best Writing up in Canada
for that show was on City TV. So proud of it.
Mark Montafiori, Michael connadis just great producers, great writing. We
(26:32):
had Anthony Lapoulia starring it with me, the late Paulserino's
gone now. He was incredible, a lot of great Canadian actors. Fine,
and then from there I needed to go back to
the stage. And so that's when they found me this play.
My agents, these producers were dying. I said no, and
then my daughter Brenna said, Dad, You've got to play
(26:53):
this guy. You have to play this guy, so I
said I would, and I'm glad I did it. Almost
killed me every night on stage, and I'm not that's.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
A lot of work, right, like the prep we're getting
out there on the lights. Everything it was.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I mean, I've come from the stage, but I hadn't
been on stage in thirty years, right, think about that,
thirty fricking years.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Hey, you're you got a few years on. I don't
think I could be doing that every night, like that's right. Yeah,
that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
So it was a lot. Anyway, I'm glad I did
it fine, And then yeah, I don't know. I mean,
I'm so lucky. I live in Canada, I live in America.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
I mean, your life is great. So let's let's just
put a blanket on that. You have a great life.
You've got a lot of wonderful things. You've played a
lot of wonderful roles, you have a great family. Like
you're winning it life.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Right, thanks?
Speaker 1 (27:40):
But but at your age right now, what's left? What
what do you do? You start looking forward? Right like
what I started doing it. I'm fifty three and I
start going, why do I have? What am I gonna
do with the rest that's a.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
That's a great question. I I love my family, my friends.
My mom's still alive, she's ninety five. I get to
go back to Saskatoon and see her as much as
I can. I got my buddies in Saskatoon, in Vancouver, Toronto.
But yeah, some of my boys are starting to pass
away now. They're starting to die now from cancer, from this,
(28:14):
from age, whatever it is. And it's satisfied. And life
doesn't stop for anybody, doesn't stop for anybody. And so
that's a very good question. I don't try and get
too far ahead of myself. Eric, I try not to.
I know what I'm doing now. I'm getting prepared for
another movie. You can see I'm growing some stupid hair
on my face that's gonna come in handy in about
(28:34):
a month and a half. I've got that premiere in
New York. I did this amazing movie.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
But do you ever do you ever get afraid though
that if you just focus on that, this is what
I was trying to get into, right. I feel like
sometimes I get so focused in the minutia of doing
what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Next, you have an I do.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I'm buried. We've been together for thirteen years thirteen.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So you taught, you chat, you you share, you go
over stuff. That's what my wife Diana does for me.
She does it for yeah. Without without her, i'd be
lost me too.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
She's like my little booie out in the ocean, So
she's How.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Lucky are we? And you know what always I mean,
we've been married for forty years, which is kind of
a record in Hollywood. Actually it's not really, but it
should be, should be a record in any any should
a plaque? Yeah, at least I'm going to call my
wife as soon as I'm done here. I want you
to order me a plaque, A forty year plan, a
(29:26):
forty year platte.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, braun like a bowling trophy looking, yes, perfect.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
I have a bowling ball too, so it'll go nicely together.
I don't know. I don't know. That's a very good,
great question. I'm just trying to I'm so busy. I'm
just so busy and so in love with my family
and my friends that I'm always going, going, going. The
one thing I do worry about is not putting my
feet up enough.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
That's one of the things that I was going You
think about that, well, when I think deeply about this stuff.
Sometimes I go, does it really fucking matter? Because if
you achieve everything or you achieve nothing, if you're busy
all the time or put your feet up all the time,
at the end of the day, other than what the
people remember you as, there's not a lot there. But
(30:16):
when you're a family guy, when you have kids, one
of the biggest things you can do is maybe show
them what's possible to help them build, to help them
become something. But I just I feel like sometimes I
do let it kind of get away from me a
little bit, and I do want to do all the things.
But You're right, there's like this, do I just do
I put my feet up and relax, or do I
(30:38):
just keep grinding and you know, and let's make the
most out of this life. Let's burn it on those ends.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
It sounds like you're doing a pretty good job at
doing both.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I mean, I know how lucky I am that my
career has worked out, and I have two beautiful daughters
who are well on their way being successful at their
own thing. I've got a wife who's still hanging out
with me, which is a fucking miracle. And I've got
homes all over the world. I've got friends that I
adore in love, and I don't see them as much
as I used to. So for me being a lot
older than you, I can really afford to put my
(31:08):
feet up now a little bit more. I really can.
And I'm not worried about my legacy or worried about.
All I'm worried about is my friends. At being the
age I am and doing the work i'm doing. I
still want to direct. I have to direct a movie
before I'm done.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
You go, so there's something we can put on all
the time.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
So that's one thing I still need to do. But
you know, I know what it takes, eric like to
actually direct a movie. You need to be happy with
the script. You need to finance it, you need to
cast it, you need to shoot it, you need to
edit it. Then you need to put music to it.
Then you need to find that's a good two years.
That's a good two year thing. And so for me
(31:47):
not to stop the acting wheel, which seems to just
be out of control right now in a very good way,
I have to be ready to sit back from everything
and focus only on directing. Hey, man like Bill Fick,
my good buddy Bill Fickna, my best pal Black coock
Down met on Black cock Down. He wrote a movie
for he and iied Starian, and it took seven to
ten years to finally get it going. Truly, it really did,
(32:11):
and he co wrote it with Cane de Four loved
Kane up in Oregon, great writer. Those two wrote this
movie called Colebrook for Bill and I to star in. Okay,
fine took forever, forever forever. I produced it, I found
the money. Billy co produced it for sure and directed
it and starred in it. So yes, there was a
lot of hats being juggled, especially by Bill, and so
(32:35):
he did it all. But if you ask him again
what it took to direct a movie, he's gonna say
just what I said. It's two to three years out
of your life, but you got to dedicate yourself to that.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
I wanted to thank you. I think it's absolute pleasure
to have you in that seat on Locales Only, Ken, Thanks,
thank you for all the compliments my like I felt
much more handsome and successful started this. I really appreciate
you being on. So thanks for joining Locals Only and
we'll see you next time.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Thanks buddy, A lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I want to thank everyone on the straw Hut Media team,
including Executive producer Ryan Tillotson and our editor and producer
Parker Jay Hicks, and as always, a big thank you
to Fletcher Jones Motor Cars in Newport Beach for providing
this beautiful Mercedes Benz eqe to be our rolling podcast studio.
(33:33):
Join us next time on locals only, where you can
buckle up and go for a ride in our mobile
podcast studio with some of the coolest people in Southern California.
Hey, Hey, Keim and Eric with Locals Only. How you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Eric? My man? How are you? I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, I'm writing your Neighborhod. I'm going to be pulling
up in just a minute in a white Mercedes. I'll
see you outside. Thanks man. Hey, Welcome to Locals Only.
I'm Eric Hale, and if you don't know me, I'm
the guy that founded Local magazine fourteen years ago in
my garage. It's been my job for all those years
(00:28):
to tell you the coolest places to eat in all
of southern California, fun things to do. So you have
date nights that aren't boring, and we've talked to some
really interesting people. Now we have a podcast, and we're
lucky enough to call this Mercedes Benz EQE all electric
sedan courtesy of Fletcher Jones Motor Cars in Newport Beach,
our mobile podcast Dodde. So sit back, buckle up, and
(00:49):
enjoy the conversation. Welcome to Locals Only. Turning right here
on the pause, there you go. Almost missed you again.
(01:16):
Just you're taking your life right now in your hands.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
How are you for crying alone? The fuck is going on?
This is my house, this is your house. This is
my block. So today we are we are solos.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It's going to be us today cruising around.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Uh, what do you got on, buddy, Matt? Happy? Is
what shirt? Nice?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Thank you very much. Here, let's take a look at
that just so people can see, because we're an Alta
Dina right now in your neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Just so people can understand. It's been a it's been
a very tragic time. Yeah, in my beautiful community of
Alta Dina. Mother nature has no friends nor enemies. She
does what she does. Yeah. I was in New York
at the time, Eric, with my premiere of American Primeval,
(02:07):
which got canceled rightly, so out of the respect of
the fires, right right, because it was just in the
Pacific Palisades and here the Eaton Canyon fire that you know.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You can you can see, yeah, so well, and it's
just kind of it's so hit and miss because the
neighborhood's beautiful and it's standing, and then just these embers
would hit a house and just randomly touch them on
fire just throughout this whole neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, this, this neighborhood that I'm in particularly was just
like you just said, but a little bit north and West.
It's it's like a nuclear bomb went off. It is,
it is all wiped out. It's it's just so beyond
comprehension and sad. Obviously, I came to LA when my
house survived thanks to a fast acting neighbor and my
(02:52):
two girls and their husband and boyfriend. My gardener's water
on my house. Yeah, so you saw it. I mean,
it's uh, I'm very lucky, but I'm very sad for
the community that said everyone's pulling together. Eric, you know
you've been reading about it. Everyone's all the gofund me.
I've been out out in the community two or three
days in a row, giving, giving, giving as much as
(03:15):
I can. And it's going to take a long time
to rebuild. But we're we're tough up here, and there's
a lot of love.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I would echo with that and also say that I
found out a lot about how much LA has community,
because sometimes people talk about L as an aut of community.
We're a collection of communities. There's hundreds of these little neighborhoods.
But when that happened, it was like everybody had La
on their back, right, and everybody was like, we're all LA. Now,
whether you're in Orange County or in Santa Barbara. I
felt like everybody was just here pull and doing whatever
(03:45):
they could send in a toothbrush, a meal, you're.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
So right, and and and in sports you saw it.
I mean, all the football games are going on. It
was all dedicated to Los Angeles and the relief programs
that they had that they had going on through Red
Cross and everything else. Uh, just the awareness of it
all was was incredible, and I think that that says
a lot about the l A community.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I would love to talk about everything that you have
going on.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Because it's a lot Like Eric, I'm one hundred and
seven years old. That looks so fucking good.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I think you might be a vampire. You might be.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
No, there's no doubt about it, because.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
You're just running at full steam right now, like you're
going on right like every show you're on, the new
show is coming out, this this, and justin too much
of another show.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Coming I know. It was. Uh. Look, it's funny because COVID,
which seems like such in the rearview mirror with what
we've all been through now in America and everywhere around
the world, when COVID had the whole thing shut down,
everything shut down. We were all living through that, okay.
And then and then things start to percolate a little bit.
(04:54):
I did you know the White House Plumbers? Yeah? Uh
with with with HBI and and and that was kind
of an incredible time during COVID getting vaccinated, getting checked,
getting tested every day, every day, every day, Woody harrelse
In justin Thureau. I mean, what what an incredible time
that was. And then from there, you know, I just
(05:16):
haven't stopped.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That's what it seems like.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I mean, this this one that I have out, it's
too violent for you?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Which one are we talking to? America Prime?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It's too violent?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Let me tell you that show. I thought, were you
surprised at how well that did? Because I think a
lot of people were you kind of It has this
title and it's about a certain point in history. But man,
it is heavy and well done. The action scenes are
well done, and it's just it's deep and dark. Man,
it's ro It makes you go, is this what the
(05:47):
Old West was?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Really like? It really was? And in fact, when I
did all the press with everybody else on that show,
the other leads, we were told by Netflix, or at
least you know, guide by Netflix, to go you know,
it's not really a Western it's a history class. It's
an actual history class of eighteen fifty seven of a
(06:11):
true event called the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Everything you saw
on the Mormon ledger of it all is true. Really,
that's really what happened to play Bring him Young was
was a gift. I mean, I'm not religious at all.
I think I'm spiritual happily. But to get into that
(06:32):
man's head and read all the books that I did,
and had Peter Berg call me up, see, it just
seemed like so long ago. Eric, I mean, it was
twenty and twenty two in November when I got offered
Brigham Young, and I go, wait, bring him I.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Know, because you're like, there's a school named after him?
Was my first thought. And I've read history like around
that era, like burying my heart. It wounded me, you know,
by general custure and all these different things, right, but
you don't really realize who that person was. And I'm
not saying anything to begrudge or be smirched that religion
or his you know, that person. But when you kind
(07:07):
of get a closer look at him, you're like, wow,
this was like.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
When you dig into yeap when you dig into him,
he definitely saved that religion. After Joseph Smith was killed
and in Illinois prison, the twelve Apostles all, you know,
all had a little speech and brig him Young gave
the speech that it's all documented that his voice sounded
like Joseph Smith. He got the ga the ga the gavel.
(07:30):
He became the new prophet of the of the Mormon religion,
and and and brought them from Missouri over the mountains.
They headed west. They were dying of fevers, of this,
that and the other, all these carriages, and they settled
in Utah. And when they got to Utah, the story
goes that he literally, you know, he looked around and
(07:51):
have you been to Utah?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I've been to Utah?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Okay. So the mountains stunning, stunning, beautiful, but nothing was
growing there. It was a salt bed of nothingness. You
couldn't grow a blade of grass. Bringing me on shows
up with all his people he called the flock, and
he shows up and he goes, this is the place.
This is where we're settling. Everyone's trying to survive and
to shoot that show in Santa Fe, which looks very
(08:16):
much like Utah, with the mountains and whatnot. That was real,
snow bro, those are your real walls, brother, you were
thinking that you weren't faking any of that stuff. You know.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I think the part I liked about it. I really
was drawn to your character. I really was. And I
think what was hard to portray in when you're going
at a period piece, right, is probably the solemness of that. Like,
I know you did all you just told me, you
did all of this research. You knew about the character
and stuff like this, but there had to be like
(08:49):
a solemness. There had to be a lot of It
was torture kind of going through everyday life, you know,
whether just going to the bathroom or you know, just
getting up and going about your stuff. It wasn't easy
like today's life. So you had to figure out a
way to channel that and still be kind of like
you got your suit on your class and you're leading
a whole people. But at the same time you're using
(09:09):
an outhouse, So you got to get this whole like.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I had a good outhouse.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
But I'm just saying it was a it was a
miserable time. So you have to play this like very quiet,
you know.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
For sure, Yeah, very very good. But Eric, come on,
you saw the show I wasn't. I mean Betty Gilpin
and Taylor Kitsch and those incredible actors who were out
in the wild, out in the snow bringing Young's hardest
part of his day was getting on top of my
seventeen hands eye stud of a horse called Phoenix. That
(09:44):
was as hard as it got physically. Man, I love
to ride. We got Cowboy camp in, I met all
my Mormon militia, Joe and Alex and the boys, and
we got to hung out, hang out and got to
know one another. And Peter Berg cannot cannot say enough
about his brilliance. He's a true artist. For him to
(10:08):
pre like to cast it, to stage it all, to
know where to go, know what to say to these actors.
We all came prepared. The prep was incredible. And then
to shoot it for five months and then we went
on strike. The Sage was on strike in twenty twenty three,
so we had to stop production. Even though I was done.
(10:30):
Shaye Wigham brilliant, most of my stuffs was Shay. We
were done, but then they had to we were on strike,
so they couldn't complete this show until feb March of
twenty twenty four, So by the time we actually finished
this sixth part limited series, it was, you know, almost
the summer of twenty twenty four. So then the music
(10:51):
and this, that and the other. That's why we didn't
release it until January twenty twenty five, because it just
took forever to complete this thing. But I'm I can't
remember being this proud of an overall production, credible, Mark Contoni,
the first a d Judy Dickerson, my vocal coach, Johnny,
(11:12):
everybody hair makeup, they were so incredible, Virginia with the wardrobe,
and like I said, Peterberg and Netflix, they just went
for it. And it's a long winded answer to your question,
but yes, I'm very proud of it, I think, and
I think you said pretty pretty excited to see what
it's got coming up with the stuff down the line.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Now in my group chat, I got some friends in
my group chat shout out Jason, Joey and Anthony. But
when I first said hi, when I first told them
that you're gonna be on the show, I expected somebody
to respond with, you know, sons of anarchy. That would
be the first one. And the first text back was
water World Drifter. Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I think I was, like, you know, thirty five when
I did Wa War and if you honestly this is
this is the way it happened. I mean, I'm Canadian
proud and American too, Canadian first. And I gotta tell
you when I when I was at Stratford playing Macbeth,
I was twenty seven years old, John Neville's directing me.
(12:17):
I'm I'm I'm killing it, I guess. And all these
New York agencies see in my work in Ontario, outside
of Toronto, they said, you've got to come to New York.
I saw I'm with a big agency right away. I
knew nothing about America really or about it, but I
knew I wanted to be in the best arena that
I could possibly be in.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So there's a lot of layers to your career. And
I think a lot of people might say, oh, he's
been in a lot of things. Yeah, But I feel
like almost each one of those, if it was a
layer cake, they all help you build into who you're becoming.
And maybe actors start getting so busier later in life
because they have the chops because they've literally done all
these different or they survived.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Fucked me. I mean if I you can never tell,
are you an actor? By the no, you're very handsome man.
Oh thank you, Yeah, you could be an actor. Okay, Eric,
think about it. Especially when you can never it is
silver silber. You can never tell an actor to get
(13:18):
out of the business. It's got to come from the
actor themselves. You can't go you know what, maybe I
you know you can't. An artist knows when it's time
to do something else if it's not working out. And
for me and Matt Craven and Billy Fickner and all
these guys who are now in the sixties, we're Tommy Flanagan.
(13:40):
I mean, I can go on and on, Mark Boon, Junr.
We had Ron Perlman, one of my best friends in
the world. These these guys have hung in and hung
in and because fuck it, we're we're good. Yeah, and
we're persistent, and we never gave up. And Eric, I
never knew the power of television until Suns of Anarchy, right.
(14:03):
I always said, no, I don't want to be a
regular entertain and that's.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Kind of like it's not I think that it was
a prime for television. It was probably the nineteen fifties
and sixties when everybody in the world was watching it.
But you know, this Sons of Anarchy was kind of
at that pre social media taking off phase where everybody
still was tuned into the to that that's where they
got up there entertaining.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
You know when it changed for me as the Sopranos.
When The Sopranos open on HBO in those late nineties,
it's the first time I actually watched a television show
in a while on TV. I was a movie guy, movie, movie, movie,
and I saw that show and I went, what is
going on? That is the most exciting movie every week?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It's like it was a one hour movie every week
every week. I showed it to my wife maybe two
years ago. She'd never seen it, and she would we
would be out shopping or at dinner. She's like, we
need to go home and watch an episode.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Might Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
It was much the must see TV right.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So from that things started to change. That that whole cable,
the FX USA, HBO Showtime, they started to do some
really incredible you could swear, you could show some nudity,
you could be real with with life and stuff like
a movie, not like the network television that was going
on at that time, and so to be cast in
(15:22):
Sons of Anarchy by Chris Sutter brilliant was for me
an eye opening thing because before that I was, Oh,
you're you're the guy from Waterworld. Oh you're the guy
from You're the guy from you know the Goon, or
you're the guy from Blackhawk. Downright, I became I became
Kim Coates.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
From Sons of an From that show, it established you correct, right,
people recognized I've.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Been recognized before, but oh, you're that guy, Oh you're.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
That what's that? I mean, Hollywood's littered with that, right,
that's nine of the great actors on TV. You look
at him and go, what's what?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
What's his name?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
What's his name? But that does the show, You're right,
that had the power to transform career.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
It did, and they and they all the press back then.
I'm glad you brought that up. About social media. It
started in two thousand and eight, and in that that
seven or eight year period, there was five shows that
changed television on cable. It was Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad,
The Walking Dead, Mad Men, and Game of Thrones. Those
(16:23):
five s And think about it, Eric, how different they
all are?
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Totally different. Right, they all have the series effect. They're
all the one hour yeah, major production, almost like making
a film. Yeah, but yeah, they're totally different, totally.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
They're their own unique writing circumstances. It's all very unique.
While we're would Bury. Yeah, and they shot a little
s o a up in here.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Oh really dead City, Dead City. So this is I mean,
this is a franchise that really dominated for a long time,
right for and then it I think a lot of
us were saying, man, this would be so cool if
they did it here, and if they did it here,
and if they didn't here, and then they must have
heard because then they started doing it in California and
then they were doing it here. So this is a
(17:11):
Walking Dead or a part of that. I guess that cannon,
but it's it's all in it is Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, this one is I mean, I don't know what
is there. There's there's like two or three spin offs, right, Yeah,
there's a couple. There's there's the one that I'm in,
and then you know Fear.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
There was Fear the Walking Dead, which was kind of.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Out that's on now, but there is now I think
there's like, well, Scott Gimple, he's the one you should
talk to. He's the guy who created the whole whole thing.
But The Walking Dead has the the one that I'm
in Dead City, and then there's the Norman Riitis one
that they're filming over in Spain right now. They run
in France. Now they're in Spain. Those are the two
main offshoots that are still filming. So yeah, I get
(17:58):
a call by Eli, the showrunner of Dead City last
year like maybe March and like these trees, a bro,
like they all survived. He's incredible, beautiful Christmas trees, mother nature.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Wow, resilient.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
It just is anyway. Yeah, so it was like feb March.
I got a call from my people. Eli wants you
to come on to the second season to cause a
little havoc as a bad guy, right, as a guy
that he's written with you and mind. And I'm telling you, Bro,
(18:38):
I said, well, I need to read it. So they
sent me two episodes of the eight and this guy
was written for me. I mean, he just was. He
He's an absolute, conniving, mischievous dink. He's tough, he's a coward.
(18:58):
He's rich, he knows how to play everyone's strings. He's
a multi multi multi millionaire who's survived the apocalypse in
Manhattan and now has risen to the city with a gang.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So like a gang leader.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
He's a gang leader. There's three or four gangs that
are going on.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Character are built for you.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Feb March. Yeah, so he's a gang leader and he
is living in Manhattan, three or four gangs. And of
course Maggie Lauren Cohen and Megan Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who
are two of my best mates. They're both brilliant. I
love them both both so much. They arrive in Manhattan
(19:42):
and what you're about to see over eight episodes. They
did six episodes in the first season, eight in this one. Yeah,
it's gonna blow your fucking mind. It's just the special effects,
what they do for Manhattan and how they film it.
The studio that we had in Boston where we filmed
(20:03):
it was like no other hard grilling shootings in the summertime.
Made June July very hot, muggy, but a small price
to pay for. Uh, for something that I listen, I'd
never seen a show like The Walk. I didn't want.
I don't watch anything. I don't watch my own shit. Okay,
(20:25):
I just don't and and so for me to get
into that world, into Scott's early world of the Walking Dad,
and see the first couple of shows and how it
progressed into what it's become. Right, what a franchise.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Oh, it's incredible now. I felt like as it kind
of got along, it became more about the personal relationships.
It became more about the humans than the zombies. They're
they're just like the kind of the virus that's walking around.
But it's how we treat each other is really the story, right,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I mean, think about Sons of anarchy. If there wasn't
a human relationship, it was like a soap opera. I
mean really truly, if you didn't care about the characters,
or hate the characters, or love the characters, or or
the relationships within the characters, then you really don't have
the motorcycles of the violence. It's about the character. Chrith
Satter was very, very adamant that this was a character
(21:17):
driven show.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Did you ever wonder if the title wasn't about the humans,
not the zombies the Walking Dead.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I never did.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I just thought because I mean that just kind of
came to me. But they were kind of the ones
living out they were the walking dead. They were the
ones that were eventually gonna die. They were just walking
around kind of going through this. So maybe they were
the tortured souls, not the ones that pass.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, no, I never thought of that. And also, you know,
when you're on a zombie show, you got to know
the rules.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Give me the zombie rules.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Well, you got to know the rules. You gotta know
how to kill them. You gotta know what works what
doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
And every zombie has, every zombie show has different ways
to kill the zombies. They can be different speeds. How
dare they like the ones in Generation Z Brad Pitt
they were so fast. I'm like, they're gonna this is
over in like an hours.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
They were way too quick.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, way too quick. And that's what I loved about said,
I feel like I could get one of them.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, yeah, you feel like you can stay away from them.
They gotta they got to gang up on you, right,
they gang up in you. You're in trouble. But there's
no way I can't outrun.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Oh yeah, I feel like you can almost like limp
away from most of the zombies, like come here, come on,
all right, push them over.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
No, I can't wait for May fourth. It's May fourth, bro,
that's right, hey, right right around the corner. Yeah, I'll
be flying in New York last week of April with
with the other leads and we'll do a lot of
press and a lot of podcasts like this. So you're
killing it. Eh, Oh, you're a bit of a rock star.
I mean, no, you're killing it. It's a very cool.
(22:49):
It's a cool thing, thank you. So much different with
driving around.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, you get to and you don't have to go
to a scheduled invent You just kind of like, yeah, yeah,
I thought of it, and then Mercedes was nice enough
to give us this car and threw a few cameras
in and it's been fun.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
And how many shows have you done now?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
About twenty five of these? Yeah, I've done that. I
did one just yesterday. I had these two great chefs.
They have a restaurant in Inglewood called two Home A's.
They just started it two years ago. Yeah yeah, but
they like, they've only been doing it for two years
and they already made the La Times one on one
restaurants twice in their first two years. So they were
(23:30):
in the car just and we have all kinds of
fun guests. So it's just you know, it's fun to
go around and meet people and no, I tell different stories.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, my publicists they sent I mean I heard of
you for sure. Yeah, but then they started sending me
you know your they sent me one of the one
of the shows that you did. It is funny and
just thank you and driving around and a completely different
part of La too, right. I think it was like
down by the beach and just just it's just different.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Thanks for you. So okay, So we've talked early career. Yeah,
we've talked very recent career, and we've talked a little
bit about you know, Alta Dina, tell me about you
grew up in Canada.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Right, look, yeah, being from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. That's where Gordie
Howe was born. Actually Floral, but yeah, Saskatoon. I'm you know,
you come out of your mama and you're a boy.
Girls and boys now, but back then, you come out
of your mama and you're a hockey player. You play hockey,
that's just what you do. And so I was a
hockey player. I wasn't good enough to make the NHL,
(24:32):
but I could play. Yeah, and you realize when you're
fourteen fifteen. If you don't make the Saskatoon Blades the
junior eighteen, you're not going to make. So you do
something else. So I went to college and took some
history classes. I wanted to teach history. I was a
history major until I stumbled into acting. So yeah, man,
I mean, I love going home. I love my country.
(24:53):
I love I love working there. I mean I did
a big play. I went back to the stage in
two thousand eighteen at Jess Butterworth play called Jerusalem. Some
Mark Rylance starting and when all the Tonys and and
and Lawrence Olivier wards in England for this play called Jerusalem.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
How do you You mentioned so many different things going on,
and I feel like they're at the same time, even
though maybe they're just getting to the screen around the
same time. Is it hard to get into so many
different characters, Like I'm back to back. I feel like
they're so they're similar, but they're very different.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I mean er, I'm one hundred and seven. I get
to say no all the time. I'm so lucky with
my career. It's all worked out. I don't have to
audition much anymore. Just with the big Marvel movies, which
I never seen to get I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah, I could say, and I could see you the Mark.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Come on, be like, come on, what have funny? Violent?
Violent funny? That's Kim Coates. Get your shipped together anyway.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Maybe in the DC University, maybe golf darn it. Yeah,
come on, guys, give him Nicole anyway. No, I don't
have to audition anymore. And that's pretty lucky.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
So suns is over twenty fourteen. Right back in the movies, hardcore, hardcore.
I did this thing called Bad Blood up in Canada
which Netflix hute shit on Netflix. We won again. I
won Best Actor, Best Show, Best Writing up in Canada
for that show was on City TV. So proud of it.
Mark Montafiori, Michael connadis just great producers, great writing. We
(26:32):
had Anthony Lapoulia starring it with me, the late Paulserino's
gone now. He was incredible, a lot of great Canadian actors. Fine,
and then from there I needed to go back to
the stage. And so that's when they found me this play.
My agents, these producers were dying. I said no, and
then my daughter Brenna said, Dad, You've got to play
(26:53):
this guy. You have to play this guy, so I
said I would, and I'm glad I did it. Almost
killed me every night on stage, and I'm not that's.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
A lot of work, right, like the prep we're getting
out there on the lights. Everything it was.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I mean, I've come from the stage, but I hadn't
been on stage in thirty years, right, think about that,
thirty fricking years.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Hey, you're you got a few years on. I don't
think I could be doing that every night, like that's right. Yeah,
that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
So it was a lot. Anyway, I'm glad I did
it fine, And then yeah, I don't know. I mean,
I'm so lucky. I live in Canada, I live in America.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
I mean, your life is great. So let's let's just
put a blanket on that. You have a great life.
You've got a lot of wonderful things. You've played a
lot of wonderful roles, you have a great family. Like
you're winning it life.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Right, thanks?
Speaker 1 (27:40):
But but at your age right now, what's left? What
what do you do? You start looking forward? Right like
what I started doing it. I'm fifty three and I
start going, why do I have? What am I gonna
do with the rest that's a.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
That's a great question. I I love my family, my friends.
My mom's still alive, she's ninety five. I get to
go back to Saskatoon and see her as much as
I can. I got my buddies in Saskatoon, in Vancouver, Toronto.
But yeah, some of my boys are starting to pass
away now. They're starting to die now from cancer, from this,
(28:14):
from age, whatever it is. And it's satisfied. And life
doesn't stop for anybody, doesn't stop for anybody. And so
that's a very good question. I don't try and get
too far ahead of myself. Eric, I try not to.
I know what I'm doing now. I'm getting prepared for
another movie. You can see I'm growing some stupid hair
on my face that's gonna come in handy in about
(28:34):
a month and a half. I've got that premiere in
New York. I did this amazing movie.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
But do you ever do you ever get afraid though
that if you just focus on that, this is what
I was trying to get into, right. I feel like
sometimes I get so focused in the minutia of doing
what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Next, you have an I do.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I'm buried. We've been together for thirteen years thirteen.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So you taught, you chat, you you share, you go
over stuff. That's what my wife Diana does for me.
She does it for yeah. Without without her, i'd be
lost me too.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
She's like my little booie out in the ocean, So
she's How.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Lucky are we? And you know what always I mean,
we've been married for forty years, which is kind of
a record in Hollywood. Actually it's not really, but it
should be, should be a record in any any should
a plaque? Yeah, at least I'm going to call my
wife as soon as I'm done here. I want you
to order me a plaque, A forty year plan, a
(29:26):
forty year platte.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, braun like a bowling trophy looking, yes, perfect.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
I have a bowling ball too, so it'll go nicely together.
I don't know. I don't know. That's a very good,
great question. I'm just trying to I'm so busy. I'm
just so busy and so in love with my family
and my friends that I'm always going, going, going. The
one thing I do worry about is not putting my
feet up enough.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
That's one of the things that I was going You
think about that, well, when I think deeply about this stuff.
Sometimes I go, does it really fucking matter? Because if
you achieve everything or you achieve nothing, if you're busy
all the time or put your feet up all the time,
at the end of the day, other than what the
people remember you as, there's not a lot there. But
(30:16):
when you're a family guy, when you have kids, one
of the biggest things you can do is maybe show
them what's possible to help them build, to help them
become something. But I just I feel like sometimes I
do let it kind of get away from me a
little bit, and I do want to do all the things.
But You're right, there's like this, do I just do
I put my feet up and relax, or do I
(30:38):
just keep grinding and you know, and let's make the
most out of this life. Let's burn it on those ends.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
It sounds like you're doing a pretty good job at
doing both.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I mean, I know how lucky I am that my
career has worked out, and I have two beautiful daughters
who are well on their way being successful at their
own thing. I've got a wife who's still hanging out
with me, which is a fucking miracle. And I've got
homes all over the world. I've got friends that I
adore in love, and I don't see them as much
as I used to. So for me being a lot
older than you, I can really afford to put my
(31:08):
feet up now a little bit more. I really can.
And I'm not worried about my legacy or worried about.
All I'm worried about is my friends. At being the
age I am and doing the work i'm doing. I
still want to direct. I have to direct a movie
before I'm done.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
You go, so there's something we can put on all
the time.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
So that's one thing I still need to do. But
you know, I know what it takes, eric like to
actually direct a movie. You need to be happy with
the script. You need to finance it, you need to
cast it, you need to shoot it, you need to
edit it. Then you need to put music to it.
Then you need to find that's a good two years.
That's a good two year thing. And so for me
(31:47):
not to stop the acting wheel, which seems to just
be out of control right now in a very good way,
I have to be ready to sit back from everything
and focus only on directing. Hey, man like Bill Fick,
my good buddy Bill Fickna, my best pal Black coock
Down met on Black cock Down. He wrote a movie
for he and iied Starian, and it took seven to
ten years to finally get it going. Truly, it really did,
(32:11):
and he co wrote it with Cane de Four loved
Kane up in Oregon, great writer. Those two wrote this
movie called Colebrook for Bill and I to star in. Okay,
fine took forever, forever forever. I produced it, I found
the money. Billy co produced it for sure and directed
it and starred in it. So yes, there was a
lot of hats being juggled, especially by Bill, and so
(32:35):
he did it all. But if you ask him again
what it took to direct a movie, he's gonna say
just what I said. It's two to three years out
of your life, but you got to dedicate yourself to that.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
I wanted to thank you. I think it's absolute pleasure
to have you in that seat on Locales Only, Ken, Thanks,
thank you for all the compliments my like I felt
much more handsome and successful started this. I really appreciate
you being on. So thanks for joining Locals Only and
we'll see you next time.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Thanks buddy, A lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I want to thank everyone on the straw Hut Media team,
including Executive producer Ryan Tillotson and our editor and producer
Parker Jay Hicks, and as always, a big thank you
to Fletcher Jones Motor Cars in Newport Beach for providing
this beautiful Mercedes Benz eqe to be our rolling podcast studio.
(33:33):
Join us next time on locals only, where you can
buckle up and go for a ride in our mobile
podcast studio with some of the coolest people in Southern California.
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