April 30, 2025 • 39 mins
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What happens when an actor's dream takes an unexpected international turn? Brian Townes, who grew up just blocks from podcast co-host Brian Plaideau in New Orleans, shares the fascinating journey that led him from community theater in Louisiana to becoming a successful actor in Brazil's vibrant film industry.
Townes' career path defies conventional wisdom about "making it" as an actor. After studying theater and establishing himself in New York's acting scene (including a stint as a field producer at Saturday Night Live), love changed everything. Marriage to a Brazilian actress eventually prompted a family move to Brazil—intended as a temporary relocation that has lasted 14 years and counting.
Sponsored by Jana McCaffery Attorney at Law. Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999 focusing on personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously and, if you are a fellow member of the Louisiana film industry and have been injured, she is happy to offer you a free consultation and a reduced fee to handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at Support the show
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U . & check out our website: nolafilmscene.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Brian Towns.
I'm an American actor andvoiceover artist who these days
lives in Brazil.
However, I'm originally fromNew Orleans, Louisiana, and
that's why I am on NOLA FilmScene.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to NOLA.
Film Scene with TJ and Plato.
I'm TJ and, as always, I'mPlato.
So, guys, how?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
is the weather in New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Temps are coming up.
We had that nice crisp 60sdegrees of weathers for about a
week in the beginning of thismonth.
Brian, my friend, how are you?
It's been decades since we'vetalked.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
It has.
Indeed, it has.
Indeed.
Man, Brian Plato and I grew upabout what?
Probably six or eight blocksapart, and that's it.
And since then there's been awhole lot of road.
Man, I am doing good, I amdoing good.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
So I mean there's a lot to unpack with your career.
Can you tell us how you endedup in Brazil, sure?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, I mean, I'll give you the whole trajectory.
So I grew up in Metairie, likeI said, about six or eight
blocks from Bryan.
So I grew up in Metairie, likeI said, about six or eight
blocks from Bryan.
I was probably first introducedto theater there.
Actually, we used to go to LaPetite down in the French
Quarter Is that still there,even the little children's
theater, la Petite Theater?
Yes, it is, yeah, but it wasjust something we did.
(01:22):
And then, when I was 11 or 12,we moved to Shreveport and in
Shreveport I did some.
That's the first time I starteddoing a little children's
theater, a little communitytheater.
I started doing plays in schooland so by the time high school
ended I said, man, I really likethis, this is what I want to do
, you know, in general, theacting thing.
And then I went to college, Igot a bachelor's in theater.
(01:43):
I got a bachelor's in theater,I got a master's and I was
fortunate during those times tobe able to kind of work and see
some other things and I was sortof introduced to film around 19
or 20.
And then when I finished mymaster's degree, I did what
every actor without a plan doesand I moved to New York.
That's 50 percent of the actors, the other ones go to LA.
But I moved to New York and inNew York I did a bunch of
(02:06):
theater and I really startedworking.
There are lots of shows thatfilmed in New York that I'm sure
there still are.
At the time it was Gossip Girl.
You know, you have your littlewalk-ons and your this and that,
and then a soap opera everyonce in a while and I ended up
doing a lot of behind the sceneswork there too, a lot of
production work kind of the coolstory.
I stumbled into a job as afield producer at Saturday night
(02:27):
live.
So the last four or five yearsthat I was in New York I was
working every week at Saturdaynight live.
Uh, and then during the timethat I was there, man, I
actually met an actress doing aplay who was a Brazilian and we
started dating and we gotmarried.
And then about a year and ahalf later she was like hey,
let's have kids.
And I was like okay, and thenwe kind of yeah, and the thing
(02:50):
is we just kind of came to theconclusion we're both doing
really well in Manhattan.
It was nice, but Manhattan is akind of expensive place to live
.
And we just decided between uslike, look, if we have kids here
, we're going to end up workingmore, spending all our time to
work to kids here we're going toend up working more, spending
all our time to work to makemoney to pay somebody else to
raise our kids.
And so where do we want to go?
And she suggested hey, howabout we move to Brazil?
(03:15):
My family's all together downthere, it'd be great to have
that sort of for the firstcouple of years.
And so we moved to Brazil forthe first couple of years, and
that was 14 and a half years ago.
But the cool thing is now I canbe a gringo in Portuguese 14
and a half years ago, but thecool thing is now I can be a
gringo in Portuguese, or I canbe a gringo in English, and it's
actually allowed a lot ofopportunities to do some really
big productions.
We were talking about a film Idid called Bacurau before we
(03:37):
started the podcast here, andthat one actually went to the
Cannes Film Festival and won thejury prize the year that we
went.
So, man, you know I came.
You know I was in New Yorkslogging away doing you know
basement theater and theoccasional walk on on a show,
and suddenly I moved to anothercountry.
It's like, hey man, I'm at theCannes Festival, you know, like
(03:58):
walking on the red carpet, soyeah, funny way of working to
work it out.
So that's, that's kind of howit's been since then.
Um, I've been able to make afull-time living as an actor,
you know, and, as you guys said,it's it's.
It's a little bit of everything.
It's a little bit ofscreenwriting, it's a little bit
of acting, it's a little bitit's a lot of voice work.
You know there are lots ofbusinesses down here that you
(04:21):
know like, hey man, we need to.
You know we have this versionof a commercial but we need the
voiceover in English, you know,for the international market or
institutional stuff.
So between it all, it's allkind of worked out in a cool
sort of way.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
I like to think I've got a good ear for different
accents and I can.
I'm pretty good at narrowingdown roughly where somebody is
from.
Brazilians when they hear youspeak Portuguese, can they tell
that you're an American speakingPortuguese, or can they just,
or do they just hear that you're?
You know they can tell you'reforeign, but not really sure
from where.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, generally it's you're from somewhere else, but
I'm not sure where.
I mean you know, from the, fromthe look of me, they get like.
Sometimes it's like oh, are you, are you british?
I occasionally get like are youfrench?
But yeah, the, the, uh.
One of the big differences withuh portuguese is the is the r's
are typically a little softer,like in most, in most things.
(05:17):
So the stereotypical americanwe, we use r's in words.
So the stereotypical americanAmerican speaking Portuguese
basically sounds like he'sspeaking English and he's just
saying Portuguese words, whichkind of works in your favor,
because sometimes it's like I'veplayed a German before.
You know why?
Ah, because he talks funny.
Okay, cool, good enough, hetalks funny.
(05:39):
He's not Brazilian, he's aGerman, great Done man.
I got to tell you guys, I really, I really have to compliment
you, man.
It's, it's very.
I follow you on social media,of course, and and, man, I love,
I love the way that you do thisthing.
There's a certain honesty to it.
You know what I mean, becausethere's a whole thing of like
selling yourself as an actor,and I don't buy into a lot of
(06:01):
the cliches.
We can, we can talk about that.
I'd like to, but uh, but thereis a thing about you know, the
sort of social media is a sortof curated version of your life
and how you sell yourself.
And then you know, in terms ofactors, like the way to get a
job is to have a job.
So you sort of always want toshow that you're working.
You always want to, you know,you always want it to look like
(06:22):
you're just like in the middleof the coolest production ever.
And I just love the way thatyou guys are so like open about
hey, man, this is what we'redoing right now.
You know, and you don't give ita second thought about like
like, oh man, well, it's astudent film.
I don't know if that's reallyhigh profile enough.
Let's, let's just post about itbut then not say what it is.
No, I mean just putting it allout there, because that
(06:44):
enthusiasm is translates intointegrity.
You know, I really that'ssomething that people look and
go, hey, you know what.
I want to work with these guysbecause they like doing it and
it's cool and they're into itand they're about it.
And that's exactly the kind ofstory that you hear for people
that then suddenly blow up andstart making money and so
because, man, they're notworried about that.
(07:04):
They're not worried about howthey're perceived by the
industry.
It's just like hey, we like tomake in films.
So you know, if somebodydropped a million, you know $5
billion budget in our lap, wewent and made a film.
But also, if we had 36 bucksand we didn't have anything to
do for the weekend, we went andmade a film too.
You know and it's really great,man.
So I I gotta say just gettinginto the whole thing, creating
(07:26):
that, this podcast, which youknow is just a way for like hey,
man, anybody who's doing thislet's get on and talk about it.
You know, because there's somany variations to this and so
much gray area and so much, youknow, it's just really cool.
I really have to compliment youguys.
It's really great to watch thistrajectory thank you, you I
appreciate you saying that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Thank you very much.
The check will be in the mailand that's all our time, folks.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I need it because US dollars, man, those are good.
There you go.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
This episode brought to you by Brian Towns.
There you go, oh waitCompliments.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So, yeah, I fell into this a few years ago, started
background and then, after someexperiences, started taking
acting classes and just keepmoving.
But it feels like, as I findmyself in this and it fills me
up, that radiates out.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, and people are drawn tothat and I get a lot of
compliments and I get'm afraidsomebody goes.
(08:24):
I get to work with the legendon this.
I was like what?
No, but it was nice for them tosay that.
Sure, so I, I think I, Iappreciate what you said and I
I've always been like that,whether it was comic cons or you
know I'm doing, I love Disneyand I just share my stuff.
I don't, I, I don't curate myInstagram, except for trying to
(08:44):
make the picture right.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, I think, man, and I think it's a really
important thing, because one ofthe things I mean, on the rare
occasion that somebody says,what would you tell people who
are just starting in thisbusiness, or something like that
, I always like to say likenobody, myself included, can
tell you how to succeed in thisbusiness.
(09:09):
You know, and, and the reason,what I mean by that is just the
fact that, first of all, thereare so many definitions of
success, no-transcript.
(09:52):
Oh, I'll make a lot of moneyand I'll get some awards, you
know, and I'll spend a lot oftime.
You know, it's like man.
You know, for me, honestly, Ilike playing make-believe and
that's what I've always since Iwas a kid.
I liked to run it aroundplaying make-believe, you know,
and this is a job where I get toplay make-believe.
Now, there's a whole lot tothis job, that's.
That's not necessarily mystrong suit.
(10:15):
You know, I don't like puttingmy face in front of people and
and and advocating for myself toget parts, and you know what I
mean and, and I mean that in avery passive way, I'm not into
the whole aggressive Hollywoodmachine.
You got to get your, you know.
No, I mean, I think that that'sthe other part of no one can
tell you how to succeed isbecause there are lots of people
(10:36):
out there who have the formulaand the answer and I'm not
saying it wasn't true for themor it hasn't been true in their
experience, but you know anybodywho tells you oh you know,
first you got to, you know youshould be doing a year of
background work and then youshould get your two co-stars and
then you get your guest starand after six months you should
be this and, man, it just for,in my experience and for most of
(10:59):
the people I've known, itdoesn't work that way.
You know, and anytime somebodylays down one of those rules, if
you go and do just a little bitof homework, you're going to
find somebody who not onlydidn't do that, they did the
opposite, and they were supersuccessful.
You know they achieved whateverthey wanted.
So, man, you kind of have to.
It doesn't mean be arrogant, itmeans listen to everybody, but
(11:21):
do what works for you.
And so to your point, man, ifthis fills you up and makes you
feel good, you know, and you'rehaving fun doing it and it's
it's making results, you know,like, like, you're getting
things done, man, go with that,go with where that takes you.
You know I've known too manypeople who, ah, but I've know I
I been out here for, you know,five years and I haven't gotten
(11:45):
a a this type of role or thattype of I'm not a series regular
yet.
It's like, well, you might notbe, and then next year you'll
book seven series and threeOscar winning films and then in
10 years nobody will know yourname.
You know the question is areyou having fun?
You know, is it how you want tospend your time?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
you know, is it how you want to spend your time?
Yeah, that's a great, that's agreat point.
You've got to love this, tohandle the rejection and it's
not always rejection, it's justnot an acceptance.
You know, exactly, I had, yeah,one I just for this commercial,
and I was rushed, you know, Iwas actually on set in between,
so I knocked it out, did my, butI didn't get to worry about it,
(12:26):
right, and I even kind of wentno, this kind of screw it, and I
booked.
You know, and there are dayswhen you're self-tapping and you
I'm going to craft that a fewmore times, and then you go okay
, that's enough.
Oh wait, that's not it.
You know what I mean.
There is no one set rule to doan audition, to get an agent to
book something, how your look issupposed to go.
(12:49):
You know they say don't playwith props in an audition.
One day you go I'm going to doit, you do it, you don't let it
overpower the thing.
And you book, you do it and youdid it too long and you don't
book, or it's this cat, it's.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
There's no rule, it's just go with it and have fun
and I I think that the, the, thelearning for us, the hard part,
you know, internally is islearning to let that go.
You know, I know that doesn'tmean be lazy and don't prepare
and just throw whatever on tapeand send it and just go.
Well, if it's my time, it'll bemy time.
You know part of what thecasting director is going to see
(13:22):
.
I believe, you know, from whatI've seen in the few things I've
had to cast or whatever, uh, isthat man?
There's a certain spontaneityand a certain just like you're
going to take one look and go TJ, Sebastian, that's, that's it,
that's our guy, that's our guy.
And it doesn't matter if TJ ishaving a good day or a bad day
or if it's the best version ofTJ or the worst version of TJ.
(13:44):
You know, you're just going tolook there and you're going to
be like that's it, that's whatwe want.
Yep, you know.
And it's so easy for us tosecond guess ourselves.
And, like you said, to craft itis a great word because we
craft it and sometimes craftingit means slowly strangling
(14:04):
everything authentic out of it,you know.
So it ends up being thisincredibly manipulated,
controlled thing that they justkind of go like I wonder what
that guy's really like.
One of the things that we needto learn, too, is that, like
it's a collaborative art, andone of the mistakes that I made
when I was young was, of course,like showing up and going okay,
how do you do this?
What are the rules?
And whatever I do, I don't wantto overstep my bounds.
(14:25):
I tend to tell this story.
I'll try to make the quickversion but national commercial
and the real deal, like union,where you get paid for the day
plus you got residuals like someof the most money I've ever
made.
It was incredible.
It was like wow, it was like Imade something like six grand or
seven grand and then I moved toNew York and I you know, I was
so happy to have that in thebank and then two weeks later,
(14:46):
they sent me another check forthat because it was another
cycle or whatever.
I was like wow, oh well, youknow, few times that happens in
your life, but but the point isso I booked the commercial and
I'm like, yes, and I'm.
You know, I'm there, I show up,I'm sitting in the corner and
you know, okay, I'm there with acouple other good young actors
and we're all there and it's afood commercial, so of course
(15:08):
they have, like, um, you know,food, uh, uh, I guess food
specialists, the guys whodecorate the food, decorate the
props, you know, and and they doa whole number on it, whatever.
So obviously, you know, I'mvery conscientious.
This is the product we'reselling.
So you know, we need to be inthere like guys, whatever you do
, don't touch the food.
Oh, no, no, no, no, Of course,Right.
And there's this one girl whoshows up and she's like she's
(15:32):
playing the waitress and she'shanging on everybody and she's
talking to everybody and she's,you know, and like the three of
us are sort of sitting in thebooth like okay, well, you know,
this will be the last time sheworks, you know.
And she's making a phone andthen at one point they bring out
one of these sizzling plattersof things and they say to
everybody okay, be very careful,this is hot.
And they call action.
(15:54):
She grabs it, grabs it by theheart part, screams, throws it
on the floor, you know, destroysa half an hour and storms off.
And then somebody's got to gotalk to her and we're just all
sitting there like whoa, oh, mygosh man, that particular
producer, that particularcompany, uh, made commercials
with a particular effect whichwas very hot for a year's time,
(16:16):
sort of a hype Williams 3dcamera thing.
So they made one for anotherpopular clothing line that you
see in most shopping malls.
They made one for you knowthree or four commercials with
that.
Look over the year that youknew it was them.
She was in every single one.
Does this mean bad behavior getsrewarded?
No, you know, but part of thething was that was kind of who
(16:40):
she was.
You know, if I had gone in andtalked to everybody and hung on
everybody, they would have justsaid you're acting like a
jackass, get off the set, youknow.
But that was kind of who shewas and she had this thing going
on and that was it.
So the point is I would notsuggest that to anybody.
But you never know.
You know, you just never know.
(17:00):
I think the basics are show upon time, you know, show up early
, show up on time, know yourlines, know your stuff, be
prepared and be ready to work.
You know which is to say likeyou know you're going to get hot
or cold or wet or dry or muddyor and that's you know, as long
(17:21):
as it's nothing that crosses aline for you that wasn't
discussed before.
As long as it's a reasonablerequest, Okay.
And if it's not reasonable,stop and talk about it and say
hey guys, what, what can we dohere?
I'm not comfortable with thispoint is that we're
collaborators.
So, getting back to auditions,you know, like, instead of like,
what I always did wrong foryears was thinking what they
(17:43):
want to see, what do they wantto see?
Hmm, what can I do to, insteadof just going, okay, I'm going
to make a choice, I'm going tomake a choice, I'm going to
decide to do it this way andthat's it.
And me bringing something tothe table, you know.
So sometimes I think we reallyhandicap ourselves in the
process by kind of being soworried about following the
(18:05):
rules and being good littlesoldiers and good little workmen
.
And you know, like, what dothey want to see?
I want to be a good actor, youknow, and the truth is, man,
they got, they got hundreds andthousands of actors.
They want to see you, you know,but don't be afraid to, for
example, you know, stand up inthe middle of a press conference
and pitch a maybe indirectlypitch a film role to Kevin Smith
(18:28):
, Because that, my friend, thatwas epic, that was epic Inviting
Kevin Smith to do a littlesomething, something.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
That's what I'm talking about.
Thank you, that's a Comic-Conand that was a Q&A.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I didn't know where you were going with it at first.
Either way, Either that's aComic-Con and that was a Q&A.
I didn't know where you weregoing with it at first.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Either way, either way.
Man.
That was awesome, thank you.
He still hasn't come on yet,but we're going to keep pitching
.
All right, I'll never give up,kevin.
I'm going to get you.
I'm going to get you on thepodcast, sir, he will, kevin.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
He will yeah, no, and I agree, but that's it.
You know, you don't want tooverstep, you don't want to be,
but on the other hand, peopleare people and it's so easy to
be in a position where, oh, thedirector's there.
So the director said you knowlike, don't speak to the
director unless spoken to youknow, no, don't be ridiculous
and halt the production.
But at the same time, if you'vegot a question or an idea,
(19:18):
pitch it.
You know, know, throw it outthere.
And if it's a dumb idea or realquick, if the director is not
interested in that, you'll hearit, you'll get the vibe, zip it
and go back to work but you knowbut but, uh, you know, a
legitimate idea, not just hey,I've, you know, let me get some
attention here and they'llremember me.
But again, like the idea of ofit's so easy if you just keep
(19:39):
your mouth shut and go okay, I'mjust gonna do whatever they
tell me to.
You know, you'll do a fine job,you know, but they'll forget
about you the minute you walkaway.
Yeah, you know.
Or maybe they won't, maybethey'll love you again.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
No rules no rules and also, similarly, who I got that
word out be directable.
You know, don't go in with, Ihave to do it this way, that's
the way you came up with.
But then the director like,well, like that, let's do this.
Oh, no, I, this was my process.
Okay, you can't just throw it acompletely way.
(20:12):
Well, instead of saying no, sayyes, instead of, you know,
plunging the knife into herplunge.
Listen to what they have to say.
It's, it's your film and theirfilm, and it make, if nothing
else not only the creative part,but it makes the time go by
better.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Yeah, no for sure, and it's a, it's a job, you know
, like you're on the clock,you're trying to get something
done.
Yeah, as far as process goes,man, I I always I'm a big fan of
the idea that nobody wants tosee your process.
You know, like we all love that.
You know.
I think one mistake that actorscan fall into is being actors.
(20:54):
See, there's Brian, who's theregular guy, who's a, you know,
a dad.
I got two kids, two dogs and awife.
I do laundry, I go to thegrocery store or whatever.
Then there's Brian the actor.
Aha, brian the actor, what's helike?
What's he about?
And then there's the characterI'm playing.
Right, so the problem withBrian the actor is that it's a
bunch of it's a bunch ofmalarkey, and if I bring that to
(21:17):
the set, then I'm trying toplay two characters.
You know not to get biblical,but I am serving two masters,
you know, or whatever you're notsupposed to be able to do.
You know, or whatever you'renot supposed to be able to do,
but it's the you know, it's thatidea that like and I have seen
actors spend a lot of time,invest a lot of time in showing
everybody on the in theproduction what sort of actor
(21:39):
they are.
You know, I worked with an actorin a series that insisted that
everyone called him by hischaracter name at all times and
that there were and there wereand there were.
You know, basically there washis character and his group who
were sort of antagonist ofanother, of another set of
characters, another group.
So he didn't talk to thosepeople.
(22:00):
You know, to be fair, he wasn'ta jerk to them or anything, but
he didn't talk to them becausehe just I couldn't possibly be
friends with you and interactwith you.
You know, if my characterdoesn't like your character, you
know, and we're talking aboutlike a four or five month shoot,
we're all living in hotels inthe same city together.
So it's like okay, and and andit's not that he was
(22:21):
unreasonable and I have respectfor any actress process Like if
you need your space, take yourspace.
You know, if you need your timewithin reason, take your time.
But at the same time, it's likehow much of this is really
contributing to what we'retrying to do here?
Yeah, so I think the rule ofthumb for an actor is always
that, like, no one will ever getas much out of your process as
(22:43):
you will, and nor should they.
You know, like, if I'm watchingyou on the screen or on stage
and I'm seeing what you did, I'mseeing all that writing or
movement work or whatever thatyou did, all that suffering that
you did to get into thischaracter.
Something's wrong, cause I'mnot supposed to be seeing that.
I'm just supposed to bewatching the story.
(23:04):
So that's all for you.
Like, like it.
Don't.
Don't waste your energy playingthe actor.
Just play the role.
Just play the role.
You don't have to switch it onand off when they call action
and cut.
Okay, if you got to stay inyour space, stay in your space,
but do that for yourself.
Don't inflict it on everybodyelse.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Right.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
We've heard similar, similar takes on that from
others as well, and when thetopic of method acting has come
up, some of it it seems likeit's taken away the discovery in
the moment on the scene.
If you're in it all the time, Idon't know.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Well, to to Brian's point.
It can sort of cement you intothe idea of this is how I
envision the scene, this is howit's going to go, and you know,
that's.
That's the kind of one-on-onething is.
If I'm so into, if I'm watchingmy version of my scene in my
head, then I'm not really seeingwhat's going on and, worst, I'm
not paying attention to mypartner or partners in the scene
.
I'm not reacting to whatthey're giving me.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Exactly Right, right, right.
So I was wondering in the backof my mind here earlier when we
were talking about voice actingand Portuguese do you ever get
tapped to do things only inPortuguese language?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Voice-wise.
No, I'll be honest.
What about film?
I would like to say rarely.
I think rarely would be thebetter word for voice, but it's
really only been a handful oftimes because, strictly speaking
in voice and I don't, I don'thave any um, I don't have any
ill will about this.
It's also always an obstaclefor me with commercials, because
(24:51):
a commercial man, unless thereis an immediate justification
for somebody to be speaking withan accent, unless it's
literally somewhere I'm wearinga cowboy hat and there's a big,
you know stars and strikesbehind me, you know people are
going to completely miss themessage of the commercial.
You know I'm going to come onand open my mouth and it's going
to be like they're not going tobe paying attention to the car
(25:13):
or the tomato soup or whateverit is.
They're going to be like why ishe talking like that?
You know, unless there's someimmediate cell that explains it,
if it's part of the concept.
So it's always kind of Iactually, I moved to Brazil and
I became a model.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Wow, how did you do that, Brian.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
How did you become a model?
It's real simple when you docommercials but you don't open
your dumb mouth, you'reclassified as a model, so
suddenly it's like, oh, you're amodel, yeah, because just don't
talk, just stand there, holdthe tomato soup and smile no man
(25:52):
.
But as far as uh parts go, Iactually I have a project coming
up next year, a film, uh,that's filming, uh, in february
or march next year here, whichI'm really excited about just
for myself, because theycontacted my agency, they tapped
me and they were like, yeah,we'd like him to do this role.
And and, uh, they sent thescript and I read it and the
cool thing about it is it's inPortuguese, um, it's, it's a
(26:15):
supporting role, it's a goodjuicy part, it's in Portuguese
and it wasn't written for anAmerican, like it could be.
You know, it's a lawenforcement guy and so the story
is such that it could be aninternational interest, you know
, arriving there, cool, okay,tarantino style romp thing.
So the point is somebodythought outside the box and said
(26:35):
it could be, you know, and welike him for who he is, kind of
his whole thing.
So we want to cast him and I'mactually really excited about
that because it's one of thefirst couple of times I've done
one other thing in Portuguese.
But I typically get tapped forEnglish speaking roles and there
are a lot, especially now withthe platforms, lots of
(26:56):
international production, lotsof stuff shooting in English
here, you know, because, yeah, Imean it's, it's always for.
You know, I mean you've got.
The cool thing about being in aniche market is basically there
are probably in the wholecountry, um, about 15 of us who
are sort of full time, andthere's myself and one other
(27:18):
American, uh, there's a coupleof British guys, there's an
Austrian guy, there's and it'sbasically the same handful that
every time, like an auditionnotice hits and it's sort of
like series looking for Englishspeaking actors.
It's like, okay, you know, weall show up at the audition.
We know it's the same, hey guys, how you doing.
And then, once it's all done,or the self tapes are all in or
(27:41):
whatever, we wait a week or twoand then we start sending
messages hey dude, so did youbook that?
Yeah, oh, no, james got it.
Oh man, and everybody likeseverybody.
So it's kind of cool.
It's always like somebody fromour team won.
But it's this interesting thingbecause it's like on the one
hand, there's work and there's alot of work, but I always say
we're like unicorns.
The frustrating thing for me,the next big step for me is
(28:04):
being considered as a regularactor, like okay, I'm good at
Brian, it's my turn to come offpompous here.
But I always refer to it as theArnold Schwarzenegger thing,
and I don't mean in thebodybuilding way, yeah, yeah,
not that, but the idea that,like, look, man Schwarzenegger
has always had an accent.
He's always clearly been aforeigner, but it doesn't matter
(28:27):
.
Public loves him, we love seeingit, so we don't even worry
about it.
You know, I remember to thisday there was an action movie
late eighties, early nineties,with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a
small town like Texas orsomething, sheriff.
But the point is like here'sthis guy with this thick-ass
(29:06):
Austrian accent and he's asheriff.
You know, these people that,like men, they're clearly
immigrants.
They they always have been.
But we like them as people, sowe don't demand an explanation.
The story doesn't have to beabout that, you know.
So that's kind of my, my sort ofpersonal goal that I've sort of
said and, like I said, I have aproject coming up next year.
(29:28):
That's a big step towards that,you know, and it's and it's
very cool to to kind of again, Ithink it's kind of a metaphor
for just sort of the whole thing.
In my case it's an accent andbeing from another country, but
the fact is it's for anybody,right, I think.
You know, you put yourself outthere and if you can just hit
that that right note ofauthenticity and being the right
(29:50):
thing at the right time and theright place, from then on out,
man, people are going to embraceyou.
You know, like you becomecastable, as, whatever they'll
find an excuse to put you in,you know, even if not, what we
typically think of as that.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Yeah, Now how you do that.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
No idea, but working on it what?
Speaker 3 (30:11):
about dubbing.
Is there work to dub thingsinto English from Portuguese, or
is that a completely differentarea?
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yeah, honestly, not so much for me.
No, it kind of goes theopposite way.
I do a lot of work with voiceand dubbing in terms of
translating scripts intoPortuguese and sort of
supervising that like somethingin English arrives and then sort
of like translating or at leastlike checking the translation
right, because there are, in anylanguage there are lots of
(30:47):
expressions that don't quitetranslate, you know, even if it
comes down to linguistic Like.
I'll give you an example, firstone that comes to mind when we
miss somebody, in Portuguese wesay we have saudades, and
saudades is like the feeling ofmissing someone, but it's like
(31:09):
we say, like grammatically, wesay we have this feeling,
whereas in english to misssomebody is an action.
Oh, I miss you, you know.
We don't say I have missing foryou, you know.
So you get these littlemechanical things that sometimes
, when it comes to dubbing, youknow, whether it be animation or
(31:29):
live action, that you know yougot to kind of fit the phrase,
at least to synchronizereasonably with the lips, but
sentences end up being longer orshorter.
So I generally work on that.
From the other side, you know Iwork in terms of getting the
English into Portuguese andfinding equivalent expressions
you know, or expressions thatmake sense in the context, that
(31:51):
kind of thing.
But unfortunately no, almostanything in Portuguese that
needs to be English.
They just send it abroad.
Once in a while I do a littlesomething, but small stuff,
cultural stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
My wife and I have kind of gotten addicted on
Netflix.
Maybe it's Korean, Maybe it's aHispanic feature, from any of
the countries, but you canalmost tell it's the same actors
and they don't always match theemotion or the terror or the
action of the scene.
Because it's okay.
What shall we do now?
I don't know.
It's a little stiff.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
And to your point, brian, it's really flat.
I had this experience.
I did a series.
I will name this one because Idid an episode of a series that
was called BA Beiju Adolescentiu, which is Teenage Kiss.
Nothing to do, like it's.
(32:51):
It's this dark.
Yeah, it's.
It's a dark future kind ofworld.
It's based on a graphic novel.
Anyway, for what it's worth, I Ishow up in one episode and I
play a mysterious sort of umamerican businessman, who's
who's basically like funnelingmoney to the brazilian
government because it's set inbrazil and, uh, you know, he's
in some kind of 3D virtualconference with the president of
the country on a golf course.
(33:13):
We're playing virtual.
We're actually filming on areal golf course.
We shot on a real golf course,got to go and take golf lessons
for a couple of days.
Right, that's a great thing asan actor.
They zip you out to the golfcourse and then they have the
golf pro work with you andyou're on the driving range.
Yeah, I'm really starting toget it Awesome.
Two days later you go to film.
Didn't hit a single ball, notone, that's not true.
(33:38):
I hit one on a bad take, thatwas it.
But literally every time therewas a take to hit a ball.
Forget it.
Dirt flying, but it didn'tmatter.
Work with the scene, but forwhat it's worth, the point is.
So our scene is in English andit was so weird because it
finally came out and I was likeman, let me check this out.
And I put it on and it was onthe English setting and they
(34:01):
dubbed me.
They dubbed me.
I don't know if they dubbed mebecause of him, I don't know if
somebody just got a thing.
Hey, dub this whole thing.
But I'm like dude, we'respeaking English.
So if you listen to the originalsoundtrack, yeah, the guy's got
kind of a heavy accent.
His intonation is a littleweird on some phrases, but it's
(34:21):
perfectly understandable.
And I'm a freaking American.
I'm there, I'm speaking English, I'm acting, I'm you know, it's
a wonderful stroll down a golfcourse.
Okay, not a big deal, butmaking it happen.
And then suddenly in English,it's literally somebody dubbed
over me going like, well, Idon't know, mr President, what
do you think?
Well, yes, the money will bethere, I assure you.
(34:42):
And it's like, really, guys,like this is what you did to
make it better for an Englishspeaker, like, try, try, voice
acting.
But really, man, so voiceacting Exactly Something A
little intonation, the voice isthe little word.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
That's right, that's true.
Oh yeah, well, it's nice toknow that, no matter where you
go, producers are all assholes.
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
He said that, guys.
He said that I'm really not.
I do not in any way endorse orreflect the views expressed on
this show, or strictly those ofBrian Plato.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Plato, not Townes and not TJ Sebastian.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
No, no, I'm never going to be one of those actors.
I don't think, anyway that oh,I don't watch my own films, man,
I watch my films.
I don't watch them obsessively,but I'm sure enough curious to
see how they come out.
And it's interesting.
I know some actors.
I remember there was something Iwas doing, a take in a film
film, and then I, you know,things stopped for a second.
I walked around like hey man,can I get a little playback on
(35:50):
that?
You know, camera guy, cameraguy, he's like sure he runs me.
You know a little monitor thereand I watched it.
And one of the other actors inthe film guys have been doing it
a long time combined he goes,you're watching the monitor.
I was like, yeah, he's like, ohmy gosh, in 35 years I've never
watched myself on the monitor.
I was like okay, I just wasn'tsure how this take was going.
(36:15):
I want to make sure I wasn'tmaking a fool of myself or
moving my eyebrows too much.
To me it's a tool, it's there,that's right.
But I think one of the secretsto longevity is sort of just
like man, you got to whateveryou throw out there, you throw
it out and then you let it goand your performance can be made
(36:35):
or it can be absolutelydestroyed in the editing room.
Yeah, you know, in the processit's also another chestnut we
always throw out.
Like, as actors, man, policeyour own.
Like as actors, man, policeyour own continuity.
Keep up with your owncontinuity.
Cigarettes, um, coffee cups,whatever it is like.
Stay on top of that foryourself, because you never want
(36:59):
to like lose that really goodtake that you did, because you
know somebody's in the editingroom they're not watching your
performance.
They're like oh wait, the cupwas here.
Now it's here.
Well, let's not use that one,use the one before.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Brian.
Yep, we're out of time.
That's all right, we're goingto have to yell cut now, that's
quite all right.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Oh, no, cause when I was imagining this, I was saying
such profound stuff.
I was making it, I wasrevolutionizing the industry.
Hang on, but you already didVery profound Listen.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate theopportunity to come on and talk
to you guys.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
I took a theatrical arts, a combat class, so they
put a sword in my hand.
Brian and I are old time D&Dfrom the 70s nerds, so you can
imagine how through.
I had a bastard sword, I hadthe rapier, I had fencing for I
had a blast.
So the goal will be we alwaystry to let's get a project out
(37:55):
of this, some kind of sword andsorcery thing, and I'm bringing
you back to the States for itman, I'm in, I'm in guys anytime
, and and that's, that's the theshameless actor thing.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
but it's actually true and I've had this
experience.
I did a web series in New York20 years ago with a pair of guys
who are absolutely terrific andI've since been back to the
States twice to do films withthem.
It's the kind of thing wealways say like, yeah, man, if
it ever comes along, cool, okay,and everybody means it.
(38:29):
But if it ever happens, but itdoes happen, it does happen.
It's not just curtsy.
So, guys, anytime you thinkthere might be something up, let
me know.
Yeah, because I would love to,I would love to actually be a
part of the nola film scene innola.
Hey, excellent, excellent, allright, guys.
Thank you so much, it's been apleasure.
Thanks, brian, take care.
Hi, I'm Brian Towns.
I'm an American actor andvoiceover artist who these days
lives in Brazil.
However, I'm originally fromNew Orleans, Louisiana, and
that's why I am on NOLA FilmScene.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to NOLA.
Film Scene with TJ and Plato.
I'm TJ and, as always, I'mPlato.
So, guys, how?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
is the weather in New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Temps are coming up.
We had that nice crisp 60sdegrees of weathers for about a
week in the beginning of thismonth.
Brian, my friend, how are you?
It's been decades since we'vetalked.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
It has.
Indeed, it has.
Indeed.
Man, Brian Plato and I grew upabout what?
Probably six or eight blocksapart, and that's it.
And since then there's been awhole lot of road.
Man, I am doing good, I amdoing good.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
So I mean there's a lot to unpack with your career.
Can you tell us how you endedup in Brazil, sure?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, I mean, I'll give you the whole trajectory.
So I grew up in Metairie, likeI said, about six or eight
blocks from Bryan.
So I grew up in Metairie, likeI said, about six or eight
blocks from Bryan.
I was probably first introducedto theater there.
Actually, we used to go to LaPetite down in the French
Quarter Is that still there,even the little children's
theater, la Petite Theater?
Yes, it is, yeah, but it wasjust something we did.
(01:22):
And then, when I was 11 or 12,we moved to Shreveport and in
Shreveport I did some.
That's the first time I starteddoing a little children's
theater, a little communitytheater.
I started doing plays in schooland so by the time high school
ended I said, man, I really likethis, this is what I want to do
, you know, in general, theacting thing.
And then I went to college, Igot a bachelor's in theater.
(01:43):
I got a bachelor's in theater,I got a master's and I was
fortunate during those times tobe able to kind of work and see
some other things and I was sortof introduced to film around 19
or 20.
And then when I finished mymaster's degree, I did what
every actor without a plan doesand I moved to New York.
That's 50 percent of the actors, the other ones go to LA.
But I moved to New York and inNew York I did a bunch of
(02:06):
theater and I really startedworking.
There are lots of shows thatfilmed in New York that I'm sure
there still are.
At the time it was Gossip Girl.
You know, you have your littlewalk-ons and your this and that,
and then a soap opera everyonce in a while and I ended up
doing a lot of behind the sceneswork there too, a lot of
production work kind of the coolstory.
I stumbled into a job as afield producer at Saturday night
(02:27):
live.
So the last four or five yearsthat I was in New York I was
working every week at Saturdaynight live.
Uh, and then during the timethat I was there, man, I
actually met an actress doing aplay who was a Brazilian and we
started dating and we gotmarried.
And then about a year and ahalf later she was like hey,
let's have kids.
And I was like okay, and thenwe kind of yeah, and the thing
(02:50):
is we just kind of came to theconclusion we're both doing
really well in Manhattan.
It was nice, but Manhattan is akind of expensive place to live
.
And we just decided between uslike, look, if we have kids here
, we're going to end up workingmore, spending all our time to
work to kids here we're going toend up working more, spending
all our time to work to makemoney to pay somebody else to
raise our kids.
And so where do we want to go?
And she suggested hey, howabout we move to Brazil?
(03:15):
My family's all together downthere, it'd be great to have
that sort of for the firstcouple of years.
And so we moved to Brazil forthe first couple of years, and
that was 14 and a half years ago.
But the cool thing is now I canbe a gringo in Portuguese 14
and a half years ago, but thecool thing is now I can be a
gringo in Portuguese, or I canbe a gringo in English, and it's
actually allowed a lot ofopportunities to do some really
big productions.
We were talking about a film Idid called Bacurau before we
(03:37):
started the podcast here, andthat one actually went to the
Cannes Film Festival and won thejury prize the year that we
went.
So, man, you know I came.
You know I was in New Yorkslogging away doing you know
basement theater and theoccasional walk on on a show,
and suddenly I moved to anothercountry.
It's like, hey man, I'm at theCannes Festival, you know, like
(03:58):
walking on the red carpet, soyeah, funny way of working to
work it out.
So that's, that's kind of howit's been since then.
Um, I've been able to make afull-time living as an actor,
you know, and, as you guys said,it's it's.
It's a little bit of everything.
It's a little bit ofscreenwriting, it's a little bit
of acting, it's a little bitit's a lot of voice work.
You know there are lots ofbusinesses down here that you
(04:21):
know like, hey man, we need to.
You know we have this versionof a commercial but we need the
voiceover in English, you know,for the international market or
institutional stuff.
So between it all, it's allkind of worked out in a cool
sort of way.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
I like to think I've got a good ear for different
accents and I can.
I'm pretty good at narrowingdown roughly where somebody is
from.
Brazilians when they hear youspeak Portuguese, can they tell
that you're an American speakingPortuguese, or can they just,
or do they just hear that you're?
You know they can tell you'reforeign, but not really sure
from where.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, generally it's you're from somewhere else, but
I'm not sure where.
I mean you know, from the, fromthe look of me, they get like.
Sometimes it's like oh, are you, are you british?
I occasionally get like are youfrench?
But yeah, the, the, uh.
One of the big differences withuh portuguese is the is the r's
are typically a little softer,like in most, in most things.
(05:17):
So the stereotypical americanwe, we use r's in words.
So the stereotypical americanAmerican speaking Portuguese
basically sounds like he'sspeaking English and he's just
saying Portuguese words, whichkind of works in your favor,
because sometimes it's like I'veplayed a German before.
You know why?
Ah, because he talks funny.
Okay, cool, good enough, hetalks funny.
(05:39):
He's not Brazilian, he's aGerman, great Done man.
I got to tell you guys, I really, I really have to compliment
you, man.
It's, it's very.
I follow you on social media,of course, and and, man, I love,
I love the way that you do thisthing.
There's a certain honesty to it.
You know what I mean, becausethere's a whole thing of like
selling yourself as an actor,and I don't buy into a lot of
(06:01):
the cliches.
We can, we can talk about that.
I'd like to, but uh, but thereis a thing about you know, the
sort of social media is a sortof curated version of your life
and how you sell yourself.
And then you know, in terms ofactors, like the way to get a
job is to have a job.
So you sort of always want toshow that you're working.
You always want to, you know,you always want it to look like
(06:22):
you're just like in the middleof the coolest production ever.
And I just love the way thatyou guys are so like open about
hey, man, this is what we'redoing right now.
You know, and you don't give ita second thought about like
like, oh man, well, it's astudent film.
I don't know if that's reallyhigh profile enough.
Let's, let's just post about itbut then not say what it is.
No, I mean just putting it allout there, because that
(06:44):
enthusiasm is translates intointegrity.
You know, I really that'ssomething that people look and
go, hey, you know what.
I want to work with these guysbecause they like doing it and
it's cool and they're into itand they're about it.
And that's exactly the kind ofstory that you hear for people
that then suddenly blow up andstart making money and so
because, man, they're notworried about that.
(07:04):
They're not worried about howthey're perceived by the
industry.
It's just like hey, we like tomake in films.
So you know, if somebodydropped a million, you know $5
billion budget in our lap, wewent and made a film.
But also, if we had 36 bucksand we didn't have anything to
do for the weekend, we went andmade a film too.
You know and it's really great,man.
So I I gotta say just gettinginto the whole thing, creating
(07:26):
that, this podcast, which youknow is just a way for like hey,
man, anybody who's doing thislet's get on and talk about it.
You know, because there's somany variations to this and so
much gray area and so much, youknow, it's just really cool.
I really have to compliment youguys.
It's really great to watch thistrajectory thank you, you I
appreciate you saying that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Thank you very much.
The check will be in the mailand that's all our time, folks.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I need it because US dollars, man, those are good.
There you go.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
This episode brought to you by Brian Towns.
There you go, oh waitCompliments.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So, yeah, I fell into this a few years ago, started
background and then, after someexperiences, started taking
acting classes and just keepmoving.
But it feels like, as I findmyself in this and it fills me
up, that radiates out.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, and people are drawn tothat and I get a lot of
compliments and I get'm afraidsomebody goes.
(08:24):
I get to work with the legendon this.
I was like what?
No, but it was nice for them tosay that.
Sure, so I, I think I, Iappreciate what you said and I
I've always been like that,whether it was comic cons or you
know I'm doing, I love Disneyand I just share my stuff.
I don't, I, I don't curate myInstagram, except for trying to
(08:44):
make the picture right.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, I think, man, and I think it's a really
important thing, because one ofthe things I mean, on the rare
occasion that somebody says,what would you tell people who
are just starting in thisbusiness, or something like that
, I always like to say likenobody, myself included, can
tell you how to succeed in thisbusiness.
(09:09):
You know, and, and the reason,what I mean by that is just the
fact that, first of all, thereare so many definitions of
success, no-transcript.
(09:52):
Oh, I'll make a lot of moneyand I'll get some awards, you
know, and I'll spend a lot oftime.
You know, it's like man.
You know, for me, honestly, Ilike playing make-believe and
that's what I've always since Iwas a kid.
I liked to run it aroundplaying make-believe, you know,
and this is a job where I get toplay make-believe.
Now, there's a whole lot tothis job, that's.
That's not necessarily mystrong suit.
(10:15):
You know, I don't like puttingmy face in front of people and
and and advocating for myself toget parts, and you know what I
mean and, and I mean that in avery passive way, I'm not into
the whole aggressive Hollywoodmachine.
You got to get your, you know.
No, I mean, I think that that'sthe other part of no one can
tell you how to succeed isbecause there are lots of people
(10:36):
out there who have the formulaand the answer and I'm not
saying it wasn't true for themor it hasn't been true in their
experience, but you know anybodywho tells you oh you know,
first you got to, you know youshould be doing a year of
background work and then youshould get your two co-stars and
then you get your guest starand after six months you should
be this and, man, it just for,in my experience and for most of
(10:59):
the people I've known, itdoesn't work that way.
You know, and anytime somebodylays down one of those rules, if
you go and do just a little bitof homework, you're going to
find somebody who not onlydidn't do that, they did the
opposite, and they were supersuccessful.
You know they achieved whateverthey wanted.
So, man, you kind of have to.
It doesn't mean be arrogant, itmeans listen to everybody, but
(11:21):
do what works for you.
And so to your point, man, ifthis fills you up and makes you
feel good, you know, and you'rehaving fun doing it and it's
it's making results, you know,like, like, you're getting
things done, man, go with that,go with where that takes you.
You know I've known too manypeople who, ah, but I've know I
I been out here for, you know,five years and I haven't gotten
(11:45):
a a this type of role or thattype of I'm not a series regular
yet.
It's like, well, you might notbe, and then next year you'll
book seven series and threeOscar winning films and then in
10 years nobody will know yourname.
You know the question is areyou having fun?
You know, is it how you want tospend your time?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
you know, is it how you want to spend your time?
Yeah, that's a great, that's agreat point.
You've got to love this, tohandle the rejection and it's
not always rejection, it's justnot an acceptance.
You know, exactly, I had, yeah,one I just for this commercial,
and I was rushed, you know, Iwas actually on set in between,
so I knocked it out, did my, butI didn't get to worry about it,
(12:26):
right, and I even kind of wentno, this kind of screw it, and I
booked.
You know, and there are dayswhen you're self-tapping and you
I'm going to craft that a fewmore times, and then you go okay
, that's enough.
Oh wait, that's not it.
You know what I mean.
There is no one set rule to doan audition, to get an agent to
book something, how your look issupposed to go.
(12:49):
You know they say don't playwith props in an audition.
One day you go I'm going to doit, you do it, you don't let it
overpower the thing.
And you book, you do it and youdid it too long and you don't
book, or it's this cat, it's.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
There's no rule, it's just go with it and have fun
and I I think that the, the, thelearning for us, the hard part,
you know, internally is islearning to let that go.
You know, I know that doesn'tmean be lazy and don't prepare
and just throw whatever on tapeand send it and just go.
Well, if it's my time, it'll bemy time.
You know part of what thecasting director is going to see
(13:22):
.
I believe, you know, from whatI've seen in the few things I've
had to cast or whatever, uh, isthat man?
There's a certain spontaneityand a certain just like you're
going to take one look and go TJ, Sebastian, that's, that's it,
that's our guy, that's our guy.
And it doesn't matter if TJ ishaving a good day or a bad day
or if it's the best version ofTJ or the worst version of TJ.
(13:44):
You know, you're just going tolook there and you're going to
be like that's it, that's whatwe want.
Yep, you know.
And it's so easy for us tosecond guess ourselves.
And, like you said, to craft itis a great word because we
craft it and sometimes craftingit means slowly strangling
(14:04):
everything authentic out of it,you know.
So it ends up being thisincredibly manipulated,
controlled thing that they justkind of go like I wonder what
that guy's really like.
One of the things that we needto learn, too, is that, like
it's a collaborative art, andone of the mistakes that I made
when I was young was, of course,like showing up and going okay,
how do you do this?
What are the rules?
And whatever I do, I don't wantto overstep my bounds.
(14:25):
I tend to tell this story.
I'll try to make the quickversion but national commercial
and the real deal, like union,where you get paid for the day
plus you got residuals like someof the most money I've ever
made.
It was incredible.
It was like wow, it was like Imade something like six grand or
seven grand and then I moved toNew York and I you know, I was
so happy to have that in thebank and then two weeks later,
(14:46):
they sent me another check forthat because it was another
cycle or whatever.
I was like wow, oh well, youknow, few times that happens in
your life, but but the point isso I booked the commercial and
I'm like, yes, and I'm.
You know, I'm there, I show up,I'm sitting in the corner and
you know, okay, I'm there with acouple other good young actors
and we're all there and it's afood commercial, so of course
(15:08):
they have, like, um, you know,food, uh, uh, I guess food
specialists, the guys whodecorate the food, decorate the
props, you know, and and they doa whole number on it, whatever.
So obviously, you know, I'mvery conscientious.
This is the product we'reselling.
So you know, we need to be inthere like guys, whatever you do
, don't touch the food.
Oh, no, no, no, no, Of course,Right.
And there's this one girl whoshows up and she's like she's
(15:32):
playing the waitress and she'shanging on everybody and she's
talking to everybody and she's,you know, and like the three of
us are sort of sitting in thebooth like okay, well, you know,
this will be the last time sheworks, you know.
And she's making a phone andthen at one point they bring out
one of these sizzling plattersof things and they say to
everybody okay, be very careful,this is hot.
And they call action.
(15:54):
She grabs it, grabs it by theheart part, screams, throws it
on the floor, you know, destroysa half an hour and storms off.
And then somebody's got to gotalk to her and we're just all
sitting there like whoa, oh, mygosh man, that particular
producer, that particularcompany, uh, made commercials
with a particular effect whichwas very hot for a year's time,
(16:16):
sort of a hype Williams 3dcamera thing.
So they made one for anotherpopular clothing line that you
see in most shopping malls.
They made one for you knowthree or four commercials with
that.
Look over the year that youknew it was them.
She was in every single one.
Does this mean bad behavior getsrewarded?
No, you know, but part of thething was that was kind of who
(16:40):
she was.
You know, if I had gone in andtalked to everybody and hung on
everybody, they would have justsaid you're acting like a
jackass, get off the set, youknow.
But that was kind of who shewas and she had this thing going
on and that was it.
So the point is I would notsuggest that to anybody.
But you never know.
You know, you just never know.
(17:00):
I think the basics are show upon time, you know, show up early
, show up on time, know yourlines, know your stuff, be
prepared and be ready to work.
You know which is to say likeyou know you're going to get hot
or cold or wet or dry or muddyor and that's you know, as long
(17:21):
as it's nothing that crosses aline for you that wasn't
discussed before.
As long as it's a reasonablerequest, Okay.
And if it's not reasonable,stop and talk about it and say
hey guys, what, what can we dohere?
I'm not comfortable with thispoint is that we're
collaborators.
So, getting back to auditions,you know, like, instead of like,
what I always did wrong foryears was thinking what they
(17:43):
want to see, what do they wantto see?
Hmm, what can I do to, insteadof just going, okay, I'm going
to make a choice, I'm going tomake a choice, I'm going to
decide to do it this way andthat's it.
And me bringing something tothe table, you know.
So sometimes I think we reallyhandicap ourselves in the
process by kind of being soworried about following the
(18:05):
rules and being good littlesoldiers and good little workmen
.
And you know, like, what dothey want to see?
I want to be a good actor, youknow, and the truth is, man,
they got, they got hundreds andthousands of actors.
They want to see you, you know,but don't be afraid to, for
example, you know, stand up inthe middle of a press conference
and pitch a maybe indirectlypitch a film role to Kevin Smith
(18:28):
, Because that, my friend, thatwas epic, that was epic Inviting
Kevin Smith to do a littlesomething, something.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
That's what I'm talking about.
Thank you, that's a Comic-Conand that was a Q&A.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I didn't know where you were going with it at first.
Either way, Either that's aComic-Con and that was a Q&A.
I didn't know where you weregoing with it at first.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Either way, either way.
Man.
That was awesome, thank you.
He still hasn't come on yet,but we're going to keep pitching
.
All right, I'll never give up,kevin.
I'm going to get you.
I'm going to get you on thepodcast, sir, he will, kevin.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
He will yeah, no, and I agree, but that's it.
You know, you don't want tooverstep, you don't want to be,
but on the other hand, peopleare people and it's so easy to
be in a position where, oh, thedirector's there.
So the director said you knowlike, don't speak to the
director unless spoken to youknow, no, don't be ridiculous
and halt the production.
But at the same time, if you'vegot a question or an idea,
(19:18):
pitch it.
You know, know, throw it outthere.
And if it's a dumb idea or realquick, if the director is not
interested in that, you'll hearit, you'll get the vibe, zip it
and go back to work but you knowbut but, uh, you know, a
legitimate idea, not just hey,I've, you know, let me get some
attention here and they'llremember me.
But again, like the idea of ofit's so easy if you just keep
(19:39):
your mouth shut and go okay, I'mjust gonna do whatever they
tell me to.
You know, you'll do a fine job,you know, but they'll forget
about you the minute you walkaway.
Yeah, you know.
Or maybe they won't, maybethey'll love you again.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
No rules no rules and also, similarly, who I got that
word out be directable.
You know, don't go in with, Ihave to do it this way, that's
the way you came up with.
But then the director like,well, like that, let's do this.
Oh, no, I, this was my process.
Okay, you can't just throw it acompletely way.
(20:12):
Well, instead of saying no, sayyes, instead of, you know,
plunging the knife into herplunge.
Listen to what they have to say.
It's, it's your film and theirfilm, and it make, if nothing
else not only the creative part,but it makes the time go by
better.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Yeah, no for sure, and it's a, it's a job, you know
, like you're on the clock,you're trying to get something
done.
Yeah, as far as process goes,man, I I always I'm a big fan of
the idea that nobody wants tosee your process.
You know, like we all love that.
You know.
I think one mistake that actorscan fall into is being actors.
(20:54):
See, there's Brian, who's theregular guy, who's a, you know,
a dad.
I got two kids, two dogs and awife.
I do laundry, I go to thegrocery store or whatever.
Then there's Brian the actor.
Aha, brian the actor, what's helike?
What's he about?
And then there's the characterI'm playing.
Right, so the problem withBrian the actor is that it's a
bunch of it's a bunch ofmalarkey, and if I bring that to
(21:17):
the set, then I'm trying toplay two characters.
You know not to get biblical,but I am serving two masters,
you know, or whatever you're notsupposed to be able to do.
You know, or whatever you'renot supposed to be able to do,
but it's the you know, it's thatidea that like and I have seen
actors spend a lot of time,invest a lot of time in showing
everybody on the in theproduction what sort of actor
(21:39):
they are.
You know, I worked with an actorin a series that insisted that
everyone called him by hischaracter name at all times and
that there were and there wereand there were.
You know, basically there washis character and his group who
were sort of antagonist ofanother, of another set of
characters, another group.
So he didn't talk to thosepeople.
(22:00):
You know, to be fair, he wasn'ta jerk to them or anything, but
he didn't talk to them becausehe just I couldn't possibly be
friends with you and interactwith you.
You know, if my characterdoesn't like your character, you
know, and we're talking aboutlike a four or five month shoot,
we're all living in hotels inthe same city together.
So it's like okay, and and andit's not that he was
(22:21):
unreasonable and I have respectfor any actress process Like if
you need your space, take yourspace.
You know, if you need your timewithin reason, take your time.
But at the same time, it's likehow much of this is really
contributing to what we'retrying to do here?
Yeah, so I think the rule ofthumb for an actor is always
that, like, no one will ever getas much out of your process as
(22:43):
you will, and nor should they.
You know, like, if I'm watchingyou on the screen or on stage
and I'm seeing what you did, I'mseeing all that writing or
movement work or whatever thatyou did, all that suffering that
you did to get into thischaracter.
Something's wrong, cause I'mnot supposed to be seeing that.
I'm just supposed to bewatching the story.
(23:04):
So that's all for you.
Like, like it.
Don't.
Don't waste your energy playingthe actor.
Just play the role.
Just play the role.
You don't have to switch it onand off when they call action
and cut.
Okay, if you got to stay inyour space, stay in your space,
but do that for yourself.
Don't inflict it on everybodyelse.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Right.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
We've heard similar, similar takes on that from
others as well, and when thetopic of method acting has come
up, some of it it seems likeit's taken away the discovery in
the moment on the scene.
If you're in it all the time, Idon't know.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Well, to to Brian's point.
It can sort of cement you intothe idea of this is how I
envision the scene, this is howit's going to go, and you know,
that's.
That's the kind of one-on-onething is.
If I'm so into, if I'm watchingmy version of my scene in my
head, then I'm not really seeingwhat's going on and, worst, I'm
not paying attention to mypartner or partners in the scene
.
I'm not reacting to whatthey're giving me.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Exactly Right, right, right.
So I was wondering in the backof my mind here earlier when we
were talking about voice actingand Portuguese do you ever get
tapped to do things only inPortuguese language?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Voice-wise.
No, I'll be honest.
What about film?
I would like to say rarely.
I think rarely would be thebetter word for voice, but it's
really only been a handful oftimes because, strictly speaking
in voice and I don't, I don'thave any um, I don't have any
ill will about this.
It's also always an obstaclefor me with commercials, because
(24:51):
a commercial man, unless thereis an immediate justification
for somebody to be speaking withan accent, unless it's
literally somewhere I'm wearinga cowboy hat and there's a big,
you know stars and strikesbehind me, you know people are
going to completely miss themessage of the commercial.
You know I'm going to come onand open my mouth and it's going
to be like they're not going tobe paying attention to the car
(25:13):
or the tomato soup or whateverit is.
They're going to be like why ishe talking like that?
You know, unless there's someimmediate cell that explains it,
if it's part of the concept.
So it's always kind of Iactually, I moved to Brazil and
I became a model.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Wow, how did you do that, Brian.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
How did you become a model?
It's real simple when you docommercials but you don't open
your dumb mouth, you'reclassified as a model, so
suddenly it's like, oh, you're amodel, yeah, because just don't
talk, just stand there, holdthe tomato soup and smile no man
(25:52):
.
But as far as uh parts go, Iactually I have a project coming
up next year, a film, uh,that's filming, uh, in february
or march next year here, whichI'm really excited about just
for myself, because theycontacted my agency, they tapped
me and they were like, yeah,we'd like him to do this role.
And and, uh, they sent thescript and I read it and the
cool thing about it is it's inPortuguese, um, it's, it's a
(26:15):
supporting role, it's a goodjuicy part, it's in Portuguese
and it wasn't written for anAmerican, like it could be.
You know, it's a lawenforcement guy and so the story
is such that it could be aninternational interest, you know
, arriving there, cool, okay,tarantino style romp thing.
So the point is somebodythought outside the box and said
(26:35):
it could be, you know, and welike him for who he is, kind of
his whole thing.
So we want to cast him and I'mactually really excited about
that because it's one of thefirst couple of times I've done
one other thing in Portuguese.
But I typically get tapped forEnglish speaking roles and there
are a lot, especially now withthe platforms, lots of
(26:56):
international production, lotsof stuff shooting in English
here, you know, because, yeah, Imean it's, it's always for.
You know, I mean you've got.
The cool thing about being in aniche market is basically there
are probably in the wholecountry, um, about 15 of us who
are sort of full time, andthere's myself and one other
(27:18):
American, uh, there's a coupleof British guys, there's an
Austrian guy, there's and it'sbasically the same handful that
every time, like an auditionnotice hits and it's sort of
like series looking for Englishspeaking actors.
It's like, okay, you know, weall show up at the audition.
We know it's the same, hey guys, how you doing.
And then, once it's all done,or the self tapes are all in or
(27:41):
whatever, we wait a week or twoand then we start sending
messages hey dude, so did youbook that?
Yeah, oh, no, james got it.
Oh man, and everybody likeseverybody.
So it's kind of cool.
It's always like somebody fromour team won.
But it's this interesting thingbecause it's like on the one
hand, there's work and there's alot of work, but I always say
we're like unicorns.
The frustrating thing for me,the next big step for me is
(28:04):
being considered as a regularactor, like okay, I'm good at
Brian, it's my turn to come offpompous here.
But I always refer to it as theArnold Schwarzenegger thing,
and I don't mean in thebodybuilding way, yeah, yeah,
not that, but the idea that,like, look, man Schwarzenegger
has always had an accent.
He's always clearly been aforeigner, but it doesn't matter
(28:27):
.
Public loves him, we love seeingit, so we don't even worry
about it.
You know, I remember to thisday there was an action movie
late eighties, early nineties,with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a
small town like Texas orsomething, sheriff.
But the point is like here'sthis guy with this thick-ass
(29:06):
Austrian accent and he's asheriff.
You know, these people that,like men, they're clearly
immigrants.
They they always have been.
But we like them as people, sowe don't demand an explanation.
The story doesn't have to beabout that, you know.
So that's kind of my, my sort ofpersonal goal that I've sort of
said and, like I said, I have aproject coming up next year.
(29:28):
That's a big step towards that,you know, and it's and it's
very cool to to kind of again, Ithink it's kind of a metaphor
for just sort of the whole thing.
In my case it's an accent andbeing from another country, but
the fact is it's for anybody,right, I think.
You know, you put yourself outthere and if you can just hit
that that right note ofauthenticity and being the right
(29:50):
thing at the right time and theright place, from then on out,
man, people are going to embraceyou.
You know, like you becomecastable, as, whatever they'll
find an excuse to put you in,you know, even if not, what we
typically think of as that.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Yeah, Now how you do that.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
No idea, but working on it what?
Speaker 3 (30:11):
about dubbing.
Is there work to dub thingsinto English from Portuguese, or
is that a completely differentarea?
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yeah, honestly, not so much for me.
No, it kind of goes theopposite way.
I do a lot of work with voiceand dubbing in terms of
translating scripts intoPortuguese and sort of
supervising that like somethingin English arrives and then sort
of like translating or at leastlike checking the translation
right, because there are, in anylanguage there are lots of
(30:47):
expressions that don't quitetranslate, you know, even if it
comes down to linguistic Like.
I'll give you an example, firstone that comes to mind when we
miss somebody, in Portuguese wesay we have saudades, and
saudades is like the feeling ofmissing someone, but it's like
(31:09):
we say, like grammatically, wesay we have this feeling,
whereas in english to misssomebody is an action.
Oh, I miss you, you know.
We don't say I have missing foryou, you know.
So you get these littlemechanical things that sometimes
, when it comes to dubbing, youknow, whether it be animation or
(31:29):
live action, that you know yougot to kind of fit the phrase,
at least to synchronizereasonably with the lips, but
sentences end up being longer orshorter.
So I generally work on that.
From the other side, you know Iwork in terms of getting the
English into Portuguese andfinding equivalent expressions
you know, or expressions thatmake sense in the context, that
(31:51):
kind of thing.
But unfortunately no, almostanything in Portuguese that
needs to be English.
They just send it abroad.
Once in a while I do a littlesomething, but small stuff,
cultural stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
My wife and I have kind of gotten addicted on
Netflix.
Maybe it's Korean, Maybe it's aHispanic feature, from any of
the countries, but you canalmost tell it's the same actors
and they don't always match theemotion or the terror or the
action of the scene.
Because it's okay.
What shall we do now?
I don't know.
It's a little stiff.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
And to your point, brian, it's really flat.
I had this experience.
I did a series.
I will name this one because Idid an episode of a series that
was called BA Beiju Adolescentiu, which is Teenage Kiss.
Nothing to do, like it's.
(32:51):
It's this dark.
Yeah, it's.
It's a dark future kind ofworld.
It's based on a graphic novel.
Anyway, for what it's worth, I Ishow up in one episode and I
play a mysterious sort of umamerican businessman, who's
who's basically like funnelingmoney to the brazilian
government because it's set inbrazil and, uh, you know, he's
in some kind of 3D virtualconference with the president of
the country on a golf course.
(33:13):
We're playing virtual.
We're actually filming on areal golf course.
We shot on a real golf course,got to go and take golf lessons
for a couple of days.
Right, that's a great thing asan actor.
They zip you out to the golfcourse and then they have the
golf pro work with you andyou're on the driving range.
Yeah, I'm really starting toget it Awesome.
Two days later you go to film.
Didn't hit a single ball, notone, that's not true.
(33:38):
I hit one on a bad take, thatwas it.
But literally every time therewas a take to hit a ball.
Forget it.
Dirt flying, but it didn'tmatter.
Work with the scene, but forwhat it's worth, the point is.
So our scene is in English andit was so weird because it
finally came out and I was likeman, let me check this out.
And I put it on and it was onthe English setting and they
(34:01):
dubbed me.
They dubbed me.
I don't know if they dubbed mebecause of him, I don't know if
somebody just got a thing.
Hey, dub this whole thing.
But I'm like dude, we'respeaking English.
So if you listen to the originalsoundtrack, yeah, the guy's got
kind of a heavy accent.
His intonation is a littleweird on some phrases, but it's
(34:21):
perfectly understandable.
And I'm a freaking American.
I'm there, I'm speaking English, I'm acting, I'm you know, it's
a wonderful stroll down a golfcourse.
Okay, not a big deal, butmaking it happen.
And then suddenly in English,it's literally somebody dubbed
over me going like, well, Idon't know, mr President, what
do you think?
Well, yes, the money will bethere, I assure you.
(34:42):
And it's like, really, guys,like this is what you did to
make it better for an Englishspeaker, like, try, try, voice
acting.
But really, man, so voiceacting Exactly Something A
little intonation, the voice isthe little word.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
That's right, that's true.
Oh yeah, well, it's nice toknow that, no matter where you
go, producers are all assholes.
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
He said that, guys.
He said that I'm really not.
I do not in any way endorse orreflect the views expressed on
this show, or strictly those ofBrian Plato.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Plato, not Townes and not TJ Sebastian.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
No, no, I'm never going to be one of those actors.
I don't think, anyway that oh,I don't watch my own films, man,
I watch my films.
I don't watch them obsessively,but I'm sure enough curious to
see how they come out.
And it's interesting.
I know some actors.
I remember there was something Iwas doing, a take in a film
film, and then I, you know,things stopped for a second.
I walked around like hey man,can I get a little playback on
(35:50):
that?
You know, camera guy, cameraguy, he's like sure he runs me.
You know a little monitor thereand I watched it.
And one of the other actors inthe film guys have been doing it
a long time combined he goes,you're watching the monitor.
I was like, yeah, he's like, ohmy gosh, in 35 years I've never
watched myself on the monitor.
I was like okay, I just wasn'tsure how this take was going.
(36:15):
I want to make sure I wasn'tmaking a fool of myself or
moving my eyebrows too much.
To me it's a tool, it's there,that's right.
But I think one of the secretsto longevity is sort of just
like man, you got to whateveryou throw out there, you throw
it out and then you let it goand your performance can be made
(36:35):
or it can be absolutelydestroyed in the editing room.
Yeah, you know, in the processit's also another chestnut we
always throw out.
Like, as actors, man, policeyour own.
Like as actors, man, policeyour own continuity.
Keep up with your owncontinuity.
Cigarettes, um, coffee cups,whatever it is like.
Stay on top of that foryourself, because you never want
(36:59):
to like lose that really goodtake that you did, because you
know somebody's in the editingroom they're not watching your
performance.
They're like oh wait, the cupwas here.
Now it's here.
Well, let's not use that one,use the one before.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Brian.
Yep, we're out of time.
That's all right, we're goingto have to yell cut now, that's
quite all right.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Oh, no, cause when I was imagining this, I was saying
such profound stuff.
I was making it, I wasrevolutionizing the industry.
Hang on, but you already didVery profound Listen.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate theopportunity to come on and talk
to you guys.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
I took a theatrical arts, a combat class, so they
put a sword in my hand.
Brian and I are old time D&Dfrom the 70s nerds, so you can
imagine how through.
I had a bastard sword, I hadthe rapier, I had fencing for I
had a blast.
So the goal will be we alwaystry to let's get a project out
(37:55):
of this, some kind of sword andsorcery thing, and I'm bringing
you back to the States for itman, I'm in, I'm in guys anytime
, and and that's, that's the theshameless actor thing.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
but it's actually true and I've had this
experience.
I did a web series in New York20 years ago with a pair of guys
who are absolutely terrific andI've since been back to the
States twice to do films withthem.
It's the kind of thing wealways say like, yeah, man, if
it ever comes along, cool, okay,and everybody means it.
(38:29):
But if it ever happens, but itdoes happen, it does happen.
It's not just curtsy.
So, guys, anytime you thinkthere might be something up, let
me know.
Yeah, because I would love to,I would love to actually be a
part of the nola film scene innola.
Hey, excellent, excellent, allright, guys.
Thank you so much, it's been apleasure.
Thanks, brian, take care.
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