Navigating Hollywood’s Uncertainty and Embracing New Opportunities with Johnny Cruz

What if Hollywood's uncertainty could become an artist's greatest opportunity? Join us as Johnny Cruz shares his firsthand experiences on "Slap the Power," exploring the evolving job landscape in Hollywood post-strikes. Learn how actors and artists are diversifying income streams to adapt to the industry's inherent unpredictability, and discover how platforms like TikTok and YouTube are reshaping the entertainment world into what could be a more meritocratic system. Through Johnny's insights, we highlight the critical importance of maintaining a hustle mentality in a rapidly changing environment.

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SLAP the Power is written and produced by Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill) and Aja Nikiya (@compassioncurator). Associate Producer Bri Coorey (@bri_beats). Audio and Video engineering and studio facilities provided by SLAP Studios LA (@SLAPStudiosLA) with distribution through our collective home for progress in art and media, SLAP the Network (@SLAPtheNetwork).

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, the world may not need another podcast,
but it can definitely use a hugeslap in its face.
That's right.
Welcome to Slap the Power, theshow where we bring together
artists who use their powers forprogress.
I'm your host, rick Barrio-Dill, and I am Maya Sykes.
That's right On the show today.
Hollywood's job picture, maya,it's looking really bleak.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, have you seen Hollywood's pictures?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
They are terrible, that's right.
Also, the US is suing Adobe formaking it too hard to cancel a
subscription.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
They should because it is too hard to cancel a
subscription.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
That's right and back by popular demand.
We're going to do two truthsand a slap.
A little later, a new segmentwhere we go over three
ridiculous realities togetherthat neither Maya nor myself
have ever heard and we just tryto determine which one is
actually a slap.
A little later we're going toslap the topic with AI again,
but first in the studio today.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
We have the amazing, handsome and fabulous, the one
and only Mr Johnny Cruz and youmay know him as the voice of
something that we don't want togive away, so I'm not going to
tell you the surprise, becauseit's really dope.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, but he is in studio today as a co-host and,
uh, we appreciate you sitting onthe table.
Man happy to be here yeahbrother.
So first topic we're kind ofwant to hint at today is just
the, the job scene in Hollywood.
I know we bring you back to theinterview later and we we talk
about that a little bit later,but uh, what's your feeling on
the ground, on the job scenepost two strikes?

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, post two strikes.
Well, you know, I think, justas an actor man, it's always the
utmost uncertainty.
Yeah, to begin with.
To begin with, yeah, so thisfor me pretty normal, you're
like oh, I'm not panicking.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
It's usually all fuckery.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Okay, fine, because I think for me there are some
gigs that people rely on sodeeply and heavily, but I think
for over the years, I've justcreated so many different ways
in which to take care of myself,whether it be if I'm not doing
some high-end video game orsomething, I'm doing some little
tech motion capture job orsomething.

(02:08):
Whatever it is, I'll do it.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well, I think that you kind of hit the nail on the
head with that.
I think that the people whohave always found ways to adapt
and always found ways to hustlethis was nothing new, I think
where it hit a lot of peoplewere who had those regular
threads.
I know a lot of friends that Iknow in acting are having a hard

(02:33):
time because they knew thatthey could get six to seven
commercials a year.
That would be.
You know about six figures thatcould you know, and now they
don't have that and,dramatically, they don't have
that.
So they're in this place wherethey're having to all of a
sudden hustle in a way that theydon't know how to do, but I
think the people who never gaveup their hustle are the ones who
are surviving.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
To be honest, that makes sense.
I think back.
Somebody told me a story onceago, a long time ago, about how
when the piano roll came out,right like it was like it, just
it was like, oh, it's gonna,it's doing away with.
You know all piano players andshow and stuff like and it kind
of it.
It really didn't.
It just it was the evolution ofthings.
I think you, when you saidyou've one of the things that we

(03:16):
did, because the bottom gotdropped out in the music, live,
touring industry, when you relyon that for 100 of your income,
and the pandemic came around,the dropped out and it forced
all of us to kind of rethinkabout, okay, well, that's one
thing, but then also, what canwe do to hedge against that?
What can we do to protectourselves?
What can we do to sort of seewhat the future might look like,
where there's new things thatare coming along?

(03:39):
And that's what we hope to kindof create with this show here
is, keep the subject ofconversation, you know, abound
for the people that are actuallyall up in it.
But I do think, for you know,for me, every time I get in
these conversations, I'm alwayslike, well, you know, we're
doing something about it, we'remaking our own productions.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Right, right, and it's the people who never
allowed themselves to get toocomfortable.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah, amen, amen, and the industry is evolving into
crazier and crazier ways, likethrough tiktok to youtube, like
you know.
So this old hollywood, you knowthing that I still am like, oh,
the old sitcom or the film, tvmovie person like it is not
quite that anymore.
They get, it's the, the.
It's a disparaging gap.

(04:21):
Now it is is with the huge,huge movies and then just kind
of the other ones and thensocial media and stuff like that
.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
And there's so many movies now.
I mean Tubi has movies.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
What the hell is Tubi ?
What is Tubi?

Speaker 1 (04:37):
But actually because, again, we've talked about this
a lot.
This happened to musicians 20years ago with Napster and stuff
like that, where it started tocome from the bottom up rather
than the top down where it waslike gee, it used to be, I got.
I hope.
I hope Warner Brothers loves mydemo.
I hope the check clears right.
I hope we get to do this.
I hope we get to do that.
And when you put GarageBand oneverybody's laptops and yeah,
napster came out, yeah like,okay, I can put out a record for

(04:59):
for nothing.
all of a sudden it's like, okay,can I make good stuff?
And I feel like from the bottomup there's a lot more
competition, obviously, but itactually to me it feels like
there's going to be a chance formore of a meritocracy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, by goodquality stuff, but then you know
if it's just Marvel movies andTubi Child.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
If that's it Marvel movies are too big.
So I would ask you Because itis Contingent.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
I would ask you something too, because this is
this is something we wanted Tohit on today and we wanted.
We were going over Ourproducers this morning, the, so
this happened too With Do youhave subscription services?
You're a guy.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
That puts together All your own content.
I pretty much have Pretty muchall of them.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
How can you not in today's you have to have them
right.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Have you ever looked at the total on what that is per
month?
Okay, actually.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
I recently just started doing this because I've
been doing this podcast budgetthing called.
There's this lady, her name isTori Dunlap and she has a thing
called the Financial Feministand I really like her platform
because she says, especially forpeople that aren't white,
financial literacy is theequivalent to a freedom that you

(06:11):
need to have because it's yourway of saying it's your way of
being against the patriarchy.
It's a lot of a better phrase,but one of the things that she
says is you can pay an app to gothrough all of your apps and
say here's where you have doublesubscriptions, but then you're
paying another thing to do

Speaker 5 (06:30):
something for you.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
They don't look at themselves.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
So she said to look at your payment source for one
month and see where all yoursubscriptions lie, and then go
to your app store and see whereall your subscriptions lie and
then go to your app store andsee where all your subscriptions
are going to renew.
So then, you'll see, becausesome don't do it monthly, Some
do it annually or they do it acouple times a year.
But she said to write all ofthose down and see where you can

(06:58):
ditch half of them.
But it's an interestingexercise because when I did that
I didn't realize how many I hadon a sneaky level.
And so this is why this Adobesuit is fascinating to me,
because Adobe is one of the onesthat I just got.
Here's what happened.
It does.
Here's what happened.
So I had Adobe fill and signbecause I liked it a little bit

(07:20):
better than DocuSign.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Okay, right.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
But in this day and age, if you sign any kind of
paperwork, you're asked to do itnow digitally on one of these
platforms.
So Adobe is phasing out theirfill and sign, no, and they're
making it so that you have tohave the actual Adobe app now to
fill out any documentation, butthat app costs four times as

(07:43):
much.
Any documentation, but that appcosts four times as much.
So I got a thing saying by july, blah, blah, blah, blah, your
new subscription to adobe isgoing to renew at 33.95 or
whatever.
I think no, at 29.95.
meanwhile, for adobe fill andsign, I paid a one-time fee of
six dollars but, now, sincethey're phasing this out now I'm

(08:04):
going to be charged a monthlyfee to use anything Adobe-like
and I'm like that's a huge baitand switch.
And that's what's happeningwith a lot of these companies
Same with Apple Services,because they did a bait and
switch.
So now, if you want to getApple News at premium, that's
now $30 a month.
I don't know if you you knowthat you're paying that no, I
don't, I don't have.

(08:32):
Yeah, but I like when it comeson your on your phone, like here
are the top stories.
Yeah, that's a new service andyou are paying for it.
Well, there's a free version.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
But every cuz I have it cuz, then every time I click
it says you don't belong to thisnewspaper.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Interesting.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, but I know there's the automatic thing,
like for example with Adobe theyjust kept raising prices.
And then it happened with Waves, where they would have us buy
software and every year you hadto buy the annual subscription
so you could stay current andthen, when it finally they were
like okay, so now you own thissoftware, but now we're going to
a monthly service and thissoftware is obsolete.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
I think they're probably getting me back for all
the times I downloaded theirsoftware.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
That's fair.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
I do pay the full price.
I like all of it, the bundlesuite at the beginning.
So I don't even know what'sgoing on on those levels of
individual.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
But that's what I'm saying.
A lot of us bought the bundlesuites of some of these things,
thinking that it was a one-timefee and that we owned, if not
the software itself, that weowned that version for as long
as we wanted to use it.
And now they're making theselittle tricky-dicky moments.
It is because they're doingthese things, being like we're

(09:43):
phasing this out now, so you'llno longer be able to use it.
So if you want to be able touse it, you now have to go,
because they did that with ProTools, remember, and that was a
huge bait and switch with ProTools.
It was a big deal and you kindof had to fall in line.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
You know what I mean.
You had no choice.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
You really had no choice, and so it's these
companies that have you over abarrel and you have no other
option.
That's the part where I'm likeis that considered a monopoly?
What is that?
Because, I'm noticing it andit's happening everywhere.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Everybody is getting these little trick-or-ations and
I don't like this hater-ationAmazon ads now.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
I was like what is this?
No, totally.
How do I get't like thishateration Amazon ads.
Now I was like what is this?
No, totally.
How do I get rid of this?
It was immediate, so this iscable.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, exactly.
I was like so this is rude.
This is cable, but I have thisso that I didn't have
commercials and y'all told methat if I got the thing, then I
wouldn't have the commercials.
Yet that looks like acommercial.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
What wouldn't have the commercials?

Speaker 3 (10:47):
yet that looks like a commercial.
What am I paying for?

Speaker 1 (10:49):
No, it's an interesting place where we find
ourselves because it actuallyleads back to the Hollywood and
the jobs market.
I think in some ways is becauseyou know and shout out leave
your worst sort of subscriptionstory, feel free to leave it in
the comments and stuff like that, but the streaming model is
flawed.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
That's what the strikes were about.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
It's not sustainable, and so in that I think the
software companies it's kind oflike the same thing where it
feels like it's going to theonly way you can do they're
trying to do the same thingwhere it feels like that the
studios made the mistake withwhich is, once you, if you get
people on a subscription service, that's it right and it only
has.
Your market can only go so big.

(11:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that'swhere the studios realized, oh
wow, okay, so we've already gotall the Netflix subscribers
we're ever pretty much going toget in the United States and the
Netflix.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
I mean, is it me?
But every Netflix movie seemsseems the exact same lately,
like they all have the sameprotagonist and antagonist.
They all have the same result.
They all have the same slightlydigestible storyline that isn't
too complicated.

Speaker 5 (11:54):
What's the worst one you've seen lately?

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Damsel.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Oh yeah, I did watch that.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
I was like this didn't satisfy my fantasy.
Itch yeah, yeah, yeah.
Was that a Netflix?
I thought that was a movie.
This didn't satisfy my fantasy.
Itch yeah, yeah, yeah, madameWeb.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Was that a Netflix?

Speaker 1 (12:06):
I thought that was a movie, that was Sony.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
But, oh man, I was just like what in the hot?
What drivel is this.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, yeah yeah, and I was trying Like I wanted you
know, because it was women and Iwanted to like it you know what
.
I'm saying Because I want thereto be more like female-driven,
you know things of the Marvelwhatever.
But Lort, lort, oh, my Lort, myLort.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
And.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Damsel same.
I was like okay, girl, Now youwith the dragon With the dragon.
So now you and the dragon's asbesties?
I was like girl, I am confusion.
What is happening?

Speaker 3 (12:48):
The whole.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Thing.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
It didn't yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Before we go to the break.
We don't want to get tooserious too fast, but how are
you feeling about sort of thestate of things with regards to?
It seems like there's a lot ofwe're in the internet age.
We're being played against eachother in a way that feels
tremendously disingenuous.
And yet we're letting a 34, youknow we're letting a convicted

(13:11):
felon kind of stoke those thingsback up in us Living in.
Trombone yeah, yeah, yeah, I'mactually positive about the
future that's coming up, but Ialso think that it's going to.
we can't be silent through thisperiod and expect it to work
itself out.
Do you feel anything withregards to the social climate

(13:33):
kind of picking up around you?

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, so I mean there is always this right, there is
always this on different levels,throughout all generations, in
our entire lives right, yeah.
And I think the biggest thingis what I take from is when you
preach separation in any way,right, it is an untruth, right.

(13:55):
And so that's how I decide whoI'm looking at as somebody I
want to lead.
Does this person divide or dothey bring together baseline,
right?
Yeah, and how do they go aboutdoing that?

Speaker 1 (14:08):
right.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
And I think it's never perfect, but I do think
there's better people to belooking up to.
Yeah, people who have aleadership that, yes, you can
call out the wrongs, but how canyou bring together the
different sides through a bridgeand not burn all these bridges?

(14:33):
Biden and Trump have aresponsibility to build a bridge
, and I don't think either ofthem are— Trump's not worried
about that.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
Well, Biden's trying to do as much good as he can
before he gets off this earth,because his next stop is heaven.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Yeah, it's real close .
It's real close.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
And you know, the Inflation Reduction Act,
reducing college loans, we couldgo on, but I understand, as far
as he's not, he's probably notthe person.
It's still the old white maletrope yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
And it's still the interesting fact that we had
other candidates.
People still boil this down totwo old white men.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
So it just says something about our country that
we were like.
So it just says something aboutour country that we were like.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Here are all these progressive other candidates who
aren't one step to the upperroom and we were like nah, let's
keep these old white dudes.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
I think it's different because it is an
electoral college.
It's all about the electoralcollege, Of course.
So that battle that's going onis can this old white crusty guy
?
He's the only guy that's beatTrump before.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
Bring in our champion .
Hey, this guy has done itbefore.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
So they're going to bring him back and hopefully,
you know, even if it's, I likewhat Bill Maher says, even if
it's head in a bottle of blueliquid, I'm voting for him.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Listen, drama style it.
I don't care.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Because you know I don't know if you saw the other
day where they slipped the houseslipped in.
This is Trump's house, mikeJohnson is his puppet and they
slipped in an 18,.
Well, they've had it for awhile, but the automatic
registration for the draft andthe house bill.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
When I read that I was like wait.
What in the 1972 are we?

Speaker 1 (16:16):
What is happening.
Watch the signs.
Don't watch what they say.
Watch what they do.
Watch what they do.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
The Roots told me to never do what they do what they
do.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Well, if you ever get confused, there is a wonderful
site that's out there for nomatter where you're at, because
it's not all just about thepresidents, it's all the local
races, it's all the school boardraces and things like that, and
so you can always go tovotesaveamericacom.
You can put in your state.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
It's really helpful.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Any way you want to help.
It's super easy.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
It's free, so make sure to check that out and it
gives you a nonpartisan look atevery race, every candidate.
It gives you a breakdown that'seasy to digest.
You can go over it with yourcommunities.
If people in your communitiesare unsure about what and I've
been seeing that's a thing thatgoes back to the 60s one of the

(17:11):
things that black churches didwas just this people who didn't
necessarily have the sameliteracy people got together and
they were like here's what thissays, and here's what this
means that's what's needed andthat's what we need to do it's
because it's such's needed andthat's what we need to do
education of you know the.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
You know it's because it's such a dance and weird
world and you know, when you getyour little your packets to
vote, you're like I don't knowthis person.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
You know like who is this?
Also, you're like who isappellate court 1127?
What do they do?

Speaker 3 (17:39):
and you're like I don't want to sit here and like
no somebody just explain this tome right, you know, but that
that is like the education of,like how, and I think there is
none you know like forespecially middle america, like
no like it, there's, there's,nobody's that's why we have this
show dog.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
It's because because they're eight out of the nine
out of the top 10 politicalpolicies are right-wing extreme
propaganda machines.
Right, it's white grievance,white white male grievance all
over the place.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
And it's spouting a lot of things that are just
categorically untrue.
That's my problem with it.
You can have whatever opinionyou want, but if you're spouting
your opinion as a truth, thereis where we draw the line.
We should be drawing the line.
We're not drawing the line andshe, her eye is scared.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yes, Well, we're going to be working on it all in
between now and November, andwe like it so much here that
we're going to keep Mr JohnnyCruz around after the break.
So, coming up after the break,our interview with Johnny hey.

Speaker 5 (18:43):
Gambling is part of the culture of America Since
even before we were America.
I'm Norman Chad.
I know gambling.
I've played blackjack and poker.
I've bet sports and horse races.
I've even hit the slot machinesat a Pahrump Nevada 7-Eleven.
You say gambling, I saygambling mad.
So join me on Gambling Mad withNorman Chad wherever you find

(19:06):
your podcasts.
Follow us on socials atGambling Mad Show or at Gambling
Mad Norman Chad at YouTube.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
All right, joining us for the interview today in
studio.
He's an actor, he's ascreenwriter, producer,
filmmaker, musician we're goingto talk about this a little bit
later.
Dear friend of ours, voiceoverstar and ladies, you know, mr
Hotman himself, johnny Cruz.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Hey, uh-oh.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Are you?

Speaker 3 (19:33):
single.
I am not See.
I said Hotman, I didn't saysingle.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
But, no you said ladies See, don't be getting a
man in trouble.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
That's rude, I'm just saying that he's fun to look at
.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
I'm not even gay.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
but you know, oh, thank you.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Okay, but maybe his lady is doing it like Idris
Elba's lady, like sister wifesituation.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
But I don't know.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah yeah, yeah, no, no, not like that at all, no, no
.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
Oh, she probably could throw down, she could
fight, so let's not get him introuble.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
On the way home.
No, no, no, but thank you truly.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Thank you for coming here, brother, I'm happy to be
here yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
For those that don't know which an actor for the
majority of my life since aboutthe seventh grade.
Oh yeah, uh what did you act inas in the seventh grade, in the
seventh grade, well, actuallylet me, let me tell you my very

(20:26):
first experience.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
Uh, fourth grade was the first time I ever did any
performance and it was sleepyhollow oh, okay for the role of
Brom Bones Okay.
And I was like, oh, this ismine, yeah, but it wasn't
because Lawrence got it.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
And I got Mr Van Tassel and I remember being so
upset and I've been chasing myBrom Bones role ever since, ever
since, I've been trying to beBrom Bones yeah, I get it.
The villain boy.
But you know what I, thevillain boy, but you know what I
gave the most incredible Mr VanTassel you would have ever seen
.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
You know what?
I bet it was stirring andrabble rousing at the same time,
but there was something aboutit.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
I was like I love this and so I kept doing it in
classes and I had teachers thatwere always very encouraging out
of all the sports and all thethings they were like.
You got to get out of here, kidyeah, it was like hey, whoa hey
that was awesome, and so I Ifound you know that level of
love and appreciation kept meyeah coming back and uh, just

(21:28):
enjoying it.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
So that's cool, you.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
You knew kind of early when, when you have
something like that, and that'spure joy coming from the center
right and I was already a cheesegoofball and that was just the
place to be doing it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
And what got you to LA, what brought you here?
Because you were, it was ElPaso right.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
Yeah, El.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Paso.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
Oh, you're a Texan, okay, cool, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Texas, Texas.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
How do you associate with Texas now as a Californian?

Speaker 3 (21:53):
You know, I think there is this ease or kind of
making sure people are takencare of in some regard, or
hospitality.
I like to make sure people arehaving a good time.
You know this level of likefriendliness.
I think you know a level oflike how y'all doing.

(22:15):
I'm still using that how y'alldoing, how y'all doing, how
y'all doing, I use that.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
How y'all doing, how y'all doing, how y'all doing, I
use that I appreciate you I likey'all because it's non-binary,
but it doesn't piss offRepublicans Like if you say how
y'all doing, they're not like oh, you did this to be gender
inclusive.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
Yeah, and I do that on emails.
Hey, y'all Samsees.
Yeah, and I do that on emailsSamseys.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, yeah, samseys, how y'all doing?
I use y'all in emails too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
It's a good one.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
So what got you out here?

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (22:45):
strictly acting the acting bug.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yeah, I think in high school I remember being like
well, I wanted to do acting.
I had gotten like a well Iwanted to do acting.
I was just like I am not readyfor LA, just emotionally as a
person.
The foresight to understandthat are we.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
There are we still.
I'm not there.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
I'm born here, so I guess you just have to have it
in your bloodline.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
It's coursing through you right now.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
I don't know.
I get it, though.
This is a weird place toacclimate to because it's like a
dozen little cities trying tobe a city in one large area so
it's kind of hard to make senseout of.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Well, it was interesting, because then
there's Dallas, which is likethe Metroplex, which is a dozen
little or less little cities.

Speaker 5 (23:37):
Yeah, Fort forward that that whole part of it right
um, and so I was like I'll goto.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
Well, I I remember being like I had a couple offers
from a couple colleges for,like you know, partial theater
scholarships and things likethat, and I remember this is a
weird moment in my life where II was overwhelmed, I didn't know
anything.
I felt like growing up, I wasjust you shot out and like you
figure it out kid.
My mom was working all the time, my dad wasn't anywhere.
I was like I don't know.

(24:04):
So I remember looking at thesepackages.
I had a ton of packages.
I was looking through them.
I remember being like how doyou make this choice?
I didn't know the process.
There's a really big process ofdoing sats and all I learned
later on in life of, like youknow, getting a certain rate.
I didn't know that at the time,but I remember I was sitting
there and I'm just big onsynchronicity I get a call at

(24:26):
that moment, the moment I satdown to look at all my packages
from, uh, angel inman fromuniversity of texas at arlington
, and she was like hey, johnny,I was just wondering if you
wanted to accept our scholarshipand come to our school.
And she's like you can comecheck it out.
And I was like, okay, but thethought was Dallas was in my
sights because it had a filmindustry.

(24:49):
Right, it had a smallcommercial and directed DVD
movies.
Some series were going on downthere.
So it was like I thought if Igot my feet wet over there, you
know, maybe I could like buildup to to hit in la.
So, uh, I went down to checkout the school.
I was like chirp, that'shilarious.
And I was there and during thattime that is when I got an

(25:10):
agent down there I got my firstcommercial.
I started doing direct to dvdaction movies, like you know,
like kevin sorbo.
That's what was filming downthere.
But it was a big market rightyeah like stunts and all kinds
of stuff, because they were likeyou're young, get get to it,
get blown up, yeah yeah, yeahand it was fun.
It was a great like learningexperience.
I started making my own moviesdown there.

(25:31):
So over a period of time I didimprov and I was just like
working on myself as a human andat some point point I remember
I was doing improv.
For this really I feltprestigious group of guys down
in Fort Worth, the Fort AWeekend Theater, which
incredible improv.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
They're big yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
And so I was doing shows with them and at some
point I was like, wow, this isgreat.
And then I remember this kindof moment where I felt like I
had done a lot of the things andI wanted to stay.
I was like this is great.
There was this like one of theguys in the troop, oliver, was
like why aren't you in LA, man?

(26:09):
And I was like what do you mean?

Speaker 2 (26:11):
what are you talking about?

Speaker 3 (26:13):
this is great man he was like no, you need to do that
.
And I was like, oh, go beyondcomfortable.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, go beyond comfortable.
But isn't it interesting thatsomebody else had to tell you
this yeah, yeah, and that theyweren't also going I should, too
, go to LA that they sawsomething in you that they
didn't themselves have.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
It was funny, another synchronicity I remember being
like in germany with my familyand I had my phone and I was
like sitting in this, the backof the station wagon we had
rented to like go around, youknow germany.
And I just remember being likeonce again I was like man,
should I go to la?
Like is this?
Like some friends had movedthere and stuff, and I was like

(26:57):
is this the time?
I was like no, no, no, no, no,no, no, I'm just scared.
At that exact moment I get acall.
It's like I don't know,nighttime in Germany.
It's my friend, donnie Bowes.
He had, he was moving to LA andhe was like yo, johnny, I'm
moving to LA.
Do you want to come with me?
At that moment where I'mthinking about LA, oh, wow, yeah

(27:21):
.
And I'm like, nah, man, but itwas just like that was the final
confirmation.
I was like, okay, these weirdlittle things that are happening
keep happening, so follow them,right.
So I said no to him.
But then I was like, maybe likethree or four months later I
had set up to move in with afriend and hang out there for a
little bit and see what I wasgoing to do, and then I ended up

(27:42):
moving in with my friend Donnieand Kim and it was just like
yeah.
So just these little things.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
Do you consider this home?
Now?
I do, yeah, I've been heresince 2009.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
Yeah, oh, okay, that puts you in there.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah, I think so.
Now, at this juncture, you doboth live action and voiceover
work.
Yeah, what do you do to preparefor one versus the?

Speaker 3 (28:07):
other.
It's interesting because Ididn't.
I wasn't like a voiceover guy.
I didn't see myself as a hey,I'm going to do voiceover.
Really I was like I didn't seemyself as a hey, I'm going to do
voiceover, really I was likeI'm a non-camera guy, you know.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Hey, for some that don't know, though, I buried the
lead.
I mean he's Lucio in Overwatch.
So, most people know you fromthat.
Yeah exactly, but you weren'tever planning to get into
voiceover.
No, no.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
But I got out here and I had a reel from from texas
and I was able to show that topeople like, oh, great, great,
great, like this is, this issome good work here yeah and uh,
the manager I was with at thetime sent me to a voice over
agency and they're like do youwant to do that?
I was like, uh, yeah, sure,whatever, you know, I go in.
I'm in the meeting that we'retalking.
This is a good conversation.
They have me read in the booth,like you know.

(28:57):
Uh, at that moment I oh, we'redoing this right now.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Right right.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
So I read, but I was just taking it very nonchalant
because I don't think I have avoice for whatever I was
thinking voiceover was yeah,yeah.
And then a week later I didn'thear anything.
So I literally wrote an email.
I was like yo, are we doingthis or what, to Overwatch?

Speaker 1 (29:19):
No to the agency, oh to the agency and they sent me
paperwork.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
That's hilarious.
Yeah, it wasn't until laterthat I was like oh, this is
difficult to get into or be apart of, and it was with a
higher tier agency.
But you know, maybe my ignorance, my affableness, whatever I was
, they were like, yeah, let's doit.
And then that's when I startedto jump in and be like it was
this wonderful haven.

(29:44):
I didn't have to memorize mylines and I could just go
straight from the emotion to thepaper and whatever that was and
, using just only my voice inany way, shape or form, I could
use my face or my body to do thework, Because on-camera acting
is a lot more still, it's a lotmore form.
I could use my face or my bodyto do the work.
You know, cause, on cameraacting is a lot more still, is a
lot like real close.
This was like a exorcism ofemotion.
You know, that was exciting andfun.

(30:06):
And to find the truth in causethey're, they're different.
Find the truth in, uh, justbeing behind a camera and using
whatever, whatever you could arebehind the mic, whatever you
could to could to bring forththe sounds and the things and it
was fun.
And since I didn't have tomemorize my lines, which has
always been the biggest strugglefor me with my ADHD, it was

(30:29):
just great.
It was just straight from me tothe microphone.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
And then live action.
You're kind of because you'redoing like last time had a funny
encounter.
My, this is hysterical.
So I was riding the bus, my car, I got in a car accident.
I was riding the bus in la,which is a which is a blast.
I actually I like, I like doingeveryone's, and I had to walk.
I had to make a connecting busand I'm walking over and I get
on the connecting bus and assoon as I get on, johnny's

(30:55):
sitting there he's like Rick.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah, it was just a moment.
I also don't take publictransit very often, but I had to
go Talking about serendipity.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
I think that's why we talked about finally trying to
line up our schedules and get inthe studio, but you were coming
from doing a mo-cap, right?

Speaker 3 (31:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was down in Santa Monica.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
I decided to take time.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
It was just like faster, yeah, because all
driving, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,that right time, yeah, and so
then I was like you know, let'stake it, let's let's take a
public transit day, and thenthat's the day that you pop on
it.
I'm like, what is this?
yeah, that is life, yeah that ishard like never expecting to
see certain people in certainthings and this, this happens to
me just week after week andit's just like what is calling

(31:42):
here?
What is this moment?
Pay attention here right.
It's not just by chance.
There's something here toexplore.
So, let me explore that.
And you know, so that after wetalked, we that's what's
beautiful about the city too.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Right yeah, we talked .
That's what's beautiful aboutthe city too, right yeah?

Speaker 2 (31:58):
But you also strike me as a person who is just kind
of guided by a specific forceand you just kind of follow that
, because all the stories thatyou told you were just kind of
like synchronicity happened, andthis just so coincidentally
happened.
So it's interesting that somepeople are very tenacious about
these kinds of things and arelike I have to focus on this,

(32:19):
this and this, but it seems likeyou have a very different
approach, but it's wildlysuccessful for you.
So why do you think that thatapproach has been the way for
you, rather than being theperson who's constantly on the
hunt for the thing.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
I think there's this level of power versus force.
Right, a mentor of mine, davidhawkins, talks about this level
of forcing is like an aggressiveuh, this is how it must be kind
of like, uh, almost oppressivefeel like this is the force.
Power is a level of allowing, Ithink you know, allowing what

(32:56):
is to be to be without suchresistance.
And I think I've resisted a lotof my life and I found that to
be the most tumultuous times.
It was where I'm trying toforce a thing, trying to make
things happen with my own smallwill.
But there are things that whenwe kind of back up and allow

(33:20):
things to happen, allow feelingsto happen, allow stuff to
happen, where you're seeing theworld in a way that's uh, not so
.
I guess growing up was veryangry, you know.
I was like, yeah, I didn't havethe things.
I gotta get the things.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
I gotta I gotta get the love, I gotta get people
gotta see me on camera, love me.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Yeah, I'll show everybody, right, right.
But you know that drove me to acertain place.
It drove me to be more talented, to achieve, achieve, achieve.
But the achievements were neverthe, the thing I was looking
for, right?
So the achievements of like the, the next role, the next thing,
the next thing now people areseeing me, the great, great.
The more I climbed I was like,ah, this is not the, the

(34:01):
satisfactory fulfillment I'vebeen garnering or wanting, right
, because then I'm still thisperson.
I'm still this person who seesthe world in an angry, upset way
and taking offense and taking,like, all these moments of uh,
ways to twist things into mebeing a victim or whatever in
that moment.
So, over the years, theselittle moments that went when I

(34:24):
would just kind of back up andallow these synchronicities to
happen, like when I moved to la,it was the most insane level of
like, was this the right choice?
But I was walking down thestreet, I saw a friend from like
high school.
I saw a friend from an actingclass like these things, and so
you're just living in this worldof like watching these things
happen.
There has to be something.

(34:44):
These, these probabilities areabsolutely astronomically insane
.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
Like this is not real , like what there has to be
something more right, there'seight million people here and
yeah, yeah, I'm running intopeople that I know right all the
time yeah, and you know likethis person knows this person.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
I was over there across this.
It's just so interesting.
It got me questioning what?
Is truth, what is real?
What is this world?
Is there this higher being thatis actually?
I grew up Christian.
That's part of my angerproblems.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Right, my mom's Cuban , as you know, catholic
everything.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
Oh yeah, the organized religion.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
Catholic everything.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
So I was always just like you know that that wasn't
it for me this level of like hey, there is this, something that
didn't make sense, which waslike this level of
self-condemnation I would put it, you know, I know a lot of
Christians.
I love them and they havesometimes their own relationship
.
But what was this world?

(35:47):
And I just needed to definewhat that was, because when you
define what the world is andwhat it means to you, then
everything changes right.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
And I started reading a lot of books, started, you
know, diving into that realityof what is this world and, you
know, I came to this conclusionthat there is this loving force
that brought us here, forexperience right.
For this experience, thisearthly, worldly experience,
whatever it is, source, sourceexactly To give us this
experience on life, and we getto choose however we label it in

(36:20):
every moment right, this is bad, this is good, we've chosen
that.
Even if it is like a reallything, that a breakup that's
like, oh God, this is painful.
I don't want to be experiencingthat In that moment as we're
judging the moment.
That is the experience right.
The thing is happening, but ourjudgment makes it, the creation

(36:40):
right.
So I created this with thisexperience and I put a judgment
on it.
Sure, now this is my creationright because that judgment is
the the one thing we do havecontrol over, right, yeah, and
in in things I used to be likewhy is this happening?
And then be like, okay, well,why is this happening?
Yeah and how do I, how can Ilabel this that it comes out for

(37:02):
the highest good for all?

Speaker 1 (37:04):
It's Shakespeare.
I'm stealing from somebody, butthoughts make things, so think
good ones, yes exactly.
So think the good ones right,and I always say this to people
like if you love LA or you hateLA, either way you're right and
your life can change in thiscity in a bus ride, in a bus
ride.
Yeah, there you go you know, andso that's fascinating to me.

(37:24):
I think really it's much moreof a testament to you staying
open and you being a vessel anda channel and being able to
accept, like you were sayingrather than but there's so much
of our existence where we getfooled into thinking we have to
do this or it needs to look likethis or whatever, and the
reality is you, could you knowit's part of the four agreements
, right y'all you can do yourbest.

(37:45):
Yeah, okay, cool, then leave itthere.
That's the water's edge, right,you know and see as an la
native.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
I'm like if you don't love, la get out goodbye.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
I love it.
I love my favorite city in thewhole world.
I love it.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
I have a question for you.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Because I know you have a background in computer
science.
Okay, so you're in thisvoiceover world where you are
Overwatch and Overwatch is youand you have this background in
computer science.
Do you have the same doomsdayattitude about AI?
As everything else I've read.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
That's a great question.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
So, once again no, I do not.
I have this Okay, assuage us.
So I think in reality it is.
It's going to be the power ofthe user right, and what your
intent is right and I do thinkthat there is malintent a lot of
times and there is good userright and what your intent is
right, and I do think that thereis malintent a lot of times and
there is good intent right.

(38:42):
You have this machine that hasso much information and so many
possibilities and assist you inyour journey to create right, to
create experience, and so it'sgoing to come down to the people
that use it and what they useit for and how they use it.
Because you know, here's onething I've been using it for.

(39:04):
You know, I've been reading ACourse in Miracles for years,
right, which is a book aboutjust your perceptions, and it's
like a very well-known, likeit's dense, and you're like I
don't understand what's going on.
It reads like you know a scribeand like an old Bible passage.
What's going on?
It reads like you know a scribeand like an old Bible passage
Copy.
It's just, basically, you knowwhat Jesus really meant when he
said.
You know what he said, and itcomes down to you create through

(39:25):
your perception.
That is the basis and you couldcreate peace right.
You're looking for peace.
Here's the way to peace, right?
I'm like I don't know what thismeans.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
Yeah, yeah.
I highly recommend, if you'rereading that, to read as an
addendum the Oxford AnnotatedBible.
It's an annotated version ofthe Bible.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
And so it'll go by certain passages, and being like
this.
Translation from Samaric meansthis yeah, yeah, that's great
and this from Aramaic goes tothis, but it might help you with
the passages that you'retalking about.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
And that's another thing I'm going to do.
I'm going to read all the greattexts, right, and so partially,
I'll ask chat.
I was like what does this mean?

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
Or like you know they'll have.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
And it tells you, like the basis of like, hey, you
know what this means.
Is this from this previouspassage that you might have
missed?
I'm like, oh, that makes a lothigher little being telling me,
hey, this is what you're tryingto read.
And I'm like, oh, yeah, okay,that makes sense.

(40:27):
So there is like, whateveryou're using it for, I don't
have a doomsday attitude aboutthings.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
Because you know, just in life, things will come
and go in some regards.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Sure sure, the dinosaurs, for example.
They came and go.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Has it affected your job yet?
Because I know for me that cameand go has it affected your job
yet?
Because I know for me.
I've had jobs where AI has beenused and I'm working with the
AI and I'm like this is weird.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
I mean, I've had auditions for AI and stuff like
that.
I think the biggest thing ishow is it going to?
When a car was invented?
It's a dangerous thing, itcould be a dangerous thing, but
there has to be rules andregulations and things that are,
you know, helping it to not bethat thing.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Now you presume this is funny.
Can I read something to you?

Speaker 3 (41:13):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
Okay and get your reaction.
So it's been a little over ayear, right, and a little over a
year ago, more than 1,000, onMarch 29th 2023, more than 1,000
tech leaders urged a pause onAI development, signing a letter
about it, presenting quoteprofound risks to society and
humanity.
That was a year ago, april 27th, which is a month after that
tech pioneer Jeffrey Hinton, akathe godfather of AI resigns

(41:36):
from Google, saying he regretshis life work.
Wow, it's a month later.
Okay.
Now, november 17th, which isabout six months after that, a
power struggle over safetytemporarily deposes OpenAI CEO
Sam Altman, if you remember that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Everybody'slike why did they get rid of
this guy?
Then they brought him back,brought him back.
They brought him back why?
Because speed wins, right.

(41:57):
Okay speed wins.
February 12th, 2024, so thisyear, ai safety researcher, dr
Roman Jankowski, that's adoomsday sounding name.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Like he has a white Persian cat and he is
contemplating world domination.
Exactly, he's got a little longfingernail.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
Okay.
Dr Roman Jankowski says there'sno proof AI can be controlled.
One month later, he giveshumanity a quote 99.99%
probability of doom.
Okay, that's okay, that's allright.
There's nothing to worry about,right, okay?
So March 11th, a little over, areport commissioned by the US
State Department warns AI couldlead to human extinction.

(42:37):
And then on May 17th so roughlya month ago OpenAI dissolved
its safety team.
I think you're absolutely rightand I think it's one of these
things where, much like a lot ofthings, there's just a lot of
hype and it makes for a lot ofgood discussions and things like
that.
I do believe controlling themachines is the key.
The problem is much the samething that we've lived through.

(42:59):
This is kind of one of thereasons I wanted to have you on
in the beginning.
It is that you haveseptuagenarians.
You have 70-year-olds and80-year-olds making legislation
about technology that they donot use and do not understand
Right, that was the internetwrit large that was the
smartphone writ large.
This is something where, ifwe're going to ask our leaders-
the stakes is high.

(43:19):
Well, these people they don'teven Most of them they use flip
phones.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Right, these people, they don't even most of them.
They use flip phones, Right?
You know what I'm saying?
They can't even spell that GPT.
How are they going to makelegislation about it?
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
My point is who are we asking to take care of this
right?
Who's got the who's?

Speaker 2 (43:32):
on first.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
Yeah yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
It is interesting because it is a reflection of
what we are as humans, right andI just see the trickeration is
what I.
The trickeration, thetrickeration, the trickeration.
There's hateration in thisdancery and I don't like it.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
Okay, because here's why.
Okay.
For example, I have run intothis problem a couple of times
and I've met at least 20 singersthat have as well.
We've been approached bycompanies that will ask us to
make something called soundpacks, and that's not uncommon.
They'll ask you for a suite ofoohs and aahs that they could
use for a sample or whatever.

(44:09):
The problem is, what thesecompanies are doing is they're
then using that and AI-ing that.
So I actually am in the middleof You're doing it.
I'm actually in the middle of adispute right now because I
didn't agree to do the packright.
They took a sample pack that Idid for something else and they

(44:30):
AI'd my voice and they'reoffering that as a sample pack
that you can have for like R&Bvocal sounds okay.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
Well, that's just not right, right.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
But that's my issue is that because we're still at
the helm of who controls this.
These companies are pickingthese reach-arounds that have
not been legislated because thepeople who control the
legislation have never evenconceptualized, or something
like this.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
I think there was some issues I had kind of like
with SAG early on making dealsabout things they didn't
understand.
Sure, Like early on with likethe internet and how that was
working.
They had no idea, right?
And so now when AI?

Speaker 1 (45:11):
is coming around and that's fair.
Yeah, yeah, come back to thetable.
We didn't understand.
We didn't understand.
But we can't act like thissituation we're walking into, we
don't quite a lot of it.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
We understand, we don't understand, right, and you
talk about that.
Have you seen Suno S-U-N-O.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Yes, yeah, the thing that creates music.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
Okay, are you in there?
Yeah, are you in there?

Speaker 1 (45:33):
No, exactly, that's bonkers, yeah, yeah, you're
talking to two lifetimemusicians right here.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
That's why how do you guys feel about it?

Speaker 1 (45:48):
I'm like am I going to have a job next year Because
I'm having to diversify my skillset?
She's a poly-sci major fromYale and got a fellowship from
Oxford and it's like I've got todiversify my skill set.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Now I've got to do even more.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
Now I've got to do even more.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
Okay, this brings me to the point you were talking
about, where how you were usingChatG, gpt, to help you
disseminate certain parts ofinformation.
I feel like partially foreveryone nowadays.
That's necessary because theamount of information that we
get is more than 10 times whatwe used to get, and we aren't

(46:19):
being taught in schools how toproperly disseminate a piece of
information and digest it andthen make our own cogent results
.
We don't know how to do that.
We're not teaching children howto do that.
We don't teach them theanalytical skills that are
necessary to do that.
I remember being in school andwe had sentence diagramming.

(46:40):
We had paragraph structure.
You were taught how to make aproper thesis, what the proper
points around supporting aproper thesis is.
I see people who can't spell,so now how are we supposed to?
It's just, it's verydisconcerting.

(47:01):
So I feel like we're almostgoing to have to have a chat
GPT-like system in school inplace to help people understand
certain complex theories andtexts, because we've never
taught them the skill set thatthey would need to be able to do
that on their own, thatabsolute discernment, but it's
almost like we did that bydesign, because then you can

(47:23):
allow any form of government tojust take the minds over people.
The stupider you make them.
The less you make them questionwhat your objective is, the
more they're apt to go alongwith it.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Before we run out of time.
Do you find yourself with thevideo game companies that you
work with and stuff like that?
Is that something that is alsothat they're trying to work into
their sort of missionstatements, or is this something
that's just kind of pay noattention to the guy behind the
curtain?
uh not even you don't have toput yourself on the spot.
I'm saying, do you see it justsort of like you know, do you
kind of sense an understandingof a responsibility there, right

(48:01):
, because well, we're going tohave you come back and we're
just we'll do something that'sjust gonna be specifically on
mental health in the video gameindustry, because that was
really kind of one of thereasons why I wanted to get in
there.
But do you see, on the on an aiissue, I know you know, with
angelia and stuff like that,it's like you having to get your
likeness right and owning yourlikeness is, I feel like that's
a frontier, that we're right,we're on right, and I think it

(48:24):
comes down to the deal beingtransparent, 100% right.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
And then I kind of also feel that right now in the
video game industry, there's notthe proper type of compensation
for what is being done.
So the fact that it's taken toan even other degree something
needs to be, you know, taken alook there.
Something's got to be,something's got to like hey, if
you want to do this, make it sothat it is you know for the

(48:55):
highest good for all, soeverybody benefits right.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:59):
And you know there is some saying, like you know, I
think, when you are a company,you're the voice they own.
You know Lucio's voice, butdefinitely do they?

Speaker 1 (49:10):
it's Johnny Cruz come on man.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
No, but I understand.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
I understand the character Lucio is like Han Solo
, right, and we know HarrisonFord right.
But I have as a kid you knowHarrison Ford was Han Solo, han
Solo was Harrison.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
Ford right, right, I see you at a convention.
I'm like I want a picture withLucio, who's also Johnny well,
you know, and then it wasinteresting because I was in a
movie many years ago that kindof had me take a step back from
making movies for a little bit,and it was, you know, this kind

(49:43):
of apocalyptic kind of moviewhere don't talk about
Chippendales like thatapocalyptic, apocalyptic dance
move, but that's right, it waslike this movie that I had done
and it wasn't the greatestexperience.
On the movie set and I justremember, you know, reading the
script, I was like it's fine,but at the end of the day, on
the movie set and I justremember, you know, reading the

(50:03):
script, I was like it's fine,but at the end of the day I
didn't have control, of course,of what the movie came out as
and at some point, you know theyput Alex Jones in the movie.
They put yeah, like a bunch ofit was propaganda for kind of
like the director.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Next thing you see the playback Kid Rock shooting a
bunch of Bud Light cans.

Speaker 5 (50:22):
Which you know and I don't reserve judgments.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
Everybody's doing what they're doing, but I was
just like that's okay we do herethat was one thing.
I was like I'm in this movie andI don't necessarily align with
this message right of what theywere trying to do after the fact
.
And I was like, huh, that wasinteresting, right, so let that
go.
But in in the regard is like Ididn't have.
Of course, as an actor we don'thave control of how these

(50:45):
things sometimes go, and it isone thing if lucio is like now
preaching you know anarchy anddestruction of something, and
I'm like, hey, that's my voice.
But they went rogue and did someall right it's interesting to
think about that whole processof what could potentially happen
yeah and so you know, uh, andit's somebody else getting the
voice and making them say things.

(51:05):
I mean, you just, in someregard, are having to separate
that piece of me and Lucio andthese characters and whatever
happens, to surrender them fullyright.
There is going to be this thingwhere it's like, hey, here's
this Sure, and hopefully you dogood with it.
That's a fair point.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Before we let you go because I know we could talk to
you forever.
This is so interesting andfascinating.
What projects do you want totalk about?
What would you like the peopleto know about on your end.
That means something to youright now.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
Oh man If people want to make comments about your
performance in Chippendales, forexample.
You've barely seen that.
Where.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
What frame are you in ?
Give me the exact frame.
I can tell you.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
We've got some screenshots.
I'll show you.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
There's a movie that's screening at the Dances
with Films Festival.
I guess this will come outafter, but Wednesday at 7 pm at
the Chinese Theater.
It's called Best man, dead man.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
A movie I'm in which is a comedy, a murder mystery.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Presumably it exists after the Chinese Theater.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
Yeah, so definitely check that out.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
And it's called what again?

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Best man Dead man.
Best man Dead man.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
Best man Dead.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
Man.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
We can get the link for that and maybe put it in our
show notes.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
Yeah, it'll be on my Instagram.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
But we can put it on here too.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Okay, great, and your Insta handle is what.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
At Johnny Cruz J-O-N-N-Y-C-R-U-Z-Z-Z, because
because I'm a sleepy boy.
But yeah, that was like myfirst on-camera thing for many
years, oh, wow.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Film, film, film, yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
And I'm happy to be doing it.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
There's been so much mo-cap and voiceover.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
Mo-cap and voiceover has kind of been my thing, but
I'm like let's get this faceback on the big screen.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Yeah, this face deserves a green timer.
That's right.
It's too gorgeous to let itsleep, baby, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Yeah, it's too gorgeous to let it sleep Well.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
Thank you, brother, I appreciate it hey, no, so much
love.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
I appreciate you for coming on and I can tell we're
going to have you back soon.

Speaker 4 (53:11):
Thank you so much for being on.
Yeah, thank you.
Appreciate it Great.
Yeah, hi, I'm Anjali, newcreative baby.
The Character Select Podcast.
I've wanted to save the worldsince I was four.

Speaker 5 (53:27):
There has been no character like him up to that
point, and there really hasn'tbeen a character since.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
Every episode of Character Select, we're going to
be taking fantastic video gameperformances and talking about
what makes them tick, what makesthem exciting as players, as
performers, as sound designers,as casting directors.
That was, I feel like I've beenambushed.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
I was going to be on a podcast to talk about a video
game.

Speaker 4 (53:47):
So there's a big old love fest here.
That's how we start this, andyou're just going to have to
deal with it.
Recognized by the 2013 editionof the Guinness World Book of
Records, gamers Edition, as themost prolific female video game
voice actor in the world.

Speaker 5 (54:00):
You know it's a special project when you hold on
to the people you created itwith.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
Careers are born by being in the right place at the
right time, where you can'tcontrol the right time, but you
can control the right place.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Okay, before we go, that was amazing with Johnny,
isn't he?

Speaker 2 (54:20):
He is so charismatic Like he could run for president
and I would totally buy it.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
I'd vote for Johnny Cruz.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
But you know, what I loved about him is his
earnestness about really lookingat the way he's decided to look
at life, like just looking atoh, there's a cause and an
effect, and if I meditate butalso look at the right factors,
I can influence my choices andthat can influence my outcome.

(54:49):
I think that that's a reallybeautiful way to look at it.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
Yeah, you're shaping your own, you're manifesting
your own life by just being that.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
But I love that he also said by also being present.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
Yeah, I've been.
What's been cool.
Is it finally hit me If I'm onmy phone?
I'm not present.
I am on that phone, you'represent to that.

(55:20):
I'm present to that right, butyou're not present in the moment
and I've started to get so muchjoy out of claiming that
present time back, and I dothink that that's going to be
part of the skill that we'regoing to have to keep sharpening
as we get, you know, as we getdeeper and deeper into this kind
of AI world Before we go.
Slap Studios is proud toannounce that not only have we
moved to this new studio, gotthe new, new, new, new, new, new
.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
We even have new plants.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
That's right.
Make sure to check it out atslapstudioslacom.
But we also have our firstco-production with our new
partners and we are super overthe moon to announce we signed
the one and only Norman ChadWorld Series of Poker legend.
We've got his show Gambling Madwith Norman Chad.
Make sure to check it out.
He's a legend.
I say this.

(56:00):
He's going to have a star onthe Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He's also one of those guyswhere, the first time he came in
, he made fun of everybody inthe room, including Charlie.
That's hilarious.
When you make fun of the dogand everybody in the room, I'm
like props, you're good, you'reone of us, you're one of us, and
his show is all about that too.
So make sure to check that out.
And what else we got?
I know we got some other stuff.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Well, the that's it.
That's All.
Is in its new season and Caseyhas some really wonderful guests
coming up.
I was talking with her earlierabout some of the subject matter
that she's tackling and it'sdefinitely going to be an
in-depth dive that, I think, isan extension of where she
started from season one.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you did an episode, another
episode we did yeah, yeah yeah,so make sure to look out for
that one as well.
And we want to leave you on ahigh note.
This week there's a lot of newsthat we've kind of gone over
and we ran through it withJohnny and stuff, but we want to
do favorite new things becauseI think there's a lot of stuff
that's going on that is worthbeing happy about and lifting up

(56:59):
back to.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
Johnny's point.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
And hopeful, and hopeful, and hopeful.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
So, mayaa, if you had to say what's your favorite new
thing right now, okay, I don'tknow that we might agree on our
same favorite thing, but one ofmy favorite things that just
gave me hope in the world wasthat mexico elected a woman hey,
that's right, that's right.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
And a climatologist?

Speaker 2 (57:19):
yes, yeah, doctor, and like a smart woman like, not
just like a puppet woman likean actual woman yeah, we can do
actual things.
It's awesome.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
Yeah, yeah.
And I love how people say, well, why can't we do that here?
And it's like, okay, well, wehave an electoral college
problem where it's, you know,really, it's just, can the
crusty white guy beat the redstates electoral college?
Right, that's the game.
But more has been done forclimate under the Biden
administration because of theInflation Reduction Act.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
Then any time in history up to this point, and so
, provided we hold on todemocracy, I'm looking forward
to some of the climate thingsthat can be teamed up now,
because they're our neighbor tothe south and it really.
We have a documentary thatwe're working on that we can't
say anything about right now,but it's inside of Slap Music
Media.
It's a giant documentary thathas to do with how the oceans

(58:08):
tie everything together inclimate, and we really need our
neighbors to be going the sameway that we are.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
But that the progress is there, it's there it's
hopeful.
The solutions are beingmanifested, so that in and of
itself is its own hope.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
Yeah, yeah, so that in and of itself is its own hope
.
Yeah, yeah, and I would say Iwould guess my favorite new
thing of recently has been that,the realization that I have the
power to be more present and Ihave the power to fix some of
the things that are, you know,that are unhappy or that make me
kind of unhappy in mysurroundings.
And I feel like, you know, wedesign the world.

(58:48):
We said it during Johnny'sthing, but thoughts make things,
so think good ones, and I feellike getting control of that is
my new favorite thing Is the.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
thing.
There's this song by thisamazing artist named Amos Lee
that I love.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Love Amos Lee.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
Okay.
So he has this song.
Then he says and the worldain't no harder than it's ever
been.
And I think that, even in theface of the world looking very,
very difficult and almostimpossible to navigate, at the
end of the day the world reallyisn't harder than it's ever been
at any point in time.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
That's perfect.
That's a perfect way to leaveit.
I love that, maya, and I loveyou, and thank you for this, and
make sure to leave comments onwhat your new favorite thing is.
You've got a favorite thing,you've got a favorite thing, and
if there's something you wantus to dive into and chew on here
, that's what we're aboutslapping that power.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
So thank you, guys of you.
Slap the power is written andproduced by rick barrio dill and
maya sykes.
Associate producer, brie corey,audio and visual engineering
and studio facilities providedby slap studios, la with
distribution through ourcollective home for social
progress in art, slap thenetwork.
If you have any ideas for ashow you want to hear or see, or
if you would like to be a guestartist on our show, please

(01:00:07):
email us at info atslapthepowercom.
Yo hey, won't we go slap today?

Speaker 5 (01:00:20):
Ever wonder what a high-stakes private home game
looks like this?
Is it Real poker?
Real it Real poker, real money,real people?
It's the boardroom in BeverlyHills.
They win, they lose, they evengo broke and they come back.
Join Amir and Jacob as theywelcome a cast of dignitaries
and degens to the boardroom.
Amir is my best friend.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
We battle to the f***ing death.
With all due respect, our gameis much different than your game
.

Speaker 5 (01:00:47):
This ain't a pansy-ass Hollywood home game.
These are the rough and tumblestreets of Beverly Hills.
Can you rank the players here?
I don't think it's a good idea.
They play big, they play hard.
Watch as they make their way tothe World Series of Poker.
Each will try to turn $10K intohalf a million dollars at the
Big O event June 13th.
In my opinion, some of the guysthat play here they should make

(01:01:09):
the final table.
For many, that $10K might godown the drain in just one hand.
Follow it all on socials, atGamblingMad Show or
GamblingMadNorman Chad onYouTube.