The Cost of Fame - Can You Stay True in Hollywood? | Scott Christopher E0029

What happens when faith and Hollywood collide?

Early in his career, actor Scott Christopher promised the Lord that he would be open about his faith at all times and in all circumstances. Keeping that promise opened up conversations and opportunities he never expected.

In this episode of Let’s Get Real with Stephen Jones, Scott Christopher shares his incredible journey—from childhood dreams of performing to landing a major role in an Amazon Prime series. But along the way, he faced an unexpected challenge that tested his values and changed everything.

He also opens up about his overall experience in the entertainment industry, what keeps him centered in his faith, and the defining moments that shaped his career.

Can you stay true to your beliefs in Hollywood?

Episode Transcript

Today on Let's Get Real (00:00):
I'm scared I'm going to lose this.
It's such a sweet, life changing feeling.
I'm afraid it's going to go away.
here's this guy he's Hollywood actor
he still believes in The Churchof Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.
what possible reason would I have?
being in Hollywood,is it possible to keep your standards?
there's so much content out there
that is just so demeaningand that sucks the spirit away.

(00:22):
I'm trying my hardestto not to be a part of it.
the minute that I startedwatching television
I knew that I wanted to be Barettaand Starsky and Hutch and Bozo the Clown,
and everywhere I went in my house,was in a movie, I was in a scene.
I didn't just walk into the kitchen.
I waited until I imagined a directorsaying action.
my mother when I was a boy, She said,if you'll just let the Lord be your agent.

(00:44):
everything will work out.
I got the first script.
bring up my first line.
my heart starts to sinkwhat have I gotten into?
It's like it all started to make sense.
take me back to that day that you received
a potential, roleto to work on Amazon, on an Amazon film.

(01:05):
There's, like, any actors dream, right?
Right. Well, I mean, it was AmazonPrime, right? So it's.
Yeah, Amazon's but it's one of their owntelevision series.
Yeah. Streamers have them now right.
And I always had a goal a dream to
to act using my Spanish.
Not necessarily to be a Latino characterbecause I'm clearly very Irish.

(01:26):
Whatever.
But I always wanted to do that.
And so an opportunity came up, out of LA
to be in this series,to be a regular in this series.
The first season was going to beten episodes, I believe, and
I saw the breakdown for the audition
and it said it wasit was a DEA agent, you know?

(01:49):
Yeah.
The governmentdown by the border of Mexico.
And it turns out that this showis actually going to be for
Amazon Prime Latino or Spanish.
It wasn't just a part where I spokeSpanish.
The whole series would be in Spanish.
And I'm like, wow, this is this is for me.
I want to do this.I want to be the gringo.
And you have to be highly desiredbecause there's not a lot of people

(02:10):
who are doing it.
That's what I that'swhat I assumed. And you're right.
And so was I, becausewhen they saw my picture and the note
from my agent said, he speaks fluentSpanish, they're like, we got to see him.
So I went down to L.A.
Because, you know,I was going back and forth.
We lived in Salt Lake,and I would go out to LA for a meeting,
and I'm thereand there's 3 or 4 white guys,

(02:32):
if I may, who are there,
and, and I'mthe last one, and I see them come and go
and, like, I, I kind of know
how white guys speak Spanishwhere they've learned it, whatever.
And if they're not returned missionaries,they're not, and they do it.
That's right.
And I served in Spain,so my Spanish is from Espana,

(02:53):
and it's a totally different accent.
We lisp, you know.
Yeah. That there it goes.
There. Yeah. Barcelona. Yeah.
So I go on there and I do the,
the read for them and they are gobsmacked.
They're just like why are you Spanish Were you born in Spain?
But anyway, one thing leads to anotherand they offer me the role.

(03:16):
So you get the role. I get the role.
Now, what does this mean?
Well, obviously,it's the culmination of really
a lot of hard work and dreamsand and everything.
And it's going to be on Amazon. Right.
And and it's a consistent this is a showthat you have multiple episodes.
It's not just one episodeten episode series to start.

(03:38):
It's what have,oh, every actor, most actors, not every
because some of them really do lovethe theater of the stage, which I do too.
But I have to make a living.
And so you want a series, a seriesyou can work Monday through Friday,
be home every night for your kids and behome on weekends, go to church, yada yada.
Yeah,if you go to church, right. Whatever.
So I'm thinkingall of my dreams are going to come true.

(04:01):
I still haven't seen a script.
I've only seen a few lines,that they have at the auditions.
And so I'm starting to wonderbecause it's about DEA and drugs
and drug addicts and all this stuff,and I'm like, this sounds a little gritty.
It doesn't even sound likethe kind of show I would watch.
Personally,I, I just feel like there's just too much

(04:22):
gritty, graphic violence,but I don't know.
So while I'm there meeting with them,I have the temerity to ask, what?
What's the content? And they're like,what do you mean?
You know, nudity, violence, language.
Oh no no no nono, you're from Utah, right? Yes.
Are you are you Mormon?
Yes. Well, I'm a latter daySaint. Oh, yes.

(04:44):
That's why you speak. Yes, yes,we know missionaries.
We know.
And I'm getting in the groovewith these people and.
Oh, thank you Lord, this is awesome.
I fly back to
Utah, they send me the scripts.
I said I need to look at something.
They sent me the first 3 or 4full episodes, the scripts,
which is really cool.
It's a lotbecause they really, really wanted me.

(05:05):
They wanted oh,and by the way, we had worked out a deal
which was very favorable.
You know, because we're goingto be shooting in Mexico for four months.
It's only four months job,
and I'm going to be making more on themover those four months than I would
if the rest of the entire yeardoing my other things that I do.
And I thought,well, maybe this is going to be so sweet,

(05:29):
but I can't now they're sending contracts.
And I kept telling my agent,I haven't seen the material yet.
Oh, come on, Scott, now she's LDS,so she understands,
but she's also my agent and she's,you know, she's like, what?
What do you need to see you?I said, I just need to see.
I need to know. I, you know,you know what's not going to happen.
They told you there wouldn't beany nudity. That your character.

(05:50):
What I said, I get it, but let me see it.
So they sent him.
They finally sent the scripts.
At our best.
You don't push Hollywood producers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Their property, without having
inked on the dotted line.
And I got the first script.

(06:10):
So excited.
Like a click.
Opened it up, searched my character'sname, you know, to bring up my first line.
And it
was probablyin the second line of my character.
There's there's, an f word.
Oh, my heart starts to sinkand I scroll down and there's more.

(06:34):
And then.
And then he starts speaking in anothermajor because he's an American DEA.
So he's speaking certain linesin English to his.
That's right.
When he's talking to the Mexicans, he'sspeaking their language.
And I'm, I don't know, Mexicanswear words.
I know Spanish swear words,but I'm Mexican.
So I look them up just to seeand they're it's all f words
and the like in Mexican Spanish.

(06:57):
And by now my heart is in my stomachand I read through a little more.
And you're right, there wasn't any nudity.
I don't think the violence at leastwas written extremely graphic.
Written graphic, writtengraphically because, you know,
the the script has to tell the directorwhat the movie.
But it was prettymuch just the language and I,

(07:20):
I just thanked the Lord.
I just my heart was broken.
Broken.
But I was just in that moment,I just whispered a prayer of
thanks that I hadn't signed anything.
I was able to see it.
Thank you, father wants to get my motherwhen I was a boy,
and we can talk about this later.
But, I mean, she she promised me.

(07:41):
She said,if you'll just let the Lord be your agent.
Now that's pretty,
you know, simplistic to saythat in the real bricks and mortar world.
What the Lord, dear agent.
But in this case,even though I had an agent working for me,
I just, Thank you, Lord,for getting them to send these scripts

(08:04):
so that I could give them enoughlead time to find someone else.
I told them no.
They were blown away, that I had already
agreed to the amount to the terms,but I just.
And they said, why?
And I said,the language is unnecessarily awful.
I don't want to contribute to this societythat I see

(08:25):
this just swirlingthe rim of the toilet of life.
We you just get present company excluded,
obviously, in this entire buildingof Scripture center.
But I mean, there'sso much content out there
that is just so demeaningand that sucks the spirit away.
And I just thought, I'm trying my hardestto not to be a part of it.

(08:46):
Do those words personally offend meand keep me up at night?
No. I hear them all the time.
I have sons, you know.
You know, you hear it at work.
You hear things around.
I'm not a prude, but I don't want to be.
I don't want to be part of something.Yeah. Contributes.
Now, I haven't always been perfectat that in my life.
The things I've done that I kind of got,

(09:09):
you know, but that one
was a huge thing to to just say no.
And they even came back and they said,what do we have to do?
They said, what do we have to do?
Said, change the language.
And I said, I'll go you one further.
I said,
yeah, because in my heart I thought,if the Lord if it's meant to be,
then I'll, I'll shoot this one at him.

(09:30):
And I said, just change my language.
And if you guys want to
keep the other stuffwith the other characters, I just.
I will never be on a show like yours.
I will never tell anyonethat I did this series.
They'll never be the wiser.
It's in Spanish
and it'll just be me and my little familyand my God that knows that.
I conceded ground, did a series,but my character didn't cuss.

(09:55):
I even said, how aboutif you make him a mormon DEA agent?
And maybe that's part of the funis that he's sort of prudish, yet
he doesn't them a guy away who'sa bad guy, but he's not going to say that.
But yeah, you know, yeah.
And they said but they say

(10:16):
they said we'll see.
They took it to their writers.
And of course, the writer said,not a chance for a writer.
Yeah.
It's kind of yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I said no. And I said,well thank you so much.
And they said, we want you to knowwe're heartbroken.
You were perfect.
We love you.
We love how you speak our language.
And everything about you wereyou were perfect.
We just like we wrote it for you.

(10:37):
And I said,all of that is totally bittersweet.
Thank you for telling me. But
it's not going to change my mind.
Well, and I'd like to think
that one of those producers,because I do remember one of them
when I was at the meet and greetwith them in LA, I could see
there was some kind of connection

(10:58):
with my standards and the LDS church.
He said he had a friendwho he'd grown up with that was a mormon,
and how he always thoughthe was such a great guy.
So in a small way, if even for him.
Yeah.
Me turning away because in out thereyou don't, you don't do that unless.
Yeah. Yeah.

(11:19):
So here we are.
I mean, you're an actor.You've been acting for a long time.
Since you were a kid.You wanted to be an actor.
Let's go backwards.
Let's go back to when you were a kid.
Well, I mean, based on this idea,
like,is it possible to keep your standards?
And I think that,you know, being in Hollywood,
I mean, I would think thatthat would be like, the epitome of, like,

(11:40):
this type of, paradox
of this desire to want to do this thingthat you love to do, that you feel like,
is this you purpose or even, that you donaturally is a gift from God.
But then the environmentthat you would find
most of the work is in a placethat has challenges like this.
Right.

(12:01):
So take me back to when you're a kid.
When did you first startwanting to be an actor?
I think I think a lot ofI think a lot of actors and performers
are deeply, deeply, subconsciously seeking
approval, acceptance, security.
I was raised by a divorced mother.
My father was not a major influencein my life.

(12:22):
He had us every other weekend for a while.
Then he moved to Florida.
You know, I guess I loved him.
He wasn't a bad father.
He just was divorced from my mom.
How old were you?
I was I was an infant when they divorced.
Really? Older siblings.So my sister was seven.
We were all quite young, and,you know, he he left my mother.

(12:42):
I mean, to put it kindly, it wasit wasn't like,
you know,they broke up and went separate ways.
He was not necessarily terriblyfaithful to her.
And we've all forgiven him of that,and everything's fine.
I just, you know, I have half brothersand sisters with his next wife.
So it's been great.
He passed awaya few years ago. But anyway,

(13:05):
I don't
know that that was itbecause I never really connected with him.
But for some reason,I mean, the minute that I started watching
television in thiswould have been the late 60s, early 70s,
I knew that I wanted to be Barettaand Starsky and Hutch and Bozo the Clown,
and it was like I'd see these showsMannix, Wild Wild West, some of these

(13:27):
your viewers, listenerswon't even recognize.
It's okay, but it's okay.
I mean, yourself, but I mean,
but I there was somethingthat I just said, I can do that.
And so very early onI could do impressions
as a three or for my in fact,my sister Andrea, my next oldest
sibling, discoveredthat I had a propensity to read.

(13:48):
I could read very well.
She taught me to readwhen I was three years old.
So at three I was already performing.
We would go visit my aunts and unclesand cousins throughout Michigan,
which is where I was born and raised.
And, and my mom would handme, we'd go over to Aunt Carol's
and she'd go, look at what Scotty can do.
And she said, just hand me a newspaperor magazine, and I'm a three year

(14:09):
old, three years old, reading,
you know, earlier today in Manhattan,
what I'm reading stock quotesand different articles, and they would
all just cackle and laugh and think,can you believe this little genius?
So I already kind of got,you know, the bug for an audience
when I was quite young and then wasI kind of moved up through school.

(14:33):
They they moved me up a grade.
They wanted to move me up.
They wanted me to start in second grade.
The very beginning, the very beginningwas kindergarten, the first grade levels.
I was reading at a ninth grade levelin kindergarten.
Yeah.
So I only tell you that because mystupidity caught up by third grade. Like

(14:54):
was my initiative or whatever, but I just
we only get three years.
I really get three years of this joy.
Three years of little Albert Einstein.
It was
it was math, science.
Not that I had any proclivity toward,but reading was such a strong point
that it really became the foundation of B,and it is the foundation

(15:16):
of being a great actor.
And not that I am one,but but I'm an actor,
but I am a pretty darn goodreader of copy,
so I mean, having to subsume where
I can just look at boom, I don'tthere's no words that I don't know.
There's an I've been readingsince I was that age.
So when I go into studios with producersand they hand me a script called

(15:38):
boom, no, it's going to take two takeshaving just seen it.
And perfect.
Thanks so much. Here'syour voucher. You're done.
Wow. Yeah. So that's amazing.
So when I was that age that that'swhat was going on
and I would I everywhereI went in my house, I was,
I was in a movie, I was in a sceneI didn't just, the kitchen.

(15:59):
I waiteduntil I imagined a director saying action.
And then I'd walk into the kitchen andmake a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Just a weird little.
That's so cool, though, to hear,you know, when you're watching
movies, you're like,I like imagining I'm going to do this.
You're going to do that.And then you know what?

(16:21):
Even knew what you're like, reenactmentand reenacting that in real life.
In my head, I was imagining everywhereI went for a while.
It was kind of my, you know,some kids have imaginary friends for me.
My imagination, my security blanketwas that I'm in something.
We moved a lot.
So I was the new 5 or 6 differentelementary schools every year.
First grade, second grade, third grade,fourth grade.

(16:43):
I was walking in first day of schoolonce again, the new kid.
So to deal with that, I made it a movie.
I made it a play.
I made it an actinggig. Wow. And it was me.
All right. Everybody's looking at me.
Check me out.
I'm the guy sauntering down the.
Now cut to the close up.
You know, I mean, I had it all in my head.
And this was, you know, not saying this,but it kind of a coping mechanism.

(17:05):
That's I think I'm literallyjust kind of discovering
that as we talk about it,because I never talk about this.
You asked me about my childhood really anymore.
But as I think about it,I think that is how I coped with
with being the new kid,with not having a dad.
There was a lot that's hard. That's hard.
Yeah.
Friends dads were kind of my surrogatedads if they were nice, but I.

(17:29):
So when I started becoming a dad,now jumping way forward will come back.
But I mean, it's hard.
It's it's like I didn'thave a real in-house model.
I only had Brother Loftus and BrotherFielding and Brother so-and-so.
By the way, I real people,I think most of them have passed away.
But yeah I had that was important.
So your dadyou didn't much contact with your dad. No.

(17:50):
And while you're growing up
you notice that you had this natural giftwhich was it was amazing.
It's impacted you even to this day.
But now you're even starting to discover,even as we're talking now,
that a lot of how you were thenis probably a way for you to cope, right?
I mean, really,I mean, I think I'm all we all realize

(18:11):
that we're kind of, you know,we're the sum total of our child.
Like, oh, yeah,you become a parent, right?
You realize that?
You know, everything I say dois somehow another little
kindling or a major log on their fireof who they're becoming as adults.
It's weird that way,but that's that's why you lay on a couch
and they say,tell me about your childhood.

(18:32):
Because it all goes back to childhood.
I've never had a therapist,although sometimes
I think it might be nice to do that.
But here I am with steam,you know, it's like we.
Hey why then why not.
Hey you can get a couch.
No, but I think this is good foundationbecause
this is leading youto a lot of the decisions
that you're going to make,the type of career

(18:52):
that you're going to have, the type of,you know, mares that you want to have.
Right.
And so tell me, so you're now at the pointwhere you're like,
I knew from a young agethat I was a performer.
I was on andand it was very fulfilling to you.
Right.You have this gift from a young age.
Well, and so when I'm in an elementaryschool sense, I know what I'm going to be.

(19:15):
There's never any
question about the choiceI'm going to make.
I mean, sitting in fourth gradein Michigan,
a teacher says we're doing a class playfor the whole school.
I immediatelysaid, I'm in. Here's my head.
And of course, I'm the class clown.
I'm the loudest kid.
I'm the most showybecause I'm seeking all of that.
You know, what do you call it?

(19:35):
Validation into,
the love of people, whatever.
My mother.
But you also connect very well,very quickly, very easily with people.
I got along really well, and I was theI was the youngest boy
out of all my friends who took an interestin girls, like, right away.
You know, they all like girls if you like.Are you nuts? She's gorgeous.
I mean, I was always flirting with girlsfrom kindergarten, Carla Holdsworth.

(19:59):
We slid right next to each other.
But she said, hey,
I thought girls are awesome.
But anyway, this is great. So she.
The teacher says, we're doing this play.
It's about a pet rock convention.
So that gives you an idea of the 70s.
That was one of the fads was pet rocks.

(20:19):
And she said,she said, now we need to cast it.
And it was just. And I said, I want to bethe lead. I want to be the lead.
I want to have the most lines.I want to be the lead.
She's like, well, if for different people,I am the lead, okay, you're the lead.
She says.
You will take the lead no matter whatI said, yes, I will take the lead.
She said.
The lead is the reporterwho covers the pet Rock convention.
Awesome.
I said, doesthe reporter have the most lines?

(20:41):
Yes, the reporter has the most lines.
You notice she's not using any pronounsat this point.
The reporter has the most, you'll take itno matter what.
Yes I will.
Boom. Scott, you're the reporter.
Gives methe script. The reporter is a woman
I had to wear
my mother's dress or my sisters and a wig.

(21:03):
When you just owned it, you just took it.
She made me.She said, if you're going to do. Really?
My mom said, honey,of course I didn't want to.
But she said, don't be ashamed.
Just you're good.
People will make fun of you.
But if you laugh at yourself first.
My mother was a sage.
She was the why is. What is this?
If you laugh at yourself first,

(21:23):
then they can laugh at you.
So your mom is a single mom?
You're at this time. How old are you?
Eight. Nine.
You're 8 or 9.
And she's already kind of taking thisguiding and molding.
She has to wear both of motherand the father and the skirt.
She's doing all the roles, right.
And so I did that show, I loved it.

(21:44):
The audience screamed and cheered.
I have pictures somewhere of meand I owned it.
Heels. And I'm being a woman reporter.
Well, from there,I just knew that every school
I went to anytimethere was a play, I was going to do it.
And you did and I did, I did.
I was the lead in everything
that I was ever in as a student,and it was mainly because I would express

(22:07):
to whoever was directing it or whoeverthe drama teacher was at the school.
This is my career.This is what I want to be.
When those counselors call
you down every yearto sit and talk about your career, actor,
you got to pick something else.
All right. Director.
Something normal, writer.
You know, it was always in
the kind of the creative arts,but specifically performing.

(22:29):
And it never changed.
And they would call home and say,we're worried about your son.
Why? Focusing on school?
Or real dream.
So we get to Utah. Okay.
I'm in sixth grade.
You're brand new.
You've already moved a thousand timesbefore.
We're readingthese books called The Great Brain.

(22:50):
Have you ever heard of the Great Brain?
No. Okay.
It sounds like a biology book. Yeah.
No, they're little novels for kids writtenby a guy who was raised in Utah
as a Catholic in the 1800s, in a smalllittle town in southern or central Utah.
His family is the only Catholicfamily in a town of Mormons.
He's one of maybe 5 or 6 brothers,

(23:13):
and the second to oldest brother Tom,
I think was his name calls himselfthe Great Brain.
Because he's very smart.He can scam people.
He calls people, he solves mysteries.
It's the kids at my age.
We read.We devoured these great brain books.
They were so funny and, his life.

(23:33):
All of a sudden, I read in the newspaper
because I'm used to reading iteven in sixth grade.
I've been reading itsince I was a little child.
I would read to help, wanted ads,looking for a job.
I see a help wanted ad help wanted.
That said, the Osmond family is castinga great, great movie.
They're going wanting

(23:55):
looking for boys ages 8 to 13.
Please send your picture to this address.
This is long before.
Yeah, yeah, even you could geta photographer to take a headshot.
I went down to Walgreensat the University Mall, sat in a booth.
Do you have this bigger picture?
No. Oh, I wish you did.

(24:15):
Oh, you sent it up in.
And I thought nothing of it. Right.
I told my friends,and most of them didn't care
because they were interested in acting.
I had one friend who kind of dabbled,so he sent his him to.
And about a week later, he comes runningto my house with a letter.
No, I got called in for an auditionfor this show. No.

(24:37):
Yeah.
And then, of course, later that day,I got mine.
So we went up to Salt Lake.
Our parents took us up to the HotelUtah on a sunny Saturday morning,
and there must have been 2508 to 13 yearold little Utah Mormon boys
that had come to audition for these partsbecause all of them knew the books.

(24:57):
Yeah, yeah,
none of them were actors,but they all thought
it'd be so cool to be in the moviethat the Osmond family was making.
Jimmy, the youngest brother,was going to play the Great Brain.
Really?
How old is he?
At the time, he was 13.
Okay, okay, okay. Okay.
So he fit. He fit the mold.
And I'm like. Like Jimmy Osmond.
I knew him, Donny and Marie.

(25:18):
We knew all these people.They were so famous.
It's so cool, so excited, so
anyway, to make a long story short,I go in, it's finally my turn.
My mom?
Well, no.
My mom waited in the hallout of the hallway of the hotel.
I go, man,I got these producers, directors.
This is my chance.
We've moved out to Utah.
I'm 1600 miles closer to Hollywood

(25:40):
and know here's an opportunity.This is it.
My stuff.
I read the cold.You know, the handle of the script.
There. I did it cold,I knew I was a good reader.
Bing bang boom.
Scribbled some notes.
Thank you very much. Please don't leave
because everyone has.
But my friend at already come and gone.
So went back out and we waited and waitedand waited and waited and waited.
And all the kids came throughand all of them were gone.

(26:03):
And they called my mom back in.
It's got. You can wait here.
Mom goes back in.
The guy says, we've seen over 2000 boys.
Okay. During this weekend.
Your son is the best actorwe've seen. Wow.
He's done the best job.
At least in this audition. He killed it.

(26:25):
I'm just sitting out there.
Well, what's going on out herein this empty hotel?
And they said we'd like to see him again.
They didn't offer the.
We need a callback.
Callback?
Now. Here.
He's the best one. Here'sthe lesson that I learned.
I won't boreyou with all the callback details
and everything that went onthat got me so excited.
I was out shopping for motorcycles

(26:48):
and I had this.
Long story short,
it came down to meand another kid for one of the brothers.
So one of the lead roles,
and they told my mom,they said, here's the quandary.
We're in

(27:08):
your son is infinitely better than thisother boy.
But this boy looks exactly
like what we have picturedfor this character.
He even resembles Jimmy Osmond.
Like the brothers.
You know exactly what's going to happen.
Yeah, it doesn't happen on stage.

(27:28):
On stage? Yeah.
I played Henry Higgins, who's in his 50s.
Can play a 17 year old,but in in movies and on television,
up close, they said we were going to gowith the looks instead of the talent.
And and that happens a lot that day.
But I learned it as an 11 year old.
I know I'm hurt. Breaking loss.

(27:51):
And now to their credit, they said,your son needs to be on the set.
He needs to be part of this.
So really.
So so I was Jimmy Osmond'sstand in, which was cool.
I never showed up on camera, but at leastI learned kind of behind the scenes.
I was there with a tutor,we had a trailer,
I was with the whole cast,
and I was, yeah, I was his stand infor camera lighting, which is, you know,
kind of a menial position, butthey paid me 100 bucks a day or whatever.

(28:14):
And back then it was a lot.
Exactlya hundred bucks back then with a lie.
Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah.
They never change. They never.
They never changed it. Yeah.
But that was at 11
new that I was tracking for.
And then later I want some awardsand things and I, you know, it
just kind of it was the Lord's wayof saying you're good at this.

(28:36):
You could do this nowwhat are you going to do about it.
I feel like nowadays, even with acting,I feel like you can you have more access,
you can do it more easily
and get more visibility
quicker than you could bebecause of social media.
Yeah, it was interesting.
I found that that the sheermultiplication of work that's out there

(29:01):
over the years because of the streamingplatforms, oh yeah.
Yeah, even ten years agowhen there would be 50 scripted
shows being produced,maybe 20, 15, 20 years ago,
maybe at the most 30 to 50 regular weeklyseries.
That's right. Not that many ten years.
It had times by ten,
where you have 4 to 500 scripted showson all of those platforms.

(29:23):
And still a guy like meisn't getting work.
Yeah, I mean, I say mebecause I'm LDS and I'm like, I, you,
you've you've broaden my horizonwith all of these wonderful shows
that are out there.
And I still don't want to do any of them.
Yeah, yeah.
TV came alongand did Granite Flats and that was,

(29:46):
that show was a professional level.
Yeah.
What year was it?
One yearwas that we started that in 2012.
So 2012.
So I think that they,they built that that studio around 2011.
Right. The the new one.
Yeah. Yeah. It's you know. Yeah.
We no, no it was after thatbecause that wasn't even there.

(30:07):
And we never.Oh that's right, that's right.
You TV.
Everything that we shot was always upeither on location in Salt Lake
or another soundstagethat was in West Valley.
So Magna.
So take me back to the first thing is,I think this is important.
I think,
you did have a, an erawhere you weren't really sure if that's
where you're going to go,but you still then you
then turned it back on and were like, no,I'm going to go 100% all in

(30:29):
to to do acting, right?
I never went 100%.
You never went.
Well, what I mean is for surethat's the direction you want to go.
tell me about your mission. You.
So you served a mission in Spain,right? Right.
Tell me about that.
Yeah.It was awesome that that changed my life.
Right up until
I basically went because my brother went,he went on a mission to France.

(30:50):
I saw what it had done to his life.
I was a freshman at BYU.
I was a young freshman again.
I was a year, two yearand a half younger than everyone else.
I was 17 freshman,and I had to take the religion classes
to keep my scholarship,and they're harder than you think.
And it was really just Book of Mormonone one.
For someone who had never personally readthe Book of Mormon, ever, as a family,

(31:12):
I guess I remember Nephi, Moroni,a couple of names, blah, blah blah.
You know, I'm just one of these kidswho doesn't really get into it.
But I had gone most of the semesterand my teacher said, you're failing
Book of Mormon because you haven't turnedin any of these assignments.
They're just easy.It's just reading assignments.
And you're a great reader, and I'm a great

(31:32):
thank you.
Come on. It's true. I'm my family member.
He he says he says I will cut you a deal
if he gives mea stack of the ones that I haven't done
have these to me by tomorrow,and I won't fail you that way.
You can stay at BYU.
The bar was very low back then.
I got I got in on a 2.0 GPA.
That's how excited I was about academics.

(31:54):
That was 1984.
And, and so I took it to the library.
I took it out of the
library that night.
And I thinkI must have actually said a prayer
because I believe prayingwhen I really needed it.
I wasn't a regular.
My mom taught me how to pray by now,but I'm sure I must have

(32:14):
said, Heavenly Father, I got a lot to do
and I gotta get it donetonight or I'm going to fail.
So I start for the first time.
Actually opening a Book of Mormonto read it, but only to find the answers.
Yeah, Nephi's oldest brother was
Laman.
Yeah, yeah, just the facts.

(32:36):
Yeah, whatever.
After about an hour of doing this,
I've dropped the pencil or whatever,and I'm now just reading.
Now, I do remember I must haveI serious, must have been, religion 122
because it was secondslater in the alma is the second half more
it was more the war chaptersand the strategy.

(32:57):
And people often wonder,why do they include all of that in there?
And it's for people like mewho go, I love a good novel.
Something's gotta hook meto the Book of Mormon.
If I'm that hard hearted and close minded.
And reading about these battlesand these courageous young men
and the strategy and and the grading,you know, whatever, like it's all.
And I stuck a javelin through himwhile he slept in his tent, you know.

(33:20):
Yeah, yeah,
yeah.
And I'm reading this, right.
And I'm digging it,and I don't even realize that I've stopped
looking for the stuff.
And now I'm just reading.
I never I found the whole lifeI've heard of this man.
I've never read it.And I'm starting to feel something.
I'm feeling good. I'm feeling happy.
And then before I know it,

(33:40):
you're the library.
Yeah, yeah.
But I haven't done my stuff.But I don't care.
This feels so good I feel so good.
So I. I have this feelingand it's this new thing.
And, you know, I'm one of these guyswearing a tail, you know?
Yeah. My hair still curly.
Standards. Couldn't see it.
It's all balled up in the back of my head.
And yeah, the teen angst.

(34:01):
And, I got my Walkman, with my 80s musicand, you know, and here I am,
feeling this bright, shiny, happy,
totally uncharacteristicof someone like me.
So I skipped home.
It's night time.
I go down to the lastme and my brother I roommates in,
and I come in, and he'sjust got home from a date with his fiance.

(34:22):
He already been on his mission to France.
He sees me
and I'm ear to ear beaming.
What's going on?
I said, I don't know, man.
I feel good.
I feel so good, you know? Wow.
What have you been doing?
I was never one of those cats, man.
I never had any word of wisdom issues.

(34:43):
I had an attitude problem, but I neverI could learn from others mistakes.
I'm good with that.I can observe and learn.
I said no, no, stop it.I haven't done anything.
And he said, what's going on?
I said, I don't know, I feel hope,I feel happy, I just love this feeling.
And he said, well, where were you?
I said, I was at the libraryjust doing homework.
Well, what were you studying?
I said, well, the Book of Mormon,I'm I'm behind on these things

(35:05):
since I've been readingthe Book of Mormon, whatever.
And he's like, Scott,
you're feeling the spirit.
You feel happy? Yeah.
You feel peace.
You feel like life is good. It's so good.
I don't know why, James.
Why? It's the spirit.
And when he looked in my eyesand said that to me, it clicked.

(35:28):
All those youth conferencesand scout camps
and all the places where we'd have forcedtestimony, meetings and kids
standing and saying,I know the church is true.
I know the church is true.I know the church is true.
I know the church, too.
I feel the spirit.I feel the spirit, I feel the spirit.
And I'm always sitting there going, yeah,whatever. You don't feel anything.
Come on.
And when he saidyou're feeling the spirit,

(35:50):
my life from that day forward changed.
I mean I first of allI burst into full on tears,
I cried, I sobbed right there. Wow.
And he was taken back and he said what's going on?
He's a good guy.
And he was like, yeah, but he let it out.
And I said, he said, well,you can stop it.
I said, I'm scared.
I said, he said, what are you scared of?
I said, I'm scared I'm going to lose this.

(36:12):
It's such a sweet, peaceful,life changing feeling.
I'm afraid it's going to go away.
As many of our converts on our missionswill attest to,
and other people of course.
But I didn't know that.
And he said do you want it back.
And I said, yes. I said,what do I have to do?
He said, Read the Book of Mormon againand again and again and again

(36:33):
and don't stop and just keep goingthroughout your life, you know?
Yeah.
Like he my symbol was.
So yeah, he was like a surrogatefather for me.
I was with him as an example of things,
but for him to identify the spiritfor you, that's critical.
You know what I mean is huge.

(36:56):
So, so putting in papers for a missionand all of that.
So that was the transition point for you.
Were there any particular partsor any particular verses
where you were likeobviously the experience was, was
a was a powerful experience were therewhich was parts.
Well, thethe part that had the most significance
for me a little bit laterwas when I was in the MTC,

(37:19):
because I still even even going upto the MTC, I, I still wasn't perfect
in reading the book, you know?
Yeah, it takes time. This is pre. Yeah.
President Ballard bah.
But you had a confirmation.
I had a confirmation for sure.
No. But I got into the MTCand I finally started reading it truly,
truly, for the first real timeunder the spirit and influence of the MTC.

(37:41):
So, you know, you have to read itlike an hour a day together, apart,
alone, whatever.
So I'm sitting there in MTC
reading it day after day after day,feeling the spirit, loving it.
As I get to third Nephi 1105 989 ten.
And there I'm starting to.
Things are starting to crystallize for me,
and I'm going, wait a minute,this is the voice of the Savior.

(38:04):
This is Jesus Christ,the Jesus that I know
from our days as Protestantsin Michigan, from the Bible.
This is this is Jesus, the babe,this baby Jesus.
This is the Jesus I know from Christmas
and from Easter and other holidaysand from crosses on my aunts wall.
This is Jesus that I've never reallyeven thought about, even as a get
baptized, converted member of the Churchof Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

(38:26):
But I was a kid.
And then I get to third Nephi
11 and I stop and I go, hey
you, do you guys know that Jesus
is coming two down to the Nephites?
This is
and they're like,yeah, that's why we're here.

(38:49):
I mean, you're in the MTC and you're like,Jesus came here.
He came, he was here.
I could justI looked at me like I just in first.
Man, I'm telling you, you're in the DC.
You're like district.
You're like, he he came here.
He's you're like looking it through.
But that's that was it.

(39:10):
But then related to that.
Wow. So in the but what was the verse.
Do you remember.
It was all of 35.
It was just the fact that he,when he appeared we was reading
in the heading The Savior appearsto the Nephite people around the temple.
What did that what did that mean to you?
Why was that such a, moment?
I think it's because, like I was saying,all of the flashbacks

(39:31):
of my whole life of I know Jesus, we.
But we were Jesus freakswhen I was little.
My mom was a hippie.You know, the whole thing.
But what what
what it meant was,when I close to the book
and I saw that new subtitle,because back then
the another testament of Jesus Christ was,was brand new.

(39:53):
That wasn't that wasn't always the case.
A new thing.
It must have been President Kimball,I guess, at the time.
Maybe.
Benson I don't remember, but
that's when that was added,because he used to be just the light blue.
Yeah, yeah, with the old things with him,they added another two.
And I looked at that and,
the New Testament,
the Old Testament, but another testament.

(40:14):
It's like it all started to make sense.
The stick of Joseph, the stick of Judah,all the things that Scripture
central just bathes itself in.
You know, here I am, the host of a showabout the Book of Mormon.
I mean, you know,
and it
started with me, this was the impetusthat these other elders

(40:35):
and sisters knew that Jesus visitsthe Nephites in this wonderful blue book.
I don't know it almost.
You're not saying this, but almost like,
do you think there'sa little bit of portion of it of like,
if he came to the Americas,like he'd know, like he was so personal
to come to them.
I don't know if that's what you're tellingme, but I don't want to make that up.
No, it was just the factthat you just never knew him.
It was.

(40:55):
It was mainly just the connectionthat we as Mormons
believe that Jesus Christ visitedthe Americas.
I had never, ever, once ever
let that sink in, or even
consciouslycan remember ever hearing it in primary
or anywhere at that time.

(41:17):
Yeah, it just was mind blowing to me.
I simultaneously,I was learning about the Savior
and his atonement, in our companioninventory one day in the MTC
with my wonderful companion, Elder GregBlessing from Thousand Oaks, California.
I've been in there six weeks, and I said,elder, please don't laugh at me.

(41:38):
I have a question.
At this point,he already knew that I was a neophyte.
Totally to the I.
What's the atonement?
I just said we use that word so muchI just don't know what it is.
I and he was very patient.
He said, okay, you know how I know?
You know, he died on the cross.
Yeah. Is that it?

(41:59):
And that's and he explained,you know, that's part of it.
And then he explained
the Garden of Gethsemane, Gethsemane to meand what Jesus did there.
I mean, really to that point,
I really just haven't studied it,listened to it, cared about it.
My beautiful, wonderful companionhad the just the sweet
spirit to share with mehis testimony of what Jesus does for us.

(42:19):
Scott Elder at the time, Elder Scott,you know,
this is what you're going to beteaching the people of Spain.
Oh yeah.
See they're all Catholic.
They already know Jesus.
They don't know the Book of Mormonand they don't know the plain and precious
Jesus that we knowfrom the simplistic translation

(42:41):
through Joseph Smith in the Book of Mormonand through their writings.
And I'm like, oh,so that's why it's critical for us to bear
our testimony that Jesus is the Redeemerand the Savior for everyone.
And then he would ask,do you believe that he's your Redeemer
and I remember thinking,
oh yeah, yeah,you didn't know me two weeks ago.

(43:03):
Completely different person.
Even after the library experience,I was still being stupid.
Selfish and egotistical and a moron.
But it was the MTC that just,it was like being born again at the MTC.
Wow. I joined the MTC choir at the adviceof my on the advice of my brother.
He said you'll love the experienceeven if you don't know how to sing.

(43:25):
Now I can carry a tune,but I'm not a singer.
But I have some in choirs sincebecause of my experience in the MTC choir,
we sang Redeemer of Israel
and I never really paid attentionand never hearing it in church.
In practice.
One day we're singing itand I'm starting to hear those words.
How long we have wandered as strangersand sin and cried in the desert for thee.

(43:48):
And I'm starting to go home.
Thank you, Lord boy,you really have redeemed me.
This is awesome. And I'm feeling it.
And I'm looking around and Ioh my gosh, this is so great.
And I,I thought I was really feeling strong then
little didI know that in the actual performance,
the Tuesday night devotionalwith elder so-and-so in the big cafeteria
with 25, 4000, whatever missionaries.

(44:11):
And I'm standing up there in the frontand they bring
in, they march in the BYU
full wind orchestrawith all kinds of trombones and trumpets.
Did it at, dah dah
dah dah dah dah dah dah dah.
I got this.

(44:33):
Chair and the front row.
We were in the same district.
And as soon as I startsinging here, Redeemer,
my lips quiver. I.
I never heard certainlythat arrangement before.
I think it was. Oh, the.
So they're playing this thingand by the middle of the second verse

(44:54):
somewhere in there, man, I was,
you know, once againit hits you again, just projectile tears.
And he's looking over at meand I am just weeping.
And, you know, people think that it'sthe weeping of the of the sad
and the broken hearted.
Yeah. It's not,it's the weeping of the repentant.
Yes, but it's the weeping of a kid

(45:14):
who's really feasting
for really the first time,
a spirit that he is welcoming,so wanting it so bad.
What?I mean, I just it laid me waste. Now,
ten months later, 11 months later,I'm on my mission.
I'm reading in alma five.

(45:35):
And remember,the song is Redeemer of Israel
and how it's completely changed my life.
And in alma five, alma asks, yes.
The peoplewho've been members of the church,
who've been taken out of their covenantsand have, you know, heart.
And he asks, can you feel so now?
But what he asksis if you have felt to sing
the song of redeeming love,

(45:59):
Redeemer of Israel,I would ask, can you feel so now?
And then in another verse, he alsohearkens back to the redeeming love.
And it was likethe Lord had sent those verses
directly to me.
And so, I mean, I'm 19 or 20 years old
and I'm telling you, Stephen,from that time till now, 37 years later,

(46:23):
I have never
forgotten the Pentecostal experiencethat I had in the MTC
before I've even had a chanceto open my mouth to a single Spaniard.
And it has informed
the balance of my life,
especially in terms of the Book of Mormon,
the Book of Mormon.

(46:44):
It may sound heretical to say, and it is,
but the Book of Mormon primarily saved me.
And then I figured out that it wasJesus Christ.
You know what I mean? That's right.
Like you gain your testimony,however you gain it,
you got to start somewhereand then you come to Christ.
Oh that's interesting.

(47:05):
It's almost as if that first experiencewith the Redeemer of Israel, you're like,
oh, that'swhat the Book of Mormon is about.
And then, the mission,it was almost like, I'm talking to you.
Correct.
It was like, I love was it elder?
Is it was it elder Anderson?
There was a talk where you was likethat. You knew that.
God knew that you knew, right?

(47:25):
Do you know what I'm saying?
It was like you had that experience.
Like, do you know,I mean, that construct over and over?
Yeah, yeah.
But I'm saying that what that feels like,that was that moment for you in,
in the, in the mission fieldwhere you're like, I mean, obviously
he knows that, you know, and hehe is it's very intricate.
It's very it's it's.
But you were wanting to know it too.

(47:46):
So, so you're in Spain
and you're having this powerful experience
and you're obviously teaching the gospel,but he's changing you,
you know, and they say that, you know, amission, is not just for the people
that are taught, but it's it's it'sfor the missionaries because, well, look,
we we recognize that a full time mission,
whether nowadays, whether it'sin the field of a service mission,

(48:08):
as long as you serve a mission, sacrificeprepared
to not only be a husband, wife,father, mother,
but also a leader and a servant in Zion,you know what I mean?
And and there's no greaterfertile ground than a mission
for young peopleto gain that level of appreciation.

(48:28):
Yeah.
So many of us out there that say, gosh,
if I could be a half a spiritual today,as I was when I was a missionary,
and you kind of go, dude,what are you doing?
You're supposed to be growingand progressing.
But the hard truth is that sometimesthat's true.
Well, I think it's really kind of a it'skind of like the transition of your life
where you're like, because to mebeing a parent is hard.

(48:50):
Like,I mean, but but it doesn't feel the same.
But you're still growing in the same way.
I don't know if that makes
you just don't have as much timeto just only focus on this.
That's right.
And I feel like that's where you geta lot of fuel for the later times.
Like you're you're doing itconsistently over two years straight
that I feel like it can it can fuela lot of things in the in the future.

(49:12):
I think that's that'swhat happens to a lot of youth.
Today, a lot
of I was a bishop of Hawaii as a ward.
And, you know, many of them strugglewith the transition.
And that'sthat's been going on forever, right?
The transition from being a full timemantle bearing
set apart, elder or sister, you are set

(49:36):
apart. Yeah.
You know, and and if you think it's goingto feel weird when you come home, it.
Yeah.
And you should be gratefulbecause that means that
when you're on your mission,it really is real.
If it didn't feel any different,why would people go on a mission?
It's like, well, if I can feel the sameexact way here at home,

(49:58):
I'm not going to spend 18 monthsto two years in a foreign land scared
to death, freezing, fending offrodents and gangsters or whatever.
Yeah, I believe in.
But a lot of them will come homeand they just,
they aren't preparedthat when that mantle is released
from you, you released sister,you released elder, it's gone.

(50:18):
And now like you said, you don't havethe benefit of 24 over seven.
You could if you wanted to,but you got to go to school.
You got to find a way. You got to work.
I mean, it sounds like,well, it's foundational.
I think it's the foundation, right?
It shouldn't be that we can rely backon, you know?
Yeah, but it is for me.
I can't speak for anybody else.

(50:39):
So you say you serve a mission in Spainand then you come back.
I'm assuming you finish school.
When do you get moreinto the acting world, or is there
anything else that you want to addin between? I almost didn't go.
I mean, one of the thingsthat almost kept me home
from going was the fact that I had donemy freshman year at BYU
and all of the professorsand all the directors were high on me.
I was the actor of the year,the freshman of the year.

(51:00):
You know, you're going to be backnext year, right?
Because we're going to be doingthese shows. We want you in them. I mean,
truly, there were
professors who were reaching out to meand saying, I'm doing this show.
I'd love to have you as the lead.
And for a young 17 year old, 18I guess at the time I finally turned
18, I was like,I'm going to keep doing this awesome.
Yeah.
You know, don't go on a missionbecause, you know,
your career is right ahead of you.

(51:22):
But I had those experiences and I thought,I have to go.
I'm so glad I did,but I, I definitely while I was out there,
I mean, I was making I was probably inmaturely making deals with God.
I think a lot of
yeah, I promise to not act drunk
or disobey if when I'm done,

(51:42):
you know, you give me contract. Yes.
I will not go into the apartment
when it's raining.
My wife is becoming more beautifulevery time it rains.
You it did you get to say that?
Stuff like that? Yeah.
Yeah.
No, we just did itbecause we were gluttons for punishment

(52:04):
and we followed the spirit.
Sometimes it was great experienceslike those, though.
Yeah.
Where you just walking on
and then you go,we got knock on that building
right there, you know and you know.
Yeah it's bad.It's all apartment buildings, everything.
So you very rarely everknock on a little house.
They just don't even exist.
So you just bust all the buttons to say hello.

(52:25):
Usually you say, you know, Cardinal.
Or you lie to him.
Yeah, yeah, I was the one
ever with had John in the John.
Yes, yes.
You take the elevator to the topand then you start knocking all the doors.
Then you take the stairs down each floor.
So you first get in.

(52:45):
Yeah.
You got to get inand then you get up to the top floor.
And that's pretty muchyou know back in the mid 80s
that was kind of our thing in Spainat least was just knock on doors.
We did a lot of street contacts,but but yeah.
So you'd be tired and dead tiredof the humid summers and, the weather.
We were all along the Mediterranean coast.
It was beautiful,but it could get really hot.

(53:06):
And it was like, let's
get back to the apartment and cool off,even though there wasn't any AC.
And then we would occasionally say,we need to knock this building
and we would find people.
I mean, in the last,the last moments of that day, we would
because Spaniards stay up and havethey have their dinner like at 11 p.m..
Yeah, yeah.
They go to bed at 1 a.m.,you know, and they go to work early

(53:27):
and they have a big, hugegather for our lunch.
Yeah, yeah.
And so, so so did the missionaries.
Missionaries? Weren't outknocking or talking.
We had long breaks in our mission.
You could stay up lateand you also get up later.
Yeah.
That's great.
So so so you come home from your mission.

(53:47):
What were some of the key takeawaysfrom your mission?
I mean for me it was the love of the Book of Mormon really.
It solidified itself.
It was galvanized in my soul.
I worked with a companion there and Elder
Garcia from Madrid, and he and I were.
We set a goal to be the top.
It's funny.
I think there's a scene from,in the past two years.

(54:10):
Based off of that.
No, no,but I think a lot of missionaries around
the world did it,but we did it in our mission.
And he said,I want to be the top Book of Mormon giver.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
And and we had to pay for the booksthat it was like,
I don't know if I have enough money.
But the office would give us 100 copies.
You paid through the Book of Mormonthrough your money.

(54:31):
How much were they?
Each only charges,like $0.50 a copy or whatever.
But that's a lot.
When you're living off of,like, $100 a month,
you know, and you gave them away, so.
But they didn't make you you likeyou can read this.
It was pretty aggressive.
But he didn't want it.
He still didn't want them to end up injust anyone's hands.
It wasn't like he was putting themon the seats of the bus.
Oh, okay. Okay.

(54:52):
And they were all, you know, placed armsthat they would actually open it.
But even still,I just man my love for that book.
It just really, really increased.
And of course, my, my undying just,
devotion to Jesus Christ,
I've really gained an appreciationfor who he is as the God of this earth.

(55:15):
Like,you know, he's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All the things that I learnedin the temple,
that's a whole other,you know, ball of wax for a kid like me.
You know, it's just like, why? Where are.Who are we?
What do we.
Where do we come from?
Where are we going?
It's, it worked out.
And I'll tell you what I, when I,when I got home, the first thing I did was

(55:35):
which I listened to my missionpresident, a stake president,
and I went and looked for a wife.
I mean, I'm like, I don't trust me.
I don't want to be a young man.
A young bulltromping through the fields, you know?
Yeah. I want to go
and live.
What?
I've been sort of teachingvicariously for my parents, like,

(55:58):
because there are things that missionariestestify of that they have no
real world experience testifying. Yeah.
Many of them have nevereven had a job to tithe.
Now, many of them do, of course, but,you know, things like that, or
they've never had word of wisdom issues
or especially they have no ideaabout eternal marriage.

(56:18):
Like that.
They don't live it.They don't have a partner. It's not.
So you've goneand you've taught these things.
You've promised people,you've sworn to them that it's great.
You've testified as the word,and now you want to go live it.
And so I went about very quickly.
I dated every there's probably peoplethere's probably women watching this.
I think, you know, you're trying to like,oh yeah.

(56:39):
And they didn't even date them.
I just went out on dates with, yeah,yeah, probably a hundred dates
in the first two monthsthat I was home. Wow.
And they weren't setting up.
It was me going out to placeswhere I saw a cute girl.
If I saw a girl, I'd pull over and I goover and talk to her, and I'd ask her out.
I mean, I was anxiously engagedin getting engaged anxiously,

(57:02):
you know,
I met my wife at what number I'm playing.
She's not not there.
She's a number now. She's a number.
Yeah. Yeah, I don't know.
You don't know.You like lost track of the 100.
It was after that.
Well, it's funny, I had day to day today.
And then I got cast in a filmthat shot in Nevada.
And this was just a few months aftermy mission, and I went and shot this film

(57:25):
for a couple of weeks,and so I didn't, hadn't dated anybody.
There was one girl that came with the crewwas the director.
Sister happened to be my age.Happened to be quite cute.
She and I dated for two weekswhile we were out in the woods.
It was convenient and funand she was a great friend.
Anyway.

(57:45):
And it was great.
So then I get back and that's good.
I don't really want to continuethat relationship.
It wasn't convenient at this point.
And,
her name was Liz, and it turned out that
the next girl that I metwas at a dance outside
dance down at one of the apartmentcomplexes in Provo,

(58:06):
and her name was Liz, a different Liz,
and she ended up becoming my wife. Wow.
It was like.
And it wasn't even like a day.It was just.
You just met her naturally. I justI just met her at a dance.
We were both dancing alonebecause, you know, you could do that.
And people still dowhatever they want at dances now.
But back then, it was kind of new,to not ask someone to dance.

(58:27):
You're just over there
dancing by the speakerto Frankie Goes to Hollywood or whatever.
And, she was just gorgeous.
And so I started dancing by her.
And then when they finally playeda slow song and we're both just sweaty
and just kind of standing there,and I'm like, you want to dance to this?
Yeah. You know.
Know her?
And then we started dating and I met her

(58:50):
September 9th, 1988
and married her January 14th, 1989.
So four months after start to finish,we married
in the one old Temple of JesusChrist of Latter-Day Saints.
That's fast.
It's been 35 plus years.

(59:11):
And now how many kids and two guys?
Five kids already. Two grandkids.
Yeah. Wow.
so you still have this itch to do acting.
You're still going for that.
Yes of course. Yeah.
You know I, you just this morningI mean every day
I pray father please bless meif it's thy will to,
land another acting gig.
Thesethese shows that I've done in Hollywood

(59:32):
that we mentionedat the top of the of the episode here.
I, you know, some of them were absoluteGod sends as far as I'm concerned.
But like, for example,there was an episode of NCIS
with Mark Harmon,and yeah, it wasn't maybe it's 16
or 17 season and and I read for itand they cast me and it was a good part.

(59:52):
It was good pay. In what state?
It was in Burbank. Yeah.And we shot it in the California.
You audition didn't. California? Yeah. No,I was living here.
I sent a tape from here.
Okay. No, that one was in person. Yeah.
Covid.
Okay. Okay.
So you have an agency.You have an agency there. In here, right?
But you living here?
Well, I live in Nashville.
What I'm saying then at that time.

(01:00:13):
Yeah. Yeah.
Yes. Yeah.
I had TMZ hereand then I had another lady there.
And so.
So the L.A. lady is giving me these ones.
Obviously, you can't get auditions in L.A.
from Salt Lake.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, unless it'sthe small parts that come here.
That's right.
And I was done with. I was just like,they're great for people.
I'm just too old.
I don't want to do the little partsanymore.
I don't,I don't want to be an extra ever again.

(01:00:35):
I was that when I was like, 20.
And it was the most demeaning,horrible thing.
I just thought, I'm an actor, I am not.
Background.
I don't want to be seenas background, ever.
Otherwise, people are going to think,oh, he's, he's an extra, you know,
I won an award in college.
I mean, I, I know what I'm doing, so
I can't remember what I was talking.
Oh. So. Yeah.

(01:00:56):
So I, they send me the script.
Now, this is NCIS.
Okay? This is big deal.
It's a huge franchise.
I see the part.
I see that the characterhas two expletives that are both
of the minor variety,
the kind that would come upeasily in my life
if I'm trying to be awkwardly funnyor quoting someone.

(01:01:20):
You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Both of which are found in the Bible.
Those sort of words.
Still, I'm not I don't I'm going to tryto get away with not saying.
So in the rehearsal of the
I say, dang check.
How do you do?

(01:01:40):
How do we go?
Like, what the heck are you? Do it.
So was it was I told you to do that.
And then and then, something like,you know, let's get the heck out of here.
And then, like, cut, I'm playing a cop.
And and Mark Harmon in my character,kind of.
We've known each other a long time.
We're sort of messing around andand blah, but, but but anyway,

(01:02:03):
so I.
So the guy's watching.
Let's try it again, though.
So when you land over here, he'sgoing to turn.
Okay, let's run it again.
And I'm like, dang it.
And heck, and you already got the role.
This is like,this is the rehearsal for the exit.
Yeah.
It's the people we're running the lines.
And, and the guy, greatlittle Rocky was his name.

(01:02:25):
He was actually one of the lead actorsin the show.
He was directing this episode,you know, Scott said
he didn't say say the words.
What he didwas because he was kind of underhanded.
He said, okay, so remember,now you're going to come over here
and you're going to say, do it, fellas.
So that he says it. Yeah.
Then you're going to walk over there

(01:02:45):
and you're going to say,let's get the air out of here.
As if he's just reiterating,but he's making
sure that, you know, thatthat's the the words I want, okay.
He wants me to.
And I kind of just went, Lord, I'mgoing to do it.
I, you know, honestly,this is no worse than in my real life.
I need to be a better person.
But I can do this. And I've seen it.

(01:03:06):
I've used that clipa lot to get other jobs
because it's one of those where you go,how do you not just see it?
There's an actual,
NCIS, you know, and it's there.
But I've always tried to avoid,
you know, that that kind of other guyI feel like I mentioned with the Amazon
was this face, like,after when you finally said you're like,
okay, you did it good, you know? Yeah. No.

(01:03:28):
Oh, yeah. Well,it was like almost one, one thing.
Well then after thatit was just messing up other parts.
Like I couldn'tremember the other detective's name.
You know,this is a show that's been on 17 years,
and they assume that everyone that's onit is a huge fan and that you've been
following the show and like,I don't watch. Yeah.
Yeah.
You do.
I, you know.

(01:03:49):
Oh. Bishop. Right.
I feel like I did that to Chris.
KnowI accidentally called him Chris O'Connell
and then he's just like for O'Donnell.
What did I say?
O'Connell. Oh,
I like Rosie. Yeah.
They got a joke. We got.

(01:04:10):
We had a good joke out of it.
Chris O'Donnell
is a very good, good practicing Catholic.
Is he?
And when he found out that I was LDSbecause I make no secret of it, everywhere
I go, they'll ask, where are you from?
Are you from L.A.?
No, I live I live in Utah,but I work out of L.A..
So you're in Utah.
Are you a mormon?
Yes, I'm a latter day Saint, yes.

(01:04:32):
Oh, and inevitably,
that will open up someday.
I did an episode of Modern Family, and,you know, Ty
Burrell on Modern Family lives in Utah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah he does.
He owns a couple of bars or something.
He's he had an I had a great conversation.
Julie Bowenwe talked for a couple of hours.
She has 3 or 4 sons.
She said you have five sons.

(01:04:53):
Let's talk about raising boys.
Did the New York Timescrossword puzzle together.
There'sthere's kind of an instant connection
with some peoplewhen they hear you're old. Yes.
Because all of them knowsomeone who's LDS.
So Chris O'Donnell says
we havean LDS couple that has lived next to us
in our neighborhood for the past 20 years,and my kids love them.

(01:05:14):
They call them grandma and grandpa.
They're two of the sweetest peopleI've ever met, he said.
I got I'll hand it to you guys.
You have some really,really good, sweet people in your faith.
And I said well.
And he and I got alongreally, really well.
So much so that they said would you liketo come back and be on the show again.
And I said no,
of course I saidwe'll have you back someday.

(01:05:37):
Well a couple of years go byand I'm thinking they forgot about me
until the series is almost over.
They're wrapping the entire series,canceling the show after 14 seasons,
and I
get called in the penultimate episode,which is basically a two parter.
So I'm basically, oh, last episode,part up of the whole series.
They finally brought my character.Are you serious?

(01:05:59):
To kind of help put some finishingtouches on Chris O'Donnell's life?
And he says and now mind you,this is a couple seasons.
So probably 40 to 50 episodes laterevery episode he's got different
guest stars coming and going,costars, guest stars, background people.
He's there.
The cast is oh cool Jthey all are meeting all these people.

(01:06:21):
They both remembered me from the timethat I was there two years previous.
He said, wait a minute,you're the LDS guy aren't you? Yes.
And he said,I think I told you about my neighbors.
I said yeah, yeah. He said, yeah.
They both passed away recentlyand he said it is.
We have felt such a loss

(01:06:42):
that these good
people who are such good examplesand such good neighbors,
you know, have passed on.
Oh, that's amazing funway to make a connection
with a Hollywood star
is to be able to not be ashamed at all
about who you are or what you represent.

(01:07:04):
And I know I'mnot I'm not special in this regard.
I know that everyone listening or watching
has had similar experiences,or at least tries to.
Yeah, but but I guess what I'm sayingis this to me is that for someone
who always wanted to do thisand who's constant

(01:07:25):
promise to the Lord was,I will let you use me however you want to,
if you'll just allow me occasionallyto get these little.
Yeah, yeah.
And so back to your original questionnine hours ago.
You know, I still am. I still pursuing it.
It's because of those tender mercies

(01:07:46):
and those cool high level
Universal studio, Fox studio,you know, actually walking on
to the Paramount lot,shooting in those fabulous soundstages,
being on the stages where they, they showyou the other shows that have been there,
the history of this city and townand all the famous important people.
And for just little old me,you know, divorce.

(01:08:08):
A son from Michigan,
baptized in a river in the winter,made his way out to Utah, blah blah blah.
I'm still no one.
Most people don't know my name.
I'm not famous.
But to have had those experiences
is enough.
You know, it's like,let's put it this way.
That's feeds my need

(01:08:29):
to be that little three year old performerreading the newspaper,
the little kid dressed in a dressin fourth grade like I, you know,
because the rest of my life is spectacularwith the gospel.
Well let's go back to that little kid.
The little kid with the newspaper,the little six year old kid.
Where do you go?Do you tell him now? Today.

(01:08:49):
What would I tell him? Yeah.What would you say?
What advice would you give him?
They had this desire to, you know, howeveryou want to interpret it.
But I mean, yeah,I would certainly never change anything,
obviously, but I would the only advicethat I would probably give him would be
learn to serve.
Learn to think about other peoplewhile you're young.

(01:09:11):
You know,
I think I think there was a lot of,
sort of early onset narcissism.
Egotist. Selfish.
I mean, kids,many kids, by and large, are selfish.
Mind man. Gimme, gimme me me.
But that was veryit was kind of a little island.

(01:09:33):
From the old Simon and Garfunkel song.
My brother will naps on every nowand then go, don't be an island Scott,
because I would shut myself offa little bit and I get
I think it has to dowith just sort of the nagging,
from a paternal standpoint.
And, but I would tell that kid
to focus on other people,
you know, the most obvious answer would be

(01:09:54):
listen to the gospel, you know, learn it.
But I don't know that I could makethat kid change that part of him.
I went to primary, I went to scouts.
I did all those things.
It just didn't settle in until I was 18.
But the serving,
the looking outward,the trying to be unselfish,
that couldhave served me at a much earlier age.

(01:10:17):
And even by saying that it's self-serving,that could have served others.
Yeah, it would have been beneficial.
Yeah. But you know,but that's how it works.
When you do think,where did this come back?
It doesn't make sense, but it does, right?
Anything that you want to add that you.
I mean, I know
you talked about what you would wantto say back to your, your younger self,
what have you.
I mean, what were some of the biggest, like, just life takeaways in general?

(01:10:41):
I know that we have the evidenceof the Book of Mormon, right?
What evidence have you seenthat's not tangible in your life?
I mean, like, say, for me, the every day
it feels like
a basic tenet of our faith
that we say prayer, scripture, study,attend church, serve others.
Like those are always the primary answers,not only the class primary,

(01:11:06):
but the foundational principlesof our doctrine.
And I truly can testify
that the Book of Mormon
is magical,
if you will, just for a word
that we would ever rarely usein our tradition and culture.
We don't use the word magic, but magical

(01:11:29):
in the sense that
you cannot always explain
what the Book of Mormon can dofor you on a day to day basis.
Let me give an example.
If up
until the point that I opened the bookor opened my phone nowadays more likely

(01:11:49):
and startreading the words, it's difficult for me
physiologically to be happyand to have a good start to the new day.
There is
just something you can open that bookto almost any page
anywhere, not even readingchronologically or whatever.
And if you just need a little pick me up,just open it and just start reading it

(01:12:11):
within 3 or 4 verses.
That spiritis going to enlighten your mind
and touch your heartand help you feel something.
When Joseph Smith,the other day when I was reading.
Because, you know, when I go backand read it, I always read the title page,
all the stuff,the explanations, all the witnesses.
I read the book.
And every time he says that the book ofI told the brethren

(01:12:34):
that the Book of Mormonis the most correct of any book on earth,
and that a man or womanwill draw closer to God, but
by abiding by its preceptsthan by any other book.
I am blown away at how bold of a statementthat is.
It is.
I mean, he's been bold ineverything he did was bold.
But for him to say category correctly,

(01:12:57):
of all of the books on the earth
that have ever been published,
written, thought of by some geniusor even by God himself
in the sense of the Bible,for him to say this book
is the most correct of any on the earth
is is a very well,how are you going to back that up, Joseph?

(01:13:20):
How dare you say that?
And so for the past several years,I have sort of just personally settled on.
I put that to the test.
It's a very strong statement.
Cannot deny that it's true.
I mean, it is.
Absolutely. And when you say correct.
That's right.
It's not just that
it's the most holy and spiritualand it would draw you closer to God.

(01:13:44):
It's the most correct.
So when people start to say,well how did you translate it.
Was it two stones, was it the rim, was itthe bows at the dam?
Was it and a half? Is that a thing? Yes.
Yeah, it was all those.
Who cares.
But there is no power of God.
And if the gift and power of God
is giving Joseph the words to say,how could it be anything but

(01:14:07):
the most correct of any book, a sciencebook, a biology book, cartography.
Well, we've got machinesand things that show the exact spots
where things are located.And how could it be any more correct?
I don't know, but Joseph Smith says it is.
And by golly, the lifelong study of it.
I believe him, I felt it.
I've seen it. It's correct.The doctrines. Correct.

(01:14:28):
People would say,
how do you think Amulek, who was justbarely a convert, really could come up
with all of the amazing doctrinehe taught?
He has room and those people, you know, holy cow, it's
his his lessons are so doctrinally rich.
And you might go, I don't know,maybe he did it.
What do you mean by that?
Yeah, I, I don't know, but it'sthrough the gift and power of God.

(01:14:51):
And if God is going to write a bookhimself through the hand of his prophet,
he has editorial discretion.
Yeah, he could change something.
Maybe he didn't really say it that way.
Maybe he said it this way.
And that's the way that Joseph Smithtrance music, I don't know.
Yeah. Knows if it's the most correct.

(01:15:12):
Who read a questiondoctrinally, specifically.
Yeah.
I mean yeah, it's incorrect.
And living according toit is where I feel like,
yeah, not just knowing it, but livingaccording to what you know.
Yeah.
Do you know what I mean?
That's where I feel like evenfrom your own story, it's when it hit you
and then you started to change the wayyou change the way you lived.

(01:15:35):
You started making different decisions.
It wasn't just what you knewis what you did because of what you knew.
Right? Yes.
Yeah.
And it'sthe it's just plain and precious truths.
I apologize for my passion.
I, I realized I start getting loud and
hey, but if it is,if that's what it is, is what it is.
You know,my wife's always like, oh, you're so
good and I but I mean,

(01:15:55):
but I mean, you know.
The doctrine spelled out so clearlyand so plain and precious about.
Yeah. So clearly.
And you go, there's no misunderstanding.
You know, it's so clear.
You can't misunderstandwhat is expected of you.
If you didn't have the current

(01:16:16):
organization of the churchwith the handbook and all of the other
tenets of our faith and things,we expect you could still live the gospel.
Just having the Book of Mormon.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm saying yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah.
Spelled out in there.
Those people lived it just like we did inthe manual came from most a lot of it.

(01:16:36):
It came from the Book of Mormonwhen Oliver Cowdery
I was the name of it offthe top of my head and I can't remember,
you know,it was what is, what section is it?
But anyway, I'm like, you know.
No, no, no, I mean, I can never remember.
No, no, no, I can find it.
I'm not going to take the timeto, like, let me show you.
I'm. Prove it.I don't know, you know what I'm saying?

(01:16:57):
It was when he was taskedto write the manual.
He used the Book of Mormon.
Majority of the 80%.
Anything else want to add?
Okay, well, no, I, be good to yourself.
No debate.
Please look both ways before you person.
No, no, no,
this is always a pleasure to have these,these intimate conversations with people.

(01:17:20):
And this is what I sayat the end of every episode, I say that,
all the things we talked about today,I believe that they're true.
I've had a really great experiencewith you.
But I turned to the cameraand I say, don't take our word for it.
Find out for yourself.This is let's get real.
And next time.
If you enjoyed this
episode, considersubscribing on your platform of choice.

(01:17:41):
Let's Get Real is an original ScriptureCentral podcast.