December 8, 2025 • 9 mins
Jefferson White stars in the cozy new holiday classic as "Chet", a beleaguered bartender at a struggling New York dive bar in the days leading up to Christmas 2019. In a state of extended arrested development, Chet must balance caring for his misanthropic, aging regulars - who have nowhere else to go, and rely on him for far more than pouring drinks -with his naive desires to muster some Christmas spirit
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's actually been a fun adventure collecting all the conversations
I have since twenty sixteen with those that have been
featured on NBC's The Voice. Now the question is can
we put them all in one place and not let
them be forgotten in history? Yeah you can. It's called
Arro dot net. Arre dot net. Look for that voice.
Enjoy the exploration I've experienced the movie. There are so
(00:22):
many things I want to cover, and the first one
is did you study what it was like to go
into a bar scene and to really build up that
relationship because you have nailed that character. The art of
listening while remembering what your personal life is and the
challenges that you face and the emotion that you put
into this role is just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
That's so kind to you, man. Thank you very much
for saying that. I'm really honored.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It was a real We've had a lot of things
working for us on this film.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
That bar is just an incredible location.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
It's an incredible kind of immersive atmosphere, and that does
a lot of the work for you because stepping onto
that set really does feel like stepping into that world
and those relationships.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
In that character. So thank you so much for saying
that that's so nice to you.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Well, the one thing that you really do bring forward
that a lot of people, it's almost like the invisible
thing that we do, and that is that people weren't
happy necessarily to see you. They were happy that you
saw them. The guy at the end of the bar,
are you kidding me? If you weren't there, he would
have been a freak out case.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
It's interesting, man.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
The kind of codependent relationship there, I think is really
fascinating because they have love for each other. It's this
kind of community. You know, they're each other's chosen family,
but they also have to grapple with the fact that
they're kind of poisoning each other. They're stuck there together.
They're kind of complicit in each other's crisis to some
extent because they're kind of drinking themselves to death. It's
(01:46):
a really complicated and strange relationship those characters have. And
it's pretty universal too, because these bars are everywhere. This
one takes place in New York, but I know there
were those dive bars where I grew up in Iowa
and all over the country.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Dude, we have bars in our grocery stores here in Charlotte,
North Carolina. I mean, you should see the regulars that
come in, and maybe that's what I'm comparing it too.
I'm going, oh my god, I see these people all
the time.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah, and they're fascinating characters too. It's fun to get
to hear them talk, you know. I think there's these
these archetypes. We all are kind of familiar with these archetypes.
We see these guys, but it's fun to really dig
into their inner lives a little. And I think that's
one of the beautiful things the film does, is it's
really curious about who these people are, how they wound
up here, what keeps them coming back to this bar
night after night.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I think the movie really wants to.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Know, It really wants to dig a little deeper than
just the archetype of the guy sitting on the stool
that we walk right past.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, one of the things that I feel guilty too,
and I'm sure everybody else will too, it's when you
would break up the scenes and you would give it
a title, for instance, the Business of Misery, and I thought, oh,
the business of misery is he can't find a damn
thing on that TV set?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh my God, and then the story builds.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah. Man, I really love that device. There's like an
old school nostalgia to it. Those title cards, those always
kind of give me a fun, cozy feeling. I really
like that that editing device.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Please do not move. There's more with actor Jefferson White
coming up next. The name of the movie Drink and
Be Merry. We're back with actor Jefferson White. Now, what
did you pick up from this? Because as an actor,
you've got to go in there as a student, because
and to evolve into that character, you know, you've got
to do your homework.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
You're totally right, man, that's a nice way to think
of it. I think as an actor, like we really
learn on the job, and you sort of try to
show up open, you know, you try to show up
like an open vessel so that you can take this
stuff in. You could take everything in, you know, the
sensory experience and smells, the sounds.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
That's really our job.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
And this was a fun one because the way that
we shot it really has some synergy with the narrative
because we basically locked ourselves in this bar for like
nine days straight, you know, and that mirrors the character's
experience of feeling stuck here of never getting any sunlight
because he's in this bar, working, stuck with these guys
day after day after day. That really was mirrored by
(04:11):
the way we shot the film. And that's a real
gift if you can stay open to it, if you
can say, hey, the discomfort I'm feeling right now because
I haven't seen sunlight in nine days is the same
thing the character is experiencing. All those little things are gifts.
And then the other actors, an incredible ensemble of actors.
That was one of the real miracles of this thing
is we put it together and we were so so
(04:33):
grateful for the actors that came to to take part
in it with us. And when you're getting that, you know,
when you're receiving passes from that kind of caliber of actor,
you can't help but catch it, you know, to use
a sports metaphor, you get in the best passes in
the world, these amazing assists. Your old job is just
to stick your hands out and catch it.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
You know, Oh, I totally understand that. I'm a Carolina Panther.
I mean, you know, we understand you, and everything's working okay,
and all of a sudden, it just doesn't work, you
end up going down there to the cardiac cat, you know,
the big attack at the end of the game, and
you go home losing. So but but this has got
to be one of the very first films though, where
I built a mental relationship with a bartender in the
way of going, oh my god, he's just as human
(05:12):
as we are, that even though he serves them, he
allows them to have that platform of escape. He is
there and he's got something in his head and we
get to find out what it is.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
That's so nice, man.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, I worked in restaurants for years, and it's very
fun to sort of peek behind the curtain.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
You know, we all all day long, all of us
kind of go around the world interacting with people that
become kind of two D cardboard cutouts.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So you can't help it. You can't help it.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I live in New York, you know, there's a million
people around me all the time, and they become these
kind of inconveniences or these sort of something somebody you
need something from. And I think this film really tries
hard to give all of those characters humanity and dynamism
and depth. None of them are just one thing. They're
all a little more common implicated than that. It really
(06:01):
tries to turn those those two D cardboard cutouts into real,
fully fleshed out people.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I don't want to do a spoiler here because I
want I want viewers to be able to go through
the same experience I did. But there's a very famous
movie that is featured throughout this entire movie. Oh my god,
how that even came into being? But man, it gave
me that place where I could take a time out
in the seriousness and have a laugh.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Thanks, man, I that's one of my favorite movies. There's
kind of a rule of cinema is that you shouldn't
show a better movie than your movie. In your movie,
people are gonna say, well, hey, wait a second, just
keep looking at that, just keep showing me that it's
one of our favorite Christmas movies.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
We would talk about it all the time. On set.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
There's a TV in the bar, and while you know,
while we're looking at the TV, we've clicked through the
channels and we spend some time watching a certain Christmas
movie and all of us would just kind of sit
there and watch it together because you know, it's one
of the great not only one of the great Christmas
movies of all time, but one of the great movies
of all time?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Is it a guy thing for me to sit there
and think that, Ted, don't you dare, don't you dare
have a relationship with that person.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Don't do it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Don't do it because it's you know, because you know
it's it's like a disc jockey. You know, it's like
somebody comes knocking out the door. You're not going to
run out that door with him.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, it is. He doesn't. He's trying, he's making decisions.
He's not making the best decisions.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I would say, I think he's a very lonely guy.
He's a very lonely guy who's stuck in a rut.
And any kindness is alike at the end of the tunnel.
So I think he's chasing it around. You know, he's
chasing around just even the slightest kindness.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And I think we've all been there before.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
What did you feel when you saw this at the premiere?
And that opening scene, because to me, the music sets
everything up, because I mean most of us have never
heard that tone of sound, and all of a sudden,
I'm going, Yeah, settle in, buddy, We're going into someplace
that has its own identity.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Thanks for saying that, man, that's really nice.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I want to give a lot of love to the
director Adam Volerich, because he also was very, very heavily
involved in the edit and the color. He's a very
visual director, so there's there's a very particular kind of grainy,
nostalgic feeling to the color and the sound. It really
gives me kind of that comfortable warmth that these Christmas
(08:16):
movies we love give you, while in a sort of
new context for that feeling, you know, like it's kind
of juxtaposing these atmospheres. It's a very cozy, warm, nostalgic
kind of image juxtaposed with kind of some of the brutal,
melancholy emptiness some of these characters are feeling. I think
(08:36):
that really speaks to the director Adam Volerich and his
vision a.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Reality moment inside the film. And it's based one hundred
percent on not writing a phone number down in your
phone that you physically wanted it on a piece of paper.
And I went, oh my god, he's an old soul.
Good for you, dude.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, he's longing.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I think I think we all around the holidays I
don't know about you, but I always feel a little melancholy.
I'm always long for a simpler world, back when I
was a kid and Christmas was so uncomplicated, when it
was just something that felt magical that you looked forward to,
that didn't really feel complicated or wistful. And I think
this character in the film is having the same experience.
(09:16):
He really is longing for simpler times, whether they're real
or whether they're just a memory that he's invented, you know,
whether it was actually all that simple or it's just
you know, the rose tinted glasses of memory.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Dude, you got to come back to this show anytime
in the future. I love what you are doing with
your acting because it's such a god It's like a
portrait of our personal lives, and then you take it
to the next level.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
That's so kind, you man. Thank you for saying that.
I will be honored and I'm honored to speak with you.
Thank you for taking the time to watch the film
so thoughtfully and to talk about it so thoughtfully.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Will you'd be brilliant today?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Okay, sir, YouTube brother, thank you
It's actually been a fun adventure collecting all the conversations
I have since twenty sixteen with those that have been
featured on NBC's The Voice. Now the question is can
we put them all in one place and not let
them be forgotten in history? Yeah you can. It's called
Arro dot net. Arre dot net. Look for that voice.
Enjoy the exploration I've experienced the movie. There are so
(00:22):
many things I want to cover, and the first one
is did you study what it was like to go
into a bar scene and to really build up that
relationship because you have nailed that character. The art of
listening while remembering what your personal life is and the
challenges that you face and the emotion that you put
into this role is just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
That's so kind to you, man. Thank you very much
for saying that. I'm really honored.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It was a real We've had a lot of things
working for us on this film.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
That bar is just an incredible location.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
It's an incredible kind of immersive atmosphere, and that does
a lot of the work for you because stepping onto
that set really does feel like stepping into that world
and those relationships.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
In that character. So thank you so much for saying
that that's so nice to you.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Well, the one thing that you really do bring forward
that a lot of people, it's almost like the invisible
thing that we do, and that is that people weren't
happy necessarily to see you. They were happy that you
saw them. The guy at the end of the bar,
are you kidding me? If you weren't there, he would
have been a freak out case.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
It's interesting, man.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
The kind of codependent relationship there, I think is really
fascinating because they have love for each other. It's this
kind of community. You know, they're each other's chosen family,
but they also have to grapple with the fact that
they're kind of poisoning each other. They're stuck there together.
They're kind of complicit in each other's crisis to some
extent because they're kind of drinking themselves to death. It's
(01:46):
a really complicated and strange relationship those characters have. And
it's pretty universal too, because these bars are everywhere. This
one takes place in New York, but I know there
were those dive bars where I grew up in Iowa
and all over the country.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Dude, we have bars in our grocery stores here in Charlotte,
North Carolina. I mean, you should see the regulars that
come in, and maybe that's what I'm comparing it too.
I'm going, oh my god, I see these people all
the time.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah, and they're fascinating characters too. It's fun to get
to hear them talk, you know. I think there's these
these archetypes. We all are kind of familiar with these archetypes.
We see these guys, but it's fun to really dig
into their inner lives a little. And I think that's
one of the beautiful things the film does, is it's
really curious about who these people are, how they wound
up here, what keeps them coming back to this bar
night after night.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I think the movie really wants to.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Know, It really wants to dig a little deeper than
just the archetype of the guy sitting on the stool
that we walk right past.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, one of the things that I feel guilty too,
and I'm sure everybody else will too, it's when you
would break up the scenes and you would give it
a title, for instance, the Business of Misery, and I thought, oh,
the business of misery is he can't find a damn
thing on that TV set?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh my God, and then the story builds.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah. Man, I really love that device. There's like an
old school nostalgia to it. Those title cards, those always
kind of give me a fun, cozy feeling. I really
like that that editing device.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Please do not move. There's more with actor Jefferson White
coming up next. The name of the movie Drink and
Be Merry. We're back with actor Jefferson White. Now, what
did you pick up from this? Because as an actor,
you've got to go in there as a student, because
and to evolve into that character, you know, you've got
to do your homework.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
You're totally right, man, that's a nice way to think
of it. I think as an actor, like we really
learn on the job, and you sort of try to
show up open, you know, you try to show up
like an open vessel so that you can take this
stuff in. You could take everything in, you know, the
sensory experience and smells, the sounds.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
That's really our job.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
And this was a fun one because the way that
we shot it really has some synergy with the narrative
because we basically locked ourselves in this bar for like
nine days straight, you know, and that mirrors the character's
experience of feeling stuck here of never getting any sunlight
because he's in this bar, working, stuck with these guys
day after day after day. That really was mirrored by
(04:11):
the way we shot the film. And that's a real
gift if you can stay open to it, if you
can say, hey, the discomfort I'm feeling right now because
I haven't seen sunlight in nine days is the same
thing the character is experiencing. All those little things are gifts.
And then the other actors, an incredible ensemble of actors.
That was one of the real miracles of this thing
is we put it together and we were so so
(04:33):
grateful for the actors that came to to take part
in it with us. And when you're getting that, you know,
when you're receiving passes from that kind of caliber of actor,
you can't help but catch it, you know, to use
a sports metaphor, you get in the best passes in
the world, these amazing assists. Your old job is just
to stick your hands out and catch it.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
You know, Oh, I totally understand that. I'm a Carolina Panther.
I mean, you know, we understand you, and everything's working okay,
and all of a sudden, it just doesn't work, you
end up going down there to the cardiac cat, you know,
the big attack at the end of the game, and
you go home losing. So but but this has got
to be one of the very first films though, where
I built a mental relationship with a bartender in the
way of going, oh my god, he's just as human
(05:12):
as we are, that even though he serves them, he
allows them to have that platform of escape. He is
there and he's got something in his head and we
get to find out what it is.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
That's so nice, man.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, I worked in restaurants for years, and it's very
fun to sort of peek behind the curtain.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
You know, we all all day long, all of us
kind of go around the world interacting with people that
become kind of two D cardboard cutouts.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So you can't help it. You can't help it.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I live in New York, you know, there's a million
people around me all the time, and they become these
kind of inconveniences or these sort of something somebody you
need something from. And I think this film really tries
hard to give all of those characters humanity and dynamism
and depth. None of them are just one thing. They're
all a little more common implicated than that. It really
(06:01):
tries to turn those those two D cardboard cutouts into real,
fully fleshed out people.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I don't want to do a spoiler here because I
want I want viewers to be able to go through
the same experience I did. But there's a very famous
movie that is featured throughout this entire movie. Oh my god,
how that even came into being? But man, it gave
me that place where I could take a time out
in the seriousness and have a laugh.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Thanks, man, I that's one of my favorite movies. There's
kind of a rule of cinema is that you shouldn't
show a better movie than your movie. In your movie,
people are gonna say, well, hey, wait a second, just
keep looking at that, just keep showing me that it's
one of our favorite Christmas movies.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
We would talk about it all the time. On set.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
There's a TV in the bar, and while you know,
while we're looking at the TV, we've clicked through the
channels and we spend some time watching a certain Christmas
movie and all of us would just kind of sit
there and watch it together because you know, it's one
of the great not only one of the great Christmas
movies of all time, but one of the great movies
of all time?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Is it a guy thing for me to sit there
and think that, Ted, don't you dare, don't you dare
have a relationship with that person.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Don't do it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Don't do it because it's you know, because you know
it's it's like a disc jockey. You know, it's like
somebody comes knocking out the door. You're not going to
run out that door with him.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, it is. He doesn't. He's trying, he's making decisions.
He's not making the best decisions.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I would say, I think he's a very lonely guy.
He's a very lonely guy who's stuck in a rut.
And any kindness is alike at the end of the tunnel.
So I think he's chasing it around. You know, he's
chasing around just even the slightest kindness.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And I think we've all been there before.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
What did you feel when you saw this at the premiere?
And that opening scene, because to me, the music sets
everything up, because I mean most of us have never
heard that tone of sound, and all of a sudden,
I'm going, Yeah, settle in, buddy, We're going into someplace
that has its own identity.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Thanks for saying that, man, that's really nice.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I want to give a lot of love to the
director Adam Volerich, because he also was very, very heavily
involved in the edit and the color. He's a very
visual director, so there's there's a very particular kind of grainy,
nostalgic feeling to the color and the sound. It really
gives me kind of that comfortable warmth that these Christmas
(08:16):
movies we love give you, while in a sort of
new context for that feeling, you know, like it's kind
of juxtaposing these atmospheres. It's a very cozy, warm, nostalgic
kind of image juxtaposed with kind of some of the brutal,
melancholy emptiness some of these characters are feeling. I think
(08:36):
that really speaks to the director Adam Volerich and his
vision a.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Reality moment inside the film. And it's based one hundred
percent on not writing a phone number down in your
phone that you physically wanted it on a piece of paper.
And I went, oh my god, he's an old soul.
Good for you, dude.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, he's longing.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I think I think we all around the holidays I
don't know about you, but I always feel a little melancholy.
I'm always long for a simpler world, back when I
was a kid and Christmas was so uncomplicated, when it
was just something that felt magical that you looked forward to,
that didn't really feel complicated or wistful. And I think
this character in the film is having the same experience.
(09:16):
He really is longing for simpler times, whether they're real
or whether they're just a memory that he's invented, you know,
whether it was actually all that simple or it's just
you know, the rose tinted glasses of memory.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Dude, you got to come back to this show anytime
in the future. I love what you are doing with
your acting because it's such a god It's like a
portrait of our personal lives, and then you take it
to the next level.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
That's so kind, you man. Thank you for saying that.
I will be honored and I'm honored to speak with you.
Thank you for taking the time to watch the film
so thoughtfully and to talk about it so thoughtfully.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Will you'd be brilliant today?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Okay, sir, YouTube brother, thank you
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