October 20, 2025 • 10 mins
Our host Darriel Roy interviews Oscar & Academy Award nominee, Eric Roberts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello Egan, Welcome. Thank you so much for watching. This
shows all about giving you insights and showcasing brands that
help you to live your best life and give you confidence.
As always, I want to kick out your morning with
some motivational advice to help you to feel inspired and
energized to start your day today. I want to talk
about understanding that if you can overthink the worst case scenario,
(00:21):
then you can overthink the best case scenario simply by
shifting your thinking. The reality is thinking positively and thinking
negatively require the exact amount of energy. So if you're
going to be thinking, why not focus your energy on
everything unfolding in the best case scenario rather than not
working out in your favor. The truth is doubt and
fear does nothing to help a situation except making a
(00:43):
situation worse by stressing and overthinking unnecessarily. The next time
you find yourself thinking about all the things that can
go wrong, replace it with using your energy to have
faith and watch how fast your energy shifts. As Neil
Donald Walsh quotes, up no other way than the way
in which you perceive it. Next time on the show,
we have Oscar an Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts. Eric,
(01:08):
thank you so much for being on the show today.
How are you doing.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It's a pleasure to be I'm great and good.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Morning, good morning, good morning. I'm so excited to talk
to you. We have a lot to talk about. But
before we get into everything. You have over seven hundred
acting credits under your name, as well as being nominated
for an Oscar and an Academy Award. You know, but
before we get into your success, let's think it back
to the beginning. Why don't you realize your passion for
acting well?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
At four years old, I have played a mute clown
in a Christmas play called Toys for Tots. And I
was a mute clown in a toy box. And the
reason and that I bring them up is my debut
is because the toy box is downstage left and it's
big enough for four little kids to get into who
are playing toys. But in Investor hosts, because of lighting,
they put the down stage left toy box upstage right.
(01:58):
I'm four years old. I forget I run down stage left.
When the lights go out of the inter back one,
I fall off the stage, but a bam, I knocked
myself out, they take him back stage. You put ice
pack on my head and they say, you're such a trooper.
You have act too, And that was my beginning and
all that attention with a big mistake and the boys
(02:20):
opening night, Jitters made it so romantic and so incredible
and so dangerously fun that from honestly that point on,
I was an actor in my own mind. Now I
knew what I was doing about ten years later, but
that's the story.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Wow, such a young age. I'm just four years old.
That's incredible. And to Dad, what's been the most memorable
role you've had?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, I've had a lot of roles, as you pointed out,
it's a lot of good memory. But my favorite movies
that I'm in or King of the Gypsies, Runaway Train,
It's My Party, Love is the Gun. Those are my
favorite movies I've made.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And Eric, for me, one of the most memorable roles
that you played was in The Dark Night, where you
play Maroney. How was I working with the late Heath Ledger.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Heath Ledger was lovely. I had heard he's so in
the part you have to stay away from him. Oh
my god. He's a method actor. He wasn't like that
at all. He was very approachable, he was very funny,
he was very he was very likable, and it was
a big loss we lost him.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
And you know, you've had a lot of ups and
downs in your career, and you talk about them in
your book Runaway Train. Tell us about some of the
ups and downs that you talk about in this book.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Well, downs when I would self medicate over the counter
things like for sleep, like you in some kind of
kind of not real drugs but not not anything healthy.
And I basically lived off those things for many years
and they make you very moody. And I only put
(03:55):
it kind of together when I started using them and
realized I wasn't anymore. I went, oh, it was those Okay,
it wasn't life, it was it was unison. But but
you know, and uh, of course I also got into film,
you know, back in the day when everybody from the
executive producers to craft service from that drug of cocaine.
(04:19):
And uh so it was a tumultuous time I got
into film, and uh but I survived it, and uh
even I got some some good work in the interim,
and uh I'm also well aware I had the best
job on the Plan and Uh, and I know that,
(04:39):
and I just love going to work.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah. I mean with every career, right, there's there's ups
and downs. So I love that you you know, you
talked about them so openly in this book. And what
have been some of the highlights that you talk about
in the book.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Well, the highlights are are are the reward of the
work because it's so rewarding. It's most rewarding there is
except for probably childbirth and marriag it's just it's it
and uh and uh, I get I get to live
through that almost every single day. And uh, it's like
(05:13):
it's like falling in love every day. It's really it's aspiring,
it's fun. I want to share, I want to give,
I want to include everybody in it. And uh, I do.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Very nice. And you have a couple of projects that
are out right now. Tell us about them.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well, I did a doctor drama that I'm proud of
because it was hard. I played William Faultner I'm a
big fan of and I know a little bit about
so it was it was, it was tough, and it
was fun and it was it was I had to
dig a little bit, so it was it was fun
for me and then and then I had this drama
(05:49):
based on a true story called Backyard Desert that I
recommend for fun.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Very nice and I love that you're always getting out
of your comfort zone. I know last year were on
Dancing with the Stars, right, how was that experience for you?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
That was odd because I was offering that show their
first year and I was in China and China wouldn't
let me go. They overlapped like for like a day
or two, and China wouldn't let me go. So I
didn't do the show, and they offered me again the
show years later after. It has become my wife's favorite show.
So because it is my wife's favorite show, I'm gonna
(06:25):
do it. And so I did it not well, but
I participated and I had the greatest partner in the
world I had, brit Britt was the coolest. She took
such good care of me. And also it really teaches
you that entertainment show runs like like like a dream.
(06:46):
All those people have. It's like ninety five employees run
that show, and they all have a specific job and
they all do it well every single day, and they
make all of us who are nervous wreck because we're
dancing comfortable every single day. They are remarkable. It was
a great experience.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, it's one of my mom's favorite shows as well.
I think a lot of people it's one of their
favorite shows. What's something that you learned about yourself and
that and the whole process, because I mean it, it
is quite uncomfortable, right learning how to dance on the spot?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, you learn as an older person your limitations and
you also learn your lack of limitations, so you learn
both very quickly. And you and when you have somebody
who as is as talented as brit and this patient
is Brit, you you you learn. You're watching them teach you.
And it's just a wonderful social experience because I'm not
(07:43):
a particularly social person and my wife is, you know,
letting me down the social path a little bit. I'm
a little better than it used to be. But but
but it's you know, the whole thing of dancing, and
like learning to dance with a person is a very social.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Thing, absolutely, And Eric, you know you give back to
a lot of charities and support a lot of charities.
Tell us about that in the importance of giving back
for you.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Well, anything anything to do with the animals, anything to
do with children, because they're the most vulnerable and they
feed our life the most joy if we take care
of them.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Animals and kids very very nice.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
And you know, you know, I created my platform to inspire,
to uplift and to really showcase that anything is possible
if you have a dream and a vision. So for
anybody watching this that might be going through a tough
time or you know, just needs a boostive inspiration, what
would you say to them?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Well, the modern day Eric has another answer from how
he would use to answer this question. I would used
to say, go get an agent, go go do this,
Go get your pictures, blah blah blah, all the all
the foundational stuff. But now I'm going to skip that's
up and I'm going to say, just start doing it.
(09:03):
Call your best friends, call you acting peers, call your buddies,
call people you just met if they're interesting, and just
work and shoot everything because you never know what you're
going to get. And since it's not on film anymore,
so it's not expensive and you don't have to wait
for it to be developed. All the stuff you used
to have to wait for, it's there instantaneously. Take advantage
(09:27):
of that. Get out there, and make movies. Get out
there and make shorts, get out there and make stuff.
Just do it passionately and you'll win absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And what is the best advice someone ever gave you
in your career.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Well, there's so many good things that have been said
to me by really good people. But probably the one
that seeks out the most and the when I adhere
to the most often because I need to adhere to
it is my wife saying all you need is kindness, Eric,
be kind and and she's right and.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I like her very nice. Eric. Thank you so much
for being on the show. It's been a pleasure. And
by the way, what.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
A cool background.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I I'm wrappering the CN Tower for Toronto and Canada here,
so I have to represent.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Thank you so much for being on the show. And
congratulations on all your success.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Thank you so much. You have a great day.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
The Dear Rosso is available on Roku, Amazon, Fire Tv, iHeartRadio,
and Apple Podcasts.
Hello Egan, Welcome. Thank you so much for watching. This
shows all about giving you insights and showcasing brands that
help you to live your best life and give you confidence.
As always, I want to kick out your morning with
some motivational advice to help you to feel inspired and
energized to start your day today. I want to talk
about understanding that if you can overthink the worst case scenario,
(00:21):
then you can overthink the best case scenario simply by
shifting your thinking. The reality is thinking positively and thinking
negatively require the exact amount of energy. So if you're
going to be thinking, why not focus your energy on
everything unfolding in the best case scenario rather than not
working out in your favor. The truth is doubt and
fear does nothing to help a situation except making a
(00:43):
situation worse by stressing and overthinking unnecessarily. The next time
you find yourself thinking about all the things that can
go wrong, replace it with using your energy to have
faith and watch how fast your energy shifts. As Neil
Donald Walsh quotes, up no other way than the way
in which you perceive it. Next time on the show,
we have Oscar an Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts. Eric,
(01:08):
thank you so much for being on the show today.
How are you doing.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It's a pleasure to be I'm great and good.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Morning, good morning, good morning. I'm so excited to talk
to you. We have a lot to talk about. But
before we get into everything. You have over seven hundred
acting credits under your name, as well as being nominated
for an Oscar and an Academy Award. You know, but
before we get into your success, let's think it back
to the beginning. Why don't you realize your passion for
acting well?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
At four years old, I have played a mute clown
in a Christmas play called Toys for Tots. And I
was a mute clown in a toy box. And the
reason and that I bring them up is my debut
is because the toy box is downstage left and it's
big enough for four little kids to get into who
are playing toys. But in Investor hosts, because of lighting,
they put the down stage left toy box upstage right.
(01:58):
I'm four years old. I forget I run down stage left.
When the lights go out of the inter back one,
I fall off the stage, but a bam, I knocked
myself out, they take him back stage. You put ice
pack on my head and they say, you're such a trooper.
You have act too, And that was my beginning and
all that attention with a big mistake and the boys
(02:20):
opening night, Jitters made it so romantic and so incredible
and so dangerously fun that from honestly that point on,
I was an actor in my own mind. Now I
knew what I was doing about ten years later, but
that's the story.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Wow, such a young age. I'm just four years old.
That's incredible. And to Dad, what's been the most memorable
role you've had?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, I've had a lot of roles, as you pointed out,
it's a lot of good memory. But my favorite movies
that I'm in or King of the Gypsies, Runaway Train,
It's My Party, Love is the Gun. Those are my
favorite movies I've made.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And Eric, for me, one of the most memorable roles
that you played was in The Dark Night, where you
play Maroney. How was I working with the late Heath Ledger.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Heath Ledger was lovely. I had heard he's so in
the part you have to stay away from him. Oh
my god. He's a method actor. He wasn't like that
at all. He was very approachable, he was very funny,
he was very he was very likable, and it was
a big loss we lost him.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
And you know, you've had a lot of ups and
downs in your career, and you talk about them in
your book Runaway Train. Tell us about some of the
ups and downs that you talk about in this book.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Well, downs when I would self medicate over the counter
things like for sleep, like you in some kind of
kind of not real drugs but not not anything healthy.
And I basically lived off those things for many years
and they make you very moody. And I only put
(03:55):
it kind of together when I started using them and
realized I wasn't anymore. I went, oh, it was those Okay,
it wasn't life, it was it was unison. But but
you know, and uh, of course I also got into film,
you know, back in the day when everybody from the
executive producers to craft service from that drug of cocaine.
(04:19):
And uh so it was a tumultuous time I got
into film, and uh but I survived it, and uh
even I got some some good work in the interim,
and uh I'm also well aware I had the best
job on the Plan and Uh, and I know that,
(04:39):
and I just love going to work.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah. I mean with every career, right, there's there's ups
and downs. So I love that you you know, you
talked about them so openly in this book. And what
have been some of the highlights that you talk about
in the book.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Well, the highlights are are are the reward of the
work because it's so rewarding. It's most rewarding there is
except for probably childbirth and marriag it's just it's it
and uh and uh, I get I get to live
through that almost every single day. And uh, it's like
(05:13):
it's like falling in love every day. It's really it's aspiring,
it's fun. I want to share, I want to give,
I want to include everybody in it. And uh, I do.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Very nice. And you have a couple of projects that
are out right now. Tell us about them.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well, I did a doctor drama that I'm proud of
because it was hard. I played William Faultner I'm a
big fan of and I know a little bit about
so it was it was, it was tough, and it
was fun and it was it was I had to
dig a little bit, so it was it was fun
for me and then and then I had this drama
(05:49):
based on a true story called Backyard Desert that I
recommend for fun.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Very nice and I love that you're always getting out
of your comfort zone. I know last year were on
Dancing with the Stars, right, how was that experience for you?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
That was odd because I was offering that show their
first year and I was in China and China wouldn't
let me go. They overlapped like for like a day
or two, and China wouldn't let me go. So I
didn't do the show, and they offered me again the
show years later after. It has become my wife's favorite show.
So because it is my wife's favorite show, I'm gonna
(06:25):
do it. And so I did it not well, but
I participated and I had the greatest partner in the
world I had, brit Britt was the coolest. She took
such good care of me. And also it really teaches
you that entertainment show runs like like like a dream.
(06:46):
All those people have. It's like ninety five employees run
that show, and they all have a specific job and
they all do it well every single day, and they
make all of us who are nervous wreck because we're
dancing comfortable every single day. They are remarkable. It was
a great experience.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, it's one of my mom's favorite shows as well.
I think a lot of people it's one of their
favorite shows. What's something that you learned about yourself and
that and the whole process, because I mean it, it
is quite uncomfortable, right learning how to dance on the spot?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, you learn as an older person your limitations and
you also learn your lack of limitations, so you learn
both very quickly. And you and when you have somebody
who as is as talented as brit and this patient
is Brit, you you you learn. You're watching them teach you.
And it's just a wonderful social experience because I'm not
(07:43):
a particularly social person and my wife is, you know,
letting me down the social path a little bit. I'm
a little better than it used to be. But but
but it's you know, the whole thing of dancing, and
like learning to dance with a person is a very social.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Thing, absolutely, And Eric, you know you give back to
a lot of charities and support a lot of charities.
Tell us about that in the importance of giving back
for you.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Well, anything anything to do with the animals, anything to
do with children, because they're the most vulnerable and they
feed our life the most joy if we take care
of them.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Animals and kids very very nice.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
And you know, you know, I created my platform to inspire,
to uplift and to really showcase that anything is possible
if you have a dream and a vision. So for
anybody watching this that might be going through a tough
time or you know, just needs a boostive inspiration, what
would you say to them?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Well, the modern day Eric has another answer from how
he would use to answer this question. I would used
to say, go get an agent, go go do this,
Go get your pictures, blah blah blah, all the all
the foundational stuff. But now I'm going to skip that's
up and I'm going to say, just start doing it.
(09:03):
Call your best friends, call you acting peers, call your buddies,
call people you just met if they're interesting, and just
work and shoot everything because you never know what you're
going to get. And since it's not on film anymore,
so it's not expensive and you don't have to wait
for it to be developed. All the stuff you used
to have to wait for, it's there instantaneously. Take advantage
(09:27):
of that. Get out there, and make movies. Get out
there and make shorts, get out there and make stuff.
Just do it passionately and you'll win absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And what is the best advice someone ever gave you
in your career.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Well, there's so many good things that have been said
to me by really good people. But probably the one
that seeks out the most and the when I adhere
to the most often because I need to adhere to
it is my wife saying all you need is kindness, Eric,
be kind and and she's right and.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I like her very nice. Eric. Thank you so much
for being on the show. It's been a pleasure. And
by the way, what.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
A cool background.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I I'm wrappering the CN Tower for Toronto and Canada here,
so I have to represent.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Thank you so much for being on the show. And
congratulations on all your success.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Thank you so much. You have a great day.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
The Dear Rosso is available on Roku, Amazon, Fire Tv, iHeartRadio,
and Apple Podcasts.
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