🔥Journey to Film, TV & Theater: Actor Merrick McCartha

Actor Merrick McCartha joins me for an exclusive red carpet interview on Amazing Women & Men of Power – Legends & Icons Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, to share his inspiring journey, the lessons he’s learned in the entertainment industry, and what keeps him pushing forward! From engineering to the big screen, Merrick’s journey proves that it’s never too late to follow your passion!

He left a successful corporate career to follow his passion for acting—and now he’s lighting up screens in major TV shows and films!

Merrick story of his Journey to Film, TV & Theater ls both empowering and inspiring.

Enjoy this episode of Merrick McCartha interview and please share it with afriend

Thanks for tunning into todays show-I appreciate you :)
Raven

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome everyone to legends and icons. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow
I'm raising a talk show Maven and Wow. Today I
have the honor the true honor of sitting down in
our virtual studios here in California with incredible talented Merrick MacArthur.
And let me tell you you've seen him grace the
screens and hits like all Americans. This is us. Oh

(00:34):
my god, Brooklyn ninety nine and curb your enthusiasm and
at your age one of my new favorites. And that's
just the name a few. One thing about maryk He
always bring death. He always brings charisma and pure power.
Screen presence is what I call it to every role
I've seen in I kid you not. He's an accomplished actor,

(00:56):
of seasoned storyteller and a creative force in Hollywood. He
also does plays too. He'll tell you more about that.
But beyond the credits and the accolades, he's a man
dedicated to the craft, one who brings both intensity and authenticity,
which I love to his performance, whether on screen or

(01:16):
on stage. If you're standing, sit down, and if you
sit and stand up because the man is here. Uh huh, Mark,
Hey there, how.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
You doing Wow, I'm going to have to have you
write my bios from now. I was like, wow, that guys,
sounds pretty good.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
That is you, my man, that is you. I am truly,
truly honored to be spending some time with you today
to really get to know you. I know your beautiful wife, Peggy. Hey, Peggy,
shout out to you, and she told me about the
one you're with Tisa Campbell. Who else is in there?

(01:58):
There's three stars Nicole Brown? Yeah at your age? Yeah,
that she told me. And she when that aired, I
think it was last year sometime, right, And that's when
I first got the glimpse of you or knew who
you were. And I said, I know him. I sing
him here and I seen him here and I sing
him here. But that is such a wonderful sitcom. How

(02:21):
do you feel about that? That's different? Right?

Speaker 2 (02:24):
It was. I don't think I have had such an
expansive role in a sitcom before like that one. That
was an absolute pleasure. My work was with uvent Nicole
Brown as my as we were love interests. I think
she was more of a love interest to me like
a It was a great scene. We had a lot

(02:45):
of fun. It was about dating and the dynamics of dating.
And her character was this mature, sophisticated widow she passed away.
She was trying to date again and she didn't know
how to date. So that and I was, you know,
I played this attorney who's kind of oblivious as well,
and so her friends, you know, are giving her tips

(03:06):
on what to do for her dates with me, and
they all go horribly wrong until we kind of figure
it out toward right at the end sort of. And
it's really fun episode.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
We did it is It's a very fun episode. I
really enjoyed it. And it does remind me of the
poor women, yes, yes, yes, yeah, because you know that
I grew up with them.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
I was referred to as the Black gold and Golden
Goers by some. Was that, you know, it was about
these mature, powerful women who are now self sufficient and
how they're dealing with life. There are three very different persons,
different personality.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, sure, right, listen, you bet she's more of a
business woman, right.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
She was a politician's wife, and she's very politically savvy
and very elegant and very proper, you might say, yeah her,
But the other characters were one was kind of wild
and kind of still you know, a little, a little
I don't say loose the bad words we'll say. And

(04:12):
then her other friend was this very business minded mother
who has a son that lives it's in the story,
also played by Anthony Anderson's son, and they have a
lot of adventures and time together and they decided to
move in together as large condo as since they have
been friends since they were kids.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, let's see is Lamb Whitley the sassy.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
One, no, no, Tisha Campbell sassy one. And she is
amazing and and you all three of them are. And
her comic timing with her character is just genius because
she normally plays sort of the grounded one, kind of
you know, she's funny, but she sort of you remember
her from the show Martin, you know, this character is different.

(04:58):
It's it's a lot wild her and she has a
lot of fun with it and you just love watching her. Ye,
Ken Whitley is she's the one who is the owns
the condo. But she's a very she's like real estate
savvy woman, very powerful, very high power.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Okay, that's what I always thinking about it.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
He's very She still has a lot of fun as well,
trying to date and trying to figure things out with
raising a son.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Now this is still on, right is it still on?

Speaker 2 (05:24):
It did go for one season. It's available to watch
on Netflix and as of yet we have not got
a second season for that is coming.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
It was great.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
I don't know. But the wonderful producer is Alison fous
who is the one pivotal in me getting on that show.
And she's been just amazing as a leader in the
entertainment industry. She's graceful and beautiful and smart, savvy, and
Alison Fowls, she says, these characters are kind of based

(05:56):
on her in different points in her life. Came out
she was the showrunner executive producer of the show.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Oh wow, Well, I actually hope we get more things
like that because for me, as an African American woman,
as a black woman, I was delighted to see this
type of sitcom. I thought, that's great, it's different. You
know what I'm saying. I love to see more of
that for sure. Okay, enough about them, let's talk about you. Okay,

(06:27):
your path from engineering to acting is fascinating. When my
husband and I had the chance to talk to you,
found a little bit about that but let's share with
the audience, if you can share what motivated you to
shift careers like that. I mean, did you know when
you were in the crib Merrick that you wanted to
be an actor, that's why you took the chance.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
No, So I guess if you have time to listen
to this story, we do. So. I'm originally from Detroit, Michigan,
and both my parents, my mother and father, were both
Detroit police officers in Detroit, Michigan, and I grew up
in there. In my household, they were about elevating, getting

(07:14):
ahead as a buy and in Detroit, that was the
group of people I was around were all about this
making something of yourself kind of thing. Still blue collar,
but I always say, hey, you're going to move up.
You know. I have people in my family that were like,
you know, city officials, so I was you know, I
learned early on that I had a skill with math.

(07:35):
You know. My mother taught me math, like I didn't
really get it, but she kind of said something that
made it really click. So I selled in math starting
at a young age. So from that it just kind
of drove me to go towards the engineering field because
I thought, oh, you know, this is what I'm good
at and I can make money with this. And when
you're grow them at my house. You want a job
that's going to make you a lot of money. And

(07:56):
so for me to be an engineer. You make a
good amount of money. You have a good life. You
do it theyd you know, go to school, get a wife,
have some kids, you know.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, get a good job.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, get a good job. That was a good job.
I had funny lots offer family that were more along
the lines of real blue college. They wanted me to
get a job at the plant, and you try like, hey,
we got a job waiting for the plant. Why are
you trying to go to college. We got the job
right here. So it's kind of that dynamic. But also
I discovered at one point when I was very young
in school that I had a skill for performing in

(08:28):
front of a crowd. There was this moment in elementary
school where our teacher had each of us go up
and do what I now know was improv for the class,
and I was petrified, at no idea what I was
going to do. I was one of many shy kids
in this classroom, so I, you know, timidly walk up

(08:49):
to this front of this class and it just came out.
I did this improv scene about me having some weird
argument on a telephone with someone and they were cracking up.
And that was the first moment that I saw. And
my teachers said the same that I had a knack
for performing. So from that it kind of stuck with me.

(09:10):
And so when I went to high school. I went
to school in Detroit called cast Tech High School. It's
a school where you have to sort of have good
grades to get in and most people will go on
to be you know, big something's in town or in
the world. There was like at least two or three
you Miss Americas that came out of their city officials, physicians, attorneys, educators.

(09:34):
David Allen's career went to cast Tech High to the
Caste Hi Lily Tom and then went to Caste High.
There's a lot of people, so uh, I still was
in that track for engineering and track that I followed,
and throughout that time in high school, they did participate
in some theater. In high school, we had a theater

(09:55):
troope that would go out to younger like middle schools
and elementary school doing theater for the kids. I really
loved it, and my mother had always, you know, encouraged
to Hey that you know you that's something you want,
you should really think about it. But I thought, hey,
I'm supposed to get a job, right, I got to
get a job. And I don't know nothing about being
an actor. I don't know what that page. I see
movie stars, but I'm not in Hollywood. I'm in Detroit.
So I'm going to go get a job. And so

(10:19):
it wasn't until after lots of change and events in
my life. I'd moved out to California and then my
mother suddenly passed away and I didn't get to see
her before she passed. Was rather so. So of course,
the hard hitting thing of having a parent pass like
that really hard, and that caused me to reassess a

(10:42):
lot of things about my life, and one of those
things was what I was doing. I was an engineer
at that point when she passed, I had accomplished being
an engineer. I worked for a company that built computer
systems for satellite programs, so I was on that path.
But I decided that this thing that I have been,

(11:02):
had this passion for that I ever pursued. I don't
want to live my life and never never do it
and have that what if thought in my head. Yeah,
you know, I've already proven that, but I hadn't with
the acting, and so I kind of stuck my Telly
in a little bit, did some stuff and I was
living in San Diego, California at the time, and I

(11:24):
had some success and I got more and more, and
then I just threw myself wholeheartedly into it. Right around
that time is when I met my Loveluie Peggy. Find
you find that person that's going to be with you
no matter what, and we'll stick with you from the
beginning there, and so we've been we've been doing that

(11:44):
for years. So that was kind of the the turn
is that that moment of reflection of hey, what you know,
I don't want to go through life not knowing whether
or not I could have achieved M. Not trying to
choose something that I've always wanted to try. M.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
You know, just from getting to know you and Peggy
a little bit, it seems like, well, I'll bring this
up since you brought up that's when you met Peggy,
that you were one of those actors a lot like
my husband Khalique, being in the music world, you guys
are constantly around a lot of people, a lot of
women and stuff. But he just knew at that time

(12:20):
when he was ready to get married with his first wife,
it seems like that was the way you were too.
You just wanted a partner, somebody that got you and
you got them. Would you say? That's pretty close?

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Absolutely? And one thing about me, and I'm sure this
isn't the way everybody thinks. I have been seeing what
things that happened relationships in Hollywood and so, and really
only because I knew that I was going to go
go all the way with this, I was going to
pursue it to the very end. I knew that I
needed to have someone with me that was there from

(12:52):
the beginning and not after I had made it. You know,
whenever that happens, I don't want to send a meat
you know. So and it was it's because I always
felt like, uh, I want to have that knowledge that
the woman that's with me is the woman who would
be with me no matter what I got there.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
You go, yeah, yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
That would be there to support me and meet her
through thick and thin. And if you're already successful, then
you meet somebody. How are you going to know if
when it comes down to they're going to be with
you unless you go through that again and then you don't,
you know, what do you got? So that was one
weird thing about me that I'm like, I want to
I knew I wanted to meet someone, and thankfully, and

(13:32):
I've been to multiple relationships, but thankfully I met Peggy
and she is the one who was like there for
me from when I had nothing. So when I'm gotting
a little something and it's going with me to the
very job.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
There you go. That's the way it would be great. Well,
congratulations on that, because I know that's not easy. It
took me four husband number four. So I tell people Mary,
just women, just skip number three and go to four
because that's the charm. That's the real charm. And I
feel that way. I'm like, God, why did you wait,

(14:04):
you know, on this day for it? But that's it's
great when you finally meet them whatever, Right, isn't that awesome?

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah? And also I thought I remember thinking this being
from Detroit, the Midwest, that culture is about. When I
was a kid, I thought i'd be married, you know,
really young and have four or five kids. I mean
that's a culture that I was around, when you get
married young and you're very family And it took me
a while to understand that, No, people shouldn't be getting
married young. You don't know about yourself much less.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Trying to you know, somebody else.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
So again, not for everybody. Some people it works great.
I have a friend that met his wife in high school.
They are together now, happily married, happy, happy parents. But
for me, I knew, I was I wanted. I knew
that getting it may be a mistake. They think you
need to get married young, and I just don't want
people to think they had that pressure to get married
really young. You need to wait, even if you get

(14:58):
married a little older and figure out that's not the one.
That's fine, but don't give up and finding the right
one for you, because you know they're out there if
you have the faith in yourself.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Absolutely now you had you and Peggy together have four children. Yes, yeah,
that's a little mini Brady bunch.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yes they're older now they're well, one of the youngest
is twenty and we the older ones are older. At
least one is married and then another is married and
with a kid. Another is now just having a kid.
About to get married. So oh wow, we're on the
cusp of being empty nesters. Uh, maybe our youngest doesn't

(15:38):
seem to want to leave. They got a good here,
they got you know, they got the private room, they
got you know, rides here and there, and you know,
the comfort. So we're we're letting them live their life
and we're not going to kick them out just yet.
We have conditions, you know. You you got to be
going to school and getting a job or both.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Doing something up. That's for sure. That's for sure. I
want to go back to your mom, you know, I know,
how were you when she passed? Were you in your
twenties or younger.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Thirties, thirties?

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Okay, regardless of what age. That's a hard thing, especially
because you mentioned that you didn't get a chance to
see her, and then you talked about how afterwards you
really started looking at your life. Okay, this is time
to make some decisions and stuff. I'm just curious. Was
there anything particular about your mom and the things you

(16:37):
learned from her that added to you making the decision
that I'm just going to go for my dreams. And
if so, if you're open to a share that with.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Us, sure. I think my mother was in that group
of women who knew that there was more to life
for them than than being say at home and being
subservient to their husband. They're women that love that and
I respect that decision absolutely. But my mother was always

(17:08):
about going forward, you know, very assertive in her life.
She went, she was educated woman, she taught in school,
she got her degrees, and she just encouraged my sisters,
but she encouraged us to uh, to really go for

(17:29):
what we really wanted in life. And she never discouraged
us from pursuing things that made us truly happy. And
so I can I always appreciate that in having a
mother like that, but a very strong willed woman who
just hey, you aren't going to stand away with She
had her mindset on something. She was going to get

(17:50):
that thing.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
I had to learn time. But yes, yes, yes, you.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Are a really talented storyteller. Where did that come from?

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Ah, well, thank you. I think it is I think
just my sense of people, a sense of humanity, and
being able to convey that. I think as an actor,
you're you're conveying a story because you're conveying something that's
true about yourself. That's what resonates with people. A good actor,

(18:24):
it will resonate with the audience.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, and you know what the audience. I think when
you tell a good story like you do Mayork, the
audience doesn't just hear what you say or see what
you say. They feel what you say.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Right, That's they all saying. People will forget what you say,
but always remember how you made them feel, how.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
You made them feel. Absolutely, And You've had such a
dynamic career working in film and TV and theater. Take
us back to the moment that you know you were
on stage live where you were, you know, in the
middle of acting, and you said, Yep, this is it.

(19:09):
I made that right decision. That part that you played
just felt so good. Going back to feeling to you,
you knew you were on the right track, and like, look.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Out, I did some stage, but I think the one
real I mean. I was again lived in San Diego
first years when I moved here from Detroit before moving
to LA and there I said I was dipping my total.
But one of those toe dips was me doing a

(19:39):
short film for a short film competition in San Diego.
It's called the forty eight Hour Film project, and the
first time I did I had never done a film before.
And so what they do is, once you do your film,
they will actually showed out a real theater movie theater.
Everyroom goes to watching you see you stuff on a
big screen. You know, had that experience. So when I

(20:01):
did this film and I looked up and I saw
myself and I heard myself and I saw what I
was doing, I was like, wow, I can do this.
I think this is definitely something that I know I
can do. And it was like after I mean, going
through it as an actor, you're doing it. It feels good
when you're doing it, but when you see your final product,

(20:22):
you're like, huh, that's not that's not too bad. Well,
it makes you feel.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
Good you're accomplishing this. And always tell people it's okay
to toot your horn and pat yourself on the back
and celebrate the moment or those different moments. You don't
have to wait to the big, big, big ones, so
to speak. You know, celebrate all those small things that
you do. And sometimes if you don't toot your horn

(20:47):
and celebrate you, nobody is. So I believe what we
put out there, Merrik, we receive and what we put
out there, other people will perceive it the way we
want them to if we just really believe in ourselves,
believe in what we're doing, and stick to I always say,

(21:07):
your heart, you're gutting, So don't try to go off
the beaten paths, kind of stay in your lane. How
do you feel about that?

Speaker 2 (21:14):
I was going to ask you, because you talk about
that about horn, would you say that? Is that kind
of like don't get fraid to show confidence in what
you're doing? Or is it like hey, bragging because there's
like a line, is there not?

Speaker 1 (21:27):
There's a line, there's a line to it. I agree.
I think it's okay to do a little bit of both. Okay,
it's not so much what you say, in my opinion, America,
it's more about how you say what you say. Okay. So,
for instance, I can be talking to someone that I
want to impress, and there may be just one or

(21:49):
two things that I've done I want to throw out
there where there's a way that I can kind of
drip it out or seat it, as they say, in
a more flattering way, you know, and I'm going to
find some kind of way within their story, you know, like,
for instance, I was interviewing an actor last week and

(22:10):
he got in the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award, and so
I said, you know, we have something in common? He
said really. I said, yeah. First of all, let me
congratulate you on getting your Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. I
believe you got yours from Biden, right, And I was like, yeah,
I said, well we have that in common because I
got one for Obama. I'm just curious. How did that

(22:32):
make you feel? You see what I'm saying, So does
that make sense?

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yes, that's great. I think about it like my wife,
who is proud of me, of course, and me, I
think I have that some of a little hints of
that old mentality of staying humble, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Oh, you're like my husband very much.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah. So when I first started doing this, you know,
I wouldn't say I'm an actor and I say, oh, yeah,
They like what do you do? I'm like, oh, yeah,
you know, I worked on you know, TV and commercials
and stuff like that. But my wife said, oh, he's
an actor. He's won this, he's done that. So it
took me a while to be okay. And because you know,

(23:14):
when you say you're an actor. People, Oh really what
you meant? And at the time, I was like, I
don't know that much and I felt embarrassed. He shouldn't
be shsue his career is isn't is an accomplishment in itself,
and so, uh, you know now, but it took me
a while to say, hey, yeah, what are you doing?
I'm an actor? I had rattle off a bunch of

(23:34):
stuff now, of course, but for a while I had that.
So it's it's good to, I think, for people to,
like you said, to have that sense of confidence for
you can say, hey, this is you know, and.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Timing and timing you know what I'm saying. Again, I'm
a very gut intuitive person, okay, And so I believe
things can be said in the right way at the
right time, you know. And again, and I'm sure by
you being an actor and also by your engineer background
because they're very analytical. Right, I'm married to one. So

(24:09):
you have to pick your time when you say things,
when you when your confidence kind of goes up, or
when you feel like, okay, it's okay for me to
mention this the person that I were connecting, you know.
So it's a lot of things. The components I believe
that go with it.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yes, yeah, like I'd never walked into like a restaurant. Hi,
I'm an actor.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
I need to have Yeah, you're not going to do that.
Now go do that, folks, No, don't do that. But
at the same time, if everything in your gut, you know,
you being an actor and you know, oh my god,
I would love to be in this role. I would
love to be, uh, you know one of the actors.
Let's say, for instance, I know you had an opportunity

(24:50):
to be with something with Rob Low and his son. Correct, Yeah,
I know that had to be a big moment for you. Right,
So sometimes you know you're like, Okay, this is it.
I either can go for it and at least say
I gave it a try and nothing better failure be
to fail you better try, right, Or I can lay
back and be real cool or relax. So you know

(25:12):
it's right about timing. You know, I'm sure you've had
those moments that you just connected with that person and
it just went and then you probably had moments to
where you said I want this and maybe even sat
back and thought about, now, what's the best way to
get it? Have you ever had that moment.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Oh yeah, I kind of try to strategize all the time.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
There you go. That's the word. That's the word strategize.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Yeah, it's okay.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah. It's like, you know, you have these big goals,
which it should be lofty, and you learn how to
break them down. Hey, what's this is? Okay, I got
this is got to do that before that, but okay,
and then you get to the point where it's like, okay,
what's the next step that I mean to Now you
got the big leap and make, But what's what's the
step I can do each way? And you're going to
try to follow that? And again you're making these steps.

(26:05):
Life is life and it can take you different ways.
You can get discouraged if the path that you think
you want to go is the path that life has
for you. But you got to make those steps to
achieve it anyway, you know.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah. Yeah, And again, nothing be a failure but a try. Right,
You rather sit back and say I gave it a try.
I went for it. May not landed it, but at
least I went for it, versus always wishing that you're
at least giving it a try, you know. Yeah, So
let's talk about things that you love about what you

(26:39):
do and things that oh my god, you know, especially
with AI being in a picture, we had a chance
to talk about Ai a little bit. So let's start
off with what are some of the things you love
about what you do that keeps you because you always
look so passionate, you know, there's always that little twinkle
in your eye when it comes to acting. You know,

(27:00):
you never look bored or oh this is another role,
so well.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
No, yeah, I love it as a like you're taking
on a project. Each time I get an audition, it's
a new project. I get to create something. It's like
any artist that creates a painting, or any writer music
writer writes music, or a musician that wants to play music.
You are creating something each time you go at something.

(27:26):
And the audition is your first part of going at something.
And I love that very much, the idea that this
is something that they gave me to work on and
to create something and then to present And that's how
I look at it, And that process is like something
I've grown to love. I know there are lots of

(27:46):
actors that really don't like that process. Why Because I
get the idea that they just want to get the
job and then once they get the job, then they
can have all that fun stuff. But this is the
thing that you need to understand because you're not gonna
be hired to do all these roles they give you
auditions for. But that's okay because now you're get to

(28:07):
to explore your acting skill, your passion in lots of
different ways, different roles, things you you know, haven't tried before,
to create something and then you can present that that
thing to a casting office or producer. So I love
I do love that very much. Of course, once your
booked the job, you are very much pampered as actor.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, your own private area of you to relax in,
and they bring your food and to score you here
and there like your you know, like your VIP everywhere
you go. It's weird. Here's one of the weird things
that happens. People don't realize that when you're on a
big set or most big sets, they have this where
you're the actor. You're working on the show. When it eat,

(28:52):
they have used like a buffet of food, uh food
for people to eat. So as an actor, when you
go to get your food, they might be keep in line.
They're supposed to stand back and let you in front
of them as an actor. Really, yeah, that is a
I never I've never said hey, get back. People always no, no, no,
you go first. I have to fight with them to

(29:15):
try to get They always no, I will not. You
gotta go. And I understand there's a logistical reason why,
and it's because the actor needs to be prepared to
shoot the next scene or whatever they're going to do.
So I'll make it. Gets the food stuff out of
the way so they can get back to working on
their saying they got it prepare Okay. It still feels weird.
It's like, I get it's a privilege, but I feel

(29:38):
like y'all hungry too, y'all been here all more, y'all
got up, but five like, I don't want to be eaten.
It's what it'll take me a few minutes. Wait, Why
do I got to wait? But there's like a big
rule as an actor you got to go and eat
first when you go to that food line. So that's
interesting thing that I'm like, hmm, but yeah, that's that's
part of being pampered as an actor. So I do
you know, I enjoy the other than you know, being

(30:00):
above people. I love them. They make sure you're well
taken care of. That's always.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
And I bet that's a big difference from when you
first got your first acting job, right you or is
it well, did it always start out to where you
were treated the same when you first started out? Because
when I watch TV, it's shown and they're showing a
biopic or a story about someone. They start off maybe
being in this little van or something that's not quite dressing,

(30:28):
but then they get really excited because as they grow
then they're, like you said, in this lavish room or
something like that.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yeah, then to where you know there's no room, You're
you're waiting outside under tent. You know it's not there's
no private Yeah. Yeah, I've been there too.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
But still just as blessed and feeling just as blessed
to be there right at that moment. Yeah, I'm just
curious because you are engineering. From what I know about
engineers is they're very very analytical, you know, and very
and I watch my husband sometimes I'm just like, oh
my god, is you ever going to finish this thing?
I think Peggy's probably a lot like me. Let's just

(31:06):
get it done. Let's get it done. How does that
play up in your acting? I mean, do you sometimes
really dissect a screen or character and do you ever
go back and like, well, I think it needs to
be this, or tell us about that.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, I think for me as an engineer, yes, I'm
very analytical. I analyze things in a structured way. What
I've grown to be my mode of doing things in
a structured way. But as an actor, it's different. And
that's one thing about my life that I enjoys that
I have that slide. That's a very structured, analytical person

(31:45):
and acting can be very different from that. At times.
When I went to study acting, I went about my
learning in a very structure, where like I did an
engineering school, like Matt, you know, two plus two is
for it, it's just But acting is different thing. It's
a it's an internal human thing that is unpredictable that

(32:08):
sometimes there's no right answer. Oh I've got to do
this right and acting, no, don't try to do it right.
There's no right. There's just you and that's got to
be good enough. And so a lot of a lot
of acting I do is being able to accept that, Hey,
I had this idea of the structure of what it's
gonna be. But what comes out falls all around that structure.

(32:30):
I thought, and that's like, hey, that's just me, that's
just me.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Most of the time, when I've embraced that, that just
let me be there. That's why I book the jobs.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
My book the job is when I just let let
it be me authentically you, unapologetically. I love that. I
love that. Wow, as you all can see that or
watching or hearing this, this is quite an amazing actor.
I told you he's a power for sure. Okay, so

(33:03):
let's talk about what you don't like. Okay, what you
about acting? Is there anything, because maybe there's nothing that
you don't like particularly.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
I think, Uh, the part that I can get actors
down is not the not knowing, and it's just something
that you have to accept in the business. You Like,
when I have an audition and I send that audition off,
or if I do an audition in front of somebody,
I leave, they decide and I don't know what they're saying,

(33:36):
what they're talking about, what they thought that, you know,
what their key issues are. If I'm up against none
of that stuff, I don't know. And it are a
lot of actors to deal with that because you know,
as and as an engineer, I want to okay, or
the parameters around me not getting this. You know, they're like, no,
it's not And it's a lot of times it's no

(33:56):
rhyme or reason. It's a it could be a wide
variety of things why they decided not to pick you
for that acting job. I'd be okay with that because
ninety nine point ninety percent of time it's not about
your acting. It's not about your acting, it's not about
your look. It's something else all together. Yeah, nothing you
should concern yourself about. You shouldn't. But as actors, especially

(34:18):
when they get to my head like I am I, oh,
what what was it? What happened? Did I not get
was saying yeah, you're great, you're great. They had a
different idea in mind what they else knowing.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
I mean, I come from years of sales telemarketing. I
probably called you and Peggy's house and I don't even know
me okay. And one of the things that they used
to really have to push me on is being more assertive. Yeah,
getting out there. And then also people go.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
On about this person that they busy. I don't want
to buy the right.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
They say whether uh, skinny women, salespeople they have skinny
just don't eat or something like that, you know. And
I was in sales and it was straight commissioned. So
you know, it's like if you want to eat, you know,
you better get bold, you get better, get assertive, more assertive,
and just go out there, you know. And and it
helped me build my confidence. But again I had to

(35:16):
learn when to pull back. You know. That's probably why
I had to marry four times because it got very,
very very sometimes like okay, am I talking to Raven
or a raven to talk yo't Magan pull back? I know,
you know, so there is a little shuffle in what
you do when you agree in acting or in life.

(35:38):
We got to know when to move forward aggressively and
we got to know when to pull back. But one
thing I find is everyone has it to where they
have this perfectionism into them. Yeah, you know, and I
see this a lot with Khalee because you know, he's

(35:59):
there very much an analytical person. And I'm wondering this
about you. Do you ever find yourself or have to
talk yourself down from you know, just being analytical versus
going into perfectionism analytical versus going like do you ever say, okay,
like I'm getting a little bit I'm trying to make

(36:21):
things a little bit too perfect because in the acting,
shouldn't it be a little bit of spontaneous.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, that's a lot of things
that actors make a lot of them. And I'm fallen
guilty of predators as well is and the world of
acting today is now it's the self tapes where you
have to put yourself on tape. Whereas before you go
to a casting office and they would watch you do
a scene, they give you a couple of time to

(36:47):
do it right, and they maybe give you a little
quick hey maybe try this this time and do that,
and you got two maybe three times max to do that,
and it's like, hey, what you What you put out
there was what they got and that's nothing else you
could do. So it's tapes. You have the opportunity to
do as many tries as you want as an actor
to turn in the self tape for yourself, and then

(37:10):
you turn it in so you can do it fifty
times the hunter, you know. And so what the problem
with that is is that you're trying to do it
perfect because you have the idea of what's perfect in
the wasting a lot of time trying to do the
perfect audition when the one you did the second try
was was it was? It was it when I first

(37:32):
started doing this self tape that I was doing that,
Oh I gotta do. I did ten to fifteen taps
and it's like when I went back to look at
everything to decide, Oh, and that second one was it.
I've spent all that time ten more times. That second
one was fun. Yeah, So yeah, you gotta you gotta
let go having a sense of what is perfect. What's

(37:52):
perfect is what is genuinely you that's perfect?

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yes, yes, yeah, and it's and leave little room for
that spontaneous.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Right, you know what, People aren't perfect, So you're the
scene say if you say the wrong thing, you stutter
a little bit. People do, so that's that because you
stut a little bit when you say that line, that's fine.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, And you know you have trained
with some incredible mentors. Uh, and tell me if I'm wrong.
You know, research isn't always right, but I want to
understand Gregory Berger, So thank you, okay of Yell School
of Drama, and Rob Claire from Rural Shakespeare Company. What's

(38:37):
a piece of advice that has stuck with you throughout
the years from them, either those two or anyone that
you've been mentored by, that you find yourself maybe right
in the middle of the scene it coming back to you.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Oh sure. Uh. Gregory Burger or Berg as you call him,
he's a very dynamic teacher in Los Angeles. Uh in
structure at Yale Drama School for many years us private
clients now with big, big names. Now he's got big
so I've worked with them privately as well.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
Awesome.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
So he has this thing about being impactful to the
other person you're acting with, and that's really part of
the Yale Drama program is you know, you've got to
focus on that other person. So and you see actors
that are about themselves, I mean they're talking to themselves.
That's considered bad acting in the Yale program. But if

(39:32):
you see someone that's really trying to engage someone else,
trying to convince them, doing trying different things, honestly, trying
to change or trying to get what they want, that's
that's part of the training for Yale. So that's what
I get and I get these scripts and I'm looking
at this and I'm doing the scenes. And I just
did a show recently where I was doing this where
my other actor was he just had a stone face.

(39:54):
Now was his character, but I'm trying to convince him
or convey something or impact him. And so I'm honestly
trying to get him to break that stone face. And
I found myself following that that that learning, that teaching
from Berg, which is you didn't get to the character
to try to impact them, do something to get them

(40:17):
to change, you know, in some way, to impact them.
And that that really comes up a lot when I
realized and when I'm realizing I'm doing it, like yes,
I'm applying something that I going, well, don't stop me,
let me go, let me go, let me flow.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Love that love that now. Characters from some of the
characters you've played in, like from law enforcement figures to
comedian roles, is there a particular role that maybe through
you for a moment and you kind of really had
to feel your way into it. It didn't feel as
natural as you thought, or he had, you know, a

(41:01):
challenge that you were struggling with, and if so, how
did you get past it.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, that's a good question. I'm trying to think of
the different rules that I've had that I was like, Oh,
it's a lot. Yeah. Usually I'm playing a detective, a
police officer, a doctor, attorney, quite a bit one is I.
So here's the thing. I did a show, an episode

(41:27):
of the show called This is Us.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Oh yeah, I love This is Us.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah, it's a good show. Might have seen it. So
I got the part of this character on an episode. Uh,
and it's my and my scenes are with Sterling K.
Brown and some other wonderful actors uh as well. And
I'm a golf buddy in this group. This these scenes,
I'm one of the golf buddies and we're bantering and.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Sort of it was four of you guys, wasn't it
four of us?

Speaker 2 (41:54):
And I'm kind of in the teenagat and mother a actor,
and so we're kind of snake and snipes at. Sterling K.
Brown's character certain a professional. He is a generally wonderful
human being. We chat it with him. He and I
played Pool minigames of Pool where we're waiting around on
set and uh. And the character is written as an

(42:16):
older guy like and maybe in his sixties or so,
and I'm not in that age range yet, and so
I was like, huh, And I had to realize that,
you know what, forget the age range thing. It's it's
okay they rut it a sixty, but clear they know
I'm not and they want me to be in this role.
And so I had to kind of feel a way
through just being and I not an avid golfer. Man golf,

(42:36):
but not an avid golfer at least.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Okay, there are two things then you're you're dealing with
it man.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
And I was nervous. And I even went to one
of my good buddies as a golf pro, and he
helped me, like the day before shooting and go on
the on the range when I'm driving range, and helped
me with getting my swinging up up to some kind
of decent looking looking like I gotta played well. But yeah,
so I attacked it in that sense, that sort of
an analytical sense. I would say, I want to be
proficient because I don't want to go out there and

(43:02):
not clearly not knowing how to golf. But it was
a challenge in that I was sort of this jokey,
I want to say a red Fox type character. But
I had a lot of wise cracks to throw in there,
and not being the old wise cracking type, I don't
wisecrack normally, but you know what, there's a part of

(43:26):
me that is somewhere in there. There is I've known
someone in my life that kind of stuck with me,
and that's that part of me. You have to dig deep,
but you have to bring that role. So that's kind
of what I did to deal with that, to dig deep,
find that part of you that is true and just
kind of expand that to where you need to be
to do the role. Wow.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Okay, You've given us a lot, And I'm just curious
if you were to meet someone today that really wanted
to get into act, what would you tell them to
go about it? What are the strong things? I know
you and I talked about confidence earlier. How big of

(44:09):
a part does that play? And walking through those doors,
you know, getting ready for casting. I remember back in
the day, you know, I thought I looked like Jane Kennedy.
I know I didn't, but I thought I did, okay,
and I wanted to thank you, and you know I
was short, big nose, all the stuff that you weren't

(44:29):
supposed to be. And this was you know, back in
the seventies when I wanted to get into modeling. But
it was just something about it, Mary, I just wanted
to be a model. I just wanted to be a model.
I think more for the attention, because I felt like
Casper as a kid and I was like starving for
the attention. You still, my dad, build me a stage.
I want to be actor or something. Just do something

(44:50):
to me, okay, And I just said I'm going to
be one, and I just made myself up and I
went in the first time with all these tall, beautiful women.
I could not compared with them, but I knew all
I could do was just muster up as much confidence
as I could and they gave me a callback. They
didn't give me what I wanted, but it gave me something,

(45:10):
you know. So I'm just curious, what are some major
things even if the person doesn't look that part, but
they really feel inside them like you did, you know
when you transitioned over. This is what I want to do.
Do you have any words of wisdom from you, your mom,
or any of your mentors you can pass on to
people like that?

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Yeah? Sure, I think any actor that's looking to start
out and get into acting. Many things you need to learn,
but among them are that you can't expect it to
happen quick you can.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
That's a good one.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Yeah, I expect to be in overnight. You hear these stories.
I'm sure it's inspiring, it's great, but you can't be
expecting that because that'll be the fastest way you burn
out because you haven't done it within a month. He
might act from Maryland.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
Mic Away. The mentality is what we all have right.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Yeah, it's going to take some time, and it will
likely take a lot of time, a lot of time,
more time than you think. The other thing is learn
the business. It's great, it's it's a cathartic, it's magic.
It is deep for you to perform as an actor.
It is it's it's just something that actors will that

(46:29):
love genuinely. But there it's also a business. If you're
intending to make money and make a living from it,
it's a business and you need to understand how that
business works and realize that the best actors not going
to get the job. Many times there's a rhyme of

(46:49):
reason why you did or didn't get the job. There
are going to be lots of people that look like you.
When you walk into an audition room. That's just a business.
You think unique and special and you are, but externally
you can see a lot of similarity to a lot
of people when you walk in the audition room. That
might three off. So just learn the business. You know,
know this is not gonna be quick. Learn the business

(47:09):
and be ready to persevere because it takes a lot
of courage and perseverance to really make it through.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
That's a good word, perseverance, stamina, all that stuff, hunt
to get through. You bought up some really good points.
One that you just made. I want to go back
to when you said you're walk in a room and
a lot of people will look like you. What about
what about this? When you walk in the room and
nobody looks like you.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
I do that quite often. I walk in many rooms
in many situations around the.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Old It's a whole different feeling.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
The audition room. You walk in there and it's nobody
looking like you. First thing I was like, Oh, I
have a leg up.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
It's a great way to look at it.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Have a leg up. Yeah. A lots of times when
people are scanning their options, they got the eye on
something that's interesting. You know who's who's not like everybody?
Oh you're not like everybody. Let me check you out.
If you're looking like everybody else, sometimes you have a
hard time standing out. So I have a leg up
because I know I'm going to stand out. Yeah, whether
I'm going to stand out, I like that. I'm the

(48:22):
person here that looks like me that way.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
Wow, that's it. You know that. You put a whole
different spin on it. So what you're basically saying, Mark
is we have choices. We have a choice at times
like that, at those unpredictable times when things catch you
completely off guard and you were ready but then it
completely took you off guard. I think looking at it

(48:48):
like that and say I have an opportunity or I
can really work this. You know, I'm going to stand
out now, I don't have to worry about everybody looking
like me and we all looking at talking the same.
Get a chance to stand out and blow your mind.
I love that. Thank you for sharing that, any other
words of wisdom, anything that people need to look out for.

(49:11):
I hear so many nightmare stories. Of course, my husband,
being in the music business, has shared some and we
watch a lot of biopics and different things. I had
a chance to interview Chilly years ago, and you know,
just the different things people, you know, their dreams are
kind of like crushed because they made a wrong decision.
Is there anything that you were warned about or mentor

(49:35):
one to make sure you know you're treated the way
you should be treated.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
I think, oh, I mean there's lots of things out
there that kind of broke people in. So of course.
The first thing is if something looks like it's too
good to be true, it is in this business. Something Oh,
we're going to put you in the next Will Smith movie.
No that's too good. It's not. You're not it's not.
If you give us five thousand dollars, we're going to
have you working on you know, the next time. No,

(50:00):
that's that's not going to happen. It doesn't work that way.
It's too good to be true. It is also, I
think your attitude, people's attitude in this industry. It's it's
interesting and I'm not sure what causes this, but I
think some people come in with this attitude of hey,
I'm an actor and I deserve the best of everything.

(50:21):
So when I come an imporkant walk on a set.
I want you know, champagne and you know whatever this is.
And so you start to disrespect people on set now
or it happens in the audition room too, when you
go into audition, for example, and there may be a
person who's taken names, you know, checking off names, and
you treat them with disrespect. Why for one, as a

(50:45):
human being, if you don't treat anyone else like that, normally,
don't do it. Then don't as you don't know that
that person might know the castle person, that person might
be the person auditioning you. You don't know. You be
careful how you treat people and be generally good people
as you are. Don't never go in with an attitude
where you're demeaning or belivling of anybody, whether you in

(51:06):
the audition room or if you're on set, that person
that setting up the lights next to you, there's no
reason why you can't treat them like human being. Hey,
how you doing? Good to see you? That kind of thing,
it's all that's that's all about building a community and
making bringing the energy up on the set where you're working.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
Energy is important, Yeah is important too.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yeah, so I won't say, be humble, but just be
a genuinely good person to people. You know, people sometimes
lose that in this industry where they think, oh, there's
a hierarchist. I got to be like this. No, you
know there are people that do that, but that doesn't
mean that's the right thing to.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Do, right I think that tip right there should be
not just for those who want to be an active
for all of us right now because the world needs
love right now. We really do. All American has such
a dedicated fan base, it really does. And what's been
the surprising reaction to you about that?

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Well, I was saying, surprised. It's a it's a good,
good show. It's a good.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
What's your what's your character? In that one?

Speaker 2 (52:14):
I played Robert Hicks, who's Simone Hicks's father. Okay, I
think its season two or three or something. A few
scenes to her, but where I play the father and
then there's one playing my wife. And so we're like
these these stuck up parents, you know, we're with a
with a well to do parents, and we don't want
our daughter to be cordon with any you know, these

(52:37):
athletes people that want our daughter to be an academic star.
So that's kind of the gist of our our character.
But that's the that set and other sets like uh,
this is us where you feel it from the crew
to the series regulars on the show, the pop and
that brings up the show. The impact of the Shoppy

(53:00):
is that that does those positive vibes that are resonating
on that when you're shooting, that comes out on the
screen around. That's why these shows get popular and people
don't realize that when there's a negative energy on the show,
tends did not last very long, you know. So if
there's a positive and then people really get it and
it really resonates, and that's what you want to be

(53:20):
part of. So yeah, with All America, and it was
very much that I've.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
Got to check out some more. You said, you're season
two in season three.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Season Tuesday, I have to go and look at it.
But I got the opportunity to work on that show
as someone has his father and then they had called
me back to work on another episode and something happened
that day of shooting where they said, hey, Marek, you
know we're having an issue we're running. You can come
in much earlier than you were scheduled to. And I said, oh, absolutely,

(53:51):
showed up, get there, and it turns out that they
were having a problem. They one of the actors they
were trying to shoot wasn't going to be available, and
so kind to fill up that day with other scenes
because they're like, hey, we got to figure out something
else for the day because we're going to lose money
they don't shoot. Shoot something. So they're like, hey, so
we kind of had you the smaller part of the scene.

(54:12):
We're going to write some more dialogue for you for
this scene. I'm like, cool, I can do that. I've
trained with some of the best, you know. So I
got I was on it, and they I did that
and that, you know, America, that was really good. You know.
We actually have this other scene that we want to do.
We have this written. Now, can you can set it
this for a few minutes and can you do it?
And I said, yes, I can. I I have trained

(54:34):
for this. This is one of those things you trained
for as an actor. And I did it. And after that,
so by the end of the day they had it.
I did four scenes. I was I'm supposed to do
one and they were literally handwriting the scenes out and
handing to say okay, can you get these lines down?
Because I'm like, yeah, I got it. So moral is
that be prepared as an actor? Yeah? You have these opportunities,

(54:57):
So what is that luck is actually prep racial meets opportunity.
It's kind of what this got to be ready?

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
And after that shoot day, that's when they hand me
back on multiple episodes after that because they saw, hey,
this guy knows what he's doing, and so I came
back again and again. So that was that was one
of those times, one of those moments you know you gotta.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
Yeah, well not that only that you knew what you
were doing, but you were quick to get right into it.
You were ready, you know, And you got to be
ready for opportunities, right whether their business, whether they're act
whatever it is. You got to be ready. Don't don't
miss your moment. It's what I call it, right, You
gotta be ready, even if you gotta fake it till

(55:39):
you make it, you know, at least give it your all,
you know.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
Yeah, And I've seen the opposite thing happened where and
after they asked to do something that's beyond what they
were initially going to do, and then they get angry,
they get negative, that why do I got to do this?
This is not what you said. I had to get
mad they turn this sort of negative thing when I
decided to turn it as an opportunity to do something

(56:05):
that I love more than I expected to, as opposed
to Oh, you're putting onus on me to do this thing,
and now it's like, why you have a problem with
something that you love to do. Don't don't do that? MD.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
Wow, you know we went way past it and we
got can you screen in six more minutes? We're going
at the top of the hour. Okay, this has been great,
Thank you. I'm really enjoyed us. If you could create
your dream role Marrek, something completely outside of what you've
done before, what would it look like?

Speaker 2 (56:36):
MM, outside of what It's hard to say that.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
Because you've done a lot.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
I've done a lot. I've done a lot of roles
and it's not much I haven't done that I enjoyed.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
Is there anything that you feel like you're missing you
know you've missed or sat back in the theater and said,
I can do that, Like, I would love to see
you on this new soap O PROA. I'm starting to
watch Beyond the Gates cause he Hey, if anybody's watching.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Well, actually I did audition for a role on that
show they have me auditioned for. I think what I
understand was there was a last minute casting change and
they were scouting people the last minute to fill this role,
and I auditioned for this for that show.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
We can keep our fingers crossed.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
I don't think if I'm going to get on it,
I mean in your show. But I thought I hit
a very nice audition, and yeah, I'm excited for Beyond
the Gates. Also, it's and I met other soap opera
stars that I talked to outside and they're like, oh,
you go to how I want to be a Matt show.
Everyone wants to be on this Beyond the Gates show.
It's going to be a huge, huge thing. So I'm

(57:45):
really excited for that.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
I'm putting good vibes out there. Okay, here he is.
So there's really nothing that you can think of that
what you would say, like, you know, I don't know.
I'm I'm a big vision board person, and you know,
when I started in radio, I put Jane Kennedy there
was the first person that I wanted to interview, and

(58:09):
she was the first celebrity I interviewed, okay, and then
she was Zach this early on two thousand and six,
never really done but two interviews before her, and my
gut just says, reach out to Jane Kennedy. She was
somebody you always admire, and I did it. And so
then I started putting different people's faces that I wanted

(58:29):
to interview on there, and then just I would come in.
I'd have their little faces cut out on my top
of my computer mirror and I'd come in every day.
Good morning, How you doing, Les Brown? How you doing?
Jack Campfell, I'd like to talk to you. Yes, So
I have a whole list of dream interviews, So what
about you. There's nothing there that you said, I haven't

(58:50):
done yet, but I really would like to do a
scene like this, and it's okay, if not, just curious.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
One of the shows I watched that I thought was
it's one of the I think so one of the
best shows out there that's ever done was the show
called Luther.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
I never watched that, but I'm familiar with it for sure.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
And he's this very flawed, complex, uh anti hero. He's
a hero, and he's amazing from the series, and I
thought that that's got to be a dream role for
someone to be a complicated character a person and uh,
but you're doing good, you're saving lives, You're you're trying

(59:31):
to live your life, you're having lots of problems. And
it was It's one of those, you know, one of
those shows that resonated with me as an actor. So
this is the kind of leading role that you would
want for me like that. You know, I'm having a
law enforce a background in my family as we talked
about and knowing how that is. Uh, that was that.
And also I did a show called nine one one

(59:54):
a while ago and in my scenes were with Angela Bassett,
Oh my girl, Nicha Hines, Kennonty all you know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
I love that show.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
On the first day of shooting that I went there
to shoot my scene was basically me yelling at Angela Bassett,
not not yelling, but being very mean to her. I'd
never met Angela Bassett before. She's the actors that I
couldn't rack with anybody.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
And great and I got yell at her.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
I met her. She's the most gracious professional woman. And
Don Lewis and I was doing and it was one
of those things your early question. I was struggling to
get through because I'm doing a scene and the directors said, hey,
can you be meaner to her? And I'm thinking, that's
Angela Bassett, that's Betty Shabbati. Who are you telling me
to be mean to the Queen angel Batasa? Dude, I

(01:00:47):
had fun. I had to struggled through. That was a
struggle because but I got through that. I was I.
I tried to help hold together as much as I
could before I fanned out on her at the very
end of the day. And Don Lewis, who had don't Lois,
I feel pretty cool work to this day and we
stay in touch as well. But yeah, that was that
was one of those moments where I want to be
able to work with great actors. Any Angel Bassador is

(01:01:11):
Gary Olman, if it'shearsal at least great, Jeffrey Wright fantastic,
Denzel Washington of course, of course.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
Yeah, I'd love to work with yes, yeah, yeah, you
have such a great way of speaking, and like I
talked about earlier, at telling the stories and I don't know,
I'm just in awe at the way that you just
present yourself very very very well. And I've been blessed
to have interview a few celebrities and stuff like that.

(01:01:41):
I love that you're so authentic and you have so
much personality, and I'm just curious, are you often asked
to come speak as a speaker, you know, to audiences
and stuff. What made me think about this is when
you brought up Benzel, because I've recently really gotten into
Denzel's YouTube motivation tapes and I see you kind of

(01:02:01):
sort of the same way.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
You know, there are smaller things, you know, it might
be for an acting class or as a panelist for yeah,
students at an acting school, but as.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Usually the start of it, you know, the sall.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Because I listen to those things too. The thing it
takes your denter watch all these amazing pearls of wisdom.
O my god, I don't know if I can come
up with that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:32):
You could. I think you're in your own way, you could.
I'm telling you so, as you brought up Danzel, I'm like,
I'm gonna ask him that because I can see that
you know, not that you guys comparing you, but I
you know, you just have this presence about It's hard
to explain, but I think it would go over well.
You know, so I know you got a lot of

(01:02:53):
acting jobs, but you never know, you never know for sure. Well,
this has been great. I really appreciate it. I think
now before we close, I just want to ask you
maybe three or four rapid fire questions and off the cuff,
let's say, what's the fun thing Merrik likes to do?

(01:03:14):
It has nothing to do with acting.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Mhmm. That's hard because everything to me.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
I'm not surprised that day you don't take. You remind
me of me and colleague, always working right, Dancing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Dancing with my wife is fun. I like doing that dancing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
Okay, okay, are we going to see you guys on
what is it the one? What kind of dancing? First
of all?

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
Answer with the stars? Yeah, they bring that back the
line dance.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
Oh no, Raymond, that's a temptation dance. Okay, I'm going
way back. Who would play you in a biopic about me?

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
In a biopic? A new younger actors? Were you thinking
or like an older actor?

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Who would you like to play you?

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
Oh? That's a good, good question. I mean there's uh yeah,
I can't think of that. He was on ray Show
for a while and then he was on he had
a small part on the new Top Gun movie. I'm
thinking of his name and I can't think of it now. Yeah,
I'm drawing a blank. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Oh that's okay. Hey, look blank's. I know about blank's. Okay,
it happens all the time. If your mom was here,
what do you think she said to you?

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
Oh, you about to get me emotional?

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
I'm sorry, okay, Okay, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
I don't know. I I think that she would be proud. Yeah,
I think that she would. Yeah, she would be proud.
I think she would be forgiving of me not doing
this sooner, because I know she would be like, you
should have done this sooner. Give me that I that

(01:05:08):
I still did my other thing? First, is your dad
still he is? He is? He is? He said Detroit.
He's a retired plea.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
So what what does he say?

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
He is? Uh, he's got that father proude where he
doesn't want he's like, yeah, my son did good? You know,
son did good kind of thing? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
Yeah. And your kids, how, oh my god, how was
it the first time marriage? Your kids singing on TV?

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
They were it was like they were like, oh, I
think for them because they don't go to set with
me leave and I can say I'm say I'm going
to do this thing and I come back. But the
first time they saw me on oh, you're actually doing that,
you are for real, You're actually you're actually up there,
it was like they they were very excited and happy,

(01:05:59):
but I think a while they didn't quite get it
I was actually doing the thing until they saw I'm like, yeah, yeah,
that's what's been paying for all this.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
New outfit you have on you, that's what's coming. Like
either one of them have any aspirations than doing.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
This, I think, Uh, one of our youngest is is
signed with my one of my agents for commercials, and
but they're like, you know, hey if if they have
other things they are doing, so it's kind of real
casual for them. I'm like, cool, I'm glad you had
the opportunity to have it be casual for you for
me life passion, but if you want to that's totally fine. Otherwise,

(01:06:43):
I think they're all, you know, they're all pursuing their
own goals and they're different from mine.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
I bet they're all creative though, because both you and
Peggy are very creative, or just being around in that environment,
how could you not write or business mine.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
I mean, Peggy's one of the stud business people that
I was fantastic and creative, and a couple of our
kids have had that too, and they're like, the business
mind is starting a business artistic like what our oldest
is a poet and a writer and a very dynamic
and award winning writer and poet. And there are other kids.

(01:07:21):
You know, he's all about building and constructing and very
sharp minded, almost more analytical than I am. But he's
he's also pursuing his career as well. So we we
want we're happy that they're presumed what they want in life.
None of our kids, thankfully, are feeling they're in a rut. Yeah, like, hey,

(01:07:42):
this is the life I want to lead, and they're happy.
I feel like none of the kids are in a
life that they don't want to lead. That makes it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
Yeah, then you've got wonderful kids. That's the one dynamic.
I mean, you guys just have a great family. So congratulations.
That's not easy these days. You know, there's a lot
of horror stories and you know and you recognize it, okay,
and you can really just this is another patch yourself
on the back to Johorn you know, we did good.

(01:08:08):
You know I wanted the final question, I say for last,
because I'm really curious your feelings about this and even
some of your people you talk to without naming their names,
about AI and how it's going to affect the industry.
I mean, look, I heard a talk show hosts and

(01:08:32):
co host and they had a guess and they were
all AI. I'm like, no, they're not taking my job.
How do you feel about that?

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
I think they're trying. And it's not that they're trying.
It's one of situations where you might be able to
pull this off, or should you, But I still love
the belief, and it's my belief that as a human,
as a man made machine never be able to perfectly
resemble a human, a human being in the sense of

(01:09:03):
the full embodiment of a human being. So as an actor,
there's no film they're going to make where I'm going
to believe that's another human being. Because something about a
human being, a human soul, human energy that connects that
resonates with another human being that you can try to

(01:09:24):
program it in. It's not gonna where I've seen a
loss of that stuff with people. Oh yeah, but they're
developing them. Yeah, I know they're developing it, but a
human thing really does know another human being. And you
can see things happening now where they're creating commercials where
they have people in them and oh, I didn't know
that wasn't a real person. It's like, well, yeah, they
should have quick flash of them smiling, or they have

(01:09:45):
them running or something like that. Okay, that's you know, Okay,
you showed a human being running. Great, But when you're
acting in a scene with somebody and you're communicating your
feelings about something and reacting to them another human being,
there is something that can't be programmed in. It can't

(01:10:05):
be programmed because it's way too random and spontaneous and
authentic of a human thing to write into a computer program.
Any movement that has ever been made, anything has everybut
on screen, you can program it to replicate that. Yes,
replicate the classic movies of it. You can replicate The
Godfather and I sure, sure, But for a new film

(01:10:27):
that's never been done people, I know it's not real
because that's there's something about the interaction that you can
human reaction that can't be simulated on a computer. So
I am not happy that they're trying to make its
like they can replace actors. Oh, you're Unfortunately, some things

(01:10:48):
are being replaced with it, certainly graphic, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:54):
Yeah, and everything is you see it more and more
you stay and it's happening fast.

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
That's about it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
M So how do we keep how do we keep up?
You know what? Do you have any thoughts about that?

Speaker 2 (01:11:06):
I know, I mean lots of people are of the
mind of, Hey, you need to really understand how it
works and learn how to use your benefits. Don't be
scared of it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:17):
Learn what it's about, Embrace it kind of sort I said,
it's where you're using it for your benefit or you know,
let it do what it does best and leave it
to that, not not let yourself worry about it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
I'm of the mindset that, hey, I'm going to continue
what I'm passionate about and not letting myself.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
Get either focus on the controllable yes and let the
other go and just be you continue doing what you've
done for all these years. This this is why I
look at it. Collek and I talk about it often
because it's very heavy in what we do, you know,
and uh, you're right, you know they can they can
make it look like there's always that little thing. Sometimes

(01:11:56):
you might see five fingers, I mean you know, I
mean finger.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
As a little eye movement that Oh that wasn't a
natural eye move but I've seen those two.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Yeah, yeah, it's a few things. Yeah, but when I
find in our industry it is making us step up
because you know, sometimes you can get so comfortable doing
what you're doing, and so that's one of the things
that we definitely find. Well, Mark, this has been an
absolute pleasure. Thank you again for sharing your journey, insights

(01:12:26):
and your awesome stories with us today. And where can
people follow you or anything you want that I haven't shared?

Speaker 4 (01:12:34):
Holding onto a little Instagram account called the Real Maeric
MacArthur on Instagram, I'm sort of slightly holding onto a
Facebook account only because that's a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:12:45):
Of friends and family. But otherwise, you know, blue Sky
or Instagram is probably the best.

Speaker 1 (01:12:52):
Yeah, all right, we're wishing you continue success and tell
pig gash low and we all are going to be
tuning in. Is that anything next or anything special you
want us to tune into and share and tell people
all about you other than this interview.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
Yeah, there is there is a big show coming up
this summer that I still at present cannot say the name.

Speaker 1 (01:13:15):
Okay, let us know when you can, and we'll make
sure that we get it out there. And I wanted
to congratulate you because also and my research found out
that you and your lovely wife Peggy are heavy in
philanthropy and that's amazing. Any charities or anything that you
want to make mention.

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
I think the l mission is always a good one
where I worry live anyway. Missions great, but it's it's you,
it's your personal time A lot of the times, you know,
I think that makes a bigger impact. We'll carry we'll
carry like packets of supplies or food or you know,
necessities in our trunk multiple someone on the street in need.

(01:13:57):
We'll get out of our cars. Hey is this health
if you can eat?

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
Take this?

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
I we have a little money in there to something.
And these are that we do because it's like we
want you to know that we see you as a person.
You know, you're not invisible, You're in here. I can
help you a little bit. This is what I can
do right now, but think here you go and hopefully
does help you in some way. Yeah, And I feel.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
Like a dreen Building Builders Project.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
Yes, yes, Justice thinks that the Dream Builders Project we
donate to as well every every month.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
Yeah yeah, well that's awesome. Well, thank you everyone. This
has been none other than Merrick MacArthur. Oh my God,
Legends and icons yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I'm Raven Blair Glover,
Raven a talk show. Maybe that's Meryck MacArthur. We'll see
you next time.