William Sadler — From Villains to Legends: A Life On and Off Screen

In this episode, we sit down with the incredible William Sadler, whose career has spanned some of cinema’s most iconic moments — from action blockbusters to cult horror classics.

We dive into his unforgettable role as the ruthless Colonel Stuart in Die Hard 2, and how he flipped the script playing Death in the Bill & Ted universe — with all the hilarious, behind-the-scenes stories that came with it.

Horror fans won’t want to miss our chat about his beloved roles in Demon Knight, Bordello of Blood, The Hills Run Red, Machete Kills, The Grudge, and Salem’s Lot — films that have cemented his place as a genre favourite.

We also reflect on his time in two of cinema’s most celebrated dramas, The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, and what those projects taught him about the power of storytelling.

William opens up about his pursuit of acting, the ups and downs of life in the business, and the advice he’d give his younger self today.

Plus, we explore his passion for music, including his project The Kitchen Tapes, with proceeds supporting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital — an amazing cause close to his heart.

To support his music and learn more, visit: https://therealwilliamsadler.com/

For more of my content - linktr.ee/FirstClassHorror

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/class-horror-cast--4295531/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You can run, but you can't hide from the class
hard cast hunting you from the Emerald Isle. Your host
Aaron Doyle takes you on a journey to the depths
of horror with exclusive interviews, horror news, reviews, and more.
Tickets Please you were about you under the theater of
the mad Enjoy.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
The show, William, pleasure to have you on the show.
You've been one of those people that I've had in
the back of my mind for a long time and
I was like, you know what, let me just reach
out here and see. And I've said this a few
times where the people I feel like, oh, there's no
way I'll have access to this person, and then they
just come back with a really nice yeah, sure, I'm up.
I'm like, Wow, that's kind of mind blown.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well that's my besize here. I guess I was one
of those people that you thought, there's no way he's
gonna yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
I think it's yeah. I think it comes from maybe
you know, growing up and watching your work and You've
been in so many of the things that you know,
I've watched and rewatched and loved, and then you kind
of just expect it seems, and I guess as well,
from being you know, in Ireland on the European side,
it seems very like that's the movies, that's the TV.

(01:14):
That's not likely real compared.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
To me, real people.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, it's like these are not real people compared to
the life I live or who I am. So I
do appreciate you taking the time.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
No, that's it's my pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Like, like I said, you've had this impressive career. That's
I feel like you've been in pretty much every genre
there is to be now, but horror fans seem to
really really dig your work. What is it about how
that I suppose keeps you kind of coming back to
a lot of those projects.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
I don't know. Well, for one thing, they asked me
to come back. Yeah, I tend to go where the
work leads me and and horror movies have reached out
to me again and again. I just did it. I
just did one called The Yeddi YETI yeah, in Buffalo,

(02:12):
which I have no idea. It's we just finished shooting,
and so I don't know whether it's you know, what
stage it's going to be in or or how it
will be released. But yeah, when I got to when
I got to Hollywood, I sort of started as in
the villain roles, the sort of villain, you know, the

(02:35):
bad guy, the heavies, and it seemed and it seemed
natural that I would I don't know, I guess I.
I guess I played them well enough that people kept
asking me to go, you know, further and further into
the into the genre. I get scared watching these movies

(02:59):
sometimes my own I don't. I don't tend to watch
my own films just because, not because I think they're
bad or anything. I just say, hmm. It's a little
bit like listening to your own voice on a tape recorder.
Yeah you don't, you know, you don't. You sit there
and say, well, I don't sound like that. How can it?

(03:22):
I don't sound like that, and and you pick it
apart because you can't. You can't be objective about it.
But horror horror fans have been great to me in
general over my career. You know, I did the Tales

(03:42):
from the very first episode of Tales from the Crypt,
the Man Who Was Death, and it opened massive doors
for me because Frank Drebaunt was one of the writers
on that who then went on to do you know,
the Shawshank Redemption and the Miss Green Mile and and

(04:03):
so on, and I've had a relate I guess I've
had a relationship with horror ever since that was it
The man who was Death was I guess that qualifies
as hart as a horror movie. Demon Knight, the film
Demon Knight, totally totally down that road and great fun

(04:31):
to play, great fun. It's just fun to do them,
you know, they're I love digging into the mythology and
coming up with coming up with characters that that are
believable in that world. Because my philosophy is if I

(04:51):
can get the audience to believe Breaker for even just
a little bit, then they'll come along for the ride.
You know, they'll then they'll stay on board. If they
as soon as they stop believing, then then it's like

(05:12):
like then they can sit back and eat their popcorn
and it's like yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, they're like tuned out. Yeah that makes sense. And
that was something I was going to say about, you know,
Demon Night and things like that, And I feel like
horror fans like that's such a beloved character, and that
film has become like year on year gained more and
more audience. It's become a cult classic and I guess
if you were to go back at those things, No, no,

(05:38):
is it Like I was just that's literally I was
going to ask, is you know I know you said,
you know, you don't a lot of people don't sit
down and watch their own work back or anything like that.
But I suppose if you were to think back to
then and then see now, how all this stuff seems
to have a new life and fans seem to, especially
the horror community, Like I'm sure you've done some conventions

(05:59):
and stuff and people just go wild and like absolutely
adored this stuff even though it's you know, thirty fourty
years ago whatever it might be, and it's like as
new as ever for them.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
That's very it's really gratifying. It's really it really is.
I just did a comic con in Lexington, Kentucky, and
I hadn't done one for eight years. I think I hadn't.
I hadn't done any of these fan conventions, but I

(06:31):
did that one and demon I was amazed at how
many times Demon Night came up where the mist came
up that people of you know, people that love horror, people,
people that like to be scared. They're great fans. They're

(06:52):
just great fans, you know, they're devoted and if you
can and I and it's it's really cool that a
movie like Demon Knight that was made for not we
didn't didn't cost them a great deal of money to
make it. We shot it in a an airplane haar

(07:14):
in Sherman Oaks, California, with pigeons all up in the rafters,
so that we had to scare the pigeons away every
time we started to shoot. It was you know, it
wasn't it wasn't an expensive movie to make, and it

(07:35):
was supposed to be one of a trilogy. It was.
I think there was supposed to be Feet that one,
and then Bordella of Blood and then a third one
that I don't I don't know the name of, but
it kind of you know, it opened and I guess
it made. It did all right, it did. It made
enough money so that they went ahead and made Bordello
of Blood. But you know, I it's wonderful that that

(08:03):
year after year after year people have discovered people keep
discovering it and sharing it with their friends, and then
it's like, you know, it's a little yeah, I guess
it's a little bit like the Shawshank and that that opened,
ran for three weeks and closed. Yeah that's it. It's gone,

(08:27):
which seems crazy down without a bubble, as Walter Hill
would say, just down without a bubble. And and then
it's now you know, and then it's nominated for all
of these awards, and then Forrest Gump wins all of
those awards. But people start to discover it on VHS

(08:50):
and and then on streaming services and so on, and
the Turner Classic broadcasts and and little by little is
just gained momentum. It's just like, holy cow, you know,
and it's really great. It's really fun to see you know,
new generations looking at films like Team of Night and

(09:15):
saying saying, oh, yeah, that's that's that's just cool as hell.
M do you like?

Speaker 2 (09:26):
You know, you've been in so many different genres, but
you've also worked through so many different I guess eras
of film. And I always hear people talking time and
time again about you know, oh, you know it's it's
I don't know if we're ever going to have that
same feeling, that same vibe that we used to get
in the eighties, in the nineties and all this stuff

(09:48):
and everything now seems you know, very refined, very very sterile,
very CG and a lot of these bigger projects. Is
that something that I guess, I don't know if you've
even thought about it, But do you feel from from
a professional standpoint, you know, from your point of view
in work, that like there was a difference in making
some of these movies, like say something like Diehard. It

(10:11):
feels very of its time, and I feel like, you know,
a lot of people are like, you know, I wish
they would make movies like that again just just now.
I'm like, but is that just a sign of the times?

Speaker 3 (10:22):
I don't. I don't know if it's a sign of
the times or if technology is it allows it allows
people to do things that you can do things on
the computer now that you couldn't there weren't computers. We didn't. Yeah. Yeah,
if you want to show a fight on the wing

(10:42):
of a plane, you have to build a build the
wing of a plane. You have to put a camera
on the wing of a plane and and have a fight.
You know, if you're gonna throw a guy off a building,
you have you have to throw a person off off
of a building and pay them to jump. And that

(11:07):
I don't I don't.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
I guess I've thought about this a bit because, you know,
in a funny way, it's you were It was more
deliberate than you because you because you were doing it,
the stunts were the stunts were real, and the effects
were practical. You know, the blood, you know, the blood

(11:34):
was you know, you whatever, whatever the special effect was
going to be, it had to be created physically, and
and it had to be created in such a way
that the camera would buy it, that it would work,
it would work on film, and the film costs money. Yeah,

(12:01):
you can't. You you can't do endless takes and just
delete what you did this morning and keep, you know,
keep trying until you get it right. It's a there's
so that I think there was something. I think maybe
maybe it was a little more deliberate. Those stunts had

(12:24):
to be planned more carefully and set up more carefully.
And when you when they crashed the plane and die
hard too. I think they built the model of an
airplane that was twenty feet across and filled it with
gasoline and then blew it up, and they had you know,
seven cameras all around it running at high speed so

(12:49):
that they could make that explosion last forever. Yeah, do
you think do you you would do that today? You would?
You would, you wouldn't have you wouldn't have to. You
could do it on a computer. Anyone can do it
on a computer. And I think maybe there's a bit

(13:10):
of overkill, you know, that it's too easy to put
blow things up and destroy buildings and create armies, and
it's it's kind of too easy. So it's in every movie,
you know, it's in It's in every Marvel movie, It's
in every Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah, I I I do get.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
No, there's like a very there's something veritas about. There's
an honesty about in the old, older films, if you
actually had to do had to do the you know,
had to throw somebody off the roof of a building,
there's maybe it feels more more real.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
That's my only thought about it.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, and I and I definitely, I definitely think there's
something to that now that you say it. And I've
heard a lot of talk recently about you know, authenticity
and things like that, and and that the audience are
loving that idea. And maybe this is why, you know,
there's a lot of these boutique blu ray companies that
are re releasing movies with all these special features and

(14:25):
booklets and things, and and the fans seem to be
eating them up. And I feel like that probably boils
down to that, because it's like a new movie comes out,
the Blue Ray comes out, it does okay, but then
we get a you know, a four disc Blu ray
of Diehard Too or Demon Knight or something like this
The Mist with a booklet and new interviews and stuff,

(14:46):
and it's like sold out, like instantly.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Hmm, you mean you mean they're more they're more popular. Yeah,
Like I feel like our audiences gravitate towards those that
that era.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah, Like I definitely feel like, yeah, it probably all
boils down to And I think it's a lot to
do with what you said where I definitely think with
the success of something like The Substance last year, it
kind of shows that, you know, people want to see
practical effects and like the I guess the realist version
rather than everything be cg And I definitely think there's

(15:22):
a crossover point where you can have so much computer
generated that it all it almost looks so real it
looks really fake. Yeah, if that makes any sense, that.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
That's the that's sometimes the feeling I get watching new
newer movies and I know it's I know it's CG
and I know it and it's perfect, it's and it's
beautifully done. You know that car flips over and flips
over and bangs against the wall, and it's just gorgeous
the way that you know, the way that it's done.

(15:57):
But it's but it's like you have you know, you
have this new If all you have is a hammer,
then everything looks like a nail, you know. If all
you have is CG, then everything is CG. Well, and
I think, and I think people get tired of it.

(16:17):
People get it's like, yeah, okay, okay, you blew you
blew up another building. I get the guy's on fire,
he's running and he's on fire, as opposed to in
the nineties, if the guy was on fire, you set somebody. Yeah,

(16:37):
you act, you actually burnt. You put someone in clothes
that couldn't catch fire, and then you painted them with
some flammable goo and and you know they did and
then you set them on fire and then put them out.
So I don't know, I don't get. I don't have

(16:59):
a good answer for you, except that I think that
sometimes CG is overdone. Yeah, because because you have all
these toys, you feel like you have to use them
when the thing that the thing that moves you through
the story is the story and the story. If the

(17:20):
story is compelling, will follow it will will go with you.
But you have to hook us into the story. You
have to. The story has to be compelling, because that's
that that underlies. All the special effects in the world.

(17:43):
Aren't gonna save you all the blood that can. You know,
you can hack off as many limbs as you want,
it won't It won't be as good a movie if
there if there isn't a story, if you don't hook
us into a story, you know, a scary story, one

(18:06):
one that one that I'm gonna have nightmares about, and
then use, you know, use your special effects to tell
that story. You know, they're not the point, they're They're
just there to make the story better. You know. Does

(18:29):
that make?

Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (18:30):
That does that? That actually makes a lot of sense
when you put it in those terms as well. I
think it's like it makes more sense.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
Just do I think of the movie the movies that
I you know, the movies that really last and people
love people keep loving them for years and years and
years and youths and even in the horror zone. The
Demon Knight, Demon Night has a story. It is a
you know, it has a it has a real it

(18:58):
has a real story. No, Casablanca has a real story.
You know, Citizen Kane is a real story. The movies
that the movies that we hold on to and just
h they you know, they live in they they're on

(19:20):
the top shelf in the in our in our library
of cinemas. They they tend to have really strong stories.
Shar Shank has them. There's no there are no special
effects at all, none. There are no special effects, there's
no supernatural anything. What what what compels people to watch

(19:48):
it over and over and over again is the story.
The story is so good. And maybe that's it's so
the hardest thing to come up with. If you have
a computer that's full of if you have all these tools,
it must be a great temptation to use them.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Speaking of that, you're like so many people. You've been
part of so many iconic roles and characters. I mean
even something like Bill and Ted. That's you know, that's
a lot of people's childhood's, teenage years and then into
maybe they have their own kids at the point when
they've seen the newest one. And yeah, you know, I know,

(20:34):
I know you spoke earlier about you know, you don't
really like to watch your own movies. It's not really
something that you're about. And you know you liking the
two listening to your own voice back and a lot
of people kind of just go that, you know, I
don't sound like that or God and yeah, and I
definitely get that. But is there a point where, like,
you know the man behind, because I'm sure you get

(20:56):
it a lot. You know, if you're anywhere where it's like,
my god, it's you know, it's William Sadler. Oh my god,
you know, can I have a picture? Can I do this?
Can I do that? But like the man behind all that,
like when you're at home, do you have you ever
had a chance or even allowed yourself to sit back
and go like, you know, I've been a part of
a lot of film history. There's a lot of things
that I put my little stamp on. That's it's I

(21:20):
guess for want of And some people cringe when I
say this word, but it's like my legacy, I guess,
like it's it's stuff that cannot be erased.

Speaker 3 (21:29):
I've thought about that a lot actually recently. As you
get older, you start thinking about what you you know,
it's as you look back. I do more looking back,
I guess these days than I used to. But but

(21:50):
but I have they have thought. You know that when
I'm gone, they'll be these There'll be these roles, they'll
be these characters will live for for a time. I
don't know. I don't know how long. Depends on global
warming and lots of other things. But but yeah, that

(22:15):
that something that I did has become a part of
the fabric of our culture, and it's going to it
will continue on. Well. People are going people are going
to be teaching film classes and talking about and showing

(22:35):
shashank or whatever. It's a it's gratifying. I'm I'm pretty
sure that it's nice to have left my stamp, you know,
mm hm, those characters along the way. I hope I'm
not done. I feel like I still have Yeah, yeah,

(23:01):
I feel like I still have most of my marbles
and I can and I can still be silly or
scary or tell a good story. It's so funny. It
The odd thing is, I I just did a movie.
I don't know, a couple of years ago with Karen
Allen from Raiders of the Lost Art Fame called a

(23:22):
stage of Twilight, And in a stage of Twilight, I
got to play I got to play her husband. And
it's still and it's a drama, it's a it's a
it's just a story about this old, older couple, you know,
and he gets a bad diagnosis. And it's not there's

(23:43):
no horror in it, there's no action in it. It's
that's that's the story. But what I found was that
my things gotten. It's funny that I sort of feel
like for years they sat me down at the piano

(24:06):
and said, you can play these keys from here to here,
you know, from the We need you to be a
villain and he needs to be this, this, this and
this and this and so you're in this little you're
in this box kind of. And then with this movie
that I did with with Karen, a stage of Twilight,

(24:28):
I got to play the entire keyboard. You know. It
was really that was what was really fun for me,
and I think it's I think it's fun for the
audience as well. But but the acting, what I have
learned about acting over the years is make is just

(24:50):
getting is making me a better and better actor. So
I hope I'm not finished. If you're out there and
you've written a great horror movie gripped, see if you
can't get it to me, because.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Yeah, and I am not enough.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
I didn't mean it in that sense of being done.
I just meant like, obviously you're still well ingrained in
the film business, and I was just interested to see,
you know, had you ever you know, I'm always fascinated
to see is that something that somebody even you know,
has a chance to or gives themselves the time to
even sit down and go, you know what, actually I
have And not to feel like, you know, oh I'm

(25:34):
so great. I just mean in the sense of being like, wow,
I'm like I have actually maybe all these people that
are constantly you know, excited and happy when they see
me and they're, like you said, they're so passionate about
something a role you might've had in a movie that
was thirty forty years ago, and to see that maybe go,
you know, maybe there's something to this. And I was
going to lead onto something else. I was going to

(25:54):
ask about, you know, about aircraft you have been uh,
you know, the funny character, the goofy character, the really
serious character, the dramatic character, the scary character. Is that
something that you've always had in acting where you can
kind of go between that massive range of characters. Sometimes

(26:15):
I feel like people, for better or worse, kind of
get pigeonholed into, Like you've become like the scary guy,
and we don't want to really give you a chance
to be the funny guy or be the you know,
the nice guy.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Well, Hollywood is Hollywood tends to pigeonhole people because they
because there's a lot of money at stake, and producers
if they've got millions of dollars sunk into this film
and years of pre production, getting the script ready and
so on, by the time they get to casting, they
look around and they say, well, he's They look for

(26:53):
people that have done it before. You know, this guy
has been really scary before. No, he can he's he
can really be scary. I think, I think that's what
we need here. They're not. It's not their job too
to expand my you know what I can do as

(27:15):
an actor, what what expanded what I can do as
an actor is that I spend eleven years in the theater.
I'm brought on Broadway and off Broadway and m hm,
studying acting at mhm universities and what you you you

(27:37):
you learned. I've learned anyway that this stuff is all available,
it's all in. It's creating characters. And I guess I'm
a I'm a character actor. Huh. That's what I do.
I create mm hmm. I create these people and they

(28:02):
can mhm. I liked from like, from funny movies to
serious films to scary phones to that. I think is
I mean, that's kind of a dream. I didn't get.
I didn't I didn't quite get pigeonholed into you know, Oh,

(28:22):
he's always he's got to be the villain. We can
never you can never cast him as the principal of
the school. Why would you do that? You know? And
one of the great things you mentioned Bill and Ted's
Bogus Journey, where I played Death m hm. One of

(28:43):
the one of the cool things about that was that
the role he starts out being really scary in the film. Yeah,
they're they're dead and they're facing death is standing in
front of them. He's about as scary as you can get.

(29:06):
And you must lay your you must come play, you know,
you must beat me in the game. And he and
then of course he starts playing, and then they they
start beating him at the at all the games battleship

(29:27):
and Clue and Twister and all stuff, and he falls apart.
He's just like he just like crumbles in front of
your eyes. He's like, you know, he's not He's not
so scary. Now he's petulant and a cheater and best

(29:48):
two out of three and best He's like, yeah, he's
completely he's completely screwed up and a lot and he's
not as scary as u as he was. And then
by the end of the movie, he's he's along for
the ride. He's trying to help him. Then he joins
the band and he wants to sing with the band.

(30:10):
It's like he's gone. It's a great character arc. You
know what they call a character arc. It starts here
and then it goes way over to hear so by
the end of the movie, you you love this guy.
He's like, you know, doing the Reaper rap and playing

(30:31):
bass and he's he's in the band now, so uh
and he's not scary at all. So I like that
was and I don't, and I'm not I'm not sure
that that Wasn't you know that Hollywood didn't see that
movie and then say, oh, we can't cast him now

(30:51):
as the villain.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah, I know what you mean.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
You know, I'm lethal weapon seven or whatever, you know,
because now now now the world knows that he's silly. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
Do you think that's down to you being able to
I guess live in those characters, because I feel like,
over the last couple of weeks, I've been revisiting some
of those movies and I can't help but feel like
I'm watching one movie and I feel like this deep emotion,
but then I watched this next movie and I'm like
smiling and laughing, and then i watched the next movie
and I'm I'm kind of terrified, and I'm like, all

(31:35):
these feel believable to me, if you know what I mean. Like,
I don't look at it and go, Okay, that's you know,
that's the guy who's the funny guy. But now he's
the serious guy, so I don't really take it serious anymore.
It's like every role you've been in feels like a
lived in character.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Thank you. That's well, that's I think that's the job.
I like, that's always been the That's always been the job.
It doesn't matter what, it doesn't matter what the character
who he is. That's your job is to figure out,
you know, take them apart and figure out what what

(32:12):
kind of person would say that? You know, what, what
do they what do they need in this film? And mhm.
It's one of the It's one of the things that
I've always loved about acting. And it's one of the
reasons I got into it was because you spend a
lot of you get to you're work, You're always working backwards.

(32:34):
You get the script and it says the character says this,
you know, this sentence or the characters in you know,
in an argument with somebody, and you have to sit there.
You have to sit there and figure out what kind
of person would say that? And how how would you
have to how would you have to feel to say

(32:59):
that to somebody? And then what gets you keep you
keep working backwards toward who the who the person is.
And even though I've never been I've never murdered anybody,
and I've never crashed an airplane, and I've never done

(33:22):
I have never done lots of the things that I've
done in moving personally. Thank god you as an actor,
you kind of throw yourself into it or I do.
And the more complete you can create, the more the

(33:44):
more complete a character you can create, the more the
further you throw yourself into it, the more believable it becomes.
And the more believable it is, the better the film works,
and people like, like I was saying before, because if
people if the people watching the film can believe you

(34:06):
just a little bit that that you're Heywood in the
Shashank or your you know, Breaker and Demon Knight or
whatever the president in Iron Man three, if they can,
the more they can believe that character, the the more

(34:28):
they'll come along for the ride. They'll yeah, they'll stay
on board.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, they're invested to.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
See Yeah, because because you've invested, you know, you've invested
your more more of yourself into it too. I know,
I don't know it. It's kind of acting thing one
oh one.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
I guess yeah, And I definitely I think like the audience,
even on a very baseline level, obviously don't know the
minutia of at all, but can definitely fee you lect
through to the performance and the screen, whether it's something
like this's work my wild buy and into If this
person doesn't seem to care, then why should I care.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
About exactly exactly? And the I think every I think
audiences have a built in ship detector, you know, the
yeah they'll go, you know, they'll yeah. You know, we've
all we all do, we've we've all met people in
life who were you know, bull they're just bull crap

(35:27):
artists and you and you you know, so you have
to you have to be honest. The camera doesn't camera,
it can't. It's hard to lie to a camera. Camera
sees every tiny little flicker, So you got to be

(35:49):
you have to, yeah, just to be pretty honest.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, And I get what you mean about special effects
and CG and stuff that can fix other things, But
if the story and then the characters themselves are not there,
everything else is just kind of superficial noise. You've had
so many different roles, and it was just interestingly, like,
how how long do you like to sit with a character,
you know, before you have to go and shoot it,

(36:14):
you know, to like you said that reverse engineer and
to really figure out, Okay, what kind of guy would
say this, what kind of person would behave like that
or make that decision or whatever.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
A couple of weeks. It depends on, which is funny
because usually casting happens just before they start filming it.
So you you you meet, you meet the guy that's
going to play your brother the night the night before

(36:46):
you fill the big scene where the two of you
have a fight about your father, you know, and it
has to look you have to believe that they grew
up together and they've known each other for twenty five
years or whatever. And but there isn't any there just
isn't any rehearsal. There's not there's almost never any rehearsal

(37:08):
for films, unlike theater. You know, you you you meet
the woman that's playing your wife the night before you
start filming the scenes with her, so you have to
kind of get you prepare yourself. But you also, hm

(37:30):
you have to reach an agreement with the other actors
about pretty quickly about how far do you want to go?
You know, what do you what do you think? What
do you How violent is this scene? You know, how

(37:51):
bad does you how bad does your character want this
thing or whatever? And you have to make these you
have to have these little agree demons with your fellow
actors because you just met them. Yeah you don't. You
didn't you know, you haven't played around in rehearsals and
seen what the other guy's going to do and what

(38:12):
have you. And you don't want to, you know, you
don't want to step on their toes and you don't
want them to get in the way of what do
you think the way you think it ought to go?
But but but it isn't you know, it is a process.

(38:32):
There's a sort of a social contract that you make
with your fellow performers where how far do you want
to take it? How far do you want to you know,
because there are lines, and especially with men and women
as well. I did. I did a a short film

(38:57):
called Another Life with an actress name Julie Tuck who's uh.
We had to wrestle and she was wearing this little
slip and there was no rehearsal. There's no time to rehearse.
It's just the camera's going to roll and we're going
to go for it. And we had we had to

(39:21):
we had to get together before before the cameras roll
and say how far you know, how far is okay
for you? Because I don't want to make you you
I don't want you to be uncomfortable. You know, you're
a professional in this, you know, and without without saying

(39:45):
you know, can I touch you here? Can I touch
you there? As if we're gonna we're gonna wrestle with
you and drag you down the hallway. Yeah, you good
with you? Good with that? I mean, I'll try hard.
I'll try very hard not to hurt you at all.

(40:05):
But it's going to get physical. And she was, and
she was fantastic. She was you know, she said, absolutely,
go for it, go for it, because I'm going to.
And as a result, she fought like crazy. She fought,
you know, she fought like like her life depended on it.

(40:28):
And I fought and I rose to the challenge and
dragged her down the hallway with her fighting all the way.
And then and the shot works and the scene works
and the film works, you know, and we both walked
away thinking, well we you know, I respected this other professional.

(40:52):
I you know, I am nothing. I have great admiration
for you know, she had she courage, and she knew
where her lines, where her boundaries were, and so we
could work together. Well, but those just but that conversation
had to happen because I've also seen instance where there's

(41:17):
no conversation and an actor goes too far with an
actress and she freaks out, runs back to her trailer
and she's you know, she's mortified. She's mortified and humiliated
in front of the whole crew because of something that

(41:39):
he did. Because they hadn't they hadn't talked about it.
They hadn't, you know, they hadn't they hadn't decided where
the boundaries were going to be. So anyway, that was
I don't know how he got off on that, but
but it's but it's part of making the thing believable.

(42:04):
Yeah again, what if we if we can get you
to believe it, you'll come a yeah, you're in. You'll
get sucked into the story and when it's over youal go,
oh geez, oh, I didn't see that coming, you know,
m And that's our job.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Did you when you decided that acting and film was
something that you really wanted to be a part of,
did you get any pushback from friends, family, close ones?
And sometimes I feel like, you know, I've heard that
people said, you know, maybe close family members or something
like that. Coming from a good place, would say things
like not realizing the effect that might have, you know, saying, well,

(42:48):
you know, maybe that's just a dream, maybe you should
get a real job, and maybe don't do this because
it's not guaranteed and we don't know how it will
work out. And I guess they're trying to protect you,
but in actual fact they're kind of I don't all
crushing your your dreams and your soul.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
Okay, Early on, early on in my career, when I
or my even not even my career, I was still
in college, my father insisted that I get a teaching
degree at the same time that I was studying acting.
So I got a teaching degree. I'm a certified speech

(43:26):
teacher in the state of New York, which I've never used.
But there it is. He said, you got to have
something to fall back on because you know, as this
is not a you know, there no guarantees this. It's
not like, you know, I'm going to get a degree
in engineering and I should be able to get a

(43:47):
job or get a degree as a lawyer or something
more guaranteed work. I suppose I want to be an actor, well,
ninety five percent of them aren't working at any one time,
and I got I don't think I got any pushback

(44:12):
my wife I had done after doing eleven years or
so of theater in New York, which doesn't pay very
well at all. It's very, very gratifying, and it's a
great training ground because no one can yell cut, no
one can save your sorry ass. You pull it off,
You're going to you carry this thing for two hours,

(44:35):
you and your friends on that stage you created eight
times a week for that audience that just paid two
hundred and fifty dollars for their tickets or whatever. You know,
doesn't matter whether you have a headache, you have you know,

(44:56):
you have a fight with your wife, it doesn't matter.
You pull up, pull up your socks, and make make
some make something happen out there. And that's great training ground.
But my wife said about the movies, she said, you
know you could, you know, you could make money doing

(45:17):
this like the movies. The movie movie money was just
like I was. We were making I was making so
little in New York for for so long, no tax
tax returns. It said, we made like eight thousand dollars

(45:38):
for the year, you know, ten thousand dollars for the
whole year. It's like which maybe maybe sounds like a
lot of money, but it's not a lot of money
in New York, and you know, and then the movies
come along, mhm, and the movies started waving paychecks and things,

(46:05):
and we didn't really want to leave New York. We
had an apartment in the East Village and we didn't
really want to We didn't really want to give it up.
But they kept doubling the money and then doubling the
money again, and it was like, yeah, I was finally

(46:27):
like I'm wi you know, I'm gonna. I don't think
I may regret one day if I don't see what
this movie business is about. So I went out shot
Project X, we had our baby, then I was offered
a TV series and they paid us to move to

(46:51):
the West Coast. So yeah, no, no one, no one
said you shouldn't try You shouldn't try it for the
movies because you know, it'll break your heart and it's
really hard to get into. It is hard to get into.
And I don't know, I have no idea how to

(47:12):
help young actors make the you know, make the leap.
But m hmm. But no one, no no one's, no
one stood it. No one said, no, you should you should,
just you should stay in New York where they know
where they love you and just do theater.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
Was it difficult to drow to to juggle you know,
your your parsonal life and your real life all these
years and be you know, not just the I guess
the pressure and like the effort it takes two to
get into these roles. But then also you know, outside
of that, it's like to be the quote unquote thing

(48:00):
miskuy And And because some people treat it like that,
they kind of don't treat you like a person. It's
more like, oh, I've seen that person and a thing,
and I'm just gonna approach them with their wife and kid,
and I'm you know, I'm gonna be I've seen it
happen sometimes and I've been like, makes me a bit uncomfortable.
Maybe people are out for a meal or something and
people just kind of come in and I get it,
they're excited and they feel like it's my one chance

(48:21):
to see this person. But is it difficult to juggle?
You know, because I think people forget again. It's like
there's a there's a whole person, there's a whole life.
There's all these experiences that you're going through behind the
screen as well as trying to juggle all of that.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
There is a there is a there is a bit
of juggling. And I'm I'm I've been fortunate my whole
career that I've I've sort of flown underneath the radar
that I can go I can go to a grocery
stores and shop and and people will come up to
me from time to time. They're usually very polite and

(49:01):
you know, I loved you and demon n you know,
they'll whisper it so that not everybody can hear or
you know, or they'll or they'll ask for an autograph.
And I'm always and I try to be gracious about it.
I'm you know, I appreciate that they you know, I

(49:25):
appreciate that that they're fans, that they like what I did.
But I can't. I'm not in the same position that
Tom Cruise is in, or Denzel Washington is in, or saying,
you know, even Liam Nisan, I guess where you You can't.

(49:48):
You really can't go anywhere. You can't. You can't just
go to a ballgame or or go to the store.
There's you're gonna to be you know, you need you
know that I did. I did Julius Caesar in New

(50:09):
York with Denzel Washington a few years back, and and
he had to have a bodyguard. There had to be
a guy who would keep the fans, you know, just
just to get from the door of the theater over
to his car. And he was very gracious. He would

(50:31):
sign autographs for the people that waited in line. He
would sign every program for anybody that wanted it. But
when it was over, you know, when it was over,
it was over. And I want you know, I watched
him try to get from the door of the rehearsal
hall to his car, and you know, five different people

(50:57):
tried to attach themselves. You know, Oh my god, they're
like yelling and the commotion surrounding them that that I
don't I'm not ever I I uh, I guess I
like to think that I'm fortunate in that regard. I

(51:20):
can also have the other life. I can. I can
go to a hardware store and buy what I need,
and you know, and maybe someone will come up and
say something, and maybe someone won't. But but I don't

(51:41):
get no, I don't get it is it is a
juggle me because what you do, what you do for
a living, is very public. Yeah, it's red carpets, and
it's parties, and it's film openings, and it's you know,
it's on television every night. It's what you do is

(52:04):
very public. But I haven't. I've managed somehow to keep
my private my private life pretty private.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Do you think as well? That comes from having like
that close knit family and stuff, you know, and just
you guys kind of have your own life separate, that
there's no spillover, because I've heard of I've heard some
stories of people and it's like some people even credit
it with nearly ruining their personal life because it just

(52:39):
becomes so much, or they maybe get so into the art,
or things become just so crazy to just consume.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Stuff I can. Yeah, I'm sure it ruins lives, ruins
private lives, personal lives. You're you know, can you imagine
being married to somebody who you know, just twenty four
to seven, their their phone is going some it's an interview,

(53:07):
it's a it's a press thing, it's a movie opening,
it's they you're being you're a part of this person
that you're gonna you spend your life with. Being pulled
is constantly being pulled away to do this and do that,
and I have to have to go to London. Now

(53:29):
you know this movie and what have you and whatever.
You if it's your wife or your husband, you know,
if you want kids, they're in school, can't You're gonna
pull them all out of school and take them with
you to the set. You know, there is a there

(53:49):
is there is a juggling that goes on. I tried
to take I tried to take my family with me
whenever that was possible. I was gonna be in Mansfield,
Ohio all summer long to shoot Shawshank. They came. I
shot for the first month by myself so I could

(54:12):
establish the character, and then they came and enjoyed the
rest of the summer and we sort of we sort
of did it that way so I could include them
in the you know, I could include them somewhat. But yeah,

(54:34):
it is I can't even imagine what Tom Cruise or
people like that, people people with that much fame. I
don't know how.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Yeah, it seems like I don't know how you juggle
all of that.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
You just like, you know, you're not. They own you.
The audience gonna scream every time you step outside door
of your apartment and paparazzi, you know way you like
it isn't you're you don't have that. You don't have
a life anymore. You know, you don't have a private

(55:12):
life anymore. You belong to People magazine and podcasts in Ireland, and.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Which is when it gets weird, right, It's like it
gets weird, Yeah, but it is though. It's that thing
of like and you have to kind of remember that.
And sometimes I don't know, like people don't like some
of these questions, but I truly am kind of fascinated
with like we kind of sometimes forget as an audience member,
like this is a person you know, with with with

(55:45):
kids and with a family and with a you know,
we're seeing these characters and going, oh, you know he's
that person. I remember him this, I love him. I
want to tell him I love him so much really,
And it's like, you know, they have real people behind
the scenes. Is that something that I guess you know,
alongside your if you guys were always quite in tune
with like decisions for you know, okay, we're going to

(56:06):
do this, and you know you mentioned having a child,
and it's like I feel like if I was in
that position, i'd be worried about like, oh, you know, okay,
we've got the kid. You know, we're married and things,
and now what if I get pulled here and they
can't come, or what if?

Speaker 3 (56:19):
What if? This?

Speaker 2 (56:19):
Is that always something that you guys, I don't want
to say, sat down and talked about. But you know,
you're always kind of on the same tune.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
I guess, well, we weren't. We weren't always on the
same There were times when I want, I felt I
should go do this thing because it would be good
for my career, and she felt, you know, it wasn't
or or this is you know you're gonna miss and

(56:52):
I've missed birthdays, I've missed you know, dance recitals, I've missed.
You know, there are things there's a price, there's a
there's a price you pay. But most of the time
we would come to some we would discuss, we would

(57:15):
come to some agreement. You know, the money is this,
this is the amount of time that they need. So
I would fly out here and I would you know,
I could come back and you know, give her all,
give her, give her the money. This is you know, yeah,

(57:42):
she we weren't always on the same way length over
these things there. There was friction occasionally, but I mean
there I guess there's friction in any marriage. So yeah,
I'm not alone in that. We have to do any job,

(58:07):
any job that takes you away. You're a trucker, you know,
I'm I'm on the road. I've got that's my job.
I have to be gone, you know, I'm I'm going
to be on the other end of the country.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Yeah, And that's just the way it is.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
I'll see you in a few weeks for whatever, you know.
So there are yeah, there is that. There is always
that friction, and and you feel awful about the things
that you've missed. And there are lots of phone call
you know, that helps. Phone calls every night, say good

(58:46):
night to the kids and that sort of thing, and
then bring them out to the set, fly them up.
Kids love this nice because there's craft service and there's
free candy and there's free.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Yeah that's kinda be nice.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
And you know, and the other actors in the show
make a fuss over the over your children and set
them up with a headphone so they can watch dad
to this scene and whatever, you know, and let let
them let them be involved as much as they can.

(59:24):
I think that's I think that helps a lot. You know,
that's what my dad does.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
Yeah, yeah, which I mean it's a pretty cool thing
to have dad to do, to be honest. Yeah, someone
told me before you know, and you're saying about sacrifices
and things, and someone once told me about you know,
it's there's always going to be a trade off and
always going to be a sacrifice, and you know, in
a way you kind of have to try and look
at it from the point of view, well, if I'm

(59:52):
in a position to kind of choose what my sacrifice is,
it's probably a better place to be than have somebody
choose it for you, as in having no choice of
being able to do that and and to go to
move forward to now, I guess what what what excites
you now?

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
What what keeps you? I feel like a lot of
people would would look at you and go, you know,
you've you've done it all. It's like, why don't you
just right off into the sunset and just you know,
sit on the sit on the porch and just like
enjoy what what is it?

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Is? It?

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Truly just a passion for what you've always done that
kind of keeps that that fire burning where you're like,
I'm not finished. I don't want to, you know, I
don't want to hang it up. It's just something that
I still enjoy.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
I spent my entire childhood running around the barn where
I grew up, diving out of the hayloft with a
baby gun and coming up firing and making up since
making up you know story, it's it's been doing it.

(01:01:04):
Doing this is one of the most fun things and
creative things that I can imagine. I still enjoy it,
and I'm probably better at it now than I was
when when I start. I mean not probably, I'm sure
I am. I know more, I know more about myself.
I know I have more I have more crayons in

(01:01:27):
my box than I ever used to have, and I'm
not at all afraid to use them. But I so
some of it is just that it's fun. It's more
fun now, which is ironic because you know, you're you know,

(01:01:49):
your legs heard and your you don't have the energy
that you used to add or now you know, and
more wrinkles. But the other thing that I like, if
I couldn't, if I couldn't act again, if somebody said
you can never do this, again, that's that's the end

(01:02:12):
of it. I would focus on my songwriting and my poetry.
I've been writing poetry, I've been writing short stories. I've
been writing and I've been writing and recording songs. I've
been doing that for ages and ages since the nineties.
And I found I put on an album, William Sadler

(01:02:34):
The Kitchen Tapes. You can get which your audience if
you want to check it out. It's on iTunes, on Spotify,
on you know, pull music. It's all over the place. However,
if you go to the real Williamsadler dot com and

(01:02:56):
clicks music the real Williamsadler dot com, then I will
send you the c D and the money goes to
Saint Jude's Children's Hospital for Kids, Cancer Hospital for Children. Wow,

(01:03:18):
I don't I don't make any money on it at all.
In fact, I lost it's spent. I spent a lot
of money making it. But it's but they're all but
there are songs, and they're songs that I they're funny,
and they're sweet, and some of them are romantic and
some of them are and you know body and but

(01:03:43):
it's a great but that's a fun album and there's
an and there's another one in the works. I have
another album's worth of songs that I've recorded that are
getting ready to I'm getting ready to put out a
second a second album. But way William Sadler, The Kitchen
Tapes is the name of it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
For everybody listening. The links will be down below in
the description, so I'll make that really easy for everybody.
You won't actually have to go on killings will be
down below. I'm fascinated by that because I find a
lot of times when I talk to people who are into,
you know, the arts and creative things, they always have
these other passions as well to kind of align with
the creative mind, much like you mentioned, you know, music, poetry,

(01:04:26):
short stories, and I love hearing that and hearing that
you can really feel the passion even though we're miles
and miles and miles apart, you can like feel that
passion and that care. Do you feel like as well?
That that's something that's kind of I guess kept you
younger and more energized than maybe you know. You would

(01:04:49):
see some people and they just kind of, I don't
want to say give up on life, but it I
don't know it breeds life into you and it makes
you kind of a little bit excited, and you can
do something. I mean, to give that money to Saint Jude's.
You know, that's another thing that there's I'm sure there's
lots of people out there. There's lots of producers and

(01:05:10):
different things. I'm sure that if they hared that would
be like, no, William, we can just make money and
we can just not do that, you know, and to
do something like that true the passion of it, and
then to just hand it somewhere else and go, you know,
you take that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
I think. I think being you have to keep you,
You have to remain created. You have to keep learning.
That's if there's any secret to this at all, is
you have to keep learning. I inherited my mom's piano
that her parents' water in nineteen thirty five. I have

(01:05:46):
I can't play the piano, but I'm trying to teach
myself so piano. You know, at this age, I'm never
gonna play Rockman and Off, you know, I'm never gonna
you know, it's but this but the act of creating, right,
those write those poems, it doesn't matter, if it doesn't

(01:06:09):
matter if they ever get published, you know, write them
and share them with your family if you want to.
The songs. I love the fact. I love the money
that comes in for Saint Jude's. That seems perfect. I
don't want, I don't I don't need another career. I

(01:06:31):
don't want another career as a singing star. But the
songs are fun, and the songs, the songs are pretty,
and and I have wonderful violinists and guitar players and
a piano guy that used to play for John Lennon.
I get, you know, I get some wonderful musicians to

(01:06:54):
play underneath the songs that I've written so that they're
fun to listen to. Yeah, I think that's I think
that that thing that you keep creating you keep I
think it does keep you young. You know, I have

(01:07:16):
a porch. I have a porch with rocking chairs. You know.
I haven't used it yet. Yeah, I haven't had I
haven't had time to sit in them and just oh no,
rest rest on my laurels. I don't know. I don't

(01:07:41):
know how many years I have left, or or maybe
it's months, you know, who the who the hell knows?
But creating the roles that I've created is the most
fun stuff I've ever done. Create creating these songs and
getting them recorded with people that can play and make

(01:08:04):
them sound great. That's fun, you know. If I if
I'm you know, I think it does. I think I
really think it keeps your brain alive. Yeah, it keeps
you looking forward and looking out and not and not

(01:08:24):
closing off and closing off and closing off until you're.

Speaker 2 (01:08:29):
You know, And I love want to hear that because
it's it's quite infectious, I think. And it's it has
nothing to.

Speaker 4 (01:08:36):
Do with age or where you're at in your career
or if you've even you know, there's lots of people
out there that maybe tried to do something and it
didn't work out and they ended up having to just
you know, accept that and change to something else and whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
But I think when when you hear somebody like yourself
talk so like, like genuinely and kind of raw, it's
it's quite infectious for other people to go, oh, okay, well,
so I don't have to just pack it up then
and say, well, you know, that excited, kind of maybe childish,
naive part of me has to go away now when

(01:09:11):
I just have to be like, you know, plot along.

Speaker 3 (01:09:15):
No, you carry you get keep your keep your childhood
in your pocket and take it out and play with it.
You have you have to keep playing. That's all you
have to You know, it doesn't matter. I'll never be
a published you know, poet Laurie, you know whatever. If

(01:09:36):
that happened, that would be icing on the cake. That
what was the really fun part was was the creation.
You know. Everything Anything that happens after that is is
just gravy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:52):
I have one or two more questions for I let
you go. Did you ever consider did you ever consider?

Speaker 3 (01:09:58):
This?

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
Sounds like it such sounds such a pretentious thing to
maybe ask someone as well. But the idea of like,
I don't know, like telling your life story in and
not so much in a vain way, but maybe more
much like I feel like this conversation over the last
hour has kind of done. I'm sure I know I
have and I can guarantee that multiple other people I

(01:10:19):
will get messages going. You know that that thing that
William said really resonated with me, or that story he
told about that thing really made me feel good.

Speaker 3 (01:10:27):
So it will be give me a few more minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
Okay, okay, no, you're fine, you know, and I asked
that question, not from anything to do with money, to
do with you know, trying to be vain or trying
to be like, oh, you should listen to my life
story because it's so great. But I feel like a
lot of people could take a lot of things, maybe
from from some of your like life experiences.

Speaker 3 (01:10:52):
I have I ever considered, Yeah, like writing a memoir.
I've thought about it, and there is something that feels
just a little pretentious about it. There are things that
I could say there. I have thought about it. I haven't.

(01:11:12):
I haven't attempted it. I haven't. I haven't sat down
and started out, you know, this is my childhood or
this is my you know, this is how how my
acting career started. I don't know. I guess I'm I've

(01:11:33):
been too busy doing.

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
It, which is a god complaint, I guess.

Speaker 3 (01:11:38):
So maybe that's a maybe that's a good excuse. I'm uh,
it would be it would be interesting, I guess to
some some petty might find it interesting. I like biographies
of the people that I admire. M hm. I enjoy
I enjoy reading the strange things that happened along the

(01:12:01):
way that made them who they are, and you know,
Mylon Brando and all in these people that have had
extraordinary careers or done amazing things on film. But I haven't.
I haven't yet succumb to the the need to write

(01:12:22):
a memoir. A memoir I've thought about writing. I've thought
about acting and this and this also feels a little pretentious,
but talk but talking about acting in you know, things
that I've learned along the way that might help young

(01:12:44):
actors not make this, not make the mistakes that I
than I'm me. Maybe that's a better way to approach it.
I thought, I've thought, well, maybe I could do a
memoir of it was really about, you know, no kind

(01:13:08):
of a sort of sort of a how too about
acting as well as just a list of And then
this happened to me, and then this happened to me,
and then this happened to me.

Speaker 2 (01:13:20):
Yeah, because I definitely, I don't know just from just
from speaking with you and I I just from my
own personal I definitely think there's a lot of things
that people would take from something like that. And maybe
it seems a little bit again and maybe that comes
across like the the audience owning you, even the suggestion
of something like that. But I feel like that there's
you know, there's probably a lot of good that could

(01:13:41):
come from that four other people, much the same as
you mentioned, like with the music and stuff. I think
when people hear things like that, some of that stuff
gets left behind and it's like, oh, you know, we
want to talk about this, we want to talk about
Bill and Ted, we want to talk about die Hard,
and then forget that. There's also these.

Speaker 3 (01:13:57):
Other things that are there like.

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
Might make people go, you know, I'll be okay, or
you know, maybe let me try that and maybe I'll
be okay with That's my version of it. I might
get it the way I want to live, but I'm
okay this way.

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
I think. I think that's a creative effort as well
that I just I just haven't gone there. I thought
about like a memoir or something, and if I'm going
to do it, I should do it before I forget
all this crap that I you know, a mind is

(01:14:33):
a terrible thing to waste, couldn't hm. And as this
stuff recedes into you know, it becomes fuzzier and fuzzier.

Speaker 2 (01:14:43):
And I'm sure there's a lot of it there. You've
probably lived.

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
The fish that I caught gets bigger and bigger every
time I tell the story. It's that kind of thing.
It's that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
Well, I mean, you've probably lived a hundred lifetimes in
not even one, so I guess that's a good thing.
The final question before I let you go is, you know,
I normally ask why horror? But I feel like that's
not that's very pigeonhole kind of question for for you
and for what you've done. Maybe I would maybe structure

(01:15:19):
it as like more of the medium of like why film?
What is it about the film industry and that way
of storytelling that you know, what does it mean to you?
I suppose from your creative aspect, but then also as
a maybe an audience member as well, Why do you
think it resonates?

Speaker 3 (01:15:35):
I think will film? Film was a big part of
my growing up. I was I was you know when
I watched when I watched those movies that I watched,
you know, Ben her and you know the man who
shot Liberty Valance and Jason and the Argonauts and now

(01:15:57):
these movies from back in the fifties and growing up,
these people all seemed larger than life. They all just
it was magic. It was really magic to sit in
a dark room and go on this adventure with Jason
and the Argonauts or whatever. So there was there was that,

(01:16:17):
there was always a part of me that wanted to
be I wanted to I wanted to go on that adventure,
you know. I wanted to be a part of that adventure.
And that was the playing in the barn thing that
I did. I think I made up all. I made
up my own movie and I was acting. I've been rehearsing.

(01:16:38):
I've been rehearsing for this career my whole life. There's
also the legacy thing that you said, was this the
question is why filmed? Because film, for one thing, Film
goes on. It's going to go on long after I'm gone.

(01:16:59):
I think some of these films will still be worth watching.
And that's good and that's nice to know. That's like
you've left a little you know, you've left a little
mark somewhere people, you know, people will remember, or people's lives.
People will still laugh at Bill and Ted, you know,

(01:17:24):
years and years from now. The other thing about the
other thing about film, which I didn't I didn't know
when I started, was that you can there's a there's
a power in there's a power in film. I didn't.

(01:17:47):
I didn't Biloxi Blues on Broadway play on Broadway for
like a year and a half, eight shows a week,
sold out audiences. I think more people saw Demon Night
in the first two days that it opened then saw

(01:18:09):
that entire run of that play. More people saw one
episode of you know, CSI or what and then saw
a year and a half of play. So it has
a power it has and that's why that's that's why,

(01:18:31):
that's why the money, that's why, that's where the money
is because it reaches an audience or it can reach
an audience that is global. But the other thing is
in terms of acting, when the camera is, when the

(01:18:53):
camera is that close and it's a what I realized
was that all you all you really have to do.
There's this wonderful freedom there that all you have to
do is think the thing. All you have to do
is let the penny drop in your head and the

(01:19:17):
audience will see it in your eyes. And because of that, like,
I don't I don't have to make it all up
or go hmmm, you know, I don't have I don't
have to do it. I don't have to do anything
what I what I have to do is listen and

(01:19:38):
just and just be there, just be, just really be
there for the camera, and the camera will see this
world of stuff going on in my head, in the
character's head, that that is. That's hard to do. On stage.

(01:20:03):
You have eleven hundred people in the audience. It's hard
for them all to see the penny drop. You have
to you have to somehow make it bigger, somehow make it,
make make it clear to the people in the back row,
you know, whereas on film you can almost it's almost

(01:20:26):
like a novel. You can almost see the character thinking
and which is which is very powerful and it's really
I find it very freeing. There's like like it's like
there's this universe that's available to the actor if you
let yourself be there for the for the camera and

(01:20:49):
that and that's the big for me, the biggest difference
between film and theater is that that freedom, you know,
and the can yell cut. You know, they could say
I know that's enough, we get it, you know, and

(01:21:11):
or you can do it again, you know, mm hmm.
And I do enjoy film. It took me. It took
me two or three films to get that you I mean,
it's taken me a number of films to get the
hang of it. But but the more I understand about cameras,
the more I understand m H, what Walter Hill was

(01:21:36):
trying to tell me on my very first experience with cameras.
You know that this that this this just just a face.
You don't have to you don't have to show me
anything I can. You have to be there, that's all,

(01:21:59):
and camera will do the rest.

Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
I love that when it's been a pleasure and an honor.
You're a legend. You've been so gracious with your time
over the last couple of weeks. When I get this
thing lined up, and I do wish all the best,
and I genuinely mean it, I would love to stay
in touch, and I would love to do this again
at some point down the line. Like I said, I could,

(01:22:25):
being selfish, I could keep you here all day and
ask a million questions about you know, not anything to
even do with movies. That would fascinate me. And I
hope everyone else feels the same and take something from
this like I have for everybody listening. The links will
be down below in the description. I do implore people
to maybe check that out. And you know, and have

(01:22:46):
a look at that, because some of what you said
today really resonated with me. And I know there's you know,
some other stuff that life stuff that you have gone
through and that some of myself and other people have
gone through as well. And there's a you know, those
those little things that you might think that somebody takes
and goes. You know what, if that person can be okay,

(01:23:07):
maybe maybe I can be okay. And you know it's
it's it's kind of uh as weird as it sound,
it's comforting sometimes to feel that, which is nice. So
I I genuinely mean when I say it's been a
pleasure and an honor.

Speaker 3 (01:23:22):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
I've enjoyed it too, and right and write to me
off and back, Yes, of course, and I will and
I would love to have you back.

Speaker 3 (01:23:30):
You can do this again.

Speaker 2 (01:23:31):
I feel like, yes, I would love to. Like I said,
I wish all the best for the common year, and
I can't wait to see what's next.

Speaker 1 (01:23:40):
Thanks for listening to another episode of Class Horror Cast.
Stop the CHC podcast at Class horror cast dot com,
at first Class Horror, on Instagram to talk and YouTube,
or on Twitter and Class Underscore Horror. The CC podcast
is hosted and produced by Aaron Doyle

Speaker 3 (01:23:59):
And is an fc H production.