Creator to Creators S7 Ep 39 Nathan D. & D’Lytha Myers

Watch film here Aria Appleton Shines https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Aria-Appleton-Shines/0KQQSU3KV9JHQ6LC5HIBWUIXXS

 Bio
Nathan D Myers is an award winning Creator with Actor, Director and Designer credits. Nathan was the Lead Designer of the Capernaum Studios & Gardens project featured in seasons 1-3 of the global hit, episodic series The Chosen. He recently Production Designed the feature Matter of Time with Sean Astin (Premiering at DIFF this month) and in the process was sworn into the Goonies by “Mikey” himself! Nathan designed the flagship faith-based series County Rescue for Great American Pureflix, now in its second season. He recently held the position of Supervising Art Director on the Rick Eldridge Feature Florida Wild starring Aspen Kennedy, Mira Sorvino, Lee Majors, Chandler Riggs, & Bailey Chase. Nathan also has a small acting role in the film opposite Jonathan Schaech. Nathan is August 2025's Film Camp Director at Dallas Jenkins' The Chosen CHFA Film Camp at Camp Hoblitzelle. Nathan is also the Founder of Grafted Studios, Inc, and Co-Founder of the Fort Worth Actors Studio; As an Actor, he has been on stage and in numerous shorts, shows and several features. He recently guest starred in Vindication Season 4 E2 opposite Todd Terry and Julie K. Rhodes. As a Director, he has Directed several shorts and commercial pieces but he was also the Director of the multiple award winning (including the ICVM Gold Crown Award Feature Comedy Aria Appleton Shines– Releasing this year! He also wrote all six original songs within the very musical movie, and co-wrote additional songs with his biological brothers, The Myers Brothers, songs now attached to the movie. As an Author, Nathan has penned screenplays, commercials, songs, poems, and the upcoming Artist-Unblocking book for Actors and Creatives, Acting Dangerously, emotional memory and PTSD. Nathan is a homeschool Dad of two clever kids and married to the beautiful and talented 
Bio 
D’Lytha Myers. D’Lytha Myers is a homeschool mom of a 12 year old daughter and 3 year old son, the Director of Fort Worth Actors Studio, and is the Creator and a Producer of the feature film, Aria Appleton Shines. Prior to bringing forth tiny humans into the world, she was a full time stage and screen actress. She started in 2002 at Casa Mañana, a regional theatre in Fort Worth, as a Resident Actor and teacher. A few of her favorite roles have been in Man of La Mancha (Antonia), Oklahoma! (Gertie), and Roger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Cinderella), as well as the feature film Rain (starring Academy Award winner Faye Dunaway). She has a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from The University of Oklahoma, an M.A. in Drama from Texas Woman’s University, and studied abroad at The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland. In her not-so-spare time, she sits on her couch and marvels at God’s sense of humor for giving her a three year old boy in her mid-40’s. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
If you love entertainment, current events, and Hollywood, do miss
Creator to Creators Hosted by the filmmaker Mio Shabine, known
for the shutter Hit documentary or Noir and the acclaimed
film Anatomy of an Anti Hero Redemption. This show features
interviews with filmmakers and creatives from around the globe. Join

(00:25):
the fun with guest celebrities and gain valuable insights. Subscribe
now and follow Creator to Creators.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi, guys, welcome to another episode of Creators to Creators. Today,
today we have a special guest.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hey everybody, I'm Nathan D.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
Myers and I'm DELIGHTA. Myers.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Welcome, Welcome, Thank you guys for coming on.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Thank you, yeah, thanks for having us.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Absolutely. You know, I love going back to the beginning.
I always say the beginning chart our trajectory in life, right,
our little habits we pick up along the way, follow,
listen to our adulthood. Tell me a little bit about
your childhood was was you know, how did you guys
get into the entertainment world.

Speaker 5 (01:09):
Yeah, so I started out in the sticks in.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
East Texas where there was.

Speaker 5 (01:16):
A small town and I lived on a huge farm
for me, a huge farm. I mean, we had like
one hundred acres, and I was an only child, so
I was left to my imagination. I watched a lot
of nineties like Kids Incorporated and Mickey Mouse Club, and
so that really influenced me in just wanting to perform.

(01:37):
And so growing up, I would perform for my parents.
I would bring them into my room and I had
a trundle bed and I would pull the bottom tundle out,
so I had like a two tier stage.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
And I would write my own musicals.

Speaker 5 (01:50):
And you know, I had like a synthesizer keyboard, so
i'd make some beats and I would.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
Come up with lyrics and I would perform my heart out.
And so that's how I grew up.

Speaker 5 (02:00):
And then finally we moved to a bigger town in
late elementary school, and they just had a great arts community,
and I had some amazing teachers and great friends who.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
We just created together. We did a theater, we'd a choir.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
And so that's that's how I got my start.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, And I am a preacher's kid to me too.
Oh that's cool. Pks. And when I was little, my
dad was moving around a lot. He was kind of
trying to find his place. I think in ministry. He
actually got to start as a barber and a cert
and doing surgical hair replacement, which is, you know, an

(02:45):
unusual thing, and then he got a very serious call
into ministry. When I was in early elementary school and
so we bounced around a lot. But like Delitha We,
I was in the woods playing with sticks a lot
and left to my own imagination. We didn't have a
lot of money or toys to play with. And I

(03:06):
think because of that early imagination stimulation, I spent a
lot of time drawing and painting and playing with Plato,
and you know that was and I was not terribly
interested in sports and things like that, so I spent
a lot of time doing visual art and reading. In
junior high I got involved in acting a little bit

(03:29):
and had always been singing in the church with the family,
and so there was always a music component to life.
And and then by high school I was doing musical
theater and I was that kid who was in the show.
And then I would take my take my tap shoes
off and stick around and help paint the set post rehearsal,

(03:53):
and got interested in scenic painting, and so when people
ask me today what I'm doing, And I say, well,
I'm I'm an actor who's also a scenic and so
acting often kind of implies that you probably sing. Most
actors probably sing, so so yeah, I've just I've been

(04:14):
one of those Swiss army knife artists for a lot
of years, and that led into the film space in
two thousand and five, and a film for me was
just a new idea post having done a lot of
theater and live theater and just kind of got bitten

(04:35):
by the film bug thinking about how music and visual
art and acting and story and everything really kind of
came together, and I got super fascinated, and I haven't
really looked back. I've done less and less live theater

(04:55):
since those years. Since in and then I've dragged to
Delitha along into the film space to a little bit
to her chagrin.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
But how'd you guys meet?

Speaker 5 (05:09):
Yeah, we met back in two thousand and two and
we were both hired as musical directors for a children's
musical theater summer camp. And so he was off singing
and playing with his brothers because they were in a
boy band and they were touring, and.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
So the director, Deborah she I had just.

Speaker 5 (05:30):
Moved there to Fort Worth from New York because I had,
you know, I'd gotten my degree musical theater, and what
do you do.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
You go to New York so you can be a
Broadway actress.

Speaker 5 (05:40):
But I didn't like living in New York, so I
moved back to Texas. And within a month of moving back,
I got hired at a regional theater where I got
my equity card, which is you know, the stage union.
And then I met Nathan. And so Deborah had said,
I we usually have this guy named Nathan do the
musical direction, but he's off with his brother is doing touring,

(06:02):
you know, touring the the nation, and so we do
need a musical director.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
So she hired me.

Speaker 5 (06:07):
And then there a couple of the weeks of July
for their tour got got canceled or book pushed or something,
and so he did come, and she said, you know what,
he's coming now, and I really think you're gonna like him.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
It's true. She told me the same thing. And and
I had called just say, hey, our touristman pushed, is
there any chance I can still come to camp? Because
camp's just fun? And so I was like, man, I
really want to be at camp and and she's she
told me the same thing. Well, I hired this girl,
but I think you're really going to like her. Go
think of it. And and that's where we met. We

(06:45):
met under the chandelier at the Scott Theater and for Worth.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Wow, amazing, amazing, and where the rest was history. As
they say, So, when did when did like, you know,
obviously you're both so talented, when did you guys like
kind of come together and say, let's let's create together.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
That's that's a great question, because it really we were
in living separate creative lives for a lot of years.
Even she was a, like she said, an actor in
a regional theater, and I did maybe one project with
Cosumnyana across ten years. Otherwise I was touring with the guys,

(07:33):
or I was working for Kids who Care the other
the other children's theater and for Earth, or I was
working on a movie project somewhere, or I just I
had my own stuff going on and she did too.
And then and we had a mutual appreciation for one another,
I think, and I think I lived a little bit
vicariously through her at times when she's doing theater and

(07:57):
I was not, because you know, there's kind of that.
I think a lot of people who act appreciate that feeling,
like you'll go watch a show and you'll go, I
want to do that, you know, I want to be
up there. I want to get on that stage. I
want to experience that. And so sometimes it's the envy
factor for artists is real, Like you you see people

(08:20):
performing and like, I really want to. I wish I
could do that right now. It looks so much fun.
And so I lived a little vicariously through her in
some of those years, and and then I I was
just kind of investigating other things. Film in particular kind
of took my interest in two thousand and five, and
that was right in the middle of her decade of

(08:42):
of acting, and that that film project was one where
a friend said, hey, I want to cast you in
this movie and I went, oh, okay, yeah, I've always
wanted to do that, but I don't live in Hollywood
and I haven't really pursued that. And we read the script.

(09:05):
The script was not great, but it was one of
those times when it well, you think about it, it's
pre it's pre self tapes, it's pre cell phones with cameras,
it's pre that era. So if you if you had
an opportunity to be in a movie or something like that,
you probably jumped on it because it was it was
likely the only opportunity to get some demo reel or clips,

(09:28):
and and that was actually the justification at that point.
She said, well, you need to do that just so
you can get the demo reel out of it, And
that was kind of the beginning for me. I got
involved and did the movie and had a lot of
fun doing it, and like on all movies for me
in my career, I'm booked as an actor, but I'm

(09:50):
probably if I'm not in costume, well maybe even if
I am already in costume and I have thirty minutes
or an hour or two hours to wait, I'm probably
over in our department dueling around painting something or trying
to help, just because I'm fascinated by that too.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
So I think, so how.

Speaker 5 (10:10):
We came together, there's two parallels for that. One is,
you know, we had a daughter, and so like our
world changed when that happened. And so right after I
had her, I went back to the stage and I
was in a show and I hated it.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
I was so guilty I just felt so guilty being
away from her.

Speaker 5 (10:31):
And they've changed the rules since this time, but at
that moment, Equity had the rule where you had two
days where you'd worked ten out of twelve hours for
tech and that's a long day when you have a
five month old at home.

Speaker 4 (10:45):
Oh yeah, and so I just the guilt was real.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
And so after that show, I said, I'm not going
to do this anymore for a while, and then I haven't.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
That was the last time I did that, that was
a while ago.

Speaker 5 (10:56):
And so in that moment, I had a pivot shift.
And in that same kind of moment, he had this
moment where he was brought back because he was he
was trying to step away from film in that moment
when we had that daughter, that one and uh, but
he was whipped back into the into the film space.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
But he didn't know what project it was going to be.

Speaker 5 (11:20):
And so for these we have these two parallel moments
that really kind of brought us together.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
And yeah, I know that it was probably inevitable. It's funny,
like I always wanted to do something with her, and
we had opportunity a couple of times to do some
musical theater or or or perform together because we would
we would perform it church occasionally, like we might sing

(11:49):
a duet, or we might lead worship together from time
to time, or with a group that was leading worship,
and so we we had these kind of opportunities to
work together at different points, and I think that satisfied
a little bit of it. I always wanted it to
be more than that, as I got more confident with
the idea that we're going to make movies and things

(12:10):
like that. But that was twenty fourteen, and yeah, we
had just had the baby, and I was feeling really
cynical and jaded. And as a filmmaker, I bet you
probably relate to this feeling to some degree. Where you
can get on a project with people and the energy
of that project and the people that you're hanging out

(12:32):
with can drain you. And it's not why you got
into film. You know, you or into the creative space
and you hope that you'll get involved in something that
will stimulate you and fill you with a lot of
creative bliss. But film can be rather ragged environment sometimes.
I came off of a big project recently and everybody

(12:54):
was like, how was it? And I said, that's the
saltiest group of film pirates I've ever worked with, you know,
and you feel that way sometimes, And I was feeling
that way in twenty fourteen and started praying about what
do I do Do I I've had a baby, Do
I make a career change. Do I need to just
just stop all this nonsense and go get a corporate

(13:16):
job and go get a soul deadening job? Do I
need to go do that? The irony was I was
feeling a little deadened in my soul after having done
a lot of the film stuff too. I was just
it was it was ill motivated some of it. I
was bouncing around, just kind of taking whatever work I
could get. And so I got really honest before the

(13:39):
Lord and just said what do you want me to do?
And I've never had such maybe a moment of disclosure
and clarity where I got a very clear message, which
was I want you to sell your house, sell your truck,
and you know I've got something for you to do.
And it terrified me because I'm a PK. And I

(13:59):
was like, oh no, It's like is Lord, Is Lord
going to put me in a pulpit somewhere? Or am
I going to have to preach because I have this
kind of construct, you know, if you've as the expectation
of how things might look. But uh, to make that
long story shorter, we that all culminated ultimately in this

(14:23):
this kind of opportunity to work together, where we sold
the house, we went away. We prayed about what to
do for a while, and then six weeks into that
season and I had job applications out all over the universe,
but nothing was popping, nothing was happening. And then I

(14:46):
looked at her one day and I said, you know
what we're doing, right She said, oh, yeah, I know.
We're making a movie. And and we went back to
Texas kind of We had left Texas for a minute,
just I think for the need for a change. And
but the call was really clear for both of us

(15:06):
after we sat and prayed about it for a while,
was get back into the space, don't leave the film space,
Get get back involved, make something, but keep me in mind.
That was the That was really the impetus and so
and end of life of it. And I we conceived

(15:29):
that project together. We have borne it across its entire
life cycle at this point together, and it's been challenging
and difficult.

Speaker 5 (15:43):
It's been the process. I mean, so we started making
the movie, you know, from the writing standpoint when we
had this you know baby.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
I think it started when she was about eight months
old right now, Oh wow, Wow, she's twelve now. Wow,
it's taken this long.

Speaker 5 (15:57):
And like we've had these two kids this whole time.
We've had our movie Aria Appleton and we've had our
own daughter Amura.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
They've gone through.

Speaker 5 (16:04):
Lots of similar, similar cycles, similar things. You know, Wow,
post production hit, you know, and we're having to raise
her just like we're having to raise you know at
that moment, like a four year old.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
Yeah, she's had some tantrums. So does the movie.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
That's incredible. I mean, wow, talk about you know. I
I love that about like you got up and you
didn't question you know, the call. Like I feel like,
you know, when God does give us these instructions, it's
like do we you know, we're we don't see down
the road and around the corner. But it's just that
that's where that faith comes in. It's like, Okay, God,

(16:45):
I trust that you got us and you made this
amazing project that I feel like is so important for
today's time that we're living in you know, there's not much,
you know, nowadays, there's there's just a lot, you know,
kids can't really like there's not really clean, good faith
based projects out there that is funny and that has

(17:06):
you know, talked about these things. But you know, it's
so it's refreshing to see something like this that you've
done in this time because it's the world is crazy
right now. So thank you for making something so great.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, thank you, thank you for the affirmation we you know,
we asked ourselves at that point, well what because we
weren't given what to make? It was just go make something.
And that's the that's the beauty of the free will
that God gives us to to go and take what
we have and create. And and I wish there were
more people in faith based who felt that freedom to

(17:46):
just set them to set themselves loose and free. And
because I know many many people in the faith based market,
and they would admit, because I've been on panels with
them when we're talking about writing and the the motivation
behind a project, and many of them as I want

(18:07):
to know, we we look at the market, We think
about what the market needs, We think about what people
will actually buy. We figure out who we're going to
cast in advance, and we try to go target those
actors because we think they'll help sell that project. And
so everything is is a contrivance, like a developed product

(18:28):
for the marketplace. And there's not necessarily anything wrong with that,
but you but there are people who would argue that
that's not art, that that's something we that's a factory
manufactured product or something like that. And so and I
know for our part, we as as artists just wanted

(18:51):
to make something that was good, like we just we
don't know what it is. We don't know what is
it that we can make that would be really good,
and and the and we said and talked. The only
thing we really talked about was what are some genres
and movies we really love that that might be interesting
if you, you know, if we could show them to

(19:12):
our kids. And we were talking about mean girls and
Ferrispeeler and campy public school movies at some point thinking
these are kind of guilty pleasure movies for ourselves that
we grew up with. But but we can't show that
stuff to our kids in good conscience right now. And
when they're adults, they can look at that if they want.
But but that was kind of the the first conversation

(19:36):
about what what would we make. It's like, well, if
it was us, we probably make some comedy and it'll
be some campy public school.

Speaker 5 (19:43):
Movie or music because we love Yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
That's kind of how it started. In the length of
time that it took us to make what we did, well,
that's that's a story within itself.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah, because like you guys wrote all six original songs, right,
Nathan right here, Holy moly amazing.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, yeah, thanks. That was an afterthought too. It was like, well,
let's just let's how do we how can we make
this as fun for ourselves as possible as artists, you know,
so gotta make this it's fun for us and we
know kids and you know people will will eat that up.

Speaker 5 (20:25):
So yeah, and Aria, our main character, she escapes into
her mind when she can't really handle reality, you know,
she just escapes into that fantasy. And so it was
a great tool to be able to insert some big
musical numbers that I love without it stopping or hindering
the story. It just kind of adds to in a

(20:46):
very natural way.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yeah, and some story elements people might expect to see
told as narrative actually are told through song, and so
some of those story components and transitions and things that
you might normally see, you know, as part of a
traditional narrative sequence or something, are told in the in

(21:11):
the in the music.

Speaker 5 (21:13):
A lot of the themes in the movie too, like
cyberbullying or you know, using technology for good, those things
just happened organically. You know, we didn't sit and go,
what are like weeen's dealing with right now? You know,
it just came about naturally, and now we're so thankful
that it did because it is such a hot topic

(21:33):
and it's really relevant.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Yeah. In fact, there's a we jokingly at that point,
because we wrote it in twenty fourteen, started shooting it
in twenty fifteen, posted it in sixteen and seventeen, and
then went to festival and then put it back in
post in twenty twenty, right as the pandemic just imploded

(21:58):
and knocked everybody's legs out from none of them for
a while Island. It took two years to to get
it reposted and back to festival, and so it's been
a long a long process for us and working on
a shoe string, but the the ultimate process of getting

(22:18):
the the the music installed, and the component parts of
that were they were very naturally naturally or they were organic.

Speaker 4 (22:32):
They were organic.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
I love that. I love that it was organic. What
was the most surprising or like joyful moment during the
making of this movie?

Speaker 3 (22:51):
Hmmm, Wow, There's so many. There was. It was so
much fun, so much fun to make people say never
work with kids and animals, and I we did both
and we had so much fun. I'm not sure I
agree with that that old adage because it was so

(23:14):
much fun for us. I would do it again in
a heartbeat. Does it present challenges? Yes, In fact, you know,
we had we had kids that were local to us,
to our market that we were utilizing. That we're only
available on weekends and evenings and Christmas break and things
like that. So it was it presented scheduling challenges, But
from just a pure joy standpoint, I mean, for me.

Speaker 4 (23:37):
There are so many moments.

Speaker 5 (23:38):
But I think because it was the culmination of everything
I've studied, for everything I've you know, been doing for
so long. So one of one of our shoot days,
we were at a big, mega church because we needed
a big stage and we needed to be able to project,
Aria Appleton behind her, and so we had a huge cast.

(24:01):
I had like all the children I'd ever worked with
from children's theater there.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
I had sent out dancing choreography videos to these kids.

Speaker 5 (24:09):
Days in advance, where I'm hoping that they're watching these
YouTube videos of me going and five six night, And
so we show up and all these kids are there.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
They're so excited.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
They all know their choreography, they know how to mouth
the words because you know, we've pre recorded the song
and they have to sing along to it. And you know,
we're doing this big chorus line sort of dance where we,
you know, think a chorus line, but we're quirky about it,
and so I really I've told the kids bring fun shoes,

(24:42):
house shoes, boots, whatever. So We're doing this big chorus
line number with all these crazy shoes, with kids from
ages seven to you know, fifty years old, and just
putting it all on camera. And I've gotten you know,
one and a half year old on my hip and
I'm just saying that, you know, it just was that

(25:05):
to me was one of those beautiful moments because it
was just everything I've worked for ye together that day one.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Of my favorite joyful moments was it was really watching
the provision of God through the process for us because
it was a very five loaf, two fish endeavor and
we were just amazed by when we would when we

(25:34):
swallowed that and we were like, Okay, great, we're going
to have to make this with five loaves and two fish.
That's how we God was teaching us how to do
something we needed to understand about that principle that that parable,
and as soon as we would take a step, some
crazy thing would happen and resources and people and relationships

(25:57):
and doors just stuff started opening for us. That was
teaching us how to trust, teaching us how to walk
and walking in faith while making art. And one of
my favorite moments though, was a moment of sheer terror.
We were on set with a hundred kids and all

(26:18):
of our crew and our DP, who is a wonderful guy,
but we had asked too much of him and he
had over committed himself and he would agree. He comes
up to us that morning and he says, I can't
be here today. I'm gonna lose and he had another job.
He's like, I'm about to lose my job, and it

(26:40):
was an awkward circumstance for us. It was like a
Christmas break shoot. And you know, several people were off work,
but some people weren't, and and and he had to go.
And he just left. And the producers and several friends
were standing around and they all looked at me and
they said, what just happened? Where'd you go? And I said, well,
we just lost camera, and you know, the entire camera

(27:04):
kit left. And and one of our producers, Jason Davidson,
was standing there with a friend of his, who's a
guy named Dean Davis. He was the worst. He's a
media arts minister at the Hills Church in North Richland Hills, Texas.
And Jason said, wait what we've lost camera? Oh no,
and you know the sky is falling for a moment

(27:26):
for everybody. And Dean said, what do you need? And
we said, we just lost camera and he said, give
me a second, and he went to his car and
he came back in with two Sony fs seven hundreds,
like an angel with two wings, walking down the hallway
of this school where we were shooting. And I watched

(27:46):
him coming in the door and I had this this
very spiritually charged, almost existential moment of joy, right where
where it's kind of hard to explain, where you see
what appears to be this hopeless situation and you go, oh, no,

(28:08):
this is going to be this is all disaster. We
are at the we are at the Red Sea, and
the Egyptians are about to pounce, and the sea parted
and and then Dean stayed on as our as our
DP for another fifty days and it was a crazy

(28:29):
cool miracle. But things like that happened throughout the entire
process and we're so exhilarating, scary at times, but but
the but the joy factor that replaces that terror, uh,
was was really really fun And I probably have twenty

(28:50):
stories like that, but that's one of my favorites.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
That's amazing, that's incredible. Wow. When does this come out everywhere?
Or is it going to be on you know, yeah,
it's out. It's already out everywhere right now.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
It's out on Prime And that's our that is our
current distribution channel. Because we've had offers for distribution from
some people. We've had several None of them were tenable,
some of them were criminal, some of them were okay,

(29:31):
but they really weren't going to be able to do
much more for us. Than we could do for ourselves, right,
And so we hit a wall in January after kind
of walking away from our last offer that we found
to be untenable for us. And I looked at her

(29:52):
and I said, I think we have to at least
begin with self distribution. I'm not sure why why we're
being cornered and to this position this way, but I
think that's probably what we have to do. And of course,
you know, this last year and a half, we've been
watching all the strikes and all the tumult in Hollywood
and thousands of friends leaving in LA and just like

(30:15):
there's something and know and knowing things are unstable, something
is wrong, you know, something's not something is changing and
so to and I've described people will be like, well,
what was that distribution off you got from so and
so like, and I'll say, well it was rabid. It
felt rabid, Like they're foaming at the mouth, and you
know this is a dying something's changing, and and you know,

(30:39):
it's like, well we can't go that direction. Well what
direction do we go? You turn around and go, well,
if not that, then what And the Lord's just staying there,
going yeah, go over there, and you're like it's darkness,
I can't see over there. I don't know how to
move that direction. But as soon as we committed to
self distribution, we realized we were one of the very last,

(31:03):
one of the very last accounts set up with Prime
Direct that then is now called Amazon Slate, and no
one can get in. The doors have been closed. Amazon
has closed the gate, and independent filmmakers cannot load their
movies up to Prime Direct anymore as of sometime earlier

(31:26):
this year, and we realized we're actually in the door,
but the door is closed. We already had the account
set up and so but then of course we were
looking at the marketing of it, going well, how do
we market this? It's actually one of the reasons that
we kind of decided to go on our own was
that some of the distributors they well, none of the

(31:47):
distributors were going to market anything. They were just going
to put it in a couple of places. We were
going to be left to have to do our own
promotion regardless. And so we thought, well, if we're going
to have to do the promo regardless, why don't we
just drive traffic to a single location. And it's funny,
it was another another test for us because as soon
as we came to that conclusion and said, well, we've

(32:10):
got we probably need to do this on our own,
but with what money are we going to buy marketing?
We have felt like we had exhausted most of our
EPs and our friends and people that had helped us
along the way. We did not feel good going back
to ask people for any additional help for the marketing
of the project. And uh, but as soon as we

(32:31):
made the decision, we looked at each us said we've
got to We've got to do this on our own,
and we need to use this platform that we have
through Amazon to at least start the process to get
the ball rolling. And the next day, the very next day,
the door opened for the money to buy some marketing,
and so we went, you know, that's that moment you go, oh, okay,

(32:54):
I get it. I get it. Lord, It's like and
I don't understand completely, but I get it, and I'm
just going to keep going that direction. So that's that's
how we've ended up at Prime Video. And the soundtrack
is also available at iTunes, Apple Music, and Amazon Music

(33:15):
for people that want to go check that out too.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Amazing, that's incredible what message do you want, you know,
with this film people, the viewers to walk away with.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
I'm sure Nathan will come up with a better answer,
because deep, deep one in this relationship. But I would
love for people to sit down with their families on
like a Friday night and get back to just, you know,
a weekly routine. We're on Friday nights, we spend time
together if even if we haven't had time throughout the week,
and we sit down and we watch a movie together
and then we talk about it, you know, because a

(33:51):
lot of times, you know, Hollywood will slip in messages
that we don't agree with, or we're not ready for
our nine year old to be introduced to some fix
or whatever, and we think it's a kid's movie, but
guess what, we're going to talk about this today and
so and it's even though I don't like it, I'm
okay having conversations with my.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
Kid because I get to guide her.

Speaker 5 (34:13):
And so, you know, sit down, watch this movie, watch
Aria Appleton with your family.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
We made a.

Speaker 5 (34:19):
Parent and leader's guide that accompanies the film. If you'd
like to check it out, it's at gives En Go
Backslash Aria Appleton and there's six chapters in it.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
We talk about honoring.

Speaker 5 (34:32):
Parents, talk about cyber bulleying, talk about dying to self,
right because we have this little girl who's all about
ego and all about self and so we have these
these themes that we talk about, and we have some
discussion points that you can talk with your family about.
And there's little worksheets that if you have little kids,

(34:53):
you know, they can do those worksheets while.

Speaker 4 (34:55):
You talk with your bigs about these topics.

Speaker 5 (34:58):
So, yeah, I would just love for fa Is to
to come together and enjoy, be entertained and have conversations together.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
I love that, love that.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Yeah, we also want kids and families to take one
of the primary themes of the movie, which Aria sings
the song called make good and uh. The challenge in
the film is how can we not be necessarily afraid
of technology and afraid of of social media or afraid

(35:32):
of AI or this is this conversation and how do
we how do we not give in to fear about
these things? But how do we take them for the kingdom?
How do you go and do good with those things
and allow those things to be a blessing and and
ensure that that that it's used for good. So that's

(35:53):
a that's another strong theme we'd like parents to consider
with their kids. And we're working on a document that's
got options for parents and suggestions around a what we're
calling and make a good challenge for families that will
accompany that leader's guide and that that's gonna try to

(36:13):
stimulate some creative thinking around the conversation, because there's a
lot of families that are scared of tech and they're worried. Yeah, there,
they feel guilty. Sometimes they feel ashamed, and one of
the worst things we can do to one another in
that conversation is make families feel ashamed about what they're
doing or not doing with that. Do some people need

(36:35):
to have a thirty day detox, probably, but and detox
from tech in their homes. Maybe they need to do that,
But I think it'd be more productive for people to
not have an anti approach to that. But let's think
proactively about how can we use tech for good and

(36:55):
obviously protect our kids from all the things they need
to be protected from, but how we teach the kids
to use something for good. I mean, a chainsaw could
be used for evil, but if we use it, you know,
you learn how to use it properly and for its purpose.
We can we can, you know, cut down forest and
build homes. It's a you know, so it's a everything

(37:21):
has a potential for evil, but how do we how
do we take that and make make it potential for good?
And so that's what that's what I'm hoping, at least
for on the family side. I hope from a filmmaking
side and a storytelling side, that we inspire people who
are writing and they want to write in the faith
space or the family space, or the kids space or

(37:42):
whatever they want to write in that I'm hoping that
what we've written will inspire them to think more out
of the box and and that they will start to
be more courageous about like parabolic storytelling, like Jesus's parables.
It sounds it sounds risky to say this, but and

(38:05):
I hope people understand the heart of what I mean
when I say this, but a parable is a piece
of fiction. It's it's just fiction. It's a It might
as well be a myth or a piece of lore
or Esop's fables, right, It's just a story. You know,
when Jesus was telling stories about the camel going through
the eye of a needle? Is that a literal story? Well, no,

(38:27):
it's a piece of interesting fiction that teaches a principle,
It teaches an idea, it teaches a concept. And so
I'm hopeful what people will see our film and go, oh,
there's some allegory there, there's some parable there, There's a
richness there that can be discussed and translated and families

(38:48):
can talk about it. And so I'm hoping maybe what
we're doing will inspire that space a little bit to
get out of the box.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
Absolutely, absolutely it it did. I enjoyed it. I definitely
enjoyed it. It was it was really fun. I love the ending,
the song was really cute. The number of this Little
Light of Mine. I was like, ah, I like that,
that's cool. I have a fun question. I love asking
every guest this question. And there is no wrong answer,

(39:22):
but the three levels of influence, money, power, and respect.
If you could choose only one of those things, which one?
If you could, which one would you choose? No?

Speaker 3 (39:33):
Why?

Speaker 1 (39:34):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (39:35):
So I'll go first so that you know Nathan can
end it, because again I like his answers better than
I ever like mine.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
But so for me, it's it's respect.

Speaker 5 (39:44):
Because if I was doing anything for money, I.

Speaker 4 (39:47):
Would have picked a different career, right Like.

Speaker 5 (39:50):
I don't know of very many people that choose to
go into the arts because they think they'll get rich.
I think, I mean, some people do that, but I
don't think.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
They succeed necessarily. It's a really hard.

Speaker 5 (40:00):
Business to go into the creative space. It's it's so hard.
And so I didn't do this because I want money
and I do not like power at all.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
So that is not me. But respect really is. And
I think a lot of things that.

Speaker 5 (40:15):
I do out of fear is because of how much
I do crave respect, you know, Actually being bold about
my faith, I've so for so long, I've I've not
spoken out about it a lot because you know, in
the theater world, I mean, it's just it's almost.

Speaker 4 (40:31):
Like taboo to speak about that.

Speaker 5 (40:34):
So I've I've tried to be braver in these last
few years about speaking out about what I what do
I believe, and what do I think and putting this
movie out there, which is my heart and soul. You know,
I am inside my head, I'm hilarious. I love the
Lord and I love the arts. You know, it's just
it's me on a platter there and so putting it
out there for people to look at, I know not

(40:56):
everyone's going to love it, and it's it's terrifying. So
for me, it really is respect. It's a great answer.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
My strong will child, that is, you know, the heart
and soul, the core of me would choose power. Uh.
I know that my wife's laughing. I'm being I'm being
vulderably honest here. This is true. That's a scary I mean,
think about it. It's a scary answer. It's like, no,

(41:26):
I will take the ring of power and I will
put it on and I will rule the world. That
that was my you know, three to five year old
self that was shaking my fist in my mother's face.
My mom tells these stories about how awful I was
as as a child and compared to my older brother
who was very a very like amiable kid. But I

(41:49):
was the one who was feisty and put up a
major fight. And and I do think that's kind of uh,
the honest answers what would I choose? But why would
I choose that? I think influence is probably the reason

(42:10):
that I would choose it today to be able, and
I think it's inherent in the heart of the story too,
or kind of like how do we how do you
make good? And the concept of taking something meant for
evil and turning it to use it for good. Power

(42:30):
is the same thing. Power can be used for good
if wielded with wisdom, and that's everything from King Solomon
to King David, to any of the any of the
kings and prophets who did good and wielded what God
gave them. I think that's what I would choose. I

(42:50):
also think that scripturally, we're not supposed to be trying
to force anything to happen. When we get caught up
in that space and we try to push and force
things to happen, God resists us. He pushes back, and

(43:12):
but the scripture, his divine power has given us everything
we need for life, and Godliness is the is power
in the light, and that's the power I seek. That's
the power I kind of fight to locate from time
to time. And that's that that's that momentum that we

(43:33):
feel when we're stepping in faith and you know, Dean
Davis is walking down the hallway with two cameras to
work a miracle for us. That kind of faith meets power,
meets God's provision, and that's that's really another reason why. Well,

(43:57):
it's something I'm looking for on a daily basis, Like
where is that? It's kind of elusive at times, and
so I think I'm looking for that power more so
than then I want to control people. I really don't.
But anyway, that's my that's my thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
I love that. That's very well said. You're on top
of everything that you're doing. You're working on a book, right,
tell us about that. I mean, if you can share.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
A little bit, Yeah, sure, Well that's a slightly different topic.
I would love to come back someday and really give
you the full expose on that. But the book is
I along the across the last fifteen years, I wash

(44:47):
and in seasons when I wasn't sure that I was
going to be making movies, I wasn't planned, I wasn't
doing planned b but I was just seeking additional information.
And I is self educating. And you know, it's like anything,
you find a hobby that you're interested in and you
just get obsessed with it for a little while and

(45:10):
you do some additional education in that space out of
sheer interest. I had a friend. It's one of my
best buds who kind of fell down the chiropractic rabbit
hole about twenty years ago, and he invited me in
to some degree. He's he would bring home workshop materials

(45:31):
from his studies and he would say, hey, you need
to learn how to do what I'm doing. And he
and I went to seminary together years ago, and so
we have a ministry missions background in our education, and
we have a lot to talk about from theologically, and
and we're best buds. So when he brought when he
would bring something to me that was fascinating to him,

(45:54):
of course I would. I'd take interest in it for
a minute and go, well, you know what has Charles
found that I need to to look into as well.
And so I started looking into it, humoring what he
was doing. And I was doing it for reasons of
my own health because I had a lot of allergy
problems and physical problems and things I didn't really understand

(46:17):
at the time. And through some of the research that
he was doing and his study and then bringing that
to me and I would go through those materials, well,
I started having these major health breakthroughs for myself and
making major discoveries that changed me completely, and so I

(46:38):
started sharing that with family and friends, and I eventually
went for certifications in these areas of what are considered
neo chiropractic or biofeedback based neurological reprogramming. And it sounds
kind of complex, but I just started taking interest in it.

(47:01):
It was a sidecar for a long time, but then
I just started seeing such incredible results with people. And
I never really understood how what I was doing as
a creative or as an actor dovetailed or connected to
what I was doing there. They were just two very
different things to me. I was over in the creative

(47:23):
space doing what I was doing, and then at times
I was at a workshop with doctors learning how to
do some sort of table adjustment with a bunch of chiropractors,
and that seems disparate, right, You're like, how do these
two things go together? But then I was on a
we at my wife and I co direct fort Worth
Actors Studio, which we started about ten years ago, about

(47:45):
the time that the movie was conceived, and we bring
in celebrity guest workshop instructors, and we bring in local
teachers and one of our celebrity guest instructors who came
through took interest in what we were doing, and one

(48:06):
one day he said, hey, are you watching The Chosen
And I said, well, sort of, not really. Uh, I
appreciate it. And he said, well, why aren't you why
I said, well, I'm having trouble. The willing suspension of
disbelief factor is lost on me because I designed the
village and the gardens where they where they shot all

(48:29):
of that. And he said, you did, well, that's here
in Dallas. I said, well, it's it's outside for worth.
I said, let me take you over there. I'll show
it to you, and I Tammy Lane's wonderful and I
have a kind of the keys to the kingdom over there.
I can just show up and everybody knows who I am,
and they just let the I could they just let
me walk in and uh. And so I took him

(48:50):
over there and we had a really fun day, uh
looking around, And on the way home he started confessing
to me that he was having what amount to see
PTSD or PTSD type symptom pattern and that despite the
fact that he'd done multiple huge Hollywood movies and TV
series and he's fairly well known, but despite all of that.

(49:13):
He was at a position where he thought like he
was going to have to retire, and he couldn't get
his heart rate penny. He he couldn't emote. If he
started to emote, he'd have a panic attack. And and
it was kind of pitiful. He'd put on quite a
bit of weight. He was in a bad way, and
he had sought everything from help from priests and pastors

(49:38):
to the medical establishment and the mental health establishment. He
had he just kind of run aground. And he starts
confessing that to me in the car on the way home,
and and I and I'm sitting there listening and it's
it was that one of those moments where the Lord's
tapping me on the shoulder and he's going to is

(50:00):
this thing on? Are you listening right now? And I went, oh, wait,
wait a minute, and a decade of study landed on
me like a ton of bricks in relation to what
he was struggling with. And it hit me and I went, oh,

(50:22):
I understand why you're sick. And he said, wait what?
And I said, I know I'm an unlikely conduit to
get this information, I said, but you don't know my
entire educational background. I said, would you humor me and
let me share something with you? And he was, of course.
I had him trapped in a car for an hour,

(50:43):
and so I share what I thought was going on
with him and he said, uh, what do you think
my problem is? And I said, well, it's the characters.
I said, you're I said, you you are fine. I said,
you're okay. You've dealt with your own trauma and you've
gotten humble before God, and you're okay. I said, but

(51:06):
they're not. I said, how many characters have you played
that had lived through high stakes situations? They were all
Some of them were running from the law, some of
them were the law. They're villains and bad guys and
that's usually who he plays. And he said, well, most
of them. Most of them are like I said, how

(51:27):
many of them died on screen? He said several of them.
And I said, yeah, they're the problem and they need Jesus.
I said, we need, we need to deal with with them.
And so the that was the impetus for a discovery.
It was a discovery about how character development and emotional

(51:51):
trauma for artists and actors. And it's not exclusive to actors,
but it's a very real problem for them, creates an
emotional dysregulation issue and in worst case scenarios, creates PTSD
or c PTSD type symptoms. And and it's not theirs.

(52:13):
It's like they have a partitioned hard drive and on
their brain and they're okay, but these characters are not.
And and and their experience playing these characters and emoting
as these characters all gets archived in the in the brain,
in the body and creates a cascade of of chemical,

(52:40):
biochemical problems and sympathetic nervous system problems. And and so
that's what the book is about. The book is about
the discovery. When I went back to doctor Roland Phillips,
who's one of my mentors in Phoenix, and I explained
what was howpening with my actor Bud. Doctor Phillips like

(53:04):
put his hands up next to the side of his
head and he went like his head was exploding. And
he said, dude, he said, I don't think anybody has
ever disclosed. I don't think anybody's talked about this, he said.
And he said, and you have to write it. It's
a book, You're going to write it. And I said, wait, wait, wait, wait,
hold up, I said, I don't know about that. And

(53:26):
he said, who else teaches a Stanislavsky course and understands
what you know about the neurology and anatomy and the
treatment of all of this treatment of this stuff. He said,
nobody knows. You're the guy. He was like, it's your thing.
And so I prayed about it for about a year.

(53:47):
And and the book, which is called Acting Dangerously Emotional
Memory and PTSD, that's the name of the book. And
it's not quite finished. I'm still banging out portions of it,
but I hope to have it done by the end
of the year. And and then I've also started recording

(54:09):
some podcasts with actors who are just talking about that
subject and the pot and the podcast is called Acting
Dangerously And I already have an Instagram set up for
that and in a Facebook page and stuff like that.
So I'm gonna just slowly start leaking some of that

(54:30):
information out here later this year.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Awesome, Well, congrats on that. That's exciting.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Yeah. Well, well, and let me tell you this. We
a button on why why would you write a book
about a discovery? Well, this particular actor I said, come
see me. I said, I'll pray with you. And then
let me work on you, and he's let me pray
about it, let me think about it. Three days later
he showed up at the studio and I would I'll

(54:57):
pop up at the studio occasionally with like I'm a
you know, a car table or massage table. And it
happened to be up that day. I'd had a client
that day or something, and he burst through the door
that day and he face planted on my table and
he said, I'm ready. He was having a really bad day.
He was having a really bad day, and so I
prayed with him and I worked on him. And he'd

(55:18):
been super symptomatic for over a year. He was miserable.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
And I worked on him for about forty minutes and
after that he's been he was symptom free. He was
symptom free for one year. I got a ping about
a year later. I'm sitting at it was an evening,
was late, and I got a tap on the shoulder
and it was like God was going, hey, call him,
and I'm like, what, I don't call him? Call him?

(55:44):
And I called him. I said, are you okay? He
said no, I'm having a panic attack. And that was
one year later. But that was he's had a symptom
free year. I did some work with him over the phone,
prayed with him, and that left him and he's he's
working today and he's doing very well and great. And

(56:06):
so not only did we make a little connection between
what we were doing and in our space, but we
tied it to the arts community in a way that
I think is going to be pretty impactful when we
start talking about it with people, because I know, I
know that it affects a lot more people than are
are aware. They're not even aware why they're sick and

(56:28):
or why they're having some issues. So that'll come down
the road. And I appreciate you asking me about it
because I'm not really talking about it very much.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
Yet we got the exclusive. Yeah, I'm very happy.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
Thank you absolutely really last last question, what advice would
you give to you know, that little girl, that little boy,
anyone that wants to get into this really interesting business
called entertainment.

Speaker 5 (56:57):
Well, I'd say, if there's anything else that you love,
do that because it's hard. But if this is it,
if this is what you you just have to do it.
And you know math's not your things, so this is it.
And you were passionate about it, and you dream about it,
you eat it, then study, be humble and you know,

(57:18):
when I was in college, my professors were always like,
it's all about connections, and me being eighteen, I was like, sure, whatever, No,
it is it's all about connections, and so just staying
humble and finding really good mentors. Yeah, and just you know,
go if you're into film, go to film festivals, film festivals.
If you're a Christian, go to the Christian film festivals.

(57:40):
If you're not a Christian, go to the not ones.
You know, and connect. And if you've already gone through
the trouble of buying that ticket and going to that
film festival, then even if you're an introvert and you're shy,
just get over it for a day and put yourself
out there and make those connections because it really is
about who you.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
No, absolutely, absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
I My advice to young people is always be careful
and make sure you go with friends. One of the
themes in our story is about the dangers of the
fraud and scam scenario online. The movie industry is terribly

(58:26):
fraught with scams and grifters and people who would just
take people for their money. And make lots of promises
but that they can't deliver on. And for several years,
one of the primary human trafficking scams was a runway
model scam Wow, and you know runway models. They you know,

(58:50):
and then you end up producing the show, like they'll
charge you twenty five hundred bucks for your local show
and ten thousand dollars for the LA thing, and then
you know, and then they claim that they're shipping you
off to Paris, but those girls didn't end up in Paris.
And and so I always tell young people to be
really careful and understand that we're jealousy and selfish ambition exist.

(59:12):
There's disorder and every evil thing, and that God disciplines
the kids that he loves, And so if if you
are running muck, he will use the industry to discipline you.
He'll use the industry to spank your heney. And so'll
turn your heart to him and get humble before him,
like Delitha said, stay humble. People ask me all the time,

(59:35):
how did you get into all the stuff that you're
involved in, you know? And how did you get this
project and work with those birds news? And I'm like
I learned when I was from my parents. You know,
years ago, when I was a kid, I embraced the
here am I send me Lord kind of idea And
and anything that I've ever done that people think is

(59:56):
cool came because I did that. And I stepped back,
and I stepped away from me even though I want
certain things that I have desires and ambition, and I
stepped away from that. So I've said, okay, Lord, putting
me aside, what do you want? Where do you need
me to be? What do you want me to plug into?

(01:00:17):
And and and he would open the door. And so
being humble before God and just asking God to plug
you in somewhere is probably the safest and best piece
of advice I can give to young people.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
Absolutely wonderful advice. Thank you so much for coming on.
Where can people find you guys on social media to
follow everything you have going on?

Speaker 5 (01:00:43):
Well, if you go to Aria Appleton dot com that's
a R I A Apple t o n dot com,
you can find all our links out. But we are
definitely on Instagram, and we're on Facebook, and we're on TikTok.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
Yeah. The film. The film is at a at Aria
Appleton in many social media sites and at grafted Studios
on YouTube. That's g R A f Is and Frank
Grafted Studios dot com or Grafted Studios on YouTube. Brother,
and and I'm at Nathan D. Myers everywhere if people

(01:01:20):
want to track with me, and at at Acting Dangerously
as well on Instagram is new and and uh and
then of course the movie is available on uh Prime video.
Go out and check it out rented, rented or viod it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
Yay. Well, congratulations and thank you so much for this
wonderful conversation, very insightful. Uh. I felt like I was,
you know, I just felt God, thank you for blessing
this this show today. So thank you too for coming on.

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
Well, it's blessing to us. Thank you for the opportunity
to to be on here with you. And we love
what you're doing and encourage aren't you? Aren't you? And
you have some big, big things happening right away? Right?

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
I do, I do? I do. I actually just released
Speaking of church, I did an audio series called Church Hurt,
and it was it was inspired by a friend of
mine who committed suicide last year due to a situation
with church. And I was, you know, it kind of

(01:02:23):
prompt me to make a project about people who've been
church church hurt. But the through line is that you know,
it's never been God's never been the problem, but people.
So you know, at the end of the day, it's
one of those those six part series. Is an audio series,
and uh yeah, I just put it out. I'm very
happy about it and and I think it's gonna bless

(01:02:46):
and heal a lot of people who who's you know,
who's had church wounds.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
Yeah, so that's awesome, that's great, that that sounds useful
so and beneficial. So, but thank you for the opportunity
to be here with you. Well, pray God keeps blessing
what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Thank you, Thank you so much, and thank you all
for listening. And always remember to live, love, laugh. We'll
see you guys next time. Goodbye.