September 26, 2025 • 35 mins
On this episode of The Hollywood in Toto Podcast, we dive into Jimmy Kimmel’s embarrassing return to ABC and his cringeworthy attempt at an apology. Host Christian Toto breaks down why Kimmel’s “apology” falls flat, separating media spin from the facts—and what it reveals about the state of late-night comedy.
We also sit down with Wasim No’mani, breakout star of YouTube’s original faith-based comedy series The Promised Land—a sharp, hilarious take on The Office with a Biblical twist. Wasim opens up about the show's unique creative process, what inspired the project, and shares emotional stories about his father's legacy as an actor.
Plus, we cover the latest Hollywood headlines, from the ongoing culture clashes in entertainment to the industry’s most talked-about stories of the week—all from a perspective the mainstream media won’t give you.
🎙️ Subscribe, share, and leave a review if you’re tired of the same old Hollywood narrative. #JimmyKimmel #HollywoodInToto #CancelCulture #ThePromisedLand #WasimNomani #FaithBasedComedy #LateNightTV #RightTakeOnEntertainment #HollywoodNews #PopCulturePodcast #ConservativeMedia #YouTubeSeries #TheOfficeMeetsBible
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This week on the Hollywood and Total Podcast, we ask
what we actually learned from Kimblegate besides the fact that
Jimmy kimble got a week off of work, and we
talked to actor Wasim Nomani about his new show, The
Promise Land. It's like The Office but biblical. Hang with us,
It's actually pretty good. Welcome to the Hollywood and Total Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Entertainment news and reviews without the woke Hollywood narrative.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Free speech, free expression. Now that's entertainment, and here's your host.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh Lord, winning film critic Costian Toto. He's back.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Did anyone actually expect Jimmy Kimmel to go away forever?
Nor should he really? But yes, Jimmy Kimmel was back
on the airwaves this week after his week long vaiation
for well sharing an absolute ugly lie. And he's back,
well for now. I mean, we still don't know the
whole story here. There are different affiliate groups which are
(01:11):
still boycotting Kimmel's show. Will they turn over and play
dead or will they stick to their guns and keep
them off the air and definitely stay tuned. This is
not over by any stretch, but we can also draw
some real, genuine truths out of the whole situation, and
don't look to the media because they are just absolutely
(01:32):
flooding the zone with lies and misdirections and absolute silliness
over and over again direct to democracy. My gosh, they
are just full of it, truly full of it. Although
I will say my favorite story came from Variety because
Variety said that Jimmy liberally, I can barely get the
(01:53):
words out. Jimmy Kimmel, according to Variety, is not a
movement liberal. Yeah, the guy who's been pushing democratic talking
points for a decade. The guy who's been at war
with Trump for a decade, oh yeah, And the guy
who hosted President Biden's fundraiser last year, and then after
President Biden glitched out in front of everyone for all
(02:14):
of us to see, jim mckimmel said, oh no, you
can't trust your eyes. I was there, Nothing like that happened.
Move along. He is such a liar. But still, let's
break down some of the things we did learn from
Kimmel Gate, because they are important and we should separate
fact from fiction. First of all, and this is maybe
(02:35):
the most obvious thing. He's not sorry. He didn't really apologize.
He danced around the issue. He kind of skirted the
truth a bit, seemed remorseful, he whipped up the tears. BOYD,
who cries better than Jimmy Kimmel. That guy, he's a
blubbering mess. My gosh, have some shame, have some Decorumly you, Jimmy,
(02:57):
get a hold of yourself. He's not sorry, because if
he was sorry, he would have said the night after
he said those terrible things, I'm sorry, I got it wrong.
I'm going to correct the record. Didn't do it, then,
didn't do it now again. Came close, you know, looked
like he might be apology adjacent, but he never directly
(03:17):
asked the address the issue, never apologized. He's not sorry.
He couldn't even fake it. And of course he spread
more misinformation along the way. Not only was he painting
himself as a free speech martyr. Not so, not by
any stretch of the imagination, but he also insinuated and
or said that it was President Trump who silenced him. Well,
(03:38):
you know why we know that's not true because in
a week he was back on the air. You know
dictators and authoritarians, Well, when he silent you, he stays silenced. Ooh,
the dungeon. You don't take a week off and go
back better than ever saying the same old things. It's
exactly what Jimmy Kimmel did. He wasn't silenced. He's not
(03:58):
a free speech martyr. President Trump didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
President Trump, again and again says some dumb things about
free speech from time to time, and then he doesn't
follow up on them. Thank goodness. He's blustery, he's a
blowheart at times. It just is who he is. I
think it's one of his least appealing qualities for sure,
and he shouldn't say it, especially in this atmosphere. But
he doesn't follow up on it. He blowviates. He sends
(04:23):
out a truth social post and then he carries on
it's merry way. Okay, that's what we've seen for a decade.
Get used to it. Understand it. When you see direct action,
then you call it out. We didn't see it. That's
the truth. Oh and by the way, Kimmel didn't say
boo about the Google News. And if you don't know
what the Google News, well, maybe you should look into
(04:44):
expanding your news horizon because it's a huge story. Google
announced this week that they have been censoring people for
sharing the wrong information on COVID, on the pandemic, and
on election integrity, and I'm sure other issues as well,
but they mentioned those first and form most so because
the Biden administration pressured Google, and Google did as told
(05:06):
many many, many people were censored. That's direct government interactions
with free speech. And Jimmy Kimmel, who knew of that,
or must have known about it, or should know about
it based on his carcante and writing staff, didn't say anything.
If you're going to be a free speech warrior, you
gotta walk the walk, and he didn't. So he's a
phony and a fraud. Congrad the wassense to oppose the
(05:31):
figures there and they're given all that. It's good that
Kimmel is back in the air. He should be back
in the air. I think a one to two week
suspension probably was the best way to send a message,
and he got one week, so good enough. I think
he should be aware of the outrage about his comments.
And again, what he said wasn't offensive. It wasn't a joke,
(05:52):
it wasn't an oopsie. It was an attempt to slander
entire political movement at a time where one of their
significant leaders was gunned down in cold blood. He doesn't
get much worse than that. And you know, by the way,
kudos to Megan Kelly for sharing receipts about what Jimmy
kimble ha said. In the recent past. Jimmy Kimmel was
(06:13):
once slandered by Aaron Rodgers who said, oh, maybe that
Jimmy Kimmel guys on the Epstein list. Well, there's no
factual basis for that whatsoever. And in saying so, Jimmy
Kimmel defended himself, and good for him he should. But
along the way he mentioned, you know, I've my monologue
is fact checked to the brim, and I've got a
team behind me, and they know it's fact and they
(06:35):
know it's fiction. They check things out and they make
sure what I'm saying is the honest truth. And if
i ever make a mistake, a hiccup, I'll come in
the air and apologize. He said that about a year
and a half ago. Clearly didn't mean it, or he
meant it at the time, but he wanted to smite
Maga so badly he couldn't help himself. Some of the
(06:55):
people reveal themselves in times of crisis and we're seeing
the real Jimmy kis right now. It ain't pretty. I
think the main lesson from this is that the left,
by and large, and Jimmy Kimmel specifically, he didn't give
a damn about free speech. Nope, not at all. His
free speech. Oh yeah, everyone else's. It's a case by
(07:16):
case basis. Jimmy, do better. Please, Maybe this will be
a learning moment, an opportunity to realize that free speech
does matter no matter who's sharing it, mayri who's flexing it.
If he doesn't learn that by this, he'll never learn.
(07:37):
And now the headlines, You know, we don't need another
reason to hate the United Nations. Listen on paper, United
Nations wonderful. It's an important, powerful group. In reality, the
health posing off the dictators is the least. It is
(07:58):
a mess. And that came to mind this week when
we heard about Violet Affleic. She's the daughter of Ben
Affleck and Jennifer Garner, and she for some reason appeared
at the UN pretty big, pretty big gig. Right, Hey,
I'm at the UN and she wanted to promote getting
us all back into wearing masks for the COVID nineteen pandemic.
(08:21):
It's twenty twenty five, and this young woman, God bless
her soul, thinks we should all be masking up again.
Never mind the fact that the pandemic is over, that
the virus is nowhere near as consequential as it once was,
and masks don't work. I don't want to pick on
(08:41):
Violet Affleic. She sounds like a troubled young woman. Clearly,
I'm not going to even say a word against her,
But why in the world is the UN inviting her
to speak before the August Body. That's absurd, But just
throw it on the pile. The UN is just the
king of absurdities. They just got worse this week. Why
would anyone let Rob Reiner back and behind a camera?
(09:04):
Listen for a while? A long while. Rob Reiner was amazing.
You know the track record right stand by me, Misery,
the Princess Bride. This is spinal tap, the sure thing.
If you haven't seen a short thing, go find it.
It's hard to find, but just do your best. It's
a wonderful, sweet, charming film. A few good men. The
(09:26):
list goes on and Harry met Sally, American President. This
guy had a run like few directors ever. Amazing and
now movie after movie after movie, dud after dud after dud,
box office bomb after box office bomb. I mean, it's over, Rob.
I don't know what happened. I feel badly for you,
but you just can't make good movies anymore. It's clear,
(09:47):
feels like the end of an arrow. And then along
comes the spinal tap sequel spinal tap. The end continues,
and it's a box office bomb. As I'm recording, this
made about two point six million dollars, a pretty wide release.
That's a disaster.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I don't know if Trump derangement just affected his ability
to direct a film. I don't know if he just
creatively lost it. I don't know what's going on, but
I do know, in addition to maybe not letting you
behind the camera anytime soon, maybe don't have him on
talk shows where he shares his political views. Here's what
he said recently, of course, about you know who. So
we're now in a place where we are really wrestling
(10:25):
with whether or not we're going to have a constitution,
whether or not we're going to have the American form
of democracy, and the First Amendment is right at the
core of it. Well, the good news is he can
say whatever he wants, wherever he wants. The bad news
is we have to hear it. Rob Reiner, maybe you
need a little counseling as well, because things aren't going
(10:46):
well professionally or personally. Apparently well, the savant will have
to wait. This is a new Apple TV Plus series
storing oscar Win at Jessica Chastain. She plays an investigator
who's tracking down those darn white supremacy groups out for violence. Yeah. Really,
in twenty twenty five, we're still worried about white supremacy. Well,
at least in Hollywood we are. But the complicating factor
(11:10):
here is they pulled the show. They pulled the show
because of the Charlie Kirk assassination. They thought it wasn't
the right time. And of course, at least one outlet
blame this again on Donald Trump, no facts, no sort
of connective tissue. Just blamed Trump for X, Y and Z.
But the real funny story behind this is, first of all,
you don't pull a show. There's violence everywhere in the news.
(11:30):
It happens. It's terrible. If you're proud of the show,
if you think it's a good program, put it out there.
We don't care. But More importantly, a movie is opening
this very week that really is more problematic in this fashion.
It's called One Battle after Another. It's a new Leonardo
DiCaprio film from the great Paul Thomas Anderson. All overrated,
but they call him great. I'll run with it. And
(11:52):
it's a story about this sweet, lovely group of radical
activists who bomb government buildings enforced by gunpoint ICE like
officials to release legal immigrants. That's the story. It doesn't
attack these radicals, it doesn't judge these radicals. It really
(12:16):
praises these radicals. They're painted in a very positive sweet light.
And just as this story is coming into theaters nationwide,
there was an attack on an ICE facility, two or
three people killed it. The news is still rolling in
and the person who did the shooting, who took his
own life afterwards, had anti ICE slogans on his bullets. Again,
(12:37):
here we go again. So here's a Hollywood studio promoting
a movie that justifies violence, that glorifies violence, that directly
targets those who try to enforce the borders. And we've
got a situation like this now. I don't want to
pull the savant. I don't want to pull this movie,
one battle after another, but boy, the timing is just
(12:59):
playing ugly. The great TV show The Office, of course,
based on the British show, gave the sitcom a very
fresh and uncondentional twist. The show proceeded as if it
were a documentary that someone was capturing the trials and tribulations.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
So well written.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
The cast was exemplary, I mean, Rain Wilson, Steve Carell,
John Krasinski, just epic, epic in every way, a great show.
And then they try that again to a lesser extent,
not as obvious, with parks and recreation, another wonderful show
led by the great Leslie played by Amy Poehler. Well,
they're trying it one more time. It's called The Paper
(13:50):
and it's set in a small town newspaper and it's
from some of the same creative people behind the original
Office the NBC version, and it's okay, it's fine. I
want to always give a show like this room for growth,
but so far it's watchable and nothing more. But there's
another show that's used in this template. It's called The
Promised Land, and it's a story about Moses, about the
(14:13):
mission he had about becoming an unconventional leader. It's about
biblically accurate storytelling, and it's told in that office like style. Now,
when I heard about this, I thought, oh my gosh,
that sounds risky as heck, and there's no way they
could pull it off. It just seems impossible.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Well they did.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
According to the first couple episodes. I've seen very very funny.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
When you enter the land the Lord, your God is
giving you. These are my people, ready to listen, eager
to layr. I can't the Oleina shouldn't be like this.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
She told a lot that I have left. You have water, get.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
It to me.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Forty nine days we see Hebrews and still no one
suspects me. It's time to demonstrate trust.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I'll go first.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Well, tnkra very infessive. It's got those camera confessionals, the
workplace bickering, all these different wonderful elements from the office
are in this biblically based show. So smart, so good,
and it's one of the reasons why I wanted to have.
The key star from the show wasim Nomani. On this program,
he plays Moses, this conflicted hero, this essentially like a
(15:28):
boss like character trying to work around what's going on
in his life and in the world around him. It
is very clever and he does a wonderful job with
the show. Now, The Promised Land is going to be
debuting October first on YouTube. You could check it out
there very very soon. But for now, we've got a
chance to meet Wasim and talk to him about his life,
his work, his fond memories of his father, and much more.
(15:50):
It's a really sweet conversation and it really shows you
what it needs, what you need to do to survive
in Hollywood, how you need to just absolutely persevere, never
give up. Because what seemed never give up and is today. Well,
you know, before we get to the show, which is
obviously fun and I got some big laughs out of it,
I want to just find a little bit more about you.
I understand you were your parents were actors, came to
(16:12):
America at a pretty early age. How did you fall
into the family business. Then we'll get into The Promised Land.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, my dad was a fairly prominent actor in Iraq.
He was on Sesame Street. Yeah, he had said that,
He's like, I'm like George Clooney over there, you know,
but this was all before my time. They we came
to the United States in eighty five so he could
pursue his higher education in theater, and he got his
(16:40):
PhD in theater at Texas Tech in nineteen ninety eight
before the go for happened, and then so we couldn't return. Yeah, yeah, so,
and you know, ever since I was little, I mean,
I suppose there was a great percentage of offspring who
want to do and end up doing what their parents
have done.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So yeah, so always been. And you know, that was
the way my father and I bonded. You know, he
showed me James Dean Pones Brown, you know, all that
stuff from a very early age, you know. And then
like me and my sister are re enacting Streetcar, you know,
and I'm Stanley Kuloski and he's playing Stella. As inappropriate
(17:20):
as that is, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Now, as as it's nice to go with the family business,
it's nice to have that bond, but acting is a
very I don't have to tell you is a very
brutal business. The competition is fierce. Did he ever kind
of say son, maybe pump the brakes, maybe go to
law or something, or.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
No, my mom did. How precarious it was, But I
think he knew when he saw on me that you
know that that passion. Yeah, you know, and it's I
mean it it's so, I mean it was. I mean
I didn't really book a Liverpool wage job until they're chosen,
you know, and in like my mid thirties and and
(18:01):
doing ober and stuff, you know. So yeah, no, for sure,
I mean even and you're and you know, self doubt
as an artist, if I can call myself that is
part and parcel of what it is, what it means
to me, because you never know if it's any good.
You don't know if you're good, you don't we'll get
some positive feedback. You don't know people are you know,
(18:23):
just complimenting you just for its own sake, or whether
you can do something you know. So yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
That's when I went to art school back in the day,
and I I always was mistrustful of the artists who
thought everything that they did was wonderful. So I think
self doubt is actually a very healthy and probably pragmatic
way to approach it. So as much as it can
be kind of you know, you beat yourself up, but
I think it's a good I think it's a good
quality have because you're always improving and trying to be better. Uh.
You know, when you think about what parents do for children,
(18:53):
a lot of it is what they teach you, and
a lot of it is sort of the unspoken things.
I mean, I hope, I hope my boys look at
what I do and say, oh, Dad's doing X and Y,
I'm going to be like him. Did you pick up
things from your dad that maybe he didn't tell you
as an actor, that you just kind of absorbed or
witnessed or just watched him as with his process.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean whenever he had a project, which
is kind of where when we were in America, you know,
he had to take a quote unquote regular job or whatever.
But when he did have those opportunities, I mean, his
devotion was fierce. And I think that's the thing. You know,
if you're going to do something, do it as best
as you can't, even if it doesn't measure up with
(19:31):
every five of yourself. And I think and how seriously
he took his work and it mattered to him, even
if it didn't matter to anybody else. I mean, he
would just be doing you know, some community stage player somewhere,
And I mean the guy was just giving his flesh
to it, you know, and watching that and watching what
(19:52):
stimulates that? Is that that stimulation, that that engagement, and
that's really what I envy and what I try to get. Know,
it's not hard work follows you already being engaged in intrigue,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah? Yeah, you mentioned The Chosen changed things for you.
Can you tell a little bit more about that. I mean,
it's such a revolutionary show. It's been such a sensation.
You know, very few pop culture shows breakthrough the way
The Chosen has. As an actor, can you maybe share
the details of what that means to you? And becoming
on a platform that was so big.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, well, you know, I joined in season two and
I had never heard of the show before. You know,
season one had like a ground swell of a yeah,
but I you know, and yeah, you know, to be
perfectly honest, I always thought like paid based material, apart
from a couple of things, you know, usually low and
quality for whatever reason, you know, that was my judgment.
(20:49):
And then I remember seeing the show the first season
after my audition, I was like, oh, what this is
actually good? You know, of Vari's performance as nicodemonis just stupendous,
and that I was like, oh wow, this is something
that I can like sink my peep with my teach into,
you know, if I do get it. And it wasn't
(21:12):
the show at that time that it is now, and
it just constantly grew and grew and grew, and you know, luckily, thankfully,
you know, I've been blessed to be able to be
on the boat at the typically.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, yeah, uh, let's let's talk about the Promised Land
on paper. It's the greatest idea I've ever heard of,
and also kind of the craziest idea, the sort of
mixing with this this spiritual theme and classic stories and
beloved text and all of a sudden it's an office
style comedy. Uh did you buy into it right away?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Or did did?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Do you need to see something in action? But with that,
oh yeah, this can work. This this is really gonna work.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Well, you know, when I saw the breakdowns, I thought
it was such a novel articling idea. But you know,
you've got to read and when you've got to read
the script, and when I read the pilot, oh wow,
this might have some legs. And but you know, also
(22:14):
like all right, just the beginning of Exodus, Moses believes
in God, believes God is talking to me in the
burning bush and refuses him. He says, no, I'm not
your God, and he says it multiple times, and it
keeps cooking up with excuses, and you know, his self
doubt is so intense that he doubts God. He doubts
(22:36):
God's wisdom. And you know, if God did create us
in his image, you know, yourself doubt ultimately is you know,
it is God doubt at least that's the way I
take it from this particular perspective. And there's something inherently
kind of funny about that as well as you know,
how many plagues do you need to go through? Or
(22:57):
you're like, okay, I've had him not I mean, I
feel like it is what you know, I think by
like three or four, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, it's fascinating. You know. So, were you someone who
watched The Office in Parks and Rex and show in
this genre or did you have to kind of go
back and say I need to watch just to kind
of get a feel for this style of humor. What
was that like?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, I was a big fan of the Office, you know,
in early two thousands. Yeah, and I kind of, you know,
stopped watching when Steve Carell left, but yeah, I hadn't
really seen anything, you know that that mockumentary style. Yeah,
but yeah, and then getting this, I went back and
(23:41):
we watched you know, some of that show is just
so brilliant. Yeah, and you know, and being able to
navigate that, you know, we're dealing with serious material and
what's funny is not us you know, laughing and making
jokes at the expensive characters, but the situations.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, you know, I mean I think one of the
more powerful things about The Promised Land is the it
really it humanizes the characters and makes them relatable in
a way that I don't know if we've seen quite
like this before. Talk about that element of the story
where you're taking material which could be serious and sober,
(24:21):
but still sharing that information and sharing some of the messages.
It's a very tricky, tricky balance, I would imagine.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean I think if we did succeed
in that, I mean, Mitch Hudson the writer, but it's
the humanity, I mean, that's where the comedy comes from. Yeah,
and it's very easy you know, read or hear or
watch stories about people you know, long ago, there's still us.
(24:50):
It's the same hardware. The software is different in terms
of belief systems. Yeah, but yeah, it's the humanity that's
where the comedy should emanate from, you know. And yeah,
I mean because if you see like you know, the
Time Commandments and you see Charlton Heston, you know, it's
like this statuesque kind of you know, but he I mean,
(25:15):
you can dueen and infer that perhaps Moses wasn't like that,
you know, and from I mean, I think that was
the jumping off on the minage and that that this
guy did not he spent the last forty years with
cheap you know, immdiates, So like what does he know about?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah? Yeah, we live in this age where if some
movie or TV show gets something wrong for lack of
a better word, people are upset and they're you know,
sending out hashtags and things, and we deal with biblical issues.
You know, there's the did you honor the source material?
Is it spiritual? Is it correct? Is it what you like?
What is it what the other person? I mean, there's
(25:54):
there's all these different shades are gray, and I think
the tone in the the sense I get from the
show is that you you you kind of work that
well and you're not insulting people. And but is that
something that's kind of discussed on the set behind the scenes.
Working with Mitch is sort of to get sort of
that right where it's not perfect and there's creative license
here of plenty, but you're getting the nuts and bolts
(26:17):
of the story and of the sentiment you know on Target.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
No, that's that's all Mitch. I mean that the first
and foremost, you know, I think his reverence for these
people where these characters are kind of self evident if
you watch and and him just you know, I mean,
because there's so much you know, there's so much source
material to go through. You know, you've got to pick
(26:41):
and you know, he's the only writer you know, on
this project, so you know, you got to pick and
choose your shots. Yeah, and yeah, he does talk about
that in terms of like certain things and I'm like,
well this happened, and he's like, yeah, this is the
family show. We're not we're not really going into that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah. Hm. Now at this point, I know the show
had had this sort of interesting history. There was a pilot,
it was very successful. Then you got the funding. It's
it's been not a traditional path. But can you share
how much has been shot so far as the whole
first season sort of in the verbial canon or has
more been shot at this point?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yes, the first season is in the can. We're all
releasing the pilot being the first episode already released. Uh,
the second episode is being released Wednesday, October first, and
then every week from then they're going to be releasing
the consecutive episodes. Yeah, we have five in the can
right now, and I don't know if I'm allowed. Yeah,
(27:42):
I think I could say we're shooting any further updates
as servant? What's up? Hold up? Further updates? Announcement that
follows who was that there was a voice in my head?
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Well, we'll talk a little bit about what you would
like to see your where the character Moses can go.
I mean, we we know, but at the same time,
as you know, as part of this story, what would
you like to see or what may be different shades
you may show along the way.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah, I mean what I really gravitated to was the
self doubt in the way that that manifests itself and
you know, being somebody who does not see themselves as
a leader because typically, you know, nowadays, everybody is like
raising their hands to be first in line to lead,
and God, you know, very interestingly chose somebody who was like,
(28:34):
it's not me, and I think him overcoming that. I
don't know what Mitch has in store, whether you know
it resolves that internal issue because I think we all
deal wrong. I shouldn't speak very but anytime I feel something,
I'm like, everybody does this right, you know, And to
be able to resolve that and see where that takes
(28:55):
him mhm.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
You know you hinted as something earlier, which I think
was completely fair and honest. Faith based stories for a
while were a little rough around the edges. The acting
wasn't maybe as crisp as it could be, The budgets
were small. I mean, it was really a fledgling genre
that didn't have a lot of bells and whistles. And
yet in recent years, I mean, you know, even take
away the metal Gibson worked because he's working on this
(29:19):
extreme level of craft. But you know, we've seen faith
based horror movies and we've seen comedies, and the Chosen
is onto itself as such a sensation. What do you
see happening within the space now that you've been in
it to a degree, I mean.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I think, you know, not necessarily just to get talk
to Turkey, but I think the fact that people see
that they can make money. I think that that's what's
that's really what it comes down to. Yeah, because it
wasn't until mel Gibson that you know, in the Passion
of the Christ, that people saw, oh wow, there is
an audience. Yeah. So I do think is just going
(30:00):
to get better and better, and people are realizing that,
you know, they can make really high quality shows or films,
you know with this material.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yeah. You know, as an actor who's breaking out now
and getting more projects, it's such a curious time to
be in your profession because it used to be only
a few film studios, only a few channels, and you
were very limited. But now here's the show that's going
on YouTube and it's not because it's not good. It's like,
this is a brave new world. Do you find yourself
(30:32):
hood of creatively? Is it exciting to be in this
space right now where all these different platforms and the
competitions making each of them better. I mean, you know,
you can't just put out mediocre product. If you do,
it's going to get swamped by other things. So it
just seems like it be exciting time to be an
actor in the space.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Yeah, for sure. I mean it's always a precarious I
mean you're never kind of safe. I mean yeah, like
huge ten years ago, like where are they now? So
you're yeah, so you're constantly on this fine line. But yeah,
you're absolutely right. I mean, the opportunities are more abundant
than ever. But you know, it's really it's just quality.
(31:09):
Quality just comes down to quality, you know, yeah, or
is it not? Now? Obviously you want people to see
your work and you want to be on the platform
that reaches the most people. But I mean that's what
I'm focused on, you know, really good material, because good
material will make you a better actor, Yeah, because you're
not the same actor with that material as you are,
(31:30):
you know, because you've got to say things that you know,
just feel clunky in your mouth and in your body
and et cetera.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Two last quick questions. One, I don't know if you
have any aspirations for writing or directing. Is that part
of what you could see for your future? And also,
I don't know if your dad's still alive, but has
he seen the show? What did you think of it?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Well, fortunately my father passed away. All he saw me
in was a community college production of The Elopment Man,
and so really heart love, thank you. It's actually really
heart warming because you know, it was the first thing
that I, you know, kind of did in a public
space of drama class and doing stuff at home and everything.
(32:12):
And uh, he would not stop buying tickets and coming.
He came like six times like that. I love it. Yeah,
that's great.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, yeah, any the aspirations and writing and directing or
just you're good. You're an actor and that's.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
More than enough. Yes, being an actor is already probably
more than I could chew. But I would love I mean,
I have certain idea in my fantasy world, yes, but
I don't know. I don't know if I have if
I have that kind of a story acuity that requires,
you know, to be able to write the thing that
(32:50):
I would admire.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
You know, Well, the career is young, so who knows
what happens next. But thank you so much for joining
the show with seeming. Of course, this this is about
the Promised Land, which is going to be debuting on
YouTube October first, new episodes each subsequent week. Do check
it out. I know that there's a new paper out
there on Peacock and it's perfectly fine. But I've found
much bigger laughs than the Promised Land. And so congratulations
(33:15):
the show. You're great in it and hope to speak
again sometime.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, thank you so much, Christian as your character.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Actor of the week is Sean Whalen. Well, that's it
for the show this week. Again, just a quick reminder
to check out hollywoodintoto dot com. It is the website,
it is my home base. It is like this program,
the right take in entertainment, news, reviews, commentary, all the
things from Hollywood from a right of center perspective. And again,
like this show, we try to focus on stories not
(33:41):
being covered. Media bias run amuck, actors and artists who
have great stories to tell but just aren't getting enough attention.
Things like that, that's what we specialize in here. So
if you have thoughts along those lines, you think there's
something in the cultural landscape that isn't being covered aggressively
enough or maybe ignored entirely, definitely send me a note.
You can email me Christian at hollywoodintoto dot com. Easy
(34:07):
enough to remember. Definitely weigh in, let me know your thoughts,
send some ideas my way, maybe even at a boy.
If you're enjoying the program, and if you hate us,
feel free to send that to you stink muster. Anything
goes free speech, it does matter. Well, that's it for
this week's show. Again, thank you to Radio America for
(34:27):
having me as part of their great podcast lineup. Now
go out there have a wonderful week. Doctor's Orders
This week on the Hollywood and Total Podcast, we ask
what we actually learned from Kimblegate besides the fact that
Jimmy kimble got a week off of work, and we
talked to actor Wasim Nomani about his new show, The
Promise Land. It's like The Office but biblical. Hang with us,
It's actually pretty good. Welcome to the Hollywood and Total Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Entertainment news and reviews without the woke Hollywood narrative.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Free speech, free expression. Now that's entertainment, and here's your host.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh Lord, winning film critic Costian Toto. He's back.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Did anyone actually expect Jimmy Kimmel to go away forever?
Nor should he really? But yes, Jimmy Kimmel was back
on the airwaves this week after his week long vaiation
for well sharing an absolute ugly lie. And he's back,
well for now. I mean, we still don't know the
whole story here. There are different affiliate groups which are
(01:11):
still boycotting Kimmel's show. Will they turn over and play
dead or will they stick to their guns and keep
them off the air and definitely stay tuned. This is
not over by any stretch, but we can also draw
some real, genuine truths out of the whole situation, and
don't look to the media because they are just absolutely
(01:32):
flooding the zone with lies and misdirections and absolute silliness
over and over again direct to democracy. My gosh, they
are just full of it, truly full of it. Although
I will say my favorite story came from Variety because
Variety said that Jimmy liberally, I can barely get the
(01:53):
words out. Jimmy Kimmel, according to Variety, is not a
movement liberal. Yeah, the guy who's been pushing democratic talking
points for a decade. The guy who's been at war
with Trump for a decade, oh yeah, And the guy
who hosted President Biden's fundraiser last year, and then after
President Biden glitched out in front of everyone for all
(02:14):
of us to see, jim mckimmel said, oh no, you
can't trust your eyes. I was there, Nothing like that happened.
Move along. He is such a liar. But still, let's
break down some of the things we did learn from
Kimmel Gate, because they are important and we should separate
fact from fiction. First of all, and this is maybe
(02:35):
the most obvious thing. He's not sorry. He didn't really apologize.
He danced around the issue. He kind of skirted the
truth a bit, seemed remorseful, he whipped up the tears. BOYD,
who cries better than Jimmy Kimmel. That guy, he's a
blubbering mess. My gosh, have some shame, have some Decorumly you, Jimmy,
(02:57):
get a hold of yourself. He's not sorry, because if
he was sorry, he would have said the night after
he said those terrible things, I'm sorry, I got it wrong.
I'm going to correct the record. Didn't do it, then,
didn't do it now again. Came close, you know, looked
like he might be apology adjacent, but he never directly
(03:17):
asked the address the issue, never apologized. He's not sorry.
He couldn't even fake it. And of course he spread
more misinformation along the way. Not only was he painting
himself as a free speech martyr. Not so, not by
any stretch of the imagination, but he also insinuated and
or said that it was President Trump who silenced him. Well,
(03:38):
you know why we know that's not true because in
a week he was back on the air. You know
dictators and authoritarians, Well, when he silent you, he stays silenced. Ooh,
the dungeon. You don't take a week off and go
back better than ever saying the same old things. It's
exactly what Jimmy Kimmel did. He wasn't silenced. He's not
(03:58):
a free speech martyr. President Trump didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
President Trump, again and again says some dumb things about
free speech from time to time, and then he doesn't
follow up on them. Thank goodness. He's blustery, he's a
blowheart at times. It just is who he is. I
think it's one of his least appealing qualities for sure,
and he shouldn't say it, especially in this atmosphere. But
he doesn't follow up on it. He blowviates. He sends
(04:23):
out a truth social post and then he carries on
it's merry way. Okay, that's what we've seen for a decade.
Get used to it. Understand it. When you see direct action,
then you call it out. We didn't see it. That's
the truth. Oh and by the way, Kimmel didn't say
boo about the Google News. And if you don't know
what the Google News, well, maybe you should look into
(04:44):
expanding your news horizon because it's a huge story. Google
announced this week that they have been censoring people for
sharing the wrong information on COVID, on the pandemic, and
on election integrity, and I'm sure other issues as well,
but they mentioned those first and form most so because
the Biden administration pressured Google, and Google did as told
(05:06):
many many, many people were censored. That's direct government interactions
with free speech. And Jimmy Kimmel, who knew of that,
or must have known about it, or should know about
it based on his carcante and writing staff, didn't say anything.
If you're going to be a free speech warrior, you
gotta walk the walk, and he didn't. So he's a
phony and a fraud. Congrad the wassense to oppose the
(05:31):
figures there and they're given all that. It's good that
Kimmel is back in the air. He should be back
in the air. I think a one to two week
suspension probably was the best way to send a message,
and he got one week, so good enough. I think
he should be aware of the outrage about his comments.
And again, what he said wasn't offensive. It wasn't a joke,
(05:52):
it wasn't an oopsie. It was an attempt to slander
entire political movement at a time where one of their
significant leaders was gunned down in cold blood. He doesn't
get much worse than that. And you know, by the way,
kudos to Megan Kelly for sharing receipts about what Jimmy
kimble ha said. In the recent past. Jimmy Kimmel was
(06:13):
once slandered by Aaron Rodgers who said, oh, maybe that
Jimmy Kimmel guys on the Epstein list. Well, there's no
factual basis for that whatsoever. And in saying so, Jimmy
Kimmel defended himself, and good for him he should. But
along the way he mentioned, you know, I've my monologue
is fact checked to the brim, and I've got a
team behind me, and they know it's fact and they
(06:35):
know it's fiction. They check things out and they make
sure what I'm saying is the honest truth. And if
i ever make a mistake, a hiccup, I'll come in
the air and apologize. He said that about a year
and a half ago. Clearly didn't mean it, or he
meant it at the time, but he wanted to smite
Maga so badly he couldn't help himself. Some of the
(06:55):
people reveal themselves in times of crisis and we're seeing
the real Jimmy kis right now. It ain't pretty. I
think the main lesson from this is that the left,
by and large, and Jimmy Kimmel specifically, he didn't give
a damn about free speech. Nope, not at all. His
free speech. Oh yeah, everyone else's. It's a case by
(07:16):
case basis. Jimmy, do better. Please, Maybe this will be
a learning moment, an opportunity to realize that free speech
does matter no matter who's sharing it, mayri who's flexing it.
If he doesn't learn that by this, he'll never learn.
(07:37):
And now the headlines, You know, we don't need another
reason to hate the United Nations. Listen on paper, United
Nations wonderful. It's an important, powerful group. In reality, the
health posing off the dictators is the least. It is
(07:58):
a mess. And that came to mind this week when
we heard about Violet Affleic. She's the daughter of Ben
Affleck and Jennifer Garner, and she for some reason appeared
at the UN pretty big, pretty big gig. Right, Hey,
I'm at the UN and she wanted to promote getting
us all back into wearing masks for the COVID nineteen pandemic.
(08:21):
It's twenty twenty five, and this young woman, God bless
her soul, thinks we should all be masking up again.
Never mind the fact that the pandemic is over, that
the virus is nowhere near as consequential as it once was,
and masks don't work. I don't want to pick on
(08:41):
Violet Affleic. She sounds like a troubled young woman. Clearly,
I'm not going to even say a word against her,
But why in the world is the UN inviting her
to speak before the August Body. That's absurd, But just
throw it on the pile. The UN is just the
king of absurdities. They just got worse this week. Why
would anyone let Rob Reiner back and behind a camera?
(09:04):
Listen for a while? A long while. Rob Reiner was amazing.
You know the track record right stand by me, Misery,
the Princess Bride. This is spinal tap, the sure thing.
If you haven't seen a short thing, go find it.
It's hard to find, but just do your best. It's
a wonderful, sweet, charming film. A few good men. The
(09:26):
list goes on and Harry met Sally, American President. This
guy had a run like few directors ever. Amazing and
now movie after movie after movie, dud after dud after dud,
box office bomb after box office bomb. I mean, it's over, Rob.
I don't know what happened. I feel badly for you,
but you just can't make good movies anymore. It's clear,
(09:47):
feels like the end of an arrow. And then along
comes the spinal tap sequel spinal tap. The end continues,
and it's a box office bomb. As I'm recording, this
made about two point six million dollars, a pretty wide release.
That's a disaster.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I don't know if Trump derangement just affected his ability
to direct a film. I don't know if he just
creatively lost it. I don't know what's going on, but
I do know, in addition to maybe not letting you
behind the camera anytime soon, maybe don't have him on
talk shows where he shares his political views. Here's what
he said recently, of course, about you know who. So
we're now in a place where we are really wrestling
(10:25):
with whether or not we're going to have a constitution,
whether or not we're going to have the American form
of democracy, and the First Amendment is right at the
core of it. Well, the good news is he can
say whatever he wants, wherever he wants. The bad news
is we have to hear it. Rob Reiner, maybe you
need a little counseling as well, because things aren't going
(10:46):
well professionally or personally. Apparently well, the savant will have
to wait. This is a new Apple TV Plus series
storing oscar Win at Jessica Chastain. She plays an investigator
who's tracking down those darn white supremacy groups out for violence. Yeah. Really,
in twenty twenty five, we're still worried about white supremacy. Well,
at least in Hollywood we are. But the complicating factor
(11:10):
here is they pulled the show. They pulled the show
because of the Charlie Kirk assassination. They thought it wasn't
the right time. And of course, at least one outlet
blame this again on Donald Trump, no facts, no sort
of connective tissue. Just blamed Trump for X, Y and Z.
But the real funny story behind this is, first of all,
you don't pull a show. There's violence everywhere in the news.
(11:30):
It happens. It's terrible. If you're proud of the show,
if you think it's a good program, put it out there.
We don't care. But More importantly, a movie is opening
this very week that really is more problematic in this fashion.
It's called One Battle after Another. It's a new Leonardo
DiCaprio film from the great Paul Thomas Anderson. All overrated,
but they call him great. I'll run with it. And
(11:52):
it's a story about this sweet, lovely group of radical
activists who bomb government buildings enforced by gunpoint ICE like
officials to release legal immigrants. That's the story. It doesn't
attack these radicals, it doesn't judge these radicals. It really
(12:16):
praises these radicals. They're painted in a very positive sweet light.
And just as this story is coming into theaters nationwide,
there was an attack on an ICE facility, two or
three people killed it. The news is still rolling in
and the person who did the shooting, who took his
own life afterwards, had anti ICE slogans on his bullets. Again,
(12:37):
here we go again. So here's a Hollywood studio promoting
a movie that justifies violence, that glorifies violence, that directly
targets those who try to enforce the borders. And we've
got a situation like this now. I don't want to
pull the savant. I don't want to pull this movie,
one battle after another, but boy, the timing is just
(12:59):
playing ugly. The great TV show The Office, of course,
based on the British show, gave the sitcom a very
fresh and uncondentional twist. The show proceeded as if it
were a documentary that someone was capturing the trials and tribulations.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
So well written.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
The cast was exemplary, I mean, Rain Wilson, Steve Carell,
John Krasinski, just epic, epic in every way, a great show.
And then they try that again to a lesser extent,
not as obvious, with parks and recreation, another wonderful show
led by the great Leslie played by Amy Poehler. Well,
they're trying it one more time. It's called The Paper
(13:50):
and it's set in a small town newspaper and it's
from some of the same creative people behind the original
Office the NBC version, and it's okay, it's fine. I
want to always give a show like this room for growth,
but so far it's watchable and nothing more. But there's
another show that's used in this template. It's called The
Promised Land, and it's a story about Moses, about the
(14:13):
mission he had about becoming an unconventional leader. It's about
biblically accurate storytelling, and it's told in that office like style. Now,
when I heard about this, I thought, oh my gosh,
that sounds risky as heck, and there's no way they
could pull it off. It just seems impossible.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Well they did.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
According to the first couple episodes. I've seen very very funny.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
When you enter the land the Lord, your God is
giving you. These are my people, ready to listen, eager
to layr. I can't the Oleina shouldn't be like this.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
She told a lot that I have left. You have water, get.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
It to me.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Forty nine days we see Hebrews and still no one
suspects me. It's time to demonstrate trust.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I'll go first.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Well, tnkra very infessive. It's got those camera confessionals, the
workplace bickering, all these different wonderful elements from the office
are in this biblically based show. So smart, so good,
and it's one of the reasons why I wanted to have.
The key star from the show wasim Nomani. On this program,
he plays Moses, this conflicted hero, this essentially like a
(15:28):
boss like character trying to work around what's going on
in his life and in the world around him. It
is very clever and he does a wonderful job with
the show. Now, The Promised Land is going to be
debuting October first on YouTube. You could check it out
there very very soon. But for now, we've got a
chance to meet Wasim and talk to him about his life,
his work, his fond memories of his father, and much more.
(15:50):
It's a really sweet conversation and it really shows you
what it needs, what you need to do to survive
in Hollywood, how you need to just absolutely persevere, never
give up. Because what seemed never give up and is today. Well,
you know, before we get to the show, which is
obviously fun and I got some big laughs out of it,
I want to just find a little bit more about you.
I understand you were your parents were actors, came to
(16:12):
America at a pretty early age. How did you fall
into the family business. Then we'll get into The Promised Land.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, my dad was a fairly prominent actor in Iraq.
He was on Sesame Street. Yeah, he had said that,
He's like, I'm like George Clooney over there, you know,
but this was all before my time. They we came
to the United States in eighty five so he could
pursue his higher education in theater, and he got his
(16:40):
PhD in theater at Texas Tech in nineteen ninety eight
before the go for happened, and then so we couldn't return. Yeah, yeah, so,
and you know, ever since I was little, I mean,
I suppose there was a great percentage of offspring who
want to do and end up doing what their parents
have done.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So yeah, so always been. And you know, that was
the way my father and I bonded. You know, he
showed me James Dean Pones Brown, you know, all that
stuff from a very early age, you know. And then
like me and my sister are re enacting Streetcar, you know,
and I'm Stanley Kuloski and he's playing Stella. As inappropriate
(17:20):
as that is, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Now, as as it's nice to go with the family business,
it's nice to have that bond, but acting is a
very I don't have to tell you is a very
brutal business. The competition is fierce. Did he ever kind
of say son, maybe pump the brakes, maybe go to
law or something, or.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
No, my mom did. How precarious it was, But I
think he knew when he saw on me that you
know that that passion. Yeah, you know, and it's I
mean it it's so, I mean it was. I mean
I didn't really book a Liverpool wage job until they're chosen,
you know, and in like my mid thirties and and
(18:01):
doing ober and stuff, you know. So yeah, no, for sure,
I mean even and you're and you know, self doubt
as an artist, if I can call myself that is
part and parcel of what it is, what it means
to me, because you never know if it's any good.
You don't know if you're good, you don't we'll get
some positive feedback. You don't know people are you know,
(18:23):
just complimenting you just for its own sake, or whether
you can do something you know. So yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
That's when I went to art school back in the day,
and I I always was mistrustful of the artists who
thought everything that they did was wonderful. So I think
self doubt is actually a very healthy and probably pragmatic
way to approach it. So as much as it can
be kind of you know, you beat yourself up, but
I think it's a good I think it's a good
quality have because you're always improving and trying to be better. Uh.
You know, when you think about what parents do for children,
(18:53):
a lot of it is what they teach you, and
a lot of it is sort of the unspoken things.
I mean, I hope, I hope my boys look at
what I do and say, oh, Dad's doing X and Y,
I'm going to be like him. Did you pick up
things from your dad that maybe he didn't tell you
as an actor, that you just kind of absorbed or
witnessed or just watched him as with his process.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean whenever he had a project, which
is kind of where when we were in America, you know,
he had to take a quote unquote regular job or whatever.
But when he did have those opportunities, I mean, his
devotion was fierce. And I think that's the thing. You know,
if you're going to do something, do it as best
as you can't, even if it doesn't measure up with
(19:31):
every five of yourself. And I think and how seriously
he took his work and it mattered to him, even
if it didn't matter to anybody else. I mean, he
would just be doing you know, some community stage player somewhere,
And I mean the guy was just giving his flesh
to it, you know, and watching that and watching what
(19:52):
stimulates that? Is that that stimulation, that that engagement, and
that's really what I envy and what I try to get. Know,
it's not hard work follows you already being engaged in intrigue,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah? Yeah, you mentioned The Chosen changed things for you.
Can you tell a little bit more about that. I mean,
it's such a revolutionary show. It's been such a sensation.
You know, very few pop culture shows breakthrough the way
The Chosen has. As an actor, can you maybe share
the details of what that means to you? And becoming
on a platform that was so big.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, well, you know, I joined in season two and
I had never heard of the show before. You know,
season one had like a ground swell of a yeah,
but I you know, and yeah, you know, to be
perfectly honest, I always thought like paid based material, apart
from a couple of things, you know, usually low and
quality for whatever reason, you know, that was my judgment.
(20:49):
And then I remember seeing the show the first season
after my audition, I was like, oh, what this is
actually good? You know, of Vari's performance as nicodemonis just stupendous,
and that I was like, oh wow, this is something
that I can like sink my peep with my teach into,
you know, if I do get it. And it wasn't
(21:12):
the show at that time that it is now, and
it just constantly grew and grew and grew, and you know, luckily, thankfully,
you know, I've been blessed to be able to be
on the boat at the typically.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, yeah, uh, let's let's talk about the Promised Land
on paper. It's the greatest idea I've ever heard of,
and also kind of the craziest idea, the sort of
mixing with this this spiritual theme and classic stories and
beloved text and all of a sudden it's an office
style comedy. Uh did you buy into it right away?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Or did did?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Do you need to see something in action? But with that,
oh yeah, this can work. This this is really gonna work.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Well, you know, when I saw the breakdowns, I thought
it was such a novel articling idea. But you know,
you've got to read and when you've got to read
the script, and when I read the pilot, oh wow,
this might have some legs. And but you know, also
(22:14):
like all right, just the beginning of Exodus, Moses believes
in God, believes God is talking to me in the
burning bush and refuses him. He says, no, I'm not
your God, and he says it multiple times, and it
keeps cooking up with excuses, and you know, his self
doubt is so intense that he doubts God. He doubts
(22:36):
God's wisdom. And you know, if God did create us
in his image, you know, yourself doubt ultimately is you know,
it is God doubt at least that's the way I
take it from this particular perspective. And there's something inherently
kind of funny about that as well as you know,
how many plagues do you need to go through? Or
(22:57):
you're like, okay, I've had him not I mean, I
feel like it is what you know, I think by
like three or four, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, it's fascinating. You know. So, were you someone who
watched The Office in Parks and Rex and show in
this genre or did you have to kind of go
back and say I need to watch just to kind
of get a feel for this style of humor. What
was that like?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, I was a big fan of the Office, you know,
in early two thousands. Yeah, and I kind of, you know,
stopped watching when Steve Carell left, but yeah, I hadn't
really seen anything, you know that that mockumentary style. Yeah,
but yeah, and then getting this, I went back and
(23:41):
we watched you know, some of that show is just
so brilliant. Yeah, and you know, and being able to
navigate that, you know, we're dealing with serious material and
what's funny is not us you know, laughing and making
jokes at the expensive characters, but the situations.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, you know, I mean I think one of the
more powerful things about The Promised Land is the it
really it humanizes the characters and makes them relatable in
a way that I don't know if we've seen quite
like this before. Talk about that element of the story
where you're taking material which could be serious and sober,
(24:21):
but still sharing that information and sharing some of the messages.
It's a very tricky, tricky balance, I would imagine.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean I think if we did succeed
in that, I mean, Mitch Hudson the writer, but it's
the humanity, I mean, that's where the comedy comes from. Yeah,
and it's very easy you know, read or hear or
watch stories about people you know, long ago, there's still us.
(24:50):
It's the same hardware. The software is different in terms
of belief systems. Yeah, but yeah, it's the humanity that's
where the comedy should emanate from, you know. And yeah,
I mean because if you see like you know, the
Time Commandments and you see Charlton Heston, you know, it's
like this statuesque kind of you know, but he I mean,
(25:15):
you can dueen and infer that perhaps Moses wasn't like that,
you know, and from I mean, I think that was
the jumping off on the minage and that that this
guy did not he spent the last forty years with
cheap you know, immdiates, So like what does he know about?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah? Yeah, we live in this age where if some
movie or TV show gets something wrong for lack of
a better word, people are upset and they're you know,
sending out hashtags and things, and we deal with biblical issues.
You know, there's the did you honor the source material?
Is it spiritual? Is it correct? Is it what you like?
What is it what the other person? I mean, there's
(25:54):
there's all these different shades are gray, and I think
the tone in the the sense I get from the
show is that you you you kind of work that
well and you're not insulting people. And but is that
something that's kind of discussed on the set behind the scenes.
Working with Mitch is sort of to get sort of
that right where it's not perfect and there's creative license
here of plenty, but you're getting the nuts and bolts
(26:17):
of the story and of the sentiment you know on Target.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
No, that's that's all Mitch. I mean that the first
and foremost, you know, I think his reverence for these
people where these characters are kind of self evident if
you watch and and him just you know, I mean,
because there's so much you know, there's so much source
material to go through. You know, you've got to pick
(26:41):
and you know, he's the only writer you know, on
this project, so you know, you got to pick and
choose your shots. Yeah, and yeah, he does talk about
that in terms of like certain things and I'm like,
well this happened, and he's like, yeah, this is the
family show. We're not we're not really going into that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah. Hm. Now at this point, I know the show
had had this sort of interesting history. There was a pilot,
it was very successful. Then you got the funding. It's
it's been not a traditional path. But can you share
how much has been shot so far as the whole
first season sort of in the verbial canon or has
more been shot at this point?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yes, the first season is in the can. We're all
releasing the pilot being the first episode already released. Uh,
the second episode is being released Wednesday, October first, and
then every week from then they're going to be releasing
the consecutive episodes. Yeah, we have five in the can
right now, and I don't know if I'm allowed. Yeah,
(27:42):
I think I could say we're shooting any further updates
as servant? What's up? Hold up? Further updates? Announcement that
follows who was that there was a voice in my head?
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Well, we'll talk a little bit about what you would
like to see your where the character Moses can go.
I mean, we we know, but at the same time,
as you know, as part of this story, what would
you like to see or what may be different shades
you may show along the way.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah, I mean what I really gravitated to was the
self doubt in the way that that manifests itself and
you know, being somebody who does not see themselves as
a leader because typically, you know, nowadays, everybody is like
raising their hands to be first in line to lead,
and God, you know, very interestingly chose somebody who was like,
(28:34):
it's not me, and I think him overcoming that. I
don't know what Mitch has in store, whether you know
it resolves that internal issue because I think we all
deal wrong. I shouldn't speak very but anytime I feel something,
I'm like, everybody does this right, you know, And to
be able to resolve that and see where that takes
(28:55):
him mhm.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
You know you hinted as something earlier, which I think
was completely fair and honest. Faith based stories for a
while were a little rough around the edges. The acting
wasn't maybe as crisp as it could be, The budgets
were small. I mean, it was really a fledgling genre
that didn't have a lot of bells and whistles. And
yet in recent years, I mean, you know, even take
away the metal Gibson worked because he's working on this
(29:19):
extreme level of craft. But you know, we've seen faith
based horror movies and we've seen comedies, and the Chosen
is onto itself as such a sensation. What do you
see happening within the space now that you've been in
it to a degree, I mean.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I think, you know, not necessarily just to get talk
to Turkey, but I think the fact that people see
that they can make money. I think that that's what's
that's really what it comes down to. Yeah, because it
wasn't until mel Gibson that you know, in the Passion
of the Christ, that people saw, oh wow, there is
an audience. Yeah. So I do think is just going
(30:00):
to get better and better, and people are realizing that,
you know, they can make really high quality shows or films,
you know with this material.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yeah. You know, as an actor who's breaking out now
and getting more projects, it's such a curious time to
be in your profession because it used to be only
a few film studios, only a few channels, and you
were very limited. But now here's the show that's going
on YouTube and it's not because it's not good. It's like,
this is a brave new world. Do you find yourself
(30:32):
hood of creatively? Is it exciting to be in this
space right now where all these different platforms and the
competitions making each of them better. I mean, you know,
you can't just put out mediocre product. If you do,
it's going to get swamped by other things. So it
just seems like it be exciting time to be an
actor in the space.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Yeah, for sure. I mean it's always a precarious I
mean you're never kind of safe. I mean yeah, like
huge ten years ago, like where are they now? So
you're yeah, so you're constantly on this fine line. But yeah,
you're absolutely right. I mean, the opportunities are more abundant
than ever. But you know, it's really it's just quality.
(31:09):
Quality just comes down to quality, you know, yeah, or
is it not? Now? Obviously you want people to see
your work and you want to be on the platform
that reaches the most people. But I mean that's what
I'm focused on, you know, really good material, because good
material will make you a better actor, Yeah, because you're
not the same actor with that material as you are,
(31:30):
you know, because you've got to say things that you know,
just feel clunky in your mouth and in your body
and et cetera.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Two last quick questions. One, I don't know if you
have any aspirations for writing or directing. Is that part
of what you could see for your future? And also,
I don't know if your dad's still alive, but has
he seen the show? What did you think of it?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Well, fortunately my father passed away. All he saw me
in was a community college production of The Elopment Man,
and so really heart love, thank you. It's actually really
heart warming because you know, it was the first thing
that I, you know, kind of did in a public
space of drama class and doing stuff at home and everything.
(32:12):
And uh, he would not stop buying tickets and coming.
He came like six times like that. I love it. Yeah,
that's great.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, yeah, any the aspirations and writing and directing or
just you're good. You're an actor and that's.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
More than enough. Yes, being an actor is already probably
more than I could chew. But I would love I mean,
I have certain idea in my fantasy world, yes, but
I don't know. I don't know if I have if
I have that kind of a story acuity that requires,
you know, to be able to write the thing that
(32:50):
I would admire.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
You know, Well, the career is young, so who knows
what happens next. But thank you so much for joining
the show with seeming. Of course, this this is about
the Promised Land, which is going to be debuting on
YouTube October first, new episodes each subsequent week. Do check
it out. I know that there's a new paper out
there on Peacock and it's perfectly fine. But I've found
much bigger laughs than the Promised Land. And so congratulations
(33:15):
the show. You're great in it and hope to speak
again sometime.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, thank you so much, Christian as your character.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Actor of the week is Sean Whalen. Well, that's it
for the show this week. Again, just a quick reminder
to check out hollywoodintoto dot com. It is the website,
it is my home base. It is like this program,
the right take in entertainment, news, reviews, commentary, all the
things from Hollywood from a right of center perspective. And again,
like this show, we try to focus on stories not
(33:41):
being covered. Media bias run amuck, actors and artists who
have great stories to tell but just aren't getting enough attention.
Things like that, that's what we specialize in here. So
if you have thoughts along those lines, you think there's
something in the cultural landscape that isn't being covered aggressively
enough or maybe ignored entirely, definitely send me a note.
You can email me Christian at hollywoodintoto dot com. Easy
(34:07):
enough to remember. Definitely weigh in, let me know your thoughts,
send some ideas my way, maybe even at a boy.
If you're enjoying the program, and if you hate us,
feel free to send that to you stink muster. Anything
goes free speech, it does matter. Well, that's it for
this week's show. Again, thank you to Radio America for
(34:27):
having me as part of their great podcast lineup. Now
go out there have a wonderful week. Doctor's Orders
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