May 17, 2022 • 11 mins
Actor Billy Baldwin talks new movie 'Dakota' and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're on with Mario a little bit. It's up on
Marial Lopez joining me now on Zoom actor Billy Bow
and welcome to shall Man. Have you been thrilled to
be back? It's been a long time. I don't even
know that. With the pandemic and everything, I don't know
if it's been two years, three years, five years, I
don't remember. I know I've sort of lost all sort
of essence of time. But it is always nice to
catch up with you. Um where are you zooming from?
(00:23):
By the way, I live up in Santa Barbara with
China and the kids. We moved up here. Where relocated here?
And I don't know, two thousand seven, two thousand eight
to do dirty sexy money that collapse it in two
thousand and eight, and uh, and we China was like,
we're not going back to New York. I had China
for like a fifteen year run with me in this
in New York City and then and then we, uh,
(00:46):
we decided to relocate here. When we were relocating, they
closed the door on the plane and I was reading
the paper and I felt somebody staring at me. And
I looked over at my wife and she had this
little smirk on her face, and I go what she goes,
you know, I said, I do, and she goes, I think,
So I go, We're never We're never coming back, and
she goes never where her parents through California dreaming. So
(01:08):
I was lucky to have her in New York for
fifteen years. I assume was she raised here in l
A or yeah, she was raised all around l A?
Got it, Sanna, Santa Barbara is about the nicest place
you So congratulations on that. That is an ideal place
to live right there. We've raised our kids here. That's awesome.
Latest movie, Dakota, it looks like a nice family film.
(01:30):
What's it about. Well, at the center of the film,
this is where my career is at now. I'm playing
the grandfather and the dog is the lead of the film.
The dog is in the title role. It's just it's
just a beautiful, wholesome family movie. The kind of film
you could take your girlfriend, you could take your wife,
you could take the kids. You know. I've made so
(01:50):
many films that my children are just able to watch
now in their twenties, because I would, of course never
let them see that when they were five. I would
never let them see Slipper when they were twelve. Um.
But this is a really beautiful, wholesome family film, very
powerful messages, and at the core of it is this dog,
the shepherd Dakota, who is not only the glue that
that that holds the family together, helps to keep the
(02:12):
family together, but it also helps them save their family property.
This this family farm that they've had in the family
for generations. I love it. We're all big dog lovers
over here, and I love family uh friendly films, having
three kids myself. You work with animals before? Was this
something new? Yeah? I have before. I did a series
(02:33):
that I produced for Netflix a couple of years ago
called Northern Rescue just outside of Toronto, and we worked
with wildlife quite a bit on that. We worked with
a with a with a movie there for a couple
of episodes, which was very interesting. I gotta imagine when
when you're working with animals, there's a little added pressure
to get it in fewer takes, Am I am? I correct, No,
(02:56):
the animals get more takes than I do. They expect.
I gotta stick the landing on take two and if
the animal does something wrong or is that a focus
or that the DP doesn't like the way he framed.
The dog gets take seven, then number one on the
call sheet could take two takes and we're moving up now.
That works. Um. Also in the works a thriller called
(03:17):
Candy Land. What can you tell us about that? Yeah,
it's uh, this thriller that I did that's very, very dark.
I'm sort of attracted to family films and comedies. And
I also did a series with Miles Teller on Amazon
called Too Old to Die Young with Nicholas Reffan that
was super super dark, and this is right in that
genre again. It's it's set in UM in the world
(03:39):
of truck stop. Uh if I dare as I say it,
but it said in the world of truck truck stop prostitution.
And I one of the ensemble leads in it with
Eden Broland, who's the daughter of Josh Brolan, and Diane
Lane and a couple of other incredibly talented young actors.
And I play the sheriff in this town that's sort
(04:00):
of involved in this circle of criminal activity. I love it.
Wide range of projects you're working and you mentioned Sliver
a little uh a second ago. We're coming up on
the thirtieth anniversary of the movie, which of course earned
you the NTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Male. What
do you remember about that time? Um, you know, it
(04:24):
was it was a rising star. I had done Internal
Affairs and Flatliners and Backdraft and then Sliver and that
kind of after Backdraft, that's kind of busted me onto
the scene as as you know, a list studio actor.
And it was incredible. You know, I have no you know,
if I could do things over again, there's a couple
of things that would do differently. There was a few
(04:45):
things that I was offered that I turned down. There
was a few things that I wanted to do but
I wasn't available. I was offered, uh, they wanted me
to do river runs through it. I was shooting another
film they offered me, uh, and I was preparing for
rehearsal for Fellman Louise, and then it conflicted with the
shooting schedule with Backdraft. So I had to sort of choose,
(05:06):
and obviously to start with Kurt and and Ron Howard
and Tin Hero was the obvious choice. I was offered
the movie Speed a couple of times and I didn't
do it. And I looked back and say that was
probably not a smart thing to do. But I was,
you know, an actor looking to make a statement about
you know, who I was as an actor and coming
(05:27):
off of Backdraft and having that be the next thing.
I was offered a big, muscular action film. And I
had worked with Beyond Dubance on on Flatliners. He was
the DP on Flatliners, so I really really loved him.
But he was he was a shooter, he was a DP,
he was foreign, His English wasn't great. I didn't feel
confident enough that he understood the acting process and actors
(05:50):
enough to take the plunge, and that really that really
wasn't It was just like I wanted to do. What
The next film I did after that was this little
Telly Lynch and Cherylyn Finn called Three of Hearts, and
it was just really about the actors and the words
and looking back to play the part that Kiano played
in Speed with John, it really didn't require that you
(06:13):
had a director that understood acting or actors who have
a direct actors. You needed a shooter like John, you know,
so who's who's to say I would have even been
anywhere close to what they did. I mean, Sandra and
Kiano and look what it's done for them. That that
led to the Matrix and the Matrix laed to he
was already a giant star, but he's he's a I
(06:34):
wish I got a chance to know him a little
bit better. I love kanna Use. He seems super cool. Yeah,
I know, real nice guy and I love hearing those
kinds of stories. Thank you so much for sharing that
with me. Um, I've always been a Faunduris for a
long time. One of the things I've always admired is
that you were a former wrestler like myself. Love. The
sport has all the great attributes to to make a
great man. Um, you'll like this. I'm going to the
(06:57):
National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Okah. I was involved
in that. I was involved behind the scenes. Were involve
behind the scenes pulling strings? Will thank you then? I
oh no, no, no, no, no no, and nothing to do.
They wanted you for years that you were you were
eligible and qualified, and they've been chasing me to get
you to come out. And by the way, is it
in June. I'm supposed to be shooting in Belgrade in June.
(07:21):
I go to visit all those guys. All the time
I've been you don't understand the Hall of Fame. He's
on the campus of O S. She was in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
My best friend's father who got me involved in wrestling
when I was eight years old. He became the director
of What's he became the the the vice president of
the United States Wrestling Federation is now today USA Wrestling.
(07:44):
The first time I ever got on a plane was
when they moved away in eleventh grade. I was in
the eleventh GUD. I flew out during my like Christmas
break to visit them, and I was in the Hall
of Fame in the USA Wrestling offices at Stillwater in
I know all the people involved with the USA Wrestling
since the seventies. And now that guy who got me
involved is a coach that was inducted into the Hall
(08:06):
of Fame. His sons in the Hall of Fame. And
it's a cute the division that we get because we
get to flux our muscles, like, yeah, we're in the
Wrestling Hall of Fame, like it's amazing. In Hollywood, Howard
gets blown up. I remember one time, you love this
story Ron Howard. I had done back dresser Ron Howard.
He was doing Far and Away with Tom Cruise. I
had done Born in the fourth of July with Tom Cruise,
(08:28):
and I had a couple of wrestling incidents on the
sets where people said, you know, like guys twice my size,
you know, like you think you're such a hot shot.
Off stuff you in that garbage gain over there. I'm like,
I don't know about that. Few seconds later, I'm throwing
this guy upside out five to fifty. I'm like, sticking
him in a garbage can't. I'm not happy. Okay. The
Cruise is on his way to the set of Far
(08:51):
and Away with Brian Grazer Ron Howard. They're driving in
a suburb and a couple of you know, a driver
on a security guard and Sean Penn was there visiting
Robin right, who was there working on a picture I
forget the name of it in the West of Ireland
with Albert Finney, the Playboys maybe, And he splits on
Robin to go visit Tom because they're old friends. And
they're driving to the set one day, Shaun's coming to
(09:12):
see Ron on the set with Tom, and uh, somehow
that I'm sort of paraphrasing this, but Ron Howard and
Brian Grazer reported this back to me. He said, So
they're talking about like tough guys in Hollywood, tough guys
in Hollywood, and uh, and I guess a couple of
names come up. And Ron Howard says to Cruise, and
Sean Penny goes, I don't know about you. If I
had to put my money on somebody, I put it
(09:33):
on wrestling Bill Baldwin because I saw what that guy
could do. Man. I saw him take a Mr. Chicago,
like a six five to fifty bodybuilder and stuff them
in a garbage can. And Sean Penn like, what what
are you talking about, Billy ball Like you're thinking like
Nicky Rourk, I was like Billy Baldwin, Billy bald All
of a sudden, Tom Cruise goes, let me tell you something,
(09:54):
if I tell you what I saw him due to
like ten different people on the set of Born in
the fourth of July, he literally ripped their faces off.
He literally melted them on the set in front of
the entire crew. And he didn't see these people just
kept challenging him. These guys, you know what it's like
the rust of somebody that's never wrestled twice, you size,
you know, it's that you do it ten thousand times.
(10:15):
You know, it's it's that Malcolm Gladwell kind of stuff.
I mean, we we spent we did it ten thousand
times and and uh and of course it blew up
in the car like Brian Grays was like, oh are
you kidding? Be bully Bobo. He was like an Olympic
hopeful if the guy didn't blow out his team. When
he was a sophomore in college, he was like the
favorite to win the Olympic trials, while I won the
(10:36):
Massive Peak with Christmas tournament and I might have been
the only time I got to the top of the
podium in my career. That is an awesome story. Thanks.
Are you the only one of your brothers that wrestled? No,
My brother Daniel wrestled. He was very good. When I
was in ninth grade, I wrestled night. When he was
in eleventh grade, eighteen months older than me, he wrestled.
(10:56):
He was the defensive tackle on the football team. He
wrestled to fifty damn So I had four concussions at
a fractured skull before I was eight. Just the rough
housing with the guy that was two and a half
times the size of me. Those are the best stories ever. Well,
I can talk to you all day. Thank you so
much for your time. I hope to see you in person,
and congratulations on everything. I just want to make sure
(11:18):
people check out Dakota, which is available now. Billy, thanks
so much for checking in pal. Can't you can't do
this to me. We're supposed to talk about Dakota May
twenty May streaming Dakota. Awesome family film. If you want
to get escape from all the craziness in the world
right now, take your family to watch Dakota. You'll love it.
Make sure we'll continue to talk about it. Thank you, Billy,
(11:39):
have me back again. I of the chat some more. Okay,
you got a buddy take care of with Mario Littlepez
You're on with Mario a little bit. It's up on
Marial Lopez joining me now on Zoom actor Billy Bow
and welcome to shall Man. Have you been thrilled to
be back? It's been a long time. I don't even
know that. With the pandemic and everything, I don't know
if it's been two years, three years, five years, I
don't remember. I know I've sort of lost all sort
of essence of time. But it is always nice to
catch up with you. Um where are you zooming from?
(00:23):
By the way, I live up in Santa Barbara with
China and the kids. We moved up here. Where relocated here?
And I don't know, two thousand seven, two thousand eight
to do dirty sexy money that collapse it in two
thousand and eight, and uh, and we China was like,
we're not going back to New York. I had China
for like a fifteen year run with me in this
in New York City and then and then we, uh,
(00:46):
we decided to relocate here. When we were relocating, they
closed the door on the plane and I was reading
the paper and I felt somebody staring at me. And
I looked over at my wife and she had this
little smirk on her face, and I go what she goes,
you know, I said, I do, and she goes, I think,
So I go, We're never We're never coming back, and
she goes never where her parents through California dreaming. So
(01:08):
I was lucky to have her in New York for
fifteen years. I assume was she raised here in l
A or yeah, she was raised all around l A?
Got it, Sanna, Santa Barbara is about the nicest place
you So congratulations on that. That is an ideal place
to live right there. We've raised our kids here. That's awesome.
Latest movie, Dakota, it looks like a nice family film.
(01:30):
What's it about. Well, at the center of the film,
this is where my career is at now. I'm playing
the grandfather and the dog is the lead of the film.
The dog is in the title role. It's just it's
just a beautiful, wholesome family movie. The kind of film
you could take your girlfriend, you could take your wife,
you could take the kids. You know. I've made so
(01:50):
many films that my children are just able to watch
now in their twenties, because I would, of course never
let them see that when they were five. I would
never let them see Slipper when they were twelve. Um.
But this is a really beautiful, wholesome family film, very
powerful messages, and at the core of it is this dog,
the shepherd Dakota, who is not only the glue that
that that holds the family together, helps to keep the
(02:12):
family together, but it also helps them save their family property.
This this family farm that they've had in the family
for generations. I love it. We're all big dog lovers
over here, and I love family uh friendly films, having
three kids myself. You work with animals before? Was this
something new? Yeah? I have before. I did a series
(02:33):
that I produced for Netflix a couple of years ago
called Northern Rescue just outside of Toronto, and we worked
with wildlife quite a bit on that. We worked with
a with a with a movie there for a couple
of episodes, which was very interesting. I gotta imagine when
when you're working with animals, there's a little added pressure
to get it in fewer takes, Am I am? I correct, No,
(02:56):
the animals get more takes than I do. They expect.
I gotta stick the landing on take two and if
the animal does something wrong or is that a focus
or that the DP doesn't like the way he framed.
The dog gets take seven, then number one on the
call sheet could take two takes and we're moving up now.
That works. Um. Also in the works a thriller called
(03:17):
Candy Land. What can you tell us about that? Yeah,
it's uh, this thriller that I did that's very, very dark.
I'm sort of attracted to family films and comedies. And
I also did a series with Miles Teller on Amazon
called Too Old to Die Young with Nicholas Reffan that
was super super dark, and this is right in that
genre again. It's it's set in UM in the world
(03:39):
of truck stop. Uh if I dare as I say it,
but it said in the world of truck truck stop prostitution.
And I one of the ensemble leads in it with
Eden Broland, who's the daughter of Josh Brolan, and Diane
Lane and a couple of other incredibly talented young actors.
And I play the sheriff in this town that's sort
(04:00):
of involved in this circle of criminal activity. I love it.
Wide range of projects you're working and you mentioned Sliver
a little uh a second ago. We're coming up on
the thirtieth anniversary of the movie, which of course earned
you the NTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Male. What
do you remember about that time? Um, you know, it
(04:24):
was it was a rising star. I had done Internal
Affairs and Flatliners and Backdraft and then Sliver and that
kind of after Backdraft, that's kind of busted me onto
the scene as as you know, a list studio actor.
And it was incredible. You know, I have no you know,
if I could do things over again, there's a couple
of things that would do differently. There was a few
(04:45):
things that I was offered that I turned down. There
was a few things that I wanted to do but
I wasn't available. I was offered, uh, they wanted me
to do river runs through it. I was shooting another
film they offered me, uh, and I was preparing for
rehearsal for Fellman Louise, and then it conflicted with the
shooting schedule with Backdraft. So I had to sort of choose,
(05:06):
and obviously to start with Kurt and and Ron Howard
and Tin Hero was the obvious choice. I was offered
the movie Speed a couple of times and I didn't
do it. And I looked back and say that was
probably not a smart thing to do. But I was,
you know, an actor looking to make a statement about
you know, who I was as an actor and coming
(05:27):
off of Backdraft and having that be the next thing.
I was offered a big, muscular action film. And I
had worked with Beyond Dubance on on Flatliners. He was
the DP on Flatliners, so I really really loved him.
But he was he was a shooter, he was a DP,
he was foreign, His English wasn't great. I didn't feel
confident enough that he understood the acting process and actors
(05:50):
enough to take the plunge, and that really that really
wasn't It was just like I wanted to do. What
The next film I did after that was this little
Telly Lynch and Cherylyn Finn called Three of Hearts, and
it was just really about the actors and the words
and looking back to play the part that Kiano played
in Speed with John, it really didn't require that you
(06:13):
had a director that understood acting or actors who have
a direct actors. You needed a shooter like John, you know,
so who's who's to say I would have even been
anywhere close to what they did. I mean, Sandra and
Kiano and look what it's done for them. That that
led to the Matrix and the Matrix laed to he
was already a giant star, but he's he's a I
(06:34):
wish I got a chance to know him a little
bit better. I love kanna Use. He seems super cool. Yeah,
I know, real nice guy and I love hearing those
kinds of stories. Thank you so much for sharing that
with me. Um, I've always been a Faunduris for a
long time. One of the things I've always admired is
that you were a former wrestler like myself. Love. The
sport has all the great attributes to to make a
great man. Um, you'll like this. I'm going to the
(06:57):
National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Okah. I was involved
in that. I was involved behind the scenes. Were involve
behind the scenes pulling strings? Will thank you then? I
oh no, no, no, no, no no, and nothing to do.
They wanted you for years that you were you were
eligible and qualified, and they've been chasing me to get
you to come out. And by the way, is it
in June. I'm supposed to be shooting in Belgrade in June.
(07:21):
I go to visit all those guys. All the time
I've been you don't understand the Hall of Fame. He's
on the campus of O S. She was in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
My best friend's father who got me involved in wrestling
when I was eight years old. He became the director
of What's he became the the the vice president of
the United States Wrestling Federation is now today USA Wrestling.
(07:44):
The first time I ever got on a plane was
when they moved away in eleventh grade. I was in
the eleventh GUD. I flew out during my like Christmas
break to visit them, and I was in the Hall
of Fame in the USA Wrestling offices at Stillwater in
I know all the people involved with the USA Wrestling
since the seventies. And now that guy who got me
involved is a coach that was inducted into the Hall
(08:06):
of Fame. His sons in the Hall of Fame. And
it's a cute the division that we get because we
get to flux our muscles, like, yeah, we're in the
Wrestling Hall of Fame, like it's amazing. In Hollywood, Howard
gets blown up. I remember one time, you love this
story Ron Howard. I had done back dresser Ron Howard.
He was doing Far and Away with Tom Cruise. I
had done Born in the fourth of July with Tom Cruise,
(08:28):
and I had a couple of wrestling incidents on the
sets where people said, you know, like guys twice my size,
you know, like you think you're such a hot shot.
Off stuff you in that garbage gain over there. I'm like,
I don't know about that. Few seconds later, I'm throwing
this guy upside out five to fifty. I'm like, sticking
him in a garbage can't. I'm not happy. Okay. The
Cruise is on his way to the set of Far
(08:51):
and Away with Brian Grazer Ron Howard. They're driving in
a suburb and a couple of you know, a driver
on a security guard and Sean Penn was there visiting
Robin right, who was there working on a picture I
forget the name of it in the West of Ireland
with Albert Finney, the Playboys maybe, And he splits on
Robin to go visit Tom because they're old friends. And
they're driving to the set one day, Shaun's coming to
(09:12):
see Ron on the set with Tom, and uh, somehow
that I'm sort of paraphrasing this, but Ron Howard and
Brian Grazer reported this back to me. He said, So
they're talking about like tough guys in Hollywood, tough guys
in Hollywood, and uh, and I guess a couple of
names come up. And Ron Howard says to Cruise, and
Sean Penny goes, I don't know about you. If I
had to put my money on somebody, I put it
(09:33):
on wrestling Bill Baldwin because I saw what that guy
could do. Man. I saw him take a Mr. Chicago,
like a six five to fifty bodybuilder and stuff them
in a garbage can. And Sean Penn like, what what
are you talking about, Billy ball Like you're thinking like
Nicky Rourk, I was like Billy Baldwin, Billy bald All
of a sudden, Tom Cruise goes, let me tell you something,
(09:54):
if I tell you what I saw him due to
like ten different people on the set of Born in
the fourth of July, he literally ripped their faces off.
He literally melted them on the set in front of
the entire crew. And he didn't see these people just
kept challenging him. These guys, you know what it's like
the rust of somebody that's never wrestled twice, you size,
you know, it's that you do it ten thousand times.
(10:15):
You know, it's it's that Malcolm Gladwell kind of stuff.
I mean, we we spent we did it ten thousand
times and and uh and of course it blew up
in the car like Brian Grays was like, oh are
you kidding? Be bully Bobo. He was like an Olympic
hopeful if the guy didn't blow out his team. When
he was a sophomore in college, he was like the
favorite to win the Olympic trials, while I won the
(10:36):
Massive Peak with Christmas tournament and I might have been
the only time I got to the top of the
podium in my career. That is an awesome story. Thanks.
Are you the only one of your brothers that wrestled? No,
My brother Daniel wrestled. He was very good. When I
was in ninth grade, I wrestled night. When he was
in eleventh grade, eighteen months older than me, he wrestled.
(10:56):
He was the defensive tackle on the football team. He
wrestled to fifty damn So I had four concussions at
a fractured skull before I was eight. Just the rough
housing with the guy that was two and a half
times the size of me. Those are the best stories ever. Well,
I can talk to you all day. Thank you so
much for your time. I hope to see you in person,
and congratulations on everything. I just want to make sure
(11:18):
people check out Dakota, which is available now. Billy, thanks
so much for checking in pal. Can't you can't do
this to me. We're supposed to talk about Dakota May
twenty May streaming Dakota. Awesome family film. If you want
to get escape from all the craziness in the world
right now, take your family to watch Dakota. You'll love it.
Make sure we'll continue to talk about it. Thank you, Billy,
(11:39):
have me back again. I of the chat some more. Okay,
you got a buddy take care of with Mario Littlepez
Host
Mario Lopez
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