Making Pondo with Mike Guyll

 In this episode we talk with Mike Guyll. Mike played Owen in Revenge of Zoe and The Love Song of William H. Shaw.

The Footloose Warehouse Dance

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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Welcome to season two of Making Pondo and Talking Pondo. Talking Pondo is a podcast where Cliff and Marty give each other a film to watch and talk about them in detail. Some episodes will include a special guest. Making Pondo is a podcast where Cliff and Marty talk to people they have worked with and discuss their experiences on set.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Today on Making Pondo, we talk with Mike Gwill, who played the character Owen in Revenge of Zoe and The Love Song of William H. Shaw.

SPEAKER_05 0:30

Alright, Marty, we're back.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

We are back. It's another episode of your favorite format, Making Pondo, where we talk to people we've worked with on movies and such. And yes, the format is kind of winding down because we've talked to almost everybody.

SPEAKER_05 0:46

But everybody that we think might be interesting that we've had enough enough contact with to have actually today's a long holdout.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

We've been trying to get uh Mike on the show since the beginning, but scheduling, you know, and and he moved around a couple of times. But finally, we have Mike Gwill with us here today on the podcast. Hi, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Hello. This is why I say hello. Hello. Hi guys. What's up?

SPEAKER_05 1:14

What's hanging? Hey, it's good. Yeah, it's good to have you. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Yeah. So um Mike has been in two of our films. Uh, he has been in The Revenge of Zoe and The Love Song of William H. Shaw. And he has played a character named um oh my god. Owen. I'm really gonna space it. Owen, thank you. It's been a long weekend um already, and it's only Saturday. Yeah, right. It just is true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Who's a little dweeb kid? Mm Owen, dude.

SPEAKER_05 1:49

I'm Owen, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Dog man.

SPEAKER_05 1:51

But Owen is uh he's uh employee of the comic book store for Pete and John and uh sort of one of their um what I guess one of their projects, right? They're one of the kids they've taken under their wing and and sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

He's the whipping boy of the series. Like if you really if you really want to know who Owen is, he's he's the whipping boy, and he's the dude that takes all the shit, and uh he really is just kind of a pussy. He can't like fight back. Yeah, not not ragging on your guys' character, but I mean that's kind of he's a little wuss kid.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

That's how you see him. See him as a little whisky.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

He's a lovable wuss. He's a lovable wuss.

SPEAKER_05 2:27

Like I agree.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

He's got heart. He'd have a backbone if he wasn't such a wuss.

SPEAKER_05 2:33

I regret that we didn't do a scene with you and uh Adam and Tanya at some point. You know, the three the three employees from the two different stores. It would have might have been fun to do. I know we had you guys talk over the phone briefly for a second, but um, yeah, I regret that we didn't do a scene with all three of them already all together.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

Yeah, it might have been good. Yeah, Adam kind of becomes the whipping boy in love song a little bit. He kind of becomes like the new Owen in a way, where it's like, oh, he's the one who uh sold the comic, and I and Owen's the one going, you know you weren't supposed to do that. Like he's already. But of course, then when you get attacked by the mob, you kind of wilt and have to be taken to the back by uh real quick. Classic scene.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Deal with some PTSD from that.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

Yeah, so good.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Uh I remember this this one scene you guys kept talking about. Um, I can't, I think it was Pete was supposed to have a dream. Um and in the dream, I think like the comic book store gets closed. Um, and then you see like I think I think it was Eric's character who's gonna sit there doing something, and then I was supposed to pop up as like an evil version of Owen, like laughing.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

You were supposed to be in the world, yes.

SPEAKER_05 3:47

That would have been fun to see yes, you were to do like the evil personality of him where he's like the reverse, where he's we shot that, but this but uh unfortunately we you weren't available anymore, so it was we had to do it without you.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Oh man, yeah, it was my replacement.

SPEAKER_05 4:03

Um, I I think we had Pete do it. We had Pete kind of do this mocking laughter instead. Gotcha, you know, we had we had Nate do it, but you would have been yeah, that would have been perfect to have you there. Actually, the two of them together falling all over each other.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

Oh, that was the original idea, I think. Yeah, yeah. But there's scheduling problems because that was part of the movie that we had to shoot like a year after we shot the other part because we had to shut up.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Oh, was that after I left Tucson?

SPEAKER_03 4:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

That's yeah, that's the COVID movie. Trapped in small town pagosa for like three years. And waited out COVID. You escaped though, right? I escaped to I mean, call it that. I I went into like solitary confinement, is what I like to call it, and small town Pagosa, which was good to wait out the uh the COVID. Um and then just because LA is such a a nightmare right now, you know, I was like, you know, I don't want to be in a small town, and I want to be in a big city, so I high-tailed it to San Antonio, Texas, which is where I'm at right now, which is one of the top seven, top ten biggest cities in the U.S. And it it feels like Los Angeles. So it's it's cool. It's a cool city, it's the most favorite city I've lived in, uh, with the exception of London itself. And um, but yeah, yeah, I guess I guess that's where I've been since 2020. I was hiding.

SPEAKER_05 5:25

I'm in Oklahoma City. I said I'm in Oklahoma City north of you, so um, yeah, yeah, I've been to San Antonio many times. We'll have to get together, maybe meet somewhere in Dallas or something at dinner or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

That'd be fun. Yeah. No, San Antonio's a fun, fun city. Texas is a fun place.

SPEAKER_05 5:39

And yeah, you know, I feel like for whatever reason, God called me here, so here I am, and I'm sure LA will be in the cards at some point, but that's where um that's where Lou Diamond Phillips was discovered, I believe, was San Antonio. Oh, really? He yeah, uh he was discovered for La Bamba. He was doing uh he was do what he was working at like a theater as a teacher, right? Or something like that. And his teacher was like, hey, you you know, they're looking for the casting call at gone out, and they were looking in Dallas and San Antonio area. Uh and he went to the audition and bam, there it was. Next thing you know, he's out of San Antonio flying to LA to be picked up by Richie Vallins' brother at the airport, who's a full-on, like oddly enough, full-on card carrying gang member.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

I've already had uh I've already had a few auditions out here. Um was for this little uh this voice. I didn't get the part unfortunately, but it was for a voiceover role playing a serial killing teddy bear. Sweet. I kind of wish I had gotten that part.

SPEAKER_05 6:38

That would have been fun to film a resume. But well, look, keep your keep your head up open for things in in Oklahoma City. Yeah. Um, because uh you can crash at my place, not a problem. Okay. If you know you just stay here for the week that you're working or whatever, and it's just a short drive up. So it's I mean, don't don't hesitate to to call me and say, hey, I got a gig, can I crash on your couch for you know a week? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, man. I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

So hey, the offer is open on my end too. If you ever need a if you're in San Antonio, you need a couch, as long as you don't mind my little puppy Leia giving you puppy kisses in the morning. Yeah, but it's crash here.

SPEAKER_05 7:13

So well, perfect. But yeah, I mean, I just don't want you to, I mean, if you see something in this area, because that we're we're I mean, we have a tax credit going here, so there's stuff filming out here all the time. Yeah, apparent apparently they just shot. I was just talking to my friend last night, they shot Reagan here in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Oh, yeah, I remember when they were doing that.

SPEAKER_05 7:31

Yeah, filmed entirely in Guthrie, and apparently Guthrie is getting so much uh film work that the local community college has started film classes because these production companies show up and they're like, Do you have anybody we can hire? Like a you know, a PA, a grip, a this, that, and they're like, No, I don't have anybody trained for that. And so now they've started classes to train these people so that when they come through, they'll actually be able to possibly get some work.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

So yeah, no. Um yeah, it's definitely a place that's ripe for film too, and it's affordable, which is big when it comes to artists of any kind. Like artists are notorious for being poor till they till they make it. So yeah, yeah. You know, I always I do kind of find it funny that LA is the capital. Yeah, actors. Yet at the same time, it's the most unaffordable place.

SPEAKER_05 8:16

It's kind of always seems kind of weird to me. That's everybody wants to live there, the weather's perfect, you know. And I mean, I guess it's like it's the crucible, man. You know, if you either you can you either got the talent and the and the ability to stick or you don't, and that town will that town will drag it right the fuck out of you as quick as possible, right? Yeah, like I I I lived there for about six months or so, and and I I couldn't, there was no way.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

I mean, I'm not gonna jump down the rabbit hole on this, but I I do believe that's someone that's by design from some more corrupt individuals. They they may they design it so you can fail. And I don't know. I've I I have my theories on that, but I I I don't know if this is really the conspiracy con it should not be that difficult to you know live in Los Angeles. They they they've definitely done some of that on purpose.

SPEAKER_05 9:09

So well, I'm sure it's worse now than it was 2034, even before there's no need to be you know walking over human fecal material here on, you know, no, that's that's New York City.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

That's LA now, too. It's uh it's LA now.

SPEAKER_05 9:24

No, it's decorate.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

So it's like, yeah, it's like, come on, guys, this this is this is being done on purpose. Knock it off. But um yeah. Here in San Antonio, though, it's a you know, I've been told to upload my stuff on this, you know, actor website thing, and I'm like, I don't want to pay the fee right now. It's like, oh no, it's the top one here in San Antonio, and it's free. I'm like, oh well that's there you go. That's nice.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

You know, free stuff.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

That's how it should be. That's all the listings used to be. You know, you'd make a movie, they'd let you list it for free in variety that was coming out, you know, so the acquisition development heads could find your movie and know that it's happening. And now that everything's online and subscription services, they charge for even the most simple things that used to be just free because there was enough money in the business back then. But I remember the one time I went to Los Angeles, I didn't even want to get out of the car. I was freaked out so bad by the police. So I just stay here in Arizona.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Yeah, I mean, me, it's uh it was just you know practicality in terms of it. It really wasn't the uh what drove me away from Los Angeles for a little bit temporarily was just how violent the crime is getting in the in the homeless crisis. Like that, you know, I was sitting there looking, you know, uh out in the streets. I'm like, this is this is like a third world country now. Like I didn't mind the crazy networking and the crazy traffic and the crazy rent, but when it became like a third world country, and you you have like miles and miles and miles and miles of homeless tents out in the street. Yeah, that's pretty bad. Just crazy people crapping in the middle of the day, like literally taking a shit on the sidewalk. I'm like, dude.

SPEAKER_05 11:14

Well, where else are you gonna take it, Mike? Come on. Sheesh, what's up? I said, well, where else are you gonna take it?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah, that's true, that's true. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned. I think everyone should have access to a toilet, but that's that's Mike. Mike's a bit of a traditionalist. But San Antonio's been a great, a great uh uh, I don't want to say compromise, but it it feels like Los Angeles. Like these these big cities all have that same sort of LA feel, so it's well, and you're relatively close to Georgia too.

SPEAKER_05 11:45

They've got a big, big film business down there too. So you're kind of situated in between some stuff. New Mexico too, to your to your left, to your left, is got a got a got a thing, uh film tax incentive, and they're doing pretty well too. So that's I think it might be situated pretty pretty pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yeah, no, this is I I definitely uh you know I feel the I feel the call that something I'm gonna run into something here at some point. Um I think you guys know that I'm a haunted house actor. That was one of my big things in Tucson, and old Tucson. I was one of their haunt actors, and um there is like there's like year-round haunted houses here in uh in San Antonio. I know that there's like one that's open 24 hours. Wow, pound factory or something. I can't remember what it's called, but I'm like, who the who the fuck goes to a haunted house at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning? Like I would love I would love to see whoever it is that goes to a haunted house and get the shit scared out of them on six at six or seven in the morning on Sunday. Like that's the thing.

SPEAKER_05 12:45

The fuck thing is it's probably like the most normal looking family you could ever make it.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Yeah, just with the church and then we decided to go get chased by a clown with a chainsaw.

SPEAKER_05 12:54

Yeah, we're gonna do this first, then we're gonna go to church, then we're gonna go have lunch.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Then we're gonna go have lunch. It's gonna be a nice day. The lines aren't as bad on the Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Yeah. I might look into those though. Um the the scrape some cash up, just because you know I love I love being a haunt actor, which people find that funny because I'm such a Bible boy, but um it it's it's fun to dress up as a scary monster.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

Yeah, it's fun to it's fun to scare people, it's fun to make them laugh, it's fun to scare them, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

It's fun to scare them, it's not fun to traumatize them as a haunt actor. Like I don't ever like to scare somebody to the point where they like drop a load in their pants because I'm like, you know, the idea is to scare them, not terrorize and humiliate them. And if they crap their pants, they're not gonna pay more money to come back and do it a second time.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Like they have to pay you more to traumatize, then you're going into like a dominatrix uh area. Or jackasses.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

That's ever heard of what jackass escape houses are McCami Manor and all that. No. Oh man, so it's basically they're haunted houses where the actors actually torture people that go in them. It's McCami Manor, look it up. It's it's pretty sick. And you know, like as a haunt actor, like that's kind of where I like draw the line. Like that should be outlawed.

SPEAKER_05 14:11

Yeah, that's weird.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Because it's like the people that are the people that are signing up to it are very clearly not well mentally, and you can kind of tell the guy that's running it is taking advantage of that. So it's just you know, scare people, make them laugh, scare them, don't traumatize them.

SPEAKER_05 14:27

There's a difference to our listeners. Um, you never know where our conversations are gonna go here on this podcast. And we got an ADD kiss. This is a perfect example right here.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Uh hey, I'm ADD, so conversations just go all over the place with me. It's fun though.

SPEAKER_05 14:46

So so what's the first question? Um how did you how did you start working with this?

SPEAKER_03 14:50

How'd you find it?

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah, how'd you start working with this? Um how did yeah, I got either it was Eric, I knew Eric because I had trained with his parents, and either he sent me the audition, or I found the audition on Yahoo, and Eric just happened to be be there, and I didn't know that it was Eric, you know, and Eric didn't know I was gonna show up. It was I either found the audition for for Revenge of Zoe on from Bill Dell. And I showed up, and Eric just so happened to be a part of this whole thing. I think that's how it went down, if I remember. I think so too. It was that, or Eric actually contacted me and said, Hey, we got an audition. I and I think it was actually the the former.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

Is that remember him saying, Oh yeah, I know Mike, yeah, my he trained with my parents.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Yeah, yeah, I think that's how I think that's how it went down. And then yeah, uh, I read for I know I read for Owen, and I think I read for uh uh the main character character Billy.

SPEAKER_05 15:50

That's right. Yeah. He did, yep, yep, yep, yep. It was uh you were a shoe-in for Owen right away from from what I could tell.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Yeah, yeah. I think I was also too young to play to play Billy, truth be told.

SPEAKER_05 16:02

Uh yeah, I mean, I I mean I get I I guess that character could work as a younger writer. It's just what we is especially with the guy that we had cast previously, he was a bit older. So I think visually in our head, we had an older, you're right, we had an older guy in mind. But yeah, if we hadn't done the first film and had the established character kind of our, you know, the body type and the age and all that, I mean, I would have been open to saying, yeah, let's do that. I mean, okay, he's not 35, he's 25. He's a he's a phenom writer, he's a phenom Hollywood script writer, and he's a fucking he's and he's completely out of control. That would have worked.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Yeah, it could have made sense too on why he screwed them over at like 18 or 19.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Something that a young, a young asshole would do. But no, I like Owen. I thought Owen was a fun list to play, as I said.

SPEAKER_05 16:47

You got to do the uh the first scene that I ever had to actually choreograph for music, the actual first dancing that we've ever done in a film, right, Marty? Is that right? I believe so, yeah. I I'm pretty sure it's the first now, and what's crazy is that we included dancing in the next one, like we cranked up the dancing quite a bit. Like we had a whole dancing mon with multiple people, and then we had a piece at the end that we didn't use, and uh, but yeah, you were the first uh I remember we Marty said like a scene, it was like a it's like a what a minute and a half scene tops, and Marty set aside a half of a fucking day for it. I guess because he figured it was probably gonna be pretty rough to do.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

And it was I mean, I I thought it was fun. I mean it was like it was really bad. He's a bad dancer, so anything goes. So I I uh Yeah, I actually I actually have that clip on my reel of him of him doing the dancing, and I was getting my reel put together. Avay Dia Miko from uh I think you guys know who Avaya is, you may have heard of him. He was like, Yo, Mike, that that clip of you dancing in Revenge of Zoe is fucking awesome. You gotta put that on your reel. I was like, Okay, I'll listen to you, you're the expert.

SPEAKER_05 17:56

So that's nice to hear somebody say that. That's great. I I mean I thought it really worked. I mean, we I remember we were on set and we were watching because we were you know homaging the scene from Footloose where Kevin Bacon is uh all set and he's dancing in that warehouse, and so yeah, we were watching it on this iPad, watching that scene from YouTube on the iPad, and then mocking the shots up and kind of getting you to mimic his uh as best you could, you know, to a certain extent mimic his body movements, which was fucking hilarious and it really worked.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Yeah, no, I think people people got that it was a parody of foot loose.

SPEAKER_05 18:29

I remember I I think that I think they really got it when you when we cut to you bouncing off the the the the table and then you start coming down the aisle whipping your shirt off and whipping it back and forth, it was like there it is, that's the focus moment.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Or I was like, I was more like slamming myself into them. Yeah. Yeah. He's trying to mimic bouncing off of them instead of he's just kind of falling into them because he's an idiot.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

Well, speaking of uh like doing that scene and spending all day on it and you know getting a lot of advice from Cliff along the way. Uh do you like getting feedback from directors, or what's like the best feedback you've got?

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Absolutely, absolutely. You you gotta there's this like line from Game of Thrones with with Tywin. You guys you guys ever see Game of Thrones? Sure. It's right after Joffrey dies and Tomen and Cersei are by his body, and Tywin's asking uh Tomen what makes a good king, and finally Tomin says wisdom, and Tywin's like, right, and a wise king listens to his counsel long before he becomes king and continues to listen to his counsel long afterwards. Um I thought that little piece of advice was good, like listen to people's counsel, and I don't I I see very little of that in. I've I've been a part of so many creative projects and entrepreneurial efforts at this point at 35, where the script is great or the product's great or the piece of technology that I'm supposed to be selling is great, but the head honchos don't know what the fuck they're doing, and they don't fucking listen to anybody's counsel at all. And it and and they're all people who have quote unquote made it at this point, right? They're they're now the king, but the king has now quit listening to his counsel, and every damn time the project or the entrepreneurial effort collapses. Revenge of Zoe and William Love Song is one of the few where that didn't happen. Like the project actually uh came to fruition, came to completion, and it's because I feel like everybody listens to each other when it comes to that crew. Like, I mean, I know you guys laugh, but it's it's a thing. Like I have seen it so many times. I'm disgusted by it at this point. Like I really am, and it's you these people who don't listen, like, or these people basically they listen until they come into their own. Does that make sense? Or they be they become the king that they use a parable there, and they stop they stop listening to advice, then they stop listening to their counsel, and yeah, everything goes to shit.

SPEAKER_05 21:11

Ego and hubris. Yeah, I mean Marty and I early on, I think that was our ego and and listening only to each other was really what what was part of the driving bits of our failure when we started being way more collaborative about what we were doing and listening to people telling us like that just doesn't work. This just doesn't work. I don't know you know why, but you you'll figure it out. But you know, that didn't we we didn't like that. This this worked, we really like that. You know, maybe you should guys do should do more of that. Maybe you should focus on you know, you start listening to that stuff instead of instead of denying it, and then suddenly things get better.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

We don't tolerate divas either. No, I don't play that game.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

You need to have you need to have a council that is not a council of yes men and yes women, like they can't just be yes man, yes woman, or they they can't be people that have an agenda either that are gonna just tell you no. Because they have some other agenda they're trying to push, they need to be a council of people who can be unbiased, yeah, care about it. And give you that unbiased feedback. It's really, really, really, really valuable. Because if you also go to the go to the wrong person for feedback, they'll start you know criticizing you because they kind of get off on the idea of you know what I mean. Have you ever been around those people? It's like you're criticizing me, but this is not real constructive criticism. This is some sort of narcissistic game you're playing. Like, you know what I mean? And it's pretty rampant in the acting industry. But I I guess point being is is yeah, I I like good feedback, be it positive or negative, as long as it's genuine, truthful, unbiased feedback without an agenda. I think that's some of the most valuable thing you can have as an actor or as a creative, as a salesman, as an entrepreneur, or whatever. So yeah, absolutely. 100%. And I hope that shows when you work with me that I like to listen to feedback.

SPEAKER_05 23:08

So I think I think you were very receptive to it. I think uh, I mean your your your answer is excellent. It's kind of what I mean. If I if if I was gonna give an answer, it would probably be the same thing. Yeah, I think you know, I want to hear feedback, I think it's good to get feedback, I think you should listen to people who give you feedback. You know, you obviously want to watch out for people who have um a vested interest in you uh in you being taken down a peg or not succeeding, yeah. Maybe you and maybe you take that their feedback with a little grain of salt because you know it benefits them if you're not doing well. But if somebody has no ski skin in the game, if if some PA is just standing there holding something and you turn to them and go, What do you think? You know, yeah, take the feedback if they go, I think it's terrible. I remember Marty and I were shooting a scene one time at this comic book store, and I I I yelled to the owner of the store, what do you think, Charlie? He goes, Meh, it's not early for me. And I looked at Martin and I was like, I think he's right. Because he had nothing, he has no stake in it at all. He's just letting us use his space and he's watching us shoot. And you know, we were I we were having trouble with the scene. Marty remembers the scene, and uh he just was like, Meh, you know, it's not really my thing. And was like, yeah, that's probably onto something.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

People who uh who who embark on these creative endeavors or these entrepreneurial endeavors who don't take feedback end up just doing the same mistakes over and over and over again. They don't learn, and it's it's maddening to have to work underneath those types of people, like maddening, because you invest your heart and soul into whatever movie they're trying to make or whatever product that you're trying to sell for them. I I'm I'm I'm big in sales these days. It's uh one thing I noticed that uh actors and actresses and and creatives in general make for natural sales people. If they can find a product that they actually like, if they don't give a fuck about the product, then no, you're gonna suck. But if you actually care about the product, it it's just like acting, it's it's literally no different.

SPEAKER_05 25:06

Well, yeah, presentation skills to a certain way, yeah. Like your transfer over, I completely understand that.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Basically, and if you if you get real good at it, the commissions will start to free up time, and that time is real valuable, and that time you start putting towards your acting or your writing or your filmmaking. But yeah, but yeah, as I said, you know, I cannot tell you now, it's been multiple times, and I don't want to I don't want to say too much in case you know somebody that I'm working with hears this, but I I have I have been a sales rep for some cool stuff that's like there is no reason this shouldn't be in everybody's home or in every single manufacturing plant or yada yada yada. But we got an idiot who does not want to listen to feedback, or he'll listen to the feedback and then he will not apply it. Ignore it, yep, yep. Or she. He or she. Yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure. There's my two cents on that. That's what I and that's what I think about that.

SPEAKER_03 26:07

So your primary thing in film is acting, right? But is there another field in film that you might be interested in as well, like producing or directing or producing, directing, writing?

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Yeah, and then acting, those are the four. Uh it'd really just be like everyone's just like directing.

SPEAKER_05 26:24

Which one is there, which one would you prefer if you had to choose one? Which one would be the top one? Would it be writing, directing, probably writing, writing stories?

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Yeah, that's kind of always been even more so my thing than acting, that'd be writing. And and I I I'd probably be better off as just saying writing, acting, producing. I'm not sure. Because I've never really had the chance to direct. So I say directing, but I don't know if I actually have to be as good as directing as I think I am, but I know I can produce, I know I can I can oversee a vision. Kind of kind of like with the original Star Wars trilogy, they were very producer-driven. George Lucas was, you know, he was the director for A New Hope, and then his RV and Krishner for Empire Strikes Back, and I can't remember who the guy for Gary Kurtz or something.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Marquand. Whoever whoever whoever directed Return of the Jedi. Yeah, Richard Marquand, I think. Richard Marquand.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

That's it. Okay, yeah. And but the but the entire thing was producer uh driven. It was George Lucas.

SPEAKER_05 27:23

Yeah, well, it's the same thing with the it's the same thing with um uh the indie series. I mean, Spielberg directed them all because Lucas kind of contractually trapped him into directing all three of them, but they were dr they were very much created by George Lucas and driven by he wrote the he, you know, he wrote the stories, he produced those films, they were very personal to him. You know, it's just the happiness he just happened to be so smart to get one of the best fucking directors of all time to make his films for him, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Yeah, and I think I would be better off as a George Lucas producer than I would be director if I you know I can still and I'm still hoping uh uh in like the next five years or so direct my first short film and see how it turns out.

SPEAKER_05 28:03

I got the script all written and I'm still tweaking things here and there, and it might just be me being nitpicky, but um yeah, at some point you just gotta put it down and grab the camera and go shoot it, grab your people and go go shoot it. Yeah, I've been told that. So I hear. Yeah, no, I it's your first one look, your first one's never gonna be perfect. Yeah, you're never you're never gonna be you're never I mean, maybe you get lucky and you just you know you you knock it out of the park like you know, Rodriguez, but even Rodriguez said he made a bunch of shorts before he made Bed Head and then moved on to El Mariachi. Yeah, he didn't that he didn't necessarily think were great. He learned things from them. Yeah, you know, and they're personally you know, your your first few are never gonna turn out you know fucking awesome, but you know, but good enough that you'll go, I liked what I did and I learned from it. Here's the things I'm gonna keep, here's the things I'm not gonna do again, I'm gonna try something different the next time.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Right, right. Yeah. So that's in the play, in the cards eventually, hopefully.

SPEAKER_05 28:59

Well um, let's see. Uh what's another quest? Oh, um, I have a question. So um do you I think it probably should be prep we prepped you for this one, but do you have a film or a uh based upon like a music, not necessarily a musical based upon a band or music or about music that you like?

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Is there a musical that I like? Not necessarily, it can be a musical, it doesn't happen. Rent. I love the movie Rent.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Um, because it's about a bunch of bohemians trying to pay their fucking rent. That's what it's about. And it's just like, yeah, I get it. I get it. Um my only real criticism that there's a few parts in rent where they do that kind of like sing song talk that I hate. I'm like, you know, the scene would be better if you guys would just talk. Like stop singing right here and just talk right here. Like, just because the musical doesn't mean need doesn't mean like every line needs to be a uh did Hamilton did Hamilton do that a lot?

SPEAKER_05 29:59

Hamilton? Yeah, did you see Hamilton? I I feel like what you're talking about, Hamilton did quite a bit of too. I've never seen Hamilton. Sing talking. Oh, it's fantastic. Yeah, um, okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

I'll have to check it out. I like Sweeney Todd. Sweeney Todd's a cool uh musical. And uh is there any other musical? I mean, I guess Disney films count, right? Hunchback with me. Sure. Frello. That's a great song.

SPEAKER_03 30:29

So you say you're gonna do a short in a few years. Are you planning on acting in that one as well?

SPEAKER_01 30:35

No acting in that one. Um if I die, I I will not direct if I act, I will not act if I'm directing. That's not a bad idea, you know. Yeah, I think it's tricky.

SPEAKER_05 30:46

I would never do it. I did it once and I'll never do it again.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

I mean, maybe, maybe uh maybe if I get really experienced one day, I'll be able to pull a Mike Myers. But I something just when I was training in London, something kind of clicked and told me, like, yeah, I'm never gonna direct if I'm acting. I'm never gonna act if I direct. I'll I'll act, write, and produce at the same time. But directing and acting, you can't really direct yourself as an actor. You can't really act if you're directing. I I mean, I know that there's some people and some often guard filmmakers that will argue me tooth and nil, but I'm just kind of like, yeah, there's again, there's that thing that we talked about when it came to feedback and having you know unbiased feedback, you can't really direct yourself unbiasedly.

SPEAKER_03 31:34

Yeah, I guess your AD would be directing you at that point.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Yeah, it it just I just don't see how it would work. So but um, I might it might even be something that I just write and produce as well, and I'll have someone else direct. So I that that's still up in the air. The main reason why I'm not full steam ahead on it right now is I am trying to uh position myself uh in a way that gets me financially stable. And I'm I'm working on an entrepreneurial effort with uh with a tech company that could provide that financial freedom sells. But um we'll have to see what happens as we said this whole thing about taking feedback. Yeah, yeah, that's it's a big as I said, I've just been a part of multiple, multiple multiple projects now at this point where the ones that crash, there's a common, there's a common thing that happens. So fingers crossed. But uh yeah, that's uh I I've kind of put the the the film aspirations, I didn't stop them, I put them on a bit of a back burner. Um kind of after when once COVID went down. Um there was a few things that happened in my life. I said, okay, I'm gonna put this on a I didn't give up on it, so let me be very clear, but it's on a back burner as I as I work these other opportunities out because they they they truly are opportunities that can lead to financial freedom by the time I'm 40, and then from my 40s to my 70s, do what I love.

SPEAKER_05 33:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Sure, everybody's gotta pay the bills. Yeah, you know, it made sense. So that's do any of those provide. If God wills it, it'll happen even earlier. So you know, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Do any of those provide uh creative outlets, those entrepreneurial things, or is that do you have other things on the side that give you creative outlet like acting would like people do painting or clean or uh both actually.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Um I I find just selling a product to be fun, especially when you get to go door to door if you can get past the initial cold call. Yeah, you know, it's never fun to do a cold call, but you know, just driving around the like you know, just driving around San Antonio has been fun. Cold calling and knocking on these big uh manufacturing plants that look like Jabba's Palace, and so that's just kind of fun to do. But uh also oftentimes, you know, I whenever I get on an entrepreneurial project, I usually find myself helping out with the career direction and the marketing because they all kind of go hand in hand with the sales, and that's um where I get to kind of flex my media media training, if you can call that. You know, hey, we've got to do commercial here, we've gotta do a little ad here. What what what do you have to offer? And so that does add a that does allow for a uh uh a creative outlook of sorts or a creative outlet, and then I I still do have creative outlets on the side, yeah. Like as I said, I'm I am looking into the haunted houses here in San Antonio, see if I can get work there. I am still auditioning, as I said, I I have had a few, just a small, small handful, uh, in these last 90 days. One of them was for a serial killing teddy bear. So uh no, I haven't uh so yes to yes to both. Uh creative there are some uh creative outlets within these entrepreneurial effort efforts that I've become a part of, and there I still have my uh outlets that are completely separate from those efforts.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

Well, it's good you have the marketing uh expertise and knowledge because a lot of people in show business we know all the creative stuff, but we don't know the marketing side, and you really do need that to promote yourself. Like Cliff and I have talked before on the show about how we're not the greatest self-promoters in the world, we're trying to learn to be a little better, but it's always good when you have that built in, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Yeah, yeah. I'm uh yeah, yeah, no, it's it's just sales at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_05 35:51

When I was uh 20, 19, 19, 30, I think, I uh I moved to LA to do door-to-door sales for a company, yeah. And I did I did cold calling, knocking on fucking residential doors all day long, eight hours a fucking day for about six or seven months, something like that. Yeah, and then I was just like, yo, this ain't for me. Yeah, like I can I can do it, but it requires that I turn myself into somebody else, and I and I wasn't super and I wasn't super happy. That's why. Right, and because I'm not an actor.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

And so the one thing I gotta I I I I'll I'll I'll say there's you have to actually really when I say you gotta give a fuck about the product you're selling, yeah. Yeah, you gotta actually really like it.

SPEAKER_05 36:36

Yeah, and I didn't give a flying fuck. I mean, with the product worked, I had no problem with the product, it worked fine. I didn't I just didn't give a fuck about it. Like, yeah, but is it something you're passionate about?

SPEAKER_01 36:47

This thing is the coolest motherfucking thing, dude.

SPEAKER_05 36:53

Like you have to actually give it a that I can get behind and sell, but yeah, you know, I'm selling cleaner door to door, all purpose cleaner door to door, and it was just you know, echo-friendly and biologically safe and all this stuff. That's great, you know, but it just wasn't like it wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

It has to be it's the same thing. Like when you don't really care about a part, people can tell. When you don't even, if you if you're not actually if you yourself are not actually excited about it, they'll they'll pick up on the non-verbal cue that you're not excited about it.

SPEAKER_05 37:22

Very true, very true.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

Even if it's like a five-star product, like because then I've also sells rep products that I knew were fantastic products, but they didn't tickle my fancy the same way some of these other tech items did.

SPEAKER_04 37:33

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

And I didn't sell any. So it's it's it's the same thing. You you had to actually you when I say when I when I say to actors who I who I encourage to try sells, I I literally tell them, if you don't care about the product, well, I care about the product, but it doesn't work. Okay, what I'm saying is you can like the product, but still not be enthusiastic about it. You don't have the enthusiasm for the product, don't bother. Go get a nine to five. Like, literally don't bother. You're not going to make sells. Yep. You have to enthusiasts.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

Genuinely love what it is you're selling. They feel that enthusiasm coming off you. It's kind of like what we like to do with the film set in a way, you know, try to be enthusiastic. Yeah, we like to get to get everybody hyped up and they sense your vibes, they sense your they sense your energy, your vibes.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 38:26

We've had a lot of people comment on that when they hit our sets. They're like, your sets aren't like other people's sets. Everybody's really happy and excited to be working and uh very upbeat. And we're like, yeah, that's I don't know why, other than we just that's how we are while we're on the isn't this the greatest fucking place in the world to be? Like, is there any place other else in the world better to be than on a set making a fucking movie?

SPEAKER_01 38:46

No, because you're playing. People people have forgotten how to play in the entertainment industry, you know what I mean? Like, I've I've ran into that a bunch of time with with film projects I've been a part of where like the director just took himself so damn seriously. And and the actors forget that they're that they're acting. You you guys are playing, you know. You're not you're not actually a World War II soldier with his legs blown off in a trench. You you're in a costume, dude. Like I don't know. For me, it's still it's it's play. I mean, it's even in the language. Like, who are you playing? Oh, I'm playing this dude. I'm playing Joker, I'm playing Luke Skywalker. Like I don't know. Maybe I'm just weird.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

You're natural-born actors, what it sounds like to me.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Thank you. I hope so. But yeah, I I think uh people get so obsessed with making sure that they create art that they forget that they need to entertain first. Right. If your product isn't entertain, then it's definitely not gonna be a piece of art. So it has to at least entertain first, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 39:52

We like to say on this podcast that art is getting away with it. We like to quote Andy Warhol, who said that he quoted as they ask somebody asked him what art was, and he said art is getting away with it. So if you get away with it, it's art. If you pulled it on, like I kind of like I I don't necessarily fully agree with it, but I kind of like the quote.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

It's a smart ass quote. It's an on-gard. It's kind of a cool I don't know, like it's kind of a cool. I don't know if I agree with that really, because there's there's a lot of crap people try to get away with and pass it off as art.

SPEAKER_05 40:24

Right, but they don't. And sometimes they do, right? Like that's why Plan 9 from Outer Space works when all those other shitty B movies don't. For some reason, that one gets away with it. I I can't define it, but the public in the public's the the ultimate arbiter of that is that one got away with them again.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

I think I think the original Star Wars trilogy is a work of art, and I get all these avant-garde filmmakers looking at me like, well, oh no, it's not.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

Oh, yeah, a lot of them are like Star Wars killed movies as far as they care. That's a whole other thing.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

But everybody wants to go watch Star Wars, but no one wants to fucking watch your movie. Like that's the one that's art.

SPEAKER_03 41:03

I'm sorry, you're just pissed off. Well, look, Cliff and my generation and people after, we got inspired by movies a lot because of things like Star Wars and the technical aspects got us excited, but it doesn't mean we throw away what comes before. We enjoy a lot of that too.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

So yeah, no, no, yeah, I'm not saying. Oh, I know you're not. I like Criterion films, and I'll I'll I'll watch movies that are in those film festivals whose names I can never pronounce, you know, the Tublaca Blacka film festival.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

I have you know I have I'm not saying like those those films don't have merit. I I'm just saying like you know, the nose in the air about only those are the only things worth watching.

SPEAKER_05 41:42

No, no. I have to admit, I've been to a couple festivals and I rarely sit down and watch other people's movies. It happens. And they don't watch ours either. But yeah, they don't watch ours either. But it where I just either A, I don't have the time, or B, the the the um the product doesn't look very interesting to me. Um when we when we screened at uh the Orleans hotel and casino in Las Vegas for the for the film festival there, they screwed up our showtime. So when we sat down to watch the thing at eight, they were running about an hour behind. So we had to watch an hour of shorts, and there was like five different shorts that weren't ours that we sat through, and every one of them that like it was really crazy because they were all student films, but they were all like things that you'd seen before. Where it's like, oh, okay, the the okay, the black and white film about two nuns who are think they're lesbians. See, kind of seen that before. Um, oh, the the film about the guy who's stalking the girl uh you know on the streets of LA. Kind of seen that before. You know, all these films that they were just you know, and it just got more and more frustrating. It's like, when the fuck are you gonna start my film? I guess my film's not super original either, but holy shit. Um but then every now and then you get your socks knocked off. I remember seeing this one fucking uh short about a of all things a jellyfish, about a guy who catches who who who finds a jellyfish on the shore and he's a lonely dude and he brings it back to his house and he puts it in a tank. And the story's told from the jellyfish's perspective of being an internal being, um, and then escaping back to the sea eventually. He gets he somehow figures out like he gets flushed down the toilet or into those pipes that rush to the sea and he's back out. And it was fucking fascinating. And the dude who made it somehow figured out how to get Javier Bardem to narrate the motherfucker. I don't I don't know how he did that, but I remember when it first started, I was like, is that Javier Bardem? And it was like, Jesus, for a for somebody's 15-minute black and white short, really? Holy shit. Anyway. Um, so it just it depends. You never you never know what's gonna hit, right?

SPEAKER_04 43:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:46

There you go. Just fill in time, guys. I'm just I'm filling the time with this.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

Well, I mean, I think I think uh we're kind of in a slum when it comes to movies right now with everything that's being released. I would agree with you. It is I would agree with you. A lot of garbage. Um On the big screen right now. The pendulum's gonna shift eventually.

SPEAKER_05 44:04

There's some good, I mean, there's definitely still some good stuff coming out. I just came up with it. It's kind of a hunt for it.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Yeah, gotta hunt for it. Um Deadpool and Molvarine was great. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, it was great. Um I think it's actually one of the best pieces of satire I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_05 44:21

It was great, it was really, really good. I I the cameo alone, the cameos alone were enough to just make me feel like a little 10-year-old again, where I was just like, oh my god, he's in this dude, she's in this, oh, this is so fucking awesome. And then it was, of course, very, very funny, and like you said, uh kind of scathing stuff there on top of it.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

It was it was it was good stuff, but before that, I saw Deadpool and Wolverine. Then the last film I saw before that was Sound of Freedom, and then before that, I hadn't been to the theater since Rise of Skywalker, which I find Rise of Skywalker to be a very, a very fascinating uh dumb story.

SPEAKER_03 44:58

That's a whole other podcast.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

I like to call it Quarker Sky.

SPEAKER_05 45:00

Yeah, that's a yeah, that's a whole other podcast. Last thing I saw before this was Twisters because I live in Oklahoma and if I don't see it, they'll kick me out of state. Acquired.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

What else you got, Marty? Is there a dream roll as far as acting goes?

SPEAKER_01 45:21

Dream roll? Oh, I don't know if I should say it, but yeah, Joker.

SPEAKER_03 45:25

Oh the Joker. See, a lot of people that we ask this, they either want to be in Star Wars or a comic book movie of sorts, and you pick one of the outliers. It's still comic, but it's more you can do more things with Joker. Well, what kind what kind of Joker, by the way?

SPEAKER_05 45:40

Are we talking like a are we talking like a fucking killing joke joker? Are we talking like a TV joker from TV's Batman? Are we talking a Dark Knight Joker?

SPEAKER_01 45:51

We're talking about developing my own take on how I would play the Joker eventually led to me developing my own take on the Batman mythos, which is still kind of a dream of mine. Um, so I'll give you guys a few little nuggets on that. And one of them is uh it would take place in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Okay. So when Batman originally came out. Sure.

SPEAKER_05 46:16

Um retro old school.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Yeah, yeah. And I think it could actually, you know, work really well with that. It would be like the NC17 Blood, Guts, and Booby Batman series. Um Joker, have you guys ever read the Lee Bermijo Joker? Bermigo. Yes, but he has the it's the one that inspired Heath Ledger. He has the Chelsea grin. Uh-huh. Actually, I thought I have a picture of him. I can go grab real quick. If you really want to, if you guys are. Oh, wait, no, we can. Yeah, never mind. So if I were to actually look like him, he would the way I he he have the grunginess of Heath Ledger, but the clown princeliness of Jack Nicholson kind of combined. So like he wouldn't have rotted yellow teeth. I'd say like his teeth would be narcissistic white, is how I always describe it. He'd have the he would have the the Chelsea grin. Yeah, you know, complete. Sociopathic. He would not be a psychopath, he would be a sociopath. So he would be capable of a little bit of empathy. And in my eyes, that actually makes him more irredeemable. Because a psychopath, their brains are formed in a way that makes them literally incapable of feeling empathy. Whereas Joker, you know, or a sociopath can feel a little bit of empathy. So if you get what I'm saying, I think that actually would make them more irredeemable. Like, you know, you could feel their pain. Like you're not incapable, like, you know, Roman Cyanus, black mask over here. You're you're feeling the pain and suffering you're causing, and you're choosing to ignore it. So that that and joke are supposed to be irredeemable.

SPEAKER_05 47:52

So it opens up more options for Harley Quinn, too, I think. Yeah. Uh, because I I that's if you've got a if you've got a like you said, a psychopath who can't feel anything, then why would they have a girlfriend? Why would they have a you know, and or you know, they will maybe they would want that person for you know for um their own personal kind of reasons, but would that person want anything to do with them if they're not getting anything back out of the relationship? You know what I mean? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

If you ever read the Bermijo comic called Joker, it actually shows uh there's actually a panel where he's clinging to Harley and he's actually crying. It's like one of the few times you've actually seen any humanity in the Joker. So I find that I fan I found that fascinating. Speaking of like girlfriend, I always Harley and Ivy fans are gonna hate me for this, but I absolutely think Joker and Ivy should be fucking like 100%. You know, Harley and Joker are mad love, Ivy and Joker should be hate love. And I the whole like and I and I and I I'm seeing certain writers in DC starting to catch on to this. Like, this would actually be kind of a funny ship if you were to ship Pamela and Joker together. And um, it's like, you know, if you really think about it, Ivy's probably the only other villain that has a kill count on Joker's level. She's completely disillusioned with society, just like Joker. Her main goal is to watch the world burn, like Joker. You know, it's like you guys are kind of very similar when you actually think about it. And like the only the only people the only reason like people are against the whole Joker Ivy shipping is is is because of Harley and Ivy. And it's because of like oh some hot girl and girl action, and so now all of a sudden wasn't Bane originally Ivy's thrall. Two Face. I don't think it was Oh no, Bane, you're talking you're thinking about the Batman and Robin.

SPEAKER_05 49:43

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I'm thinking. Okay, that's where that's coming from. Oh, that terrible Batman and Robin. Well, some people like that one. That's that's the Batman with nipples that everybody that everybody points out.

SPEAKER_01 49:54

I also like shipping ivy with scarecrow, too. I like the kind of you know, her garden needs a scarecrow. Yeah, just punt it up there. See, it works. But it's funny you said Star Wars because I do have kind of a a Star Wars dream project that would ironically would center around uh recanonizing marriage aid and fixing fixing the mess uh that Star Wars is in. And I was like, you know what, I if I could write this project out one day, I bet Timothy Zahn would back it.

SPEAKER_05 50:33

Um I don't know if you I don't know if you can fix it, man. I think Kathleen Kennedy's done some done some pretty serious damage to that.

SPEAKER_01 50:40

Well um I mean not to get I mean I I would I would argue like it's it it does it does include a timeline wipe as part of the story though.

SPEAKER_05 50:57

I guess you're gonna do a whole uh JJ Abrams Star Trek thing, huh?

SPEAKER_01 51:01

Sort of kind of.

SPEAKER_03 51:03

Well, I feel like the original story behind the Revenge of Zoe trilogy is we're kind of back to it again because that that story was uh created as this idea of people who were hardcore Star Wars fans who kidnapped George Lucas and forced him to write the story the right way, yeah, what they had, and then we changed that to this character named Billy who kind of kidnapped himself and wouldn't leave the store. And we changed Star Wars to his fictional comic world of frenzy, and yeah, there you go. It's kind of weird how that all works out, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:43

Right. I mean, I don't think the Star Wars franchise will get fixed until they bring legends back, like in particular some more stuff they're gonna put out, you know.

SPEAKER_03 51:53

It'll be so crazy a hundred years from now when the kids are like, my favorite was Star Wars part forty-eight, and everything before that is terrible. And we're like, what? I don't agree.

SPEAKER_05 52:02

I I the sequel trilogy it doesn't have Star Wars 46, actually.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

The sequel trilogy doesn't have staying power, it doesn't have any staying power, forgotten about yeah. Yeah, the difference between the prequels and the sequels was the prequels had a great, I like the pre I grew up on the prequels, but the prequels had a great uh expanded universe lore around it.

SPEAKER_02 52:25

They're better than the final trilogy, but they are inherently more thought out, at least. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:30

But that's what I'm trying to say is that the lore surrounding the prequels was was top-notch, whereas the lore surrounding the sequel trilogy is absolute trash, and so it does not have the same staying power that the prequel trilogy. People don't understand this, but they didn't know the legends, the Star Wars legends, the original expanded universe is the glue that held Star Wars together, and nobody fucking understands this. And the fact that they seem they seem almost like against bringing Mara Jade back right now at Lucasfilm, and I'm like, okay, and I'm like Did she show up in Clone Wars? Nope. Nope, she's not in the canon right now. She's completely okay. That's what I thought. And I'd have a great, I would love to actually one day be in a position where I can, you know, old Mr. Zahn sticks around and take the proposal. Like, I think this is how you could work Mara Jade back in and um kind of redo her to make her even more pivotal to the Skywalker legacy. The Skywalker Legacy. I even have the actress in mind who would play her, Katie McGrath. You know who that is? I'm trying to place that name. Lena Luther from Supergirl. Or Jurassic World, she's the chick that gets swallowed by the big uh Mossasaur. Oh yeah, okay. She's got the green eyes. Because I don't care about the hair color, you can just give her a red wig, but they gotta have the green, the jade eyes. And have her speak in her Irish accent, say farm boy, all sexy. Guys would dig it. People would dig it.

SPEAKER_03 54:10

No argument here. Do you have a favorite moment from one of our sets?

SPEAKER_01 54:18

Yeah, um, I think the funnest scene the film was uh with was uh love song. And I'm like, I learned this behavior from you, Pete. And I like run out crying. And I'm like, and me and that other who was that other actor, forgive me, I forgot his name, but other actor was Wilkie World Cup, Drew Kalen, yeah. Drew, Drew, yeah, Drew's awesome, man. Uh and we were like popping in and out of the door, and he was like sticking it to Pete, and I was like being kind of a whiny bitch because that's Owen. That was that was a funny scene to do.

SPEAKER_03 54:51

Yeah, that always plays really well for the crowd, so it gets always gets laughs.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Does it?

SPEAKER_05 54:56

Yeah, it always gets laughs. And well, I mean it's a it's a callback to an old uh anti-drug PSA from the 80s. Yeah. Where a father, a kid walks into his room and his father's got a cigar box opened up and there's like weed in it, and he's like, you know, how could you do this? How could you do this to your family? And yeah, he's you know, he's fucking railing at the kid, and the kid just interrupts him and starts and screams, I learned it by watching you, alright? By watching you. And of course the father's hits the realization, hits the father, and and they you know they cut to the the time. I didn't even know I didn't even know that was a callback. I had to, yeah. So when we put it in, it was like that's kind of the capper on that. We did we did a few of those weird callbacks in the film.

SPEAKER_01 55:37

Yeah, I think that actually it was that was better than I didn't know it was a callback, though.

SPEAKER_05 55:41

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think so. Yeah, it was either that or you know, the whole this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs. Yeah, dude, that's not that's an egg, you're an alcoholic, you know.

SPEAKER_03 55:50

It makes more sense because he did learn this from Pete. He learned how to be this type of employee from Pete. So it works well. That's very true. Yeah, it's very true. Making a joke about the drug thing and also about how Pete's a poor businessman. So it's kind of Pete's terrible person. Uh that's hilarious. Well, do you got anything that you want to plug today, Mike, or any upcoming projects that are, you know, I know you mentioned a few things, but anything that's like not really.

SPEAKER_01 56:18

Uh not to be boring. Um I'm just kind of uh just sort of entering a new chapter right now and and letting uh not to get all Bible, but just letting God let it play out, and I'll see what he has in store. And uh I'm you know, as I said, I'm with this tech company right now and I'm seeing how this next 90 days play out. Um if it's meant to be, it will be. If it's not, then it's not. And take the lessons that are learned and moved on to the next thing. Uh not to be preachy.

SPEAKER_05 56:53

So I feel like a lot of people right now, so that's uh that's I feel like a lot of people are in that same space.

SPEAKER_01 57:00

So I have a little dog that I love to death. I'm a dog dad. So try her name's Leia, named after the princess.

SPEAKER_05 57:12

Well, that's funny because the movie that we just watched for the other for the other part of the podcast, Talking Pondo, has a cat in it called Princess Leia. Princess Leia Fuzzy Buttons is the cat's name in the movie that they the cat isn't is actually has a credit, and it's called Princess Leia Fussy Buttons. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:32

Actually, there is one little thing. Um I don't know if you guys remember the fudge that I was selling back in Tucson, the monofudge?

SPEAKER_03 57:44

What's that? Uh-huh. I do remember that. That was around Love Song filming time, right?

SPEAKER_01 57:49

That's right. Yeah. It was it was right after Revenge of Zoe, and right around the time we filmed Love Song. The guy who taught me to make the product decided to pull the plug. This is another one of those entrepreneurial efforts where I had a guy who in his 70s did not want to listen to his counsel. So he pulled the plug on what was a successful, successful, successful entrepreneurial effort that was going to result in royalties and us being right on the forefront of the cannabis rush. Um, but you know, it was devastating. But you know, I now own the recipe and I can still make the product and all that. And now here I am in Texas. Cannabis has yet to be legalized, which is ridiculous because I smell it everywhere. So I'm like, guys, just fucking legalize.

SPEAKER_05 58:40

Well Oklahoma is the wild fucking west for for cannabis. Uh we have three, we have 3,000 dispensaries in the state, dude. We have uh, I mean, there's a mile, there's a mile in my town that called the Green Mile because it has 10 dispensaries in a mile. Nice 10 of them, just all competing with each other. You know, oh 20 pre-rolls for$20. It's insane out here. But um make your fudge and bring it up here, is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 59:05

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. But the idea is uh, you know, me and I'm with two other uh friends slash colleagues who who want to help me bring it back here in Texas, and we're like, hey, you know, it would be cool to get the fudge back in in those uh in these CBD dispensaries and in the non-infused version in some, you know, in like HEB. I think you probably know what HE B is.

SPEAKER_05 59:28

It's that there's some big big local grocery store in Texas.

SPEAKER_01 59:31

Yeah, yeah, and like, you know, get those things, get get that product back up and running, and then be primed and ready when uh cannabis is inevitably legalized in Texas and be right there with a product that's potentially award-winning and delicious and gets you high as fuck. And so we're all kind of gaped. We're just now uh starting the talk about uh bringing it back because you know my my best friend up here who lives in the same complex, he has an LLC set up and it's uh it's focused on on patents and you know bringing new products to the market, whatever those products may be. And then our other business partner, she's really good at uh coming up with business infrastructure. And so they're looking for a product. I'm like, well, I do have a product that has a history of selling. So the next step right now is is uh just making a batch within the next week to make sure I still got the skill to do so, which I'm sure I do. And um we'll see where it goes. So there you go. I'll plug that right there.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:41

Right on, right on. Um shout out to the fudge. Shout out to the fudge, all hail the fudge.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:47

All hail the holy fudge.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:49

The holy fudge.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

That's what we call it. Holy fudge. You guys see those like angel wings on my Facebook page with the the non-infused version is mana fudge, the CBD infused version is holy fudge, and the THC will be called Salvation Fudge.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:04

So a year from now, when you guys are eating that and you hear and listen to this podcast, you'll know where you heard it first. It was right here. Link in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:12

Salvation fudge.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:14

I'll send you guys some Christmas, man. Well, Mike, I mean, we really appreciate you taking the time out to talk to us. Um, it's good to see you. Yeah. And um, I'm hoping you're doing well. Actually, I have one more question. Is there I hear that there's a DVD release coming? Or well, actually, yeah, there's a there's a dish distribution deal that's that's been struck. Um, that is we are in the deliverables phase. We are winding up the phase. After you make a deal with a distributor, you go through a deliverables phase where you deliver the movie, all the key art, all this other stuff. We're just wrapping that up, and then they're gonna go into a pitch phase and start pitching to platforms. And we're supposed to know pretty soon, and we're hoping to hit on four or five different platforms would be pretty nice. Worldwide. And then and then we're yeah, it's gonna be worldwide. It's it's not just America, it's it's yeah, all English speaking countries worldwide. So Australia, Australia, the UK, all these other places. So we'll find out. We'll they'll they'll come back to us and tell us what platforms and where, and then we'll reach out to you guys and be like, hey, you know, start letting people know, get out to get it out to your networks and and all that type of stuff. So we can start putting some heat on it. So we're excited. Yeah, cool, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:18

Yeah, keep me posted.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:19

We'll do it. We'll do. All right. All right, Mike, we'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:23

Take it easy, guys. God bless.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:25

Thanks, Mike.