Spotlight: David Bianchi | RZR, How to Be UNFORGETTABLE, Audition Mistakes, The Future of AI & More!

In this Spotlight Segment, we sit down with Emmy-nominated actor, writer, director, and producer David Bianchi to talk about his massive career spanning over 130 credits in film and television.

David doesn't hold back as we dive into the creation of his Emmy-nominated series RZR, the stark cultural differences he experienced filming in Korea, and his powerful message for anyone turning a blind eye to AI in the entertainment industry. He also breaks down what it takes to turn an audition from "undeniable" into "unforgettable" (and shares the common mistakes actors make that grind his gears!).

From the influence of legends like Sir Anthony Hopkins and Malcolm-Jamal Warner to exclusive details on his upcoming acting workshops, David drops absolute gems for artists at every stage of their journey.

Don't Forget to Like Follow Comment and Subscribe;  @justactingupshow
 @DAVIDBIANCHI  


#justactingupshow #DavidBianchi #RZR #ActingWorkshop #AuditionTips #ActingMasterclass #ActorsLife #AuditionTechnique #ActorInspiration

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, we have a very special guest in the building on the just acting up show. He is an actor, writer, director, producer. He speaks multiple languages better than me, trust me. I struggle, man. He also is a motivational speaker, has over 130 credits in film and television. The Emmy nominated sir himself, and he wants to let he want to ask you, let him know how you feel for the entertainment business. And not only that, correct me if I'm wrong, is today or this month the birthday month, good sir?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Man, it sure is, brother. Today is the birthday month. I'll be I'll be celebrating another turnaround sun, um, in two weeks' time, bro. So thank you, sir. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

Congratulations, congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

You know, it's funny, man. Um, we'll yeah, we'll we'll get into the whole birthdays and life and all that kind of stuff in a second, but I'm excited to be here. Thank you very much for that glowing introduction. I appreciate it, man. Nice to see you, Chris and James. Nice to see you, brothers.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Man, yes, sir, man. Appreciate it, bro. Ladies and gentlemen, round of applause for David Bianchi. Man, had to do had to do right by you, brother. We had to do right by you, man. So we like you said, appreciate you for just joining us, man, and talking to us. Take time on your busy day to talk to us. So thank you again.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Let's get right to it. Like, you know, tell tell us a little bit about your background, like where you're from, like how did you get into this industry?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Sure. Um, you know, look, I I started acting out TV commercials on the swing set with the kids in the neighborhood when I was in second grade. So, you know, I was doing improvisation before I even knew what improv was. And so I think it's it's been in my blood, you know. I've always been a class clown, I've always been really loud, outspoken. And then um, you know, in third grade, I think I got the bug. I definitely got the bug in third grade where I was cast as Captain Hook in Peter Pan. And that was the first time that I played in front of an audience of over a hundred people. And you know, this was I'm I'm dating myself, but this is like 80s, you know, and I actually like really like applaud that teacher, wherever that human being is, for thinking about it in this context, right? As men of color, right? This this teacher colorblind cast me as Captain Hook, who's notoriously a white villain, right? He saw some charisma and charm in this skinny brown kid and was like, okay, you know, he's gonna he's gonna be our hook. We're gonna put the mustache on him with the little metal hook and everything. But you know, if it weren't maybe for that, maybe I wouldn't have had the bug that bit me so hard, you know. So I think flash forward through high school, I did a lot of theater in high school um from upstate New York. Um, you know, I worked as a I worked as a rave promoter in upstate New York for a long time. I was producing underground raves for a while. Um, and then I moved to Arizona. I went to theater school. I got a BFA in theater, Magno Comunality from Arizona State, and then that's where I started really like honing my skills as a theater baby. And in between, I was I was producing slam poetry events. I went to national slams with the Phoenix team, and you know, I did like three seasons of Versus and Flow as a slam poet. Um, and then that's an important part of my story because I began uh producing film when I was in university, and then my first professional short film that I produced when I got to LA in 2005 was told entirely in spoken word poetry. And so for 15, 20 years thereafter, I was producing short films told entirely in spoken word. Um, and so it's it's an important part of my journey. And you know, I got to LA in 2004, and boy, I thought LA was waiting for me, but boy, I was sorely mistaken. LA didn't give a fuck about me, boy. I was like, listen, man, I was sleeping on couches, and you know, um, you know, I had just enough money, but I had a degree in theater, I was a classically trained actor, and I knew to my innermost self that this is what I was going to do with my life. I didn't come to LA to try to be an actor, I came to LA because I am an actor, right? And that's exactly what actors tend to fail at is that they come into a context and they say, I'm gonna try this thing. I dare you to look at your fiance in the face and say, We're just gonna try this thing. You know, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you got a if you got a woman of any fortitude and value, she's gonna be like, I don't know what the fuck, I don't know who the fuck you thought I was, but you know, so to be an actor is a life choice, it has to be something that burns inside of you to your innermost self. And I tell actors all the time if you are not convinced to every fiber of your muscle tissue that this is what you want for the rest of your life, go back to Cleveland where the rent's cheap, get a golden retriever, get a family and a dog. You know what I mean? Don't slave New York, don't slave Chicago, don't slave LA with these crazy gas prices and rents, and you know, and let this industry literally pummel you emotionally because Hollywood is emotionally violent. It will toy with your emotions, and it is a constant roller coaster. So I am convinced, even at those early days when I first came to LA and I was a waiter and a bartender for 15 years, I got my SAG car doing extra work. You know, I did extra work for three years to make ends meet. My first two apartments, I had cockroaches in the kitchen in LA. You know, so everything that I've done in LA is by sheer determination, brute force, and believing in myself, right? Nothing was given to me. There's no nepotism in my story. I didn't have, you know, a rich Hollywood director, dad, or a rich, you know, producer, dad, or mom or what have you. So um everything I've done, I've done by doing. You know, you you you fellas look like you're stout boys, you play football. You know, what if what did coach tell you? Boy, chop your feet, chop your feet, chop, don't stop chopping your feet until you hear the whistle blow. I don't care if you got grass in your damn helmet. You keep you eat that mud, you keep chopping your feet, right? And that and that's what Hollywood is. You keep chopping your feet, you keep chopping your feet. And for me, the whistle's when I the whistle is when the Lord comes down and closes my eyes permanently. And until that whistle blows, I'm gonna keep chopping my feet.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Hell yeah, man. We we the boy's starting early. Man, come on, he's staying motivation speaker, man. Come on, man, come on. I love his energy, dog. Love it, man. Love it, man. I'm about to ask you, man. You know, so I'm about to say, finish this sentence. You know, I love acting because, but that right there, you just listen, man.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

I I just I just put out go on my Instagram page, anybody that's listening. And there's uh there's a post I put on there that I just and it's called what the fuck you mean is just a self-tape. I promise you, it will shatter your vertebrae if you're an actor. Because I had a conversation and I just released an incredible course called Mastering Your Self-Tape. Look, I've to get let me give the audience some context here. Like, okay, you said 140 credits. Look, I have booked 55 episodes of television on 18 major shows directly through self-tapes alone. I've been producing cinematic self-tapes for 10 years, right? And I am uniquely qualified because I've produced eight feature films, I produced a series that was primetime Emmy nominated. You know, I know my way around production, and so I say all that to give you context. I was speaking to a young actor. Now, mind you, this young actor's been in LA for over 15 years working as a bartender, but he's got very few credits, right? And this is the distinction between the talkers and the doers. This is the distinction between the ideas and the executioners, right? Because we all got ideas, but very few people execute, right? And so we're talking, and I sent him my course so that he could, you know, break it down and have a look at it and so on and so forth. And we're having this conversation thereafter, and he says, you know, and he said, just you know, sometimes I just don't feel like you know doing all that, you know, it's just a self-tape. And he said, and in the conversation, and you know, by the grace of God, I do a lot of spiritual work, right? I'm coming up on nine years continuously sober, and that's talking about the birthdays and all that kind of stuff. And so, because of the work that I do in my spiritual place, my inner my inner monologue said, you know what, meet this man where he is, accept his man for for his perspectives, and God bless him for what he has. But inside of my system, I said, What the fuck do you mean it's just a self-tape? You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You call yourself an actor. Yeah, how dare you? It's just my mom, it's just my dad, it's just my sister, it's just my life, it's everything, you know. Because if my headshot is my passport to the audition, my self-tape is the passport to my dreams. And how dare I show up mediocre? How dare I say to myself that I won't give it the extra mile? How dare I tell my ancestors that had to fight from from from from fireman hoses and German shepherds that it's just a self-tape? How dare I say that? I'm standing on the shoulders of giants, bro. Right, and these men and women that came before me gave everything, the ultimate sacrifice. How dare I look at that audition and say, you know, I'm a little busy right now. I can't really let me go see that girl. Let me go, you know, whatever that thing is that you're doing, that you're getting in your own way. No, no, sir, I don't speak that language, it is not just a self-tape. So you go on my Instagram. What I ended up doing was I did a stream of consciousness, completely improvised monologue called what the mean is just a self-tape, and uh and you know, and it and it shakes actors at the core because it also is a reminder to you, actor, where are you in your creative process? You know, because listen, aesthetics are everything. Because think about the headshot, right? Chris, you would never submit a headshot to a casting director that was out of focus, would you?

SPEAKER_01 9:43

No, okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Would you ever submit a headshot, James, to a casting director that was overlit or underlit?

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

So, why wouldn't those rules apply for the self for the self-tape? Why wouldn't those rules apply for the self-tape, ladies and gentlemen? I don't know who I'm talking to, but please start picking up what I'm putting down. I wouldn't go to Sunday church in a wrinkled suit. I wouldn't go to my best friend's funeral with a loose tie and an untucked shirt. So, how dare I show up to a job interview, wrinkled, unprepared, looking unprofessional? Because what does that say about the artist? Because the thing is, actors have to understand that we are entrepreneurs onto ourselves. No one's gonna call the photographer or the casting director or the publicist or the agent or the manager or get you the wardrobe or get you the lights or get you the sound or get you the website or get you the Instagram following or build a community or shoot the self-tape or shoot the short. No one's gonna do that for you. Yeah, you have to do it for yourself, right? And so when we all know that to be true, what your digital front-facing thing, that's your aesthetic. And I can tell you right now, as a casting producer, I've cast more things than I can count. When I see an actor deliver a self-tape that's sloppy, when I see a performance that's that's not coherent or isn't technically sound, that tells me that that actor is either unseasoned, inexperienced, or just doesn't live, eat, and breathe this thing to the point that I want to bring that individual onto my set and roll the dice because I want to hire people that are assets, not liabilities. And casting directors will tell you the same thing because a casting director has to take your tape, believe in your performance, and then that casting director has to pass it on to the producers, which means that casting director is putting their reputation on the line to endorse that actor that they pushed on to the producers. Are you picking up what I'm putting down? The thing is, this is the truth, every single major television or film audition that is either co-star, recurring co-star, guest star, network, whatever it is, or studio film gets an average of 2,500 to 5,000 submissions per role. That is a staggering amount of competition because the digital ecosystem has basically democratized it for everyone to be able to submit, right? So now that we know that that's true, out of 5,000, let's call it 5,000 for easy math, about 10% would be 500. You don't get 500 actors invited to self-tape. 250? Nope, that's five percent. You probably get half of that. Maybe a hundred actors get invited to self-tape, which means if you're lucky, 1.75 percent of the actors that submitted for the role are being invited to self-tape, right? So now you're in a 1.75 percent talent pool. Now, of that 1.75, you got to compete against a hundred actors to convince casting that you're worthy of passing forward. Now, you got to convince the casting associate to pass you on to the casting director. So every single aspect of your tape has to be a fucking samurai bushido blade. Yeah, stop playing with yourself, grow up, actor. Talking about, oh, I shouldn't be a director, I shouldn't be a producer, I'm just an actor. Get the fuck out of here. Yeah, like seriously. Think about it. If you booked, let's say, Chris, if you booked uh an off-Broadway show in New York, let's say, for example, you were like second lead or whatever that might be, you would be proud of that opportunity, right? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so would you put up an Instagram page for it? Would you hustle? Would you hustle flyers? Would you go to Greenwich Village and hand out flyers? You know, absolutely. If if it was a low budget thing and the directors and the producers, like, yo, you got a couple hoodies you could you could bring just in case because you know we're low on the budget. Would you bring the hoodies? Yeah, okay. So suddenly you're doing all this other shit that ain't got nothing to do with acting. So it's part of the course, you know, it's part of the course that we as actors have so many other things to do besides just acting, even myself.

unknown 14:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

I I'm lucky. Let's not even take me, let's take Adrian Brody, right? Or someone like that, right? Um, you know, Joel Kinneman, whomever made him temp pole actor, right? Um, Emile Hirsch, you know, whoever. As our working actors, we're lucky if we spend maybe one, two percent of our time in front of a camera. Yeah, lucky, not because it's not that we it's not what we want to do, it's just because it's the nature of things, even if you're uh, you know, like I said, even if you're you know a top Asian broader, whatever. Maybe what you shoot maybe one, two movies a year at best, okay. And then that's and that's maybe four to five months per movie. Let's say you shoot two movies, so that's your 12-month cycle. Of that six months, you know, you're probably shooting a total of maybe 90 days, and of that 90 days, you're not working every single day, you're maybe working 70 days. So let's just turn that times two. So that's 140 days out of 365. So 50 of your year, you're actually on set, but out of that 140 days that you're actually on set, you're not in front of a camera 100 of the time of those 50 of those calendar days, right? Right when you really whittle that down to the granularity, you got to ask yourself what are the things that the actor has to do in the in-betweens in order to be successful, and that goes back to the entrepreneurial message, which is how are you creating awareness, a profile, sharpening your blades to be prepared for the opportunity when it presents itself? And this is the stuff that I can't teach, my guy. I can tell you the shit all you want. Like, I love ribs, I love we all love ribs, man. Yes, listen, some of the best smokers in the world will sit there and tell you, Hey, Chris, look, you gotta use this hickory wood, you gotta smoke it at this pace at this temperature for this long. They could tell you 50 times you get it wrong every time. You get it wrong every time, you just gotta do it yourself, and until you do it yourself, you don't really build it. But the thing is, is that the dream is free. Y'all gonna love this. The dream is free, but the hustle sold separately. Come on, come on, man. I don't know what I'm talking somebody out here. I know I'm talking about somebody, but the dream is the dream is free, but the hustle sold separately. I can't teach you how to hustle, bro.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

You gotta put that on the you gotta put that on a shirt. I ain't mean to cut you off. You gotta put that on the shirt right there for real. You see you rocking, yeah. You gotta you gotta put that on the shirt for real. That that's dope. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Yeah, uh, with your blessing, I'll do that, man. You know, it's like the world's full of dreamers, man. Yeah, but the entrepreneurs are the hustlers, and uh, you know, I can't I can't teach you how to learn AI on your own. You gotta do that. I can't teach you how to learn Final Cut Pro, you know. Um, you know, actors, unfortunately, I hate to say this, actually. I'm gonna say it, have become so entitled. Whew, you know, there is a sense of entitlement, especially in social media, that there's an expectation that everything is just gonna be given to you for free, yeah, right? Everybody believes, well, I get a tutorial on YouTube, it's free there. I get this over here, it's free there, you know, all these things, but just there is such a sense of entitlement that the that younger generations and and even my generation to a certain degree, when I'm talking about the acting community at large, they just believe that so much should just be given to them, yeah. And that's not how the world works. You know, the industry is not gonna reward laxadaisical behavior, you know. Um, people look up to my career and they look up to my body of work. Now I'm just getting warmed up. I have so much work ahead of me, and I live and breathe this, my G.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

So, anyways, I know I just gave you a big long monologue, but no, no, the rest of the platform is for we want you to share and talk and because somebody's watching that's gonna watch and share this with somebody else, and and that information is valuable. Yeah, well, appreciate that, man. But um, you kind of started to go this way uh a minute ago, but we're talking about AI. You I've you know, you've mentioned and spoken out about this before. What is your message for those who are turning a blind eye to it? Shame on you.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

I think that artificial intelligence is arguably one of the most important workflow, technological, social, and commercial influences of modern human history. It is as important, if not more important, than the telephone, and arguably more important than the internet. The ability for human beings to slowly begin to autonomously control workflows, output, and creativity is going to become burned into our culture. It already is. When you go on Google nowadays, you're not just searching an engine anymore. Google has a large language model behind the house that is doing that and that's doing that searching for you, and then you can go into a deeper dive and you could ask continuous questions. So you have an information flow with an LLM even when you search the internet. Now, if we know that the internet has become what it's become, we would be foolish to believe that artificial intelligence won't have this similar impact. And don't listen to me. Listen to Anthropic, you know, listen to Zuckerberg, listen to Elon Musk, you know, listen to Shamath, you know, listen to some of the most listen to Gary Vaynerchuk, you know, listen to some of these real major thought leaders that are telling you, you know, it's almost like it's like cryptocurrency, for example, like the biggest investment portfolios and the biggest technologists on the planet are telling you it's here to stay, and you could either agree with it or not. And then you know, 10 years from now, you're gonna look at Bitcoin like like Google nowadays. You're gonna be like, Man, I should have bought that shit. I was around. Man, I remember when it was like you know, 50,000, you know, and um I think the AI is the same thing. Um, so yeah, it's it's so anthropic, for example, they just did a press release today that they've got a new model that is so dangerous that they won't release it. So, what does that mean? So apparently, Anthropic, which is the company that produces Claude, they have a new model that is so powerful that they won't release it, that they actually went out to this huge consortium of tech companies and says, We're gonna give it to you guys first, so you can build safety walls around your technical applications. Basically, this model is so powerful that it compromised every single major data infrastructure on the internet. In other words, they won't release it because it gives James the ability to compromise Bank of America, it gives Chris the ability to compromise United Airlines. Like that. And that's how powerful this tool is, and that's why they haven't released it. And so now they're giving all these major companies, including NVIDIA, including Microsoft, including you know a whole litany of companies, the opportunity to study the model, build those firewalls to protect infrastructure. Right? It's uh it's it's it's it's terrifying stuff. Yeah, but it's also very it's also very beneficial, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Yeah, there we go. Like I know um, who was it? Was it Ben Affleck and Matt Damon who recently came up with their own their own thing for with the AI and everything?

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Yeah, so they um I talked about this on my Grammy. Ben Aff, well, it was Ben Affleck. I don't know how Matt Matt Damon is involved in it, but it's Ben Affleck's company. Okay. I forget the name of the company off the top of my head. But basically, it is designed to be sort of a post-production tool, if you will, uh, to allow filmmakers to make it easier to make the best possible film. That's the short version. Basically, what it does is like you go and you shoot a movie, and so they're they're still pushing the idea of shooting practically, right? So you shoot the movie, and then what it does is once you're shooting as you're shooting, it studies every single frame that you shoot in physical production. Basically, think about it like it scans it, if you will, right? And then it takes all that raw information. So when you're done producing your movie and you go to post-production, let's say, for example, it's me, James, and Chris in a scene, and then we're gambling, right? But we forgot to get the insert of me dealing the cards. You can then go in and through a prompt say, Hey, let's get an insert of David dealing the cards to Chris, and then James gets an ace of spades. You cannot create that shot because the model understands the camera sensor, understands the light, the picture, the anatomy, uh, the workflow, and the visual language that the director was trying to achieve, including the editorial style. So, what it does, it basically allows you to put band-aids on your movie if you have band-aids. Now that's amazing, right? But the other piece of that is that it completely drops a guillotine on a whole segment of jobs and money, right? Because as actors, sometimes we get pickup days, okay. That's more money in your pocket, and when you get a pickup shot on a feature film, a proper feature film, you got a studio film, a Ben Affleck style film, you're bringing back a crew of minimum 50 to 150 people. So you're talking 50 to 150 people that aren't getting hired over the course of multiple days because now this tool completely has done away with the need for pickup shooting. Yeah, so as as good as it is, oftentimes, and this is me speaking as a producer. What's good for producers is oftentimes bad for crews and actors. Because we as producers are focused on the bottom line. My job as a producer is to deliver the best possible result for the least amount of money, right? Because listen, Chris, when the movie comes out and I'm asking you as an audience member to buy a ticket and watch it, you don't give a fuck what I went through money-wise. You don't care what I went through. Oh, the grip truck crashed, or my actor had diarrhea that day, or you know, whatever happened in set. Like it's not your it's I don't get concessions with you. You know what I mean? It's not your job, it's not your job to give me concessions, your job to buy a ticket, sit back, get your popcorn, and watch and be entertained. That's your job as an audience member. So, as a producer, it's my job to deliver the best possible result to entertain Chris so I could actually like excel in the marketplace. And so, what's good for producers, which helps our bottom line, is oftentimes bad for crews and for actors. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

That's good, that's good. Um, I want to kind of steer the conversation a different direction right now. I want to talk about because I I'll be remiss if I didn't mention this. You were on one of my favorite shows, uh Resident Alien. Hey, let's go. Let's go. Yeah, I love that show. That was a great show. If you haven't seen it, check it out. But I want to take me through like what was that process like from like just booking that uh that role to to getting on a show and like the case, it seemed like it was just a really great cast. It came across like a really great cast. I felt like you all just had a bunch of fun on that set.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

You know, I gotta admit, man, I I really, really, really love my experience on Resident Alien. Um, you know, Chris Sheridan is the creator and the showrunner, and he's the guy who executive produced uh family guy for 20 years. So such a legendary dude and such a sweet guy. What I will say about Resident Alien, the reason Resident Alien is what it is, is because of Chris Sheridan. You know, filmmaking is an autocracy, right? You know, you could compare filmmaking to like a fine dining restaurant. There's one chef for a reason. You got a chef, you got a sushi chef, you got line cooks, and so on and so forth, right? But everything comes from chef. And when you go on a set, the energy of a set and the energy of a show is always a direct result of the human that's at the top of the pyramid. And Chris is such a generous and kind guy, he would be on set almost every day, out in the rain in you know, in the forests of Vancouver. He didn't need to be there, he's the executive producer. He's not if he's not directing, but he would want to be there, you know. And uh, he just created such a fun environment. I did some stuff on that show that I'd never done before. Um, you know, um playing the character of Goliath was a lot of fun to be able to get under so much makeup and have them age me. Um, and Alan Tudik is an incredible actor and he's an incredible human being. Um, you know, I I remember I shot a nude scene in that show where they have me butt ass naked in the woods. And um, it's funny because we shot it in Vancouver, and uh it's this scene where kind of basically Goliath morphs from an alien to a human being, and um and so I'm shooting this scene and I'm out in the middle of the raw woods, and I basically the only thing I got covering me is like this little panty hose, like the size of like an ankle sock, my G. And it's like you know, it's like a Brazilian thong, it's between my booty cheeks and everything. And and he and I'm I step, you know, they got a jacket. I'm and and everybody was so respectful and made it so fun. And I'm like, I'm excited for this. And they were so they were so kind, they even called me in advance, and they're like, hey David, would you would you want to would you like a body double for this scene? We don't have to use you. And my and my brain said, Man, I'm an actor. I said my brain said, You're telling me that you're going to you're gonna fly, you're gonna fly to Vancouver, you're gonna put me in a hotel, you're gonna travel me, you're gonna get me where I gotta go, you're gonna pay me to put me butt ass naked in the woods in front of a crew of 60. Let's go. Let's go, baby.

unknown 28:24

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

And and the funny thing is, and I remember when I saw it, they did they did this really nice thing. They had this like purple and like blue light. I was like, Man, they really damn my ass looking right. I was like, they lit me really, they lit me really nicely. I was like, that's nice. The squats, man. This the squats and the dead leaps, man, they came in handy that day.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

There you go. Start working out, man. I'm I'm I got my trainer, I'm gonna have to talk to him. Hey, bro, we're getting in there. Come on, I gotta look good just in case.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Well, what it really was a fun experience, man, and um, you know, just just a really lighthearted set. But on the other side of that, it doesn't make it any less intimidating, Chris. Right, you know, um, there's that scene where it's me and Alan Tudic, and we're at the top of a mountaintop, like sort of like at the top of the Himalayas, if you will. And when we shot that, you know, it was a big monologue scene for me, and I'm a very seasoned actor, but that still doesn't remove the fact that as I walk into that sound stage, I'm in front of a green screen the size of a basketball court, right? You know, there's a crew of 80 people, three cameras, and it's me and the lead of the show getting ready to throw down. And every note, every detail has to be so meticulous. And one of the things that I think about when I'm guest starring, for example, which is what this was, it was uh top of show, uh recurring guest star, is that I'm being invited to eat at their dinner table, and this is what I have to remind actors of that it is not about you, young man or young lady. You ain't that serious, and people don't think about you that much. When you're invited into someone's set, whether you're a co-star or guest star, you are being invited to dine at their table. So you have to respect their home. You wipe your shoes at the door, you take your shoes off when you walk in the living room, you sit at the dinner table and you and you and you handle yourself with care, right? Because it's not just about the job that you're doing, it's also about how you carry yourself and the dignity that you show them to ensure that you may be hired again. Yeah, right. What are people saying about you when you walk away? Right? Those are the things that we have to think about, and so I always have this very deep respect when I'm invited onto someone's set, whether it's an independent project and you're paying me, you know, peanuts a day, or whether it's a big show like Resident Alien. And so, knowing walking into this scene with Alan, I have to be the best possible scene partner for him as well, and for the the entire painting that Chris Sheridan, the showrunner, has created. And uh, you know, walking into that, yeah, I'm I'm in my pop-up tent and I'm running lines and I'm running lines and I'm running lines and I'm feeling the pressure and I'm feeling the pressure. And I'm saying, okay, cool. All right, man, it's showtime. You got this. Turn the blinders on, nobody's around. It's just you and Chris, right? Or excuse me, it's just you and Alan, you know. Yeah, it was great, beautiful, beautiful show. Actually, I'm gonna have to drop like a self-tape post on that too, because that was also a self-tape booking.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

Yeah, yeah, man. Please, please do, please do, man. And um, a little bit more about the projects you've done. I see that you're wearing a shirt right there. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Mr. Emmy nominated, bro. Talk about this, man. I want to hear about this. Yeah, round of applause for that too. Talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Um, yeah, man. Razor is um is a is a series that I'm the writer, creator, executive, producer, and I played the lead um opposite uh Mina Suvari, uh, who is a SAG award winner. Uh, she's nominated for a BAFTA. Uh, she played American Beauty opposite Kevin Spacey, um, one of the more legendary movies ever made. Um, also American Pie. She's a very legendary actress and a wonderful human being. Um, and she uh uh received the primetime Emmy nomination for Razor, and and me by default, as the creator of the show, acknowledged the Emmy nomination as well. With all that being said, um, you know, this was a show that came out of me working in blockchain technology, and so I was one of the first people to mint NFTs, uh mint short films as NFTs back in 2021. And so that sort of led to working with a company called Gala Film, and I pitched them this show, they basically loved it, and we went into production. I mean, that's the short version. Um, I've been a member of the television academy for over 10 years. See, I got enough credits to join the academy, and the only reason I joined the academy back then is because I wanted my vote to count, you know. I wanted to be able to allow my perspectives on what I think are the best performances to matter, you know. So I wanted to join from a democratic perspective. Um, and now it's turned into being very actively involved, and so I was very aware of how the television academy worked, and so basically we completed the show and released it, and I was able to convince the parent company to help me fund a campaign to produce a four-year consideration campaign. Uh, and because I have so many relationships inside the television academy, I knew I could do it, but this is also hustle and determination. I had never produced a I had never produced a war an awards campaign in my life. Come on, but I know how to but I know how to hustle, I know how to motivate, I know how to rally resources, and I know how to put things together because I'm a producer. I'm like, it can't be that hard. All you gotta do is rally people to believe in you, and the work razors and the project speaks for itself, right? It's super well executed, super high concept. So, you know, cut to fast forward. We ended up, I did a very, very successful campaign, and I ended up screening Razor, the first ever, the first ever Web3 and short form series to ever screen at the headquarters of the television academy to 700 people. Um, and this is God's work. True story. When you're building your awards campaign, there's this thing called a lottery, and in the lottery system, that's when you get to decide what day you're gonna have your four-year consideration screening for television academy members to attend and watch and decide if they want to vote for you. Now, when you go into this big Zoom with like 80 people from Hulu and Amazon and Sony and Paramount and all these other places, there's a lottery system, and depending on where you land, you get to choose what date you're going to have for your screening. So I just happened to land in the lottery and I ended up getting May 14th. This is getting really interesting, guys. May 14th, 2024, was the screening of Razor at the headquarters of the Television Academy. The television academy said, David, get a smaller venue. This is hard to fill. I said, Let me do my job. I packed it, I had to turn people away. I did almost 700 people.

unknown 35:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

The headquarters of the television academy on May 14th. To the day, now, mind you, let me back up. As a member of the Television Academy, for nine, eight years at this point, I've been going to screenings and QA's in this room for years. And I sat in those chairs and I was taking in the material of the chair, I was taking in the environment of the room, I was taking in the oxygen, I was programming it into my system. I said, There's no reason why I shouldn't be on that stage talking back to an audience that's packed. There's no reason why it shouldn't be me. It's going to be me. And I was programming that into my system. Now we flash forward to May 14th. On May 14th, we packed it to 700 people with me on stage, with my producer Noelle Hubble, who's got 40 episodes of Agents of Shields Superstore. She produced helped produce Don't Worry Darling, um, countless films. Amelia Rivera, who you know from Maya's and Sons of Anarchy, and Richard Cabra. And on that day to the day, gentlemen, was exactly seven years of continuous sobriety to the day based on a lottery system. Now that's God. I can't make that up. That everything that's good in my life is a direct result of my sobriety. Everything, everything, everything goes away if I don't focus on that God-centered energy of being grateful, of being helpful, of being focused, of being humble, of being a worker amongst workers, all these things. And I sat on that stage and I told my story that it was indeed seven years of continued sobriety, 700 people, people in the room were crying. I had my mom and dad in the audience. I had I had I flew them in, I put them up in a beautiful resort. I had them stand up in the audience and be acknowledged. And my father was weeping. And even now, when I think about that, it makes me emotional because everything that they've had to battle through to get me to the point that I was able to stand on that stage, and everything that I had put them through, through drugs and alcohol, and my collisions in life, for them to witness their son in that format on the day of seven years of continuous sobriety. That seven years before that day, I was so broken and so desperate and borderline suicidal, right through drugs and alcohol, and then seven years later to be standing on that stage and sharing that message with the room. And a girl came up to me at the end of the ceremony before we go into the reception, and she came up to me, and I'll never forget her. She stood waiting patiently, and when we connected eyes, she started to cry. And she said, David, I love your story because I'm basically like 28 days sober, and I didn't know if I was gonna make it, I didn't know which way to go, but just hearing your story, you just gave me purpose, so thank you. Yeah, and I hugged her, and I don't know where she is now, but that moment was enough to maybe be the catalyst and the trajectory for her life, yeah. You know, that's this is the stuff we get, this is the stuff we get to do, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Man, and and that's that's really beautiful. I I didn't want to get too I mean well, thank you for sharing that and being vulnerable enough to share that because my next question was gonna be about you know Anthony Hopkins and Malcolm Jamal Warner to well, you know, yeah, rest in power to Malcolm Jamal Warner, yeah. And uh thank you to Sir Anthony Hopkins, both gentlemen for doing what they've done, paving the way for us and and being a light for us. I was about to ask you about how did those two gentlemen affect your craft and yeah as a human being just you as a human being.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Yeah, I mean, um Malcolm Malcolm is a dear friend of mine. Um he was a mentor to me. We produced uh I was able to produce a uh a spoken word film with him. We worked closely together in the spoken word uh community. Um, and I wrote a leadership book in the pandemic that is completed that I'm yet to release that Malcolm wrote the foreword for. Um, and I was really gut-wrenched when when he uh when he left us. Um not say that he left us when when God took him. Um, you know, such a pillar in my life and and such a leader, you know. And so when I think about is it just a self-tape? I'm thinking about Malcolm. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like I'm thinking about Cidney Poitiers, I'm thinking about Morgan Freeman, I'm you know, so so thank you for asking. Yeah, I mean, he and I'm going to release that book because I owe it to Malcolm. And but I'm now I'm building up, I'm building an audience now, and I'm building a new legacy. So that book is coming soon. Um, stay tuned. Um, as far as uh Sir Anthony Hopkins, I mean, yeah, I mean, that's a direct result of this some of the story I just told. You know, I booked I booked, I talked about this on my on my socials, so I'm happy to talk about it here. Is I booked Westworld when I was probably maybe no more than 45 days sober, right? I was fresh out of a heartbreak. My heart was broken, I was lonely, I had lost everything, I'd lost the job, I had lost the girl, I was in debt, you know. I was like, How did I get here again and again and again? Why do I keep doing this myself? All the narratives, right? And all I'm trying to do is just stay grounded, you know. And I booked Westworld, and and this is a great example. So I went in and I auditioned, I didn't get a call. I went and I they called me back. I auditioned again, which is to actors, keep in mind we are here to book the room, not the job. The job's God's work. I can't control the job, I can control the room, which you think about self-tapes. Control the room. So obviously, I booked a room because John Papsadera, one of the biggest casting directors in the world, ends up calling me back. Uh, and then Kim Winter, his associate, called me back. I went in, I killed it again. I knew I killed it, but I got no call. Two weeks later, I get a call from my rep saying that Westworld wants to hire me, but it's not what I auditioned for, they have something else for me. I said, Okay, great, all right, cool. Shop said, I don't know what the script is, and it's very secretive because at this point, nobody knew if Anthony Hopkins was coming back for season two, because in season one he had been killed. So even on the call sheet, they had him listed as Tom, you know, which is cool, right? So I go in, I go in the wardrobe, blah blah blah blah blah. Oscar nominated costume designer is dressing me and says, Hey, do you know what you're doing? I said, I know I know what I'm doing, I just know I'm excited to be here, you know. Um, and then she informed me that I'm doing scene work with Jeffrey Wright and Anthony Hopkins. I was like, my heart suck. I'm like, I'm 45 days sober. I'm I'm like, I'm still sweating. I'm like, yo, what the is happening, you know? And uh, you know, I knew I was going into scene work, so I was on set for a couple days, and and Mr. Hopkins was coming out of the lunch area uh on the back lot of the studio, and um, I needed to get some, I just felt I needed to get some FaceTime with this man. I can't just walk on set with Sir Anthony Hopkins and just not be terrified. Right, right. So I literally like I stalked him outside. I saw him go in and I stood outside by a by under a tree for like 40 minutes, waiting for him to come out. This guy here, you know. Listen, I got number time, I'm here. You know, so I waited for him to come out. He was walking with his assistant, a young guy. Um, and uh and I introduced myself. I cut him at the past. Hey, very nice to meet you. He said, I just what's your name? I'm my name's David Bianchi. We're gonna be doing some scene. Ah, it's all right, just call me Tony. Uh uh, okay, Tony. Well, you know, I gave him great, I gave him flowers. Thank you for the years, thank you for Silence of the Lambs, thank you for all the things that you've done. And I said, Oh, that's all right. Let's talk about this. We're gonna have a great scene together. What scene are we doing? So it was a little bit of small talk. Now I was very acutely aware that Sir Sir Anthony Hopkins, Tony, um, is a member, you know, he's a sober man and he's very public about that. And so I known that, and I had seen him speak before. And so I and so the the casual conversation was ending and he starts sort of walking away because he's got to get back to his trailer and do his thing. And then as he's walking away, I I said, Um uh hey, hey Tony, uh, I'm I'm 40 45 days sober. And he stopped and he turned and he said, Well, let's have a conversation about that. How long have you been trying to be sober? I said, Well, I've been trying to get sober for like eight years. Well, let's have a talk about why you've been trying to do this for eight years, but you've only got 45 days. You see, when I first started to get sober, I was already having a career going on. So, you know, next thing you know, what would have been a high bye shake of hand turned into exactly what I just described, which is the the pillars of sobriety, which is being of service, being giving, and being helpful, turned into like literally a 500 or 800 meter stroll to his trailer. And he gave me life lessons and he poured water into me and he nurtured me to the next day. I brought one of my original paintings that I had painted behind me. You see one of that painting, the white one that's one of my originals. Um I brought in one of my original paintings. Paintings as a gift because I was so touched because he's also a painter as well. And I really firmly believe that he gave me enough power and conviction to believe that I literally God came down and said, Boom, here's a billboard, David. Sobriety is what you need to be doing to be successful. I can't give you a bigger billboard than that. Yeah, get out your own way, son, and grow up.

unknown 44:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

And what Sir Anthony Hopkins, what Tony gave me that day, gave me the courage to get through the next 14, 15, 30 days, and I immersed myself and I gave it everything I had. And now here I am, May 14th will be nine years.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Nice. That's a wrong.

SPEAKER_03 44:43

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

And you know, we just want to thank you. I don't think we gotta get out of here. We just want to thank you again for coming on and for just sharing so many gems for actors like myself, for Josie, for the many actors and actresses that watch this show. Um just we want you to continue to strive for the best, continue to do great. Uh let our people know where they can follow you, where they can see you at. You have any other upcoming workshops or anything? Let us know.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

Yeah, 100%. And uh really thankful again for the opportunity to have the conversation. Um, yeah, David Bianchi official on Instagram. Um, David Bianchi on TikTok. I mean, you can Google me, I'm pretty pretty easy to find. Um, I've got a big Netflix show uh coming out in September. Um, you know, you could check my MDB. I'm not supposed to talk about it publicly yet. Um, so big Netflix show is coming out in September, which I'm very, very blessed to be a part of. And um, right now I am also prepping to release a feature film. In fact, um, it's going to be called Cyber Protocol, and I play the lead of that. I produced it, that's gonna be releasing this summer. But immediately is I want to invite any actor that's here right now. If anything that I said makes sense, go look at my page and go check out mastering your self-tape. I have to give you this petition because if you are an actor in this game, if you can't master the art of the self-tape, you cannot win as an actor. It's it's unequivocal. Commercial auditions are still sort of happening in person, but any audition that's got to do with television, major television, major film, or theatrical are all happening in self-tapes. And if you look at everything that I just said, if you can't master that craft, you're not gonna book the job. It's gonna be so hard to stand out because the numbers are stacked against you. The casino is always gonna win, you know. So I'll break it down. This course is the culmination of 21 years of my experience as a filmmaker and as an actor, and it's a four-module, 12-chapter video course. So it's self-paced. You get it and you have it forever. You could always go back and reference it. And I give you interactive PDFs per chapter, and I break down everything from equipment listing, how to set up your space. I show you how to do this from your bedroom for less than the cost of a headshot session to achieve to achieve cinematic level tapes that are going to elevate your brand and inspire your agents, managers, and casting. Now get this. I show you how to break down a script, not just from memorizing lines, but how do you break it down so you think about your physical blocking when you're like, okay, how am I envisioning how I'm going to play this physically, not just memorizing the lines, so that when you get in front of your backdrop, you're thinking about your inciting action, which is what is the doing before the doing? What are your power entrances? How are you entering the scene to be able to create an enticing entry? How are you using your eyeline to create spatial awareness and geography in the scene? How are you using light to tell the story? Because light tells the story before the actor even incites the audience, right? Because we are storytellers, right? So if I'm auditioning for a single camera comedy or multi-camera comedy, I like very even and clean and commercial. If I'm auditioning for something like Taylor Sheridan or something like, you know, NCIS or Landman, for example, I like what contrasts grit and shadows. Because it's about telling the story and building the world, right? And it's also about having light, picture, and sound all work to your advantage. One of the biggest mistakes that actors make is they want to do a self-tape in front of a gray wall, there's shadows against them, they got a ring light, and the ring light, all that does is it blows out your complexion. So it's not the natural look of you. There's reflections coming off the wall and they're recording sound off their phone. And it's not because they don't want to, it's because they just don't know any different because actors aren't trained like I am, like I'm a filmmaker. So if I'm if you're capturing audio off your camera, guess who's going to be louder? Your reader, which invariably makes for a very distracting experience for a casting producer or a casting director when they listen to your tape and earbuds and the and the canny sound of a laptop or the sound of a reader is louder than the person I'm supposed to be paying attention to. Are you picking up what I'm putting down?

SPEAKER_03 48:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:59

And I give this to you like literally, this course is $147. Like, bro, $147 is not moving the needle in my life, but it could change yours. In fact, I guarantee that it will. So if you're an actor listening to this course, go to go to the site. I'll give it to you right now verbally. It's payhip.com pay hip.com backslash self-tape. And there's a two-minute video on there that will explain the course. And I guarantee you it will change everything that you thought you knew about self-taping. The other thing that's important about what I teach you is that when you make a cinematic self-tape, not only do you have an incredible self-tape, even if you don't book the job, you now got screen grabs that you can post on socials to show off the work you're doing. You've now got an incredible self-tape that if the show hasn't been out yet, you can mute the dialogue and you can post that. Yeah, and now you're able to share to your community. And once the show comes out, if you really believe in the light, the picture, the sound, and the performance, now you got footage for your real, you have to pay anybody, you know. So even James with peace and love, you can cut this out so it doesn't make the cut. This is off the record with peace and love. Um, I would never coach an actor to have a wrinkled background.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

Yeah, this right here, man, bro. I ain't gonna lie to it. It's okay. I'll post it just to know what we're it's distracting, you know, it's distracting.

SPEAKER_00 50:25

It takes it's it steals from you, right? You know, because it is about having everything really, really tight. But I, you know, this is these are constructive feedbacks and constructive notes. So that to me is the biggest thing right now because I'm not doing this to get this to be helpful because I could have been I could have been that actor for so many years that was like, I'm just gonna safeguard my secrets, man. This is me. I'm not gonna let them know how to do listen. I'm not trying to fight God's God's intentions, you know. Everything that I did I produced a movie with Danny Trail, a couple movies with Danny, Danny Trail's in Razor as well. Um he said he said to me, David, he says, you know, I'd rather aim for the moon to miss than aim for the gooder and make it. And everything that's good in my life is a direct result of helping somebody else. And I said, I just want to be helpful. I want to help actors achieve their dreams, and I want and you know what else is great about producing self-tapes at this level? You know, Chris, what it does is that it gives you purpose, yeah, it makes you inspired to produce tapes again, you know, and that's what radiates because when we have inner purpose, that radiates outward into the how we deal with our loved ones, how we deliver an audition, how we maneuver in traffic. When we have positive purpose inside of us, the world around us feels it invariably. You know, it's just like when I came to LA and I was living with cockroaches and I was a waiter in a barter and I was getting beat up by the industry, I didn't have an agent or a manager, and I was I sat my head in my hands countless nights. But what gave me purpose was the open mic, the ability to perform and inspire an audience of people through spoken word. That's what kept me alive, you know, and so having an internal purpose is one of the biggest pieces of advice that I can give to any actor because Hollywood is full of a lot more valleys than it is peaks. What's getting you through the valley? It ain't gonna be something going on outside of you, it's gotta be something burning inside of you.

SPEAKER_03 52:30

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

Thank you. Greatly appreciate it, man. Ladies and gentlemen, we definitely respect your time to get you out of here. But thank you for the gems. It was definitely dropped and received, brother. We would love to have you come on again in the future. Uh, we'll definitely stay in contact too. Um, trust me, I'm definitely gonna be signing up uh for the class, and I won't appreciate you. But uh, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it, David Bianchi. Thank you, gentlemen.

SPEAKER_00 52:58

I appreciate the opportunity to speak.