Interview with Maurice Moore: Acting, Health, and Living your best life after 50

We sit down with actor, producer, and acting coach Maurice Moore to talk about turning 50 with intention and using fitness as the daily fuel for creative work and leadership. We dig into discipline, health risks, mentorship, and the mindset shift from chasing fame to building habits that last.

• reframing 50 as a new phase and a longer runway 
• training for mobility, recovery, and consistency over ego 
• using the gym to generate energy for demanding film work 
• competing with yourself while staying inspired by others 
• choosing intrinsic motivation over money, fame, and approval 
• handling obstacles with baby steps, timelines, and self-belief 
• navigating genetics, high blood pressure, and family health history 
• balancing cultural food traditions with better nutrition basics 
• hearing the story of The Color Purple and early mentorship 
• overcoming reading challenges and learning the craft through support 
• building Breathe Acting Studio and creating real roles in Austin 
• rejecting cold reads and prioritising understanding in auditions 
• coaching truthfully on sleep, alcohol, food, and lifestyle habits 
• stepping into leadership and mentoring the next generation 

Definitely like, subscribe, and share this episode if it really resonates with you. 
Check out Breathe Acting Studio or Motivate Pictures on Instagram so you can follow what he's up to. 
Finally, -> Shoot Barton an email. Let me know somebody you want me to interview, thoughts on an episode, anything you'd like to intercommunicate with me. I really wanted this to be a two-way street, so share thoughts. And let's keep going with this. bgbryan@gmail.com

Transcript

Throwback Intro And Guest Setup

SPEAKER_03 0:06

If you are listening to the Mindset Forge Podcast, it's Martin Bryan your host, definitely like, subscribe, and share this episode if it really resonates with you. This is actually a throwback episode from a few years back with Maurice Moore, a friend of mine, who is an acting coach, a professional actor, producer. He is uh over in Barcelona right now because he's filming a couple of uh short films over there. And his recent feature film, Finding Solace, has been winning awards all over the place in festivals and things like that. So that's a a new project that he's done since this interview that we I recorded a few years back. It's uh it's really exciting to see what he's up to. And I got back into acting because of him and actually went back and did a an acting class with him over the last couple of months, and that's really like enlightened or ignited my passion to get back into acting and writing a script right now, and just kind of all in for creative aspects of like film and acting and things like that. Which is uh perfect because Austin is really blowing up, and Texas in general is blowing up with more acting opportunities because of the acting breaks that they're doing for studios and things like that. So all that's gonna happen all we just wanted to kind of reintroduce this episode. He is an actor who's actually finding out he was an internal actor, an incredible movie that everybody knows about. And just sense that he has been in the world of acting, whether he's teaching, performing, directing, producing, all of the above. And he's an Austin guy, and I know him from lifetime fitness we've worked out together. And this is an interview from a few years back. So without further ado, enjoy my interview with Maurice more.

Turning 50 With A Plan

SPEAKER_03 1:58

All right, Maurice, thanks so much for being on the podcast. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_00 2:01

I'm great, man. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

Yeah, man. So, just real quick, I know Maurice from the gym. He's the other guy that works out as much as me. There's about three or four of us that are literally in there almost every day. And uh, so but you're about to turn 50, you're about six months away. So, as you're coming to that point of being 50, as fit as you are and as much as you work out, like what are some of the things that you're just thinking about in terms of like your fitness and how do you how are you tweaking things to make sure that you're adapting to you know this time of your life?

SPEAKER_00 2:33

It's it's it's interesting. The last couple of months have probably been um a couple of the most important months of what I say my life, because everything is about me turning 50. And I don't think about 50 as I'm getting old, I because I don't think that's old at all. I think of 50 as this is another the next phase of my life, and how do I want the next maybe 50 years to look and what I gotta do to adjust? And fitness was number one on the list is fitness and knowledge. So I've been reading a lot of books as well. And so with the with the fitness, it was like, what can my body do and what do I need to do with my body now that keeps me active, keeps me healthy, keeps me moving, keeps me uh uh mobile, and how do I switch up you know workouts I've been doing? What's my nutrition like now as opposed to even five years ago? Because uh especially with my family, African-American family from the South, we like to eat a certain way. Um, my family looks sometimes a little different than I do, so I have to be very careful with how I eat and how I work out, and turning 50 makes it even more challenging in how I work out and how I eat. So I've had to be more specific about what am I what am I putting in my body, fasting a little bit more um throughout the week. Um, uh a lot of protein. That's always kind of the thing. I do a lot of protein. Um, I do complex carbs, I do kind of some of the keto stuff um as far as carbs go. I do a lot of wheat, but um at the gym is my sanctuary every morning. Somebody saw me the

Nutrition Fasting And Daily Training

SPEAKER_00 4:08

other day and go, You're in here on Saturday too? And I'm like almost every day, dude. Like definitely six times a week and one day of yoga, and um just kind of maneuvering through my upper body, my lower body, and doing things that keeps me um fit without pushing myself to the point where I can't get out of bed.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're you're an actor, a director, a producer, you're on a production company, like you're doing so many things, wearing so many hats. Talk about how fitness, you know, has allowed you the opportunity to really be your best, not just as an actor, but like just in the in the context of like how busy and how immersed you are in that field.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

That that that's probably the number one reason I can do all of the things that you you just said, and I don't I don't mean that as a as a joke. Like it requires a lot of energy to be an actor, director, writer, and not that, oh, I got all this, I'm this guy. It's my fitness helps my energy. And this is a sun-up to sundown job. It's not not a nine to five, it doesn't ever end. I work weekends, I shoot long hours, I'm I'm working with actors, I'm doing different things, I'm writing screenplays. And if I don't wake up in the morning and go to the gym and get in my hour and a half, two hours of what I think my my my physical nutrition is, my days are shot. Like my energy is low, I don't feel like doing certain things. And so the gym is the one reason why I think I can do all of the things that I do consistently throughout the year with my work and my job, because it gives me the energy. I like feeling good, I like feeling accomplished by nine o'clock in the morning. I like knowing I've done more than what most people do in a whole day. And that feeds my energy, that makes me want to go out and push myself even harder in the field and in the industry and that kind of thing. So um, and if I didn't have my gym workouts, like if it's taken away from me, um, or if we had to take a little time off because of a little bit of an injury, it drives me nuts, man. It drives me nuts. I want to, I want to be in there, it's it's motivating just to be able to do the things that we still can do at this age.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Yeah, and I think you know, the word I was thinking as you were talking about that is like it gives you an edge. Absolutely. You know, and I think people that are competitive, people that are driven, like you should you nod your head because I you know I I'm pegging you here a little bit. But yeah, like I mean, and that's part of the reason that you're able to be successful and able to have a career and not just kind of fade away, is that you you figured out your edge, you figured out how to nourish your body to get the best out of yourself. Talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Yeah, you you've seen me in the gym, I've seen you in the gym. You work really hard, dude. And and I like to think I work really hard, and I have people come up to me because I do hit training in between like lifting and stuff. People are going, dude, like do you ever stop moving? And and I don't because there is that competitive edge. I'm incredibly competitive. I you know, I was an athlete for a long time. I played football and basketball in high school and college. When I watch sports now, I'm really competitive,

Fitness As Energy For Film Work

SPEAKER_00 7:08

and I I try to find ways that keeps me competitive, especially in my industry.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Um, and and so in the gym, it's kind of the same way. I'm not trying to outdo someone else. That's I don't I'm I don't have that kind of ego. But for me, I don't like the idea of um being lazy or not pushing myself as as much as I possibly can. And when I look back, I I got high school, I was a couple of days ago, I was looking at some high school reunion pictures and some stuff that was going on, and I got friends that I went to school with that looks older than me. I'll say it like that. It look a lot older than I do because they don't necessarily work out. I don't mean this in a negative way, don't necessarily work out or eat a certain way. And I think you know, my fitness helps keep keeps me vibrant and gives me that energy and keeps me uh hopefully somewhat young looking and I feel that way. And uh so when I'm in a gym and I see people like you and I see some of the other guys you say they're in there, I I want to keep up. You know what I mean? It's not being better than it's just I want to keep up. It's like if those guys can do that, I gotta figure out ways that I can I can do that as well. And it is a bit of an edge, and I I like it. It it it it it gives me something to feel good about that type of accomplishment, which makes me then go into my my work and say, what else can I do today? It really is that it's like if I can do this, what else can I can I do? And in my industry, I'm always trying to find an edge, I'm always trying to find the right story and push the right narrative, and and there's a lot of competition in what I do in in the entire world. The Academy Award nominations came out yesterday, and I'm competing with all of those individuals, and so I have to find the right idea and focus. And yeah, if it starts with me being in the gym.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Yeah, and I you know, I love when people guys at the gym will come up to me and just be like, hey man, just like you inspire me. You know, and it's not that I'm looking for the ego boost, I just I I realize it's it's nice to know that like the you know that you're getting noticed for the the work you're putting in. Like it's and and if somebody else is showing up going like I want to be more like him, then that's motivating to me because I know that like people are watching, people are being like they're getting better by by me being there, right? And I think that's a cool, that's a cool aspect of it.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

My company is called Motivate Pictures. Yeah, it's called that for a reason, 100% based on what you said. Yeah, I have taken taken ownership of something that I don't have to do, but it kind of sort of happened naturally throughout my life, and I'm choosing to do, and that's kind of sort of been a motivator for certain people who need it. I didn't ask for that, but for whatever reason throughout my life, people have come to me for advice or see me in the gym or some of the work that I do, and I'm with you a hundred percent. If somebody comes up to me and says, Hey, dude, uh last week I saw you in here and it inspired me to do this, then it's beautiful for me. I like that's great. But like you said, it's not because of my ego, it makes me go, I need to keep working harder, I need to keep doing this because somebody is seeing it, somebody's being influenced by something positive that I'm doing, yeah, and that is huge for me. That is everything for me. It's what I try to teach my daughter, and like I said, it's why I have the company name that I have, because that's a part of I think why I'm here and why I do what it is that I do. Um, and I don't seek it out, I don't go, let me do it. It's there because of what I put in. Right. And if I put it in, then people get something from it. Oh, it's real, it's real. People can feel that. Like you're just out there grinding. 100%, 100%. And and I like the idea if they if they see that I'm working hard as opposed to just saying it or just trying to tell somebody something, but they actually see me doing it, yeah. That's I think is even more powerful, right? Well, you're walking the walk and not just like out there like, this is what you actually do. Exactly, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

Well, now you you just mentioned it, yeah. You you're a father, you have a production company, you're all you're doing so many things, and you're dealing with your fitness. Like, how do you make it all like you know, you've got the family, the relationship, your wife, all those things. You've got the all the things with work that you have to kind of keep keep managed, and you have your fitness. Like, what I love is that how you've tied the fitness piece into the energy it takes to do all the others. Like, like I think that's some one of the things that people have a hard time with. If they're not exercising enough or not getting the the energy that it that it comes from being healthy, they they see the exercise piece as like something that's gonna pull energy away from the other parts of your life. Talk about how that they feel they fuel each other.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

It's it it's it's that complete opposite for me.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

The the discipline and the consistency that it requires for me to be at the gym every day and up at six o'clock in the morning and at the gym between six thirty and seven o'clock, it it helps me then bring that type of consistency and discipline into my family, right, into my job, into everything else that I do. Because I that is to me the most important thing when it comes to health and nutrition, anyway. Like you, if you you have to be disciplined, you have to be consistent, because it's hard. It requires a lot for people, and everybody's on different levels, and everybody has different goals that they have, and if they don't see results at a certain time, it can be easy to kind of slow down or push away because it requires that type of discipline and consistency. If I can do that in my for myself, because that's my own individual need, for me to feel healthy, for me to feel strong, I need that consistency. Well, once I'm able to do that and say I can do that for my individual self, then I can also give that then to my family and to my job and to the focuses that I the other focuses that I do have. It's when I don't have the consistency in the gym, it takes away from those other areas because in my mind I'm going, I'm not where I need to be, or I should have been better. I don't feel healthy or strong, and so I'm gonna take away from you know what's happening with my family, or I'm gonna eat whatever I want to eat for dinner as opposed to focusing on something that's really um more healthy and that that trickles down to the family. So with my daughter, she's very she's 22 and she's very into fitness. She was going to school initially for uh physical therapy and and and training, and then she went to um hairstyling and all those different things, and so now she's doing kind of both of them, yeah. And that's because of stuff that her and I have been working on for a very long time. Um, my family is is very, very um athletic and into the gym. You've seen Jen and I work together in the gym. Um it's it's it's important to the consistency and health of my family that my my fitness is consistent in my daily life, and it all just fits together. And then we can have conversations and dialogue about it. You know, we can help each other, we can motivate and push each other as a family to understand what's good and not good and and what we should and shouldn't be doing, or when we can have cheat days and and have some fun doing those kinds of things too. But more importantly, it gives us even more stuff to work towards and and and work together at.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

Yeah.

Love The Work Not Fame

SPEAKER_03 14:27

So from what I've read and learned about you, you you didn't you grew up with not a lot in terms of you know, financial situation, that kind of stuff, small town in in North Carolina. Yeah. You have some amazing uh family members around you to teach you the great lessons and such. But coming so far and being you know who you are today and the things that you've learned, like what is your advice to people chasing things that that you know, money, fame, uh looks, those types of things, like versus like the more intrinsic motivators, health, uh, you know, a passion in your career, love and relationships.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Um I don't chase anything. When you start chasing the money and the fame, and it then then your focus is is in the wrong place, in my opinion. Yeah, do what you absolutely love and do what motivates you to get up every single morning. I love going to the gym. I love, even when it hurts, I love being in the gym. So there's no amount of money one way or the other that that changes that for me. I do that for me. I love filmmaking. It is my passion, it is what I'm supposed to be doing, whether I'm good at it or not, it's what gets me up in the morning. I can't guarantee that I'm gonna make a million dollars, or I can't guarantee any of the actors that I work with that they're gonna be stars, I can't say we're gonna be famous. I do it because I love it, and whatever the results of that are the results of that. So every day for me is more about the motivation of what makes me happy and what I'm supposed to be doing simply in my life to be the best human being I can possibly be. Yeah, and to be the best role model because it's there and I can't do anything about that, the best role model I can possibly be. And then the results of that usually work out pretty good. Good opportunities, good projects, feel good, good relationships, and that's the most important thing to me because I can't control all the other stuff. But what I can control is me and what gets me out of bed every morning, and that's what I tell anybody who wants to know what's important to me and what they can be doing, just simply to be successful people. And I say find a reason every morning to wake up that excites you, that you're willing to work hard for and to sacrifice for and not complain about. If you're doing those things, then everything else, in my opinion, will take care of itself. Yeah. Because you're willing to work hard enough for the success at that point in time.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

So

Obstacles Baby Steps And Time

SPEAKER_03 17:06

what if someone's response is, yeah, but I have this thing, I have this obstacle, you know. I we're this is a society full of triggers and and things that we're can't talk about or that that send people into a panic. Like talk about that durability or this the the mindset that you've developed to to really like show up every single day and not let the obstacles of life and and society get you down.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

I've had lots of obstacles and as well as many other people. Um the biggest thing about obstacles is sometimes people are fortunate when they don't know it, and I'm one of those people. For example, I grew up incre incredibly poor and struggled a lot with a lot of things for a very, very long time. And I'm fortunate for that because it made me appreciate what working hard is, it made me appreciate earning certain things, it made me appreciate what I didn't have and not take that for granted, and made me appreciate anything that I'm able to acquire now isn't nearly as important as the love that I was surrounded by at the time that I didn't have any of those. And the challenges that I had to face or overcome to have even the smallest bit of success came from me believing that I can overcome any challenges that were there. And the big thing for me when it comes to sharing with with any with other people is mostly about are we feeling sorry for ourselves, which I understand can happen, so I don't say that negatively. And if we are, that's fine for a moment, but it's not gonna help us get to that next step. Right. So we have to find a place within ourselves that says, this is hard, this is challenging, but I can do it. First, that becomes a self-belief and understanding that you can, because we all have a skill set or or um uh an understanding about who we are that we know that we're we're good at something, or something moves us, or there's something that we have a dream to do, and then everything else is so how do I do it? And I was actually talking to my daughter today, and she was struggling with a couple of things that was happening with some friends, and people are in different places, so you can't tell somebody what they can and can't do. But what you can start to do is understand if you want something, it's not simply the want, is what am I willing to do to accomplish it, right? Even when those obstacles are in the way, because it's very easy to say those obstacles are keeping me from doing this, and then you don't do it, right? And then five months later, six months later, you're still in the same exact place before, and you're still complaining, and you're still upset, and you're still sad, and that's not doing anybody any good. Right. But if you go, this may be hard, but I want to do this. So, how do I actually do it and start making a list of those things of how to accomplish it and a time frame that it may take, even if it says it's gonna take me a year to do this, then make the list of what it's gonna require, and then that year start putting those steps in place. And that once you get beyond that, once you start putting those steps in place, those little, little baby steps, that's all it takes. Little, no big changes right away. Um I've heard you say something uh I think in one of your your shows before, where you talk about people who try to take on too much at one time, and it's hard to be. I thought I was so connected to that. I was like, man, he is absolutely right. Because some of us want to do all these big things all at the same time, and it's not possible. And I think some of that comes from maybe watching social media and thinking everybody's done all these great things all at once. It's not, it's all baby steps, man. It's all one little step at a time, every day doing something a little bit more and a little bit more, yeah, showing those little bit of small successes, appreciating those small successes, giving yourself a little bit of something else to do. Um, otherwise, we find ourselves being victims and and playing that role, and sometimes that can get to be comfortable, but we never get anything out of it.

SPEAKER_03 21:10

No. And if a guy's listening to this and you're he's 40 and he sees you and be like, he it should he should expect that it would take 10 years. I mean, it's probably more, but let's, you know, like to put together the type of discipline, habits, and work ethic that it would take to become as fit as you are right now, what you know, about to walk into your 50s, you know, we we won't we want all that in in three months. We want to fix everything because we get so down on all on all the things that we don't like about ourselves, we want to like immediately kind of emancipate ourselves from all these like bad habits. And it just doesn't, it doesn't work that way.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

It's it's not realistic and and it and I think most people probably know that, but because we want it and need it because we're so unhappy in certain areas of our life, it'd be nice if it just kind of feels Flip the switch. But I I say this all the time when it comes to especially fitness. Fitness is is is easy way to do an easy analogy for this, like you said, is if if if we don't look the way we want to look, it probably took us a long time to get to that point of not looking the way we want to look, right?

SPEAKER_03 22:18

Didn't take a week.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

It didn't take a week, right? We didn't just kind of fall out and go, hmm, man, it's not working. No, we we it took us some time and years, probably in a big scheme of things. If we say, well, when I was 20, I looked like this, and now I'm 35, and that's 15 years. Yeah. Well, if you're 35 and you go, I want to look like I did when I was 20 something, then it's going to require time. Yeah. And if you can start with unlocking your brain to the point of being open to say, what I need to do will require time, that's the first major step. Because after that, you have to start applying that process. And that is a day-to-day, that's a minute to minute, hour to hour, day-to-day process that requires that time. And then when you start seeing results, which could take a little of time to see the kind of results you're looking for, um, if you can stick it out long enough, and that's where the discipline and the consistency consistency comes into play, then you start to see those results, and that should be motivating enough to say, Oh, it's possible. Right. Let me stick with it and keep going. Right. And that's a beautiful thing. It just it's not as easy as as I'm making it sound, and I know that. And some people don't see results in two weeks, and it makes it challenging for them.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

Well, uh the ease in your in your explanation is that you know it works if they just stay the course. Stay the course, right? Just yeah. It's not gonna take I always tell people, you know, it's gonna take longer than you want it to, and it's gonna be more rewarding than you ever thought.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

100%. It's a great way to think about it. 100%. And I've seen that happen, and I know that you have, especially as a trainer, seen that happen. And the the unfortunate part is um not everyone sticks to it because they they they they don't trust, or it's it's hard. And it is hard. It it is hard.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

Well, and the there's the extrinsic, like, I want to look good, right? Like it's like we all want to look good naked, right? That's that's a great motivator. And I'm I'm fine with people wanting to like fit in a dress or have you know muscular arms or whatever, like whatever external, extrinsic thing motivates you, great. But in the in the journey to get there, my job as a trainer and and your job as somebody going that down that journey is to develop the intrinsic habits so that when you get there, you're like, because if it's it's it's the like I lost 20 pounds to go on vacation and now I'm back and have no more motivation because I was only just trying to look good in my bathing suit for that period of time, right? But if you learned the process, if you develop the habits along the way, you come back from Cancun, you're like, I'm locked in. You know, I'm not, I'm I'm still eating well, I'm still going to the gym. I love this life.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

100%. Dude, I'm in Cancun going, okay, I can't have any carbs. What's on the menu of the I'm doing because especially now at the end.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

I always like go, I'm like, I'm gonna put all the meat on the plate first, and then I'll like have a little section for like criteria carbs or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Because I am like, you know, at this age, it's hard to come back from a little bit of weight gain or not being able to work out at the gym the way I want to. Every place that I go to doesn't always have like a gym that really suits me. Yeah, so if my workouts get hard, so if I'm gone for a week, and and people say this all the time, like one of the worst things that fitness people can do is go on vacation. Yeah. Because everything about their routine changes. And and so I try to focus even when I'm there. So when I come back, I don't have so far to come back from. And I'm not telling people don't go to Cancun and enjoy it. I'm saying me, I have it's more of a challenge for me to come back to the other side if I if I don't have at least some focus while I'm while I'm there.

SPEAKER_03 25:59

I think that's but that's like a you know, it sucks when you realize that like after 40 or like, you know, for me it was for like 44, 45 that it really kicked in that like this realization that like it's so much harder to get it to get back on the horse in a sense. But I think it also it it demands you have more real discipline. If you can rely on the fact that you are an athlete and you kind of like you can burn body fat pretty quickly when you like get back on track. Like I I leveraged that when I was in my 30s because I get a little fluffy and then I'd go back to the gym and I tighten up my diet, and it was like three weeks I was back. But but that wasn't the case in my 40s, or and so it really made me realize like I have to have better discipline and I have to have better habits that don't fall away, you know. And you because I because if you rely on like uh, you know, whether it's talent, again, it's like it's like it's like DNA, talent, like some something that you were like God given, sure, you know, being tall. You can hide fat on a tall body, I'm gonna tell you right now.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Exactly. You know, and that's actually kind of interesting that you say that because I'm I'm relatively short. And even when I was an athlete in school, I was I was really fast, right? That was kind of my my thing, but I was never the biggest guy, and I certainly wasn't the tallest guy. So I had to find other ways to stand out and to be successful. That required me to be disciplined, that required me to work harder in other areas in order to build something that gave me a bit more of an edge because I didn't have all the natural God-given um talent or ability that that other individuals have.

Genetics Blood Pressure And Prevention

SPEAKER_00 27:34

And so you're 100% right about that. The other thing for me, especially recently, but it has my entire life, but especially recently, that has made me focus more on fitness and nutrition, probably, is that you know my health status in my family is not great. For example, I'm 49 years old and I have high blood pressure.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

I found out two years ago that I had high blood pressure, and that two years ago I was in better shape than I am now, and I think I'm in pretty good shape. And I eat good, I work out seven days a week. There's no reason why I should have high blood pressure. Yeah, but because I'm African American and in my family, it is rampant. Most, I should say, most of my family, a lot of members in my family are overweight. People don't eat the way that I want them to eat, or I think they should eat, and I go home and they go, You're not healthy, look at you. And I'm going, no, it's the other way, it's the other way around, and then I'm there for two days and they go, tell me what you're eating, bro. Tell me what and now, and then we start working on some things. But what ends up happening for me is that if I don't find a certain amount of discipline and stay um consistent with my nutrition and fitness, then it'd be easy for me to fall out of what I have because genetically I can go down that road easy, as opposed to just being at our age, because age is part of it, and then when you got it genetically, I really gotta work really hard to do it. And so it plays a part in my focus and what I what I want and need to do, and especially just for all African-American individuals, anyway, men and women, we do have this predisposition of this happening with us, and so that should be a part of our focus and motivation to stay somewhat healthy and eat somewhat um um nutrition because we are prone to some of those issues that we can prevent if we spend a little bit more time just you know eating a little less of the sodium and and the fats and a little bit more of the veggies um and the right fruits and that kind of thing. And so that's just my little you know, sneak in there to to my community that that that I'm excited and and proud to to want to motivate because it's important for us to know that.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Yeah. I think if we have 23andMe and these types of like DNA uh like family history, you can start, you know, whatever your background is, you can find out. You may know like how your grandfather my grandfather passed away at 55. Right. Went to sleep one night, never woke up, but 55 years old, and he was generally healthy, wasn't over, wasn't really that overweight, but you know, they didn't really know, they had no idea, right? So it's in me to have that kind of predisposition to like heart disease and stuff like that. But you know, so I'm checking that stuff out regularly and that kind of thing. And I think everybody's responsibility is like if you know you're predisposed to be in a certain way or have you know colo high cholesterol, blood pressure, whatever it is, like let that be a motivator, let that be like a chip that you're gonna like play and and and be just that much more determined to like you know not fall into that.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

I love that, and I'm with you a hundred percent, and it is so frustrating when not enough individuals that I spend time with or including my family, see it that way.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

Um they know how do they fra how what's the frame that that they're looking at it from?

SPEAKER_00 30:59

They they mostly look at it from this is just what I've always done. It's one of those things, just like just like anything else, when you've done and been who you are your entire life, change is hard. Yeah, and it's scary. And most of the reason why it's hard and scary is because you don't have the knowledge to figure out how to do it differently, so it's easy to just kind of fall back into your bad habits. So if you don't have a coach or a teacher or somebody there consistently every day, kind of saying, No, no, no, no, not that, but this, it's easy for you to go, I should be having this, but boy, that show look good right now, and I'm just gonna do that. And that can be disappointing because you're talking about family members dying at young ages. I can I I've been to way more funerals than I ever should in my entire life. And and if diabetes runs in my family, you know, high cholesterol, sugar, all that is a major part of my family. And I and I talk to family members or and even you know, my mom, and I'm like, okay, we we gotta do better than this. You can't have this every night. You can't be eating that for breakfast. I won't even mention what these things are, okay? You can't, mom, you can't be having that for breakfast and think that it's okay. I know, I know, and then she still has it for breakfast, you know, um, because it's just it's just who and what she's been doing her entire life. If she lived with me, it would be different because I'd be baiting all these things. And so what you're saying is absolutely true. The challenge is um a lot of these individuals don't know how to do anything different, um, even when the doctor

Food Traditions And Breaking Cycles

SPEAKER_00 32:34

doesn't have to be.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

Tradition is such a like a beautiful part of society. Like if you're you grow up in a tradition where mom does it this way because grandma does it this way, and great grandma, and and and and one of the things that I've thought about, and look, and I growing up, you know, in California, like there were we didn't have that many traditions around food, it was really more just kind of whatever was kind of like the thing to eat. I mean, I remember when TV dinners kind of showed up, and we were huge Sacramento Kings fans, so it was like all of a sudden we got away from saying, Hey man, hey, we we literally would sing that before at like the early times of my childhood, but then it was like in front of the TV watching the Kings games, um, you know, that kind of stuff. And so there wasn't that many like kind of hard fast traditions besides like Thanksgiving and like the typical stuff. Um but what I thought about was like, man, the food is getting more and more refined, the food is getting worse for you, like because all the you know, the con the it's going further and further away from like source, right? And and that just makes it harder and harder for even the foods that might have been good a hundred years ago. Like if I'm working hard labor or like in my you know, I've got a farm or I've got a ranch or I'm doing a lot of like manual labor all day, and I'm eating a lot of really rich, healthy, like you know, flavorful foods, I'm probably not that unhealthy in that area. Right. But now first of all, the source of where that stuff is coming from is a lot more, you know. I lived in Milton, Florida for a year, uh, which is Panhandle near Pensacola. Oh, okay. And uh Milton is a very small town known for having the most churches in per square cavita of any of any town in America. You know, okay, but it's very it's very southern and it's very um it's very that kind of and and I just you know I worked at this um at-risk youth like outdoor wilderness facility and the food that they were getting served, I just I was like, what are we doing to these kids? Yes, but that you know it was just it was amazing that even the government was kind of like that was just part of the deal. It was like corned beef hash for breakfast and like biscuits and gravy.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

Listen, man, I uh number one, I have the greatest family on the planet. I was raised by the best women in the world because I I I grew up in this tiny little house and there's like 12 of us and no no exaggerations like walking uphill both ways. And that's that's that's kind of sort of how I grew up. And my grandmother was a matriarch Magmo, she she is the greatest lady ever. And then my mother took over for her after she passed away. And in my mindset took over, so I don't want my aunts to be upset with me. My mom just kind of took over the kind of tradition, but one thing that my grandmother did was feed people. Like we lived in a not so great neighborhood, and we had gangsters, and we had you know hoodlums, and we and it was it was not great. And my home where it was sitting was kind of sort of in the center of the neighborhood where people have to come down to the this part of the street to go either way, yeah. And they go to my grandmother's house, and it was like neutral territory, yeah. Right? It was like nobody screws up, nobody messes up around this house right here because my grandmother fed everybody, you know, everybody was cool and she talked to everybody. And there was always Sunday dinners, you know, kind of almost your traditional, stereotypical black family, right? It was always Sunday dinner, but it was always dinner, always. Anybody could ever come by, anybody would ever come, they get fed. It was always that way, and it was great. And when you're poor, you eat what you got, right? So you don't you don't be complaining if you got something then you're good, right? So you you make what you what's what's due. And my mother basically took over that, and so every Sunday people are always coming over. My mother's house still happens now, and and during the weeks, I mean, hey, my mother's name is Catherine. We call a cat. Say, hey cat, what you cooking? And my mother makes makes food for like 90 people, yeah. And it's like three people there eating, and it's great and it's delicious, but it becomes you it becomes tradition, it becomes habit, and now you're probably eating more than you should eat, and and not always the things that you should be eating and that kind of thing. And I loved it and I love it. Um, I've kind of taken over that. People come to my house and eat, but then I'm I'm feeding them, you know, spinach, spinach salads with grilled chicken on it and homemade dressing and all these good things. And they go, oh, this is delicious. And it's great that they think that that's delicious, as opposed to where is the you know, um cheeseburgers and and and hot dogs, which which I'm cool with, but um it is a tradition that once it becomes a habit and we don't learn how to take some of that tradition and use it, and then other areas say, hey, we're not gonna do that today, we're gonna do this type of food. So there's some balance, then it kind of can get out of hand, and and that's kind of that's kind of stereotypical throughout, you know, especially in in our in my community, but I'm sure in other communities too, but I can only speak for my community, and um, it's important to kind of work through, especially for the younger kids. My I have a niece and nephew that um that um are athletes but still have to learn to eat the way that athletes should eat at this age before so they don't start to develop those issues that we have at an early age. Um and so that's and I work with them and talk with them and and it's I wish I had somebody talking to me about that at a younger age too. I had to learn all that stuff kind of on my own, but yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_03 38:13

Well, I mean I think that's such a important thing to do is try to like be a part of breaking the cycle, absolutely, at least for your family or the people that you have that impact on and have that connection with. Absolutely. Yeah.

Building Breathe Acting Studio In Austin

SPEAKER_03 38:25

Talk about and speaking of like connection, I mean, I love that you know, as I'm doing research about you, I find out you have an acting studio here in Austin, breathe uh acting studio. Uh what's your mission with that acting studio? What do you love about like helping young actors?

SPEAKER_00 38:42

So um I I was an actor way before I was ever a filmmaker or writer. Um I did a I I don't know if I talk about this or not, but I I did a film when I was a kid that was filmed in my hometown because people like you to go to LA. I did a film when I was a kid, um eight years old, right? Eight years old.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

Eight and and nine, because my birthday was, I guess, during the my son is nine, so I'm I'm amazed because now I know what an like how immature nine-year-olds are.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Definitely, and I was my grandmother used to always say, You have an old soul, and there's a lot about what I did as a young kid. I used to think, at least I think, and they thought that I thought a little older than than I was. But uh I was in the movie The Color Purple, the original Color Purple, and uh it was filmed in my hometown, and I had an audition for it, and um, there's a crazy, there's I got so many crazy stories around how I even got into this film that that's a whole another conversation that we can have. Um, but once that that happened, I knew then that I wanted to be an actor, and it was because of the people that were on the set that took me under their wing and really talked to me and mentored me, and not like a kid, but like an actor, like just a nut because I wasn't an actor, I didn't know, but I was just supposed to be an extra. A great opportunity happened.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

You gotta tell the story. I mean, see they put you and the other kids at a at a the dinner table, the dinner table. Yes, and they said just talk to each other, and they just filmed it, and they're kind of this information. Oh, come on, I gotta this is how I this is how I work. You gotta get the goods.

The Color Purple Changed Everything

SPEAKER_03 40:20

This is such a great story. So tell tell what happened.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

So so I don't know how many weeks we were into filming at this point in time. Um, and like I said, I was just an extra bouncing around in and in different areas of the film. And my brother's in the film, cousins, there's a few people that I knew that was in the film. Well, one day, one of the assistants came out and said, Hey Maurice, uh, where's your mother? Can you grab her? And I need you to come inside of the house. And they did that with me and I think five other kids. And they put us all at the dinner table, their dinner table in the movie. And they, you know, just had us all kind of sit around. And once we sat down, like everybody started to come into the room. Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi, and and they were just standing around, and I had no idea what was happening. Like, what is going on, you know? And um, they just basically said, Hey, we're just gonna turn the camera on and we're just gonna have you guys talk a little bit, and you know, it's nothing you know crazy, just talk. And from my memory, um, not a whole it's scary for everybody, right? So not a whole lot of things. So most kids just get quiet and shy. And that's exactly what happened.

SPEAKER_03 41:27

Dear in the headlights kind of experience.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

Exactly what happened. And I did not. The crazy part is is that from what I remember, I was watching the scene as an important scene where she's getting ready to shave him and she's she's considered Danny Glover. Danny Glover. So so um uh Seeley Whippy Cooper uh exactly so you have you have she has the knife, she has the knife and he's cursing her out or he's and she's walking because this is the moment where she's really considering sorry, she's really considering um you know harming him. Yeah, and I'm watching literally on like between almost from you to me, but certainly from you to this this this wall here, watching that scene happen the day or two before. Yeah, okay. So I have a small grasp of what the movie kind of sort of is about. So I don't I don't claim to have known what the movie is about, but I did know at the time that it was about you know a husband abusing his wife and all these different kinds of little nuances. So I just started talking about how I thought that as a man that if the wife did not obey the husband, that she should be disciplined. Now I didn't believe any of this. I'm just going off of what I had seen as far as the movie goes. And it was just my opinion. I said, in the Bible it says this, like I was using all kinds of we were big church-going kids, you know, and that kind of in the Bible it says you should do all these.

SPEAKER_03 42:49

So you started like kind of weaving together some things that you'd heard from the things that I've heard, stuff that I've seen, nothing that I believed.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

I just started talking. They said talk, and I said, Okay, cool. And I could see, you know, them kind of chattering a little bit. And I went on, I don't know, a minute or two for sure.

SPEAKER_01 43:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

And then after a while, there was one girl sitting next to me, and she kind of chimed in. She kind of took the other, the opposition, and I was like, okay, this is cool. Now we kind of go back and forth. And then after a minute or so, she stopped talking and I just kept going. Yeah. And when I was done, I got a standing ovation. And when I got to standing ovation, the assistant said, Hey Maurice, I need you and your mom to meet me in the office. Said, okay. We went into the office, and right away they said, We want to give him a contract. We want to keep him on set for the next however many weeks, and this is how much we're going to pay him. And it was more money than anybody in my my family ever made. My mother almost hit the floor. Yeah. I almost hit the floor. Um, and every day that I came back after that, I had like a new line to say or a new position to be in. And it was great. What was really cool about what you what you were asking before is at that time. Time, Radon Chong, who is Tommy Chong's door, Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, James Ingram at the time, Lawrence Fishburne people or Larry Fishburne at the time. These people would sit with me in rooms and just talk to me. Margaret Avery, especially Radon Chong, we'd sit out on the balcony.

SPEAKER_03 44:23

She must have been pretty young back then.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

She was, I would say, in her twenties at that point in time. Really pretty. I remember how pretty she was.

SPEAKER_03 44:30

I remember from uh Commando with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh my god, who's she? Exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

And she was the sweetest, sweetest person in the entire world. And just talk to me and just ask, not just ask me kids stuff, but just talk to me. And boy, I boy, Whoopi, if you ever see this, I I say this with all the respect. Whoopi Goberg went for a walk with me. And she she was doing comic relief at the time with Robin Williams and Billy Christopher. And we would watch that, and we watched it one night before we went to film, and she had this one story about her um how she got pregnant with her daughter. And her daughter was on set, her daughter's in the movie as well. Danny Glover's daughter's in the movie as well. And I remember asking her if that was true at eight years old. I asked her if the story that she told on Comet View was was uh a coming relief was real, and she told me the story. Yeah, there's nothing that she should have done or needed to do, but she didn't treat me like a kid, she just talked to me like an I loved it, yeah, and I know that without that type of mentorship, without having people look at me as something other than some little kid who's lucky to be here, they talk to me like an individual that may get a little bit of something from what they say, changed my life, yeah, change completely changed my life, and that has happened to me a number of times in my lifetime. Like I am nothing, there's no Mo, there's no Maurice Moore, there's no Motivate Pictures, there's no Breathe Acting Studio without some of the people that affected my life. So when it comes to breathe, as an actor, I I went to school, I studied um theater, I got my theater degree at at Bethel in Kansas. So I knew between eight years old and 19 that I was gonna be an actor. The crazy part is I never acted between eight years old and 20. I just knew it. Yeah, and anything that I knew how to do as an actor, I got from what I call the the school of Denzel Washington and Robert De Niro. Every movie that I've ever seen and everything I know about acting came from them, and everybody's like, Why? What are you talking about? How are you gonna be an actor? I said, I know what I'm supposed to do. Yeah, know what I'm supposed to do. So I went to school.

Learning To Read Through Mentorship

SPEAKER_00 46:45

When I got to school, I found out that um two years into school, I found out that um I didn't read very well at all.

SPEAKER_03 46:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:54

Can't be an actor if he can't read.

SPEAKER_03 46:55

This was when you were 20?

SPEAKER_00 46:56

This is when I was 20. Okay. Okay, and I'm in school, I'm reading aloud.

SPEAKER_03 47:00

Like you're trying to sight read or you're trying to like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

And I, you know, I always thought the good readers read fast. So I used to try to read fast to give the illusion that I was a good reader. It was it was awful. And I'm reading aloud in class, and it was just really awful. And um, and that was hard for me. It was embarrassing for me. And and as a trying to be an actor, it was definitely not going to work out. And uh, when I was at my other school, and and and I went to school in Minnesota first, and I went to school in in Kansas, uh, I had a theater teacher who, if I remember, because I went to the school that I went to, the Denzel Washington and Robert De Niro school, I knew how to act. Yeah, but it was learning lines and being in character and things I had never seen before. Everybody that was ever at my school had been acting since they were like 10 and in plays and all these different things. So it was different. Well, when I learned lines, I was as good as anybody. Anybody. So I would take the time and I could when I did the work and I could learn the lines when I came back in to perform, it worked. So I did a I did a uh a piece called um Streetcar Name Desire.

SPEAKER_03 48:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:06

Um, and I was in in my production class and I was performing that scene.

SPEAKER_03 48:10

Is it the kitchen scene? Uh it was just when he when he blows up. It dude, you know this. Oh man, I did that. I did that scene too. I loved it. It was Sam, obviously Stanley.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

Stanley, yeah, Stanley Kowalski, and again, you're like and what a great opportunity as a young actor to like really go to that, like express that full it changed my life because what you just said that go to my professor at the time when he saw it, he said something that I've carried me ever since then. He says, You have this quiet intensity because that explosion that you're talking about, that's not me that would be.

SPEAKER_03 48:46

So, real quick, just uh to frame this like this there's a specific scene where they're at the dinner table and Rose and what's the other one? Uh the the ladies, she's see that they're talking about stuff, and it's gonna, and he's just sitting there, like kind of building like this kind of furnace, and all of a sudden she says some little like off-handed word that he just blows up and like loses his shit all over, and he just yells at them and like storms out, and just you know, it's a huge scene.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

And it's just not me, like that wasn't my personality, it's not my personality.

SPEAKER_03 49:16

It's not any, it's very it's only Alvacino. I think he's the only one who actually like might have that in him every day, every day, right exactly.

SPEAKER_00 49:24

And so for me to be able to do that and then see that, it was like, where did that come from? Yeah, and he goes, he goes, you know, you have this quiet intensity, I've kept that my entire life. He says, Hey, I want you to come to a rehearsal tonight because I'm casting a plate, and I think I want you to play this character. I said, Great. Here's my shot. I go to rehearsal, it is Antigone playing the character Creon, which is Greek mythology. Yeah, I can't read you know, The Given Tree, which is one of my favorite books of all time.

SPEAKER_03 49:57

And here I am somehow got banned, by the way. I don't know what's going on. Did that happen? I think so. I think so. We need to have that conversation. I need to find out about that. That's a different podcast.

SPEAKER_00 50:06

Oh, yeah, for sure. But and and Greek and Greek mythology is just like Shakespeare. It is pages of monologues, dialogue, dialogue. Everybody else in the in the play are cast. Yeah, we just need this one character, Creon, that he basically said, This is Creon. Yeah. Before I ever read one thing, I'm spending two hours in there reading with these really terrific actors, and it's the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen in my life. I was like, what is happening? Now at the end of this, my story is a little different than his. He says, You came to me and said, Hey, will you help me with this and help me read? I remember him coming to me saying, Hey, why don't you come to my office tomorrow and we'll work on this one? Either way, one of us made that happen.

SPEAKER_03 50:51

Right. But he knew because he'd seen the scene where you're playing Stanley that you had the you had that instinct, you had that quiet intensity. So he understood that he could work with you and solve the the reading issue.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

100%. Every day, 5 a.m. in his office for weeks. Yeah. This man taught me how to read. Yeah. Newspaper, put in front, read. Nope, stop, slow down, go back, do this. Okay, what is that? B. How many syllables? This man taught me how to read. His name is Travis Malone. This was in 1995-ish. Travis Malone. Now works.

SPEAKER_03 51:30

Like this people like this can literally change the course of somebody's life.

SPEAKER_00 51:36

Not only did he change the course of my life, he is one of my dearest friends now, and he works with me at Motivate Pictures. All right. On my creative reading team. I love it. I love it. It is amazing. He is the dean of uh of theater at the univers at um Virginia Wesling University in in um uh Virginia Beach. Yeah. I've gone there and I've taught. Um he he he changed we I talk to him all the time. He's on my Zoom calls, they read scripts. I now write screenplays for studios and for myself and produce movies because that happened. Like it changed my life.

Keeping Actors Local With Real Roles

SPEAKER_00 52:21

So when I created Breathe as an actor, I I started, I moved to LA. I worked, I lived in LA for about a decade. I worked with all kinds of actors, sag actors and um studio actors, young kids, Disney and and Nickelodeon actors. Um I taught here at Zachary Scott Theater before I moved to LA for about 10 years, um as an acting teacher for young five to fifteen year olds. And I always knew that I wanted to teach, but I I don't like the idea of those who can't do teach. Yeah. I knew I was gonna be an actor.

SPEAKER_03 52:53

I don't think that really I don't think that uh that that is applicable to acting. I yes. If you are a good actor, teach. If you're not a good actor, don't 100% don't teach at all.

SPEAKER_00 53:05

But I didn't want to just teach, I wanted to be a successful actor and teach. And and I thought part of me being a successful teacher, people pay attention if you can be a successful actor too. So it wasn't, oh, I never made it in Hollywood or I couldn't make it on stage, so I guess I'll teach. That didn't that never applied to me. It was just another part of what I wanted to do. But what I really wanted to do with Breathe is I want to work with actors, especially locally when I came back to Austin in 2014-15, was everybody who was that had any real talent had to move away to LA and New York and to find some success. Well, I was like, no, let's put a let's put a stop to that. Right. If I can work with you and I can and I believe I can get you on a level to go toe to toe with any actor on the planet, and I'm talking about all the celebrity actors that we're talking about, and if I have a production company where I can make movies, then I can take my actors from my acting studio and put them in significant roles in a feature film where they get seen and they don't have to go to LA or New York. Right. So I have a body of actors that are talented and I have work, stories to be told that they that they otherwise wouldn't get here because they they're not bringing that kind of work here. So extra work or under five lines or some TV show that nobody's gonna either see or gonna give them an opportunity. But if I put them in a movie where they really get to work, they get to have an arc, they get to be the lead and carry, you know, characters a hundred percent, and that film gets seen and does well, then they get seen. And they have a body of work for the demo reel or something that's on Netflix or in the theaters where people go, where's he at? Where's she at with it? Yeah, and that's why Breathe started and Motivate Pictures, and now every film that I've done since 2016 all-star my breathe actors, yeah, and that's huge for me.

SPEAKER_03 55:04

Huge for me. That's beautiful, man. Yeah, you know, uh, just on a personal note, you know, similar, similar reading issue, and I really came it came to bite me in the ass when I was, you know, acting, is I I you know, I I just memorized real as quick as I could, you know, and I came to I when I came to Austin, I went down to you know, audition at like the the Dorti Rodson. Yeah, and it was for a movie, and I killed it. It was like I was played this like uh cocaine, you know, like bad guy who's like just look losing his shit. And I just like I mean they you know they saw guy after guy after guy, and I came in and I just like threw myself against the wall, and I was like, and they were just like, holy shit, that's they're like, Where where did you come from? And I'm like, I just you know, I I'm I'm an actress that's moved into town. And the one of the producers was like, I have something for you. Can I I want to hire you to come to my house and like read this whole like and she sent me that she was like two days? She's like, you just you gotta memorize it, you know, and and then she's like, and I'll have some other stuff you gotta read anyway. Like I show up there and and I just I I couldn't get the word, I couldn't just like get there, and I just it was humiliating because I like here she you know, I it was it seemed like this moment where I was gonna like take another leap. Sure, sure, and it was like I I just I couldn't really deliver at that level, and it forced me to go back and just like you just work on my reading out loud because I think reading is one thing, but the the art of reading out loud with expression.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

You are 100% right.

SPEAKER_03 56:36

That's a different, that's a whole different thing.

SPEAKER_00 56:38

You because when I memorized, yeah, I went because like you said, I was fast memorizer and this memorizer, and I was really good at it, but it was all underneath, it was all internal. Yeah, when I start reading out loud, done deal. It was not the same thing at all. So you are 100% right about that.

Why Cold Reads Fail Actors

SPEAKER_00 56:55

What is really interesting about what you just said is as a as an acting coach and as a um uh uh uh casting director when I when I cast or producer for my films, that taught me to not do something that they do all the time in the industry. I think code readings. Take this, read this first. What are we showing? It is the dumbest thing ever, and they do it all the time because one, I've seen some of the best readers, no joke, some of the best readers, man. Oh my god, I can I'm never gonna get this part because he sounds good reading that. Yeah, and then you get him on set and he can't act at all because he can't do anything other than read well. Right. But when you need him to make some adjustments so to try some different things, they don't have the ability to do that. So you hire somebody who read well, not somebody who has the skill set as an actor. Two, somebody who doesn't read well doesn't mean that they can't take direction and do those different things. If you're going to give someone as an actor, and I I developed a new technique as an actor, so so you know, there's miser, there's this that's Stanisla, I developed you've kind of taken some of the things that's called the Mo method at this point in time. And and they they applied a few of those things, but it's it's it is a specific kind of method. And one of the things that I specifically stay say, um every everything starts with understanding. That's the number one thing. And you can't give me something code and expect me to understand the character, the situation, the moment in that period of time. So you have to allow me that time to do it, let alone be familiar enough with the words to where they come out where I'm not staring at it like this. And so I don't do that at all. I would never do a code reading in any audition that I have, and I don't teach my my students about code reading. Well, we should do it. That's something you have to learn on your own because I it it I can't even teach you how to code read because it's not good. Either you can read or you can't. I can't teach you, can't teach you that. And I think it's unfair to a lot of talented individuals that they get something on the spot like that that they don't understand, and we don't know the level of quality reading that they have that's going to give them this possible good opportunity to have a really great job or not. So that alone I won't do. And because of my experience in who I am, go, that would have never that didn't work for me. So I can't teach this, and I don't think it's I don't think it's good for the for the talent.

Habits Sleep And Honest Coaching

SPEAKER_03 59:24

Well, I love kind of pulling it all back together here because uh, I mean I this could be a three-hour podcast. So we are we're hitting an hour here. Uh, but I the um you know, this time in our lives, you know, one of the things I love about you know being this of this age is like we we have something to share with the next generation. We have experience, we have knowledge, we have you know just understanding of like the hardships of of making mistakes and learning from them and we can really make an impact on that next generation, whether it's our kids, our students, sure, uh, or you know, our clients in my case. But um how do you you know if somebody comes to you and they say, like, hey, I want I want to I want to be more fit or I want to be an actor, like what are some of the things that you're really that what are some of like the key things you're communicating to them about to to get them on the right track?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:20

It it goes back to what I was saying before. If if you come into me and you say you want to do something and I'm that I'm that dude, I'm that dude that either people really love or kind of go, oh, I should have never asked him all that, because I'm gonna tell you the truth. Like I'm the guy that tells you what you need to hear and what you want to hear. Right. And and that's not a negative thing at all.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:39

Sometimes it's like you're the guy that says, uh well, first stop drinking Coca-Cola, eating you know, exactly right fillet everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:46

And they go, Oh man, well then I can't help you. I can tell you all the other things.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:50

If you don't want to hear that, we're not gonna start with it. Exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:53

That's exactly good.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:53

The four glasses of wine a night, probably not helping.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:56

Probably not good for you. And if you want to accomplish what it is you want to accomplish, and that's where I would be at. I like I would start if, hey, I want to be an actor, okay? You is it a hobby or something that you really truly want to do? That's the first thing I asked about acting. If you want, is it a hobby for you or something that you want to pursue? Yeah, because those are two very different things. If it's a hobby, cool, fantastic. We can do some scene work, I can get you an understanding about the physicality of things, we can have some fun and and you do your thing and go to local play if you want to, cool. If it's something that you think you want to pursue, then your mindset has to be and the amount of work it's gonna require just to get the real fundamentals down, yeah, and then the time that it takes, just like fitness, to grow into who you are, your understanding of performance, your understanding of what each character needs, your understanding of working with different directors and what they're gonna need, the storylines and all those different things, and the challenges it is that comes with success. Right now, if you're okay with that, and it's because you're gonna get up every morning and say, This is what I'm supposed to be doing, I'm I'll I will roll with you all day, every day. Like I'm with you, let's go. Yeah, but you gotta know that this is what it's going to require. And if after two weeks you kind of go, uh I think I'm done with it, then you never wanted it in the first place. Fitness is exactly that, right? Say, hey, I want to look a certain way and I want to feel a certain way. Are you doing that because the summer's coming, you just kind of want to look out on the beach? Nothing wrong with that. That's really cool. So, does that mean when the summer's over, you're just gonna quit? You're gonna stop doing what you're doing, and then in another six months, you're gonna be like, Oh, I wish I was, or is it something that you want to be consistent with and it becomes your lifestyle? Yeah, everything that I do is all my lifestyle. How I eat, how I go to the gym, how I communicate all the information, it is my all-day, everyday practice. Um, and if they say this is what I want my lifestyle to be, because I want to be fit or in some decent shape my entire life. I want to feel better because what we put in our body doesn't help us feel that great. Sometimes I don't feel great all the time. Well, that's a lot of what you're putting into your body. I want to feel better, then we need to cut out these things, like you said, um, the the beer every day, or the the wine every night, or the fried chicken or just staying up and not and not getting a good night's sleep. Not getting enough rest. And that's something that I didn't say and we didn't talk about very much. And you're right, like that is crucial to the success in fitness. And if you're gonna be up on your phone all night strolling through social media until 2 a.m. and then you sleep until 10 and then nap later, like that's not healthy for what the recovery of the body or even helping you achieve the goals that you want to achieve. So it comes down to those healthy habits. Everything is about healthy habits, whether it's for your work or for your fitness, you gotta start, you have to understand what it's going to really require to be successful.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:00

And then I'm telling you, this is what it's going to take. Now, when you go away, you have to decide, are you willing to do it? Right. But I'm giving you the information that you need. Right. Then if you come back and go, I'm really, I'm ready, then I'm I will roll with you.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:16

Yeah, and I think, you know, as a from the trainer's perspective, it's often that trainers, the first thing the trainer tells the person to do is like, we gotta start working out, right? Because that's obviously where we get paid, right? Like come to the gym, I'm gonna train you. But you know, if you look at the whole person and you really look at like where are they struggling most, like the first thing may be getting good night's sleep. Hey, come back to me next week and show me that you fell asleep at nine o'clock and you woke up at six every morning, and then let's start. Like, once you've recalibrated your sleeping habits, then we can talk about like putting your body into more stress. Absolutely. Because once you get that stress, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:52

If if they don't have good sleeping habits, boy, they're really gonna struggle with it.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:56

Which means they're their the cortisol levels are high, the stress levels, they're just they're in a catabolic state. They're gonna they probably shouldn't be strength training, they should be trying to recover. 100%. You know, and this is this is the this is makes this is really the challenge, and I think it's it's one of the reasons why at this age, um, those who figured it out, you know, you and I look at each other, we've got a nod at each other. We we almost never have a conversation. Right. I know you're busy, I know you're getting work done, but it's like a nod of like, yeah, he's he's one of the few that has it figured out. And I think it's it it's harder at this age, but if you do it, if you really figure it out, it is, you know, I don't see you as somebody who's like, oh, I got 10 years left and then I'm gonna retire. No, retire from what? Your life is amazing, like, right? I just had this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:42

Retirement is nowhere in my like ever in my future. It's like, if what am I gonna do? If I want to go, I can go on vacation anytime I want to do. I don't have to be I don't have to retire to do that. I don't ever want to be out of shape. Yeah, I don't ever want to stop working because I love doing what I do. Right. I what I Do every day is what I want to do for the rest of my life. What am I retiring from? And it keeps me motivated to live as long as I possibly can because of the things that I do. If I retired and sat around somewhere, including Cancun, I'd be like, what is happening?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:16

I give you about three days of your life. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:20

Dude, I would be like, Can I work for you? You guys want me to shoot a video for you here at the hotel? And like, I would be trying to find something to do because that's just not my mindset. Like, I it doesn't that doesn't work for me that way.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:33

Well, I think that is one of those things. It's like a it's a it's the trick of when you don't have the energy because you're not leading yourself well, you just are looking for moments to rest and like take breaks and be lazier. When if you like transform your life into a life where you work out and that gives you the energy for the rest of the day, it's like you don't want to let that go. That is the life force behind everything you do.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:58

This past year was one of the busiest years I've ever had. I I made two movies. I shot a feature film in October, and I brought all my uh team in from Spain. I got it, I got a branch of Motivate Pictures in Barcelona, and then and then I thought that I after that I was gonna take some time off November, December. And as soon as I finished shooting, like literally the day after I finished shooting, I got offered a film in Spain to be in. And it was gonna be shooting in December, and I go, no, I need to rest because the whole year, like I was traveling, I was doing from January, had family stuff, exhausted. And I go, Okay, I'm an idiot. Okay, I'll do the film. It's great. I went to Spain. November was all based around the holidays, so there was no no downtime then. And December 2nd, I flew to to Spain, and I said, Okay, I'll take some time off after after shooting the film, get done shooting the film around Christmas time, and then I finally go on vacation. Yeah, and I took some time, we took some time on vacation, and I needed it because I was just burnt out and tired. Right, but that was only so I can recover for a few weeks, right? And I came back going, let's go to work, yeah. Like everything, and it was like fitness, like I was in, I was in Europe, I was training, like I was like, it was as if I was home. There was no days off. There was like I was I was training, I was eating well, and my mindset was as soon as I get back home, time to go to work. My motivator's gonna be doing this, I gotta build this, my fitness has to be this. I'm turning 50 in six months, so this gives me some more incentive for what the next six months looks like. So there's no that's that will never change. There'd never be, boy, I just really like just not doing anything for months on end. That would drive me crazy. Yeah, I can't play, there's no another amount of golf or or I don't even play golf anymore, but anything that would make me say, I just love doing this all day, every no, yeah, no, I need my gym, I need my fitness, I need my nutrition. I push my body in places and areas because for me, I try to find new challenges for myself so I don't get too stale. That's why you see some of the HIT training and things that kind of goes on in between. Because again, my body can easily do some different things, and so if I don't find new challenges or new obstacles for my body, I could get bored, my body can get bored. So I'm always trying to find a new way to kind of push myself to do something and stay away from injuries and that kind of thing. But but that's that's exciting to me, that's interesting to me, and it keeps my body thinking and adjusting and not getting not plateauing as much as it possibly could, and you know, the the ups and the downs of what my my brain and my body does keeps me motivated. I look for different ways to do that, and I go at 50, I can still do certain things that 30-year-olds maybe not able to do. And I like I like that. I like that. That's interesting to me. It's hard.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:00

It's it's a great place to be in, you know, it's an it's a powerful place to be living your life in, you know.

Leadership Legacy And Leading By Example

SPEAKER_03 1:10:06

And I I was we're talking before I hit the start on the on the recording, you know, this is the time when men are supposed to be leaders, kings, uh, you know, like leading people, mentoring the next generation, like passing on the wisdom of of this. And you're strong enough to also then, you know, not you can't, you don't just have to sit back in a chair and be a senator. Right. You're you're supposed to be out in the front line still and leading and showing and and being an example for others to follow. And I think uh, you know, there's not that many of us doing that. I and I I just I want more more people to be doing that in their lives, and I think it's it's one of the ways that we can make a true impact and and leave a legacy.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:48

So I we should have we should have led with that. Um you cannot be more.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:54

But hey, you know, for those who who lasted all the way through the 60 69 minutes or so, they got that nugget right there.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:00

You got that nugget right there because you cannot be more right. Everything about my mindset right now, especially, is trying to be the best leader I can possibly be. And lead by example, not just not just by the words, but lead by example. Certainly for individuals in my family, my nieces and nephews, my daughter, um, my stepkids, um, and that's really important to me. And and really mentoring is really important to me. It really is. I I tell them all the time, if I had somebody to tell me this at this age, I would be in a better place in certain areas. So I try to provide some of the information and knowledge that um that either the young folks and even sometimes the older folks um didn't get or don't have. If I have it, then here. Yeah. Because I think we're better off, we're a better society, we're better individuals because of of that. And you're right, I feel like I got to a certain age of my life where I felt like that that is even more important now than I had seen it been in in the past. And so I'm with you 100% on that. Yeah, and I embrace that, and some people run away from that, some people don't want to don't want that responsibility, and I am on the complete opposite side. I've decided and made my peace with I think this is just part of why I'm here, and I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that.

Wrap Up Film Updates And CTAs

SPEAKER_03 1:12:21

Hope you enjoyed the interview. Again, so much more is going on with Maurice right now. Uh obviously he's got his movie called Finding Souls, which you can't rent it yet because it's still in the festival circuit and that kind of thing. But soon it'll be something that you'll be able to see uh either on you know on TV or at a movie theater and things like that. Um be on the lookout for that. Breathe acting studio, that's his acting studio here in Austin. If you're interested in getting involved in acting, check out Breathe Acting. Uh and just uh definitely get a follow. Check out Breathe Acting Studio or uh motivate pictures on Instagram so you can follow what he's up to. Thanks for listening to the Mindset Forge Podcast. If you have any thoughts in the show notes, you're gonna find my email. Shoot me an email. Let me know somebody you want me to interview, thoughts on an episode, anything you'd like to intercommunicate with me. I really wanted this to be a two-way street, so share thoughts. And let's keep going with this.