"Hell of a Summer" star Billy Bryk | The Latest With Maya

A conversation with Billy Bryk.❤️ Watch Billy's newest movie, "Roommates" on Netflix now!


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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's a latest Hi Billy, welcome to The Latest to Admire. Billy Brick is an actor and filmmaker who you've seen in Ghostbusters Afterlife, When You Finished Saving the World, Saturday Night, and Friendship. Billy also co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the horror comedy Hell of a Summer. Most recently, you can see Billy in the Netflix movie Roommates. Thank you so much for being on my show. I'm so excited to be talking with you.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Thanks for having me. I'm excited as well.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Um, so who has had the biggest impact on you professionally?

SPEAKER_01 1:02

I think that career-wise, Owen Wilson is somebody I always really looked up to because he wrote three of my favorite movies, and he also, as a kid, especially, he acted in a lot of my favorite movies. Um, so he wrote like Bottle Rocket and Rushmore and Royal Tenonbombs, and then acted in like Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Nights with Jackie Chan. And I feel like between those five movies, that was like everything that I was interested in as a kid.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Oh wow, I love that. Um, so who has had the biggest impact on you as a person?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

As a person, that's a good question. Um, probably uh well, like maybe my parents or one of my family, maybe my grandfather. My grandfather, um on my mom's side, he he passed away last year, but he was somebody who always uh I think had a really big influence on me. He was a very calming presence throughout my childhood and very funny, and he was a writer and he he loved movies and he loved uh telling jokes and playing little pranks, and and he was somebody who I think really was someone I looked up to a lot growing up.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

I love that, and I'm so sorry to hear that he passed.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Thank you. I mean, yeah, thank you. He was great, he was the best.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah, I love that. Um, so what small things bring you joy on a daily basis?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Um, that's a good question. I like I like kind of having a morning routine as to what I eat. Sometimes I'll make myself like a a Greek yogurt bowl. Um and I it stuff like that is like really nice. I like just um a cold sparkling water on a hot day. That's something that I'm like I can't get enough of that. Um, or just hanging out with my girlfriend watching basketball, watching TV.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

I love that. Yeah. Um so is there someone who without fail always makes you laugh?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Um, yes, there are a number of people. I feel very lucky. A lot of my friends I find very, very, very funny. Um I have an aunt named Terry. My aunt Terry is a very, very, very funny person. Um, she always makes me laugh. Uh a lot of my family, but my I have a cousin named Nicole who's very funny. Um, my siblings, my brother and sister, my parents. I feel like I'm laughing all the time. My girlfriend always makes me laugh. I think she has a very funny, specific sense of humor. Um and then, like in movies or something, um Owen Wilson again, Jonah Hill, um who else is so funny? Adam Sandler, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um, I actually I just um recently uh watched Roommates. I actually I got a screen of it because I interviewed um Chandler um and I love it. It was so funny. Um so um if you had a warning label, what would yours be?

SPEAKER_01 4:44

I think the one that I maybe would be helpful is if I think I'm a little bit shy normally, and I think in the past some people have felt that I'm maybe a little bit like standoffish when they meet me because I maybe don't come across super, super warm socially just upon meeting people, and then sometimes they'll hang out with me a couple times and be like, what's going on? Like, you're so much friendlier than I realized. And I'm like, Oh, sorry, yeah, I just I don't I don't know. If I don't know somebody, I don't think I'm likely to be like super chummy right off the bat. Um, so maybe a warning about that.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Oh yeah, I I can understand that I can also be that way sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah, I mean I find it's like a little bit of a pet peeve of mine. Sometimes somebody I don't know is like sometimes people are very friendly and very warm naturally, and they're great, and it's like wow, that person rocks, but sometimes I'm like this person's pretending to like me. Um, so you know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

I I have a yeah, anxiety, so like yeah, meeting someone for the first time, I'm not always like super talkative or anything, but then once they get to know me, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Does that is that do you find like that in your work as well? Or do you think when you're in work mode, you're like, because I'm working, I'm doing these interviews, like it doesn't, you're not, you don't have the same level of like shyness at the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah, I feel like, yeah, I feel like it's completely different when I do interviews. That it's because even though I don't like actually know the person, I know their work and I'm a fan of them. So I feel like it's it's easier in interviews.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah, that's that's good, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah. Um, so what has been the biggest obstacle either personally or professionally, that you've overcome?

SPEAKER_01 6:52

I'll have to I have to think about that because I feel very fortunate. I feel like I career-wise, at least like very, very fortunate. I I think I have a great sort of support system of friends and family. Um, but it can be hard. Things can take a lot longer. I remember with the movie that I wrote um Hell of a Summer, I wrote that with my friend Finn, and we had written a draft very quickly and kind of felt like, oh great, like we wrote a movie, now we're gonna get to go make it. And I think from the time we finished the first draft to the time we filmed the movie was um probably almost four years, and it was four years of working on it, and it was four years we probably needed because the script, the first draft of the script was not good enough to get made, but there was this sort of feeling that we had of being like, Oh wow, the hard part is over, and all the work you put into like writing something feels so hard, and then it just becomes a matter of like waiting to hear back from people reading it and trying to go get money. And we got to make the movie, and we got to make the movie quite young, so I feel like it all worked out, and that time was well spent working on the script and sort of mentally preparing to make the movie, but I don't think at least then I was prepared. Like, had you have told me, like, oh, it's gonna take four years from this point, I might have been like, How is that possible? And then it just happened. So there's sort of maybe a level of like patience or trying to be resilient in in um waiting to hear back from other people, and then same thing with acting. It's like there's so many jobs where you you have very little control over anything, you can do your audition or whatever, but it's just a lot of waiting around. So trying to keep myself busy and generate work for myself and and uh not rely on um waiting for other people all the time just because it's it's takes a long time.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Yeah. Oh wow. Um so I am uh pop culture obsessed and I go in stages of shows that I cannot stop watching. Uh is there a show that you are currently obsessed with?

SPEAKER_01 9:08

I love Love on the Spectrum. I I I love I've watched every season of that and the and the Australian version. I've watched every every season and I love it. And then the other show that I recently re-watched was Entourage, which was a show that I watched a bunch in like middle school, and my girlfriend hadn't seen it, and we watched it, and even though it's like not a real, really version of Los Angeles, it kind of makes me I don't live in Los Angeles, but that's like the one thing that makes me be like, oh, maybe LA could be fun to move to. It just it looks so pretty all the time in that show, and it's like a funny, nostalgic show for me.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Oh, cool. Yeah, I um I'm watching there's a new limited series on Netflix called Unchosen that I'm watching right now.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Unchosen. What's that about?

SPEAKER_00 10:01

It's um it's with uh Asa Butterfield, who I actually I interviewed a few years ago. Um, and it's really interesting. It's about a cult in um England, uh somewhere in England, I forget where. Um and yeah, just this one woman who's like uh trying to get out of it. Um and it it's really interesting. There are some difficult scenes uh to watch.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Definitely. Is it is it scary? Is it like a thriller or is it more like a drama?

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Yeah, it's like uh like a psychological um and yeah, thriller. Um it's really intense.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Sounds like it, yeah. That's yeah, that sounds like something my girlfriend would like. She likes watching that. I I kind of can't really that stuff bumps me out a lot, but she she'll be like, oh, I want to watch this true crime thing or this thing about a cult. So maybe we'll check that. That's on Netflix, you said.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, it's not it's not uh like a true crime thing. Um so it's it's fictional. Um, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yeah, that kind of that world though. Okay, cool. Yeah, I'll I'll check that out, I think. We were also watching all the James Bond movies, but then they got taken off Netflix. Have you watched those?

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Oh, I haven't.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

They're fun. I had only seen the like newer ones with Daniel Craig, but we started watching at the Sean Connery ones in the 60s, and like now I got hooked, and then they got taken off Netflix, so I know I gotta figure out how to watch them again.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Oh wow, yeah. I that's always so frustrating when you're in the middle of watching something and then it gets taken off. I a few months ago I was watching um this show called Franklin and Bash. Um, and then I saw Netflix was taking it off. So I like did nothing for a few weeks because I was like, I have to finish this.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah. I don't know if the algorithm like pushes me stuff that's about to leave, but it always feels like that. As soon as I start watching something, they're like, we're taking it off. Um, and there's like 30 James Bond movies, maybe even more. So there's no way I'll be able to watch all these in three weeks. Um but I'll I'll have to buy the Blu-rays or something.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Oh yeah. Yeah. Um, so what genre of movie would your life story be told as?

SPEAKER_01 12:46

I hope a comedy, maybe uh maybe a rom-com would be nice, but like a comedy or a rom-com, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Oh, I love that. Yeah, I I've always wanted a musical and a rom-com.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

A musical would be I can't sing, so for if it would have to be me, uh yeah. I wish my life was a little bit more musical, but I can't sing. That's a musical would be fun though, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Yeah, I can't sing either, so in this fantasy I can sing.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Right. Okay. Then maybe I'd do a musical too, then just for fun. But yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah. Yeah. Um, so if you could give someone in your life a star on the walk of fame, who would it be?

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Maybe my dad. Probably yeah, my dad, I think, would be someone that I would like to give a start to. He's he's a very yeah, he's very funny and very supportive, and he's a very talented actor. Um so if it was the literal walk of fame, then I think it'd be cool. But I don't know if also if it was like the walk, like the the my walk of fame, like the Billy, you know, then I think he he deserves some props to be very supportive of uh of everyone in my in my family.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Yeah, oh I love that. Yeah, I think I I'd have like four people that probably more that I'd want to give stars to.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Definitely, yeah. Yeah, I could give a lot out too. I feel yes, I'm very lucky in that sense. There could be a lot, there could be a yeah, huge rival Hollywood Rocka fan. There'd be so many.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Yeah, I love that. Yeah. Um, so if you had to choose someone to narrate your life, who would you choose and why?

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Oh, that's a very good question. Um who would I choose to narrate my life? Um I'm trying to think of great, I mean maybe Jack Nicholson. I feel like he has such a great voice, especially once he got older. Like I watched um Something's Gotta Give recently, and his voice is just so unique. Um if I could hear it, I don't think I'd get too sick of his voice, and then if I couldn't hear it, I just think that's a cool voice to have. What about you? Who would you want?

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Um I oh, I think there's two people that come to mind um right away. There's uh Reese Witherspoon or um James Roday Rodriguez. Um he was in um Psyche.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Yeah, he played Sean.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Does he I haven't seen Psych. Does he have like a very specific voice?

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Yeah, he um uh yeah, he he's very funny. Um and he's just he's been um one of my uh favorite actors sin forever. Um, because he was also in a show called The Million Little Things that I was obsessed with, um and movie a bunch of movies that I love. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

That's great. Reese Witherspoon's really good too. I mean, she also says such a way with words as well. I feel like she has such a specific, funny way of phrasing things and talking. That's a good answer.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, she's also one of my favorites. I've seen so many of her movies several times. Um I she one of my all-time favorite movies is uh her movie Home Again, and I've lost track how many times I've seen that.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

So yeah, she's also like a business genius, too, it seems like she's like amazing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Um, yeah, but I I love your answer. So yeah, thanks. Yeah. Um, so what's your uh favorite way to unwind after a hectic day?

SPEAKER_01 17:38

I think probably eating some food at home, like take out, eat some takeout, and then relax on the couch, watch TV, or maybe watch basketball. Sometimes I like watching if I'm stressed about work and if the work is like film slash TV related, sometimes I don't really want to watch a movie. I like watching sports. So in that case, maybe watch some basketball, listen to some music, um, and then try to get a lot of sleep, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Oh, I like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Do you have an unwinding routine?

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Yeah. Um I don't know. I usually it's like um yeah, kind of watching something that like either if I'm binge watching a show, watching a few episodes of that, or just like one of my comfort shows or movies just to turn off my brain.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Yeah. I like going on a walk too. Going on a long walk is nice as well.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Yeah, yeah. I love going on walks when it's not hot out.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Yes, yes, yeah. Yeah, not too busy on the street, not too hot. If I can walk like along the water or something or in a park, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Um my uh mom and I were in New York a few months ago and we were walking someplace, and they got just when you mentioned water, uh, we were like, okay, well, where is this place? Because we uh so we got directions, and they were like, if you reach the water, you've gone too far, and you like you can't miss where you're going. And then my mom and I were walking, and we we didn't see the sign, and so then we reached the water. So we're like, we have no idea where we are.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Turn around, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Yeah, but yeah, walking uh whenever there's like water nearby, I always like walking near that. Yeah. Um so what um song, whenever you hear it, brings you back to a specific memory, and what is that memory?

SPEAKER_01 20:11

That's a great question. Um I actually do have an answer for this, but I I don't know if I know this. I think the song is called Communication. I don't know who it's by, but it was in the movie The Disaster Artist. Um, the movie about the making of the room. And I remember I went to go see when I was living in Toronto, I was in film school, in my first year of film school, and um it was the world premiere of disaster artists at TIFF at midnight, it was like midnight madness. And I remember me and a bunch of guys who I didn't know very well all kind of skipped class and went to wait in line for this midnight movie, and we waited in line for I don't even I don't want to exaggerate, but probably like nine hours. Um, and then I re watched the movie at midnight, and then on my way home, that song was in the movie, and then on my way home, I listened to that song walking at like two in the morning uh to my apartment that I was living in. And I just remember like that night specifically was very, very um, I don't know, that song reminds me specifically of that night, because I don't think I've really ever listened to it since, but I have such a vivid memory of like it was a very nice, not hot walk home at night, and it was like I was so excited about movies and it was and it was fun.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Do you have a song that always takes you back?

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Oh, uh, there's so many. Um I'm trying to think. There's well, just right before. Interview, there were two songs I was listening to that uh one is um Push My Luck by the Chain Smokers um uh one of my favorite movies called Words on Bathroom Walls. Um and that song I just um remember the first time I watched the movie and it was it came out during COVID and so I remember just like being at home watching it with my mom and sister and just it was so much fun um watching with them and then there's uh a song called The Sweetest Song by Katherine Gallagher that um also uh is uh it came out uh when uh a movie called Woman of the Hour came out that she was in. Uh so I just I remember that day I was listening to the song on repeat and then watched the movie. Um so yeah, there's just there's so many songs that have I have specific memories attached to.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Me too. I think it's interesting you said about the movies because for me, I think the movie music thing is so connected. Like a lot of songs that I remember are songs that played in movies, and it takes me back that time. And I wonder if it is something to do with like the audio visual experience or something, but like, yeah, specifically a lot of my like most memorable songs or songs that I heard for the first time in a movie or are related to a movie somehow.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Oh yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, I also there's this another song called Personal by an artist named Harvey that I remember um listening to every day when I um went through radiation in 2021. It was every morning on the way to the hospital. I'd listen to there were so many songs, there were different songs I had on repeat, and that was one of the songs.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

So I'll have to listen to that. I don't know. Unfortunately, I don't I guess I don't listen to enough music. I don't really know these songs as well, but I'm gonna I'm gonna look them up.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Oh, cool. Yeah, I I'd love to hear what you think of them. Um so I just uh have two more questions for you. Um so do you have any irrational fears?

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Hmm, they all feel kind of rational to me, but yes, I definitely have irrational fears. I think um I have a I don't like what's that tripophobia or something? That like fear of like uh holes or something. Not it's not like I don't see like a ditch and I get scared, but that there's like some thing about like patterns of whole like if you Google it, yeah, yeah, I don't like that stuff, and I don't know what that is. I don't know why my mind is like wired that way, where I don't um it grow it freaks me out. It freaks me out. That's probably one because I don't know what that is, like why. Oh, and then and then as a child, but honestly, I still haven't fully shaken it. I have a I have a bit of a fear of witches, I think, because I watched Wizard of Oz when I was a kid, and that freaked me out, and then I read Rawdoll's The Witches kind of similarly after that, and I used to set witch traps in my house as a as a child because I was I was worried the witches would come get me, so I would like put a bunch of dish soap in the driveway, and like um I remember one time I I set this kind of witch trap, booby trap thing, and then my mom got caught in it. She like I caught her by accident, and then that was kind of the end of those. They were like, you're not allowed to put soap in the driveway in a water and make like a ice. It was it was but I was afraid of witches, and then even recently I watched weapons and I was like, it brought me back in a bad way. Nobody told me that it was about a witch, and then I was watching it in the theater, and I was like, man, this is exactly what I was afraid of as a kid. Um, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Wow, yeah. I well, I get that because my brain is I always joke, it's just one big irrational fear.

unknown 26:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

So I have like I have so many, so many, but uh you mentioned witches. I have like a very irrational fear of zombies because I know they're not real, but like I anything with zombies, I can't watch because it just freaks me out.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Yeah, I feel like that. I thankfully I'm not too afraid of zombies, but if I was, I mean, like, yeah. The other thing is, yeah, I know people who are like good, I don't know them personally, but I know of people who are like zombie preppers. They're like, if the zombies strike, like I have all my stuff prepared, and I was like, that well, good for you. I I truly hope that they never do.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Yeah. Which is scary me a little more, but yeah, zombies I get because they're also just like nasty, too. It's like too gross to king. Not to talk about zombies too much, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yeah. No, that's why I I remember when um when the Disney there was a Disney Channel movie called Zombies that I actually I'm like, okay, I I remember when it came out, I watched it with uh my sister and like some friends, and um I remember I was like, okay, these zombies I can handle because their limbs don't fall off, they don't eat people, they sing and dance. Like these zombies I'm okay with.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Yeah. Um so um I just have uh one final question for you. Um so today, what are you most grateful for?

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Um it's it's a very beautiful day here. Uh and I think I'm I'm really just most grateful for um my family and my friends and my girlfriend and and all these people who are um very supportive of me and and uh I feel grateful every day for them, but yeah, I think it's just I feel very, very fortunate um for my family and friends and my siblings. And I'm gonna call my brother and sister after this, and like I just feel very fortunate that I can do that.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um, yeah, well, uh, thank you so much for joining me today. I've uh had the best time talking with you. Uh you've made my day, so thank you.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Oh, thank you so much. This is great. You're great. I I was like, I've never been asked some of these questions, and in a way that I was like, these are good. Because yeah, it's a balance of like I actually do have an answer for some of these things, but I've never thought about like what song, but it's great. Anyway, so thank you so much for having me. It was great, great talking to you.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Oh, thank you so much. I yeah, I've had the best time talking with you, and I so appreciate your joining me, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

You too. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks again.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Thank you. Yeah, um, and that's a wrap on today's edition of the latest Tut Maya.