Actor, Producer Guy Nardulli - from Soap Operas to Tulsa King

This week, the multi-talented Actor, Producer Guy Nardulli, talks about his journey from Pro football to General Hospital to Tulsa King. 

#FilmHustlerPodcast #TheChristmasSpark #GuyNardulli #Filmmaking #Podcast #BehindTheScenes #FilmIndustry #Streaming #HollywoodHustle

Transcript

Mark Roberts 0:00

Um, all right, ready to start. All good. Always ready? Always ready. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Film Hustlers.

Rod Rinks 0:07

Is that hard for you to say everybody?

Mark Roberts 0:09

I always forget.

Rod Rinks 0:09

But you've just been gone for so long, you left Davy Dave and I to run the show. You abandoned us right now.

Mark Roberts 0:14

How was the show last week?

Rod Rinks 0:15

I think it was our highest-rated show, David. But we haven't killed it.

Mark Roberts 0:19

It's not on yet. What do you mean it's not on yet?

Rod Rinks 0:21

I didn't want to tell you, but by the time this one goes up, it's off making movies, Robert. Davy Dave and I are here, you know, doing what we're supposed to be doing. That's right. We're grinding. Grinding away.

Mark Roberts 0:32

I want to say that it's the holiday season. And you know, every year we make some Christmas movies out here, right? David Dave, myself. Well, not out here. Out here in Hollywood. No, you're right. Actually, in Buffalo. We made the film in Buffalo. But uh we premiered the film uh this week uh and it showed at the Spielberg Theater. Um, it was beautiful. What did you think of the oh you didn't go? What did you think of the Spielberg Theater? What did you think of the Space?

Davie Dave 1:00

Someone's have to work around here. Yeah, you gotta pick up a part-time ship at Starbucks. Uh the Spielberg Theater was really nice. The commons area right here in the um uh Universal campus. Yeah, top notch.

Mark Roberts 1:10

It was amazing. When I walked into Universal yesterday and walked into the Spielberg Theater, you know, you walk into the theater and you gotta go over like this bridge, and then you turn a corner and like and there's this hallway with like blue lights leading to the theater, and then you get to the theater and the theater is unbelievable. It's like brand new 260 seats, and it was like an experience, you know, like just getting into the theater was like this amazing experience. They have all the Academy Awards out there, they have pictures of Jaws. It was really impressive.

Rod Rinks 1:38

Um I've been yeah, I've been in there, I just didn't go for the premiere. And then there's a bar. Did you guys go to the bar across the girl uh the No?

Mark Roberts 1:45

But we had a bar. We had our own bar, we had our own food, we had our own bar. Yeah, they they did it up. It was it was it was impressive.

Rod Rinks 1:51

Yeah, signature drinks or signature drinks? Yeah, don't worry about it. Casameico?

Mark Roberts 1:55

Not casameico, but there was a tequila drink and there was a vodka drink. It was a mule. But um, but anyway, so this film that we did, it uh comes out Thanksgiving on Pure Flix. It's called The Christmas Spark. It's got a firefighter theme. Uh there's romance, there's faith, there's family.

Rod Rinks 2:17

There's a guy who saves the dog. Yeah, there's a guy who saves the dog.

Mark Roberts 2:20

David Dave has a part in the movie.

Davie Dave 2:22

Real handsome guy. Real handsome.

Mark Roberts 2:23

Very handsome, but that was a that was a real part, too. That was a real part. Um, but we do have one of the stars of the movie here today with us, and his name is Guy Narduli. Welcome, guys. Nice, nice.

Guy Nardulli 2:38

I like it. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys.

Mark Roberts 2:39

Well, we appreciate you being here in the record time. Yeah, that was the quickest bookie ever.

Rod Rinks 2:44

Hey man, teleporting like I moved quick. I was all should we get guy? He's at the hotel right across the street.

Mark Roberts 2:50

We said yes, and then you were here five minutes later. Yeah, hustled right over. But it's exciting to have you. Um, you know, you've you've done an enormous amount of work. I I remember when we were casting the movie and they showed us your reel, and we were like, oh man, if we can get this guy, this guy's this guy's awesome because you've been in like every all the cop shows. You know, I I don't know if you've done, did you do Chicago? I haven't done any of the Chicago shows yet.

Guy Nardulli 3:12

I'm still waiting for uh Mr. Wolf to give me a call.

Mark Roberts 3:14

But wait a minute. So wait a minute, but you're in you're living you live in Chicago. I just moved to Chicago. Uh it's been a year this month. Oh, okay. So you're gonna end up getting all those shows. I better get on. Yeah, for sure.

Guy Nardulli 3:22

Or at least one of them, because once I'm on, I'm I'm locked in. There we go. But I can't get killed on the show. I gotta make it, I gotta make it a role that's gonna, you know, keep me.

Mark Roberts 3:30

But you're working all the time. Look, and just just to give you a history of this show, um Film Hustlers is all about sort of inspiring new filmmakers and actors and stuff like that. We've had a lot of uh very successful filmmakers on the show, but the old idea is to give people like an idea of your road to success, you know. Sometimes it looks complicated, sometimes it's easier, but at the end of the day, we all have to struggle and hustle to to get everything you get. Yeah. What was the beginning stages for you? How did you get involved in acting?

Guy Nardulli 3:58

Oh wow, yeah. Um I never wanted to be an actor. It just wasn't even a thought in my mind. Um I got into acting twenty-one years ago, uh kind of late in my life. I was 29. Uh I played pro football. Um got my degree. I got a degree out of you know, Elmhurst. I was uh trying to get into law school, got accepted to law school, and I chased a football dream. I played in uh Italy uh with the Bolzano Giants, came back, bounced around you know, from practice squad to practice squad, anywhere from Arizona, Chicago, Iowa, I was I was everywhere. Got done with football, um, opened up a restaurant and was slinging pizzas for for quite some time. And hustled I was hustling, man. There was no joke about it. Uh got involved with a little uh group called the Chip and Dales. Okay. So I did that. That's what kind of got me into the entertainment world. Went down, all right. Yeah, it was definitely entertaining. Um went down to Jamaica, did a calendar, and the woman that was down there, Jill DiCello, was like, You don't belong in the restaurant world and doing all this. She's like, You need to be out in Hollywood. I laughed at her. I'm like, what am I gonna go do in Hollywood? I'm gonna be an actor. She's like, Yeah. And I'm like, uh, well, I don't know anybody. She's like, Well, I know somebody, you gotta go meet them. I'm like, okay. I flew out to LA, I met with Mark Teshner, uh, casting director of General Hospital, and lo and behold, I was on the show. And then I went from, you know, young and restless, and I mean it was a grind. There's no joke. I mean, it was it was a grind. But when I first got on the show, I'm like, oh, this is struggling actor. This is easy. I'm like, are you kidding? And then I got knocked off the show and I'm like, oh, this is this is what they mean by their grind. Um but it's been good. It's been it's been a good 21 years. Um but you know, you were saying like the road, the road to success is paved with bricks of failure. Yeah, for sure. And and that's I think anyone who's been in this business long enough is going to be successful in their in their own right. Um, and it's whatever your definition of success is. Um mine is being able to work and do what I love to do every day.

Mark Roberts 6:04

When you got the idea to become an actor, did you had you been trained at that point?

Guy Nardulli 6:10

Or no, no, no, no, not at all. Um I got out here. Um fortunately, you know, I I had friends that were in the business um who led me down a path, you know, going with uh like John Kirby was my one of my first acting coaches, uh Mark Tillman and I you know Larry Moss, Howard Fine. I'm dropping names here, so I I fell in love with it almost immediately. When I got in the class, I was like, and maybe it was the athletic background, you know, um practice, you know, going to the gym, type of stuff. And it was the same mentality. Acting class became my gym and it became my workout, and I just really wanted to get perfect at it. And you know, my whole life I strive for perfection knowing that there's no such thing as being perfect. But if you strive for it, you'll never you'll never fail to getting to it. That makes sense, yeah. Yeah, totally. You just you just keep fighting for it. And that's that's what I did, and I got an acting class, studied with different coaches. Um I learned as much as I could from every different coach, every different method that there was. Like I don't have a particular method in in my in the in the craft, but you know, there might be times where I want to, you know, live in the clothes of the character that I'm playing, and then there might be times where I just use my imagination. But it's it's a constant um it's a constant learning thing. Like I'm constantly learning.

Mark Roberts 7:27

So when you uh when you auditioned for General Hospital, that was like one of the first things you got, right?

Guy Nardulli 7:33

Yeah, and I had no idea what I was doing. He handed me a piece of paper with words on there. And like I'm looking at this thing. They're called sides now, you know, the script and the sides, and I'm like, okay. He's like, oh, we're just gonna read this together. I'm like, okay. And I just read. He's like, you're gonna read this part, and I'm like, all right. And so I read for the part with Pete, and I'm reading, and he's reading back with me and put the paper down, and he's like, That was great. That was right. He was like, really, you know, really nice job, really nice. All right. I like cool. Um whatever that means, it was great. I left, and then I got a call maybe a day or two later, uh, asking if I wanted to be part of the show. Wow.

Mark Roberts 8:11

So did you do callbacks at all? Or was it?

Guy Nardulli 8:13

No, this was this was like almost immediately after You know that don't happen, right? No, I know, I know, I know, I know. It's like the the insanity of it is is what makes it great in that sense, but it also is what made me humble on it because it was something that I got, right? Um and then when I lost it, you know, when you when you get knocked off a show, I I realized they had to actually put work into this. And that's where where I went into my work mentality, you know, the hustling mentality. And from there, you know, 21 years later, you know, thank God um I'm I'm still working, but like I'm hustling and you know, making my own projects and working on that.

Mark Roberts 8:51

And I mean it was really fun to have you on The Christmas Spark, which by the way, um premieres on Thanksgiving uh on pure flicks, and then the next night, the 28th uh of November on Great American Family, which you can find on YouTube and uh Hulu and um Direct TV. Yeah. So it could be everywhere. Watch Davy Dave and uh and Guy on that. But um, but it's interesting, you know, a lot of people have come through General Hospital and all these soap operas, right? And it's a it's a great uh learning place because you have to be off book pretty much right right away.

Guy Nardulli 9:29

It was a it was a college education, like it was an education on its own.

Mark Roberts 9:33

Um how many pages would you get that you would have to know by the next day? Twenty. Yeah, that's crazy.

Guy Nardulli 9:38

And sometimes sometimes it's day of. Oh, really? They've been rewriting all night. Rewrite, you get pink, pink uh pages, blue pages, you show up in your dressing room. Like the day I knew I was gonna die, I was like, oh I was like, son of a and I'm like, maybe I'll come back. And then when I uh when I you know died on set when they actually filmed it, uh I knew it was over when they put the tarp over me. I'm like, uh man, I'm not coming back. I'm like, I can't even come back as my twin brother now, man. They just covered my face.

Mark Roberts 10:04

This is terrible. Oh man. And then what happened after that? You so you were you were already bit by the bug. I was bit by the bug. And that was good money, right? I mean, you were making I was making good money.

Guy Nardulli 10:14

I mean, it wasn't it wasn't you know mind-blowing money where everyone thinks, you know, but satisfying, right? You're paying paying my bills. I didn't have to have a side hustle. Good. You know, I was I was I was living the dream. When I got knocked off the show, I had to find a side hustle because I didn't work for a good period of time. Yeah. And I auditioned and um I was told no a billion and one times. And you know, too tall, too short, uh, too Italian looking, not not Italian enough. I'm like, that one shocked me. I was like, you're not Italian enough. What? Right. Yeah, exactly. Um but uh but yeah, that that was a a lesson in its own to be on that show. And uh you're right, a lot of greats came out of there. I mean, Baldwin, Demi Moore.

Mark Roberts 10:55

They all go, they all went through there. It's uh it's an amazing um, and then sometimes you revisit.

Rod Rinks 11:00

You remember James Franco? He'd already won a Golden Globe, he went and did a soap opera. That's right, yeah. He went back.

Guy Nardulli 11:05

Uh here, my buddy you know, Patrick Muldoon. Um made it his whole career was a days on days of our lives. And um loved it, and he loved it, and he left and jumped into the movies. Um but if he got offered to go back, I'm sure he'd go back. It's it's it's a job, you know, it's it's a job, but it's a steady paycheck and you're acting.

Mark Roberts 11:26

So you came off uh off of uh general hospital. So at what point did you know you're now paying your bills and and taking care of your life through acting?

Guy Nardulli 11:35

Uh well, truth be told, on that, that one took about 15 years. Yeah. Um the GH the GH moment was great. You know, it was the springboard that hooked me. Otherwise, I hustled. You know, I bartended, I I managed restaurants, you know, I did everything that you could do to keep the side hustle going. Uh it wasn't until Tulsa King, Tulsa King just set me on it, put me on a different trajectory.

Mark Roberts 11:56

If you stick with it, you will succeed.

Guy Nardulli 12:00

Oh, absolutely. You will. It it it it's it's um it's perseverance, 110%.

Mark Roberts 12:05

Hey, the harder you work, the luckier you get. That's the truth, though. It's the truth. Yeah. We talk about this a lot too, is that you know, you have to have little windfalls in this business to get you through the tough times. You know, you have a little money in the bank, then things slow down, then they pick up again. You know, you just you just need that wave to come in more often than not. And it does. The harder you work, I think, the more often that wave's gonna come in. But uh but there's lots of great examples um of success in this business. But at the end of the day, it's it's always the hustle, man. There was a time when you could be overexposed in this business, and that doesn't exist anymore either. Isn't that crazy? No, no, you could still be overexposed. Can't you? And you like name somebody who's overexposed.

Guy Nardulli 12:46

I think uh well, the social media influencers but they could get overexposed. Yeah, yeah. Because they're not making any money. Well, but they they start off. Yeah, they do. They start off making a grip. You know, God, you have a million followers, and you know, you got all these advertisers just throwing money at you, and then after a while, it's like, hey man, I'm tired of seeing, you know, Billy from Oklahoma dancing on dancing on a tree branch, yeah, you know, selling whatever product he sells.

Mark Roberts 13:12

I think you you nailed it. I think in social media you can get overexposed.

Guy Nardulli 13:15

Yeah, but but in the in the industry, like I don't think, yeah, I don't think the the hustling actor is getting overexposed anymore because the the medium got really big for us.

Rod Rinks 13:24

Microdramas. I don't even want to get into that. Yeah. Roberts doesn't either, he's not a fan. It's not that I'm not a fan.

Guy Nardulli 13:30

God bless him for creating. I love creators, like that's great, but don't don't don't sell it like you're you're you're putting out gone with the wind. All right. It's the same storyline over and over again. The multimillionaire hides his money and falls in love, no one believes that it's him, and then he shows up. I saw that one. That's my favorite one. The scary thing about the the verts are this is that this is what we're dealing with, with uh society, you know, um the attention span. No one's no one's sitting around anymore watching the two and a half hour movie anymore. That's true. Everyone's on their phones, and they got like these little 15-minute quibbits, and they're like, oh, I want to watch this. I think Quiby actually was the first one that was gonna do it years ago, yeah, and it just fell on its face.

Rod Rinks 14:12

Well, the pandemic hit.

Guy Nardulli 14:14

Right. But that's it. People are on their phones all the time and they're watching that's their entertainment. So, but the old formula back in you know in the day was well, let's get a Brad Pitt, let's get a Dwayne Johnson in the movie, and it'll sell. Well, we just saw what happened with uh was it Smashing Machine, I think it is with with Dwayne. Great actor in the movie. He did great. I loved it. I thought the movie was great. I thought I thought he was gonna get nominated for an Oscar because it's just he might stay. You know, but I'm saying, but the movie bombed.

Rod Rinks 14:41

But yeah, the the audience didn't show up. The audience didn't show up, the numbers aren't there.

Mark Roberts 14:45

So would you say, do you would you agree with the idea that if a movie is great, if it's great, and I'm and I mean great, if it's a great movie, people are gonna watch it. People are gonna watch it. 100%. Yeah. So I I think that that that's my argument about the Dwayne Johnson thing. I don't doubt that he's great. I don't doubt that he's a huge star. I don't doubt that he should get 20 million a movie. But if the movie isn't great, no matter what a reviewer says, if it's not great and people don't leave saying, like, you gotta see this movie that Dwayne Johnson's in, uh, then no one's gonna watch it.

Rod Rinks 15:16

But won't it be more about the studios? Because they put in, I don't know what the budget was, a hundred million, hundred and fifty million for that. So they didn't make anything close to that, right? No. So you're right, great movie. It goes to stream, people wait to till it's come on stream. It comes on stream. Right? We all wait, like, uh, well, wait. Okay, then it's a hit there. But those numbers aren't gonna transfer to dollars. So his fee for his next movie, is it gonna be the same? Even though it's in it'll become successful in the streaming platform. Like I guarantee you that movie Christy with uh the other girl, what's her name? Sydney Sweeney, flopped too. Four out of five films have flopped.

Guy Nardulli 15:52

Oh, the last the the the big three that came out this year flopped. Yeah. Like within this this summer.

Rod Rinks 15:57

Four out of five that she's done, four out of five were theatrical releases, one was streaming, and four out of five flopped. You know what I mean? But I heard they're good movies. They just the people aren't turning out. The numbers aren't there.

Guy Nardulli 16:09

Like the money's but then how do you justify the salaries?

Rod Rinks 16:11

That's what I'm saying. Like on streamers. Yeah, on streamers, they're all gonna have success. We're all gonna watch Smashing Machine. We're all gonna probably say it was an awesome movie. He might get nominated because of it and he might even win. But is he gonna be able to get 20 million for the next movie that he does? Probably more than 20, but yeah, would he?

Mark Roberts 16:29

But I I don't know. But that's that's how long can that last? How long are we gonna do it that way?

Guy Nardulli 16:34

Because I'm going through this right now with uh with our movie with Dirty Hands. Like we're getting a five-city release. And the whole reason behind it isn't to try to because I mean it's myself, Patrick Muldoon, Denise Richards, Michael Beach, Kevin Andronado. I mean, are we working actors? Yeah, are we star names that are gonna draw, you know, sell out theaters? I don't wanna don't want to knock me by saying this, but probably not, right? But the whole purpose behind that is so that the screamers see that, oh, you guys had a theatrical release. So the distributor who's pushing it is gonna be like, yeah, no, we had a five-city release. This is what we did. We did this in, you know, Chicago or whatever cities they're gonna go into. So then your your S Vods and your D Vods are gonna jump all over that, like your Hulus and your Amazon Primes and your Netflix's. All of a sudden they grab it and they put them in the prime positions because it had theatrical release. That, I think, is the formula for the theatrical release. I don't think they're looking to make, unless it's an Avengers, you know, like a Marvels movie where they they have to make their $300 billion because they just spent so much on that, and they'll keep it in the theaters for a long time. What they're doing now is you'll see a movie go into the theaters, go screaming, and then they re-release it into the theater. Because people, you know, still, I think people still want to get out.

Rod Rinks 17:48

See, I could see I could see Smashing Machine doing something like that.

Mark Roberts 17:51

Because I think getting nominated and then coming back, getting back.

Rod Rinks 17:55

Because if it's a great movie, which I've never seen it, but I heard it's a great movie, his performance is great. I could see it getting released, people going, I'm gonna wait till it comes on streaming. Comes on streaming, people watch and they go, you know what? I want to see this on the big I'm gonna go re-watch this in a theater now, you know, and then it gets another release and maybe it has success there.

Guy Nardulli 18:14

Well, I mean think about it, they did it like recently with The Godfather. It's The Godfather, not because I'm Italian, and and I think, but The Godfather was one of the greatest movies ever made. Hands down, right? Today, if it came out today, right, would it still be considered the greatest movie out there if it came out at this point? Because no one goes to the theater anymore to see it. Right? So if that movie just came out today, I don't know if it has its grand success that it did back in the 70s where people were going out to seeing it. But since it went into the streaming world and everybody was watching it and everyone's like, oh, you know, the younger generation seeing it, they re-released it for their anniversary at the theater and I sold out, right? Because it was seen in the streaming world, it was seen on the on the cable networks and all this stuff, and they were like, I want to see what this looks like in the theater. And I think that's the move. And I think you're right, Smash Machine is gonna have a flip success to it. Once it gets, you know, the noms come out and they show it on the streamers and they turn around and re-release it, and I think it'll have a bigger hit. I also I mean, like the Breakfast Club did the same thing.

Mark Roberts 19:16

They did well. And it smashed Jaws re released, yeah. And it smashed Breakfast Club the uh really came back. Sixteen Candles is coming back, like there Jaws, Jaws is coming back in theaters. Oh wow. I mean, those re-releases are doing well because they have like that market. But look, not to get totally sidetracked with the the show, but if you think about where we were 10 years ago, streaming wasn't global, now it's global. So would if if you made The Godfather for streaming, let's say Netflix made it, they might put it in a theatrical release only to get nominated, but at the end of the day, the game is global now, right? When you released The Godfather back in the 70s, you had like uh it's it's national, right? You're talking about a national audience that's all going to the theater because that's where you're watching stuff. But now you have to be global. So whether or not an Italian mobster movie the thing is it was it's a great movie, so it probably would translate, but it now it's a global b it's a global play. So if if you if if you're going to be successful, you have to be number one in 80 countries, 90 countries.

Guy Nardulli 20:30

100 graphics have to hit everything.

Mark Roberts 20:32

Yeah, so it's hard because I think now the filmmaker film that you look for a filmmaker to come in with something that's going to kill in India, kill in China, kill in Japan, kill in Italy. You know, it's it's it's necessary for your your your idea to be broad enough. And and you know, these 30-year-old executives are deciding what is being made. So it's just a different world, right? So I don't know.

Guy Nardulli 20:55

And this goes into producing and and working working the hustle, right? You're you're making films, so you gotta pick the right ones to make. And you gotta pick the right genre and know what translates.

Mark Roberts 21:04

Yeah.

Guy Nardulli 21:05

You gotta know what translates in in Asia, you know, in in Germany, in Sudan. Uh I think family feel good movies, you know, Christmas movies, um, and such translate because horror movies translate, you know. These are for dramas, dramas don't translate. Right. Like what we would consider, you know, an emotional movie here. Somebody back in London would be like, well, those bloody those bloody wencas, they don't know what that's crazy.

Mark Roberts 21:31

No, but you think like let's reverse that now. So now you've got Netflix doing picking up Korean television shows and movies, which are great movies that now we're wanting to watch. So now we're picking up the the you know, the remote and watching Squid Games. Kill amazing show, right? Amazing TV. I watched this year first year and I was like, this is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. So it's just a different market. You know, I think filmmakers of all types have to figure out you know, how do you turn the head of a worldwide audience, not just a national audience, or not just the people that you think are gonna like what you do? Like you got you gotta go a little bit bigger, I think. And that's that's the hardest part because you we we all have to adapt to that. Um let me ask you this, because this is important. Um, as an we've talked about your acting, but you're producing, are you directing? Are you writing?

Guy Nardulli 22:23

Producing, uh writing a little bit. I I've written I've written a couple things. Um the writ writing's not easy. Writing's not easy, and I don't come from this world, you know, even though I've been in it for 21 years. Uh I I bow my head to writers. Yeah, totally. It's a it's a t talent that, you know, I could say I wrote something, but I'm not a writer.

Mark Roberts 22:44

Yeah.

Guy Nardulli 22:45

But producing, producing, um I could pat myself on the back on this. Uh the Rehobith Film Festival in Delaware. We just uh I just won the uh Best Producer Award for this. Oh wow, congratulations. I'm kind of stoked about that. And this is the movie you were seeing.

Mark Roberts 22:59

And and where can people see this movie?

Guy Nardulli 23:01

Not yet. Uh first quarter of uh 26, it'll come out.

Mark Roberts 23:03

Is it still doing festivals?

Guy Nardulli 23:05

Uh we did the Big Apple, we might do one more because we already signed with Saban. Okay.

Mark Roberts 23:11

Oh, good. Cool. Big company.

Guy Nardulli 23:13

Yeah, so we already signed with Saban. It's the festivals would be gratuitous for us to do, you know, just be for us to go in and we're not trying to sell it anymore. We already sold it. So congratulations. We're excited about it. Really, really excited about it. And uh producing was a hat that I I wanted to throw on because I'm constantly learning. I like um like you you saw me on on set. Um I was always on set. Like I don't like sitting in my trailer, I hate it. It's it's it's lonely, and I just I want to get on and I want to learn. I want to learn what the grips are doing. I want to learn what you know an AD does. I want to learn what what you know how the makeup artist works. I guess I just want to learn.

Speaker 5 23:51

Yeah.

Guy Nardulli 23:52

And I want to learn what a producer does, and like watching, like watching you work on set, and it was huge. Like you guys were just moving and putting out fires, making things happen, you know, understanding what needs to get done for not just now, but you know, moving forward. And that's what I did with dirty hands. Um, and we did it for a very low budget. Um we uh I got lucky because I shot it in Chicago. Being from Chicago, I I shot in my hometown. Um, so I got a lot of favors. And you produced and starred. Produced and started and you know, got a lot of favors. I went and you know, it's talking. It's and it's like I said earlier, uh being nice to people. Yeah, and you know, you can get a lot further with honey than you can with vinegar. You really can shaking hands and telling people this is what I'm doing, uh, this is what I have to offer. And to turn around and be like, Well, guy, what do you what do you want to do? Go ahead. Like the mayor of Howard Heights, where I grew up, this is a little town uh in Chicago. She's like, What do you want? She's like, You want, yeah, sure. You're permitted. She's like, I was just thinking, 100%. She's like, You're permitted. She's like, whatever you do, just don't burn my city down. Yeah, and so she said, just don't burn my city down. I'm like, great. So I'm ripping up and down major streets, you know, with car rigs and flying up and down the street, making it without shutting the street down. With with police escort here and there, because my dad was a was a cop in Howard Heights. Um, here's a funny story. So uh we had a Grand National and we were ripping the street was empty, so we were just ripping. I wanted to get a fast shot. So I got the car rig on and uh I got my second uh AC in the car, and I'm like, because I was driving the Grand National. And I'm like, hey man, I'm like, how secure is this rig? I'm like, you rigged it, so you gotta tell me how secure this thing is. He's like, uh 90. He said, but I wouldn't do 90. I'm like, great, I know exactly what I'm doing. So I'm ripping, doing 60. Just flying down the street. Cherries come up and getting pulled over. Yeah. I'm like, oh no, man, damn it. Like, this is gonna be bad. I get out of the car, cop sees me, he's like, ah, dang it, Nardooli. He's like, that's right, you're filming a movie. He's like, ah, man, he's like, would you slow down? What are you doing?

Mark Roberts 26:04

It's like get back in there and don't be an idiot. I'm like, all right, thanks, man. I think I think one of the important things about producing, and we do this all the time, I think it's it's important to us, is to find a town that wants you there. Not every town wants you to shoot in their in their town. So as long as you find a town where the film commissioner is uh reasonable, wants you there, where the town is uh is open to you guys shooting there, when your star is Mario Lopez or whoever it is, uh, and they're like opening their arms to you, then that's the town you want to shoot in. But uh anytime you're like forcing the issue in a town, it's a bad idea. So yeah, you're right. I mean, that part of producing is doing that um and making sure that you're shooting in a place that where people love you. I mean, we did a we did a short that Tootie wrote and directed, and uh uh David Dave and I produced it. It was called it's called Beautiful Darkness. It's a beautiful movie. Um But we had to, you know, we had to hustle to do that. And it's funny because when you get down to no money as a producer, you're laying in bed at 11 at night and you or 12 at night and you wake up and you're like, wait, who's bringing the guns? Who's bringing the wait a minute, how are we getting the you know, whatever it is, right, David Dave? And then I'm you know texting the pigeons at. Yeah, where are the pigeons at? I'm texting these guys at like midnight, one o'clock in the morning, six o'clock in the morning, going like, hey, who's bringing that? Oh, can you bring that? Do we have that? Like I producing is not is not forgetting any of it, right?

Guy Nardulli 27:25

Yeah, it's it's forgetting wait. Do we have coffee for Christmas? Well, unfortunately that too. No, no, no. It's like you're saying like the guns and all that. Yeah, that's to make the movie. Like you need that to make the movie. Then you start thinking Donuts and coffee. Wait a minute. I gotta feed the crew. Yeah. Did I did I did I hire the guys that feed the crew? I'm like, wait a minute, did I hire this? Did I do this? Wait, I'm like, oh my God.

Mark Roberts 27:43

I don't know if I got I don't know if I got food coming tomorrow. Let me ask you this.

Guy Nardulli 27:46

Um in the work that you do, do you ever use music for do you ever is it important to you to use music in your the movie Dirty Hands in itself, uh Kevin, uh who's my producing partner and the writer slash director, had music already in mind. Uh it was like synth wave kind of kind of uh music behind it. So like at its 80s, uh it was like thief and drive. So if you're really going into it, but it has that feel like like every scene and had every color. So music was really, really important. And we we had a composer who um and this is so funny because we're just dealing with it now. Um, as you know, like producing isn't just you know, from action to cut and rap of day, it's the forever. It's the deliverables. And we're dealing with the deliverables right now. And music was one of the things, you know, um, and we gave our composer the rights like we want him to keep it, you know, because I know what happens when distributors take a movie, they own everything that's in the movie. Yeah, so we worked the angle where we basically borrowed those songs to put in the movie those that's his rights. But yeah, music was a big thought.

Mark Roberts 28:56

One of the reasons I ask is because we are uh sponsored by a great company called Extreme Music.com. Incredible company. Incredible company. And uh have you heard of them? No. Okay, well, extreme music.com is a platform that um was started by Russ Emanuel.

Rod Rinks 29:11

Russ Emanuel. Our guy. Our guy. He also makes hot sauce.

Mark Roberts 29:13

He also makes hot sauce and plays a mean guitar. And he loves tequila. A mean guitar loves tequila. He loves tequila. He spices things up. I love it. That's right. I love it. But he started this company where it's a platform for all composers and songwriters from around the world. And Sony ended up buying that company, and uh now it's like this massive um library of composers and music professionals that was it like stock stock music? It's it's stock music.

Guy Nardulli 29:39

Okay, so they still own it, right?

Mark Roberts 29:41

So you're able to license it for a reasonable price, you know? Very reasonable. We did our entire short with all of their music, so it felt like a score.

Rod Rinks 29:48

Did you do Spark with it too?

Mark Roberts 29:51

I used uh yeah, I used I used uh Extreme Music on Spark for a couple of cues. Like, you know, when I can't find everything, like the composer can't do everything, right? Because sometimes they run out of time. I run out of creativity and you're like, okay, well, I I need like a song to play in the back of this car, or I want a song to play in this diner, or I want um, you know, I want it to sound like there's a piano bar in the back of this restaurant, whatever that is, Extreme Music does all of that. And the really cool thing about their system is that it's automated. So if you find a song and you really like it but there's vocals on it, you can remove the vocal. Oh wow, okay. Or you could remove the piano, or you could remove the guitar, or you could just leave the yeah, it's all stem. That's a stem. So anyway, just wanted to mention them and say how great they are. That is great. And that if you that's good to know for going forward. If you're a producer in this town and director, you should be using them. I just use uh promo code PMUSLE for 100% off.

Speaker 3 30:45

100% off said. Hey, Russell, wait a minute, hold on. That's David Morales, Davy Dave.

Guy Nardulli 30:51

I just want to I just want to make sure that everyone gets gets their due. That's that's my really you know important to me that whoever whoever participates in in the creative process gets credited and taken care of the right way and doesn't lose anything.

Mark Roberts 31:05

Well, composers are are uh it's uh it's really remarkable because of all of the people on the crew, the people I get the most emails from are composers. So there's a lot of them out there. Oh, yeah, no, no, by the way. A lot of them out there.

Guy Nardulli 31:18

When we put this out on IMDB before we started even going, oh my god. Thank God I had a different email on there. I got inundated with emails from everything from composers, makeup artists, like they were all hit me.

Mark Roberts 31:31

But it's mostly composers, and you know what's interesting about that is that you can actually ask a composer, kind of like what you're saying, you can ask a composer to temp your movie and retain all of his rights, right? So when you sell that movie and it starts showing on TV, they actually get paid. Yeah, they get paid and then he could turn around and take his music and sell it to someone else. But anyway, guy, it was amazing to have you on. Thank you for getting hands up. Yeah, but you guys are gonna give me a right back, right? World record. World record. Uh but you've had a great career. Thanks for sharing you know your journey with us and with uh everyone listening. It's uh it's important to know, you know, that everyone's got to hustle. I don't think anyone's ever been on the show that doesn't hustle, right, David Dave?

Speaker 5 32:09

No, I'll hustle.

Mark Roberts 32:10

Um, and thank you for being both of you, thank you for being in um The Christmas Spark, which is gonna be on a Great American Family computer flick. You guys were amazing. Yeah, the two firefighters in. Well, maybe we'll do a sequel. I kind of want to do a sequel to that one. It was a lot of fun. There you go. But he's not gonna be a firefighter, that's the problem.

Speaker 5 32:29

Chicago No Hope.

Mark Roberts 32:31

Chicago No Hope. Anyway, thanks for being here. We appreciate it. And uh come back and tell us about what you do next year, would you? Yeah, for sure.

Rod Rinks 32:38

Tulsa King season four? Four, hopefully. Season four to two. So that's where we can see you.

Mark Roberts 32:43

Tulsa King, your movie that's coming out is called what?

Guy Nardulli 32:45

Uh Dirty Hands. Dirty Hands. Uh Death under Brandy Wine. And then it's coming out in May. Do your homework. Um, it's on Netflix. It's a comedy, the creator of Shits Creek. Awesome. Do your homework, figure out. I can't say it. I signed that NDA.

Mark Roberts 33:01

Look for Guy Nardooli on the Netflix show and on Tulsa King and in his new movie. So check him out and thanks for being here. What about your social? Uh Guy Nardooli24 uh is my Instagram handle.

Guy Nardulli 33:12

Um awesome. And then just Guy M.

Mark Roberts 33:15

Nardoli on Facebook. I'm easy to find. Awesome. Well, check him out and thanks for being here. Thanks, you guys. Appreciate it. Hey, welcome back. Thank you. I'm glad to be back. We'll see you next time on Film Hustlers.