#15 James Paxton

We spoke with the incredibly handsome, intensely smart, and extremely talented James Paxton about his acting career including films like Grind, Dragn, Sicklerville, and Toad.

Transcript

0:00

I don't hit record now. And I hit it like when I'm like, oh, when I f officially start the interview, then I'll hit record. Then I go off on awesome tangents with or some like one of the guests go tells like a really cool story and I'm like, damn it. Like what's so I've just gotten a little bit more. I hear you. I hear you. Yeah, let's re let's record it all. Yes. Where where in South Jersey are you? What specific town? So I'm in a in a place called Sicklerville. Uh very strange name for a town. So that's the actual That's the name of the movie you're working on. Okay. That's exactly that's the name of the movie. The director and writer, uh uh Jason Mayer, he's he's from here. And and this is kind of based on his true life story uh growing up here. And it's a honestly, it's a dark, gritty, dark one. Um, probably one of the heaviest emotional, like emotionally uh like film projects that I've ever been. Yeah, his he had lost a lot of friends, unfortunately, to like um drugs, you know, they got into pills and heroin and everything. And so it's kind of it's kind of about that. And uh and yeah, so it's it's we're literally shooting in his actual hometown. So name of the name of the town, name of the movie, Siclerville. Yeah. I love I actually am a huge fan of those type of movies. Like if you look at like um, you know, anything like uh The point dynamite for one. Well that was about his life in Christine, wasn't it? Less uh heavy, it sounds like yeah, yeah, less heavy. Yeah, yeah, way less heavy. What's the one I'm trying to think of? Um gosh darn it. The famous Texas one that's not Paris, Texas, but it's the other like black and white one with Jeff Bridges. I can't remember where the last picture show? Last picture show. Last last picture show. Is that Bogdanovich? Yeah, Bogdanovich. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like those just those things about like that town, about that environment, about that time in that town, like with people or I love those kind of movies. So that's awesome. Have you guys seen Ki Kids? Oh yeah, Harmony Crint. This this is probab that's probably the most similar to to this film that I can think of as a reference. So dark. But but but I I think it's gonna have some some real poignancy and and power to it. It's it's a great cast. I um I'm working with uh Ruby Modine in this. She plays my pregnant girlfriend in this. Um I'm working with this great actor named Tim Timothy Griffin Allen. Um funnily enough, we just put him on tape for like a big uh pilot in this space, and he booked it, and he's filming next week. Oh, I love it. We've been doing audition tapes on the weekends and stuff. And then uh Cody Say New is in it. He was on like Teen Wolf and stuff, and he's he's a fantastic actor, and uh yeah, it's really cool. It's like a uh it's kind of a young cast. And I just got to work with um Phyllisa Rose. Do you guys know who that is? She's she's kind of a screen queen, like she's been in a lot of like she's playing really against type in this since this is just like a gritty drama. Um but yeah, it's one of those stories where the director is like, I've wanted to tell this this this story for years. It's immensely personal to him. And he uh, you know, he fight he largely financed it himself. And it's one of those uh rare opportunities I find as an actor these days where you get to do you just a real human people story, a real drama, not not something that's totally genre or anything, and just just something about people and their dysfunctional lives. So it's uh it's it's been it's been really cool. Yeah, it's been really cool to get to work on it. I love it, man. Has the preparation process been different with like this ensemble if you compare that to like the more genre based on? Yeah, in in some ways, um, yeah, it has been. It's it's it's you kind of I mean the the goal is always to be tapping into the truth in a performance, even even when you're in something in a genre, you know, you always want to to to play it earnestly, I think. Um but this one, it's just a little more real. You know, there's something that's a little more uh it's just way just way closer to home. And my character has um, you know, like based on on the actual director's life, I'm they I'm playing hymns essentially in the film. Uh a mix between he and his brother, but he lost his dad in a tragic work accident when he was young. Um, you know, I lost my dad unexpectedly when I was young. Um I he was expelled from high school uh for making this film that they they thought was too provocative. It depicted a suicide in the film and and he got kicked out of school for it. I got kicked out of high school. Yeah. That's rough. That's that's kind of rough for a film. But uh and so there's just I have a lot of similarities to this to this character. And uh this is one of those those films though I'm looking forward to. I'm gonna be proud of the work when we're finished, but I'm I'm looking forward to being um I'm I'm tired. I'm uh it's been an intense shoot, and I'm ready to kind of get this one in the can and uh and and move on just because it's uh it's a it's a it's an emotional one. I mean, I've never done such heavy scenes in in anything I've ever filmed in before. So I'm proud of it, but it's just intense, yeah. Yeah, and you're um so you're in New Jersey right now, South New Jersey. Where's where's home? Are you you live in LA? Yeah, I live in LA. I'm I was born and raised in Oi, California. It's a small town kind of clo uh between Ventura and Santa Barbara, about an hour and 40 minutes uh driving north uh from LA. But I've lived in LA for about 13 years now, and um yeah, so that's that's home, that's home base. But uh, as as you guys know, in this business, you you do a lot of traveling, you you move around a lot. So um, and that's kind of nice. I'm going to visit my sister in New York after this for a week. Uh she lives in Brooklyn. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's exciting. And I was gonna bring up um a little intro, I guess, everybody. What this is this will be our late intro. We're here with James Paxton today on Mother's Day Sunday. Hey James, how are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm doing great, John. Good to see you, Ron. Yeah. So did you call your mom yet uh for Mother's Day? I have sent flowers and I've messaged for you this morning. Yeah. I I don't don't worry, I've I've I've been on it. Yeah, awesome. I went to the Saturday's Mark my Saturday market here in our town and got like a nice basket for my mother. Did you? Oh, that's great. Yeah, she loved it. My mom's dead. I I think it's fair. That's actually a very beautiful thing. So this I we haven't talked about this at the festival, but you are you have got a lot of things around your mother. We talk about your mom a lot during the festival because there's a lot of things that that she loved and like inspired. Because you and your sister are both all involved. It's moth, it's Mother's Day. We can talk about my mom a little bit. She passed in 2020, I guess during COVID, but just from cancer. Oh man. So one of the Yeah, and she was a Rocky Mountain photographer, right? We're Montanins. And uh Yeah. So we have one of our awards uh with one of the cash prizes for indie filmmakers, is the uh Lynn Marie Duncan Award for Best Rocky Mountain Cinematography. It's a bit of a mouthful. Really? Yeah. It's uh cool. I guess we haven't talked about that publicly, have we? Yeah, we have it. Yeah, so that'll be cool. I'm I'm excited to give that award out. So it's I can empath I can empathize with you. I'm sorry to cut you off, Ron, but I I can I can empathize with you, John, you know, with you know lost my dad and everything. So I'm so so sorry. There's never really any words for it, but uh I think it's uh you know always beautiful to honor them whenever possible and and um and all the time, really. And you do that just just by carrying this on. Yeah, yeah, and it's it's kind of fun to bring it up. And I don't know if you have this dark sense of humor, but I know my mom had a really dark sense of humor. And so I know like okay, and so whenever like someone's talking about like Mother's Day or something, and I make a joke like, Oh, my mom's dead, like I know my mom would think that's really funny to like just try to make people like actually. Just to just to drop that, yeah. Yeah, boom. Um so I love it. So uh we can talk a little bit about your current work. Let's transition to that. So you're working on Circle Rill, we kind of talked about that, and uh w when are you wrapping that up? You said uh was that I I I yeah, uh May 15th. So I I shoot tomorrow through the whole week. Uh so we wrap on Friday. It's been a four-week shoot. So I just finished up um week three. Yeah. Very cool. Um, so yeah, yeah. I'm uh and I recently last year I made this this movie, uh this crazy movie that I can't wait to talk about. Uh it's called Toad. And it's uh it's a it's like a stoner comedy that the Laugh Factory is producing. It's their first foray into film and TV. Yeah, and this this movie is this movie is packed with like comedic legends, and it was so fun. Um it's about psychedelic toads. So it's about these two best friends. They're these stoner idiot friends, Sam and Alex. I play Sam, Oliver Wyman plays Alex. And we get we wake up at the beginning of this movie and we don't know where we are. Clearly, there's been it's kind of like a hangover intro where there's just like, you know, remnants of a huge mansion party in Beverly Hills, and then and then these girls come out and they're like, hey, so uh, you know, my brother still has that job for you, and and we're like, Your brother, what do you talk about? We don't remember anything. And they and then Craig Robinson comes out and he's got a box for us, and he says, Of course, don't look in the box, but take this box, I'll pay you a thousand dollars now, and nine grand more when you when you when you make it to Vegas and deliver it to this to this client of mine who's played by Howie Mandel, yeah, uh who plays a French chef, and and Bobby Lee Bobby Lee is his Sioux chef. And so we we of course open the box. Oh yeah, we open the box and it's like a box of six Sonoran desert toads, which are the DMT toads. It's the most powerful hallucinogen on the planet. Yeah, actually, the only time it naturally is released in in your body is the moment you die. Because you like it's apparently I know I haven't done it. I this is a slapstick comedy version of this, and they're like genetically modified super toads, and we don't know that they can get you high just from touching them and stuff. And and so we so it's just a trippy adventure movie uh through the desert. We get um basically uh harassed by this like biker gang that uh James Franco plays the lead of. Oh, very cool. And then and then and then we end up in a sex cult uh in the desert uh that Tiffany Haddish runs, and and we have to free these young girls from it or help them escape. And uh it's a wild movie. Like Paris Jackson is in it, um Lee Ehrenberg, uh, Caroline Ray, Kat Williams plays a toad, a giant toad named Earl that that like we hallucinate and sits in the backseat. I mean, it's it's it's supposed to come out on 420 of next year. So dude, I'm so excited to watch that. Dude, that's perfect. I'm really excited about that one. We shot for like 65 days on it because everybody's there's so many, you know, well-known actors and performers in in this movie that it was hard to schedule it all. So we would go and we'd film for six weeks in Joshua Tree, then we'd go on hiatus for a few months, go back for two weeks and film, you know, and do a little bit in Vegas. Uh we it was all California and and and and Nevada. Um mostly in Joshua Tree, honestly. So that was really fun. I was in a this this I started the movie this month last year and was in a Airbnb in Joshua Tree with my co-star for like six weeks. And and but then we finally wrapped the shooting of the film in beginning of December. So it was like a whole almost a year-long kind of journey. Yeah, they're still they're still in post and stuff. I think they're doing some miniatures things and stuff. So I'm wrapped, but they're still working on it. That sounds so cool. I I uh um I'm hoping it's not a streaming, straight to streaming. It sounds like it's gonna get a theatrical release. Yeah, their their goal is a theatrical release for this. Yeah. Um they they definitely you know are swinging big for this one. And and I really hope it yeah, it it really connects and gets out there in a big way. It's a really fun movie. And and as it's a very insane, you know, like it's it's got crass moments, but it's also very it's got a lot of heart to it as well, because there's this whole philosophical message behind it um about you know the journey. And and you know, it's that kind of the the old adage about it's not the destination, it's the journey. But uh, but it's um, yeah, like Cat Williams is teaching us todism and stuff, and that's what it's like it's it's hilarious, it's so good. Yeah, it's very much like you know, Cheech and Chong, like Tommy Chong makes it. I was gonna say it feels like a throwback to a lot of those great stone stoner comedies and road trip road trip stoner comedies in a way, like I love that. Absolutely, yeah. What's it what's it like? What's your approach? Because I think working with probably somebody the caliber of like a Cat Williams or a Craig Robinson or Bobby Lee, where you know that they're like assassins with comedy, right? Like how is it how does how does scene work work that way when you're working with somebody that's that on the wit side of things, you know, and trying to balance and and really make the the comedic energy work, you know? Yeah, yeah, Ron, that is a great, great question. You are truly at all times, you are light on your feet. I mean, you are literally it it it it sucks you into being as present a performer as you can be because they are gonna throw something different at you every time. So that means, you know, you you want to get in there and spar. So you're like, okay, I'm gonna try this then. What if what like how can I, you know, throw something at them that will get them to react a different way? Or like, you know, because they're throwing it at me. You know, the most elite uh um uh improviser, like improv actor though, that I worked with on this. I forgot to mention him in the cast, is Ike Barenholz. He's from the studio. He plays Sal Saperstein on the studio, that seven show. That's a great show. Um yeah, this guy is unbelievable at throwing something different at you every time. And it and it's all in character and it works. He plays this cop, you know, that we accidentally dose with the toad juice, and and then and then he he breaks the fourth wall and he's just like, We're I'm in a movie, and then and it like pans over, it's our actual movie crew and stuff, and he's like none of the characters believe him, and he's just like, No, I'm in a fucking movie. Like it's it's it's it's so good. Um yeah, you truly, you truly are just like present. Uh you just um and you know what's nice? There's a freedom to not being over prepared uh to do it one way. You you you walk in there and you go, you know what, we'll see what happens today. Like we we have the context, we have the characters, let's um, you know, let's let's play with it. And there was so much playing. I mean, I mean, we would go off script constantly and and improvise things. And uh Adam Rifkin directed it. And it was my second time working with Adam Rifkin. Uh he uh directed a film called Last Train to Fortune, which is a Western, totally different kind of it's like a wholesome family-friendly Western that I did with Malcolm McDowell. And uh that's hopefully coming out sometime this this year. There's been some issues like with the release and and just the timing, and it's uh it's got a small distributor, but um we really want to put that in some theaters as well. So we're trying we're working on that uh to get that out. But I shot that a while ago, but that's probably the the film that I'm most proud of that I've ever gotten to do. Yeah. Why do you think you're most proud of that? Why? Yeah. Um there well, because uh it's this it's this wonderful story like that I have never seen told before. It's uh and and I grew up in the Western genre, and I think as an actor, you always I think many actors want that feather in their cap of like I got to make a Western. You know, I got to make it's just such a I just grew up like my dad was always playing me westerns growing up and stuff, and and and you know, dad had tombstone and I always wanted to make one. And uh Yeah, and I and I love period pieces. And this was like, you know, 1873 in the old west, and I got to play a young outlaw who robs Malcolm's character. Malcolm is an English school teacher who comes to, he's a schoolmaster who comes to the old west. You don't you find out later why he's left England and comes to the old west. And uh, but he he takes a job as uh there's a budding frontier town called Fortune. That's the name of the town, and they're uh they need a schoolmaster. And so he but he misses the last train that's gonna take him the last leg, and he and then I rob him because he's getting, you know, and in those days the next train wasn't coming for another week, and he has to be there by Monday morning's bell. And so I shepherd him the two, he convinces me to shepherd him the two the two-day ride with my horse to fortune in exchange for the advance on his salary. And then and then he teaches me the importance of reading and books and stuff, and he's but he's ignorant to the realities of the the old west, and but my character, you know, is is illiterate and everything. And um it's just a beautiful story. I I I I felt um I felt like I was making something that could really stand the test of time and and and and uh have a really important message that it carries forward. And uh and I got to do every day with Malcolm McDowell. I mean it was gonna say working with another you know, incredible actor. Uh yeah. We kind of talked about this. I'm kind of interested to see. So you know, all these projects we're talking about, James, it's like incredible to just already see in your career just the the breadth of work you're doing. Like how are you how are you selecting projects or how are projects coming in? Like what is what's your like barometer for knowing when it's when it's the right script, right? Thanks, Ron. Yeah, I yeah, I've I've come a long way since you and I met. I know, I know. Well again, but you were amazing. Remember, I still remember the short film that you were so we met, what was it been? 20 it was still I think it was I think it was 2014. 2014. Right. Yeah, 2014. In Idaho at the Sun Valley Film Festival. Shout out the Sun Valley Film Festival. Great. Yeah, shout out Sun Valley Film Festival. And absolutely uh it was a kind of amazing thing because your dad was there, of course, but there was this special screening of your film, and I just remember how beautiful that film actually was. It was shot really, really beautifully, and kind of like it was just like and getting excited about like oh my gosh, there's another Paxton, and there's a like a new Paxton actor coming into the fold, and like dude. I I totally remember just getting to talk to you and stuff and and it getting to know you. Uh, it's I don't know, I remember it like it was yesterday, and that was such a special trip for me. Like, dad had a blast, like we got to hang out with Clint Clint Eastwood. It was just crazy, yeah. And I got to go up there with two of my best friends from acting class too, and they they had my dad helped them get some short films in the festival too. So it's just like this wonderful, like um, just a wonderful vibe, like all around. And and uh yeah, I miss that definitely, man. So but but I've done, yeah, I was 20 then and I'm 32 now, which is unbelievable. Um you know, I I I I've done so much of my career without my dad being here, and it's but it's the way that I I stay connected to him. Every time I'm on a set, I feel I feel like he's walking on the set with me. And and so I I try to work as much as I can. You know, it's a tough business to keep working in. Um there's there's there's uh always down periods, but I'm I'm my goal right now is to try to do one, like I'm not trying to do the same thing twice right now. It's like it's like if I'm gonna do something, uh, then the next thing it's gotta be different, you know, uh different genre, different character. It's I want to change the look. Um, you know, it just just everything. So that's that's kind of and I think that that will hopefully showcase like what I'm able to do and you know, and you know, the range that I can that I can do. You know, I can work in in any genre and and and and do something hopefully good with it. So uh yeah. No, you're definitely doing that. That's my philosophy. Like I was gonna say, you know, the the the other project we wanted to bring up was Dragon, the the the sci-fi kind of AI kind of film that also got released is out on Amazon. And like, yeah, like I mean, even just in the like work we've been seeing, it's like I'm seeing you in that leading man sci-fi thing, and now we're talking about the stoner comedy thing. Yeah. We'll get the grind about, but it's like, yeah, there's just a breadth of different approaches toward the project. Yeah, I had a question about Dragon. Where did you shoot Dragon? Ron was saying somewhere in Europe. Uh yeah, Dragon was all in Serbia, and Dragon was was an unbelievable experience because I was on the set of grind. I was finishing grind, and I we were shooting in Koreatown. In uh grind was all filmed in LA, all around LA. But I was my segment was because it's an anthology, it was all filmed in Koreatown. And I was one of my last days on the grind set, and a producer that I knew that I had never worked with before uh called me on my lunch break and said, Hey, um, I'm making this movie in Serbia. We're shooting in five weeks. We just had Tom. Felton drop out of the lead role. Will you come to Serbia and and do it? I was like, where is Serbia? Where is Serbia? Yeah, like Googling, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, um, I know I have you know, I'm a huge basketball, obviously you you know Ron, well I'm a huge basketball guy. I I um you know I know that there's great athletes like Jokic and Doncic is from uh Slovenia and you know from that part of the world, and there's always been great basketball players from like former Yugoslavia, and uh, but I didn't know where that was because Serbia is tiny. I mean, you could fit like five five Serbias inside of South Carolina, like it's a tiny country, and and you know, it's it's like, and so uh I said, yeah, like let me do it. He said, Okay, well, I'm getting, I'm gonna have you on a Zoom next week with Peter Weber, the director who did Hannibal Rising and Girl with a Pearl Earring. He's got done a lot of different things, and an old, old kind of English director who's uh I loved working with him, but they didn't have you know a huge budget, um, but money goes a lot further in Serbia. And uh, you know, and they were and Peter was like, we're gonna lean into like the campiness of like, you know, 1980s action horrors and like like Predator and stuff, you know, like we're gonna lean into that. And I was like, all right, this sounds this sounds fun. Uh and they're like, Yeah, you're playing just like the dumb, clueless American guy who comes, uh, you know, brings his his his young daughter and his wife to Serbia because he thinks, you know, he's gonna get this promotion if he fills in for his boss and does this corporate retreat. And then little do they know, the company's gonna be testing this like AI military drone technology on them, the dragon. Uh and um, yeah, so that was all Serbia. So we stayed in um Belgrade, the biggest city in Serbia, at the Hyatt Regency there, and then we would basically most of the film was was uh shot in the forest about an hour and 15 minutes outside of the city. So we would drive every day out there and uh yeah, get into the forest. And the weather was really unpredictable. I got sick as a dog in the middle of filming that movie, and like I had never been so sick on a set before. I uh it kind of reminded me of um this story about my dad, which I don't know if has ever been told before publicly, so I'll tell you guys that one, but it's about near dark. Um but favorite of ours, by the way. Near dark is an amazing movie. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. One of my favorites of of dad's as well. And and yeah, but yeah, I was I the it ended up the weather was so unpredictable that they had told like the the the location reps had said to production, like, don't worry, because we did that in the entire month of September of 2024 in Serbia. They're like, Don't worry, it never rains in in September. It rained constantly on us like in the first week and stuff, and then it would be like blazing hot then in the next minute, we'd be freezing in the forest, then we'd be like sweating, and and it was such a physical movie um out there in the elements with all that gear stuff that I just I just got so so feverish for a few days. Uh that a like a Serbian witch doctor came to my trailer and like gave me a B vitamin shot or something and like a cocktail of like I guess as long as it's just B vitamins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like a premise itself. Yeah. Uh yeah, and that's that's what happened to dad on Near Dark. Uh the night, the the night he had to film um his like iconic bar scene where he's like finger licking good, and he's like having some trouble with your hog leg there. He's like that, he was so sick in uh that day. He was like he would could hardly like think straight. And and they gave him a I remember he told me he got a B vitamin shot in the ass, and it helped him. It like got him up. It was like right before that take, and it got him up there to do it. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna try that on this. I need this. Nice, nice. Is that B vitamin code for something, or is that uh actual B vitamins? Yeah, I think I I think it actually is hopefully, you know. I would I I I'd like to make sure I'd like to believe it's it's actually just yeah, vitamins. Yeah, the witch doctor in Serbia is like, yeah, it's just it's just vitamins. You're like, yeah, I know really generous. You know what? And and it it helped me, whatever it was, and I was able to stay because I was, you know, that was one of those intense shoots where they worked six-day work weeks there, so I only had Sundays off because I was like first in, last out every day of that movie, um, every single day, and there was just no time to no no rest. No rest. Yeah, people don't people don't think about this, but it's I mean, we we talk about it, but it's like film work is so hard and it's such a marathon to kind of come across it on a physical level. And then when you're doing physical acting, I was I think that was the thing I was gonna ask, because like now we're talking about like all these different genres of acting approaches, but like talk about action kind of work, like that's a very different type of acting, right? Because it's very Yeah, definitely continuity, I have to grab the bomb at the this time or whatever, right? You know, no, absolutely, and and like you're a hundred percent right, like it can be so much more rigorous than people realize, like acting on film, but at the same time, like you know, nobody works harder than the crew, and and like it's it's a it just takes a village, and like, you know, at the end of the day, I'm getting to act, so I always find that this the energy because it's it's a cool, it's a it's an amazing job, and it's like so I I'm never like oh you know, complaining about it in in any kind of way. Um, like it's it but it can be tired be tiring just because you are um you're also yeah, you have to stay like mentally kind of engaged, and that that can be one of the most tiresome components of it. But then when you add in all the action stuff, you're just like damn, like you're just you get winded out there, especially when you're actually outside too, and you're not on like a sound stage or something, right? Um on a nice cool sound stage. I'm trying to get back to some TV. Uh uh live from a studio audience. Yeah. Yeah. Is is uh shooting in Europe, do they manage their sets differently? Is it a lot different uh just how people like directors are managing their sets, or is it pretty similar to working in you know the US? Um I'd say it's pretty similar. Uh I if anything, I'd say they they they work even harder, like they just are efficient. And um, you know, it was an all Serbian crew. We had a Serbian DP. The production designer was Joseph Hodges, who had done who's done a lot. He was he was English and he was a friend of Peter's, but ever everybody else was uh Serbian on the crew, and you know, they're just they're tough out there. Like it's kind of like going back to the six seventies or something. Everybody smokes everywhere, like inside, in the car, everywhere. And so like grips are literally like not even they're they're just they've all got like um cigarettes dangling out of their mouth, they're moving the heaviest looking thing you see, like while smoking. Yeah, and they're just got a cigarette dangling from their mouth constantly. That's fine. Um, yeah, but no, they worked, they they were very professional. I I think uh I love Serbia and I really, really um love the people. And I I I uh I felt like when I left there, I left like a huge part of my heart in that country. I really did. Yeah, it sounds like such an adventure, man. I was gonna say with Serbian crews, it sounds like they're really hardworking. I heard I don't know if it was aliens, but James Cameron was talking about working in England and how they were or I think it was either Cameron or Cooper talking about working with English crews, and there are a lot more tea breaks, I've heard. I don't know if have you shot in England yet? No, I'm dying to. I I'm my mom's from London. Um, so I I am half English and I go to the UK often. I'm actually going in July, but I um I've never gotten actually worked there, and I have dual citizenship through my mother, so I I I'm really trying to get on something there. I would love to shoot at Pinewood Studios or Twickenham Film Studios, like it would just be like, you know, oh, I'm shooting where Albert Finney made Saturday night, Sunday, Sunday morning, like you know, or I'm fucking shooting where they did aliens like. I was gonna say aliens in it'd be so cool. I'd love to get like to work on some some big stuff that that really has amazing set builds and on on actual studios and stuff, and that'd be really fun. Yeah, very cool. And Dragon, it looks like we can watch it on Prime, Cinniverse, and Screenbox TV. Is that is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's there's a variety of places because Ciniverse distributed, uh uh took it out, and they um it's on Screen Box, it's on like you can you can rent it pretty much like Apple, Amazon, YouTube movies, the rental, the Google movies thing. Um yeah, it's on all those. So it's it's it's very easy to find. Yeah. I could tell you're I mean, we kind of know this from our talks and stuff, but like you're a film lover, and while we were just literally talking about the streaming service stuff, uh I kind of wanted to see like how do you find unique work now? Because like we kind of live in this interesting time where it's like you can go to these primes or stuff, but like there's like something like Screen Box TV, like there's these other streaming services that people don't realize that a really cool independent film might be on, or oh yeah, you know, like oh yeah, there's there's so much out there, like to I mean, even like um sites like Tubi has like a lot of great films now. Right. Um I'm I'm I'm a big fan of picking something so randomly and just watching it. Right doing no doing no research going into it, like um, whereas my girlfriend is like the opposite, like it's gotta be a huge discussion before we decide like that we're gonna watch something, which which is there's there's merits to that process as well. Right. Um because I'm my my my pick something at random is pretty hit or miss sometimes. But I I I don't know. I um I'm always if if I hear something that sounds unique to me, I'm gonna search it out and and and watch it, you know. Uh there's a really great film right now that's just playing theaters, but it's an independent film and they're only releasing it through theaters. And it's actually our producer on Toad and Last Chain to Fortune, he's been distributing this film through his new company, Why WG Pictures, Wyman Gold. Uh that's Brad Wyman. He produced a lot of stuff for Adam Rifkin, but it's called uh Our Hero Balthazar. Uh-huh. And it's a great, great indie film with Asa Butterfield and uh Jaden Martell, who I had worked. The last time I was in Jersey, I had done a film with Jaden when he was really young. This was a 2017, um, it was an A24 film that I had a small part in called Low Tide. I'd heard of Low Tide HP. Yeah. Um, so it was really cool seeing uh Jaden at the LA premiere um about a month and a half ago, because it was like it was just a nice reunion. But I'm proud of him, and like this movie is so good. I mean, it's one of the best films I've seen in a long time. And but and it's totally indie, and it's only in theaters right now. Oh, that's Sweden. Yeah. Yeah, thank you for sharing that, man. Yeah, that's great. That's kind of how we are. I think it was funny. You were talking about being in it, it was making me think of you and how you are picking all these VHS and old films. Yeah, just like random stuff, just old VHS tapes, you know, five dollar movies and just grabbing stuff and watching it. I your girlfriend, it sounds like you guys is she more like uh she she's probably a Cinephile too. Yeah, well, she she she watches a lot, she works in the industry, so um, she's more up on really good TV shows and stuff. Like I probably watch more films than she does, um, but she watches a lot of great TV and she's uh she's an incredible makeup designer. She was the makeup designer of Last Train to Fortune. That's how we met. Yeah. And um she's uh she's from New Zealand originally and started her career um on the Hobbit films, and and then she moved to London and worked in London on major shows for eight years, like I May Destroy You, uh Bridgerton, Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Gangs of London. I mean, her resume is crazy. And over there, the hair and makeup departments are not separated like in the same way. Like you have to do both, you have to know how to do both, and you have to have like a very uh deep knowledge of prosthetics and everything, and doing all that so so her skill set is unmatched, like that I've seen uh from from a makeup artist. Uh, she's so much more than a makeup artist, is what I'm saying. She's a she's a a real artist in her own right and a designer, um, you know, and so she's she's trying to design more Indies now, but she moved to um LA about four or four and a half years ago, five years ago, and just became a citizen. And um in September, and so she but she didn't know anybody in LA and she's already worked her way up and and uh through the unions, and she's working on um she just did the comeback on HBO with Lisa Coudreau and stuff. And yeah, she's uh she's an amazing um artist. That's cool. So you guys uh for movie nights, I'm I always like to ask couples these questions because I always think it's funny, like when Erica and I are trying to pick something and I'll watch all like, what about this super gruesome horror? And she's like, absolutely not. And then she's like, what about this true crime where it's really messed up true crime? And I'm like, I that's a that's a little dark for me. So what kind of stuff do you would you guys watch together? Like uh, what are your kind of common grounds, you and your girlfriend? We watch a lot of documentaries, like a lot of um um you know, mini doc series things. Uh um there there's a there's a fair amount of uh reality TV that she loops me into uh sometimes, which I admit I I get into it sometimes. Um yeah, we watch a lot of like drama shows. I'm trying to think what the last thing we were watching is um just drawing a blank right now. But um oh, we had just started watching the new season of Euphoria, you know. But I had but but she's like, I'm not waiting for you. I watched the first episode and then I had to come out here. Right. I watched it like with her like the night before I left. So um yeah, so yeah, we we watch a good a good variety. We're all we're always open to stuff. We should we show up to a lot of like um union screenings like for films like through the through SAG or through her makeup union, like stuff we get invited to around around the city and stuff we'll go we'll go see. Like that's how we we usually see movies in advance, like well that's how we saw Marty Supreme and stuff like that. Oh, sweet. Sweet man. I was you kind of bring up something that I was thinking about because that is one of the magical, you know, people it's it's really easy to get into that, like like, oh you should you know, why go to LA, right? And it's like I think one of the other things that people don't talk about is how much LA has so many amazing theaters, and yeah, it is truly like the environment. Like when I go visit LA, I'm going to go to see some of these theaters and see some of these, like the the breadth of content that's kind of just being screened everywhere, you know. Like there's totally that way, you know. Yeah, have you been to the Vista? Yeah. Oh, the Vista's. I've only seen pictures. It looks so cool though. That isn't that like one of Tarantino's favorite. Oh, it's an amazing story. Yeah, so Tarantino bought it, John. Oh, wait, that's right. That's his big, his big like uh 70 millimeter theater, and then he's got the Bever New Beverly, right? He's got the new the new Bev, yeah, the New Beverly, uh, which is the one which I've always been going to for ages, but I love the Vista like as a theater because it's just so cool looking and in there, and it's just it's such a real old-time movie house, you know. It's just wonderful. Um, yeah, no, I love that. There's so many really cool ones. I'm I'm quite close with Grant Monager, who runs the American Cinematech. Oh, okay. And so um, yeah, and he's good friends with Adam Rifkin too. And so, you know, he he does screenings at the Egyptian and at uh the Los Feel is three and also the Arrow Theater in Santa Monica. Um the arrow is really cool too. Yeah. Very cool. Well, uh, I want to double check. Um, what's your hard out today? Um, I don't, I don't, I don't have one, but you guys uh I yeah, I'm I'm good. I don't we won't go over uh probably an hour, but I don't want I just don't want to keep you too long. It's been fun chat though. That's yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, no, no, I know, me too. It's been really it's really fun. Um we can talk about uh is there anything we haven't talked about? Oh heck yeah, I got some stuff. All right, cool, cool, good. Yeah, we're we're almost we're working through stuff, but uh we wanted to talk about your music a little bit. Yeah, dude. Oh, dude, thank you guys. I would love to talk about my music. Yeah, yeah. So he just had me listen today to Love Packs, and uh it's still in my head. I'm still like, I don't know if you see me bobbing over here. Yeah, yeah. I'm still like the melody's still in my head. So uh yeah, can you tell us a little bit about your music and about Love Packs? And I heard there's a new release coming out, is what Ron said. Thank you so much. Yeah, so it's I I just released it actually. Um is brand new. Uh it's a song called Snapshot. And yeah, release under under the name Love Packs, Love Comma PAX. It's kind of a a as a signature that I always do, you know, like growing up, like when I went to high school, we all called each other by our last names, and everybody called me PAX or JPAX. Like JPAX was a big one. Um, and and I and I and I just used to sign off like letters like that. And so I was like, okay, this is literally my signature. I'm gonna make this my music moniker because the Love Pack stuff, I've been in a couple bands I'm still that I'm still involved with, but the Love Pack stuff is so much more um kind of personal. And I I'd always wanted to learn how to play guitar. I'm not a great guitarist, I know enough to write songs and play. But then I'd work with this great musician named Nicholas Thompson, who um, John, you kind of remind me like you could be his brother or something a little bit. I was gonna think sounds like a handsome fellow. Yeah, yeah. Good looking, good looking dudes for sure. Thank you. Um and he uh he's uh he just moved to Germany, unfortunately, but he used to live in uh Oklahoma City and he's the half-brother of a good actor friend of mine, and we started collaborating because he I would come so I come and I just record the guitar and sing, and then he like he'll add piano to it and and build it out and engineer it and bass. He plays like multiple instruments. But when dad passed away, I was like, I really want to learn, throw myself into guitar as much as I possibly can. And um, because I was always into hip-hop, like I love like hip-hop music, and I uh grew up kind of like and so I I'm in a like kind of an alternative hip-hop group that dad used to was very supportive of. He would take me to like shows with like like to 3-6 mafia and like Jedi Mind tricks and like I would want to see your dad at the 3-6 mafia show. Oh, yeah. That is such a visual to me already. Oh, my my dad, my dad would take me and my friends and be like, just don't tell your mothers, you know. There's like we were at a college show and there's girls just like pulling their shirts off. It was crazy. I was like, it was wild. It was it was so, but like, you know, we we uh yeah, and then we got we would always get to meet them, uh, and they they those those uh kind of rappers just always loved my dad. It was so funny. Um they just yeah, no, I mean my dad had made a movie with ice tea uh back in the day, and and I and Ice Cube. They were both in it. It was it was called Tress, it was a Walter Hill movie called Trespass. Oh, that's it's my my dad and uh Bill Sadler, William Sadler are the two like main white guys. Yeah, I feel like I remember that movie putting it on the letterbox. Yeah, well, especially I don't remember if it's a very good film, but it's definitely worth watching. Well, and that director, that director is one of those directors that can have a low-key amazing movie out of nowhere. Like oh, oh yeah. I mean, I'm a I'm a I can I The Warriors was like probably one of my favorite films growing up. I had the video game too, and and it was just like so oh my god. I if I could remake a film, right? I I I wouldn't even want to remake that because it's so perfect, but I'm just saying if I could if I could be cast in a movie that has already been in the world and be shot, because I I'm I wouldn't you couldn't do it better, but I would love to have been to play like Swan from fucking um I could totally see you in that. Yeah, I was just gonna say, dude. I think the Warriors, yeah. Yeah. I would love that. Oh my god. Yeah. I want to ask you about your music. Um is it just kind of oh no, no, you're great. No, I love it. But I wanted to ask you about um like what's your what's your is it kind of just like a therapeutic thing? Like you just play music because you love to play music, or are you trying to get like messages out there, you think, with your music? Yeah, I'm trying to I it's both. I I I'm I'm really trying to get it out there. I would really love some more some more ears um on this stuff. It's hard to promote the music, it's hard to promote everything these days, I find, because I'm not as good with like just the social media stuff as like you have to be these days, which you know, I just want to focus. I just want to focus on making the music. I don't want to focus on, oh, I gotta schedule like three TikTok posts today and this week and this one and just blast people. Yeah, yeah, I hate that stuff. It's so it's it's like it's draining, um you know, serving this algorithmic beast that is just what we're all just a slave to. But um uh I yeah, I do really want to get the music out there though. Um, you know, so I because I kind of came up on music like by Nick Drake and Elliot Smith and uh Iron and Wine, Bonnie Vare, like, you know, um Jose Gonzalez, like all these artists, and I always wanted to make like a softer folk sound, like intimate sounding thing. Uh and and so yeah, that's that's the stuff uh of everything that I've like Done since dad's been gone. It's the Love Pax music that I wish I could show him. Oh, of anything. Yeah, like that's the stuff. Um you feel like it's it is it exercising a different creative muscle? Like, is there well I think like John said, it's like it's a calming, like therapeutic outlet for me. It's more of like a grounding, uh like it's not like I I try to challenge myself with it, but it's all but it's not about that. Like I'm I'm trying to find a comfortable place to to curl up into with that, yeah, with that music. And I really felt that with Love Packs too, because it's just so chill and like it was beautiful. Yeah, we listened to it right before this, and it was just it was great. Um thank you. Yeah, I just released uh this music video called Snapshot. Um, that Rocky Rocky Shank, he's this great music video director and photographer. He actually made my favorite Adele music video for an early song of hers called Home Hometown Glory. It's a great song, too. And uh, but he he's done music videos for like Joni Mitchell, like um the Red Cross, like The Cramps, uh, all kinds of people. And uh, so I got to film actually with him at his house, and we we put out a black and white kind of old film noir-looking music video. Kind of like it looks like something you'd see on Turner Classic movies or something, and and uh and that's my most recent release. I just released it I think like two weeks ago on uh yeah, called yeah, Snapshot. Have you seen that one? Yeah, that's the one. That's the one we watched. Yeah, okay. So what was Love Pax then? Is it Love Lux? That's the that's the Love Pax is the name of my art my my artist. Oh, that's right. Okay, perfect. Okay, it's the single name the song. Okay, beautiful. Okay, good, great. Um what's your approach? Because you can kind of get you can get way more impressionistic and more abstract with music video as an art form. What was your conversations with the director about the pr like because like again you have the chops that you could go very narrative with something if you wanted to for your musical, you know, for your music videos? Like what what was that conversation like? Like developing. That was honestly, that was me being like a known so Rocky, Rocky uh was my dad's um first roommate in LA. Oh, whoa. Uh yeah, they met in LA. Uh they were very young, they were like 17 living together, and they were old friends. They used to make Rocky would direct my dad's like music videos when he was uh in this band called Martini Ranch, and they were signed to Sire Records under Warner Brothers. Actually, uh James Cameron, the only um music video he ever directed was for Martini Ranch. It's called Reach. Oh, whoa! Yeah, the YouTube guy? Yeah, but Rocky Rocky would do and and dad would always get his like you know his actor friends in there, like Anthony Michael Hall or uh yeah, Anthony Michael Hall and people like that, and Bud Court and stuff, and all these people. And um, yeah, but so so I'd always wanted so I basically had always wanted to do something with Rocky, and I said, and Rocky just said, uh, I would love that. Like he has this interesting voice, like, I love that, I'll do that, okay. And it was like, um, yeah, we'll shoot it at my house. And uh so um we he he came up with everything, honestly. I I didn't do I didn't have anything, a conversation with him other than he sent me like a whole breakdown he had written and timed out everything and was like, I want to do this. Does this look good to you? And I said yes. Right, and it was literally just Rocky, my girlfriend, and I, just three of us. Very cool. That's so awesome, dude. Well, and you kind of especially when you're doing larger work or work that is like you know, in Europe or or or something that's heavy like what you're working with right now, to go back to that smaller, intimate, we're just making something with three people, you know. That's that's that's really nice. So thanks. Yeah, it's an intimate song, and and the experience of making the video is intimate too. So it was all very fitting. Yeah. Well, um, we can move on to talking about one of the last things is uh the the film Grind that that is showing at the Spark of Madness Film Festival. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Heck yeah, thank you, sir. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so tell us a little bit about your involvement in grind, how'd you get involved with it? And uh yeah, I think that's a good place to start. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Have you have you have you guys seen Grind? Oh, heck yeah. Oh yeah. Okay, okay. I think it's nice at this point, yeah. Yes. Yeah, grind is fun, isn't it? Yeah, we are. Um grind is so much fun. I I let okay, so how where do I start this story? Um okay, so I have to go back many steps that will lead to this. When in 2015, I produced like and and made this gritty indie film, and it was my first time like kind of being a lead in a film, and it was called Boogeyman Pop. And it was uh we went to Bend, Oregon, and shot it. Brad Michael Elmore directed it. I did his second film, Bit, as well. Um, what happened with Boogeyman Pop was we made this movie for like 80 grand and it was kind of an anthology, sort of like it was it would loop on itself. Uh it was well, it wasn't an anthology in the same sense that grind is, but it was an elliptical story that kept looping back and following a different character over the same day. And and I shot myself out. They hadn't finished the film. We ran out of money. We took it to Blumhouse, and Jason Blum flipped for it. He was like, I love this. He he was like, um, he's like, let's just finish this. Like, what do you need? And we're like, well, we could use like another 60 grand. He's like, done. Gave us the 60 grand. Gave us the 60 grand. Uh they went and finished it. I was raped, but um Blum uh Blum House ended up selling it to Shudder, and it had played a bunch of genre festivals, like really good festivals, and was making the circuit in like 2018 or 2017 or something. And then uh unfortunately there was some, I'm not even aware of all the details. There was some like investor disagreement, some some red tape that held it up from being the sale to shutter fully going through. And it was like shelved and like written off probably as a tax write-off, indefinitely, never came out officially to the public. Oh wow. And and I love this movie. It's like my it's like it's such a punk rock, supernatural crazy, it's kind of got like elements of Stranger Things, but we did that before Stranger Things. Right. Um, but nobody would know that because it never came out. But it's like um, and anyways, uh that introduced me to the world of Blumhouse. I was suddenly reading for everything, like director sessions, uh, everything with Blumhouse. I was reading for you know David Gordon Green at Blumhouse's offices. Like I read for everything, unfortunately didn't look like any of those, but I came close on a few things. Uh it's kind of how I met like Ruby. Uh I was up for Happy Death Day as well. We actually met at a different audition before that, but Ruby Modine's a very close friend of mine. Um that's why I called her for this movie for Sicklerville. But um, so uh, anyways, Chelsea Stardust, who produced Grind, used to work for Jason Blum. She uh she was his personal assistant, and she started, but she's an incredible writer and director and producer, and she was learning constantly through that process. And and then Jason uh gave her an opportunity to to direct uh her first feature called um All That We Destroy. And it ended up as part of the Hulu's Into the Dark series. Like and um, and uh I read for that, and I it came down to me and Israel Broussard, and he had done a happy death day and a couple other things for them, and uh so it went his way. Um, but Chelsea said, I'm going to work with you. Like when I left my last audition, she was so nice, she's like, regardless of what happens on this one, we're gonna we're gonna make a movie together. And she called me about Grind. She produced Grind, and she came good on that, promise. And that was nice, and uh, I love working with her. I just adore her. And then I just did another movie with her in January, uh, that Fangoria is producing, that she's directing, another like horror horror anthology called uh Gorezone. And uh I love it. Yeah, so that's how that's how Grind came to be. She just offered me the part. I read it, I was like, this is so this is so good, like this is gonna be so much fun. I was like, I can just fucking chew this one up. So I was gonna say that was my thought is your performance in this this vignette, this this part of the anthology is such a great example, I feel, of like scene stealing. Not you know, of course it's ensemble piece. Oh, go on, Ron, go on. But dude, dude, from like moment one, this character, you come in with such a unique kind of tone toward the guy, and I love it. And it just like yeah, I I don't know, I don't know. Tell me about that, because he again, he's not like he's he's a part of the puzzle, right? Yeah, you know, I guess going back to like the basketball metaphor or something like that, right? Like you're like kind of like a very strategic piece of the equation of grind, right? Yeah, but you you nail it. Thanks, Ron. I I really that means like so much to me. I really appreciate it. Yeah, no, I like the funny thing is like my character is the whole the whole motivation for him even being in that union meeting, like secret unionized meeting, is because he wants to like he wants to hook up with the hot girl who works there. Like that's all he that's all he wants. Like he doesn't care, he's a fake activist. He's like trying, he's like he's like trying to impress her. He's yeah, he's totally performative. That's why he like glues his hand on the thing. And it's just like he think he thinks she's gonna be like uh impressed by that, and she's just like this guy's a fucking idiot. Like and and and uh and uh and that was so so fun to uh to play. Like it was just like oh man, like so that's that's that was uh that's just what I leaned into with that was just like playing him earnestly trying to impress and and he doesn't care how stupid he makes himself look, right? Uh kind of thing. Yeah, the self-deprecation, right? Because I do think like that sometimes it's hard to let go of your own ego of like like, well, I want to look good on camera, and you let yourself just look like a let go of your ego, I imagine. Yeah, so good. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I think like you always like should throw vanity out the window for stuff. You know, my dad was always like you're it's the character's moment to come to life. It's it's their moment. Uh it's not James up there on screen. It's it's it's yeah, it's Crow. It's it's whoever um the character is, and and and and play that, you know, and that has always helped me get a separation from any personal insecurities or vanities or or ego things. It like gives me uh uh a separation because I'm just I let go of of that, uh, you know, yeah, and just get into the character's mindset. Yeah. Yeah, and it's good to do things like this too, where we can just see how sharp you are, and your your memory throughout this whole like interview has just been like astounding. Like uh you're just such an impressive individual. Yeah, and that's a good idea. It's so funny to see you in that role as a Google boy. Yeah, and then you play, and that's like yeah, that that's a talent, that's a skill to play that appreciate it. That bumbling, I guess, you know. Like, like yeah, yeah. Well, I really appreciate you guys including it in the festival. I think it's a it's a great honor to have it there. And um, you know, it's it's it's on a good run. Like it's it's a kind of movie that like I love that it's touring. It's like it's kind of I love when movies go to on like a world tour. It's just it's like hell yeah, you know, why why wouldn't they? Like it's it's uh you know, if they're good and entertaining, why wouldn't they get to go um around? And so it's it's been doing really well. It's been going to lot like we we premiered at South by Southwest, right? And it had three screenings there, and apparently they were all just sold out. And um, so cool. And so I was cool. I couldn't go, unfortunately. Um, but I was in New Zealand, which is a beautiful place. So I I um yeah, I was with my girlfriend and went back and saw her family. Yeah, very cool. No, it's it's a great film, and and I do think it's it's I love the anthology approach, and it's so kind of also in the quintessentially LA, like this whole economy. Right, like a DoorDash thing, yeah. The Door Dash thing, all that stuff. Like it just yeah, you know, has a great cast in that sense too. Uh well yeah, the cast is really cool. Um, Barbara Crampton is lovely. I would I got to know her, but I didn't get to work with her. But she's uh she's attached to play my mother in a movie that I'm trying to produce and get off the ground. But um yeah, loved love her. She was she was great in that, I thought. Yeah, yeah. And Rob Hugh Rob Hubel was awesome. Oh, yeah. He was like the guy that yeah, he was so funny in that. Yeah, that's actually my favorite segment. Um, is is uh is the one where he is content moderation. Yeah, yeah. That was that was really funny. I love that. If I could have played a different role as well, if I had my choice, I I I might have played like the Christopher Marquette role too. Like I would have loved to have played that guy who's just like trying to get through those videos and stuff. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. I love the part I played, but uh, but it would have been I loved that segment. I thought that segment was brilliant. Yeah, that was crazy. A much darker part of the film, but I was like, they needed that. It wasn't there. It was still funny though, like that, and that is like you know, social media is kind of dark, it's messed up, you know? Like we were talking about earlier. So yeah, it totally was nailing it. No, and it kind of again, it's a movie that even within its premise is kind of flowing within different genres. Like it really felt like kind of almost watching like a season of TV in a weird way. Yeah, you know, in a episodic. Yeah, it felt episodic in this way because it has a cohesion. Yeah. It is episodic, it totally is, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, cool, man. Well, I can start wrapping it up. I think we're about to hit our hour mark, and I just want to say I feel like you really honor us by coming on here and talking to us, and we're just really honored to show your film at our film festival, and you're so impressive and you're so busy, so I just really appreciate you coming on and and talking to us. Oh no, I I appreciate it. I'm sorry that I didn't have a better setup for this. It was perfect. It worked out perfectly. We're out here like on the road and stuff, the kind of you know, it's like it's uh this is uh it's a leaner budget, this one. But you know, you do you you take what you what you have and you try to do the best that you can with it, you know, and and make something uh it's all about just being creative and and and moving forward and finding, you know, movie making is uh is is all about uh problem solving, you know. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you're out there in the trenches of South New Jersey, and we just really appreciate you making the time to come on here and talk uh talk about grind, which we love, and all your other movies. I have to go back and re-watch so many movies now. Yeah. Um it's so cool to talk to another Cinephile. So I had a lot of fun. Absolutely. Well, we should do it again. We should do it again sometime. I'd love that. Heck yeah, well, again, uh that's our our hope is that you know you you're officially a part of the Spark of Madness click. And absolutely, I'm in now. Yeah, conversations going and learning about each other's work and seeing what we can do because yeah, dude, you're doing amazing stuff, and I'm I'm so excited to like bring grind to Pocatello and bring get grind to Idaho and that audience, but then get people get people following your your career too. Yeah, I'm super excited to watch uh not only what everything else you do in the future, but Toad too is standing out. Oh, thanks, yeah, super excited to watch. Thank you. Yeah, I'm really excited about Toad and and I appreciate you guys so much for the support. It means it it means a world to me, and and uh I'd love to do it again sometime. And hopefully in person, maybe. That'd be awesome. We're gonna hang out. All right.