Blake and Betsy Watson Movie Stars? Entrepreneurs?

We discuss movies, Marion, and making your way in an adventurous life style.  This is a fun one.  Great to just sit back and listen when your traveling from point a to point b.  You might learn something along the way.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:22

Hello, I'm Jim Williams, and you're on the porch. Well, buckle up, because it's gonna be a fun one. I've got two of my fun friends here tonight. Uh, one has starred in his own movie, and uh the other has produced that movie. So I'm glad to have on the porch Betsy Watson and Blake Watson. Hi guys.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Hey.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

Alright, let's get a little background in. How in the world did you wind up here in Marion?

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Well, I'm originally from Nebo, uh born and raised. So Marion's home for me. And uh lucky enough that uh in high school years, Betsy and her family moved this way, so that brought us together. Um and it's been a that's where we kicked off at a high school football game.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I moved in in tenth grade. My family moved in from Columbia, South Carolina, uh, Irmo more specifically, and um yeah, I just kind of fell in here. I love love this community. Um whenever I leave and move home, this is always where I come home to. Um but yeah, I met Blake in high school. We went to for my first football game. I met him that first Friday. I was in town. Um we didn't really hang out or much anything until later, but she was she was a hard sale.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

I couldn't I couldn't get her to then you eventually got together and headed out to California.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah, we got together um here in town, we got back together.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Yeah, 2011. We met back up one uh fateful evening at a Waffle House and met for coffee and stayed there till gosh, four in the morning talking. Last first date for both of us. And a few years later married, and a few years later after that moved to California.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

So we were living in Asheville at the time we had moved over the mountain, you know, the big the big city life, and it was like one of the coldest winters on recording. Yeah, it was like negative eight over there, and um we just woke up cold and angry one day and I said, Do you want to move to California? And he said, Yeah. And three months later we were gone. We had sold our house and packed all our stuff up and broke our family's hearts and headed across the country.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

As soon as we had the thought, things just kind of started falling in line. Well, did you have any idea what you were gonna do in California We both knew that California had all the opportunities.

SPEAKER_05 3:06

Right.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

You know, Betsy had a good uh job here, good good career started, knew that she could do big things there, and I had a little bit of a dream going out. So I had I had gotten to be in a small role here in a film. Um met a guy over in Asheville that had a brought me on as an extra in a movie. And so immediately I caught the bug, you know, oh gotta do this, I gotta give this a good shot, you know. I could who knows, I could be the next John Wayne. Um so that always in the back of the mind, yeah, California. Right. Same book, you've heard it a million times in a thousand songs, somebody leaving their hometown to go to California to get rich and famous. Um so we went.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah. You landed a a Jimmy John's, one of our friends was opening a sandwich shop and asked Blake to come manage it. So right when we got there, Blake had a job.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

We had we had a place to put one foot when we got there, so that felt that felt pretty safe.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

And then I was still working remote for a marketing agency at the time. Um, so that helped me kind of get into the state too with a job. And then I found a full-time job once right after we got out there that was local in Brea. And at that point it was like, well, you don't have to work at the sandwich shop anymore. What do you want to do out here? And he was like, Man, I you know, I think I kind of want to go be in movies. And I was like, Well, I'm moving to Huntington Beach because we landed in Corona, and for anyone familiar with California, Corona is so far away from the city, although it looks close on the map, and it says Redneck is here. And um I said, I'm moving to Huntington Beach. I hope you'll join me and go be an actor in LA. And then at the time, um, our best friend out here, who's from Marion, he's a sheriff's deputy, he really wanted to go on this adventure too. So he moved in with us in Huntington. My goodness. So it was the three of us from here, more or less from here. I mean, Adam's from here, he's from the cove.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Yeah, three three amigos headed to headed out west.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah, so we got established, got a nice house out on out in Huntington with plenty of room for our dog and our third wheel, and we just went on an adventure.

SPEAKER_04 5:30

Well, you did do some movie stuff.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Did a lot of movie stuff. The uh, you know, the first couple months, anybody that does anything with film will tell you it's really you better have some runway to get going. Um so I was I was very thankful that Betsy was very lenient on me and very supportive of me going after this. And I had a crazy thought. I said, you know, there's probably being from Marion, I thought, well, there's not a lot of guys my age that just have the time to do this. Everybody's gonna be working. That's right. Did I get surprised? Any kind of personality, any kind of person you can find in LA. And they're also trying to find the same job you're trying to find if you're an actor. Really? It's it's uh it's pretty tough. If you need someone from a with a specific dialect from a part of Europe, they're probably in LA and they'll probably get cast for that part.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

No kidding.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

So it's competitive.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

Well, what do you do? Do you go into a room? See, I've seen it on TV and everybody goes into a room and they're all waiting and they call them in one at a time. Does that does it work like that?

SPEAKER_02 6:47

It does work like that. A lot of it works like that. There's some new, you know, advancements. You sometimes you send a self-recording in or stuff like that. It's a lot easier to do that kind of thing now than it was even ten years ago. Right. Um, with the iPhones and everything. Um but there are still, you know, second and third rounds where you're still walking the room with, you know, 200 other people. And that's it's it's very intimidating. And you all you always get in your head and you think, what makes me different than all these people? Like, I've got there's there's all these six foot three brown-haired guys that look kind of like me. What am I gonna do to like be different? How how can I land this? Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Um The first big experience I had with that was uh a commercial. So commercial, they they bring everybody in. We all, like I said, rubber stamp look the same, no lines, anything. They you go in and turn around a couple of ways like you're getting a mugshot, and uh then they send you out. And you have you don't have any control over anything, you hope they call you back. It's almost like a modeling audition. Really? You get a second call, then they'll go a little farther with you, because they have some time, you know, they've narrowed it down from 200 guys to maybe 25, 30. So if you make that cut, you automatically you're like, oh, okay, I'm feeling like somebody. Yeah. When you go back in, you're it you you know immediately whether you got it or not. And so I luckily I got that commercial. Um was so excited. That was one of the first things that I could come home and tell Betsy, like, oh my gosh, look, I I've got something. It's gonna be on streaming on the YouTube and things like this as a commercial break. Well, who is it for? It was for muscle milk. Muscle milk. Yeah, one of the protein shake companies. Yeah, okay. So uh we celebrate and have a good time, and I go to sh go to the shoot, and it turns out to be three commercial spots. Fiftw 15 or 30 second spots. Um and so I I was over the moon that that that happened. And it was one of my very first things that that I got a foothold and I said, Hey, maybe I can do this. Yeah. Yeah, maybe I maybe I'm not like dreaming too big. It's it's achievable. So from there we went to uh started getting a lot of network stuff like background acting and and things just to get you on set. Right. And there's really a whole world that just evolves around different parts of movie and television sets. It's it's really it's really a small community for each of these uh kind of sections. So you'll have, you know, sound guys, you'll have camera guys, you'll have uh the uh prop guys, you'll have you know just PAs that go around that are trying to get you know a better job than the bottom, you know, everybody's trying to work their way up. Right. And it's really cool to see it's it's probably as much like the service as anything else. Everything has a specific way you do it, you know, a person that's in charge of that that uh task and things, and you have to learn all that stuff. Even just being on the set, even if you're just an actor, I say just an actor, even if you're big talent, small talent, it doesn't matter. You need to know how it works. Huh. So that was a big lesson for me.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

But you were talking about casting. One of the times I we rode up to the city together because it was like a Saturday casting, and I was like, well, we'll ride together because traffic's terrible. When we get done, we'll go have lunch and just enjoy the day. And I had to go to the bathroom and ran in there, and I was like in a room full of men. They all looked like Blake. And I'm like standing there looking around, like, ooh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

This is all right. Is this a dream?

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Well, if it had been a room full of women that look just like you, you would have been like, oh no. That would have been a little freaking. That would have been another another type of dream. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

Um Well, I have heard that you get a commercial. The way I understand it, every time that commercial plays, you get a couple bucks, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Is that the way it works? It it depends on what your contract is with your agency and and things. And they have they have different, you know, types of uh uh payments or whatever or sp or plans for that. Um sometimes you can agree to make a certain amount the day you're there, no royalties or anything come to you. Or if you're on a contract like some of the network shows and things, every time you get a rerun, anything like that, you get a residual check. So it's all different based on you know what's agreed on by the agency and you know the the company that's producing. Huh. Yeah. No, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Some of the indies that that we've both worked on, um, when you have like a larger stake and how those are being put together, you go in for uh like a point system and it's a percentage of revenue on the film forever. So that's a little bit different because like on larger sets they tend to just grant you a certain amount per view. But when you're working on a indie set and you go in for what's called points, you get it's you're basically a percentage of after the film's paid for, you make residuals off it for the rest of the film's life. So if it if you go in on a lot of those, it can add up quickly. And then if one of the films sort of hits and like people all of a sudden become interested in that director or that genre or that actor, it can like we call it jump starting, like it can jump start your residuals. Um so it's it's always like motivating when you're in like a group that makes films to try to make a better next one because it can help your whole back catalog pay you.

SPEAKER_04 13:02

So and when you say indie, that means independent film. Yes. Right? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Which is not produced by Warner Brothers or any of those. It's it's like a group who's pulled together their own funding, it's not owned by a major studio. Um, there's a lot of creative freedom in those kind of films, but usually it comes with more of a limited budget and less resources. Um like Blake was talking about on big sets, there's like a there's like a task because there's a union involved. So like every person has a task. And if you step outside of that process, like say I was on set at a big a big set and I just moved some props, like that harms the prop division's workflow, and that that union rep can come get on me about moving their props because I should have called the prop person over, had them move the prop.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

So they're unionized.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

A lot of the big studios are, and that's why it's a it's kind of an interesting balance between um like Blake, he was a SAG actor, the Screen Artist Guild. So he was in the union, but when you're starting out, even if you're eligible to be in the union, a lot of people don't take it so they can do indie films. Because once you kind of cross into being in the union, unless you get a special waiver, you can't do an indie film anymore. So it it really creates kind of two pockets of actors, and it it's actually kind of like creatively challenging for people who aren't, you know, Tom Cruise, you know, that are already set up and they're not gonna do independent projects.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

To to jump back a little bit on and what you were saying about um being an independent film set is you know, there's all those jobs still have to be done. It instead of a hundred people, you may have twenty people. So those twenty people have five jobs. Okay, gotcha. And so they, you know, you can do it. Like she said, there's a lot more uh there's a lot more freedom involved with what you can do, but your limitations then come in with budget and and really the s the situations that you that you find yourself having to improvise and makes some of the better I think that makes some of the better TV moments that that you see. You know, you always find those fun facts about, you know, in Gunsmoke they didn't have this, so they used these wooden pallets over here, you know, then and there's somebody always has that backstory that that makes a fun uh fun little thing to happen. But uh independent movies are now, I think, more as competitive as they've ever been. Um there's a lot of there's a lot of freedom with uh background generation and things coming from the technology from that that really helps really helps you uh make a bigger movie with a smaller budget than you could like I said, even before ten years ago, you know. It would have been a big movie studio that had any kind of computer technology, which now now you got it on your phone practically. Practically.

SPEAKER_04 16:14

And more to come. Obviously, you're back here. Would you still do you still have contacts where you could go out and do a movie shoot, or uh are you you out of that business?

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Still have a few contacts there. You always have friends when you when you live somewhere a while. You always have people that are uh doing things. When when you're doing things, people that do things are attracted to you. Right. Um so you always have friends. We've got two or three really close friends still there. Probably wouldn't be hard if uh wanted to go back and get in that scene, wouldn't be too hard to Now that you know some of the ropes, wouldn't be too hard to jump back in. Um learning learning where to go was the hard part.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

We're both still involved with an indie group out of Asheville that we've worked with for uh maybe 15 years now that when he mentioned being an extra in that first one that gave him the bug when we were dating, I was doing publicity and helping on set for a film that was shot in Hendersonville with this group that we are still very close with. And um, that's the same group that made um Don't Say Earth, the film that you attended at the screening. Um, and we've just been making those similar style indie films for about 15 years now. So Blake will still do those kind of projects or get together. There's some cartoon work we do where he does some fantastic voiceover. Don't let him lie to you. He's got a he's got a repertoire of voices hidden away over there that are fantastic. Um and that's actually one of my favorite projects. But yeah, we still do some stuff like that. It's just not with studios, um, not as much at least.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Voices are fun, you get to cut up and have a good time.

SPEAKER_04 17:54

Uh yeah, and nobody sees you. Nobody sees you. You're hidden behind the curtain.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Yeah, I like a total fool, and and it comes off good with the cartoon.

SPEAKER_04 18:02

So I was stopped today by uh David Wooten. You both know David. And he said, Well, be sure that you let everybody know that, speaking of me, that I have a face for radio. So that's kind of the what you're talking about. You can do the voices. Good to have friends. Yeah. Yeah. Good old David. So when you do an indie film, I'll get off of this in a minute, but it just interests me. When you do a min an indie film, what happens? You you get it done, the film's completed, do you submit it somewhere? You know, I I keep hearing this thing about the Cannes Film Festival and stuff like that, and they talk about indie films there.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

There there's lots of things you can do with it. Um there are festivals you can you can send it to. Um festivals are good to kind of stir up uh viewers and and get people interested in that back catalog that she mentioned a minute ago. And they're really good to get uh from for what I have seen, they're really good to get maybe future investors and stuff. Oh, say you know, it's kind of a check a check mark on something that you did if you get accepted to a a good film festival. Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Um also helps with getting distribution.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Definitely. I was gonna uh see if you would talk about that because you know more about that.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

So a lot of times there's a hardworking, really intelligent publicist taking a film out to try to get it reviewed, looked at by the media. You do some announcements around it coming out, and then you always want a good film festival for like your exclusive release if you don't have a a distribution partner at that time. So some compelling ones that I've been involved with are like um you know, South by Southwest is an excellent one, Brooklyn Film Festival is is an interesting one. Obviously, like Sundance can, those are pipe dreams for most institutions of the festival. But um, even like Newport Film Festival or any of those, you're trying to get a placement, so you ignite you uh you offer them an exclusive premiere of the film for the first time it's seen by a large body of people in exchange for a lot of press coverage. Um and that's sort of how that piece of it works. But there's announcements you do along, so when you start filming, if you have anyone noteworthy, like a director, a producer, an executive producer, you start announcing the project piece by piece in the business trades. So people are starting to pick up that this is a viable project and it's it's it's letting people know it's happening. Right. And then when it comes out, hopefully when you Google it, it's not there's nothing there, you know, and and then you try to get get reviews on it. And the kind of films that we work on with the group in Asheville, um Event Horizon, they do mainly um sci-fi and horror films. So we have um like a group of reporters that we send it to and try to get coverage on, whatever the new film is. Um, and so it goes through that, and then you work to find distribution, and what that can look like is you could put it like on Amazon, sometimes Tubi will pick it up, sometimes a Hulu or a Netflix will buy the film outright from the company. Really? Depending on the subject matter, if it fits their catalog and their target demographics. Um, and so sometimes it's good to think about the end. You know, I know we're we're all artists and we want to make our art, but sometimes if you're trying to sell your art, it's good to think about your audience and like what they actually want. Right. True crime docs do fantastic. Um, there's a new project that we're working on about ghost stories in Western North Carolina right now. Uh oh. Um, because like paranormal activity is so popular right now with especially with um Hulu. they really they do those six part series and it's like perfect match for them. Um and then like you know the the Amazons of the world and um kind of the rest of the streaming platforms there's so many of them now.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

There will never be too much content. There won't for for the from from now on the the world will be starving for content as long as as long as there are people to watch it there's there's going to be content shortage.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

To me the goal is always to try to get someone to pay us for the film and take it away and do whatever they want to do with it. Because because then you know you're going to make your money back and everyone who works on the project for points is going to get paid. And then you can kind of wash your hands of the long term marketing strategy of it which is a very complex that's a whole part two com conversation. It's it's kind of brutal but the the reality is most of it goes for residuals forever. So you get like a monthly statement based off your film's earnings and then you divide it out with the people with their points.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

Well that's not bad.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

It's not it's just when you have so many of them it's good and bad because it's a lot of accounting. Right. Right. Thank God that's not my area.

SPEAKER_04 23:06

Well I guess I wouldn't be uh eligible to get any of your ghost story stuff. You know I've been begging people to come on here and tell me a ghost story.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

If you find them let me know because we need their content too.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

Well I do have one lady coming Anne Swan do you know Anne? I believe so she is well known as I'd say Western North Carolina's historian. She was on my program uh a couple weeks ago and was talking about uh Native Americans here in Marion about 200 years ago and how uh uh you know if you stepped outside your house they'd scalp you know it was that kind of environment. So at the end of of our session I mentioned that I'm trying to find a ghost storyteller and she says I got plenty.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

That's great. Well let me know because we're trying to record um that right now Mike Conley has a great story. We're gonna get him on camera um with his ghost story and we've had a few others emerge but Mike's has been my favorite so far. Oh really?

SPEAKER_04 24:19

Yeah yeah I'm I'm sure Mike's got some stuff. Well I want to I don't want to go to your movie yet but I do want to talk about it because I just watched it again and I don't think it's about what you said it was about I'm gonna talk to you about that. Okay. So uh so what are you up to?

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Me?

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Betsy yes nothing she's being she's being the brilliant one after that dissertation of sorry nothing I have like a lot of passion about film distribution and marketing and if anyone had any question of who the brains of the operation is they do not anymore. No that's not true. But I don't know I um after LA I started um my own consulting firm uh working in publicity for commercial production studios so I do marketing for marketers it's kind of meta um but it's really fun so the people that make most of the content that you see in the world whether it's branded entertainment or commercials or documentaries or feature films they all have people that handle their PR and publicity and help sell their services and I'm one of those people and there's very few of us who do that. And it's a lot of fun. You know it's right the people that make the the most interesting ads like Maxwell the pig with the little pinwheels going wee that you know that old Geico commercial like that was my first client the guy who made that guy. Really? And so it's always like hey what's your claim to fame like oh it's really interesting you know they all have their Maxwell the pig. Yeah and he's like I always we and he's like stop it stop it you know but yeah so that's what I'm up to. I just hang out at the old crooked door coffee shop where my office is and just manage a lot of public relations and advertising.

SPEAKER_04 26:10

Well of course because we're friends I do know some stuff you're up to but you probably don't want me to talk about that yet huh?

SPEAKER_00 26:17

I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_04 26:19

Well I've heard that you're you're I don't know if I can say it are you developing anything that I need to know about it we'll talk about that later.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

That's not ready for prime time.

SPEAKER_02 26:29

Okay all right well we'll skip that but I'm always busy yes yes yes yes we've we all everyone here agrees with that the busiest lady we know if you're not doing stuff what are you doing?

SPEAKER_04 26:43

Yeah not stuff I don't want to be bored would you consider yourselves either one of you or both of you would you consider yourselves either together or separately as entrepreneurs I definitely am I would say we we both have that entrepreneur spirit about us.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

My my family growing up my grandfather had a business and I kind of grew up watching that and and you know going with him and things and that really instilled that in me early you know you you have a customer you go take care of and and things. And I think that that Betsy definitely has that because that was one of the things that you know all those years ago drinking coffee that night I picked up what a hard worker she was. Right. Oh this this girl is amazing. But I I think that we both definitely I just love creating things.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

You know I think there's people that paint and I think there's people that sculpt and sing. Yeah and I think it's amazing. I just can't do any of those things. So for me it's like well how do I build a business how do I build a a process how do I organize chaos and usually sell it um but why why here in Marion would you do such a thing? Because it's home. I mean at the end of the day we loved Huntington Beach. It was beautiful that dog beach you know we would be eating delicious sushi and like watching the sunset right and it was wonderful but you know the pandemic happened the world changed I think we both had a moment of realization that we didn't want to move home when we were taking our parents to doctor's appointments. We wanted to move home and be with them while we could and enjoy enjoy a quality life of actually doing stuff with them with our families and and you know we fell back into it and I mean for as much as we're gone to be fair we're gone a lot but at the same point it's nice to come home and take it people always say to me in Manhattan like you have the best energy and it's like yeah because I leave here and I go sleep you know like I go take a nap but I mean I'm still working like 12 hour days I just you know get to be where it's quiet. There's nobody honking at me.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

I I think there's something too about being here that that it feels like things are appreciated. And when you're in when you're in a big noisy place and you're just part of the hum of the right the city or whatever it it's you know you sometimes you feel a little you can feel a little lost and you know when you get to when you get to help somebody out or be uh be maybe even an inspiration on something or somebody inspires you um here it seems like it's really a lot more genuine genuine yeah genuine's the great word.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

You know for me I I had the luxury I took about a year off right when we first got home and I was like going to the pool at the Y every day. It's where I met Kit Cosgrove. Oh we were training for the Olympics together at the YMCA at the 930 arthritis class I had a chance to rehabilitate my spine that wasn't doing too hot after the stress of life and um she invited me into the Rotary Club of Marion which is one of the most prestigious things on my resume. I love it. Well we love having oh you got your thing on the couple Thursday you know you go have lunch with your friends on Thursday and hang out and do some good stuff and it's just fantastic. It's you know and yeah we were busy in California and we had great friends we had I'm not trying to say we were isolated or anything it's just different. It's just a different thing here. It is a different it's nice it's a you can park you can drive to the grocery store you don't have to carry your groceries around you know it's like it's really nice.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

There there's a lot of things to uh to appreciate about being here and the the mountains just kind of hug you when when you come here. Yeah and I feel like I feel like a lot of people get that feeling and that's I think that's part of why you know this town's growing and things is just such a I also feel like we were we were gone long enough.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

I think some people leave right after college and then they come straight back and they they kind of miss that point where everyone has a chance to kind of grow out of the junk that's kind of residual from when you're in high school and college. Yes. And they just kind of go right back into it and they expect it to be so different but it's like after a decade a lot of people I I always say like life's kicked us all in the throat so we're all a little cooler with each other. Right. And it it's true. I mean it's a lot easier and it's and we're all nicer to each other now that we're you know got some perspective. Lived a little laugh yeah and it's really cool.

SPEAKER_04 31:42

Well I've always said that uh and I hope I don't get proven wrong at at our level here in Marion politics really doesn't come into play. Uh you know I'm gonna have a uh broadcast here pretty soon about finding the B-24 crash and six of us went up into the mountains to find it and I got to thinking because I'm putting that show together right now uh I think three of those guys are left leaning I mean not just Democrats they're left leaning and two of them are right leaning and uh one independent and yet you couldn't tell who was who and they're all my friends they're all close friends uh and I think that's I don't know if that's unusual here in Marion. Well I'll ask you your people of the world do you think that's that that's unique to Marion did you find of course we haven't been divided as long as maybe you were out there before we were but do you think it's less divided here?

SPEAKER_01 32:54

In the movies we would hold for sound hold for space chickens um so less divided here.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

Do you think we are divided? I I think that I think the division is the the division of politics among people is very uh influenced by the character of those people obviously and I think that people that grew up here and people that are um been here a long time it sh kind of shifts that character and I think that they they know that you know if if you know fifteen people here you know fifteen people here you don't know you it's not you're gonna see those people. Right. Um even even if you get mad at one of them the odds are you'll see them somewhere at the hardware store or some correct and so it it kind of to me it makes it feel a little more uh you get you get more community and and the character of the people changes because it's so it's so tight knit. Yes. And I do think it's a unique thing to hear because I have I've been a lot of places that and really met a lot of people that grew up in so much so many different areas. And none of them quite have the same view on the world that I do. And I would s I would say that that's really a blessing of of being here and and having the exposure to you know this culture of just getting along. We're nobody here is even the wealthiest people are not I don't want to say they're not you know Bill Gates or anybody like that that just you know how much money they have. They they have there's a common thing of here of if we're all gonna make it. Yeah. We're all you know and it I to me that was really under the magnifying glass when Helene there was there were so many people that helped each other out it didn't matter you know who you were who you were where you were right you know if I had a tractor I was gonna help you get the trees out of the road so you could get to your house you know um but I do think we're very blessed with that here and I do think it's unique.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

I have a little bit different take on that.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Okay outsider?

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Yeah as a not from right it's definitely changed a lot since I moved in. When I moved in in 2002 Marion was a very different place and I would answer this question very differently then.

SPEAKER_05 35:32

Really?

SPEAKER_01 35:32

Oh it was like you couldn't be seen at the liquor store people would literally whisper about the Catholics in the grocery store. You'd hear it. It was very strange. But now it's not like that. It's it's like a very different place. And I would say when you're in town and you're in the world here it's lovely. Everyone's real brave on Facebook. That's the underbelly to me of our community's political divide. And that's the world like everyone's really brave behind a keyboard. Right. But like when I'm sitting in you know Rotary or like at a Marion Business Association meeting I don't really feel it. You know I I mean I see a little bit like here and there and think oh okay different perspective or that's interesting. But you know when you're online it gets pretty nasty. And I think that Marion's not immune to that.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

So I don't want to like No no nowhere is immune to it. And I don't I didn't want to give off that impression but I I do think it's a lot different than than other places.

SPEAKER_04 36:31

It's it's a little less uh uh what's that echo echo chambery echo chambery just because I don't think a lot of people make big noise to make an echo here so I think that's a good you should turn it back uh sixty years to when I was here as a kid a poor kid this house where we live right now the street in front of us I wasn't allowed to walk on it because I was poor.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Wow and uh I talked to Arthur Parks you know he's a uh African American man he wasn't allowed to walk on it because he was black and he and I got up here and talked on the front porch one day about what this neighborhood was about and he was saying well yeah and he uh no hostilities were involved he just said yeah I wasn't allowed in this neighborhood and I said well that's funny I wasn't either and you talk about those people in the grocery store that would talk about other people that was prominent and that affected your social ranking in this and do not get caught having a drink somewhere which would have been uh moonshine you know because we're a dry county it was wild to me when we first got here oh me and my mom would kind of go places together and we would kind of peek around like what is happening you know it was just like because I mean she grew up like in Sumter Columbia we lived in Irmo it was like very busy place even though it's still very deep south like we were mannered in a certain way but at the same point like nobody had enough time to know what church you can gave a you know gave a care about it. So it was just a different it was a different place here and I was refreshed by Marion when we moved back this last time because I've come back three times now. So I've lived here in a few different phases.

SPEAKER_02 38:30

I believe that that what you just mentioned with with Arthur and then some of the earlier things that Betsy talked about has helped develop the character of this place. Yes I think we've matured we've matured yeah and and that you know some of that stuff you learn to live with each other instead of against each other and the things that matter and and really don't matter shine through the more the more of the trials that you go through in life. And I think that those things are a big part of of why maybe I feel the way I do about Marion versus you know because I remember those times too you couldn't you know there was no drinking or anything like that around but I also now I see how much outside influence is coming in and really building the community because you can't you know a a a lot of people our age moved away from here and let's figure something and they haven't come back. So some you know somebody is filling their shoes and uh it's it's a it's right now it's a really good mix I think.

SPEAKER_04 39:39

And that's why I like to see the hardcore entrepreneurs like you two back here in town because you're one, you're young and you're gonna be around to make the town grow I'm I'm hoping you're gonna stay odds are in your favor if not if we leave we'll come back.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

We have a good track record of that at this point.

SPEAKER_04 40:03

Well I'm I'm glad of that okay I'm gonna change subjects again. This movie what was the name of it again?

SPEAKER_01 40:10

Don't say earth.

SPEAKER_04 40:11

Don't say earth I'm not gonna try to give it all away but it's about a guy an astronaut in a capsule and the premise of the movie is he's he's basically trying to get back to Earth or out of the capsule right okay so I've been thinking about that and I believe it's far more esoteric than that. I think it's about childbirth. Oh wow okay what do you think defending well the visuals are uh and I've gone over this a lot and I've gone back and I've looked at that movie the visuals are quite they're they much very much lean toward a child in the womb this is not an adult program this is a community program but you're constantly suffering from outside forces trying to get out could that be I'm gonna text the writer immediately that that definitely could be like do we need to talk about something going on in your subconscious let's deep dive definitely it could be so originally the script is stated that the actor comes alive from being knocked out unconscious to travel through space catches that first breath which now I'm thinking I'm whoa he's on to something.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Yeah so he gets that first breath and he realizes that he has no memory. Yes no memories of anything no uh no real he he doesn't know how to talk and speak and and move around but no no memory of why he's there, what he's doing. Um and those outside forces that you're talking about start showing up almost immediately. Right. As soon as he I guess comes into the world now that now that we look at it through this framing. Yeah now that we look at it through this framing. And so the the principle put to me was that you know the story goes along and he starts getting pieces of why he's in the shape he's in um and and where he's headed and what his uh mission is.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

I'm trying not to give it away too um it's already on streaming you're not gonna hurt the marketing department.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Okay marketing department I've got to go ahead and PR so go ahead. But essentially the he uh he is wandering and lost and trying to figure out where he's going until uh all of a sudden he notices that there that he's on that the computer is not necessarily his friend. And that's the turning point of the movie to me as the as the character. Um because number one I got to get out of that uncomfortable seat that I was in with all those wires and uh and two uh that to me changes his outlook that he has hope. Right. And that going back to your your theory that could be that could be the birth the coming coming out of you know that that oh here I am there's hope. You know I c I've got hope of getting home or completing my mission or or whatever it be.

SPEAKER_04 43:45

Or it could be the birth of mankind.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Could be the birth of mankind.

SPEAKER_04 43:51

See I I think it's y when you go back and you and and I've watched it about uh oh three or four times.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Thank you for those streaming numbers.

SPEAKER_04 44:03

Um and uh I think that every time I've watched it, I watch it with a little bit different frame of mind and I've decided I'm right. I'm d I've decided that it definitely is it's a it's a it's a birthing movie. If you want to take it literally as a birthing movie, there's a lot of visuals in there that uh give you the baby in the womb kind of thing. But if you want to move it to a little bit higher plane, like the beginning of the world or the beginning of mankind, that's there too.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

So what do you make of uh Uriel, the conclave visualization character, and like kind of that last scene where the fight scene happens?

SPEAKER_04 44:57

Well, that's just uh that's just a representation of now you're in the world. It it doesn't get easier from here. Uh I see that as just a just a way to let you know that things are not gonna get easier as you go along in life.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

Do you think there's any undertones about just following your theory about like you're giving birth and then it's you know, they're they're really trying to throw you into collective consciousness in that part of the film. And that's sort of the point of the conclave is that you're sinking into this chorus of voices. And do you think maybe that that's aka society?

SPEAKER_04 45:44

No, I I think that that is just the cacophony of the outside world when you are born, uh, you know, theoretically you know nothing but you have sensitivities, and so those sensitivities are just highlighted in that movie. So you're because it's a movie, you gotta move it along kind of fast to get everything done. But I just see that it's just a representation of of all the things that affect the baby. Uh, you know, the baby comes out, and now all of a sudden you're outside of that cabin that you were in with all of those umbilicals that were in there, uh, and you come outside of that, and now you're facing the real world. You don't understand it necessarily, but uh but it's there. And so because you don't understand it, it manifests itself as noise. You know. I'm pretty sure I'm right on that.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

Um you're convincing me. When you when you said when you used cacophony in a sentence, I knew. I was like, there's no I am I am bested, and do not play Scrabble with Jim.

SPEAKER_04 47:12

Oh wait, I've got to I've got to scratch that off, cacophony. Use that in a sentence.

SPEAKER_01 47:18

That's a that's a different take on it. I might have to update the marketing materials. Um there's that entrepreneurial skill.

SPEAKER_04 47:25

Yeah, so it's called Don't Say Earth and Where Could a Person Go Watch It so they can catch up with us.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

Okay, marketing.

SPEAKER_01 47:33

Amazon, Tubi. Tubi is free streaming, which is why I like to push that one. Um YouTube now, I think. It's on YouTube.

SPEAKER_03 47:41

I saw it on YouTube once. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

It's on a lot of the different platforms because it actually went when we put it out for distribution, it immediately got picked up on Tubi and then Rumble and then Amazon, and it was just sort of a cascade effect, and now it moves. So it's one of the films that they like it's in a bundle of similar sci-fi films, and they kind of move it with the channels based off who has the sci-fi movies. So I'm not up on that today because I don't know where all it's moved.

SPEAKER_02 48:10

But and there's no baby on the cover art.

SPEAKER_01 48:12

There's no baby on the cover art, just one handsome astronaut.

SPEAKER_00 48:16

Whoa.

SPEAKER_04 48:18

Well, do you have another one planned? Do you think you're gonna do another one?

SPEAKER_01 48:22

So I had one released from that same group, but Blake is not in it. It's it's called The Guardian, and it's about a young man whose family is tragically taken early. He moves away, and he is like with his aunt and uncle, and these he's in like this wooded adventure looking for his dog, and these aliens descend on him, and he's kind of like battling them in the woods. It's a it's more of a teen geared. The the main actor in that is he was 16 when we shot um last summer. We shot it in Brevard. Um, there was a beautiful track, like 70 acre track that we got to shoot on, and it was in the summer. It was perfect. It was like being at camp. Um, and we shot on that for about two or three weeks, and then we were in post with it for about a year and it just came out. So it's a it's a neat film. Um, I would be interested in your different take on the synopsis after you watch it. But the the special effects on it were really cool.

SPEAKER_04 49:19

We brought in some interesting people to and is it available now for me to watch?

SPEAKER_01 49:23

Yeah, that one is on Amazon and on Tubi for sure, and it might be on Romble, probably. I'll have to double check on that.

SPEAKER_04 49:31

Well, we have Amazon, so we'd watch it. Yeah, it's called The Guardian. The Guardian. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

Uh the lead's name is Bronson. I've forgotten his last name. He did a really nice job. And there's some other characters that he encounters along his way, and um it it's yeah, it's a lot of running in the woods, a lot of interesting sci-fi.

SPEAKER_04 49:51

Cool. Well, I'll be watching it.

SPEAKER_02 49:53

You never know what we're up to. God, that's the truth. There's there's so many things in the in the air too, scripts coming and going and things to look at.

SPEAKER_01 50:02

And I think one of our favorite things to do is to like hang out in bed on Saturday or Sunday morning and read scripts that get sent to us. I love when people send me terrible scripts. Yeah. I mean, when they send me great scripts. No, we do get sent a lot of terrible scripts. And um one one time we one was so exceptionally bad that we had a drinking night and we got our friends together um and we all took apart and we just we were drinking and acting, we did like a voice reads.

SPEAKER_02 50:28

Acted this script out in the living room.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

And we still all like when we're on set working, every now and then it'll be like, Nope, you gotta pay me 10,000 crumbles to do that. Like the writing was just so retrieval.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

We often reference it, it was so often.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

It was so it was so fun. So anyone with bad scripts or good scripts in your opinion, send them to me. Just so I can I I like to read scripts like people like to read novels.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

Really? You might think about medical attention. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I I don't think that it would hurt for you to just just see a doctor and just talk to him.

SPEAKER_02 51:00

Just check in.

SPEAKER_04 51:01

Yeah, just just check in, tell him what you told me.

SPEAKER_02 51:06

We had so much fun with with Don't Say Earth. Um one of the stories I like to tell is in when we recorded, you know, when we did the the filming, there was no there was no rope or uh computer voice. We had no one for that. So Betsy read the computer voice lines. Because we had been practicing at home. Because we had been practicing at home. And so that's one of those things, you know, saying everybody has five jobs. Well, two of her jobs were uh to keep me straight on lines and and you know, read with me, and then you had some sound stuff you did too one day for a little bit. So she's all over the place, and uh, I'm up in the set, and we're you know, going through the through the lines and stuff, and there's a couple of places where you know I the character gets really aggravated with the city. Right, yeah. And uh one of our uh uh coworkers said uh, Wow, I don't want to be in a house when you guys get in a fight.

SPEAKER_01 52:09

He was like, it's like the Amazons like fighting each other because we were just like Amazon and the whole computer. Because the director kept saying, like, Blake, we need more, and he's like, I don't have anything to react to. You know, he has to have kind of an equal energy to bounce off of to like deliver correctly, and it's that part where he's like yelling at the computer, and so we just let it loose, and man, I think we scared the whole crew that yeah. I think they were like, What happens at their house?

SPEAKER_02 52:34

And it's like, well, nothing usually, but we're at we s we saved it for today. Yeah, that was that was one of the harder parts of shooting that per that movie in particular was I had no I had no other actor to interact with. Right. I had her I she would cue me on lines and and respond, but I couldn't see her or anything. You know, I'm in this same closed set.

SPEAKER_04 52:57

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

And so it it was really hard. That was a really hard thing to do. It was basically for for lack of a better way to put it, it was a one-man show for a while.

SPEAKER_01 53:10

Did you feel like you were alone in space?

SPEAKER_02 53:12

I really did.

SPEAKER_01 53:13

Space and time.

SPEAKER_04 53:16

Well, how long is that movie? Do you know? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_01 53:19

I think it's 93 minutes. Yeah, right around an hour and a half. Yeah, it's either 93 minutes or 68. I both I'm thinking of the two films of most recently. It's one or the other, because when we did the the s the viewing at the Marion Cinema. Yeah. I think they I think they got us for an hour and a half.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

So I'm pretty sure they did. You you have to be a certain threshold to be a feature film you know, of of of time. Oh, okay. Yep. So that's all you that's one of those you always kind of want to shoot for when you're you know writing and laying out script and things, is to get that get that nice.

SPEAKER_04 53:51

Well, that was certainly fun at the theater because, well, there was free popcorn. And soft drink, so right off the bat I'm in.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

You know, and every time we go every time we go to the theater now, they're like, Y'all are the ones that had the movie here, and we're like We are.

SPEAKER_00 54:10

We are.

SPEAKER_04 54:10

So you're you're Marion's very own movie stars.

SPEAKER_01 54:14

He is. I'm the lady behind the man.

SPEAKER_02 54:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

Somebody at Rotary today was talking to me, and the girl was like, Well, her husband's a movie star, and I was like, Yep.

SPEAKER_04 54:31

You know, um check us out on Tubi. We need we need a star down there in front of Bob's donuts.

SPEAKER_01 54:40

Yes, right in front of the donut show.

SPEAKER_02 54:41

The Walk of Fame star. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:43

Blake is a little bit modest because you know, he talked a little bit about, oh, when I did this commercial project or whatever. He when we were in LA, he did some cool stuff. I mean, he was in the in the promo package for Ford vs. Ferrari. That was his first time in Entertainment Weekly magazine. It was for Ford vs. Ferrari magazine. Like none of these things are small potatoes, you know. It's like he was in SWAT as like a recurring person, that show with Shamar. Oh, Shamar. And um, you know, dreamy. Um, but Blake was like just right there in it, just being dreamier, and it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 55:20

And no kid. There's a uh there's a uh spot floating around too. We did it's the show is called The Rookie, and about a rookie cop, you know, the guy comes in, the older guy, and he's the rookie. Well, I was one of the bad guys that they haul in one day. Is that right? Yeah, and I had a friend uh the other day say, I I saw you on TV in the in the rookie, and he says, uh, I paused it and he said, I show my kids, I know that guy, and they're like, Okay, dad. He's like, No, I really know that guy. And I was like, Well, if I was on TikTok, they would have been they wouldn't have you were in like pinky blinders, like pretty predominantly.

SPEAKER_01 55:57

I mean, you've been in some like some like really crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_02 56:02

We did a lot of stuff. We did a lot of stuff sometimes And some stuff that was just terrible, some stuff was terrible, and it was hilariously fun.

SPEAKER_01 56:09

Like he was in this one student film, and if you know Blake, you know he's never touched drugs in his whole life, and I'm not just saying that because there's a mic and his mom will listen. He's genuinely never touched drugs in his life, and he had to pretend to be like a coke head and do coke in a bathroom, and they had they had to snort this like prop cocaine. Some kind of rasp powder, and uh it was you didn't breathe right for like three days after that. He's just like you know, hacking it up. I mean, but it was just hilarious, and the stuff that you had and Adam Adam was he's noteworthy too in his own right. He was in that show, The Mandalorian. He has an action figure made after him. Like it's it's it's wild, and it's like people, you know, he's like in town now as a sheriff, like arresting people for drugs, and it's like I wonder how many people realize that they've been arrested by a Mandalorian.

SPEAKER_02 56:57

Like it's just Yeah, by the of what a Zabrak Mandarin. A Zabrac Mandalorian.

SPEAKER_01 57:01

Yeah, it's like so it's so bizarre to me.

SPEAKER_04 57:04

You know, it's just well I want to go back to this cocaine thing because you can answer a question.

SPEAKER_02 57:10

Okay, I will try my best.

SPEAKER_04 57:12

I see in the movies, these guys will, you know, they'll do out lines of cocaine. So here's the question. Let me get right to it. Do you actually snort whatever's there? Do you suck it up your nose?

SPEAKER_02 57:25

You do. Oh my gosh. You do. The th what they have is they is they have a there's all kind of different stuff, but the th the thing I had on set was it's a uh it's a rice powder. So when the the basically really almost like rice flour, yeah. Ground up really. So what it would basically do would be like really intense dust, and it would just go straight in your nose and stop. Oh man. So you could do two or three takes and then just clean out, wash your nose out, like kind of nitty pot deal, right? All that. Um but that that's there's so many different at least you got stunt pay for that. I did get a little I did get a little bump, if you'll have it, stunt bump. Um with that. So but you'll have so many different things that the the the people that set props up and things are so they're so good. They're they've been doing it for so long. They have the ins and outs like just yeah, it's nothing.

SPEAKER_01 58:25

We have an amazing prosthetic guy here in Western North Carolina. I mean, he's probably one of the best in the world. And he kind of retired out of prosthetics, and um he came to Western North Carolina because his family was from here and settled in and had his family. And so we get him for like when we did that bear movie um called The Shelter, it's about a bear that's chasing a woman around the woods. It's fantastic. He made these huge arms that are like bear arms that are prop arms to come through the cabin windows, and then he did like a meme series with his bear arms, and he's like right to bear arms, you know. Oh god. I mean, there's just some of those funny, you know, these prop people and their sense of humor. But we do have like some really fantastically talented former LA or former Manhattan folks that are here that just wanted to like not pay five thousand dollars a month for their rent anymore. Yeah, and wanted to raise their families where they could put their kids on a bus and not worry about it. And that those are the kind of people we tend to find in our Asheville group of just our editor is is really fantastic. He was in um New York for years doing award-winning work and he wanted to come home to Hendersonville. Um the James is in uh uh Canton.

SPEAKER_02 59:36

Canton, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:37

Yeah, and then um our main director, Ben, he's in Asheville, and he has a really deep background in LA too. So it's just people get tired of the hustle.

SPEAKER_04 59:46

You know, I just I just um heard something on TV that LA or Hollywood is not Hollywood anymore because it's spread out all over the United States now. People don't want to be in Hollywood for whatever reason. It could be political or financial or or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:08

Safety.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:09

Uh safety, yeah. Uh and they're moving to different parts. Uh apparently Atlanta, Georgia is a hot spot right now for making movies and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:19

They didn't go there for safety. I'm not allowed to say that. Um now I think you're you're really dead on right there because a lot of the technology has allowed so much more mobility with everything. And the fact that you can have you don't have to be in necessarily in downtown movie city Hollywood to be able to find props and to be able to, you know, get lighting and things like that to that you couldn't, you know, fifty years ago, you couldn't you couldn't dream of making a movie without bringing Hollywood with you. Yes. And so there's so much more freedom to create now. And it's actually I think you know, uh getting prodded along every day by you know the str the streaming of uh the quick 30 second spots and one minute things that we see. Everybody's a content creator at on some level if they want to be. And so that just makes making film and stuff just get a little easier and a little easier. With that you have a lot of bad stuff coming, but there's you know, it makes it easier for uh good people with good intentions to make to make movies a lot easier.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:36

Well do you think that the the best market for just a viewer like me you that indie market sounds pretty good. It sounds like you could catch a pretty good film once in a while.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:49

It's hit or miss.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:50

It's hit or miss. Just like she said about scripts, you know, you it's hit or miss, but there's a lot of there's a lot of good people that that are making really good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:02

Um I would say if you stick with platforms like Amazon, Tubi, where they embrace the independent films, uh by the time it gets bought by a Netflix or a Hulu, they're gonna chop that thing so many different ways to make it fit their standard format. Right. That they're gonna kinda they don't always, but a lot of times you see a lot of the original intent get changed a little bit by the time it hits an owned platform like that. But those that kind of take the the pieces in their native form, I I have a lot of respect for that. Now they still go through quality filters, and that's having those distribution partners that kind of say this film's passed a quality inspection, it's it's high enough quality to go on TV, even though it's indie, you're still gonna get that with the tubies and the Amazons of the world, without it getting, as I like to say, the guts ripped out of it, like it's gonna happen on some of the ones that buy it and just re re chop it. So I like those two platforms a lot for indie films. YouTube is where you start to get questionable because anyone can there's no gatekeeper. There's still a little gatekeeper with like an Amazon or a Tubi for that quality level and for some level of storytelling, someone's watching it and evaluating it. Because some films do get kicked back from those platforms. It's it's a little more rare, but with YouTube, anyone can upload anything, and there's really no way to tell if it's like me and you in our backyard with our plastic swords acting out a movie, and there some people enjoy those pieces of content, it's just a different cinematic experience. Right. Right so at least there's a certain level of standards. So that's kind of like the in-between to me right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:48

The parts of indie film that as as an actor that I enjoy is you get to see different people than you would see in a big budget movie. Um there's a lot more chances for people to uh be in movies, just like me, you know. Right. Um and I d I love the fact that there's not as much uh promotion and trailer and spoiler of indie movies as there are some of these big you know, if you you're waiting for a year for a a form the Formula One movie is a good example. If you're waiting for a year for that thing to come out and they're gonna spend close to a billion dollars on it or whatever they spent, by the time it gets out, there's no way it can live up to your expectations. Yeah. And so, you know, as as good as it can be, you're still gonna want to be really, really, really blown away by it. Um but with an indie film to me you don't really have that expectation, and so you can get a lot of pleasant surprises of of what you experience.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:55

Well, I think an indie film can be a little more um cerebral. You know, you you kind of have to think your way through an indie film. Uh you go in thinking it's a space movie and it's about birth. Exactly. You know what I mean? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:10

Jim, what's your favorite film?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:13

My favorite film.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:14

Yeah, you're in the hot seat now. I've hijacked this interview. It's your film.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:18

Um well, I have several. You know, one that I really like that I okay. Here's some that I I watch over and over, and I shouldn't, but I do. One's called Down Periscope with Kelsey Grammar. That is a funny one. I remember that. Yeah. Uh I can't help it. I I watch it. I do like the longest day. See, there's kind of a little bit of a flavor there. I d I tell you, I watch Maverick, Top Gun Maverick over and over. I liked it. I like the scenes. Uh I'll I I'm not a f here's where politics has come into it. I'm not Overly fond of some of the characters in real life, but in that movie they play Patriots and I like that. So I think that's good.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:13

What was the last new release you saw?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:16

The last new release was probably uh Top Gun. We went to the movie to see. Oh. And we uh I hate to say this, but we like Paddington Bear.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:30

Oh, but it was so cute.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:33

We've seen all three of them. We like them all. You know, the first one was great, and then the second one was good. The third one, they changed some of the actors. Um I think the mother changed still. I like contracts. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:51

Renegotiating.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:52

Renegotiating those contracts. What do you think quality-wise? What's your movies?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:58

Oh, I watch terrible. I'm I'm for somebody who works in film and entertainment, I didn't really start watching movies till really late in life. So I missed a lot. A lot. It's appalling of how many movies I haven't seen. But my favorite movie is Wayne's World. I have trash taste in movies. Yeah, it's really bad.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:16

Yeah, that is that is trash.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

She she loves a good uh a good comedy, nothing too suspenseful or stressful. Um Well, what about you? I I've got I'm kind of like you. I've got some some that I watch over and over again. Um probably one of my least uh uh one that I get the least uh weird faces when I say is Jaws. I think that's one of my favorite jaws. Yeah. Um because I I I love uh I love Robert Shaw's character in the he's so good. One of the b I think one of the best performances ever.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:55

That was your audition monologue, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:57

Yeah, I did I actually did that that monologue one time for an audition to to get an agent and then it worked.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:04

Well, uh it's got the line, you know. It's got the line. You're gonna need a bigger boat.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:10

That's probably my my number one. I love all the old 80s action flicks, you know, the the Schwarzenegger movies and Stallone and all those. I really I really love those.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:22

Um I'll tell you a good uh let's see, who would that be? Schwarzenegger. I can't think of the name of it, but it's it's one of his last ones. He's the sheriff in a in a Texas town or or a Arizona town or something down close to the border. Yeah. And there's a Corvette in there that's doing like 140 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:48

Hold for space chickens.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:50

Yeah, yeah. I hope we're not on fire. I can hear the fire trucks coming.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:55

They're really uh they're really laying on that horn.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:59

They got a lot of Marion traffic to navigate. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:02

You got the when we were shooting uh Don't Say Earth, we shot that in a small outbuilding in Asheville that we rented, and the people next door had chickens. Yes. It was like it was I mean, it was a yeah, but it was like insulated correctly, which was kind of amazing from like a soundstage. The building was amazing. But sometimes the chickens would get going out back, and we could not put enough padding to stop the chickens. So we would literally get on the PA and say, Hold for space chickens, and that's what our you know, our sound guy would know to cut for a minute while we let the chickens calm down.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:42

Well, the name of this show is On the Porch, and we are literally on the porch. So uh we just put up with whatever we get. You know, come with me. It doesn't matter. Uh well we have we've more than blown through an hour. That went fast. So what do you want to say?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:01

Good night and good luck.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:04

Edward Armuro.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:06

I I've thoroughly enjoyed this. I have too. It's great to sometimes you don't realize the things you've done until you kind of have to go back through and and say them. And it's kind of those uh uh I think that's what memoirs are about for people they they write their memoirs and yeah kind of reflect on what they've done.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:25

But and we've we've sat in here and had coffee and cookies and stuff, uh, which we're about to do. You know, I had no idea that I knew you did stuff like that, but I didn't know what it was like. And I didn't know what you did. I thought you were Nobody knows what I do. Yeah, I figured you were some kind of secret agent or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:45

Not anymore. I got out of that.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:46

Well, let me let me just touch on a couple of other things a little more serious before I let you go, because part of what I like to do with this podcast is sometimes people listen who are thinking of stepping out and creating a business or going out on their own. Maybe not brick and mortar, maybe it's on the computer. I'll start with you, Betsy. What what what do you think the chances are? Should they should they take the step or should they just call crawl back in their cocoon and be safe and make an hourly wage?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:25

That's a tough one. Yeah. Because it takes a lot of tenacity. Right. And there's a lot of days that you have to sit with yourself and rally yourself. And so I would say to do whatever you feel like you can do, and I would really say to do it the smallest steps that you need to do to move forward. Because taking a huge leap isn't always the right answer. Sometimes it's incremental one-inch punches that that really move the needle. And I would say to anybody who's thinking about it is look at your own daily discipline and what you're willing to do for yourself. Yeah. And if you have the tenacity to even develop a morning routine for yourself before you have to go to that nine-to-five job, it will just grow naturally. But if you can't rally yourself that extra 15, 20 minutes in the morning that turns to a half hour, that turns to an hour to make space for your thoughts and your dreams and your mind, then you know, maybe wait until you can do that. Because it's the mental discipline to work for yourself is something that people talk about a lot. But to actually build it is very isolating, and you have to be ready for that. And it's easier when someone's holding you know $15 an hour over your head or whatever your salary is that you need for your survival. Yes. Um so I think until you've learned how to build that muscle, maybe don't jump, but try to ease in and just keep moving forward, whatever that looks like for you. I think people are really hard on themselves. And I think people talk a lot. Sometimes it's better to be a little quiet, to move to California because you're working at a sandwich shop and then surprise everyone with your acting career than it is to just talk a big game and then get out there and disappoint yourself. Whatever you do, you gotta be proud of yourself for what you're doing first. And if you can cultivate that feeling in yourself, you can keep moving forward, and it's really hard to keep moving forward.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:45

What do you think? Well, listening to her say a few things that that I would say too. Um But I think if someone wants to start a business or change a career or something like that, I I think really good practicing it is something, especially in you know, with with acting and things, go take an acting class if you like it. Oh, yeah. You can do it in the evening, you know. It's it's there's a lot of those around, even here, you know, up in Asheville, there's there's places. Um and do it with some friends. You know, it's it's fun, like she said, to get the to get the script out. You can get a script of anything, even your favorite movie, and act it out with friends. I you know, it's it sounds it sounds like a playful thing, but that's what acting is. You you play someone else. Um I think that's a great a great way to to get to get in. And I think that if if you want to do something like that, you gotta give it a shot. Don't don't bank on it, for sure. Right. Because it you know it has to be something you want to do no matter what.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:02

Would you go on uh the stage if they had uh theatrical productions again here in Marion, would you consider that?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:12

I would definitely consider that. You would? I would. And I always, you know, I always growing up th we had some theater and things, and I never did any of it. I was like, ah, that's I don't want to really get into that. Um that's not what I I want to I was more uh focused on the maybe the heroics of an action movie or something like that. Right. But I definitely now I would I would probably I would be very interested in it. Um I think that it's great for people to to do it. I think the acting builds a lot of character for real life. Um I think it definitely helps people know how to interact with other people and and carry on in you know, some sort of different manner than maybe they maybe they don't get anywhere else. Um it gives you a freedom to express how you think a character would be and it makes your brain work a little different. And I think that's a great thing, especially for especially for young people um that want to get into it. Even older people. It kind of gets you out of your box. Yeah. Um a lot of people kind of get set in their ways and they, you know, I'm just this this kind of person. Well, if you get handed a script and you have to be a different person, right. You get to get out for a minute. And I think that's a I think it's a good thing. And that the the stage would be a a great a great thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:41

Well, this has been fun. Okay, last chance, nothing else you want to say?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:47

I would say thanks for having us in the world. Oh, this is a great thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:54

You two didn't mention your recording for Christmas. Oh we didn't.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:00

Another thing. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:02

We're always doing something. I mean, that's fair. So Blake also sometimes sings. Yes. So if anyone wants to hear Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, you can search on iTunes for Blake Watson's version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. On iTunes.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:19

So there's a beautiful picture of a little golden retriever, the best boy, as the cover.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:25

And uh check it out.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:26

It's one of those things like we mentioned earlier. If somebody asks you what you've done, you you almost always can say something different. So that's that's the kind of life we want to keep living. Just keep doing things.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:38

Well, that's because we were never boring. Never boring. When have you ever talked to either one of us and been like, man, the Watsons, they are so boring. I wish they'd get a life.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:48

No, it has been. I I'm amazed at how much time we burn up here, and it just seems like it just started. So um I've enjoyed every minute of it. I want to thank you both for coming. Thank you for having us, Joe.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:01

It means a lot to be on your list of people to chat with. Uh well. That's a big list.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:06

Yeah, it's getting to be a big list, and it's been a real pleasure. So let me tell you what's coming up. Let's see, in the next uh week or so, we're gonna have we're gonna talk about Lake James, I guess, and all the things you can do out at Lake James and the physical layout of the lake. Steve Little is coming back, and we're gonna talk about trains again. Had a lot of uh emails about Steve coming back, but he's coming back anyway. So uh he's gonna come back and and talk about uh building the railroads from Old Ford up to Ridgecrest. We're gonna do that. Have a great lady, uh Kim Clark. I've never met her. Uh I know of her. She is a radio voice, uh very articulate, and I'm looking forward to meeting her because she's gonna talk about the Marion Massacre. Uh she knows a lot about it, and we're gonna I've always wanted to talk about it. Somewhere in the future, hopefully, An Swan is coming back, and we're as I mentioned to Betsy here, uh An Swan is coming back, we're gonna talk about some ghost stories. Let me do a couple things. We're we're a four-mic unit uh at last here in the studio, and uh I want to once again thank High Tech Sam for coming up and setting us up, getting our mics working. We've we've always have troubles when you're dealing with a computer and four microphones. It seems like it's a pain, but he comes up really at the drop of a hat. So he will take care of your com this is not a commercial, this is one neighbor to another. Uh it's High Tech Sam 828-460-4529. If you've got a computer problem, uh give him a call. And this week, uh, you know, I was delayed a little bit of my podcast, so uh I want to thank uh Shirley and the team over at Messino for getting me back on my feet. And I want to thank Dr. Ivey who listens to our podcast and the crew over at uh Mission Hospital at McDowell, uh in the emergency room, and all those guys on the second floor. Uh except that one guy that comes in at 2 o'clock in the morning to wake you up and and make you away yourself. So uh thank you guys once again for coming in. I really appreciate it. Uh it's the it's these kind of folks that we have in Marion that I want folks to know about. These are the jewels that are hidden away, and it's worth bringing them to light, and I think you'll enjoy them as a listener to this program. So join us next week here on the porch.