Jack Topalian: From Business to Euphoria, Unscripted

Hollywood has been casting this man as the villain for 12 years. The mob boss. The criminal. The dangerous one.
His family fled the Armenian Genocide. His uncle fought the Nazis. And this country looked at him and decided he was the threat.
Jack Topalian plays Nasim/Naz in HBO's Euphoria — a role that became one of the most talked-about Armenian moments in television history, almost entirely by accident. The Armenian coffee cups, the cigarette, the unscripted Armenian dialogue with his on-screen bodyguard — none of it was in the script. He asked for it scene by scene, and the show's creator said yes.
In this episode of INSIGHT, Emma Sargsyan sits down with Jack Topalian for a conversation about Hollywood, identity, masculinity, fame, fear and what it actually costs to keep being cast as the villain.

ABOUT JACK TOPALIAN
Jack Topalian is an actor known for his roles in Argo, Shock and Awe, True Detective, Ray Donovan, Emily the Criminal, Clipped, Duster and HBO's Euphoria, where he plays Naz. Born in Soviet Armenia, he came to the United States at age ten and spent over four decades in business before pivoting to acting.

ABOUT INSIGHT
INSIGHT is the first Armenian-English language power and culture podcast in the United States, hosted by Emma Sargsyan. Distributed across all major podcast platforms and across the global Armenian diaspora.

TIMESTAMPS
00:30 How the Euphoria role happened

04:00 The unscripted Armenian coffee scene

09:00 Has he ever been the villain in his own story

12:00 The biggest lie successful people tell

16:00 Why he pivoted to acting after 40 years in business

21:00 Being Armenian in America at age 10

27:00 The night he drove home drunk

31:00 Method acting and what it does to the mind

36:00 The critic question

38:00 Masculinity in Hollywood today

42:00 Why Armenians keep playing the villain

48:00 What he actually sacrificed

51:00 The accidental audition through his children

55:00 If social media disappeared tomorrow
#Euphoria #JackTopalian #Hollywood #ArmenianAmerican #INSIGHT #EmmaInsight #Acting #Masculinity #ArmenianCommunity #Identity

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Hollywood has been casting this man as the villain for twelve years. The mob boss, the criminal, the dangerous one. His family flew and escaped the Armenian genocide. And this country looked at him and said, You are the threat. Well, first of all, thank you, Jack, for being here today. I was really very impressed with the Euphoria, especially the finale. Euphoria is one of the number one show in the world right now. I want to start from the very beginning. How did you end up there? What happened?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

How did I end up in Euphoria?

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

That's an interesting twist. First of all, thanks for having me. I appreciate being here. Um, you know, just going through the casting process. My agents said that they were looking for a character. They wanted to see me in person, so I went in in person, did my role, then they called me back for what's called a producer session. Where the the director, producer, all of the all of the big shots, they get to decide if I'm the right person, and that was that.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

There you are. You mentioned that initially your character was not supposed to be Armenian, and you twisted and changed the script. Let's speak a little bit more about that, because I I didn't want to speak about it off the s off the record. I want our audience to hear that as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Well, originally the character's name is Nasim. Nasim is not an Armenian name. Nas for short, as he says in the in a in the text. But then later on, when the writer-creator Sam Levinson found out that I'm Armenian, I think we him he implemented some things in there. And then in one of the scenes, they had set up my office, because they have set designers. They had set up my office with uh with some Armenian artifacts, and then I saw these little coffee cups that were sitting there, beautifully painted coffee cups. And we were initially gonna do the scene with Jacob standing up, but then Sam said, Why don't you sit behind the desk and then Jake will just, you know, will just kind of be brought to you, kind of a thing. So I said, okay, but if I'm gonna sit there, I saw some coffee cups over there. I said, I want to drink Armenian coffee. And they said, Oh wow, that's a great idea. And then the second thing I said, I said, if I'm gonna drink Armenian coffee, I have to have a cigarette too. So they brought me a cigarette. So in the scene, that's how it kind of came about. And then uh Sam gave me the freedom to speak Armenian. That was not scripted, that was something I came up with. Because I felt that it called for that. You know, that he would talk to his uh bodyguard right-hand man Artur. I would tell him something. Alisanaboyach, how tall are you?

unknown 2:55

Why?

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Why? I need a fucking reason. Why? Six five? You're not lying to me, are you? No. Arthur Alari Saramia Boy Child.

SPEAKER_04 3:14

Oh, she's working her fucking ass off, man. I'm doing everything that I can. Please. No.

SPEAKER_05 3:38

What the fuck am I?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah, that's unfortunate. You know, a standard coffin carries a man 6'3, 6'4, tight. That's a custom job. Well, time will tell. It's not our car rock image. Look, she's working, she's working real hard.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

That was the most disgust, the most impressive uh part of the finale, and Armenian media was just blown up with that. Everybody was writing about how um Armenian language, Armenian uh coffee cup with Armenian letters, Armenian flag was again on the top one show, and it turns out this was not scripted. Well, thank you for that as well. Um, you have played the villain in many, many shows. The mafia boss, the mob boss, the the the the the bad guy. I want you to tell me, frankly and honestly, because as I mentioned in the very beginning, I don't want to make this about euphoria, although it's it's a great, amazing show.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

I want you to tell me, has there been a situation in your life when you have been the villain of your own story?

SPEAKER_01 4:57

I think we're all villains at some point in life. You live long enough, you become uh you will have some enemies and you will have some people who will not like you. I mean, it doesn't have to be that dramatic like in the movies, you know, where they're out there shooting each other or anything like that. But obviously, uh you know, I don't all I don't always play villains. You know, I've played a lot of different types of characters, obviously, but uh that's just life. You know, I've stopped worrying about what other people think of me because I can't control other people's opinions. So if you do something, somebody's gonna like it. Somebody's not gonna like it, somebody's gonna be in between. It's not my job to let them know or to tell them how to think. My job is to do what I do. Now, if they don't like it, then it's a free country. They can do whatever they want. You know, as long as they're not hurting anybody, I'm okay with that. But I've never had a situation where anybody, you know, does anything stupid or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

You know, like have you felt that you are like at this moment, you are doing something which is wrong, but you have absolutely to do that, and that makes you the villain of your story.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

No, I try not to do anything wrong. I mean, obviously, you know, if you do it in unconsciously, that's different. But uh I know pretty much what I'm doing most of the time.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

You know you're in Hollywood. You are in this star-studied area uh of the world, and um there are a lot of successful people, people who try to seem successful, people who are successful in real life. What is one big lie or something, one big thing that successful people hide from us regular people?

SPEAKER_01 6:41

The the level of success that they have. Real successful people don't have to prove that they're successful. That's the key. The lot of the people that we see that are trying to look successful, most of the time are not successful. They're trying. You know, as an old saying in Hollywood, you fake it until you make it.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

I was going to say it like that.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

You know, but I think if you know who you are and you're successful in whatever you do, business, life, politics, personal life, whatever, right? You don't really have to show it. You don't have to prove it. But usually, you know, I meet a lot of people in life and they're always throwing their resume at me. Oh, you know, I did this, I did this. Well, it's great. They're proud of what it is, but you don't have to constantly tell everybody.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Seeking validation?

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Seeking validation. So I think if you do, like again, you know, it's like I play a character on television or in a movie. If I did my job right, then the audience is gonna judge me. Right? They have their opinion. The same thing with life. If you're successful, you're doing it for yourself, you're doing it for your family, you're doing it not uh whatever. You're doing it because that's the drive you have and you want to succeed in whatever it is you do, right?

SPEAKER_03 7:58

Yeah, but Hollywood is all about validation. Like you have to have your audience, you have to have your fan base for you to lend more roles, lend more TV shows, lend more movies. If you don't show yourself as a successful people, fake it till you make it. Who is then going to be your fan?

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Like who who Well no, but when I say fake it till you make it, I mean if you're on a show or if you've done movies and you have a resume, that the people in the industry they will see that. But if you come on a red carpet and you don't have any credits, you've never done any shows or anything, and you're pretending to be something, well, people are gonna know. People in the industry, they know. They're gonna say, okay, you have a, you know, you look, but what what's your resume? What have you done? That's what I meant. But so if you've done something and another casting director likes it, then they will call you in for possibly another project. There's no guarantees. Even if you're very successful in Hollywood, there is no guarantee. I know very many successful uh artists or actors, A-list actors, people that you know on a day-to-day basis, they have been turned down for roles.

SPEAKER_05 9:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Because the director or the producer wanted somebody else for that role.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

So it's That's completely normal. Sure. You mentioned about the business. You have been in business for 40 years, and then Don't make me sound that old. You have been okay, we'll cut this up. You have been in business for uh for some time. For some time, not a long time. Uh and then you shift it. You immediately shifted because of the COVID, because of the economy. The business was no no longer working, and then you decided you need to seek something else. And you ended up being an actor, which statistically is um not like if you don't succeed as you did, but you did not know that you were going to succeed, right? If you don't succeed, you are not you were not going to earn a lot of money after the business that I'm sure brought you a lot of money, income, and revenue. What made you do this shift and what made you pivot towards acting, not something else? Like you did real estate, you could have done something else, but then you decided, no, I'm doing acting.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Because it's something I I didn't think about it, I didn't plan on it. It just happened. I didn't like wake up one day and say, I want to be an actor. I was when I was younger, I never wanted to be an actor. Not I mean I loved movies, but I I never said that one day I'm gonna be an actor. It just accidentally happened, but once I was in it, I really liked it. And it wasn't during COVID, it started longer than that. Um so but the thing that keeps me going is the belief in myself. Um, you have to have faith, you have to have confidence, you know, in yourself. That's where it starts, really, that I'm capable of doing this. Kind of like what you're doing. You have faith and you believe what you're doing, and over time it gets better and better and better. So acting is the same way. But, you know, I just do what I do, and then I let others judge me. Meaning the casting director, the producers, the director, any audience. I don't ever judge myself like, did I do good, did I do bad, did they like it, did they not like it?

SPEAKER_03 11:29

And the best evaluation of your work is the new roles that you are landing. Now that you know that you are very good at what you are doing now. Did you ever have the feeling that somehow the past years that you spent doing something else could have be could have been a little bit better if you had chosen the career of the actor from the very beginning? Does that thought come at some point to your mind?

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Well, it has crossed my mind at some point, but then I can't change it and I can't do anything about it, so I just let it go. That's the thing. I don't have any control over that. So I don't dwell on it, I don't focus on it. You know, I'm not one of these guys that wakes up one day and says, I wish I did that. No, I will do it. If I want to, like if I want to go to this restaurant or I want to go travel to this country, then I will go do it. I don't think about it. I figure out a way that I could do it because most people I think only want to do it, but the key is to actually jump in. Jump in, do it. So what if you fail? Big deal. What's the worst that's gonna happen? What's the worst ca you know, I mean that's just it.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

It's you you you'll just fail and that's it. The worst thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Or maybe you learn something and then you do it again. And when you succeed, and then you improve, right? Oh, you know, you say, Oh, I I made a mistake here, and uh, you know, and then you go, how do I correct this? And then you try again, and then try again. Look, life is all about progression. You just have to constantly be improving. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Throughout this show, I have interviewed s some people who came from Armenia at some point in their life, they became successful, and all of them mentioned one thing to me. In order to be chosen in a country different of your origin, you have to be better ten times, at least twice, than everybody else here. Because who would choose someone that immigrated from a different country when you have your locals who are doing the same thing? Do you agree with that? And what did you have to be better at ten times in order to be chosen as as well I agree that you have to be better than whoever you're competing with.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

I don't know if it has anything to do with to do with the country you're from, because America is a country of immigrants. Everybody's from some from some other country, whether they came recently or they came 50 or 100 years ago, s they all came here. But I do believe that whatever you're doing, it's like when you play sports, you have to be better than the next guy. When you open a business, you have a sandwich shop, and the guy next door has a sandwich shop. Your sandwiches have to be better. So I think that is true. You have to be better than the next person if you want to succeed. But, you know, for me personally, I don't think it has anything to do with where you're from. I've never felt it, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

So you came to America when you were 10 from Soviet Armenia, and your family survived Armenian genocide. Great family. And you have been living here ever since. Have you ever like continuing the the topic of the immigration and and living and working here? Have you ever felt like you don't belong here somehow in in a way or another? And like, has that 10-year-old Hakop ever spoke to you like you don't belong here, you have to go back to Armignor or something like that?

SPEAKER_01 15:07

At first, yeah. At first it was hard because when I left uh when I left Yerevan, I'm from Yer Orkmas, you know, it's like one of the best places in the city to be. I had a lot of friends, I was a good student. My teachers like told my parents, why are you taking him to America? Anyway, so at first, yeah, you feel that plus you come here, you don't know the language, you don't have friends, I got into fights at school. But then, you know, eventually you kind of settle in and you you adapt. You assimilate into your society, into your the area you're in. But you know, I have a lot of I have a lot of uh non-Armenian friends, but I also have a lot of Armenian friends.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Here or in Armenia?

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Here in and in Armenia. In fact, I mentioned like one of my friends is, you know, um a few of my closest friends, they come and go, they come and go. But so I have a lot of families still in Hayastan in Armenia. But you know, at first it's always tough when you come here. I think for new immigrants, for new Armenian immigrants, when they come now, it's easier because especially when they come to Glendale. Because Glendale, you don't even have to speak English. They're all Armenians, all the stores, restaurants, everything, the Armenian television everywhere, you know. So it's a lot easier. When we came, we were living in San Francisco.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

We had one church, most of the Armenians were from Lebanon or Iran or Iraq, you know, different, not too much from Armenia. So it was harder for us to adapt.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

And you did not have this community that we have now.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

SCP says the carually attack.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Oh, shutlava. You mentioned about decisions. You mentioned about not regretting anything. But I'm more than sure that you have done some decisions that were ruthless at that point when you were doing. I want you to speak about those because people watching this show are going to see the successful person, the successful businessman who turned into a successful actor. And I want you to tell one or two ruthless decisions that you have made that shaped the jack that is sitting in front of me right now.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Not ruthless, but reckless, I would think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, I made a lot of mistakes in life. And sometimes I think maybe I still do. You know, sometimes you think about it more now because you're an adult, you understand, but you know, sometimes we still make mistakes. But younger, when I was growing up, uh, one of the first mistakes I made was uh I'll never forget, uh, I started going out to nightclubs with my friends, and one day I drank too much and I drove home. And the thing is, uh I forgot. I got in my car, I left the nightclub, I got in my car, and the next thing I remember is I'm opening the the door to my house. I don't I don't remember how I got there. I completely, I don't know what happened, black, and I opened the door and it's like three o'clock in the morning, and my dad is sitting in the couch. He never is up. He was asleep always. And he's sitting in the couch and he looked at me and he said, How are you? I said, Good. And uh he said, Go to sleep. We'll talk tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Was the car safe? Were you safe?

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was safe and I didn't thank God I didn't get into an accident, but that was the last time I did that. The next day my dad said, You know, you came home drunk. Do you realize that? What could have happened? You could have killed yourself, you could have killed somebody else. And that like automatically for me was like, I'm never doing this again. So that was a mistake I learned early on, but I got lucky, honestly. Because I know sometimes young people they drink, they they think they're invincible.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

Nothing will happen. You know, especially in the Armenian community, there's this group of people that say, I drive better when I'm drunk. Have you heard that?

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Many times.

SPEAKER_03 19:23

That's not true. That's so not true.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

You're just lucky, that's all. Yeah. The problem is you think maybe you drive, but then your reflexes are slower. If somebody cuts you off or whatever, you're not going to be able to, you know, do anything about it.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

You mentioned in one of your interviews, and I want to quote, that you do your job and live, that you do not take the role home with you. I want to challenge this.

SPEAKER_05 19:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

Because it's impossible, to my opinion, and prove me wrong, it's impossible just to leave your character at the set and then go home and then completely be out of that character. Because I have read stories and I've read articles about actors uh studying the character, working with psychiatrists and psychologists to get into the character and get in depression in the end when the movie is over, when the shooting is over. How can you do that? How can you just do your job with, be the Naz on the set, and then go home and be Jack?

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Easy. First of all, I can't take the clippers with me and cut somebody's toe off at all. But it's like, no, that's a different kind of an actor.

SPEAKER_05 20:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

You know, like Al Pacino is that kind of an actor, or Daniel Day Lewis. They're called method actors. Method actors stay in character 24-7. That's the way they're trained, and that's the way they think they could perform the best. I am not a method actor. I choose not to be a method actor because if I am, then like you said, I have to go home and be that. But you know, my training allows me to do that, you know. So when they yell cut, it's cut. Even when I don't even go home, you know, we go sit somewhere and have coffee with the other actors. It's really bad. I'm scared of your dad. She said you should be. He's a good looking guy, he's a playboy. I mean, he's a nice guy.

unknown 22:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

So yeah, method actors, they stay in character the whole time. I am not one of those actors. I choose not to be.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

So is it different or like okay, method actors, but I want I want to know the de not the difference.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Well, it's a b there is a difference. I'll tell you a quick story. Daniel Day Lewis, who's got, I think, two or three Oscars, he's one. He's one of the best actors ever, right? Um he when he played Abraham Lincoln, I know somebody that worked on that movie. And they basically said they didn't meet Daniel Day Lewis until the movie ended.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Because they met the character.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

The whole time he was Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States. One of my friends, Chas Palmenteri, is very close with Al Pacino. He's done theater with Al Pacino. He says when Pacino is in a role, he is that guy the whole time. We go to lunch, he's in character. We go to dinner, he talks like the character. Like when he did Scarface, Al Pacino, he was talking like Tony Montana all the time. The whole time I'm Tony Montana.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

What does that do to human psyche?

SPEAKER_01 24:14

No, it's just it's very difficult. I mean, all of a sudden people who know you no longer know they no longer know you. Or they know you as Tony or whatever you are. So that's difficult. That's why a lot of actors don't do that. But it's a special style of training.

SPEAKER_03 24:31

If I gave the microphone to your critic, a biggest critic of yours, not a friend, not a fan or a hater, a critic. Okay. And they would have 60 seconds, what would they say about you?

SPEAKER_01 24:45

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Can you guess?

SPEAKER_01 24:48

I have no idea. You know? That's their job, not mine to worry about. I honestly I can't. It's out of my control. Obviously, as a human being, as an artist, you want somebody to say positive things and good things. I mean, let's let's talk about it. Nobody wants anything bad to be said about me.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

I'm the best, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Yeah, you know what I mean, but uh it's not it's not my place to judge myself. You know, I think I did a good job, but at the end of the day, the audience judges you or the critics. And a critic may not like something, but the audience likes it, so who knows?

SPEAKER_03 25:29

I want to touch upon a topic which is very salient at the moment, and especially considering that we have Hollywood, it's a topic of masculinity. With all your roles, you have proved that dominant masculinity. And you are an Armenian man, solid Armenian man who came to Armenia. Your uncle was a Nazi resistance warrior, he fought against your family. Fled the genocide. The men in your family have been defined by fighting and getting their place under the sun. And now you're in Hollywood. An industry which is in the middle of a complete renegotiation, what masculinity actually means, what men are allowed or not allowed to be, to say, and to look like. What do you think is happening to men right now? Is this masculinity slowly fading away? Or are men dying in in a sense of the boss?

SPEAKER_01 26:26

I I don't know. I think it's an individual choice, you know?

SPEAKER_03 26:30

But do you not see a pattern?

SPEAKER_01 26:32

I do see a pattern, but I see a lot of other patterns, you know? I mean, I do see movies where you still have tough guys, you know, masculinity, like that recent movie that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck released on Netflix or a lot of other movies or TV shows that come out. There's a there's a lot of masculinity still. But, you know, obviously there's other types of things too, but that's for the audience again to judge. Uh there's always a change, you know, that happens in society. And the movies and art form in general, they reflect what's happening in society. But I don't think it's lost. I think men are still men. It's their upbringing or the way they choose to live. If they choose not to be like that, then that's their choice.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

Hollywood is all about luxury cars or beautiful people, beautiful faces. Luxury, okay. Luxury cars. How in your opinion, how much of it is fake and how much of it is the real one?

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Look, it's like anything else. There's the side that most people see on you know, like you said, on the red carpet, you see it in the news, you see it in the movies. But uh behind all of that, there's real people. So when I work with these people like Denzel Washington, like Sidney Sweeney, like Jacob Alordy, whoever, Woody Harrelson, a lot of these guys, yeah, they're big names, big stars, but when the cameras and the lights come off turn off, they're just people. If you treat them with respect, they usually treat you with respect back. That was that's been my experience. I've never had any issues with any of the big stars that I work with. I've actually liked them and I've enjoyed being around them. And I hope that the feeling has been mutual because it's felt that. But at the end of the day, they're just people. That just happens to be their job. So when they're out on a red carpet or they're, I don't know, doing something and uh paparazzi catches them, they have to hold up a certain image in public. But when they go home, I'm sure, you know, they put on their pajamas.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

Oh, I was going to say that.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

You know, they put on their pajamas and slippers and they sit in front of the TV, maybe put on something and watch a show, or just barbecue like the rest of us. You know, it's possible.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Are we exaggerating Hollywood as it is?

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 29:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Yes, we are. I think I think the audience makes it bigger than what it really is, you know? Uh because this is just entertainment. It's just entertainment. It doesn't mean that these people live like this. Like Denzel Washington doesn't go around like he's the equalizer. He doesn't go around killing people and doing all these things. He's just a regular guy. I actually like him a lot. You know, you can sit, you can sit and talk to the guy about everything. He's just a guy. He's got four kids, you know, he'll tell you a lot of stories.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

He's a dad.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

He's a dad. He has great advice, you know. So I think it's the audience that wants to see more of that glamour and glitz, which is fine, you know. But I think at the end of the day, when you see a star in a restaurant, they're just regular people, you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

They came here to eat.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Yesterday I was invited to my cousin's wife's birthday party, and we were at this restaurant in Tarzana, and uh I noticed the like the young waitresses recognized me. I mean, I could see that we were like a party of 15 or 20 people. But I'm there like everybody else. We're eating the food, we're drinking, we're laughing, we're but then as we were walking out, one of them says, Excuse me, are you are you Nas from Euphoria? I said, Yes. Oh, we loved your character. And that was great, but you know, they didn't bother me because they saw I'm just a regular guy, I'm there for an event. And that's what it is. You're just a person. That's just a job.

SPEAKER_03 30:48

But on the other hand, we have these stories of celebrities, famous people being mean to regular people. Like a person approaches, wants a photo, and they just walk away. Um like we have the other side of the story.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

I've seen it too. I've seen it too. And that option it does happen, obviously. There's but sometimes you have to see what the what is the reason. Because maybe that person, I don't know who it is, uh maybe everywhere they go, everybody bothers them and they're just sick of it, and maybe they just snap at that moment. And I'm not saying it's right. You should not be rude, you should not be, you know, you should be nice to people as much as you can be. But then sometimes people will get in your face and in your sp like if that person was sitting there having dinner with his wife or child, and somebody comes over, hey, let me have your autograph or let me take a picture with you, and that happens all the time to that person. Maybe at one point he's just gonna say, please.

SPEAKER_03 31:45

Enough.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Enough. I don't think there's any room for being rude or being nasty.

SPEAKER_03 31:51

And again, there's the other side of the story, and I want to speak about it, is the online hate. I'm sure even you who you you mentioned that you are people like your character, people you have gotten some hate. And many people uh How do you know that?

SPEAKER_01 32:07

I actually haven't.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

You have a woman.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

No, a lot of people like my character.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

A lot of people do. I did film an episode of my show and I got so much hate.

SPEAKER_04 32:16

Why?

SPEAKER_03 32:17

Um, because it was controversial. And people like it sometimes it seems that they have nothing else to do than just sit behind the screen and be the lions. Hey, I'm coming. And so these celebrities are subject to that hate as well.

SPEAKER_05 32:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:32

And then you cannot accuse them of being mean to one fan or a person because they might have gotten so much hate for nothing. Maybe because their role was not good, maybe because their appearance was not, maybe because they reached some hate, a regular person sitting behind the screen says, Oh, I wanted to be like him, but I didn't. Well, let me just say some bullshit about him. So there again, there is the other side of the coin, right? So if if a person is mean, so then why? So you didn't get any hate?

SPEAKER_01 33:07

No, honestly, I didn't get any hate on this. You know, I've had uh, you know, just the Armenian community with saying, why are they portraying Armenians like you know Criminals? Like criminals or gangsters or whatever. Listen, first of all, it's a role. So those are the only kind of hate, if you will, I've gotten. Not to me personally. They don't they don't say anything to me about, you know, about me, Jack Topalyan as the person. They're more about the character I'm playing, which is again, they're entitled to their opinion. I don't have a problem with that. But, you know, at the end of the day, uh it's a role, it's a character. Like my next role that I'm playing, I'm gonna play a different character than what I was on Euphoria. I'm still gonna be an Armenian. So I'm wondering now how is the audience, or those people, like you said, that are hating, how are they gonna see that image? It's interesting. I'm curious to see when it comes out.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

I was going to ask you that question uh too about Armenians being portrayed as the criminals, the mafia bosses. Why where does that stereotype come from?

SPEAKER_01 34:21

I don't think they're always that. No.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

Mostly, like when you see, yeah. We uh I think it was in Rukki. The the in the Rookie you had an Armenian gang. No? That there was an Armenian gang again that they were chasing the so Armenian people are Portuguese.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

No, I think that was the Lincoln lawyer you're thinking about. I don't know, in the Rookie, maybe in the Rookie. In the Rookie as well. I haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Look many times you see the when you see the bad guys, it's the Armenians. Why is that?

SPEAKER_01 34:49

Well, maybe because the story takes place in Los Angeles, and Armenians live in Los Angeles, and the writer, instead of making him Chinese or Mexican or Cambodian or whatever, this time they decided to make him Armenian. I don't know what the thinking is, but I don't think Armenians are always portrayed as bad guys. I mean, you know, you could I've played Armenians before. Now it's a good guy, like the new show that I'm gonna be on, which is coming out next week on Apple TV. I play an Armenian.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

You're going to be the good guy, the good Armenian.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

You know what? I play a boxing trainer who's who's training a price fighter. And basically, my gym has the biggest Armenian flag. So I and my office has all the Armenian a-da, you know, all the stuff. So it's it's again something I had to do with a little bit. I talked to production about it. So it's going to show my character in more of a positive way because Armenians are good in boxing too.

SPEAKER_05 35:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

There's a lot of famous and a lot of very well-known Armenians that are boxers, unlike even Amarman Sarukyan. Yeah. He's a wrestler, MMA fighter. I mean, he's one of the best right now.

SPEAKER_04 36:06

So, after all these years of hard work, and as we know, every hard work comes with a sacrifice.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

It's not like a textbook question, but I'd really want to know what did you sacrifice to get to where you are right now.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Well, I still haven't gotten to where I need to go. I'm still going.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

Sacrifices on the way.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Well, there's always sacrifices. You always uh I don't know what am I sacrificing? Time? But then I'm enjoying it. I'm doing it on my so I'm not really sacrificing anything. My children are grown. You know, um I'm content with my life, you know, so I have time to do the things that I really want to do, pursue it. So, you know, I'm not feeling guilty that I don't spend enough time with my children because they're adults now and they have their own lives. Well, we spend a lot of time as it is together. But I don't know if I'm sacrificing anything. You know, I think I'm just enjoying the ride. I'm having a lot of fun. But I'm still going. So I haven't reached, you know, I don't want anybody, your audience or whoever to think I have made it. No, there is no making it. It's constantly going. I'm lucky and fortunate and grateful to be where I am, but it's still a lot of work. I still have a long way to go.

SPEAKER_03 37:47

But what did you sacrifice before? At some point, wasn't it hard for you, or it has always been easy? Whatever you want to say.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

You know what? I'm I'm one of these guys. I love to keep busy and I can do multiple things.

SPEAKER_03 37:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

So I'm never, you know, I the the no word in my v in vocabulary doesn't exist. Like in what's my champkara, that doesn't exist for me. I can't do it. I I'll figure out a way. It's just the way I'm programmed, maybe. I don't know. But um so whenever I'm like not acting, I gotta do something else. I'm always busy doing things, you know? Um so as far as sacrifice, I don't know. I honestly can't think. I haven't neglected my family, I haven't neglected, you know, my friends or anything like that. You know, I've always I always find time for everybody while I'm still working.

SPEAKER_03 38:39

Are your sons pursuing the same career that you did? No. No. But I'm not sure if I read it correctly, but I had this when I was researching you, you walked into the casting room for your son.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

Both sons.

SPEAKER_03 38:52

Both sons. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

And then they have a daughter too, but she was not doing it at the time.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

And then they ended up choosing you as the actor. So your sons went for a casting. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

It wasn't like that. It was uh they were doing casting for children. But the casting directors not only cast children, but they also cast adults. So it wasn't like for one role. They just kept asking me, Are you an actor? And I would say no. And then I said, Why you guys keep asking me this? Because they said you have a look, you know, you maybe, you know, maybe we thought we saw you in something, you know, that kind of a thing. So my children pursued that for a while, but then they got tired of it. You know, and their kids, they're like, we don't want to do this anymore. So they decided to do something else. They're adults now, they're graduated universities, they're they have successful jobs, you know, they're both engaged to be married. So and my daughter too, she just graduated university, so I'm very proud of all of them.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

That's and I want to ask you a question that I always ask because people are I have diff different audience. People watching this show right now, there might be people who are in the middle of something, like in the middle of pip pivoting from one area to another, or they look at you and they okay, how did this guy do it? I want to do that. What would your advice be? And I really love how you mentioned that you don't have the word no in your vocabulary, and you always find solutions, you always keep yourself busy, especially the part about enjoying the journey and not just running to get into one point and saying I made it. That that that all is is very good, it's very beautifully packaged. But how do you actually do that in real life? Because real life is so full of challenges, like you have many challenges.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

But what's not a challenge? Getting out of bed is a challenge this morning. Putting on your clothes, jumping in the shower, finding, you know, the nearest Starbucks could be challenging. You know what I mean? It's like everything is a challenge. But if you only look at it like As a challenge. As an obstacle, as a challenge, then it's always gonna be that. But if you look at it like, okay, this obstacle came, but I'm gonna overcome it, then it makes it, you know, then that's how you pursue it. So my advice to people who want to do things, whatever, acting, whatever they want to do, they should just do it. The problem is, in my opinion, the way I see it, people have an expectation. Without doing it, they already think if they did it, they're gonna do that. They're gonna become that. Like, you know, if they want to buy this car, okay. Maybe it costs $400,000. You can't afford it. But you can try to buy it at some point. You know, maybe you have to find another job. Maybe you have to, you know, do whatever you gotta do. At some point, you are capable of buying that if you really want it. You figure out a way. I think people just want instant relief. Instant relief. Like I mean instant uh gratification. Yeah. They just want it like, oh, you know, if I if I go to an audition, I'm gonna get the role right away. No, you know how many auditions actors get turned down for? A lot.

SPEAKER_03 41:59

Even the big ones.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Even the big ones. They they audition like some of them, of course they do.

SPEAKER_03 42:06

Okay. Oh yeah.

unknown 42:07

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

If you're if, for example, Ridley Scott or David Fincher or whoever, another big director, is like uh, you know, Christopher Nolan is making a movie, and an actor wants to be in that movie, Christopher Nolan has the final say yes or no. Maybe they don't want that actor, they want this other actor, of course.

SPEAKER_03 42:29

Somehow I thought that like big ones, they get asked and you just get it?

SPEAKER_01 42:35

If you're right for it, they may give you the job.

SPEAKER_05 42:37

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

But if you're not right for it, you know, there's a there's a story, it's a true story. Uh Leonardo DiCaprio knew um that Quentin Tarantino was making the movie, what is it called? Um not the hateful eight, um Django.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

Okay, Django Unchained.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Django Unchained. So he heard that the script, Tarantino wrote a script, and he got the copy of a script. Long story short, he called Quentin Tarantino. It's a true story, and he said, Quentin, can we meet? Come to my house. So Quentin comes to his house, and DiCaprio convinces him that he's right for that role. Quentin says, Listen, I don't see you in that role. When I was writing it, I I was thinking somebody else, but then DiCaprio, whatever he does, magic, I don't know what he did, but he got the role and he was perfect for that role. So it's not always, you know.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

Okay. That that's something new to learn. Um we're fully dependent on social media. Everything is on social media TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. If that disappeared, Jesus Christ. We are all heavily dependent on social media. Yes. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok are a part of our like we wake up, we scroll. If social media disappeared tomorrow, what part of these successful, glamorous uh people would lose everything they had?

SPEAKER_00 44:10

And what what people would okay, yes, gone.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

And my last question.

unknown 44:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 44:24

If social media disappeared tomorrow, no Instagram, no TikTok, no LinkedIn, no YouTube, which successful people in your world would lose everything? Not because their business depends on it, but because their sense of who they are depends on that. Because without the audience, they just don't know what to do or who they are.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

Well, I don't know people in my world, but I think influencers, you know, people who make their money on social media, YouTube, you know, like if it's all about likes or the number of viewers, those people would obviously lose market share. You know, but actors like I would go back to where what what it was like Jacob Alordi, he doesn't have Instagram or y you know, Facebook or any of that. He's an actor. He just goes to work, he does his thing. Same thing with Denzel Washington. He doesn't have any of that. I mean, I have it, but I'm not dependent on it, you know. Uh but I think people who would you know who make money from social media, I think, yeah, they would lose, of course.

SPEAKER_03 45:32

How was the life before that? How how were actors communicating with their audiences? With the help of press, newspapers, magazines, TV?

SPEAKER_01 45:42

Yeah, all of the above. Yeah. Of course. It was different, you know. We didn't you would actually go to casting offices, you would leave a headshot, you would do you know, you would do things a different way. But now it's everything is digital. You email people or you send them little links or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 46:01

So thank you very much for this interview. And I really hope for the second one.

SPEAKER_00 46:08

Okay, looking forward to it. Thank you.