Entertain This!
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Join Hayden, Mitch, and Tom with upcoming movie, tv show, and game news. Listen to reviews and off the wall facts, while providing a comedic spin with our opinions on the matter. Join us for amazing behind the scene interviews. The one true original "Entertain This" podcast.
Entertain This!
The Man Behind the Voices You Know: James Urbaniak
From accidentally stealing the spotlight on David Letterman's show as a teenager to voicing beloved animated characters for two decades, James Urbaniak's acting journey reads like a masterclass in versatility and perseverance.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Urbaniak reveals the unexpected path that took him from New Jersey community theater to New York's experimental off-off-Broadway scene in the late 1980s. With remarkable candor, he shares how challenging theatrical experiences—like performing a 75-minute solo monologue in "Tom Paine"—helped develop his craft before independent filmmaker Hal Hartley introduced him to the different demands of screen acting.
Fans of Adult Swim's cult classic "The Venture Bros." will delight in Urbaniak's behind-the-scenes stories from his 20-year tenure voicing Dr. Rusty Venture and other characters. He recounts the surreal experience of having a makeup artist on the set of an HBO film tell him she was more excited to meet the voice of Dr. Venture than Al Pacino himself—a testament to the profound connection voice actors can forge with audiences.
Urbaniak's philosophy of acting—describing himself as "a skeptic who likes to be surprised"—offers valuable insight into navigating the entertainment industry's inherent uncertainty. Whether discussing his brief but memorable appearance in Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," his experience playing Robert Crumb in "American Splendor," or his current work on Apple TV+'s "Palm Royale," Urbaniak demonstrates why character actors are often the secret ingredient that elevates productions across all media.
For aspiring actors, film buffs, animation fans, or anyone fascinated by the creative process, this conversation provides a rare glimpse into the life of a working actor who has successfully built a diverse career by embracing opportunities across multiple entertainment platforms.
Hello and welcome back to entertain this a, a podcast about movies, TV shows and video games and today, interviews. I'm not joined by Mitch and Hayden. They decided to flake out and not be here, so I'm manning the podcast on my own, and with me I have James Urbaniak. James, how the heck are you?
Speaker 2:I'm great and I'm happy to be a guest and co-host by default. I always wanted to co-host a podcast.
Speaker 1:And now's your chance. Here we are. We'll add it to your list of credits, I see. So, james, I mean, what a career you've had. Ah well, starting from, I guess, 1983, where you went on stage on the Late Night with David Letterman, all the way to now, well, that's before I turned pro.
Speaker 2:That's when I was a civilian that was a civilian it was an incident.
Speaker 2:I loved that show at the time I mean I still do. And yeah, I was in the audience and he came out and told a joke. I was very excited to see the show. I lived in New Jersey at the time and of course the show was taped in New York. So I got tickets had to do this through the mail. Back then there was no internet, as young people may not realize this, but no home computers. So I sent her my tickets. I got them in the mail.
Speaker 2:I went with my friend Anthony and we went to the show and I had seen the show the night before and in his monologue the night before he started to tell a joke and he fumbled on the words and he he just went on to the next thing. So the night I'm there, the day I'm there because they taped during the day, he tells the same joke and fumbles it again Twice and in a moment of youthful enthusiasm, oh, and then he said by the way, he said, oh, damn it, this is the second night. I screwed this joke up and he kind of took a beat and then, without really thinking, I piped up can I try it? And he laughed and then invited me on stage and then I told the joke somewhat poorly. I was like 19 years old at the stage. And then I told the joke somewhat poorly I was like 19 years old at the time and then I went back upstage and that was that. But I was thrilled.
Speaker 2:I'd never been on TV before. I was vaguely interested in acting, but I was nowhere near thinking about that seriously. So, and as soon as I got on stage I could see myself on the monitor. I remember he's a tall man, I'm 5'10" but he's taller than me. So I'm like looking up at him and I remember thinking, was this a mistake? But then I just kind of went for it. And then I had an old VHS tape of that in the 80s which I accidentally erased at one point. No, and time went by. The internet became a thing, youtube became a thing, youtube became a thing and someone found that clip and posted it on YouTube. And I must say, much to my regret, because I look at that tape and I'm like that is a very awkward. I'm not the suave character you hear right now, tom, I was a gangly, awkward youth, but it's history and that was my brush with greatness. But then it was quite a while before I would appear on television again as a professional actor. So that's the Letterman story.
Speaker 1:Is the Letterman, I guess is that what started your interest in doing this. Like you got up there and just kind of in the back of your mind was like you know, I could probably take over late night.
Speaker 2:They don't need letterman well, I gotta say I was. I was interested, I was drawn to acting and at that time I was going to a community college in new jersey, uh, and doing a lot of plays there and also doing like community theater and stuff. So I was very drawn to acting as an amateur. But at that time, at 19, I thought I wanted to be like something else, like I was studying graphic arts in school and I was a cartoonist and I thought I wanted to do something like be an artist or a graphic designer or something, and I just acted for fun. But eventually the acting is where all my energy went.
Speaker 2:But I do remember that moment very well. It was certainly my first time in a TV studio. Do you remember the joke? I do remember the joke was something to the effect that the New York prison system had instituted a lottery and I think in real life the lottery was some sort of parole thing. Right, if your name came up, you might be eligible for parole early if they thought you were suitable. So that was the concept. The New York prison system had instituted a lottery. Then the punchline was inmates can win a chance at a brutal crime spree. It's very Letterman joke.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a pretty Letterman, kind of sounded joke.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and the phrase brutal crime spree is very Letterman, I remember I love Letterman, so I tried to put kind of a stress on that. You know, kind of italicize those brutal, brutal crime spree. But I was young and nervous and awkward and I didn't sell it particularly well. And then he kind of did a a kind of okay, kid, why don't you just get back up there?
Speaker 1:that's like uh, there's great moments like that. I gotta say that's.
Speaker 2:That's a tribute to what that show was at that time, late night with david letterman pre-cbs the original 12 30 nbc show. Very early in that show's history. It had only been on one or two years and there was a anything can happen quality to that show. I don't think he would have invited someone down on the cbs show later, like in the 90s.
Speaker 1:No, I think at that point, probably not. Which?
Speaker 2:is not it which is. I don't have a problem with that. He changed the style of the show, changed somewhat, but there was a real unpredictable quality to Late Night with David Letterman and so that was sort of in keeping with the spirit of that show. He just let crazy things happen and he was still a master broadcaster and comedian later, but I think he was less interested in that sort of anarchy, that kind of loose filming, what's that?
Speaker 1:that kind of like loose filming and show set up was just like oh, you know, oh, you think you could do better. Will you come up here? And just you know, people are coming right out of the audience. Yeah, that's like with the who he always interacted.
Speaker 2:He's always interacted with audiences. He would always do things where he'd come up and talk to people, so that was part of his vocabulary. But yeah, I was young and I was just thrilled to be there and I just saw my moment.
Speaker 1:Do you think you'd ever do a recreation Like we get David Letterman and it's like, hey, we're going to do a, do a throwback, we're gonna do it one more time and have you come up now?
Speaker 2:I mean I, I, uh, I think I would be. If I ever met him again, I guess I'd have to bring it up right have you met him? Since I'm not proud of it.
Speaker 1:No, no, never, no he's got to remember it.
Speaker 2:I'm sure he does it's possible, but he did a lot of shows. So you know that was something I'll never forget. But you know he's he's he's done a lot, so it it may not ring a bell for him. It was, it was 40 years ago.
Speaker 1:My god, oh man I remember letting him I mean I'm lackable march of time yeah, he keeps marching on and on and on every year I get up and on a birthday and it's like man why does my knee hurt now, or my neck, or my back. Now, looking at all these television credits or film credits, there's a couple of credits that stuck out to me in a different genre that I wanted to talk about first Video games.
Speaker 2:Ah, yes, I've done a few. This is funny because in real life I don't really play any video games. It's slightly generational. As I said, I was 19 in 1983, so they weren't a thing back then. I do know people my age who are into them. I just never kind of got into them. But you know, I'm an actor and I do do voiceovers now and then, and so I've done a few voices on games and then another irony is that my wife is the art director at a video game company, so she actually works in the industry oh, does she. And that company actually hired me to do some voices once. And I've gotten some other VO gigs through the connections I've met through my wife. But yes, so I've done voices in several, but I haven't played them.
Speaker 1:It might be, I guess, the generational thing. My parents their big gaming experience was Nintendo 64. Sure, and I'd wake up in the middle of the night.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of weird. I don't like games in general, like if I'm with a group and they bring in a board game I will play, but I'm not very competitive in that kind of thing. I just sort of audit the game.
Speaker 1:Well, we try to be competitive, but then it just descends in the anarchy and madness as we start yelling at each other or just giving each other, or we just end up having a whole conversation while we're just mindlessly playing and then all of a sudden all of us died. And we look around it's like, oh, we were doing, oh whoops.
Speaker 2:You know what I like to play time is the game of life.
Speaker 1:That's, that's, that's the game I like to play. I want that as an audio clip button, the way you said that was master not that I mean lovey but just for anybody who's listening and doesn't have access, to just look this up immediately. I mean credits for video games, manhunts one into and that's going to my youth avatar the game for the.
Speaker 2:James Cameron film. I forgot about that one Actually fallout. Vegas Fallout. New Vegas is a popular one. A lot of people like that one. I play a character named dr o, who is also known as dr zero, and uh, that's a popular one. I'm also in the new uh uh, the new republic, the star wars video game, where I play uh a uh, an android c2d4 or needles not c3po.
Speaker 2:He's got different letters and numbers, but you know a sort of high strong android I mean we've got the code name steam the magic circle destiny 2, the final shape, the big expansion that came out not long ago I mean I've done, all done, all these things, but I, I, I go in, I record and then that's that, and then other people play them.
Speaker 1:I will say there's been a huge uptick in uh actors who you know in film and on television shows coming in to do video game voiceovers.
Speaker 2:Oh sure, and because they, a lot of them, have gotten very sophisticated you know and cinematic. And so they'll get you know and their vocal performances become important. So, yeah, I don't have anything against them and and and you know, obviously I just personally don't really play them and. But you know, I've done a lot of TV procedurals but like I haven't seen every episode of Law Order or whatnot, I don't think I've ever met a person who's ever seen every episode of Law.
Speaker 1:Order. I don't think it's possible to watch all of it in one lifetime in this game of life, exactly.
Speaker 2:Now going back to the acting career itself.
Speaker 1:you said you started out in theater. Oh yeah, what was your first theater experiences? I myself had not acted in a stage play, but I stood on stage and did a podcast once, and that's as close as I've ever gotten to acting well, I gotta say before I thought about doing this as a little kid.
Speaker 2:Just in elementary school, I was in some school plays and stuff and I was very drawn to it. Looking back, I know that I was. You know, it's a funny thing when you're a kid sometimes you're drawn to stuff you don't even know why and then later it becomes important to you as an adult, like whatever. Someone becomes an astronomer, and when they were a kid there was looking at the sky. You know, before you think about career, there's stuff that you're just drawn to. It's like in your DNA. So I think I did have a very strong connection with performing. I enjoyed doing it as a kid never professionally, just like school plays. You know stuff we did in class, doing little skits in school or whatever but I was always really drawn to that.
Speaker 2:And then when I went to this college I started doing. I really started getting into it. I did a lot of plays, but even then, like I said, I was thinking about doing other something else for a living, like being an artist or something. But then eventually the theater just took over. And then the big event of my life was I met a theater director long story short, a woman named Karen Coonrod and she was. At the time I met her. She was going to Columbia University to get a master's in theater directing. She'd actually been a teacher an English teacher in New Jersey but she actually started directing plays at the school and then thought wait a minute, I like this, maybe this is what I should be doing directing Can.
Speaker 1:I get paid to do this. What's that it's like? Can I get paid to do this?
Speaker 2:Can I get paid to do something that I'm really energized by and love Exactly, and that point.
Speaker 2:you're off to the races, so I was about to kind of switch careers or was switching careers, and I was a young slacker, I think at that point I'd like stopped going to college and dropped out. But I was just working day jobs and hanging out with my friends on the Jersey Shore, but always doing like amateur plays and community theater and stuff. And so I met this person who was really serious about doing this and we're in New Jersey and she said, well, I want to form a theater company, I want to go to New York and start a company. And then a little light bulb went off and I thought you know what this makes sense? And so that's what brought me into New York. So then we started producing ourselves. It was kind of like being in a band, like you know low budget affair. We had a core people that we work with.
Speaker 2:But then at that time in new york it was a very supportive and active so-called off-off-broadway community, like people doing most of the stuff. It was downtown in manhattan and it was really an exciting time where people were doing, you know, original plays and classic plays for very little money. But there were spaces. This is a long time ago. This is like late 80s into the early to mid 90s New York has changed so much Like most companies, I think, have gotten priced out of Manhattan. But back then we could actually like rent a space and do a little show and slowly but surely we got attention. So that's when it started being serious for me. But back then it was just about doing these plays and work and meeting other people downtown. In fact last night I went to a play in la by a great theater company I have a funny. They're called elevator repair service, but they're a wonderful theater company. They're called Elevator Repair Service, but they're a wonderful theater company that do these original plays and they started out like around the time I started out and they still exist. Like you know, 30 odd years later they're still doing these wonderful plays and same guy directs them, a brilliant guy named John Collins. So a lot of my oldest friends are people I met on that scene and many of whom are still involved in that.
Speaker 2:But then one thing led to another. I was in New York and you just kind of you put yourself in that position. You just meet people and eventually I met some independent film directors and that so the door opened up to doing some film and then eventually I got an agent and all that and one thing kind of led to another. But I basically spent my 20s doing like low budget theater in new york, quite happily, and and we're and always working day jobs. Uh, my day job was temping. I would temp in offices doing like secretarial work as someone who's from.
Speaker 1:I did like the typing thing as someone who's from new york myself uh, 90s, 2000s, new york just hearing the stories of 1980s new york it's like it was an. It was like a movie to everyone, like the way people just talk about how?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean it was back then kind of the pre yeah, because I moved in in the late 80s, sort of right before giuliani and the so-called disneyfication of manhattan. You know it was still like some 70s holdover. It was a little grungier back then had a little bit like, if you were. If you weren't looking to buy drugs. You didn't go past avenue a. It was considered a little scary, you know now. Now that's all like you know coffee shops the farther north.
Speaker 1:you went into Manhattan it was kind of like, eh you sure?
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, A lot has changed, but that's the nature of the city. I'm very glass half full about New York. Like you know, a lot of old timers go oh, it's not as good as it used to be. And I feel, yeah, everyone said that People in the 1950s were like, yeah, but you should have seen Manhattan in the 30s. It was much better, you know.
Speaker 1:People in the 1700s were looking back going man, those guys in the 1600s they really had it.
Speaker 2:That's right, and it just goes on and on and on. They knew what New York was about.
Speaker 1:Everybody. New York is New York.
Speaker 2:I love that city but I live in L now but I get back there fairly. I was there a couple of months ago and I love it.
Speaker 1:I feel bad. I have not been back since I left in 2006.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I still have family there and in New Jersey and, like I say, a lot of friends and also just work comes up fairly. They shoot a lot of stuff there, so I'll get like TV or movie gigs there.
Speaker 1:Now, with your theater acting credits or your experiences in the 1980s and these kind of like off-broadway productions and a lot of, uh, community college stuff that you guys were doing back in the 80s and the 90s, what was your, you'd say, your probably most challenging play you had to perform in?
Speaker 2:well, Well, I can tell you what that was A great play by a great writer named Will Eno. It's a play called Tom Paine. But it's not about the historical. You know. There's a guy named Tom Paine, revolutionary War. Yeah, it's not about him, it's more of a play on words. It's a guy who might be named Tom, who's in some kind of pain.
Speaker 2:But Tom Paine is a solo play, it's a one-man show, so it's like an hour and 15-minute monologue, so it's just this character talking to the audience and it's a really great play. This guy is like talking to the audience and then you start learning about him and he's funny. But he's also kind of neurotic and sometimes he gets kind of aggressive and acts like an asshole to the audience and all this stuff is going on. It's this sort of really interesting character study by a really talented writer who's also a very funny writer. So there's also a lot of jokes in the play and in fact the new york times reviewed it and they sort of said the character is almost like a stand-up. You know the way he.
Speaker 2:But it there's no ad-libbing, there's it's. It was scripted, so I had to learn a freaking hour and 15 minute monologue. I forget how many pages that was. You have to know all these words and then you have, and then it's just you. So normally when you're acting, you're part of the choices you make are based on what other actors are doing. You know when you're responding to each other and now and then you have a breather, you can temper your performance.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying you can pull like a richard harris but we had a great director and a great writer and we figured it out and that that was very satisfying creatively, but also obviously like a great challenge to just be up there by yourself. You're like, well, it's just me, so I better know what I'm doing up here. We worked hard on that play and it was very well received and it went very well, but that was definitely like one of the most challenging and satisfying plays I've ever done.
Speaker 1:Tom Payne, I mean that's got to be a very rewarding experience to be able to do an hour plus monologue. One man play, it's just you and you got all this whole audience are all just staring right at you and you're going through the gauntlet of emotion, to nail the certain aspects of the character and convey it to an audience.
Speaker 2:It was up to a fun thing in the writing where it's not really explained why the character is talking to people. It's just like he's some guy and he suddenly finds himself in front of an audience so he starts talking about his life, you know, uh, kind of like a stand-up would. Except the writing is much more. It's just different. It's a different style, you know. But there's also a thing where the character will like stop, he'll forget something, he'll get a new idea, he'll get distracted.
Speaker 2:And we really tried to make it seem like there was a balance where sometimes people would be like is james or benny act forgetting something or having a moment, or is it the car? It was always the character, but the idea was to make those moments so real that it gave the sort of weird tension to the performance you know, because that was what the character was like. He was kind of one of these classic unreliable narrators, you know. So he would like he would sort of trip up now and then and and it was interesting. So yeah, there was a lot to play with in that show and I I learned a lot doing that. That I apply to you know, other stuff where, you know, not solo performances just because it's a real workout when you're doing. You know, theater requires sort of different muscles than like film and tv. So that was like a very rigorous kind of workout.
Speaker 1:It was a great experience a few uh actors we had talked to in the past who had done had theater experience and then had transitioned into filmmaking or television movies. It's like learning how to walk all over again.
Speaker 2:Oh, totally yeah, because when I had done like theater in New York for about 10 years before I did a film, you know. So yeah, I had been acting pretty seriously for a while and then pretty much through my 20s and then when I got into my 30s I started to have some opportunities to act on film. And you start, you just kind of learn. You know there are things you can do. You start learning some tricks and some, you know, technique that suits film, you know.
Speaker 1:But as an actor you're still basically trying to do the same thing was there any, like, I guess, old guard kind of people around that like kind of pull you aside and, like you know, like basically just put you under the wing. It's like, hey, kid, like you're doing great, you know, try this well I gotta say yeah.
Speaker 2:Another sort of mentor for me was a great film director. He is a great film director he's still making stuff named hal hartley, who's a new york-based director. He's worked in the like the independent film world since the early 90s and actually the first film I ever did was a short that hal made like 1994 that parker posey was in, because it was the 90s in New York and you had to have Parker in it.
Speaker 1:Is it New York City 3-94? It's listed out as a short film.
Speaker 2:That's not the first one, but that's another short I did around that time that year in 94, I did a couple.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's called Opera no 1. It was a short, kind of a comedic, short musical thing. I sing in that but we're all dubbed so we're not actually doing our own singing in that. But yeah, and then a couple of years later Hal put me in a movie called Henry Fool, which was really my first big movie. That I mean it was an independent movie, relatively low budget, but it came out and it got reviewed like in major publications and it played in theaters. So that was sort of my uh. I did a couple low budget movies before that, but that was. That was one where I really learned a lot and Hal was a very good director.
Speaker 2:Hal's interesting because he used to go to a lot of that theater. I'm talking about that kind of off-Broadway theater at that time. That's where he saw me. He saw me do some theater downtown and a lot of his actors came out of that world. But he also was a very smart film director. So on the set when he directed he would give me some good advice now and then like, try it this way. It's almost a cliche to say do less. But he would say that sometimes because you know, sometimes you can be more effective in a movie by withholding an emotion than showing it, because then you're sort of. Then the camera sees the character struggling with something.
Speaker 2:Sometimes that's more interesting than just like I'm suffering, you know, instead of like screaming it out like I'm I'm in deep shit you know, in the theater sometimes the bigger gesture is good because you're in a big theater and you want to fill the stage. You know what I mean. But sometimes and there are there are exceptions to both these roles. But so he was very good at helping me sort of temper my instincts and kind of adapt to being in a movie and I learned a lot working with him as someone I worked with very early in my film career who's a very smart guy who understood sort of film language and stuff. So yeah, he hal was definitely and he was a little older than me so he was definitely I mean he was not that much older than me but he was definitely like a mentor to me and he was definitely like the hey kid, like I mean like an older kind of brother.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like hey, kid, you're effing it up out there, you're bombing, get it together, but he's an awesome guy and he's still out there making stuff I write.
Speaker 2:If people don't know his work, I recommend it. The movie we made is called henry fool, but I've done a few things with him but I really recommend his stuff. It's really good and interesting and very funny. Well, I'll definitely have to check him out, and we'll recommend him on the podcast and plug his stuff to later on at the end and this interview is like a list of these people who are very important to me, who kind of taught me stuff. It's a theme here.
Speaker 1:One question I do love to ask people because everybody's always had different experiences and seen and done a lot of different things and it's always fun to ask this question what was your big star struck moment? Where you're kind of like oh my god, that's so and so.
Speaker 2:So I've met. You know, when you're an actor I'm just a working actor. I'm not like famous, like Tom Hanks or whatever, but I do stuff and people know who I am in the industry.
Speaker 2:So now and then you rub shoulders with famous people. So I've met some famous people. I've met Tom Cruise, I've worked with Steven Spielberg, you know blah blah, and it's great. Those are fun experiences. But normally when I meet someone it's usually in a work environment or at some industry event. So if I feel comfortable talking to these people because I'm not like a guy in the street just running up to them, you kind of feel like, oh well, we're in the, we're both supposed to be in this room so I can talk to bruised or whatever you know, uh, and so you kind of play cool, you're kind of like relaxed and I'm usually very happy to meet these people. But I'm like, yeah, we're both in the same business.
Speaker 2:But the one time I was like a, a blabbering fan boy who could not control my excitement and this is very generational is the first time I met a member of monty python. I met eric idol. No way, you met eric, yeah, in la a few years ago. Um and uh, I was just like it was like meeting a beetle, it was like meeting paul mccartney or some. Because for my generation in particular, I like I was in junior high when monty python started showing on american tv.
Speaker 2:It showed on pbs and you know it's such a brilliant funny show and it was like unlike anything and you know we'd ever seen, and so I met him and I was just flabbergasted, because normally I'm like, hey, great to meet you, you know I'm james rubin.
Speaker 1:I'm james and I was like I.
Speaker 2:It's so nice to meet you, mr I hi, mr brave, brave sir robert I was just, I was stunned. I was beside myself and he, I gotta say he was very, very nice. He was very gentlemanly and very, very kind, but that was, that was the most starstruck I've been. And since then I've met Terry Gilliam and the late Terry Jones. I had the pleasure of meeting Terry Jones, another great Python. He sadly died relatively young.
Speaker 1:I think he died in the last five years.
Speaker 2:When I met those guys I was thrilled to meet them both, but I'd already met one. Python Idol was like you know. I popped my cherry with that one. But yeah, that was 100% the most excited I'd been to meet a famous person was Eric Idol from Arnie Python.
Speaker 1:I mean I have the movies.
Speaker 2:I have.
Speaker 1:Flying Circus, like the whole box set. Oh, forget about it.
Speaker 2:I'd lose it if I saw one of them in real life and I'm one of those annoying, nerdy middle-aged men who can, like, quote the entirety of their movies and sketches. You know, you gotta shut me up, it's not good like they, like, they forgot what they did.
Speaker 1:It's like you were in this, I know that was a big one I know there's a it's kind of like a running gag, uh where a lot of people mistake eric. Idol for michael palin and I suppose if you're not as serious a fan, you might make that mistake, though I would never like you and eric idol has talked about it because it happens to him all the time where people walk up and go, hey, like you're in money, but you're um senior travel shows.
Speaker 2:You're michael palin and then he's like once they call me michael, I immediately insult them, tell them to f off and I yeah, that's right this way, because I'm slowly ruining michael palin's reputation that's fantastic, and michael palin has the reputation of being like the nicest python you know.
Speaker 1:Yes, he does versus eric is, I guess, a little more. I know I'd love to meet.
Speaker 2:I mean I'd love to meet michael and I'd love to meet John Cleese. Obviously Then I'd have met them all. Couldn't meet Graham Chapman because he died very young In 1989. Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so being a, fan of the Pythons, I guess would that make you a fan of Fawlty Towers.
Speaker 2:Oh, totally. I mean, john Cleese is fantastic. John Cleese may be the best actor of the Pythons, just in terms of range pound per pound, just in terms of acting ability. Uh, but he's hilarious. You know, I know he's become kind of an. You know he's old, he's like a crank on twitter. Sometimes he seems a little like boring. Oh, you can't laugh at anything anymore.
Speaker 1:It's like just relax, man, you're, everything's fine and he's like coming from the guy who was the first person to say the f word on television yeah, I mean I, you know, I just take that stuff with a grain of salt, but I would be.
Speaker 2:I mean I would be thrilled to meet him, or michael palin for that matter.
Speaker 1:You know, I'd hope I'd have it together enough to be like hey, I know you, you're this person, I'm a huge fan, you have a great day. Instead of yeah, you know, hopefully standing just kind of like and everybody's like, are you going to say something? It's like how long have I been standing here staring at this guy?
Speaker 2:for 10 minutes, I call him by his right name yes I would hopefully call him, unless I'm feeling mischievous and I'm like michael cain. It's so great to meet you. I would love to meet mich Caine. Call him some other British Nick.
Speaker 1:Call Maurice McElwight, just to throw everybody off. Yeah, there you go, his actual legal name.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now looking through some of your TV credits, there's a show that I noticed on here that's pretty popular. I'm sure a few people have seen it the Venture Bros. The Venture, yeah.
Speaker 2:The Venture Brothers, the Venture Brothers, and you play. A few people have seen it the venture bros, the venture.
Speaker 1:yeah, the venture brothers, the venture brothers and you play dr venture, phantom limb, jonas venture jr and various voices and that show's been going on for 15 years.
Speaker 2:That show, yeah that the pilot for that premiered about 20 years ago and then, uh, there, there were seven seasons and a sort of finale movie that we made, uh, but there was often a very long turnaround between seasons. It was a small staff really, it was written mostly by just two guys and uh, so sometimes it'd be a couple years between seasons, which is why we had only seven seasons, but it's been on for over 20 years, uh, but my god, that's been one of the great gigs of all time, because I love the show. Do you know the show, thomas, do you?
Speaker 1:I've seen bits, and the one scene that, for for some reason, lives rent free in my mind is uh, they're doing the cavity search on brock samson's character yeah and he asked for the cigarette and they take it and they just give him the business and he clenches with everything he's got and breaks the dude's hand and starts swinging him around very brock played by patrick warburton.
Speaker 2:The great patrick warburton or putty putty from nine fell in so many great things and the family guy but I remember watching that.
Speaker 1:I remember when Venture Bros came out on Adult Swim, Because at that time in my life it was very much like what are you doing? Why are you watching Adult Swim? You're not an adult, You're a little kid. You're supposed to be asleep already and these shows would come on. It'd be Venture Bros and Robot Chicken and stuff like that. And I remember, I like waking up.
Speaker 2:It's like, oh crap, the venture bros are on and it's weird that 20 years later I'm talking to one of the actors. That's my longest running job and and you know it's a classic cult show. A lot of people don't know it but, uh, most people, who most of the fans, are like diehard fans. It's like it's. It's in my experience people either love it or they're uh, they're like what is it? Oh yeah, I think I've heard of that, but those who love it really love it and we have a very loyal and devoted fan base and that there is a thing where, because it had been on for so long, there's like whole new generations of you know people who are like you know it'sim. There's some mild adult content, so not everyone saw it when they were a kid.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Adult Swim has been on for so long and just like the shows I've seen come across, that channel is over 20-something years of my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very early in the original Adult Swim programming, you know, back in the OG days, but I loved being a part of that. That was just a happy situation where I got that because jackson public, the creator of that show, was a friend of a friend of mine in new york. So, uh, I just met him through this friend and then he had seen me act and he just thought of me for that part. So there's no addition, which was awesome. Jackson was just like I'm making this pilot, do you want to play this character?
Speaker 1:And I thought Are you going to give me?
Speaker 2:money. Yeah, sure, it wasn't even about the money. I wasn't even that much money at that time. You know, it was just like we were going to this pilot which might just be a one off, you know, maybe pilot which might just be a one-off.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe it'll never see the light of day, but then lo and behold, it's been on television for 20 years and then, 20 years later, I'm still talking about it and yeah, I I go. I do a little bit of convention circuit work, like comic-con, and I go to other conventions now and then where I'll do like sign pictures and stuff, and people are always very, very happy to meet dr venture, which is very nice. Because nice, because it's nice to connect with the fans. I got to tell you this is not really a humble brag, this is just a straight up brag. Please brag Brag away. I was because a humble brag is couched in a self-deprecating way, but this is not couched that way. I was doing it.
Speaker 1:So I did a movie with Al Pacino.
Speaker 2:It's called. It's called you Don't Know, jack. It's from a few years ago. It's like an HBO film about Jack Kevorkian, the like suicide doctor guy. Remember that guy, dr Kevorkian? Yeah, so Al Pacino did. It's a really good movie, directed by Barry Levinson, about Dr Kevorkian, and I have a nice little part in that where I play a journalist in Detroit, where Kevorkian was from, and I actually have a couple scenes with Pacino which was a whole other story, which was amazing. I'd love to hear that story too.
Speaker 2:Point of the story, point of this story is I'm in the makeup chair and there's a makeup lady and she's very nice. We're chatting. She's like so what else have you done? And I'm like I did this adult. I'm on this adult swim show called the venture brothers and she does what she stops. She's like what, wait, wait, who are you? And I go oh, I'm dr venture. And she literally like turns around, like oh, yeah, yeah, like she can't believe it, you know. And then she said to me she goes. She says james, you have to understand, al pacino sits in this chair every morning. I am more starstruck meeting Dr Venture than meeting Al Pacino.
Speaker 1:That is the level.
Speaker 2:And for a working actor like me who's not super famous, for someone to say I'm more excited meeting Dr Venture than Al Pacino, I'm like. Well, I'll take it.
Speaker 1:That's a. That is one hell of a compliment to be paid I made my day.
Speaker 2:But that is one hell of a compliment to be paid. I made my day it was. But that is the nature of the fans. They're so into the show. It really kind of connects with people in a in a wonderful way, but it's a really fun if people haven't seen it, I mean.
Speaker 1:I mean I'd recommend the show. It's really great.
Speaker 2:It's really stable if it don't swim and it has like the characters actually have like a dimension and you get to care about them as the years, seasons go on.
Speaker 1:They pitched you this show and you're just sitting there like it's doing the pilot and you're reading that first script, but you're just kind of looking through, going what the hell is the show?
Speaker 2:Well, I kind of got. I got the basic idea from the beginning, which, when it was conceived, it was basically a parody of Johnny quest, which is the old sixties cartoon about a boy adventurer and his you know, his adventurer dad. And then I got that the concept was okay. So dr venture is like a johnny quest who's grown up. His super cool adventure father casts a big shadow over him. He's not as successful as his father. So he's like grown-up, bitter, middle-aged johnny quest and not as successful as his father. So he's like grown up, bitter, middle aged Johnny Quest. And then he's got his own kids, but he's an asshole to them and his kids are idiots. So I got the basic premise that it's like a parody of the Johnny Quest thing.
Speaker 2:But then the show just went off. Then the show created its own universe. It has its whole own world and and then, uh, you know where, to the point where there's so much detail that I it's hard for me to keep up. Once, uh, doc hammer, who's the co-writer of the show, and I were at a convention and we were doing an appearance. We did like a q a and then the people running the convention had an idea and they're like we're going to do a venture brothers trivia contest and it's going to be you and doc versus the audience. Oh so the moderator read trivia like what was the name of this one character, and the audience totally won doc, and I often could not remember stuff. We're like I don't know Utah and the audience is like episode seven.
Speaker 1:you know blah blah Well, in season five, episode six, at exactly 12 minutes and 34 seconds in. Yes, exactly, but that was great because people really, you know people retain it and a career span where you are more exciting to talk to than Al Pacino, I mean for that lady anyway. For that lady I mean look through Oppenheimer, the Office, the Venture Bros, law Order, sex and the City, all these credits, video games, and you beat out Panic in Needle Park. The Godfather.
Speaker 2:Heat S park. The godfather heat son of a woman. Yeah well, he's amazing, he's great he's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:a small anecdote, I guess uh, my wife, she has not really, uh, seen as many pacino films as I have. And now she's looking at me up from the couch and starting to smirk because she knows exactly what I'm about to say. Uh, we were sitting there. I was like, oh, have you ever seen the movie Heat? And I was like it's like De Niro and Pacino together and they're on screen together, not like in Godfather Part 2 where you just get the flashbacks. And I was like you just, and she was starting to doze off and I was like you gotta watch the part and Al cocaine-fueled rage turn and yells at the guys like she's got a great ass, that's right. And it's become a joke in this house for months now of because and you can hear someone in the other room just start doing the rumble it's like she's got it and you know, splunge this appicino impression that's an amazing moment, because if you look at that, if you look at it just as a screenplay, that's just like a Jerry Orbeck Law Order type wisecrack.
Speaker 1:Yeah with that kind of look on his face and the sunglasses with the lube.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's like. You know what's-his-face is sitting there in the chair and Pacino is Chris. I'm spacing out, but you know the famous actor from the Simpsons who's? And if we had an audience they'd be yelling.
Speaker 1:They'd be yelling. The answer out is right now.
Speaker 2:If we had an audience, yes, now that everyone is yelling the answer.
Speaker 1:I can't think of who it is. I'm totally blanking uh, uh.
Speaker 2:This is what happens in my old age stuff starts to uh, stuff starts to fade away on me hank azaria yes hank azaria.
Speaker 2:My god, his name starts with an a. I should have just gone through the alphabet. Uh, hank azaria is this guy and they're trying to solve this stuff. And and they're like hey, they're talking about some woman who's you know. And and uh, and hank azaria is like I don't know, I don't have the answer for you. And and and then the cop, pacino's character, says yeah, because she had a great ass and you had your head up. It Like that's. That's like if that was on Law and Order, jerry Orbeck would just throw that away. Yeah, cause she had a great ass and you had your head up. You know that's what that line is. But Pacino makes it into a five course meal, an opera.
Speaker 1:It's its own mini show.
Speaker 2:And then Michael Mann shoots him from below, so it's even more heightened. You know she had a great. I mean that's a legendary moment.
Speaker 1:It's taking a throwaway line and turning it into its own mini film.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 1:That's what I love about it, the only other person, I think who could do it and it'd be as memorable would probably Christopher Walken.
Speaker 2:Just because it'd be another, do it.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Because it's spectacular, or something like that. Um, yeah, exactly. And uh, another guy who, early in his career, would have done it like that is gary oldman, who often went for the big choice.
Speaker 1:Yes, he would especially like uh leon, the professional gary old forget it.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's one of the great and it's funny because I was talking about like less is more tends to be the thing in film, but these are classic exceptions Gino and Heat, oldman and the Professional you know a lot of Nick Cage. He gets very big in a beautiful way.
Speaker 1:These are all really talented actors and his best line is a subtle line. I'm gonna steal the declaration of independence like he doesn't just yell, it's like we're gonna steal it. It's like, all of a sudden, it's like that's what. It's probably so funny that it's nick cage, because you expect like the wild kind of zany cage, but for him to dial it right back to one and just go, I'm gonna steal the declaration Like he's Bond. All of a sudden, it's like wait what?
Speaker 2:And again like yeah, and then, in contrast to like she's got a great ass and you had your head up and that's a throwaway, but I'm going to steal. The declaration of independence is a real big, that's an exclamation point statement, so that he goes the opposite. That's the thing about the original actors they. So that's the thing about the original actors. They'll kind of they'll trip you up, they'll do, they won't do what you expect.
Speaker 1:So in your experience, as you get scripts and do you kind of look for that line where it's like a throwaway, it's like hmm, it's like maybe I could put something extra into this.
Speaker 2:A little bit, yeah. I mean, yeah, when you get a script and you're going through it, I tend to make notations and stuff Like I like to have a hard copy, and then I take a pencil and I just like I start underlining things or I'll even use a highlighter, cause you, you know, you just try to find variation is what you're looking for. You're always trying to find a variation in what you're doing, so you know. So, yeah, you try to find, like, basically the thing that works is you just try to make it your own, whatever that is.
Speaker 2:So another actor might have gone as big as pacino on that line, but maybe it wouldn't be as effective because that just seems to come out of pacino's energy and personality, you know. So you kind of want to kind of do something that you know is true to yourself. But the fact is we all contain multitudes, as wall whitman said. You know we any one of us, you know, in any given moment of the day can be big, can be small. You know we all contain a lot of different emotion and variation. So it's just finding those variations, but trying to make them your own so they ring true, as opposed to like just doing an effect. You know, like you really believe, pacino is that guy and he, you know he sells it perfectly.
Speaker 2:He sells it because he's great at that, but you know, he doesn't always, he doesn't always do the understated, naturalistic thing and but it just rings true, it doesn't seem fake, it doesn't seem phony, it's just like this is the energy of this character, he's like this force, you know. So that's the thing I try to do. I think most actors do. You just try to. You try to find the unique way of doing it that reflects yourself. But you don't want to be too timid either, like you know. If it seems right to be big, go go big, try it you know a director will always go.
Speaker 2:Okay, we, the classic director, when they want a different take, is they say we have that.
Speaker 1:All right, we have that now, thank you.
Speaker 2:Most directors are really good at people skills, so they won't go. James, that sucks, they'll go. Okay, we have that, let's try one smaller. And we have that usually means, means.
Speaker 1:I don't know it's like, why don't we try that again? But you know, yeah, let's try another one a little different I don't know, let it go this day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't less acting this time. Okay, dial it back, rain it. Usually they're right, because the director sees the big picture. Sometimes the actor just sees that moment, but the director sees it within a greater context and that's important.
Speaker 1:It's important to have that, that eye, you know definitely that's why they got to be in the director's chair and making sure it all is that big picture scope. Now what you were saying with the scripts and going through and you're reading into a character, you're learning this guy and you're making your little notations like, all right, maybe go big here, go there. It's like, do you ever look at lines and go?
Speaker 2:I don't think my character would even say that well, uh, I tend to just uh, it depends on the context, because that that's definitely a thing where you need a certain connection. You have to be at a point where you and the director, and sometimes the writer, just have a kind of collaborative effort or environment. So yeah, so like, if I'm hired by steven spielberg and and you know, I don't have super high status on that set, I'm there to do, you know, probably a smaller part and it's. I'm just going to slow things down if I go. I don't think he'd say this, but, um, usually in that situation you just figure out why he's saying this. But I've done other films with directors. Like I've worked with writer-directors on lower budget things where I have bigger parts and they say, like, if you want to change the words or so I have had those discussions, but when I know that it's cool to have them, you know.
Speaker 2:When the timing feels right and it's a good moment to just work that in yeah, and the personality that you can just tell that they're like you know. And that does happen to a degree in film, where there is more of a looseness about the dialogue sometimes than like in a play, where the text is sacred. You know, you don't change. It is word by word, in that order.
Speaker 1:Don't change Arthur Miller.
Speaker 2:Chekhov or whatever you know. But yes, so I have done that when I'm, when there is a sense of give and take and that that's considered cool to bring that stuff up. But you know, I feel like sometimes maybe actors do that but it's just because they haven't figured out the key to the scene. So they're like can we change this?
Speaker 2:the uh but not always, but sometimes I have occasionally seen actors who kind of slow things down and they seem to be doing kind of a power thing, where they just kind of want to stop things because it's not so much about solving the problem of the scene as just them sort of showing some sort of power. Oh, do you know what I mean? I get what you mean. So I'm very aware of sort of where I fit into a given environment and just wanting to be it. I'm very collaborative by nature but I mean I have, like I say, done that where the director's open to it and it has been a good experience. **matt Staufferer Jr**.
Speaker 1:You have, mentioning that. It brought up an anecdote and it's Python-esque Terry Gilliam, when they were filming Time Bandits I can't remember the actor's name who plays the Supreme being or God, but they were- **Matt Staufferer Jr** Ralph Richardson.
Speaker 2:**matt Staufferer Jr** Ralph.
Speaker 1:Richardson. I knew it was Richardson. I didn't want to mess up his first name. I think it's Sir Ralph, Now passed away these many years.
Speaker 2:but a fantastic actor Awesome actor.
Speaker 1:And they were on set and they were looking at his script to see something and he had crossed out lines and written his own in red. And they were like why'd you cross these out? And he was like God wouldn't say that. With the most serious look on his face that they believed him.
Speaker 2:They're like okay, ralph Richardson's serious look on his face that they believed him. They're like, okay, yeah, well, you hire ralph richardson's, a big shot. So you hire him. You're like go right ahead, sir ralph, cross him out. Also, there's related to that.
Speaker 2:There's I think it was gary cooper who would be like I want less dialogue, I want less to say, not more to say. Or I don't want to change the line, I want no line, because he knew that a lot of film acting can be communicated just with a look. It makes maybe a character more interesting, especially if you're a leading man guy. If you say less, then the camera just catches you, catches your face and you're processing something and the audience is sort of leaning in, going what's going on? What's this guy thinking, and that can be very powerful. So a smart movie actors know the dialogue it's not about how many lines you have. It can be very powerful. So smart movie actors know the dialogue it's not about how many lines you have. It can be quite the opposite. That can also be a very helpful thing. It's like make me say less.
Speaker 1:I don't want to talk that much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, because it's cinema, it's visual. That's the primary thing about it. And I love words and language. I love playing characters who talk a lot and have flowery speeches. I'm into that and I think I sell that stuff well. But I also recognize that it's a visual medium and sometimes you can say more with a look than with a speech.
Speaker 1:Like John Wayne told Michael Caine years and years ago. He's like, hey, you're going to be a star, but remember, talk low, talk slow and don't ever wear suede shoes.
Speaker 2:And I got to say John Wayne is a classic example of that kind of acting, where you know less is more.
Speaker 1:Less is definitely more, I think, with a classic Western actor. I mean, I grew up on the John Wayne movies. And it was always just John wayne in that moment. It was never that really that character moves.
Speaker 2:He was a character yeah, well, he's one of those guys who I mean, he does adapt his persona from film to film, but there's basically a certain persona and a certain way of speaking that he brings to everything. And you know, that's the kind of leading actor style that I enjoy watching. And, on the other hand, I like the chameleon actors like Daniel Day-Lewis, or wherever Daniel Day-Lewis doesn't have a persona, he's whatever the character is. He changes his voice, he looks different. You know John Wayne, you know you're going to get John Wayne, daniel Day-Lewis, and they're both equally great. They're just In different aspects. They are their Different styles. It's like two different types of music. You'd be in a jazz and you're in a rock and roll. One's not better than the other, they're just different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people are like oh, chicago is way better than Led Zeppelin. It's like well, it's like they're both two fantastic groups that were, you know, storied careers, but at the same time it's like they're great, but in a different way yeah, each other exactly and I know Hayden would kill me if I didn't mention it and we bring it up and I wanted to save it for the end. Uh, wait, there's one acting credit that popped up. It's by his favorite director that you happen to star in is oppenheimer oh yeah, I have a small.
Speaker 2:I'm in it very briefly, but it was a great experience. Yeah, the great uh.
Speaker 1:Christopher nolan what was it like being on the oppenheimer set for your brief time?
Speaker 2:it was nice. I, I mr known was was very pleasant, but he was more just like, focused on the camera and stuff and there wasn't a lot of discussion with me. I play a colleague of Einstein's and I'm in a scene where Oppenheimer goes to talk to Einstein at the institute where he works. I'm there and but I got to say Caelan Murphy was a real sweet guy and, like I spent a fair amount of time talking to him and I got to say he's amazing in the movie, but he's, he's not one of these guys who likes to do some character between shots, like between shots. He was talking in his normal Irish accent and he was just very friendly and relaxed. Oh yeah, how are you doing? You know he's just talking to you and then you're actually is like, excuse me, mr Einstein, you know.
Speaker 1:I'm doctor Turn it on.
Speaker 2:He just turned it on Like the voice, that kind of mid-Atlantic American accent that he's doing in that movie, and then cut and then he's just chill Killian again. You know she'll kill you again. Chill killian, chillian, william murphy, but that was awesome. Uh, it's just fun to be a part of something. That was also great because you know, when you're like me, I do a lot of like, I tend to have big parts in small movies and small parts in big movies. So, like oppenheimer is one of the biggest movies of that year but I've been it very briefly and when you're an actor you tend to assume oh what if I don't make the cut? Like they don't really need me in that scene, maybe they'll cut it out. You know it's gonna be a long movie. So I didn't see the movie. I didn't go to any screenings beforehand. I paid a ticket and went to see it.
Speaker 2:you, know you paid to see a film, yeah, yeah, but you know this, and there's a million people in that movie. They couldn't bring everyone to the premiere or whatever, you know. Oh, and that was fine, that's normal. I don't mind that. It's not an issue at all that I wasn't on the red carpet for my like one minute scene, but I'm sitting there next to my wife and I'm nervous.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, but yeah, but maybe I won't even be in it.
Speaker 2:And I wasted $15 on this fucking movie. And then the scene showed up and like everything I shot is in it, and even like a little silent moment where you just kind of see me reacting to something. So I thought, oh okay, good, that's nice. And that Mr Nolan was like oh no, we can let this, this small performance land. We'll give this character credit, even though he's in it very briefly. Um, so that was really nice. That was sort of, because you know, my thing is, um, I once heard a description of uh were described as a pessimist who likes to be surprised.
Speaker 1:I've heard that quote before, but I don't Steven.
Speaker 2:Soderbergh quoted a friend of his saying. That's how he described himself and that's kind of my approach to acting. You're like, well, maybe I'll get cut out because you kind of have, you know, you audition for stuff you don't get it. You can't really let it get to you. So you, at least I, tend to operate with a bit of skepticism, pessimism, not even pessimism so much as skepticism. Let's amend that. I'd say I'm a skeptic who likes to be surprised. So you know, when you're an actor, when you're a working actor, it's very common that things don't work out Like I make a living at this and I'm very happy and I am in a privileged position, but I still audition every week for stuff I don't get. I have been cut out of things that I shot and I'm excited about that. I'm not in it. You're kind of just prepared for something not working out. So when you have a small part in a blockbuster and you don't know if you're in it, it's just in your head. But then when the scene goes by, you're like, ah, okay, good.
Speaker 1:When you popped up on screen, were you giving your wife the nudge like hey look, it's me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hi, oh, then I'm doing like a fist bump.
Speaker 1:It's like, yes, they kept me in the movie. Yes, exactly Because the acting career of the trials and tribulations. It's like being a baseball player. It's like you're going to strike out. There's no way, you're not going to, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you're in the show, as they say, and that's a cool place to be. You might get on base.
Speaker 1:You might hit a home run, you never know. You just gotta, you just gotta keep swinging at least, and it's fun.
Speaker 2:It's fun to try before we start.
Speaker 1:Uh, wrapping up, I always want, I like to ask people what was your favorite role that you did?
Speaker 2:oh, my goodness gracious. Well, tom pain, that play I talked about for For some reason I've played a fair number of real people Like the guy in Oppenheimer was a famous physicist named Kurt Gödel, german physicist who was a friend of Einstein. So that character is sort of an easter egg. It's like oh, there's Kurt Gödel people who are in the. I didn't know who he was when I got the movie, but he's very well known in that world, you know. So I once another real guy I played was the underground cartoonist Robert Crumb. You know Robert Crumb. He was a cartoonist in the sixties. He created like Fritz the Cat and stuff and a great sort of underground cartoonist who came out of that movement in the 60s. And there's a great movie called american splendor which is actually about a friend of crumbs, a guy named harvey picar who, to bring it back, used to be on the david letterman show in the 80s. Harvey picar was a a comic book writer who wrote autobiographical comics about himself and his life as a Cleveland file clerk and sort of ornery hipster.
Speaker 1:And it was impressive how you just brought that full circle back to Letterman.
Speaker 2:Yes, but Robert Crumb was a friend of his and, like I said before again, when I was young I wanted to be a cartoonist and I was, and still am, a fan of Robert Crumb. So I got to play Robert Crumb in this movie. This is a movie from like early 2000s and Paul Giamatti plays Harvey Pekar. So all my scenes are with Paul Giamatti, who's a great actor and a great guy, so fun to act with, and I played this real guy guy. So I got super into like trying to do the you're playing. When you're playing a real person, you kind of want to honor that person but you're also playing a character who's separate from that real person. You're not really that guy, you're an idea of that person. You know what I'm saying. But crumb had like a has a very specific voice. He talks very different than me. He's got more of this kind of back of the throat, internal kind of voice. So you have to kind of do that. So, just because I was a fan of the guy and it was and it had very specific challenges to kind of play my version of him, that was a, a favorite. You know it was just all these aspects came together that were cool. I get to play Robert Crumb and I get to work on being like him. So that was definitely a highlight, that one. But you know, everything has its challenges and everything has its pleasures.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you one more, though there's a great little independent film that's actually out there now. It's streaming. You can find it on most platforms. It's called breakup season, directed by a guy. It's written and directed by a guy named nelson tracy, and in that movie I play a dad in a family who's got like grown kids, like college age kids, okay.
Speaker 2:And the thing with me is I actually am a dad in real life of college students, but I tend not to be cast as that. And this dad is a nice guy. He's like he's little, he's a little derpy in the dad way, you know, uh, but he's nice, he's empathetic, he's kind of sweet and for some reason, just because of the way I land to casting people and directors, I play a lot of weirdos and creeps like Robert Crumb's a little weird. Tom Payne is a sort of difficult character, but this guy's just like a nice guy and in a funny way. That was a challenge for me because I was like oh, this is awesome, how do I make a nice guy interesting? How do I make interesting a guy who's not a psycho or a perv or neurotic or something, something it's like you're not.
Speaker 2:You're not giving me what I need, right how do I, how do I make this an interesting character and I I feel like it worked and great director who really helped me find that character. In fact, sidebar, my wife says that that's one of her favorite performances of mine, so that means a lot. So that, in a funny way, was another great challenge, playing a guy kind of without like rough edges. But how do you make that not boring? You know that's so. That was the dad and breakup season.
Speaker 2:I played basically myself this podcast I'm on now because I know that was what originally brought me to you. Uh, this show called in media rays, which is a great, uh, scripted podcast which is related to the voiceover thing oh, there's a couple.
Speaker 1:Uh, there's another guy we talked to.
Speaker 2:He does like a podcast, but it's a drama that's scripted and it's based on power rangers, which yeah yeah, well, this is a cool thing, which this is another thing that I'm super into because, as you know, like back and before tv, scripted shows were on radio so you'd have dramas, mysteries, comedies. The first sitcoms were on the radio. So it's just voice acting, you know, and there's kind of there's kind of a robot I'm sorry there's an automatic cat feeder behind me that's making some noise now, but part of the environment, it's real, so we'll just deal with that. Ok, it's done, but there's kind of a revival of that form with podcasting. There are all these like scripted dramas and comedies and some of them get like famous actors in them and you're doing these stories, but it's all audio sound effects and it really is a throwback to, like you know, the old golden age of radio With the shadow, like Orson Welles' great reading of War of the Worlds.
Speaker 2:Orson Welles started doing that before he made movies, and that was the big thing. War of the Worlds famously freaked people out.
Speaker 1:Our friend of ours on our show. He has the originals, he has the copies, he has the rights to it. Who does? A friend of ours, joey Thurmond, an actor. He's also getting into the music business now but he has the War of the Worlds like the original, I guess, recordings of it, and has to it. Well, that's a great.
Speaker 2:That's a great show. It's really. It holds up actually that show, cause he did it, he basically it's like that's like an early version of a found footage horror movie, because that that that Orson Welles wells, war the worlds it starts out. It's like a music show. They're like, and now the so-and-so orchestra from the so-and-so ballroom, and then they play music for a while and then the guy's like, excuse me, we interrupt this program and then they're talking about some weird thing that happened in new jersey and then it's like aliens and at the time a lot of people bought it because and real people are knocking down uh water towers because they think they're people freaked out and it also, I think, because it was like around 39, so the war in europe was happening and we hadn't joined the war yet but there was a lot of anxiety about that.
Speaker 2:So people in america were really kind of anxious about like war. And then orson wells was selling, and then orson wells is a very head of the curve, smart guy, so then he makes like a found footage version where it really sounds like it's happening in real time on the radio and a lot of people bought it, understandably, you know. But that's what made him super famous. That's how he got like his citizen can contract, because they're like well, this kid, you know he's, this guy's going places. Yeah, he's got, he's got cojones and he's got some good ideas. Thanks, you know. But anyway, I just wanted to mention this show, which I really love being a part of.
Speaker 2:This woman named rachel music created it. She has a, she has a production company called good story guild and they are making these scripted, uh, podcasts and the one I'm on it's called in media rays and it's uh, it's basically about like the idea of the show is it's fictional, so there's like a, a james bond style movie franchise, and then I it's been around for decades, a la james bond, and then there's a young actor who gets chosen to be the new James Bond. In this case, the character's name is Jack Steller, and so the show is like a Hollywood satire about what happens to this kind of young, unknown guy who's suddenly put into the frying pan, as it were. They're like here's your new Jack Steller. So you've got people who are into that. You've got people who are like no, horrible, he's not nearly as good as the first guy, he's not nearly as good as the old guy, you know.
Speaker 2:And then you've got like the guy's family and friends who are like now this guy's like on the superstar track and the studio is grooming him. So it's about this sort of tumultuous experience that this young actor has. And then my part is super fun because I'm like a sort of adjacent character in each episode. Rachel's also a musician, her name is Rachel Music and nominative determinism is what we call that Tom. But Rachel has composed and sings these songs that in each episode we have a song that's supposed to be a la, a james bond theme, so, and they go back to like the 60s or whatever. So I played like an npr type music host guy. You know those guys who talk a lot about music. In 1941 this was done at this studio and blah blah played bass, you know so I'm like one of those guys, buddy rich but yeah, exactly buddy rich was yelling at his band on the bus I'm gonna take you
Speaker 2:outside I'm like. So I'm like a dj who it's a little sort of capper to each episode, where I then introduce these original songs, which are really great, which are sort of in all different genres. So, like in the 60s, there's like a shirley bassey, goldfinger type parody. Then we we have one from like the 80s. That's more like New Wave. You got A View to a Kill, yeah, yeah. So they're like different genres. So that's my part, but it's great and that's an aspect of acting that I really enjoy and I've kind of gotten into. And then meanwhile, sidebar, I have my own writing partner and we've written and produced a bunch of our own scripted shows and actually trying to get a new one in the works. But it's really fun because it's like an old form, the old radio drama form, that's now got a new life in it and people are into these shows. So it's a very cool thing. I'm very into like the audio drama thing.
Speaker 1:The more things change, the more things kind of just stay the same.
Speaker 2:Totally. And you know, I got to say related to that I'm again I'm like I'm more optimistic than skeptical about like AI and all that. Like I think it's a serious concern, but I also think that people just want to. They want to hear human stories and they want to see human people perform or listen to people perform, and they want stuff with a point of view, not just a, you know, aggregation of information that a robot is presenting not 20 minutes of television with 10 minutes of ads, and you can't skip the thing is people have always loved, you know, people have always loved, like stories, in whatever form they take.
Speaker 2:And now there's like a resurgence of you know radio style drama on that you can listen to on your computer or you know whatever. And but it's true, the more things change because people just have an interest in this stuff and they always will. So there you go.
Speaker 1:I was just about to ask before we wrapped up and I just want to say again thank you for taking time on a Friday to meet with us and be on our pokey little podcast. What if there was anything you wanted to plug which I know you your show? Yeah, I actually I have you your show?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually I have a. There's a really fun show on Apple plus called Palm Royale the Kristen wig is the star of. Okay, it's a comedy set in the 1960s in Palm beach and it takes place like a fancy country club and Kristen wig is sort of social climber who kind of finagles her way into this country club and the sort of jet set of Palm Beach in the 60s. So it's really fun. It's a period thing Buffon hairdos, cool old sports cars, the whole deal, and I play like the persnickety manager of the club. So you know, I'm like, excuse me, are you supposed to be here.
Speaker 2:You know that kind of guy and I'm in a bunch of episodes in season one which is out there, but we we just finished shooting season two and they actually gave me more to do this season, so that's super cool, that's awesome he's going yeah yeah, madam, did you drive here in a exactly?
Speaker 2:but now I kind of get into more hijinks and stuff and uh, so that's, so, that's, that'll be coming up probably, like I don't know, I'd say later this year, you know. And then, yeah, there are just these other independent films that I'm in that are either out there Breakup Season I recommend the movie that I mentioned and again, if people haven't seen the Venture Brothers, I'd say dip your toe in, you might enjoy it.
Speaker 1:I think they just need to watch that one clip with Brock Samson crushing that guy's hand with his butt.
Speaker 2:Brock Samson crushing a guy with his buttocks. Hey man, he's a MacGyver. He's a regular MacGyver with his own body.
Speaker 1:I would love to high five whoever wrote that, cause I don't want to shake his hand cause he might crush mine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was either. Yeah, jackson or doc would have come up with that one. Yeah, james, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:It was fun, it's been an absolute pleasure and we're going to wrap up now and just want to say thank you to all of our listeners out there, especially everybody in greenland. We know you guys have been listening big time. We saw the analytics and we want to say thank you. Australia, you're letting us down. Germany you need to catch back up. And sorry, uh, matt damon, we ran out of time. I'll see you next time.
