and Emile Hirsch

00:00:13
Speaker 1: Hello, my loves it is yours truly La La kent Ram, and we are back at it again. I'm super excited for our guests today because anyone who has more talent in their pinky nail than most people have in their entire bodies. I'm just fascinated by.

00:00:33
Speaker 2: Well so very well said. Trying to comprehend that whole statement.

00:00:36
Speaker 1: Did it make any sense. It's a Monday, and I'm coming off of Mother's Day. Randall brought my mom and my brother in and I'm gonna be honest, like I have to force myself to not be lazy. And today it's a struggle.

00:00:51
Speaker 3: I know, but let's be let's let's give ourselves a little a little grace here.

00:00:55
Speaker 2: It's we're still in quarantine in Los Angeles.

00:00:57
Speaker 1: That word I never win. The this is over you guys, I never want to hear the word quarantine ever again.

00:01:04
Speaker 3: Yes, so, not only we quarantine, we had family in town and it's Monday. It's like, yeah, it's like we need to like light a stick of dynamite in our asses to wake up.

00:01:14
Speaker 1: That's exactly how I feel.

00:01:16
Speaker 2: Okay, so we.

00:01:17
Speaker 3: Got it, but we got to do it today because you know, what people rely on us to light them up, so we're going.

00:01:23
Speaker 2: To do it today.

00:01:23
Speaker 1: Honestly, I rely on this podcast to make me feel amazing. It's like I could be in the worst mood ever, and then after we record a podcast, I'm like, let's get this shit pop in best day ever.

00:01:36
Speaker 3: Well, I'm excited because Emil Hirsh. You know, I just want to tell you a little story that I first spent a meal on Loan Survivor and we share not only a love for movies, but we share a love for poker, which I know you right now haven't seen a lot of poker in the last few months. But we were to New Mexico together for a while and we every day off we had we played poker together. He is the nicest human in the world. And now I'm fortunate enough to be directing him in this movie Midnight, So I know there's a lot of movies we both love that he's been in, and I think he's gonna share some fun stories for us.

00:02:10
Speaker 1: It's funny because you say that you guys used to play poker, and now with the state that we're in, you guys play pickleball together. He was just at the house is right, whacking some balls around like a like a little gangster.

00:02:24
Speaker 3: Why don't we tell people about your experience that day in the pickleball match, your real commitment and.

00:02:30
Speaker 1: Lack of There's this thing called being like a sore loser, and that is exactly what I am. If I'm playing a game and I'm getting my ass kicked, I will just give up and walk away, which is exactly what happened.

00:02:44
Speaker 2: Well, and I want to I want to elaborate on that a little bit.

00:02:46
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm sure you do.

00:02:48
Speaker 3: You want me to pivot again? Tell no, I want to really gonna mock me on Monday. What I want to say is you're a really good pick a ball player. You are, and you're a great athlete. What happened to you? What people don't know is that when you get down by two or three points, you basically check the fuck out.

00:03:06
Speaker 2: And not only do you.

00:03:07
Speaker 3: Check out, I'm your partner on team trying to win. Still you're done. You were preaching housewives in the middle of the game.

00:03:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, because I love playing pickleball. But when Randall tells me that he wants me to come out and play, and I'm balls deep in season three of Real Housewives of New York and I'm having an epic throwback moment and you take me out of that moment, like I'm just disconnected. I'm like, I love the game, but I love Housewives more. So I'm just like pissed off.

00:03:36
Speaker 2: But I will tell you something.

00:03:37
Speaker 3: Emil and Lucas Haas, who we had playing with us, both gave you a lot of props when you went inside, which I know you'd never heard, but.

00:03:43
Speaker 2: They're like, manah, that's cool.

00:03:45
Speaker 3: Your chip plays pickleball and she's badass and da da dah. So they did give you a lot of props just for the effort. It just wasn't your greatest pickleball day.

00:03:54
Speaker 1: No, neither was yesterday. My mom is on the court. We're having the best time ever. Here is the thing. Randal and I should never be on those teams teams because way too competitive. And then he's like the most annoying winner ever. I love you, Randall, but you are. And so I'm watching him and he's.

00:04:12
Speaker 4: Winning and you don't have to finding it right now, I'm watching you on the other side of the net, and I'm like, God, I want to smack him with my pickleball racket right now, just over and over again.

00:04:25
Speaker 1: Because you're the most annoying winner ever. You love me. It means that you're like, I mean winning bend Over the best winner ever.

00:04:35
Speaker 2: It's just like over.

00:04:36
Speaker 1: I don't know what.

00:04:38
Speaker 3: Wait, so you're telling me when I went, I told you to bend Over. Okay, this is bullshit. First myself, I think you're putting on a show here.

00:04:46
Speaker 2: What is going on?

00:04:47
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're saying.

00:04:48
Speaker 3: I'm an you're the worst winner.

00:04:51
Speaker 2: I'm a competitive person.

00:04:53
Speaker 1: Well so am I. That's what we should be on the same team.

00:04:55
Speaker 3: Well we already agree that going forward, no matter what, under any circumstances, we are going to be on same team for life.

00:05:02
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to be a better folder. But it hasn't happened yet. I mean, I'm almost thirty and I've been doing this since I was a kid. Like, fuck this game, I'm out. If I'm not winning, if.

00:05:12
Speaker 2: You're down by two points, you quit. I mean, let's just be.

00:05:14
Speaker 1: Honest, because I'm better than that. I'm a winner, you know, and when I'm losing, I'm like, you're better than this. Okay, to just get the fuck out. And have like some pride.

00:05:25
Speaker 3: So the crazy thing is you are a really good pickleball player. It's just the mental part of the game. We got to work on a little bit, just.

00:05:32
Speaker 2: A little bit.

00:05:33
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things mentally I should be working on a regular basis, not just when it comes to pickleball. Trust me.

00:05:41
Speaker 2: That makes two of us.

00:05:42
Speaker 3: All right, Can I say, can I say something? You remember my favorite nickname for.

00:05:46
Speaker 2: You, Hoopies hoopye.

00:05:47
Speaker 3: I wish people could see you right now because you have the hoops the size of your head again back in and it just makes me so happy.

00:05:52
Speaker 2: And with the ear with the headphones.

00:05:56
Speaker 3: Face, it's like some robotic mask you have on. It's pretty fucking funny. You should you got a screenshot and put that on your gram so people at when it comes out.

00:06:06
Speaker 2: Can see what I'm talking about.

00:06:11
Speaker 3: All Right, we got to go to break here and then after we're gonna bring a meal Hershion.

00:06:15
Speaker 1: Okay, I like it. All right, We are back, beautiful people, and we have an epic guest on the line, the greatest, the greatest.

00:06:28
Speaker 2: We have a meal hersh on the line.

00:06:29
Speaker 3: The meal Hello, yeah, yeah, yeah, I love the energy.

00:06:36
Speaker 2: It's Monday and the meal is firing like.

00:06:39
Speaker 5: Me Monday, I am no Garfield. I like Mondays.

00:06:46
Speaker 1: That's good. So first of all, I want to say, your pickleball skills are on point. We've I've been talking about it since you left the house. I'm gonna kick your ass next time you come to the house with that little.

00:06:59
Speaker 5: Zinger, dude. That was honestly, that was some funny, funny, amazing times because like me and Randall are both so competitive and when we got on the court, but it's funny because I'm such like a like a mental player, and I actually like Randall's frustration when we were playing actually like made me that much better. Like I'm not even normally that good, but because Randall was so competitive, like it like really brought it out of me. And that was honestly so much fun I hope that.

00:07:38
Speaker 1: You talked that same way when you think of him as a director.

00:07:43
Speaker 5: No, no, no, by the way, by the way, I actually I told him. I texted him afterwards. I was like, you know how I know you're a great director, Randall. You bring the best out of me.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: I love that.

00:07:56
Speaker 5: I'm not I'm really not joking. There's some people that they just they bring the best out of other people around them. And Randalls, really, you you are one of those guys.

00:08:05
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you, buddy, And I'll tell you he did text me after and that meant a lot. And I want to tell you I'm competitive as fucking you whip my ass, which I'm very upset about. And I've been working every day with a coach. That's how obsessed I am. So come on back and I'll give you your ass whipping you deserve.

00:08:22
Speaker 5: Well. See, now I'm scared. Now, I'm scared to go back.

00:08:25
Speaker 3: By the way, Bil, sometimes it's better to just take the win and revel in it forever.

00:08:31
Speaker 5: Yeah, just never go back. Like, no, no, I'm good. I don't play anymore. I'm more into ping pong now, you know. I went skateboarding the other day with my homie Kenny from high school, and he hit me up. He's like, should we do some like social distance skateboarding full and I'm like, it's like, literally how we talked in high school, just like these dumb ass LA guys. So I roll up to his place with my skateboard and mind you, I did Lords of Dogtown when I was nineteen, but I was a skateboarder in middle school. But it's been frigging years since I've skated. But I used to do these kickflips and I could kickflip over things. So I started skating. And immediately we go we go to like some curb, and everyone by the way is looking at us, like, what are these guys in their mid thirties doing, like with their shirts off, skating on the curve And this is this is actually really embarrassing. But like Kenny's house is right across the like right by my son's pediatricians office.

00:09:29
Speaker 2: Oh my god, wow, So.

00:09:30
Speaker 5: Like I'm literally a shirtless dude skating in front of his like son's doctor's office. Like I was like, this is kind of this is kind of like weird.

00:09:40
Speaker 2: We do it.

00:09:41
Speaker 5: Kenny immediately tries to like one d up a curve, the board flies out from underneath him and he just gets bodied to the chest. Oh for a minute, and I'm like, oh no, Kenny, it's been a while now, Like, Kenny, this was your idea. You can't like break your spine on your first trick. But we eventually got a a few takes of me kick flipping over aboard. I hadn't done that trick in eighteen years. Oh my god, I landed it. I stuck it. I put it on my Instagram. I was like so proud of it.

00:10:09
Speaker 2: Oh you did you stuck it?

00:10:10
Speaker 5: I did so. I tried to do a kick flip four days later, and I had like bruised my hamstring a week before. So when I landed my first pick flip I tried, it was like a shooting pain and I just like went to the ground and I was like, oh, I'm not twelve anymore.

00:10:29
Speaker 1: Oh that's when you know you're you're a grown ass man. Now you can't be doing that stuff.

00:10:33
Speaker 2: I disagree, disagree. I just want to tell you that when I bought my.

00:10:37
Speaker 3: Kids a skateboard, it's just because they wanted one and I thought, I'm going to bring it back to Miami old school.

00:10:42
Speaker 1: Did that go for you?

00:10:43
Speaker 2: Not good? But but I just hold on.

00:10:45
Speaker 3: First of all, I could kick the board out still, but I cannot flip that shit anymore.

00:10:50
Speaker 2: That's gone. Those days are over over. But I Meil, I give you mad.

00:10:54
Speaker 3: Props for going out there and still crushing. I do mad promm.

00:10:57
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it had it had Legit been eighteen years since I kick flip like a boss over a staatee word on its side.

00:11:04
Speaker 3: And by the way, I just want to tell you Lord's a Dogtown for those who have not seen it, is one of the greatest ever, I mean, just epic film.

00:11:13
Speaker 2: And I just want to ask I just want to ask.

00:11:15
Speaker 3: You a few questions, like, because people have watched you, you you've won awards, you've been nominated for everything, and you're considered and I'm gonna blow your ego up. You are considered one of those actors that are the real deal. And when I say that from an industry point of view, I think audiences know, but they don't know how to verbalize it.

00:11:32
Speaker 2: It's like there's the Joaquin.

00:11:33
Speaker 3: Phoenixes, that Daniel day Lewis's and the Emial Hersch's of the world, people that you know, when you bring them onto a film, you're gonna get the highest level of quality. And I've always said that to you since we did Loan Survivor together, and you know that. I mean, I know you don't say it, but they're just certain actors that are true artists that.

00:11:51
Speaker 1: Really cannot stop watching it.

00:11:53
Speaker 3: You can't stop watching it, and you're one of them. Just tell people how you started, like in the industry, just you know, how did you get out, Like you know you grew up in La How did it all happen?

00:12:03
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, first off, I want to give a shout out to my recently, very recently deceee late grandfather's brother. My I guess he's my granduncle Cliff, who died a few weeks ago at the extraordinary age of ninety nine. Oh and uh great guide and he him and his wife's Gladys, were famous Hollywood studio teachers, like for like forty years, so they and they lived out in Malibu. So when me and my sister were kids, my dad used to take us out there, and Cliff and Gladys used to be like, oh, yeah, we were teaching Elijah Wood on set and kids on this and this and this, and you kids could do it if you want. And Gladys was super encouraging. And I was like six or seven, and my sister was really into it. So I was like, well, this sounds kind of weird, but it sounds kind of cool being in a movie and like getting paid and like, oh, lots pretty cool, you know. I was like, man, I could probably buy a lot of toys with that loop.

00:12:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh my god, yeah, no, fully, Fully what age was this again?

00:13:03
Speaker 5: It was probably like six or six or seven we started hearing the stories from Cliff and Gladys, so by like eight or nine, Like my dad he you know, he talked to some agent in Hollywood. I think it was like Julia Roberts's agent at the time. He somehow got a hold of her and asked her some questions and she recommended him to like Samuel French bookstore, which is basically like the like oh yeah, out of my face, random person. It's like, oh yeah, I just go to Samuel French Bookstore and look up how to Anything.

00:13:29
Speaker 3: By the way Sunset Boulevard, Samuel French, I remember. I remember. It's like the big acting playwrights, you know.

00:13:36
Speaker 5: Yeah, So my dad got this book how to like how to Raise a Rising Star Guide to show biz kids and their parents by this guy David Mattis, who was He's like a manager surfer out in Venice who like basically just like had kids going like commercial auditions and book little jobs and he would like surf half today and he was a cool guy. So we met We went and met him and at first, he didn't want it to do with me, like this guy's boofy, he can't remember any line. My sister was like way cooler and like went more into it. And then over the years it was like a thing where I did a couple of summer camps, you know, into panga doing like Shakespeare, and I associated acting because I went to this will gear. Theatrical botanic of summer camp was like being outside in nature in the summer and like playing, so it was like the best intro to acting, you know, was like, yeah, it was like outside fun with other kids, like, oh this is this is fun. This is like a hike with costumes. And then it just I just inched my way forward, like year after year.

00:14:39
Speaker 2: It was.

00:14:39
Speaker 5: It was not like, oh, we got discovered and put in this lead role in the movie. It was like I really did like grind it out from like ten to like fifteen of just doing tiny like bigger and bigger parts like commercials and then little parts on guest stars, and then slightly bigger parts and then a TV movie and then you know what I mean. And then finally, like when I was like fifteen, I got a role in a movie. It was the first movie that I'd ever done, and then that actually was the lead role in the movie. Is this movie called The Dangerous Lives of Ultra Boys with Karen Colkan and genlem Alone and they're both great and wait.

00:15:12
Speaker 2: Was it Jody Foster in that movie too, and.

00:15:14
Speaker 5: Jody Yeah, Jody and Jody produced it too.

00:15:17
Speaker 2: Just a few little actors you work with, Yeah.

00:15:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, and we had and that was just it was It was cool. So you know, I had a you know, from then, I just kind of kept doing it, and it was a thing where I think halfway like in like my late teens, mid teens, like I started really like getting into other older actors, you know, like Sean Penn and Marlon Brando and you know Meryl Street Caitlin's like he's just great, yeah, just great actors and like studying them for the first time and really appreciating them. I remember my sister's boyfriend when I was like fourteen or fifteen. He was like this shaved head Buddhist monk dude, who's cool, but he was like obsessed with Brando When he sat me down and played street car named Desire and was like watch his every move. Here's the genius and I was like what And then I started watching and I was like, wow, you kind of got a point, Alex.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: Dude, that's amazing. I remember the first time I saw you step into the scene, which I must have been maybe high school, and you did The Girl next Door. Yeah, And it's crazy to me because that movie was very lighthearted and fun. And then you're doing movies with you know, Mark Wahlberg, and then you did you know I once upon a time in Hollywood, Like your range is incredible and effortless.

00:16:41
Speaker 3: It's insane, and I want to I want to say something to that effect. I mean, I got to work with one loan survivor and an epic film that I think we both feel is probably a special moment in both of our lives. But I got to tell you Into the Wild is, and I'm still a fan girl over.

00:16:58
Speaker 2: Into the Wild.

00:16:59
Speaker 3: Just tell I know you've done this one hundred times, but just give us, like how brutal was the production period? How long was it and what were the what was the environment like? Because you know me, you could call me at the four Seasons of the Rets. That's that's about as brutal as.

00:17:13
Speaker 2: I can feel.

00:17:14
Speaker 1: That's funny.

00:17:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, but tell me how, like, was it really as ruthless as the film feels when you're watching it?

00:17:21
Speaker 5: The environment, I mean, I would say, And obviously I haven't been on every movie shoot and actor's ever done, but in terms of like the physical and mental pressure, I honestly don't know if there's ever quite been a role for an actor that would have that, because I remember at the time being like, I like, I don't even know if I can, Like this is so hard, this is like I was like, I don't know, Like I think I did it because I was twenty one, right, and I was really really like so motivated. I knew I had the role of a lifetime. I worshiped Sean Pan. I still worship Sean.

00:18:07
Speaker 2: Oh, He's the greatest.

00:18:10
Speaker 5: He's just a god to me, to the point where it's actually like affected our friendship because I'm just such a sick a fan around them, and you know, he like he hates that, you know what I mean, but just like I can't help, but I just like I'm normal around most people, and then I get around Sean and I just turn into this fan girl, and I know he's just disgusted, and I can't. I can't, I can't.

00:18:34
Speaker 2: I'm dying.

00:18:35
Speaker 3: This is the fun. I mean, what's crazy if people don't know? And I know you're a very private person and so we appreciate you being on here, but like you're around the biggest movie stars in the world, and a lot of them are your friends because you guys just grew up together. So for you to like even have this conversation that you're in awe of Seana is like, it's just it's crazy to me because I know the kinds of actors that you're friends with and and and create. So that's that's amazing that you still have that kind of you know thing.

00:19:04
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, Sean he just he has this fiery heart of integrity and courage and his drive and it just it extends to so many different aspects of his life and everything, all the activity activism he does in the humanitarian work. He's just he's so the man. And making that film, like because I felt the way I did about Sean, it was like I did whatever that was asked, and you know, I wasn't like known or anything, Like I could not imagine any movie star doing that at all. There's just no like there's there's no way.

00:19:43
Speaker 3: Was there ever a moment on that movie where you ever asked yourself like, holy shit, this is really scary, Like this is a moment I've been here, Like they're really pushing the boundaries, the environment is really fucking with you, or you know, did you always just feel like, Okay, it's just a tough shoot, Like just curious at twenty one?

00:20:01
Speaker 2: Did you ever have that moment?

00:20:02
Speaker 5: I mean, there were there were so many times that I felt like that that it was almost like when I didn't feel like that, I noticed it. I was like, oh, wow, I don't feel like you know, because so much because we didn't there was no stuntman, so the all the hiking and the kind of the wildness it was. It was just the most physical part I've ever done. And then when you mix that on top with the kind of the isolation of the role and how the pressure as a performer of being so solo in that capacity for such a long period of time also is like a little bit of play. And then when we did the weight loss, Oh.

00:20:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, how many how many pounds did you lose for that?

00:20:46
Speaker 1: Yeah? I'm sure a lot of our listeners want to know how you lost what forty pounds for this role?

00:20:51
Speaker 5: Oh? It was like, yeah, it was like forty two. So I basically I started running like a beast early on, like a beast because I was actually a little bit out of shape when I got the part, and Sean was like, you should get real fit, even to just be the normal Chrisma canas because mcalleas was fit. So I lost a bunch of weight even before we started shooting, and then once we were shooting, I just became a runner, salad eater. And then when we did the maximum weight loss part, it was like we shut down for like two and a half weeks and I was doing like this tiny, tiny, tiny diet of eating little protein shakes, but I was doing two spin classes a day, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon, and it was like maximum That was definitely the I think the hardest thing I've ever done, because it was like two months or so where I was like all I could think about was food.

00:21:47
Speaker 1: Of course, when you're being deprived of it. Yeah, on top of you know, anyone who does spin classes, even just one, I can't imagine doing two today. That is so taxing on your body.

00:21:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's hard, and like eating nothing between the classes was like it was just really extreme.

00:22:04
Speaker 1: Dude, you're a legend. You're gonna hear legendary.

00:22:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have a hard time losing three pounds, let alone forty two.

00:22:11
Speaker 5: But that's what the the funny part is that I do. I do too. It's not like I could do that regularly. You know, It's like it it takes. It takes like that kind of you know, situation to sort of bring that out of you where you know, it's like you know, the you know, the pressures on and you wanted I wanted to do it right, and that role and that story meant so much to me, and I knew I think I really didn't know at the time that the movie was going to be like remembered for a long time, because like even now, it's crazy, Like I get messages from people in every country around the world on Instagram and stuff that have seen the movie and they're like obsessed with it, and like every country like it's crazy. It's like smash hit in India, It's smash hit in Asia. You know, it's smash it in South America. And the people, the people that really get into it are like it's not a normal movie experience for them, you know it like really is it? Like a lot of people feel like it's changed their lives in.

00:23:11
Speaker 2: Wow huge way.

00:23:13
Speaker 3: I want to say to that it really resonated even to this day with me, and I agree with Neil. It's just when a movie has that kind of effect on such a mass amount of people, you really did something special. And I know that's what we all dream and that's why we make movies. And that movie checked every box. In my opinion, it's just every box on every level.

00:23:35
Speaker 2: It just was. It's just there's nothing that you know.

00:23:38
Speaker 3: You could criticize so many movies for so many different reasons we all do. There are a few movies that you cannot and that's one of them.

00:23:45
Speaker 2: So I'll give you mad thanks.

00:23:47
Speaker 5: Ugh. Yeah, it's a we're.

00:23:49
Speaker 3: Gonna We're gonna go to a quick break and when we come back, I want to talk about Once upon a Time of Hollywood, another epic role in movie. And obviously I know you have this awesome blossoming music career and I want to hit on that to move back.

00:24:01
Speaker 1: In a minute, we are back with a meal, hirsh and I'm just like my Jaws on the floor because everything that you've done with your career, and you so deserve it, because I feel like anybody who cares about their craft as much as you do and just bringing a story to life and making people that are watching want to feel something is truly incredible. You don't find that very often in actors. You know, it's just something where they show up, they do their job. But the way he was, the way a Mill was talking about into the Wild, I was like, every like magical.

00:24:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, Yeah, I agree.

00:24:44
Speaker 3: So on that note, Lala and I obviously were lucky enough to have gotten to go through the awards circuit and we saw you everywhere during during and you know, it's funny because we could plane and now we're in this pandemic lockdown and it's like, I I could.

00:25:00
Speaker 2: Have that moment again.

00:25:02
Speaker 3: But you know, congratulations and you were side by side, and you guys want a plethora of awards and once upon a time in Hollywood, tell us just that experience working with the great Quentin Tarantino and the cast, you know, I mean, I know, Leo's one of your Leo DiCaprio is one of your close friends, and all these guys you work with, I know, you know.

00:25:24
Speaker 2: Just what's the takeaway? How epic was it?

00:25:26
Speaker 5: Well? It originated where I got a message on Facebook a friend request from a little from a doll. It was like a doll emoji or something that said Quentin Tarantino, and I was like what I was like, is this like some weird catfish or something? So I click, I like clicked onto like mutual friends, and I was like, wow, well he turns with that person. That person's like not like that. That person's kind of legit. So I like accepted the friend request and then I got this message like hey me, what's up? And I was like, uh, is this you? And he's like yeah, I'm like working on a project. Might have like a part that you might be right for. And I was like, oh my god. If this is some like Sri Lankan teenager in a basement right now, I'm going to be so annoyed. And I was like, yeah, no, this is me? Is this you like this? This would really be cool if this is you. And he's like it's me and I was like okay, and he's like I'll keep you updated. So like months went by and I wouldn't hear from this Facebook account and every now, and I'd be like, oh, you know, I'm still kind of progressing and this and this, but I still didn't know if it was real. Oh and I was so I was so excited. And originally, like I asked my agent, I was like this, this guy claiming to be Quentin Tarantino sent me a message that he might be in his movie. And my agent was kind of like, sounds a little you know, yeah, like you know, like you might be a little hopeful kid. But it turned out to really be a real thing. And it was like almost a year later that the movie even into production. Like he really hit me up early, and he had seen this movie, I did The Autopsy of Jane Doe. He'd watched it with Eli Ross and they just loved this movie. And he just he saw me as this character j C. Bring, who was this amazing hairstylence of the Error era, and he just was like, he's the guy, and Quinn is He's really He's just a great He's a great guy. He's got a huge heart. He's just got this turbine engine of a mind that just never stops. And I really, you know, he was he was such a cool gentleman throughout the process, and I have obviously I was so in awe of him for such a long time and the chance to get to work alongside him and Margo and Leo, and it was just it really felt like for me at the time, it was like if you get to do a Queen Tuarantine, that like that's the excite the most exciting director and actor could want to work with, you know. It's just that that excitement that zing, and it was it was amazing. It was it was really amazing. And it's funny because my biggest flaw for the people that I really admire is like, it's just I get starstruck by people. It's hard for me to like relax, you know, interesting to hear that well when Tarantino says action, it's like, it's just it's so hard for me to like be chill. I'm just like, oh my god.

00:28:20
Speaker 3: It's like it's like a moment that you know is going to be in history, because it's just everything Quentin Tarantino, like Martin Scorsese, they make films that stand for generations. So you probably know subconsciously deep inside, like you are putting your mark in history.

00:28:37
Speaker 1: I feel like the feeling of you know, Quentin Tarantino yelling action on you would feel like you just got pushed out of an airplane like that, Like the amount of anxiety I would feel because he's the greatest and like like you're saying a meal, it's like you've been a fan of his work for such a long time and he's so incredible that you do. I would totally be starstruck too, And I don't really care about anybody.

00:29:00
Speaker 2: I know that both of you can relate.

00:29:01
Speaker 3: Like when I call action on my set a meal, it's kind of the same thing.

00:29:07
Speaker 1: You just have a like total like rush of adrenaline.

00:29:11
Speaker 5: But in a way too, Like Randal, like when we work together, I feel like because we were friends before, it's so it's just there's a familiarity there. And I really understand why actors work with directors over and over again, because you know, the familiarity is great. You know, the movie that I shot right before we started shooting our film was this movie Some that I did with this Irish director, Ivan Kavanaugh, and it was the second film. It was the first time I worked with a director twice, and it was like really kind of different experience of making a movie. And I realized then for actors, just how much of a psychological effect the director has on all the actors. It is massive. It changes the experience.

00:29:57
Speaker 2: I want to add to that.

00:29:57
Speaker 3: You know, I'm going to tell you something, Meil, and I didn't tell you that before because we were just so caught up in the movie, in the moment and creating. But I told my partner George, I said, you know, I thank god you came to the table first, because you're right, even though it was my first movie directing and we had done many movies before this as a producer actor relationship, you made me feel very comfortable and I almost you know, I used you as a sounding board, you know. I came to you many times and the prepar you know, the pre process, and i'd get your opinion and your advice because you are my friend and I do trust you and I respect your work. So when we got on set, I was probably the most comfortable with you because I know you and I knew that I could do things with you. And you know what I mean, because I just have that relationship and I agree with you. It makes sense to me now why directors and actors stick together when they have a good creative relationship because it is familiarity and it opens up the creative process even more so.

00:30:55
Speaker 5: I absolutely even the first day we were shooting on midnight in the Switchcraft so our film, I was like, I felt so relaxed, and I was like, oh man, it was.

00:31:06
Speaker 2: It was great, you know.

00:31:07
Speaker 5: And whenever I feel like that, it just the best always comes out of me. It's just that's just the way it is. That's what Robert de Niro even said that in an interview. He was like, the most important thing for actors is to be just relaxed. You know.

00:31:20
Speaker 3: I agree with you, and I'll tell you something I have. I was the most relaxed day one. I probably would have been like an insane asylum patient, but because you know, I had you there on day one, it was the same for me. I literally was like, dude, I got this. This is my friend of mine and he's here to create and I trust him and he's going to just bring it.

00:31:40
Speaker 1: And this actor director romance that you guys have it's really sweet. I really love that.

00:31:47
Speaker 3: Wait one last thing before because I want to talk about the music. I gotta tell a story. People don't realize that Carnies, Emil and I. It's our favorite hamburger place. There's one on Sunset, one on Ventura. How many movies have come out of that? When we've run into each other at Carney's. I mean it's pretty epic.

00:32:06
Speaker 5: I mean it's amazing. I ran into Randall. I was eating a burger alone at Carney's and I ran into Rentald. I was like, what's up, dude, what are you doing. He's like, what's going on? Well, I just did this movie with Quinn blah blah blah. And he's like, oh, I'm making this movie with mel Gibson right now. And I was like, oh, that sounds amazing. And then you were like it was like a light bulb went off. You're like, yeah, I'm gonna call your agent about it tomorrow. I was like, sounds good to me, this sounds amazing.

00:32:29
Speaker 1: This it is all so Hollywood. Can I tell you this is like the shit I would imagine when I lived in Utah, Like, I bet that's how it goes down.

00:32:37
Speaker 3: I swear to you. I was eating I was by myself. By the way, I was by myself too, or maybe I was assistant. I can't remember, but I literally Meil said he just finished. I was like, oh my god, we don't have a lead for this movie a Meal, and a Meal was like, dude, send it to me. I called this agent. I think it was like three or four days later, a meal we were doing the deal. It was pretty epic.

00:32:55
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was so quick. I was like, man, I was the best burger I've ever had. I love Carnie before, but now I love Carnie. And and by the way, like I love that movie. I watched it recently a couple of times. Sports of Nature Michael Polish's movie, and the part it's just it's it's such an entertaining role is like mel is vintage mel It's like the part you want to see mel in, like the leap a weapon guy, like thirty five years later.

00:33:25
Speaker 2: I agree.

00:33:26
Speaker 3: By the way, we're having actually Michael and Kate Bosworth on the Week after You, So that's so that's perfect segment.

00:33:35
Speaker 1: Yeah right, yeah, okay, Meil, I have the movie. I have seen that movie, and it's fun. I have to ask you about your new music. I'm a music head. Tell me everything, Yeah.

00:33:48
Speaker 2: How did this start? And everything? Tell us?

00:33:50
Speaker 5: Well, the music originally started. I did this movie with JK. Simmons called All Nighter, and I played a bluegrass singer and they gave me like a real band to work with for a few songs. I had to sing in the movie, and my buddy was I played a cover song we did my brother. My buddy was like, that's cool. He's like, why don't you record some originals. So I started sitting down and I started like writing out melodies and lyrics, and then I took them to the band and they were like, these are cool. So we ended up literally recording an entire bluegrass album in the genre of the band player that I did. So it was like some weird, like messed actor experiment where it's like I made the album of the character's band and we like released it. It's called the album was called Simple Things. It's actually out by our band name in the movie was Hysterical Kindness, and we kept that. Oh and I really, I really enjoyed the process of songwriting so much that I kept writing songs after the movie. And this was five This was five years ago now, so I've been songwriting for the last five years, and I've been working with like different producers, and I moved on from the guys that did hystorical kindness because they were kind of getting into some other stuff and I worked with these other kind of rock producers and different and then I finally found this French guy and the Frenchman Matchiu Carratier, Okay, and he he was He's like this French Urson Weld kind of dude who's like so talented and kind of very like just like a dark, like gutey voice, very serious kind of guy. And he was. We had a mutual friend and we made one song together and I was like, this is kind of like a this is an interesting sound. And we made a few songs and then we finally kind of hit the vein of almost like kind of like the Weekend song Blinding Lights, where it's got a little like retro eighties, but it's like it feels fresh and new, almost like it could be on The Drive soundtrack or something, and we just we just really we just really pushed in that direction, and we worked NonStop pretty much for like almost a year, and we made this album called Mnemonic, somewhat based off the Johnny Knaemonic movie, which I thought, I just love that word mnemonic and it's like device and I.

00:36:08
Speaker 1: Was like, yeah, no, it's really good. And whereable where can we download your music because I'm about to do that as soon as we Yeah, I'm like.

00:36:18
Speaker 5: Well, you can get it. It's basically you can get it on any music platform. It's under hersh and it's like Spotify or Apple Music or Google Player title or Deezer or any any one of those places. Even YouTube. You can hear the songs. And we've made we put out now twenty two songs. We just put this song out last week called Favors, which is actually probably it's kind of considered by like the music people in the radio world to be our best most commercial song or whatnot. And it's you know what's crazy. I sent it to this buddy of mine, this guy Steven Servanka, and he called me back and he's in the music business and he's like, dude, this is like it's pretty radio where he's like, I'm going to send this to my contact at Deezer Wow. And he sent it to his buddy at Deezer and the guy pitched it to Deezer and Deezer is like Spotify, but they're huge and like Latin America and Yeah, France, and they put us number three on their biggest playlist, which is the selection on for Mexico and Central America. It's got six point seven million followers of the playlist and they put his number three, dude, after Fiona Apple and this amazing artist.

00:37:29
Speaker 1: God.

00:37:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like, it's crazy.

00:37:32
Speaker 3: Dude, We're on not only with a movie start now we have a rock star, music star.

00:37:37
Speaker 2: This is we're gonna download this.

00:37:39
Speaker 1: You you just start like, how long have you been doing music? Like you said, you have twenty two songs that you that you guys have done. When did you do your first song?

00:37:49
Speaker 5: The first song was the first album for uh that was five years ago for the Okay movie. So we recorded a whole bluegrass album. I really cut my teeth on the process of songwriting and everything like that and learning about it, and then I made a bunch of songs with other producers in between over the years. And then like a year and a half ago, me and Matthew started working together and then we just kind of really partnered up and made this our main jam and we've been we've been making songs during quarantine. I'll like send them my ideas and we'll get together and we even like recorded like socially distanced, where like I bought them like a forty foot microphone ports like in the other wing of I'm in the other wing of the house, you know what I mean. Yeah, so we're we're still going for it. And like, for me, it's just something that I love doing, and I you know, I love music and it's not it's not like about like it's definitely not about money because in order to make money in the music business, Like I looked at the money that we made, it was like, uve me five.

00:38:52
Speaker 1: Hundred dollars exactly.

00:38:54
Speaker 5: Like it's that it's a really tough business to like make money. But for me, I just love music. And there's a longevity to it too, Like you can go back and listen to songs. Someone, I still listen to so many old songs like forty years ago, fifty years ago.

00:39:09
Speaker 1: Oh that's what I live off of. I live off of all of these old school songs. And I also make music. And for me, you know, I've done the same thing that you've done where I look at it and I'm like, wow, I mean three hundred bucks this month off that song and it's like you don't do it for the money. It's so therapeutic and just fun to do.

00:39:27
Speaker 2: Will you ever go on tour meal?

00:39:29
Speaker 1: Oh? I like that.

00:39:30
Speaker 5: I would in a heartbeat for sure.

00:39:32
Speaker 2: That's dough, that's really cool.

00:39:33
Speaker 5: Yeah, I would in a heartbeat for sure. I mean, we have twenty two songs. If we get like another, I don't know how many, but I really want to get enough to where like if we have like a live performance like lineup of songs, you know, They's just the thing I don't like is when there's like one song everybody wants to hear, and then the rest people don't know or they don't care about like I would. I would really want something that like everybody dug and right. You know, there's such a there's such a stigma around actors that do music right. It's honestly one of people's like most relish stigmas, Like they really it's like, oh actor.

00:40:08
Speaker 3: Music, Well, well, musicians, as you know, historically want to act and actors want to do music. But I will tell you it's so weird to have a sting. But because actors are artists and artists do everything, so I think like when actors do music.

00:40:23
Speaker 1: It's pretty odd you grow up in the arts art.

00:40:26
Speaker 2: Exactly exactly agree with that.

00:40:29
Speaker 5: I do think though that, you know, it did take me, you know, a good five years of songwriting before we started making songs that like we're getting on these types of playlists that we're on on Spotify and Deezer in all these places. So it wasn't It wasn't. It's definitely not something that was like if you try to jump into it and like make an album in a month and do it for the first time, like I could see how that could go real south, real quick, you know. But I think I think because we had so much time to like keep learning and listening to more music and like kind of adjusting and finessing, it was I mean, five years is like kind of a like I look background, I'm like, god.

00:41:11
Speaker 1: That's a long time.

00:41:12
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like a long time, you know what I mean?

00:41:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's you you made something that is amazing because I know exactly those people you're talking about that push an album out in a month and you're like, you know, the first song you can tell how much they worked on it, and then the rest of the songs are like what you were talking about like they kind of it goes south.

00:41:30
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I gotta say, first of all, we're running out of timeer, but I gotta say something, mail anything.

00:41:36
Speaker 1: To download every song.

00:41:37
Speaker 2: I know you by the.

00:41:38
Speaker 3: Way, a mail, she'll she'll know all your songs by the next time we see you. But I just got to say, I just got to say, I can't thank you enough for being on our show and doing this for us, and doing it under the situation that we're all living in. You're an amazing artist, amazing performer. Your music everybody should download it and check it out. And h is there anything you want to say before we say lovey or goodbye or all whatever you say.

00:42:04
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for thank you so much for having me on. And I know it's a difficult time for everybody right now, so I just want to give shouts out to everyone and all the all everybody, everybody keeping the world running right now. You know, I went to the grocery store the other day and I was like, thanking the people bagging the groceries. I was like, dude, you got you guys are the heroes right now, you know what I mean. So I just respect to everybody that is keeping the world running right now, like they really are the heroes. And just thanks for thanks for having me on. Man. I I really I really appreciated our relationship from the very beginning and it's a lot of fun. And you guys are special people, so I was super happy to come on and and you know, there's nothing funner, more fun than like, uh, there's nothing more fun than like a musician peddling their music. So I do relish the opportunity to emil.

00:42:56
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having you.

00:42:59
Speaker 2: Yes, it's an honor. Thank you all right, buddy, we'll talk to you soon.

00:43:02
Speaker 5: Thanks Hurst you guys have a great day.

00:43:06
Speaker 2: Damn.

00:43:06
Speaker 1: I love when our guests leave me super inspired, like I need to go out and work a lot harder.

00:43:11
Speaker 2: Now. Did he motivate you on Monday?

00:43:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, he motivated me on Monday. Okay, so that was amazing. You guys, I want to thank you so much for listening to give them la la with Randall. We love you guys. We hope you stay safe and healthy and slay the day babies. We'll see you next week.