Ernie Reyes Jr. Meets World

00:00:18
Speaker 1: So I didn't talk about it when we were interviewing Alisa but Alisa Donovan Alisa Donovan from Clueless and many other things. Uh, because I was I had to like think it through and like try to remember. But Clueless is one of those movies that I was such an idiot about and completely misread when I was a teenager, Like I walked out of the theater going, what a dumb like superficial, vapid, Like I just missed all the irony. I don't know what was going on. I was probably what fifteen sixty, like super serious rider mode and it's so embarrassing, and I didn't I should have just probably talked to her about it because I don't know. But now i've been thinking about it, I'm like, you, no, I have to admit this because here's what happened. So I saw it back then and I hated it, and I remember kind of just always rolling my eyes, like completely not getting it. And then whatever. Three years later in college, I signed up for a class. I ended up not sticking through it, but I signed up for a class called women in Film, and it.

00:01:22
Speaker 2: Was actually through that one.

00:01:23
Speaker 1: Huh, No, I wanted.

00:01:25
Speaker 3: To it was just my but what happened also discriminated against.

00:01:29
Speaker 1: Well here's the thing. It was really interesting. So there's a sister college, Barnard to Columbia, which is an all girls school, and it's right across the street from the campus. It's the campus right across the street, and we can share classes, so you can take BARNERD classes, Barnard can take Columbia classes. It's kind of ridiculous that it's a separate Why are they calling it because it's like it's the idea is that it's like a safe space for women. It's like only no, not into that school, but you can take classes there. Classes, So like I could sign up for a class there, and they could sign up for classes at Columbia. So it's like they you know, but as far as dorms, as far as like greens and all the like school stuff, it's completely separate. Yeah, it's a bizarre system. But I signed up for this women in Film class and I get there at Barnard and of course I am the only guy in a class of maybe like fifty.

00:02:17
Speaker 2: Women fifty and it sounds ideal.

00:02:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, well no, it was super interesting. But what I realized is like very quickly I was like, gonna become the voice of the man, like the voice of a male in the room, and I was like, I don't know how to play like I don't know how to play against that or into that. Anyway. I only lasted like three classes. But the first movie we watched was Clueless, and it was so funny because I'm sitting there going, oh, I hated this movie. This is this is gonna be awful.

00:02:45
Speaker 2: I can't believe these women who want to study film, this is the movie they pick.

00:02:49
Speaker 1: But I just didn't get it right exactly. And then watched it and fell in love with it, and I was like, this movie is brilliant. What the hell was I thinking? And of course it is sort of this feminist master piece. It has all this life, you know, so we're The discussion was incredible, and like hearing all these smart college women like talking about how much this movie meant to that it was like but anyway, it was like one of those examples of like and don't I don't have many of these where I've completely misread something and gone back and been like, oh, I was so wrong about that book for that movie. Have you guys ever had this experience I got a great one. Oh yeah, tell us.

00:03:23
Speaker 4: So uh it was not long after nine to eleven, and everybody's just trying to get.

00:03:32
Speaker 3: And everyone's yeah, some their life.

00:03:35
Speaker 4: Kind of back a little bit, and and so Greg and I were like, let's go to the movies. You know, I was living with my brother at the time, Like, let's get out, go to the movies and try to have some semblance of normalcy again.

00:03:46
Speaker 3: And we sat in there and.

00:03:48
Speaker 4: Watched this movie staring at each other like, this is the worst thing I've ever seen in my life.

00:03:55
Speaker 3: How does anyone find this funny?

00:03:58
Speaker 4: And then when we watched it again at home, were howling and we're like, this is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

00:04:04
Speaker 3: Zoolander.

00:04:05
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.

00:04:06
Speaker 3: The first time we saw Zoolander, we were looking at each other like, what is happening?

00:04:11
Speaker 1: This which a lot that way because it bombed right like it didn't do it. It's a classic. No, It's like one of those films that like I remember if you get the DVD for it, because I love that movie. I remember watching the DVD and it's the like when you click on the extras page, you hear Ben Ziller as Zoolander go like, if you're watching this page, you're one of hundreds of people who wanted more from Yeah, but it.

00:04:34
Speaker 3: Is, I mean it is.

00:04:36
Speaker 4: The second time we saw it, we were fun crying, laughing, like howling and look at each other going how did we not get this?

00:04:43
Speaker 3: And we figured it.

00:04:43
Speaker 4: Was I can tell you exactly how because we were it was. We were in a weird headspace. We were in the theater. There's like the first time kind of out in public, and somebody left a backpack near us and then got up and left the theater, probably to go to the bathroom.

00:04:57
Speaker 3: Or killing candy or something.

00:04:58
Speaker 4: You're just like finding each other and like staring at this whole thing going on. So there was a lot going on. So the next time we saw it, though, we were just yeah, crying.

00:05:07
Speaker 1: I feel like this happens with comedy though, right, Like sometimes you just miss it and then other times you're like in the right head space or the right age or whatever and you just love it.

00:05:15
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:05:16
Speaker 2: Jensen walked out of the movie Step Brothers. It was like this is so bad, I'm walking out of it. And now it is one of his all time favorite comedies.

00:05:28
Speaker 3: I have we're not just talking about films and stuff.

00:05:30
Speaker 5: Though.

00:05:30
Speaker 3: I found something very strange lately where all of.

00:05:33
Speaker 4: A sudden, out of nowhere, I love fish.

00:05:40
Speaker 3: Never before always like watching eating fish. I never like. I was like, oh, I'm not a fish guy.

00:05:48
Speaker 4: I could eat salmon and I could eat sushi and that was it, some tuna fish. But now somebody puts fish in front of me, and I'm like, it's oh my god, I'd love it.

00:05:55
Speaker 1: What about fish? The band a little bit anti so I'm at the Greek Yeah, and you're wrong.

00:06:04
Speaker 2: You were wrong about fish, and now yeah fish. I've never been wrong about anything, so I can't participate in this conversation.

00:06:10
Speaker 3: But that's that's fair. Sorry, it's so weird.

00:06:26
Speaker 2: You know what. I don't like a lot of Bill Murray movies, and I don't think. I don't think I'm wrong about them though, that's like.

00:06:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, not even old Bill Murray movies like Rousebusters and.

00:06:36
Speaker 2: Ghostbusters is fine. Like The Life Aquatic, No, I wasn't.

00:06:40
Speaker 3: I don't enjoy that movie. I wasn't a huge fan of those either.

00:06:43
Speaker 2: What's the other movie where he's like chasing after Scarlet Johansson or something. I didn't like that movie translation.

00:06:49
Speaker 1: Doesn't age very well. I like it at the time, but I've tried to watch it since, and I'm like, this feels very two thousand and two wish or whatever. I just like it felt very.

00:07:00
Speaker 2: Two thousand and two. In two thousand and two, I was like, this is just not for me, so like, yeah, and that I know there are a lot of people who love those movies, and I haven't watched them since I watched them the first time, because it's hard enough to get me to watch a movie. You try to get me to watch a movie again that I already didn't like.

00:07:18
Speaker 3: Oh my god. Yeah, I couldn't imagine.

00:07:20
Speaker 4: Well, here's what I would say, because I kind of agree with you, and I bet you'd probably agree with me in this. I much prefer blockbuster Bill Murray to independent Bill Murray.

00:07:29
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. But you know me, I'm miss blockbuster.

00:07:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love a blockbuster the same way I prefer Ghostbusters Bill Murray to Life and Film.

00:07:40
Speaker 2: Totally.

00:07:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally, I'm the same way.

00:07:42
Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Meets World. I'm Daniel Fischhel, I'm writer Strong, and I'm wil Fordell.

00:07:47
Speaker 4: Dunk Dunk Dunk, Got dunk, I start doing this, iHeart music, Start doing the iHeart music.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: We often talk about what it takes to be a child star. Determination, a bubbly personality, a family willing to give up a large chunk of their personal lives, and, in the case of this week's guest, the ability to kill another man with his bare hands. At the ripe old age of eleven, Yep, the martial arts prodigy went straight from the karate mat at his dad's studio to Hollywood, first appearing in the nineteen eighty five cult classic The Last Dragon.

00:08:34
Speaker 3: Don't Get Me started, a movie.

00:08:36
Speaker 2: That Will has repeatedly professed his love for, and then he turned that role into a run of movies that cemented him as the kid you called when you needed a karate master. Whether it was sharing the screen with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Red Sonja, or starring in the TV show Sidekicks, or yes, hanging out with the freaking teenage mutant Ninja Turtles as their human best friend. The industry found a little action star and audiences fell in love with him. You'd also see him on TV shows like Highway to Heaven, Mcgiver, Charmed and Superstore, and movies like Rush Hour too, the Rundown and Say It with Me serves. This week we welcome the toughest person we have ever had on the show. Sorry, Bonnie Bartlett, it is Ernie Reyes Junior. Ye, how are you.

00:09:37
Speaker 5: Guys?

00:09:38
Speaker 2: Oh man, we are great. It's so good to see you again. Writer was not with Will and I when we ran into you at the Austin Comic Con. Yes, and you were the absolute highlight of that weekend for us. So we are so happy that you decided to us on our podcast today. Uh, as far as we're aware, you are the first black belt to ever be on pod Meets World. But I do have to warn you. Will and I recently went to about two karate classes and then we and then we quit at the same time. Yeah, I'm just I'm just putting that out there.

00:10:21
Speaker 3: For I realized my self defense.

00:10:22
Speaker 4: I just had to outrun Danielle and so that that was pretty easy. After this, I was like, why am I paying for this? I just had to push her down and run that way.

00:10:30
Speaker 5: So yeah, right, Well, I appreciate you guys having me and nice to meet.

00:10:38
Speaker 1: Yeah you too.

00:10:39
Speaker 2: So let's talk martial arts before we get into your acting. So your father is a legendary taekwondo champion, and he had Ernie Raya's West Coast World Martial Arts Studio here in La right, it's.

00:10:52
Speaker 6: Actually based in northern California as San.

00:10:55
Speaker 2: Jose in San Jose, Okay, So did you did you always feel as a kid like you had to live in his shadow or had had to grow up to be like him.

00:11:09
Speaker 6: I don't think so.

00:11:10
Speaker 5: You know, when I was a kid, you know, and still my hero was Bruce Lee, and so from a very early age, you know.

00:11:20
Speaker 6: He kind of set the blueprint for what I wanted to do for the.

00:11:24
Speaker 5: Rest of my life, and that was to be, you know, a martial arts action star like Bruce Lee. And my dad was the one that facilitated making that happen because I actually had the lifestyle that it would take in order for me to accomplish that. So I didn't feel like I was living in a shadow, but I definitely felt like, you know, he was supporting me in basically my lifelong dream.

00:11:49
Speaker 2: Oh, I love that.

00:11:51
Speaker 4: Can I ask when's the first time Bruce Lee came on your radar? Was it a movie or were you a Green Hornet fan? When's the first time you saw him?

00:11:59
Speaker 6: No, Greenhorn, it was a little bit before my time.

00:12:02
Speaker 5: I think the first time was actually seeing you know, Enter the Dragon, and I think I actually saw it in the drive in movie theater.

00:12:12
Speaker 2: And so how old were you when you first got on the mat?

00:12:17
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, my father had a martial arts school prior to me being born, so I literally came out kicking. But you know, so prior to actually taking formal classes, you're just arounded all the time, so you're just running while everybody else is you know, practicing basically. But I think that I actually started like formally training and around six six years old. Seven years old.

00:12:46
Speaker 2: That's amazing. And so your was your family's introduction to Hollywood when your father appeared in and was then subsequently hired to choreograph the martial arts sequences in The Last Dragon.

00:12:57
Speaker 5: Well, no, actually, so what you know, we my father had a kind of famous martial arts demonstration team called the West Coast Demo Team.

00:13:06
Speaker 6: And what we would do.

00:13:07
Speaker 5: Is is we would travel every weekend all across the country competing in martial arts tournaments.

00:13:13
Speaker 6: But we also would be you know, at the nighttime finals.

00:13:17
Speaker 5: We would also do a demonstration, so we would compete during the day, and how it works in martial arts tournaments back then was is you would compete during the day. If you won your division, then everybody would come back for the nighttime finals to compete for like a grand championship.

00:13:33
Speaker 6: So we would compete.

00:13:34
Speaker 5: During the day most of the time, win our divisions, come back at night, perform as entertainment, and then also compete.

00:13:43
Speaker 6: And so we did.

00:13:44
Speaker 5: That, you know, every weekend for probably five years before I even got into movies or television. And they were filming the Barry Gordy's The Last Dragon, and they were about three weeks away from finishing production and they were they had yet to film the climactic fight scene and they were looking to kind of bump up the action. So we flew out to New York and basically did a martial arts demonstration for Barry Gordy, all choreographed to music. Now, this is something that we had been doing the last five years every weekend in front of live audiences, so we were very polished when it came to performing and it was all choreographed to music. Prior to I'd say that, you know, the late seventies martial arts demonstrations were very sterile, very serious. It was very quiet, you know, and then we came on and it was like disco music and all We're doing skits and wearing wigs and really made it more of a show. So we performed for you know, Barry Gordy, and on the spot, he was like, Okay, we're going to write this kid into the film.

00:14:56
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, so I was going to say, you were not just in the final scene, You're a pretty major character in the film by the end.

00:15:03
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah. They went back and you know, kind of figured out different little ways to incorporate me into to the movie. And the cool part about that was is my first film was a movie that actually Bruce Lee was in, and he wasn't even live at that point. It was pretty It was pretty wild.

00:15:26
Speaker 2: Who introduced you guys to Barry Gordy.

00:15:29
Speaker 5: So I was doing a martial arts demonstration in Las Vegas and after the martial arts after the demonstration, and the crowd was kind of going crazy, and a lady came up to my dad and said, does he speak English? So she produced herself. Her name was Sally Baker. She's a long time you know vet in Hollywood. She had shows, you know, from the sixties called Hobo Kelly. She's just a long time like industry veteran, and she said, you know, I'm a manager and my husband and I work in the industry. We think that your kid has talent. We'd love to represent you know, your kid, to see if there was something that we can do for him. At that time, I was still competing and we were still traveling, so as much as like the dream was there, we weren't really in any position to like pursue a Hollywood career. And so we said, thank you very much, but you know, we're really not equipped to do anything like that at this point, you know. And so five years went by and we had kind of run our course in terms of competing and doing demonstrations, and now it was like, we're looking to do the next step. And my dad had kept her card and calls her up five years later and says, you know, we basically told her, now's the time that we would like to, you know, pursue you know, an entertainment career. And she was like, well, you know, has he grown any And my Dad's like, no, five years ago.

00:17:12
Speaker 3: One thing children are known for it's not growing.

00:17:17
Speaker 5: Yeah, And so she was the one who really ushered me into Hollywood, had you know, the relationships with Motown and Susanda Paz executive over there, and she was the one that got the ball rolling.

00:17:31
Speaker 1: I'm so it's so fascinating to me to think about martial arts as performance, you know, like because it sounds like you didn't really separate the two. You know, you were competing and doing shows, and I just feel like the like we think about that with dancing, for instance, pretty you know, if you're a dancer, you're also an actor. If you're a singer, you're also an actor usually, But this is so cool that were you were you separating them? Were you more into competition before you you started doing the film work or was it always kind of just the same skill.

00:18:00
Speaker 5: Yeah?

00:18:01
Speaker 6: No, I mean I always was.

00:18:03
Speaker 5: Yeah. And again it goes back to Bruce Lee for me, you know, it was just like he had set the bar so high and he was a real martial artist even though he was a performing artist as well, and so I was in the beginning, was really just trying to be the best martial artist I could be. I was like, I want to be like Bruce Lee, and it was more about the skill set than it was about like performing. But then they all they pretty like quickly merged together, and then it was just I need to get my skill level to the highest level it possibly can be, and then that also supports me as a performer entertainer. So it kind of just was all one thing pretty early on.

00:18:45
Speaker 4: Well that's I mean, so Last Dragon was hugely important in my life. It's massively important to me. It was one of the first real martial that and Sho Kasugi's movies like Revenge of the Ninja and things like that just helped to craft who I was.

00:19:00
Speaker 3: And the thing that was so cool about The Last Dragon.

00:19:03
Speaker 4: It came out, what eighty five, So I was nine, you were the best martial artist on screen.

00:19:11
Speaker 3: So there's a kid you were what eleven at the time, twelve?

00:19:15
Speaker 6: Yeah I was.

00:19:16
Speaker 5: I was twelve. Yeah I looked like I was.

00:19:19
Speaker 4: You looked a lot younger, but you're twelve, and so I'm watching a kid who's by far the best martial artist in the movie. I mean, I still I can picture the double kick you do right now where you jump off the stage and you kick the two guys at the same time, and at nine years old, I'm sitting there watching going that's.

00:19:36
Speaker 3: All I want.

00:19:37
Speaker 4: I want to be that guy. I want to be that guy right there. And my dad because of this, signed me up for my first karate class.

00:19:43
Speaker 3: Like two weeks after. I saw The Last Dragon nine times in a row.

00:19:47
Speaker 4: But the thing that was so great is not only were you the best martial artist in the film, but you're one of the funniest characters in the film. You were actually really funny. And the idea that this was your first movie is insane to me. So if you guys have not seen Last Dragon, you've got to go what you have to go watch it. He steals the movie. The martial arts is absolutely incredible. And then on top of that, I learned how much I love women because Vanity walks on screen and my life was forever change. So Martial Arts and Vanity and then I'm sure Danielle will get into it. But we got a chance to work with the great Julius Carrey who was on our show, and he must have hated me by the end of working together because I was just going, Okay, what then, what was it like working on Last Dragon?

00:20:33
Speaker 3: What was the next day like its it.

00:20:35
Speaker 4: So I just wanted to tell you how important that movie and you specifically were to me as a little kid.

00:20:42
Speaker 3: It was so awesome change my life. It really did change my life.

00:20:45
Speaker 6: That's awesome. Man, I really appreciate that.

00:20:48
Speaker 5: It was great.

00:20:48
Speaker 1: So, Ernie, did you end up did you take any sort of acting classes or did you kind of just learn that you could do this on the fly.

00:20:55
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean that was the thing is so when we did these martial arts administrations, you know, I was kind of like the center of attention when it came to that. And so what we would do is we would create these fight scenes or skits basically, so I had a lot of like live performance where you get the feedback instantaneously.

00:21:17
Speaker 6: And we definitely involved.

00:21:19
Speaker 5: A lot of comedy you know in our in our you know fight scenes and you know, taking a cue from people like Jackie Chan and and and people like that. And also even just at a young age, realizing hey that Jackie Chan had influences like Charlie Chaplin and Key all these so I really got I mean that was like where I kind of cut my teeth in terms of just performing. And so I knew how to be funny and how to do the things that I know would get a reaction from the audiences. And that's really where it all came from. And uh and then just watching movies. Yeah, but and that was a very confident so I thought I could pretty much do anything. And yeah, I didn't really get into like any kind of formal acting training or anything until like way later and probably into my twenties.

00:22:13
Speaker 2: So that same year that you were in The Last Dragon, you're in Red Sonia with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen, a pair of wild action stars in the eighties who apparently may or may not have been having an affair during the shoot. What memories do you have of filming that movie?

00:22:35
Speaker 5: You know what, it was actually like one of my favorite movie making experiences. You know, we filmed it was Dina Dilarentis Productions, who were filming in Italy at this amazing Italian movie studio where the wardrobe designers were like these serious craftsmen. And you know, I got to go horseback riding every day in the countryside. I got to you know, practice sword fights, you know, I uh, after work every day. My dad had me really training like a man out of a very early age, you know, doing he didn't. That was one of the things in terms of my training was he never really took into consideration like, hey, this is a kid. I just pretty much had the same He trained me as if he was training. So there was no kind of like, oh, well, we're going to modify this to make it a little easier for you or less you know, strenuous. I was just training all the time. So it was very cool. I got to lift weights with Arnold Schwarzenegger every day after six months, and I had show him hissing routines and like you know, and you get a kick out of that. So that was amazing. And then Brigitte Nielsen, you know, at nineteen years old, she was about six foot two. I think I was a four foot two or something, so like it was just like the best possible and you know, this is pre cgi, so all effects were practical, all the sets were built, and so I was literally running around like a you know, a tyrant prince with my own castle and servants, and I mean it was wild, but it was it was like definitely an amazing core memory just growing up as a kid, Like you couldn't beat it. In terms of just the whole filmmaking process and everything like that.

00:24:21
Speaker 3: Now, was this this was between? Is it between or after Destroyer? So is Barbarian then Rensnia then Destroyer?

00:24:29
Speaker 5: Right? I think that it.

00:24:33
Speaker 6: I think that it was.

00:24:34
Speaker 5: I'm not quite sure on that, Yeah, but it was, you know, in the early days of Arnold, you know, becoming prior to becoming the biggest movie star in the world. When They're coming, we had finished work and his mom was visiting on the set, and so we went to say goodbye in his dressing room and he gave us a VHS copy of a v tape and he said, you know, I just filmed this movie right before this one, and it's coming out this summer. This was in around Christmas time, and so my dad and I went back to our hotel room and popped in the VHS and upcomes Terminator. Oh so we got to see Terminator on VHS like six months before the world did. And you know that sent him into superstardom. And I was like, I want to do movies like that. Dad.

00:25:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, Wow, amazing.

00:25:29
Speaker 2: You mentioned that your dad didn't train you like a kid who was training. You were just any old other adult he would have trained or himself. Was that hard for you or did you love it? Did you want it? Or did you ever feel like you were missing out on a childhood?

00:25:44
Speaker 5: Oh? I mean I definitely wanted it, but I definitely also felt like I was missing out on a child Okay, because every weekend we were traveling and that was like our focus of life, like it really was, And so I did I did miss out on a lot of the normal things, maybe all the normal things that childhood consists of. And we were just training every day all day long, you know, and then traveling on the weekends. A lot of times I would miss school on a Friday so that we could get to the tournament on a Saturday wherever it was. And yeah, so I definitely felt like that. It's like, oh I got you know, my friend, and there just wasn't any of that. And it was also you know, it kind of prepped me for the life that I was going to live as I continued into Hollywood, because then you again miss out on all these kind of normal childhood things. So I wanted it, and I definitely felt like I missed out on a lot of stuff, you know, as I was growing up and you know, I just kind of processed it as like that was the sacrifice that I had to make in order to do what I wanted to do. And you know, my dad was like, you know, all the other kids are doing normal things, but they're also not getting to do the things that you're getting to do, So you have to kind of choose one one way or the other.

00:27:02
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's a good way of thinking about it. Not any not everyone is weightlifting with Arnold Schwarzenegger running around an Italian villa.

00:27:10
Speaker 1: That was for you.

00:27:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, you have that opportunity.

00:27:16
Speaker 2: So were you also attending traditional school and auditioning and competing? What was your schooling situation?

00:27:23
Speaker 5: So, yeah, I was like up until about the sixth grade was like my regular schooling situation, and then after that it was just homeschooling. Before homeschooling and a tutor when I was on set and everything.

00:27:37
Speaker 2: Okay, wow, Beau Scott, you I mean, how did you You were so busy?

00:27:41
Speaker 5: Yeah? I mean I was like busy and working really hard too. You know, it wasn't just like busy busy, It was like but also very strenuous, you know, Yeah, it was. It was a lot of work. I mean I worked really hard as a kid.

00:27:57
Speaker 2: Okay, so now we're at around the time of side Kicks, and here you enter our world of TV child acting. So the synopsis was an ordinary cop tutors a young boy who insists on helping him in cases with his mastery of martial arts. I mean, this truly feels like it was written for you. Was it written for you?

00:28:18
Speaker 5: Yes? So what happened was is after the Last Dragon, Motown wanted to develop a television series for me, and at that time, you know, they weren't going to be able to get a network television deal in Hollywood, so they partnered up with Disney and it was a co production between Motown and Disney, and so everything was I mean, my name was Ernie in the shows.

00:28:48
Speaker 4: You've made it when the show's about you and it's like you're raven or you're earning, or it's like they're not even changing your name anymore.

00:28:55
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly.

00:28:56
Speaker 6: So yeah, it was.

00:28:58
Speaker 5: It was there, and we were you know, I was there when we were pitching the shows and we were going to the exit all the different networks, and I'd be in Brandon Tartakoff's office and would move the furniture out of the way, and my dad would attack me, and then I'd beat my dad up, and the executives were like whoa you know, demo in all these executive offices, and then the networks, and then we finally landed over at ABC.

00:29:24
Speaker 4: So again watching this as a little kid, just sit either watching us seeing him do that, I was like that, I want to do that.

00:29:29
Speaker 3: I want to do that.

00:29:30
Speaker 2: How were you so good?

00:29:35
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's just honestly, it was like a lot of training. You know, obviously I had like physical, you know, gifts in terms of just athleticism, but yeah, it was just a lot of training. You know. I trained and trained and trained and trained, and I was motivated. You know, I was inspired by Bruce Lee. So it wasn't just like hey, I'm going to karate class or whatever I was trying to I was trying to be as good as Bruce Lee. I mean, you can see my performance that I was generally yes, and it was important to me, you know, I at a very early age, it was very important to me that you know, I represented you know, standard of excellence because that's what Bruce Lee meant to me.

00:30:19
Speaker 4: You know, wow, wow, Yeah, did you only study taekwondo or because of Bruce Lee? Did you try kundo or did you go to hot keto or was it just one style mostly?

00:30:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean my primary base was taekwondo. That's where you get all the kicking and all of that stuff. But you know, we were boxing and kickboxing and doing Filipino martial arts, had a little bit of you know, training with Dan and Nisantos, you know, who was Bruce Lee's student and training partner.

00:30:50
Speaker 6: So I mean, and I was also exposed to.

00:30:55
Speaker 5: I was also exposed to all the greatest martial artists at least in our country, so I had a reference point. And so we would travel doing seminars with you know, a panel of the greatest like martial artists in America at the time. So I was exposed to it all.

00:31:24
Speaker 2: So the cop Insidekicks was Gil Gerard better known as Buck Rogers, a TV legend. What was that like for the karate champ when sharing scenes with him?

00:31:34
Speaker 6: Yeah, that was amazing.

00:31:35
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, first of all, I hadn't seen the show, but I knew who Buck Rogers was. Yeah, this is pretty cool, you know, and at that time, I think he had taken like a hiatus from you know, the entertainment business for a while and was like coming back. So that was cool. And he, you know, he was Buck Rogers. I mean he you know, I mean it was like the first time that I kind of fell that like, hey, this guy is you know, from in it from a TV perspective, like, hey, this is like a star and Arnold and all the people prior to that were not established at that time.

00:32:11
Speaker 6: So even Arnold, yeah he was a star, but he wasn't.

00:32:14
Speaker 5: Like a superstar. Buck Rogers had already had like an entire career, you know, the sidekick. So I definitely was able to kind of feel feel that in just his presence. But he's a great guy and I really enjoyed working with him.

00:32:28
Speaker 2: How is your dad? What is your What was your dad's thoughts and feelings? Did he express them to you? Seeing you go from you know, a martial artist who was training every weekend and working really hard, but then all of a sudden accomplishing his other dream of becoming a movie star and now a TV star. How was your dad feeling through all this?

00:32:47
Speaker 6: You know, I don't know, I don't know exactly.

00:32:49
Speaker 5: I know that He's super proud of me, you know, you know, and it was a reflection of his It's a reflection of him as a martial arts teacher as well, and so that I think that he was very proud of that, you know. But my dad, we were on a mission, so it was always very like, you know, we were very it was very serious.

00:33:11
Speaker 6: You know, we were having I was having fun, but it was a very serious thing.

00:33:15
Speaker 5: And then coupled you know, and that's how entertainment business is, right, There's a lot going on, but then coupled with it is just like I'm this martial arts guy, so it's all very like focused and you know, and again that's where you miss out on a lot of the other things that are just like more fun and that kind of stuff. But yeah, I think that he's just generally was very proud of me, you know, and what we were accomplishing, and we worked you know up and you know, we also were Corey, so he was working on the show, so it wasn't just like a regular set parent who's just like there and whatever.

00:33:51
Speaker 6: He was involved in the production aspect of it.

00:33:54
Speaker 5: So he's going to production meetings as having working with the stunt coordinators, and then he was the choreographer for Sidekicks as well. So all the stuff that I did when I was a kid, you know, he was choreographing all of that stuff.

00:34:07
Speaker 6: And I was to a lot of it, to be honest, but that.

00:34:10
Speaker 5: Was his position. We would work together and I would say, hell, what about this and what about that? But he that was his position, was the choreographer. So we were working together side Rice versus you know, you know, just being a parent and being there just because the child needs to have somebody an adult on set.

00:34:31
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, so let's get into teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In the first movie, you are the stunt double for Donatello, right, yes, you were in the foam latex costume fighting members of the Foot Clan. Please tell us how that came to be.

00:34:48
Speaker 6: Yeah, So Golden Harvest comes back to Bruce Lee again.

00:34:53
Speaker 5: Who's responsible for you know, Bruce Lee, Jet Lee, Jackie Chant. So after Sidekicks got you, after Sidekicks Gots canceled, then I went back to kind of being like a regular teenager. And I actually went to a small school, but it was it was for actors and actresses and models and people like that that were in the industry and working. But I was now in a school again and for people there, and I was making friends at least during school time, you know.

00:35:25
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, so Golden Harvest and so there was that time period where I wasn't working.

00:35:31
Speaker 5: I was just enjoying being like a young teenager. And so Pat Johnson, who was the stunt coordinator, So Golden Harvest was bringing four Hong Kong stunt guys to work on the first American production. And during that time, like in the eighties, especially for martial arts films, like the Hong Kong guys were like up here in terms of like the action output that they were doing. And so they were bringing four Golden Harvest was bringing for Hong Kong guys to do all the action for the Turtles. One of the guys broke his back in pre production. So Pat Johnson, the stunt coordinator, called me up. And I had known Pat from way back in the day. He used to be judge me as a young kid in my martial arts competitions and things like that. And he said, listen, this is not an acting job, but this is a stunt job.

00:36:26
Speaker 6: Are you willing to come? And I was like, Golden Harvest, are you kidding me?

00:36:30
Speaker 5: Like yes, absolutely, And so now I'm like going and immediately I go to They fly me out to London to the Jim Henson Creature Shop and I get a full cast, and you know, I'm seeing all the stuff that they've worked on. I mean, I'm like, this is magical. Right then, I actually knew, like, Okay, I'm doing something very cool here.

00:36:53
Speaker 6: I wasn't too familiar with the Ninja Turtles in terms of the property or whatever.

00:36:57
Speaker 5: I was kind of familiar with the toys. But now I'm at the Jim Henson Creature Shop and I'm getting a full body cast, you know, and we fly out and then I go from there and I go straight to North Carolina where we were filming and and started working with you know, the Hong Kong guys.

00:37:18
Speaker 6: And that was amazing. It was it was really special.

00:37:20
Speaker 5: But I was really like the really hooked for me was Golden Harvest, and it just went back to Bruce Lee again. I was like, I'm actually getting to work with the company that made me. And you know that the Golden Harvest has such an iconic.

00:37:32
Speaker 4: Logo logo right when it pops up you know exactly.

00:37:38
Speaker 3: It's right underneath the Lucasfilm Limited. Like the lucasfilm comes up for Star Wars, Golden Harvest comes up. It's like, oh, yes, this is going to be a fun ninety minutes. Yeah.

00:37:46
Speaker 2: So were there other kids in the suits or were you the only kid?

00:37:51
Speaker 5: I was the only kid. Yeah. The Hong Kong guys were just men, and I was. I was so I was seventeen in between. It was the summer in between my junior and senior year of high school.

00:38:01
Speaker 2: Wow, oh my gosh.

00:38:03
Speaker 5: And I was emancipated, so I could go and work and I didn't need an adult.

00:38:07
Speaker 6: And also this was the first.

00:38:09
Speaker 5: Time that my dad wasn't with me, and so this was like a big deal for me.

00:38:15
Speaker 6: I was like, okay, I'm a stunt man.

00:38:17
Speaker 5: I was a stunt boy, you say, right, you know.

00:38:20
Speaker 6: I'm away.

00:38:22
Speaker 5: And the cool part about it is is that I got to choreograph, you know, all of my own stuff. So now I'm doing what I used to do with just me and my dad, and I'm getting to do it myself. And so basically, you know, the stunt coordinator would break down a scene.

00:38:38
Speaker 6: And we're like, okay, we're going to do the rooftop.

00:38:39
Speaker 5: Fight scene or whatever. And then I would go and come up with the choreography and then I'd present it to the stunt coordinator, and ten out of ten times he was like perfect, you know the choreography. So it's like all of that, you know, it was a pretty special moment for him.

00:38:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you're and when you're doing the choreography, are you wearing the suit to like know what you can do or can't do or well, preliminary.

00:39:04
Speaker 5: We just go and kind of work stuff out and then yeah, then you're going, Okay, now we have to try it with a suit.

00:39:12
Speaker 6: It was pretty crazy. The suit was like, you know, thirty forty.

00:39:15
Speaker 5: Pounds, Oh my god, home Latex rubber. You know, it's like a ball. No. I mean my body first of all, is in North Carolina is like one hundred degrees outside. Oh my, one hundred percent humidity. And we're you know, doing fight scenes all day long, like literally twelve fourteen, sixteen hours a day. And imagine like a nerve football. You know, you don't get into the water.

00:39:41
Speaker 6: It's just like a giant sponge.

00:39:43
Speaker 5: So you're going your sweating and it's just the suit's getting heavier and heavier as the day goes on, and you're basically slashing around in your sweat for like fourteen hours a day. I mean it was hard work. My body temperature got up to one hundred and two degrees every day.

00:39:59
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, there's there's.

00:40:01
Speaker 5: Story hey guys.

00:40:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's teenage mutant Ninja Turtle stories about the first filming of that movie where they were like right on the line of safety for a lot of that film apparently.

00:40:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, big time.

00:40:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh my gosh, yeah.

00:40:17
Speaker 5: Crazy, But that's where all that training comes in. You know. It's just mental and physical that it's like, all right, this is like I always kind of looked at it on the first movie like it was like a black belt test. It was like you always knew what you were getting into like every single day, and it was just a matter of like controlling your mind basically, because a big part of it is just like mental.

00:40:40
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, how did did you fit in with the Golden Harvest guys? Or did it take a little bit? Yeah, I mean you must have been nervous, right, yeah.

00:40:48
Speaker 5: No, I mean this was like the dream come true, and honestly, in my mind, I was like, this is my opportunity to demonstrate what I can do. That was like I went into that with that mindset and it worked out pretty much like I had hoped for it.

00:41:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean it was a smash that when it first came out. I remember, I think I saw it three times in the theater. Like it was this was comic books and martial arts together for the first time, but it was also the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was a little bit more subversive of.

00:41:19
Speaker 3: A comic book.

00:41:19
Speaker 4: Then a lot of people knew, Like if you knew, you knew, but if you didn't, I mean, most of the actors that were cast in the film didn't know what Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was. So it's it's one of those things where it was a real if you know, you know moment, And so for somebody who was a fan seeing it brought to life and and the puppetry.

00:41:39
Speaker 3: Was decent, it was good.

00:41:41
Speaker 4: So it was you figured it was, oh, it's gonna look like crappy foam suits or and everybody was worried. The fans were worried beforehand, and then the first pictures kind of leaked and there was no online, so it was just kind of like, you know what's gonna, Well I heard this, I heard that, Well, I heard it's gonna and then next thing, you know, I have a strange connection with the film where the the the human Kid played by Michael Turney. Okay, Michael's mom was my manager for years, so whenever Michael wanted to get out of New York City, she would send him to our house in Connecticut. So he was like, he and I would hang out together, and so he's telling me all about, yeah, I'm doing this teenage mutant ninja Turtle. So I like, I already knew it. I was like, oh my god, they're doing the Ninja Turtles. And then when it came out, it was like a phenomenon right at the time. I mean, yeah, massive part the whole thing again.

00:42:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, so was that then? Was there any part of it that was hard because that's obviously a massive hit, but nobody could see you inside the suit. Did you have that feeling of like, I'm a massive reason this movie is so successful and yet no one even knows it was me.

00:42:41
Speaker 6: Yeah, It's well, it's interesting.

00:42:43
Speaker 5: So, you know, going back to the martial arts community, there's a whole martial arts community right all across the country, and it's pretty much like a kind of subculture at that time. Yeah, you know, but they had been following my career since the Last Dragon and so now here we are, how many every years later, and so there was at least in my martial arts world, they knew that, hey, and we were kind of promoting it as such. But on the last day of filming, the executive producer from Golden Harvest, who you know, they took.

00:43:18
Speaker 6: A liking to me.

00:43:19
Speaker 5: There was four Hong Kong stunt guys, three Hong Kong stunt guys and me. The Hong Kong guys couldn't even speak English. So when Golden Harvest met me and they could see that I could do the martial arts and compete with all the best guys at Golden Harvest, and I spoke English and was just like a California kid. On the last day of filming, the executive producers says to me, Hey, we're gonna in the sequel. They already knew that they had a smash hit on it their hands, and last day they said, hey, we're gonna write you into the second movie as a human character. So I was like, oh.

00:43:58
Speaker 3: My worked, Yes, oh my god. It's a great segue to the Secret of the US Party two.

00:44:06
Speaker 6: Too.

00:44:07
Speaker 2: It's the nineteen ninety one sequel, and you play Keno, the smart mouthed pizza delivery boy slash karate kid who becomes best friends with the Turtles to fight the evil Shredder. So this had to be every kid's dream come true. You are now best friends with the Ninja Turtles. What was it like to go from being in that awful suit to now you're you get to be you? What was that like?

00:44:35
Speaker 5: Ye, well it was a lot cooler, like literally, yeah, I mean it was amazing, you know. And so what happened was is after the second movie, I mean after the first movie, then they basically one of my friends, you know, from the martial arts community, replaced me inside the suit and now I'm like a human character. So I already knew what the workload was like inside the costumes. Yeah, just that alone made me a happy camper, you know.

00:45:08
Speaker 6: And no, it was amazing.

00:45:09
Speaker 5: I mean it was very surreal, and you know, it was also kind of like my part of my plan. I was like, hey, now I'm actually getting to do what I want to do.

00:45:19
Speaker 6: And I'm actually human character. I mean, it was it was amazing.

00:45:22
Speaker 5: Now, so it was in between my junior and senior year of high school that we filmed the movie came out. Now, I just graduated high school and yes, starring in the Teenage Being a Ninja Turtle movie. I mean it was like, you know, peak just Peak Frenzy good times. It was just like the dream come true. Really, it was like a dream come true. Like it was amazing, Like there was It's just unbelievable really, you know. And yeah, so they replaced the Hong Kong guys with the American guys, a lot of the guys who we're competing on the martial arts circuits because that's kind of where I had come from. And so then they brought in all American guys and and then again, you know, I got to choreograph my own you know, fight scenes, which was like for me as the marshal the outside of the acting and everybody seeing me really being able to perform martial arts choreography that person that I was personally choreographing, and we have that opening mall sequence, and I mean it was just like I couldn't ask for anything better really, to tell you the truth.

00:46:33
Speaker 4: Well, the only thing you could ask for better is to also have a song by Vanilla Ice, which is I mean cinematic glory is sitting there watching Vanilla Ice dancing with the Turtles.

00:46:49
Speaker 3: It's got to be pretty awesome.

00:46:50
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it was. It was crazy. I mean it was all just kind of like.

00:46:54
Speaker 6: A surreal you know, surreal you know, and I had kind.

00:46:59
Speaker 5: Of you know, I I grew up like in a hip hop generation, like the early day days of hip hop and seeing where it was and now I was in the movie, and yeah, it was just yeah, it was pretty wild like Vanilla's and he was like peak, the height of his popularity.

00:47:15
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, time.

00:47:16
Speaker 2: So what was Vanilla like on set?

00:47:19
Speaker 5: Uh? No, you know, I didn't get to spend too much time with him because the only stuff that I did that we were working together was the scene the end the sequence where they're in the club and they're dancing. But really I just come in towards the end, so I didn't actually get a lot of like work.

00:47:36
Speaker 2: Time Okay with him, Okay, cool? How long would you say? Rehearsals for big fight scenes usually take.

00:47:48
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, you know in yeah, that's a good question.

00:47:52
Speaker 5: There was probably. I mean, you get probably a few weeks ahead of the production, and that's kind of just like start planner stuff and like yeah, just kind of planning things out. But in my reality, like in my mind, as soon as I was reading the script before we even got to this, like I was putting it all together in my head. As soon as I read the script the first time, I was kind of imagining what all the stuff could be. So when by the time I got to the actual production, like I pretty much knew what I wanted to do and had it all kind of planned out and written out in my script and had it all prepared, you know, beforehand. So for me, like the rehearsal time was more for the other people, like I'd do I'd grown grown up doing most starts fights, right, I can on the spot like do whatever.

00:48:44
Speaker 2: Sure for you, but I'm sure everyone else needs some work.

00:48:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, And it's a it's a you know, it's a dance routine. It's a choreography. It's by numbers and beats and and that kind of thing. And but the guys were great, The stun guys were great. That I got to work with, and you know, we didn't have a lot of time. I'll put it that way. It wasn't like this long, you know, and Golden Harvest, they're not you know, it's not like, hey, it's like, you know, right.

00:49:14
Speaker 4: In between the first movie and the second movie, did you deep dive the Ninja Turtles? Like by that point, were you just grabbing everything you could about the.

00:49:24
Speaker 3: All the comic books, all the books, everything you could say.

00:49:27
Speaker 5: No, not really to tell you the truth. I mean, in between after the first movie, I went on like a whole promo tour in the martial arts community, and so we were I mean, I would be like opening martial arts. That was like one of the most special parts about being in the Ninja Turtles is how much of an impact that it made on the martial arts industry, right, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of kids signed up for martial arts because of the Ninja Turtles. And we were we're in a we weren't on the you know, on the outside, we were we came from that world and had a whole long history at that point.

00:50:08
Speaker 6: So we came back to.

00:50:10
Speaker 5: All the tournaments that I used to, all the like, you know, five star rated tournaments. We came back and I was making appearances and promoting, and martial arts schools were popping up all over the country, and I would go to grand openings and literally they'll be like on the grand opening, the school owner would sign up one hundred people like from scratch, just and I was there.

00:50:32
Speaker 6: I mean it was It was really wild.

00:50:34
Speaker 5: So even though I was in the costume the martial arts community, once the movie became a hit, they knew that I had done all the martial arts for the character Don Tello, and so in between the movies, I basically was out in the martial arts community, promoting martial arts, promoting martial arts for kids as a positive way of life, and you know, all of that in between, So there wasn't much time to sit down and read a comic.

00:51:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Well, here we are in twenty twenty five, and after all the popularity of the Ninja Turtles, it seems to me that the level of nostalgia is actually highest for a movie released three years after Turtles two Surf Ninjas. This was another vehicle for you alongside Rob Schneider, your dad, Philip Tan and a boy Meets World guest star Keoni Young.

00:51:30
Speaker 1: So oh yeah, yes, So was.

00:51:33
Speaker 2: This project also built around you?

00:51:37
Speaker 5: Yeah? So New Line on the first Ninja Turtles, New Line Cinema was not the New Line Cinema that did Lord of Rings or anything like that. Newline Cinema was a small indie film and the first Ninja Turtle movie when you know, when it was released, was the highest grossing independent film of all time in the history of movie making. And so New Line on the Monday after Secret of the Ooze came out, I had like a front cover of the La Times calendar section and it was like Ninja Turtles Mania or whatever. And so Newline called, uh, you know my team, and was like, we want to make movies with Ernie. And so that's how that whole thing, you know transpired. So it went from you know, the first Ninja Turtles in the suit to starring alongside the Turtles, all within the same company, and then New Line developing and producing a movie for me as a vehicle for me to star. Wow.

00:52:39
Speaker 2: So was it incredibly popular when it came out or did it really get its legs in vhs?

00:52:46
Speaker 5: It got its legs in VHS, So, like I remember going to the market the Monday, and I could kind of like the writing was a little bit on the wall in terms of well, first of all, we did test screenings.

00:53:04
Speaker 6: I did it.

00:53:04
Speaker 5: I showed up to about ten test screenings of Surfing Engine. So in the test screenings, you have a full full house. They don't know what they're about to see, but it's packed in there. And I'm sitting next to Bob Shay, you know, the CEO of New Line Cinema, and the kids are going crazy. They're in their chairs, they're jumping up and down, they're singing the song. They're like, it's going crazy. And the test ratings was ninety eight to one hundred percent good to excellent. It was testing higher than both Ninja Turtle movies, and so when it came out, it was definitely So I go to the market, but I could kind of see the writing on the wall just like, and you know, you kind of drive around town on the weekend at the movies and you're kind of like looking around and you.

00:53:58
Speaker 6: Can feel it, just like you can fill the build up, you know.

00:54:01
Speaker 5: And so I go to the market, uh, and I open up the Hollywood Reporter and it's like Surf Ninja just wipes out up the box office. Good. Yeah, it was. It was a pretty crazy moment because you know, it's the you have this plan and it's all work and it's all going well, and now the vehicle now this is where if you if you, if if this hits, now you're into what like you really are? That was my goal is like okay, you know, because I grew up in it. By that time, I had already graduated high school, and independent movie making was like it was like the Golden era Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez and you know, all those things, and people are making movies just on there by theirselves, you know.

00:54:53
Speaker 4: And so.

00:54:55
Speaker 5: Uh, I was like, this is going to be my opportunity. And I had you know, when I went into New Line to meet with them, I had a vision of making family action martial arts movies. You know. That was kind of my pitch to them. And I've been thinking about this for quite quite some time, and so I was like, man, if this thing hits, I'm going to get to do what it is that I want to do, which is more family action martial arts movies. And so when that didn't happen, it was.

00:55:24
Speaker 6: Like a huge blow to the whole thing.

00:55:27
Speaker 5: I was like, oh my god. But you know, as time moves forward, it was a huge hit at Blockbuster.

00:55:37
Speaker 6: Every weekend it was sold.

00:55:39
Speaker 5: Out at Blockbuster. And but you don't really know what like what that really means, you know, because there was no internet really, so you don't really get any of that feedback other than, hey, I'm going to my Blockbuster on sunset over here and it sold out every single weekend.

00:55:59
Speaker 6: Somebody's buying, somebody's renting this thing.

00:56:02
Speaker 5: Right. Only until I started doing the comic cons that I realize how popular Because then now I'm like, they're promoting me, you know, as you know, from the Ninja Turtles. But then seventy percent of the people are like, hey, yeah, of course Ninja Turtles, but dude, Surf, that's my movie. Like and so only then have I realized like how popular it is. I mean, I go to travel with these comic cons like now almost every single weekend, and Surf Ninja's is like a huge part of what people are like talking to me about Ninja Turtles is is what it is. It's like undeniable. But you know, I was very surprised and continued to be to see how many people like love that movie. And so those kids that were all in those test screenings, you know that we're cheering that. I thought, oh man, we did it. Like that was what our goal was to do. What we did, what I see the kids responding to. In between that and the marketing and the opening of the movie, something happened and there were no kids in the theaters, right, But you know, all those kids ended up watching it on you know, VHS and then DVD, and so it's really cool to be it's kind of like a sweet you know, sweet revenge to know that it's like, oh God, really, actually what we set out to do, we actually accomplished it. It just didn't in the way that traditional you know.

00:57:33
Speaker 1: So you say something happened, but have you been able to figure out like was it a marketing problem? Did New Line mess up? Did was it another film that came out that weekend? Do you know, like you I think that it was.

00:57:44
Speaker 5: A marketing thing. You know, it's a few years. You know, all along the way we were kind of constant deliberation of like who the audience was. You know, if you watch the movie, there's a lot of like adult chokes in there too, hidden amongst everything, right, so we were trying to like lock in on the tone, and I just you know, when I initially first saw the poster, I was like, what, I didn't know if that was really the poster that was gonna get the audience. It just seemed a little too camping, a little too geny, and a little bit like it's kind of trying to ride on the back of Ninja Turtles. And I don't know what exactly, but I feel like it's somewhere in the marketing of it, you know, that it didn't happen because, like I said, I saw the kids, like I saw the test ten test screenings when marketing wasn't a thing, and it was just about the kids being in the theater. They were all there, they loved it. And then why was weren't there any you know, why wasn't there an audience inside the theater? That was week that week?

00:58:52
Speaker 1: And right so to me as you saw it on the other side too, went the video rental. So yeah, it clearly was working and for much and reaching itself was very yeah, and.

00:59:02
Speaker 5: It's still like people come up to me still and now, like the Ninja Turtles even with Surf Ninjaes, these kids who grew up on these movies are introducing their kids to these movies. And now I've got you know, eight, nine and ten year olds that are going Quanta dude, like they love happening, you know. So I think that for what we set out to accomplish with the movie, we accomplished that. And so it's nice to see that, you know, with the advent of you know, the Internet and social media that it's getting in Literally just last year, uh you know, was it streaming for the first time. It wasn't streaming anywhere either, and just last year, So now we're getting a whole new audience, you know, and a lot of them are kids, So that's cool.

01:00:03
Speaker 2: How did you avoid burnout? As you know, we talk a lot about burnout as kids that you know, when you're auditioning or you're on a series the way we were, and then like for Will and Wright, they were doing movies every summer in between those seasons when you're consistently working, and none of us worked as hard as you did when you're working seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year, almost competing movies TV. How did you avoid just total burnout and wanting to give up and walk away even though you were successful.

01:00:38
Speaker 5: Well that's kind of that's you know, so surfing Ninjas wipes out at the box office, you know that was my cue. Okay, all right, you know now it sounds fun. Yeah. So I'd been working my whole life. Now I'm like twenty one years old, and you know, it was time to just put all that behind me, you know, in a certain way. At that point though, also my dream of independent filmmaking and all of that kind of stuff was really fueling me, like artistically, but it wasn't about like popularity and all the things like chasing Hollywood, and it made me even kind of more like you know, gravitate towards independent filmmaking, which is like hey, okay, peace to Hollywood. Let me just go try to do my own thing, or just I'm done with Hollywood. Basically like I've done everything. I've admitted, I sacrificed it. It didn't pan out the way that I wanted, and now I'm just gonna go crazy, you know, live life and figure it out. So like the burnout kind of like it just the process alone stopped it for me okay. So it's like, before I could get to that point, it was like, well, okay, we kind of flopped at the box office. No one's talking to you right now, So I guess it's time to just, you know, leave all of that behind. And so I just kind of went.

01:02:15
Speaker 7: Into life, and to be honest, like, you know, you're in now in your early twenties, and you've had success, and you know, you're dealing with all the stuff that we deal with having a huge amount of.

01:02:26
Speaker 6: Success as a child, and now you're struggling and now you're.

01:02:29
Speaker 5: Trying to figure it out. And now you're like, I can't even get a normal job, like you know what I mean, You're just you go through the insanity, literal insanity of trying to figure out life and all the things that were kind of that weren't developed because you didn't have the normal growing up period. You just have to do it in your twenties now. And so you're just I went through that whole process, which was you know, just crazy basically Wow.

01:02:57
Speaker 2: So then I want to I so many questions. I could literally talk to you forever, but I have to get to the fact that you are in literally a perfect movie you're in Rush Hour two and you're also in the Great rock movie The Rundown. When you do these movies and you are around stunt teams and martial arts experts, they must be huge fans of you, like you and your dad helped pave the way. So what is that like when you're on the Are they all big fans of yours?

01:03:27
Speaker 6: Yeah? I don't know.

01:03:28
Speaker 5: I'm not sure. Like definitely the stunt community, you know, I'm not so sure about the stars themselves. Yeah, the people that are surrounding that, people that are in the production that are surrounding the stunt guys, the choreographers, and they definitely have been tracking with me the whole time, and you know, are fans of the stuff that we did from you know, day one. The one thing that I will say is is so after surfing Hinges, I didn't really give up. I went a little crazy, just like trying to figure out life and land yep, being a child actor and all that stuff. But I kept training, you know, in between in between Surf Ninjas and the Rundown that was like fifteen years.

01:04:14
Speaker 2: Again, wow, Yeah.

01:04:15
Speaker 5: And I didn't stop training, and I didn't really let go of you know, I'd never really let go of like my dream, you know, I just thought that I would have to figure it out some other.

01:04:28
Speaker 6: Way, basically making it happen.

01:04:33
Speaker 5: So yeah, and mind you like no auditions, like fifteen years. Like there are times where, like four or five years, you know, I look a certain way on my whole thing. There's not a lot of stuff that's going to be that I'm perfect for or whatever. And so for fifteen years between Surf Ninches and the Rundown, there was nothing. You know, I entered into the theater company, so that's where it kind of like actually started trying to work on my like acting shops a little bit, because prior to that point, I was like, well, I've just been kind of resting on my Yeah, just my own ability as an entertainer wasn't really like an actor per se, even though I had been acting my whole life. So I got into the theater and I and I did stuff like that, but I was training the whole time, you know, with the idea that you know, I'm going to get another shot. So at some point, and so even as an actor, and you know, sometimes you have bad reputation, you know, you you end up having to you know, all.

01:05:33
Speaker 6: The people that were working with you.

01:05:35
Speaker 5: Now nothing's going on, and now you get dropped, and now this and that and next thing, you know, you got some flaky agent trying to like yeah, well there's times where it's like four years, there was a stretch of four years there wasn't even an audition.

01:05:49
Speaker 6: H crazy, wow, right, and I'm still.

01:05:52
Speaker 5: Just training all day long and going and I got to be prepared when the moment comes. So you know, when you get to a movie like The Rundown, all the people inside of the uh, inside of the you know, the stunt team and the choreographer and the stunt coordinator, they see you. You know, it's a pretty small community to in La. You know, everyone goes to similar places to train and so they see like, hey, I've been I'm still on the top of my game right now, and so you know that helps, you know, when you get into a situation where like the Rundown, for instance, where it's like, Okay, the stunt coordinator knows me. He sees me training over at Valley College every Tuesday and Friday night. He sees me over here, he sees me over there. So you know that that plays its part, you know, in the process. But you know, I don't know.

01:06:43
Speaker 6: It's uh, you know, with the Rush Hour thing, it was that's a crazy story too.

01:06:49
Speaker 5: You know. I was supposed to have this whole fight scene with Jackie Chan and and somehow it just didn't happen for whatever reason. You know, I don't know what the reason is, but I know that I was, you know, at the peak of just my physical prowess, and I was ready to go, like, oh.

01:07:07
Speaker 3: I got Junkie Chan. I mean, come on, that's crazy.

01:07:10
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean so. And at Jackie at that point, to be honest, like, you know, he was a little older from I mean, you know from the time that he was I've been watching Jackie Chan since the eighties or whatever. Now you're talking about like a whole other time period.

01:07:24
Speaker 6: I was still I was like probably in my somewhere in my thirties or so when we did Rush Hour.

01:07:29
Speaker 5: But I was ready to go. I was super excited. I was like, man, this is it fight teing with me and Jackie Chan. This is gonna be amazing. And it didn't happen for whatever reason, But you know, I was happy. I'm happy to have had the moment.

01:07:46
Speaker 2: Well, now the family business continues. Your adorable daughter, Lotus Blossom, who started her career in a very memorable T mobile commercial where she was yelling out hidden costs at her lemonade stand. Did she always want to be a performer like you were as a child.

01:08:05
Speaker 8: I think so, Like she grew up like you know, at that time, like she had seen all the movies that I'd done, and like we had done like a whole kind of tour at the Alamo Draft Houses.

01:08:18
Speaker 5: Where you know, they were playing The Last Dragon and Surf Ninjas and Ninja Turtles and all that.

01:08:24
Speaker 6: So she she was kind of prime for that.

01:08:26
Speaker 5: And she had done a few demos with me and my dad up in northern California, so she had some experience. And yeah, it just and yeah it at some point, I mean, you know, she she wanted to do commercials, and then we did a commercial. And I think that she, more than my son, was like more influenced by like following in my footsteps. You know.

01:08:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, is your son also in the business.

01:08:55
Speaker 6: Uh not yet.

01:08:57
Speaker 5: He's kind of like on the peripherree, you know what. He will at some point very soon.

01:09:03
Speaker 2: So this will be three generations of Ray's projects. Yes, yes, that's pretty exciting. Well, Ernie, what an incredible career you continue to have. I know our listeners are huge fans, and so are the three of us of just your career and you as a person. Thank you so much for joining us today. It has been a pleasure to talk to you and learn from you and hear your experiences. So we thank you well.

01:09:30
Speaker 6: Thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate you, guys.

01:09:33
Speaker 3: Thank you. I'm sure we'll see you a con Yes, I'll see you soon.

01:09:37
Speaker 2: Bye bye. What a career.

01:09:40
Speaker 4: I also didn't realize how much how much he's done that meant so much to me, especially yeah kidding, like one after another of stuff, of projects that I used to just watch over and over and over again.

01:09:51
Speaker 1: The ups and downs too, like you know, the fact that he didn't work, like they're making TV shows and movies around him, and then he goes through this whole whole period of like, well doesn't mean anything. Yeah, you know. Also, art only.

01:10:05
Speaker 2: Imagine any other world where you make the Last Dragon, red Sonia, tun Ninja, Turtles movies and then and multiple TV shows that are all successful, and then you do one movie that isn't successful. And for fifteen.

01:10:22
Speaker 1: Years you're working just as hard the entire time, you know what I mean, Like it doesn't change for you.

01:10:28
Speaker 3: Changed for you.

01:10:29
Speaker 1: The experience is still waking up every day, training, focusing on your career, like having the same ambition and committing to it with the same amount of intensity.

01:10:38
Speaker 2: And also you probably didn't do anything different in that project that you had done in all the successful ones. But somehow you're blamed the blame yeah for and no, everyone's like, wow, he's not the vehicle maker anymore. It's like what it's It's just crazy.

01:10:56
Speaker 1: It's a maddening industry, guys.

01:10:57
Speaker 3: It's also but it's also a trendy industry.

01:11:00
Speaker 4: And for the eighties and early nineties, young martial artists was a big thing. So you have three Ninjas and surf Ninjas and Revenge of the Ninja and Teenage Mutant Ninja chur.

01:11:11
Speaker 3: I mean, it was like one after that and then it goes away. It's like, oh, we don't do martial arts anymore, and then.

01:11:15
Speaker 1: It comes back, and then.

01:11:17
Speaker 4: It does, so it's totally sick siclicur ciclicole. So you just don't know when it's gonna come or what's gonna come? I mean the nineties super hot right now? You just you never know what's coming back.

01:11:28
Speaker 2: Wow. Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode of Podmeets World. As always, you can follow us on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your emails pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com. And we've got merch Go.

01:11:40
Speaker 4: Merchie go Merchie go go Merchie go Merchie go, go go go.

01:11:45
Speaker 3: Thank you.

01:11:46
Speaker 2: Wow, pretty good Podmeets Worldshow dot com writer send us out.

01:11:50
Speaker 1: We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast producer and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder Strong. Executive for ducers, Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman. Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara Subachsch producer, Mattie Moore engineer and Boy Meets World superman Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at Podmets World Show or email us at Podmeats Worldshow at gmail dot com.