Seconds with Pat Healy

Hey kids, this is just a public service announcement about this very episode you are listening to right now. So yes, this week we're going to get to a great segment with Pat Healy. But first, I've been meaning to get friend of the show Kate to come on anyway, so we were both in the same town at the same time. That usually doesn't happen, so this seemed like as good a time as any, so that was a great excuse for us to get together and do an intro for the show. Little did we know what we had in store.

So we break away from the goings-on of the weekend at hand, and Kate escapes from her table where she's selling some great artwork and jewelry, amongst other things. So by the way, seek her out and support what she does, cause she's very cool, and she really deserves it after this episode. Anyway, so we're trying to get away from all the people and find a quiet corner to record the intro. Well, it wasn't a corner, exactly. It was a hallway.

Not just any hallway. but one with big wooden doors that swing out into that hallway. So here's the public service announcement. Don't stand near those doors if, for some reason, you choose to hang out in a similar hallway in your own lives. Now that may seem fairly obvious and really wouldn't need to be pointed out to normal people. Well, Kate and I obviously aren't normal.

And so about three minutes into our conversation, that door opens hard. And, well, you'll hear the rest. I just wanted to give you a little heads up here on the type of ridiculousness that is about to break loose. So be aware. It's coming.

And more impressively, listen how quickly she recovers. That Kate, she is a trooper. Right back into the conversation. And no, I probably wouldn't have included this segment if she was seriously injured. Last I talked to her, she just had a hardcore bruise going on.

And, I mean, maybe a permanent limp. But whatever. Whatever. The point is, she asked me as soon as we wrapped up if I was going to include that in there. And I was like, how can I not?

I mean, aside from the fact that she was recovering during the entire conversation, there's no way around it. But more importantly, it was kind of amazing. Like, horrible for her. But just the fact that it happened right there in the middle of the show. I've said it before and I'll say it again.

I'm continually astounded by the places I go and the moments that I capture on this show. I just feel like I'm chronicling these ridiculous moments and along the way also capturing some pretty great conversations. And yes, Kate said she thought it was funny that it was all recorded as well and was even kind of looking forward to hearing it herself in some sick way. So it's with her blessing that you get to hear all of this and her yell at that girl who, by the way, came barreling out of that door. Anyway, there's your warning.

Use extreme caution when listening to this podcast, specifically if you have a heart condition or are pregnant. Oh yeah, and also, if you're standing with your pelvis anywhere near a closed door, also stand with extreme caution. Words to live by, people. And now. On with the show.

It's showtime. The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. Our nuclear reactor pumping out one million kilowatts of power. What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown.

I am Brian and I am on location. We are coming to you live via digital. Recording from a hallway in the. Middle of one of those convention things. More importantly, with.

Me is Kate. Miss Kate Davis, we're going. So the world will know. Yeah. Kate Davis.

Who I am. World famous. Mistress of the light. Well, like, regionally. Regionally known.

I'm like Mistress of the light. I'm going with it. What's your new billing? I would actually pay to be called that regularly. $ 4. Yeah.

I have a cheap rate. That's, like, alarmingly low. I take what I can get, as we've seen with my fundraising effort. I take what I can get. So.

I thought while we were here, you were a recent contributor to our Foilers nominations, proceedings, and I thought it was nice of you to kick in on that. So I wanted to have you on the show and say thank you for doing that. You want to repaint me by making me speak out loud? Isn't that a wonderful thing? Dude, I write and I paint.

You think that talking is my... You've put a. Couple words together in the last few minutes. Yeah. You can say words.

I feel like I have to say what just happened, though. It was entertaining from my end? I don't know that you enjoyed it. Well, I was telling him that I literally had just spilled coffee on myself like not 12 hours ago. And while I was saying it, I spilled coffee down the front of my shirt.

And then I walked into the little restaurant, Alcove, whatever that is. And this dude was like, it happens to everybody, guy. I was like, thanks. I was like, I hope it's the color of my shirt when it dries. You're very special is what we're trying to pass along here.

In like all the ways, yeah. Special. Yes. Super special. Well, I think you're doing just fine.

Thanks. I really appreciate that. We're very proud of you. I appreciate that. I don't know where I'm supposed to go with that.

Very proud of you. You're doing just fine. We're all impressed with how you're walking and caring for yourself. It's like my mom. She's like, I'm so glad you're doing laundry now.

Parental. Good for you, honey. Good for you. Oh, and you kept the cat alive. Nice.

I can't believe it. I mean, good going. Yeah. Poor cat. Anyway.

Oh, I love my kidders. So, we usually kick things off talking about movies and stuff. Have you seen any movies lately? No. Great question.

Like, literally, you want to know what? I haven't. Let me tell you why. I fall into that category a lot, too. I do this so much I don't get to watch movies.

What's weird, though, is that I am, like, my friends worry about me. I don't go outside. Sometimes I have to go outside to get, like, vitamin D, like the good sun kind. Oh, they make that? Can't they bottle that, too?

They do, but it's, like, synthesized. It's, like, not quite the same. It doesn't give you the same benefits. Or maybe it does, and I don't know. I'm just building a big electric light at my house, and I'm going to stand in front of that.

I do actually have one. It's called an OTT light. They're really good for crafting. They're also, they simulate sunlight. Special.

He's super special. Super special. Oh! Ow! Sorry.

I'm so sorry. Oh, my God. Are you okay? Really? Who lives in the room like this?

Oh, my God. Are you okay? I mean, I guess you should have done better than to stand there. Oh, my God. But that was quite an accident.

Oh, my God. Are you okay? Yeah. I'm so sorry. It's okay.

We'll be over here now. I think we should relocate. I'm, like, okay with being here, just not in front of the door. Okay. It's okay.

This has been. Quite a day for you. I really don't know that you're going to make it. You think you're going to get home tonight. Should we see what just happened?

Well, I'm sure they heard the ruckus. Yeah, well, the door was open directly into my pelvis. I mean, it was. Kind of our own fault for standing directly in front of a door. Dude, I just spilled coffee on myself.

You think I'm going to notice I'm standing in front of a door? But then, of course. And I was trying to tell you why I haven't watched movies lately. I'm going to get to that. This is why, okay?

So the reason why is with the con stuff. That's true. All I do is I end up listening. To the movies because I'm painting and I'm writing and I'm also... I actually had an article due this Saturday... while I had to get ready for the con.

Nice. For also Horror Hunt Magazine. Nice. So, like, I had, like, this, like, huge weight on my shoulders, so I'm not going to watch movies because, you know. You have work to do.

Yeah, so when I was painting, I listened to the Jurassic Park audiobook. That's relatively close. And it was great. Does that one just reading, or do they do, like, does the reader do monster-y, like, dinosaur sound effects? No, there were no sounds.

No. Well, he would say, and he roared. Like, he would get kind of, like, graphic. Would you make the dinosaur noises? No.

No, but I did whistle the theme song. All right, I guess. I really want dinosaur noises is all I'm saying. Oh, and then my cat, she just kept getting in the way and knocking stuff over. So I wasn't thinking.

About making a dinosaur sound. As I previously mentioned, cats are trouble, and you can't trust them. Can you see my hip? You've been pelvised. Do you see it?

That's not. I think it's going to be a bone bruise. It's sticking out, actually. You might have to have that reinserted. Well, and everyone was making fun of me yesterday because I was eating applesauce and everyone else was having, like, steaks and stuff.

And everyone was like, you're such an old lady. And I was, like, sitting all, like, huddled over. I am not. And then I went to bed at, like, 11 the night before. Yeah.

I'm up for going to bed whenever you want. I don't drink anything useful. I have coffee. I've kept it in my cup so far. But that's all really all I've had this weekend is coffee and cherry coke because I'm a party animal but oh man i added the cherry that was pretty hardcore well.

I like really throw it off right now i can't imagine why like my like my hip is just throbbing in a I feel like I should call 911 or something. It's kind of Final Destination. I'm waiting for something else to come and, like, lop your head off or something. And I'm, like, expecting, like, just, like, someone to hit me with a dolly or, like, push me down. Some stairs I don't see.

Just turn around. Huh? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Two by four.

Yeah, I've seen that many a movie. I actually did see a guy get brained in the head with a two by four once. Nice. Were you holding this 2x4? No, no.

I was like 10 feet away, so I saw the whole thing unfold. It's a 2x4 attack, I've heard. Yeah. And the one guy was like super tall, so it like really beamed him in the head. Nice.

It was good. This is fun. Yeah. Well, I did see a movie this weekend. And I wouldn't...

I don't know if I would go on and on about it if it wasn't very good, but I was surprised. Well, I hardly ever see movies at these because I get sidetracked and I don't do anything. I don't think I've ever seen one. I know. As I went in there, I got suckered in by the... person i was with earlier and i was like all right whatever i don't have anything to do for an hour and a half sure so there's a lot of the short films that are i like short films but some people are making short films and no i know they need to not be making sure but um then there was a movie called uh blood sucking bastards really which is sort of misleading because you've I mean, I guess not, because it is mostly a comedy.

Sounds like an MST. But it seems like it would be very bad. And the thing is, it's really smartly written. Like, I was surprised how smart, especially because it's a comedy. Because like that, more than anything, is hard to write.

And especially to get the timing right and then find the right actors to be able to deliver it right, all of which worked. So for like an independent movie, this was really well put together, really smartly written. And just genuinely funny. Like, I was surprised how funny it was. How long?

It's a full-length movie. Like, hour and a half-ish. Really? And it's new. Somewhere in that neighborhood.

And that's what I was going to say. As far as I know, like, most of the ones here, a lot of them haven't even been picked up yet. So I don't know if it's out there in the world yet. Weird. If so, go hit the Google right now and go search for it.

Because it's worth checking out. Especially if you like horror comedy, which is a delicate balance anyway. Yeah. I feel like that's only been... done well maybe four. Times yeah it's it's tough three of those are Shaun of the Dead that's what I was gonna say I compared it yesterday as I was talking to you I compared it to a very Shaun of the Dead vibe especially it's set in an office so you've got well.

Dad and Breakfast I think that was that was fun yeah it like wasn't genuinely like Shaun of the Dead actually has like good. Kind of like oh shit parts. Well it works on both ends is what's awesome about it like it legitimately is a good horror movie and it's. Fun I'm like happy Simon Pegg is like famous now But at the same time, like, yeah. You know Scotty.

Like, I just feel like I just wish that we could have him back. Because he was, like, a really good representative. He still makes a lot of weird little indie movies, it seems like. Because I'll see a lot of stuff come out and go, like, when did he do this? So I don't know if he just does it on his downtime or they've been sitting on him for a couple years.

But, like, a lot of stuff turned up lately. I mean, that's, like, what he's into. Yeah. Which is another amazing performance. Yeah.

It's pretty awesome. So that's my, you know, underground pick of the week. I don't know how out there it is, but definitely look for it. My underground pick of the week is Jurassic Park on audiobook, which you can find on YouTube. And it's read by a very annoying man who says words wrong.

And also the kids in the book are way more annoying than they are in the movie. So there's your. Since you like talking into mics so much, how about if we get you to read the book and then you can create your own audio book? What's weird is like I'm kind of good at talking, but then when I read out loud, it's kind of a different story. I get that.

Unless it's like a short paragraph. Oh, and then it gets real monotone. Yeah. I'm. I'm like somewhere in the middle.

Like this, I just ramble on and it's fine and I don't have to think about it. Like for me, I would be like, this is Jurassic Park and now this is the part where the dinosaur goes, yeah, and then the man says, we have a T-Rex. I'm worse when I have to sit there by myself and like do a little setup for the show. Really? But wait, I talk all day long and have no issues.

But now that I have to do it and there's nothing else going on, I'm like, wait, what am I supposed to say? Oh, I screwed that up too. So yeah, I'm so much better just kind of rolling with it. And that's how we ended up in this hallway where you're getting pelvis. Oh, God.

I know. I'm like, I kind of, oh, at least like when, because I'm supposed to be on my table right now and my friend is watching it. And so when I get back, she's going to sass me and I'm going to be like, listen, I. Got like brain. I'm making it a word.

If you get brain when you didn't have, you got pelvis. So that's true. I'm not going to try that. If you learn nothing from this little exchange, this hallway of doom that you're in. Yeah.

I don't like it here in the hallway. I bet some stupid guy threw up in this trash can. I'm glad I got to share this hallway with you. It's a magical experience. I know.

Everywhere I go, fun fact, everywhere. I go, I tend to see people throw up, and I have a huge phobia of it. I don't like this at all. I haven't thrown up in 15 years. Oh, Lord.

We're getting into Seinfeld territory. We are. I know. Actually, everyone's always like, the cookie. And I'm like, I know.

Stay away from the black and white cookie. Well, and I can't have gluten, so. Oh, you need like double gluten. See what happens. I think I should probably be capped in a glass case.

Maybe so. Yeah. Do we at least get an in case of emergency little metal breaker? Like to break my throat and open? No, we didn't break the glass.

In case there's like a fire or something, we need. To get you to escape. Oh, I thought you meant like to force me to throw up. I was like, I don't like this at all. This is really gross.

No, I don't like that at all. I was trying to get an escape plan for you because I'm assuming wherever you are, probably a fire will break out. Knowing the way things go with you. Oh, actually, when I was in New Orleans, we had a hotel room. It was a family vacation like a long time ago.

Not that long ago, actually. And we had like an adjoining room. And I turned the fan on and I went to bed and I put my earplugs in because there were like construction workers. Sounds like trouble. I know.

One of my earplugs fell out in the night, and I woke up. It sounded like some weird dude was snapping in my bathroom. I know. This really is Final Destination. And so I was like, who's snapping in my bathroom?

And so I opened up the door. Sort of doo-wop group? Yeah. Well, I opened the bathroom, and I was ready to just kick some guy. And it looked like there was a flaming ashtray in the toilet.

And what I realized had happened was the fan that I turned on in the bathroom caught on fire in the ventilation ducts. melted, well, fallen, and then melted through the toilet. And it was actually fire crackling, not a man snapping. And then the whole hotel was evacuated, and it was during that Big Ten thing. Oh, and Sum 41 and Tom Green were there. Were you standing next to all of them?

Because I would like to see that little motley crew standing. No, but I saw Tom Green so many times that week that he started waving to me by the end of it. He really has nothing else to do. He's Tom Green. He was just in our town like two weeks before that.

Really? Yeah, he was just passing through ours too. He's all over the place. Well, don't take away my Tom Green specialty. Oh, I've never seen Tom Green.

I don't know what you're talking about. Well, what's weird is he's really gross looking. He's a weird looking dude. In person. Yeah.

Some 41 all tiny and weird. They were always weird looking dudes. But they keep marrying up, I suppose. No, I don't think so. Well, I mean...

They were. In star category. Because I'm like, there kind of has been. There's no offense to them. I know.

But how are they still marrying people who are in the entertainment industry currently? I'm like, shouldn't they be red flag? Hey, whoa, what am I doing with this guy? Well, and then the one fella and his alcoholism. Yeah.

That's also a problem. He got way almost dead. Just say no to booze, kids. Oh, yeah. No.

And throwing up. Yeah, no, especially the second one. And setting fires. And the third. And the third.

But the first one, if you can swing it, go for it. Yeah. So the moral is you're never safe. Yeah. Your room could catch on fire at any given moment, even if you didn't do anything.

And it probably isn't a guy snapping in the bathroom, just so you know. Not a man snapping in your bathroom that you previously had bolted shut. All right. Or, you know. Where do you want to tell people?

Because you have awesome things and awesome words. Oh, by the way, I write for more. You should probably tell people those things. This is why you should have listened to me talk about Jurassic Park. No, I like all the other stuff.

But I feel like you should be able to tell people. Okay, so facebook.com slash Kate Dangerously. That's my art and writing page. And you can find my art and my writing, surprisingly, there. Sometimes pictures of me.

I think we should get a picture of you next to this door that almost published you. What do you mean almost? Well. Technically, it did. Thoroughly did.

I don't know. We'll have to see if you have a limp from here on out because this will be a hell of a story. I'm not going to joke. I actually really hurt. A, it scared me, and B, it genuinely hurt.

It was disturbing. I just want to look. It's not good, people. It's purple. It's blue.

Is it really? It's bleeding. Don't even. It's not bleeding. My porcelain skin.

Damn it. She's dying. I guess we should wrap up here and go talk to Pat Healy, who is awesome, by the way. Yeah, he's the sweetest. Let's go do that.

And flowers might will when we walk past. And self-help might help when it makes us laugh. Only finding questions and answers. You and I are just walking disasters. You and.

I are just walking disasters. Just walking disasters. She only finds her love in a downtown school. School They come from another world, spawned in the light years of space Unleashed to take over the bodies and souls of the people of our planet Bringing a new dimension in terror to the giant super scope screen Whatever intelligence or instinct it is that can govern the forming of human flesh and blood out of thin air is. Beyond any comprehension.

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That's part of your problem, you know. You haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies. And now, on. With the show.

I know you've come a long way, baby But you don't need that heart of stone, no You. Proved that you can do it, so do it, baby You can make it on your. Own But you can't keep running away from love Cause the first one lets you down. No, no, no. And the others try to satisfy.

You, baby. With me, true love can still be found. Love can still be found. The second time around. Ooh.

The second time is so much better, baby. The second time. All right, so we are here with Pat Healy. Hello. I've watched you on the screen for years now.

I thought you were going to say since I was a little baby. Since lurking about outside your house. No, I was just going to kind of go into a little bit of how you got into things. So you were Chicago? Yeah, I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago.

And, you know, I was always a movie freak with my brothers. I have three brothers. And ever since I was a little kid, I loved the movies. And I seemed to especially love the sort of cult movies and things that were not easy to come by back in those days before cable television and home video, God forbid, if you're going to remember. Definitely.

Pre-cable was almost impossible. Yeah, and so I started there. We lived in New Jersey for like four years when I was in fifth to eighth grade, sort of junior high school years. And then I was back in the suburbs of Chicago, went to high school, did theater in high school. Went to Illinois State University in normal Illinois, downstate, in the middle of the cornfields. where I studied theater, which was also the birthplace of Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago, which is a big theater company, and John Malkovich and Joan Allen, Gary Sinise, John Mahoney, those people came from.

And I got an internship there through my school and sort of got my career start there. I got a. Couple of understudy roles and went on stage. There was an understudy, and then at the end of my year there, I got cast in a play, A Clockwork Orange at Steppenwolf, And just through my association with them, I was able to get an agent, and that agent luckily had an office in L.A. So when I moved to L.A., I was pretty much set right up and got right into the business.

So was it always... acting like that was just something you. Were drawn to it was always filmmaking you know and loving movies but acting was just like when I was a kid it's not it isn't like it is now where everyone has computers and cameras we did have a super 8 camera and we made little things but really that's what I knew how to do and I also do have that part of my. Personality that is you know, that likes to show off and is social and is a ham and, you know, danced around the records around the house. And my parents, you know, encouraged me to do plays, which I wanted to do and stuff like that. It's funny, I remember the first play that I did was for the Park District in Arlington Heights, Illinois, where I grew up.

And it was like a play about all the monsters. So I played the Wolfman. I remember that. So here we are full circle all these years later. So it is one of those like watching, and I see more of this now, and maybe just because I pay more attention to it now, but.

Watching like actors sort of build a career. And I've been more, again, I try to watch more stuff based out of LA, which is its own world. Yeah. More than you want to deal with probably sometimes. But I mean, it is interesting watching people that just can become a working actor and really can just find that as this is my job and I don't necessarily have to you know, work of waiter job and I don't have to do something else.

Yeah. And that way I've been fortunate. It's been 20 years, you know, and, and, you know, it's been about, I guess, 17 years since I've had to have any kind of job, um, and, uh, you know, real job. And, you know, LA is not easy, certainly, but I've, I've done it. And, you know, most interestingly in the last 10 years is when people have offered me these leads in these smaller films, which has built my, career as an actor I mean I have another career as a screenwriter so I do supplement my income that way but you know the smaller movies don't pay a lot but they pay off a lot in sort of you know building a reputation for myself and building a career for myself and all that so and getting my name out there more it's like you know people I think for many years knew my face from little parts in TV shows and stuff like that but Um, now, uh, you know, people know my name, you know, put the names.

Of the face and build a career as just one of those guys that absolutely documentary. And it's like, I know that phase. Yeah. You make good money that way. And I was content with that to a certain point.

And then I wasn't, it wasn't, I was sort of making lateral moves. I wasn't, nobody was ever knowing my name and it wasn't like this drive to be famous, but I knew that if I wanted to, to hold onto a place in an, in this industry, cause it's harder and harder to do that now without being a name. just because of the way the business has gone and the economics of it and everything, that I needed to kind of... Luckily, the screenwriting picked up, so I was able to make money that way. Then I could go and do Great World of Sound, Compliance, Cheap Thrills, Innkeepers, because I can disappear for a month and go and do that and not worry about pulling in money or losing money or whatever because my income is being supplemented.

I think those indie reveals... can give you the chance you know because you're not necessarily going to just immediately be picked up and be the lead in the next big Marvel movie but you know if you can work your way in that's their problem yeah which I mean you'll be Captain America in the next. One right you already worked your way into the second one well it's hinted at I don't know if you stay after the credits there's a scene and then there's ten minutes of blank screen and then there's another scene after that that introduces that idea. And then you want to go and shove Chris Evans out of the way. And take that mask and you're like, aha. I assume that's coming.

That's how it works. But I didn't want to say that I was going to ask your opinion on like, because there are kids that just sort of fall into that and somehow they become a lead in a major motion picture and it's like you had the benefit of, like, 17 years of working in the industry. Do you think had it just some sort of happenstance and you were thrown into a lead, would you have been prepared for it that long? No, it feels that it's worked the way– it worked out the way that it was supposed to. I really didn't feel that I had– even though I was working and making a career of this, I really didn't feel that I knew what I was doing until about 10 years ago.

And that was like, I was in my early thirties and I went down to do a great world of sound with Craig's elbow. And there I was like being asked to carry a movie for the first time, which I hadn't done. But for some reason I knew I had the confidence to do, I think mostly cause Craig and David Green had confidence, you know, in me to do it. And, um, you know, then I could like start looking at the work and going like, Oh, that's good. You know?

And, working with these good filmmakers that, you know, show you off. Well, oftentimes you go and work on a television show, you got, you know, audition. And then the next day you're working and it's like, you know, pages and pages of dialogues. It's not like a lot of preparation time. So great world of sound was the first time that I was something that I had, you know, many, many months before I was able to work on.

And I've had, that's been the case with, uh, to varying degrees with compliance and, and with, with, uh, innkeepers and sheep thrills too. Yeah. I mean, it seems like everything since then you, you've had great roles and as you said like i logged you know 30 hours of television i've probably done you know i don't know how many is at least as many. Movies and yeah um you know you just log time in front of the camera and you're not trained as an actor so that kind of stuff is the stuff that comes naturally i think as you get older and you're more experienced and more in touch with your feelings and things that's the kind of stuff that's easier and then you've done the sort of Malcolm Webwell 10,000 hour rule of how to work on a movie set and where the camera is and what works and what doesn't.

Especially if you've watched what you've done and been properly you know humbled and or humiliated by it then you know you you get better at. It and more important watched everybody else i think that everybody absolutely such an important key is watching everybody i've. Done that since i was a kid oh on the set. Just on that set watching everybody absolutely figuring out what your place is in this. Completely even when you're an actor you're you are just one of many cogs in the wheel and so yeah i don't think i would have I don't think– I mean, look, if I was going to, somebody would have offered me something right off the gate.

Obviously, you didn't. And they didn't. But, you know, I don't think it was because I was bad. I just think I'm not a type. I'm not a specific thing that people were looking for.

They know they like it when they see it kind of thing. But it's like, you know, it's been a little more difficult for me. But in a way, it's been much better because I think, A, I wouldn't have been as good. And, B, I had to go through a lot in my life. You know, essentially, we all have to grow up.

Yeah. I think if I had gotten, and I've watched younger people get it too soon and watch it destroy them, and I've had friends that have been lucky enough to come back, but who really started as child actors or very young, and it really screwed them up because there's all this attention all of a sudden, and they're not mature enough to handle it. It's a tough road. Yeah. So I feel grateful that it's come to me later in life because...

I know how to handle it. I know I'm not going to do something stupid to derail myself, you know. Well, and you picked up a lot of stuff on some pretty impressive movies early on, too. Yeah. I mean, Magnolia, you know.

Yeah, you're working with Paul Thomas Anderson, Julianne Moore, and, you know, all these other people are around, you know. I've certainly, like, rehearsed. We did a whole day of rehearsal for anyone that worked with Julianne. So, you know, I spent the whole day with Phil Hoffman and Michael Murphy and all these people that I, you know, really... it worshiped and admired and got to see how they worked. And, um, that was, you know, pretty remarkable to see like top notch people, you know, Robert Elswit, you know, Mark Bridges, like all these people that, that, you know, they were kind of really getting their, you know, start, you know, Paul had made a few movies and, you know, but, but they were all, you know, certainly top, you know, class top flight professionals.

And so, yeah, I got to, do a lot of that stuff, you know, really early. You know, I was part of the whole John Hughes machine in Chicago doing Home Alone 3, which is like a well-oiled machine by that point. I would think, yeah, at that point. And Roger Gosnell, who's a big director now, had just been the editor on the other films and, you know, was directing for the first time. And even like Marion Seldes, who was like this great, you know, amazing, she passed away recently, you know, New York theater actress, legendary really, was on that film, you know, just watching someone like that. or being able to have a conversation with Jason Robards for a few minutes, you know, he was, that was his last movie.

He was actually, he was dying, you know, when, uh, he, um, when he was making the movie and, and, you know, the one time I got to meet him, I was just telling him, you know, how much of a, I don't know if I use the word fan. I don't know what I said, but you know how much I admired his work and talked about some of the movies. And he said, uh, and he was walking around everywhere with an oxygen tank, you know, And he said, movies. That's just pulling faces. He goes, the theater, that's where it's at.

And he was really like, he really meant it. He really didn't like, you know, take that seriously. And, you know, it wasn't difficult for him, you know. And he won two Academy Awards. So, I don't know.

There's some kind of wisdom in there. That's impressive. Yeah. But it's, I don't know, to me it's just such a different art form. Like there's so much more that you can do. in each field just on its own terms.

Yeah. Like, you know, theater has its own groove and like you get into it and it works as its own animal. And I like doing that but if I was only interested in acting I think I would be a theater actor but because I'm interested in filmmaking and I see myself as another, whether I'm acting or writing or, you know, in these independent productions I usually have some other kind of job on the set just the way they work out. You know, and I've directed some shorts and I hope maybe I'll direct a feature in a few years but, Um, I, uh, I, I know how it all works. I wouldn't say I know how to do all of it, but I know how it all works and, and I know how to be a part of it and I'm interested in all of it.

So it makes it people, some people are like, oh, film acting is so boring. You're sitting around all the time and it's like, not if you're engaged and interested in the process, you know, there's always something to, to see and learn and glean, you know, it can be because the days are long, but for me it's like, you know, being in a, you know, being in a playhouse cause that that's, you know, That's like a kid in a candy store as far as I'm concerned. I think that's what it is. It's like the film aspect adds so much more to it or can if you're doing it right. And I think especially, again, almost drawn more to the smaller movies where if you're personally invested in it, even as an actor, if you're invested in what's going on, you are working on it all the time.

It's not downtime all day long because you're all making sure everything works. Yeah, well, in these smaller movies, she thrills, you know, I don't have downtime. There's almost no... time I'm not on screen so I'm always there and we're moving so quickly that you know it's not you know there's not a trailer to sit around in anyway one of. The other earlier ones I wanted to hit just because I'm a huge Terry Zweigoff fan yeah I think the guy's so underrated yeah he's amazing such a great filmmaker so I don't know what I guess how did you get involved in that one and then what was it like that. I was a huge fan of Dan Clowes in 8 Ball Comics and Ghost World was part of that and so Cassandra Koulikundis, who cast Magnolia, actually cast Ghost World, too.

And so she brought me in on that, and I was super excited. And I just went in and kind of geeked out on them, I guess. Dan was living in Chicago at the time he wrote that, so the character that I played was kind of based on a guy or a series of guys that worked in a comic book store that I used to go to. Yeah. I knew it well and I walked in there and just did it.

That was like one of two times in my whole life where I was, you know, hired right there in the room. It doesn't happen that often. And those guys were amazing. They worked as a great team together. And obviously I loved, I was a fan of Dan's, but I loved Crumb.

And Terry was great. And that was a great experience, you know. And that was, you know, that movie's a great legendary cult movie now, too. A lot of these movies that I, you know, and it'll be a natural segue into what we're going to talk about, too, is like cult movies are movies that, you know, don't have as large of an audience, generally speaking, but the audiences for them are rabid, you know, and the film's reputation's built over the years. And when I was a kid, like I said, we didn't have a VCR until I was 13, 14 years old, and we didn't have cable until I was, you know, maybe 11, 12.

Yeah. And then a lot of these films in this book, Danny Peary's cult movies book, I think he wrote three of them in Guide for the Film Fanatic. They were things you just read about and you had to hunt down. You couldn't find Eraserhead. I mean, I didn't see Eraserhead until it was re-released in the theater when I was 23, 24 years old.

But that was like, you had to find these movies. And I was like, wow, that sounds amazing. And a lot of those films became important and I it's maybe no accident although it wasn't planned that i ended up being someone who mostly appears in films like that but like but one of those films i can't remember it's in the first book or not was was um seconds john frankenheimer seconds and that uh was a movie that wasn't available even on dvd until i want to say the mid to late 90s And I saw it, I finally saw it after knowing about it since I was a kid. I mean, it was literally nowhere you could see it unless you lived in a major city and they happened to show it at a rep house, but I don't ever remember even that happening.

I saw it on Turner Classic Movies, I think, one night, really late at night, which is kind of a great time to see that movie because... It's the ultimate nightmare film as far as I'm concerned. It's its own weird mystical state of mind. Yeah. Well, we can roll into this week's movie.

It's time for Sofa Theater. Rock Hudson, in an astonishing change of pace, stars in Seconds. Rock Hudson as a second, freed from all responsibilities, now ready to taste new pleasures. Rock Hudson as a man who buys for himself a totally new life, a chance to begin again. Every man's dream since time began.

Rock Hudson, as a man who lives the nightmare of being a second. Why are you all staring at me like that? Hey, John. Hey, John. Hey, John.

Why are they. Staring at me like that? They know. They know what? They're like you.

Reborn. It took seconds of your time to take his life, it took seconds. It took seconds of your. Time to take his life, it took seconds It took seconds of your. Time to take his life.

Seconds of your time to take his life. Seconds. Yeah, it's from 1966. It's a John Frankenheimer film, and he was a great director, one of my favorites. Starring Rock Hudson in black and white.

Photographed by the great James Wong Howe. Photographed like a nightmare. That it is. And I guess, I don't know if we can talk about this movie without being spoilers. Well, I usually throw that out.

So I know the plot according to IMDb, and we'll throw the spoiler alert out now, because it does go into weird stuff already. An unhappy middle-aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity, one that comes with its own price. There you go. Not that bad. Yeah, so John Randolph, who was a great older character actor, and he's middle-aged in that movie, has a dead end job.

I mean, he has a good job and had a nice house in the suburbs of New York, but you know, it's a boring job in a bank and he's in a loveless marriage and his daughter has grown up and moved out and doesn't really speak to them anymore. And he gets a call one night from a friend of his who he thinks is dead, who's died in a fire, who says, you know, you can turn your whole life around and, and, you know, um, get involved with this program and, uh, you know, I'm recommending you for it. And all that. And he decides to check it out cause he's so miserable. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's a program where they, they fake your death with a cadaver in a fire. Uh, and they give you complete reconstructive plastic surgery and they give you an entirely new life. One of sort of your own choosing something that would make you quote unquote happy somewhere else. So he gets plastic surgery, and he looks like Rock Hudson, who, for people that don't know, was the George Clooney, Brad Pitt of that time.

And they move him to Malibu, and he's an artist named Tony Wilson. And from the get-go, it's miserable. And, you know, basic idea of the movie is, you know, you can't escape yourself and who you are inside. Nothing like that is going to change that. And he's He's the same miserable guy that he was when he was living at home.

It's not the situation he was in. It's who he is inside as a person. Your studio is in Malibu, California. Quite luxurious. Very private.

You'll make your own adjustment in your own way, in your own time. Oh, you'll be self-conscious at first. Don't worry. It will wear off. And remember.

You've got. What almost every middle-aged man in America would like to have. Freedom. Real freedom. Yeah, but you can't.

Wherever you go, there you are. It's post-Twilight Zone, so it definitely feels like it's tapping into that extended episode. Of Twilight Zone. And I want to say that Louis Giancarlino, who wrote the screenplay, was a guy who wrote... I think he did write some...

He wrote some cool movies like The Mechanic and stuff like that and Great Centini. But he may have been like, Frankenheimer was definitely a live television guy in the 50s and 60s and stuff. And those guys were around when that stuff like Twilight Zone and Outer Limits was being done. I think, I don't know if Frankenheimer ever did any of those. I don't think he did.

He usually did like Playhouse 90 and stuff like that. But yeah, it's definitely a Twilight Zone episode but a a really emotionally sort of staggering one. I mean, it really, first of all, the whole movie feels like a nightmare. You know, there's that scene where he has that, goes to that sort of bacchanalia in the woods and they're all nude inside the big great stomping thing. The scene where midway in I went, this movie's sponsored by wine.

Yeah. It's like the wine industry. But it's really not. Everyone's supposed to be having fun, but it's just, it's nightmarish, you know. Even the laugh that he lets out might as well be a scream.

Of some kind. Very strange that whole part I'll get back to that but the part at the beginning where they use the footage to blackmail him that you think is a dream sequence but then kind of isn't because they actually made it happen yes that had its own little weird like German expressionist moment. Yeah well they designed like those sets like sort of to look like those ones from Dr. Calgary or something like that. And that was awesome because it just sort of comes up out of nowhere and that you're so That's another thing I was going to say.

You're like 20 minutes into this movie easily before you know what's going on. And even if you've read the plot or if you saw like the Twilight Zone version of it, it would be like the guy would think it's a good idea and be happy about it and join it and then find out the dark side of it and maybe not even until the end of the twist. Yeah. This is like as soon as he meets with them, he knows it's a bad idea and decides against it. But they've drugged him.

And while they drugged him, they made a film of him raping a woman. In this weird expressionistic set. Yeah. And he kind of has to do it. He has to do it anyway.

Otherwise, he's over. And again, my normal, like, trying to overthink some of these things. I'm like, this company. Right. Like, where do they really make their money?

Like, what they said they were charging him. Granted, it was a lot of money at the time. Yes. But I'm like, compared to the orchestrating of everything they have to do, and then, like, keeping all these people on staff, more or less, to, like, the guy that lives with him, the woman that they bring in, like all these other people that are involved in the program that I'm just like. I think we just got Baba buoyed.

I think that was pretty cool. It was a Stern fan. Oh, there we go. No. Well, well, one of the twists you don't realize is when he comes in and he's waiting, as you see all the room of guys and you're kind of wondering what they're waiting there for.

And you find out that no one's happy with the program and they all come back to do it again. And they think they're going to be another, get it again. But what they're being used for as, Is a cadaver for the next person that wants it. That's what I was going to ask. It's just a meat factory.

Sort of jumped to the end. Do you think anybody actually gets a second go through? No, they're all there to be. Everybody just immediately becomes a cadaver. That's the thing.

You have to wonder where the bodies are coming from for the thing. And the people are recommending people that look like them or are built like them, you know. So his friend ultimately gets picked, you know, to go again. But, like, yeah, I think they're all being, you know. Just totally.

Cadavered. Yeah. You got to. Assume the only one that you see gated is Rock Hudson, so you got to figure that. That's what happens to the rest of them.

That's the process. Because he was. They just have to wait for someone else that's built like he is to come in and... Not an easy task and do it. Yeah.

That's the other thing I thought was funny that, like, in the sales pitch, I'm like... I can understand, again, if we were going super sci-fi and it's like, okay, they could take you back and make you, like, younger, but they don't. Like, you're still... Like, look at him, like, especially for standards now by Hollywood, I'm like, Rock Hudson's still a relatively old guy. Well, they didn't make him younger, yeah.

Well, you don't get anything else out of it except just a different face, and then this whole life. Well, a much more handsome face, yeah. It's such a weird sales pitch to me, because it's like, there's not that much of an upside. And again, by the end, I think that's what you're supposed to take from it. Yeah.

But I'm like, even, like, I guess that's. Why the blackmailing came along, because I'm just like, it's not really a great deal. No, it's not. It's a Faustian bargain that isn't even a bargain. It's just Faustian.

It's just changing one thing for another, and you're still going. To be miserable. I think it really speaks to, things because it's like we all want things to be different. And here's a company that's just like, well, people want things to be different. We'll just tell them that and we'll just fuck them, which is like what most corporations do anyway.

So as long as they get you in the door and they get your money, they can do whatever they want with you. I think it's cool, and again, because it uses that classic sci-fi structure that's like, okay, here's the scenario, and we're going to sort of put the spin on the science end of it and the weird juxtaposition of all that. But in actuality, all we're doing is telling you a story about life. And we're really kind of using this as an example to set things up to examine just the basic way life works. I mean, any of the great genre things, and I mean, I've recently started to talk about this movie as a horror movie because basically that's what it is, you know. is it's a tragedy.

It's the tragedy of a story of a man who, you know, didn't know himself and, you know, really thought that his life was going to be, you know, getting married and having the kids and having a good job and having the nice house. And it brings him no joy. He's living in this depression. And so he thinks that if he just tries it again, you know, and it's fancy and he has fancy new rich friends and he lives in Malibu, he's an artist. and he's handsome and he looks like Rock Hudson that, you know, it'll be different. And it's just, that's not what it is.

You know, you gotta get, you gotta get to know yourself. And, and that's a great tragedy because, you know, we watch his sort of last, last moments of life, you know, from his point of view. And he, he probably still hasn't learned the lesson, you know, it's just that that's the tragedy. I think of most people is they, they never really get to know each other. And as a result, they're never really in, you know, great contact or relationships with other people too and and you know at the end of the day you know maybe that's what the seconds is it's just sort of like you know we all feel like we i never thought about this way but like you know you think about seconds as being like the scraps off the table and so like yeah we think of like the title is like being like you know this is like we all sort of feel like we're just getting the seconds of things you know but it's just it's not or maybe the the seconds of life ticking away, you know, and, and us not really making much of it, you know, it's ultimately just a tragedy, but it's just an amazing looking and feeling movie where it just, it really feels like a nightmare constantly.

And like we said, it's not like he's getting a good deal at the beginning. It's like, it really just feels like, you know, you've stepping into the nightmare of your own life, you know? Yeah. They never really pinned down the title, but I think it, That's my takeaway from it. And I think that's what is the most interesting thing about it really by the end is all of this stuff can still happen without this company, without all the process.

If you have the strength of character to just be like, I don't like my life. I want to change my life. Right. He could i mean if he didn't want to be married to his wife which again there was nothing wrong with the relationship maybe it's one of those like you kind of need to find. Your own happiness there's no fire in it anymore basically yeah.

I mean there was nothing wrong with his wife there was nothing wrong with his job. And later on when he goes to visit his wife as his new guy you know she basically seems much happier and says you know he was dead long before he died in that fire anyway and it's a creepy line ultimate sort of tragedy and sadness you know is he Looks at his ashes sitting in an urn on the fireplace there. Yeah. Life goes on without him. It's just something else he can't handle.

And I think he even sees her as a different person at that point. And I'm like, but she was always there. So it's like if you would have just kind of woken up from your sleep that your whole life was in and be like, I still, you know, I cared about this woman once. I probably still love her. I have a good job.

It's provided me. It's like, if you're become okay with your own situation, you're not miserable. I think a lot of people are in that situation now. And that the movie has that, you know, begins sort of with that weird dream. See the cycle sequence with the weird, like distorted, like, you know, images in the, in that crazy Jerry Goldsmith organ music, and then goes into these like sort of POV shots over John Randolph shoulder as he walks through, uh, Grand Central Station or Penn Station in the morning and it's like always a dream you know it's always just sort of like but yeah I guess you could also think about it as a guy who's just sort of sleepwalking his way through life you know has that camera that's mounted on his shoulder that moves like he does when he does and they.

Kind of move weird too because I was watching that and I'm like well it's not like this is really old footage and they didn't know how to run it Frank. And Homer knew what he was doing so it's like he was manipulating the images and it's super wide lenses too yeah it's. Like But yeah, it's one of those, I was like, okay, you either become okay with your life as it is, or if you really are genuinely that unhappy, all you have to do is be like, you know what? Okay, I'm going to have to bite the bullet. I want a divorce.

I want to move to Malibu. He could do all the things in his real life. He didn't have to look like Rat Cuts. It's the midlife crisis thing. A lot of guys get fancy red sports cars and run off with younger women and all that stuff, and it doesn't make them happy.

And I think even Frankenheimer, even though I was surprised to learn later on that he was really– in his mid to late thirties during this time, but he made all these films that are really dealing with a really kind of sadness about middle age. There's, um, the gypsy moths with Burt Lancaster and Gene Hackman and Deborah Kerr, which is like, you know, about these sad traveling, um, uh, skydivers that go from town to town and circus. And they're just sort of like kind of sad, depressed middle-aged guys. And it didn't really work out for them. And that wasn't what they wanted to do.

There's, I Walk the Line, which is Gregory Peck as a small-town sheriff, an older guy married to Estelle Parsons, who begins this affair with the young Hot Tuesday Weld, who's the bootlegger's daughter. So he's crossing the line of the law, even though he's supposed to be the sheriff. They're all movies that are dealing with that sort of sadness and horror and difficulty with dealing with middle age, which... is interesting for me is like in seconds and, you know, it's funny, middle age now is not what it was then, you know, now in my early forties, I mean, I certainly feel like I, you know, am not an older man or I don't even think of like, you know, middle age, but I certainly relate to certain things in the movie a lot more, a lot differently than I did when I saw him as a young man, because there's only so much time and you could really waste it, you know?

And I think that's why I had that response to it. Cause I think, I think I remember hitting a point and it was years ago and it was before any of that. I remember not feeling like I was doing anything. And I think I remember hitting that point of like, I'm not happy. And like the only way I can fix that is for me to fix that.

Like nobody's going to come along and offer you this, you know, option to fix everything. So no, your best bet is like therapy or whatever it is that, that allows you to look inside yourself and see who you are and what you're about. Yeah. And, you know, get to work on it. It takes years.

But if you're lucky enough like I was to start early, you know, and I did start really early, you know, starting to work on myself and going to therapy and all that stuff, you know, by the time that you reach that age, hopefully you'll find that you haven't wasted your life and you don't need to start over again. I mean, I think we'll all want that fantasy of, like, I'd like to go back to, you know, when I was a kid or when I was 23. Knowing what I know now, but I mean, that's the whole reason that you don't know that then. You have to learn it through the experience of life. You know?

There's the reason you get to the point where you are is the journey that. Took you there. And I would hasten to add, too, that I'm much happier now in retrospect looking back than even then when I had, you know, maybe physical things I was more. happy with, but, you know, in every other respect, you know, emotionally and intellectually and everything, I'm happy to be an older guy now. I think you come to learn what's important. Yeah.

And that was my takeaway. It wasn't even like a therapy thing. It became a creative thing. Sure. It became the arts.

It became wanting to, okay, do I want to paint? Which, again, is what he ended up doing anyway. Right. So it's like, do I want to paint? Do I want to, you know, be more involved?

And that's kind of how this came together. It's like, and maybe this has become the therapy because I've realized how much I enjoy this process, just the talking about arts in general and filmmaking and storytelling is like, it is in its way its own, you know, I think we learn so much from movies about ourselves and I think that's what I always try to take from it. No, that's what's so lucky to do something like Cheap Thrills where you're like, I get to run through the entire gamut of what my life experience has been, you know, in one single movie, you know, from beginning to end. It's almost like, you know, birth as a baby and go through all that rough stuff and, you know, even come out like, you know, emerging crying and howling like a baby at some point and being reborn as something else and going through all the hard knocks.

But I also think that, yes, in conjunction with therapy and things like that, all of the ways I've been able to creatively express myself have been incredibly healthy for me. And there's people that don't even get to talk that stuff out and we get to like, you know, act it out. Kind of. People live here. Professionals.

Some in business, some write. No artists, I hope. I think you're the only one, sir. I think something else to speak to that sort of happens in the movie is he seems to be awfully concerned with social aspects and who his friends are and what people think of him and stuff, you know, rather than what he thinks. And, you know, that's something that you really learn when you get older is like, It's a cliche, but it's true.

And even if you can't hear it now, you know, you'll know it is when you get there. It's like, it really doesn't matter what other people think. It's nice if people think, you know, good things like being here, you know, like being at the show and, and meeting all my fans and all that stuff is really great but I consider that a bonus or extra to you know the satisfaction of the work that I get to do and it's. Just be yourself at some point I think as you again as we get older you start to realize that's what you need to. Do and that kind of appreciation that I get is not guaranteed by the way it's like you can work your whole life and No one will ever notice, but I'm lucky, and I just consider it a bonus.

I think you get, again, we kind of hit that same point. I think once you get old enough, you like, number one, you kind of don't care, as long as you learn who you are along the way. I don't think you don't care. A simple example is like if I go to an audition now, and I don't do well, but I know that I did the best job that I could. In other words, I prepared, I worked on it, and I didn't get it.

It just means I wasn't right for it. It doesn't mean that I did a bad job or I'm a bad person or it's a commentary on my character. It's just I wasn't right for it. Especially in the business that it is. Sometimes it's for many other reasons.

You have to learn, though, because you can internalize that stuff early on and really start to think what they think of you as being the truth about who you are. You know, and so seeing a lot of people that end up not working or not doing what they want to do, really depressed about themselves. But the fact of the matter is, like, it has nothing to do with anything. As long as you feel good about yourself, you're not going to feel that way and you just go on to the next one or you go and you do something else or whatever. Like, I write, too.

And, like, if I, you know, stop acting or do it less or, you know, it's not, you know, satisfying to me anymore considering how much it pays and... you know, I'm not getting, you know, the, you know, the kind of roles that I want to play. I can go write, you know, on a television show as a staff writer or create my own show. It's a really good living. It's still creative. It's still in the business.

I have the experience. I've done it. I know I could get one of those jobs and I'm totally fine with that. Like I'm not, if, if I don't become a giant movie star, I don't, I'm not going to consider myself a failure or that I've, you know, lost out on life, you know, like. In a way, I feel like that happy medium is the happiest place you can get to because I watch some of the huge stars and I'm like, they're so tied to the things.

They have to do. Well, not only that, but I know some of them personally and their lives are miserable. Like, they couldn't sit here like this now. Yeah, you can't do anything. Whereas, like, but also just creatively.

Like, they're so tied to, I know you get that, like, the... Will Smith plan of like, okay, I got to do a sci-fi movie. I got to do a horror movie. I got a superhero. It's not working out too well for him.

These days, but in general, like a lot of the big A-listers that became a thing is like, you have to, whereas. Like, they let their agents run their lives, you know, and the agents know what the, where the money is. And, you know, they're always going to do something that stinks because it's motivated by that. And it's going to start to, you know, go bad for them. And then, you know, It's also this thing.

It's like, you know, Paul Newman did it so right. He allowed himself to age. And he was a star until the day he died because he did that. You know, he was a big star in his 50s and 60s and 70s, you know. And he did things his own way.

That's right. And he didn't, you know, he didn't play on his looks or whatever. It's just like he chose interesting projects and interesting directors. He often played characters that were, you know, dark and, you know, had, you know, you know. he did stuff that was interesting and it didn't hurt him at all. So like this whole thing of like staying relevant and making sure that you, you know, continue to look young and make action films.

And, you know, like, you know, they still keep doing, well, it's like the Tom Cruise thing. It's like, you know, Tom Cruise is in his fifties now and it's starting to be a bit silly, you know, and, and he's a good actor that people like and want to see and all kinds of stuff. So, um, but, but that's, what's popular now. And he wants to be popular and relevant now, but, You know, hopefully he will sort of come around. And it's just hard right now because the industry really, those are the only movies that people are going to see.

But again, like I was saying with the sort of the independent market, and I think what you were saying about basically do your own thing. Yes. And I feel like at this point we have. the technology and it's so cheap to be able to, you know, compared to 20, 30 years ago, it was impossible. Yeah. But now you can just create your own thing.

It's harder being older. Cause you didn't get in on the, like, you know, like, you know, I don't necessarily know. I mean, I could do all that stuff as long as I hired people who technically knew what they were doing, but like, and maybe we can even finish on this, which is like Mark Duplass, who, you know, has been very successful doing just that with his brother and just creating these shows, acting in things. Yeah. Creating movies, writing, producing, directing, and acting, gave the keynote speech at South by Southwest and said, the cavalry is not coming.

You are the cavalry. And at the end of the day, that's true now. It's harder when you're an older person. You can't just get on the road. Well, I kind of am doing it here.

It's like selling merch at a table and stuff like that. But I don't mind because I'm meeting... you know my fans and good. People yeah that's important especially now it's nice just to sit here and talk to you quite frankly you know it's like we are two people who live on opposite sides of the country who have common interests and we can sit here for an hour and and talk about stuff that that we have in common you know that's been my favorite part of this process is not i again i try not to do it you know you get to a lot of questions but i like more of the like finding your experience yeah just as a person just trying to relate to people and and be you know how do you deal with this and one i guess one more just for you acting wise especially recently as you've gotten into your lead roles you've gone to some very dark places yeah between especially compliance is such a creepy movie yeah like in a way that people probably aren't prepared for so.

You're i don't know that anyone could be prepared for that oh. No but you're especially your scene is So separate, you know, and I'm assuming shot completely separate. So I don't know. How hard was it? It was actually all shot together.

All the scenes are shot on the same soundstage. I'm on the phone with them. They're on the phone with me. There's the camera on me. There's the camera on them.

That's cool. So we can act together, and also it's, you know, of a piece. He uses me when he decides to use me and not. But I would say that, you know, that was a really difficult movie for me to do. As you say, it was isolated.

It was very internal. And Cheap Thrills is as dark as it gets. It's very external and it's very cathartic to let it all out like I do in that movie. But I would say the biggest lessons learned between whatever the couple of years between doing those two movies was, it's one of the great gifts that I get to do as an actor is I get to go and peer into the abyss. Yeah. you know, some of us are afraid to do that because we might not come back from it.

And there are times when I haven't, but I think what I learned between, I definitely knew how to peer into the abyss during compliance, but what I learned by the time I did cheap thrills was how to reel myself back in every day. Um, because you don't want to get stuck there and, you know, you can go home and really take that with you and really have it bother you and sort of, you know, fuck up your life in some way. And, and I, you know, I, I, it's not worth it to me for a movie to, uh, you know, no matter how great it is to, to, you know, affect my personal life where I'm not sleeping well and I have, you know, I'm filled with bad feelings, you know, people have offered me things I've turned down, but like you learn a tool as an actor when to turn it on and turn it off and you can allow yourself to go there and just know that you, I don't know, you know, it's not a quite a way to articulate how to, but you, you, get lower down into that Canyon on a crane and then somebody can, you know, and it's you, you know, reeling yourself back up.

You just develop the tools to do that. And that's, I think a good life tool too, is like every once in a while, you're going to have to take a cold, hard look at yourself and, um, just don't stay there. You know what I mean? You come back to reality, come back to the present and, you know, use what you learn and what you saw as a lesson, you know, and don't be afraid to look at it because you, If you hide it or you refuse to look at it, it's going to fester and grow inside you in a way that is going to hurt you and other people around you. Definitely.

And if nothing else, you and Sarah Paxson need to always work together. Well, that's something that I think was a gambit by me to do Cheap Thrills, knowing that I would go to those places. And we have so much fun and we laugh so much together that having her around on Cheap Thrills just made things that much better because. I love the innkeepers. And it's you, too.

Yeah. The story is nice the way it wraps up, but it's all that relationship. Yeah. You two make that movie and are so good at it. Thanks.

Yeah, but she's just, you know, a delightful, buoyant person. So, you know, and she's a great laugher and she's incredibly funny. So if you can have someone like that around in your life, you know, that brings light to the darkness, for lack of a better, you know, word, term, then that's great, too. Yeah, she's great. All right.

Well, I thank you for coming and sitting down and being on the show. I'll give you a chance. What do you want to tell people about as far as just anything they need to check out right now? Well, check out, you know, Innkeepers and Cheap Thrills certainly is a movie that's been out for about a year and is out on DVD and on Amazon Prime and all kinds of on-demand platforms now. And, you know, I'm out there.

I'm working. We'll see what's happening next, but I'm not quite sure. You can find me on Twitter at Pat underscore Healy, H-E-A-L-Y. And on my Twitter page, you'll see my Tumblr page link and also my Instagram feed, too, if you want to check that out, too. Pictures of me. and my cute nieces and nephew.

Sounds good. Mostly. So definitely, yeah, seek out everything you're working on because, yeah, you've done a great lineup, especially in this last 10 years. It's been amazing, man. It's been fun.

Thank you. If I am a clock, then you are the time I'm patiently waiting in your hollow life I'm counting the times you lied to my face My hands were full, now just take it to me If I am a clock, then you are the time I'm patiently waiting in your hollow life I'm counting the times you lied to my face My hands were full, now. Just take it to me. I'm closing your eyes, I'm shutting your heart. God, thy will is hard.

Hello, everybody. This is Ted Neely from Jesus Christ Superstar, and you're listening to Movie Meltdown. I will drink. Your cup of poison. Kneel me to your.

Cross and break me. Bleed me, beat me, kill me. Cause all I want. A second or two and all we got a second to lose and all I am is tempted by. You because all I want a second or two and all we got a second to lose and all I am is tempted by you later gators.

Tell them bye Bye. We can get out of here now. We're going to go. We can go duct tape up your pelvis. I know.

Put me back together. Okay. I do have a lot of Frankenstein plans. There's schematics at home. I mean, it is just probably a bruise.

That doesn't mean there shouldn't be like a chainsaw and a belt sander involved. I mean, we really should test this out and see where we can go with this. Okie dokie. And we might be able to fix that gluten thing too. No.

I like it because then it gives me a reason to not go to dinner with people I don't want to go with. That is a good out. Yeah, I'm like, oh, I just say can't. Oh, you're going to Arby's? All right, we're going to get out of here.

Okay. Otherwise, thank you for joining us for this wonderful excursion into pain and damaging Kate. Yeah. Thank you so much. No problem.

Thank you for coming here and being injured. Oh, yeah. Otherwise, that about does it. We will return next time. Same geek feed.

Thanks for listening. Been a long time since I've seen your face. I've been down, I've been. In lonely places. Now you say you're feeling different.

Now you say you're feeling different. Been a long time since I've heard your voice. Telling the lies I always believe in. Now you're saying something different. Now you're saying something different.

Maybe you've seen. It all before, but I'm gonna tell you something more. There's no such thing as a second chance There's no such thing as another try There's no such thing as time Been a long time since I've seen your eyes Looking at me, looking through me Now you're looking somehow different Now you're looking somehow different Been a long time since I've felt your touch Pulling me closer and I can't fight you Now you're doing something different Now you're doing something different You were having problems. I don't want to. I don't want to.

I haven't had alcohol this entire weekend. I need napkins. Do you want me to hold this while you go contain yourself? Not on the pants, though. Well, that's something.

Oh, I have to hold it. Are you sure you're okay with me holding that with this when you saw what I just did? If you can control yourself. Can you control yourself is the question. I need to hold this in my face.

Yes. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by The Oddity Studios. with opening music performed by the Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com.