Reflecting with Dijon Talton

And That's what You Really missed with Jenna.

And Kevin an iHeartRadio podcast.

Welcome to You and That's what You Really miss podcast. Matt Rutherford is here.

Kevin Dejeon Talton himself is here.

Jehan Taltan, the sweetest, the sweetest, accomplished, kind, talented human. He was on the show with us in the very beginning after the pilot. He was a part of the original twelve. Still so so great and just comes and you're gonna want to hear this.

He's so wise, you know.

He talks about his own experience on the show and what it was like leaving the show and.

All the wonderful things he's doing now.

Hi, Jean, thank you so much for coming on here, like you're one of our very last guests, because you're one of the most requested. Oh, because we couldn't close.

We got to hear we got to hear.

From Yeah, I appreciate that guy. Thank you for having.

You're just such a part of like the formation of and the creation of the chemistry of the group of you know, new directions, and it wouldn't feel right to close this out without having you on.

So we're so grateful your share.

I appreciate it.

How how are you.

You been well?

I can't complain. It feels like a lifetime will go honestly.

Right, yeah, but I'm blessed.

I can't complain.

How are we.

Right?

That's right? We only got to go to true Yeah, yes we do, yes, we do.

Well, We're so happy to have you here. I think that we got to tell the people, like how did.

Glee come into your life?

Can you just share if like you knew about the show before, and like how you got how did you get the gig?

How did how did we get you?

So?

I was I was I was eighty, I was nineteen, I was in college.

I was going to college for entertainment law, and I was working at the Apple Store.

I started acting and dancing when I was a kid, so I had been in it. Took a break when I was like in high school, got back in college.

I was like, if I go to school in California, I can act a get not the audition It was like the next day, but I had this gig at the Apple Store.

Yeah, I'm like one to that audition. They were like no, no, no, it's a really cool show.

Uh, you guys have already filmed the pilot, so that the trailer was out for the pilot.

I went in and watched and my favorite movie was Sister Rack Too. Growing up. That's where I got into entertainments. I was like, why is this really remind me of st.

That's the biggest compliment anyone could give the show.

Yeah, that's what I was watching. I'm gonna go.

I'm gonna go, so I what's the audition? The next day was with Zach and then the next day then they called me back and like he come tomorrow, and the uh aster came in there read saying danced again and that I didn't hear anything for like a week, and then they called.

And they were like I was walking into a test late and they were like, you got it.

And then we started filming like a couple of days later. And it's funny when I got there, think it with brag or even one of them was like, welcome to the show.

I was like, and I was like, and I was like, in my mind, they were like, you know they did. They didn't know exactly what it was gonna be, but I guess.

The writers knew what it was going to be. When Harry and I walked off. We were like, oh, happy to have any but we were kind of like.

You Toobe because did you guys think it was just like one episode? You didn't.

Yeah, it's like one or two. But then the writers knew. They were like oh, and I.

Was like, we need you. I remember the first day you guys walked on, like the first day we filmed together. Yeah, it was the first time because we had all been we had known each other for almost a year by this point. Yeah, and that's right, Like having new people on felt so strange, like how is this going to work? But obviously you and Harry are like the nicest people on the planet. Do you remember like that first day on set all of us together or any time?

I do? I do remember it.

I haven't thought about it, but yeah, very vividly, I think, because I didn't know exactly what it was, right, So I had practice with none of you guys, just Marked and Corey because we actually gave practice the football stuff. Those people and then the other actors in the in the extras were there, but I hadn't met eve you guys, but all of you were so nice.

You kept coming up and being like nice to meet you. Nice to meet. You like, nice to meet. It's the nicest casts. One by one they come up and speak.

We weren't jaded yet.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

At the end of the day, I understood, Oh got it, it's a glee club because I think we filmed that last round dates or something when they like welcomed us into the glee and I.

Was like, right, all right, better than the Apple Store gig for a little bit, you know. Do you know?

I did not stop going to school or the Apple Store gig until like six months of filming because I was so.

I was so I was eating by the trailer.

And I had got to incomplete all my classes. Every time I was taking the test in my trail left, I would they.

Would call us, oh wow.

So I was braining with the world. I was like, I'm not losing this diamond hold on. It is gonna last.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

A lot of people don't probably have that foresight when they get into acting. But you knew, You're like, this could go away tomorrow.

Tomorrow, right, I gonna need an education in.

A job because we're like, oh, this pilot probably won't get picked up. Most don't. We didn't know.

Yeah, being a child actor too.

Your time, like anyway, yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely, let me see it on paper literally right Obviously in the script and the scenes, you're like, oh, welcome to the Glee Club.

You're like, wow, I'm.

A part of the show now.

And we started doing like Dan you know, like Somebody to Love.

I remember doing that one, and that.

Was like the complete twelve of us, right twelve that really felt.

Like we were a unit.

What was it like, like jumping into the musical numbers and all of that, Like was that something that was in your wheelhouse or did it feel different?

For sure?

Because I started with Debbie Allen's dance A Have Me when I was like three, and then it doesn't play and I had been on tour like Rebok and I did like Disney singleongs growing up, so it was very much in that vein. Yeah, I don't think I knew how much the show.

Required at first, you know, like it became very all encompassing. It was I thought it was going to.

But also like a gift again because I felt like it was full circle to kind of like got me into entertainment, which was a choir of you know, kids inner city. And then I also didn't know what glee clubs were before the show.

I didn't know they.

So then I started learning, like, oh, this is the real I thought the show made it up. I thought so Blee was like, oh, okay, You'm make glee club cool.

And then I realized it was like a real big in the world.

So I was like, Okay, to be fair, I had never I had heard of like glee clubs, Like it was like an ancient text, like something that used to happen. But like I didn't know growing up, like anybody, if any existed. I thought it was like an old thing. Yeah, I didn't know people were doing like show choir. I didn't know show Choir existed until we did Glee. I had no idea. So you're not alone in that.

No, A lot of people didn't, to be fair, you know, Yeah, obviously the show kind of blew up as we were on, you know, deep in the Glee bubble of like doing all the hard work that you had said and how much work it really it took for us. But out in the world, like, what was it like for you getting recognized and kind of feeling that side of things?

I think it was it was cool, right, I think it was gratifying, because I do think for that like year and a half two years, however, alonga was we were so inundated with each other world in a kind of you forgot the rest of the world was existing because it was so demanding. So then when you could go on even the death of the show, right, it wasn't until I would travel somewhere else and I'd be on Miami and South Beach.

But yeah, also because to be honest, like the target demo was a little different right around. Yeah, it wouldn't be like.

Everyone, but oh yeah, I heard that it was done really dope, Like congratulations. First is people in the world being like I'm obsessed with it, Like it's funny, Like I met somebody last week and they told me that their favorite artist on Apple Music is Glee cast and that's the current day.

Yeah, it should be like are you okay?

Are you?

Are you in therapy? Okay?

They weren't on the show.

They just liked the show.

I think that's also like white So that time and we've talked about it a lot on here, but like that time was so formative, Like you said, we were all around each other all the time. We were obsessed with each other. We hung out with each other all the time. If we weren't filming, we were going to events with each other. And so that set up this whole foundation. All that chemistry you see on the show was because we all liked each other and we all

What how did you know?

Because we're all like new, we're all figuring this out, and Dejon is just like, oh, entertainment, baby, like he has been doing this for forever. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it was cool because it was kind of like being for me that part, and then the show for me felt like high school, right. So that's why when I see anybody, it felt like the introduction to this bit in my life. And then also like now when you want to say that, they say, it's very much to do your job right, do your job. It's toel nice or pleasant.

But have a great day. Guys, it was great working with you.

Then it felt like almost took every form of your life, like you wanted to know that.

People, you wanted to experience them.

It was more so like an experience than just a job, which I think most people don't get right.

None of us obviously we get asked like if we knew the show was going to be a success or anything like that, and obviously none of us knew that. But do you remember, besides you know, getting recognized once we were out in the world and going to other cities, of the feeling of when the show started to air that like we were always like really proud of what we were doing. But because like people like you and I did not know glee clubs existed. My high school

I think the part I.

Honestly remember that it's probably gonna be different than everybody else was when I saw how the studio and network responded to because I've been around the block a couple of times, right, and that wasn't normally so many times they pop up, how they come to rehearsals. I even remember like like championing certain things. I was like, oh, and I remember the upfront too, right, Yeah, and we think were kind of like they're putting a lot into

Bowl or something. Yeah, it was after American Yeah, I was at that point was when I was like, oh, it's special, like people are noticing and special, and then I get the fear was I remember a little bit of the fear was when people people saw it.

If that was right. I knew it was special. I knew that network and Sex Battle was special.

But yeah, you just never know. I think it's also interesting because I feel like you and Nya had more experience than us in that way, because you had both grown up working a lot and being being in LA and being around the entertainment business, Like you knew to look for those things. And we're like, oh, yeah, this is probably normal. The execs are here all the time.

Right, Yeah, did you do another show You're like, were the net?

Yeah, like, oh, nobody cares about us, worse data. She should be here. She wants to see this. I assure you.

I'm curious since given your.

Experience in the business and like you'd done this before when Matt leaves the show essentially when wh you know, I think the fans have questions of like why didn't anybody acknowledge it right?

Like what was the experience?

Like I would imagine like some of the things you had learned in your past and given that you had done this potentially helped you in understanding like this is how the job kind of works.

Yes and no to that, I think because I think a lot of why it happened that way is because it happened so last minute.

I don't know if you guys remember I went to the seasons who bottles you?

And I already felt something right, so I pick me up like done the deal with coming back? Something happened behind the scenes. They were like still go to the shoe often to shoot was super awkward because in my mind, I'm thinking, like why am I coming to the shoot? They're like studios like go to the shoot, go to the shoot rather to go than not go, And they took in that moment. It was weird right because it wasn't like settled if I think we were starting work the.

Next week, so it was also processing this in real.

Time as it's unfold I think it would have been different if I was like total at the end of the last season, like Okay, this is what's happening.

I think there was a response to something. Right. I was so young. It was all I knew for a year and a half to the years. But I'm afraid, and I was like, God.

If it's not mine taking, right, it's not mine taking And then he did right. So then I think it was just the processing of feeling like these people where I had been able to call right and it was such a family, and I was so young. I was nineteen when I got on the show rightly right now on twenty one. To feel like that's ended and that wasn't my family. That was probably a harder lesson in realization than just the job.

Yeah, yeah, especially when you it's like one of those like classic horrible entertainment business where it's like you've already like gotten your deal picked up for season two, you're at the photo shoot and then yeah, yeah, I didn't even remember that.

No, no, I remember that. And do you feel like you it took you time to find closure.

Do you feel like you ever got the closure like of just kind of closing that chapter?

Yes, yes, And I think I definitely have a full circle perspective. I think it was supposed that happened, rather I would have wanted it to happen with sports and I at that time. But I think it retrospected was a part of my journey and I'm grateful for it. It also just shows me how to be a better showrunner and director, and how.

To low on actors and how to meet a little better.

And then I also think there was something I just need to inducted personally, right and I and I'm okay with not knowing where I would have ended up in that journey continued I was supposed And then I think also it gave me an absence of attachment to it or aspect to an goal that was like, oh, this is what I wanted it to be.

This like this is what it actually is.

Yeah, And I think that's time and maturity, right, and also like just letting that like the wounds heal, if there were wounds, you know what I mean, just all the things that you feel when something abrupt happens like that. But it's you know, it's the name of the entertainment game, and you know you can't we're not taking these things were hopefully with maturity, like not taking these things as personally anymore or time are worth to achievements and jobs that we have, right.

I think the funny part is some of the most what I have done to The more irritating part would be when people would project their opinion of it.

Oh, I haven't even thought about that show, but then now now because.

For that.

Yeah, oh, and you must feel it. It's like I must feel or you feel like.

I should feel, right, Yeah, I think, like that's not my business. Don't put that on me. We just got done watching the full series. And when you've come back, you come back in like I think twice, and it was so nice too, Like I knew you came back at some point, I just didn't remember exactly when. And each time you come back, it just felt it was it was just like a beautiful thing to see because it really felt like obviously, like everybody comes back in

I was really felt that was my partner crime, right, we went on that journey together.

And I'll even add.

Heather and I, but I also quind not a blessing, right because I was younger than Harry two and even that wisdom and pete kinda that he had and deny it Heather being there before, So it kind of felt like it was serendid toitous that it wasn't a journey to walk on alone.

So you never felt like I have nowhere next to you to lean on, right right.

And there's some good people to lean on exactly.

Yeah, do you have any great like memories of the numbers that you were part of because you were part of a lot of them, Like do you have any favorites that you enjoyed felling me.

I loved, uh hate on me there?

Oh yeah, it lives in my mind, like the one like that one lives in my mind.

It was so fun.

Yeah.

I also like, I don't I can remember what the song was though when we did, uh it was it was it sectionals and we were it.

Was that big competition I think it was don't run on my parade?

Was it the journey one?

I think so. Yeah.

I think we kept region through like the like the auditorium out down.

There, yep, in the black and red right, yes.

Yes, yeah, that felt like because it felt at that point of real journey.

And we were finally like in a theater.

It felt like, Okay, we accomplished something. I felt like at that point to me, really we really were.

Like a totally that was our first time. I think that was our first sectionals and we were all that was. That felt like a really big deal because but before that we had just been on the stages and you're not really seeing anybody else and having a real audience. It was very strange. Yeah, but it did feel like, oh, yeah, we've made it. This is this is We're gonna wing this right, We're like, oh, we have budget, We're in a real theater. That was how I didn't necessarily notice

We ask everybody on the show who was a part of the show, what is the feeling that Glee leaves you with?

M Like the experience of doing it or the show.

Itself both, whatever you want.

I think the show itself was positive, right, gave people permission to be themselves, people who weren't see people who felt like they were out ass people who were you know, hiding in the dark about their sexuality or were things about themselves.

Or even that they were a theater, right would it be sp I think it gave visibility.

Yeah.

From an experiences stamic point, it's that were the lightning strikes.

It just is a roar, right, and I think oppositive people don't get to experience that. It was such a big experience that I think the gifts right because you know, you teach you how to just do it better every time and also how to I think that none of us had a road map of how to do it right, you know, yeah, be able to look back or offer somebody like, hey, this would be the best way to do that.

And I think we can do that with all our experiences.

And speaking of which, I feel like you have been doing so much after the show, where you've been in a leadership position where you've been able to take all these things that you've learned. Can you tell us, like what sort of things that you've been you've been doing and show running and making and creating because I think.

The cool part was a show even to that, like having the platform to be able to do other things, like all those years on set, even though they go to film school became my film school, right, Oh yeah, learning, listening, cut in action, you know, learning you know what every role is and it having a passion for story, right. I think as a as a leader on set, the creative is the driving force and having a passion to peak amazing.

I mean it's been You've gotten shows made and like that's just that's insane. That is such a different process. Did you always have you know, like the I don't know, the wish or the dream to get more into the behind the scenes things like that.

I think that's the biggest say as a creative and I started when I was when I was so young, is I want to have at the table. I've felt like every time you walk up to the audition rooms asking them to see you and choose you, versus every time I walk into a meeting, I'm telling them how I bring them about, how they're like EASi, or how I add to their plates, and you're seen as an abset in that liability and I think I could.

Or want to go through a career where I had to ask for a pooval at every step.

For sure, Well said, you need to write a book, you need to take this on tour.

It's like I feel inspired, I feel rejuvenated, like or maybe you can be my therapist. I don't know, but it's it's so nice to hear you talk talk so eloquently and like deeply about all these things, and it's so nice. I hope I can see you more instead of just running into yeah, because like you're just wise beyond your years. You're so talented and so creative, and everyone needs to go look up things you've done, because you've done it's like such a wide variety. Where can people like.

Find you and your social media's I'm on Twitter, Instagram, at these own Sultan.

Well, we're so grateful that you came on and that our listeners could hear from you. I think it means a lot. It means a lot to us that, like, you know, we get to close this chapter with everybody who was an integral part of this, you know, whether you you went on to go do your own you know, on your own path or on the Glee path, like you were such an in integral part in the beginning of the formation of our club and and just as

Thank you, guys. I appreciate you guys having me. It's it's been our pleasure. Congratulates it to you guys on this.

Thanks we made it.

Through it. Good God, good luck on your news. Let us know how we can Hopefu'll see you soon.

Thank you to Jeon. Appreciate Byeia. He's so nice, so sweet.

I'm so glad that we got him on before the end of this the Glee run.

Honestly, every time I see him, he just lights us.

He's justice, Justice for Meth Rutherford.

Yeah, and he's never changed. He's always been that, I know. And also I think it's it's so interesting to learn what people are going through on the other side of it. When we were filming, like he was still going to school and still trying to do his apple job.

I mean, and he's been around for long. This wasn't his first gig where he was like you know.

But like he showed up to set knew everything he was supposed to.

Know, never complained thing, and you would never.

Know he was like, you know, stressing or like doing his classes.

Incomplete on this class and completes on everything.

Well, thank you so much Dejon for joining us, and we're so so grateful that we got to talk to you and see you again.

And you guys.

Next week we have one of our most raquastic guests, so stay tuned and come back next week.

Thanks for listening and follow us on Instagram at and that's what you really miss pod. Make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. See you next time.