Allen Wolf: 0:04
Welcome to the Navigating Hollywood podcast. My name is Allen Wolf and I'm a filmmaker and an author. Navigating Hollywood encourages and equips entertainment professionals to live relationally and spiritually holistic lives. If you work in entertainment, visit navigatinghollywood.org to discover how you can get involved. Today we're joined by host actor and writer Tori Belleci. Tori was featured as the daredevil on the most successful and longest-running pop science show in TV history, Mythbusters, where everyone got to see he can build just about anything. He also starred with top gears Richard Hammond in The Great Escapists, the hit shows Pumpkin Chunkin' and The Explosion Show, the White Rabbit Project on Netflix, and Thrill Factor on the Travel Channel. He's also appeared on Iron Chef in Hell's Kitchen as a celebrity judge, but perhaps his greatest achievement is being one of my long-time friends. Welcome, Tory!
Tory Belleci: 1:14
Thank you. That is so nice. It's super fun that our birthdays are one day apart. I remember I moved to LA to work on Scooby-Doo and your 30th birthday was the day before mine, and so you had a big party at someone's house and we were all hanging out, and I remember leaving the party and you went, tori, and I was like across the street, like getting into my car, and I was like what You're like? Just remember, this is the last night year in your 20s and it was like a little stab in the back of my neck. It's nice, though, because you know every year now, I get to call you up the day before and go hey, old man, happy birthday.
Allen Wolf: 1:51
And I can give you a preview of older age, but just for 24 hours. I just have a 24-hour head start. Oh my gosh, that is such a funny memory. I mentioned you can build just about anything. Are you constantly building things around your house?
Tory Belleci: 2:06
Oh my gosh, every day. Really it's funny. People ask me because I was a model maker up at ILM for years and people ask me like when you're not working, do you build models? Do you get model cars and model planes and make models? I'm like, no, that's my job, but I'm off, I'm off. But as far as building, yes, I actually I have been doing a lot of building. I have this warehouse that during the pandemic I converted into an apartment, so that way you know, ripping out floors, putting in cabinets, building bathrooms. So yes, I have been doing a lot of building.
Allen Wolf: 2:43
Now, when you were a kid, your dad taught you how to make a Molotov cocktail.
Tory Belleci: 2:49
I've always been a curious kid, but then to have a father who was basically a big kid just continued that kind of erratic behavior not great behavior For 4th of July. We used to take legal fireworks because here in California everything's illegal, but we would take legal fireworks and make them illegal. It just kept progressing, and at one point, we started making pipe bombs. We were lighting them off in our backyard, which is stupid, right, because the neighbors would hear these noises. But then we built this one, and it blew up, and our neighbor came over, and he was listening to the police scanner, and he goes, the police are on their way. But in hindsight, I think he called the police. So we left, we got out of the house, we took off Into the day. We were like, all right, let's go back, I'm sure the cops are gone by now. And we were pulling up the street, we turned the corner and I said, wouldn't it be funny if there was cops in front of the house? Sure enough, there were two cop cars parked in our driveway and there was cops going through my backyard. So I, like, turned around, took off, stayed out for the rest of the night. There was one point where I was driving my car down this road and I see a cop car like going in the opposite direction. His lights went on and he took off and made a turn and I like got it. You know, I jumped on the freeway, and I got out of there. Turns out there was an APB on my truck. So they think I'm like this terrorist. I just want to get into special effects in the movies. The next day my parents get back from their camping trip and I come in the front door and I'm like look the cops, I let off some pipe bombs. The police are after me, and they're all. Yeah, the neighbors already told us what happened and I'm like I'm so sorry, I'm a fugitive. So the chief of police comes to the front door and he's got all these pieces of metal from the pipe that had gone over our house into the neighbor's yard. The woman said that you know, shrapnel just started raining down in their driveway. So I was like, oh my gosh, like that's. I'm so sorry, this is, you know, never happened again. And he looked at me, and he goes you're of age, you're 18. I go yeah, you know, this is a felony. I should take you into jail like I should arrest you right now. But I talked to your teachers, I talked to your neighbors. They all told me you're a good kid and that you want to get into Hollywood in special effects. This is not the way they do it in Hollywood. If this ever happens again, I'm not going to hesitate, I'm going to arrest you. So, I was like, fair enough. Like 12, 13 years later I'm on Mythbusters and I go home and now this chief of police sees me and he's like look at you, now you're getting paid to blow stuff up. I feel like it was like the hand of God. He said if you know if we arrest this kid now, his life's going to be ruined.
Allen Wolf: 5:31
Yeah, just to think that path, how it could have gone a very different direction.
Tory Belleci: 5:36
It was a pivotal moment in my life.
Allen Wolf: 5:37
Now I remember when you first got the offer to join Mythbusters and you weren't sure you wanted to take it. Have you ever thought about how that one decision completely altered your life?
Tory Belleci: 5:50
You know, I was a model maker at ILM when I got the call. When I was a little kid I used to do book reports or reports for class, telling everybody about special effects, and I remember looking at a book of it was the making of Star Wars, and there were these guys in front of the Millennium Falcon and just looking at these guys who built this model and who were filming it, thinking I want to be that guy someday. When I got the job at ILM and then started working, it was the dream come true and I was like, okay, I can do this until I retire. The industry started shifting over to CG. I could kind of see the writing on the wall we have so many shots. And then all of a sudden they're like, oh, that's going to go to the computer department, oh, and then oh, these guys are going to do this element. So it was like our job was dwindling and I just kind of felt like this is a dying art. And then I got a call from a co-worker, Adam Savage, who used to be in the model shop, and he was like give me a call, I got an opportunity that it changed your life and he and Jamie Heineman had already done the first season of Mythbusters, they called me in to go, you know, to audition, and I was like I don't have to say anything, right, I don't have to be a host, I don't have to talk, I know they're like, no, no, you're just going to be a background character. And I was like I just build stuff. And they're like, yep, absolutely, and you go occasionally you might talk about what you're doing, but you don't have to host. I was like I can do that. Perfect, because the last thing I wanted to be was on camera. I was always behind the scenes guy. That's why I got into special effects. So now we're filming the show and we're a week into it and you know, it was just kind of nerve-racking because you basically have this cameraman following around all day as you're working and it's like if you mess up you know, normally if you're at a job and you mess up, you hide it and fix it till the boss sees you and then you show him oh look, how it's perfect, but you hide the fact that you screwed up with the camera. Guys there, they're not only do they, you know, film you screwing up, they encourage you, they like want you to screw up so that there's better television. You know it's like you're sitting there, whatever you are just working on, collapsing in front of you, and they're just sitting behind the camera like shaking, giggling, because they're like yes, this is so humiliating, awesome, good job.
Allen Wolf: 8:14
Oh my gosh. So was that a paradigm shift for you?
Tory Belleci: 8:17
Yeah, it was my worst nightmare. The whole plan was we had two build teams and Jamie and Adam went jump from team to team. We would set up the experiment, they would come in, we'd film and then they would go back to the other team, but it just was slowing the process down. So the producers came to us and they're like good news, you guys are going to become hosts. My first reaction was like that's the worst news ever, like I don't want to be on camera, I don't want to talk. So it's funny, going back and watching the early seasons of Mythbusters, it's just like who is that person? Like I, just I'm so like, so nervous. And how did you work through that? You know, I remember there was an episode where I get in an argument with Adam and it was over some build and he's yelling at me and I'm yelling back at him and this is how we have to do it. He's like no, we have to do it like this, it's got to get done. But then when they edit it together, they just show me yelling at him. So I'm like, oh my God, I look like the biggest jerk in the world, like like that's not what happened. I called up my dad and I was just ready to quit. I was like I got to quit and he's like why and I'm like they're making me look like a jerk on the show. My dad goes hey, son, you are a jerk. And I was like what, what are you talking about? And he was like you're just, you're like a sarcastic jerk sometimes. Embrace it, like that's who you are. And so after that it was just kind of like okay, I could just relax and be myself on the show.
Allen Wolf: 9:51
Wow, that's really interesting.
Tory Belleci: 9:54
I started 2003 and we finished I think it was like 2014 or 15 that we, that we wrapped.
Allen Wolf: 10:03
And it's interesting seeing how it changed over the years too, and especially how you and Carrie and Grant had much more prominent roles in the show, and when it started it was very different than how it ended, in terms of just your personality is being more upfront, just the energy of the show felt very different. What was it like when you decided to leave the show? I didn't decide to leave the show.
Tory Belleci: 10:31
Oh really, they said, oh, we're writing these characters out. The beginning of the Mythbusters was it was very, very low budget, a small camera crew, a very small build crew. You know we used to like the fruit, I would say, for the first five seasons we had to do all the builds and people always said, oh sure, as soon as the cameras stop rolling, you walk home. You know, you go home and the builders continue working. And that wasn't the case at all. We would stay till like midnight Because we were the only ones that knew how to do what we were doing. You know, we were just making it up as we went, as the show started getting more popular. Then it kind of got a little glossier, like the style was changing. It wasn't as rough and independent as it was in the beginning. Towards the end we did have, like, a lot of builders and, you know, a bigger, much bigger crew. But then if it was pretty much the last season and the show had a good run and we felt, you know that it was just, it was a good time for us to Transition and to move on.
Allen Wolf: 11:39
Did you have a favorite memory during the show?
Tory Belleci: 11:42
There are so many crazy memories from Mythbusters. We were seeing if you could wakeboard behind a cruise ship. If you know, if a cruise ship is going fast enough, could it actually pull you Behind it on a wakeboard. And we went down to the Bahamas and I had been practicing all week with just like Transitioning from one boat to another boat. But now it was the big Experiment day and we only had one shot at it, because once this cruise ship left the Bahamas and went back to Florida, it was gone, like it was gonna be miles out to sea. So they're like, okay, we only have like a couple of miles to get this to work. I remember we had a producer on the back of the boat. He threw out a line. It was like a 300 foot line and the boat that I was on I was holding on Already on the wakeboard and so I had to get pulled up next to the rope and grab the line and Transition to the cruise ship. And I'm just sitting there and looking at the back of the ship. Everybody on the cruise ship wants to see this. So they're just, like you know, hovering at the back and I'm like, oh my gosh, like this is if I don't get this right. This is gonna be such a epic fail. And so we did a couple attempts and the guy driving the boat wasn't Getting the speed correct with the cruise ship, so the boat just kept, the rope just kept slipping through my hands, oh and so finally, it was just like this is the last attempt. So I just grabbed the rope, wrapped it around my hand. I got like this crazy rope burn. But I let go and and I'm just sitting there, you know, getting pulled along on a wakeboard behind this giant cruise ship, and it was just like this, such a surreal moment of Like what are we doing? How is this happening? Like time froze in that second. It was just like this weird, like this is the craziest thing I've ever done. It was that was like one of those magical moments.
Allen Wolf: 13:34
Wow, amazing. And you became close with the two castmates, carrie Byron, and Grant and Mahara. What did you all do after myth busters ended?
Tory Belleci: 13:45
after the show, carrie and I went and did a couple of shows. We did one show called throw factor for a travel channel and it was just basically us going around riding roller coasters and Testing the science for the roller coasters. I mean it was such a ridiculous show and so much fun. But I remember there was this one roller coaster we went to Wisconsin Dells. It's all theme parks, so it's like you feel like you've just walked, you've been shrunken and walked into a miniature golf course. Every hotel and resort has like some weird theme and we went to this one Roller coaster and it was like one of the only wood Roller coasters, like old-fashioned wood constructed roller coasters, but it had a corkscrew. We did it, you know, two or three times and then they filmed us and both of us started getting these horrible headaches and the owner of the Park came over. He's like, oh yeah, I wouldn't ride that one too much. It's like it's really bad. It rattles your brain, I can only do it once and like I start getting migraines and I'm like and the producers like okay, we're just gonna do it two more times, or like no, like we're getting concussions here.
Allen Wolf: 14:55
Oh my gosh Brutal. And then you all did a show together after that then we did.
Tory Belleci: 15:02
It was kind of like a it was Netflix wanted a myth buster type show, and so the three of us did white rabbit project and that that was. You know, that was such a great Experience just to all three of us be working together again, doing something completely different on our own, and to be at Netflix was amazing too, because that was right before. Netflix at the time was just buying content for their platform, but now they were dipping their toe in the unscripted reality show, and so that was. We were kind of one of their first shows.
Allen Wolf: 15:37
That they did, and I've had other guests on who've done shows for Netflix and there's an odd of opaqueness in terms of understanding how well your show did, who your audience was. So when they didn't continue into a second season, did they let you know why you?
Tory Belleci: 15:53
know it's interesting, it's good and bad. It's good in the sense that they don't really get involved in the production and the creative. Like at Discovery Channel, we would do a show and then we would have all these executives giving notes and telling us to change this and change that. And there was a lot of times where, like you know, we feel like creatively we need to stay this course, but we'll make some adjustments. When Netflix, they were completely hands off. They're like I don't know, you guys know how to make a show, and so this was the early days where you didn't really have executives making creative decisions. They just let you go and make the show but, to your point, they don't tell you how it's doing. So you're just kind of like in the dark going. Well, I hope we hit an audience and I've heard that from a lot of people where it's just like they'll give you certain numbers but they don't give you, like all the data, and can you tell us what happened with Grant after White Rabbit ended? Grant. Unfortunately, we lost him back in 2020. It just completely out of the blue. You know, it was such a tragedy. He was 49 years old. I got a call from a good friend of mine, fond Davis. He used to work with us at the model shop up at ILM and he just gave me a call and he was like hey, just wanted to let you know. Grant had an aneurysm. He's in the hospital. They just performed emergency surgery but they said the brain surgery went well and he's now. He was in a induced coma but they're like they're gonna let him recover and then see, you know, bring him out of the coma. And then he just he never woke up.
Allen Wolf: 17:35
I still to this day. It's like.
Tory Belleci: 17:37
I can't. It's hard to believe that he's gone.
Allen Wolf: 17:40
Hi, I was able to meet Grant in Seattle when you brought the show there.
Tory Belleci: 17:44
Oh right, we're doing the road show.
Allen Wolf: 17:47
Right, exactly. But yeah, it was such a shock because one, someone who's, you know, relatively young, and then two, just out of nowhere, something happening so quickly. It just reminds you of how fragile life can be sometimes.
Tory Belleci: 18:03
It's just weird, cause you know, you think you're gonna. Oh, you know, when we're 80, we're gonna be telling stories from the show. Remember when we shot the house with the cannon and but?
Allen Wolf: 18:14
no, well, you've been on shows where you're constantly building and creating projects. What does it look like in terms of how you're keeping it fresh?
Tory Belleci: 18:25
It's such a tricky notion of what is good anymore. I feel like we are in this era right now where I don't know if Mythbusters would have survived, you know, like as a show, as long as it did. When we started it was like kind of when the internet was taking off, youtube didn't exist yet, smartphones didn't exist yet, so it was like there wasn't a ton of distraction. You know what I mean. You still had, you had the regular networks and then you had the cable networks and like at that time, for unscripted reality shows, cable networks were key. You had all these shows that were unscripted and it kind of grew organically. I remember the first couple of years our audience was very diehard, it wasn't very mainstream. And then, as the show progressed, then all of a sudden we got a bigger audience. Where nowadays to get that kind of lightning in a bottle? And it was also at the time that the internet was becoming more of a place that was creating ridiculous ideas. So it was a really good time for Mythbusters to come in and be like well, that's not actually true. This is, we tested it and this is the truth. So it was this really cool back and forth of the internet says there's a story on the internet that we found out that this could happen and it's like, well, let's go test it. No, actually that's not how it really is. This is the truth, where nowadays it's gotten like nuts Like, with all these deep fakes and TikTok, it's like it's hard to tell what is real anymore and it's really hard to, I feel like, keep people's attention. There's so much distraction that it's really hard for a show to like hit an audience.
Allen Wolf: 20:20
It sounds like a couple of reasons. One is that our attention spans have been conditioned to be much shorter than you've got to break through all the noise. And you see, I mean studios with redoing movies that they've already done, or sequels. I mean a big reason they do that is because they've already previously broken through the noise with that particular property and they think, oh well, it's gonna be much easier for the audience to connect to this because we don't have to start from ground zero. So exactly.
Tory Belleci: 20:54
It's like you have an IP that everybody knows when you put a new product out. It's like I don't know what that is. I'm not gonna check it out. I mean, how many Spider-Man's are they gonna make?
Allen Wolf: 21:07
But people keep coming back.
Tory Belleci: 21:09
I know.
Allen Wolf: 21:11
It's wild as you look back on your career. What would you do differently?
Tory Belleci: 21:17
I don't think I would do anything differently. I kind of feel like everything happened for a reason. You know. It was like I feel like God just kind of push you in a certain direction and I would just follow it. Or I'd hear like, take this opportunity, try this. So I really feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.
Allen Wolf: 21:34
Well, you mentioned that you felt like God was telling you to do this or pointing you in particular directions. What has your spiritual journey looked like?
Tory Belleci: 21:43
People always go oh, you're on Mythbusters, you must be an atheist. You know cause. You're like a scientist. But I, you know, I feel like science really has a lot of faith in it because you are. I mean, originally they were searching for truth in God and that's kind of where science was born from. So for me it was working with a lot of people who just had no faith or just had no like. It was like when you die, that's it, you're done. I believe that you know this is just the beginning and there's the afterlife is going to be so much better.
Allen Wolf: 22:17
And where's there a moment in your life where that started to become?
Tory Belleci: 22:20
real to you. Growing up, I was raised Catholic. We used to go to church all the time. But when I was 19, I had a sinus infection and I went in for surgery and while I was coming out of surgery I was waking up and I remember the nurse there going okay, the surgery went well, you're starting to wake up, just stay calm. And I was like I can't breathe and she's like that's okay, you're okay, like you're just having a reaction, and I go no, I feel like I'm drowning. And I started coughing up fluids and I remember the doctor just like looking at me, like what is going on? And the anesthesiologist was like scrambling. All the nurses were scrambling. So they got me kind of, you know, they gave me oxygen, they got me, you know, stable Turns out whatever. They gave me some kind of beta blocker that kind of lowers your heart rate, because when you're coming out, your heart's pumping. You're trying to like wake up, and that actually caused my heart to fail. They went out to my mom and they're like okay, the surgery went well. But we have one issue and my mom was like, was it his heart? Because my mom's side of the family has this rare heart condition. It's like a birth defect in the heart. It's a deformed, and so the walls of the heart are a little thicker than a normal heart, so it doesn't pump as efficiently as a normal heart. So he was like why he's 19 years old, why he's a healthy young kid. Why would you say heart? And she told him about that family history. So they were like we're gonna send him to this heart specialist, he'll know what to do. And so now I'm freaking out because they're like you're 19 years old, you have this condition, you can drop dead at any moment. You think, oh, I'm 19. I got my whole life ahead of me. And now that they're telling me, at any moment you can drop dead. And I was like well, I don't want to get a defibrillator installed, I don't wanna get this surgery, I don't wanna go through all this. And they're like well, he's 19. He can literally do whatever he wants. Like he doesn't have to get this done, he can walk out. So my parents are freaking out and it was kind of a moment of not believing it thinking you're invincible. When you're young, you think you can do anything, You're not gonna get hurt. So now we go up to this hospital and this heart specialist comes in and he is like so excited because here's this young kid with this heart condition. Usually it's older people that he's dealing with. So he's like I got this young, fresh guinea pig. And so then he starts rattling off relatives that have had this on my mom's side of the family who dropped dead. And the reality hit me at that moment. And that's when I realized, oh, like this is serious. So when I was at the first hospital in my hometown they did an echocardiograph. My dad was there and I was there. The nurse was like okay, you can see right here where the wall of the heart is a little thicker than a normal heart and you can see how the valve isn't shutting all the way when it pumps. So your heart's not pumping efficiently. And I'm freaking out, my parents are freaking out. We're just like praying. If I wasn't reading the Bible, I was crying because it was just. It was like terrifying. I was reading this book, Power and Praise. It was talking about thank God for every situation, no matter how bad it is, Because what that does is you're basically saying I completely trust every situation, even if it's horrible, and that just allows God to like move, because you're putting complete faith in him. I completely trust you. I thank you for this condition. I thank you. I don't know how long I'm gonna live. That night I couldn't sleep because the next day they were doing all these tests While I was sleeping. First I had this vision. I had like a dream that God had pulled my heart out and had refabricated it, and then I thought a nurse had come in and injected me with something, because it literally it woke me up out of my sleep. And so I, like, woke up and it felt like something that had just taken over my whole body. It was like this crazy energy that just energized my whole body. I was completely at peace and then, all of a sudden, another rush of this energy just came all over me and then knocked me out. So I went to sleep. Next morning I wake up and I completely forget about this. My mom goes. I was praying last night. God gave me a vision that he rebuilt your heart. Then it, like it reminded me of what happened during the night and I go. I was woken up this crazy thing and we were all just like freaking out because it was like are we holding on for this hope? So we were just like don't know, let's wait and see. So then we go into the first test, which was echocardiograph. The doctor was like, huh, that's weird. And we're like what's weird. And he was like what they told us at the first hospital it's not matching up what we're seeing here. And we're like, okay, so let's prep them for the more intense test. They put a catheter into your artery through your leg and it goes up into the heart and then they pump this radioactive dye. So they're like, okay, it's gonna feel like hot coffee in your chest. Take a deep breath. Then they pump the dye and then that pumps the dye into the heart. And the doctors are there and they're like, huh, okay, that's weird, let's do one more. And then he's like take a deep breath, they pump the dive and they're looking at thing and they're looking, they're all looking at each other. He's like I don't know what to say. I guess this was a false alarm. This is a perfectly normal heart and I just I lost it right. I'm like it was God, jesus did it like. I'm just like. I was like, oh my gosh, this is a real miracle. They have tests that showed it one way. And then now my heart is a different way and it looks completely normal. And so that was, you know, obviously, the moment in my life where I was like there's no, there's no doubt, you know. I mean there's times when I doubt and you know, you don't hear from God and you wonder Is there really an afterlife? But this was one of those moments where it's just like I go back to you, have one test that said this and then now this shows something completely different. That's incredible.
Allen Wolf: 28:39
A lot of people don't have a deep Supernatural experience of God like that, but you did, I mean. How did that impact you?
Tory Belleci: 28:48
for a long time I felt like, oh, I have to do. I have to do like something great, I have to go do something. You know, it's like God gave me this gift. I have to go do something. He gave me this. I have to go do something great and and I want to do that. But I felt like I, he said, was saying, just tell your story, because it wasn't like, oh, he chose me, I'm so special. No, it's like no, like he wants this for every single person. You just have to accept it.
Allen Wolf: 29:20
Yeah, it's incredible to think what you went through there and did that help you in situations like later down the line when you were just faced with doubts? Did you just remind yourself of what happened in the hospital?
Tory Belleci: 29:35
I feel like life gets so crazy and busy and you lose sight of those things and like doing this, talk with you, like coming on and telling this story, it reminds me the reality. So you know, I think it is good to like look back at times in your life when you just felt like you were at your wits end, like that, and it was. You had no hope and if something did change or something Did happen that you were like, oh okay, this is reality. It's good to go back and reflect on those and remind yourself that the Lord is real and now you've been married Since 2020, how do you stay Relationally healthy? my wife's amazing, like she's so chill, so like no drama, and you know, we're just like best friends and we just had a baby. My life has completely changed. Before it was like we could travel wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted, but I feel like when the pandemic hit, it really kind of slowed everything down and made us focus on what was important and I feel like I may have just kept running if that shut down and that slow down didn't happen and it was like, oh wait, like I am getting older, I need to like think about what is important having a family. So, as horrible as the pandemic was, it was great in a lot of ways.
Allen Wolf: 30:56
Can you tell us about a moment in your career where you felt discouraged and wondered what would happen next?
Tory Belleci: 31:03
You know, when we got let go from MythBusters, it was exciting, but disappointing, right. It was like disappointing that we're no longer. You've been doing something for over a decade. You just kind of know what to do. Now, all of a sudden it's like oh, what? Like what's next? But then that what's next could be exciting, because it's like Opportunities are gonna be flying in. And when the opportunities didn't fly in, it was like, oh man, like now, maybe this was it, maybe MythBusters was my career on television. Okay, so time to figure out something else. Because when you're on these shows, people are just like, oh, you're so great and you know, if you could just cut, if you could just free yourself from this show, you're gonna have so many other opportunities. And you got to be careful not to believe that and just like enjoy what you have, appreciate what you have at the moment and do the best at that. Because if you're looking forward to the next opportunity, you're gonna miss stuff and that there might not be that next opportunity. And so when things didn't start happening, it was something that I had to learn also was nobody's gonna work harder for you than you. And you know I was like, oh, my producer, he's gonna come up with something, or my agent, he'll find me something. But it wasn't until that I was like no, I need to start figuring out Shows for myself. What can I do that Nobody else could do? And that that was like a real inspiration for me, because now I can Create the shows that I want to be on.
Allen Wolf: 32:35
So it sounds like you realized you have agency and you started to take more control of where your career was going.
Tory Belleci: 32:43
I remember I met, uh, seth Rogen one time. You know, I was just so impressed that he was writing and producing and acting on all these movies and he's like, he's like, yeah, you know, if I don't do it, who else is gonna do it? Like, I don't think there's a lot of roles that you know for me, so I'm, I'm creating my own roles, but I mean now he's like a huge star, but at the time when he was getting started, he was Creating movies, that and roles for himself which I was just like, oh my gosh, that's that's amazing.
Allen Wolf: 33:13
At the end of your life, what kind of legacy would you like to leave behind? I?
Tory Belleci: 33:17
guess at the end of my life. I want my family to be proud of me and To know I tried to do the right thing.
Allen Wolf: 33:26
Hmm, well, thank you so much for being my guest. Thank you.
Tory Belleci: 33:31
Alan, this has been so Great to see you to catch up like this.
Allen Wolf: 33:36
Yes, thank you for sharing that incredible story and just all the stories from your career and your life Really appreciate it. If you work in entertainment, check out the complimentary courses and other resources available At navigating Hollywood org. Please follow us and leave us a review so others can discover this podcast. You can find our other shows, transcripts, links and more at navigating Hollywood org. I look forward to being with you next time.