Okay.
So I feel like I've talked about on mostly off my book, probably on Mike too. You know, I always have this this debate with you guys about how I like local places.
Yeah, it's hard to get an experience yesterday which is just the epitome that just distilled all the pros and the cons and like one experience.
I was like thinking of you guys the whole time. Because my favorite example of this is when I complained about my dentist who was like my local dentist and where you were like and I was like, she's kind of a bad dentist, and you were.
Like, get a better dentist.
Anyway.
So so my key in my car, I went to turn it and its just like snapped, just like like oh, it's like what So I had to like literally take the metal part was okay, but I had to like take a pair of plyers to like to turn it, turn it right. Or actually I didn't take a pair of What I did is like I took the key fob part and like clamped it on there and anyway, So this goes on for like a day or two. And of course I know that if you call the dealer in this case Toyota, like we had done this
for my wife. It's like a four hundred dollars replacement the key because they got to like reprogram and and I was like, there's no way this you can do this, Like there's an I'm gonna do a lot, right. Well, So I go on Amazon and and like you can find replacement key fobs that you can etch with the key. I'm like, oh, okay, six dollars. I get two of them because I need two of them, right, I get two new keys. I go like, I find a locksmith,
like the local. Actually I go to the hardware store first and they're like, oh no, we can't you know, yeah, we can't do that. We do it local. And we talked to them and no, they tried. They were like we keys but like car keys, and they took it behind the count like no, we can't. And I'm like, well where you know, Oh, there's a lots of it down the street across from the McDonald's, right across the just go to McDonald's and then go to dealership. So
I'm like, okay, yeah, we're gonna do this. And I show up and this is before I'm meeting you guys for lunch. I only have like ten minutes because I figured this is quick, right, And I walk in. I'm like, you know, the guy's there and he's got like a mask on because he's probably.
Welding doing that cool.
And I'm like, hey man, you know and he's like, oh yeah, and it's five bucks a key.
Cool.
I'm like yeah, sure, and etches my keys and I'm like, great, hand them cash and he tells me. He's like, hey, you know, I just recently got cast off. So he's like, my hand is you know, he hasn't used his right hand. So I'm like, already, this is great. Like I'm in the conversation.
This guy lives in my neighborhood.
Probably we're talking about I give him cash.
I've been used weeks off the book.
Thanks, but okay, I'll seal it or yeah, I'm walking out, I'm gonna use this.
You know.
I gotta remember this this locksmith. He's just like a mile from my house. Gotta remember this guy next time I need a lock Get into my car, turn it up, doesn't start. I'm like, the key fits, turns but doesn't turn over the engine. I'm like, that's really weird. I don't get out and I walk it. I'm like, hey, would you know why? He's like, oh yeah, well probably a chip. And I'm like, okay, well that would have
been nice to know before you ride. So already I'm like, well this backfired, Like yeah, Toyota wouldn't have had this problem. It's already like okay, well, and I'm like, so what do I you know, what what do I do? And he's like, well, you know, no, no, he starts. He starts explaining. He's like it's a chip. And I'm like, okay, well you know what is that? You know, you have to be way too long an ex if you have the old Bob. I'm like, well I do have the
old Bob. And he's like, well, then the chip's in there. And he's like, well look here, I got to bring the car back around back. I can plug in my computer. I can, you know, for eighty five bucks, I can and give you a whole new and he's like and you know what, And I'm like eighty five but should have just gone to toilet. But then he's like, but you know what if you if you need two keys, because I do, He's like, I'll just give you both for the same and I'm like, oh, so, I'm like.
This is this is why you go to the lot?
This is it?
Yeah, And so I bring my car around back. Now we're hanging out. He's plugging in this computer which.
Looks meanwhile ly who cares, actually what, I'm kind of friend.
Yes, And he plugs in this computer which they totally look like. I didn't think know these things exist. You can like have computers that plug into the lock and read out to him what chip I need on? It's crazy like, and so he like tells me, oh, it's an I six e chip, and I mean it looks like straight out of the movie Hackers. Do you remember that from the where you like can plug something into
a lock. And then he takes my key and he plugs it into this other little thing and it's like, looks like my key is just sitting in a bowl basically, but he's able to like read the key. He's like, oh, yeah, it's this kind of chip. But the fobs that I bought from Amazon don't have a chip, so he can't program those chips. And I'm just like, okay, I'm gonna be late for lunch now, Yeah, what do I do. But but he's like, you know, here's the thing, and
he opens up the fob. You know, he's like, if you still have the old fob, and I'd already thrown one of them all. He's like, the chip is here. He's like, it's not gonna cost you anything. I won't. You don't even need me, like, just you just pull this chip out, work it out. And so again I'm like, this is great. I noticed it's like his you know, cause I'm asking about his cast in his hand and he's like, oh yeah, his skin is like flaking off.
Right like he probably handling some chips.
This is kind of kind of gross, like you know. And he's telling me about how it's like he broke his arm and it healed wrong, like now it's and they want to like rebreak it. But he's like, I'm just goidding. So we're laughing and telling stories and I'm like, this is the human connection thing. Meanwhile, he is flaking his.
Skin into here.
Literally like brushing is oh my god. And I'm like and I'm sitting there and I'm like, oh, Will and Danielle, I love. This is the cost of the human experience here.
It is.
This guy is literally why, And I like, what do I say? I'm like, dude, like you say, he's like rubbing, flaking, like it's like like like corn flakes of skin coming off into got my front and I'm like dude, and he's like, yeah, he's telling me about his wrist and his thing. But meanwhile he keeps doing it, and I'm like you you're in my car. You are in my and you are and he's like and then it's just like these flaking and I'm just you know, and I'm like, yeah, in my oh.
Got away.
I figured it out, pulled the chip out myself later on last night. Everything's fine. So it was only five bucks for him atch a key. Ultimately it did and I had the human connection, but I also probably have you know, some skin.
You've got some human connection left over, which is good.
And if this poor man turns up dead, his DNA's all in your career car.
Yeah, so there you go.
Oh but I made it on time. You guys were late yesterday and.
Was shut down, and you know.
I'll use him again, I guess, as long as he's not flaking his skin all over.
The Oh okay, did he he had all those supercomputers did he have a handheld back?
Exactly Amazon, that Toyota's got all that stuff.
By the way, hundred dollars for a key when my wife got a key replaced.
So like.
I've also I've also been to the Toyota dealership so many times for like just oil changes. Whenever, I never had a conversation with anybody there. So you know, now I know this guy, he's always there.
I mean, if what you're lacking is conversation, then you should definitely.
Talk for a living.
I don't know how you need more.
By the way, you mentioned the movie Hackers, and just as a as a strange side note, Hackers was the first big movie I ever saw that makes a boy meets World reference.
Oh what it fully what.
I said, Hackers. I was actually thinking Sneakers, but go on different, Okay, Sneakers was the exactly technology the Angelina Joli movie. She's topless for a second one. But if she's topless for a positive Oh yeah, I remember sitting at Ocean's house for the VHS.
Reference.
The one of the characters says to another character, he's he's like the youngest one of the crew, and he's like, come on, boy meets World, Let's go, and so.
He literally calls him boy. First thing I've never seen. Yeah, I was I knew that back then sitting in the.
Yeah, you could only pay attention to that one.
Angelina fan huh back then? Right then?
Well?
Yeah, because she had done that movie Foxfire with my brother that child getting cut out of And when I saw that, I was like, who is this person? She's you know, the most gorgeous woman alive and a good actor. I mean I also, yeah, she's a very girl interrupted and all that. It was a huge crush.
Well, this is a good time for me to thank all of our dear listeners who sent in a clip for us that I'll play for you guys right now. Very exciting in the universe for for Boy meets World fans when something like this happens.
Sitcom's for eight hundred pies.
It was on this sitcom that Corey and Tapanga first got together.
Skylight What is Boy Meets World?
Right, So we were a Jeopardy clue and we were in sitcoms since.
I was like, first got together. Oh because of Girl meets World.
Yes, first got together. Yeah, you know that.
We've We've been clues several times.
On I know many many times, but but this was one of the first times since we've started the podcast.
So a lot of people sent it to us and wanted.
There are the other questions in this it coom category.
As well, I have them already.
Do you really?
Yes? Here we go.
I had this indie Indian I wrote a bookstore once and he wanted like joke books, like he likes getting joke books.
Or trivia kids.
Yeah, it's a such and so there was one that was like nineties trivia and I'm like, India, I bet, I bet, I'm in here, but word and like scouring the word. It took a while. It was it wasn't me, but there was a Boy Meets World day and it took a while. I was like, if anybody sees me in this Barnes and Noble or whatever, flipping through this book looking for my I was like, this is embarrassed.
All right, let's play.
Let's play the game. Ready TV sitcoms for four hundred dollars. In the UK version of the Office, this comedian played David Brent, a character similar to Okay, yep, eight hundred dollars. It was on this sitcom The Corey and to manga first got Together.
What is Boys World?
Boys the Boys? Yeah, Boys Meets the.
World, Boys Meet World for twelve hundred dollars From twenty ten to twenty sixteen. Melissa McCarthy start opposite Billy Gardell on this sitcom.
Molly and Me So Close? Isn't that what it's called? I never seen it? Nope?
What is Mike and Molly?
Mike and Molly? That's yes, I never saw that one.
Bronson Pinchot, who played Balky bar Talla Moose Song Stranger comedy, Yes, as yes, it is perfect Strangers two thousand. On thirty Rock, Tracy Jordan is the star of TGS, which originally stood for I've.
Never seen it. I've never seen a thirty Rock in my life.
Okay, what is the girly show?
Okay, that's it.
There you go.
So you've never seen thirty Rock.
No, never seen a single A single episode of thirty Rock, a single episode of Community.
Watching television at like two thousand and fourish.
Yeah, pretty much, and then just goes back to I think was the last new one that I watched?
It's not a new show, that's well, it.
Was, I mean it ended in what twy ten something like that, I don't know.
Yeah, so yeah, I'm pretty much yeah.
Okay, welcome to Pod meets World. I'm Daniel Fishl, I'm right strong, and i am what is will Fredell.
Throughout our rewatch of the show, now six seasons in, we have seen dozens of guest stars where we find ourselves saying, hey, I know that guy. He's in everything, and then Will proceeds to tell us exactly which Seinfeld episode or episodes he's in. Then he recites two to three lines from his best movie. It is like clockwork. And so we've learned that Boy Meets World really did cast some of the best TV character actors of all time, and this week we get to talk to one of
the best. He somehow began his career in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and has worked with a murderer's row of Hollywood's best directors over a three decade career that is still going strong. But you may know him best from two things.
One.
He was a cast member on the revolutionary sketch show in Living Color cultural moment, where he not only helped change television forever, but introduced us to stars like Jim Carrey, Jamie Fox and Jennifer Lopez and two his bone chilling scenes stealing and somehow humorous moment in the Academy Award winning movie Fargo where he breaks down to an old high school friend about his deep well of sadness and then tries to seduce her after detailing the death of
his wife, which is definitely a lie. And in addition to these unforgettable projects, here are some other movies you've seen him in Kindergarten, Cop Quick Change, Toys, Falling Down, A Serious Man, Snow Piercer, The French Dispatch, Asteroid City, and the highly anticipated upcoming Bong June Ho sci fi
film Mickey seventeen starring Robert Pattinson. But today we are sitting him down to talk about the one time he was on a primetime family sitcom, playing jump Master in season five's Standout and an episode in contention for our favorite ever Raging Corey helping the Matthews men bond by putting their life on the line, and we'll bother him about some other things too. Welcome to Pod Meets World. A true artist. It's Steven Park.
We can see you, hi. Yes, we are so happy to have you here.
When you popped up during our season five rewatch. We could not stop smiling and we talked about how amazing you were then. So to have you on the podcast with us makes us happy all over again.
It's so funny because the role was so small and I was on Yeah, I just felt like I was on there for like such a short maybe a little bit longer than to take and go there, and I was like, why do they want to talk to me? I'm so nervous because I don't know what to talk about.
Oh my gosh, don't you worry. We have so many questions for you. Also, you have to know you're in a room with some big fans. Wilfredell here can quote probably every one of your lines from almost anything you've done, but especially Fargo.
Pretty true. It's pretty true.
Oh my god, that's crazy. I know that. Actually, I remember when we shot this ninety eight that was just like Fargo had just come out recently.
I think, so, yeah, well I bought I bothered you about it basically the entire week you were there.
I think, yeah, and I think I remember.
That, Yeah, yeah, you stood him.
You were the one.
That's what I did.
I just kept that's right.
I kept peppering you with questions just the whole week long, because it was it was I mean, at the time, it was it still is.
It holds up, but it was just it's a brilliant, brilliant film.
And you say, I mean, it's a perfect example where you say, oh, you're on boy me throw for a short amount of time, but it was such a memorable role on Boy.
Could be said for Fargo.
I mean, you might be on for a short amount of time, but it's such a memorable role, and it's a it's a character and scenes that probably anybody else might have looked at and been like, you know what, we don't really need this for the story of the film.
We can this lifts right out.
But it so works and it's so important and it's just so great that yeah, yeah, well.
Thank you so much. I mean, I remember thinking, I thought that they might cut it because it didn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the story. And it wasn't until a few years later that it was on Roger Ebert's show. He had Martin scorseseion and they were talking about their favorite movies of the nineties, and they brought up Fargo. And they played my scene and Roger Ebert was describing how marg Linderson's character after she finds out that my character was lying, that kind
of sets the light bulb off. And then she goes to speak to Do Macy's character after she realizes. So it did set off a little bit of a reaction, but I didn't know that at the time. Coen Brothers never explained anything to me, so I really, I really did think, Wow, they might cut this.
Oh my gosh, it's so good.
We have so many things we want to talk to you about with your career, but before we jump into it, I'd love to talk to you about your origin story. We know that you are from the East Coast originally, but when did you realize that being in the entertainment industry was going to be your thing?
Oh my god. It was kind of a long, kind of torturous journey. Because I'm my father, I grew up my father was a doctor. I was born in Brooklyn, New York. I was born in Clinton Hill and lived there until about eight and then we moved two years to Manhattan, and then we moved upstate. We landed in a town called Vestal, which is adjacent to Binghamton, okay, and so I did most of my growing up there.
So I first started when I went to college, I really did not know what I wanted to do with my life, and so I was pursuing medicine because my dad was a doctor, so I thought, okay. So but I never had any kind of interest or proclivity towards chemistry or for interview. So you know, I was like, but I was like failing these classes. I'd bean just like looking at different like organisms and biology class, and like, I can't tell when this from you. So I just
felt like this was not for me. And then I ended up transferring to school which was close to me, which was Sudny Binghamton, and the same thing. I was just signing up for classes. I didn't know what I was doing, and then I would end up like dropping classes, and so I was kind of ready to drop out. And my girlfriend at the time just said, before you
drop out, just you owe yourself. Just take one semester of classes and the only criteria is that they have to be fun, which was such an alien concept to me.
Such good advice.
I took an acting class, I took a mind class, a vocal class and a body movement class. And it was to me because you know, when I was growing up as a kid, I was always like class clown. I was always making super great movies like it was something that I always enjoyed doing, but never considered it a career. So anyway, I ended up getting my my theater degree, and because you know, I thought it was funny,
A lot of people were funny. So I went to New York City and started doing stand up comedy and I was doing open mic nights, and then I got involved with theater. I did my first play with pen Asian Repertory Theater and that got me started with with basically doing plays and then so I can't you know, I was down in New York. I started my career in nineteen eighty seven, and it was nineteen eighty eight when I booked my first film, which was Do the
Right Thing. And I mean who knew. I mean, but it wasn't like there were I it was at the time when they were kind of a small pool of Asian American actors. So for the first maybe ten years, I knew every agent American actor in both coasts. I mean we all knew each other. Yeah, so it wasn't like there was a big pool of actors. And anyway, then soon after that happened, I moved to Los Angeles and then in Living Color happened.
And how did you book the job for Do the Right Thing? Did you? Did you just hear of the audition? How did you book that?
Yeah? I heard the audition.
Did you have an agent?
I did? I had an agent, and I went into the office and I forgot what Scena was, but I remember Spike Lee gave me the part in the room right after the audition, and I was like, because I was already a huge fan of his from She's Got to Have It, I was, I was in shock. And then I just said, can I hug you? And then he gave me a hug, and yeah, so that was
kind of like that was kind of the beginning. And that was terrified too, because being a Korean American growing up in New York, so you know, I grew up in white community, so I didn't grow up speaking the language or anything. Yeah, and I've had a very maybe tenuous grasp of my culture. So playing an immigrant from Korea terrified me. And so I had to kind of like my uncle actually worked at a market in Manhattan.
I worked there for a little while, and my brother in law helped me with the dialect because I'd never done a Korean dialect before and so I was learning the dialect. So anyway, it was a kind of a big learning curve for me, just playing an immigrant from Korea. But it was terrifying.
Oh my goshy in my head, I'm just thinking, it's so far. You've mentioned the Cohen Brothers and Spike Lee as the directors you've been working with so far, and it's just like the list is just building where it's like, oh man, it's some of the most brilliant people that have ever been in film everywhere.
You know, I don't know would happened, it's just yeah.
And so what are your parents thinking at this time? Are your parents supportive of you once you start booking jobs. How do your parents feel about this transition you've made.
Well, I think they were excited, but it wasn't you know. I think they were excited by the attention I was getting and people were like, wow, he's very successful. But I think, especially for my dad, it was more there was no solidity, There is no constancy, So my parents also have been with me through long periods of unemployment, you know, struggling with money, so you know, over the long arc of my career, they've seen how difficult it's stand. But I think they appreciate the fact that I've had
the success that I've had. But I mean, to be honest, they don't really understand. Yeah, maybe what I do, or they don't understand the work so much. I don't know, like like I don't know if fifteen Fargo, you know, it's like, and I meet a lot of actors like that. His parents like to have no clue like what they do or it seem so alien to them. And that's kind of been my experience. I mean, so they've been supportive, but it's always been like they have no idea what I do right?
Right, They're like, we don't get it, but we're happy You're happy exactly, Okay, so you do do the right thing. How does and your living in Los Angeles? How does in Living Color come about?
Same?
That was a little bit more shocking because it's like a regular audition that started in the casting office and by that point I had I don't know, fifteen minutes set. I didn't really I was still beginning as a comedian, you know, and I wasn't really like comedy. It took me a while to realize that stand up comedy was
not my thing. But I kind of had enough to do an audition, and then when I got called back, it was like, oh, the callback is at the lab factory and it was in front of an audience that didn't know that these were auditions, So that was terrifying. And there was like I want to say, like fifteen or twenty of us. I mean I remember Mark chose one of us. One of them were one of the people auditioning.
And do you remember what your material was like? Do you remember what you're?
Yeah? I did like I was doing like spoof on Asian stereotypes. I then did this bit where I was I had a boombox, I had them doing it over the PA system where I was doing that bad coung through the lip sinking right. And then yeah, in my memory, act was very it's very it's dissipated, but I just remember it ended with I created this this duo between Bruce Lee and Ambo, and I had Bruce Lee saying that line from uh from Entered the Dragon. You have offended my family. You have offended my my what is
it my school? You have offended my family. And then the rambo has his rifle and then I had about five minutes of machine gun fire to the yes and then and then Bruce Lee says the line again, you have offended my school, you have offended. So that was the end of that particular. It was so silly. And then when they called this back again for another callback again at the laugh factory, it was like down to
I think five of us or something. Then I had to like scrounge for material, and I was doing the jokes that I was doing, like in elementary and like I was just coming up with the dumbest jokes. And I remember one of them was, all right, I'm going to do an impression of two worms having sex. This is my impression of two worms having sex. I did that joke at the last factory and gotten on a living color. I did the dumbest joke.
I mean, it's so good, the world's so great.
It's great. And so at this point, are you thinking of yourself as an actor who does stand up or a comedian who acts sometimes or is it just all the same.
I was still figuring it out. And I had such a huge opportunity when I was a living color to go on the road as a comedian. But I didn't have an act. I had just what I did at the audition, and truth be told, I was just you know, it took me a while to just realize that I didn't have the DNA just like I didn't I couldn't live that life. Yeah, I couldn't.
I couldn't either.
It's just like I look at like people that I know, like Bobby Lee or even you know, Margacheoe, like it's like they're born to do it, you know, they're they're something. I mean, you know, a lot of stand ups they come from some difficult background or some kind of challenging childhood or drug abuse or whatever. So somehow that fuels
that career somehow. And also when I was starting too, there weren't a lot of Asian comedians, so also I was extremely like hyper sensitive, so I was constantly on the receiving end and a lot of racist jokes and I would sit in the audience and so it was I mean, my girlfriend at the time was like saying, I shouldn't be doing this just because I would get
so depressed. I would be so and angry that I was forcing myself to go into this environment and try to be funny, and it was just I was just not emotionally equipped to deal with things at that time. As a stand up comedian, I couldn't. It wasn't ending.
You're right, it's not a job or even a career. It's a lifestyle. It's a whole lifestyle being a comedian. And you're right talking to people that do it, it's they have this thing. It's like, this is okay, you're a comedian, your stand up this is what you do.
This is your lifestyle you want to be They can't get right.
You have to exactly not be able to not do it.
It's like, yeah, because.
Otherwise why would you put yourself through that. Like as an entertainer, I can kind of see like, oh yeah, I could do like fifteen minutes, right, But then the idea of like having to beat that the next night and beat that the next night, and I'm like, no, I don't traveling and.
Not sleeping and do anything. I'm sorry.
I'm still trying to recover from you having to go to the laugh factory and your audition is in front of a crowd.
Of they don't.
Know that you're auditioning. You're also now, did you watch in Living Color.
At the time you auditioned for the show, so you already knew what you were getting into then, Yeah.
I mean I remember they did this, They did a spoof fun do the Right Thing. I remember, which I was like, Oh my god, that's crazy. And I never I never imagined that would be on the show. I mean when when the audition came up, and I knew they were looking for like Asian American and they were looking for Latino actors, comedians, and so it was just an opportunity. That was an amazing opportunity that just popped out of nowhere.
Well it was, I mean at the time, it was the hip is show on television. I mean, Saturday Night Live had nothing on in Living Color. It was this was like groundbreaking because I think Keen Ivory Wins had come off of I'm Going to Get You Sucko, which was like amazing, right, and then.
It was like, oh, he's doing a television show.
And then you'd sit there and watch it and I go, oh my god, what's happening in front of me? I mean, it really was completely groundbreaking for TV. Was this set a fun place to be? Was it was it conducive to comedy and you know, just trying to get the funniest bits you can do?
Or was it a little cutthroat?
It was kind of a lot of things. I had kind of a challenging experience just because I mean it was fun. I mean the amount of like just table reads where the ways would be falling out of their chairs or you know, it was like the funniest people in the world altogether in the same room kind of vibe. You know. So it was like so so intimidating, and you know, also being thrown in it's like being thrown into a situation where everybody's already a family, so you're
then you're you're the adoptee. Yeah, so that was also very challenging. And and then also how I was not on the show anymore also was really challenging because it was not fully explained to me, and I had different explanations, so it was like ninety yeah, so when I was not asked back. That was the year of the riots in LA and there was a lot of you know, animosity between the black the black community in the Korean American community, and so I was feeling at the time like, well,
maybe that had something to do with it. I didn't know, but maybe almost like six almost seven years later, I was casting to play with my current wife, Kelly Colfield, who was in the Living Color.
Yes, I was just going to ask about that. You met on that set, right, We.
Met on the set, but it was just, you know, we were both in relationships at the time, you know, and also I was too stressed to do so that was not that was not on my mind at the time. But then what excuse when this play happened? That was I hadn't seen her since the show, and it was reconnecting and then trying to unpack, like, so, what what happened? You know? And then she said when they came back the next season, she everybody was like, what, we're Steve,
what happened? And then he said that because this was when Living Color was about, Keenan was fighting with Fox the network, and it was like the beginning of the end, and I think he was getting a little set up, and he said that he was having a negotiating issue with my manager and she was pushing too hard. And then so he just said screw it, and then he just let me go. And then I was told by one of the producers that they were looking for a
comedian who had more of a stable of characters. And then when I read the release from Fox that I read in the paper, it was because I was pursuing other opportunities. You know, so has their own kind of thing, and so it took me. It took it probably until I met Kelly. It took I didn't. There was always like a little bit of a wound there, like I said, not knowing. Oh God, the life of an actor.
From project to project, you just hope.
So yeah, well I'm a huge I was telling them before we got on. I'm a huge fan of your wife as well, not just your lines from Fargo, but I could do her lines from her Seinfeld episode.
It's the way my brain works. So she is hysterical. Please tell her I love her, that's all I will.
I love that.
You guys have two children who are both in their twenties, right, do you they any idea how cool their parents are.
I don't know. Well, you know it's funny because you know, I think Kelly and I, you know, we we kind of remark on that sometimes, like we have, they've come and they bring their friends over, and we kind of wonder what they think of us because we're so not like the normal parents. I guess that other but but in other words, we are you know, we're just normal people. We don't do anything crazy. You know, we make food and we invite people in and you know, please take
your shoes off, and you know whatever. But yeah, that I I don't know. You'd have to ask my kids what their experience is. I you know, I know that they hear things and and I think sometimes maybe they try to hide it. I don't know what they do.
But but neither of them, no one's No one's gone into entertainment. That's not well.
Actually, my daughter, my daughter is, she just she went to film school. She just graduated from Pratt Institute as a filmmaker and is pursuing acting. So yeah, so my son is he's a writer. He's finishing grad school at Brooklyn College in the Creative Writing program, and he works at the Paris Review. And uh, he's writing his first novel. So she'll probably be hearing about that at some point.
It's so cool.
So you had already watched Spike Lee, Change Movies Forever, the Wayans Brothers just rubbed the television in industry as a whole. And then you appear on Boy Meets World.
The Pinnacle.
Let's talk about high.
Serious.
What do you remember about this blip on your resume?
Do you? Did?
You have to audition for it?
For it? And I remember thinking because they thought it was really funny that I was yelling, which seems like, well, of course I'm yelling. I'm inside of the hell, you know, a plane. And I got the impression like, well, maybe the other people who audition didn't yell.
Yeah, this was must have been your idea, because then it becomes the.
Funny whole, the whole show. But I wonder if they hadn't thought about that when they.
Wrote there's no way, so you just did it?
Oh my god, I was just yelling and then and then they laughed and it was like, isn't everybody doing this after?
Oh my gosh, that's so funny, that's so great.
But I have no idea. I just made that up in my mind. I have no idea that that was no Actually that my memory. That's what stayed with me.
Oh man, that's why I'm guessing that.
We didn't start yelling until you started yelling and we went, Okay, that's it has to be this.
It has to be this for.
The scene, and probably the three of us started yelling back at you and that was it because it was such a good scene and so funny. One of the things we talk about is that, you know, we're going back watching the entire series again, which Rider had never seen the show, and Daniel and I haven't seen it since it was on, and so we're kind of rediscovering.
These episodes as we go.
And your episode is in contention for the best episode.
Of the entire the number one best episode up till this point. We're six seasons in and Raging is high, like truly in contention for our favorite episode of the show.
Yeah, based on your just our stupid opinions, all three of us.
Yeah, you could take it or leave it.
But it's not official or anything. It's just we love it.
Can I ask what sticks out which stands out about that episode for you?
Well, there's there's a few things. We love both the A and B storyline. It's a really well balanced episode. We like that that there's a moment between it's a it's about a you know, about parenting and about a father relationship, and there's moments for all three of his kids. There's storylines for how he raises Corey. It also is something Will had joked about when we first started rewatching the show, was that, like, they don't know they have
another son. The entire show, it's about the little sister and Corey. They never acknowledge Eric, they never acknowledge it. And then this whole episode kind of about what his relationship is like with his dad.
And I'm also realizing that, as ridiculous as this sounds, I think the yelling choice might be one of the major reasons that the episode works because if I think about that dialogue without the yelling, like, take that scene and take the fact that they're screaming, you know that you guys are screaming at each other away right right, Suddenly it becomes pretty sappy boy meets World. It's a little setting. It becomes why don't we have the relationship
that you and Corey have, you know? If Eric? And and that turn where it goes from a story about Corey trying to prove himself to his dad or to you know, and then to Eric suddenly becomes very sentimental and a little like saccherin right in like the way
that Boy Meets World as a sitcom could do. But the fact that you guys are all screaming and about to jump out of the plane makes it removes any of that sentimentality, and so it gets the story upoint across, but it makes it more just fun and funny and like that. It's I think that that's one of the reasons why the episode is so good is that it never gets weighted down by you know what, what other episodes would we would we would get very sappy, you know, and.
It just isn't. It's so wow, that's so interesting, yelling worked.
It's always good, no matter.
It's also one of the things that we love that we talk about all the time is a great impactful guest star and you were it's just somebody who comes to you, doesn't have a whole ton to do, but crushes it.
Yeah, well, drive by you just you drive by, you pop in for a moment, absolutely kill it and keep going.
We just love it.
Important sitcoms, you know, it's like such a key thing to have a great guests Thank you so much.
Are you having every single person on the show.
Everyone.
Yes, there are a few people who have said no, but we've asked pretty much everyone up untip to this point.
We have. Yeah, but you've saw you've rewatched this episode a long time ago, probably right.
Well, we've been doing the podcast now for about two and a half years.
That was a season five so yeah, no six months ago?
Oh okay, so recent?
All right, within the last six months.
Are you guys done now or are you still watching now?
We just starting season six.
We have all of season six and all of season seven left today.
We're milking it.
Stevening, you take make it take as long as possible.
So do you did you know of Boy Meets World before you got the audition?
Had you ever heard of the show?
Or was this the first time the show?
Yes? Okay, I think it was a little I was a little long in the tooth I think at that point.
So yeah, you weren't our demographic.
No, do you remember hanging with us all week?
Do you have any other memories other than Will being annoying and talking to you.
About really that was the main memory.
Plucking you on the shoulder.
Hey, I have another burg question.
I just remember I do remember I feel like I disappointed you because I think you were talking about was it ren and Stimpy or something? It was a show that you were fascinated by at the US and butt Head, which I wasn't really watching, and you were asking me about it, and I had nothing to say, and I felt like, oh, man, what a dunt I am?
Well, I will probably did make you feel bad about that. Oh you were in Farga, but you don't know.
Yeah, it was something.
Like maybe it was South Park.
It might have been South Park.
Actually been South Park, might have been South Park.
I think it was South Park at the time.
Yeah, it.
No, you know what I remember remember the most about about our conversations. By conversations, I mean me peppering you with questions and you very politely and calmly answering them. I remember you saying that you were shocked that people thought your character was funny in Fargo.
Yeah, you know what happened. I remember I've told this story before, but after they first started screening it, I got a call from Ethan Cohen and he told me how funny I was. And that was the first time I'm like what and and it didn't occur to me because I was still so in the character's pov, right, and I know doing that part. I remember the day I was I had somehow like put myself into some
more emotional torture. I was really really like, you know, because internally it was like I was screaming in pain and then covering it and then doing the scene. Like that's kind of how I approached the scene. Yeah, and then I was I was bringing up my mother, I like bringing up both So I was a mess really inside, and I was really so that was my goal was just to be like barely holding it together and then
to do the scene. And I know it was weird, you know, you know, you know, and so all that stuff. I knew it was weird, but to hear about how everybody was laughing, it took me a while to wrap my head around and then realized, oh yeah, like and then I understood it. But it was because, yeah, I just was too too still too in the character's mindset to to see the audience point of view at that point. Yeah.
So you mentioned that the Cohen Brothers didn't tell you much.
What did you know about your character, Mike Yanagita before you went into the movie.
What did you what were you prepped with.
I think a lot of the characters were based on people they knew growing up growing up there, and there was I think his name was Glenn Yanagita, the actual person maybe that they grew up with in high school, not that this character is based on him at all. And that's about it. I mean, because when I did the audition, you know they of course, you know, they hired me, and I remember the main thing when I
got the job, he was on the set. The main kind of surprise was working with Elizabeth Himmelstein, who was the dialect coach, and how hard she was pushing the dialect like no, you want more? Oh yeah, and it sounded so kind of phony. It sounded like weird. So just going into that and feeling comfortable bending those ours and oh and doing the dialect to that extent it felt unnatural until it didn't anymore. But as far as the scene, I think maybe I was just giving them.
I felt like it took me a lot. It was a long road personally to arrive at the character, because when when I first saw the audition, I passed on it because it was described to overweight forty and like, why do they want to see me, like, you know, and then it came back and I was like okay, and then I flew. I was in LA at the time, so I flew to New York and yeah, so I just kind of like, as I started, I'm learning more about this character and kind of investigating it, it was like,
I'm not this character. I'm not this character. Oh my god, I am this character.
Yeah.
You know, I don't know if it's ever happened to you as an actor where the role feels like you don't feel connected to it. And if I think a lot of it is because it's like, well, this guy's you know, you have a judgment about the character. So once the judgment, I think the judgment somehow dropped and I realized, oh, I am this guy, like because I understood that loneliness, I understood the pain, I understood emotionally
this guy, and I know people like this. So I once that happened, I feel like I knew the character. And I think the Coen Brothers may be felt like they didn't really need to say much because I felt like I knew I knew this person.
Did you do a lot of takes or was.
It from different? It was really more just different setups. But I did you know when they were on me there there was one. I was kind of like finding things with each take. It wasn't like a lot of takes, but you know the one where I was like, oh, you know, relation I should have you know, like that wasn't kind of imp like that was a spontaneous moment, and but it was. I won't say it was a lot,
it was. I mean, we did. I remember they started on fran they started on March Gunderson, so but I was fully in it when they were on her first, and then at one point, uh, Francis, you know you better turn around on him now, just because I was so in it. And so then they were on me, and it was enough takes to find the little moments like that moment and to uh to to just get
into the little nuances. But it wasn't like like Wes Anderson right to and they're like one more for the pleasure, and then there's ten more.
In your intro, we mentioned a ton of the classic films that you have appeared in, but also we're not sure anyone can be this list of directors you have worked with, Ivan Riadman, Barry Levinson, the Cohen Brothers, Barbart Schroeder, Joel Schumacher, Wes Anderson, Bill Murray, Miranda, July Bong, June Hoe. I mean, you've worked with a lot of these people more than once, So in your opinion, is there something that all of these incredible directors have in common?
You know what? I think it is Fargo. I think Fargo was my like entree into all of these directors' work. I think that they they they love. I mean when I first met director Bomb and I was we were in Prague, we were at Baranda Studios and he was introducing me to John Hurt and I said, well, remember he was, and then he referred to me as Fargo. Remember Fargo. So that's kind of was like, oh, okay, you know so that was my That was how these directors I think found me and wanted to work with me.
Well, not to put you on the spot, but is there one that you prefer working with over another? Is there a director where every time the name comes up, you're like, oh, I can't wait to work with this person again.
Well I have to, you know, I love working with you know, Director Bomb is like I'm good, Hopefully I'm going to see him next week because Mickey seventeen, which I worked on, ye, I'm going to get to see it next week, and so I hopefully we'll get to see him. But he is such a sweet, down to earth guy. I had the like complete honor of hanging out with him after the big Oscar night and we all went to Korea Town and we're at a restaurant and the cast and the producers and wow, that was
an amazing evening. And so he's just a sweetheart, and I love working with him whenever. I you know, twice now, so that's been really great. But I have to say, like working with Wes Anderson is another level because he
is like an independent filmmaker. So when I worked like on Mickey seventeen, I was Warner Brothers, so I was dealing with Warner Brothers and I was kind of living in Camden and everybody was kind of spread out, so I didn't really have a connection with the other cast members so much unless I like, I had a party
once and I buy a bunch of people over. But it was a little bit alienating, and which which helped for this movie, you know, because the alienation was helped because there was a lot of that in terms of the story. But the way West works is he'll he'll be in some country and privatize a hotel and like the whole cast is living there, and the crew is living. A lot of the crew we're all living. You know, it's not in the same hotel, in the next door hotel.
And the studio usually is a golf cart away because West likes to like drive the golf cart to set. And so every night, like they'll wrap around seven o'clock and then everybody meets for dinner. West at the head of the table and you go down and it's just like you all of these movies like that, and then listening to West just I mean, he talks about film
and you just it's like going to film school. And one of the things he does too that's so great is he has a table of maybe about twenty Blu Ray DVDs of all of these classic movies that had some influence on the movie we're working on. And so you know, you have a Blu Ray machine in your room, so you pick one, you sign it out, and then when you're not working, you're just watching these great movies.
And then you're going downstairs and you're meeting movies stars and you're talking to West about this movie or that or what was the influence on this scene. So it's like that's just an amazing Oh man.
You feel like you're part of a company.
You feel like you're all.
Entering the same artistic mindset and collaborating together.
That is Yeah, it's so great. And you know, like when we were in Potsdam, Germany for this latest film, the Phoenician Scheme, which opens May thirtieth, I want to say, or thirty first titles. He has the Phoenician Scheme. It's gonna be amazing. And but talk about star studied, you know cast Benizio del Toro and Michael Sarah Miothorappleton, Like
that's the other thing. Like they also like both because when they did the French Dispatch that was in angole M, France, and they had these electric bikes that you borrow, so you know we would go on these like you know, bike trips together. So I mean it was my wife had come and so it's like Hope, Pope Davis and Michael Sarah and we're just riding around Potsdam, you know, going to a beer. You know, it's so much fun. It's like camp and everybody is so cool, and it's
like there's no there's no hierarchies. It's just everybody is the same and it's just beautiful. And Wes is so meticulous about everything. Like when we went to can for the French dispatch, I remember they were setting up the dining room for after the screening and Wes is in there with one of the employees that he's putting in games and all the tables he's decided in court everybody's sitting.
He knows everything. He knows where everybody like, what room everybody's in, Like his mind is incredible, and what he what he remembers and and what he's paying attention to. So you know, he talks about how you like, when he goes sleep, he's he's constantly centering things, you know, because he's doing that all the time in the frame. He's like his brain and everything. Yeah, so his dreams are like a Wes Anderson.
But that's so cool to hear what we were You just mentioned Mickey seventeen. What are you allowed to tell us about that project?
Well, it's out now kind of, I mean, it's it's the I guess it's going to be released on March seven, but it's based on Mickey seven. He uh, you know Bunching Hoes expanded obviously, and uh yeah, that also was just a lot of fun in his imagination. It's just it's just incredible and he's so it's so fluid, Like as a director, he'd like, I mean, this is something that director Bong and West have in common is their storyboarding is like the movie has already been made and
the filmmaking is really the constructing of it. But if you look at his storyboards, it's like every little frame you know exactly what's going to happen. So with director Bob, sometimes he's storyboarding the night before, but you have a sense like he he's shooting to exactly what he wants
on the storyboards, so there's no master shot. So if there's a shot with me crossing the screen and like like there's one scene where I'm crossing and I have this injury on my arm, and the storyboard is me going so that's exactly what I'm doing, just going across the screen and like I'm in pain, and then cut. So he's shooting exactly what's on the storyboard. He's not he's not having a scene play out and all, you know what I mean, Like he's shooting exactly what's on
the storyboard. And West goes like even one step further where he does an animatic, which is basically a movie storyboard or a cartoon, So every shot has already been planned and visualized, and then he voices all the characters and so before you when you arrive on set, you get to watch the animats. It's like you're basically watch
the movie with his voice. And then he pretty much sticks to the exactly so in a way like when you look at a Wes Anderson movie and you look how the characters move, they kind of you know, and then they kind of move aside. You know, there's a kind of stick figure kind of quality maybe to movies, and it's it's kind of looks like the the the animation.
Wow.
But he likes that. That's his aesthetic, you know, and it really it really works, and there's something very funny about it, and there's something very kind of almost cartoonish, but it's very it's very West. It's very affecting.
Who is left for you on your dream list of directors or co stars?
Who have you worked you.
I don't know. I mean, my god, I mean, I mean I would love to work with Park chanuk. I I don't you know. It's funny because I don't I haven't even asked myself that question, because it's like every everybody I've worked with has been such a surprise. I never thought I'd be working with any of these people. So hmmm, I don't know, because I've already been blessed with working with so many ami using people, so I don't even know.
I could just been a surprise. You're no, it's okay, it's been already. I love that for you. You're like, why would I the career you never could have exactly, so you never could have imagined it, and it turned out better than you could have imagined, so why bother to think ahead?
Yeah. Total.
So one more thing I did want to talk to you about was back in nineteen ninety nine, after a disappointing experience on the set of a very massive sitcom, you wrote, way ahead of its time, an incredibly brave mission statement to Hollywood about status, power and racism in Hollywood, about the difficulties you faced finding work as an Asian actor, and especially work that you felt like you could be
proud of. So I really recommend everybody read it. It is still on the internet and you'll realize, you know, Steve was saying these things twenty six years ago and they are still relevant. Can you tell us what the effects of that letter were at the time.
Well, let me just say that the show is friends, Okay it was at the time. For me, I thought it was kind of a toxic environment, yep, and this racist kind the ad calling James Hong was was the actor who was also on the episode with me, and he was calling him to the set and you know, essentially saying, you know, you know, where is the oriental guy?
Get the oriental guy. So when I called Screen Actors Guild after that, it happened, and the person I spoke with recommended I write an article to the La Times. And I thought, oh, okay, that'd be a good idea. And I had just seen Jerry Maguire. I don't know if you remember that movie, but he writes a mission statement. My wife Kelly's in that movie, by way, And for some reason that just kind of like struck me, like that's kind of a yeah, why didn't I write a
mission statement? To Hollywood because this is bigger than this show. This isn't the first time that this happened, you know, but this is the environment where this is business as usual in Hollywood in nineteen ninety seven, I guess it was, and nobody felt the need to correct this or say anything about it. So this is this is normal behavior. And so I started writing this mission statement and I sent it to the La Times. They sent a couple of reporters and they interviewed me, and then they never
printed it. And so this was like the beginning of the Internet. And I had my email list, and I sent my mission statement out to who was on my email list, and I said, you know, if this move you, you know, please pard it along. But I just explained I I was interviewed in there. They're not going to print this, so if you feel moved to send this a lot, please do. And then within a week I was like I was getting responses from all across the
country from publication estept. We're asking permission to reprint it. And so this it was like this it went viral, you know, before viral was even a word. And I went to San Francisco at some point that year to do a play, and I was like interviewed up there. I was on the cover of the Guardian, you know, wrapped the American flag. I was interviewed in the Examiner,
and it all kind of culminated. I mean, I also spent about a year of being invited to different colleges to speak about this, and and then I was given this award by an Asian American Arts foundation up in San Francisco, and it was handed to me by Jesse Jackson. And so that's kind of how this all played out. And then, you know, soon after it was like my son was born in two thousand and right before that,
I decided to quit acting like I was. I was kind of I had become so race conscious and so angry that I like everything, I was looking at everything through the lens of race, and I felt like I couldn't there. I was just there's no freedom. I didn't feel any freedom. So I didn't have any idea what I was going to do. But I just decided to drop out and I told everybody I'm not acting anymore. And so about a year went by, I was just
being a you know, stay at home dad. And maybe about a year later, somebody had asked me to all to it for something, and I said, okay, because I didn't know what. I wasn't doing anything. And then that was like a slow climb back into the business, and it was very, very gradual, and I think, you know, there wasn't a lot of work anyway for Asian American actors,
but it wasn't until a few years later. I remember I was listening to Bobby Lee's podcast and he was talking with Margaret Choe and Bobby Lee like he mentions my name and he said, oh, you know, he got blacklisted, and like I was blacklisted. I had no idea, you know, But but then I realized, like, oh, that is the common kind of like I think a lot of people thought that, especially in the Asian American community, I think believed that I was blacklisted. And I thought, oh wow.
And I remember I texted Bobby said, you know, I wasn't blacklisted, but but who who would have known anyway, you know, because I wasn't really working by anyway, with a lot of a lot of work. But yeah, it took me a while, I think, to to not only get back into the business, but to move beyond this this race consciousness that was that had overwhelmed me, and it was a lot of spiritual work. I've been on huge spiritual journeys. I've gone to Machu Picchu with Don
Miguel Ruiz, who wrote the Four Agreements. You know. I've done meditation retreats. I've done ayahuasca. You know, I've done so many things. And I think over over the years, I began to understand the ego. I began to understand identify how how the ego works and how I like just just this identification with the body, for instance, is egoic and recognizing that the true self is the the presence that is always here and always now, and that the body comes and goes, and this my name, my race.
Everything that you can, all the labels you can put on me, all came after what I call I like, they're not inherently this eternal eye that we all are right. And I think that's what I eventually arrived at. And so that freed me, that insight freedman.
Wow, Wow, what an incredible journey.
Amazing Well Put.
I mean yeah, very well, Put, And.
I'm serious about this, this this this moment. You know, you talk about this race consciousness that you sort of arrived at you were already like mid career. I mean, you had already been working. I mean, was part of this recognizing that, especially you know, auditioning for parts and reading scripts before that. I mean, there must have been so many times when you were asked to audition for what was essentially a stereotype or a role that yes, and were you turning those parts down or were you
just hungry enough act Oh? Yeah, so you were you were already making choices.
Oh yeah, yeah, I was turning stuff down all the time. Yeah. So yeah, that was just kind of the norm at that time, right yeah. I mean now it's just a completely different scene now, yeah, I mean it's it's kind of amazing.
I'm curious when you were growing up, you said you were the class clown, you were funny. Were there any Asian American entertainers that you looked up to when you were a kid.
Not that I was like, oh, I want to be like that, but I remember like Johnny I don't know if you remember him, sure if he's from Korea, And uh, you know, I knew I was aware of actress like sent Teco, you know, Pat Marina. You know, I was friends with his daughter Ali, so George de Kay, like all of these different actors who are like a generation ahead. You know, I was aware of them. But I think at the beginning of my career, I was always like, I want to break new ground. I want to break
new ground. I want to do something that hasn't been done before. Also, you know, like doing doing roles without an accent was a big deal. Like doing an accent or not doing any like that was always like an issue that was hard. That's why, you know, do the right thing. It was hard for me to be to have to do that. So it's just been a slow evolution, you know. And uh, yeah, I've forgotten the question.
I was asking about your your If there are any Asian American actors you you looked up to when you were Yeah.
I mean I was aware of them. I wouldn't. Yeah, it's now like Bruce Lee, it was my you know, he was my guy. Yeah, you know, But and I was a martial artist. I was really into martial arts growing up. But I entered my career a knowing I didn't want to do martial arts, knowing I didn't want to just fall into that that you know, stereotypes. So I like actively kind of did not go in that direction.
Well, I know, with all the talk we just had recently about the ego and all that, this may not you know land as well, but I do wonder. You know, you've worked with Stephen youun an incredible young actor who is getting opportunities that probably didn't even exist ten years ago, Right, So what does it feel like for you to see some of these changes having been a whistleblower well ahead of your time a long time ago, Like how does it feel now?
Well, it's amazing, but I still feel like I'm still in it. I'm still pursuing jobs, I'm still wanting to get work. So it's great to see, like it kind of blows my mind. Like Stephen Ewen's success is so and he, you know, by his own admission, like he's one of these people who just is incredibly lucky, like just amazing luck that that has happened with him, And and I think, I think it's really really great. I do sometimes feel like, Wow, what's what's next for me?
What's going to have to be? And I have no idea, I have no sense because I don't know what I don't know how to be this age because I'm just doing it for the first time. And and then it always goes back to all of the stuff I learned in my spiritual journey, you know, which it all points to. Well, everything is here right, nothing's missing. What's here, there's something from the bagaba gito. What's here now is everywhere. It's
not here now is nowhere to be found. So the moment I feel like something's missing or I'm not getting what I want, it's my ego. My ego somehow has been hooked and I feel like something is unfair or I don't I'm not getting what I want. It's some narrative that that has taken hold in my mind. And and so I now have the tools to recognize, oh my, my, my egos hooked, and and then just to come back to the present moment. So that's kind of what I do.
Steven, thank you so much for joining us today and spending your valuable time with us.
Uh.
Like we said when you joined we we could not stop breaving about you when your episode came up.
And I just have another seventy fargo questions is.
Yeah, I'm just gonna poke you on the shoulder and keep asking you, well you know.
By now, dude, this book. There's a book that was written.
Yeah, send me somewhere else, please send us.
Just go on the internet.
Will get your answers.
You don't have to Steve.
No, no, no, I want.
To like Little White Lives on YouTube. Look it up. There's a whole interview just about Cargo.
Okay, cool, Okay, you've sent Will on a mission. He will definitely do that.
Thank your house later today with seven questions.
Now, we won't give him your information, I promise. Thank you so much for joining us. It's really been a pleasure to talk to you.
Oh my god, it's been great. I really was so scared. I was telling Kelly how that was. I didn't know what we were going to talk about.
I don't I hope it did. Was it was it scary?
Okay, yeah, no, it was.
It was a joy.
Okay, thank you, great, Thank you so much. Great to see you.
Then, bye bye bye.
Oh man, I'm so excited to see Mickey seventeen. By the way, for our dear listeners who may not know, it is the follow up to Parasite.
I just can't I can't get over the scope of the directors that he's worked with now, the experiences that he's had, good and bad in this industry just incredible. Again, one of those people I could sit and just listen to talk all day. Just please keep telling me stories. I mean, I mean, yeah, I feel exactly the same way. But I also love that move.
The interview moved from you know, Hollywood stories, which I obviously love, and I just want to sit and have dinner conversation about that too, like really intense, spiritual, interesting philosophical stuff that I'm like, I also want to hear.
So I just I'm still the whole James Hong thing because I got so. I grew up a huge James Hong fan and I've gotten to work with him three times and he's the nicest human being you will ever meet in your life. So hearing anybody say anything about him made me viscerally angry. It was weird to hear that he had a bad experience on the set, because you could not meet a nicer human being than James Hong and as hell, So like.
Hearing that was just I didn't.
Like that at all.
Yeah, I know, it's pretty it's a it's pretty crazy.
Wow.
Yeah, he's got he's got quite a story.
And I love how there's nothing about the way he talks that give He's just everything he says is just like, well, yeah, but this is what happened. It's just this is and there's no like shame in sharing it. This is, this is who said this and then this happened and then got the call like I don't know, it's just he seems like such a.
Just straightforward, honest but thoughtful.
Also he's so even keeled and yeah, and what's interesting about that is that, you know, actors, comedic actors especially are usually not right. You know, it's like it's hard. You know, a lot of the reason that people become actors often is because they're very expressive, and they're very emotional, and they're up and down, and so the result is that often actors are kind of, you know erradical and hard.
You know, the harder it feels like a relaxed round.
And he is clearly a great actor. Listening to him talk about how he thinks as an act like when he was talking about his Fargo experience, and he so invested in the emotion he made it personal for himself like this, I mean, he's just a genius actor. But then he can also be very even. Keel talk very intelligently and sort of like, you know, basically about his life and his experience and his thoughts.
Wow.
Well again, he talked about the internal struggle he put himself into shoot one day, one scene, and he probably beat himself up and got himself to such a state for weeks, if not months beforehand to go in there, to the point where he's sitting across from this one of the most probably one of the most gifted actresses in the history of Hollywood who says you've got to turn the camera, turn around or he's so in it.
And I love It's creditative to that because that's totally her styles to be like, oh well, let's be and and of course she's like married to the director so she can tell him. I mean apparently she's that way, like she's just so you got to.
Be looking that way right now because look at what.
Just love it like every other story is like. And then I was doing a play. I'm like, I am still doing plays because you just are an accident at like you said, Except for that one year when he which also was super interesting, like that he reached this point where he was like, I need to take a step back because I'm getting too caught up in something that is is hurting me. Oh, he's so fascinating an interesting guy.
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We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast producer hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfridell and Ryder Strong Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara sugbachsch producer, Maddi Moore, engineer and boy mets World Superman Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at Podmets World Show, or email us at Podmeats World Show at gmail dot com.