Frankie Muniz on the Malcolm In The Middle Reboot!

[SPEAKER_00]: I've actually never told this story, and I might get in trouble for it, but I don't care. [SPEAKER_00]: I had the best time on my entire life. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not exaggerating filming this reboot. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I loved it so much. [SPEAKER_00]: Way more than I ever thought I could. [SPEAKER_02]: And Mama always says, it's not always an experience, if it weren't something for me. [SPEAKER_02]: And I definitely think I did. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, ready!

[SPEAKER_01]: What's up, my name's Joe, I'm the host of the podcast, and today we have Frankie Munez. [SPEAKER_00]: They would send me these scripts and my agents and my admin should be there. [SPEAKER_00]: We think you should do this one, this one's with Martin Scorsese and this one's with this and this, and I'm like, nah, bigs out liar. [SPEAKER_00]: I want to really bend about it. [SPEAKER_00]: So we're here to see Marty Wolf. [SPEAKER_02]: Do you have an appointment?

[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no [SPEAKER_01]: Just like you, I grew up as a huge fan of Malcolm the Metal, big fat liar, and I love seeing Frankie's journey. [SPEAKER_01]: Did you go on Lizzie first, and then you did? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so, do you think?

[SPEAKER_00]: Hillary Dough was probably one of my first friends when I moved to LA to film Malcolm. [SPEAKER_02]: Tell me again why we had to sneak out the back door? [SPEAKER_00]: Natalie, there's something I have to tell you. [SPEAKER_02]: You don't have to say anything. [SPEAKER_02]: I know. [SPEAKER_00]: You do? [SPEAKER_00]: Blay Jane, Casemarica, put it. [SPEAKER_00]: I hadn't seen her literally since the last day of film. [SPEAKER_01]: You actually expect me to be president.

[SPEAKER_01]: You look me in the eye and you tell me you can't do it. [SPEAKER_01]: So if you enjoy the interview, please leave a comment down below. [SPEAKER_01]: Who else you want to see on the podcast? [SPEAKER_01]: And make sure to hit the subscribe button because I have a lot more fun stuff coming up. [SPEAKER_00]: My favorite character, which I never would have thought when we were filming the show, was Reese. [SPEAKER_02]: This is the spoon down and apologize.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, she came in my mouth. [SPEAKER_02]: You gotta feel that, mom. [SPEAKER_02]: Apologize for what? [SPEAKER_02]: I wasn't gonna do anything, just stop talking, just stop talking to let me think. [SPEAKER_01]: So please enjoy the conversation with Frankie Munez. [SPEAKER_01]: How does it feel coming back to a chapter that you thought you closed with Malcolm in the middle? [SPEAKER_01]: Especially in your new career that takes so much of your time in life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to say the timing is bad, right? [SPEAKER_00]: But I literally announced, I was going full time, NASCAR truck racing, and the next day, literally the next day, I got the call from the producers and executives over at Disney in 20th Century Fox, and they're like, oh, you know, we're gonna do the show. [SPEAKER_00]: today. [SPEAKER_00]: But what's your schedule? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, you don't want to know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so they were unbelievably accommodating in working around my NASCAR schedule.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I can say just from experience of like being an actor on other projects, [SPEAKER_00]: You use at the sign that something that says like I will not drive motorcycles or spongy jump or skydive or race cars or like, you know, you have all these rules when you're filming a project because like for insurance purposes, like if you get hurt during the filming like you, you know, it's a 150 million dollar budget. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what it is, do you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you uninsurable? [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I guess I had to be insured for it. [SPEAKER_00]: I know they weren't thrilled with the price tag that it cost to insure me for those six weeks because during those six weeks that we were filming, I had five races. [SPEAKER_00]: So they changed the schedule. [SPEAKER_00]: Instead of working Monday to Friday, we filmed Sundays through Thursdays because I race on Friday.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I would usually have Thursdays off to fly to race Friday, fly back Saturday, [SPEAKER_00]: And it was a lot, but I also know that we've been, you know, Brian and I, I think, originally started talking about, like, doing a reboot or a show over 10 years ago. [SPEAKER_00]: And so for 10 years, it's been, there's been a discussion of it happening. [SPEAKER_00]: So I also know, like, there was no way I wasn't going to make it work. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I was going to say?

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, sorry. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And I can't do it. [SPEAKER_00]: you know, because like I want the show. [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted it. [SPEAKER_00]: I want people to see it. [SPEAKER_00]: I was excited to work with everybody again. [SPEAKER_00]: So, um, it was, uh, this whole year has been insanely stressful. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not gonna lie, I'm exhausted. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm 100% exhausted, and I'm willing to finally admit that.

[SPEAKER_00]: For so long as I'm exhausted, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: But I know that when opportunity is presented, you've got to take advantage of those times, because I could be done racing this year. [SPEAKER_00]: I could have said no to doing the Malcolm reboot in next year, I'm like, what am I gonna do? [SPEAKER_00]: You know, what am I doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm excited, I got to do both, and I'm really excited for everyone to see [SPEAKER_00]: with it being from 10 years ago how much of the original idea was it to where it is now did a change to be honest there wasn't necessarily an idea ever discussed it was just the idea of like how cool would it be to see where Malcolm and his family are now 20 years since the show like you know now it's been 20 years since the show ended.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, just the possibility of what you could come up with was exciting, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Because like, really the possibilities were endless. [SPEAKER_00]: So it wasn't until, like, I knew the show was greenlit, but it was a few months later before I even got to read the script. [SPEAKER_00]: So I didn't have any idea what Linwood, the creator, writer, you know, all the producer, everyone had come up with and what, you know, Disney wanted to do and all that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it was a really almost surreal experience reading the script because then I knew what the answer was, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I knew, oh, okay, well, that's what Malcolm did up to it. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, I think, you know, people will be surprised in a sense, right, where everybody is and this story. [SPEAKER_00]: but it's only four episodes.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's basically a two, you know, Linwood, the creator wanted to make it and Brian originally wanted to like pitch it as like a movie, like a two-hour movie. [SPEAKER_00]: Just to kind of open up that world again, everyone kind of sees things, have a little bit of closure, and then [SPEAKER_00]: we're gonna get. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's hard to fit in 20 years of stuff in four or 30 minutes episodes, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think people are gonna be very happy with what they came up with. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it was your first reaction to reading the script back. [SPEAKER_01]: Like this is this where you saw Malcolm being. [SPEAKER_01]: I remember being, [SPEAKER_00]: I'll say this, I'll back up a little bit. [SPEAKER_00]: I had never watched the show when it was originally on.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I just didn't, you know, it aired, whenever it aired, you know, unless you had a VHS tape in pushing record, like you missed it, you can't like stream it, you couldn't, you know what I mean, Tvo, or what, you know, there was nothing like that back then. [SPEAKER_00]: So, I think in 2017 or 2018, page my wife had never seen the show either. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think at the time was on Netflix. [SPEAKER_00]: And we're like, let's watch it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we watch all 150 one episodes. [SPEAKER_00]: And it was the weirdest experience for me, because I realized the show that I thought we were making. [SPEAKER_00]: was not the show that we made. [SPEAKER_00]: Like the comedy, everything about it was so different than I thought it was going to be. [SPEAKER_00]: Like seeing it all together, it was weird. [SPEAKER_00]: But the show was amazing. [SPEAKER_00]: I loved it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could truly watch as a viewer, like almost as like a fan. [SPEAKER_00]: And I kinda didn't remember most of the episodes. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know it was gonna happen. [SPEAKER_00]: But it was a really funny experience. [SPEAKER_00]: So, [SPEAKER_00]: I was anxious to see where Malcolm and his family were, but I forgot to say this. [SPEAKER_00]: When I had finished watching all 150 one episodes, I think I tweeted it too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something like, you know, after watching the shows, like, you know, there were 145 amazing episodes in 5 okay ones. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: And my favorite character, which I never would have thought when we were filming the show was Reese. [SPEAKER_00]: And then I would say how, then low-ass, then do it, whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: And Malcolm was the worst character on that show. [SPEAKER_00]: While filming, did you love that character?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, I was just Malcolm, right? [SPEAKER_00]: But what I mean by that is everybody on the show like all the other characters are really, really funny. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: And but either own unique way. [SPEAKER_00]: And Malcolm was always just angry and frustrated.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean like he was just thought the world was out to get him like you know It's just such a a naysayer and my wife looked at me after that after the last episode and she goes You weren't acting at all

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how to take that because I was like, I love the show, I love the character, but you know, like the way I like the other characters the way they made me feel Yeah, I hope you guys are enjoying the interview with Frankie but real quick this episode is brought to you by Fandual Fandual is making week one of the NFL even bigger with a chance to win a share of two million dollars in bonus bets every game day That's right [SPEAKER_01]: 2 million.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I became Malcolm just because I had to be Malcolm more than I had to be me, you know, most of my growing years. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying I'm super negative, but so when I read the new episodes, when I closed the last episode, I went, I loved Malcolm. [SPEAKER_00]: So, because you get to see a side of him and, you know, you get to see where he's at, success, success with the business and I can't give away too much.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know that they've declared that he has a daughter, so I can say that. [SPEAKER_00]: I can't say much more than that because it gives away the entire premise of these four episodes, but it's pretty shocking.

[SPEAKER_00]: liking Malcolm at the end of it you know to me because like I feel like he gets closure and you know Like and and with the family and everything so I think that that's a positive did the chemistry come back into the room as soon as you guys all got together I'm not like I know with like yeah, everyone would say oh, it was like we never let

[SPEAKER_00]: it was creepy because I not only have we not like worked together for 20 years I hadn't seen Justin who played Reese I hadn't seen Chris I saw Chris he used to be a DJ or maybe still isn't and he came here to Scott so if you have that was still even 15 years ago you know what I mean I talked to Brian and seen him a few times it got on a dinner with him but like Jane Kesimer could play I hadn't seen her literally since the last day of filming [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: And they brought us in like the week before we started filming to do wardrobe and we did table reads and you know all this stuff we had to do, but they brought us all together and walked us onto the set and it was the house, like the Malcolm House. [SPEAKER_00]: And it was as if we never left. [SPEAKER_00]: They nailed that. [SPEAKER_00]: Every the house, but even us like being around each other there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if it was gonna be awkward Like there's so many stories to tell or but like, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: It was as if we never Were apart and even now, you know, because I was so busy with the racing and going back I had the best time on my entire life.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not exaggerating saying filming this reboot like I loved it so much way more than I ever thought I could have [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, we ended in May, and I haven't talked to anybody since, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: Because like, I've just, I've been gone. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, I've only been home, I think like 12 days since the beginning of the year. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, so I'm just always crazy, and I think like next week I'm going to have time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to reach out. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, but then I go, oh no, I'm going to LA, you know, I think early September for one day to do some photo shoot stuff with them. [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know what, I got to be the awkward friend again. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I called back. [SPEAKER_00]: But no, it was so weird how quickly we just jumped back into being a family, you know, it was awesome.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it was so special, too, as the cast and the crew were coming back together. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so we had, you know, we filmed this reboot in Vancouver. [SPEAKER_00]: We really wanted to do it in LA because obviously we would have liked to have every single crew member. [SPEAKER_00]: Like that was the original idea, like how cool. [SPEAKER_00]: Not just the cast, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: get the camera guys get the grips get get anyone who is still in the business and I will say there were people who even came out of retirement to do the show even in Vancouver so we could we only have a certain number right because you had to have mostly Canadians you know but uh but you know like it was the same caution lady Mike weaver who's now this big famous director he was the director of photography way back and then he was like I'm dipping he you know he was the director of photography the old line producer you know

[SPEAKER_00]: So it was a really cool experience, Linwood, obviously, and Tracy Katzky, who produced it, wrote it. [SPEAKER_00]: It was, it was awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: It was, it was just cool for me, because, you know, when I did the show, I was 13 to 20, 13 to out, you know. [SPEAKER_00]: Although I loved it, it just was my life then, right? [SPEAKER_00]: You don't realize how good things are until sometimes like you set away from it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was cool to get to go back into that world with everybody and feel like I gave my all. [SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't just show up and do because I had to, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, nothing I did that before, but like as an adult, I have a greater appreciation for opportunity. [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know, I had a great time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Was there anything out of the experience that you did to try and fulfill for yourself as an actor or a creative, or just coming back into this role? [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I never... I think when I was a kid, like when I was young, right? [SPEAKER_00]: I... When I was a kid, I... [SPEAKER_00]: was a good actor because I was just a kid, right? [SPEAKER_00]: I was good at saying my lines. [SPEAKER_00]: I was funny looking, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: You weren't overthinking. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't think it at all. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't. [SPEAKER_00]: I put in, there is nobody who put in less effort to learn their lines than me. [SPEAKER_00]: But I knew it. [SPEAKER_00]: Like it wasn't like I knew every, I knew everyone's words, but I looked at it once, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't like think about how I was gonna say it, or what's the character feeling [SPEAKER_00]: No, I showed up, I said the words I left, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, so it was, I've never considered myself a good actor, like, as I got older, because I started getting a heart on myself. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I started, like, started thinking about it. [SPEAKER_00]: I started, and I've done a few projects over the years, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because like, I kind of, [SPEAKER_00]: left the entertainment business in 2006 with Melcomandic and I started racing and stuff but really I've never stopped doing stuff like I've acted in a lot of things since then but I did two projects one called the black string and one called the renner and both are very small independent movies not many people saw them but I was truly happy when I watched [SPEAKER_00]: them back with my performance.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even on set, like it was a really fulfilling experience, and it was the first time I've ever had that, it was on those movies. [SPEAKER_00]: So I went into Malcolm not knowing what to expect, like how would be what I'd be funny or what I, what could I bring to it that would be different. [SPEAKER_00]: But it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life to get to do like play Malcolm again because it did come to me so naturally.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like it just felt home, like it felt safe and comfortable to wear. [SPEAKER_00]: I was willing to cross a line or a boundary or try things. [SPEAKER_00]: Like I was, you know, where I never would have done that before. [SPEAKER_00]: I would have just said the words as they were on the paper. [SPEAKER_00]: And but like there were scenes that weren't even that supposed to be what they ended up turning into, that like, I think you're going to be some of the funniest moments.

[SPEAKER_00]: of the show just that just came out you know because it just felt so natural and comfortable in the moment. [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm truly happy. [SPEAKER_00]: I actually you know I'm not, I don't know if this sounds like I'm too to my own horn but I got a text message actually for Brian Cranston two or three days ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he just saw the first cut, right, because he's producing it too, like, so, you know, and he wrote the most incredible message I've ever received, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And he was like, I just have to say, like, I'm so proud of like the person you've become and all that. [SPEAKER_00]: But the work you put in on this show, [SPEAKER_00]: You crushed it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like they're there so much emotion Happy sad funny Angry like there's so much emotion and he's like you nailed every single part of it like it couldn't have been better And that's like the coolest comment to get from who I think is one of the greatest actors a lot you know to me [SPEAKER_00]: Um, because I've always felt a little bit like an outcast as an actor, like I did it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I remember I was nominated for like an Emmy or the Golden Globes when I was a kid, and I remember showing up there and being like, how am I even invited here? [SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, I don't even feel like these aren't my people. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, to me, like, I'm an outcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so it was cool to, you know, one thing I will say, I said for the first time, because for some reason, [SPEAKER_00]: People, I've hid from the title actor, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: Because like, I was in a band, or I'm doing this, or I'm a business on that. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I act, but I also do this. [SPEAKER_00]: When we finished Malcolm, I'm in the middle of my NASCAR season, right? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a NASCAR driver.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was the first time I was happy to say, I'm an actor. [SPEAKER_00]: I am an actor and I'm proud of it. [SPEAKER_00]: Do you think it was a challenging thing for you because you tapped into these different emotions for him? [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what it was. [SPEAKER_00]: It was, I had fun.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was so, it just, it felt good every day, you know, to me like to, to be with the people and to do it and to get to be a part of something that I know people love, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, normally when you film something, you don't know if people are going to like it, you know, or how it's going to turn out or what the, I think it's going to be like, or the music could ruin it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's so many elements that make a film or a TV show or something good are out of your control. [SPEAKER_00]: And but like to know that Malcolm had such a big impact on people all over the world. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I go literally anywhere in the world and people know Malcolm. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's it's a really cool thing to get the opportunity to get to do it again. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: And give so many who have been waiting for it or anxious for it, you know, you know, closure or more. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that we're going to people are going to love it. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean you're excitement as a fan for the show is really hyping me up for it's I'm so excited I'm excited to see it too, but I think I think are you gonna watch it before the premiere?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if they'll let me, I mean, I don't know, I'm not the type of person who ever asked to see it. [SPEAKER_00]: You don't get the screeners before. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I hope I could see it before, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think, you know, Linwood came up with a really good idea. [SPEAKER_00]: And he, Malcolm is the story of his life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm Linwood, like, you know, so, [SPEAKER_00]: a lot of the storylines that happened and the relationship with his family and the relationship of the way he felt because he was this genius and he was kind of you know felt like they were ruining his life all the time and all that like you know he when we first said when we first came to him in 2015 about doing a reboot he's like [SPEAKER_00]: Nah, no, I'm not interested. [SPEAKER_00]: And we were like, what do you mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, the people wanted, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: And finally Brian, like, you know, kept kind of pushing him and he was like, if I can come up with something and he finally had something, he told me, you know, when we were filming, he was like, I finally had a story that I wanted to tell. [SPEAKER_00]: that gives me closure with my actual family too, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: So there's a cool element there when you think of that, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: All the characters are real characters in his life. [SPEAKER_00]: And so yeah, you know, he had a story that he wanted to get out there and we got to do it. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's gonna be, I think it's gonna be really good. [SPEAKER_01]: Real quick guys, I just want to give a huge shout out to Faramont Scottsdale Princess. [SPEAKER_01]: This resort that we're recording in is absolutely phenomenal. [SPEAKER_01]: Scott 5 pulls a water slide, incredible restaurant.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But what if an offer came in for a role you wanted? [SPEAKER_00]: I would 100% do it. [SPEAKER_00]: I think I would I would love it. [SPEAKER_00]: Not necessarily if it 100% like took me away from being a racer driver because like that's I really want to see that out. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time I would love and I never said that post the pre doing the Malcolm reboot.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would love to have the opportunity to be on another show. [SPEAKER_00]: just because I think it'd be such a cool experience to get another chance. [SPEAKER_00]: That makes sense. [SPEAKER_00]: So we'll see, you know, the weird thing about being an actor is it's not up to you. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: It takes, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: the right script, I would want to do, but be that I fit the character, the director, the producers, everyone has to see the vision and pick you. [SPEAKER_00]: There's so many elements that go into it to where someone was asking me advice for a kid who wants to be an actor, what should they do? [SPEAKER_00]: It's a hard one for me, because I don't want to [SPEAKER_00]: like crush their dreams, but I always say just wherever you're from.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Say you're from Milwaukee. [SPEAKER_00]: Don't go to New York. [SPEAKER_00]: Don't go to LA. [SPEAKER_00]: be the big fish in Milwaukee, right? [SPEAKER_00]: There's theater there, there's local things. [SPEAKER_00]: There's what commercial, whatever you can do there because it's so, like I say that like becoming a child actor, like an even an actor in general, is equivalent to winning the lottery, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: In the beginning, sure you've got to have some skill, but it's someone, like as a kid, [SPEAKER_00]: I got picked for most of the first things I did because I looked like I could be the kid of the parents they chose. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: And then when you have that opportunity, it's about building relationships and doing a good job to where people want to work with you again. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's how my career started.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I, you were doing that on all those smaller roles and commercials. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: So I started acting in North Carolina. [SPEAKER_00]: We lived in like the Raleigh area and got my first agent there and I was going on auditions in Wilmington.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were filming a lot of like [SPEAKER_00]: commercials and stuff in Wilmington and Charlotte and we would drive three hours almost every other day to go do an audition and you and your mom Yeah, me and my mom and it got to the point to where if they needed just a boy between the ages of seven and twelve [SPEAKER_00]: They just hired me. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have the audition anymore, but so I became kind of I Outgrew what I could do in North Carolina.

[SPEAKER_00]: So at that point my agent North Carolina was like I can't do anything more for you like you need to go to New York or LA and I was from New Jersey From New York, so we went to say what my grandparents and we're like, we'll try the New York thing. [SPEAKER_00]: I immediately started booking theater, Broadway stuff, tea commercials, movies, to where I never ever got to go back to North Carolina. [SPEAKER_00]: Like I was planning to go back to sixth grade.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I made it to this really prestigious, you know, middle school that I was supposed to start. [SPEAKER_00]: We just never went back and I just never stopped working in New York. [SPEAKER_00]: But, [SPEAKER_00]: Um, but yeah, I truly think it's it's it's it's it's pure luck in the beginning. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: Um, so I don't know I don't where I how did we get to this conversation?

[SPEAKER_00]: I forgot what you asked me with was I don't know what we're igniting like your fuel. [SPEAKER_00]: So so with that with that said like [SPEAKER_00]: When I started acting, I loved it. [SPEAKER_00]: But I never said, like, I'm gonna be an actor. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm, you know, like, at the time I was eight years old, I would go from baseball to soccer to tap in jazz to, you know, tennis to golf. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I played everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was a busy kid, you know, played all the sports and acting was just one of the things that I also happened to do. [SPEAKER_00]: That took over. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: Like from when I started acting to move into New York I got Malcolm from New York moved to L.A. [SPEAKER_00]: film the show. [SPEAKER_00]: They did it until I finally said I'm gonna stop for a while and go racing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I Never was like, you know, there's the people who like dedicate their lives to wanting to be an actor I Was grateful that I had it, and I loved it, but like it was just Something that I did when the When the movies like came in you're away for like big fat liar. [SPEAKER_01]: You were a Cody banks [SPEAKER_01]: Were those also things that just came your way? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, like did they write Cody banks for you?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if they wrote it for me, but like I know it got pitched with it being me You know to me like we filmed Malcolm about nine months out of the year so we have a three month hiatus Have you ever said it was 24? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, sometimes we did more, sometimes a little bit, but yeah, on average about 24. [SPEAKER_00]: And we had three months to film, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's already so many projects that you can't do, that are filming during the months that you can't film, that we'd get offers and scripts for, you know, but you can't do it on the show. [SPEAKER_00]: Like unless you can do it in June, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: We can't do it. [SPEAKER_00]: So I would have probably, [SPEAKER_00]: 20, 30, like offers to choose from during the, to film during the hiatus. [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes you try to fit too in.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, I was also like 12, 13. [SPEAKER_00]: And not that I wanted to break, but like, it's a lot. [SPEAKER_00]: You're a kid, it's a lot. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: So they would send me these scripts and my agents and managers would be the, we think you should do this one. [SPEAKER_00]: This one's with Martin Scorsese, and this one's with this, and it's like, nah, bigs out liar. [SPEAKER_00]: I want to work with the band of mine, so he's covered a blue.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I chose most of the time, it was up to me in the end, and to much dismay, my mom and my... Mary's 18. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they're like, you know? [SPEAKER_00]: Spielberg's doing this year, so, but I always just chose my thought would be fun, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: And I think there's some great movies I was a part of and I made and there's some ones that were terrible, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm not disappointed or don't regret, you know, I know movies that I turned down that were huge, huge, successful movies, you know what I mean, that who knows what my life would have been if I'd done. [SPEAKER_00]: It's an interesting thing to look back at now, but yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: You and Amanda were like, the it kids then. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm going to tell you a story that I don't know if I've ever, I don't know if I've shared this story.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when I was acting and I moved to New York, I remember going into my new agent in New York's office, and I was like, I want to be on all that. [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to be on the Amanda show because I, A, had a huge crush on Amanda Bines as a kid. [SPEAKER_00]: But I thought that those were the funniest, most amazing shows at, like, yeah, as a kid, like that was like, that was a kid in the cow. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, all the way back.

[SPEAKER_00]: All those shots, I would, like, that was my dream as I wanted to be on all that with Amanda Bines and all that. [SPEAKER_00]: So. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, when you're kid, time feels like it takes a long time, but it was really only like a year from like me saying that to like your bad association.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I was supposed to, I got asked the first year Malcolm was released like was like January of 2000 and I got asked to co-host the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards April of 2000. [SPEAKER_00]: And Amanda Barnes was one of the other co-hosts. [SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, I'm going to meet Amanda Barnes. [SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, it was a huge deal. [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm so excited, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm like, this is my chance. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes. [SPEAKER_00]: And my mom gets a call one day and she's freaking out. [SPEAKER_00]: so exciting. [SPEAKER_00]: It's Gale Burman who at the time was the President of Fox. [SPEAKER_00]: She goes, you got asked to host Saturday Night Live. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, [SPEAKER_00]: And she's like, it's huge, you'll be one of the youngest people have her, like, it's this big deal of a whole block. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, when? [SPEAKER_00]: She's like April 3rd.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh no. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, oh hell no. [SPEAKER_00]: I am going to the kids, choice of words. [SPEAKER_00]: Right? [SPEAKER_00]: I don't care. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm meeting a man to buy this. [SPEAKER_00]: Enjoy sports. [SPEAKER_00]: Right? [SPEAKER_00]: How old was I 14, 13, 14, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And my mom said, no, you don't understand. [SPEAKER_00]: But this is a really big deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: So for about a week and a half, I had every executive, every producer, everybody in the history of Fox TV, read the TV, going, what are you doing? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you don't understand. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a man, guys. [SPEAKER_00]: But I was like, no, no, no, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't back out of obligation. [SPEAKER_00]: I, I committed, I committed to, I'm not going to back out of the kitchen.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've been airing my commercial saying I'm going to be co-hosting. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: So that's a story that, yeah, so I met a man of mine briefly and then I got pitched to do from Tolen Robbins, Dan Schneider, you know, the whole Nickelodeon Gang who produced all that managed all those shows big fat liar. [SPEAKER_00]: You're with the idea that it'd be me and a man I was gonna be amazing. [SPEAKER_00]: Was it from that kid's choice award today?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I mean, I think we ended up filming that a year later. [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, probably pretty soon after that. [SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, back when your kid a year feels like an eternity, we're now, I'm like, how has it been a year? [SPEAKER_00]: How has it been 10 years? [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, that was one of the meetings. [SPEAKER_00]: And that one was one that there was no way I wasn't going to be a part of. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I just, the script was hilarious. [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, my, like I said, my dream was to be on those shows, which I ended up when they did a new cast. [SPEAKER_00]: I forgot what year it would have been, maybe 2002, 2003, they did a new all that cast, because I would drag in Josh and No, that cast was I know they did the second, yeah, yeah, the second round. [SPEAKER_00]: It was like Chelsea and Lisa and Kyle, whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they asked me to be the one to host the first all that of that new season where I supposedly find all the kids to be the kid. [SPEAKER_00]: But like, so I actually got to like in a weird way to fill that dream of being on all that. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, it's just a weird weird kind of storyline. [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I knew doing big fat libraries when I was excited about and I love that movie.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't know the last time I saw it, but I remember watching it when I was older and going like, [SPEAKER_00]: That's a great move. [SPEAKER_00]: Like it's a fun kid movie. [SPEAKER_00]: Like you know, you can't not like it. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, what about the relationship with Hillary Dough? [SPEAKER_01]: because did you go on Lizzie first and then you did? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so what do you think?

[SPEAKER_00]: Hillary Dough was probably one of my first friends when I moved to LA to film Malcolm. [SPEAKER_00]: So because I think I met her before the show it even aired, that we were filming the show. [SPEAKER_00]: There used to be the Oakwood apartments, don't know if you remember those, like in the Birmingham area, and like every young, every kid after was there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Almost to the point where like I didn't want to stay there because I didn't want to be like just one of my millions of kids who stayed at Oakwood But all my friends live there. [SPEAKER_00]: So I would always go there every single day So we did I didn't let my mom let us live there, but like I got dropped out there every day Check out my friends, but like so Hillary live there everyone live there.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like we became really really good friends We had a really great relationship [SPEAKER_00]: Um, for a long time, then she asked me to do Liz and McGuire, which I was like, yeah, you know, obviously I played myself, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: There's another story that I've never told that to me, but I don't know if I want to tell it, but maybe I well, um, it's been been a long time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I was on the set of Liz and McGuire, and I was in Hillary's dressing room and her mom was there, and her mom, you know, was, uh, [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to say the epitome of a stage mom, Momager, Momager, okay. [SPEAKER_00]: She was intense. [SPEAKER_00]: Hillary was so cool, you know, we had a awesome relationship, but her mom was like super intense, you know, and my mom was the opposite.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, when I was on set, my mom would be there if she had to be, but she would be in the corner, didn't want to be in the way, didn't want to make anybody mad. [SPEAKER_00]: Make sure I did what I needed to do, and, you know, but like, kind of more hands-off. [SPEAKER_00]: And I've actually never told this story, and I might get in trouble for it, but I don't care.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm 40. [SPEAKER_00]: I can say it, after I. So her mom was like, do you know what you're doing this summer? [SPEAKER_00]: What are you doing this summer? [SPEAKER_00]: And I go on film this movie where I'm playing like a junior James Bond's called Agent Cody Banks and she's like, is there a girl that could be the like Hillary?

[SPEAKER_00]: That would be good for Hillary and I was like, [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I go, but I don't know, you know, meanwhile, like, I knew in my contract, I had, you had to say, I had to say if who the girl was going to be. [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, but I didn't say that to her, you know, I just, I'm like, I don't know, I, I go, I, I think they're talking about some, some people. [SPEAKER_00]: And this is another thing I've also never said.

[SPEAKER_00]: I, they had mentioned Kristen Kirk, Kirk, Kirk, she was on Smallville, Kristen Kirk. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's how you started last name. [SPEAKER_00]: And I, for some reason, in my mind, when I read the script, I pictured hers, the girl. [SPEAKER_00]: So I really thought that was what it was going to be. [SPEAKER_00]: So, I'm like, yeah, they do this the next day. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not kidding. [SPEAKER_00]: The next morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're filming that day on Liza McGuire. [SPEAKER_00]: The next morning I show up to the set. [SPEAKER_00]: I go into her dressing room and hang out. [SPEAKER_00]: And her mom was like, guess what? [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be spending the summer together. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, what do you mean? [SPEAKER_00]: She's like, we're going to, could we film that in Vancouver? [SPEAKER_00]: She's like, we're going to be up in Vancouver together.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh, what's Hillary filming? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, she can be filming a movie up there too. [SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to hang out. [SPEAKER_00]: We'll have dinners. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: She's doing Cody Banks with you. [SPEAKER_00]: And I looked at her and I went, no, she's not. [SPEAKER_00]: She's like, no, yeah, yeah, she is, she is. [SPEAKER_00]: And they signed the contract last night.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, the movie you knew nothing about yesterday, you suck, what do you, how is that possible? [SPEAKER_00]: Like it's not humanly possible. [SPEAKER_00]: It's like I call on my agents and I'm like, hey, I'm just wondering, not, I wasn't mad. [SPEAKER_00]: It was just like shocking, because you had the sex. [SPEAKER_00]: But so supposedly calls were made and they knew that Hillary and I were really close.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was filming her show, so they just assumed it was fine. [SPEAKER_00]: It was fine. [SPEAKER_00]: So, Needless to say, [SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't thrilled about it. [SPEAKER_00]: And not because I didn't want it to be Hillary, just because they went, the studio went around with you. [SPEAKER_01]: Did you put that in your contract? [SPEAKER_01]: Because you wanted to make sure it was your project?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it just, I was fortunate at that point in my career where I could have the pull, some say in that. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: Because I wanted it to feel [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not authentic, it's not like I had a crush on the girl, I just had a certain image, a certain vision, or whatever, we were going to audition girls, we were going to figure all that out.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how much I want to say. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just trying to think about it. [SPEAKER_00]: I can already said way too much. [SPEAKER_00]: But I literally, they came to Vancouver.

[SPEAKER_00]: Me and Angie Harmon became best friends. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, oddly, I think she was 30 at the time, which in my head seemed so much older than me, which now, like, all that she was a baby too, right? [SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, I was 16 or whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: We had such an amazing time on the set. [SPEAKER_00]: And I was very sad when Hillary's mom would come on set. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm being honest, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm old enough to where I realized, I don't mind people know the truth. [SPEAKER_00]: And if I told you, I've never talked to Hillary since the last day of filming, I've said one word to her since then. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the truth. [SPEAKER_00]: That no one knows about my Hillary stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: But you guys were good on set filming and everything. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it was professional.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there was awkwardness because maybe I left out there was a small dating element. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, there was also that element that wasn't happening anymore. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, so it was awkward because of that. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: But no, yeah, I look back at it now and I go like, what a dumb.

[SPEAKER_00]: I regret not just being a continuing to be friends with her, because we had a great friendship for such a long time. [SPEAKER_00]: And I let her mom, it pissed me off, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: But I got a load of Susprey V8 to interpret both for accepting her. [SPEAKER_00]: You still have it? [SPEAKER_01]: No. [SPEAKER_01]: How many cars have you gone through?

[SPEAKER_01]: If the two of you rekindled the friendship on an episode of something, I would love to catch up with her. [SPEAKER_00]: I would love to even talk about that, because I'm sure she's never, she doesn't know any of that happened. [SPEAKER_00]: Probably. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: But no, I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: How many cars have I gone through? [SPEAKER_00]: over a hundred. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know when I was like, this is going to make me sound like a tool because I hate myself for it, but when I was 16 or 17, I had 38 cars at one time. [SPEAKER_00]: Is there footage of that? [SPEAKER_00]: That was before, you know, there was no phones back then. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I just wanted to say? [SPEAKER_00]: I was like a very high ride. [SPEAKER_00]: I was so fortunate.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that the height of my fame and career were pre-camera phones and pre-social media and pre-all that, not because I did bad things, but because I got [SPEAKER_00]: to, like, live my life the way I wanted and nobody really got to see it. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, nobody, we're now, like, everybody knows everything. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, even though I'm trying to tell a story, I never told. [SPEAKER_01]: It's crazy.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you had a memoir or a book of some sorts, if you insane, it bridged shatter. [SPEAKER_01]: The problem with, have you thought about it? [SPEAKER_00]: Have you been approached? [SPEAKER_00]: No. [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't actually. [SPEAKER_00]: I've never have, but I think it would be hard for me because I do have a hard time sometimes, [SPEAKER_00]: Distinguishing and this don't discredit my story. [SPEAKER_00]: I just told or any of the stories I've told.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a hard time sometimes distinguishing reality and dreams Because I've done so much that like I don't even believe I've done the things I've done You know what I mean like like it doesn't even feel like it was me like it was like almost like an out of body Experience or like a past life. [SPEAKER_00]: It's been moving so fast. [SPEAKER_00]: That's it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's because of that I think I did so much at such a young age and [SPEAKER_00]: Like even now like this year has been a blur because I don't ever stop moving and When you're an actor, this is something I think I came up with The last year because there's been some discussion about my memory because some stories came out about memory issues and stuff like that

[SPEAKER_00]: And as an actor, you take on a script, a role, and someone's emotion, and someone's problems, and someone's argument, or someone's happiness, or someone's whatever, and you do it for that day, or for that hour or two, and then you forget it, and then you get another emotion, or you go back to your life, or whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: So for so long since I was eight years old, I've had to like pretend to do things and be things and then forget it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And unfortunately, I now I think do that with a lot of my real life, too. [SPEAKER_00]: Like I do these amazing things, I do these things, or even when I do races, I just race on Friday and Richmond, and it's Tuesday, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So three days ago I did the race and I'm thinking back and I'm like, [SPEAKER_00]: I think I can remember like two or three laps of the 250, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because like my brain just kind of like, because I have to do notes for my engineers and stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: And I was on the plane going like, what happened in stage two? [SPEAKER_00]: where like other drivers can literally remember every single lap, every single time they pass something or what they saw, like they, like I don't have that, like my brain just kind of like does it in the moment and goes to attack and then focuses on the next.

[SPEAKER_00]: At this point in your life, do you think that was because of acting? [SPEAKER_00]: I think so. [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's also because I just did too, not saying too much. [SPEAKER_00]: I did too much at a young age. [SPEAKER_00]: That's probably how you channeled it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, when you're used to like flying all around the world at 13 and going on, you know, these crazy shows and getting to meet your favorite stars and then I was a huge clippers fan and I went to every clippers game for eight years and I even, I was like 15 and the coach Alvin Gentry at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Signed to be my guardian and I went on the the team plane and flew to a road road like that no way Like you know, like it's too much to take in young To you know, like it's I'm not saying I don't have many moments that are like surprising or like new But I've experienced everything all right Having 38 cars going on the Clippers team plane.

[SPEAKER_01]: What other experience like that really sticks out like I can't believe this my life [SPEAKER_01]: Oh man, I, you could rattle them off because I'm sure there's countless, which is why we need the book. [SPEAKER_00]: There are, I mean, just a lot of stories that I've never told. [SPEAKER_00]: Save them for the book.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, just like I said, like being at a ward shows, presenting a ward, like I remember I was a, I had, I don't know why I keep talking about people I had crushes on, this is gonna turn into the brawl, I got my birthday. [SPEAKER_00]: My wife is knocking like this podcast, because she's the one who said it up. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I, do you remember the band Dream? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Dream.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: It was like the first Diddy or Puff Daddy, like making the, I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: It was on, it was on PH1 or something. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And, um, I mean my cousin Nick were like, we loved Dream. [SPEAKER_00]: Right? [SPEAKER_00]: We had the huge crush on the girls from Dream. [SPEAKER_00]: And I show up to the Teen Choice Awards one year. [SPEAKER_00]: My cousin was with me. [SPEAKER_00]: And who am I presenting with?

[SPEAKER_00]: Dream, you know, and like as a 14 or 15 year old kid, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like that was amazing. [SPEAKER_00]: So I ended up [SPEAKER_00]: I was supposed to go the year 2001, I was nominated for my first Emmy for an Emmy, and I was all set and Diana from Dream was my date for the Emmys. [SPEAKER_00]: But the Emmys ended up getting canceled that year because of 9-11. [SPEAKER_00]: So I never went on that on my Emmy date with Diana from Dream. [SPEAKER_01]: Wow, that's crazy!

[SPEAKER_01]: So, [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't even, your house is too that you kept buying and selling, where those investment properties too, because I noticed there's the article that came out about the parking lots, and that was the big thing. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, how do you figure out where this is never investment? [SPEAKER_00]: I've never, I've never made an investment thinking about it as an investment.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's been things that have been good investments like certain houses and stuff, but I've also lost tons on houses, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like I've made bad investments on houses. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, the parking lot was one good thing, but that was just I don't know I just thought it was an easy business like it was an easy thing that owned, you know, to me. [SPEAKER_01]: That's like such a kid mentality. [SPEAKER_01]: You're pants that the paint the street.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a [SPEAKER_00]: But I just stands there and takes people's money, you know what I'm gonna pay for some lights, you know, it's pretty easy so I just I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've never I've never been That thoughtful of like, oh, I want to do this for the investment asset [SPEAKER_00]: respect of it, it was more like, it seemed like a good idea and I did a lot of things on a whim and some a lot of times they worked out, but a lot of times they didn't, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: So I've gone through the ups and downs with investments to where I consider myself extremely conservative when it comes to making investments and stuff, especially like now, because anything that like I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, try to say like, oh, I think this is this is gonna make me a lot of money or the things I lost What lost 100% you know to mean like the things that I was like, oh, I'll just do that. [SPEAKER_00]: I would be fine And then I'm like wait, I made how much money?

[SPEAKER_00]: I just thought it would be cool to own that how yeah own that you know to mean So I wouldn't I would definitely I always say to people [SPEAKER_00]: Watch what I do with the stock market and don't do it. [SPEAKER_00]: Do the opposite. [SPEAKER_00]: Do the opposite because whatever I invest in is going to lose Do you do you have to go soon? [SPEAKER_01]: No, no, okay. [SPEAKER_01]: Are there just a pry feel free to shut it down?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are there still residual checks coming in from Malcolm network TV show that happened 20 years ago? [SPEAKER_01]: And in today's world, let's say the Malcolm show does really well. [SPEAKER_01]: Would that happen anymore? [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I, yes, I still get residuals every, not every day, but all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: It used to be, they used to come in checks, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So like, I have a post mailbox and I'd go and like, you know, pull out and snap it, put it back. [SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, there would be like stacks of checks from these videos. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, some new video games. [SPEAKER_00]: I did something, yeah, I did a few, but it could be, they could be for, I thought it was the funniest thing, you'd get a residual check for nine cents, but they mailed it with a check that costs more than nine cents with a stamp that costs 60 cents.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you know, they know a sense. [SPEAKER_00]: But, or you know, they could be huge ones, but like it was really kind of fun. [SPEAKER_00]: because you had no idea what was going to come, but because I handle all my own finances and all my stuff, I would look at the sign the back and put it in my quick books and bring it to the bank and bring the stack of checks to the bank and it was like, you know, Christmas every day, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're now, it all gets directed positive. [SPEAKER_00]: So I still do it, but it's different because I get my bank submitted the end of the month and then I got to see what it is. [SPEAKER_00]: But it's harder because I got to like, then go to the SAG website and figure out where it came from.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, what amount of money came from what show and what network and what thing and try to, you know, so it takes me a little bit more time, you know, but I don't have to go to the bank so it saves that hassle. [SPEAKER_01]: And Malcolm comes in from all over the world. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so you get one foreign check, which will be every country outside of the US, and then you get stuff from the US. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's, uh, yeah, still still has an occasion.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: I've heard. [SPEAKER_00]: different things about the streaming stuff now of what you get residual wise. [SPEAKER_00]: I've heard like Netflix, I'm not calling on Netflix, you don't get any residuals, like they pay like a residual advance and then they don't have to pay it or something like that. [SPEAKER_00]: But I've heard stuff like that, but I don't know because I haven't done anything on one of those. [SPEAKER_00]: Like a new thing on one of those.

[SPEAKER_00]: When a show gets sold, like a big fat liar is on Netflix. [SPEAKER_00]: They buy Netflix pays universal NBC Universal for the rights of big fat liar. [SPEAKER_00]: So I get a small portion of that, but that's paid by NBC. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: NBC Universal.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't it's one of those things like I don't know how it works because there's shows that I get residuals for that I go how am I still getting This much money for that one tiny episode I was in and then other things I'm like I haven't got a residual Protect for that in 30 years and it's on all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: So if I don't know how it works, you know, there's no way to [SPEAKER_00]: to know if you've actually been paid what you're supposed to be paid or not, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that you could audit them, but that cost tons of money. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, to get what? [SPEAKER_00]: A $30 residual check. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: Do you have the favorite voiceover role that you did? [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man. [SPEAKER_00]: I was on the first two seasons of the Fairly Odd Parents. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Chester. [SPEAKER_00]: And I loved it. [SPEAKER_01]: Love it. [SPEAKER_01]: Was that your first time out in Nickelodeon production?

[SPEAKER_00]: It might have been, and we actually did it at like the Nickelodeon animated studios in Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank.

[SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: Burbank. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm so sorry that you couldn't do the show anymore, and I was like, what are you talking about? [SPEAKER_00]: He's like, your manager said that you couldn't do the show anymore, that you didn't have time.

[UNKNOWN]: Oh no. [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe, but I really didn't have time, but it made me so mad because, you know, I loved being a part of that show and ended up running, I don't know, 15 year, whatever it did, you know, and I, you know, I would love to continue to do it, but I love that one and then a show that I don't think many people saw because I think it only aired in Canada was a show called Mobile Mysteries.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I really like that one and what's funny, my wife had never seen Malcolm, had never seen any movies that was in, but she had lived in Canada for like a year or two and that was the issue. [SPEAKER_00]: And she loved that show and she didn't realize that it was me, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: I, I think we were going through something in storage and I had like a picture of mobile, like a mobile mystery's drawing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and she's like, how do you know that child? [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I'm mulled. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm like, that's me and our son's middle name is actually Mosley, which is named after that. [SPEAKER_00]: Did you suggest that name? [SPEAKER_00]: No, she picked that. [SPEAKER_01]: I picked Moz, she picked Mozley, so he's Mozmoz and Minus. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Did you ever save stuff from productions and sets, and did you try and collect things where you with that kind of memory? [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't try to collect them, but I do have some stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: I have what's most important to you. [SPEAKER_00]: I think one of the coolest things I have, my favorite episode of Malcolm and the middle ever was the roller skates episode.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I literally just, I think I was home two weeks ago, and I was going through some stuff in my storage, and I found the actual Malcolm Roller Skates. [SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know, I think that's cool. [SPEAKER_00]: But you know, Paige is like, why are you keeping all this stuff? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I think some of them will appreciate it one day. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, when you watch it like your son's not gonna want this stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you watch this season's back, was there other episodes that you fell in love with? [SPEAKER_01]: Like, how is power walking episode always talking to me? [SPEAKER_00]: There was just so many that I didn't, you know, because you only see what you're part of. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you remember those and even some of that? [SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember.

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember thinking like, [SPEAKER_00]: I did that, I was there, we were on that lake, but I just like I said, I remember when we filmed the show not thinking that like I didn't think Reese was that funny, like I thought like he was just some, he was character of some dumb. [SPEAKER_00]: I love Reese, like I'm that's all I remember from watching the show going like whenever he came on screen and even when we just did the reboot I told Justin too.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was like just so you know like the funniest parts of the entire reboot are Reese I think a hundred percent and I I remember telling him that like and even filming the scenes with him I I just think he's hilarious like he did such a good job So that's that's what I really remember most about watching the show is that I got loved all of Reese's parts

[SPEAKER_01]: There's so much anticipation for this because I feel like shows like this don't get like a resurgence like that Yeah, especially a four episode mini series.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's been like When we originally started talking about it nothing had been rebooted yet and now a lot has So I don't want us to fall into the category or people think that we're falling into the category of like thong that shows that are getting rebooted That maybe shouldn't have you know to mean like I think a lot of the reboots Haven't necessarily been great [SPEAKER_00]: But we're not trying to run another five years.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the, we're doing, we did four episodes. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a two-hour movie and we're out. [SPEAKER_00]: You know to me, like you probably will never see Malcolm and his family ever again. [SPEAKER_00]: Did Disney always have the rights to this? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, Disney bought Fox and, you know, so they get it through that. [SPEAKER_00]: So yes, that's why it's on, it's through Disney Plus. [SPEAKER_00]: And is that where Malcolm's streaming?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it'll be on Disney Plus, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Wow. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And Hulu, I guess, oh yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: What's it like for you going from that set now back into the driver's seat? [SPEAKER_00]: Doing either full time is hard, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like just being an actor is a lot of work. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, being a race car driver is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like schedule wise and the effort that has to go into every single day to prepare. [SPEAKER_00]: physical, physical, I'm in the gym, I'm mentally, I'm watching tape, I'm having meetings, you know, I'm doing appearances every day for sponsor, like it's it's it's nonstop. [SPEAKER_00]: So I knew that period was going to be hard to do it together. [SPEAKER_00]: What made it harder was that we were filming in Vancouver and we were racing in Bristol, Tennessee.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it was like four flights and 15 hours to get there. [SPEAKER_00]: To race at 200 miles an hour and try to compete against the best drivers in the world that that's all they're focused on. [SPEAKER_00]: To then race to the airport to fly all the way back and learn eight pages of dialogue, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: But I just did it, and I gave 100% effort to both, and I think they were successful. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the show I know for sure was.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only reason I say I think was I had really bad luck on the racetrack during that span. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't finish one race while we were filming Malcolm. [SPEAKER_00]: All by no fault of me or my team. [SPEAKER_00]: Just super bad luck circumstances. [SPEAKER_00]: So I would easily, I would say, like, oh, it was great. [SPEAKER_00]: It was super successful. [SPEAKER_00]: I did bull. [SPEAKER_00]: I finished in the top 10.

[SPEAKER_00]: I did this, but it was like, nope, you know, power steering line burst. [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, Texas, I was in third place right front tire blew out at 190 miles an hour. [SPEAKER_00]: We're 20 laps to go ahead the wall at 190 miles an hour. [SPEAKER_00]: things that I can't control. [SPEAKER_00]: So like when I look back at it, like the racing seemed bad, but it wasn't because I wasn't prepared. [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't because I was doing Malcolm.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was just things out of our control that I wish I wish could have been a little bit better because it would have made my whole year just feel so much more successful than it was. [SPEAKER_00]: But the racing is [SPEAKER_00]: I love it. [SPEAKER_00]: Like I love it. [SPEAKER_00]: The highs of racing are so high and the lows are racing are so low But what's the highest moment [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, crossing the finish.

[SPEAKER_00]: And crossing the finish, winning, a Daytona this year, we finished in the top 10, which finishing at Daytona, like the top 10 in NASCAR is like a huge accomplishment. [SPEAKER_00]: And we happened the first race at Daytona. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, it was like, I felt like I was on top of the world, right? [SPEAKER_00]: But then if you look at a lot of the rest of my season, it's been, [SPEAKER_00]: mired by terrible terrible lock.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like the last two races, I just came home from, we didn't finish the race, because lost a rear gear in Richmond, we would have finished in the top 20, and in Watkins Glenn would have finished in the top, maybe 15, top 10, maybe, but had something break with a few laps to go. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, things that you just can't control, and there's been so much of that, and it's a giant punch in the gut every single time, because you put in so much effort.

[SPEAKER_00]: because you're there preparing because you want it, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not there just to collect a check, right? [SPEAKER_00]: I race because I want to beat everybody. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, unlike being an actor, it's not subjective. [SPEAKER_00]: It's not someone's opinion of whether or not they like it or not. [SPEAKER_00]: You're either good or you aren't.

[SPEAKER_00]: And no matter what happens in the race, like only maybe the super true fans know what happened, but for the most part, you just see my name down here, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Did not finish, you know, 33rd play, whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, people don't know the whole story.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I can't not admit that like it does weigh on me, emotionally, mentally, like it's so, [SPEAKER_00]: demanding and I think one thing I need to be better at is separating the stuff that happens on the race track and like my home life but I bring it home with me sometimes you know to mean like because you're just in a bad mood like you're just mad at the fact that like you wanted you want the success you want to beat those guys you you know like you feel like

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying I deserve it, right, because you've got to earn it, but my team deserves it. [SPEAKER_00]: Like the work they're putting in and all the effort we're putting in. [SPEAKER_00]: Like we just need a little bit of a win and I'm not saying that's a win, meaning winning. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have to win. [SPEAKER_00]: Right now, like a top 15 is like, well, I'll be doing cartwheels, you know, just because our season's been, we've had just really, really bad luck.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's tough. [SPEAKER_00]: It's probably one of the, any of the three NASCAR series, so the truck series, Xfinity or Cup, are probably three of the most competitive racing series on the planet. [SPEAKER_00]: Because that's what everyone's chasing. [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody who's there is so good. [SPEAKER_01]: Did you see F1? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, would you think of it? [SPEAKER_00]: I actually liked it. [SPEAKER_00]: I never, I can never watch racing movies. [SPEAKER_00]: Excuse me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can never watch racing movies because like they're always so unrealistic. [SPEAKER_00]: This felt like they did a really good job. [SPEAKER_00]: There was maybe two or three moments that I went that one had happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: But realistically like it was entertaining the way they filmed it like you felt like you really kind of felt the speed and the and you know what was at stake and I think they did a really good job so I I did like it for sure but yeah I don't know it's it's a it's a tough it's a tough business because it's cut throat like you literally [SPEAKER_00]: you want to beat every, like you know, I have some friends in the series, but like I raised with 40 guys every week.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've maybe talked to six of them ever. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm with them every week, but like you don't even talk to each other, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Because like they're just, they're just the enemy, like they're a competitor. [SPEAKER_00]: You got a few that I'm close with, I hang out with, you know, the autograph sessions, you know, like I'll sit next to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But for the most part, like, [SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know what everyone looks like or I'm racing I see I'm racing every week because like I'm just focused on beating them You just know them by their car. [SPEAKER_00]: They're just a car number.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know I don't like the 88 because he's he's always a dick when you're around it You know can you be a dick when you're driving an ass car back like cutting people off to be and that was a big Wake up call this year You know even though I've been racing for years like the type of I used to do more open real racing indie car racing stuff like that [SPEAKER_00]: Um, which you can't touch each other, like you can't hit each other because someone's going to become an airplane and die.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: NASCAR is a full contact sport and they will push you out of the way, they don't care. [SPEAKER_00]: They don't care if they wreck you, they don't care if you, you know, you get hurt. [SPEAKER_00]: They don't want to hurt you, but they're doing whatever they have to do to win, and there's no rules saying they can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where in F1, if you hit someone, when you're getting a penalty, or you're going to get suspended, or you're going to lose your license, in NASCAR, it's almost like celebrated, and it took me a really long time to get that in my head, that I was racing everybody fairly clean, and I'd get hit knocked out of the way, and I'm like, whoa dude, you know, and then it [SPEAKER_00]: I was punting dudes, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, just knocking them out of the, there's a way to do it where you just kind of, yeah, you, you, you hit them enough to where they just kind of slide the track, you get underneath them. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's a, a right and a wrong way to do it, you know, like, you don't want to make people mad at you, but like, you're allowed to do it. [SPEAKER_00]: Are you trying to bust their car?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm not trying, no, like, if you're faster than someone, sometimes it's hard to pass them, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So you've got it under breaking, or you just have the barely, if you hit them with your front, like right in the right rear, they'll lose grip and go up the track a little bit just enough for you to get underneath them and then it's your corner, right? [SPEAKER_00]: It might make them mad and they could hook you back into the wall, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: So you got to do it. [SPEAKER_00]: the right way. [SPEAKER_00]: I remember we were racing the first road course this year and I went up to the series director and I was like hey you know I didn't see anything in the driver video if there was a rule about blocking or he's like [SPEAKER_00]: We don't have a block, we're not stupid F1, you could do whatever you want.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like so you could just let a punk people you can block, you could punt them off the track, he's like, yeah, I was like, okay, you know. [SPEAKER_00]: But I think that's why people love it because there's so much more drama in the racing, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So it makes, sometimes the guy who shouldn't have won won because he punted someone on the last lap and it makes people mad and makes some people happy, [SPEAKER_00]: I kind of, you know, NASCAR probably won't let me say in this, but I think of NASCAR. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it is, it is the most intense racing I've ever experienced in my life, that when you're in the car, there's nothing more intense harder than that on the planet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because other forms of racing, like you start the race, people get single file, you know, you're kind of hoping they make a mistake, so you can get alongside them or pass them. [SPEAKER_00]: In NASCAR, it doesn't matter if you're racing for first or 36. [SPEAKER_00]: You are door to door at 200 miles an hour, hitting each other for four hours, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: But I kind of explain it to people like, [SPEAKER_00]: NASCAR is like the W-W-F or W-E of racing because it is just so it is a full-contact sport where you couldn't do that in any other series. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: So if I think that's where people watch it because like it's it's exciting. [SPEAKER_00]: Is your wife there watching you do this? [SPEAKER_00]: She's, she was at the last two races.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think she's been to maybe four or five this year of the 16 or 17 we've done. [SPEAKER_00]: The plan was for her to come to more. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just, it's hard. [SPEAKER_00]: We have a four-year-old son, you know, a lot of the events are one-day shows. [SPEAKER_00]: So like it's easier just for me to fly in, do the race, and fly back rather than, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: pack them up, you know, firecross the country, and I'm doing it every single week.

[SPEAKER_00]: So she prefers to watch on TV. [SPEAKER_00]: She actually, I think lately has even been watching on TV. [SPEAKER_00]: She listens to my radio. [SPEAKER_00]: So on the NASCAR app, you can listen to all the drivers in the radio. [SPEAKER_00]: So as you can hear my cruise, you can hear my spotters, she hears me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you can almost, you almost know more about what's going on in the race by listening to the incar radio than you do watching the race because you hear the drama. [SPEAKER_00]: You hear that almost huge wrecks or you know what's going on. [SPEAKER_00]: So she enjoys, she enjoys listening on the app. [SPEAKER_00]: She came to walk in's gland, she came to Richmond, she sat up on the pitbox at Richmond and you know I think She likes it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not how do I how do I put this and not make her mad at me? [SPEAKER_00]: It's not her dream [SPEAKER_00]: me being an ascredriver. [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, right? [SPEAKER_00]: She said she goes, when when we met, I was in a race car driver. [SPEAKER_00]: I race from 2004 to 2009 and then I started racing again in 2021, 2022, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So like I met her in 2016, she didn't know me as a race car driver. [SPEAKER_00]: I told her I used to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember, actually one of our first dates, you know, I was talking about how I used to raise. [SPEAKER_00]: I go, you would have loved it. [SPEAKER_00]: I go, it's such a fun, like, titanate community. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's like a traveling circus almost, right? [SPEAKER_00]: You're with this, you know, huge crew and, you know, the team and there's so much camaraderie and like, it's like a family element.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then you also get to know the other wives and the other people and the other kids and I was like, you would have loved it. [SPEAKER_00]: She was like, I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I like watching your race because I don't want you to get hurt, blah blah blah. [SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile I go, I'm going racing, you know, to mean NASCAR and you know. [SPEAKER_00]: And so she likes it, but there's certain drivers wives that like they don't miss a session.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like there's not a time when there are husbands in the race car that they're not right there with a radio listening, you know, at the race track. [SPEAKER_00]: Page wants it for me and wants me to find success in it and all that, but She'll watch from home. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Is NASCAR kind of like how they portray an F1 where you have to go out and secure the sponsors for your car?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, there's, there's a little bit of both that you're doing black hat now and we're going to Morgan. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, racing in general switch probably early 2000s where it was, it used to be basically 100% the responsibility of the team to find the funding, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And how much could the funding be? [SPEAKER_00]: Like hundreds of millions? [SPEAKER_00]: Not NASCAR.

[SPEAKER_00]: So NASCAR, like for the trucks, is around, let's call it three to seven million dollars a year. [SPEAKER_00]: Exfinity is probably six to ten million dollars a year and cup is probably twenty to thirty million dollars a year. [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, we're F1, they're spending hundreds of million, they are spending two hundred fifty million dollars a year, you know, to run their program. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's a different thing, but they're also traveling all around the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so in the early 2000s, you started having a lot, I mean, to even start racing in general, right? [SPEAKER_00]: If you're a kid who wants to be a race car driver, you need hundreds of thousands of dollars to start at the smallest level. [SPEAKER_00]: And what are they racing in? [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, like those there's the like midgets or sprint cars or carding, you know, for the NASCAR route, you get into late models, pro late models, super late models, you know, modified.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of different NASCAR type series that you can do, like on a local level, but it's still cost. [SPEAKER_00]: $10, $15,000 a weekend, you know what I mean to like race 30 laps with local guys down at two songs, whatever, wherever you are, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So a lot of the really good race car drivers started coming from really rich families, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because to even get to that level where you're good enough, you've got to have spent a lot of money, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: So I think this is how I portray the story, you know, in the early, late 90s, early 2000s, you had a lot of CEOs or owners of these huge companies that their sons are really good race car drivers. [SPEAKER_00]: And they call the teams and be like, hey, my son has been racing, like here's his stats, here's his stuff, like give my son a shot.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the teams would go, oh, no, no, we were going to sign Jeff Gordon, we're going to sign this guy, and the [SPEAKER_00]: I'll give the $20 million, but put my son as the driver. [SPEAKER_00]: The parents are here today. [SPEAKER_00]: And the team started going, wait, he's good. [SPEAKER_00]: He is good. [SPEAKER_00]: And we're funded. [SPEAKER_00]: We don't have to go chase money for the whole year. [SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: So because that started happening so often, it really kind of became that I would say 90% of the teams, if not even more, expect the driver to bring the funding. [SPEAKER_00]: So whether that's personal money, whether it's dad's money, [SPEAKER_00]: Right? [SPEAKER_00]: There are teams. [SPEAKER_00]: There are some that they find the funding. [SPEAKER_00]: They just pay the the team the driver of salary, but very rare, very rare.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, it depends on what level you're at, but for the most part, I mean, even at the top levels, even in form of the one, not I'm not talking about Mercedes, I'm not talking about Ferrari, but like the the Williams card, maybe not even Williams. [SPEAKER_00]: It's sour or whatever they're called now kick. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know what they're calling anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know that if you had 15 to $20 million and you had enough points from F2 that you have a super license, you might get that see. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not calling them out.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just just the reality of what the sport is Yeah, I mean that doesn't mean the best driver isn't getting the seat Well, it might because there's a lot of really really good drivers who have zero money and don't even get the opportunity You know to mean but the You know If you have the funding you get put in the running of maybe the final 10 that they can pick from right and and they can pick from there So

[SPEAKER_00]: So the sport really, I would say 90% of being a race car driver is searching for money and it's my least favorite part. [SPEAKER_00]: When I went back racing, I made a promise to myself and to my wife that I would not spend one single dollar of my own money going back racing. [SPEAKER_00]: And I've done a very good job of sticking to that, you know, like I said, I'm a race car driver because I love it, but I'm also doing it to make a living. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't be doing it if I wasn't making money, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: Because it's way too hard. [SPEAKER_00]: to put a way too much effort to be a hobby, to be fun, you know what I mean, just a sport. [SPEAKER_00]: So I've been very fortunate with my relationship with Ford, like you said, Morgan and Morgan Morgan, I'd blackhead on the car, I've had a lot of people come, but a lot of that has come through the team.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we worked out a deal where they were going to be responsible for finding most of the funding for the season and they've done a really good job, but it's so hard. [SPEAKER_00]: This funding cover everyone's salary plus yours plus the car plus repairs plus entry fee. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean it can, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So like, [SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's teams spending, like I said, in the trucks five plus million dollars, and there's teams spending a million dollars, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't really compete with the teams spending five million dollars if you only have a million dollars. [SPEAKER_00]: Like you know where you're going to be. [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, we're operating at a budget probably in the middle of everybody, and, you know, so sometimes performance on the track is dictated by the money you spend. [SPEAKER_00]: so you're always trying to raise more money, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You're always, you're always looking for more because not that money buy speed, but if you can buy this better part, you can rebuild the motor or more often. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you know, you hire the top engineers, like there's so many things that can go into it that will make you faster and it just takes money. [SPEAKER_00]: And I say, like, maybe I'm being too honest right now, I think it's killing this sport, because A, it's so expensive, but B, it's not fun chasing money.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you think about it, everybody in the world, everything, everybody's asking for money all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, the whole world is a giant advertisement. [SPEAKER_00]: If you think about it. [SPEAKER_00]: So you're not just competing with other race car drivers. [SPEAKER_00]: You're not just competing with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: you're competing with every single event and every single radio station, every single TV station, every single podcast, every single, everybody's looking for sponsors, everyone's looking for money, and it's really hard to explain to people why you can offer them more when they're being pitched not a thousand times a day. [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not personally, I'm not good at it, because I don't like to talk about myself.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I do like this, but not like, I don't know, be like, well, you should sponsor me because I, you know, well, you know, unlike that guy, I have got 1.4, you know, you know, I don't know, a lot of people say, but I try to do the best job I possibly can for any of the sponsors that do come on board because that is what the business is. [SPEAKER_00]: So I would say 95% of 75% of my schedule.

[SPEAKER_00]: is doing sponsorship obligations, whether it's filming commercials, whether it's doing Instagram stuff, whether it's doing interviews, events, meeting greets, but that's the price that not to get the pay, but to be a race car driver.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to do those things because without doing those things you don't get the funding to go racing or to make money You know to mean so it's a it's a it's a really interesting world because like even You know for for for for the sheer for the rest of this year like we we have a sponsor that was supposed to Beyond I think six more races this year and just said hey we we're going bankrupt.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have the money [SPEAKER_00]: So it's a bad position, you know, for the team in a sense, but you're still searching for money for this year that we're fine. [SPEAKER_00]: We're good for the year, but we're searching for money for the year, but you also have to start focusing on next year. [SPEAKER_00]: Daytona is February, you know, we're almost there. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, to me, like you've got to be so far ahead of the game.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a never-ending cycle, and it's hard for sure. [SPEAKER_01]: Here you talk so passionately about acting. [SPEAKER_01]: Here you talk so passionately about race car driving. [SPEAKER_01]: Both jobs, what else do you do for fun, especially here in Arizona? [SPEAKER_00]: If you ask me that question four years ago, I think I would have listed a good amount of things. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have any hobbies. [SPEAKER_00]: No spare time. [SPEAKER_00]: I have no spare time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Zero. [SPEAKER_00]: I used to golf four times a week. [SPEAKER_00]: I used to go bowling a couple times a week. [SPEAKER_00]: I used to hang out with friends, tennis. [SPEAKER_00]: I used to watch basketball games. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I used to go to sporting events. [SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't exist anymore. [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't exist. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know who that person was who had time to do that anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I'm so busy and then when I have any spare moment, I want to do nothing, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So like, you know, I don't think I have anything going on tomorrow, I have to catch up on bills. [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't been home in three weeks, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm redoing our roof. [SPEAKER_00]: The roofers are coming tomorrow at 60. [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm gonna be busy, but like I want to literally do nothing. [SPEAKER_00]: Do you still do your own taxes?

[SPEAKER_00]: I do every year Wow, it's all I'm gonna be doing tomorrow. [SPEAKER_00]: You're right. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, sure. [SPEAKER_00]: My name. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no, I just I [SPEAKER_00]: There's good and bad in that. [SPEAKER_00]: The good is the fact that I'm so passionate about what I'm doing, that I want to put in the work. [SPEAKER_00]: I want to be committed.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to push everything else to the side to make sure when I look back at the end of this year, the end of my racing curve, whatever it is, and I look back at my go-man, I gave it 100%. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to look back and go, man, I wish I, I wish I tried harder, I wish I put in more time at the simulator. [SPEAKER_00]: I wish I, you know, I don't want to do, I don't want to say that. [SPEAKER_00]: So, I, I'm making sure I'm focused on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The bad thing is, I'm being 100% honest, I've lost myself a little bit in the last couple of years of just being so neurotically focused on [SPEAKER_00]: racing or acting, whatever it is I'm doing. [SPEAKER_01]: Does that come with being the oldest rookie in NASCAR? [SPEAKER_01]: Because now you're competing against guys that are just so obsessed?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean even the 18, the 16 year olds that I'm racing have been racing since they were five in that discipline, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: So like it's all they know and so you also are competing like they weren't actors before they became racecar drivers. [SPEAKER_00]: Sure, maybe a lot of them do come from rich families. [SPEAKER_00]: You might have to have a backup plan.

[SPEAKER_00]: But for the most part, you're racing with those guys competing to put food on the table. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, they're competing for their lives, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, they're livelihoods. [SPEAKER_00]: They want to have careers for a long time as racecar drivers. [SPEAKER_00]: And in order to do that, you have to be the best, right? [SPEAKER_00]: I think, you know, people always ask me, like, what's the average age? [SPEAKER_00]: People retire from racing?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I go, oh, I'm 40, I'm getting old. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm really old in the sport. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's not that basketball where you just can't run as fast and you can't jump as high, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: And then you slow down a little bit and you can't compete with young guys anymore. [SPEAKER_00]: I think like physically mentally like I'm right there like I can do it. [SPEAKER_00]: The thing I say the average age of driver retire is probably 22.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I only say that because even if they started carding when they're five, six, seven, and they spend all the money getting through it. [SPEAKER_00]: They get into cars. [SPEAKER_00]: They get into late models. [SPEAKER_00]: If we're going to the NASCAR right, we're talking the NASCAR right. [SPEAKER_00]: You finally make it to ARCA or whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: You have a good year in ARCA. [SPEAKER_00]: You move up to trucks. [SPEAKER_00]: You do one or two years in trucks.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you try Xfinity. [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, if you haven't won, or if you haven't wowed someone from one of the big teams that's going to scoop you up, [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the funding is going to dry up, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: So eventually you just go like, I didn't do it. [SPEAKER_00]: So like, I think people's careers are like, maybe the sponsor or the parents or whoever go, we'll give them three years, we'll give them two years to see if they got it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And after that, it's like, [SPEAKER_00]: the credit card has been turned off or whatever type of situation. [SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's more that. [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of the cup drivers or like even form of the one drivers, when they retire, I don't think it's they retire because they're not fast anymore or they're not competitive.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you are 40 years old and you start a racing cup when you were 18 So for 22 years you've been racing at the highest level 38 weekends a year You know what I mean like on the road non stop dedicating every single waking moment to being the best race car driver You can be a lot of those guys are making you know 10 to 20 million dollars a year they just go [SPEAKER_00]: I'm good. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to stay home with my kids, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's more that than the competitive like drive and fire going away. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that makes sense. [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, for me being older like [SPEAKER_00]: I think the toughest thing for me is just knowing that I don't have the time to figure it out. [SPEAKER_00]: I've got to do it now. [SPEAKER_00]: I've got to find success in it right away. [SPEAKER_00]: If I have any chance to keep moving up the ladder, like to hopefully get to be a cop driver.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, I don't think a lot of teams would consider me for like a long term option. [SPEAKER_00]: Right? [SPEAKER_00]: They don't know how I can get 10, 15 years at it. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I could be 55, you know, racing, you know, cup. [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I know that puts a little added pressure on me. [SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, like,

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm for some reason, like I still think that I'm like 18, yeah, you know what I mean? [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, oh wait, no, no, no, I'm 40, like it's over. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'll have those moments. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I don't know, I still like even when I'm with a lot of the, like, I'm doing stuff with the other drivers or whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm hanging out like you're around them and and it hits me and I'm like do they look at me like I'm one of them or do they look at me like the old guy because I'm literally older than their parents so what do you think it is? [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to find out. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah but uh it's uh it's it's it's fun.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean I I I I put a lot of pressure on myself just in general because I want [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not doing anything I've done in my life, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Acting when I was in the band, when I owned business, like whatever it is I've done, I've wanted to be the best at it or really successful. [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes I don't know what the definition of a success is in those things, but [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't do it just because it's a fun time, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to be the best. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so when you say like you have a hobby, like, even when I was golfing, I was golfing four times a week, but like I had the desire, like I thought I was going to make it on the PGA tour. [SPEAKER_00]: Like I wasn't playing golf because I was playing with my friends. [SPEAKER_00]: You were going to always manage with it. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I'm, yeah, I'm going pro.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I was on this little amateur tour when in trophies. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, so that's just how I don't know where that comes from that. [SPEAKER_00]: fire or drive or maybe it's neurotic I don't know what it is but uh but uh yeah I'm committed for sure. [SPEAKER_00]: Very cool. [SPEAKER_00]: Can we fire through some of the questions? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Did you like Agent Cody Banks one or two more? [SPEAKER_00]: One? [SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because it was awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: Two was just not as good. [SPEAKER_01]: How did you go building real relationships given that you were famous at an early age and avoid people who just wanted to be friends with you because you're a fame? [SPEAKER_00]: I was always a pretty good judge of character. [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like my wife says the opposite. [SPEAKER_00]: She thinks I'm a terrible judge of character. [SPEAKER_00]: But no, I could always tell people's motives.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, to me, just based on the questions they asked, you know, the way they would be around me. [SPEAKER_00]: I never had a lot of friends. [SPEAKER_00]: I just didn't. [SPEAKER_00]: Mostly, because I didn't have time. [SPEAKER_00]: And I would say my biggest fault as a human is I'm really bad at communication. [SPEAKER_00]: I get so focused on what I'm doing that I forget to call people back and I've lost a lot of friendships because of that That's my fault.

[SPEAKER_01]: What was it like we're going to apologize to your body on big fat liar? [SPEAKER_00]: But Paul was awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: The biggest thing I remember from him and he would probably hate me saying this is he had to run around in these Prada shoes and they gave in these giant blisters and I just remember like oh, that was his costume.

[SPEAKER_00]: The whole yeah, the whole Last 40 minutes of that movie is him physically chasing me [SPEAKER_00]: And I just remember him just being like crying and pain running in these shoes. [SPEAKER_00]: I wonder how he feels about it because he's also like what the Academy award winning after now, you know, that he was, you know, the bad kind of big fat liar, but you know, I hope you appreciate it. [SPEAKER_00]: Have you seen him since? [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I think maybe I saw him a few years after we had filmed the movie, but I've been so far kind of that of Hollywood. [SPEAKER_00]: I moved here in 2008 that I don't really see anybody in that in that world that much. [SPEAKER_00]: Are you loving Arizona? [SPEAKER_00]: I love it. [SPEAKER_00]: I've been here for 17 years and don't plan on leaving. [SPEAKER_00]: Do you go to I fly? [SPEAKER_01]: Was that I fly? [SPEAKER_01]: I've actually never, never been.

[SPEAKER_01]: I always want to go. [SPEAKER_01]: But I always see, I drive it through here. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, it is right off the freeway. [SPEAKER_00]: That, yeah, that'd be a fun thing to do. [SPEAKER_00]: What are some of your favorite, whatever I have time to do something I'll throw that for next thing you do? [SPEAKER_01]: What are your, some of your favorite places here? [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: We bumped into each other at a juice place once, like two years ago on which one? [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yeah, I just don't think where I go now I'm I'm I'm on a big tropical smoothie cafe kick. [SPEAKER_00]: I have the PB crunch bowl before every race Okay, well, whenever we're I can find one before race and that's my that's it the camera that fuels you for the whole race [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's 800 calories, but it's I think it's a good thing to have before the race.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's, you know, not too heavy. [SPEAKER_00]: It's not like fried food, you know, like some of the race tracks are not many options of, you know, what you can eat. [SPEAKER_00]: So that makes me feel like I'll eat well before I get in the car.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you ever routine before that to make sure that you're like body is that I've I'm trying to still find one You know when I race it will cars we have like a chef and they like planned out everything We're NASCAR is more It's kind of up to me to do and I haven't figured out a routine because like you know every track is different You know, you don't have everything at the same place and

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm trying to figure out what works, but I've had so many negative races like things happen that I'm kind of superstitious. [SPEAKER_00]: So I can't do that again. [SPEAKER_00]: So I haven't figured out what works. [SPEAKER_00]: I was going to Waffle House and then kept, you know, wrecking and I'm like can't go to Waffle House anymore. [SPEAKER_00]: What's been the hardest thing about being a NASCAR driver? [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: The hardest thing I would say is being away from my family. [SPEAKER_01]: You've been on stage behind the wheel and acting out of all the things that you've done which felt the most like you. [SPEAKER_00]: If I hadn't filmed the Malcolm reboot, I would never have said being an actor or like doing that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I've said for a long time that when I get in the race car and I put the visor down I feel like that's where I'm supposed to be like what I was meant to do if that makes sense. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, but [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, that's a tough one, because I really feel comfortable doing both. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this has been so cool. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks so much for making the time. [SPEAKER_00]: If you saw my stories are long and maybe I said too much.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, they're incredible. [SPEAKER_01]: If you need anything cut out, I might have done it. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you're about it. [SPEAKER_00]: Do you have, is it the same name? [SPEAKER_00]: They haven't released what, I mean, you can't say it. [SPEAKER_00]: It's called an alcohol middle, but they haven't officially released like the tagline. [SPEAKER_01]: Disney plus and Hulu. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, check it out. [SPEAKER_00]: See you guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was so good.