Drama Queens - Work in Progress: Jason George

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Onscreen, he's known for saving lives as Ben Warren on Station 19 and Grey's Anatomy. Offscreen, he's making a real difference as the chair of SAG-AFTRA's Diversity Advisory Committee and as an advocate for gun safety. Actor Jason George joins his 'fellow circus performer' Sophia for an insightful chat about how his upbringing led to his activism and union work, being in the negotiating room when the actors went on strike, saying an emotional goodbye to Station 19, and returning to Grey's! Jason also talks about his new passion project - flipping the script on how guns are portrayed in the media and making gun safety cool. To learn more about Hollywood, Health & Society's 'Trigger Warning: Gun Guidelines for the Media' in collaboration with Brady, the nation's oldest gun violence prevention group, visit hollywoodhealthandsociety.org. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hi, everyone. It's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hello and happy week to all my Wipsmarties out there. I'm really, really looking forward to today's interview. I'm going to sit down with a fellow circus performer, which is what so many of us in the industry affectionately call the performers in the SAG After Union. Today's guest is none other than actor Jason George. You likely know him from playing Miranda Bailey's husband, Dr. Ben Warren on Grey's Anatomy and Station 19. Jason is an absolutely incredible human, off-screen as well as the wonderful characters that he plays on-screen.

And today I'm going to talk to him about discovering his true calling, having grown up a military kid on the East Coast, how his upbringing led him to get really active within our own union advocating for better protection for workers, and his latest and deepest passion project working to help solve the gun violence crisis in America. Jason is a spokesperson working to change the way that guns are portrayed in the media. A year ago, Hollywood Health and Society at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center released a really impactful and significant study surrounding guns in the media. And based on that study, HHS has teamed up with Brady, the nation's oldest gun violence prevention organization, to raise awareness around this incredibly important topic. And Jason is helping lead the charge with Brady, HHS, every town, and mom's demand. He is an incredibly inspiring human, someone I feel really lucky to have as a peer in my industry, both in my day job and in my activism work, and I can't wait for you all to hear from him. Enjoy.

Hi, Jason. How are you? Good. How are you feeling? I'm well, thanks. where do i where do i find you today where are you in the world uh i am back in uh studio city los angeles i'm back home we uh we were running around uh Italy for uh for a few weeks uh yeah was my wife was at 25th wedding anniversary so my goodness congratulations Italy is our spot. Italy is, you know, we, this is like, I don't know,

we've been to Italy a bunch of times and taking the kids a bunch of times. Yeah. Oh, that's so fun. I look forward to that. Like, sort of all my friends are in the range where everybody's kids are too little to do international travel.

But when I see my friends who have, like, kids that are 10 to 12 or that are teenagers and they're bopping around, I'm like, God, that must be so cool to get to show them the world. It's the whole point. It is literally the whole. I mean, the funny part is that, like, you know, we have a 20-year-old son,

and then we have twins that are 16-year-olds. Oh, my gosh. And when they were born, we were buried. So, like, all of your friends who have little kids and, like, do only certain things, like, you know, they go to, like, going to the local restaurant as a big outing. We need out of that for, like, three years. Three years we were just on, like, if you walked slowly in front of my house, I just handed you a kid.

Yes. I need to know you. Just hold this for a second. Yeah. I put in, I promise. You mean? Oh, my goodness. Oh, yeah.

Okay, so I love the tangential parenting moment because it actually, in a really interesting way, points back to the thing I normally like to ask people first, which is about yourself as a child. Because, like, look, me as the person interviewing you, so many of the folks who are going to listen to this episode, like, we know you as grown up Jason George. We know you from work. Like, you, you, you've been our beloved Ben for 14 years, like, OG Gray's fan over here. You know, you carried him on to other shows. Like, it's so easy to think you know someone because you have observed their body of work. Right. And so I'm curious, especially because you're a dad, if from this point in your life, if you were to hang out with your eight-year-old self, like, would you like him?

What was he into? Did he know he was going to be an artist? Like, do you see how that little boy became the man you are today? Or has it all sort of happened, you know, by miracle and happenstance? No, you know, is that that's a, that's a good question. That is a good first question that would have had on somebody. Could I have seen him as an artist? Yeah, I was a goofy, I was a goofy show-off, smart-allel.

little kid, but at the same time I'm the middle child, I'm one of three boys. And so I was also, you know, all of the I like all, I believe in all of the good stuff that psychiatrists say about middle kids. Like I got to be the baby for four years and then I

got to be the big brother. And so you know, and so I'm, I was a rule follower on the surface. Like I was the good kid as far as you could see. I was, and I was in fact a good hearted kid.

We were never trying to damage anything. But, and my older brother is part of the reason for this, we were mischievous kids. We were really mischievous kids. And so, you had a sense of humor. Oh, the sense of humor was like huge in my house. It was a whole thing was, you know, I mean, like we, you know, my mom and my mom and dad split up, you know, and it was on a slow train, the slowest rolling divorce of all time. I go over the course of like 10 years and just slowly my dad was like less and less around.

And then he was like never around. But like, you know, money troubles and everything like that. Ma was always the, you know, like, you know, the phrase robbed Peter to pay Paul. It's like I should have like a tattoo that says that phrase because that was like my mom's whole phrase. And she would just laugh because she's like better than crying. You mean? And that was her whole take. So our whole perspective on life from birth was just like, hey, man.

you know it's it's it can always be worse so be you know so enjoy wherever you're at even if today's pretty crappy you know you know you know laugh about it find somebody and find something find something to just however silly it is give you joy or whatever you know on grays it's dance it out and that sort of thing but so yeah I mean it's you know and then my mother uh and my dad actually both love music and that sort of thing so it was like it was always music playing in the house and and there was a that joy in the middle of

whatever was going on. You know what I mean? So that's kind of like how I live like I'm always I'm always going to be good where I'm at and even as a kid that was kind of the thing like whatever group you dropped me in I'd find a way to hang. You know I mean?

I was a, I was just smart enough to hang with the smart kids, just cool enough to hang to like get into the cool kid party. I'm never the leader of any of these groups I can just

hang with them you know and I was a geek but at the end of the day I'm you know the nerd in me is real you know

that age you talk about eight year old me that's around the time that I discovered comic books and all that stuff

and the imagination blew wide open and it was like Martin Luther King every kid did their book report back then on you know

a Booker T Washington or you know and so like I had this dream of like you know being one of those people who argue and you know third good marshal like arguing a case in the front of support you know I mean yeah like I thought like being that kind of smart person who actually made change in the world that'd be cool so that was the plan and that was the goal

but you always saw this kind of creative bent underneath it that like but no nobody does I'm from a military town you know where I grew up is you know Virginia Beach Virginia is the largest they were based in the world so like yeah and all my friends all my parents my dad was navy like you know arts was not a thing that people did for a living you know right you know music is cool and everything like that but that's other people do all that kind of stuff you know and acting it's not even a thing that was like you know so but uh you know but second grade play i improv the line got a laugh you know and you were hooked and it stuck it's stuck in the back of the brain

We'll be back in just a minute after a few words from our favorite sponsors. So then when you fast forward to, you know, joining a show like Gray's in 2010, did that feel intimidating? Were you excited? Had you watched the show before? Like, yeah, yeah. I mean, look, I mean, my, uh, my wife and I, uh, when we work out, we work out separately and she will tend to watch her quote, quote, chick flicks and I'll watch like just explosion after explosion.

This was back in the day. Pandemic changed her. Now she's all blood and guts. Now she's like Vikings and like apocalyptic. Like she's a whole different person since the pandemic. And I'm like, you change. As I clutch the pearls and look at her. I'm like, you know, sleeping with one eye open. But she would watch, you know, and the rule

was if whatever you're watching turned up to be really good, like the chickflict turned out to be when Harry met Sally, stop it, bring it in, we'll watch it together. Because now it's cinema. Now it's a family or whatever. A friend of hers gave the DVD set of Grey's Anatomy. And she got like two episodes and

stopped it, came in and said, you should watch this with me. And that was probably around season three or four, or something like that. And so she and I started watching it. And I was like, this is dope. this is most most men you're like you'd be surprised how many men totally have the fan reaction and then try and play it off like it's because why watch you know my girlfriend but why oh yeah

honey try being on one trail it's the same thing 100% right and you're like bro if you knew my character name you were not just watching because yeah you're invested my favorite vibe is always like you know being on location somewhere everybody goes out for beers like Friday night after you rap and there's always some guy in a bar that's like, oh, I know you, my girlfriend loves your show. And then I can tell when he's had like three or four beers and he's like, man, when Brooke couldn't have a baby, I was just like really heavy.

And it really made me understand what women go through. And I'm like, yeah, your girlfriend loves the show, I guess, right? 100%. You get just one or two beers. Oh, you know, and occasionally get the guy who'll be like, you know, who just own it, you know, that kind of thing. But, yeah, I was at the dinner with a friend the other day. And this is here in Los Angeles, and nobody in Los Angeles cares, right?

Or at least you're supposed to play it off like you don't. I don't know what happened to dude. He stopped. But Grace is one of those shows that like will curse that bail. And like, dude was like, he was like, came over to the table, just interrupt. I don't mean to interrupt. But you know, listen, can I get a photo? You know, and he was like, can I get a photo for my wife?

He was a huge fan of the show and everything like that. Don't you know, old boy got in there right next to me as he did the selfie in the whole night. And I was like, right, right. It's okay. It's free. It's like, it's all good. We are men of action. Lides did not with us.

Yes. That's so sweet. But yeah, but I really wanted to, so I was a big fan of the show before I ever did it. And so I've been in the game for a minute before that. I had done like, you know, a bunch of series. And it'd been a while since I'd been nervous on a set. And that first day, maybe two days. I was like, don't screw this up.

And it was just a guest spot. It was literally just a guest spot. Really? Oh, Ben was supposed to do like three, four episodes and then like do Miranda Dirty. like, you know, cheating her, like, be a player and then, like, break her heart is what I understand the storyline was supposed to be. I think they did that storyline with,

I think they pulled that storyline a little bit later on with, uh, with Joe, Camilla's character. Okay. I think they did it a little bit later on with, uh, her character. And, uh, but for whatever reason, Shonda, God bless her, you know, said, let's put that ride for a minute. Let's, let's not, let's not, let's not,

that just yet. And that was even when like because I had done a pilot for Shonda that didn't go. And that was my introduction into Shonda land. Got a great relationship with and everything like that. And then they offered me the guest spot

to come and play Ben and I was like, yeah, I just want to come through the show. I just want to hang out. And I was like, but I also knew like the show at that point even had a history of like you start as a guest start. Maybe you can stick around for a minute. But you know, you assume, you know, we're actors. You know, you're like, this is just going to, this is the get.

You show up, you join the circus for the day, and then you go home and do your thing. Well, and even when you're supposed to show up, maybe it's not going to happen. Like, I was supposed to start a new project on Tuesday, and they were like, so we've lost the insurance on our main location. And can you just stay in New York for a while? And I'm like, sit tight. Sit tight. And you're like, gather.

It's the circus. It's an industry and it's technical and it's really well. scheduled and then it's also just like you're at the mercy of nonsense. A lot of moving parts. We are carnival. You know, like, you know, hey, the check found out, man, we're not doing the show tonight. You know what I mean? Elephant ran away. We're not doing the show

tonight, man. Exactly. You know, things get, you know, any day things can get canceled, that sort of thing. So it's, it's all that. But, uh, but, you know, it's stuck. It's not. And even when I was doing other shows, they didn't boot me off. I mean, I did a, because when I guest starred,

I then did a pilot. another pilot for her that took and it was a series that we did for like six months in Hawaii and the fact they let me and again the power of having really good people who also happen to be tremendously powerful in the industry you know and you know so they didn't eliminate my character and I kept guest starring so I would literally fly from Hawaii fly back to like do a couple episode you know do like a couple days on rays and then like go back so that's amazing there was no real break. It was an absolute blessing. I also love when you've got people in power that don't kind of weaponize their ego. So often you hear, well, once you're on a show, they're going to own

you. Like they've got you. They'll never let you work on something else. And I think like the ripple effect of Shonda saying, no, you will absolutely be on these two projects for me. And we're not going to give up a storyline just because good things are happening for you as a performer. You know, now you cut to, I mean, the year that like Reese and Carrie Washington did little fires everywhere while Reese and Nicole Kidman and, you know, Zoe Kravitz were doing big little lies. And it's like, you could actually just go do the good work if you'd be willing to not say, well, if you're on one show, you can't be on this one. It's so dumb. Well, it's so dumb. And also the business had, you and I have been here for a minute. The business is totally different than it was.

And social media changed it. I mean, you know better than anybody. But it's, you know, the cross-planization, it's like, you know, I'll bring the audience from that thing over to this thing and vice versa. Like, let's rise and tie floats all boats. So let's float some boats, people. Let's get out there. Let's go.

Exactly. Let a thoroughbred run. And so that mentality, as opposed to the scarcity mentality of, you're, you know, I don't share my toys and you're one of my toys. It's, hey, everybody go have fun. I mean, I remember sitting with Betsy Beers, who was a Shonda's producing partner. If you see, you know, produced by Shonda Rhymes, you'll see produced by Betsy Beers. She's a, I joke with, I jokingly say that, you know, she's the Ginger Rogers to Shonda's Fred Astaire.

Makes the whole thing work. Betsy was like, we believe in building a company, an old school theater company, and keeping everybody happy. They're like, if you're happy, you're going to work harder. better and that sort of thing. And that was the truth. Like I flew home, they on off the map when I was shooting in Hawaii, in addition to coming back to occasionally shoot Grays, I tried to turn down off the map, you know.

And at the time, I was just moving into that like, you know, offer only, blah, blah, blah. I wasn't quite there. And so like, they were like, I've done the pilot for Shonda. I get, they'd offer me the guest spot to play Ben. And then they were like, so Shonda wants you to come in and well, no, the network wants you to come in an audition for Shonda's new show. And I was like, cool. I was super excited and then found out a shot in Hawaii.

And my oldest kid was in first grade. My twins just started preschool. I was like, dad needs to be, you know, military kid knows. I was like, no, I'm gonna be, you know, you're not going to forget my face. I need to be home. I can't do it. So I turned down the audition. They said, they want you to come in a test for it. Can't do it. They said, we finally was like, they're straight off me there. I was like, I can't do. And finally like, Shonda called me. It goes, what the hell? And I was like, I was like, you know, the whole time I was was like, if I go in with the relationship I have now and looking at this role, I can do this role,

I can kill this role. And it's exactly the kind of thing I want to do. And then they wrote the show so that, like, I had three day weekends, at least three day weekends, like at least three weekends a month. Betsy was like, we're going to screw it up once or twice, but we'll basically get you home three weekends out of the month for like a long

weekend. You can do the family thing. And I was like, that can work for my family thing. And their whole thing was they're like, and by the way, if you watch the show, you'll never notice that the characters I didn't even realize that, like, Audrey McDonald, they did the same thing for her on private practice, which is why they were like, no, that's a doable thing.

So she could get home to her at the time her kid was in New York. So it was like having powerful people who, like you said, don't weaponize their ego. And in fact, just because the natural inclination is to say no to anybody in this town. Because no means, even when yes is obviously the right answer, yes is creatively right. Yes, gets you more money. But yes means you got to learn new stuff.

Yes means that we've got to, you know, because things will be different. no means things to exactly the way they are. I don't have to rethink. I don't have to learn anything new. I don't have to change anything that I've been doing on a long. But the same is also boring. It's a reason why we're in this business because we didn't want to sit behind the desk. We want to like, you know, we want to explore and stuff.

We want to get out there. Even when you're doing the same job, every day is way different. You mean, oh, today we're going to blow something up. Today you're going to reach into a woman's stomach and pull her baby out. You're going to, you know, something insane is going to happen today. So, yeah, so when they say, try and find a way to make yes work. And then Shina went to wrote her book, you know, year of yes. And I was like, so she's just, you know, she inspired me on multiple levels.

And I think that she responded to the fact that I was actually trying to take care of my family. Yes. And I think that's one of the things that, like, worked for her. So it's that, I mean, she has a thing at the end of her email that says, if you're, she used to have it. I'm trying to remember if she still has it. It said, if you were reading this email after 7 o'clock at night, maybe go be with your people. You know what? And like, that's your boss having right with the priorities are straight.

I'll do anything for it. I'll do anything for it. That's the kind of theater company I want to be in. Right up. And I think there are more people in this business starting to get that, starting to realize, let's enjoy it. Let's not kill ourselves doing the job. Let's let the job actually feed our life instead of suck life out of us.

Well, because that's the thing. if you turn, if you turn the immense good fortune to be creative for a living into a punishment, it feels like, it feels like a multiplier of X kind of disservice. Like we should be, yes, the hours are grueling. Yes, it can be totally insane. Yes, having to be on a plane every 78 hours can be nuts. but how lucky still how lucky and like let's let it be fun we make believe for a living it's the most fundamental human thing that has ever existed and we get to do it for a living it's an absolute

blessing so like you know you know tired sleepless whatever whatever i'm like hey man the dream the dream yeah so i love that you got to also do something that you know it's not as common in our business, but I got to do a little bit of it working across the network, the universe rather of Dick Wolf shows. And you did it in Shondaland. And you went from Grease on to Station 19, back onto Grays, like taking these characters out into bigger worlds. I think is just so cool. Like the day that I showed up for my first day on SVU as my character from PD, I just was like, what is happening? I'm having the best day.

It was my most favorite part of my job. Was it super exciting for you to get to do that, to get to explore this new world, but under the same umbrella? 100%. I mean, in this, you know, I mean, look, and I can only imagine because, I mean, mine was, we had the same experience with slightly different.

You're going on an SVU because being a guest star is like the hardest job in all of Hollywood, with the possible exception of being a guest director. because you've got to like you because you're in somebody else's sandbox but you've got to like bring this whole person and on our show I tell the guest stars all the time I'm like extra love on the guest stars because they've got a boo-hoo with their like loved one dying on this you know the love of their life dying on the table or their kid

big you know and they've got to like carry so much emotional weight and all this crazy stuff and then be funny in the middle of it and all this stuff and they're like they know they're on this like show that's been around for 21 you know it's like this juggernaut and so like they're they're really out of their element and they've got to be they've got to do this thing that is only done well when you are most comfortable you mean act you've got to be you've got to be comfortable in order to act properly so I always feel like I got to cheat uh you know you got to cheat a little bit you're going into you know Mariska's territory but you're playing a character that you knew intimately you know

this character inside and out down to her DNA so yeah you still knew like I know this character so even though this is not my set this character is my joint I got this you know I got to take a character that I knew intimately and go to a show that was being created and help create that atmosphere how cool so to like be on the ground floor of like yo like this is in the greatest compliment I'm about to get teary for a second because you know we just wrapped 19 only a few months ago I literally two nights ago had a had drinks with my my DP and first AD on the episodes that I directed they're in

they're my guys and but Peter Page the showrunner of the show said to me and we were just talking about the other day

and they were laughing because his compliment to me was you don't know how much grief we escaped because it was understood amongst cast and crew, oh, Jason would never.

Like, that's not going to fly. You know what I mean? Like, oh, you're about to throw what? I know. It's like, and I'm all about respect. So if you disrespect me, we got a problem. And I'm going to talk to you in an intellectual, like, wait, like we don't, like, you will not disrespect me, but I also do not do diva. Like, diva is not, it does not play in my world. And, you know, you know, and so that was a thing that, like, he said it to me. And I was like, I've been good with the ending of the show up to that point. You know, and like, that was when I was like,

you're not going to make me crack. You're not going to get me. Don't do it. Yeah. We'll be back in just a minute, but here's a word from our sponsors. I also love that that was something so well respected in you. I think that speaks to the environment. You know, I like to sit squarely in that space as well.

Treat everyone with immense respect, especially. I like to go out of my way. way to make, as you were saying, guest stars feel really comfortable, especially if someone's going to come in for an arc, you know, seven years into a show. I was just talking to my girlfriend from One Tree Hill, my friend Jana about this. And she was like, I never even told you what it meant to me, like when I showed up there for three months, that you took me to dinner, you took me shopping, you showed me around town. I was like, girl, I remember what it felt like to show up on that set and be terrified. Like, I get it. Right. And that's what it is, is it's remembering it,

Like never forgetting what it is. I think that's like Shonda's superpower or like Taylor Swift's superpower is they never forget what it's like to be a fan. Yes. Oh my God, me neither. My friends make fun of me all the time. We'll go to, you know, whatever we got to go to, like the SAG Awards.

And they're like, you are a famous person. You can't behave this way around other famous people. I'm like, but do you know what that is? Like, and I like that it's never, I've never gotten jaded about it. And what I'm happy to see shifting is like that thing, you talk about, there's such leadership and strength. And I think particularly for you as, you know, a charismatic man with a nice voice, like you get to come in and say, this is what respect looks

like. Years ago, for me, I would find that if I would talk about where the boundaries were, like respect is required and this kind of behavior won't be tolerated in this workplace. I got a lot of like, well, you can't talk to people about that. That's not your job. And I was like, Why, because I'm the girl and I'm just supposed to be nice, sweet, and cute. Right. And it's a cool experience to, I think, see sets with diverse kinds of leadership, whether that's in terms of, you know, gender, race, whatever diversity qualifier you want to fill in, because the more diversity of leadership there is, the more respect there is for different kinds of leadership as well.

And you see how that makes everybody feel more. respected and empowered to be the best worker they can be, the best leader they can be, the best partner they can be, the best advocate they can be. And like, I got to say again, just as a, you know, as a fan and a peer, watching the way you navigate that in the conversations you've been willing to have about what a hair and makeup trailer should be capable of. So the actors of color don't walk into a set and go, oh, I'm not going to be taken care of here. What the vibe should be on set where everyone feels immensely respected but nobody has the you know and nobody has the space to be difficult how you have to be professional and you deserve to be treated well but you

shouldn't have your ego stroked how if you have a platform you have to spend that privilege and do good for the world like you're out here doing all the things that I believe in in the core of my being and so I don't know I hope it doesn't sound like cheesy but I also want to say thank you because we are part of a circus and when we go out and advocate sometimes people say well how dare you and it's like y'all we're just here because we're like weird union workers so of course we're going to defend unions and of course we're going to defend our people and so i don't know when i see other people like carrying all you know putting all of those things in their backpack and marching along i really appreciate it no i got mad love for you i mean not to

not to turn into the mutual love fest but but you know look my mom would say you know when you have eyes on you. It's your duty to turn that days to what they need to be looking at. You mean? Don't make it about you. Make it about like look at this thing that's really important or like you should be paying attention to it. And you are all about that. Have been since day one and have used the platform for something good. And in the whole and then this world where people are like, you know, shut up and dribble. Celebrities should keep their mouth shut. I'm like,

no, everybody should be talking. But everybody should be making sure they actually really do their research and have their stuff tight. You know, so, you know, I have friends who are like, how do you not get blow, like, I don't get that much blowback when I advocate for stuff on social media. Like, how do you not get the blowback? And I go, well, part of it is I say it like I'm sitting with you at the dinner table. You mean?

Because I'm from a, like I said, a military town in Virginia, a very purple state. You know, like I have tons of friends that are very conservative, very religious, very right, you know, that sort of thing. And I'm like, but at the end of the day, if I talk to you and we're trying to solve a problem as opposed to win some theoretical debate. I mean, if I talk to like a human being, then you can't get that, you can't get mad.

I mean, we can still disagree, but you can't, you know, like, so in solving the problems on sets or solving the problems in the industry. I mean, like working with Sag Afterra and being in rooms, I mean, I was in the negotiating room for, you know, when we went on strike and was like, you know, knee deep in that, but there have been three times where I was a, where I thought to myself, I think I just ended my career. We'd say more.

And I was like, I was like, I'm going to go home. My wife's going to be really, really upset with me. She was like, maybe you should shut your mouth. But the reality is it doesn't happen. And the reason why is because business is business. And when you approach business from a take care of your workers, I'm one of your workers, here's what we need to do a better job for you and for us. Like, help us help you.

And so when you approach it from the, we're trying to solve problems here, I'm going to show you, Mr. City Executive, Mr. CEO, whoever it is that's in position of power, that's management, I'm going to show you problems. Yeah, our problems for us, that will become your problem. Yes. Like, if I don't have health care, that's going to become your problem very quickly. you know me if i don't have if i can't feed my family if i if i have to get a second job

guess what my productivity at your job is going to wait down like so let's help me help you and when you come in it from that standpoint it's real hard to get mad at folks you know they they they might be annoyed because it's like it's going to cost me money but again it's business you got spend money to make money bro you knew that you got in the game you knew you know that's it's what you signed up for so when you approach it from that kind of like let's solve problems not win debates or win fights. Yes. Then I think people chill out.

I think when you go on social media and you're trying to solve problems and you talk to people like they're actually in front of you instead of looking for the ultimate clapback and you know, let me, uh, you know, let me make sure I get my likes. It's like, I will take fewer likes and actually have people actually hear my point. Same. Instead of just preaching to people who agree with me and just want to shout down the other side and win that, win some philosophical debate. What was it like sitting on the board? Because, you know, now you're also the chair of the National Union's Diversity Advisory

Committee. So you have stayed in this leadership role in SAG since the strike. And one of the things I found really impressive about it is that it finally helped poke holes in this illusion that like all the Hollywood people are privileged, you know, and that everyone's just rolling in money. It's like, no, most of us are circus performers and most of the people in our union are working paycheck to paycheck. Like, come on, y'all. At best. And, you know, I think people finally, especially I thought it was really, really powerful when Taraji opened up about what it actually looks like to be a business as an entertainer. And you start to say like, yeah, guys, if I make a dollar, my agent makes 10 cents, my manager makes 10 cents, my lawyer takes, you know, depending on the job 5 to 10

cents. A publicist takes 10 cents. If you have an assistant to help you manage your life because you're on set for 18 hours a day, they're taking 10 cents. The government's taken 37. Like, I got to make a dollar to maybe take home 10 or 15 cents. And people go, oh shit. And it's like, yes, I eat, everybody eats. It's kind of why when we talk about like health care, we're like, well, there is enough money. Like maybe if we didn't charge $30,000 for an MRI that, you know, overseas costs to 900 bucks. Like, there is actually enough. money to keep the people healthy. You just got to split it up a little bit better. And I think a lot of people went, oh, we didn't realize this about your industry. We didn't understand what your unions did.

We didn't totally get that, you know, the actors unions on set with the construction union and the transportation union. It's like, you're just a bunch of weirdos like hanging out trying to entertain you. And I thought it was so powerful to tell more of the truth and to really talk about workers' rights from, you know, these platforms that we have, as you say, you know, to, I always, the way your mom talks about, I always say, like, oh, if you turn the spotlight on me, I'm going to grab it and turn it back, like, over here. And I guess I just wonder, like, after all these years, you know, because you talk about your career and obviously 14 years in Shondaland is huge, but, like, you have, you know,

more than 50 guest starring roles and nine series regular roles. And, like, you have been a world. working actor for a long time. What was it like to, rather than just get behind the camera, like get behind the boardroom table and really start to see inside union leadership? No, it's funny because actually that's, that precedes any of the, what people describe a success in acting. Wait, your work with the union. I've been working with the union since like, for all almost my entire time in the industry, to be dead, dead honest. I did not know that. I'm a union kid.

I'm a super labor guy because unions built the middle class in this country. You know, you like having to find they work with it. They can't, you know, they can't work you seven days a week for four hours a day. You know, your union did that. You're welcome. I mean, most people get their health insurance through their work because unions fought for it. You know, unions, you know, eight hour work day. I could just go on and on and on.

Workers compensation for injury at work. all of it My mom was president of the teachers union where I grew up and my mom was she taught learning disabled kids in middle school in North Virginia

the native Virginia basically it's all right there's one city like you drive five minutes here in Norfolk and she was the president of the Norfolk Education Association and then when she retired from a classroom

she went to work for the Virginia Beach Education Association She has plans throughout the Virginia Education Association is like, I can't tell you how many, you know, I'll still do, you know, I'll, you know, Virginia politics, how many, like, people who are in elected office know my mom and that sort of thing. She's just that person. She, like, is not a quiet woman. And she is like, this force of nature kind of person. Having that as my North Star, as I'm thinking about becoming an actor, There were two things. I was like, let me figure out. And this is her thing from being an educator. I'm following on this. She would never say no.

She would ask you questions until you either realize it was a stupid idea or you had a plan. Right. So eventually, unless you're an idiot, you start figuring out the questions she's going to ask you and start finding solutions to those answers. So it sounds like you actually had a plan coming in. So you don't sound like the idiot when you realize, oh, that was a really dumb idea. right. Um, and when you got answers for it. So, uh, as I'm thinking I want to become an actor, I was like actors never work how to, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I realized I wanted to go to graduate school only because everybody who comes to L.A. takes acting classes. I was like,

well, let me go do nothing but acting classes, like not have to do a day job. Uh, so for three years, I just was in eight, eight in the morning to five at night, class six at night to 10 at night, rehearsals for the play we were doing, and then you would go post the scenes that you had for the other part of the day. So like literally, and then on Saturdays, it was 10 in the morning to 6 at night, right? So graduate school was going to get me the ability to teach active, so that could be my day job, right? Yeah. And then the second thing was, there's this union, right? There's this union that protects you. That's where you, it was an actor, you know, it's like, suddenly in my mind, because of my mother's kid, and I knew this is the response.

to her when she asked the question um you're an actor you're on your own it's you versus the entire world i'm like there's a union and union means you never own your own that's the whole so you know unions where you get your health insurance unions where you get your pension right and those things i didn't even know about wasn't even think about but i heard that and i just knew my mom cared about those things i was like you know i was 20 you know me i'm like i'm not thinking about a pension but i knew she cared about a pension yeah being able to say that union gets me a pension she cared so I started showing up but this is where it ran home for me was

on my very first gig, it was this daytime soap that I did for Aaron Spelling, rest of soul he also put me my first prime time gig somebody called and said you know daytime so aren't usually syndicated internationally it's Aaron Spelling so we were like in 160 countries

around the world like there are people I met people in Zimbabwe who were like hey you know and it was funny because it was actually when I finally went to Zimbabwe people knew that show and they knew greats and that made me laugh so hard because I got involved with the union because literally somebody said hey my friend was traveling

in Zimbabwe and apparently we're on the air in Zimbabwe this Aaron spelling soap opera and I said that's so cool did we get a Zimbabwe check and nobody knew if we got a Zimbabwe check so I contacted the union and turns out we hadn't gotten our Zimbabwe check. Turns out our Zimbabwe

check was way overdue and so the union got us our check and got us the penalty payment on top of it you have been for being many days late and I was like union got it

from that point on I was sticking my nose into it because I was like if we do need to go out on strike I want to know exactly what it's about and know that it's righteous and if we don't need to go out on strike I want to make sure that we don't have

somebody taking the trains off the tracks or ego or what's that won't change our lives kind of thing you know it's like I want to you know what's the handle the thing I want to be in the room where it happened and I was able to do that.

So I've been on negotiating committees since, like, 2001, something like that. And it was cool. And even that first one, like, I was able to, and then realize that this is what I preach about the union is, all you need is your work experience. You don't need to know anything about how all the rest of this crap works. You don't need to speak a lawyer. You don't need to speak lawyer. You don't need to speak contract language.

Be an actor and have some experiences as an actor. And we have union leaders and we have staff, lawyers, and staff that will translate your work experience into contract language to help solve problems. You know, I mean, I remember in that very first negotiation up there, and we were trying to pass a thing about what's called paint downs, which is where the stunt community, it's a problem in the stunt community occasionally. It's not huge, but when it shows up, it's so egregious, it freaks people out because it's, It's literally getting me, a person of color, and my stunt double will be a Caucasian person. And you literally use makeup to paint them down, to literally put them in blackface to double me. Oh, boy. Is the equivalent where they get a man to double you.

And usually the reason why is, you know, safety is paramount. And safety is always paramount. But the excuse is always, well, we need to do it safely and we couldn't find a woman to do it. Or we couldn't do it safely and we couldn't find a person with color to do it. I'm like, you didn't look hard enough. You just didn't look hard enough. Because like, and I had exactly that experience just three months before that negotiation. And in that negotiation, literally I'll never forget this one really convergingly

personally on the outside of the table was like, this isn't the 1950s. That doesn't happen. And I was able to raise my hand and go, um, three months ago. Happened to me. And then instantly we were in a side room because they just, you know, and we were getting contract language, you know, and the problem is you'd never solve a problem. So I feel like so often you don't solve the problem, you're managing it because we had to come back for the same problem 10 years later.

and then another seven years later and we dealt with it some of this contract but you come for it and it's the work experience that means something so it's yeah so for me I understand you being a part of the union and how much the union protects me and how much you showing up and using your voice and putting your experience and advocating for yourself and for your peers means more than I understand

what it means to be a you know TV star yes absolutely that That's newer in my world than the union peace. And now a word from our sponsors who make this show possible. Even as a woman, like in our last contract negotiation when we were trying to increase protections for women on set, there were, we did a side call because I was like, listen, I have not been in this position, but hypothetical, okay? let's say we have to go do an episode of Westworld on HBO. Beautiful show, a lot of nudity, especially with women. You know, you get into some of those western towns and like these background girls.

They're essentially shooting like, you know, what looks to be orgies. And they're like, well, now it's going to be if you show up on set and they tell you as a background doctor, you have to be naked, you can say no and leave with no penalty. And I was like, do y'all think women trying to get their foot in the door who have no power, can leave and potentially there's supposed to be 50 of them in the scene and 25 of them leave and you think those women aren't going to get blackballed by that first AD staff for fucking up their shot

day of. I said absolutely not. There has to be language in advance. You should know two days before your set call. If you are expected to be without your clothing so you can say I'm actually unavailable and they can find someone else and nobody

needs to know why. You have to protect these people and it was really interesting to see some members of the committee go, oh. And I was like, you've just, you've never been a woman on a set. You don't know. And that's why, yes, of course. And by the way, that's why I bring it up. Because I'm like, I loved seeing that language make it in. But it required people being like, no one will say you're going to be blackballed, but they'll, they'll get pretty close. And what we have to do is eradicate the circumstance where someone could be blackballed in the first place. And it's like, that's what I find exciting about what you're saying for anyone listening

at home. Look, we're talking about our experiences as actors, but your experience in the workplace can make your workplace better. You can be the aha moment. You can turn on the light bulb for people, whether it's inside your own union or you turn around and realize that because of your job, you have power in another sector. It's like, it's what you're doing with Brady, which is, you know, so close to my heart. Like, I got my first rifle when I was 12. My dad, you know, he spent his summers on a chicken farm in Canada. Like, I'm not an anti-gun person. I am vehemently anti-insane gun laws like we have in America. But to create healthier circumstance, like, you know, my dad's history is his. My mom's father was a Navy.

guy. Like, you talk about growing up in a military family. Like, you know, I did weapons work and TV. I've done it on films. Like, I'm excited about the sanity conversation that you guys are having it, Brady, that, you know, Vice President Harris and now Governor Walls are having with us. Like, you know, they were like, he's coming for the guns. And people, like, put out that cute photo of him and his dog, like, out burning with a rifle. And I was like, y'all, this is, it doesn't have to be crazy. We can have sane conversations. How did, you know, in addition to all your advocacy for the union and our industry, how did the same gun ownership and, and raining in the conversation about, you know, guns and gun violence, how did that get on your radar?

I mean, look, I mean, the short answer is I'm a dad, you mean, and it gets you paying attention to, you know, because when you're young and single, you're invincible. You can, you know, I'm indestructible. can't do anything. And then you start thinking about the things that can hurt your kids and you realize that they hurt other people, that sort of thing. Now, that said, I'd also, and as the world started to pay more attention to it and started to think about guns differently, I started to realize things, you know, my cousin Darrell Whitman was shot and killed and his murder never found. You mean, you don't think of that as gun violence. You think of that as like, you know, it's a senseless killing and they said that those things involved in blah, blah, blah. And then, like,

I have members of my family who've had crazy domestic abuse issues. Guns involved, threatened with guns, that sort of thing. But that's domestic violence. That's a whole separate thing. That's not gun violence. And then I know we actually have a dear family friend who was the flip side of that domestic violence scenario where he and his, the mother of his daughter, made each other insane because they had that passionate on again and off again

would test each other, poke each other's blood and express with it. And then he had two easy access of a gun and he will never see the outside of a prison again and the testament to how much that was not him was that the victim's mother his daughter's grandmother

testified that he should not get the death penalty that that was not him and at the end of the day you've got to put it on everybody snaps and says things they don't mean every once in a lot. Hopefully it's every once in a long while. You have a moment where you uncharacteristically loud or do something out of character. A gun in close proximity makes that horrible in ways that you can never take back and that will

change everyone's life. Yeah, it makes that regrettable thing you said a horrifically unimaginable thing that no one can believe you did. And that's heavy. And so all of those things started to coalesce in the, I started realizing gun violence has been affecting my life all this time. And I'm looking at my kids now having to do, you know, active shooter drills and how traumatizing that can be because, you know, you don't want your kid to think about, I mean, you know, we did fire drills. And like, that was like, that was annoying. But hey, we got to get outside for a little bit. You know, I remember bringing knowledge to school. Right. But the idea that somebody was going to come and try and hurt you was a far more threatening, you know,

and now we're looking, and that, you know, then the more you start to pay attention, the more you start to freak out and realize that, like, there were laws that said that we couldn't research gun violence for decades, which was insane. Like, we can't research this thing. That's how partisan it had become. That's how ridiculously about people trying to win a fight as opposed to solve the problem. Yes. We're going to solve the problem.

Let's just research it. Like, I'm not even saying we're going to pass a law. I'm saying let's just get real numbers and facts on the table so we can all talk about it. And when that went away, now we're having this open floodgates of information where we're realizing, you know, the number one cause of death for children in America today is guns. Yeah. And that's that's nuts. That's just nuts. And, you know, every other country, people struggle with depression.

people are having a hard time at work people have anxiety they all watch the same movies we do and play the same video games we do it's the guns I mean we're you know the idea that you know the only thing that stops a bad guy with the gun

is a good guy with the gun or guns making people safer you're like we have four times as many guns we have four times as many you know as much gun violence it is as any other country in the world and that's just it's not an accident well and I think we've we've seen, we have enough proof to know that that adage is just not accurate.

You know, women are five times more likely to die in a domestic violence situation if there is a gun in the house. We have seen, I mean, we saw it in Yuvaldi what happened at that school in Texas. How many armed, trained good guys with guns were there and those children were executed, you know, very similarly to your family story. my little cousin was the little girl shot and killed the day Gabby Giffords was shot in Arizona. And, you know, she was an elected official. There were armed police. It's like this idea that more guns helps has been disproven. And I think, I think in particular it's important for folks like us to help have these conversations because it is, you know, the on-screen firefighters or cops.

It is the movies about the good guys that make us think, like, oh, it's doable. We love a hero story, but data is not a story and data is not an opinion and data is not an emotion. It's just fact. And we have the facts. It's inconvenient. Yeah, it's why they tried to make it illegal to research gun violence for so long because it was inconvenient to the profit of the gun industry.

And that's why I'm so proud of your Brady campaign doing the trigger warning. Yeah. Can you tell us about that? Yeah, it's a guy that they literally are going to the media. I mean, you just hit the nail on the head that, you know, how many people learned, you know, learn to think that smoking was cool because they watched people do it in the movies and that sort of thing. Well, we all learn to think that guns are cool because we watch movies and TV.

That's what I think. Well, Brady campaign is, you know, trigger warning is about let's have conversations with the industry to figure out how to make gun safety cool, right? Yes. And again, not anti-gun. You said, you know, you shoot, I'm a good shot. I grew up around guns my entire life The reality is

When you see the cop Shooting at the bad guys He runs down the street And he's heroic And everybody pats him on the back For you know Getting the bad guy of all You know

Let's let's roll it back and say Let's have the cop get yelled out Because you know One would begin to think They're all the cops We're firing at bad guys all the time And that's cool And then you find out that like

Something like one and four police officers Have ever fired their gun In a line of dude And you suddenly you go oh, that's a completely disproportionate idea of what's going on. So let's make it a more realistic scenario. You can put it on another way to make it cool in action without necessarily. Or let's have the cop get yelled at for firing in a crowd.

Yes. Out in public where you could have endangered the lives of other people. Right. Repercussions for the discharge of your weapon and that sort of thing. And then simple little things like, like, you know, how many movies have you seen where they have a gun underneath their pillow. They have a gun in their side. Ridiculous. I mean, we have candidates

talking about how their grandmother had guns in this drawer and that drawer and guns all over the house. And I just thought, that's just begging for somebody to catch a bullet. Well, yeah. I mean, yeah, another stat for you. One out of every four kids says that they have handled a gun without their parents knowing

about it. Yes. Terrifying. The kids are, and as a mischievous kid, I guarantee you your kid knows where guns. I guarantee you, you know, if you have multiple kids, at least one of them is figured out where it is. And, you know, and then it's showing it to friends and see yada, yada, yada. We all know these stories and people think about it. They've been part of these stories. And then, you know, these are the moments when I go, how did we not die back in the day? Yes.

The answer is, you were lucky. Because there are too many kids that do, you know, eight kids die every day. And so it's the, so like, so if you have in the show, if you see the cop come home from work. They didn't discharge their weapon. They got the information. They got the bad guy in a more responsible, more realistic way. They come home, they take their gun out and they put it into

their safe. And then into the secure box. Then that becomes just cool. That becomes the way you handle this. As opposed to this wild west mentality. And again, we changed mythology. We think the wild west was so wild. There were tons of towns

in the wild west. where you had to leave your gun at the border of the town, where you couldn't come into town with your guns, specifically because... We've never seen that on screen. No, I've never seen that. I'm like, who's making that movie? And so putting that out there in a chance to,

just like with that Wild West example, show something that's cool and interesting and yet completely historically accurate, you know, just like the tons of black cowboys and like go, oh, that's not the image. We only know what Hollywood shows us. We only know what newsreels show us, that sort of thing, you know. And so flipping the script and taking a little look at your script,

you don't have to change your story fundamentally. You don't have to change how your heroin gets down. You don't have to change that much, but a little touch here and a little touch there will really begin to change the way we all view gun safety. It's like, oh, having a secure lockbox is cool, is smart, protects my kids. kids, if you show a kid handling, if you show the ramifications of not blocking

your job safely, that's a great storyline. That's a thing. I've got the show to do in this last season an episode about extreme risk protection orders. Most people know them as like red flag laws. Basically the laws

that we're at say, if this person is demonstrably a danger to themselves or others, You can take a domestic violence situation You can take their guns away It is the prime I mean domestic violence

And mental And somebody who's mentally unhealthy Mental illness are the two prime Examples where you can say Yo This veteran is in a really bad place And this is the thing where I feel like we've got Because the whole joke

The whole goal now is to get everybody on the same page Yes Remember we watch this Seeing the social media posts of it The guy who was a He's a self-proclaimed gun nut That's how he would refer to him I'm a gun nut. I want that one. I want that one. I want that one.

And it's a funny bit and everything like that. And he shoots and that's all great. That's fine. But even he would say, if you're a veteran and you're in a dark place, maybe give your guns to your buddy. Yeah. Maybe give you guns to your buddy. Because if a veteran is going to kill themselves, it's going to be with a gun. Yes. You know, you know, veterans and police officers, they're going to do it.

And people forget how much suicide is the bulk of gun violence. Yes. And again, it's, and again, the more you start to learn, the more you start to learn, the more you start it starts to reshape what you picture as gun violence. We all think of mass shooters because that is the big, scary, what causes that, how do you ever prevent that? And we realize how much of it really is preventable. And again, and this is my argument to the whole, you know, more guns.

I'm like, bounce prevention is worth a pound of cure. Yes. Right? So if we can separate the mentally unhealthy person from their guns just while they're in their dark space, if we can to separate the abuser from their guns while the person being abused is still vulnerable until they get to a safe place until things have calmed down

in that relationship. If you can separate the mentally unhealthy person who's angry, who's been bullied at school, et cetera, et cetera, if you can separate them from the guns

or make it difficult to access guns. You know, most school shooters, I think it's something with a number is like something like 76% of school shooters that are teens

got the gun from their own or a friend's house. Yes. That neck end goes back to if it was in a lockbox. They wouldn't have had access. I can't get to my, you know, I can get to my friend's house maybe. But even if he showed me where his parents keep their gun, I don't know the code if there's a code.

It was just in a drawer, game on. And there's nothing to stop me. It's about putting those impediments between people and doing damage to themselves or others. Yeah. A ounce of prevention is worth a pound to cure. And when you talk about it, in real calm, trying to solve the price. problem, not win some political fight. Right.

I don't care about that. I mean, over a beer, I have yet to meet a gun owner who over a beer won't acknowledge that the fact that I can walk in screaming about how much my wife piss me off and when I get home, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, flunked down my ID, get a case of beer and an AK-47. That's a bad idea. It's a bad idea. Like, let's just acknowledge it's a bad idea. Period.

bad idea and at the end of the day it's like this because it makes a lot of people a lot of money the gun lobby has made so much money making the rest of us unsafe as as a hobbyist as a gun owner that pisses me off the idea that they have sold people on marketing that folks at home need to have weapons of war in their garages I'm like enough and I loved what Secretary Buttigieg said back on the campaign trail leading into the 2020 election. He was like, listen, you want to say we can't infringe on your Second Amendment rights, enough.

He goes, because you can't have a predator drone. I say that as a veteran. You don't get to have one. So there's a line somewhere. We need to walk the line back to these types of weapons. And I was like, wow, that's the best way I've ever heard a person say it. Like, I can't buy a tank.

I can't do that. And I don't, and I shouldn't be able to. Well, in the reality is, I mean, and I'm the first one to say Shooting guns is fun. Shooting is fun and it is cool. I love it. So it's blowing stuff up. There are rules about dynamite.

There's rules about dynamite nitroglycer. You know what I mean? And that's just, and that's the thing. And so it's just common sense things. And so that's why I'm like so proud of like the, the, you know, I mean, look, the trigger warning, getting Hollywood to start to reframe how we see it in media. I mean, it was put together by the Hollywood Health and Society, you know, at the USC's Norman Lear Center.

And I give them, I give them, you know, and it makes me laugh because I go, Norman Lear at the heart of so many cool things in America. I mean, shows that brought black folks into your home every week were from Norman Lear. Then we put women at the front of being funny were Norman Lear that like got into the controversial stuff and made it funny so we could laugh, chill out, and talk about it. it. Of course, Norman Lear and Hollywood Health and Society are at the heart of that because they're like, let's just talk about it. Like not argue about it. Like, we're going to show you it. We're going to break it open. We'll make you laugh about it. We'll make you cry about it. And then we're going to make you think about it. Like for real. It's making space for the entire human experience of problem solving. Yeah. And what a relief. Don't just win the fight.

And now a word from our sponsors. so where do people go like if this kind of you know sane and inclusive dialogue sounds great to people how do our listeners get involved well you can check you can check out uh hollywood health and society you can check out brady campaign uh i do work with every town and mom's demand that. I mean, these are, these groups are out there getting it done and, uh, and I love them all and they each have real special niches. Uh, Hollywood, uh, Hollywood, uh, literally and was on the forefront of getting people to realize, you know, the power that we have. Uh, and, and some of the mistakes that we've been making, uh, unintentionally, uh, in the kind of messaging

that we put out there and that we can, just a simple little, flip you don't lose any of the tower of the story but you can make a big difference uh and then on the other end of the inspection you got mom's demand action that I love that's so they're all grass but mom's man action it's like I mean

I'm I remember when like moms against drunk driving changed the entire situation and it wasn't laws eventually were part of it but really what they did was they made it uncool to drive drunk they made it cool to ask you to tell you

to get your friend to give you the keys because I know you've been drinking. You know, so now my hope is that we're going to make it cool to ask when your kids go over for a play date, ask if there are guns in the home. Yes. And then asking the follow-up of crackily.

Yes. It makes it cool to have the conversation in a fight. It makes it, it's making it cool for Hollywood to show responsible gun safety and lock boxes and that sort of thing. You know, that's all,

making that stuff cool is the thing. And I think that's what moms demand. action is about, I think it's in Hollywood Health Society's taking that and really getting people to like showing, you know, putting trigger warning in their face and making them understand. So you can find them on social media. You can find their websites. They're out there. And by the way, it's your friends and neighbors. Everybody's in this conversation. And what I what I pray is, you know, you as a person who's used guns, me as a person, you know, like all the gun owners get in the game. And the gun owners start getting in the game because that fear of they're going to

take the guns. It's like, no, we're going to control gun safety. It's not they're going to do anything. It's we are going to make ourselves safer. And it doesn't mean, but it's not about taking the guns. It's about let's making sure we're smart and we're just, gun safety just be a watchword that we all pay attention to. Exactly. I love it. I absolutely love it. There's a lot. I mean, we've covered a lot. From your 25th anniversary to parenthood to career. and advocacy and all of these things, you have, you've done so much and you've also given so much

with your career and with your platform. I wonder as you sit here, you've got to come to terms of the fact that 2024 is going to be over before we know it, as you kind of look out ahead over the rest of the year and beyond, what feels like your work in progress right now? Oh, my work in progress is,

I've It's funny Because I'm I'm staring at Empty Nestor I mean I got 16 old driving cars They can get themselves To and from

Wherever they need to be On their own They can Uber if they need to Because they're They're old and responsible If they can drive themselves there And so you know And I've won in college

And so I'm It is that thing right now Where I'm starting to do more things for me Which funny enough Some of that's in the business You know Things that I was like Just

Nose the grindstone show up, get the work done, build the acting career. And now I'm like, I want to be a part of creating this thing from the jump, from get-go, and bringing the elements together. And that's exciting. And also just enjoyed, like, we just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. And so for a long time, you did that kids are the most important thing in the world. Yeah.

And I've told them since they were little. I was like, if you see daddy-kissing mommy, never interrupt. You never interrupt daddy-kissing mommy. because this was happening before you. This would be going on when you all leave. And it was funny and I was serious and it was a joke. And yet, it's also, you know, now I'm at the spot where I'm like, hey, you. Yeah.

Like, you know. You're like, wait, what are you doing later? And so we've been in that space for the last little bit. We're like, you know, hey kids, you know, what do you want for dinner? Oh, I'm not going to be over here. I'm over doing that thing. I got practice. I got this, that, and the other thing.

And everybody's spread out to the four winds, and we just look at turning because you and me. So we roll to the pub around the corner that we love and, you know, pop down and chill with, you know, call a couple of people. Be like, hey, what you're doing? And they're like, I'm with my four-year-old. I'll be, I can't make it. So like you talk about your friends, we have a whole bunch of our friends who are at that stage. You know, my brother being among the minute. I'm like, hey, man, we're just like, I can't have that.

I got the kid. So, but we're part of that, like, so the work in progress now is going back to getting your young and sexy on, you know, getting your young and sexy and ambitious on. finding projects that you get to be at the center of that's what i'm i'm excited about right now oh i love that well thank you i mean truly you know from what you do on screen to all the things you choose to do off it really it means a lot appreciate you right back at you right back at you this is a perfect example just this podcast and who you choose to put on and what you choose to amplifying your podcast again, amazing. And to do it all with grace and beauty and not caught up in all of that. Well, thank you. I appreciate that very much. Much love.

Yeah, right back at you. Thank you for today, Jason. Oh, it's a good appreciate you. This is an iHeart podcast