Girl on Guy with Aisha Tyler - girl on guy 217: travis fimmel

Episode Date: August 6, 2016

this episode of girl on guy was recorded in front of a live audience of girl on guy at the fourth annual GOG fan appreciation event, held at the US Grant hotel, the historic home of the very first comic-con. so much goodness. girl on guy loves the fans more than cake.

This is Girl on Guy. Hey, everybody, welcome to Girl on Guy 217. Welcome to the show. This is Girl on Guy Live. I mean, it's not coming to you live right now, but it was recorded live at Comic Con. In the lovely U.S. Grant, which is the home, the historical home, the very first home of the original Comic Con, which, you know, I think if you think about it, literally means comic convention or comic book convention. Anyway, it's a historical building and it was a really cool room, and we had a blast. For those of you out there who have been a part of previous fan appreciation events at Comic Con, you know what it's like. It is a celebration of you.

A hundred of you won tickets to come and see me live. I gave away all kinds of presents, t-shirts, posters, stickers. I signed people's paraphernalia. And people got to drink my annual stone beer collaboration this year, which was called Hot Buttered Fox. It was a remix of their famous Wootz-Stout beer made with, beautiful kind of crumb-fresh caramel and cool chili salt. I can't remember actually the name of the chivaleno. No, it wasn't that hot. It was something delicious. I can't remember it because I'm going on non-sleep. But anyway, it had this beautiful kind of salted caramel quality to it. So people

got to drink the beer and then they got to watch a live recording of my show with the actor, Travis Fimmel from Vikings. And this year, I don't think I really gave it away. I think last year I might have told people who was going to be my guest. this year, it was a big surprise for everybody, and they went, ooh, and he came out, and it was a blast, and it was a great conversation. I can't wait for you to hear it. Let me get the business out of the way very, very quickly. This episode of Growling Guy is brought to you in part by the lovely purveyor of fine eyewear Warby Parker, a pair of which I am a proud owner, and they are super cool. They are aces. Warby Parker is a very new concept in eyewear with a specific and lofty

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love companies that do good by doing well. And I think that they're incredible. So here's what you do. You go to Warbyparker.com slash Girl on Guy and you order your free home try-ons right now. You try them on, you send them back. And your experience is risk-free, free shipping when you buy your glasses. Warby Parker.com slash Girl on Guy to avail yourself of their free offer. And here's the thing. It's for a charitable cause. They're also the coolest, most elegant glasses you can wear. You are doing good by doing well. And you're also letting Warby Parker know that supporting Girl on Guy is a good choice for them. So check it out. Visit Warby Parker.com slash Girl on Guy to get your free home try-on experience started today. Check that out. All right. As mentioned, this episode of Girl on Guy

is with the actor Travis Fimmel, who you may know from lots of things, including the giant blockbuster film Warcraft that came out this summer, but I know him best. How I first discovered him is on the history series Vikings, which is a very cool show. If you are not watching it, get in there. It's amazing, and he's amazing in it, and he's a really, really interesting actor and an interesting guy. I knew he was. I knew he was. I met him when I went over to Vikings to Shadow a few summers ago, which was a part of the beginning of me moving on to directing features, which, as you know, I just did this spring, and I'm working on my film right now, getting it cut.

We're in post. For those of you who are backers on my Kickstarter campaign, I cannot ever thank you and all how I met some of you at Comic-Con this summer, including some of the backers that were a part of the Hopcon backing package. You guys got to meet me at Stone Brewing. We got to drink beers together in the VIP room, and then you guys got to taste my beer and hundreds of other beers. and it was a really cool day, so thank you to all of those backers who backed at that level,

and to all of you who have backed at any level on my Kickstarter campaign, the film is going great. But a big part of my transition from short film directing to feature directing was going and shadowing at Vikings in Ireland, and that is where I met Travis. He's a really interesting actor. He started out as a model. He's gone on to do some incredibly riveting and complex work, and now he is playing Ragnar Lothbrook, the lead character on the history series Vikings,

which is one of the coolest shows I've ever seen. So I would check that out if you haven't watched the show. It's not that many seasons to catch up on. And it is riveting, and it's a show about, I think they're trying to be as historically accurate as they can, about a people for whom there is no written history. So most of what we know about them was gleaned by what people wrote about them and also from archaeological and other kinds of anthropological evidence.

But this iteration and this meditation on the Vikings and that are interaction with the West of Europe is not just historically compelling, but also really stinking cool, really fucking cool. So, yeah, he's a really interesting guy, and I know you're going to love this conversation. It was a great conversation for me. It was a great experience for all of you guys who won the contest. Thank you for entering. Thank you for coming and seeing me at Comic Con. It was a great experience. You guys rock. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Girl and Guy, 217, with the actor Travis Fimmel of the series Vikings and Warcraft and many more coming at you straight out at Comic-Con 2016 and ride it to your face.

Can you guys all hear me? It's obviously an intimate setting here and we don't have any kind of amplifying equipment other than the mollifous bellowing of the cavity of my chest. So just know that we're going to do our best to project. First of all, thank you guys for entering the contest for the awesome fan appreciation event here at Comic-Con 2016. You're all winners in my book. And thanks for standing in the sun while I got my show together today.

You guys are excellent in every way. I just stand in the sun. What's that? Oh, no, I sat in the bar. You sat in the bar. Well, that's clearly you're a girl and guy fan, a very high caliber. And I'm a really special guest, guy that I'm actually trying to get on the show for a long time now. but he's a moody and elusive artist,

and it took me a while to lock him in. You know him from a lot of things, including the most recent big, huge blockbuster version of the game, Warcraft, but you probably know him best as Ragnar Lothbrook from Vikings. And he's here right now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr. Travis Femmel. Sit here by me.

Okay, so first of all, I'm actually, you guys know I'm a big believer in like super double, triple, extra reduction. I'm actually going to do a backup on my phone because that's how fucking professional I am. It's all about high tech on girl and guy. Welcome with the show, Travis. Thank you for having me.

Hey, guys. How are you? Yeah. Travis, everyone's gonna, I got you to lean in because Travis is an intimate speaker. That beer is for you. That was red wine. What?

What? I've been on. Yeah, you are. Yeah, no, it's not, it's, I can hear you in here. It's not being projected out there. Just being projected into my brain. Cheers. This is a beer that I made. It's not going to kill you.

It's not bad. It's interesting. It's, it's 14% ABV. Drink with caution. This is this year's version of my beer for stone. It's a Wootstout remix that has. You guys all tasted it, right? Did you like it? You like it? Yeah. Pretty good, huh?

Yeah, it's got vanilla, burnt caramel and Serrano Chile. You had me at 14%. I knew, I did. I knew you were going to like it. Okay, so Travis, first of all, welcome to the show. when I met when I came to Shadow on Vikings, which I think some of you guys who followed me on the show that I did that a couple of years ago. And I was already a huge fan of the show, End of You.

And we got to hang out a little bit. We won pool. Yeah, yeah, we played pool. We beat the locals at Paul. We did. They did not like that at all. No. They never liked me there. They're not a fan. Vikings shoots in County Wicklow in a tiny,

what's the town? Ashford. Ashford. Ashford Studio. And then the town itself, in Ireland, about an hour north of Dublin is that big. Is it south? Yes.

I don't know. But it's the most beautiful place I think in the world. There's beautiful lakes that we shoot at and everywhere within sort of half and out. Yeah, gorgeous, gorgeous place. But I remember walking into that pub with you and I felt like it was a scene from like literally like a movie. Like there were like two old guys with one tooth,

you know, like just staring at you from the corner. You were the prettiest thing in that bar for sure. I was also the blackest thing in that bar, I'll tell you that. Yeah. So they were very confused by the whole thing. And then, okay, now this is awful, but there were two girls in that bar who were in love with you. I swear to God, they were staring at you so hard. I thought they were trying to voodoo you into submission.

Do you remember them? They were like, maybe Portuguese. Yeah, you're always good at remembering girls. They remember people were Portuguese. Anyway, I went over to them. Oh, yes. Yes. I can't say exact because you never know.

You never know. Yeah, we won't say her name, but this girl literally was trying to track her beam you into her body with her eyeballs. And I thought that they knew you. Like, that's how hard they were looking at you. I was like, these must be Travis's friends. I went over. I was like, hi, and I hugged them. And they were like, oh, hello.

I think they were alarmed. They were getting any attention at all because I think you've probably been avoiding eye contact for fear of murder. Now, that's not nice to say, but you never know. Well, to be hard. Is she your friend now? I like that little scary thing. Do you? I should not look at this bird.

It makes it interesting, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, totally. A little bit of danger. Yeah, and then you're watching in the car park and stuff. Hoping. Are you doing it, or she was hoping for what? I'm into that so hard. Are you like them weird?

Like weird girls? Yeah, I don't. Yeah. This is already my favorite. conversation I've ever had. I went to the grocery store for years and I never met nobody, you know, you never met

that's what you meant to meet somebody for the rest of your life. Yeah. I'm more of a car park after that. Just lurking, you're waiting for someone to in the shadows. Yeah. Okay, well, we know what you like now, ladies. Just lurk. Work on your lurking skills. Let's do,

I want to come back to Vikings, but I want to go back to the beginning of your life. So tell me where you were born. I was born in, after one night of passion, my parents. The only night of bad then? No, they had three. I got two brothers. I was born in a Chuka hospital, which is about 40 minutes from my farm in Australia. It's between Melbourne and Sydney.

Okay, you grew up on a farm, wow. Help people who don't know Australia, Melbourne and Sydney, those are both on the south coast of the continent. Yeah. Yeah. I'm about three hours north of Melbourne and 10 south west of, I'm a real navigator here. Yeah. Southwest of Sydney. Cool. Inland, like an inland farm or an earth? Yeah, yeah, very hot and dry. We irrigate, but we've got to bring water in. There's no, we don't get much rain at all.

What did you grow? What kind of a farm was it? Well, me and my brothers had a little different business. Marijuana? Marijuana. Okay, I get it. It's cool. It's legal now. You don't have to be embarrassed. I just said that. Cool. Now we had dairy farms.

We had a dairy farm, a beef farm and crops. Cool. The dairy is the main industry. Is that, you know, it's interesting. Like, I always feel like culturally, when you say that you grew up on a farm, it means something very specific.

Like, if you're an American, you have a specific idea about what that's like. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, or, you know, kind of that heartland corn and, you know, pick up chicks. And I'm sorry, guys, who are from farms. I am an asshole, I agree. But what was farming life life for you?

Was it a huge ranch? Were there people that live nearby you? Were you kind of in a really... We were a few Ks or a few miles from the closest neighbor. But it's all very flat where I'm from. So we didn't do the whole horse thing. Even though we had horses, it was quicker to do everything on motorbikes. And we call our trucks Utes.

Yutes. Yeah. Okay. And I'm like the country songs over here. Our dog's never run her way. They're very loyal It's probably too fucking hot to go Anyway

I made love with other dogs But they're very loyal But no It's very hot there's very I love farming I want to do it But I'm going to get a place up north Where it rains once

It's very tough farming And hard on You just say it's hard on your grandparents And your father But I wouldn't change it for anything If you grow up on a farm You sort of understand it But there's no where else

want to raise kids or leave myself. That's lovely. I'm just trying to make some money. Yeah, yeah, get some money so you can go back and start ranching. You know like Australia? I don't like hot dusty shit, though. I mean.

No, there's no dust in the kitchen. There's also no Aisha in the kitchen. So, yeah, yeah. That part of my, unless I'm making beer, I'm not fucking around with the kitchen. I'm not part of my language. I'm not like that. That was just, you know.

I like you guys. You're very low. Hey, on, buddy. Yeah, they were. It's Australia. We barbecue. There's no kitchen. There's no kitchen. I literally haven't cooked any. I made an egg last month, guys. They're very protective.

These are my, this is my posse. Observe. Observe. So, so you grow up in this kind of rural life. And, you know, and again, I don't want to insult you. I feel like I have this kind of city attitude about, like, what it's like to live in the country. And I don't know.

Thank you. anything about what it's like to live in the country in Australia. But how much of like the entertainment business was leaking into your life there? Like were you... Absolutely not. None. Yeah, I never wanted to do this. I was never a kid that danced around and try to get attention.

Even now, even now, you're inscrutable. So, yeah, I can see that. Were you a quiet kid? Yeah, no, I was very quiet, but I loved the outdoors. I was always... My brothers were, they sort of stuck together. The two older brothers, and I was sort of, I was about myself. Aw.

So you're the baby? You're the baby. Axel had it. I just went hunting all the time. This went out on my own. But I loved it. Absolutely. So you were like a little bit of a loner.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, one of those, you throw a ball, and then you got to go grab it and throw it. I want you to know right now that I was totally that kid. Like a big part of my childhood was going to the park with a tennis ball and throw it against a lot. Oh, yeah. That's hours of entertainment. That and the voices keep you all occupied all day long. I see your sad face when it goes in water or something.

And you go back inside, need a popsicle. I can entertain my damn self. I do feel, though, like a lot of times, loner kids... God, that's... I'm going to regret it. I just feel that that's... I know you, and I know that you can take it. I've got other interviews.

No one gives a shit about what happens to you after you leave here. You're going to winkle out of existence, as far as I'm concerned. But I do think, because you were saying you weren't like a performing kid, but I do sometimes feel like loner kids, you know, tend to be kind of artistic adults. You know what I mean? I feel like you... I was more autistic. Autistic. That could be interesting as well.

There's something funny about it. I mean, the first acting class I went to, it was a very, the acting teacher really made you explain your feelings and just say what was your life like. My lexicon's not very good, guys. It's working beautifully. You're expressing yourself perfectly. Yeah, thank you. Come to me, I've got extra words I don't need if you need them. I'm full of shit.

No, but everybody says what's affected them in their life and all that stuff. And there was something, I've never been in a room full of people that had similar issues. Or, you know, sometimes you feel like a loner with your issues. and all the weird actors and fucked up people. Yeah. We're in this one room, it felt. And finally I felt like, oh, you get what I feel.

Yeah, yeah. Was there a moment, like, where someone expressed something where you thought, oh, God, that's what I've been going through? Yeah, but I don't want to dover anybody in in my life. Sure, that's fine. Yeah. And there was actually a lot of people in the room.

I'm very similar. And I'm not a fan of, I'm never going to stick up for actors or anything, but they're not. a lot of, there's a reason why people are drawn to it, you know, there are other wankers that want the fame and,

and, uh, always wanted to be in showbiz since a kid and wanted to wear pretty dresses and shit. Mm-hmm. Fuck that shit. I did wear, I won't a dress before. Yeah, you have. But my issues aren't that.

But yeah, it was funny. I just had such a commonality of whatever, commonality of pain or whatever. with other people. And I had a good life. It just as an actor, you find you like being miserable in a way, you know. It's interesting. I mean, I'm serious.

Like, you know, I think a lot of times if you've had, you know, like pain in your life, it can be crippling, but if you can see it as just an aspect of being human, it does be, it can be interesting. And it's definitely interesting as an actor, you know, like when you go through shit, you think, well, not to be like glib, but this is. You can use it. Yeah, I can fucking use this shit. Oh, yeah.

you'd say something I was going on this week and something bad somebody died or somebody like oh we're going to use that that's great stuff that's great stuff yeah yeah I mean you know like and I and I think also nobody gets out of this you know nobody gets out of being

alive alive you know what I mean like you're gonna everybody's going to go through shit and the key is to not give it power over you you know and act I guess acting can help you kind of dissect it and make it less powerful yeah for sure I definitely use it to try to make my work better, but

it's, um, I don't like it or whatever. You don't like it? No, I don't like being in that mood or whatever. But not, I'm an actor where some actors, good luck to all, and there's some amazing ones to do it, but after you do you see

and I'm like, talking normal. You know, I have fun, but some actors are just so intense, and it's like, fuck, I say, ooh. You know? I'm one of those. Seen.

I'm normal again. Right. Yeah. I find that kind of behavior, like, honestly, exhausting. Like, you know, just staying in all the time. Yeah, you're sitting at lunch or whatever. Somebody's giving you a stinker. Like, the fuck, it was in the script, dude.

Oh, God. Oh, God. What draw, what pulled you? What pulled you into that acting class? Was there something specific that drew you to it? No. I was just a mate. Went there's a long story.

I can't be bothered getting into. No, see, I was nearly getting into it. So get into it. No, well, come on. Come on, out of there. Let's do it. I was working in a pub when I was like 18 and 20 in London. And an American came in.

And they're really fun for the first time. Oh, come on, at least a day or two. Come on, give us the weekend. Having a real nice fella come in. He was real fun. We're talking. I ended up having a few beers with him. And then he went away.

We didn't exchange contacts or anything. He's just a nice fellow. There's plenty of nice fellows come in. Then I was on about a year later. I was at a beach in France. And his fellow walked across. And he saw me. That sounds, I'm straight.

Everybody's a little gay, Travis. us. Are you thinking about it? But anyway, no, he walked across. I'm like, I know that fuck it. And he looked at me. I know that guy. And we're like, hey, oh,

English pub, we worked it out. And then another, like, six, I don't know, six months later or something, I got to think of the third place now. You saw him in the third place. No, I saw him in third place. Yeah. It's the beer.

It is. It is. 14%. Yeah. It's literally the strongest. I could make it without breaking the wall. I could ask Jimmy, I've told you this story. Where did I?

This is my... Yeah, what was the third place, Jimmy? My hunting partner, Jamie. I've told you this story. Where was the third place? It's David Telter I'm talking about. London? No, that's a...

London and then the beach in Paris. And then a bathhouse in Greece. Yes. Through a hole in the wall. Anyway, so... So you see him in a third place. Anyway, it's a third random place. And anyway, I went in, I stayed with him for like two weeks in L.A.

And I joined class. Oh, so you see him that you see him the third place? He was the same management company, yeah. You see him the third place and you guys, and he's a manager. Oh, the other. No, no. Oh, yeah, no, the pub. Miami Beach.

Oh, fabulous. And then I met him at Cannes Film Festival. Oh. I was with an actress at the time. Yeah. He was pretty good for a non-year-old. Yeah, it was your pretty face. That was what that was.

Yeah, it was. It's okay to have once been like a pretty, pretty boy. You're still quite handsome, but when you were young, you had a face like a baby's ass cheek. That was a compliment, by the way. He really wants to forget that part of his life. I know that about you. A little hairy.

Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, you know, you're, look, he's a good-looking dude. So you're kissing, right? like kissing baby ass cheeks. No, I don't, everybody kisses, everybody kisses babies' ass cheeks in the most innocuous, gentle, and non-sexualized way possible.

It's cute, it's a little babies, but yeah, but you were over 18, so then, you know, it turned into something else, but do not write me a letter. And then what did he say to you? Like, you should be an actor? I mean, how did that conversation happen? Because- I, why don't you try it? I was working at a pub, getting chubby, getting,

I loved it though. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But I certainly couldn't do it. for the rest of my life. I could have, but I thought it was a dumb option. Yeah. Anyway, I just tried. I wanted to travel. I wanted to see the States and anyway. And you came here. He hooked me out with an acting teacher and went to class, yeah. Wow. It's exciting. You know, I know a lot of people who were that person who were like, oh, I knew at five, I wanted to be this. And I, in some ways I envy them because I definitely

didn't come into acting that way as well. Like, it would be nice to know yourself. I wish I, yeah. But to be honest, I wish I loved it. You know, so much as I just love it so much. I love going to work. I do it for free. I do it at a stage all the time. You don't feel that. No, not way if you weren't. You get paid dumb money.

It does feel like that on the farm, you know? Well, I want to jump ahead really quickly because I will say that I, you know, the reason I met you was because I was a fan of your show, and I, you know, was shadowing at Penny Dridful and asked to come visit Vikings, and they were lovely and took lovely care of me. But your acting is so interesting and so thought. and so nuanced that I'm surprised. I say that could be really shit acting.

It could be. It could just be the your tricksy motherfucker and you do the same three things over and over again. And I see it as sinister genius. But I guess I do wonder when you're acting, I mean, are there times when you enjoy it and times when you resented or like what, how do you feel about it generally? Because you are very good at it. That's a bit. It really is. It is very strong.

It's very strong. No, I want to be proud of what I do, and I want to be different, and I want to be whatever you do, I want to be as good as I can be. Yeah. You know, and that's probably why I'm still doing it, because I still think I can be, yeah, a lot better. Yeah. I'm not really made myself proud enough yet, you know.

Yeah. As soon as I get to that point, hopefully I get to that point soon, and that'll be no more. I'm going to tell you something I'm going to head shrink you for a second and say that I don't know I don't know

that you may ever reach the point where you're satisfied because I think if you're just dissatisfied artists you stay dissatisfied artists which there's nothing wrong with that because that's what drives the pursuit of excellence people think they're awesome all the time they're probably not but if you're dissatisfied with your work it's because you want you know you're constantly

pursuing I might have to do something really dumb where I will not get hired again. Oh, you're just going to blow your life up? Yeah. Can you please call me first so I can watch? Or potentially participate. Do you think, now you're working on it in your head, I see it.

Do you think, I ask this question a lot on the show. People who listen to every episode know this. I was really circling this specific question for a while about whether you have to blow up your life periodically to be an interesting artist. If, like, you need, I don't mean blow it up, like, end up in the gutter, but do you need to have radical experiences to be artistically radical? Do you know what I mean?

Like if you're just kind of getting up every day and having a bowl of cereal and driving your electric car to your set and then somebody brings you a fucking bagel toasted the way you like it, can you be an interesting actor? I think for some people, maybe. There's some amazing, like Daniel Day Lewis is of the world. He's the one

giving you the fucking stink guy at lunch, though, that guy. You know, he's still linking now in the fucking Starbucks right now. They're misspelling Lincoln on his latte. That's that guy. You know, I, you've already dropped the name, but he lived like five minutes from me in Ireland, and I did a film with his wife,

and they're the nicest family. And I was thinking that stuff when I went to the house for dinner, and I like, geez, he's going to, yeah, see the guy pretty well. He's a nicest fellow you'd ever meet. That's wonderful. And the most, maybe I should stay in character at lunches. He's just so nice and such a talented person. To be honest, people like that that you respect so much, for me is a big driving force.

I'm doing this stuff. I would love to be one day as good as these people. Yeah. But then there's 90% of people that don't work as hard and don't in it for the wrong reasons. and I don't know. I really appreciate some because I feel it's such a hard industry for a start and then such a hard, I'm never going to say art. Okay, it's too late.

It's too late because I'm forcing it on you this whole time. It's such a hard and difficult art form to be amazing at. Yeah, it is. You know, and I seriously do believe that to get to those, especially the talented people like him, is way harder than being a doctor or anything, a way less chance of being that good, you know. Well, because it's a femoral, right?

Like, being a doctor for the most part. Yeah, I know. I told you I have a couple extra words I can throw out here. Six letters. Okay, fleeting? A fleeting. Fleeting. Well, just that just...

Like the ships. Yeah, like it's... No. That like with a doctor, like there are rules, right? Like that the spleen's always in the same spot and these veins go here. but with acting, there's just something ineffable, like something that you can't put your finger on, you know what I mean?

And you can learn a million methods and practice and practice and practice. And then there's just that extra bit of something that is just innate. But then I also think you can have breakthroughs as an actor, right? Where all of a sudden shit becomes apparent to you that wasn't apparent before. Yeah, I really think early on especially. I haven't had a breakthrough for a bit, probably one. But no, you're definitely, no, definitely, I think there's a lot of fear involved and I forgot my thought. Yeah, it's the beer.

You're late, dude. Hell of tardy. No, he works for me. He's handling my business. So you're in this class and all of a sudden what happens for you is that you're interacting with people who you feel like are having similar experiences to you. Yeah, well, that was the first reason for getting in there. and then took a bed awake and then I meant actresses.

It was the ladies! And I had to tell you I was fucking waiting because it's always the ladies. No, no, not a little. That's just I think everybody says that. You're in L.A. There's... That conned everywhere.

Yeah. We're like a virus. No, but I'm serious and I'm not even being glib. Like, I feel like if you're not the kid who was five and doing like, you know, chorus line in your bedroom, a part of it is that acting can make you feel interested in yourself and also interested in other people.

I mean, I followed a dude into an acting class. I'm not going to lie. I mean, that was it. I met a guy, he was an actor, he was super hot, and I followed him around, then I ended up in his acting class, and then I started acting. I was like the acting more than I like the dude. You know what I mean? That's typically how it goes down, you know, which seems, again, dismissive of acting,

but I do think there's something about becoming an actor that can make you feel like you know yourself better and that goes hand in hand with having sex with other people. No, no, no. But it's good and bad. I'd rather be the, what it was, a 20-year-old kid that didn't know enough about himself. I was a lot happier. Yeah? Because you really do search out problems in your life and you find them.

I mean, everybody can, even if you think you've got the happiest life in the world. You can really search because you need that if you want to be an actor. Yeah. But you look at where did somebody mess up. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And none of that stuff, I'd be happy not to know.

You feel like you would like to go back to kind of ignorance. Yeah, happy, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. Complexity is difficult. It is difficult. It's hard to have thoughts and shit.

It is. I mean, I'm not going to lie. But I'm going to tell you this, I actually think that probably that's just a side effect of becoming an adult. Like the older you get them where you, it's unavoidable. For sure. when you're 20 you're just getting fucked up. But I remember my first act I didn't get through the first scene or nothing.

No, tell me, tell me. What happened? No, I had to do a monologue. I forgot. Something, I think the Caprio did or something in that movie on the island or something. I got halfway and run out like a little bill that's...

Really? Just blew up, yeah. Like, afraid or frustrated? No, afraid. I can't stand. Like, I could never do stage. Really? Can't do it.

I can't be up in front of people. Well, today's a big day for you then. Yeah I'm looking that way And I had about six before I got it Oh, you're on fire I'm so proud of you Yeah, thanks

Thanks, pal I'm just here to support No, it's so intimidating You know And Do you ever find it exhilarating? I mean, is there an aspect of it That the intimidation is the other side of excitement

Oh, there's a No, I don't get that for the other people But I do when somebody, you're in acting class, it's funny. If nobody comes up to you and says anything, you know, you're just shit. Oh, yeah, oh yeah.

You know, but if they, some people come, oh, that was good. It was like, oh, yeah, thanks, buddy. Act like it didn't mean much. It was like, fucking, yeah. But my biggest drive was, it was so difficult, and I can't, I'm like, other people can do this.

You know, it's like anything. Yeah. I was like, if somebody else can do it, other than the big word thing, But if somebody else can do it, I can do it. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I'm like, I got really frustrated and driven.

Like, God, other people are doing it and they do it good. That's what sort of made me stay in. I didn't want to be defeated by this Ponzi actor stuff. Yes, in your own crippling paralysis. Yeah. I also get that, like, the thing of, like, if for no other reason than my own, like, self not even satisfaction

but just like my own sense of who I am I have to attack this I have to beat it you know what I mean like it's not so much competition with others but competition with yourself yeah no for sure yeah what was the first gig that you got like the first kind of I hate I hate that your big break

because it's so fucking like hacky but like what was the first thing that you saw is like okay I'm an actor now I'm not it took Vikings took a few jobs yeah Yeah. No, my first movie was an Australian one called Restraint. And that's, um, there's one scene in there that I'm still, I'm proud of.

I'm not very proud of much of my stuff, but I was 24 for the time I did that. And, um, kind of felt like an actor there. Yeah. Yeah. That was your first feature. Had you done, and you done some small stuff. I'd done some TV, yeah. I'd done, Tarzan.

Nice. I call it a kid show. Adults Rochester It was kind of my excuse for not being very intelligent

or me really being bad yeah it's just for kids yeah that's why you weren't meant to enjoy it

dude why were you watching it bro it wasn't for you yeah yeah what are you WB

loser brother but yeah I was watching Smallville at the time which was your own

kids show Did you come, so you were living here, you moved here, and you were training here, and you were auditioning here. Yeah, I went to acting class here. Most Australians all do nighter and that in Sydney, and there's all this click. Yeah. And then they come over here and they're still in that little group. And everybody's always asked me, oh, do you know all the actors? Oh, we think you guys all know each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I'm sure that you're hanging out with Hemsworth. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But the funny thing about actors, they're all exactly the same around the world, wherever you are. Yeah, just. I don't hang with actors other than you. Oh, thank you. I don't hang with actors in L.A.

I'm not going to... Yeah. You know, just them being Australian doesn't make it. Well, you know, I mean, I know all the black people, of course. Yeah, yeah. You know, we all went to school together. And we have a meeting every week. Where we just talk about the fact that white people keep stealing our slangs,

we have to make up new shit. I really resent Jiggy guys. I'd like it back. But so... That's also interesting because I do feel like, now this is going to seem fucked up to any other actor that's listening. I have actor friends, mainly ones that I made in acting class, right? That's in trouble. No, but I guess I think, like, I don't, like, I think some, you were talking about people who pursue fame or the idea of the culture and the experience and the lifestyle around acting and their people just want to act.

And I feel like the people who are doing the former want every part of their life to reflect that they're, like, I have celebrity friends, I'm on a fucking boat, whatever it is, you know what I mean? versus just like you're a person and your friends are from all kinds of walks of life and then you go occasionally and you do your job which is acting. I always look at it as like one of the really, really good actors when do you ever see him in caught by the paparazzi?

It's like most people, you have to go somewhere to get followed by the paparazzi or if you've got to go to the ivy that fancy restaurant or something. That fucking place, it's the worst. That whole part of town. No, I once was walking to an appointment because it's right by the Cedar Sinai, which is like the main hospital in LA.

And I was walking by it. And there's like a guy that stands in front of it with a phone and he just calls the paparazzi whenever anybody famous walks in. But you're right, it's a choice. Like if you go to the Ivy, you're choosing to be photographed. And I've also seen, and I don't care because we're not friends. Like I remember once driving from an appointment in Beverly Hills and seeing Paris Hilton run from the paparazzi

and then wait for them to catch up. And then run and then wait for them to catch up. I mean, that is. Maybe she had really bad cardio. She was doing high-intensity interval training. That would be me. That would be me that I'd run from them and I'll be around the corner. I got to smoke a cigarette, guys.

Give me a second. But it is. It's a choice. And then those people act beleaguered by the very people who they're inviting into their lives. And they walk out of a restaurant, a fancy restaurant where only... Yeah, only famous people are, yeah. Walk out like, oh, that camera. Yeah.

Yeah. There's a backdoor too, dickhead. Yeah, like, you're choosing this for yourself. I mean, I always think actually of Matt Damon, a guy who, like, you never see him. You've been pictures, you never see his wife in pictures, and he never sees kids in pictures. You're right. It's a choice. Any other, you never see Nicholson. You never see... No. Well, you don't see Nicholson because he's housebound because he's not out of a chair. That was mean. I agree.

So, and having interacted with you kind of offline, I, I, you know, what I remember being struck by, what I thought was lovely, was that, you know, you could have been like one of my mates, and we were just in a pub having a beer, and that's, like, how I want to live my life specifically. You know, I feel like the rest of this stuff is...

She's very good, by the way. I'm a... I'm a shark. Not that good, but she's pretty good. I murdered him. He's really still working on his feelings about it. I was like, I'm pretty fine. I feel pretty good. Do you feel good? You're right? You're covering? I'm all right, yeah. But I also think that you can't play real people

if you're not living a real life. Like, that's just my opinion. You know, if you're, again, if you're writing in your Bentley, you know, to the club, it's very hard then to portray, like, you know, someone who's, like, having real issues in their lives as a person, you know? Yeah, I don't know. Then you search for why you have to go to a club in a Bentley.

Right, right. If you want to use it inactive. But, yeah, some of it's... Like, you can find that. you can find something and everything. But it's such a, yeah, people, I don't know, it's a funny industry. It is.

It's a mystery. I would have loved to be in the 60s, you know. Yeah? Yeah, I'd be the worst dancer in the 60s, but everybody was a shitty dancer. Who the fuck was getting down in the 60s? No, but all the movies were they, people, it might be a bit older, but they're singing dance.

Oh, like the late 50s, yeah, like the Fred Astaire kind of thing. Can't sing, can't dance, I'm struggling at acting. The only thing I got is my emotional. But those people used to be so talented Yeah they were like well-rounded Even though some of them would have been dancing as kids But they turned out and they did it for They're just great old movies some of those scenes

Yeah Okay I want to talk about I want to leap ahead To I feel like we keep getting behind I know I find you I find you compelling

I find you compelling To getting Mission accomplished, guys. Mission accomplished, yeah, you're getting some support from the back. Tell me about Vikings because, like a lot of us end up like auditioning for a show and then you just, you know, go from your house to Burmank and, you know, again, someone brings you a bagel,

toast it the way you like it. But one thing I really loved about that show and it made perfect sense to me was that, look, it's not like you're like sleeping in a year, but it's a pretty rugged, it's a pretty rugged show. You are, you know, it's, it's, there was some scene with a shot where, when I was there, or Gustav, um, Scars Guard, who plays, uh, flokey was like shooting some scene up in the mountains. And, um, there was like a one cup of tea for like 30 people.

Hey, we're just passing it around. You know what I mean? Like, like, here in LA, you're like, I don't have my green tea. I'm gonna murder somebody. And over there, they were like, there's one cup of tea. Have a sip. Pass it to the next guy. Um, it's not, it's a really rugged show.

Yeah, I was always really proud of, we didn't have a huge budget either. It's a beautiful, beautiful show. Yeah, it's just a beautiful country. And a lot of times we were taking the sets in full wheel drive vehicles. And it was very hard to travel all the time, very hard on the crew, and they do an amazing job over there. And I wish we had the budget of some of the other shows just to give them more money. Right, just to give the guys a little bit of a break. Yeah, it's amazing what they can do with our show.

I'm very proud of with like the little battlers. It's beautiful. Did you audition for that show here in the States? Did you audition for it in the States? No, yeah, yeah, I sent a video in. They were casting in Ireland? Yeah, and I sent it over. I was really late in the process, and I think Michael, the director,

Michael, the creator and the director of the first three episodes. I think I had a couple. I'm pretty desperate by that time, and I was over there within a week, you know. Or maybe they just didn't have the guy and then you were the guy. I mean, yeah, because you're definitely the guy. Well, I am now. That didn't come off stuck up, no. I'm just saying, yeah, I've got the job, so yeah.

No, it does. It came about the opposite of stuck up. Did you realize I'm not going to articulate this right But I guess I'm not going to get it right I'm not going to get it right Did you know when you were

auditioning for the movie for the show What you were getting yourself into Like what it was going to be like for you I mean every job is different No but I really wanted to go to Ireland Yeah You know, I thought it'd be cool to go work over there, and everybody seemed real nice. And as an actor, you're happy to have a job sometimes.

Yeah, all the time. Yeah, yeah. And I'm not the biggest fan of L.A. And I was so happy to move somewhere else. And I've never been to Ireland, and I knew how beautiful it was. And my God, it rains a lot. Yeah, all the fuck. In the middle of the summer.

Yeah. When I came to see you guys, it was August, and I think we had one sunny day. Yeah, that's when you showed up. Yeah, I was. I stayed in my room drinking until the sun came out. Yeah, no, God, it rains there. But, no, it was just a great experience. I mean, I learned so much because you're on set so much.

When you're number one, you're just in every single fucking thing. Now I feel like you get a little bit more of a break. Like, I feel the first season like you were in every, every, every. The first season was, yeah, ever, I think I had one day, whatever, I'm getting paid. Yeah. But, no one thinks you're whining. We're just, it's like, I had one day off. Yeah.

And it was great not to have makeup on. But, yeah, it was pretty busy, but I'd love the Irish. Yeah, yeah. They were so nice. It was great set to be on, and everybody involved were great. Checking out Catherine Winnie is all right. Yeah, she's all right. Yeah, she's a good.

Yeah, she's a nice lady. I do. I do. Would you? I wouldn't tell her. She's beautiful. Yeah. We're learning about each other today.

I'm going to ask you like an artsy-fartsy question because I feel also like one of the things that is specific about your show that I love is the choices that you make for Ragnar. He's a fucking weirdo. And how much of, yeah, he is, he's weird. I mean, it's what makes the show so, like, mesmerizing. It's like how unusual this character is.

And so I'm going to do that really obvious thing where I ask you, like, how you, what, like, how you decided to make, what, what decisions you made about him going in? I always just want to be, if I'm going to look like an idiot, I want it to be my own choices. But I always different, and I always try to make choices that are unexpected. Yeah. And some come out of, some come out of the scripts. It's like the stuff that the 10 episodes that have been shown so far this year.

I heard the outline of what's going on in that and Ragnar, he started making a lot of... He's always sort of meant to be an intelligent guy and smart about his warfare and all that stuff. Anyway, he started losing, started doing, making bad decisions in his life. And so that as an act, I look for a reason. Right. To be suddenly this intelligent guide to making,

these really bad decisions. So I looked up drugs. Yeah. You know, what sort of drugs were around in that time? Oh, wow. What drugs were around in that time? I went for Beetle-Nut. I knew that we had some,

we were having some Chinese slaves or Asian slaves. Yeah. So I looked at what in China, what drugs are around that period. Mm-hmm. And I found Beetle-Nut. And then, so that was a choice where I was on Beetle-Nut for six of the 10 episodes or something. Yeah. Or more.

What is beetle-nut do to you? Yeah. Like any drug that makes you do bad decisions. Right decisions. Yeah, they feel good when they're happening. And then the next morning I'm a terrible person. Yeah, exactly. So it's funny things.

Some choices come from that and what's in the script. And some, I don't know, there's like, there's one time I'm set on a different show where a producer came up to me and said, told me how to talk to a woman. And I'm not the best of talking to women. But he gave me his whole spiel and that. This guy's been married for 50 years. He has no idea what it's like to be...

Like out. Yeah, to be single and everything's different. But anyway, sometimes in this career where you get nine out of ten people will say the same answer. And then I want to be that 1% the one out of ten that does a different answer and does it a different way.

You know, it's the same as you it's sad, but you always look at a cracket or something. Right. You know? He's like one out of 100 or something. Yeah. Yeah. There's just something intriguing about it. And I always wanted to be that

intriguing bit without the addiction. Yeah, I mean, I'm serious. It's like I don't, like I said, I don't think I'm going to articulate this properly, but as a fan, but then separately as an actor, when I watch you play that character, I'm so intrigued by the choices that you make. They feel so unusual. And I'm always trying to figure out what you're thinking,

both as an actor but also as a character, to make the things that happen physically with you in a dialogue sense, what drives the results? You know what I mean? He's such a fascinating guy, and I also feel like you do a lot of non-textual stuff that's really interesting, Like especially season one, when we were figuring, when we were meeting Ragnar, there was all this like nonverbal shit that you did that was just so interesting and weird.

Well, some of that's down to not being very good at memorizing lines. I always find it more intriguing. Like a girl's looking fuck with you so much more than her telling you that she hates you. At least if she doesn't see, she looks. She looks at me like she hates me, and I still think I got a chance. But when she, you know, really says she hates you and punches you, it's like, ah.

It's probably the punch that really lands at home, yeah. No, but I always rather, I'm always about the audience, and I want to let them, I don't want to tell them, I want to let them have their own thoughts and try to work it out for themselves, you know. And there's so much dialogue sometimes, especially in, well, Anything is not that good, to be honest. But so much dialogue is so informative.

Right. And it leaves the audience with nothing. Right, nothing to kind of no conclusions of their own, yeah. And then on our show, some of it was, I'd go to the creator Michael Hurst. He writes every episode and it's amazing man. He's unbelievable. And I'd go to him, it's like, we do this scene and then I'd say, what's going to happen, you know, later down the line where I'd just ask stuff,

what's going to happen later? I don't know yet. So a lot of my times when I don't say anything, I played a different way is because I want the audience to be able to look back and I go, oh, that's... All right, he was planning this from then. But really, I had no idea what was going on.

But I just didn't commit to anything. It's like, do you work out what I'm thinking? And I'd take credit for it, like four episodes. I had this planned the whole time, player. Now, this, you know, Ragnar Luthberg is kind of both a mythical character and a real character. He's like a composite of what they think are a few different guys that lived at that time. And you have one guy who was actually Nordic on the show, Gustavs Sarsgarde. Yeah, the Swedish guy.

So, like, did you guys have, like, a dialogue coach on there to kind of help you guys sound Nordic? Yeah, we had a dialect coach. And the original director for the first three episodes, was our Swedish. And, yeah, we had a dialect coach, but nobody knew what they sounded like. We just didn't want to sound like anybody else. You know, like we didn't want to be,

we wanted voices that you didn't know anything. And I'm not the best with dialogue, and I had the most to say. And so it worked out good for me because pretty well, however I sounded, everybody else had to talk about. But, yeah, there's a lot of S's in that, and that'd be me thinking. And then suddenly other people would say that shit.

But anyway, yeah, I had it good because I was in the... I'm not very good with accents. That's a point of the story. But what has happened, though, is this show does have its own kind of sound now. You know, it does have its own kind of, like, tempo. How much of the show is, and again, I feel like when you're an actor, you use what's presented to you, and you create a world for the viewer and yourself that's real to you. But how much research went into just like that time and how those people lived.

Well, if you come to the panel, some people think it's 100% really. Like it's historic, which is not. No, but I mean, I think I really am, Ragnar. Leave them their dreams. There are at least eight or nine people I've met here at Comic-Con. No, there are at least eight or nine people here at Comic-Con I've met over the years who have named their child Sterling Archer. So, you know, whatever.

Get down how you want to. You know, make your own choices. But it's... I know, we're based on... It's very hard. The Vikings never read or wrote. There's no written history at all about the Vikings, other than it was written by people who encountered their...

Yeah, so... Yeah, people that they murdered. They got a bad rap. Yeah. Maybe they were nice people. We didn't just murder. We made love too. It's funny, she's giggling, not scared of.

He's not that intimidated in person, right? He's got on cargo shorts. How bad can you do? It's fucking steal shit. He's got a granola bar in one of the pockets of the shirt. Oh, I was asking you about how much, kind of how much... Oh, yeah, no, no, so yeah. So, like, my character might never be real.

Right, right. There are stories written about him and a lot's based on those stories, but it's sort of taking about 10 famous Viking characters and putting them all in the same generation. And I think Michael did a great job of that.

It's funny, even the historians argue with each other. Yeah, because a lot of this stuff they're inferring from, you know, just kind of physical evidence because there's no written history of these people. They just started writing in Sweden like 40 years ago. They've been drunk the whole time. I'm going to get a lot of letters.

But they're going to be drunk letters, so who cares? I'm going to ask you about one specific episode. I think it's one of my favorite episodes of your show. It's the Blood Eagle episode, which I think is probably one of the most spectacular pieces of like kind of historical fiction ever. And for no other reason that I've never seen anything like it. So who's seen the Blood Eagle episode of Vikings? Okay.

I'm going to describe it for you guys because I actually probably don't think Trappist remembers it. No, it's this scene where you are killing one of your enemies and the way that you kill him is you cut open his back and split his ribs open and pull his lungs out of the inside of his body and then turn them into kind of these bloody ways. You lay him over the chest. Yeah, and I feel like the guy dies after that.

I'm not sure. It's a sort of Viking tradition, one of the good ones. One of the fun ones. If he doesn't scream, he gets to get into the Vikings Valhalla, which is like heaven for the Vikings. So if he doesn't make a noise or doesn't scream out and ask for mercy or whatever, he gets up into one. that. It's actually, it's an extremely savage thing, but you don't do it to a normal person.

If somebody, it's sort of normally somebody you really respect and somebody that is worthy and a warrior. If it, you know, you don't. Like your average enemy, you just cut his head off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. You don't do it your missus if she's with a milkman. Yeah. The goat milkman. The goat man.

But yeah, it was so visual that episode. That was Kyle and Sparval, a great Canadian director. And she's just amazing. She's incredible. There's two amazing female directors on our show that I love. They're brilliant. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the most beautiful episodes. Even if you're not a Vikings, first of all, if you're, even if you've never watched Vikings.

The loser. Yeah, you get your shit together. Go back and watch it because, you know, if you like a show, like Game of Thrones, the show will be as satisfying to you and also a little bit more historically kind of meaningful. Because even though these are mythical people, or let's say, historically fictionalized people,

a lot of it is grounded in reality, but it's also one of the most beautiful shows I've ever seen. And that episode, I mean, like, if, I remember just being, like, radicalized. I was like, fuck, if I can make anything this cool and crazy. You know, yeah, like, I would have gotten

it done. Do you guys all know that I should just show them movie in seventh, whatever. Because it sucks. Anyway, it's an amazing effort to death. Thank you for your support, Chavez. They just know because I had a Kickstarter campaign. Has anybody watched it?

No, it's not done. Yeah, it's brilliant. It's brilliant. It's brilliant. Thank you for your support. No, it is really good. I think I want to do, I think I want to do, I to ask Travis two more questions and then we'll do a tiny little baby Q&A.

If anybody has a question, if you don't feel, don't feel pressure. It's not like I told you guys to do Homer before you caught here. But I realize now I didn't brief, I didn't brief Travis on self-inflicted wounds, so I'm going to do it on the air. But before I do that, tell me what has been the most challenge. This is also like an eighth grade journalist journalism class question. But tell me what's... IP freely.

tell me what's been the most challenging thing for you as an actor or just as a human being as a person on that show. Because I do feel like that show is not like the kind of the easy old Hollywood. It just feels to me like a more challenging show to do. I was fucking cold as fuck when I was on your show and I don't even work there.

You know what I was like, I know you guys all are on the cult sheet but I'm going to, this is my heater. Back the fuck up. I guess you sort of get used to it. Some days are really cold though. But the most challenging Most challenging.

Is there just, again, I'm not, like, not to make you, like, seem like a pussy, but like, what's the thing, what's been the thing that you found, you know, has been something that you get up and when I go, fuck, I got to do this, or fuck, I'm going to have to overcome this. That's a lion's all day. I've had lions.

Yeah, just the dialogue itself. Oh, stuff, the mornings are tough. I don't want to be after work. Yeah, yeah, you don't. I've seen that. It's pretty hard getting up sometimes. That probably might be working up, anyone else.

The great thing is that you could actually go to work every day, slightly Bose, and it would be useful for your character. That was another proven people wrong, too, because I used to get in trouble for having a couple of years before I go do something. Uh-huh. I'm like, this show's on still,

five years later. Point proven. Yeah. No, that's just done. No, it's not. It's true. I drink, if you watch Criminal Minds, three of the episodes, I'm completely wasted. So just try to pick those out. Try to pick those out.

It's a big challenge for the whole show to do what everybody does in the show in such a short amount of time without a huge budget, with the weather. Like we shoot, we just, you'll see on the show because we don't have the budget. You'll see half the scenes in sun and then the other half is in rain

just because we can't wait for it. You know, you all know about continuity, of stuff where you got to shoot the scene in the same weather. And you were shooting it over seven days and it's going to take place. Especially when you do these big scenes where you're attacking a city or whatever. Yeah. And all those

attacking, it's amazing what they did with the fights. Most like a movie it would take or Game of Thrones or whatever would take like a week to shoot and we do it in half a day. Oh yeah. And comparatively like okay if you guys if you guys are caught up, who's not caught up on Game of Thrones?

Cover your ears. Thank you. Oh, you're a good man. You love her. He doesn't love you. He took his hands away. You know, that's the big scene that they just did when John Snow took back Winterfell.

They took three weeks to shoot that scene. And you guys attacked Paris in a day. I was there. And I think it was before lunch. I saw one fight scene from the first episode, and we don't have many stunt guys or anything. They have an amazing stunt team.

But we don't. have many numbers and there's like 20 of us walking down the hill and then we're watching like I'm like where do people come from because there's only 20 of us and then you see me walking down again behind us and then it's like it's such a difference and then we always just a there's a drinking game over there how many times you can kill the same stunt guy and a stunt guy you'd kill him and then he'd lay down for about two seconds, you distract the camera by going over here. Then you pop

back and he's standing up without a helmet this time. And I even see one guy, because a lot of them are fate beads and he had a beard glued on and looked back one time and I forgot what I was meant to do or whatever, but I got, I look at this guy on the ground trying to pull his beard off.

But the worst thing is, he pulls it off and then he doesn't want to get in trouble so he tucks it in his pants so they can reuse it again. He cares. Yeah, yeah. He's like, God, I'm going to take this off and fight it.

Oh, shit, makeup I want that back. I will say that I've never been on a friendlier set. I got, I asked a visit, and they gave me this beautiful tour, and I got to hang out, and I knew you, and I knew Alex. Alex is a nice person. He's the sweetest guy in the world. Alex Ludwig. Alexander Ludwig, who plays his son.

Hung a game. beer and Ironside. Yeah, Lone Survivor. He did his own movie when the game stands tall. He was a lead, I think he was like the lead in that. He's so good. He's such a, the nicest fella.

I actually don't like him. Yeah, I see that. It is. He's so happy. He just wanting to. He's just bouncing right. Exactly. Like, he'd be putting trash in a rubbish bin.

Or trash in the trash. Yeah. But he'd be walking out. Hey, whew. Fucky, you happy. Fucky. And when I showed up on set, he was like, holy shit, what are you doing here?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was like, he's very, he's a cheery, he's a cheery. He's a cheery. I often have, never met you be so excited. He'd be so excited. Yes, it's in, it's in. He's a sweet guy. But what was the point of all of that?

And apparently very enthusiastic lovemaker, what was the point of the story? Oh, just how nice. everybody was. And I just said I want to visit the show. And then they gave me a driver. I had a drive like a try to driver a day. Like I literally was like, I can get there. It's okay. They gave me this driver. And here was what the driver said to me every day when I got in the car. He'd be like, how are you doing it? I go great. He'd go, you know, there's no strangers in Ireland. There's just friends you haven't met yet. He said that to me every day for a week.

Yeah, it was. It's not a longer there. Yeah. I had him fired as soon as I left. All right. I want to do self-inflicted wounds with you, but one last question for you about the show. This season's still airing. Is it still airing? I'm like, I'm behind it. We've done 10, and there's 10 more to come in October. And they're shot, and they're holding them, and they're already shot. Okay, and when do you guys go back? Oh, we're already back. You're already back. You're not back yet. They're not yet. This is nice because the storylines have kind of expanded, so you're not in every single thing all day long, all the time, which has got to be nice for you. Yeah.

And what are you doing with your... Like when I saw you there, you know, like that show was really like all-encompassing. It was your entire life. And I think for every actor, every hit show can be both this blessing and a curse. You know, it's a gilded cage. You love it. You're happy. You have a job.

We're always happy when we're working, but a lot of times when a show becomes popular, all of a sudden you get office for movies and other stuff you want to do and you can't do them because you're trapped on set in Ireland and it's raining. And there's that guy's like, you know, make me a friend. He! letter. So I wonder like how your life is such a bad. I might as, oh, what to go? It's like a miniature, aren't? It's a tiny. I live in a tree. I live in a tree. Yeah, I live in a tree. I directed a film in Ireland, by the way, and the lead of my new movie is Irish. And so that doesn't mean that I can be an

asshole. I agree. It's just, I'm taking liberties. How is your life? different now with a like creatively like what are you doing with your time? Besides, ladies! Wait. I don't know, I found a piece of tape here a little. I don't know why I had to pull there with it. Yeah, I am.

No, I've been very lucky. I've got three other projects I'm going to do this year before going back to a while. Oh, that's great. And yeah, I've got no complaints. It's funny. You know, you struggle for a long time. Yeah. The show has been amazing for me, but it's like, you know,

12 years before the show where it's like just, you know, drinking the cheaper beers. Now, 14% ABB, my friend. Pinkies out, bitches. It is pretty strong. I hate the great, but you need to catch up. Catch up. No one cares.

I actually think your interviews are going to be more interesting. This is by the far, the heart. He doesn't care, though, they're talking about what they're like, chicken Caesar, pizza, sure. Jimmy, you're a little swanker I've ever made, Jim, you're not even listening, no, he doesn't care, look at him. Jim, your hat is backward, you stole that from black people. Why did black people make you turn around? No, he stole it. Yeah, black. Finally, black voices matter, Jimmy. It's time for self-inflicted booms. I didn't explain this to him in advance, because I

I used to do a podcast five times a month, and now I do one every six weeks, as you guys know, so I've forgotten how to do it. Right, just look at his listening now. Now he's paid attention. What's going to happen next? I'll go back to talking about what you guys are going to eat for dinner. So at the end of every podcast, my guest always tells this story, self-inflicted mood story, and this is something I know. I personally know you have like 30 or 40 of these. Something that's gone wrong in your life, that's your own fault.

So it doesn't have to be cataclysmic. It's my love love. Something that you feel comfortable sharing with others. What's going wrong in my love? You know, just like, you know, people have told, I'll give you three examples. I'll cut this out of the show later, or maybe I won't because I'm lazy. H. John Benjamin told a story about getting food poisoning and having to drive from L.A.X. to TCA's in Pasadena.

And he was trying to make it there. And the punchline is I didn't just shit my pants, I shit my car. George Strombolopoulos tells about like getting his first big paycheck and he buys a motorcycle and he decides to open it up on the, he thinks like a Ducati, tries to open it up the very first day, he wrecks it within a block and breaks his collarbone. And as he's jumping up and in agonizing pain, he yells a fucking cunt at the top of his lungs as a group of schoolgirls are walking down. And a lot of guys have talked about going home with a girl they really liked and then

being so drunk they vomited all over them. Oh, Adam Reed, who created Archer, told a story about going home with a girl he met in a bar and they're making out and her girlfriend came home and then beat the shit out of him which is really just what he deserved. And then Chris Rock, you know, everybody knows a Chris Rock story.

It's the best story. No one can top it so don't feel like you have to. But Chris Rock told the story about he was dating a girl. Hey, I can't talk anything. You can't, I believe in you. But I can't say that. I can't say this. That's why I'm giving you examples. No, no, no. Oh, okay, I'll give you two more.

So you just see you feel like that company. Chris Rock's story is He's sleeping with a girl. She gives him the clap. He goes and hears it. Yes, that clap right there. The fun one, not the fun one. Not the fun one.

No, not the wave. He goes and he cures it. And then instead of just saying, hey, maybe you should get some ointment, he sleeps with her again and gets it a second time. And finally, I'll give you a really good one that just happened, which is top five. Tay Diggs was out in New York shopping for Christmas,

and he had to take a cab from Soho to the Upper West, and he had to pee and he didn't stop to pee and he got home and he on sweatpants and they were tied in a knot and he really had to go and he couldn't get it out and he peed into his own face and he said he couldn't stop he said it was like he was like an Italian fountain it just kept

oh yeah and he couldn't stop and he was like walking through his house just and then by the time he got to the toilet he was done so I feel like I've given you enough examples there's got to be something in there I forgot what I was going to say but on that peeing thing, it used to be,

I think it's an Australian thing, not just being my mates. But whenever, this is not the story by the, though. But whenever it was really cold and you were at a lake or an ocean or whatever, and you couldn't make up your mind if you're going to go in or not. You just peed your pants and then you had to go in. This was like an incentive?

Yeah, yeah, it's like, oh. That just made up my mind. I've got to go out. I love how that's a choice. You're like, hmm. All right, now I've got to go. Okay, do you have one? I've got to clap one, but...

Don't do that one. You can do whatever you want. There's always a urinating one. Yeah, this is honestly, this is your story. I can fucking know it's in my stories. Yeah, it's just something. It's trying to make you feel supported. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's just the point. That's kind of the point. And just so you have company, I wrote a whole book where I talked about this shit. Really? Yeah, just so you don't feel like we're putting you on this stuff. I mean, I am putting it on the spot, but, you know, in a huggy way. I'm not judging your choices.

It's your choice. Exactly. I had it halfway through when you did. Shit, I should have stopped talking. Was it about a girl? Yeah, no doubt. Was it about drinking? What?

Was it about drinking and a girl? Yeah, it could have been here. Was it about peeing and drinking in a girl? What the fuck are you doing? I'm drunk. I'm not saying a pain in one. No, okay. I believe in you. I just did have one. I just really can't.

Is it gone? Yeah, talking about something else for one minute. Okay, I will. I will talk about something else. You might tell the other stories because that's what inspired me and reminded you. Okay, oh, reminded you. Okay, shitting your pants in a car. Wrecking your motorcycle, breaking your collarbone,

yelling out fucking cut in front of small children. Chris Rock getting the clap. Yeah, but, yeah. Fine, I'll do the clap. Everybody hurts, Travis. Natasha, can I say a clap story? Chris Rock did it, and he's a billionaire. So anyway, I got it.

I don't wish that was the story. No, so they've been, There's been two people that make sweet love to. And I couldn't tell one girl that I had it. And I was going to avoid it. Yeah. Anyway, so I knew her randomly four doors down.

I knew a doctor that specialized in that. In the place. And he gave me like three pills. I took him, sweet, gone. And then so now I got to work out how I'm going to get this girl to take the girl without telling you. So she works, I didn't know

her very well, but she worked at a restaurant where a mate, I know, I can't say too much because she'll work it out. Yeah. Do you want to, do you want to reboot? Because I'm, you're fully free to reboot. No, you're right, you're right. Anyway, she works at a restaurant. So I tell my mate who also works at a restaurant. I said, I tell him the whole story.

And he's, that's actually a dickhead. Anyway, so I'm like, all right, I got to get to take these three pills. How am I going to get her to do it? And he goes, oh, fuck, dude, I'll put her in and drink. So I'll give him the pills. I take the girl. She's there. I'm drinking there, and I make sure it's going to happen.

Anyways, I see him mixing a drink, and he's like, he gets it. And then he's like, he looks at me out. He's a fucking look if I can't do it, mate. I was like, fuck you. He chickened out right at last minute. Oh, did he? So, Henry, he gives him. to me and I'm like, oh, you dick it.

Put him on the bar. And like, you just distract her for a bit. And really, I felt like a, you know, a brew for you. He's distract her and I'm like, mm-hmm. And within a sip, she goes, this tastes fucking weird. So it didn't work.

I had to go back to my doctor. And we got the three pills again, go to the same restaurant. I like, dude, just put it in dessert. You know, do it a day. In the dessert. So he does it, comes out She has a bite

Oh no What the fuck I don't want to diet But anyway So she starts coughing this day I don't know about four days later And I'm avoiding sex this whole time Yeah

Good for you Because you wouldn't want to get the cut back from yourself Anyway So I'm making excuses and shit Just moody Because I've heard that one to me a lot I can prove it, bitch. One did.

One girl did. Yeah, yeah. Bloody girl. I can see you from Vikings. I'll give you the Blood Eagle. Oh, now. Now you turn on me. Guys.

Anyway, finally, that's disgusting. No, no, finally. I can't believe I'm saying this. I believe him. Finally, she got real sick. She got the flu. She started coughing and all that shit. So within about five minutes, I'm coughing as well.

All this shit. I got to get three more pills from the doctor. And I say, I told a girl that, oh, sorry. So I'm coughing. Next day, I'm totally fine. And I said, I went to the doctor. He gave me these three pills. Guys, that was really actually.

and really enjoyable story. And you saved the day, Spider-Man. Alex Ludwig. Guys, please put your hands together for the sensationalistic. You're so incredible, beautiful, sensational, talented, delightful. You smell wonderful, and your Legion. Thanks for coming, guys. Bye.

Let's do one question before we take it. Yeah. We do a couple questions. Okay. All right, come on up to the microphone here. I, as I told you, I've forgotten how to do my podcast. Come on down, giggles. Yeah, okay, I'll cut this up so the question goes before the end of the show.

But make a hole. Thank you. All right. You're a d'orbs. Is it okay? We do a couple questions? Yeah. Thank you.

That was really fucking great. Sorry. I haven't told that story for a long time. Hi, hon, how are you? Hi. Well, thank you. So I'm a fan of Vikings and watching the show that first season, I want to know if you guys felt not being one of the shows on a pay channel, something like that, not being able to go as far as, say, the Vikings did. You guys had to use, like, cutaways and to kind of express some of the things that go on.

Do you feel like... Pumping is what you're talking about, right? Some of that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But do you feel like that has made the writers, the actors, everything about that show stronger because you guys have to do less? Yeah, for sure.

I'm really proud that we... I'm a bit old school in a way. You don't need to see boobs and shit, you know... He's classic, guys. ...en the audience. No, but there's so many stuff now, especially when people, when series get into third and fourth, they run out of stories. They just throw out boobs every second.

It was like, come on. I mean, you've seen you porn? It's free. It's free, yeah, it is free. No, but I feel like some of that is such a biggest cheat in the world for bad writing or for running out of ideas. You know, I'm real proud of our show to. You don't have to show people, you know, naked and all that stuff for it to be entertaining. But it is funny in a way where, um, where, uh, it's.

you know, you can walk out and I could stab her in the side of the face. That wouldn't be very friendly. Or a gut, and a intestinal's come out if I slash her across the stomach, but then you can't show a bit of nip-knit. Yeah, no, you made a really good point, which is that we're so anured to violence in this country that we'll, you know, you can see disembowlment and beheadings and, you know, someone, you know, being chopped a bit, but you, yeah,

but like half of a butt cheek on a guy is like, scandal. But it's weird because that's all who the Viking were both sides. Both sides of that, yeah. But once the last time, you know, there's been some horrible event in the world where a lot of people killed in an orgy. Not really. Not really good. Yeah, well, we're going to do, we'll do, we'll do, we'll do,

you know, my day and shit there. I was, I, so, you know, my normal podcast setup is so simple, and they brought me this big thing, which I just used to order a pizza. I have no idea how it works. I feel like I'm recording, but yeah, I'm recording, but go, go, Go, go. Yes, come ask your... You got better better than fucking... Next question.

Beards of rage. So since we were talking about... Lean into the microphone because that one... I can't hear you. So since we were talking about... Hold on a second. I have no idea. I can't...

I have no idea. I have no idea. No idea. So since we were talking earlier about like the thickness of like poplaralti culture and especially with the Taylor Swift. and the Kim Kardashian thing. What's the one thing you guys most enjoy about actually being celebrities

and the one perk that you guys get and enjoy having celebrities? Free lunch on set. I'm like my answer off the air. What is last thing you just said? I was like my answer off the air. Okay, thank you. A long time, a listener first time caller, thank you very much.

Was it free lunch on set? Bagle toasted the way you like it? Free lunch. Yeah. But Tyler Squiss is extremely talented. She is. She's a hard. She's a worker. She's a worker. She takes celebrity seriously as fuck. I'm going to be totally honest with you. There are three things I like about it. One of them is going to be altruistic. The other two are going to say them like an asshole.

I don't know what you're talking about. I do like that you as a celebrity, you can show up at a charity event and like change things just by being there, just by putting your name on something. That's great. Like if you're just a regular lay person, you can change the world. You probably have more power to change the world than I do. But I like that, like, I can say, yeah, I'll take a photo and tweet it out. Or, yeah, I'll come to your fundraiser. Or, yeah, I'll give you five tickets to my show that you can use to raise money. Like, that's great.

Like, I love that. You know what I mean? That's like, it gives you a certain, a little baby power, but a certain amount of power to help other people, which I do like. It's extended. I bought a Tesla this year, and I jumped to the front of the line. That's the second thing. really liked about it. People like, how long did it take? I was like, five weeks, motherfucker,

five weeks. And the third one is also, like, being able to do nice things for your friends. You know what I mean? Like, it's nice if your friends are like, I want to meet this person, or, you know, I have a girlfriend who loves an author and I was able to get her a signed copy of that book. Or, you know, dumb shit. Where are your friends like, I want to get into that restaurant and we haven't been able to make a reservation? And I'm like, well, let me try to give it a try. That's very shallow, the last two things. But I don't care about stuff at all. I really don't.

I just like experiences. So if I can augment other people's experiences, that is the thing I like about. It's amazing with a real true fan, too, when you can make somebody so happy to talk to them or whatever. It's amazing to see. Yes. Like, you just think you're making your little show,

and you're just paying the bills. And then when someone comes up and says, you know, for girl and guy, I read this letter on the year two years ago, but a guy was like, my mom was dying of cancer, and the thing we shared was listening to your podcast. Somebody came out, I'm going to have sex with you. Yeah, I know.

I knew that's what you were talking about. But like that shit where you're just making your dumb little podcast, and then someone says, like, this was the last thing my mom and I shared before she passed away. Then you think, fuck, I got to keep making fucking girl on death. Pain in the center of my asshole. But the other stuff is stupid, and I hate the other stuff. All of it.

And I don't care about dresses. It's nice to play pool in a pub with a drunk asshole in Ireland. That was fun. Not you. Not you. Not you. Do we, one more question? And then we'll go.

You're pointing. What? No, no. I'd be three each, Jesus. No, no, no. I just go one. I was excited I took a third question. You don't have to end.

Yeah. No, ladies. I love when you say good a good. No, not ladies. But any kids or whatever, or whoever is just a real fan. and it's exciting for them because they, maybe they live in a really quiet a world and they don't

get to see people that they see on TV or whatever. But the best feeling is when somebody runs off giggling, oh, you know? You feel like you've made a little bit of a day, I mean, a little bit of their day. Yeah, yeah. And I also like when you're in, just living your life, you're just in a pub,

like, you know, like being a regular person, and then someone's like, oh shit, you know, Travis was getting a sandwich, at my sandwich place, and that was, you know what I mean? The free drinks. Free drinks! The free drink! Wait, we're going to lie.

People always want to shout you a drink and they show, what I'm going to do? Shut, wait. It's like, I'm going to, fuck me. He buried the lead. He's not you the last four times of that. No, but everybody wants to shout. I don't know why it is, but if they've seen you on TV or something, they want to buy your drink. Nice.

Yeah, you fucked up by the end of it. That was my goal. One more question, and then we'll do it, Kiwan. K. I'll bring it. With your adorable shirt. With your healthy shirt. Oh, I don't eat this. Oh, you just wear it.

Okay. Good. So the outside of you is really regular. Okay, continue. Lean into that thing, though. So I've heard other actors from Australia talk about how challenging it is to come from where you're from to make it here. So what's been the most challenging thing about being an Australian actor

and making it in the U.S. and coming to the U.S. I think any way for an act is really hot. I mean, we've got to worry about the accent. That's about the only difference. I can't understand anything you've said all the whole thing. I'm going to have to subtitle it. I will say we love it because the stuff that we, yeah, no, we love accents.

So it's not good. Yeah, yeah, that's right. You know what's so funny, though? I'm going to sound, no. No, it would be the, it's definitely the accent. I'm not sure what they're complaining about. Maybe they're a 14-out flight over here. Actors like to complain about it.

It's not so much a complaint. It's just there's a very specific and limited market in Australia for what... Oh, yeah. Oh, the industry in general, there's not a lot of television. There's not a lot of movies. So to really make it, you have to move out. So what's been the most challenging thing about? You've got to suck it up.

They're making money. No, but it's... There's 22 million people in Australia. and say it's very hard to make a film for 5 million, a normal film and a 5 million box office in Australia is a big hit.

So it's hard to make money making films in Australia because we've only got 22 million people. So we have to come here. We'd all love to stay there and work, but it's just not enough population there to make it worth it in a way, you know? So we have to come over here. And of course you guys are a lot,

you've been around a lot longer there's a lot more of the industry here there's a lot more equipment a lot more everything Aisha's here I'm here that's really he just buried the weed again

yeah yeah just drop that yeah and I will say that you know we're Americans and there's so many of us that we think that everybody else has an accent but he kind of early when he was telling the story about how Americans are fine you know when you go somewhere

else you're the person with the accent and you know that can get you that can get you free drinks it can get you late if that's what you're looking for anyway you guys are amazing thank you so much for coming I love you have a great day

that was Travis Fimmel we actually got to have a little a little wood stout experience there he got to drink some of my beer on the show which was fun we drank it together and that was such a great conversation if you couldn't tell Well, Travis is a really, he's, I don't know, I wouldn't call him shy, but he's interior, and I really am thrilled that he came on the show and did it live, because I know that's not

his favorite thing to do, and he was funny and he was engaging and he was forthcoming and he was sweet, and I really, really enjoyed that. I hope you guys did too. You know what to do, follow me from you online and all the many platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram. I'm not on Snapchat, and my intention is never be on Snapchat, so there you go. I'm trying to live that life. And stay tuned with me online, get new news about and stay tuned stay tuned with me online to get new news about all things access whether you were a backer or not I will queue updated I have been buried in post and we are now racing to make some festival deadlines and that is why there have been no new updates as of late

because I'm actually just making the movie and you know as with any film that you are fits and starts days when you're making incredible progress days when you were Steinmead but things are proceeding a pace it's a beautiful film the footage is fantastic and I cannot wait to show it to the world. So thanks to all of you who have supported me both via the Kickstarter campaign and just generally as girl and guy listeners, this show gives me so much joy.

And it's one of the reasons why despite my overwhelming overwork, I have not been able to give it up. I'm also back at Criminal Minds. I'm doing criminal minds, the talk, girl and guy, and editing my movie. So if I show up in the hospital with quote unquote exhaustion, you know why. You guys are the greatest.

You are my army. You are supportive. You are killer, you are magnanimous, you are lovely, you are generous, and you are legion. And I will talk to on the next one. Later. Girl on Guy is a production of Hot Machine, blowing shit up since 2009.