Happy Sad Confused - Richard Rankin

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

Richard Rankin is no stranger to Josh but usually it's part of his OUTLANDER group. Now he's finally front and center just as he is in his new series, REBUS! Richard and Josh chat about REBUS, the end of OUTLANDER, and decide once and for all who Sam Heughan loves more. SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! BetterHelp -- Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BetterHelp.com/HSC ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for 10% off UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS 12/3 -- John David Washington at 92Y in NY -- ⁠Tickets here⁠ 12/19 -- Ben Schwartz at 92Y in NY -- ⁠Tickets here Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! To watch episodes of Happy Sad Confused, subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh's youtube channel here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's like, yeah. Should we do it? Yeah. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. I'm Josh Horowitz, and today on Happy, Sad, Confused, Richard Rankin is here. No, Sam, no Katrina, no Sophie.

Finally, I've got him all to myself. My master plan has finally come true. The new batch of Outlander. episodes is upon us, as well as Richard's new series. Rebus, there is a ton to talk about. Finally, center stage where he belongs. It's Richard Rankin. How are you, man? Well, long. Thank you so much. What an intro, Josh. I was going to lead with that, actually. I was going to lead with the fact that finally I've got you to myself. As much as I love my co-stars, this has been the plan. This has been the game plan all along. It's like, how do I get that

position in my career where I can have, Josh Horowitz, to myself. You've truly made it. this is when you know this is when you know right this is the gate this is it this is every actor knows they've made it when they get on happy second views by themselves no it look the last time I saw you of course yes you were

you were flanked by your buddies we actually haven't run our game shenanigans yet but that's to come no no I'm surprised you came back after that I feel like we were I was roasting you a little bit but you always come back for more Hey, that's, it's all fun.

It's all fun. So you were in, you were about to do the Comic-Con stuff. What is that like for you at this point? Are you, is there safety in numbers? Because that stuff is intimidating from my perspective, hosting that stuff. I can imagine being on a stage. There's a lot of love in the air. But it's also, I don't know, it's just a lot.

Is it comfortable at this point in your career to do that kind of thing? I love it. Yeah. I genuinely love it. And yeah, there's safety in numbers. in terms of, I think, having your peers, your co-stars around. But at the same time, sometimes it's nice to be, you know, running solo. Interviews, I think, can be a bit more fun when you're doing a bit of that.

Obviously, there's a lot of press around that, right? You're usually on when you're doing something like New York Comic-Con or San Diego Comic-Con, as you know, because you're there pretty much all the time yourself. But there's a large amount of press and having people to bounce off of and have a laugh with. And you know that I'm prone to having a bit of a laugh myself. it's you can have a good time right

and I am actually you know I'm a massive geek myself anyway so I just geek out at Comic-Con I had a great time at New York Comic-Con me and John Bell from the show from Outlander any opportunity that we had that they could take we were on that floor

running around just but we only ever had like we only ever had windows of like five minutes 10 minutes so we really try and take everything in as quickly as we could before running back to where we had to be but no I enjoy it and it's great you know having we were on the outlander panel at New York Comic-Con we more than filled their largest base for yeah so I think that's it's good to have that

sort of that sort of kind of tangible feedback where you can actually see and interact with those people that support the shows that keep you going and it kind of you can kind of get a gauge of where you are and how much people are still invested in the work that you do. Yeah. It's great. I've certainly been in those rooms where it's not necessarily full.

So you never know. And the sustained enthusiasm is remarkable. It's crazy. Before we get into your solo career, should we do a Sam Hewin challenge? How about you and I text him at the same time and see who he responds to first? It's a great idea.

Should we do it? Yeah. All right. I did this other day with a mutual friend where we sent code, so we each sent a line of a sentence, and he had to work out what the hell we were talking about. But he's not going to put us together. What is going on here?

Here's the question. What's the format? Should we do the same thing? I mean, we could do something where we both say, do you miss me and just dot, dot, dot, let's do that. Do you want to do that at the same time? Yeah, okay. Hold on.

We have to do it simultaneously. Is there any, like, distinguishing character here? we're putting in some kind of emoji. Put in a fan. He loves a fan on set. I literally put in a fan emoji. I'm going to do that. I got it.

I got it. All right. I'm going to hit send at the same time. You ready? Three, two, one. We'll do it then. Okay. Three, two, one.

All right. Pressure's on. Sam Hewain finally prove who you love more. I bet you it's huge. Although he's messaged me. It's actually just messaged meeting. I haven't yet replied to it. So I won't show you what it says.

We get it. We get it. Okay. Okay. So before, we'll keep an eye on that. But I want to talk about another mutual. I recently had on the podcast, as you know, Jack Ladden. And you came up. And I'm curious, let's talk a little bit about the crew of actors you came up with. Was he part of that kind of gang of young men that you kind of associate your early days of acting with? Yeah, very much so.

And it's because that was a very much informative part of my career. doing that play, Black Watch. It was kind of, it was a big turning point for me for a number of reasons. It was a huge experience, for one, being on stage and spending that amount of time on stage. You know, we were on a huge world tour. There was a huge learning curve there for me. It was the biggest play I had done at that point in my career, and I got a lot from it.

And there was a bunch of us that are essentially contemporaries that are Blackwatch alumni that are now at, you know, different points in our career and doing really great work and working with great people. And there's people at Jack, obviously, who is just flying at the moment. And yeah, I think there's this sort of unspoken sort of connection that we all still have where we're kind of somehow kind of tethered loosely to each other. We were sort of, you know, kind of keeping tabs on each other's careers and how we're getting on. But, um, I mean, I've got a lot of respect for Jack. He's just, I love how much he loves it.

I love how much he loves the game. He is just so, it's, he has such an incredible passion for every part of the industry, for every side of the industry. And there's also a big supporter of those people coming through and coming into the industry as well. But he lives, breathes and eats it, you know. And I have a lot of admiration and a lot of respect for that. Is there anybody else in that,

that crew I wouldn't know. He mentioned, I don't know if this actor was in the group or he was just a fan or knew him, but Tom Conkarnie, was he somebody that was in your kind of periphery or no? No, Tom Connys, not mine, no. He wasn't in our show, but he's another one of a kind of a similar age group and a sort of a similar, I suppose, part of his career. Did, he also mentioned me when we were talking about you, how much he's enjoyed you, forgive the term, turning into a hunk and how amused he's been by the metamorphosis of you. What's your vantage point on the dawning of the hunky era of Richard Rankin? I don't know what the dawning of the don't know what the dawning of the hunky era is. I don't know when that started or when that

became a thing. I did laugh when I was listening to the podcast that you did with Jack. And the fact that he also found it amusing or he found it funny. It's like, why is it funny, wait, why is, what's, you know, natural. And then I was sort of having a moment of self-reflection thinking, haven't I always been, wasn't I always a hunk? But no, I wasn't. What were the roles you were, like, were you typecast early on? Like, what kind of stuff were you up for in your first days as an actor?

I don't know. I'd have done quite a lot of theatre before I started doing television and those were kind of relatively diverse roles I think but coming through ironically as you know we were about to talk about Rebus I've played a few cops I've played a few detectives yeah which is not something I would necessarily pigeonhole myself as having a strong point for it like I like to keep a bit of variety

I like to keep you know keep those tools sharpened In terms of my craft and what I can do, and I think constantly challenging yourself is important and keeping those doors open to a variety of parts is important unless you want to end up doing a similar or the same thing for a large part of your career, which I don't want to do. I've tried not to do that, but yeah.

It gives it a good segue. You mentioned Rebus. So this is this great new show. I watched the first couple episodes. This is something that's already debuted outside of the U.S. and it's now coming to the United States, six episodes. This is a beloved character. It's been played before, but in a different kind of incarnations,

you're thankfully, you're younger. You're a younger rebus. That's always a good thing. Talk to me a little bit. They obviously, honk, yeah. Obviously, well, that goes without saying. It just is what it is. I can imagine there are a bunch of interesting selling points,

exciting aspects of this. What front and center got you excited about this one? A lot of things. Like I said, I couldn't have imagined playing, you know, a detective or cop role. I didn't see it in my future when Rebus came about. But also, when I got the call from my agent to discuss it, I didn't think she was talking about Rebus.

I didn't think she was talking about the titular role. I thought she was talking about kind of a cameo, guest-starring role, playing villain or a, you know, this season's bad guy who, you know, gets blown up at the end of the season or something. I didn't think it was going to be Rebus. So I had the whole conversation, you know,

about meeting with the director and the writer Gregory Bart before asking the question. By the way, what is it? Who is it that they want to see me for? And they said, Rebus. And like, are you an idiot? You're Rebus. Well, I can't have imagine.

a world where I'd played that part because I think at that point in my head I had a very specific idea of Rebus and being Scottish. Everyone's aware of it, everyone's seen it. It was huge when it was on, I think it was like maybe 13, 14 years ago. Ken Stott played at last was an incredible Scottish chapter and I suppose I'd maybe had the idea of that that kind of version of Rebus kind of in my head. So I had never entertained the notion. It had had never even crossed my mind fleetingly that that might ever be a thing. Obviously, once I'd sort of got into it and started chatting with the director and the writer and getting an idea of what their approach was going to be to it.

And I thought, no, I can, hang on, I can bring something to this, I think. So initially, it was the script that got me. The first 10 pages, you've seen the first couple of episodes. You've seen that sequence with the ambulance and with what turns out to be. the sort of villain of this series and cinematically the aesthetic that the director

pitched to me was very important because the style that he was talking about shooting in this very gritty sort of kind of in the actor's face really getting inside the heads

of the actors you can see every thought or lack of it sometimes sometimes there could be more thing can happen but you know what I'm saying yeah there was just There was a style that allowed us the opportunity to really serve up a very fresh and original version of this show.

And character-wise, that did a lot for me, that opening sequence. I thought it just really sets me up in a really great place where I can see, you know, where I can take that character further down the road as we proceed through the series. and yeah it was just I just thought it could be something new something exciting a really fresh and importantly an original version of something that we you know that we've already seen before and I thought this was a very fresh take on that so just everything about it just seemed to work from the director's idea

as aesthetic the cinematography of it the writer Gary Burke who I worked with. He actually wrote Black Watch which is the show that Jack and I have referred to a couple of times. So I knew him as a writer, I know his work

I've got a lot of love and respect for his work and I thought if anyone can adapt Sir Ian Rankin's novels which in themselves are brilliantly written then it's this guy and I think I can bring a lot to that and hopefully that's what happened. Well, yeah, you alluded to some things that some differences that people might not expect going to something like this, because, you know, we were all raised. I was certainly raised on a thousand procedural cop shows and kind of like, you know, the case of the week kind of thing, which is fine. And those, like, I have a lot of affection for those. But this is as much, you know, character, this is juicy character stuff. This is like real character study stuff. And you allude to the aesthetic. There's a shot obviously on location in Scotland. And you can't buy that kind of true.

production value that comes through. Is that special to work back home for a character that's so special back where you're from? Does that feel like a special kind of resonance? Yeah, I mean, obviously Edinburgh plays a big part in it, you know, that's a huge

character in the shows. It should be, I mean, Rebus is a very sort of Edinburgh-based story. Even though the character himself is from Fife, which is just kind of north of the city across the water. I think we were very lucky to have had the opportunity to shoot in the locations that we did. We shot up on the mound. We shot up around

Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh features very much as a really beautiful backdrop to a lot of this sometimes quite dark drama. But you mean you talk about it being sort of a character exploration, a character study. And I think it is that. And that was that was a large part of what was important for me coming into this is that it wasn't. And Gregory Buck himself insisted that it shouldn't be a typical sort of procedural crime

drama, which you know, I've got nothing against procedural crime. It's hugely successful genre. There's a sort of insatiable appetite for that. People gobble it up. You know, in huge...

Yeah, it's comfort food. It's easy to watch and digest, and you can watch... Love it. And sometimes, it's For some people, that's all they'll watch. They'll have half a dozen on the go, right? At any one time. They just love it, they breathe it. But I don't think Rebus is that.

In fact, if you continue to watch it, which you should, Josh, you'll see that there isn't really much of a procedural element going on. We're not in the office in front of a whiteboard, scribbling down the names of potential suspects, witnesses, blah, blah, blah, with, you know, little post-its and polaroids of evidence going up. There's not really much of that. We're not all standing around a body, just, you know, half a dozen of us discussing

what may or may not have happened. Like, there's maybe a couple of moments where it kind of falls into that, but it largely stays away from it, and we are with the characters and their journey through these situations and what it means to them, how it affects them. And it's kind of less of a who-done-it-it-all-we-do-it, although we do have that kind of element in it but it's not the driving force of the show

which for me was I think something it was quite refreshing it was good to be able to join that and really sort of I think check in with myself

because I was given the opportunity where I suppose the potential for my performance wasn't in any way really limited I felt I had such a great cast around me. They were all incredible every single one of them. Mostly every single one of them. So I felt that, yeah, I could go as far as I wanted with that

in terms of bringing the integrity of my work and what I am as an actor to that. And yeah, I think all of those things were just kind of fell into place for me at the right time as well when I was kind of looking to sort of reestablish myself with myself if that makes any sense yeah i mean yeah i would imagine again as you see like outlander kind of like this transition point this is a key point to kind of like show off what else you can do and and find something else that's artistically rewarding in a different way so it's it's exciting you found this with amex platinum access to exclusive amex pre-sale tickets can score you

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I don't see what you would be looking to achieve, but I don't know, maybe looking to copy or mimic someone else's performance. Yeah. If you have a particular lack of kind of self-creativity, I don't know. It wouldn't have done me any good. I actually did watch the 2010.

Is that what was 2010? This one says 2000. So I don't know if they have them written a couple of people? I don't know. Yeah. according to Gail's research I don't know Oh well maybe it's much longer

than I thought it was Yes I did watch that I watched both John Hanna's and Ken Stott I think you just did If you lived in Scotland You watched Taggart I don't know if you're familiar with Taggart That's the West Coast version essentially

And you had Rebus Which was the East Coast version Right So I remember watching it at the time Yeah it was quite popular at the time And no I didn't think It was going to do me any good To go back

and watch them because you want to come up with your own thing it's nice to have a kind of a nod to the thing that was but I don't think there's any point going back and looking at someone else's performance because I had the books for research

and I had the scripts and all I had to do was you know marry the two of them in a way that worked for me that was still going to be you know an honest portrayal of this character and and, you know, my sort of idea of it. I think that's important. So here's one that's inevitable.

This is a good question to hear because this means they want more. Elizabeth wanted to know, says that she binged it already in one sitting. Are you guys doing season two? She says, I haven't seen the last episode. She says it's left on a cliffhanger. So more to come.

Well, there's a bit of a cliffhanger. So, you know, it's been left in a place that we can certainly continue the story. That's the idea. I'd love to do more. Yeah. Don't be around the bush, be all, you know. Cajie.

Maybe. Yeah. I love to do more. Give me some more of that and I'll throw a little season of that out. Yeah. It's been very well received. I saw the reviews have been great. I don't know if you're the kind of actor that checks out reviews.

If you can resist it, if that's helpful or horrible for your brain. Like, do you access the reviews? Do you read your own reviews or no? I hate reviews. I hate reading reviews. I just. I, I, It's like it's a funny thing, it's an age-old thing of actors and reviews

and whether they're helpful or whether they're not or whether they're just downright damaging. The truth about a review is, and this is also an age-old analogy, it's like you can read 99 great reviews, brilliant reviews that you're on top of the world and you'll read that one where some shitheads decided to tell you apart for no apparent reason other than to be contrary. Or maybe it is their opinion. so maybe I'm not being fair.

Maybe that was their opinion at the time and fair enough, you're one's entitled to one, but that's the one you'll remember and the one that you'll play over and over again and you'll start to think, oh, what could I have done differently to overturn this one person's opinion?

Why didn't they like it? What's wrong with me? Let me reach out to them, maybe I can convince them. It's just to sort of be kind of emphatic about the scenario, but it's a funny thing. Reviews are a funny, funny thing. And I don't think there is,

Are there as necessary as there used to be reviews used to be a good way to sort of get an idea of whether or not you were going to like something or whether or not something was being received sort of generally well enough for you to, you know, to spark your own interest. But we have so many platforms on social media and on the internet now. There's things that are kind of reviewed or sort of gauged by the general public, the people who, the punters who are actually going to watch things. and their reviews generally don't marry up with the critic reviews I've noticed they generally tend to be a bit of a disparity between the two but to go back to your original question

after this rant about critics all of the reviews have been pretty much great but these are reviews what I do is I won't go looking for reviews because I will find those negative ones and they will they will kind of drag me down a little bit people tend to send me the really good ones especially our team on Rebus

because it is important to them how well it is received and how well we're doing obviously so they'll send me all the ones that are generally favourable and I'm going to try to find one I'm going to try to find one negative one and I'll be the one to send it to you if that's okay

can I be that guy. Thanks Josh. Yeah you can be that guy because I know that you'll take some pleasure in that. Thanks, I'm going to take you down a peg. I want you to know, you're in good company, no less than I interviewed Olivia Coleman a bunch of months back and we were talking about reviews and she got, get so enraged by bad reviews. Olivia Coleman, who's like the best of the best, talked about literally, very seriously considering sending fake poo to a critic because she was so upset with a better view. Yes, I listened to that one. That was great.

Yeah. That's amazing. I won't go that far. unless it's you, unless you're the one sending you're writing the reviews. That's what I'm going to send you something in the mail. I'll look forward to that. So speaking of famous, important Scottish characters, I've heard you talk about, and you've actually been in at least one production of Macbeth.

And I was surprised to hear what you talk about that one of the productions, and you called it Macbeth. You didn't call it the Scottish play. Are you not superstitious? I'm superstitious enough I think I forgot about the superstition That's like the superstition That's like the theatre superstition

I know There's a kind of a There's kind of an antidote Sort of rhyme to it isn't no But I forget what it is It's in blackadder I'm sure that it was made up But yeah

No I everyone Not many people are going around Corn at the Scottish play anymore So has you Have you I'm not going to say it now because it seems like I'm being tempered into some sort of crap that's going to ruin my career

because it will then be documented. I haven't said, have I said it yet today? I haven't said it today. So have you played the titular character? We won't say the name of that character. Have you played the M guy yet in a production? Is that still an aspiration? No, I haven't played the M guy yet.

James McArdo played the M guy in that version of the player with Sersher Ronan as Lady M. or Susan Macbeth, as we called her, because we realized that none of these characters had first names. Right, Lady Macbeth, see, I'm saying it. I'm just, they can't curse me enough. It's out, no, it's out, it's out. All right, let's talk a little bit outlander. Since I saw you, I know it's done, done now.

Because even like when you guys were at Comic-Con, I think some of you, maybe you did as well. Maybe everybody went back for a little bit of reshoots. Did you go back? Did you have a little more to do after Comic-com? Yeah, yeah, I did a little bit more. which was funny. It was a weird time. It was a very strange time.

We've been on the show such a long time now. I think I've been nine years on the show or something. Sam, Katrina, essentially started in development maybe like 11 years ago, right? So around about a decade, we've all been involved in this show. And just through necessity, the way that it ended is you've got, you know, you finish on your main unit on your, doing your main sort of scenes and whatever

and then there'll inevitably be some second unit stuff as you're wrapping up which is just generally picking things up or you know shots that they've missed the previous week or whatever and then we had reshoots after Comic-Con so essentially I was wrapped on the show three times and there was kind of diminishing returns each time we wrapped so it felt less and less

ceremonial for lack of a bit of words not anticlimactic there was just something there was just something very weird we were all in a strange emotional state because we're all finishing this thing that we've been on forever with people that we have become

have come to be essentially our extended families so yeah the process of finishing the show just you know became a bit endless in itself and not to mention it's going to go on for a year, year and a half, however long it takes before it comes up.

Exactly. We've got the second half of season seven coming out, this month, actually. And then we have season eight coming out, you know, at a later date. So was there an emotional, like, what was the cathartic moment of those many goodbyes? Was there one where you got the most emotional? Do you know what?

I thought I was okay, George. I thought I was all right and everyone did, I think. But I think the closer we got to it, the more we were sort of taken unawares by whatever it was. That sense of maybe grief, maybe loss, maybe, you know, the fact that there would be this thing that had taken up such a huge part of our lives and it was about to not be there anymore. So there was going to be this just,

this void, this emptiness, right, that was going to be there and it was. So I remember the moment it sort of all came, it kind of came over me was when I was finishing. I can't even describe the scene, so I can't even give you the entire context. So we can remind me to go into this and more detail. Okay. Broadstrokes and then we'll get back to it, yes. But it was a scene which was kind of reminiscent of a scene, one of the first scenes that I shot at the end of season two, with Sophie, who's been my television partner for, you know, the length of most marriages these days, probably more. More, yeah.

And I just, I was stood there and I remember standing there in the scene being able to think of nothing else but those first days on the show. And then from that sort of reflecting on all of these wonderful moments that we'd had throughout the years as I was standing there in a scene where I had to be quite reflective of the thing before me and what was going on.

So it kind of worked for the context of the scene but it was quite distracting at the same time because I was probably getting overly emotional about it and everything just seemed to be this sort of

full circle because it was just so reminiscent of where I started and in that you sort of condense these memories don't you and it feels like nine years was nothing because you sort of I don't know you sort of contract those memories in your head when you're thinking about something

and sort of isolation that way and it was like wait hang on how are we how is it 2024 how are we 10 years into the show how are we finishing season eight so I don't know I think there were a lot of sort of overwhelming thoughts and feelings which came out unwelcomed as well.

They weren't supposed to be there. I was like, no, I'm fine. Totally stoic. Part of as a rock. You were just getting emotional knowing. Wait, does this mean Josh and I aren't going to talk anymore? Is this, is that what that mean? But now we know.

No. I think that's what it was. It's like, oh, that was my one in. During the Volvo Fall Experience event, discover exceptional offers and thoughtful design that leaves plenty of room for autumn adventures. And see for yourself how Volvo's legendary safety brings peace of mind to every crisp morning commute.

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you are as you are. Be true, be authentic, be unapologetically you. Express yourself at Simons. A couple more questions from the fans. Jerry wants to know, is there any other plotline from Outlander or experience that you would have liked to have included that you never got to? Is there any stone that was left unturned for Roger? There's a few.

There's a few. I sort of condemned myself quite early on by reading the books, which was very helpful and very unhelpful all at the same time because I found it a very useful resource because it's not something you always have. I've gone into a show as a series of books on which to give yourself an idea of the character

and the world that you're about to step into. And it was really good for the character sort of development early doors as well because I've got a really good idea of what Roger was about. But you inevitably also come across quite a lot of scenes that you get really excited about.

and I really look forward to shooting and you get a very set idea of how you think that's going to go down and either it doesn't happen at all, sometimes, not always. It doesn't happen at all or it happens in a very different way and it's quite jarring with you because you're like,

oh, I thought it was going to happen like this. But, you know, it's an adaptation of a very large series of very large books so we can't all have all of the things in there that we like and that we love. So you just have to sort of get on with it and is there one you ever

advocated for strongly like can't we is it too late to get this in there so there's a few so there was one if I'm remembering it correctly it was when Roger proposes or certainly has the idea of marrying Brianna for the first time and they're walking along

the River Ness and Inverness and there's a scene in a church which is just by the banks of the River Ness and it's there that he sees himself marrying and I think it's there at Christmas, Christmas Eve, I think if I'm remembering, I might have this slightly wrong, because a few years ago I read it

and he proposes to her in a very wintry sort of feeling Inverness in the 60s, and I thought the way it was written was really sweet, really romantic. There was quite a lot of stuff

which I had been looking forward to shooting on, in season four, there's a whole voyage, a whole transatlantic voyage in the 18th century with Roger and he comes across the villainous Stephen Bonnet and yeah there was a lot of that story which I was sort of hoping that we would shoot and that we didn't manage to shoot there wasn't quite the space to get it in there and I sort of had a bit of a yeah a bit of a longing to have just explored some of that stuff because it did a lot for the character

and it did a lot for the story. And a lot for Stephen Bonnet as well, who I thought was just brilliantly played by Ed Spilliers. But, you know, you can't have, like I said, when you're referencing books, it's a bittersweet thing because you can't have it all. You know, it's not all going to make it. Yeah, it's just literally impossible.

Well, we can do our fanfic. We can do our own running gun version. I've got time in my hands if you want to, you and Sophie. Yeah, we'll just redo it. What would we call that? Just redo scenes and see. Yeah, Outlander Redux, like the Rankin Horowitz tapes. Yeah, right.

Coming soon. The time's flying by, but I want to talk a little bit. I'm curious, just like I was reading a bit about your background. We talked a little bit about the actors you kind of came of age with in the theater. But even before that, you were, as I take it, a little bit of a late bloomer coming to acting. One thing that caught my eye on trustee was either Wikipedia or IMDB is it said that a child. It sounds very dramatic. A chance at the Roosevelt Hotel in L.A. during a holiday changed your life.

Now, I'm curious about this because I had a very pivotal moment in my career at the Roosevelt Hotel. But is that true? Did you have some kind of like Warren Bacall, they spotted you at the Roosevelt Hotel moment? Or what happened there? Kind of. Yeah. That's written quite eloquently. That's not a quote, is it?

Someone wrote that. Yeah, like I said, it's either in Wiki or IMDB. Yeah, it's a chance moment. yeah um yeah well uh i mean i suppose it was probably a number of things so i can't put it down to maybe that maybe it was that one sort of pivotal moment i had gone to the states for the first time uh in my early 20s 20 i think i was and i had no i'd always been a quite a creative sort ever since growing up and uh i always had to have some sort of creative outlet whether it was music or writing or singing or guitar or whatever um i was going to be an author

start for the longest time. And yeah, I'd ended up falling into IT, not falling into, you know, it's a great sort of love of mine, computers and tech and all the rest of it. So I had imagined that that would be my career. And I had gone off to America for the first time. I went on one of these sort of package holidays to Vegas for three or four days and then on to LA for another three or four days and found ourselves my ex-girlfriend and I

at having dinner at the Roosevelt Hotel and it was dead. There was no one there except this cast and I think I can't remember exactly because I didn't know these people at the time and I think it was the cast of like the OC or something like that and I got speaking to one of their producers had asked us to join them because literally it was us sat at a table of two

and then the rest of them sat at this big table in the restaurant. We joined them, we had to try and we were just chatting and sort of, you know, sharing stories as you do and the producer was chatting to me. He's like, you know, have you ever thought about being an actor? And I thought, that's such an odd question to ask someone who's not an actor or has no involvement in the industry. And maybe it was the question itself that kind of stuck in my head.

It was a question that I repeatedly asked myself after we left, but I was like, no. He says, you're kind of have a way about you, I don't know, I suppose, a certain sort of charisma. And I was like, where are you? What is your angle here? You know, you look well suited to be one. And I thought, that seems like such a bizarre thing to say to someone.

But anyway, I remember on the way home, it's sort of, I think that's sort of a seed had been planted. And I kept thinking about it. And I don't know why I kept thinking about it. But the more and more I thought about it, the more and more I thought, you know, I could do I think I could do that I think I'd probably

give it a go but I'd also been sort of I'd also sort of being quite heavily influenced by things like Universal Studios and whatnot like the next day right and all of the backclock stuff

and all of the sort of grandeur of the film industry as it's presented at like Universal Studios and in the Hollywood Walk and all that sort of thing and I think to pardon the cliche I think I kind of caught a bit of a bug

and I don't really know how but I came home and I thought well you know I don't even know if I can act so I'm going to have to find out if I can if I have even any sort of capacity for it

and I asked my brother at the time I'm not my brother at the time he's still my brother but I asked at that time I asked my brother what he was doing after the summer and if he fancied auditioning for drama school and he came to the same conclusion as me he was like we don't even

know if we can and i was like i bet we can so we got a book a novel right prose um from this is how this is how much we knew at the time right we got a book i even remember what it was it was like john crissom or geoffrey archer or something right of frederick forsyth one of my dad's novels off the bookshelf and we started reading some scenes from that ridiculous but from that we decided that we we had what it takes. And yeah, later auditioned for drama school, got into the same year. And I want to say the rest of this history, but that's so ridiculous. But it kind of was. And I actually started to really, really fall in love with this whole business of ours and everything that it involves. It's been a funny wee Johnney since then.

Yeah. Another reason to love the OC. Let's go with the OC. That makes for a good story. I like that. I just say that. Tells, yeah, let's just say there it is. I wasn't really paying attention, Josh. This is, so that is such a potentially interesting story, and I cannot remember the details. I'm technically just up because. Oh, 100%.

Yeah, you need to clean that up. This is kind of like the starting point for your tonight show appearance. Like, clean it up by then. When you're on Jimmy Fallon, it was definitely the OC for the record. And McKenzie, yeah. And then I thought someone's going to remember that day. I'm not going to go,

that at all. It wasn't even one in the business, just a random lawyer on his friends. I don't care if it's true or not. I like this story. What can I secret into the universe for you, my friend? You're not wanting for opportunity. Obviously, Rebus is a great one coming off of Outlander. You haven't worked that much in my beloved states. Here and there, tiny bits and bobs. Is that important to you? Is there, can I put in a good word of Vin Diesel or somebody with a franchise? What do you want? There's no harm in you put in a... a good world with all of them. Josh, that'd be lovely. No, I have no particular, I have no overwhelming desire to work in the States. I don't not want to work there, but I would just like to do good work

with good people and I'll be happy, you know. It doesn't really matter where it is. Although a lot of American stuff seems to be filming over in Europe now. That's true. What about from the geek standpoint, you talked about kind of being that secret, not-so-secret geek at Comic-Con. What's your- All right, okay, so I definitely want to be, like, in Marvel, right? Josh, if you can get me in there, right? If there's a wee bit of Wolverine, then I'll hit the gem a few times a day, right? Or, in fact, just, just that. Wolverine or Tom Stark, right? A young guy, but not even that much younger, Tony Stark.

I'll go with that. Have you ever had those kind of meetings, auditions for that kind of a role? Not Marvel. Not yet. I've always thought about it, though. I've always wondered how would I, because it's like you have to sort of marry up a sort of an honesty, sort of a believability in a really quite an otherworldly character if you're talking about Marvel superheroes. So you need to have that sort of storytelling combined with some sort of truth. And I've always wondered, how would I do that?

How would I go into the room? How would I go into a room and be Superman? Like, I've always, I quite like to be a fly on the wall. I'm sure with enough sort of research and rehearsal, not research, but enough rehearsal and enough practice, you'd come up with something that you could present in the room, I'm sure. But I'd like to be a fly on the wall in some of these auditions where people are auditioning for these big superhero or fantasy things, where they have to be something literally otherworldly. Like, to Josh, I don't know if Josh Brolin never had to audition, but Thanos, the world. like what's how's he auditioning for that you had some absurd auditions where you had to like hold the fake gun or put on some silly costume yeah yeah yeah yeah you have auditions where you have to

you have to sort of imagine props or set here and there it's usually not too much you're not usually having to imagine you're fighting a hulk right right these things i imagine would be Kind of funny. Like, could you take it seriously in an audition room? Could you take it seriously? Like, you could have the guy and he's doing the best version of the job. He's giving you his best thought, right?

But he is still standing there swinging a piece of string in the middle of the audition room, right? And he'd fly off at Asgard. Like, that takes talent, yeah. Sell me on Wolverine. Call me Bub, be menacing. Come on. You can do it.

call you bub is that the line yeah he's hey bubub bub uh hey bub never mind never mind we'll cut that i want you to get the roll i don't want to see that yeah let's not put that let's not put that forward to marvel i think i got a reply from uh right i got a reply from sam did you i'm gonna kill him what i did i did what time was your what time did yours come in mine came in at one minute past uh I went, no, seven minutes past five. So seven minutes past 12. You're the same, I think. I got mine at eight minutes past.

Oh. Can you say what yours? He replied to me, no. So I said, do you miss me? And he says, no, I just want to make sure I can work out in peace. He wrote to me. I said, do you miss me? And he said, I see Russia has taken over your account too.

Oh, brilliant. Well, you win by a minute. Sam Hewen. What's Richard Rankin Moore? It's definitive. I'll never forgive them. Yeah, I'm sure we'll hear that. I think that that's a perfect note to end upon.

Congratulations, buddy, on new batch of Outlander. But more importantly, we're getting to see new sides of Richard in this fantastic new show, Rebus. I want to tell folks how they can actually see it, because that's important. The ViyaPlay streaming service is available as an add-on subscription via Amazon Prime Video channels, as well as Roku, Comcastling, all those fun things.

Just look it up. How to watch Rebus. You'll figure it out, guys. trust you. Or we have Richard as our IT consultant. I'm sure he can help you out. Yeah, which is what I'm about to do now, right? You had a problem with your printer. Yeah, yeah, if you could clear my cash for me. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, right on that. No, truly, buddy, it's always good to see you and I'm glad we had a chance to have this fun one-on-one time. Always a pleasure. Thanks, Josh. Thanks for having me. All right. Thanks, buddy. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused.

to review, rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley and I definitely wasn't pressure to do this by Josh. Calling all book lovers. The Toronto International Festival of Authors brings you a world of stories all in one place. Discover five days of readings, talks, workshops and more with over 100 authors from around the world. including Rachel Maddow, Ketourou Isaku and Kieran Desai.

The Toronto International Festival of Authors, October 29th to November 2nd. Details and tickets at Festival of Authors.ca.