Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - ANTHONY LAPAGLIA: Induced Coma Visions, Django Rumors, Chasing the EGOT & Forgiving His Father

Episode Date: September 19, 2023

Anthony LaPaglia (Empire Records, Without a Trace) joins us this week to share story after story from his incredible tenure in this industry and how he’s been able to sustain such a respected career. Anthony drops a bomb when he talks about his recent ‘induced coma,’ the visions he had coming out of it, and the positive changes it brought to his life. We get into a lot this week… like stories of standing up to Val Kilmer, the harsh pressures of being the eldest son in an Italian family, aspirations for professional soccer, chasing the EGOT, problems with directors on set, arrests during Empire Records, and a whole lot more. Thank you to our sponsors: ❤️ Betterhelp: https://betterhelp.com/inside 🟠 Discover: https://discvr.co/3Cnb1V8 🏈 PrizePicks: https://prizepicks.com/inside __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou 👕 Inside Of You Merch: https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🤣 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod 🌐 Website: https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Thank you for joining me and Ryan. Teas, Ryan, Greetings. Hello. Hi. I'm happy that you've chosen to listen to this podcast today. A lot of people are loyal listeners out there, my lovable patrons, that love the show and support it and supporting it for years and making it possible for us to continue recording. And if you want to become a patron and support the podcast, if you like it and you want to support a podcast,

you like patreon.com slash inside of you. P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash inside of you. I'll send you a message. There's a lot of perks. You get shout-outs every episode on the podcast. You get to ask questions and there's merch boxes and zooms and YouTube lives and merch discounts and a bunch of stuff. It's really more more so a family-oriented platform for friends, people who like a community. It's not just supporting. the podcast, but it's an amazing community. I don't say that particularly, but I don't care. Just to tell you a few things before you fast forward, Tom and I will be in D.C.

September 27th. And the weekend before that, we're in Salt Lake City. We're doing an event like the Tom and Michael show and we read scripts and it's a blast. Get tickets to those events. You could go to my link tree on Instagram. It's a link and it will tell you everything I'm doing cameos. Patreon. And most importantly, I'd like to talk about the live podcast. If you like the show, you want to support it, or if you're in the area in Los Angeles on October 11th, 7 p.m. at the

Regent Theater. It's me and Zach Levi. It's the inside of you podcast live for the first time ever. So far, tickets are doing all right. We're selling tickets. Nice. You know, I said, gosh, I hope 50 people come. But honestly, if 150 people came, I'd be happy, right? That'd be gone. That'd be gone. Let me, there'll be gossom. I'll be gossom, man. So look, get tickets. There's also a meet and greet with Zach and I. If you want to come to that, it's October 11th, 7 p.m.

Get your tickets on the link tree in my bio. And if you want to support this podcast, continue to do so. The handles, Ryan. At Inside of You Pod on Twitter, at Inside of You podcast on Instagram and Facebook. That's correct. And you can write a review, which really helps the algorithms and all that stuff. Great guest today. In fact, Bryce, my producer, emailed me and said that this was one of his favorites.

This is really a kick-ass episode. And I remember it being good, but I don't remember it being like, because when you're in it, you don't really think about that stuff. In fact, I forget. I forget everything. Yeah. And apparently we went really deep. And Anthony was so kind.

And what's funny is he came here a week early by accident. He goes, hey, Anthony. I go, I don't know what Anthony. Is Anthony Hillapaglia? hey hey hold on a second i went downstairs he's like yeah i'm here for the podcast i'm like yeah it's not the next week goes oh all right i'll come back i go you're gonna come back oh right he goes yeah he's so cool and so like just he's just got his own thing man i wish i was that cool i wish i was half as cool as anthony lapaglia i need a cool name like anthony lapaglia

michael rosenbaum well you say it like that it sounds cool michael rosenbaum Anthony LaPaglia in Michael Mann's The City Never Sleeps I bet there's been a movie called that All right Great episode I hope you enjoy it We talk about everything without a trace Empire Records

Everything He's an open book And I think you're going to really like it So without further ado Let's get inside of Anthony La Paglia It's my point of you You're listening to inside of you With Michael

Michael Rosenbaum Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. Hey folks, wanted to highlight something important before today's episode. In case you weren't aware, myself and many of the guests are on strike alongside SAG after NWGA. Today's episode and any we air before the strike ends

were recorded before it began. So this is just a heads up in relation to some for the topics we may discuss. If you want more info on the strike, visit sag afterstrike.org. Now let's get into it. To be honest, this is the first, like, real kind of podcast I've ever done. Is that true? Are we rolling? Did you hear that?

We got that. What did he just said? This is really like the first podcast. Yeah, this is the first podcast I've ever done. Why? Um. I don't know why I said yes to you. I think because of Larson Thompson who you worked with.

Yes, that's exactly why. Because I really like her. She's a good kid. Yeah, what did you work with? It's tough, though, because the guy I made the movie with, I've known him for 30 years, the director, writer. Right. And I did stuff with him when I was very young.

And, I don't know, time went on. We stayed friends, but I wasn't going to do this movie. Right. But his actor, he asked me about someone else, and I was telling him, I'll ask for you. Pearl. He told me a bit about it. But to be honest, the last time we had worked together,

it started to get a bit strained. Tie. Tom of Ty West? The director was Bobby Ross. And look, we've been, we were friends for a good chunk of time. And we're still friends, but stuff happens in life. And you kind of, I don't know, either you see things more clearly or you see things that you ignored before.

You can say the same thing about me. I don't know. He wouldn't. He's an incredibly nice man, but he's overshed. over you know he's an oversherer and it thinks that I don't need to know and the things that like make it hard for me you know but hey

it's just an overshare with me he has a blog where he overshears with him I've never asked him about it when you say overshares what do you mean because Ryan when you say I overshare no you share you're open but I think there I think there's a line that you don't cross right oversharing

gets crossed yeah like like he's in dragoon he's a tap dancer in dragoon he's like um he's he overthanks everything and he journals everything that happens and some of it is like bro just roll it back i mean i'm glad you want your life to be an open book but it's like i have to stop reading them you'd send them to everybody i mean a big blast out you know yeah it's one of those things were like i remember i was at disney world with my my family and i was videotaping everything everything and my uncle goes why don't you just enjoy real life this is my old thing okay because i'm from the generation i'm my old fucker now so you know not that old yeah yeah yeah it's 60 64 it looks good yeah all right you know formaldehyde does wonders and so you got me out of

the VAT this morning. And so, you know, I grew up in the era. I don't want to sound like the, when I was growing up, they had the Model T. But I grew up in an era

where there was no cell phones. I mean, there wasn't a flip phone. Me too. There was your parents, avocado green or burnt orange phone with a rotary. Long cord. A long cord.

A long cord. And one line in. Yeah. And, you know, if I was on the phone when my old man got home, It was, get off. There was no privacy. And so it's such a different world now.

And I'm, actually, I look at it more from like a science project because I have a 20-year-old daughter who's never known not having iPhones around. She's never known that. I don't think you haven't, have you? I was born in 1988. Oh, all right. You're not that young. Fuck on.

I was still young. But I was born a lot later. I heard 20 years ago. Yeah, she just turned 20. And so she doesn't know. So she would genuinely sit there and say to me, how did you ever get anything? I mean, how did you ever go to a party?

How did you ever, you know, know, know what was going on? I said, I was young, I was dumb, and I was really happy. I didn't know what was going on. Yeah. And somebody, I'd run into somebody, well, I was, you know, younger, a teenager or whatever. I'd run into somebody on the street and they go, hey, there's a party Friday night or Saturday night.

It's here, be there, whatever. You just showed up. If I remembered, because somewhere between Tuesday and Saturday, there was so many other options, I probably didn't go or forgot it or whatever. Right. But if I did it, I'm going, quite a few times you showed up. and the party wasn't there anymore. And, and, um, uh, and she said, what would you do?

I'd say, well, you know, I'd just, whatever party was going on there wasn't the original one, but I would just go into that, you know, and just chill out. That was the time. There was something fun about that. Like my friends would say, hey, you want to go see that movie tonight? I'll meet you there at seven. Yeah. And you hope they're there.

And sometimes they don't show. And that, to me, actually, was more exciting than the people. I was actually going to see, I think. But this was all I was living in New York, right? So a bit easier on the street there. So the jungle drums went out. And I lived in East Village, West Village. So I'd always run into somebody who knew somebody who was throwing the party or whatever event it was.

Or, you know, when I say party, I mean, that's really kind of a loose term. It was basically a bowl of cocaine. And, you know, this is nice. 80s, 90s. Really? So you saw a lot of that. Oh, man. Everybody was doing it.

I would walk into some place. In fact, if I didn't know any, if the people that invited me weren't there, it was no problem because there would be, oh, dirt broke, so I would walk in there and nine times out of 10, there wouldn't be just like some cocaine there. There would be a bowl of cocaine that looked at a little tip of Mount Everest in the middle the table and nobody was gardening. So you just helped yourself. So you got involved in the, you kind of... Absolutely. In fact, when I left the party, I was broke. So when I left the party, I would find a piece of paper somewhere folded up and they kind of shave the top of the

bowl off and put it into the paper. Save it for later snacking. Absolutely. I absolutely would save it for later. Or if somebody else, a friend of mine wanted some, I wouldn't sell it to them because I stole it. I mean, if I just stayed there long enough, I probably would have done it. But did you have an addictive personality? Were you someone who just kind of did it when you did it? But did you ever have a problem?

Do you know, for many years, I did not. For many years, same with alcohol. Even now, I can drink. I don't drink that much because I don't get that much enjoyment out of it because I find it very hard to get drunk. so I can drink three four of a bottle of mescal

and I'm fine and everybody else around me I realize it's completely fucked up because I drink it I drink it straight up look I don't and same with vodka is that just the Australian blood

no what is that because I'm an I Thai you know like I'm an Italian and Italians are not notoriously big you know not competent drinkers they're not they have a couple of glasses of wine and they start crying about their dead mother and all the things that went wrong in their life very emotional and i have a very even thing

the thing with cocaine that's really for many years i was just a recreational user if i could i couldn't afford it so if i found it or we used it or whatever i couldn't afford to actually buy the stuff um even back then when i think it was like you know a nickel a bag or something it was pretty cheap and and and at the risk of sounding like such an old asshole were way better all the drugs were way better because they were pure man i tried everything you know heroin not it's the one i did it accidentally it accidentally put a needle in your no no no no no it was powder right right and i was in a dark room and it was kind of a beige color and i didn't realize i thought it was coke how much did that mess you up it didn't too much i went to sleep that's all

i smoked heroin by accident too i know everybody's thinking oh yeah anthony accidentally did it michael accidentally did it again i never did it again i was afraid of that drug but i did it I smoked something and afterwards I started feeling really weird. And my buddy goes, yeah, they laced it with a little heroin. I go, what? And I remember this sensation of like the best feeling I've ever had and then it turned into me puking on the streets. Well, that's what, that's the thing.

Usually it's the other way around. You puke first and then have the best feeling you ever had. You seem to have the reverse. Yeah, it didn't. It didn't. Well, I was always scared of certain drugs like that. Yeah. And it was the needle aspect. like needles no i don't like that you go down that road i like drugs that are like but back then you know

like you had like a couple choices you had coke you had benzos and you had um pot uh i do i never like pot i never smoked it um whenever i smoke it because my daughter loves a puff and i've tried her stuff for jesus christ this stuff is so strong yeah i get I get paranoid. I get paranoid. I get on the couch, I pull the blanket over my head, and I lay there until it's over.

Yeah. It's not fun. Inside of you is brought to you by Quince. I love Quince, Ryan. I've told you this before. I got this awesome $60 cashmere sweater. I wear it religiously. You can get all sorts of amazing,

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Inside of You for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash Inside-of-You. Free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash Inside-of-you. Inside-of-you is brought to you by Rocket Money. I'm going to speak to you about something that's going to help you save money, period. It's Rocket Money. It's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions,

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I know you did it. That's why you got Rocket Money. did, yeah. And I also talked to a financial advisor recently and I said, I had rocket money and they said, that's good. This will help you keep track of your budget. See? See? It's only, we're only here to help folks. We're only trying to give you, you know, things that will help you. So Rocket Money really does that. Rocket Money shows you all your expenses in one place, including subscriptions you forgot about. If you see a subscription you no longer want, Rocket Money will help cancel it. Rocket Money will even try to negotiate lower bills for you.

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cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum in the survey so they know I sent you. Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Rocket Money. yeah i i don't i'm not a big pot smoker i don't drink much i you know we were talking about smoke and i was i'm trying to stop doing that i just became like a little bit of a habit i'm like what the hell you should do the little black ones too what were they called uh cloves no no no it was a black kind of a gel thing that you would pop uh lute not ludes yeah maybe maybe

maybe a ludes i've never had a load yeah yeah that's so 70s proud 80s ludes you know what And ecstasy was excellent. Ecstasy was back in the day. No, no, no, no. I didn't try ecstasy until the 90s. And I was actually within San Francisco. I'm not going to say what I was doing. I was doing a movie in San Francisco.

And somebody said, oh, you got to try this. It's called X. Because all the pills were marked with an X. Right. And so I went, sure, I'll try that. And honestly God, it was like the best, best feeling ever and you can't ever get that feeling back

well it's not just that I did get it back a few times in San Francisco but you feel like shit for a few days yeah jeez you are like nothing phases this guy no I like kidney stones kidney stones got me this week yeah

stuff like that gets me like old man shit but what what is kidney I heard kidney stones is like as bad as pregnancy I would never insult a woman by saying it must be what it's like to give birth but it's what it must be like to give birth. It's how, what hurts?

I couldn't know, well, you know, where your, where your kidneys are, you're passing one or two little rocks. They're only small. How many times this has happened to you? This is my second time in, yeah, my whole life. Do you have to go to the hospital? The first time I did, this time I knew what it was. And so I just, I knew I had to just ride it out until they dissolve or pass or whatever.

but it's bad pain it's like you cannot move pain and it just it's unrelenting and it's and i've apologized to any women watching who've had children but i really empathize it must be it must be a fifth of what they go through yeah but it's if it's anything like that what causes it do we know yeah i don't really want to say it's kind of like no it's it is it is the It is related to diet, and I'm notoriously bad with drinking water. Like, I should be drinking, you know. You're on a bottle? Yeah, thanks.

You know, you're supposed to drink like eight glasses a day. I never do that. And all this stuff. And, you know. My grandmother will be 95 in June. She drinks scratch every day. No, she goes like this. I always, you need to drink more water.

I haven't drank water in 90. 95 years. Look at me. Do I need water? You look at it, you go, a little bit. You look a little dehydrant. A little bit. Your skin's a little dry.

And when I do drink, you know what it is? It just, like, I know it's great and everything, but it boars me. Yeah. Just drinking it, I start to, like, gnawed off. Drinking water, I nod off. I'm so bored with water. I'm so bored with water. And, uh, that's amazing, you know, and so, but recently, because I've, you know, I've been a horror story the last five years in terms of diet and all that stuff.

Why is that? Do you think that, do you think that's psychological? Do you think that's sort of maybe depression? Do you think it's anxiety? Do you think it's like, you know, kind of a, just a phase? No, I think it can be all those things. And it can be all those things at the same time. Because I, I deal with it, too, with, uh, you know, you know, the smoking and the things because I'm self-destructive. smoking was that was see i just seemed to go from one one habit to another and then kind of solve that and then smoking was my other big vice that i did for many years and i tried so many times to quit i remember once i quit for a year somebody say go and see this um he's quite famous that you won't mind me plug in him because you gas quite a success rate going on carry gainor and carry's hilarious i've heard of them

Yeah, Kerry's hilarious. He looks like a little bird. He sits on this chair and his feet dangle from the chair, and he's got like a big head of hair. And he's a hypnotist. He's a hypnotist. He's very intense. And he, and I was like, you listen,

I'm not susceptible to hypnotism, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. To be fair, the first time he did me, I was like, I'm not susceptible, I was out. Really? Yeah, it actually, kind of worked and um and i saw him like three or four times and i quit smoking which everybody was completely shocked that i quit because it was on two bags a day so i i'd quit for a year and then i was um oh how the hell the mighty fall i was doing a movie in new york and we're shooting in the

bronx but i mean like they're really in the projects in the bronx yeah and and they did not want us there because we were interfering with the drug trade and whatever else was going on there and so we had to wear hard hats to the set because they'd be throwing shit off the out of the windows you had all those big high-rise building there and throw them out of the window

and you'd be ducking stuff and you know they weren't happy to have you there so we had to get some some guy with a gang leader to go in and negotiate with them to like not do it while we were shooting but you started smoking again there no it wasn't that so much it was um it was a small budget

and it was really a uh a tough schedule and maybe one i've done so much stuff i think i've only ever had issues with the director three times maybe and this was one time and it was a big one it was what the issue the issue a little bit we were just okay here's what happened here's what here's when you know I was I was doing it was with viola Davis

and um before she was you know she's massive now yeah and I'm so happy for her because she's one of the nicest women I ever work with in my life anyway we're doing this movie and it was pretty low budge

and um I was doing a scene with viola and the director kept the scene would stop and he'd say

oh can you do it can do it again and I'll be like sure what do you want because I'm pretty much like that I don't mind I love direction yeah

but he wouldn't you wouldn't say specifically what he wanted just do it again just do it again and I thought well maybe it'll be different this time

so I'd do it again and this happened about four times and then And I said to him, listen, I mean, you've got to be more specific. I keep doing it and I don't know what you want. And he was very frustrated. And he said, I just want you to do it the way the way the guy that did the auditions did it in the auditions.

You mean the guy who reads? A reader, yeah. The reader, yeah. This is what he says to an established actor. He was very frustrated. And this is what he said. It came out. Look, I could see it flying.

you know like something's flat out of people's mouth and they desperately try to get him back Are you a mind reader? First of all No no but that came out of his mouth And I said to him Well look We're about a weekend

You can always get him Get him and he can do it You know if he was reading the lines better than me Then I suggest you get him I don't want to screw up your movie I don't get upset by stuff like that So I just suggested he'd get the other guy And it kind of went downhill from there

and oh man i know i've had hayden paneterre was in it was a good job was it called do you remember that's all right it's a while that's a while back no let me ask you this oh but continue because you were it had to do with smoking right yeah and so on that movie one night you know things were bits off during the film and um the the other guy i think was continuing manually doing it better than me the guy from the reading and um so one night it's very late like two or three in the morning and i and i'm on the rooftop of one of these one of the project buildings and it's just me and a guy a grip is wrapping up cable and i see him just like light up cigarette and i looked at him and i said you got a you got a spare one

in my hand i'm going i'm just going to have one that's the thing it's not going to that's it from that one i was on back on a pack within a week isn't that something you after one year you're not smoking so then you know so addictive it's so back on this back on the smoking treadmill good god and then finally yeah what caused you to stop for good uh i i i had I was in an induced coma for about five days. What? Yeah. What happened?

I don't know. I really don't know. You just went into a coma. I was fine, and then I woke up in an hospital. When was this? Four or five years ago. That's got to be the most terrifying thing for you, your family. Oh, it was not good.

It was just after my wedding. You had just gotten married. I just got married. And you went into, do you remember where you were when you did this happen? Apparently, I was in the house that we got married in Hawaii and was in the house in Hawaii. And the night before, it had gotten a bit rowdy and I'd been throwing some relatives out of the house because they were behaving badly. And I got to be tired. And I lay on the couch apparently and went to sleep.

And it just looked like I was sleeping. and then um my by now wife noticed that i should have woken up by now and i hadn't so they um yeah kind of looks very short i ended up uh in a hospital in hawai and i was in induced karma for six seven days something like that inside of you is brought to you by rocket money if you want to save money, then listen to me because I use this. Ryan uses as so many people use Rocket Money. It's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions. Crazy, right? How cool is that? Monitorers your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. And you know what's great? It works. It really works, Ryan. Rocket Money will

even try to negotiate lowering your bills for you. The app automatically scans your bills to find opportunities to save and then goes to work to get you better deals they'll even talk to customer service thank god so you don't have to um i don't know how many times we talk about this but like you know you got it and they helped you in so many ways and with these subscriptions that you think are like oh it's a one month subscription for free and then you pay well we forget we want to watch a show on some streamer and then we forget and now we owe two hundred dollars by the end of the year. They're there to make sure those things don't happen. And they will save you money. You know, Rocket Money's 5 million members have saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions with members

saving up to $740 a year when they use all of the app's premium features. Get alerts if your bills increase in price, if there's unusual activity in your accounts, if you're close to going over budget, and even when you're doing a good job. How doesn't everybody have Rocket money? It's Insane. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum in the survey so they know that I sent you. Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show. Ever wonder how dark the world can really get? Well, we dive into the twisted, the terrifying and the true stories behind some of the world's

most chilling crimes. Hi, I'm Ben. And I'm Nicole. we host Wicked and Grimm, a true crime podcast that unpacks real-life horrors, one case at a time. With deep research, dark storytelling, and the occasional drink to take the edge off, we're here to explore the Wicked and Reveal the Grim. We are Wicked and Grim. Follow and listen on your favorite podcast platform. Did you lose, have brain damage? No. No? They didn't know. They didn't know anything. They weren't even sure. They were telling her, we're not sure he's coming out of it. and they don't know what caused it really not really they don't really they're not really sure but i think it was like i run myself pretty hard do you know like how so i was smoking then

i just i don't sleep much um you stress what i no i'm not a stresser but you don't sleep it's weird it's people that stress usually don't sleep no i just don't sleep i like the night i what i find is that my days are usually like kind of with other people's shit like my shit podcast yeah but people you know like remember my family or the white daughter whatever blah blah blah um you know the stuff i like to do and so like i find that my day isn't my day but when anybody hits midnight and everyone's gone to bed that's my time and then i can just sit back relax don't have to think about work or anyone else or anyone else and it depends you know and initially i would read

but then my eyesight started getting a bit shitty um and i love these stories yeah so i took to documentaries and so that's all i watch horror movies and documentaries but the horror movies are such shit now that i'm switching to western they are so bad they're so bad and i love horror and they're all fucking bad i've been trying to watch I could tell you a couple to watch. The only ones, Speak No Evil. Yeah, like that. Watcher.

That was good. See? What was the one where the girl was in the woods? She was deaf. Oh, yeah, hush. Liked it. Liked it. Like it.

Like it a lot. I love that you love horror. You got to come to the heart. We have a horror group that watch horror movies every Tuesday night. But we're so, I don't know. We were just so upset now that last night we said, fuck this. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 99% all the reviews.

and we watch it and we're like, this is a piece of shit. It's all the same now. It's all cabin in the woods. It's all everybody. All I want to do is I hate horror movies where, you know, um,

it's quite obvious. You need to get out of the fucking house and you don't. Joey, I don't get it. Yeah. It's like, what happened to the old days where it's like, you know what was the thing about when they,

in the 70s and 80s, you didn't have like, again, we go back to the cell phones and technology. So people just couldn't pick up their phone and call the cops they couldn't do whatever so if you're out in the woods or you're out wherever they try to recreate that now they do and it works sometimes my signal's not working oh and that's so redone i'm so bad they've got to figure something else by the way um you

so you quit after the coma you came out you stop smoking yeah absolutely that was it you're like i'm done how many yeah that was it and um if that doesn't make you quit then you know then you're on your own um anyway so i was i was i wasn't allowed to leave hawai uh for about five weeks i think wow and i was so desperate i was so desperate to leave but you know when you go into one of those uh when you go into a discoma when i came out i could remember almost everything The most amazing thing about it was, what I remembered the most is that I had the most amazing dreams, hallucinations, I remember them to a T to this day.

It was so fantastic. When I woke up, I said, how many hospitals have I been in? Because I thought that I had been to Zurich. I'd been on a private plane flying to hospitals in Zurich, in Germany. I thought I'd done like seven hospitals. Wow. It felt like eternity. In my head.

No, no, I mean, it was quite an interesting trip. Like, and I kept meeting these kind of bizarre people in this, in that state that I was in. It was very lucid, actually. And there were times that I would come out of that dream state, and I could see people that I knew, but I couldn't communicate with them. That was a little odd. That was like being stuck inside this glass bowl. Could you ever see yourself, like, lying in a bed? Yeah, I did.

Because that, they say, is like, when you're passing or like where you're almost close to passing, a lot of people will see that. And when I saw my, I didn't see what I said in myself. I was in a German clinic. And I had this crazy female German doctor who was like Bauhaus kind of thing. Let me change your diaper. No, no, change your diaper. But we had this new treatment for you.

And it was like this. Because I was like, what I remember was hot all the time, right? And she said, we have this ice suit that you must put on. So it had this blow-up ice suit. Ice? It was a, it was a blow-up suit that it was very, very chilled. But it was quite uncomfortable. Hence, an ice suit.

It was ice and very uncomfortable to wear. It was not made by Hugo Boss, that's for sure. You know, what was I going to say? I love hearing those stories. And I've seen documentaries on that stuff. And there's like that, what is it called? stuff that when you die, there's this liquid in your head. It's called a HDT. Yeah, I know what you're doing. But it releases. And it's, no one knows science. It's like, what is this here for?

DMT. DMT. DMT. And I had DMT. Well, I had a lot of DMT going on because I had, like I said, I still remember them all quite specifically. To the point where when I woke up, I said, um which hospital man now i've been to yeah i've been to germany's zirics like no you've been here and i went this one hospital and i was like get the fuck out now i've been everywhere and that's crazy yeah but i also like i guess it was more serious than i gave a credit for because i had um i had to kind of learn to walk again And they said to me, you're not getting out of this hospital. And so you can walk without a walker.

There's a very long corridor in the hospital. And I said, till the end of that, around the corner and come back again, when you can walk that, because I was desperate to get out. Once I got conscious, I just wanted to go home, you're not going anywhere. Until you can make that walk. Well, at that point, I could barely get out of bed. so but every day I just had it in my head

I'm getting out of here I'm getting out of here I was my one thing I hate hospitals but you had willpower you wanted to get out you wanted to live you wanted to I I I got into the point

I think I was about three weeks in there or four weeks in there and I had it I needed to get out so the day before the doctor said okay let me see you do it and I just I missed it i got about halfway down the hall and couldn't do it so that night i went to sleep and i don't

care if it kills you you were making that walk tomorrow and i still wasn't ready to leave the hospital to be honest and he was very skeptical the doctor and i made myself walk down that corridor and walk all the way back and then sit on the bed and act like it was no big deal and he let you go he did let me go because he promised me when you I could do that he would wow he didn't want to he knew I was you know probably not ready so that's crazy it was it was really nuts and really I it was a hard it was a pretty hard start from my my my current wife yeah I would say do you do you uh do you still love acting do you love being on set you love what you do yes all the time really still I don't love everything on me and

But I love I love I love the atmosphere of a set I love and some of them, they're not all great but there's always pockets of people that you will gravitate towards and I love the collaborative

atmosphere on a set and I'm not a joiner in life at all but on a set I feel like it's different. I feel like it's not joining. I feel like it's a collaborative. collaboration and a kind of especially when people want to work stuff out and I've been asked that before because I think people think you get jaded or bored or some people do but I would

never in it for the money I was never in it for I mean when I started you know my chances of success were like you know popkas like everybody else's I didn't think I didn't even care about that I really didn't. I went to acting school. I loved acting school. I went to several. And I liked most of them. And I just enjoyed getting into a piece of material

and seeing what I could do different with it. Most of that stuff, when you're in acting class, it's all stuff's been done like 900 times. So I would always try to find something like, what way hasn't this been done and in what way can I kind of pick this apart and maybe reassemble it in a way that's different or your parents supportive like your dad was an auto mechanic right my dad was a mechanic so so was my grandfather I can't imagine it like if my father didn't speak to me for years because of the acting yeah he was that upset with you

absolutely in fact when my when his friends would say when you know they'd say my father's name was Eddie. And they go, Eddie, how your boy's doing? He go, ah, Jonathan, he's going to be a doctor. He's going great. My son Michael, he works in the business with me. And then he just stopped. What? People would say, what about your oldest son? I need to go. He just was not. But what about when you had success? Did it change? Well, yeah, but see, that wasn't any good, though. That didn't was it meaningful not to me where you kind of like where were you i didn't say listen i did trade him that way but i didn't i didn't oh yeah no my father and i had a had a fairly open combustible relationship and that's before acting you know we wasn't great

i'm the oldest son so you know italian father the oldest son is responsible for the other fucking to like so you're two brothers if they fuck up it's your fault so you they never catch it you catch everything and so because apparently according to him you're supposed to know better and it's like

but I'm 12 how the fuck should I know better so you had a lot of pressure on you growing up yeah I mean it was he a big guy this is the thing he wasn't he was about 5 foot 8 he was from

from Calabria and he was a mechanic and he had hands like rock he went to work when he was eight as a apprentice mechanic and where he lived he worked for like you know

those guys in the beginning and you know when he did something wrong they would throw a spanner at his head you know like that's how he grew up Jesus but he So he was tough. He was a very tough man.

And when he put a, he had hands like rocks. And when he put a hand on you, man, you knew it. So you got hit. Oh, sure. Like, he, he wouldn't mess around. You messed around. You're going to get smacked. My father and I, yeah.

Did you ever stand up to him? I'm about to tell you that story. All right. I'm about to tell you that story. Now, during this time, all I wanted in life, I wanted to be a professional soccer player. So all my time was devoted to playing. soccer and so like you know i i got signed professionally um as a backup goalkeeper when i was 16 it was quite young yeah for like a big league right it was in for australia at the time yeah

it was the national league and um and adelaide adelaide city adelaide city mate we were doing that right before you came like adelaide brisbane city gold coach melbourne well adelaide you know we get at Adelaide, if you want. It's like, you know, that's like most serial killers per capita in the world. Adelaide. But it's got lovely parks. I've been there twice. Have you?

Yeah, I liked it. Did you know about the serial killers? I didn't. I won't be returning. No, go ahead. The Torrance River used to have floaters going down at all the time. Oh, my God. It's interesting because my wife came with me.

My current wife came with me. I call it my current wife because you never know. and my future ex-wife my future ex-wife no i don't think so she's just current and uh she's such a good sport and her she came down with me because i was doing something there and um she would without me saying anything she said i went for a bit of a run down by the by the the river the tarrens what's the river call i forget now the torrents no i don't know just make it out no But it goes through the city, and there's all this, listen, it's also one of the most beautifully planned cities, parks everywhere. Anyway, this city, this river runs through the middle of it.

And there's a particular part of it that has a pretty dark history. And she would say to me, I don't know what it is. I don't like running down there because it just kind of creeps me out. There's something there. I said, you have good instincts. Many people have floated right past that bridge. oh my god there was a spate of murders especially of young boys a massive amount um one of the greatest unsolved cases in australian history still not

solved is a case called the bonmont children where three children three siblings one was the four four seven eleven um they went to the beach because back then listen you just went no one no one my brother and i used to leave the house at six in the morning and and didn't come back till six in the evening right and god does what the hell we got up to you know that was the same way 80s it's like just be home by 10 just be home yeah yeah just be home for dinner but so these three kids so these three kids were were kidnapped from a crowded beach and no one ever saw them again and they've never caught the guy. You might have my own suspicions because at one time I wanted to do a movie about it,

but I was, it was suggested to me that I should not. Wow. I'll go back to your father. I want to hear that. My father. You're the fight with your father. You want to hear this Ryan? My father. Okay. So my father like, you know, listen, he was a larger than life guy. He everything was extremes for him. He was a mechanic. He worked hard, but he played hard. He gambled a lot. So we all always broke or flush broke or flush broke or flush broke or flush all the time so but you know when he was on a bad drinker but big smoker but when he would be on a bad run watch out and not a happy person no not happy at all and so you know i i was so in tune with this guy that when i was a kid like, you know, under 10, maybe.

We had a gravel driveway, and he'd pull up in the car. And I could tell from his footsteps on the crunch on the gravel, what mood he was in. You get so in tune with what's coming your way. So visual and audible. It's like, man. Holy shit. And I'd hear that crunch.

I was gone. You knew to get out of the house. I got out of the house. Anyway, so like there were quite a few times where, you know, Like, even as a, here's what happened. I'm playing soccer. I'm getting bigger. I'm working out in the gym.

I'm like starting to get like really, like you never know now. But like I was starting to get really in good shape. And so I think I was about 16. And he, we got another disagreement about something because I could never shut up. If he said something, I thought it was stupid, I would go, well, that's just stupid. And that was enough to set him off. and so he got me up he had me up against he had me up against he had me i had a t-shirt and a pair of shorts on and he had me by the t-shirt they had it ripped up like that like that and i remember just thinking

that's fucking it no more and i grabbed him and i shoved him up against the wall and i said you're never fucking touching me again and he his eyes of never like marty feldman they came out of his head and You think that was the end of it. Fuck, no. There was a big carving knife on the table. So he grabs the knife. What? And he starts coming after me with him.

Are you serious? 100%. And if he'd have caught me, you would have stabbed me. But I knew it too, because at that moment, I realized it may be pushing him up against the world. It wasn't that great an idea. So I... God.

So I ran... It was like a cartoon. I ran through... We had a screen door. And I ran through the screen door, through the screen. Like my shape was in the screen. And it was night time. And I took off.

I had no shoes on. I had a ripped t-shirt down the middle. And I'm walking around the streets of my neighborhood, right? Thinking, oh, Jesus, I don't know where I'm going. I know where to go. I don't know. I just can stay out here for a bit, I guess. And then this cop car pulls up next to me.

And they go, what's going on? what do you what are you doing out here i said oh i'm just taking a walk spell one in the morning i'm just taking a walk and then how do you rip your t-shirt said oh you know i just he's ripped it's like that already and um they kind of got it they knew so they got and they said where do you live i said yeah get in the car blah blah blah and then when we got to my house they said do you want us to come in and i said no i think i'll be all right and um So they dropped me off. They got, they knew.

And what did Dad do when you got in? Well, he's the thing, right? The house is dark. It's got to be like two in the morning by now. House is dark. And I think, he's gone to bed. That's great. So I kind of go in the house quietly.

And I get to my room and I open the door. And all I see is this little bright orange tip of a cigarette in the corner. Just, and he's like, you. back, huh? And I'm like, yep. He said, we're going to talk about this in the morning. And he lived. Oh, my God. But he never, he never touched me again. You know, my friend Joe has a story just like that, like his dad would always do this. He said he had a finger that was steel and he would poke him in his chest and it would hurt. And he'd laying in and one time he did it and Joe grabbed his finger and said never touch me again

because he had grown he was wrestling and all that I've heard that story many a time unfortunately I was the shortest I was so I was five foot four when I graduated high school my dad was six five two twenty five four I grew nine inches or eight inches in the next year on my way to college wow but my daddy I couldn't do that I tried to stand up to him but like what am I yeah I mean it was just impossible I didn't have the size i didn't have the you know what i mean but uh it was interesting it was an interesting change in dynamic he still he realizes it wasn't any better but that part of it was over and the interesting thing is he never did that with either of my other two brothers just you made an

example because i'm it's a thing in italian families were the oldest supposed to take responsibility for all shit from the age of nine years old and i figured it out later he went to work when he was eight so for him your childhood ended at eight or nine that's it wow you know you got to be more responsible did you do you look back and think i love my dad it was tough but or was it when when he passed were you was there was it hard I want to be honest no wasn't

no he had cancer and he he had had they did this arthroscopic surgery on him two years before and they said that

you know they came the doctor came out and said look we got I think we got most of it a lot of it but I think it's going to come back in maybe two years should we tell him and we all said don't tell him let him feel like and because if you told him you think about it well I know my dad he would have obsessed on it so I'm going to tell him and he's quite happy but to the day two years later he came back and there was no fixing it this time and uh my father was a guy that did not want to die at all how old was he i want to stay late

70s late 70s it's pretty young now at all i'm not that far away from it he he just did not want to go and he was so pissed off because his mental fact over a year such as it was still there and but his body was starting to fail him and just some really interesting stuff and i went back and all my brothers we all dropped everything we'd done it several times we'd gotten these calls before you know your your old man's dying come back and we go back and he'd be fine you know like you'd make a recovery right so it's a bit of a joke but this time we knew it wasn't so the two of us three of us went back And he did not want to die in the hospital.

So we got him out of the hospital. We took him out. And it was just really, it was, our relationship, this is the thing I think you have, this is part of you as a kid. You know, part of me felt like, oh, this is the moment where we reconcile. This is the moment where he tells me, you know, I'm sorry about all the bullshit that I did and blah-b-ba-bah and all that kind of stuff.

And it just never came. And I have to tell you something, I was relieved that it didn't come. Because I wouldn't have known what to do with it. I wouldn't have known who that guy was. There's never who he was. He was unapologetic to the end. He just was that way. And so we said that difficult relationship right up, right up to the last day.

You know, like there was a time when he was in hospital, my two brothers were there, and he's in this enormous amount of pain. And he's taking Advil. They've given him every great drug known a man to kill the pain. And he won't take it. Doesn't believe in that. drugs that I said just tell me where they are because I'll take them no problem I don't want to watch this right do you know what I mean so we got into a fight one night in the hospital and uh I said to him you know

this is driving me nuts you could this pain medication it's it's designed so you don't have to suffer like this and I'm not fucking taking it bad I don't know la la and I said well I'm not gonna I feel like watching it so I left the hospital And I'm leaving, he's going, you get back in there. Let's tell you everything about my dad. That's brilliant. I have respect for my dad. So my second brother comes down.

I said, Dad, Da-da-da-da-old. I'll come for a walk with you. Just let me go up and talk to Dad for a minute. So he goes up and he talks to my father. And he comes down, he said, Dad told me to give you a message. And I said, what's that? He said, tell me, go, fuck yourself.

Oh, my God. I laughed. I did, you did I laugh. And I went, oh, he's brilliant, isn't he? And so, oh, you know, went for a walk. But it was a very hard, bored relationship. Do you think, though, if you, in your gut, do you think, I know my father loved me in his own way?

Or do you not really believe that? It's interesting. I've never, never asked me that question before. I guess on some level, yeah, but we just did not have that kind of relationship. No. It's just what it was. That's how it was. It was what it was. It was like, you know, I could have been a 40-year-old mechanic that worked alongside of him. And it wouldn't have changed. Not really. I don't think so. But my brothers have a totally different experience with him. Do you know what I mean? So sometimes we.

fight about you know the perception of my father right and and and uh and i don't fight with them they fight with me i'm like hey listen it's easy for you guys to say i was i was copped of shit for your shit so of course it was fine for you yeah um but i also don't hold it against them either right i don't have i don't have feelings of resentment against him or you have to let that go or will destroy you i did have those feelings yeah sure me too like my initial impetus like to succeed in anything yep was because my father told me all the time approval my father told me on a daily basis that i would never amount to shit on a pretty daily basis and um that's hard so internally obviously he was good for me internally i'd be like really we'll

see motherfucker we will see and um and so that drove me i think in the first part of my career that really was like the rocket fuel i can say it now i don't think i realized it so much at the time but you're almost like thank you for that in a way it was an unintentional gift but yeah it hardened me up for a business you need to have some hide this is not an easy business i love you know like reality shows and stuff you've kind of diluted the difficulty of like really being an actor and the amount of content and the streaming services taking it out of you know what i mean look i i have nothing against reality i can't really watch it because I'm just not interested in the boring shit

that they're talking about. Right, right. They're just talking about such minutia problems while they're like, you know, sucking on a 95-carat diamond ring or something. It's like, I don't fucking care. No, I know. I just don't care about your problem.

Yeah. And you don't have one. You know, I won't mention the obvious that sit around eating salads sounding like cats all the time. Yeah, well, wow, wow. Hey, let me ask you, we haven't really talked about your career.

but that's not what the podcast is i like to talk about life and shit yeah but like i know you want to look you want a tony and a golden globe and an emmy is there that that sort of ego that's like i want an oscar and then i want them that i got them all 100% 100% want that i would love it i have to earn it but i would love that absolutely i won't lie yeah i watched the when you won your golden globe and i just was you just look so happy and confident like so appreciate too. It was nice. Yeah, you didn't see me win the Tony or so much different. Oh, really? No, I was like, I was so not sure. I was so sure I was not

winning that that year. That when they called my name, I swear to God, it was at Radio City Musical. And it was like, you know, you see movies where they do like the amorphic lens and everything goes, that's exactly what happened to be. So I got on stage, I forgot to thank the director. I forgot to Alice and Jaddy. I forgot, I don't know what the fuck I said. It's just like this whole blur. But it meant a lot.

Yeah, of course. It's a lot to me. You know what it is for me? I haven't won many awards. I mean, awards that aren't like, you know, a Saturn award. It wasn't a golden globe, was it? But do you know what? It's an acknowledgement.

Exactly. I think it was just like, hey, someone saw something in me that they appreciated. That's nice to know that I'm doing something right. Yeah. And as I said, when I started, I hadn't, I had no expectations. working so everything that's how everything that happened well there is that weird thing that happens in the beginning when you're younger like i went from seven or eight years of act theater classes and doing off off off off into the river new jersey broadway new jersey

broadway some you know i did i can't remember the theater was so small there was an Yeah, I've done that. Bobby Pastor Red. I don't remember, if you remember Bobby. Bobby was an amazing actor. He used to play Eldon on Murphy Brown. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do remember him.

So Bobby was a real, he was a great friend of mine, and he was kind of like, I have a bunch of tattoos. And I got my first tattoo, because Bobby said, hey, Anthony, you want to go to, Patterson, New Jersey, we're going to get a tattoo from my tattoo art. It's Calamity Jane. And I'm like, sure, Bobby, I'll go. So I go, I'm not like, didn't he get a tattoo, and Bobby's laying on the chair,

and he's getting a giant wolf out at the moon on his chest. He's tons of tattoos already. Right. Right? And he's like, and he's laying there, and he looks like he's in no pain whatsoever, none, right? And he's going, and he's chatting away, and he's laughing with me, whatever and he says hey you want to get a tattoo i'm buying i'm like yeah come on okay but just a little one get a little one on your arm you see yeah look at that wall pick one off the wall and so i'm looking

at these you know like i don't know shit from you know trying all that about tattoos and so i look at one and it's like it's a dagger with a snake and and something else but it's sunny about like that that big right and so i'm thinking i'll get that small be okay whatever like getting the chair you cried like a bitch i didn't cry i started sweating i was i started going to a flop sweat like the pain was relentless it wouldn't end it wouldn't let up and he just sat in the chair laughing his ass off but like he was he was such a funny great guy i love that do you still keep in touch with like you know certain actors from certain projects like uh empire records Do you still talk with any of those guys?

Or was that kind of like a... Because I was such a great cast. You've been on so many things with great cast. I wonder... Because I met your best friend. What's his name? Out here? Which one?

The one out here who's waiting for you. A Jorge. Yeah. Rory. Jorge. Jorge. George. George.

George. And you guys have been a friend 20 years. And it seems to me like, you know, you don't have a lot of actor friends. You like, you don't... I don't. You don't, do you? No, and it's not because I don't like them. The truth is,

once you all start working okay so there was a time in new york but i would walk into an audition room before any of us started booking and it would be john tuturo me stanley two g and vince spano and another guy i can't remember

platt no he was different we were all we were all tan so we're all the italian got you and you got to the point when we walk in the room and we go ah you're here well one of us gets it right you know and one of us would get it you know and i would kind of rotate around right and um i'm still friends from then with stanley duchy um although he's like he's blown up so big now he lives in london he's got a beautiful

wife got a bunch of kids and um so his life is you know sorry people get busy people have their own lives but there's if you saw him but this is well I do. I visit him sometimes. When I go to London, I go, I have dinner with him and his wife and stuff. But there's not a regular, there's not a regular thing because you're all on different schedules. But I'm the kind of person. Look, if you're my friend, if I don't see you for a year or two years, it's okay. I don't get upset about it. And when I see you, it's like it picks up where it left off. Yeah. A lot of people don't feel the same way. A lot of people get upset if you don't return a phone call or, yeah, and I hate that.

You got to be understanding it's like, hey, I'm not, I'm here. I'm not, I have to admit, I mean, if you had to write friends. You don't reach out as much. I'm not, I don't. You're not a reach, you're not a Jack reacher. I'm not. I'm actually, I'm really happy with my own company. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm not like, I don't, I don't. You don't need a lot of people. Very few. You need it to be night when everybody else goes to bed. Yeah. You need a, you know, Jorge, hang out. No, Jorge doesn't hang out. He doesn't.

No, no, no, no, no. He sleeps. Everybody sleeps. Everybody sleeps. Everybody sleeps. Everybody sleeps. All right. Listen to this.

This is called shit talking with Anthony LaPolia. This is my top tier patrons that get back to the podcast. They're devoted diehards. I couldn't do without him. This is rapid fire. Yeah, take a drink of coffee. So this is going to be, I'm going to ask you question. It's rapid fire.

You answer fast. okay um thank you go to patreon.com slash inside of you thank you guys you know i love you all right kady b mr lapalia by the way how many people say mr lapaglia everyone okay all right that was my question by the way mr lapalia had an epic guest run on fraser and i saw it what was it like stepping into that and working with that tight group of actors amazing they accepted me right away from the first reading i got laughs and they kept writing the part bigger for me and you won an emmy and i want an emmy Maya P, what is your advice for maintaining longevity in the business? Let go.

When you're up for a project, when you read something you really like and you know that you could play it and all that stuff and actors think. When it doesn't go your way, give yourself that afternoon and let it go and move on to the next thing. Be like a shark. I love it. house of joel what are the crazy memories from empire records and do you have a favorite song from that great soundtrack oh my god my craziest memories i have were of uh we were at a cvs or something like that and those kids were nuts rory cochran rory was actually one of the saying it once but he won't mind me saying this sometimes i still text to it but like

Ethan Embry and the other kid. I see him too. He's growing up. He's pretty good at him. Oh, Johnny Whitworth. I don't hear from Johnny much. He had a smaller role. And this kid, I remember him so well because he drove a golf cart.

I had a brand new, a brand new for Bronco. Right. And in the first week of shooting him, what was his name, Sean? There was. I still call him rat face. Coyote Shivers? No. Brennan Sexton?

Yes, Brendan Sexton. Yeah, I worked with him too. I love Brendan. I worked with him years ago. Brendan Sexton is a great kid. Anyway, he destroyed my brokker with a golf cart. Like the second day I had it. Did you want to kill him?

Yeah, kind of. But the craziest stuff I remember is Ethan, and it might have been Brendan, Ethan and someone else, we were out of CVS. Um, Ethan got a hold of like a, uh, a fake gun. It was orange, an orange fake gun in the CVS. It might have been a flare gun or something. Oh, no. And he ran out into the parking lot and was like pointing at people.

The next thing I know, I walk outside and, you know, this was in North Carolina. So the North Carolina state troopers, they don't fuck around. They had those boys on their back, on their, on their stomachs, and they had cuffs. And in jail. They went to jail. In that day. And the producer, poor, I forget his name, poor God. Who's a flare gun?

It's a flare gun. No, no, no. But like, everybody got freaked. And I'm just standing there watching the whole thing. But this has been going on. They've been fucking around for the whole movie. You know, so this is not a big surprise. So I'm just standing back watching it thinking, that might straighten you out.

It didn't. That might straighten you. It might straighten out. That's amazing. Yeah, and his favorite song from it You know, I never watched the things I'm in So I don't really remember Let's see

If you talk, tell you what did you remember? Liv Tyler was probably one of the nicest human beings I'd ever met in my life She was so sweet And so completely genuine And this is, I think, before she found out Like Who her dad was

I think that was just happening or something really she didn't know no she didn't know step i didn't know that no she didn't know i'm well i'm sure that that's out there i think was it todd runger and brought her up and and anyway yeah i don't know the story but when you look at her you go yeah okay that's Stephen tall it's good but um i didn't think that at the time you know i remember her being incredibly sweet um i'm looking at the songs here are you looking at them that was looking them too you um it's a good soundtrack i think yeah oh my god Chin blossoms, toad the wet sprocket.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That stuff from back then. Something so right. Cracker. Cracker. I love Cracker. This was like a... The movie was just like a free-for-all.

It was fun. It was. You know what? This is the thing. This is Angry Anthony, right? Because, and you can't tell him the movie, but I was not a happy camper. Because the movie, when I got the script, it was like full of like

drug references and smoking dope and people getting high and all this stuff and got to PG for you. The director Alan, no it wasn't the studio the day before we started shooting the studio went, we're taking all that stuff out. It's PG now. And the kids were like

ah, fuck it. They didn't care. Whatever. They didn't know. But I was like, this changed the entire like movie. This was not a music. when I started it and so it took me a while to wrap my hair around the fact that I'm now in a completely different film

than the one I thought I was trying to get out of it no but I was not happy that you know I was committed to it and so I thought I'm going to do my best to make it work and it took me a week or two to and then you know what really kind of shat me the most

was the director Alan oil was trying to make that okay instead of saying to me look it's fucked up and it's not direction i want to go in he got a little happy you know oh we're going to make a fantastic movie anyway and i was and i was like uh you know it's so and you know this Reneezel wager was in it and these were all kids that were all really talented but they needed direction and i remember doing a scene. Look at me telling these dirty stories. I remember being in a scene in the film. We were all in the record store. And we rehearsed. No, we don't even rehearse it. Alan

wants to shoot it. And so we shoot it and the kids all line up against the wall. Don't move and say they're lying standing against the wall. Doesn't. And I'm walking around the office and then he goes, ah, that's not bad. Let's go. I mean, what do you mean that's not bad nobody's doing anything you've got to give them an attention give them an action give them something to do like in the scene did he finally do it not not not not before we had like a good good yelling man you're trying to tell me how to direct my movie i said yes yeah actually actually i am and i never do that stuff yeah no i heard the you're the nicest best

guy to work with from many people i never do that stuff and and it's only when i see some incompetence Or not lack of caring? Well, just he wanted to be friends with all the young actors so much that I think that it distracted him. I don't think he's a bad director. I just think he. I know what you're saying. And he also enabled them with their bad behavior a little bit.

And that kind of, that didn't sit well with me either. Listen, even when I, I started, I started with, you know, really kind of serious people. Kim Stanley, you know, was one of my acting coaches. It was one of the most amazing actresses on stage in New York ever. People who are old enough still remember her performance in the Three Sisters in 1963. You know, that's someone who really, and I got, I was lucky. I got to study with a few people like that and the seriousness of what you were doing was always impressed upon me not necessarily by telling me but the environment that I was in and it wasn't like wanky oh aren't we so great

actors it was like no this is work let's do the work let's do the work let's really focus there's nothing with that no no and that's that's the only thing when I work on a set I'm very pro crew i love the crew because they work their asses off they get their first they leave they leave last yeah i got the easy job i usually have if i ever have issues it's more with upper management creative or whatever not even creative the creatives is usually not bad the upper management above that who are like let's do it fast yeah that's the worst and working on a series yeah and i you know my argument always always is look we can do it and it's a bit darker but it's really good we could do it in the light

and it shit i don't know which one do you want you know whichever saves us money moving on and that's what really gets me yeah i want quality yeah let me ask you this yeah go and this is a quick question i have to know this ryan i have to know is this a true story that you were cast in jango unchained and you left because it was out of control or is that just bullshit that's bullshit it is i was cast in it but i couldn't do it why is that because I hope Quinn's listening because I loved him all right

yeah I love him I loved him and I went in and I read with Jamie Fox we had readings and stuff and I was so pumped to do it right

and what happened was they had problems on Django they kept pushing they kept pushing my part they kept pushing my part they pushed it for like months and then I got another job

and and they as soon as i got that job we're ready for you queen is ready for and i'm like quentin i could uh i said i have to not do it because before you told me you were ready i committed to this other job thinking that this was going to continue nobody told me that you were close to he did you know how did you talk to him about it he never i don't think you ever spoke to me again i bet it forgot about it now i bet it's okay now he has a pretty amazing memory like he knew all my movies well i bet he i bet he's forgiving and understood maybe he didn't call you or talk to you about it was disappointed

no i was i got the sense that he was upset that i he felt like i made the wrong choice that i should have by then it was a film it was an australian film that had got all its funding based on my name right so i really i sat there and kind of of did the logical math where i lied to be in in one of quentin's movies of course i would but this movie if i pull out of it they're going to lose their financing and i felt responsible to that i knew me not being in jango quentin wasn't going to lose one cent no financing because i wasn't in it let me ask you this lastly i got to ask you this and i'll let you know as i know this is by the way this is awesome your stories are just fucking awesome thank you i appreciate you i mean i was like

again with one of those guys I go all right he's got to come back he's got so many stories we'll get into it yeah anytime seriously but um scratch the tip of the eyes i know it's i just i touched on a little a lot a lot of a little things but some important things like i like the stuff with the relationship and your dad all i but i wanted to ask you because i know you worked with him and i know a lot of things came out about i i forgave my dad by the way just to just so you know at the end i i remember not so much forgave but understood accepted well especially last year i went back to his village where he grew up and everything made sense wow in bavolino in uh in calabria in italy and the people in bavolino welcomed me to that town like i was a returning warrior i got a key to the city

oh my god i know and i thought oh if my dad could see this he'd be pissed He'd be so pissed off. You fucking asshole. Tell him the fuck off. That idiot got a kid in the city. I busted my ass. He's an actor. All right.

So you worked with Bill Murray. On Broadway, didn't you? Oh, no. Okay. Here's what happened. I did a, after the World Trade Center. World Trade Center. I did a play.

Bill Murray was doing a play with Sigordy the Weaver. It was more of a reading kind of play, but it was quite powerful. It's called The Guys. Right. And I got a call saying, because Susan's husband, Jim, who's a theater guy. I got a call saying, we'd like to come in and replace Bill. He's got to leave. Oh.

And you come in and replace Bill. and um um um i was like yeah sure and then susan sarin came in with me to replace the gornie um i'm not sure so you're not sure you're actually you never really you never worked with him i've never worked with bill i would have loved to have but i'm not even now i know he's in trouble in trouble yeah people get in trouble um people get in trouble for bad action sometimes people get in right we look i don't listen here's the thing about um reporting and hearsay um i find it not to be particularly reliable there's two sides of the story i'm not ever saying um if there are complaints from women about being harassed i take that seriously i had heard that that but i don't

always heard in this kind of like affectionate comogenely way that bill was a bit grumpy he's also one of my favorite movies of all time lost in translation oh yeah i love that movie and i think his performance is brilliant no no doubting he's a brilliant actor yeah but i had i heard he was a bit comagony and all that stuff or whatever richard dreyfus supposedly said he was a monster and what about bob a monster i i don't i don't i don't i don't i i don't i i I've worked with Richard. Was Richard a monster? No.

He's great, right? No, no. He's the most highly energetic, enthusiastic, actor-friendly guy. I really enjoyed working with him. Have you ever worked with any, and you don't have to say, but brief, just any assholes, any guys that are big stars that you're like, this son of a bitch. I'm just going to do my part. I'm going to do what I do and fuck him, fuck her, whatever it is.

No. No. No. No, I replaced somebody who was. an asshole and I heard about what an asshole he was I'm not saying it was but I have never worked with someone that I've worked with some difficult people like I worked with at that time he had a reputation and I'll say because I love him Val Kilmer right and I worked with Val and this is a true story on the first day that I meet Val

he comes out and he's wearing he's got like this pristine white t-shirt that says what was that movie he did with De Niro? Heat He's got a beautiful white heat t-shirt and he's got a cup of coffee and I'm standing there

talking to the director and he comes up and I've got like this kind of like I don't know like nylon jacket or something on and he comes up he's got a cup of coffee he puts his arm around me and starts pouring the coffee down the front of my jacket while I'm talking to the director. And I'll just look at it and I just get it

and I just wiped it all over his last white t-shirt. And that set up a good relationship. Really? Yeah, I didn't get upset. I just wiped the coffee back on his t-shirt. And I think a lot of people, and he probably would have even said he was having a pretty difficult time at that time.

Yeah. And there was some big blowups on that set. But me personally, I didn't have a problem with him. That's awesome. And, you know, he would come into my trailer and he would say things to me. Like, listen, man, I want you to see these, he had all these big rings on. He's like, I think that you should wear this ring in this scene because it represents X, Y, and Z, and blah, blah, blah.

And now what I know is the shot we're about to do is the three of us standing on a hill in silhouette against the sun. So I go, give me the ring. That's great. No one gives a shit. No one's going to see it. It made him happy. I love it.

It made him happy. Man, this has been awesome. I loved, I love the stories. I loved having you. You didn't know me for shit. But you're a mutual friend. You ask great questions. I have to say.

Oh, thanks. I just wanted to hear your story. And you have such a story. story. So I appreciate it. I'm going to keep in touch with you. I've been real lucky in my whole career. Well, here's you getting an Oscar someday. Do you know what? I would love it. If it doesn't happen, eh, but I'm on your gravestone. I'll say one short of the four. I don't, no, I'll just make my own and put it on the top. I, I, um, it's something that like, um, people go like, awards and blah, blah, blah. Anybody says the award doesn't mean anything.

they're a liar because it's nice to be acknowledged by your peers. Sure. And it's, I mean, look for a lot of actors. Oscar is like Kiss of Death for a couple of years. Because what happens to, I've known a couple of people, what happens is they win the Oscar and they go, it happened to me when I won the time. I went, what do I do now?

How do I top this? So I didn't do theater for like a bunch of years because I didn't know how to top it you don't try to top you just continue to do good work I didn't I know I'm just saying that's what you probably should do that's exactly what you should do I don't know that's exactly what you should do but we're going to take your coughs out too by the way thank you yeah Jason make sure his coughs he came there were kidney

stones and shit make sure you edit that all right you can leave him in I don't care no whatever I love you thanks for coming out thank you for having me I really enjoyed this Right. There you go. There you have it. I hope you love the episode. If you did, please write a review, get out on our socials, join patron, support the podcast. I love you. Thanks for just being here. And if you missed out on a lot of stuff, I talk about the live podcast. Insidey, we're doing with Zach Levi, October 11th, 7 p.m. Don't miss that. It's going to be great at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles. Ryan, you'll be there. Yes, it will. Yeah. In some capacity. I would hope so. Yeah, we're figuring that out now. also forgot to mention this sunspin my band is playing september 16th 5 p m pacific standard time we'll read your messages as we're playing well maybe make a song of them there's prizes there's zooms there's good music we're going to be playing all our greatest hits from our three

albums the ones that are most popular to people fans and i hope you join us if you haven't listened to a concert i think you'll really enjoy it so just get out of your comfort zone and do it go to sunspin.com also if you want merch signed lexmas scripts and other things uh hoodies go to the inside of you online store and get your fun merch there's a lot of cool stuff and sunspin.com has an amazing amount of new merch there too um lastly i'm going to give the shoutouts right yeah and these shoutouts are from patrons who support the podcast um in more ways one they don't just listen they listen to almost every episode if not all of them if they're you know they're loyal listeners and they they give back to the podcast which is unbelievable and if you want to

join them if you like the podcast and you want support it because it's it's you know I feel like it's NPR it's like you get people to kind of give to the podcast but it's true it's like to keep it going I couldn't do it without my patrons Patreon P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash inside of you join today tons of perks you'll see them and I'll give you a shout out and I'll also yeah I'll give you a shot I'll email you right there just like that just a little just like that just like that just like that just a little email now it's time for the top tiers of the patron they get the shoutouts and no particular order they're all amazing people here we go Ryan ready I'm ready I got him here I'll do a voice and then Ryan

has to do that impression it's going to be tough because I'm my posturing this new couch is uh you don't like it well i'm trying to figure it out okay maybe i maybe i need the pillow you know what i'm good now you're good now i'm good all right nancy d leon christian little lisa yukiko jill e b rickoryn jill e b b jason belma you sophian rarine jose will d Jennifer N. Stacey L. Jamal F. General B. Genel B.

El Don Cipromo. 99 more. Santiago M. Chad W. Leanne, Mattie S. Belinda Ann, Dave A. J. Sheila G. Brad D. Ray H. Tab of the T. Tom N. Tali M. Betsy D. Angel M. Rianan C. Cori K. Dev Nexin. Michelle A. Jeremy C. brandy d joey m eugene and lea cori angela f mel s christine s eric h shane r andrew m amanda r are we doing michael jackson janby kevin b stephan k cherelle jem and jelyan j luna r mike f stone H, Kayla, stay well, Mourgian.

Brian L. Kendall, Ellen, Jessica B, Kyle F, Marisol P, I'm out. Kaylee, J, Brian A, Ashley F, Marion Louise L, Romeo B, Veronica Q, Frank B, J, Jantee, L. April R. Derek N. J.D.W. Combaum, Ginger, Insomniac, Rachel D. and Lorelei L. Is that the end? That's the end. I didn't even have those on here.

Really? Yeah, I don't know why. They're on the back page. Oh, yeah. You know what? They're on the back page. Oh, Lorelei. How are you? Good to see you. Shout out. Oh, man. Well, hey, guys, thanks so much for listening and making this podcast part of your

week and hopefully you'll continue listening that's about it for me uh michael rosamum here in the hollywood hills of california i'm ryan i'm ryan i'm here too in the hollywood hills of california a little way to the camera which is now lower yeah the camera's lower now we have a lower we have a different angle tell us if you like the new angles we're experimenting the furniture's different uh give us your feedback we'd appreciate it and most importantly be good to yourself i will see you very soon i cannot wait ryan Be careful, the mic stand. Hi, I'm Joe Sal C. Hi, host of the stacking Benjamin's podcast. Today, we're going to talk about

what if you came across $50,000. What would you do? Put it into a tax-advantaged retirement account. The mortgage. That's what we do. Make a down payment on a home. Something nice. Buying a vehicle. A separate bucket for this edition that we're adding. $50,000. I'll buy a new podcast. You'll buy new friends. And we're done. Thanks for playing, everyone. buddy, we're out of here. Stacking Benjamins, follow and listen on your favorite platform.