Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - DJ QUALLS: Reality Checks, Hiding in Hollywood & Crazy Supernatural Moments!

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

DJ Qualls (Supernatural, Hustle & Flow) joins us this week to share his experience coming out of a strict rural South upbringing, having to hide who he truly was while on sets in Hollywood, and eventually carving a path of success that allows him to operate on his terms without any curated persona. DJ opens up on why he hid his sexuality when he came out to LA along with his opinion of changing dynamics on sets today and the context needed to be given to those in the past. We also talk about his rise during the birth of the TMZ era, how he got roped into Supernatural, and the importance in redirecting childhood trauma to make yourself a better person. Thank you to our sponsors: __________________________________________________ 💖 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

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with a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms and a weighting depth of 900 millimeters the defender 110 pushes what's possible learn more at landrover.ca You're listening to Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for being here today and supporting the podcast. Um, really appreciate it. A lot of times you may not know the guest and I think you'll learn a lot

and you'll get a lot out of this guest. DJ Qualls has been around a while and he's so open with his thoughts and his feelings and what he's been through. And he's had a really cool career and I really love sitting with him. So if you know, if you're here and you don't know, I appreciate you sticking around. There's some guests you'll know their name right away. Some names you won't, but you'll go, oh, I know that guy. I'm like that guy, Ryan. People look at me and go, I think I know him, but no, I met him at Vaughns. It's a grocery store.

Anyway, thanks for listening. Thanks for, you know, being here. If you want to follow us and support us, Patreon is a platform that you can support the little podcasts and keep them going like ours. So if you want to join and help this podcast, join Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N, Patreon. Patreon.com slash inside of you and I really appreciate it. There's like different tiers and I send boxes and all blah blah blah. Also the inside of you online store has bunch of merch and small those scripts and things that can get signed and blah blah blah. So check that out. Rosie's puppy

fresh breath I have to mention that's my picture of my doggies. You just do one cap of this and your dog's bowl of water every day and their breath is going to be a lot better. It's Rosie's puppy fresh breath on Amazon and the fart book of course my fart book comes out October 22nd so please get a book it's fun and the illustrations are great and it's a great little story there it is I hope you'll get the talented farder I spent a lot of time on this and I really really hope you like it too and there's a lot of great stuff also I'm on Instagram at the Michael Rosenbaum on the link tree you can see where I'm going, cameos, blah, blah, blah.

I really appreciate you. And Ryan, yeah. How much did you love New Jersey? I loved New Jersey. Did you have a great time? I did. I've never been to New Jersey as a destination before. In the con, it's crazy, right?

And there was a perfectly good reason to go. It was great. Yeah. I love it. I got to see you do the thing that you do. Yeah, the thing that I do. Wasn't that a movie, that thing you do? I love that movie.

Was there a movie called That Thing You Do? Yeah, it's a great movie. Is that with Tom Hanks' son? No, Tom Hanks directed it. And he was also, it's the one about the one hit wonder in the 60s. Oh, yeah. Is that really good? Yeah.

All right, I'll check it out. It's great. The song is incredible that it's based on. Like, it's based on like a one hit wonder song. And like they had like somebody like, it's all right. I'm going to check it out. It's great. Check it out.

All right. Without further ado, let's get into it. Let's get inside DJ Qualls. It's my point of you. You're listening to inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. I love how, yeah, I've been trying to get you on this podcast for a while. I asked you a long time and you go, yeah, sure.

Yeah. And then schedules. Yeah. I mean, you were just telling me that you're leaving to the UK and then you're through November. Yeah, I'm booked every single weekend until November. I mean, I think it stems from like my dad called me lazy growing up. and it really it really stuck with me yeah did he call you dumb too no he never called me dumb i got dummy because i'm smarter than him yeah yeah yeah and he knows it um and i love my dad but

but parents have he was a you know teenage parent my i'm from the rural south and you know people are like 15 16 having children so you sort of don't know how to you're responding to your child like it's somebody like your same age right and uh being called lazy as a child like now when I turn something down or that I could do. I mean, okay with turning things down that that don't make sense for me or I'm. Right. But if I can do it and I don't, it's sort of this. You feel guilty. I feel guilty and ungrateful. And I hate that. Like, I hate that feeling more than anything. I wish I felt that way. I think I might have felt that at some time in my life. I guess the older I get, the more I feel like I want to be comfortable. Yeah. I want to be, you know, as long as I don't, if I don't have to do

something. I don't feel bad. I guess I feel bad that, you know, it's like I'm not calling myself talent, but the saying like, you know, wasted talent. Like I tend not to work as much in acting. Right. Because I'm not really interested in a lot of things. Yeah. And if I'm going to do something because being on set, I've talked about this ad nauseum, but like, you know, it's, it's long, long hours. It's not as glamorous as everyone thinks. Of course. And you spend nine hours of your day in a cameraman's crotch doing one like off camera for somebody yeah and it's um it lost its luster a little bit but i think if it's the right thing i'll do it but you you love acting well no actually i'm exactly where you are right now so during the pandemic my buddy and i formed a production company and so we

just finished our um first movie uh last year what and yeah it was crazy i had 77 employees and the keys to the stage and after and then during that i got offered a recurring role on chuck lorry's new hbio show bookie wow and um and i was like but that makes sense i'll do that and the shock of going there and not being in charge was was profound for me and then i realized i've already had this experience i've been acting for 25 years and you longer probably i guess longer yeah probably i mean i mean not counting college but probably 20 30 years yeah so it's 25 years for me um this year and i just feel like i've had this experience and unless i really like the thing or something practical like i've i've never been to that place before or um or sometimes it's

about money or you like the director yeah there's a myriad of reasons but more than not there's a myriad of reasons for me not to do these things and especially when people are trying to day play you for a for a for a bigger part yeah um i would be so because people respect you with money and that's how hollywood works and if it's not art and you're not being paid also when there is money available then you feel bad you feel you feel like that you're being that you're being overlooked and not valued yeah and and then your brain does this i'm actually saving you money if you think about it because it's going to be done quick and right yeah and because there's there's not that. And because that would, I would be worried that my behavior would suffer, that I don't

want my behavior to suffer. So that's also the phrase that I've developed over the years about how to kind of get my way sometimes. I'm worried about if this happens, my behavior will suffer. And but I try to. Meaning how. I'll just not be in a great place. I've never been awful on a set. But the fear of that, I think, drives me and them when it's not a good thing. So I realize if it's not good for me, I don't need to do it. but the work that I'm accepting now is appearance work that's easy it pays a lot people are stoked that you're there that's true supernatural fandom is absolutely rabid you love you love doing that see i'm just Ryan that i've never met someone as humble as you really truly in terms of thank you when you go to

these conventions you give these fans you're all it's so expensive for them to get there and i know and i thought i did but then you go above and beyond where you do these shows you and these, you know, you just, I feel like you just are so grounded and know who you are at this point in your life. And maybe that wasn't always the case. It wasn't always the case. You know, but I feel like, of course you're doing this and you're making money and the fans are loving it. You're getting reciprocated. They're getting reciprocated in such a positive way that, of course, you're booked up until November. And of course you're doing that. And it's pretty incredible. Thank you so much. I think it's so brave of, uh,

of people who, you know, meeting people that you admire can go really awful. Like when I first came to Los Angeles, I could not believe that Hollywood was doing this. Come over here. Be one of us. I couldn't believe it. Everything was blowing my mind. And the majority of the people that I came into contact with, I obviously was a fan of. But you didn't feel like you belonged and you were surprised that you were now in the cool. Yes. I mean, separate from the work, though, when I arrived my first day on set. Like, I didn't know the terminology, but I knew that I was home. It felt like the one place in my whole life where I absolutely belonged. I was like, this, all of this makes sense to me. But it's, the business is not the work. It's all the stuff around the work that,

that sort of, that exhausts you, that surprises you, that disappoints you, that also, that it can also be so much more amazing than you ever imagined. And I realized early on that, and Alphrey, I was in a car once with Alphrey Woodard, and we were going to a benefit for artists for New South Africa for the premiere of the movie, Saltsy. Gavin Hood directed it. And I'm in the car, and I wanted to stop at 7-Eleven for some gum, and I went in and kind of got mobbed. And I got in the car prickly, because for some reason, oh, yeah, I remember what it was. I think I had just on hustle and flow and had gotten some career respect for the first time in my life. And they were asking me to do the road trip dance. And I mean, now I have different feelings about that. But at the

time, I was like, am I ever going to get past this? And I was only five years into my career. Yeah. But it just struck me wrong. So I was acting, I guess, a little moody. And she's like, what's wrong? And she's like, there's something wrong. What happened at 7-Eleven? And I told her, and she's like, then you should just stop acting. Because if the gift, that's part of it. Because if the gift isn't showing up in, like, you're there for people in moments when they need you. Your first dates, you are also somebody's bad after their bad day. That is the thing. That is actually the gift is that you get to be present for people and not be present for them.

Yeah. And if you can't deal with that, then you should stop doing this. I agree. And it really struck me hard and it changed me. And it's so great to be this age. Thank God. Thank God, because that's, I think something hit me to where everything changed. And it changed who I was and who I wanted to be. I stopped and I thought, who's who's the man you want to be. Right. Who do you want, how do you want to be perceived? And, you know, there's a lot of things. There's purpose and there's, you know, we deal with so much that we get so caught up with it at a young age, especially in our careers, where I feel like we're going, with that we're we're Hollywood actors and we're this and are we better than people and are we it's

just this thing that's ingrained and you're like going to events and this and I must be cool and if you don't get out of that you turn into a miserable bastard of course and I think we all go through those stages where I finally said okay I know who I want to be I want to be I want people to go had and have when they meet me say I really enjoyed my encounter with him he was a kind person he was I want I think that's what it is. I just want to be more kind. The older I get, I just want to be as good of a man as I can be.

Of course. And that is the, I mean, my knees creak a little bit when I walk. Like, I definitely feel like, I just turned 50.

You look great. My dermatologist is amazing. Do you, really? Oh my God, he's the best guy. Who's your dermatologist? Dr.

Facelift? No, no, no, no, I've never had a facelift. I've never done anything like that, but I've done a little filler, a little Botox.

What do you do, filler on what can you do fill around just my cheeks because i'm so thin could i do it you don't need it um but my body type gets gaunt right um but i like my guy um i'm blinking on his you don't have to give me his name um he's right right on the hill in studio city but yeah you look great but once i had a little filler left over and i've been doing this for like 20 years so whenever all the stuff was invented that's why people look crazy is because they go too far because it's too late you cannot fill a flat tire with all of this stuff you could be 27 Thank you. And I also think that that looking in the mirror and how your brain registers your appearance affects, I think also your aging. When I had cancer, I had a kid, right? Yeah. Hotchkins lymphoma. The prognosis was pretty grim because they caught it kind of late. And my pediatric oncologist who I still keep in contact with told me that the drugs that worked so much quicker than they ever expected, so much better than that.

expected. And it was because you tell a 14-year-old, they're going to die, and they will not believe you. And so I think that translates to a lot of things. And the aging is one of them. You see people retire and their bodies disintegrate. I look at photos of myself in 2019 or just right before the pandemic and right after. And those two years of inactivity crushed me. And I aged quick. I aged fast in those two years. And I think that that's a big part of aging. If I don't have gray hair yet and I do nothing. I only have it on my beard. No cubes. No, I thought I had a gray pub once. I was in the shower and my whole world crumbled in like 50. Oh, come on. It's just a great. No, but it's a harbinger of things to come. And I was like, what next? My dick's not going to

work. Like what's, well, that will happen. Well, of course it will. Yeah, things for that. But I wasn't prepared for it then. That is my, the thing that bothers me the most about myself is that I'm always, like I have to fight to not, you know, think that I've hit a banana peel and I'm skidding toward the grave. Like, I have to fight that. And that's kind of an obsession. Yeah, it really is. And whenever's little changes happen against that I'm not cool with, it crushes me for a second. And I was in the shower and looked down and saw a gray, a gray pub. And I was like, fuck no. And then I went to pull it out. And it was, I had a little white chihuahua at the time. and his hair would get all over me.

So it was your chihuahas, hair on your balls? No, it wasn't on my balls. It was at the top of my pubs. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I don't really, I don't wear. I have pretty bad eyesight, so I can't really tell what's happening.

You were glasses, contacts? I wear glasses. 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. monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. This is just some wonderful app.

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course of three months and never gained it back um my my chemotherapy drug sped up my heart a bit. I spit up my metabolism, definitely. Um, which is probably a good thing. I, well, it's, it's, it's adriomycin is the active ingredient or was the medicine. And I think the active ingredient is arsenic. Um, and I'm not sure it's legal anymore. And at the time, it was brand new. Um, that's the things that medical, like cancer treatment, it's, it's, it's, it's all guesswork. Medicine is guesswork. And, and, uh, chemo works because it kills all fast growing cells that's why you lose your hair and all that stuff yeah but it was it was a time in my life things were happening so quickly that i couldn't get my mind around it and i think that's what

saved me i still like i had to turn down a guest spot once on er because of the medical tubing i can't see that kind of stuff like somebody told me that they think they broke their leg the other day and i i got completely weak you can't deal with that so you don't like horror movies i love them i love you don't like real shit i don't like saw but i love being jump scared me too like i love i love look around you yeah i watched them all like this um i became friends with geremorto i worked with him and got to go to his house and saw all like the props and stuff and i was like just the whole time i was like this is so amazing you're nuts but it's so he loves it so much that's amazing and greg nicotero i've worked with him and he loves all that stuff he do you know him he's the

Yeah. Yeah. Let me ask you this real quick. Were you popular in high school? No. Not at all. I look like, I mean, I was nine feet tall and weighed 10 pounds and was bald at one point. Like, I looked like an alien. Were you picked on? Relentlessly. What would people say to you? So also, I was gay and kids may not know. I didn't even know you were gay until I looked it up. I had no idea you were gay. Yeah. And, and and, but I did. And knowing that. But no one else did. No, I couldn't because I would be harmed. And so. I saved all summer to buy a car between my 15th and 16th birthdays and I bought an 1985 Pontiac Sunbird with no air condition in the rural south like in the middle of nowhere and I live in Hill Country. It was a stick but it's what I could afford. I was so proud of this car and then the first day I drove it to school though somebody keyed in my hood. So that is what it was like. What was that feeling? Did it break your heart? My first thing was I have to show my dad this. Did your parents know you were gay? No.

Nobody knew. No. And you didn't come out until 2020? No, I can't. I've been out since 19 or 18, but not here because it wasn't cool when I got here. My very first press junket, the guy who was our, like our shepherd, our executive producer, a very famous director of producer, told Sean William Scott he almost didn't hire him because he thought he was a fatt. And so that was my shut your mouth. But that's the way it was.

and it wasn't until I wasn't out at work until I think 2015 and just because I just didn't want to deal with it I mean but then one day I realized why should I have to be at craft service and hear a bunch of homophobic shit and wrecking my day when I've done nothing to cause this and and so then I was like hey I don't want to hear that and I get it it's it's guy talk you know saying and all that stuff it's guy talk and and they don't think about the context of it but I don't want to hear it.

And it wasn't until then. I was like, you know what? I wouldn't, I wouldn't correct you in front of a group of people, but I definitely will pull you aside. Just say, hey, I'm gay and it's insulting.

Yeah, I was like, why? Why would you need to do that? Yeah, it's the same thing if somebody was going, oh, don't Jew me. And I'm right there. And the thing is,

all that stuff. I would go, hey, I'm a Jew. I'd make, like, yeah, I'm a Jew just so, you know, and I've done that. Hey,

I'm one of those words that you're saying. Yeah, I think everybody's used words friends no one's perfect but you know it's also you know you're on set at my job like no one should be doing any of that and that's one of the things that i am cognizant of owning my space at my work i'm there to do a job i'm hired because i do that job well and i deserve respect for that because i give it yes you earn it and i don't believe in retroactively punishing people i mean we're looking at things with different eyes now but because we do look at things with different eyes that shit

doesn't fly anymore and i won't we our locations manager on our movie uh said something and i had to have a hard conversation about it and because it offended somebody else and it was something that i wouldn't have put up with if it was said about me yeah but it would just but it's old man stuff too like i would never dream of saying nice tits to somebody or hey that's a good bold you got there buddy like or whatever the shit are you insulted if people say things like that's really gay no i say it context is everything, too. That's so gay. Yeah, I say it all the time. Right. Um, no, I'm not easily offended at all. What's not realized is we, we do this thing now, well, nobody cares. Well,

everybody cares because we're still fucking talking about it and people are still being harmed for it. And also, it doesn't matter, or maybe just don't do it because, like people, when they're like, well, now we can't say anything. It's like, well, why would you want to say that? Because you don't know the trauma of this guy growing up where he grew up. up had to deal with and what he had to overcome just to get to this place, to be at this job. So I'm aware of that. Yeah. And I'm not a thought police person.

I do look at context. I'm not going to be on you about everything. But general stuff, if you're, if I'm hearing nine times from you when I'm trying to butter a bagel. It's who you are. I don't want to hear that. It's also who you are. Yeah.

If you're using it like that, really. Of course. Um, let me ask you this. Were your parents supportive and excited about you getting into the acting industry? They thought I'd lost my mind because I was in law school. Law school. Yeah, I went to England and became qualified to be a legal clerk there. And I was working at a mergers and acquisitions firm in the city and came back to Nashville and got a job as a paralegal law clerk and then was in law school and just hated it.

Couldn't do it anymore. You know, you're really smart, but you're lazy. I'm so lazy. But go ahead, go ahead. It just one day I was like, I can't believe that this is what is going to be the rest of my life. I think we all have it. I have the other issue. I have like the dummy, the stupid, the not bright, the because I heard it all the time from

my parents. I heard it, you know, and I just believed it for my teachers. And no matter how much you fight it and you go to therapy and you realize, look, how could I have done all these things if I'm just stupid, if I'm dumb? Well, you couldn't have. you realize logically that's not right. That's not true about yourself. But it's something that's embedded so deeply that it comes out sometimes and I get embarrassed by, you know, not knowing certain things or not being able to, it's just, it's just part of me. I don't think I'm a, a brilliant guy.

I think I'm like, you know, relatively smart. I'm a little above average. I wouldn't say, like, I think I'm incredibly witty. I think I'm funny. I think I'm talented. But I, you know, I don't look at myself and go, God, you're a goddamn genius. It's so interesting the messages, though, because if you look at this from this camera, right, from the wide shot, and look what you've done in your life. Like, and you know what I mean? If you step back from it, it doesn't make any sense. To be here and do this in any capacity, but much less had bought a house from it to do well.

But you know why? Because in my mind, I'm like, well, I kind of got lucky. They're still going to find me out. I've really beat the system. But it's really impossible to fall upward for 30 years. Yeah. It's not likely. And usually the not likely answer is wrong.

Yeah, but something will happen sometimes where I'll be, I'll feel like I own something like on the set, like my performance and I'm just so in it and I'm so great. And I think to myself, God, I wish this feeling would last, this confidence, this. And then one day, it's the opposite. and I just want to fly out to remote island and get away from it and I feel like I'm worthless and I'm all these things. So it's this juxtaposition

of feeling really good and also feeling really ashamed. It's really, it's really aware that I've always felt that. When you go through large periods of time or like long periods of time when you are in public, right? When you're either at, you know, doing a convention or doing a movie and you're

with people a long time, do you feel the need that to hermit afterwards? to be alone. See, I do and it repairs it. Yeah. I feel like I'm busy, busy, busy. And then everybody, and look, I'm not saying this to keep my own horn, but at these cons, everybody asks me to go to dinner with them and get drinks. Right. And I always say I can't because I just want to kind of go back, have a meal and go to my room and unwind. It's a tough energy exchange. I just can't do it like everyone else can. They can just go out and drink and hang and, you know, after a long day, because I give so much

like you do to the fans that I'm exhausted. Right. Because it's just nonstop. Where are you from? What are you doing? Oh my God. That means so much to me. Hearing stories, signing pictures. And maybe it's part of me. I've always said this. I have celebrity friends. We all have celebrity friends. And I have some good celebrity friends who I really love.

But I don't hang out with a lot of celebrity friends because I feel like I'm not as comfortable as I am with people who are my friends like Ryan. Like Ryan and my friend Tom, who aren't. actors and who are and but are also funny and witty and call me out of my shit and so I think

I've you know I used to only want to hang out with actors and big stars and be in that group and I'm like now and I used to compare myself to everybody like I wish I had their career I wish I looked like that I wish and now I somehow in a great way I don't and I look at everybody like I don't want his career I don't I don't that guy is the biggest actor in Hollywood great low I would hate that millions of dollars I don't want it yeah I want to be me and I want to figure out me to give myself the best life and figure it all out and hopefully at the end say, hey, I did it right. I finally figured it out. I don't want, I don't need $20 million a picture. I don't need $5 million. I don't need $500,000 a picture. I just need to make a good

living, be with great people, and enjoy my time here. I'm similar. But I, so I don't hang out with a lot of famous people either. I've done that. I was there at the birth of TMZ. Like, I was in that group of young Hollywood kids who did the teen comedies. And then,

so you did, back then the formula was, you did a teen comedy for scale. If it hit, you got a million dollars for your next movie. That was, I was in that.

Did you get to that? The new guy. You made a million? On the new guy, yeah. A million dollars they gave you. Yeah. I've never made a million dollars in a film.

So it was. Not even remotely close. But back then, TV and movies were so separate. There were different casting directors, different whole everything. And I was, and I was doing, I was only doing movies. No streamers, no, none of that stuff. And, and, and, and also that made us all know each other.

And so if you were up for a part, you know, at a movie at MGM and your buddy got it, you were happy for him because you knew you were next because they're not, there weren't a lot of us. So I didn't feel a sense of competition with my fellow actors. I felt. And also because we were all, we all came up in the time of, especially, especially L.A. Nightlife where it was one bar, one night. Like, who were some of the guys you hung out with? You know, it was, the guys I hung out with, like, Channing was, Channing Tatum was in my group.

Paul Walker was, we used to appear together every year at MTV Spring Break when it was in Cancun. We would, we would go on after Carmen Electors dance party. They'd fly out, put you up, great. You felt like you had sort of, I mean, you felt like, it felt like high school to me. Like, finally, I was one of the popular kids. but I didn't really drink or do any of that stuff until I was in my like early 30s. But it was like anybody who was in the movies during that time, Rosario Dawson, I was in my friend group.

I saw everybody so much. It's really anybody who was famous in like 2000 to 2007. And so then there was this thing where all the sudden like us weekly became a huge deal. And so there was something, it was the equivalent of having, of a social media followers, now they were called magazine tears so you would be photographed entering and leaving bars and every night of the week had one bar pantera sarah ran i love pantera yeah um she ran la night life dublins and yeah all the places and so you knew where to go without telling or like contacting anybody and no one was videotaping everything unless unless the cameras were there but like

it was such a different style yeah and then TMZ showed up and so it but it made us all get closer because we protected each other yeah and then we learned how to monetize it like you would call TMZ on someone with their permission so that became a thing for a while and then that got out of hand and it bit us a little bit but it was it was being young here having access to things for the first time and that felt that felt really good and now I think it's because there's so many outlets for media the friendships are just aren't the same because there's so many people doing it you can't know everybody yeah in sort of your graduating class and don't you feel like i wasn't popular in high school you weren't popular in high school and so i guess at that age you just

want to be around popular people and feel popular like the in crowd it's right there's a yeah and then what happens is then you get some fame and now you're hanging out with all the popular kids but that wears off but it was the way to get jobs though yeah i went to i had a meeting with the head of casting christian caplin I love Christian Kaplan. And he told me at this point in time, he was like, if it's between you and another guy for a role in a movie, and the other guy has more magazine tears, it's going to be him,

which is the equivalent of followers now. Yeah. Because it made you look popular. I remember when I got punked. The Dax punk you? No, Ashton did. And I was mad because it put me in a situation where I had to be really like, I had to defend somebody, but they cut all that stuff out.

So it made me look like I, I offered to fight someone. And I was really angry at the experience, but the outcome was it made you look popular. It made you look famous. There's a line in Heather's where Winona Ryder says, these are people I work with and her job is being popular. That's what it was. But I knew it, though. I recognized that. Yes. And I, and I like these people, but they weren't my best friends. And- But then you grew up. grow out of it. And you don't want to do that anymore. Especially in the times we have now,

it's just like, I'm going to go to a high. If somebody says, hey, like I was invited to this thing and big directors and this and that. And I just was like, my first thing was, I'm not going to have fun. I'm going to have to be on. Yeah. I'm going to have to.

I'm going to feel uncomfortable. I'm going to feel. And then I thought, you know, is it good for you? if you just stop by for an hour. So I'm still contemplating that. I'm thinking, you know, I really don't want to go, but I might. I rarely go to stuff like that. I never, you'll never see me at events.

But I used to. If somebody goes to, asked me to go to Premiere, I always say no. And I get asked a lot. And you know why this made a lot of sense? First of all, I always feel uncomfortable going to someone else's premiere, but I'm not a part of it all. But I bumped into Denzel Washington years ago. I go, Denzel. I'm a big fan.

Can you have any advice? He goes, yeah, yeah, I do. I don't do it, Denzel, but he goes, never go to anyone else's premieres. You don't need to go to that shit. Just go to your own. I said, oh, cool, thanks. Six months later, I was doing press for this movie Urban Legend I was promoting. I love that movie.

It's such a fun, silly movie. I love, thank you. I walked out and I see Denzel, like, Denzel, Denzel. And he kind of looks at me like, yeah, what's up? I said, I met you six months ago, and you gave me a, advice and he goes what would i what i tell you i said you said never you said never go to anyone else's premieres but i don't need to see that shit just to go to your own premieres but yes i did i remember that i remember that and i said well guess what i'm going to my premiere tonight from my movie and he

goes all right man all right guess what i go what he goes i'm not going he gave me a wink and he walked off and i just remember it's like i have no business unless it's like if it's a friend a really dear friend i would go but like Like, other than that, I'm not my age. And I go, don't email me premieres. I'm not. Unless Steven Spielberg says I'd like Michael to attend, I'm not going. Right, right.

I don't need to. I don't need it. I'd rather watch a movie in my basement. I get that. And it's, I, I feel uncomfortable at them also, especially premieres. The parties were all right. I don't go to them anymore. Because you can sort of control and hide and you do the carpet and then you run away, right?

But premieres, you're sort of locked in. And I feel like when I go to premieres, I'm being watched watching somebody else's, you know, you're being watched watching the movie and that doesn't feel comfortable but if it's somebody who i love obviously i have to go to that stuff and i i hate doing it but i will like i had to go to all of the twilight movies because i'm friends with nicky reed like all of the premieres 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 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 monitors you're spending and helps

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And now it's time for the J.C. Penny, Make It Count Moment. This week's Make It Count Moment is sponsored by J.C. Penny in a world where things change as fast as the seasons, J.C. Penny is there to help make fashion count for everybody and everybody. The moment we wanted to make sure counted to you was DJ Qualls discussed. in crafting his own appearance, sharing who you really is and overcoming depression. Because so much of my life, I've had to be this thing to sort of survive in Hollywood. And people, I wanted people to sort of know who I really am and also know that like everything that you thought about me, I had a hand in. Like, and so because I was doing it for effect because

I need that those studio pictures were my bread and butter. I was making money on them. And I taught you how to see me. And now I wanted to show you who I really am. Did you ever deal with a lot of depression, anxiety? So I have that. For me and I think for a lot of people, the decision to go in to talk about it is hard to do.

Making that decision because when you're in the throes of anxiety or depression, it feels so bad. And then when you're out of it, it feels so good to not feel that that you don't want to deal with it. Yeah. And that's a cycle that a lot of people get into. A lot of people also, when they're going through things and then get on an antidepressant, it feels so good being on it that they'd stop taking it

because they think they don't need it. And that is the cycle of mental health. And we don't talk about a lot of these things. And we keep saying there's no stigma in it. But of course there is because now, because so many people have come forward, then now other people are doing this. Well, does everybody have this? Thanks again to J.C. Penny, the fall destination for the latest trends, budget-friendly fashion, and beauty products. Shop J.C. Penny in store or online. J.C. Penny. Make it count. What was it like auditioning? How many auditions did you have for hustle and flow?

I didn't audition for hustle and flow. You just got it. I was offered Scary Movie 2 for a lot of money, but the character had to suck his own dick, and my manager thought I'm not the kind of guy that could suck his own dick and walk away from it. He's right. I probably could now. but I couldn't then. You have that flexibility? Yeah, no, but I definitely have tried. Yeah.

I don't think there's a man alive who hasn't tried. Yeah, right. Come on now. Never mind. But, yeah, so you didn't audition. No. I tend to think that that is sometimes harder because you're not exactly sure what you're going to do, whereas if you do an audition, they're like, that's it.

There are times when I've had that experience. I don't read a lot. Still? Yeah, I mean, because now I do this. You know what I can do. Yeah. And it's not that. it's like most of the things, if you aren't going to pay me, I need to understand why I need to do this.

That is a big deal for me at this point in my life. Tell me why I should do this. And because all the auditions especially have moved to taped, I feel like if I'm going to give my time to something, the director should give me the courtesy of being present. Good for you. And I also feel like the audition process has been used against us to try to get us cheaper. Like they'll make you think that there's you and 12 other guys in the running for this and sometimes there's not and they'll they'll ask you to read to then they were always going to give you this part and then just to make your your pay less that's happened to me many times and twice it's happened to me where i'm where i was asked to read for something and i read it and like this is definitely within my wheelhouse

and i don't feel like i should have to prove myself for this yeah and the pay is not great and then they have come back and offered it to me directly because they were told to offer it to me me by the director or the executive producer exactly like man in the high castle was that way they asked me to read for that show and you were in that yeah i didn't watch that should i watch it it's not the best how many episodes you do i did all of them well i did all the first three seasons and asked to be released for my contract that's a huge show yeah i do big shit i did take waltz motherfucker i'm d when you went on set for hustle and flow are you nervous uh no because it was it was uh Tennessee, and I'm from Tennessee.

Who was the lead? Terrence Howard. How is he to work with? Terrence. Intense. I love him. But he's intense. Like, he told me that Satan put dinosaur bones into the earth's crust to make his doubt

God's existence. And then I laughed about it and he got mad. I thought he was joking. That was a little too on the nose for me that day. And he was mad at you. Yeah. But I loved making the movie because it was a pure filmmaking experience. didn't have any money. The houses that we used in Memphis, we purchased for like $15,000.

We got to, you know, record those songs like in the, in the studio that we made on camera. Were you blown away when you saw it put together? It's one of the only things I've ever been able to watch with a crowd. I was sitting in the screening at Sundance and we went up winning. And I was there and I felt this enormous sense of prides. And also, I'd done that movie for 10 grand and turned down to almost two million dollars. Did you make money residually? No. And that's the other thing. So that's, that's a sore spot. So John Singleton, may he rest in peace, did not pay us our back end. And it's had a price for the highest for, and Terrence has been very vocal about this. So the only time. Why don't you sue?

Because then you're an actor who sued. So what? I know, but I don't want that experience. I don't, it was, I think it was like 300 grand, honestly. But I, but I, don't want that experience and it was a pure filmmaking experience for me and I'm glad that I did it and there and I just don't want the heartache of having to go through all that and have that be tainted there are very few points in my career where I can look at and the whole thing which is magic from start to finish magic and it was magic loved that movie like I went 30,000 dollars and thank you in debt for that I mean like in publicity debt and going to sundance people don't realize that that shit's not free. You have to pay for all of that. The movie's not sold. There's no studio. So you have to pay

10 grand to rent a house because your hair and makeup people have to come. You're doing live feeds to CNN at 2 o'clock in the morning. It costs you money. It costs you money. And every and then you have to hire a publicist because there is no publicist. And all of this stuff has to be done. And I mean, a lot of the business is set up to to take money from us. I mean, of course it is. I could tell you stories. A lot of the business is parasitic. Did you save your money? Like a,

like a motherfucker I did. I always felt like, this is my last job. I couldn't believe it. I remember saying, so you're good. You save your money. I don't have to work anymore.

You don't dip in your savings. I don't. Amen. But I remember being out here and my buddies were buying like two million dollar houses. I'm like, how can you afford that? I make more than you.

Like, our salaries are public knowledge. Like, how can you do that? And a lot of those houses went by the way. but there's an opposite extreme that I lived in a rent-controlled one-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica for 10 years like at the height of my earning and that was a little too far there was a hole in the bathroom floor of the flattened box in a rock people would come to the house and be like

this is everything okay and I'm like yeah I'm just and then and then Alphrey once told me I act like I was born in the Great Depression she was like you're doing fine right I'm like I'm more than fine, but I waited to buy my house until I could pay for it. Amen. That's the way to do it. Because I knew that. I did too. I waited until third season was announced for Smallville and that's when I bought this house. I knew that it would be somewhere in the world I could always go to no matter what. I mean, that's a little bit too survivalist, I think, because I was there was there for about five years longer than I should have been. But now I'm financially, I mean, it wouldn't be a great life. And also, I would be bored if I didn't do anything. But I couldn't do whatever I want.

And that's my main goal, my main career goal at this point is at 70. I don't have to look at menu prices. I'd really don't. That would be a gut punch to me after all of this. If, if I, but although I walked out of a restaurant in Italy because, uh, we were just going for lunch and it was right, the thing we were kind of tired. We were on a tour and the driver. I was like, uh, I had a driver drive us back to we were in Paso Tena, but he, I go,

we just want to get some food. I'm just hungry, just something quick. and he made this reservation and we walked into this place and they oh we're going to taste some wine i'm like okay what the fuck is this i want a fucking pizza yeah i hate and then i sat down and we looked at the menu and i was like this is a sit down we're going to be here for we're in shorts we looked sweaty i go i just got up and i said hey here's 20 bucks for for the for the free drink we got this isn't for us right now we're that that's you should do that i did i just i wasn't i want to spend four or five hundred dollars in freaking lunch i wanted a pizza right and so the driver was

embarrassed because don't be embarrassed man you you thought i was richer than i am i mean that's also i i don't do that i don't have a strong food drive and so spending that kind of money on food is ridiculous to me although i did just spend 450 bucks on a meal because it was my friend's birthday my podcast co-hoes kelly happy birthday kelly yeah lock and probably loaded yeah supernatural podcast No, it's a general. It's the place, because so much of my life, I've had to be this thing to sort of survive in Hollywood. And people, I wanted people to sort of know who I really am and also know that, like, everything that you thought about me, I had a hand in. Like, and so because I was doing it for effect because I need those studio pictures were my bread and butter and I was making money on them.

and I taught you how to see me and now I want to show you who I really am and so it's not formatted and the response has been amazing. Do you have guests? Not yet. I want to be a guest. Absolutely.

I'd love to be a guest. But it's this community that sprung up around it has been pretty dope. Right now it's paying for itself and... Great. Yeah, it's really, really, really cool. And I'm excited about it. It's everywhere that you listen to podcasts,

Locked and probably loaded. DJ and Kelly um you did you ever deal with a lot of depression anxiety so I have that and I still struggle with it do you take anything so I took I took I was on an antidepressant for four months years ago because I was depressed for two years and didn't realize it but I got to a place where I could not get out of bed when I was doing all about Steve with Sandra Bullock we were shooting at night I had to hire somebody to come live with me to wake me up to get me out of bed to go and I didn't understand what it was um anxiety and depression yeah because it happened so gradually that and i didn't know my triggers and warning signs the

sinking feeling and it happened just always being tired yeah and the next thing you know you're in it and you don't you can't remember what it's like to feel otherwise and that's when it gets dangerous it's scary it gets dangerous when you've it's the when the lack of hope when hope goes when when you get no burst of feeling anymore no endorphins yeah people kill themselves because you don't feel anything so then it becomes painful to be alive and so and i've been there a couple of times. I have colonnipin for anxiety, but it's like, it's basically behind an imaginary wall of glass with a hammer breaking case of emergency. Sometimes I can talk myself out of it just by knowing that I have it. And the dosage that is prescribed is ridiculous. I take a

quarter of a milligram. They say take one milligram twice a day. I would be, I would be sleeping all the time. It's psychosomatic. Right. Because none of this stuff is real. It's your brain panicking and surviving you false messages and survival mechanisms. and adrenaline rush. Although I am on antidepressants for about a year and a half, wouldn't you see a big difference? Did you, do you honestly see a big difference, Ryan? Yeah, I notice a big difference. I'm not overwhelmed by everything.

Yeah. I take things in stride more. I'm not freaking out. I'm not stressing myself out. I'm my depression. I'm not going to bed, taking naps constantly. It's a lot better. It's a lot better.

So it's really helped me. And, you know, I exercise, but like, I think I've been, I've talked about this, riddled with anxiety since I was a young boy. And I just thought that's who I am. And then I realized, wait, this is no way to live. And my body just couldn't take it anymore as the older you get. It kind of says, no, we can't be in this fight or flight all the time. And so it's really changed my life in the last year and a half.

And I feel like I'm a better person. I'm just more even keel. I don't freak out about things as much. I still get anxiety a little bit. still, you know, think about things. I'm all for that. And it's just for me and I think for a lot of people, the decision to go in to talk about it is hard to do, making that decision because when you're in the throes of anxiety or depression, it feels so bad. And then when you're out of it, it feels so good to not feel that that you don't want to deal with it. Yeah. And that's a cycle

that a lot of people get into. A lot of people also when they're going through things and then get on an antidepressant feel so good being on it that they'd stop taking it because they think they don't need it. and that is the cycle of mental health that and we don't talk about a lot of these things and we keep saying there's no stigma in it but but of course there is because now because so many people have come forward then now other people are doing this well does everybody have this maybe they do maybe everybody does have it i think everybody has issues that they need to talk about that it's healthier if you talk about like i one of my big sponsors is better help and we you know i people love it people to thank me at places because you know sometimes it's too hard to go in

to see someone and this is like online you can change your therapist at any time so it's like you know and just you know I think we get bottled up with so many thoughts and so many obsessions yeah what do you do first if we can get it out of our system it's all it's only going to help I have dogs my do you have dogs no I do I travel so much I just holding them releases endorphins yeah it's amazing I had a dog and he should be able to travel with me but when he passed um but first of all still I feel like I'm cheating on him even though it's been years because the loss of that was profoundly painful and something it's one of the worst hurts of my life still yeah um but i love dogs and i i love children neither one of them are neither one of

those things i should be having right now at this age of my life because i'm gone all the time right um i was talking to my partner tie about getting a dog and he was like no you have a partner yeah he live with someone no we he lives in canada he i met him perfect he's a supernatural uh actor wait what's his name uh tie olson yeah I think I've met Tyler. Yeah, he's great. Yeah. We've been best friends for years and years and years and years.

And then now we're getting married. What? It just changed. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. Does everybody know about this? Everybody knows about it.

Great. So it became a giant deal. Poor guy. I casually mentioned it for two minutes on the podcast. Like, because I did, I actually did an episode that was sort of talking about sort of like a sliding doors. I turned down supernatural when it was offered to me because I had just come off a movie. I was exhausted. they said, do you want to go to Canada to shoot Supernatural on Thursday?

And it was Monday. I'm like, no, I don't. I don't want to go anywhere. I'm exhausted. And then they got back to me and said, they wrote it for me. And I'm like, oh, you bastards and appealing to my ego. I see, we've met. There's a lot of dialogue?

It was a lot of dialogue. Are you good with dialogue? I am really good with dialogue. I can remember things pretty quickly, but only, but it starts to leak out of my ears after like two hours rapidly. So you forget, so you have to read your lines to actors. So I do this. Hey, guys.

hey guys, no, but I will hurry people up. I'm like, if you keep making these camera adjustments and lighting cues, we're going to be fucked at some point in the near future, especially when it's a ton of dialogue. Yeah. Or if it's... Know what you want. Yeah.

Get it. Yeah. Or if you ask, if I say something six times on camera and we're going again, I will, hey, can you tell me, tell me how this is sounding in your brain. I have no problem with a line reading. A lot of times it's like this. I know last night when you were in the mirror saying these lines to yourself, that's how that sounded to you, but that would look ridiculous coming out of my face.

Let me show you what. I won't do it on camera, but I'll show you. Here's, I'll do this. And I'll say it. I'm like, oh, my God, that is wrong. I'm like, it's dead wrong. One good thing about growing up completely sort of horrified by your being is that I'm hyper aware of it and how it presents.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you're overcritical too. Yeah, I'm overcritical. I can't watch anything. Yeah. You work with assholes ever?

I've worked with some assholes. I've worked with some people who were not well. Some actors who weren't well. The majority of the actors I worked with, I really liked a lot. But I had a director of a man in the high castle who had done some Game of Thrones. And it was like right when Game of Thrones was the thing. And I would always, and I was a series regular on this show. And at the time, it was the second most expensive show ever produced behind Game of Thrones.

So, of course, they're going to get this. guy this guy shows up and he's rough talking everybody like rough talking my hair makeup people i don't like it and i get so angry by it um and so i would always get him at the end of the day and he's he would spend seven hours shooting people walking down the street and then i would get him for a critical scene and he would to take me right or just be really on me about something so you said something to him so he did this thing where he was rough talking everybody and i kept saying i'm going to talk to this guy I'll pull him aside. And I asked the cameraman, a camera operator who was my buddy who's there every week, something.

And the director came over to me in the middle of the take and did this. You know why you're not more successful? Do you know why you're not a bigger actor? You don't listen. You should talk to me. I'm the guy. Do you know the hierarchy here? Went on me and I tried to talk it down and then I lost my mind.

Producers were called to the talk in the morning. Fuck you. I called him a low rent midget asshole. I said the reason why he acted like that. is that he was four feet tall and he was a guest in our yard and he was treating people like shit and you can't do that and you will not talk to my crew like that and you certainly won't fucking talk to me like that was he better after that no he escalated it so he wanted to hit you he he got he got aggressive and then i heard him so it was like this thing where we would separate

and then something would happen and we would come back together like two fighting dog this is never happened before and never got along with him at all no and so i heard him say at the monitor and Ty, interesting enough, Ty said he also had a problem with this guy years before this. And so I heard him say at the monitor to his assistant, well, the next time I'm back here, I'll do this. And then I came from the doors of this age.

Oh, motherfucker, you're not coming back. You will never be back here ever again. You've treated everyone here so poorly. And they grabbed you? Yeah. They said, okay, okay, okay. No, actually people clapped about it. When people push you, when that's the thing. I couldn't believe I was capable of.

of that. But I hate authority. When people are not, it's not that it's authority, but when they're condescending and they're like you're a piece of meat, that's when it happens. But also, you can't yell at people who can't defend themselves. The big component in this was not what he said to me. I just been seeing him do this. And then in that moment when he did it to me, I was like embarrassed the fact that I hadn't spoken up sooner because that's how they've been feeling all week long and have no way to talk about it. So I only spoke up. When it happened to me, and I was aware of it, all that flooded through me at the same moment. You know why you stuck up with them?

Because you also were thinking of that inner child, too. Yeah, of course. You rarely get past that. No. It's hard. And at some of that, I think it's good. It can be harnessed in the right way. If it limits you, that's wrong.

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Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Array! The Conjuring Last Rites. Only in theater September 5th. What's your favorite project you've worked on? If you had to guess one.

Legit, 100%. I did a show with Jim Jeffries called Legit. I loved it. It was the best thing I've ever done. Yes, he talked about it. when he was on the podcast. And the lowest wage I've ever made as an actor doing anything. And you just did one season?

And two. Two. I went into my savings. He was depressed. Every year. It broke our hearts. And the president of the network afterward, years later said that it was a personality conflict between us and I think our creator, one of our creators.

And it had nothing to do with the show. And then to prove to us who was the boss, they moved us to FXX, which used to be like, for Forbes HD or something shit like that. You couldn't flip past it and we died and then we were canceled and it was such a creative show and I was playing a guy

with advanced stage muscular dystrophy and before it came out I got a lot of shit because I'm playing somebody I'm playing a disease I don't have but they had auditioned people with muscular dystrophy but they couldn't do it because of the hours and but when it came out and they saw what I did

I got this outpouring of love and started talking to people directly. And most of these kids have passed because the life expectancy isn't great. And I was playing a guy who was right there at the end of his life. And it was sad because we didn't get to finish that story. I know.

Yeah, Jim was so upset by it. Who is your idol? And this could be a two-parter, but who's your favorite actor as well? Like, my idol's my grandfather. I love him. Oh, my idol's my grandpa too. My papa.

He was unbelievable. But your favorite actor? Oh, God, I love my grandfather so much. I actually, I did Hollywood Medium, and I talked to him. And I'm so, such a skeptic, but there's no way this kid could have known all this stuff. I want to. Oh, you have to. It is life-changing.

I have such a profound fear of death. They have to know you, though. There's no way this kid could have known these things. He looked online. It's not available. There's something I kept inside of me. I found my grandfather dead. He was born in the depression.

He had diabetes and his medication made him feel bad. I found a pickle jar full of pills at the back of his cloth. that I hid under newspaper and put at the bottom of the dumpster. I've never mentioned that to a living soul. This kid says this to me. So I think that the wise tact to take with this is like, I don't know anything. I've not died. You're blown away by this. Yeah, but I have not died yet. So all the things I think I know about anything is, it's all bullshit, like thinking that somebody else, what they think is bullshit is bullshit. None of us have had this experience yet. So here's what it did. It made me know that I don't know anything. But I know that I was comforted by this. and I was told things I'd never spoken to anyone about and my grandpa was just my absolute fucking hero. I love that guy.

I could see you get a little emotion from it. He was the best. I felt this so much. He was the only one who listened to me, who talked to me, who I would just want to hear him tell stories. I wanted to, I just wanted to be around him

and he used to take the time with me that nobody ever took. He had the patience with me. If it wasn't for him, I don't think I'd ever make it past high school. There's no fucking way. That foundation of love you will always go back to and feel. He's to write me letters.

You know, that's amazing. I just want you to know that your grandmother and I are thinking about you and we think about you often. And I have these letters from him, handwritten letters. Yeah, he was something else. But who's your favorite actor? Stanley Tucci, probably is my favorite actor. Really? Twice.

I like him as a man too. But Richard Jenkins has a special place in my life because there's no mentoring in this business, right? And when I was doing the core, we were shooting on it. aircraft carrier that had we were like 500 miles off the coast of Mexico because they were being deployed and we were filming and then we were going to be you know jetted off and and that's what we did but I left twice to go promote a movie that was coming out and I didn't know my lines and I looked like shit and Richard Jenkins took me to dinner and in in the mess hall and on the ship and said you look like shit you don't know your lines you need to start saying no to people because you've

agreed to this and that it never occurred to me I was still going from that that was he nice about Amazing. He was so fatherly about it. And because he could see that I was deer in headlights. Everything that I had ever dreamed about was happening in real time to me. And my mind was being blown left, right, and center. I was making money. And your agents were going to tell you that. No. And also, they don't understand the fatigue of it. It's, it's exhausting. And the fact that I was working all day and then being, and, you know, on a day, a whole day, I was being flown off the boat to go to Chicago, to do. promote the film live like in person and i didn't realize that you just do this i'll do this after i finish this movie because i've agreed to this but it here's what it taught me every day on set is my opus because i said i would be there every time i see something got canceled i get sad for the two years of creativity that went into that i understand what it takes to do all this stuff yeah and so i'm not going to i've had bad days on sets but not willfully um you've had days where you just couldn't get a line

out well yeah it happens and i get embarrassed extremely embarrassed i get of course i guessed it on a show called perception and i got really sick during the day and my body started shutting down i couldn't get a cell phone into an into an evidence bag and say five lines they had to feed me that they edited it so beautifully but i was released from work i was so embarrassed they released me from work i fell asleep at the traffic light on the way home my body was shutting down rapidly but that's but then they asked me back five more times because I because you were fine those times killed it because they knew I wasn't trying to phone anything in like they saw me disintegrating in front of them I've worked for years and that is I think a beautiful thing and as much as I will bitch about things that I don't like about

the entertainment business there is a thing there is I think as much pettiness I found altruism and respect and love I found a lot of that yeah I mean it's there it is there and I think you get it if you give it and i am this way 100% of the time like i don't pretend to ever be anything that i'm not the first time i was on the tonight show the first time i went on the tonight show um jay was like um so what's it like to be in the movies and it was my first movie and this is what this is what i said this actor is mean and he said the actor's name yes what was the actor's name beck and mire he was mean to me he was you made up since then of course we have um but it was childhood it was kid shit young actor shit i didn't do it but the movie was told he was pitched him as

his vehicle road trip and i blew up from it and he just was not kind to me and and he knows he wasn't and we dealt with that but i said it on the tonight show and they were like you can't do that and i did this is my response if i don't do that if i try to pretend that i'm i look like all of these people and i am one of these people i'm to be laughed out of this town have to always be this. I'm, I'm, I'm doing this. These motherfuckers are crazy. Or look at all this money they're giving me. I can't believe this. Call it out. And I still can't believe it. But now it's, it's part of me. But there are all the times I'm like, look at what's going on here. Good for you. Good for you, man. You can't lose yourself. No. You're still that person.

You better lose yourself in the moment. I do lose myself in the moment. So many, so many movies, New Guy, Road Trip, The Core shows Breaking Bad, Supernatural, Scrubs, Loss, CSI, crime scene investigation uh z nation the man in the high castle the hustle and flow it's like such a great career you've done so much uh you're such a great guy and i i hope you just you can have continued success and do what you love keep doing that um i ain't so many things you've done and you've got this podcast lock and probably loaded locked and probably loaded with dj and kelly with dj and kelly where they can find that anywhere they can find that yeah it's all over the place listen to it if you like listening to this

guy today who's simply amazing um thank you so much brother i had a great time with you yeah dude this is so good ryan why london why london i want to go all the way back there oh uh i went to college in england because it was far away from the south it was in a book and they spoke english so i just found a college in a book and and applied and got in i wrote the most manipulative letter ever i was like i am a gay child from appalachia whose father works in a casket factory and I had cancer. I think you should let me in. And they did. Yeah, my father was a welder in a casket factory. In Manchester, Tennessee, the major industry is casket making. It's the number two casket producer in the United States behind Batesville, Arizona. I mean, Batesville,

Arkansas. I think in Indiana where I grew up, they built the largest. Oh, oh, is that Bates. That also, I think, is Batesville. Maybe it's, uh, it's because there's a lot of obese people. Yeah. Oh, the largest ones. Largest ones. Oh, right, right. Because, uh, you know, I think number, we were the number one city and obesity like 10 years ago, which is wow. That's a hard. That's a hard thing to be. Well, at least we made the news.

Yeah. So I've never been to Indiana. I'm going for the first time. I'm going to Indianapolis. Oh, nice. This, uh, at the end of the summer. Nice. So you're going to be at cons.

They can go to your Instagram. What's your Instagram? Uh, at DJ Qualls. And my Twitter is the only DJ Qualls because somebody else was me and I couldn't get the name back. that's a problem yeah and he was doing things like I'm taking a bubble bath and who who wants to go shopping with me and all this all the things I hate I hate baths I'm a shower guy I don't like you'll never get me into a hot tub it's like a tub of ass soup oh I I I don't not a bathtub but I do like a jacuzzi I don't and a cold plunge I don't like sweating no I don't want to sweat with people I know that's why you smelled so good when you walked in I really I'm really worried about that breath and hygiene oh huge Like, I could be so turned on by someone and then their breath, I get a whiff of it. People have to floss.

And I'm out. Floss, your teeth. Exactly. Thank you, D.J. Qualls for being here. Thank you so much. It's Rona Week. Now until Wednesday. And the best part, we're ready to help you extend your summer.

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Fantastic guy. Thank you, DJ. Thank you for being over at the house and talking about things that I didn't know. And it was, you're interesting, man. You're really interesting. And I love how honest you are. And I think it will help a lot of people. So thank you.

And, you know, what would this podcast? podcast be with other patrons so we got to thank them and we're about to do the shoutouts so um thank you join patreon.com slash inside of you and support the show so we can keep going and i could pay guys like ryan and bryson my wonderful editor and we love them and uh it's it's a family isn't it ryan it is it's a nice little family it really is it's like everybody's cool it's easy it's fun it's like you know it's uh just four dudes hanging out remotely just just four dudes. Four dudes remotely. That should be a movie. I don't know. Anyway, here are the shoutouts. Join patreon.com slash inside of you. And the shoutouts are

Nancy D. Little Lisa, Uquico, Gell E, Brian H, Nico P, Rob, L. Jason W. Sophie M. Raj, Rosh, Jennifer N. Stacey L. Stacey L. Jal. Jamal F. Janel B. Mike L. Dunn's Primo, 99 more. Santiago M. Leanne P., Maddie S. Kendrick F. Belinda and David. H. Dave H. Brad D. Ray H. Dave. Dave. Dave H. Hey, Dave. Ted with the T. Tom and Talia M. Betsy D.

Betsy D. So lovely talking to you. I really, it was a good catch up. Rian and C. Rian and C. Like the moon. And then there's Corey K. and Dev Nexon. Michelle A. Jeremy C. Mr. M.

Eugene and Leah the salty ham. Mel S. Eric H. Oracle. Amanda R. Kevin E. Jor L. Jammin J. Leanne J. Luna R. Mike F. Jules M. Jessica B. Caley J. Charlene A. Merrin Louise L. S. Romeo the band. Frank B. T. Nicki L. April R. R. Randy S. Claudia. Rachel D. Gen. Carolina girl. Nick W. Stephanie and Evan or? Stefan. Correct. Charlene A. Don G. Jenny B. 76. Jennifer R. Tina. E. N. G. G. Tracey. Keith B. B. Heather and Greg, Elley K. Elizabeth L. Ben B. Jamin. P.R. C. Sultan. Ingrid C. Brandon C. Ms. Ms. Ms. L. Luce, Luthor, Mrs. Jesse. And I think that does it. Thank you from the Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, California. I'm Michael Rosenbaum. I'm Ryan, too. A little wait for the camera. We love you. Be good to yourself. See you next week.

Hi, I'm Joe Sol C. Hi. Host of the Stackin' Benjamins podcast today. We're going to talk about what if you came across $50,000. What would you do? Put it into a tax advantage 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 addition that we're adding. $50,000. I'll buy a new podcast. You'll buy new friends. And we're done. Thanks for playing everybody. We're out of here. Stacking Benjamin's follow and listen on your favorite platform.