Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - Ep 8: Justin Hartley

Episode Date: May 29, 2018

Justin Hartley (This Is Us, Smallville, The Young and The Restless) and I discuss growing up in a small midwest town, the effect his parents’ divorce had on him as a kid, and moving to LA with nothing to his name. Justin talks about the panic attack he had underwater filming Aquaman, going through a devastating divorce of his own, and what it’s like being a part of one of the biggest shows in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Today's guest is people have been begging for this guy. Yeah, it's because his show is huge right now. Yeah, this is us. You know, what's funny is, it was hard to get him on here because he's a friend. We did Smallville together. He was the Green Arrow when I was Lex Luthor. But many people have said, get Justin Hartley gets.

So I was like, I'm trying, but he's busy. What am I, Seinfeld? But he's a busy dude. But he's in an interesting life. We talk about, we talk about everything, man. I got inside his divorce and how that didn't work out. I don't know, maybe a little infidelity there, whatever was going on. I'm not saying it wasn't his fault.

He had a daughter. He has a daughter. He has a daughter. She's amazing and beautiful. I haven't seen her in a while, but he's happy now. He got married again. We talk about, you know, this was an interesting story. He had a, you know, because we always get into anxiety somehow or depression or weird things that people have or real things.

And he talks about his anxiety when he was shooting the pilot for Aquaman. a full-on panic attack and thought he was going to drown and they had to really calm him down and coincidentally you know that happened to me did it yeah um i was in a tank in smallville for the pilot and he was shooting his pilot so it happened to him in his pilot and it happened to me and my pilot for smallville and i was in this huge tank underwater and Clark comes and rescues me and i had to put these weights on and i had this breathing apparatus and i'm just like there michael give me a thumbs up if you're good and i remember just panicking and went to the top And I looked at Thomas and I can't fucking do this.

We talk about that. We talk about the success of This Is Us. Anyway, he's a fascinating guy. He's a great guy. He's one of the nicest guys in the industry. He has huge success now with This Is Us. And he seems like he's living the best life there is. Yeah, he sent us thank you notes after.

Yeah, he only guests to ever send us thank you. Not only, here's what's surprising. A handwritten thank you note to me. But the fact that he took the time to write a hand note, handwritten note to you, Rob. I know. It's like he must have a lot more time than I thought he had. He must. And I think our other guests probably need to step it up a little bit.

Yeah, it's something. Maybe an email, a text, maybe a tweet, maybe actually tweet. That's the thing about doing a podcast. You're asking favors. So I kind of feel like, oh, great. Will you come on the show? Oh, great. Will you give us a high-in-resolution picture so we could send our fans?

Hey, will you tweet this out? We Instagram? It's a job. It's like, sorry to ask people all this. All right, Rob's heard enough of me talking. Let's get inside of Justin Hartley. 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. Do you like listening to yourself? I know you like listening to yourself. That's not entirely untrue. I remember. You know what it is?

What is it? After people tell you, you know, you got a decent voice. You start to believe it. You start to think. think you got a great voice maybe i do you do i was thinking about doing some kind of meditation app could you imagine close your eyes justin okay it'd be something like all right breathe in through your nose out through your mouth there's nothing to worry about i believe it you're gonna just take your shirt off right now thank you for allowing me to be inside of you justin hartley no

problem it feels good already yeah wow i'm into it this is great this is great you've been to my before yeah yeah yeah just never in this capacity oh god last time i was at your house was uh that you know about i mean i was i was here last night watching you no jeez ass um no no i few years ago a few years back i mean this was smallville days probably last smalls old days yeah so that's where we met i was hanging on to smallville man i remember when you came on the set for the first time tell me about it well i was upset why well i already had the deal with a tremendously good looking guy and tom willing and I had to compete with that right but then you show up yeah and it was just a little bit like can you get someone average looking at least I think that's the first thing you ever said to me

what I say I introduced myself and you were like hi how are you and then you go guys next time can we get somebody average looking okay I think I probably said that and then you walked away and I was like I like that guy that guy's great we had fun you know what's interesting is and and this is sort of cats out of the bag and everybody knows this about you but when I met you on on Smallville, you were, Lex Luthor, you were, and you're a great actor, but you were this villain that was, like, methodical and, like, all the little nuanced stuff about your performance, right? You could always know when a- Keep going. When a performance is good, because it sort of transcends your television.

What I mean by that is, like, I had never met you, and I just sort of assumed that you would be this sort of cold, kind of, like, asshole guy, right? Just, oh, too hyper-focused and shit. Yeah, and you are, I mean, I couldn't believe it. I was like, how does this guy turn it on like that? And it still amazes me. Like, you, you couldn't be farther from Lex Luther. I'm not.

Do I say that at zero? Do you know how many women were disappointed when they go out of me? When they found out of you had not that smart. He's not bold. He's not a billionaire. He doesn't own any suits. Right. He has a conversion van.

This is not the kind of guy I thought I was going out with. Yeah. Well, I mean, but it's a, you know, it's a compliment. I appreciate. I really do appreciate that. There's, because there's no, there was really no, there was really no human. in that role. And I remember thinking at the end of, I mean, there was a little bit, like, what you, but you were always like, it wasn't funny. It was, it was, it was, it was, he was mean, right? Misunderstood. I brought, you know, some things. There was some nuances, you know, that, you know, tried to add a little fun to it. Yeah, you did a lot. I remember once I got to know you, I was like, why is he not doing, when you didn't have any time. I mean, you were on the show. Well, and I was bald. And you were bald. And I tried doing a couple movies in the end. And they were like, sir, you're bald. But the wigs that got me were terrible. And I was like, yeah, I just funny stuff. That's horrible wig. Yeah. Yeah. And I love comedy, and you, I remember you saying that.

You were always really, you're just, that's the one thing I thought about, go, what am I going to talk to Justin about? I mean, obviously you have a hit show. There's nothing to talk to him about. No, but, I mean, you have a hit show and we're going to talk about all this stuff. But I remember specifically, I just thought, this is one of the nicest guys I've ever known. Even though we don't hang out, really, and you're busy, I'm busy. But I remember when you came on set, I just instantly loved you. Thanks, man.

you're a treat to work with and I think anybody who's working with you sees that because you're just game you're like I don't even think I've ever seen you really get upset I mean I I'm sure you do well it's not good for you you have a certain mentality

a certain way about you that's inviting it's welcoming it's fun it's light but you know you've based a lot of adversity you've been through a lot and we'll get into that if you allow me to get inside of you but how do you do it? You know I mean I think part of it is just doing what we do for a living is

you watch, right? You watch things. And, and, um, that's part of the process for me is just watching people do things. And you just sort of, as you grow up, you think, well, that's, I sort of like what that is. I, I want to emulate that or I want to be sort of over there. And then you see other things that you don't like that people do, getting upset and yelling, all the sounds like, seen that. And it's like, I, you know, I don't want to live over there. No one's perfect. But that's sort of like the, that's the goal, right? As long as I feel like I have something to sort of, uh, reference you know then it keeps me grounded right yeah traffic doesn't bother me like delayed flights don't bother me are you serious you never hawk your horn no i have like if i'm gonna get hit you know

or if but not if someone's in front of you waiting oh i'll get you know there's a style you get a pop like that and it's like hey and that's like it's like it's almost like a little pat on the back versus like you know when a scream it's right scare them and they're like you don't know what you know what they're like plus man i'm afraid of people dude i don't let you never know what you never know did I almost got in a fight today getting my haircut what happened your haircut looks great I wasn't even gonna tell the story because it gave me anxiety and I literally ruined my day wait what really some some guy was in you know he was he was cutting hair yeah well did he work there yeah he worked there crazy okay he worked there a couple weeks ago I was there I was talking about Star Wars and Jar Jar Binks and he said jar Jar Binks is racist and I go oh I didn't know that really he's like yeah you don't know that because you're not a minority or whatever, I go, well, I'm Jewish, just kidding around. He didn't think anything of it was funny. Let it go.

I was like, oh, that guy's kind of a dark cloud over him, but whatever. You know, I'm certainly not racist. Three weeks later today, I walk in there and I'm getting my haircut. And he's on the other side, and he's talking to one of his clients. The only reason I hear him is because he's talking about me. He's saying things like... But does he know you're there? Yes.

Okay. He knows... So he's doing this by design. This is passive aggression. This is his whole thing, yeah. And he says, yeah, this guy comes in, he's an actor, he's, like, Jewish, and he's, like, you know, saying racist shit. Like, Jewish people are, like, equal to, like, what, and I just go, are you talking about me right now? You did.

I wasn't angry, but I go, and he goes, yeah, man, I'm talking about you. I go, what is going on? Are you, what, because he said Jar Jar, Jor Binks, and that's why I knew specifically that. And I literally go, because I didn't think, I didn't know Jar Jar Binks was racist, and I, what are you talking? talking about I have I go out with every my friends I felt like I was explaining you know yeah and that's the thing like you don't have to defend yourself to people that are you know and it ruined my day I ruined it until you came in here we'll make it better you're happy attitude you know it's funny is we should to have him on your show

dude I just I couldn't believe the energy he was throwing out yeah it was it was really uncomfortable you ever have anything like that where it's just something that you're like no matter what you say yeah and what do you do because you're a nice guy how do you turn away Or do you fight back? No. I mean, sometimes you have to, right? Would you have said that? Probably.

Okay, that's good. Yeah. I'm glad you would. Rob, would you have said that? Probably not. No, what would you? What would you have done? I would have just sat there and ignored him.

You probably would have been a little upset, a little nervous, like what's going on? He was a tough guy. I mean, I don't want to get my ass kicked. I don't want to get in a fight. I mean, I couldn't, it's not like I could have taken this case. I could fight, but I'm not like a fighter. No, I'm not. either. Like, I'm not a guy who says, you know, wants to be in a fight. I don't really either, yeah.

When's the last time I got in a fight? Oh, gosh. Last time I got in a fight was probably, gosh, man, I'm a grown man now. I mean, a few years ago. I was caught up in a fight. I wasn't caused by. What happened? So I'll keep names out of it, but I was at an establishment, a local establishment. It was like 8 o'clock at night, just finished dinner. I'm leaving. This woman was touched in a way that was completely inappropriate. I didn't see it. I just saw the look on her face. This woman that I was with. The woman you were with. Yeah. Women that I'm still with, woman that I'm married to. Wow. Yeah. So now we know who that is. And I didn't, I sort of didn't see what happened. I was totally unaware. And then it got brought to my attention. And so I did,

I did go back in there. And I did confront. There were like four of them. And what did you say. I don't know what I said, man. Probably something scary and, you know, something that I probably threatened to do something that I probably wasn't capable of doing. But they didn't do anything back? Nothing. They just sat there and, I mean, it must have been terrible for them, you know, sitting there and just in front of everyone just me.

So you out intimidated them. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? When you walked out, was your blood just like, oh, yeah. Oh, my God. It ruins your night because you're thinking about what could have happened. Yeah. Do you let it affect you?

Well, it certainly does. It occupies the space in your brain for a while. And, you know, it affects, it affects the way that you go about your life for the next couple hours. But, yeah, no, that's a shame. I wish that guy would have been nicer. That sucks, but who cares, man. Maybe he'll, you know. You stood up for the right thing.

Yeah. That's what you did. Was your, you had a good childhood? Yeah, it was good. You know, it was pretty, I think, standard Midwest. Illinois? Knoxville, Illinois. I thought there's in Knoxville, Tennessee.

There is. There is. And so I, people always say, well, where is Knoxville, Illinois? And I say, oh, nowadays, people go, where are you from? I said, L.A. because I've been here like, you know, 300 years. Right. And they're like, well, when I was before L.A.

And I said, well, I say Chicago, because no one knows where the surrounding areas are. No one knows where Knoxville is, Knoxville, Illinois, unless you're from there. Is there Carbondale? I'm from Chicago, and I have no idea where Knoxville. You know where Carbondale is? I went to college there. My buddy, my buddy, Southern Illinois, my friend, Ethan Havner. Something like Normal, Illinois.

Yeah, I know normal. Yeah, I know normal. Yeah, there's nothing normal about normal. No. Yeah, man. They like, they're crazy. They're party animals there. so what was growing up there it was good man i yeah so i like my parents were good my mom's a teacher

my dad uh plumber they were together until i was like 10 and then um you know divorces are so so common now but back in the day i guess they weren't uncommon but it was just sort of like it was more devastating when you heard oh so someone so was getting divorced it was like dun dun dun how did you hear about it the first time did you you felt it you felt the energy you felt it did you hear the yelling not really i don't remember a lot of the yelling no i don't think so I don't know if there was yelling. I just think it was two people that decided not to not to be. I mean,

I've never really spoken to either one of them about it, to be honest with you. You've never told one time what went wrong? No, I don't think I don't think so. See, what's weird is I don't have to say anything. They all, they just come at me with it. Yeah. Like, yeah, your father was this and your mother's a crazy. And it's just like, well, that happens too.

Sure. I shut that down now. You can't have that. You can't have that. You don't allow that, right? I'm not now. Do they do that? You can't talk about your, you don't want anyone talking about your mom or your dad.

Just me. Yeah, I'm the only one allowed to talk shit about my friends. Other people can't talk shit about me from, right? Yeah, this is kind of how people are. But who told you? Did your mom come in the room and say, hey. I'm trying to think, you know what? I don't remember.

Did they not even tell you? Have they not told you yet? Do you know your parents are divorced? They might still be married. No, I think it was just like a, like they came together and told us and it was. Did you cry? I don't think. I probably.

I don't know. here's the thing about it. So getting back to like the devastation and all that kind of thing. So it was this devastating thing. Everyone thought, oh my God, it's your water there too. Thank you. Your childhood's going to be, you know, over. Your life has changed.

I got to be totally honest with you. My dad moved really close to where we lived, right? He moved out, boom, real close to where we were. Saw him all the time. Saw my mom all the time. It kind of got better. There was really nothing devastating about it to me. Maybe even though it didn't work out, they did the right thing.

They were there. Were they friends after that? No. They weren't. No. No, it wasn't anything like that, but it was nothing like, yeah, but it wasn't, I wouldn't say as devastating at all. I mean, I could ask my brother and sister, but for me, it was just like, you know,

something that happened and things got a little easier. Were you the middle? I was the middle. Yeah. Are you? I'm sort of a middle. So are there four of you? So I'm a little messed up.

Well, my mom was married before. She was 16 and pregnant, then 17 and pregnant, then divorced, the guy who was abusive. and then she was fast forward, 23 years old with a five and a six-year-old, and then she marries my dad who's 18, has me a year later. So I was destined to be fucked up. There was just no... No getting around it. No getting around it.

There was just like, it was like, how do I survive this? Yeah. So it sounds like, for the most part, except for the divorce, you really didn't feel sort of the repercussions or the... Not really. I mean, you know, things got, I guess, different when it was like, you know, going to college and who's going to pay for what and how do you figure out that? I mean, that kind of stuff is, you know, the logistics of your parents living in two different places and trying to go back and forth, that can get a little, you know, hectic and kind of.

Yeah, what about like the other when the mom started dating? Was that weird? And dad started dating. Do you remember that? Didn't mind my dad dating. Yeah. Just totally honest, I don't know what that was. I don't know what it is. You're, you imagine your mother's vagina and someone else's penis. I hate to be blunt about it. But that's what you think. Well, that's, you know. You don't want somebody. You don't want somebody. Right, exactly. You don't want somebody. Right. Exactly. You're doing the deed to your mom. You don't. Your dad's like, hey, he's a guy he could do it. But hey, there are women who, you know. I mean, you don't even really want to think about your dad doing that to your mom.

I don't ever want to think of my father's penis, ever. I never saw it. Never want to. No. I saw my mom's breast once and, uh, how'd that go? Devastating. Okay. Devastating.

Really? I had a limp penis for years. Uh, never. For years. That was a couple years ago. Yeah. That's pretty much what's been. Still hasn't gotten over.

Yeah. Well, have you ever seen your parents naked? When I was a little. Yeah. Well, I mean little. When I was like five or six. Oh, but you remember? Yeah, but that's like, that's normal, isn't I mean?

Yeah, yeah. I don't remember seeing my dad's cock at five. Well. Good. You remember it? Do you remember, was it a long one? I mean, I think the thing was, you let them see it when they're little, so they think it's really big after that.

Jesus Christ. I think this just got fun comfortable for me. We got, yeah, we got, have you seen your parents naked? No. Never. No. Thank God. Yeah.

That's, but again, by design, like, why I would, no, you know, you know, you know, want to see that nobody wants to see their mom naked now or dad but yet getting back to that my my dad i didn't mind him dating i thought it was of course but think about it like that's such a double standard and you know what it was it wasn't that i didn't want my mom to be happy it was that i was suspect of every dude that i met what's this guy up to yeah that would look at my mom and be like hi and i was like oh i hate him hate him did you like any of them let me see barry i bet you she dated again no like her so her husband now david i liked him from the beginning oh good but he was like a genuine i could just tell he was like a gentleman yeah he wanted to get to know her

and us the kids and everything and like you know take it slow and make sure that we were okay he's just smart guy gentleman great person not just some guy trying to date you know a pretty woman it was like so that's kind of strange yeah but now i have a 13 year old daughter oh yeah and so you haven't seen her in a long time isabella yeah i haven't seen her since you live you still at the same house no no no no because you moved because i was dating a girl that lived next door yeah You don't have to say her name, but, uh, no, but, but I do remember one time I walked, I walked out of my house, and I remember just hearing, hey, fucker. And I was like, and I turned around and there you are you, what are you doing here? See, I'd known this girl for years and we're kind of hanging out. He's like, yeah, we both got her out of relationship. It was like a nice little thing, but now she's married with a kid and doesn't talk to me anymore. Well, that's great. She doesn't dislike me, but I think it's uncomfortable for her husband. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like, oh, this is, this is Michael. Like, why are, yeah, why do we need to hang out with Michael? We don't need to hang out with Michael. We don't. We don't. We don't. We don't. We don't. Yeah. I mean, that's just the way it goes. Yeah.

But so I know I'm going to deal with that with my daughter. I don't even know how to begin to explain what that's going to feel like when she wants to soon start dating. I can't even imagine. I mean, I think, you know, what I gather from just my childhood and friend is you got to be just really honest and sincere and loving all in the same sentence. Hard. And there's no word for that, is there? It's called. Is it compassion?

Is it, is it, is it, is it, is it, what is that? What would that word be? Tough love, maybe. Tough, I don't know. But what it is is, you know, my dad, I felt like my parents always lied to me. So I had to protect you or what? No, it was just like my dad, you know, was like, if you ever drink, you ever do drugs, you're going to a halfway house.

I don't give a shit. You ever get your ear pierced. I mean, it was, like, then I found out my dad used to like do Coke and went to Woodstock and was smoking tons of pot, found cigarettes in his pocket. He banged a lot of chicks back in the day. pretty normal childhood, went to the divorce, had a good upbringing. Were you popular in high school? No.

You weren't. You weren't always good-looking? You were always a good-looking guy. I don't know. I mean, I don't think I was ever... Oh, God, what happened to him? Like anything... But I don't think I was ever like...

I wasn't like... I was that guy. Were you? Rob was for sure. Good-looking or the other way. I was not good-looking. Well, you were awkward. Some people called me Spock.

For some reason, in pictures for my junior senior year, I had a haircut of Captain Spock, or but not Captain Spock. That was, what was he? There's Captain Kirk and was it Lieutenant Spock? Spock wasn't it just, I think he was something. Wasn't Dr. Spock? Bridge Commander? No, it wasn't Dr. Spock. That was Bones.

Mr. Spock? Mr. Spock. Mr. I bet he was a lieutenant. He might have been, but he's referred to as just full name Spock. All right. So in high school, were you doing any acting? Were you doing sports? Basketball.

I played baseball. I didn't play basketball in high school. I played soccer for one year. So I wanted to play football. And my dad actually, he's like, you're not playing football. I was like really scrawny. And he's like, you're not playing football. You'll get killed.

Like, they literally, they'll kill you. And I was fast. It was really fast and quick. So he's like, here's what's going to happen. You're going to give you the ball because you're faster than everyone. And you're going to be able to do whatever you do. And it's going to be really great until they kill you. And they hit you and you have back surgeries.

And then they'll give the ball to somebody else. Right. And then you'll be like, I should. shouldn't have played football. So I'd never played soccer in my life, but it was the only choice I had, really. By the way, that's, that's sort of an amazing story that you're, if your dad told you that story, because think about it, you're telling your kid, look, if you really, really want to do something, you can. But I want you to know that you're going to get the ball and you're fast, you're going to be great. But then one day you're going to get hit. Yeah. And you could

have brain damage for the rest of your life. And then you're done. Or you could die. That's just the reality. I don't want to lose my son. I hope you choose a different sport. Right. Yeah. And Except it was like, you're not, you're not doing it. You're just not fucking doing it. No, you're not, there's no way you're doing it. Right. So, yeah, so I just would, I remember I would go out. We lived across from this park that had a soccer goal.

Actually, a whole soccer field. And it was always empty. And I would go out every day in the summer. And I would, like, mow lawns, like mow a lawn or two. Right. And then the rest of the day, all I did. Moe a lawn. I mean, I just mean, like, actually, like, actually mowing it on.

Yeah, like work. and um i mowed lawns yeah i know you did not in high school no no in high school but lawns sure yeah of course i didn't i couldn't get nailed in wood shop in high school yeah yeah and i just so that's what i'd do i'd go i would play every single day and i i didn't know what i was doing and i just i guess i got good enough to make the team i was shocked that i made the team and then i was like the worst one on the team because i'd never played and these kids have been playing for you know their whole lives right so i thought wow and i felt pretty um by the way i felt fantastic I was like, what a quick learner I am, how athletic I must be, feel pretty good about myself.

I've never played soccer before. I pick it up in one summer and I make the team. Then later I found out, and this is just like a couple of years ago. Your dad paid them off. I'm telling this story in front of my mom and I look over at my mom and there's this look on her face of guilt. And I'm like, wait a minute. And I look at her and I go, did you? And she goes, no, I didn't do anything.

She's playing the coach? I didn't tell anyone. I didn't tell it. What happened? I go, you, I, no, she just. admitted it. She was like, I didn't tell them that, you know, this and this and this and that you just moved to town and that you really need to make the team and you didn't want to play. She went in the whole thing. And I was like, well, I haven't even, I didn't even accuse

you of anything. I was just like, sort of wondering. But she had this look on her face, like, I could tell. So I think she went in and she was like, I know he sucks. I know he's terrible. He can can't he. He can't really depressed if he doesn't make the team. Please. And they, I guess they did it. So they had some compassion, I guess. Did it make things worse for you in the team? Yes. It was terrible. Why is this asshole in the game? Yeah. Why can't he? I mean, it was terrible and I was bad I mean I tried I tried hard and what happens though is when you when you when you play a sport and you're not as good like as skilled as the person you're playing against you tend to get a little more physical because it's your way of making up for the talent sort

of different differential and so I would I didn't have a choice I was just like running into people like I didn't know what I was doing I was basically playing football on a soccer team hardly get here yeah exactly did you barely play I play no I played quite a bit but not well I think I was I guess I'm exaggerate. I didn't embarrass myself, but I certainly was not a standout. It was like when the ball would come to me on the right wing and the goal was open. Right. Instead of being like, yeah, licking my chops, I'd be like, oh, crap. I got to kick this. I'm not, I got to kick this ball. And I'm not, this is not going to end well. Did you act at all in high school?

No, no. Did you even think of being an actor? You know what, man? I loved it. I always loved storytelling. I always loved movies. I was loved actors. and it wasn't until college, really, that I thought about it as a profession. I always liked watching, you know, the interviews, like The Tonight Show. Who were your favorites? When I was younger? Yeah. I was a huge Bruce Willis fan, Sylvester Stallone, who I got to work with the other day, by the way.

Unbelievable. Right. Oh, my God. I had to work with him, too. Wasn't he the best? Dude, the nicest guy. The nicest, smart, good actor, great actor. Yeah.

And the thing about it is, like, working with that guy is, as soon as he walks into the room, it's that fear of, like, I have to act with this guy that's, is rocky, man. Like, I'm nervous. And then within literally, like, three seconds, he, like, he takes the edge off of you. And now you're just talking to a guy. They're doing, no, justice. All right. I'm just a guy. It's right. I'm not really ramble. I'm not really slow. I'm just sly. That's right. Yeah. Come over for a workout. You need your arms to get a little bigger. Yeah. I mean, that's, he's just a bundle of joy. He's a bundle of joy, yeah. A lot of energy. He's great. But it's scale. But it's

It is scary at first, and you're like, oh, my God, that's my idol. How do I, how do I even do this? What do I even do? I can't even speak. Yeah, for about 10 seconds. I met him earlier at the gym. How weird is that? I'm working out, and I look over and sly is, like, working out.

I'm like, oh, God, here's a guy who's 70. 70. 70. And he's, like, working out with heavier weight than almost everybody in the gym. He's doing pull-ups. How old is he exactly? Yeah, because you see how he looked up? He looked at me.

Rob was immediately on there, and I go 70. And he's like, oh. I'm right He'll be, I think July 29th is his birthday Wow July 6th And he's 71

He'll be Oh wow He's 72 Look at you Now he's already 71 Oh really Turn 72 I mean I look

At 71 I gotta be honest With you I just want to be Still doing this No shitting my pants Really Sitting on a beach enjoying life

I don't want to be working 71 No I mean I don't What depends If you find something That you really Are you sure

Yes I just want to be happy And live somewhere Comfortable And at 71 on it's come on at that point you like you've had a great career go retire but you might he loves it so that's different i'm just what i would do right i'm not saying he's doing the wrong thing but you might um you might say you know what i'm gonna write a memoir huh that's a lot of work but it might all

a sudden you might be like inspired to write you'd you'd be great at that you have a lot of great stories i mean you could probably have someone help you yeah that would be you would have someone help you right look i enjoy like a lot of things but you know i certainly am getting at my you know the time of my career and my life that I'm like uh you know what's the next chapter and I'm open to what that is yeah I like hanging out too though I like days where I have to do nothing I got do you really enjoy those days I love I love I love those days when I look at my schedule and I have nothing to do that day I'm talking about like no dinner planned no like phone call plan no daughter even I love no daughter no I mean there's got to be those days we're like hey I just want to

she's lay by the mom I just want to hang out and do nothing yeah and like literally stare at the wall. Do you have a racing mind? Do you sleep well at night? I, gosh. Do you stress? Do you get anxiety? Do you? I think everybody gets anxiety. Do you ever get anxiety attacks? No. The only time I remember having like an anxiety attack was, I'll never forget this. In fact, talking about it makes my palm sweat. Yeah. I was shooting this pilot called Aquaman, which was right before I did Smallville. Yes. And we were doing, we were in the ocean. Underwater. Underwater stuff. in the ocean right and we're taking uh and i'm a really good swimmer but we have uh we're we're breathing compressed air right we're breathing and then so they they take the thing out of

your mouth wash all the bubbles off you and then they start filming and they gave me this huge fins i mean you could swim like a bullet right right so i'm going through the water like that i'm doing all that kind of stuff and i end up like really over like i was exhausted and i needed air bad like really bad like you thought you were going to die yeah and i And I just, I remember they dropped that mic in the water so you can hear people. And I remember people being like, well, where is he? I just remember hearing where is he? And I can't see because I have no, nothing in.

I'm just like kind of blind down there. And I just, my heart started to go and I was like, well, this is it. And I'm like, should I shoot up to the surface? I've been breathing compressed air. I'm not sure if you can do that. And then all of a sudden, someone grabbed me and threw that, you know, the air in my mouth. But I thought, this is it, man. You know, they, they, you know, they, they, they, they, uh, what does.

called a hookah i don't know what it's called when they you're breathing out of their tank basically ah yeah they did that to you did that save your life would you have been in trouble no i mean i probably would have just shot to the service have been fine right but it just i remember having that anxiety which and it took me a while to like calm that i had to get out of the water so i guess that was kind of a panic attack and at the same time i'm probably you're probably thinking everybody's looking at me you know i'm failing i can't do this yeah they've got to get somebody else day one series they're not going to want me right day one Day one.

I had that with, you know, it's funny you say this because on Smallville. Yeah. I don't know if we talked about when Tom was on. We're in the tank and it's the end of the pilot and we're shooting in a 20-foot tank that they had. And they put a car at the bottom and all these things. And I have to go, he comes and rescues me. Yeah. So I have to go down there, 20 feet, whatever in the water, 30 feet maybe.

It's a lot of feet. Yeah. And I have weights on my legs. To keep you down. To keep me down in the seat. and I'm like breathing the opposite compressed air and you know they're like you hear Marco are you okay give you a thumbs up and I give the thumbs up and I could just you know and I'm starting to get that anxiety like oh my God I can't and you're panicking and I fucking

whipped those weights off me and went through the window and went oh yeah I can't do this fuck yeah and I am petrified I go I cannot do this how'd they do it I cannot and we took scuba classes But I was like, this is different. This isn't like you have gear on and you're down there. You almost have to like take a minute. Because you have to, you take the mask off. And then I have to be dead or whatever and let him come and rescue me. So I have nothing.

I'm just not breathing. You're just hoping that he makes it. And then if he grabs me and he's slow and I'm thinking of all these things. And I remember Tom in there, we're sitting there and we're looking at each other. And we're kind of laughing, but kind of not. And he's like, dude, we'll get it, man. We'll do it all day until we get it. You'll be fine, man.

Yeah. And I just remember going, Oh, my God, they're going to fire me. They're going to be. And again, one of the Rosenbaum stories of being too hard on yourself. It's like, dude, this is not easy. This is traumatic. Take a minute for yourself.

Probably what you were doing. And that is anxiety. But when I talk about anxiety, and I ended up doing it. And I didn't get fired. You mean, do I lose sleep? Is that what you were asking? When it's time to go to bed for Justin, like, I'd say you're a guy that goes to to bed at 10.30.

I wish I went to bed at 10.30. That'd be good. It depends on the night. Like, I can go to bed. You know, I like to hang out and have fun. I can go to bed at 2, 3 in the morning. I can go to bed at 8 o'clock at night sometimes. It just depends.

And what time do you wake up? I usually, I'm the first one up. You five. I'm up, I would say. Even with three hours, five hours you're up. I'm up. Yeah. And does it affect you not getting sleep or do you mostly find out?

Probably. It probably does. I'm not really sure. You think you get anxiety from that from not sleeping. Because you got to look. It's not good for you. I know that. It's not good for you.

No. No, you need. But I've started napping. Oh, yeah. You've hit 40. I know. Dude, I love a nap. I remember people would be like, oh, I'm going to go nap.

And I was like, God, why are you taking a nap? Harry Truman used to nap. Yeah. I almost said rap. Yeah, and he didn't rap. But he used to sit there and he said the key was just in a pair of boxers and no shirt, nothing else. And just, yeah. But I can take a nap for like, I can do a two-hour nap.

Can you do it? Can you nap in the trailer easily? Easily. You're easy. Nothing's on your mind. You sleep. Even if, gosh, yeah, I think so. That's a blessing.

I think so. Rob? I don't, no, I don't nap. No, what are you? You're thinking about the next. guest, what questions to ask, what he's going to ask me to look up? Or my child. He's going to talk about my mom and naked and all this week. Do you sleep? Yeah, I sleep. He's 28. Do you sleep with your eyes open or? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's right. He's a kid, though. He's still 28 with, you know.

39. But I have a, I have a one year old. You do. Congratulations. So how do you sleep? Thank God. He sleeps like 12 hours. Oh, that's lucky. We, my daughter, when I remember when she was a baby, we would, she slept so well, so soundly. We would have to wake her up with, and we We were told this, and this sounds horrible, but the hospital actually told us this. They were like, yeah, you got to wake her up with, because she's breastfeeding. They're like, you've got to wake her up with ice cubes. I was like, what? So they wanted me to take my baby, my little baby, and take an ice cube and put it on her back,

which is basically the ice cube is the size of half of her back. Anybody else would have kicked your ass if you did that. And she would just wake up and then I'd be like, there's a boob, bam, and then she's eating. Well, otherwise, she'll fall asleep on the boob. They'll fall asleep. Or they just sleep through their meal. And then they're like, they literally, you need to wake them up to eat. So you didn't get into acting until college.

Not really. What made you jump into that? So I took a class called, I thought it was going to be an easy elective. That's, same story. I was trying to get an easy A. Was it called basic techniques of acting? Not even. Check this out.

It was called, see, I would have known what that was. This was called interpretation of children's literature. And I was like, that sounds boring. No, it sounds easier. Are you kidding me? Like, Mary had a little lamb or whatever that is. And you're like, I know that what that is. Like, whatever.

It wasn't easy. No, it was oral interpretation of children's literature. it was acting out the nursery rhymes and stuff which is impossible impossible and so but I loved it and for some I just loved getting up and performing and our teacher was so cool he like he's like yeah we're not really going to do that

we're going to pick you know scenes that you guys like that you want to do from your favorite movies or something and they were going to do those that's what we're going to do so I would do like a scene from diehard or something I don't know do you remember the scene the one that changed my let's see

yeah I did a I did a one with Alan Rickman No, I did, I did one with, what was it? What's the Richard Gere? He was like, Giglo. American Gigolo. American Gigolo. Yeah, so I did a, no, that's not children's literature, but I got up and I did that. It certainly isn't.

No, I got up and I butchered the hell out of that, but I loved it. I loved the rush. I loved, like, the, what was the response? I mean, it was a class of 15, so they were all, you know, they're all horrified because they got to get up next. And no one's going to boo you. Did you feel like, I'm better than these jokers? I'm the best one in this group.

In Carbondale, Illinois right now, in this 15. person class, I'm the best children's literature. Probably. We all thought that, probably. Really? Yeah, probably. And what was the next step after that? Then I did a play. What play? It was like an improv play. So basically we would have an improv play. Yeah. An entire play of an entire play. So there'd be like, so you and I would be doing a scene. Right. And I think, I think a man named Augusto, Augusto Boal, it's like theater in the round. Oh, he's in Willie Wonka. Yeah. And you put Oh, that's Augustus Gloop. Right. No, different. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry. What's wrong. Like we would do a scene, then we would do it again, a second time.

Right. And then somebody from the audience at any time could stop it and jump in and be whoever, whatever character they wanted. So you kind of had to be on your toes. Right. Because you don't know what these people are going to say. People get really fired up. Wow. And it's great.

And you're in a room full of actors, so everyone's really good at it. And maybe some comedians and they're all really, really good at it. And you enjoyed it. I did. I did. And so you had the bug. Had the bug. And then, you know, when you're that young and you have zero responsibility and you don't really

owe anybody anything and you don't have any ties. New York. You just go. You just go. So you were like, hey, mom. Going L.A. I'm going to L.A. Yeah.

You went to L.A. You didn't go to New York. You never went to New York. You never went to New York. Not really. You've been there before. Yeah, yeah. I go there like twice a month.

I'm there all the time. Right. So you go out to L.A. How much money did you have? Did you save up? Did you work at the DQ? I had nothing. I was a waiter.

And you mowed lawns. I was done mowing lawns. No one in L.A. No, you. Oh, you weren't. Oh, I see where you're going with that. Well, I might have been going there. It was like the Chris Farley, Billy Madison.

That Veronica Vaughn has one fine piece of age. What do you say? Trust me, I know. I should know from experience. And then it's no, you don't. No, no, you don't. No, no, I don't. But I knew this guy and they got it on.

No, they didn't. No, they didn't. Just watch Billy Madison if you haven't seen it. All right, you go to L.A. How much money do you have? Not a lot of money. Nothing. not even uh not even where are you going to live i rented a uh an apartment that i found online

and back then it was like kind of weird to do that i've never i'm trying to think i think it was in i think it was west l.a somewhere off of sepulvita maybe somewhere over there right and then um did you have a roommate no you just had a little apartment you stayed in yeah you remember what the rent was god probably 900 or something what year is this is this 2005 oh this oh this five oh this this is recently no I mean I moved to LA 98 or man we know this is 2002 this is 2002 maybe right no this is like 2000 maybe I don't even know 2000 incentive of moving out other than yeah I want to be an actor but did you have any I had no friends I had no prospects I had no idea how to be an actor I had no idea how to get an agent I had no idea how to do anything I just

knew that I was I knew that I knew how to get a job at a restaurant waiting tables like I could support myself where'd you work I worked at a restaurant called remi that no longer exists It was on the 3rd Street Promenade. I worked out a restaurant called Monsoon on the 3rd Street Promenade. I don't know if that. Is it still there? I think Monsoon's still there.

I worked at a place called Barefoot that doesn't exist anymore. I worked at a place called Le Petit Bistro, which is on La Siena, I think. And you just kept going around making money. Worked at the Avalon Hotel. Did you have headshots? I think I had really shitty headshots

from like some silly thing that I did in Chicago. Would you love to see it now? No. You don't? No, no. No, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, I don't need to see that. You don't need to see that.

One of my original headshots, I think I look dirty. Like, filthy. Yeah, like, there's something, like, why didn't he shower before his photo shoot? Like, he's really greasy. No, I think I look clean in that one. No, you look good in that shot. Yeah, that looks like I shampooed my hair. Good job, Rob.

That's a, that's a nice shot. You're almost like, yeah, you look, yeah. The nude ones on there are not me, by the way. Are you? I had to tell it. I had to explain that to my mother. She was like, why do you have a rock hard dick? I'm like, mom, mom.

She's like, why would you do that on vacation? I'm like, mom, that's not me. Why would you? You're sitting there just looking into the camera where they just, right? They do that to everybody. But that's not, yeah. It's like, wait, you can't get away from it. That should be illegal.

The second you do that, your computer crashes. That's right. That's right. What are these pictures, Rob? What would you do if there was a big fake dick on you? I don't know. It's not fun. You're, thank God, my parents don't go through that and go, oh, my God, my son's doing porn.

So did you start dating the girl, girls then? I guess I got this job on a soap opera called Passions. That's correct. Yeah, and that's where I met Lindsay, my ex-wife. Who I met on Smallville. Who you met, yeah. Right. And we had Isabella, my daughter, who, like I said, is now 13.

I like her you're just fast forwarding. Yeah, I'm telling you. This is Cliff Notes here. I'm telling you the good parts. I met this girl, married her, I had a kid. Yeah. Yep. I'm telling you the good parts.

Right. The good parts. You met on passion, so you're working on a soap opera. probably this has got to be a difficult thing coming from like carbondale and children's literature and all the other acting classes but now you're memorizing listen i want to say something dude it's legit you've done a lot of soaps yeah and i admire the fuck out of you and people who do that because i couldn't do it the lines you have to learn in a night what's the most i know you're going to say something shocking what's the most lines you've ever had to to learn in a in a night

i bet 25 pages i think 63 in one day once 63 pages Yeah How do they I'd say guys I'd say guys Get the proctor I mean I don't remember a word of it

You just you'll figure it out You figure it out Plus you're playing this character Every day It's the same character You kind of know what you're gonna say As you're reading it You know what

So you could just read it And then be done Are you pick learner You learn lines fast? Yeah I used to be really quick I used to be really fast Because you get

It's like working out right So when you start doing Exercises whatever they might be You get better at them You get stronger You can lift more weight blah blah blah yada yada and um it's the same thing with this you first get your you get your eight pages or

whatever and you're like oh my god i can't like this is impossible and the next thing you know you're doing 20 and it's like no big deal now do you not even care what they give you you could learn it you're not even worried oh or do you sometimes help i hope there's no lines today or one line or four well that's the worst when you have no lines or one line or four and you're because then you got to really listen to say the line in between you have to it's hard you have to it's you're not really doing much so you're you're like when you're talking you're doing something right And when you're not talking, you're listening, which is harder than talking. Tell me about it.

Yeah. What are you making on a show of passions? What would you make a week? A couple thousand dollars? I'm trying to think. I think, let's see, I would probably make, uh, you know, it depends. It's not a ton of money, right? No, I mean, it's like, you know, at the time, it was like if you're working a lot,

you could make, you know, 15, 10, 15,000 a week. Wow. That's a lot. If you're not working a lot, you could make, uh, two thousand a week or something. I don't know. Were you stressed? Would you put a lot of pressure on yourself? Or were you just like,

yeah, this is great. I remember signing a three-year contract. And I remember I was working at this restaurant. My waiter friends were also actors. But they were like, quote-unquote, serious actors. And how old were you? 20, was I, 22, 23, 24, something like that. Wow.

Yeah. And I remember some of them being like, you're going to go do a soap? What are you doing a soap for, dude? Wait, the guys at the restaurant? Some of them, yeah. Yeah, why aren't we like, so I don't have to flip,

Right. What do you mean? Like that's the whole point, right? So I signed, I signed a three-year contract. And I remember, like, at the end of the second year, I remember thinking, I'm going to finish my contract and I'm going to get out. Get out. Not because I hated it, because I wanted to do other things. Right, of course. And that's when, I guess, I think Smallville happened right after that. No, it was Aquaman and then Smallville. That's how it went. So, wait, so you left Passions after two seasons? After three. I finished my contract. You did finish your contract. And you met your ex-wife, Lynn. She fell in love. It was amazing. She got pregnant fast. Yeah. I mean, it takes like nine months to have the baby. Were you wearing protection or were you trying to make this or was it just it kind of happened? You're like, hey, let's do this. Yeah, I mean, I think when she got pregnant, we were not married. But I was excited about it. I remember us both being excited. A little overwhelmed. Like, oh, this is life changing. But excited and, you know, wanting to do this and wanting to be together. And it was wonderful. And so how long were you dating before she got the? You know, I'm not quite sure six months a year or something like that not not that it was no no not that long not that so I met you pretty much right after as this was all happening no no no probably um three years after that how old was Bella I mean I don't remember was she like three or four she was tiny she's a little thing we've known each other for what 10 years now 10 years 10 12 years yeah yeah so and you just done the Aquaman pilot yeah and that did not get picked up right which it was kind of devastating but at the time but now I'm like thank God was it really devastating yeah I I didn't know anything about that. I thought when you got it, I didn't understand. I thought when I got the pilot and it was, remember at the time, it was like the, it was like the one to get. Yeah. It was Al Goff, Miles Miller, it was perfect. It was all lined up. Right. Glenn Winter came and shot that for you. This is going to be, I don't think he did. Did he not do that? I don't think he did. Okay. But I was like, this is going to be, basically, this is this huge thing they have called Smallville,

and this is just another version of that in the water. And it's going to be just as big as Smallville. It's going to be awesome. So that was before Smallville. That was before. So they liked you enough to say hey yeah and that brought you in a little bit later you know i was supposed to be on smallville for i think six episodes i think was my entire arc that was it how many did you do i don't know how many did i do like did i do like did i do like seven heartly did i like seven 50 did you do that no maybe 30 and i hope they didn't pay you guest star you got did you get bumped up yeah yeah of course you were series regular yeah for a couple years yeah maybe i did 50 40 i don't know i don't know how many i did I mean, that's, wow.

Yeah. You only did a hundred less than I did, and I was there seven years. I was there. 72 episodes? 72 episodes. Look at that, yeah. See, you had the cake job, really, because, you know, you weren't in every scene. Right.

So you just came in, you've had fun. Had fun, told jokes. Yeah, ate some money. Yeah. For the suit. Whatever. I remember, do you remember that? Do you remember your incident where you came in, you would come in and do that?

Tom's doing this scene where he's got to, like, rip something apart and use super strength or something. Wow, that's shocking. So everyone's quiet. Yeah. Michael. comes in with me. We're in the next scene. You and I are in the next scene. So we're watching the end of this, like his close-ups or something. And they've got this gag where it looks like metal breaks. They've only got like three of them. And like we got to get it right. And all of a sudden

it's really quiet. And all of a sudden, all you hear is Michael looks at me and he goes, Justin. And I was like quiet. And he's like, I've got gas. And I was like, okay, whatever. And we're like at Video Village, like watching him. And all of a sudden you just hear, I look over it Michael's like dying laughing Like I am now Who was it was it? Did Wellington say anything like

Rosentball? No someone said Who was it to said That was a $40,000 fart Michael It's probably Marshall Yeah maybe it was yeah Do you remember a lot of fun times on Smallville? I had a great time

Did you? I had the rest of the cast treat you When you first came on Great Being a guest star is the hardest thing in the world Easily Easily And you probably get there, and you're a little nervous.

Like, oh, my God, I'm stepping into their world and you fit right in. Well, especially, thank you. But especially when you come onto a show like Smallville, where you guys have been working for like five years together already now. Right? So you guys are like family. Yeah. And now everything is, now you're supposed to be interested in this new character that's like, hasn't, like, what's this all about? Do you enjoy making out on film?

No, I mean, it's neither here nor there, right? It's work. Have you ever dealt with bad breath? Personally? Not you, but you're kissing someone like, what do I do now? I don't know. I don't think so. Like someone had a vegetarian shake?

I don't think so because I, because I, uh, I usually, uh, I'll usually, uh, I'll usually I'll usually, uh, I'll usually be like, let's do, let's do some gum because I just had some coffee and I don't want to, you know, whatever. So why don't you have some gum to? Or some gasoline. Or some gasoline. Right. Let's, uh, just somehow, uh, just drink this.

Yeah, that, uh, it happens. It's a very hard thing to do, especially when you're in an intimate scene and you want to be respectful, but you have to say, you know, maybe you slip the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the makeup artist. You say, hey, uh, could you give her, uh, shot of gasoline? Yeah, some, uh, something. Or maybe she, they say it to you. Right. Michael, why don't you have a few more mints? Yeah. You know, I've, I've, I have heard of, how about this one? It's like, would you like a mint? And the person's like, no, no, no, you know you're not. I actually did that once. I was, I was seeing a girl and, um, we kissed and I really thought

she was great. And then I was like, her breath wasn't great. Okay. So I said, Would you like a mint? She's like, no, I'm good. You want some gum? No. And then later I go, hey, let's go brush our teeth. I think she got it then. Hey, let's go brush our teeth.

I like to add a little humor to things. You know, things don't always smell great. We're human beings. We have gas. Things happen. My ex-girlfriend, you know, used to like when she'd get really sleepy, her body would relax. It was like the end of a balloon. Just like, and it was just natural.

I didn't like it. No. But it happens. Sure. I fart. Double standard, man. You still do that, yeah. You fart in front of your wife, Rob?

Not really. Does she fart in front of you? Not really. Really, you don't do any of that. Do you close the door when you're taking a poop? Yeah, we go to the bathroom or the door closed. What about you? No, door closed and like that.

See, I like to know, I don't want to miss anything. I'm like, hey, what are you doing? I'm still watching TV. Can you not talk to me? You know, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I'm a bit of a child when it comes to that stuff. Okay, so you go to some. Mallville. By the way, you know, do you remember my, I promised a shout out, my friend Troy Rudolph. He was

your standard for three years. He loved working with. He said, you're the nicest guy in the world next to me. He's great. And were you upset about the, he asked us to, was, were you upset that they, for the series of the arrow, they didn't ask you? No. Did they even bring it to your attention? It's like for me with the movies, with Tom and I, right? They never asked us to audition for Lex or Superman. So, I mean, I don't think I was upset. I was just like, it would have been nice to be asked to read. They never even asked to read. Not even a rate, ever. Right, right, right. While I was on the show, while I was on Smallville, there was like several different

spin-off ideas that they had. They wanted to do a spinoff of, called Metropolis or something. I heard whispers of that, which was like Lois and Oliver in Metropolis and whatever that was. They were trying to extend the life of the show, I think, right? I mean, the show made, you know, a hundred a billion dollars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. You still getting residuals?

Yeah, but they're... I don't get much. They're not. No. everybody thinks you're like we're part of the Seinfeld deal where you know all of a sudden you're making millions of dollars i'm telling you i don't think i've seen a check in five years maybe they're maybe they're stocked up somewhere because you definitely should be getting some are you getting some yeah dude maybe i'm getting yours what the fuck oliver queens fucking stealing lex's money here he needs the money i'm gonna have to look into it i got kids man yeah that's true you do um wait kids i have one kid but i feel like when you have a kid there's like a it's like a fraternity right like when you have a kid you're in the you're in the club you're like i got kids i got kids i got it. Like when someone goes, you have kids? I got kids. I get it. You can't say I got kid. I got kid. It just doesn't flow, right? Yeah. Yeah. I guess I could say I have a daughter. I have a daughter, Isabella. Or a kid. I have a kid. Do you say that? Do you say we have kids?

We get it. I mean, I think it depends on the context. If I'm saying it, right, I have a kid. How do you deal with going through a divorce? You saw your parents do it, but it didn't really affect you. I remember seeing you and you had already met. Crischel? Chrisel. I always Fuck that name. That's okay. It's not a simple name. It's not a simple name. I remember you met it and you look so happy, but I didn't really know about the sort of like, right.

I don't, and, and we had a brief conversation at Nathan Phyllian's birthday party, which I met Barbara Streisand. Amazing. And I went up to her and I said, my mother loves you and I love you and she hugged me. She thought she knew me. And I was like, fuck, man. This is awesome. Oh, she thought she knew. Babs, not the point of the story.

Right. But I remember you saying, yeah, this happened and this happened. What was it like going through what you went through? And is that hardest? That one, for me, was the opposite of when I was a child. That one was devastating. That was, it was scary. It was like, especially when you have.

Come out of the blue? Yeah. For me, it did. Yeah, it did for me. Like a punch to the face. Yeah. It was, I, completely. Yeah, I was, now, now looking back on it, it shouldn't have been, you know.

Why? Well, I mean, I think when you're, you know, when you're in something, you, you kind of have blinders on sometimes and you only see what you want to a sea, right? Because what's on the other side of that is so devastating in some place you don't want to be that you kind of block it out. I think people do that. I know I do. Right. And you're very forgiving. Yeah. Or maybe not. Maybe you have to be. You have to be. Otherwise, you carry things with you. And you have a child. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing, too. That was the frightening thing was like at the end of this, I don't get to live with my daughter all the time. Like, what is that all about? That's fucked up. I'm getting punished for that. Right. Is that how you felt? Yeah.

Yeah, I did at the time, and I was angry, and I went through all of the stuff. And maybe that's why I'm calm now is because maybe I think I punched all of my anger, like, mad tickets. So you were angry? Oh, of course, and hurt and devastated and heartbroken. And it's awful. It's no fun at all. And you're dealing with somebody who you once were in love with, and now they're like, the enemy. Like, really?

It's the weirdest thing, man. It's weird. And it's really out of the blue, isn't it? Yeah. Like, you didn't see it coming. And then once you had time to really go back and think about it, I should have seen that. I should have seen that. Is that what sort of happened?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. And how long did it take for you to get over this? Did you have to go to therapy? Did you have to take? Didn't get on antidepressants. I go to therapy all the time. I think everybody should.

That's how I feel you. I think you make time for it. It's ridiculous if you don't. I'm not saying you got to go. Yeah, he definitely needs to go. You don't go to therapy. Rob. You definitely, like, you don't need to be going every day, every week, whatever.

But you got to check in every once in a while. And, you know, like they say, kick the tires and make sure the fluids are where it should be. Love the show, Justin. What's your problem today? just checking in here? That's right. Yes, doctor, everything's fine. So, oh, great, they're $300.

Thank you. But at least you feel better by yourself, you know? Yeah. I feel like you can handle things going forward. So how long did it take to get over this? To sort of like say, I'm done with this. I'm feel, do you really go through all those like things? You really go through the anger, you throw the crying, the, I mean, were you just,

did you, did you reach out to help from some people? Yeah, you know, I mean, it's basically like everyone's gone through a breakup, right, that you didn't want to happen. Yeah. or maybe that you knew maybe that you knew had to happen even though you kind of you knew that it was for the best

maybe even if you break up with someone and you know God I really like this person but this is what needs to happen right now and it sucks so yeah it takes it takes a long time it takes what it takes Was there any chance

that you consider getting back at some point where you're like hey and then you couldn't or you're like absolutely cut like we're not doing this No, I think at the very beginning, you, you know, you try to do everything that you can, especially when you have a kid. See what I did there?

Nice. Well, because you're doing things for other people. You're not just living for yourself, right? You try to exhaust every single option to stay together. Sure. I mean, I think most people do that. Yeah. And then there are just certain things that you can't get over.

You know, there are certain things where you're like, this is not going to work. And then I'm like that. I think if, for me. But you try. I feel like I don't know maybe it's a cancer in me maybe it's the not I don't have cancer I meant the cancer the sign sure if you believe in that shit I feel like I'm giving and I'm honest and I'm loving and if someone fucks me over or lies to me or I just I'm done you're not designed I'm not designed like I have such a big heart that I give everybody so much love and whatever

and I could be a pain in the ass or whatever but it's always honesty but you're an honest guy And there's not, and there's just like, I don't need anything from you except truth and love. Right. And if you just, as long as you do that, we'll be, we'll know each other forever. Right. And I feel like that's, that's how I am. Yeah, I'm a lot like that too. You look and be like, yeah. No. No, I'm a lot like that too. And, and, um, the, but the, to, the complication is if there's a third party involved. Absolutely. That's the complication. So, yeah, so you, you exhaust all of that stuff. And thankfully now, I mean, it's been so long, but thankfully now we're, like, Lindsay and I are, like, like, Lindsay and I are, We're like friends. We're fine. I mean, I see her, you know, she's, my daughter's with me half the time. She's with Lindsay half the time. And we talk. Is that weird? Like, her and Chrisel, uh, they're fine. They're fine. Yeah. They don't go hang out. They don't go hang out. They don't go. They don't go. They don't know. Like, hey, let's go up lunch. No. No. I don't know if I would be into that. I mean, I'll be okay with that. I'm like, whatever. I mean, I don't know why you, what are you doing? Like, what's going on there? What is this about? Yeah. Why wasn't I invited? I don't understand. When did you make Chrisel? I met her. Let's see. We have been. Gosh, it was like five years ago?

Yeah, a long time ago. Five years ago, you met, where'd you meet? We met at, and again, it doesn't exist anymore. Remember the House of Blues on... Of course. On sunset, yeah. So my buddy calls me, and he's like, well, he's like, well, Cichelle's here. I'd inquired about her a couple of times.

She's gorgeous, by the way. Oh, my God. So sweet. So sweet. So nice. Yeah, just, I don't know if she's pretty or on the inside or outside. She's just, it's amazing. That's awesome.

Yeah. So he's like, she's here. And I was on revenge at the time. And I remember I had a call time, like a ridiculously early call time to be all the way in, like, Newport Beach or something. For a second, you were talking about, I'm going to get back at Lindsay. I'm on revenge. I'm on revenge. Okay, the show revenge.

Yeah, yeah, the show revenge. And so I had to leave, gosh, I think I was like, okay, if I can leave my apartment by like four o'clock in the morning, I can get there on time. And it was like 10 o'clock at night the night before. My friend calls me, he's like, Chrisel's here. And I'm like, all right, jump in the shower. And I'm there. I'm kind of hanging out with them. You were thinking about her.

Oh, she's great. And from that, did you kiss her that night? No, no, no. And I think after our, I thought we should. I thought we could. We were hanging out for like hours and we were getting a lot of green. You didn't want to push it. No, of course not.

But I thought, hey, this is going great. I didn't push it like aggressively. I meant, but just like, you know, yeah. Yeah. And then I think like the next day I woke up and thought, I'll probably wait a day to call. I don't know. Games. Don't know what the rule is.

And I thought, you know what, fuck that. I'm not playing any games. No rules. Did you even say that? Sometimes I will say, I don't want games. Let's just see each other. If it works out, it works out. Let's go.

Let's go. Yeah. I don't do that voice, though. No, because then they're like, I'm done here. Scraping. I don't want that. Do you remember kissing her the first time and feeling what people describe as butterflies, which is like a myth, but I have felt butterflies before?

Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever had that? I absolutely have. And it's something. Yeah, no, he has with his wife. Of course. Have you really got butterflies, Rob?

You really felt like in your mind. Like you're floating? Not too. high. Yeah. Just barely. Yeah, like your body's almost numb, not in anxiety way, but the opposite. Like, it doesn't weigh anything. Oh my God. I just couldn't be more, I couldn't be happier. This is like the first time I saw a Disney movie as a child. Yeah, exactly like that. Thank you. Exactly. Did you feel that? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, um, for sure, uh, there was a connection. It was great. Did she feel that? No. She didn't. No, she felt nothing. No, I'm kidding. Oh my God.

Yeah. No, she did. Yeah, we've talked about it. She's, she's like, oh, it's, and that's the thing, too, is you just, you just, you just, you hope that this person that you've hung out with that you have so much in common with that you enjoy being around is not like a terrible, sloppy, awful kisser. You know what I mean? Yeah, I've had that where you're like, oh, that's such a great night.

And you're like, why are you eating my face off? There's no reason. Where did you learn to kiss? What the hell is that? I actually one time, and I'm not saying I'm the greatest kiss in the world, but I actually one time, I'm older now. I'm 45, 46, I have experiences.

Which one are you? What? 46, why? I'll be 46 in July. Okay, got it. But I remember, you know, and I like this girl and I remember her kissing

was like almost like what you'd imagine Jabba the Hut to kiss her and I said to her left like residual and everything and I just said I'm gonna tell her this is first

this is kiss one this is kiss one okay and I just go hey just just a easier easy slow slow down just a little bit

just not so much yeah just kind of I was trying to direct the scene and I was just trying to help out move the scene like you know like I wanted it like

hey this is how I like it And I felt like She's like well That's not how I like to kiss Okay And that was fine That was it

I wonder if that can be taught Though Kissing Can you teach that really I don't know Yeah sure you can You think so Yeah

I'm like yeah Sure I guess you can You become better at it I bet Natalie's told you Rob slow down Your tongue's all over the place You fucking frog

Nope Never Never No She's like Oh yeah Your tongue's like Bubblegum

Do you think I'm that aggressive I didn't say you're aggressive I just said Nothing? There's no direction. I like what you're doing. Keep doing it. Give my ear a swirly.

We're fine here. Give my ear a swirly. Oh my God. What time is it? I think we're doing so good. Oh, yeah, we're doing great. Listen, isn't this fun? It's great.

I love it here. I love the fact that you do it here that it's very much you. You got a great personality. It's kind of like letting people inside of you a little bit. That's exactly what it is. Justin, it is. It's become therapeutic for me.

I need the therapy. I feel like people who are listening. They like hearing, you know, real people or people on TV and movies. Like, they like to hear, as much as they love to hear all the great things are happening, they love to hear that you went through some shit. Of course. It's not that they want you to go through shit, but I feel like they want to know that you're not superhuman. No, that you're, that you can relate to people that are going through things. Yeah, of course.

Yeah. Your parents went through a divorce. You survived. You went through a divorce. It was awful. was the worst thing, then you, and it shows that you got back on track. Yeah. And you went, what's funny is, you went back to another soap opera.

Yeah. Just recently. And no one does, a couple years ago. Yeah, and they're like, no one does that. And everyone was saying, what are you doing? I don't understand what, and why would you do that? Again, they're telling you that. Again, they're telling.

And I, my whole thing is this, Michael, I always said this, like, actors should act, right? Yeah. And I don't care what time it's on TV, if it's on at 9 o'clock p.m. I don't care if it's a character that I'm interested in, I don't care. If it's a character that I'm interested, in playing and I get a chance to act. I love it. And like it's sort of therapeutic for me as well

jumping into another sort of person and playing these different characters. And you've done it before you know you could do it. Yeah. And you want to make some money. You have a child? Well, I was home and it was shot in L.A. I was sick of traveling everywhere. No contract? Yeah, I did. I think I signed a two-year contract. And then

did you have any regrets? No. I mean, I think no regrets. What was that called? I think I was called Young and the Restless. I love Young and the restless yeah i was a days of our lives fan were you rob i didn't watch me off okay so young and the restless i got you yeah and um i got to work with some you know pretty amazing soap vets eric bradens over there you know nice to you great great you kind of have to earn their respect at first a little bit and then i think they look you up and they go he's he's done this before so okay

is it kind of like it's like a little click it's like the theater click but there's a lot of that click it's like there's always that little like prove yourself yeah i even did that i don't think he did it on purpose but i worked with bill fickner in this movie the neighbor that's on iTunes but i remember i was like oh my god because he's a real actor and he's great and i felt like he was sort of uh you know testing me in a little bit and i was like he was like you're good okay and then he would invite me to his house and we were cool and that's the trust but i felt like and i liked it i liked that he was like a veteran who was kind of like going hey man are you here to fucking work right you are but now we could play right and it was just kind of like i i like

I like Bill. It was a chance for me to live in L.A., like you said, make money. Because there is a piece of this that is working for money, right? I mean, you'll have bills. I hope so. Right now we're not on this podcast, but we're hoping to. Oh, you don't pay for this. I don't get paid for this.

Oh, no, you don't get paid for this. Oh, okay. In fact, we don't get paid for this, but we could. Oh, I had no idea that I didn't. People listen to it, right, Rob? Yeah. That's the goal. We want people to listen.

We have fun, but eventually if you're like going, hey, you know, I want to make some money. Yeah, but so here we're just doing one of those two things. Well, for the time being. Maybe by the time this air, Rob and I will go out for some Hardee's. You had Hardee's in Carvindale. Yeah, we did. Some in and out. Some in and out.

That's too long of a wait. Yeah. But boy, a juicy burger, though. I like those in an ounce. There you go. The old in and out. Mowing the lawn and you old in and out. So, bam.

Let me tell you something. You just said about soap operas and then they were like, you're doing a soap opera, and then you go back. And they're like, why are you doing it? This isn't how it works, and you do Smallville, and you do a failed pilot, and then you do this. Like, I could tell you about my failures, but here's what the best story ever is you get on the biggest show in history. Yeah. Or one of the biggest shows on TV, period. It's crazy.

And I remember the first thing, like, look, you go through stages when you're younger. You know, you're like, fuck, that guy's working again. And then you start going, hey, this is such a hard business. Good for him, good for her, good for whatever. With you, I always wanted happiness and success. I knew you were good, I acted with you, I did scenes with you, you had charisma personality, you were a good actor, you were great to work with, I'm like, fuck yeah, what a great thing to hit. Thanks, man. And you never know, man, because I've done NBC pilots and other CBS. You never know. You never know, man. You could read something that is amazing. You read it, you're like, this is really great. And then for whatever reason. You get fired. Or, well, that's never, you got, you got. Oh, that's a lot of fun. I mean, it wasn't, the show never even got picked up. So, okay, who cares.

But it still bothered me a little bit. But I'm just saying, like, when you're done with the product, like, say you shoot the pilot. And I've had, I mean, you can probably look it up over there. I've had six or seven or eight pilots that never went, something like that. 12? 12? No, no. And it's like, it's like, it's like in your head?

Totally. And it's like, for whatever reason, something that I read that was really great. And then when I watched it, it just didn't translate. It wasn't the acting. It wasn't the directing. I don't know what it was. It's everything. It's everything.

It's everything. But it's got to be perfect to sort of live. in success in this business. It's got to be not just the acting, not just the cinematography, not just the producing, and the writing and the network and whatever it is. It's got to be perfect.

I mean, there's a lot of shitty shows on TV. And God bless those shows, and I've been on shitty shows, and it's great to work, and I hate to call them shitty, but I'm just saying shows that, not shitty, but shows that I'm like, gosh, I wish this was better.

I wish this was better because this could be really special. Again, you have to also be in the moment and say, it's special now. Let's make it a special as we can. Can, could you had no idea this is us is going to be a smash hit? So here's what happened. I'm on Young and the rest of us, and my buddy calls me, my buddy Michael Rady.

Do you know Michael? I don't. He's awesome. Awesome guy. You should have him on the show. He's great. He goes, do you know Dan Fogelman? And I go, yeah.

And he goes, how long have you known Dan Fogelman? I said, I don't know of him. I don't know him personally. I met Dan Fogelman, too, on two pilots. He's fantastic. Great, great. Genius. Genius.

And he goes, okay. He goes, I think he just wrote you. And I go, wait, what are you talking about? He goes, I just read this pilot. I think at the time it was called Untitled Dan Fogelman Project. I think that's what it was called. I think he wrote you.

Yeah. What does that mean? What does that mean? He goes, I'm going to send you this pilot. I just read, like, I think, I thought he knew you because you're in here. You're in it. So I'm reading the pilot. He sends me, I'm reading the pilot.

And I get to the very first part of it is Jack and Rebecca. And I'm seeing Jack and he's doing like the terrible towel thing and the cupcake and they're this great couple and he's got a sense of humor and he loves his wife. And I was like, oh, my God, that's me. This is awesome The scene between Mandy Moore and Milo And I'm like I could do this This is great

This absolutely is me And then I got a little bit further along And I think at the end of act one I forget when it was The end of the teaser I don't really remember When they introduced the Kevin character But as soon as

And then I read like two I was like the intro of like Where he was and what he was doing And I was like oh shit well that's me Like I've been there Like that's the guy I remember reading that pilot And I got to the end of it

And I remember thinking to myself If we can do I didn't know it was going to be as big as it is because, like I said, I don't think you can predict that. But I do remember thinking, man, if we can somehow, first of all, I have to get this job. Secondly, if we can take this script and be half as good, it's going to be phenomenal. I love that you're thinking about this before you even have the role. I'm just thinking, well, I'll get the roll. And then afterwards, God, I hope this could be good. You're like, all right, I'm going to get this. But, uh, I was hope,

I was hoping. I know, I know, of course. When you first saw the pilot. Yeah. What was the first response that you got that you felt like, oh, this is going to be big? The first response that I got that it was going to be big. Your agent called you and said, Marsha Yaki just called and said you blow it out of the fucking water. I think what it was, we got a phone call from all of our producers,

and I think from Dan. And they were like, we're going to have a screening. Bring your significant other if you want. And right then I was like, oh, then it's good. Because you wouldn't, I've done so many pilots. where nobody invited him to do a screening, you know, because it's like they don't want anybody to see it. Yeah, there will be no screening for the show.

Ever. There will be no screen. Yeah, I've been there. Yeah. And again, I didn't know that either. It was the first time that someone had been like, do you want to come over for a screening? We're going to cater it. We're going to have a party. We're going to do this. And I remember watching it. And the first sort of thing that I thought when I saw the first, like, three seconds of the show, the three minutes of the show was relief. Because this is good. This is good. And it's as good as I thought it could be. I could have a job for a while. Yeah. And it's as good. And it's a character I want to. play and it's stories that need to be told and it's real people yeah it's things that deals with

racism it deals with everything you can imagine yeah hardship uh approval from your father like being alone body i always remember the the scene on the football field and i thought i think gosh man that had to be a tough tough scene for you that was a tough one yeah i mean that's probably uh they probably shot that in like eight hours 10 hours i don't know how long we were it's cold i don't know how long we were out there emotional and you were drunk yeah and you were going through all these memories and it's this long monologue and they shot the shit out of it yeah and you're like oh my god you just wanted to be good yeah those moments that watching that scene was also relief because they they're these wonderful writers they're fantastic they're the best in the business they get together

they tell these important wonderful stories and then they they give you this baby this beautiful baby and then you got to take care of it and if something goes wrong with it it's your fault has it ever gone wrong have you ever just misinterpreted and just like i i didn't i didn't nail that one I was okay today In my career, yeah In the show Have you ever left going I'm so sorry

But you can't say I'm so sorry You just leave and go Fuck I wasn't great I was good Or I was okay Yeah I hate that

I hate that Where was my confidence Why don't I have the confidence How bad is this When you get in the car And you're on your way home And then It dawns on you

What the scene was about Oh my God I was talking about my sister That would change everything Exactly And you can't go back and do it, and you're like, oh, what an idiot. But it's the way it works sometimes, right?

Yeah. I hope not, but it happens. I mean, that's just got to be, I mean, is it overwhelming? Are you asked to do so many things? Because I knew, because, you know, we're buddies, and I knew, like, I've been asking you to do this forever. Yeah. And I knew that it was really hard for it.

I was like, and I always give you shit, because that's me. That's what you do. I give you shit all the time. But you're like, you know, you got to press. You got to go to New York. You've got to do this. You've got a kid. You're married.

You got the ex-wife who your wife's having lunch with. doesn't happen but you just got to have you seen this as us rob no thank you rob are you serious let me tell you if you want to cry not only tears from your eyes but penis tears what are penis tears it's just when your penis cries no i think that's syphilis or something isn't it's kidding okay maybe that is syphilis it is it's an emotional roller coaster and uh i i don't know who doesn't cry when they watch the show and it's just poignant and it's like you know the scene with you and your brother on the street. Yeah.

It's just, it's so real and visceral and you tackle each other and then the, well, I, so anyway, it's a brilliant show. It really is. And we're having a blast doing it. And did they already pick it up for another season? Yeah. So we're good for next year. And that's the third?

That'll be the third. Right. And then, um, 22 a year? We do 18. Think, that's a lot of episodes. It's a lot, but you know what? It's not, I think, I feel like Smallville was, do we do 16? 22.

We do 18. We do 22 on small. That was, and they were, that was a long season. And Vancouver and 14 to 16 hour days. You and I would go home every weekend, and back to L.A. Yeah. Every weekend. Yeah.

It varies, but like a typical day for you, on average. Yeah, gosh, man, these people I work with, they're ballers, dude. Like, they literally, in and out, 12-hour days? Not even. I bet you we shoot maybe 10-hour days. Are you serious? Sometimes they're 12. Yeah.

People know what they're doing. People come prepared. Everybody knows what they're doing. It's great. Who are you closest with? Cast-wise? Yeah. Hmm.

You know. I know you love Sterling. I love Sterling. You guys tweet each other a lot. Yeah, we're buds. Milo I've known forever He's fantastic Are you gonna give him props

If I want to get some of these guys on the show You'll tell how great it was You want Milo on the show Well I know Milo but yeah I'll just tell me Sterling would be amazing Any of the ladies would be amazing Yeah they're great

I think I'm buddy I don't know if I have a favorite I mean I'm buddies with you like them all I like them all It's really great This has been really a big treat for me Thanks man I hope you've enjoyed it

Yeah it's been fun It's always therapy Like you said you said It is it's therapeutic It is it's therapeutic I gather, I think you're a little superhuman. Not at all. Well, here's what I thought.

I've been holding my breath this entire podcast. Is that weird? Have you really? No. You're going to pass out like you did in the ocean, an Aquaman, just fail. But, you know, it always becomes back to, like, look, if I were your therapist after this session, and then you could become mine and you can tell me, like, I look at you as someone who you face adversity, you always see the light, you always see the good stuff, the

good things. And the way your mind works is healthier than a lot of people. It's certainly healthier than mine. So I'd like your therapist's number. I'd like to give him a shot. I can do that. Is he really good? Obviously. She? Yeah. Or he? Great. Great. And you tell her everything. Yeah, I'm trying to think of the last time I went. I haven't gone in a while. Maybe I'll maybe I need to go. I haven't gone in a while. That's good to just let it out. Yeah, I should go. Damn it. If you, if you were my therapist, what would you say? About you? You could be honest. About you? Everybody knows it. who's listening to the show they listen to it. Yeah, what would you say? What do you think I need

to do differently? Not much. Come on. Well, what bothers you? Oh, a lot of things bother me. Rob could tell you things that bother him. Does Rob bother you? Rob doesn't, we're both sensitive to things. I'll say something, but he won't realize that I'm not saying it to be mean or saying it to be condescending or saying it. I just throw an email. Like, imagine like if every time you had to email your wife, right? You had to say, by the way, I'm just joking here and then you say it now I'm not saying to but we we do that both to each other and I think sometimes we you know he gets a little sensitive I get a little sensitive yeah but you know we both have a mutual respect for each other but you know I know me to a certain point where I'm a little neurotic I got a big heart I'm 45 I haven't had success in marriage I mean I haven't been married okay so you haven't had failure in marriage I haven't had failure but failure maybe is not trying this is not getting married. Maybe that's failure. Do you want to get married? Yeah. If it's the right person and it feels like, I always feel like, you know, do you feel like, do you feel like, do you feel like,

I want to be with someone forever? I don't want to, yeah, I don't understand my pants alone. I understand that. Do you, but you feel incomplete if you don't get married? Is it, do you want to have kids? Is it, but what's the purpose? Like, you know, what am I going to be? Seventy-five years old and alone. Right. That sounds fucking terrible. So why when you find someone, no one's perfect, and I've realized that, I certainly am not. Mm-hmm. You gave it a shot. It didn't work once. You're doing it again.

Yeah. And you're hoping this one lasts forever. Yeah. You know, I think there's something that sometimes you just have to say, go with your gut, give it a shot, see what happens, sign a pre-up, all that shit. I'm going to ask you some questions. This is it. This is going to wrap us up. These are just Twitter.

People were bombed. They just threw tons of questions out, didn't they, Rob? Yeah. Thank you. A man of many words. Let's just see here. Peter Rasputin Ex-Shogun-O

Would he ever do a yes But on the current Arrow If he was asked by the producers of Arrow If it was the right part, yeah You would? Yeah I love interesting characters Yeah, if it was something

that I could get excited about Yeah, of course. Done. Cryptonsite, at Cryptonsite, we all know that one, right? Yeah. We already said something about this where there ever talks

of spinning him off a small-ball, yes, there were. That didn't work out. No, it did not. Kenon Pachy, did either have a certain seeing that it was hard to act out because of personal values or because you didn't believe that your character would ever do what they were supposed to do?

Yeah, I mean, I think that's part of the job is to, that always bugs me when an actor says, my character wouldn't say this. My character wouldn't do this. It's like, well, but it's, yeah, no, it's written. It's written. It's fucking on the page. How about, how about do the work and figure out why you would do it? Thank you. How about do your job? How about, why don't you say something when you read the script two weeks ago? Right. Instead of bringing up on set and wasting every other fucking actor's time. Right. Tanya Jane, I'm hoping Kevin leads down a much better path this time around.

Yeah, me too. Would you say it will be just as emotional next season? I would say it is times 10. It's our biggest. I got sort of the skinny on what's going to happen next season. And it is bigger than the first two seasons combined as far as like emotion. Like what we're doing is huge. More penis tears.

I could feel it. There you go. You should get that checked out. Some of these questions. No, I'm fine. It was a funny thing. Like your penis crying. And so say, uh, Bianca Zamberlini, what was your biggest challenge in doing this as us?

And then by the way, this is us fan crew, hardest emotional episode to play Kevin. So both those biggest challenge and the hardest, because that could be both in the same. Yeah. You know, they're all emotional. They're all, they're, you're, a show like this, you're exhausted when you go home. You're exhausted. You're spent. And I think when you watch the show, the reason why I think people are so drawn to it and so,

um, then they can relate to it so much and they're, and they love it so much is because when we're doing people always say do you do you cry when you watch it and I said like we cry when we're doing it that's not that's not fake right there's no way to like like you can't my whole goal is like if I want someone to believe what I'm doing then I better do it so if I'm doing it there's no way someone can be like I don't believe that really because I'm right because that's what it you're just doing it I mean it you know there's tricks you obviously if you have to shoot someone you can't do it or you can't like strangle someone but you know what I mean like if you're going through an emotional thing why not get there do you watch

yourself you like watching yourself I can do it I don't have reservation. Like, I'm not, I'm not one of those guys that gets freaked out by watching myself. And I'm not, like, going home, you know, after this and, like, watching myself, you know. Do you ever say, you're fucking good in that scene? You're fucking good, bro. Woo! Well, no.

We all have done it. I've been like, yeah. And I've also been like, oh, my God, you look like a fucking dick. Well, that's what happens. Most of the time is you notice, like, you know, it's like. Imperfections. What's your biggest imperfection that you hate about yourself? that you watch like you watch you know it know it but no one else notices it oh god i used to blink a lot

way too much yeah i did that we went through blinking stages like what what is that i don't know if i that's just a nervous thing it's a nervous tick yeah you get over that you get over that um just got to be aware of it i have nervous ticks that i try to get over yeah do it i mean i probably have nervous ticks i'm not even aware of well you've been kicking me for an hour have i was that nervous no you haven't uh this is this is great i mean this is it any plans to write or direct This Is Us because I know you wrote an episode of Smallville. I didn't know that until I read about it. Really? And I didn't know you directed

because we both directed. But yeah. Wow. You got to direct Tom? Yeah. How was that? Good. Was he nice to you? Yeah, Tom was always nice to me. We did this scene and it's tough when you're directing actors that you work with and you're an actor on the show and they are also directors. Yeah. And at that time I think Tom was like a producer. Sure. Right. So I'd done this scene where it was Clark and Oliver and the Watchtower and it was this huge sweeping crane shot and

I got back overs and I shot it from the first shot the world right like if it moved I filmed it right shot everything and Tom said he goes he leans over to me real nice though he goes to it he's like I mean you got every angle like how many more how many more angles are you going to get well I had like three

more right but I had in my head I knew what I wanted and I was like well I have like there's like three more angles three more setups two setups right and um and he's like because I mean you shot and I go I just go, hey, Tom, I was like, we're two hours ahead of schedule. And then you get to go home. And he was like, oh, all right.

Like, I think he's like, that's an actor for you. Yeah, he's like, oh, all right. Yeah, we're ahead of schedule. It's great. That's always funny where you say, it's like, oh, God, I just want a job. I just want a job. You got a job. Oh, great.

When's my first day off? This will be the last one. Things this week. Who is your favorite Muppet, random, but fun to find out? And how many blank tank tops do you own who's your mom a three? How many? How many tank tops do my own? Yeah.

I have three. I have, well, do the rib, do these count? Like the undershirts? I have one on right now. That's a tank top. Okay, 20. You have 20. Probably.

All different colors. But I don't wear tank tops. Right. No, just white. Yeah, you don't go to the gym and go, hey, man. No, undershirt. I wear, undershirt. An undershirt.

Favorite Muppet? Oh, man. Is the Cookie Monster a Muppet? I think so. That is. That would be it then. I mean, I get it. And, uh, Donald Ryan, did you ever miss?

your old pal Rosenbaum when when I left yes I did you were the funniest fucking guy in there I've told you that several times I was like you are used to crack me up dude what if you looked over my shoulder and it was actually me who wrote this question I wouldn't I wouldn't be surprised at all uh this has this been amazing um look I wish you the best of luck I mean your continued success thanks man I'd love to see Isabelle again yeah I'd love to hang out with you and your lady um Rob did you enjoy this one I did I think uh Rob would you say if you didn't what would you say I would have said, yeah, it was good. Oh, you would have said?

Yeah, it was a game. What's your Twitter handle and your Instagram handle? Justin Hartley. And when this comes out, you'll Instagram and tweet it for us? I will Instagram the hell out of it, yeah. It'll be a lot of fun. It'll be a lot of fun. This is great.

I wish you the best, man. Thanks, brother, man. Love you. All right. 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 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.