Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - Heels’ STEPHEN AMELL Setting the Record Straight

Episode Date: August 31, 2021

Good friend of the show Stephen Amell (Arrow, Heels) joins us this week to drop some bombs once again. We not only discuss his brand new show Heels and how he feels about his legacy of being the Arrow, but Stephen also takes time to set the record straight about some recent tabloid stories that have come out about him. We get into Stephen’s current experience with panic attacks and stress, how he handles nerves heading into new projects, and how different this show is with relation to Stephen’s partnership with its direction. 🔥 Bright Cellars: https://www.brightcellars.com/INSIDE for 50% off your first six (6) bottle box of wine! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Light the path to a brighter future with stellar lenses for myopia control. Learn more at SLOR.com. And ask your family eye care professional for SLR Stellist lenses at your child's next visit. you're listening to inside of you with michael rosenbaum ryan is here with me ryan good uh morning afternoon evening whenever you're listening yes i hope you're uh hope you're enjoying the podcast each week and uh hope you're enjoying your week and i really just want to say i appreciate you uh tuning in whether you watch on youtube or whether you listen on stitcher or apple or whatever spotify spread the word write a review it really helps the show we always say that but you know maybe new

listeners are listening because they're listening to stephen emel and we'll get right into to the interview by the way um but uh hey i'll be in atlanta at dragon con this coming weekend and then the following weekend in lexington kentucky at a con and then in west virginia at the end of the month so just look on uh twitter or um all that stuff but uh come see me it'll be fun i'm doing a small little nights with tom welling in in lexington kentucky that's a lot of fun and uh doing one by myself in west virginia on like the 24th or something that weekend also if you want to buy any merch the inside of you online store 10% off all merch the the code is that what you'd say yeah that's a thing you say is Ryan is 10 for 10% off Ryan is 10 Ryan is 10 oh

Ryan R-Y-A-N-I-S-10 like you're years old yeah maybe and then my van Sunspin if you go to sunspin dot com you want any merch 10% off all merch Rob is 10 R-O-R-O-E B-I-S-10. Rob is 10. What are these socials, Ryan? They are at Inside of You pod on Twitter, at Inside of You podcast on Facebook and Instagram. Please follow us.

We love that. And what was the other thing? Oh, Patreon. If you want to join the lovely Patreon family to support the podcast a little bit more, I love that. I'll message you right away or as soon as I can. Just go to patreon.com slash inside of you. P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash inside of you.

We've got a great podcast today. Stephen Amel. He's been on the podcast a few times before. But every time he comes, he gives a surprise. He talks about something else. He brings it. He brings it. I love having this guy in the show. He doesn't live far from me. And he's always a sport. And I just want to say, thanks, Stephen, if you're listening, which I hope you do. It's a really fun interview. I think you guys are going to really enjoy this. And his new show, Heels on Stars. Make sure you watch that. It's a good time. That is. a good time amateur wrestling at its best for sure let's get into stephen amel it's my point of you you're listening to inside of you with michael rosenbaum inside of you inside of you with michael rosenbaum inside of you with michael rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience dude you've been on a few times i'm pumped to have you back Thank you. I mean, you've really run the game.

In a sense that you, you know, you've had, we had a great episode. Then you had an anxiety attack. I did. Which then it was still a great episode. And then you came back and you said you had COVID. I mean, you've been a guest that has like all these surprises. Well, every time you come off. Yeah.

And there's two things that I want to do before we can get into whatever you have. That's true. I don't have anything. Are you ready? Yeah. I want to do this for a long time because I listened to the show. All right. It's my point of view.

You're listening. to inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum Yes, you know, I thought that is beautiful. Thank you. Ryan,

give it up for fucking Mel, Mel, doing it. You know, no one's ever done that. And by the way, do you think I should keep that? Never change it.

Never change it for anybody? Ever. Ever, ever, ever, ever. That's kind of my thing. It's a thing now. It's like the BMW that I saw in the carport

as I was walking in here. It's there. It's the one that has the dust that's clearly been sitting there since my BMW. No, it wasn't, but it was like a three series from 2001, and it's clearly been in that parking spot since 2008. You mean just in front of my house? Yeah.

Yeah. People don't move. They just like parked their cars and then I end up getting them towed because I'm tired of looking at that car. I have done that before. I have a second thing. Yeah, go ahead. You know, please.

Okay. I'm so excited for this. Okay. I got asked to get off a plane leaving Austin, Texas. I heard about that and I was like, you, I know, you texted me. Yes. texted me but like I love that you just see you're unlike any other guest I have a guest like I just interviewed and they're like I don't want to talk about that well you talk about everything

you're an open book and that's why I think it's it's healthy and people like you uh thank you I wanted to have just a slight runway here to be able to talk about this because what happened was and it's very very simple all right uh I had too many drinks and I had too many drinks and I I had too many drinks in a public place. Right. And I got on a plane and the reason that I wanted to talk about it is, and we'll get to it eventually, this will all make sense, is I was pissed off about something else that had nothing to do with Cass, my wife. Right. And I picked a fight.

Just I picked a fight because I wanted to be loud and upset. And it was a fight as in like. it was not an argument in order to have an argument two people have to be right engaged my wife said one thing the entire time which was if you don't lower your voice they're going to ask you to get off the plane that's the only thing that she said the entire time and what are you doing the whole time i was i can't even you know honestly i can't even remember what i was upset about which was indicative of two things a handle your liquor i had too many drinks right and and and b it clearly wasn't important. I was just upset and wanted to be upset. And sure enough, after she said this,

a guy came by and he said, sir, you have to keep your voice down. Please. Just a random guy or a flight attendant? It wasn't a flight attendant. It was the guy that the flight attendant had clearly called. So obviously, Cass was 100% right here. Right. I was being loud. I was probably dropping a few F bombs. I've got the noise cancel. This is not an excuse. I'm not here to make, I'm not here to make excuses because he's a hundred and you're being louder than you but yeah and i don't even want to i don't even want to smile while i'm telling this story because it i'm actually frankly like deeply ashamed of it um but i got asked i was quiet for 10 minutes the guy came back clearly i had made somebody uncomfortable and someone had said something and they just make the decision you got to get

off the plane so i got off the plane i booked on the next flight i went from did you sober up for the next flight? Yeah, I sure did. Why and why? Because I was sitting in row 17 in the middle seat as opposed to, I mean, I wanted to get home. Right. But then I found out that it was going to come out on TMZ. And when I found that out, and the reason I want to bring it up is because I talked about it and in my one thing that I said about it on the internet, I referred to it as an argument between my wife and I and it wasn't it was not an argument it was just you being loud it was me this is a 100% my fault like I I feel like I went the better part of 10 years without you know being an asshole in public I was an asshole in public well she how pissed was cast super pissed and she should

be pissed and she was frankly even more pissed when I said argument as opposed to pick a fight And I sent that tweet at like 4 o'clock of the morning because I woke up to a text from my buddy in Toronto that just said, are you okay? And I went, oh my God. It's out. It's out. And they used this shitty old photo from like seven years ago.

And the whole thing sucks. It's it's really, it's really, really shameful. And it makes you kind of look in the mirror. And I just realized a couple of things. Don't, you know, if people are going to recognize you, you know don't necessarily drink in a public place but more importantly don't drink in a public place if you can't handle your shit but i've never known you to be someone who can't handle their alcohol or gets a little uh out there with it well on occasion that is what happens but i mean don't

do it on a plane you fucking loser and and that was it and you texted me on the on the b side of it so i mean that's it that's the whole story but you know the the the the long tail the b side of it is the fucking phone calls that you have to make apologizing because the story hits and, you know, I've got to call my mom and I've got a call. What happened? What were you doing? Are you okay? Are you okay, buddy? It's like, yes, I'm okay.

Let me ask you this. Did you resist them taking off the plane? No, and that's the scariest part for me. The scariest part is that I was inebriated. I was upset. and it would have been very easy when the gentleman came up and said, you collect your things, let's talk at the top of the entrance way. And I said to him, please do not make me get off this plane.

I was focused in, I was staring out the window. I wasn't going to say a word for the next two and a half hours. And he said, well, collect your things, we'll talk about at the top of the entrance way. And I went. Okay. But you were tempted to be a little bit. Well, what if I, if I just casually, flippantly, not being in, sound mind and body

if I offer like a quick passive fuck off and all of a sudden I'm in I'm in bracelets yeah I might I mean maybe I destroyed my entire life my entire career so I think ultimately very ashamed of it trying to make amends for it

specifically with with my wife but she's forgiving you at this point this has been a while I mean I mean it's a work in it's a work in progress it was it's not the best right I mean you can work through things, but that doesn't mean they didn't happen. What kind of conversations do you have at home? Do you have conversations like Cass saying things like, I don't like seeing you like that?

I don't want to be around that. Well, I mean, not since that point. Right. But I don't know. I just, you know, this is a weird experience that we all live in, where people just sort of give you whatever you want. And occasionally that leads to just not setting a problem. appropriate boundaries in your own in your own life so we're having conversations about that about just

basic stuff and you know it's it's a good thing but i'm it's a good thing that we have those conversations i'm just i'm just happy that i didn't give the tertiary passive fuck off because then i'm in a then i'm in jail in austin yeah then it's bigger than it was well then then like yeah it was bigger than it was to begin with right it's just like can i just fuck up in peace please and like by myself because i see lots of people drunk on planes where i'm like oh my god but that guy's so fucking loud and they're being belligerent you're like oh my god this guy's going to be a problem on the on the plane somebody take this guy off and it makes you uncomfortable i've seen that with a lot i mean a lot of people some people don't like to fly they like to drink their way

through a flight you know people like can i take maybe a little bit as xanax or i used to I don't fuck with that. To kind of chill out. It's been a while, but like, especially in those long flights, I get anxiety, man. I've had anxiety attacks on planes where I'm like, I think I need to tell them to emergency land. I can't fucking do this. I have to talk myself out of it.

I got to listen to some kind of music. And the guy next to me is like, Mike, he's got to be aware of me. So which episode of your podcast do you put on to relax yourself? You know what's funny? I don't. I don't. None of them. do you fall asleep to the sound of your own voice for sure i don't listen to my episodes i don't listen to my

episodes i swear to god on occasion i've listened i'd say out of the 150 that i've done i might have listened to half an episode um i trust ryan and his editing i trust bryce producer and i just i did the interview i had a nice moment with someone i don't feel like i didn't listen to what you well you know what you said as in like you i know what you said yeah i know what i said okay well Hey, if I meandered at all through this, I'm looking at the, looking at Ryan, the producer right now, if I meandered at all through this explanation, just remember, the key points are totally my fault,

fucked up, not a fight, okay? It's probably not an argument. I can cut around the words and make it seem like it. Thank you very much. It's fantastic. If you can make that a cogent thought, I really appreciate it. We're going to get into heels on stars because I just watched it and I really freaking loved it.

But first, you know, it's funny. My first question was because I don't think we ever talked about it was, you know, and it's funny. I wanted to talk to, but you went to school, all school for boys, which started making me think, didn't you learn anything if you just told me this story? This all school for boys, what was it like going to a school for boys? Was it a disciplinary thing with you? No, it wasn't.

My dad went there, school called St. Andrews College. It was in Aurora, Ontario, which is north of Toronto. And we lived in Toronto, but that's about an hour. away, so I boarded. I loved it. I loved it. And couldn't stop meeting girls the second, the second that I went there. Well, how's that possible? It's not a boy's school. I was very handsome as a teenager. You found a way, didn't you? But they weren't disciplinarians. They weren't like very strict at this school. No, that school is the reason that I'm an actor. What do you mean? William Schooler was the drama teacher when I was there. I believe that he is still the

the head of drama at St. Andrews and he would literally go down to the field where the first football team, the varsity football team, practiced and he would grab guys that played football or played soccer or played rugby or played hockey and he would tell them that they needed to be involved in the fall play or the spring play or the drama festival that we put on the spring called focus and he would get i mean what's what's the what's the stereotypical delineation for high schools you have jocks you what geeks uh where do theater people fall uh theater goers theater goers or yeah what would you call theater go festival Fespians, yes. So the cool thing about St. Andrews is that they didn't allow the student body to just specialize.

Want to play hockey? Great. You got to go be a jet in West Side Story. Are you serious? I'm dead serious. Because all I did was play sports. I didn't think about acting for a second. That's got to be terrifying for an athlete or someone who doesn't have any desire to do theater. I think it's terrifying. I think it's terrifying. And I think it promotes. It's a huge amount of growth. It really does. I mean, there are, I mean, I got a buddy Nick Abraham, a buddy Kevin Richards, both prodigious athletes. Kevin played soccer for Notre Dame and I think was probably pretty close to playing nationally for Bermuda. And, oh, my God, I'm going to forget his name for a minute. Who's the villain on West Side Story?

Rico, possibly. Tony? No, no, well, I play Tony. Oh, you play Tony. I play Tony. Oh, the villain. No, did you sing that? Of course I did. You're a singer?

Yeah. And all of that. The most beautiful sound I ever heard, Maria. Yeah. Wow, dude. But that's all because of St. Andrews. In the boarding life, our school day was not 9 o'clock in the morning to 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It was 7 o'clock in the morning from, you know, waking up your housemates for breakfast to class.

to practice or game for the sports team that you're playing for to whatever extracurricular thing you would do. I would have days that would start at 7 o'clock in the morning, wouldn't end until 10 o'clock at night. What was your first play? Inherit the wind. It's based off the, it's a book based off the Scopes Monkey Trial, where they were trying to teach evolution in a southern classroom. Right. And I did it to go to a drama festival in Ottawa, which is the, about five hours away from Toronto, just to meet girls. And William Schooler came up to me, the head of drama, and said, you have great focus.

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Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Rocket Money. So, but wait a minute, the first play you did, were you terrified? Uh, no. I get, I get real nervous before things, but I don't get nervous when I'm actually on stage. What about you? Do you, well, first of all, do you do that still even to this day?

Like when you're shooting heels, you're shooting Arrow, you're shooting a series, whatever, a movie? Do you get nervous gearing up for the role, all the prep? And then once you get on set, it becomes easier? Yes. I get nervous at the beginning of anything. At the beginning of a season. At the beginning of season eight of Arrow, right before that first take. You're nervous, season eight.

I've, I've shit four times that day. I'm that nervous. And does anyone know that besides you? No. You just keep it to yourself. You keep that confidence. You make it. It's a mirage.

Well, no, I don't. I don't keep the confidence. I actually sort of let it, I let it all, I let it all go away. So I guess not everyone knows it, but I will go to the director or our producing director. If I, if I knew that person better. And I'll just say, is this okay? Is this usable? Am I fucking up?

Because I, because I, because I. I need to hear that I need to hear that that that take was good enough You need a little validation Yes, I do I think most actors do I think a lot of actors would be better off If they just fucking admitted that they need it

And went and got it Go get it Do feel better about the next take So if I go to James Bamford Or if I go to Pete Siegel on heels Or if I go to Mike O'Malley, our showrunner on heels, or Glenn Winter or Gord or whoever the director is, I'm conflating shows here. And I'm using first names like everyone knows who I'm talking about. I knew Glenn Winter from Arrow there.

I knew Pete Siegel from heels. Well, you knew from, well, you knew Glenn from small. Some small, of course. But it's like, hey, was that good? Yeah, it was good. But like last season, episode 17 good? or like we're just moving on

to the next shot good no Stephen it was good okay is that all you need yeah I was literally just checking and then do you want to watch the dailies to make sure it was good no no not at all no in the same way that you don't listen to your interviews

no I don't need to watch the dailies you know to watch it you trust I do well I mean if if if they're lying to me they're fucking everyone they're fucking everyone that's absolutely true it's crazy uh you ask me do I get nervous

sure i get nervous from the time like you know director came over uh this week and uh offered me this role in this this little horror movie that i want to do okay and uh you know i could already sense to the nerves and then you know if i do it i'll get nervous and then once i've learned the lines and i feel the part and all of a sudden those nerves will start to go away more and more and once i'm on set and i'm working stuff out they'll just start to dissipate you know what i mean that's kind of how it works but there's been times where i'm in my head and in middle of the scene. I'm nervous and no one knows it, but I'm like, I'm freaking out a little. Have you ever done that? Like in the middle of a scene, you're kind of nerve for some reason. Your nerves are

getting to you? Not really because I, I don't know. I, I, I'm going to use the wrong analogy because I've, because I've expressed those nerves. You know how Ben Stiller jerks off before he goes out with Mary? okay i do remember that to calm the nerves yeah or like or or johnny drama in entourage when he does that as well right but he said he didn't take this fucking mic pack off and they hear um yeah i i've i've i've done that you jerk off i have i have i have mentally jerked off by going up to these people and and asking if things are okay and so that that that allows me to feel free during the scene be it if i if i ever feel nerves coming up i'll just go to people that i trust

and and get affirmation besides affirmation what gets rid of those nerves what keeps your keeps you solid keeps you focus keeps you feeling good about yourself it's super simple did i do the work am i prepared and that includes probably training sure yeah you know when you're ready for stuff right right like you know 150 episodes of this show i'm sure that there's been interviews that you're you know wholly prepared for and ones that kind of come together last minute or that or that frankly you just kind of like wing it like there i mean i'm not i'm not saying that you're not um you're not being those may be some of your best episodes but i mean there's a degree of preparedness and if if i know that i've done the work then let the chips fall where they

me i like that do you do you get tired now that you're on another series of talking about arrow does it is it or is it too soon or do you just like okay well they just want to talk about arrow they just want to talk about this or do you feel like there's kind of a transition now that you or you or do you accept it and you're sort of like this is part of me this is a big show I loved it. It's great. People are going to always ask me about this. And that's something you've kind of come into, just accept.

You remember when the Rangers lost the Stanley Cup final in 2014? Yes, I do. Every moment of it. You remember who scored the goal? When they lost? In game five. That's probably Copa-Tar. No, it was Alec Martinez.

Fuck, really? Yeah. He to Foley came up the right wing, fired a shot. Lundquist kicked out the rebound. It was just fucking yawning cage. I remember seeing it from the seat that I was in at the Staples center and I blacked out and I was hugging people 14 rolls up when I came to do you think that Alec Martinez ever gets tired about talking about that fucking goal that he scored well that's isn't

that different uh I mean for no one really knows Alex Martinez exactly it's Alex Alex Martinez is except for the goal that he scored in that moment I'll tell you some right now there's a lot of play I hear what you're saying okay well what I'm saying is I mean I there are a lot of Kings fans right now he plays for a different team now I still in the league right I mean I mean, every time that he gets asked, even if it's far less than I get asked about Arrow, he gets to relive the fact that he scored an overtime goal at home to win the Stanley Cup. And I'm I'm ready to move on from Arrow.

But the only time that anyone ever brings it up is to talk about what a fucking raging success it was. Right. So. And look, I'm trying to do this because, you know, when we first, I guess when we did would have been our first podcast or our second podcast when I had the when I had the panic attack it's because I was trying to get away from something without properly thinking about how important and impactful and and just immense a role it played in my entire life right I agree I hear you I would I would say the analogy wasn't exactly spot on on that one okay

I think the analogy should have been well but Alex Martinez decided to play baseball baseball and he doesn't want to talk about hockey anymore. That's not a good analogy either, is it? No, but a bit of it, but again, he's, you know, 20 years from now, he's going to be trying to enjoy dinner down to Redondo Beach. Right. Okay. I'm just assuming that's where, like, Hermosa, whatever, that's where all the, all the, all the,

all the boys on the Kings live as a Manhattan Beach. I'm sure, whatever, live on the beach. And, uh, you know, he's going to get interrupted at dinner, but he's going to have to recall that moment where he fucking won the Stanley Cup in overtime. I mean, that's also the biggest. moment of his life if like 25 years from now you know hypothetically because you'll do a lot more but the only thing you've done was arrow and heels which are two great shows uh you know you'd probably i'm probably what calling you up being like ah heels came out 20 years today uh let's you want

you want to you want to you want to be me over to do the fucking podcast he won the stanley cup it's such a memory that you the world will remember at least the whole city of los angeles and i'll forget i forgot it i didn't even remember it because I'm not a big and you can cut this whole analogy from the no the analogies are great we're learning about analogies as we go on all right look I want to get in the heels because okay uh you sent me the screener and I watched it and now I realize how hard you fucking worked on that and I know what a perfectionist you are and I know that you love wrestling so much you've wrestled with major wrestlers from the WWE you've been following it your whole life I can't imagine that it's that easy for you to let things go when you're wrestling on set in scenes and you're doing something and you're like, does that look real? Let me see that. Like, were you, were you so involved in a lot of those sequences, those fight sequences? I was incredibly involved. I wanted to bring on people. I mean, we had Luke Hawks, who's an independent professional wrestler. He was,

says, sensibly like, like on Arrow, we had an archery consultant. He's like the wrestling consultant. But all the backstage stuff, the way that wrestlers would talk to each other, the fact that they communicate with the referees and that the referee is communicating with someone backstage, et cetera, et cetera, like all of that stuff, that's shit that nobody knows because no one from the wrestling world wants to talk about it because it's k-fate, right? which is the title of the first episode, which is the parts of the wrestling world

that you just don't talk to the public about, right? It's like a magician doesn't give away his tricks. And I've been so fortunate to be backstage at a giant WWE pay-per-view, at Monday Night Raw, at an independent show for Ring of Honor, at what looked like a fucking hockey rink in San Antonio or something of the like. and at the biggest independent professional wrestling show ever in Chicago in 2018. And just knowing what it's actually like behind the scenes,

if I ever felt like anything was wrong or anything didn't look right, I would speak up. And the cool part about heels is that Michael Malley, Pete Siegel, who's an EP but directed six of the eight episodes, or Jessica Lowry, who directed three and four, if anyone was ever not sure about anything, I would be consulted. And it was, you like that. I love it.

I love it. I felt like for reasons that I think are obvious because of the place that I was in my career when I accepted this job, I am much more of a partner on heels than I ever was on Arrow. How so? just because of more of the consulting and things like that. Well, think about when you were hired as as Lex on Smallville, right? Do you remember approximately what you made in your first year doing the show? Money? Yeah, money.

We don't need to talk about this specific figure, but I'm sure you remember. Yeah, I remember. Would you have done it for free? For free? Yeah. Like, if you knew, if you could go back and you could look at what Smallville was and what it's done, what it's done and what it did for you, like, When I got Arrow, I know what I got paid in that first year,

but I also know that if Warner Brothers was like, we want $800 paid to us per episode and then we'll start paying you next year. I'm like, okay, right? So you go on to that show as someone that they hired. I came onto heels as a partner. It's not a criticism. It's not a criticism of the prior job. No, it was just a different.

But it's just a different thing. Right. They offered it to me. this show got greenlit because I said yes so you just walk in with a different relationship that makes a lot of sense you're an EP I'm not I'm not an EP I'm not an EP I would I would

I would like to be we haven't formally had those conversations this is not a passive comment I would like to be an EP because I feel like I actually bring I would like to be an EP because I actually feel like I would bring value as as an EP You wouldn't be just an actor with an EP credit. No, no.

You do the hands on. No, I mean, one of, and listen, like, I, I know, I know what I could do as an EP. I don't know what, I mean, we have two wonderful EPs in our show, Julie Yorn and Patrick Walmsley. And the reason that I know that they're good is because everything runs smoothly and I have no fucking idea what they do. So I said to Patrick, I said, like, what do you do? I don't know. I'm serious. and I mean this is like

this is the highest form of compliment because you probably put out fires on a daily basis and he goes, I do and I go, I've never heard about one of them and he goes, that's what I do. Okay. That's a good producer.

You don't want to know about the problems. If you're hearing about all the shit that's going on, you can't focus, you can't do the best you can. Did you, when preparing for this, did you have any input in terms of like, I want this to kind of have the grit of like a wrestler, the movie the wrestler with Mickey Rourke mixed in with you know something else but you want did did you talk a lot about

what it's going to look like how it's going to feel because there is that grittiness and that darkness and that it's not just a light show of this little town where you know they're doing independent wrestling there's some shit that goes on and that you know the fact that you know your brother's kind of a fuck up but he's supposed to play this nice guy you know that you're wrestling in the small town. I mean, did you have a lot of input into like, you're like, I want to know what this is going to look like. What's your vision? The nicest thing that I can say about the pilot. And my manager, Michael Garnett said as well, and she said when he, after he saw the first episode, he goes, that is exactly how I fucking pictured it when I read it. That's great. And it really was. Yeah.

And the thing that I'm most proud of, because I did have an idea for it, but you got to remember that this is independent professional wrestling. So what does the Duffy Dome look like? It doesn't look like SoFi Stadium. It's a big barn. It's a fucking piece of shit barn that has character and it looks great when it's filled but it probably smells like piss

and stale beer. And these guys are coming out and sure, the costume designer, Laura Bauer, Chris Bauer's wife who I'm very, very excited for her Emmy win this September it's going to be a year of September

from now just keep the receipts please on that one just time mark thank you you got to create these awesome you know wrestling like wrestling gear

but he can't look too fancy because these guys can't afford it right right I like the get up I would not be seen no I like it too but you know when the macho man or Rick Flair is coming out in those robes those are like six seven thousand dollar robes

It makes sense for this independent wrestling. No, of course not. Or like when Stars, I have a match in episode three, and Stars had a note, like, hey, so when Stevens wrestling Phil, Phil Brooks, professional wrestler CM Punk, some of the punches that he's hit him with don't look like they're actually landing. And the showrunner goes, well, I mean, it's not real. It's not, you know, he's doing his best and stuff like that, but it's not real. But the fact that Laura Bauer and costume design, and she is, I assume, I mean, not like, you know, Game of Thrones money, but she has money to put towards a wardrobe.

It's great wardrobe. The fact that she can get understated, great style is fantastic. And the fact that Starr's going to take a note like, yeah, no, no, no, no, we're not going to explain to the audience that Stephen's not actually hitting Phil. we're just going to assume like they were good with it right and yeah I forget what the actual question is I'm just excited no no you answer

were you nervous filming in front of all these people these wrestling scenes no man you just were pumped up you're in the zone fucking pumped up Pete Siegel his son Sean who is at at USC right now shout out to Sean

by the way Pete Siegel directed one of our everyone out there's favorite movie Tommy boy he's also directed everything else and the original and the originally longest yard and no i know i know but they might have thought uh you know no but his um his son is a composer and he composed my theme music ah when your character comes out i got to tell you you don't get nervous because when your theme music hits and you're walking out and our extras at the duffy dill were extraordinary for 200 people.

Yeah, the energy was really good. 200 people. They all had to enter into a COVID protocol. And they all had to be moved around the Duffy Dome because we wanted to put 800 people and never couldn't. Right. And these motherfuckers had to work like 12, 14, 16, 18 hour days and they brought it. They really did.

Like, I mean, in a weird way, I think that the COVID oddly made them feel like a little bit more a part of the process because of what they had. to sacrifice what they had to do yeah inside of you is brought to you by rocket money if you want to save money then listen to me because uh i use this ryan uses so many people use rocket money it's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions crazy right how cool is that monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings and you know what's great it works it really works for Ryan. Rocket money will even try to negotiate lowering your bills for you. The app automatically

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travel on any weekend day or holiday anywhere along the Go network. And the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network, starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online go pass ahead of the show at go-transit.com slash tigree. and you're doing your own stunts for the most part yeah and so is ace what's his name you're Alexander Ludwig Alexander Ludwig now I noticed he did this big backflip off the ropes is he is he a stuntman is he an athlete was he a wrestler like would it no you know I'll tell you what he is he's I think still in his 20s and two inches taller than me and 25 pounds heavier

than I am. So thanks so much to Stars and Linescape for fucking casting my younger brother as this guy. He is a fellow Canadian grew up in Vancouver and love freestyle skiing. And all that's

just all like he knows how to do backflips and shit like that. And he's like, he should do a backflip. It's arrogant. It's you know, perfunctory. Like it doesn't matter. That's what he should do. And he just climb up to the top rope and just do it and stick it. Every time.

Were they worried about you guys getting hurt? Because I know you probably are just like, I want to do this. Let me do this. Let me do this. And they're constantly like, fuck. Is this a meeting question? Or do you know what happened the first day that we shot wrestling? No.

Tell me. Oh, my God. So when the show opens, you see me type in coast to coast. And you see me do a coast to coast, which is you get up on the ropes on one side. You jump to the other side of the ring. Right. And you kind of like smash down on the guy. They hit him with your feet.

Right. And so anyway, we did the first take. I nailed it. I didn't jump as far as I wanted to. And I didn't realize they were going to cut to another camera that was going to be behind the guy that it was kicking. So, you know, depth of field, you can't tell that I came up short. But I watched it back on the monitors. And I was like, well, nailed that.

You guys are all set up or we're lit, just do it again. And the idea of doing it again was I want to get as high and jump as far. as I possibly can. And I did. And I wasn't able to extend my body. So instead I landed basically sitting straight up with my legs perpendicular to my torso. Compression fracture, T10, and L1 vertebrae. Day one.

Day one. Day one of wrestling. And the studios probably livid. Oh, my God. They're flipping out. They're not livid, but they're like, really? actually because you hear broken back and for the first 24 hours I didn't think that I'd be back to work for months because every muscle around that area stiffens up stiffens up oh shit they took

me just because I know you appreciate this with back stuff and neck stuff they took me to the hospital now once the muscles released released I was I felt fine and I was back to work in like three, four days, not doing stunts until a little bit later, but it's healed. I'm all good. I was very, very lucky. But, oh, goodness, I forgot I was going to say. About you got injured and you thought you were going to be gone for months and then you come back. Yeah, everything like, oh, okay. So I go to the hospital and I'm in incredible amounts of pain. A wife is there. And they're like, scale 1 to 10, what we don't know what's wrong yet. I haven't been x-rayed. scale one to ten how about your pain and i go

because i couldn't get a full breath i go it's a nine and a half nine a half i go to nine a half at ten's death i go to nine a half out of ten i go i'm an extraordinary amounts of pain to the point that is making me introspective like i i'm in i'm in such pain that i am outside my body right now thinking about how much pain that i'm got and the doctor goes looks at cassandra and says is what's his pain threshold like and she goes it's very high And he goes, okay, morphine, zofran, because I was nauseous, and a volume pumped into my arm. And within five minutes, Casco's, how are you?

And I go, is there a chick-fil-a close by? And one of the nurses says, uh, yeah, why? I go, I'm really hungry. Can you go get me a vanilla milkshake, please? she came back the next day because she wasn't out of state because of all the COVID protocols because I just spent the night in the hospital

she came back the next day she's like what does this room smell like and I'm like vanilla milk shake and she's like yeah why is that I'm like because I've been sipping this fucker for the past 16 hours oh my gosh so when did you

when were you able to start filming the scenes again those scenes where you're wrestling I heard it around Halloween went back to went back to work, again, three, four days later. We filmed until Thanksgiving. And then we broke from Thanksgiving until early January because a lot of people had to be away from their families for shooting. Right. And then when I got back, I went back to filming wrestling stuff for the

end of January. All right. So you had some months off to really, now, were you worried about because you got COVID in the interim, right? No, I had just gotten back from having COVID. So weren't you worried about losing all this weight and then you're injured and you can't really work out did you i mean because you were rich you you you're you're you're thick thick thank you that's actually what i was going for on in this show you look like you i mean that's the build of i buy it if you if you put me in a speeder right now they would say this is the first anorexic you can't you can't be you can't uh have a physique designed for a poster where they do a bunch of, you know,

after, touchups, what do they call it? With the, with the camera, like where you, we fucked shit up that you make the image look different in a better way.

Special effects? Well, sure. Like when someone touches up something like Instagram versus, oh yeah, I know you're talking about, Instagram versus reality. Right, right.

For heels, like, if I walked around like with like an eight pack, people would be like, no, I'll get to. destroyed. I had beef up my legs. I was like 25 pounds heavier than I am right now. What about James Harrison? He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Did he ever? Right. Big football player. How is it like working with this guy? And how do they cast this guy NFL football player?

Who's idea was this? First of all, James. And he's really good. He's really charming. Well, so James, you've only seen one episode. He plays a guy that is in recovery, that is sober. and he opens the sixth or the seventh episode giving the the leader's speech at an AA meeting and he fucking nails it. He is so... And he had never really acted?

No, and he threw himself into it. He threw himself into it with the same... I got to say that professional athletes, I'm now getting into like a good groove of working with them because the thing that they bring, the thing that James brings is he attacks anything

like he would attack training for a football season like I asked him about his monologue at the beginning of an episode is because it's long and he's like bro I've been working on that shit

four weeks we good I'm like okay he's in the gym every morning at 4.30 his workouts are they're legendary Ryan you were telling me

yeah he popped up on Instagram because he was playing volleyball with like a A medicine ball, yeah. So James, I'm going to tell one James Harrison story. It's huge. Do it. Okay.

All right. Here we go. I've got 11, but I'm going to tell one. When we all first got there in August, about a month before we went to camera. So basically a year ago right now, they built us a gymnasium, the heels gymnasium, where James was there every day, six days a week, between 445 and 5 o'clock. he works out for two and a half hours and then he sticks around and yells at me as I'm working out.

But they're trying to schedule when we should work out and they're putting some of us in the afternoon. James is like, no one works out in the afternoon. Why is that, James? And this is Bill Hill, the production manager. And while you PM, one of our producers,

awesome guy shout out to Bill Hill. He goes, hey, Bill, when you wake up, first thing in the morning is your dick hard oh my God and Bill goes sometimes occasionally

occasionally James goes well that's when you work out you work out in the morning before you eat when your dick's hard otherwise you're just trying to not get fat

and that was it so there are no afternoon workouts for the rest of the season that's James James Wow that's amazing James we were listening to a song once in the gym and he says to me like Stephen I once

tailed a guy in Pittsburgh listener to this song two and a half hours with my boy okay he followed him he followed a guy and anyway I'll tell that story off the air but it's a fucking funny story

that I've never ever he's such a he's a really wonderful and a thoughtful guy and it would be super easy for him to think that a role like apocalypse on heels where he has he has some episodes where he doesn't have a lot to do would maybe be beneath him as like a former NFL defensive player of the year. He's going to the Hall of Fame. He's going to be the first, I think he's going on the first ballot, which will make him the first undrafted player, undrafted. He was not drafted to go into the Hall of Fame with the first ballot. It'd be very easy for him to be like, oh, this is above me, or excuse me, beneath me. But he- He wants to do this. He's committed. And he's really, really, really good. What do you love most about Heal?

What do you love mostly about this show? Because what I liked is the grit, also the scope. I love how it was shot. I love the characters. And I really like that, especially in the, I only saw one. But the, it just was unpredictable at the end. Yeah. I just was like, I was looking with the fans in the, uh, Duffy Center or whatever.

Duffy Dome. Duffy Dome. Duffy George. And I've got my mouth of gate because that was the hot. To me, I was just like, holy shit, what? It was just like this cliff hang. where you were like it was it was it amazed me did you want to watch the second one yes that's what i'm saying it made me want to watch the second one do you want to wrap this up early and hold hands

and watch it right now or no what do i love about it yeah yeah i love the words i michael waldron you know just did loki is doing the new doctor strange movie is doing star wars he grew up in small town georgia a big wrestling fan and so he created this world he knows it he wrote it in a way that only he could have written these scripts and what a dream role for you though i mean what a dream role and i got to tell you that the other thing that i like god damn it do i like the music i love the music because there's old shit there's new shit yeah there's a song that opens and closes episode three called yamaaha by delta spirit you put one of my songs it's in the bar scene it's in the background but you still put one of my songs in there is that

true yeah sunspin song there's a sunspin song in your episode uh two they told me it was in a bar is this what made me mad and got me thrown off the plane because i don't remember this at all really but it is what the fuck are you talking about the producer called me or the guy said hey we're putting one of your songs in the thing i'm like great you can't you can barely hear it but it doesn't matter okay i still get paid sure i got paid Oh, and I like, I like that, first of all, that's terrific. Yeah, thanks, buddy. And I'm thinking I'm, I'm having like flashes of this now, but I like the fact that we have an old school opening credits.

Yeah. Yeah, what you mean with the, sorry, we have a smallville style opening credits with the characters. Oh, 100%. I love it. It's just fitting. Small town. Jeffers, who is the CEO of Stars. just an all-around wonderful guy

and put a lot on the line for the show because we were the first star show to go back during the pandemic and they, I'm sure they had to spend money fucking hand over fist to make this thing work with all the testing and etc. To keep everyone safe and they did.

It doesn't matter that I got it, that other people got it. There was not one transmitted case onset the entire year, period. Actually. Um, it, oh no, I lost my time. No, what you like about the show all these things that you like about the show. Yeah.

And now, okay, this is definitely going to have to edit out because I forgot where I was going to go about this. It was a little like, just in general, like the opening. I just love the fact that there's just opening credits. Yeah. I like it too. And it's got a great, like it's got a great like theme song. And I hope taking it back to the opening of your podcast. Never change it, ever.

Don't update it. It's my point. Hey, I would totally marry your wife. Is that true? Oh, no in the show. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, she's, that didn't come out right. I mean, she's fantastic and she was beautiful.

Like, oh, my gosh. Yeah, she's pretty, pretty woman. I have a good story about her that you all appreciate. That you can't talk about. No, that I can't talk about if you'd like. Well, let's hear it. I wanted to, I did a very selfish thing. I wanted us to have this amazing memory together to help build chemistry for us in the show.

So I did a chemistry read with Allison, Luff, who plays my wife, and a few other actors in L.A. in Jesus Murphy. it's either early 2020 or late early 2020 and we came out of the session and I was like I got in touch with Michael Malley or showrunner and I said it's Allison like it's it's Allison it please let it be Allison and you said I agree with you but you know it we have to go through the process and I said okay well if she gets approved can I call her and tell her that she got the job Because I don't know. I've watched Spielberg. That's sweet.

I've watched Spielberg tell the kid from E.T. His name, I don't know. That like, Henry Thomas. Okay. Thank you. Shut up. And he got in touch with me at like 7.30 at night on a Saturday. And he was just like, it's Allison.

I just said, okay, can I call her? Because she had screen tested like six days earlier. And she's under a holding deal. So you called her. So I called her. and she was in New York, and she was out with her girlfriends. And she didn't pick up until, like, it rang for the eighth time. And I'm like, hey, she goes, I wasn't going to pick up.

How are you? And I said, I'm good. How are you? She goes, I'm shit, Stephen. She goes, I've never lived in Georgia. She's like, I've signed this deal. I don't know what's going on. And if you're asking me, I'm out with my girlfriends.

And I'm frankly, I'm a little stressed. And I said, well, I just called a say. that I can't wait to work with you. You got the job and go enjoy. And she screamed in my ear. Like I can't fucking hear what on my right ear. For a second, I thought you were saying that she already found out

that she was upset that she was moving to Georgia. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. For a second, I thought that, but that's fantastic. She screamed in your ear. Oh, she's, and it was just, it was just the best. And I, and I say that it was a selfish move. And occasionally being selfish, I think, is appropriate. and frankly even can be helpful that I wanted us to have that memory when she walks onto a set

I wanted to think about that phone call because as you know I'm sure you've gotten that call to transformational to life altering phone call absolutely I did that with an actress as well yeah what sucks is I said you know I'm going to call her because I got her to audits you I got her to be get interested in the part because the guys liked her and I was an EP and I she got the part and I called her and said hey it's yours and she was all excited and then for whatever reason they didn't want to go back in the show they didn't want to go back to the town where I was from they wanted to stay where I was or ended up so they didn't need that character anymore so then I had to call her and tell her that we're not going to be

using her anymore. So it was kind of brutal because I loved working with her. And it was just like, God, I get, you know, I got so the, you know, it wasn't great. All right, this is it. This is Stephen Emel, shit talking questions from my lovely patrons. This is fast. This is rapid fire. That's not how I work, but I'm going to do it for you. You got to do it. Claudia N. How did you find it doing that accent, a little Southern draw? The good thing about Southern draw is as Jack Spade is that you make it make it simpler but if you're going

to have to say something like you hey kiddo sit over there put your tissue on the floor how are you going to say that if you're not doing a southern accent

matter of fact I'm legitimately want to live in a rest of my life this way it makes me feel so good I love it I can wear jeans

I can wear boots can I do it the rest of the podcast this way or do you think I'm doing a bit I don't think you should but I like it but by the way

I grew up in southern Indiana and I have friends that talk like that And when I go back home, I tend to jump into it. And I start talking like that, too. And it's very easy for me to jump back up. So from an affirmation perspective, how to do? I thought it was fantastic.

You know what I liked about it? I thought that it was subtle. I thought you weren't pushing it. And I thought that it could easily be pushed because there's an actor on Walking Dead. He just fucking pushes the fuck out of it. And you're just like, oh, I know what you're talking about, Michael Rosenbaum. I'll tell you have a blessed day. Hey, there's another zombie.

Yvore. How was working with CM Punk. and is there a chance of seeing you wrestle in AEW? Second question first, yeah, I would love to pop up in AEW. You know, Cody Rhodes is my very good buddy, Matt and Nick of the Young Bucks, all that stuff. And working with Phil Brooks, aka C.M. Punk, echoes everything that I said about James Harrison. and Bill had a bunch of fucking words to say. He had a bunch of shit.

And he was excellent. He was playing a character. He's playing that mid-Carter on the indie circuit. He's playing a character called Ricky Rabies. When's his airing, by the way? I don't know. Soon. Well, in episode three, just keep it mind.

Regardless, people are going to watch it on stars and they can binge it. Yeah, get the app. You got to get the app. You fucking bought it. I got Showtime for you. I swore on my mother's life. Well, it's, it's, I got, no, I bought Showtime. It was 10, you mean Stars?

Stars, when I say Showtime. You said Showtime. I bought Showtime. I bought Showtime for the Dexter reboot and you're fucking conflating. I bought Showtime for the comedy store documentary and for the UFO, but that showtime. Stars, I got for you because I didn't know anything else that Stars had, but Stars has a lot of shit now that I look. I appreciate that.

But go ahead. But everything that James did, I mean, he had a lot, he had a lot of words to say. He really did. And he threw himself into it. And he was so good that we brought him back for a season finale. But if this is going to air after the third episode, just know that his character, Ricky Ravis, at our match, flies a possum drone from the entranceway of the Duffy Dome to the middle of the ring. and it levitates right in front of me and then spits blood all over me before I match.

That's fucking indie wrestling right there. That shit happens. And it's amazing. Wow. I love that. Jesus. It's like Ozzy Osbourne shit. Denver W., not really a question.

Just wanted to say thanks for always sharing and opening up on the podcast. All of you are helping people and doing a good job at it. So kudos to you because that anxiety stuff. And whenever you open up and you just tell it, I mean, it does help. So, well, I actually just so, what was that person's name? That was Denver. Denver.

If ever I'm feeling bad or anxious, which doesn't really happen that much anymore, I think about the way that I was feeling in this room that we're in right now. I'm like, am I anywhere close to that? No. Well, then I'm okay. It's a good way to look at it. you were, I remember. This room gets nicer, by the way, every time I come in. It does. I added some wood, wood paneling. Do you remember? Do you remember? I was sitting right where, I was sitting right there.

Sorry, we're stoned. Yeah. Sorry, we're stone. I probably would have laughed as opposed to start to grab it. I remember I just started to sweat. Are you like, is it, is it hot in here? It was December. I opened up a door side. Yeah, Rosie. I was here. Rosie, I don't really, I don't really feel great. You were, I was a little, I was a little worried. And Ryan was, I had, I had, experienced anxiety so i was like i know you're going to be okay but ryan was like oh fuck yeah no i when you guys did a little brief interlude between the the first time that came the second time that i came uh i've done my you singing voice but my ryan impersonation is dude he was literally falling apart right in front of us yeah yeah but rightfully so you we're doing so much all right listen this

Hey, really, this is a question that everybody wants to know. Do you have any plans to return back to the superhero genre? Have you been approached? Can you see yourself returning to a reunion of Arrow or doing something in the superhero world? Or have you not been approached by any of that? Or would you consider it if you were? If I had been approached, I wouldn't say. But I have not.

I think, wait a way of that. No, no, I know. I know. Okay. No, it made sense. I know you're saying. You know, I was, I was thinking about this question as I, as I drove here and if, if the opportunity ever came up to, like, do six to eight episodes of Arrow as like a limited series on Netflix or HBO Max or something like that where, or on the CW. as the case may be. I think that'd be amazing.

So you'd do it if it was a limited series sort of like either streaming or under 10 episodes that was doable and you would do something like that? No, I actually wouldn't put a limit on it at all. I think the idea of coming back and playing Oliver Queen at any point in my life It is a really fun idea.

The example being, you know, Michael Keaton's about to be fucking Batman again. Yes, he is. I couldn't be happier. It has been 29 years since he played Batman. It's been like six and a half minutes since I played, since I played Arrow. I know, I know, I love, I love, I love. I love playing Oliver Queen. And just in general, the idea of like going back to that character as I'm getting all these new reps as an actor and feel like I'm getting, feel like I'm getting better.

I mean, it's intoxicating. But from, you know, hand of God, I have not been approached at all. Hand of God Heels is on stars I suggest you watch it It's gritty It's dark It's funny

It's got everything you want You get to see this guy In a speedo I don't know why the fuck You wouldn't want to tune in Just for that Those are trunks They're called trunks

Is that what they're called? I could never wear those I can never Unless somebody really You can't You could on the show And in fact If you ever guest star on the show

You have to My legs are so thin It's not about the legs you're not going to worry about the legs okay you're going to worry you're going to worry about the fact that people are going to be able to tell what religion you are based off of the i'm not so much worried so so so so so what you have to do is you have to you have to cover it up so it becomes one one just general area general package area not like oh that's where his dick is okay i wrestled in uh seventh and eighth grade really how was that to play hockey

I was 16 and 1, 8 of the matches I won by forfeit because I was so light and weight that no one was there to wrestle me. That's the absolute truth. But I wasn't bad. I could still do a cross-faced cradle. I was good. I'm scrappy. I knew how to do it. I could wrestle.

I mean, this kind of wrestling is a little different. And people say, you know, they could sit there and say, you know, it's fake and all this stuff. but the amount of pain that you go through that these guys go through is real. The falling, jumping off the ropes and the hitting, you still are getting hit. Okay.

So the question for you is someone that's has probably seen wrestling and has seen heels, but doesn't know a ton of a professional wrestling. That's probably true. Is that true? That's very true. What is the ring mat made of?

Heavy canvas. it is one layer of canvas over a giant wooden like plywood be serious yes plywood so you're falling essentially on wood and canvas that's correct okay pain and so the middle of the ring has the most give to it and the outsides of the ring like closer to the term buckles have essentially no give, right? So, okay, and to that end, the ropes in the ring. Oof. What are they made of? Don't tell me like bridge wire or some shit. They are steel cables with tape over them. Okay. So why do they do that? Why don't they make them more comfortable? I don't, I don't know. Right? Wouldn't that be nicer? I do, I do feel like, I do feel like the wrestling

industry is occasionally like like the like the rich old man that refuses to buy a new nice TV right and is watching the fucking Packers Rams game on standard definition and you're like come on man

my TV works that's how the wrestling that's how the that's how the WWE does it so I mean the gym that they built us when we go there one side was weights and one side was a practice ring and my warm up every day was just going and running the ropes

and then taking a flat back bump in the middle of the ring which just means falling backwards fall down hit the canvas well it stinks just to hit the canvas yeah it does because if you don't tuck your chin and if you don't displace the image hurting yourself your head's going to snap back and you're going to get your bell wrong and so i so you take the flap back bump i take like like five or six just up down up down up down and then i'd run the ropes and i know that i'm not actually running the ropes until i get the full mid thoracic adjustment that happens from the ropes from hitting the ropes it is no fucking joke these guys I wrestle, see him punk in the third episode, like we talked about.

He spent more time in the gym warming up. He's two years older than I am, maybe three. Spent more time in the gym warming up than I did working out. Just limbering up his body. Jesus. It's fucked. Real deal, Ryan. I don't want any part of it.

Me neither. I want a stunt man. I want a good step man. I want a really good close up right after I make impact. That's what I'm talking about. Stephen, this is awesome. You're always welcome. I hope you'll come back next year because you're my, you've been on more than any other

guests now. Is that true? You've been on more than welling. I think this is your third or fourth. Oh, that's what I meant. Yeah. Is my four? I think it is.

Fourth and a half. But it's, it's worth it. It feels like, I mean, we talked about mostly different things today. Hey, how is Tom? I'm doing well. He just had another kid. Good for him. So he's got two kids.

You just have the one. one right just the one maverick i know mavi mavi right mavvi yeah yeah she's adorable i see all the pictures of you guys jumping into a lake and shit like that and just she's the best man joy to you i could tell you she is so much joy mabby mavie is adorable but she's she's about to be eight in october she's a handful isn't she she is she is she is her mother she she doesn't need she doesn't need anything from anyone. She is her own person.

And this has been supercharged by the pandemic because she hasn't had to like she hasn't been really interacting with people. So it's about like her making up her own day, stuff like that. And she crushed it with virtual learning on grade one in Ms. Gary's class. and she's amazing now

but it's just like she's her mom she's beautiful and smart and thoughtful and doesn't like to be hugged just like her mom her mom doesn't like to be hugged no she doesn't she doesn't all right before you go you just put the sunspin hat on for one second

100% this is my band's hat he likes the hat he's gonna wear it he didn't even know it's my band it looks good on you dude look at that look over here I'm I will if I can have one of the coasters I'm kidding. Take one. No, I'm not.

Well, I have so many coasters. I have so many as well. It looks good. I have all, does it? You're going to want to set. You're going to be like, why didn't I wear this the whole time?

When we do it? Should we start again? No. Hey, so I want to bring up the, before we start, I got asked to get off a plane. Stephen and Mel, thanks for allowing me to be inside of you, man.

It's always a pleasure. Thank you, Michael. I loved it. I loved all of it. I enjoyed that. that. I loved how he talked about, uh, the plane. He wanted to just say, hey, this is what happened. Mm-hmm. And he took blame and he felt shame. Yeah. It was just like, you know, it was like a real conversation. A lot of people like, I don't want to talk about this. Stephen always brings it. He

always is up for talking about things. And I appreciate that, don't you? Yeah. Uh, yeah, because I think that's the thing that everyone would have wanted to know about. And he wanted to come and tell you. He wanted to tell me. And I really love that. I love that he did that. And, yeah, he's always got something going on, you know, whether it's COVID or he has an anxiety attack. Stephen, you always bring it. I really appreciate it. So dramatic. He is.

And it's great. And he loves the podcast. And I gave him an inside of you hat. A sunspin hat. A sunspin hat I gave him. And he's supporting the Sunspin band. You can get a Sunspin hat at sunspin.com. In fact, you can get 10% off right now if you go to sunspin.com, all merch, 10% off.

Rob is 10 is the password or code. that's not the word code yeah code discount code yeah and uh go on the inside of you online store if you want lex stuff smallville stuff there's still some smallville lunch boxes funco pops uh inside of you merch uh new tumblers uh lots of great stuff go to the inside of you online store get 10% off and the discount code is ryan is 10 ryan is 1.0 it's like a big situation tom hanks yes the sunspin.com is Rob is 10.10. I will be in

Atlanta, Georgia for DragonCon this coming weekend. Come see me. Then the following weekend in Lexington, Kentucky at the Lexington ToyCon or whatever, and I'll be doing a Smallville Nights. We've already sold a lot of tickets, so get your ticket, get to Lexington, get to Atlanta. West Virginia, I'll be

there. September 24th, I believe, that weekend. And lots of cool stuff going on, How are you feeling, Ryan? You don't feel all right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Still doing the better help? Still doing the better help, yeah. That's good, man. You got to keep rolling. Got to keep staying on top of your health, man. Yeah, man. What else have I done? Trying to exercise more.

Yeah. You look good. You got the haircut. I like the haircut. You look suave. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah.

I feel lighter on my head. Good. That's really good. It's tasty. Yeah. The lightness on top of my head is helping the lightness on the inside of my head. Maybe that's the thing. Yeah.

I've seen a good movies lately. I saw this movie, Blood Red Sky. And it was fun. It was a little horror movie with Dominic Purcell. I met him at a convention. And I actually enjoyed the movie. I thought it was kind of dark and fun. It was kind of like a train to Busan on a plane.

Oh, I saw the Vow documentary. The Vow documentary brought tears to my eyes, man. How vulnerable is Val Kilmer in that documentary? It was interesting. I feel like there are some stuff that was left out, though. You do? Like what? Probably from another perspective.

Really? It couldn't help feeling, you know. Like other people's perspective of how he was to work with and things like that. I think it kind of brushed over that a little bit. It brushed over it, but... It's heartbreaking that he hated playing Batman, though. Yeah, I don't think he hated as much as he hated the costume and he was limited and he couldn't move around. And then everyone else got to do the big parts.

Yeah, yeah. He didn't seem happy with that. But maybe he was a time in his life. I don't know. I'm sure he was difficult as fuck to work with. I'm sure he was very difficult, but also a brilliant actor, and sometimes with brilliance comes pain in the ass. The Twain was pretty incredible, actually.

Yeah, as Mark Twain. Yeah. It's just amazing at the end. It's just a shame the whole thing. I wonder if they could reverse his, you know, he lost his, you have the throat cancer. So can they reverse that? I'm like, man, can you reverse that? And I'm not making fun of it.

I'm just trying to. I don't know. It's heartbreaking, though. It is. It is heartbreaking. Hey guys. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Patreon.com slash inside you. If you want to give a little more to the podcast, I'll message you after. It's a really great thing. You'll really enjoy it. Look, go to P-A-T-R-E-O-N, Patreon.com slash inside of you. There's a lot of tears, a lot of extra things, goodies and things like that. I send boxes to my patrons and with little notes every couple months. And we do a lot of fun things. And you get information before anybody else does and discounts before anybody else does. So all my love to my patrons. And let's read out the patrons. Why don't we do that? Here we go. Nancy. D. Leah. Tricia. F. Sarah. V. Little. Lisa. Lisa. Lisa. Kiko. L.

Kiko. Lisa. L. K. K. K. G. I gave you that one. Brian H. Mama L. L. I forgot the O. G. Yes. Nico P. Jerry W. Robert L. Jason W. J. P.? Kristen K, not Kristen Kruck, Amelia Allison, L, Raj, C, Joshua, Emily, C.J. Did I get that one right, Emily?

You did. Yes, all right. C.J. P. Samantha. M. Yes, Jennifer. P. N. Stacey. L. Jan. S.

Jamal. F. Janelle. B. Kimberly. E. Mike. E. L. Dantz. Primo. 99.

Ramira Santiago oh um I can't believe you're getting all these and this is the M Sarah V Sarah F Chad uh W Chad W Chad W Lian P Janine R R Ray uh A Maya P Maddie S Shannon D Matt W Belinda um you're and and right Kevin V James R Holy shit This is the furthest you've gotten Chris

Oh Chris H Yes and also Dave H Yes Spider Man Chase Sheila G Brad D

Ray H I can't believe what we're doing here Tabitha Tom Um N

Lilliana A Michelle K Michael S Yes Talia

N. M. I'm mixing all the hands in the ends. D. Claire. V. M. Laura.

V. L. Chad. There's another Chad? L. Rochelle. Nathan E. Marion.

Just listen to these because next time I'm going to get you in these. Marion. Meg K. Janelle P. Traff L. Dan N. O.

Jada. Lorraine. G. Yes. Carrie H. Veronica K. Big Stevie. W. Kendall.

Jenner. T. Carol D. Angel Amaran C. Corey K. Super Sam. Emily C. Coleman G. Den Vexon. Michelle A. Liz L. Jeremy C.

Andy T. Cody R. Sebastian K. Gavanator. Ann H. David C. Elliott M. John B. Brandy D. Yvore. M. Bano. The C. V, C, Joey M, P. T. Scarborough, and Willie F. Give it up for Ryan, man. I mean, you nailed it. I mean, that's the furthest you've gotten. You've gotten a lot. I guess I'm doing it phonetically because I'm mixing all the M's and ends. It's hard. I don't know how you do that. Well, it helps when you have a visual aid. Yeah, I can't do it. I couldn't do this. You do it 77 times in a row. Yeah, I just don't have that comprehension where I'm like, I don't absorb what I read. It takes me a couple times to read something before I absorb it. You? Yeah. No, I reread paragraphs all the time. Yeah. I think there's some kind of dyslexia or

something with me. I just have slow learning curve. You know, like things. I have to really, it's hard for me to focus and pay attention. And when I do, I can get it. Or if I'm really interested, then I'm really on top of it. It just depends how much I want to learn. That's true. This has been great. I love you guys. I appreciate you listen to the show. I hope you enjoyed Stephen and Mel. Please follow us, all that stuff. Please write a review. spread the word, especially all my patrons, who are probably the only ones listening at this point. Continue to spread the word. Get your friends, get your relatives, get everybody to, you know, ask them, please, and subscribe

to the podcast because it really helps. And we love you from Hollywood Hills in California. I'm Michael Rosenbaum. I'm Ryan Taze. Wave at that camera up there, Ryan. We love you guys. Thank you for allowing me to be inside of each and every one of you each week. Come back and see us.

Ryan, he'll be sitting right there. All right. Thank you. Football season is here. Oh, man. Believe has the podcast to enhance your football experience. From the pros. One of the most interesting quarterback rooms.

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