Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - MICHAEL BIEHN: Hitting Rock Bottom, Facing Off with James Cameron, Trouble on Tombstone & LOTS MORE STORIES!

Episode Date: March 14, 2023

Michael Biehn (Terminator, Aliens, Tombstone) joins us this week and shares countless memories from his storied career. From his tenure alongside James Cameron, to his fond memories with Bill Paxton, and even revealing the truth about Michael Rooker - Biehn has a ton of fun stories this week. Not only that, but Michael opens up on his dependency on alcohol early in his career, and how hitting rock bottom was the only way to prevent more self destruction. We also get into his friendship with Doug Stanhope, the mess of working on Tombstone, and how he’s gained his confidence back after a stroke. Thank you to our sponsors: ❤️ Betterhelp: https://betterhelp.com/inside 👨‍🍳 Home Chef: https://homechef.com/inside 🚀 Rocket Money: https://rocketmoney.com/inside 🟠 Discover: https://discvr.co/3Cnb1V8 🧼 Dove Men Plus Ca __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou 👕 Inside Of You Merch: https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🤣 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod 🌐 Website: https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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carefully applying Benjamin Moore Regal Select eggshell with deftly executed strokes. The roller lightly cradled in his hands, applying just the right amount of paint. It's like hearing poetry in motion. Benjamin Moore, see the love. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. I hope you had a wonderful week.

And thanks for listening to the podcast. If you're a big Michael Bean fan, you never heard of Inside of you. Well, I hope you stick around. I think people, you know, tend to stick around if they like an episode, maybe subscribe. Our handles are at Inside of You podcast on Instagram and Facebook and at Inside of You pod on the Twitter. And I really appreciate you. You know, we've been doing this for years now. and we get really good conversations with guests.

And they open up about mental health, anxiety, life. And, yeah, I hope you stick around. And it seems like it helps a lot of people. It helps me, helps me with my anxiety and my life. And Ryan's here. Yeah, I'm here. Still going to therapy? Still going to therapy.

Good for you, Ryan. Good for you. Had an appointment this morning. Yeah. Did it go well? It did. It probably, yeah, what? No, I mean, it's kind of,

like well what happens when uh when when you guys do the better help ad tom is he usually says like i don't usually don't want to talk in the morning but then uh get going and it helps it does that's the thing it's like you think you don't have anything to talk about and the once you start talking within 10 minutes boom floodgates open and you're like oh my god i'm so thankful i did this you just you just feel better i do um yeah yeah it's groovy uh we're going to be doing a lot of this year, Tom and I. So if you haven't seen a smallville nights or haven't visited us at a con, you got to do that. The smallville nights are great events. We reads old scenes with fans. It's really private. There's prizes. It's it's wonderful. Everyone who goes says you have to do

this. So hopefully, you know, we're going to be all over the country. I'll be in Wales. I'll be in, I'll be all over. I'll be all over. So you got to come. Also, if you want to go, if you go to Talkville Podcast.com, you can get original artwork signed by me and Tom, these awesome pieces of art. And there's a limited supply. There's only 55 made. And then they're gone and they're autographed by me and Tom. Go to Talkvillepodcast.com. If you want some of that merch, the inside of you online stores there. We got new Smallville octagonal ship keys signed by me. We also got the regular ones that don't say Smallville. We've got Lexmas scripts and a bunch of cool tumblers, yellow inside of you. Tumblr.

for coffee, mugs, all that stuff. And last but not least, join Patreon and really support the podcast without my patrons. I wouldn't do this, period. They really support me and keep this podcast going. So go to patreon.com slash inside of you. And I'll try to message you soon. And there's a bunch of perks like your name getting shot out on the podcast, boxes of merch from me with notes, all that jams. um so there you have it uh we got a great guest today on the podcast yeah legend legend i have

the poster up there i actually took that poster off it's an aliens poster and i had it i took it apart and had him sign it because he was the only member of the of the cast from aliens that hadn't signed it and michael bean signed it uh i feel like we're buddies now we text each other um I just like how raw and really is and just lets it all out there. I mean, you are going to hear him speak from the heart. I mean, he just says, this is how it was. This is who I was. Didn't like this person.

Enjoy this. I mean, he's just, I've never seen some. He reminded me a lot like Robert Patrick in the sense that it was like old school. Like, hey, this is what you're going to get, fucker. This is what you're going to get. This is me. And here I am. And I'll put myself out there and let you know that this is what this is my life.

And I love that. Just I really appreciated him. So without further ado, let's just do it, man. Let's get inside of Michael Bean. It's my point of you. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Bomb was not recorded in front of a live studio audience.

And I was a kid. I was just like starting to make a little bit of money. And, you know, I went to a blackjack table, took a $100 bill, threw it out there, played my hand, busted. And that stick came out and pulled that $100 bill, $100 bill back. And I just said, you know, When it's back in the mid-70s, I probably, probably could have had a lot of fun with that $100 bills here, $100 in Vegas.

What year was that? I don't know, $78. So $100 is probably like $1,000. Well, it was, it was enough that I know that I could have had a little bit more fun with $100 in Vegas than just watching somebody take it from me. And I've never really gambled since. I never, that don't. about with friends. I've got a deal going. You know Doug Stanhope? Yeah. Well, Doug and I are great

comedian. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Doug and I are best friends, uh, boyfriend and boyfriend. Our, our wives like to call us. I met him when I went to Bisbee when I, when I moved to Bisbee. He saw him do a show or that's how he met him? I've been following, uh, Doug for, um, probably 20 years. Right. And I've always loved him, him, Louis C.K., Bill Burr, of course. Oh, yeah. Uh, Ricky Jervais. those are kind of my guys that I just love but Stanhope was always my favorite and so when I moved to Bisbee I knew he's in Bisbee because he talks about Bisbee and his act and so I was hoping I get a chance to meet him and I finally did and we fell in love and we're we're we're boyfriend

and boyfriend is it because he has such a dark sense of humor you like that I how his mind works Well, yes. But he thinks I'm funny. For some reason, he thinks I'm like hysterical. Why is that? I don't know. I don't know. Do you think you're funny? I can be in the right circumstances. It all depends what I'm talking about. You know, I can be funny. I'm not, I'm certainly not a comedian who can be funny, you know, like this. But if I'm telling stories about my life, people have a tendency to smile. every once in a while. The people usually, when they hear these stories, are they shocked at some of these things that you've done in your life? Probably, yeah.

You know, my life is, yeah. Yeah, no, it's been a wild, wild ride. And a great one, I mean, a great one. But it's been wild, right from the time that I moved out here when I was about 19. I'll get you through the early stuff quickly because I've heard your podcast. No, no. I was born in Alabama.

Yeah. They're in Rookerville. Yeah. We're talking about Michael Rooker. You're all buddy from Tombstone. I'm trying to get in touch with him because I want you to tell a Rooker story. On the podcast, he's, you were listening to it. Rooker says, no, I don't get angry.

If I get angry, I get angry like, you know, I'm acting angry. I'm acting angry. Then you started laughing because you were listening to that. And you said, that's bullshit. Ask him about, come on. Well, I don't know about any, I don't know about other times, but I know. Well, he's an intense guy. He's a funny, but intense, you know.

Dude, when he was on Tombstone and when he blew up with George Cosmodo's, he got in George Cosmodo's face, I don't think that was for effect. You know, I don't think. George Cosmodos was an idiot. I basically, George Cosmodos replaced another director, Kevin Jarre on that movie. Right. And George Cosmodos just was brought in, and nobody really liked him. I have written.

Is he still alive? No, he's dead. And he, this is the truth. I met him. I said five words to him the entire time I made that movie. And he was, he was the director on, he got credited for directing that movie. I met him I said hello and he started talking it was you know around a couple of other people I just said hello and and then the next day I watched him directing the way he treated people uh and um the next time

he approached me um I he said Michael and I said go fuck yourself and that was the only five words I ever said to George Cosmodos go when you're going to fuck yourself go fuck yourself based on just what you're my observations of the way that he treated people on that set you know he would say things like yeah tell the uh extra with the big tits to to take two steps forward you know and whoa he was a guy that if you were above him on on the food chain he'd kiss your ass so he he tried to kiss my ass but if you were below him on the food chain he'd treat like shit what about I thought, guy like Val Kilmery, treated him with respect. Of course, Val, Kurt, Sam Elliott, Billy Bob, no, all those people.

Did they like him? Nobody liked him. Nobody liked him. Well, he didn't really, he didn't really direct a movie. Nobody directed it. You know, people say, did, did Kurt Russell direct a movie? And the fact of the matter is, it's a little bit like a football team. Michael, you have a coach that goes down.

So the coach is gone. They like the former coach. What? Say that again. The director from before that got fired or? No, that's a whole another conversation. I liked him. Right.

I liked him a lot. And I think he's more responsible. He wrote the script and he's a great writer. He wrote Glory and he's a great writer. But he was very rigid and he didn't understand how collaborative filmmaking was. Especially with all those creative actors. Well, I know. He had Kurt Russell's been a movie start since he was like five.

He had Val, Sam, me, Powers Booth. Powers Booth and I had a great time. That's intimidating, by the way. Well, it's not intimidating. I mean, coming in as a director, you have to kind of have that. Maybe that's what this new director was like, I'll just be a fucking badass and treat people like shit because he was insecure. No, he was just an asshole.

Yeah, he was just an asshole. And, uh, uh, but that, you know, that movie, uh, came out, uh, you know, they, they waited four weeks into the shooting of that movie to, um, fire, uh, Kevin Jarre. So you see if you get a director, there's problems, you know, there's arguments, creative differences, you know, a weekend or whatever. We had three months to shoot that movie and four weeks in, they fired Kevin Jarre and they used none of the footage that he uh that he shot so there's a lot of tombstone that got cut out before we even shot it there was so much uh with the cowboys with me and powers uh that got cut out of the movie uh and and uh all the girls all the women in the movie all their stuff got cut out

all the wives uh the love story which was you know that was a big part of the movie that got cut down the morale on set when this new director just pops up and are you guys this movie's not going to go anywhere this is going to be a piece of shit where here's the thing here's the thing about it uh michael for me um i can only really concentrate on the character that i'm playing and i don't really have i don't have any control over what happens and um uh i don't really give a fuck about morale i've you know i'm there i'm going to be good and and and that was a a really great character. The character was great because there are other characters in

the movie, like Valcchio. Oh, Johnny Ringo, the fastest gun and the blah, blah, blah. And Kurt says to him at the end of the movie. What's Johnny? What's wrong with Johnny? Oh, he's got a big hole in his heart. And he's sorry he was born. And Powers Booth at one point says something along the line. He said, oh, God knows what's going to happen to this group when when Johnny Ringo takes over. So I've got all the other actors talking about how crazy I am.

So they really don't have to do very much, you know. I don't really have to do very much. But I knew it was a good role. I mean, you read a script and you see a line like, I want your blood and I want your soul and I want them both right now. And, you know, you look at that and you go, wow. You know, I can't wait to say that line. Yeah.

But there was a lot of stuff that got cut out of the movie. And what the movie ended up being was just a smaller... Have you seen it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tombstone. Who hasn't seen Tombstone? Well, it's been years, but it's one of the best movies. Yeah.

Well, we got started talking about it because of Rucker. And, you know... Oh, yeah, yeah. And see, people ask me about Vow and, you know, Rooker was one of them. He was Earps. He was one of them. Me, Powers Booth, Steve. Levin Lang, John Corbett, we were the Cowboys.

And so we all hung out. People asked me with Val Kilmer's like, I go, I know, I've never met Val Kilmer. You never met him? I don't give a fuck about Valcimer. You never met him? Never met Val Kilmer. I never met Valcimer. Gotcha.

We never, we never let him charge. You were just talking to his character, character to character. And we went out, we shot the final scene. in the movie that I'll be your Huckleberry, that scene. We went out because by that time George had been fired, we went out and rehearsed that because Jim Jacks, the producer, who's a great guy, and just no longer with us, he suggested that we go out and rehearse it. So he got in his car and went out to the location, and I got my car and went out to the location.

And, you know, we got out of the car and there was, hey, there's no, there was never, Hey, Val, hey, what's up? Would you do? None of that. It's like, okay. Did you want that? It's just what happens. Michael, you know, like that's like I hung out with Power's Booth.

I didn't hang. Bill Paxson and I had done, that was a fifth movie we'd done together. Right. But, and maybe it was because we were younger, but, you know, they were, it was them against us. and you know I got really nothing to say to Bill I got you know I got Kurt on the other hand

kind of he held that movie together when they fired the director and brought Georgia and and Kurt's a wonderful guy he's a great great personality he's fun he's got a great laugh

obviously a wonderful actor has been a movie star since he was 10 you always hear about people talking about actors who, um, young actors growing up in the business and they always get all fucked up or whatever, not Kurt, Kurt, you know, Kurt. Maybe he was. Yeah, I guess so.

I mean, I, you know, that's not, not, not part of my life, but, uh, there's, there's a, there's a part of me, like, you know, when I go on set, you want the other person, you want the people to be, ah, this is going to be fun, this is going to be, but it sounds to me like this movie was just like, don't expect to make friends, do your fucking part. I'm there to make a movie to be great. And if they don't want to be like that, that's not going to affect my performance. Well, they don't, you know, I don't, here's the thing about making movies. It's a collaborative thing.

And I don't, I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to try to undercut anybody. You heard Robert Patrick talking about some movie he was on where some actor was trying to undercut him. I think we know he was talking about. Right. But, you know, I never, I've never in my life thought like, oh, you know, if I stood over here, maybe it could take something away from this. I've never done that, nor do I ever see anybody do it to me.

And if I even think that, you know, somebody does their off camera so they're not really paying attention, you're not doing their off camera that well. I'm just like, fuck you, I don't need you to do off camera. I'd rather you, you know, if somebody's just kind of, a lot of times the off camera, I'll just go, I just, you move out of the way and I'll do it to air. I'll do it a piece of tape. I'll do it to a piece of tape. I've done that before, which is better performance because they're not giving me

anything and I don't want to be distracted by the bullshit. And with me, with distraction and you hear, hey, you're in my eye line. Can everybody move out my eye line? I'm like, fuck you, get in my eye line. Do jumping jacks behind the shot. Jesus. You know, that's confidence. I've been doing it for, you've been doing a long time.

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faster with Rocket Money. Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum in the survey so they know I sent you. Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Rocket money. Really quick, I got to hear the Rooker thing. the Rooker's doing was basically, well, there were a couple things when, you know, I was doing my research because I knew I was going to do your podcast, so I figured, you know, and listened to guys were kind of my age, so I listened to Robert Patrick and Fickner and Rooker. And I didn't listen to all of them, all of the show, but I listened to Rooker enough to laugh at a couple of things

that you talked to him about. And one of the things he talked to you about was the fact that You said, do you ever, Michael, do you ever get, like, just angry? You ever get, like, you know, just really, really pissed off? And he said, oh, yeah, well, sometimes I just act like I'm pissed off, you know, for effect. And I just, I heard that, and I just had to laugh because I've known Michael since we did Tombstone. And he and he directed Jennifer in a play, my beautiful wife, Jennifer. Yeah. Love her.

I've heard about you for years because you used to date Danielle and they used to, yeah, that whole thing. And so anyway, he's like, well, you know, sometimes I just act like I'm angry. And you're like, oh, so you're not really, you just act. Yeah, I just act like I'm angry because, you know, I want something done or whatever. And I just laugh because I've seen. Michael totally lose his fucking shit. When we were doing Tombstone, next time you have them on, you have to ask him about George

Cosmodos. And when he was doing, when he was in George Cosmodo's face, was that just for effect? I'm just wondering if that was for effect or if he was really angry. Was he, were you like, holy shit, he can hit him? Nah, you never know it with Michael. You never know. he was in a place that and listen we've all been there i've been there before i'm no saint when it comes to um uh is a christian bail who had the rant um oh yeah i've had a rant like that his lasted mine

lasts for like usually five or six seconds right they don't last for like a minute and a half or whatever and i usually think they're valid uh but i was i you know i used to um i want things right I want things to be right. And it's usually not about another person. It's about the material and the material not being right or moving on when you haven't got what you really need. You let it out on James Cameron, didn't you? No. Never, not once.

No, no, no, no, no. Because Jim, when I first met Jim, I came in, I auditioned for Jim, for The Terminator, him and Gail Hurd. and I got the part and at that time I was the most experienced player around I mean because Arnold hadn't done anything he'd done Conan and then Linda hadn't done much even Stan Winston the the great special effects guy on that show I had he was pretty pretty early in his career I think Cameron wanted Dick Smith originally and Dick Smith I'd worked with before so anyway I was was very very experienced and not very experienced, but kind of experienced.

More than the others. Yeah, quite a bit of work by that time. I was 28. I started working when I was 22 and 21 or 22. And the thing about Jim is what happened. Arnold's option got picked up to go do Conan, the Barbarian 2. I'm not sure what the name of the second one is. And so we were ready to go.

to start shooting. And when that happened, we got, we got pushed. So we had to spend like four months waiting for Arnold to finish Conan the Barbarian. By that time, I'd already been cast, by that time I got to know. And so during that four month period of time, I got, I got to know Jim. And Jim and Stan, I spent loads and loads of hours with them and watched them work. And you don't have to be around Jim Cameron very long to understand that you're working with somebody who is very special, is incredibly creative, incredibly smart, and driven, driven like nobody I've ever worked with before, and nobody puts in as many hours, nobody cares as much. He sets the bar high Michael you know i think you know that uh i did three movies with him uh aliens the abyss

terminator two no terminator one terminator one yeah yeah and aliens and um the abyss right and had a little part in t2 that cut and put back we'll get to that didn't you get paid for that let's get back stay on camera stay on camera inside of you is brought you by rocket money if you want to save Then listen to me because I use this Ryan uses as so many people use Rocket Money. It's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions. Crazy, right? How cool is that? Monitorers your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.

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Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum in the survey so they know that I sent you. Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show. TD Bank knows that running a small business is a journey, from startup to growing and managing your business. That's why they have a dedicated small business advice hub on their website to provide tips and insights on business banking,

to entrepreneurs no matter the stage of business you're in visit td.com slash small business advice to find out more or to match with a TD small business banking account manager so you know Jim he sets the bar high so if you want to come play with Jim Cameron you better be prepared to do your best and I think That's all he ever asks from anybody is their best. I don't, I've never heard Jim lose it scream. I know one story. Well, okay, but it is, is it firsthand?

Oh, yeah. And he's, he was right, though. Well, he's always right. There was a, there was a moment. Have I told that story? Tom Arnold told me this story about true lies. He says he's in the car and Schwarzenegger's really late. And they get in the car.

And Cameron comes up to him and just says, you're fucking my day, man. You're fucking my day. You come up here late. God damn it. I don't want to see you. And he goes off on him for about five seconds, 10 seconds, walks away.

And I don't go, buddy, why don't you punch him in the face for that? He goes, because he was right. Yeah. You know, I don't know where you heard that. I don't know if you heard that story or read it because I read that story myself. I read that. And that I'm sure happened, and I'm sure that Jim could have lost it. My experience with him is that he's intense.

He wants things right, and he wants things done his way. And, you know, there was a time, and I've told this story before. I'm not sure. I've told people that have done interviews with me before. he'll say things on a set like to a crew member don't help don't help you know meaning just you know walk away yeah yeah you're not you're not helping instead of saying it just say don't help yeah but when there was one time when when I was working with him and uh during the Terminator and we're doing something and we do a take or whatever

and he said Michael that's exactly what I don't want and And, you know, the hair on my back of my neck went up a little bit. And by this time, I'd spent much with him. And I said, well, okay, Jim, here's the deal. Everybody on the set knows that you can do their job better than they can do it. But you can't play Kyle Reese. So give me a fucking line reading and let's move on. And he did and I did.

And that's all there is to it. Do you remember the line? come with me if you want to no i don't know i don't remember the particular line you know what's funny you say that is i love it when i'm trying to get something to work just no no put the emphasis i go no just give me the line reading i don't care no ego here what is it i don't want any of you to come here great just like that and that's it i don't want to go through of what i think you want or trying to just tell me what you want sometimes that's easier well in that case it was one in which uh jim is his blunt which i would call him blunt yeah he doesn't coddle actors does he say

hey michael great job on that take oh yeah oh he will oh yeah oh yeah because i mean that's important most times uh as an actor you can for me you know it or you look over to jim you're good i'm good he looks like you with a smile yeah yeah no he's a i think he's i think he's i think he's you know i haven't seen Jim for probably a year before COVID. But he's been, and even though I haven't seen him in four years, Michael, if right now I picked up your phone, and I'm not going to do it, but picked up your phone, and said, I need to speak to Jim Cameron. It's an emergency. I need to speak to Jim Cameron. He would get, I would hear from him in 10 or 15 minutes. And he's that. that kind of guy, you know. He's that kind of friend. But he's not the kind of guy that you hang out

with. He's not the kind of guy that you go, you know, watch a football game with or go out and have a comfortable with stuff like that. He's, he's a machine, he, he's, he's a genius for one thing. And all, and, you know, he's just not the hanging out kind of guy. He's too busy writing, you know, the next avatar he's too busy i got so many stories about um you know working with him uh i'll tell you one that is uh when we're doing um terminator last day of terminator uh we we we wrapped on a friday night you know those friday nights go into like whatever yeah i was beat i was beat he's putting in twice as many hours as i am i'm putting in 12 he's putting in 18 throughout the entire show i'm beat i'm totally beat i get a call on sunday from

Gail heard, his future wife, and she said, hey, Michael, Jim has got a rough cut of the Technoire, which is the gunfight, the fight between me and Arnold in Technoar. If you know, the movie, most people know Technoar. And I, he wants to come over and take a look at it. And I was like, oh, fuck, man. Are you going to suck it up? Yeah, I'm like, I'm beat. I'm beat, you know.

So I drive over the hill because I live in the valley at the time. I drive over the hill and, you know, I go into his, hi, Gail. How are you? Good. Jim's in his office. I walk in and Jim is there and I'm about as far away from you as I was to him. And he's just scribbling away. He's just scribbling and working and scribbling and working.

And I was like, I waited for a while and you didn't notice me. And I was saying, hey, Jim. Hey, Michael. Hey, how you doing? Good. I'm glad you came over. And I said, Jim, what? What?

I'm beat. And I know you've put in twice as many hours on this movie than I have. But what do you want? Three times what, no, what are you doing? What could possibly be so important at this moment that, I mean, he was, I could tell, he was intense way. Yeah, he was writing aliens. He was working on aliens.

That was the Sunday. We wrapped on a late Friday, you know, Friday goes into Saturday morning. He was already going. Yeah. Well, it turns out I've read now that he. already had like 90 pages of it written or a treatment of 90 pages and Fox had already, you know, but Fox had not, I don't think Fox decided to let him direct that until they saw Terminator. But they, but they, they had, they were paying him to to write the script. And he's, he's always

like that. He's always like that, Michael. He, he never stops. And I call him the Terminator. are filmmakers and he's the only filmmaker that I know that's never made a movie that's lost money never and terminator aliens this the avatar titanic true lies all of it all of it because he cares so much about it he doesn't let anything slide that you know it's always a solid there's but there's a lot of people that care about their movies there are a lot of a lot of people that care about their movies. But, you know, there's nobody that I know from a director's standpoint that has been as successful as he was.

I was, he had just won the Academy Award for Titanic and Academy Awards all over the place. And I was on the Fox lot and I got a note, hey, Jim, heard you were on the lot. Why don't you come over and say hi? And so I went over and, hey, Jim, how you doing? and we're talking for a while. And I mean, we used to be pretty close. And I was always honest. You know, when you get that successful,

you get a lot of, ends up getting a lot of people around you who are like, oh, yeah, yeah, good idea. Whatever you want. You didn't have to do that. No, and I didn't, I don't think that he would have wanted me to do that. But this is, but anyway, this has nothing to do. So I go over there and I'm talking to congratulations, all these Academy Awards and all the sort of stuff. And I say, now, now what, Jim?

I mean, just one best picture, best director, best this, best that. Now, how do you top that? What are you going to do? I swear to God, this is a true story, the way I remember it. He was sitting at his desk, okay? He opened his desk drawer, and he pulls out two scripts. One is called Alita Battle Angel, and the other one is called Avatar. And I didn't know what Alita Battle Angel meant.

I didn't know what Avatar meant. I didn't even know. There were full scripts, too. They weren't treatments. There were scripts. And I looked and I said, Jim, well, cool. Which one are you going to do?

And he said, I don't know, Michael, I have to wait for the technology to catch up to the, you know, my idea of what these movies should look like. So he waited after Titanic before he started Avatar, I think was like 10 years. He waited to do Avatar. And he did Avatar first. And then because that became such a huge moneymaker, he gave Alita Battle Angel to Robert Rodriguez,

who by the way is another brilliant, brilliant, brilliant guy to work with. Did you work with him on Mandalorian? No, I worked. I saw him on Mandalorian. He was prepping the next show. He was prepping the next show. Dave Filoni directed, the one that I, I was in. And, um, no, I did a show called, uh, grind house. Right. That was, that was him and

Quentin Tarantino doing the old, uh, old school, yeah, the old, the old thing. So that was an incredible experience because I got to spend every single day, uh, with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. And Quentin Tarantino is just fab, both of them. I mean, they're both so highly, worked with the greats man well some i never got to work with i've met spielberg i got a funny story about spilbert did you would you audition or ever for spilbert you know i went into him for uh what's the harrison ford what's the big one that he did the first you know raiders the lost art yeah i went in and i was obviously young i don't know oh there you go i'm a child well that's all right um this is a crazy story it's a true story and i've got a lot

of interesting stories about people that i've met and um i went in i'm not sure what i had done maybe the fan which was a movie yeah yeah what i did with lauren becall but uh i went over i had a it was a meeting they just you know i had a good agent at the time real and always had him uh ed lamato uh yeah and uh so ed ed sent me over to meet stephen spilberg and um so you know at the time nervous you know michael do you ever get nervous with these kind of guys not when i'm uh uh just talking to them if i'm um if i'm auditioning for somebody. Yeah, of course I get nervous. When I'm on a movie set, first day of work, or if I come in and do an episodic, or if I come in at somebody else's

set that's been doing it for his years. And yeah, I get nervous. Sure. Yeah, I still have nerves. But when I go in to meet somebody, I, you know, I'm just going to be me. Right. And there's nothing to, you're right. You're right. It's a lot easier than. Yeah, I'm not like trying. I'm like, oh, you can either like me or you don't like me. And so I went in. I got a funny story about Paul Schrader, too, the director. But I went in to meet him, and he was over at Universal, and was on a sound stage, and there was nothing in the stage, except for in the middle of it, was a kitchen. And a kitchen like the French chef kitchen, you know, where they, you would think that

they would chew the cooking. This is way before cooking shows and stuff or whatever. Right. So I'm led in, and I'm like, he's over there. And I walk over, and Stephen Spielberg is there. and he's got like a like he's got an apron on he's got flour all over he's got a hat he's got he's got flour all over him and there's a guy there and he's like making terry pies and i'm like hi mr spilbert my name is michael bean hey michael how you doing and we talked for

probably 20 minutes i think that he realized very quickly on i was too young for the role i think Harrison Ford's got a few years on me. I was too young to play that role, but he was very nice and wonderful. But the entire time I was talking to him, he was making pies. And he was, you know, squirting stuff in there and doing the edges. That's so weird. And I said to him, Mr. Spielberg, when I was leaving, I said, I got to ask you, you know, this has been interesting and thank you so much for seeing me, but like, what's the whole deal with the pies? You know, why, why are you making pies? And he said, Michael, I find the casting process to be kind of, forget the word he used, but kind of time consuming and a waste of time at the same time. It's like you have to spend a lot

of time doing it. So he's basically multitasking. So he said, while I'm doing this, movie, I'm learning to cook. And you happen to come in on the day that I'm making that I'm learning to make cherry pies. So he at the same time he's talking to me, which is easy for him to do. He's cooking. And, you know, back in the, that was back in the day before phones and all that sort of stuff. But he was probably, you know, doing something else at the same time. You know what's funny is I, with all the stuff you've done, you have such a, I mean, You've done so many amazing roles. But I remember as a kid, and you're not that much older than me, but watching your

performances. 16 years old. 16. So you're an older brother. Whatever. I'm trying to make you feel good. But look, there's very few actors. There's actors out there that you look at and you go, this is a movie star.

This is an old school movie star. This is like the old days. I always looked at you and those performances. when you're on screen, to me, it was like, I just, it's movie star, the looks, the, the, the, the, the, the power, the not having to do too much. And all these movies. And I always wonder, are you just born cool or were you, where you, where you were, no, listen, you got the when you were born. I mean, obviously, you got great jeans. Like, you look at these roles.

You're like, oh, my God, every girl wants you. Every director wants to hire you. You're the action guy. You're the brooding kind of dark, but lovable. all these things were you like a were you popular in high school were you like did you get the girls don't lie to me michael i was popular i wasn't the most popular kid in school uh i uh was never i never thought nobody ever you know uh women i've always been uh very uh afraid of rejection so i all yeah yeah well but i i i really i'm like

you know like i'm really afraid of uh of rejection so i didn't put myself out very much um was i the coolest kid in school no absolutely not was i the coolest kid in my grade in high school no i definitely wasn't was i with a group of jocks about uh 10 of us that were kind of cool in in the jot we weren't stoners we weren't christians we were the jocks right and in that group Yeah, I was somewhat popular, but no, I don't know. And here's the thing that what you just mentioned, and that was, you talk about a movie star, okay? I am a way better actor than I am a movie star because they're two complete different. To be a movie star and a great actor like Tom Hanks.

or Denzel Washington, or, you know, there are a number of people that are true movie stars. I was never, ever comfortable. I never had a publicist. I was never comfortable on the red carpet. I was never comfortable doing press. They're an introvert. In that way, I expressed myself. I was, you know, I was into acting.

I really cared about, like, my part. I really wanted to do a good job, and I really cared about that. But when it came to, like, doing articles and magazines and being on the cover of magazines and stuff like that, you know, and you can go back and find me on the cover of Teen Beat magazine or whatever, like 50 years ago or whatever. And it's not like I ever, I never did it, but I just wasn't that good. And I had a lifestyle that, you know, thank God they didn't have phones. When I was 20 through about 14.

Why? What were you doing? Oh, I did a lot of drinking. A lot of drinking. When you say a lot of drinking, was it something that you'd wake up and drink? Yes. How much? At least a fifth a day. A fifth a day of whiskey? Yes. How long? First I ended up being vodka because people could smell whiskey on my breath. I would go on runs, Michael. If I would, you know, if I'm going to go work on a James Cameron movie, I'm not going to be drinking. If I'm going to go work with Michael I'm not going to be drinking. If I'm going to go work with Billy Friedkin, I'm not going to be drinking. But you just wouldn't drink while you were prepping? Oh, I drink while I was prepping, but not, I would never drink when I was working.

Right. You know, I would never, but I did drink on jobs, but they were jobs where I didn't really respect the director. I didn't, you know, it was just a paycheck. And I could do my job just as well as anybody else. Nobody ever has to wait on me on a set. and nobody ever had to wait on me on a movie set you know where's you know we're ready to go where's michael that never happens but you know i used to get up uh when i met jennifer

we were doing a movie together and i'd get up and before i was in front of the camera i'd probably have i have had eight ounces of of alcohol get up and have what i call a double deuce most people couldn't function eight ounces starting their day you get tired how do you how do you the energy how do you keep the focus uh you know alcohol works and works and works for you until it doesn't work and i was uh i was a good friend of um i considered him a good friend you know george c scott you know george c scott yeah okay okay well george c's is not in the files fucking yeah one of the best actors ever yeah and george see and i did a movie uh a tv movie years and years and years ago and he offered me a part in the he did a uh a television movie

a robert homie television movie uh where he was patent two or whatever and he offered me a role in that well we got to be kind of drinking buddies and he's the i used to watch him on on the set that i worked with him on and he used to have it was like a court it was like a bottle that had like a handle on it you know and he would start during the morning and he would drink all day long and you would never, ever see him stumble, mumble his words, nothing. He just drank. There's almost like an energy drink. Well, I don't know.

What is it about alcohol that was like that you felt throughout the day? Was it just relaxed you and kind of you just kept at that pace at that level? I just did it because I could at that time in my life. I enjoyed it. I felt when I was drinking, the person. person that when I was drinking, I felt that was truly who Michael Bean was. When I wasn't drinking, I think that I have barriers up and insecurities. I'm a little bit, don't say certain things. And I'm afraid somebody will, and I felt like when I was drinking, that was the true

me. Because I didn't have any, you know, I didn't have any filters. But was that a lie that you learn later? I don't, I don't know, Michael. I, I, I, I, I, I, I did it for so. And, you know, I, I started when I was 15. I started when I was 14, 15. I was, and I was a wake and bake guy for 30 years, you know, so I was doing doing that too. And, you know, I was, I was at that age during the 80s when Coke was a big deal. And you love Coke. I didn't love Coke, but I didn't like Coke because one thing I couldn't get a heart on when I used Coke.

Right. Well, that sucks. That's a bad drug right there. Why are you doing that? But I used to use it to continue drinking. You know, it would keep me awake so I could drink more. And I did my share. What made you stop?

I was killing myself. Ever wonder how dark the world can really get? Well, we dive into the twisted, the terrifying, and the true stories behind some of the world's most chilling crimes. Hi, I'm Ben. And I'm Nicole. Together we host Wicked and Grimm, a true crime. podcast that unpacks real life horrors one case at a time with deep research dark storytelling

and the occasional drink to take the edge off we're here to explore the wicked and reveal the grim we are wicked and grim follow and listen on your favorite podcast platform you know who told you that did is it someone you listen to everybody everybody kind of gave up on me my uh Jennifer had given up on me uh my mother had given up on me uh my agents had given up on me uh my agents had given up on me And I, you know, I've been in four rehabs. I've been in four rehabs. And that whole AA thing never quite worked for me. I don't have that good of an attention span.

So, like, I don't even know, like, what the first step is, let alone the third one or the fourth one. And it just, it never worked. I think I didn't stay 30 days in two of them or three of them. And the last one, I think I did 30 days. And I was doing it because other people told me I should. do it. But it got to a point where I was rock bottom. Yeah, in my mind, I was rock bottom. My money was running out. People around me, my friends and family just kind of didn't want to see me kill myself. And so I just stopped. I didn't just stop. I didn't just stop. I had a doctor who I spoke

to yesterday, actually, who prescribed Xanax to me. I'd never taken Xanax before. Then I started taking Xanax, and I just, that was it. I just quit drinking. Do you still take Xanax? Yes, but a very small amount for, you know what a bar of Xanax is? Two milligrams, of course. All right. Well, I used to take four bars. That's eight milligrams. Well, whatever four bars, that's a lot of milligrams. Now I'm down to a half a bar. And I take it at. at night to go to sleep and uh it seems it seems to take i don't i think uh also beyond it just feeling oh hey this is the real michael bean i think that i had a lot of anxiety michael i think that i had a lot of anxiety but i'm not good at identifying it i'm like one of those kids kids right

no i don't think it's a weakness i just don't i'm not i'm not self introspective i don't i don't look at myself how am i feeling today oh i feel this way oh i feel a little bit i don't realize that I, you know, I don't realize, you know, that I'm having feelings until all of a sudden, you know, I pick up and start fucking drinking. And then I realize, oh, yeah, you know, you, you know, you were upset or you were, you know, anxious. Anxious is kind of a big thing. But in acting, a lot of it is, is being anxious. And I can go back. I can think of like, even going way back to when I did Hill Street Blues at lunchtime, you know, going across the street and having three or four beers. So I come back and do my job. And, and, and I was great on Hill Street Blues.

And I've always been good. I had one day, one day my entire life on a show with Britney Murphy. And I can't think of the name of it, uh, where it was a real train wreck. But I think it was more my, And they basically, they took me, well, they took me off the scent. And I fought the, I fought the cops. I ended up in a, what they call it, a 5150, like the mental, mental ward for 51 hour, 52 hours. What happens? You just got too drunk? Well, I think it had to do with, there was alcohol involved, Michael, but there was a lot of stress when I was leaving my second.

wife and wanting to be with Jennifer. I had children. I had, I was just in a lot of pain. I never want to hurt anybody. My second wife, I was hurting. Jennifer wanted me to shit, I get off the, you know, and I was right in that spot where you shouldn't be, you know, there's an old cowboy saying is, you know, if you straddle a barbed wire fence, you know, and that's, you know. And so I think, think it was more of a mental breakdown that I had, a mental event. It's amazing. It happened. Didn't happen earlier. Well, it is. But that's the one day that it was the last day of shooting. So everybody was a Friday. Everybody had their plans to go home. So they had to come back on Tuesday when I got out of the 50-250. And one of the requirements of me getting out of

whatever they got jail, whatever they call it, was that I had to go. to rehab and I think that was the last rehab that I was that I was in but you know that's all in the past and uh how do you feel now like how do you feel because when I bumped into you in Australia we were doing a convention together yeah and what I noticed because I'd met you years ago we had like breakfast with Danielle and Jennifer at some place called something 11 411 and studio city yeah yeah yeah I remember that place but we just had a breakfast and from the time I saw you there than to seeing you an Australian person, I noticed a different person. Well, here's the thing.

But I noticed someone who now was excited about life, about excited about what he was about to do, a new project. And like, it was just like, I was like, oh, wow. Michael, 12 years ago, I had a devastating stroke. A devastating stroke. How long? Twelve years ago. What happened?

Well, um, I went to bed one night with Jennifer, and I woke up in the middle of the night with a really bad headache, really bad headache, went in, urinated, went back to bed, got up that morning. I had a job that I was starting the next day, and I opened up my script to look at my script, and I couldn't read it. It was like Chinese. I couldn't read it. I was like, Jennifer, I can't read this. I can't read this. What do you mean you can't read it?

I can't read it. I can't read this. And she said, okay, she knew immediately that something was on. Thank God for Jennifer, because she immediately, like, you know, called my doctor, drove me to Cedars. I think it was Cedars. And at that time, Michael, I didn't know my children's name. I didn't know my, I didn't know who the president was. I think it was Obama.

Were you terrified? No. I was in a kind of a floating thing. But what happened, Michael, is I got like 50% of my memory back pretty quickly. But it's taken until right before COVID that all of my memories come back. When you have a stroke and your brain tears like that, it, it, it, he, it, it, it, it, it, he, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, he, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, he. will heal itself your brain will heal itself and but it takes a long time and it's very very very frustrating so names places streets uh numbers uh being able to navigate um i really did not uh did not

feel um like i was back and and when i act for instance i have to i have to act like i've always I listened to you and Michael talk about hearing things on headphones and stuff like that. And, you know, I totally respect that. And I get it. But for me, if I can't be the way that I used to be, it's not fulfilling. If somebody's got to feed me lines or something like that, I just, I don't like it. And so 10 years ago, that's, 12 years ago, that's, you know, I really stopped working. I mean, did I work?

Yeah, I worked here and there. But that's when I started doing the Comic-Con is because I have a 19-year-old son now. He was 12 at the time, or not 19 minus 12, whatever that is. And my son, Dashel. And so I still, I had bills to pay. And so. You had to work. I had to work.

And I worked on a lot of stuff that they would pay me, you know, quite a bit of money to come in. and do like three days, or not three days, like one day or two days, and then they use my name and stamp it up there and put it up, oh, Michael Bean, you know, picture of me with a gun or something on the front of the thing. And then, you know, slowly but surely, you're, you go down. And I'm out of that now. I did, I did Mandalorian, which was, I didn't have a lot of dialogue in that, but I did The Walking Dead recently. And Walking Dead, I had about nine pages. I had about nine pages that I had to do. And for me, Michael, I don't like to be the person. I think I mentioned this earlier, I don't like to be the person when you're doing a shot. There are a lot of elements involved.

There's the DP looking at stuff. There's a camera operator that this got his job. There's a focus play. There's sound. There's all that kind of stuff. Any one of those elements can fuck up a shot. and it's highly important to me that I don't fuck up a shot by going uh sorry I forgot my line it's highly important to me so you go over these lines oh hundreds and hundreds of times if not thousands yeah and till you have it like second nature yeah and and and and and but it was for a long time Michael I couldn't do it I just couldn't remember anything what had that make you feel were you depressed no I was uh frustrated I never I never was well I I I guess there were times that I've been depressed in my life and laid around for a month or something. But I've

always worked out. I'm always going to the gym and I think that's helped me a lot. But I was very, very frustrated because every once a year I would like, you know, try to pick something up, try to try to memorize it like I used to. And I just, you know, I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. And so I shied away. And then once my memories started coming back and once it started coming back to a place where I was in really good shape. Confidence, having the confidence as an actor is a very important quality. I think it's one of the most important qualities to be an actor and go like, yeah, this is my shit.

Like, take it or leave it. So it took you those doing those small roles, doing a couple pages, building it up, building that confidence up to where you can get back to where you once were. I am back to where I was before now because I just did, I did the, I did the, I did the, The Walking Dead. And the Walking Dead, like I said, was about eight, eight, nine pages. And, you know, they did how many shots, you know. So they're doing, like, in my direction, they're doing about eight shots on me.

So I nailed that every time. And then this last summer, this last year, last summer I did two pieces of, and now, Michael, I just call it content because it's not, it's not film. it's not television it's just content so anyway i did one in thailand uh which was a like a prison uh fighting movie had to do with that i was in prison and had some children that were trying to get me out that are trying to get me out uh i think it's gonna maybe end up on the paramount i i'm not sure um it's called lock it was originally called bangkok lockdown or lockup and i think they had to take the bangkok off because we were shooting it in thailand and thailand they didn't want you know, Thailand's pretty nervous about anything this bad.

And then I went to Australia and I shot another movie in Australia, which I was involved in, really come from a kind of a right from the beginning of helping the filmmakers create the character, not create the character, but I just helped them a lot. They're first time filmmakers. And I'm very, very good. I don't write scripts, but I'm very good at writing. stuff. So, I mean, yeah, I had two, you know, I was worked, I worked three months on one and two months on the other one. And during that entire time, I never had to say, uh, sorry, I forgot

my line. And that just builds confidence. Yeah, now I'm confident. Now I feel like I could, you know, call Cameron up. Well, you know, I mean, no, I mean, I feel like I could, I could work with anybody, you know, and it's not, you know, these days, it's not about, it's not about, it's not about, you know, it's not about like, oh, you know, like, oh, I'm going to do this, and that's going to make me, you know, people are going to, you know, it's like just having the experience. Would I like to work with Cameron? Yeah, just because I like being around geniuses, you know. Would I like to work with Meryl Streep? Yes, because I like to work with Gensoe Washington, yes, because I work with, you know, great people. Would I like to work

with Johnny Depp? I'd love to work with Johnny Depp. Michael Rosenbaum. I was saving the best for last. I was waiting when it was coming. Let me ask you, what, um, because it, this is awesome. What a great story about like, you know, it's just like you were, you were, and essentially, drinking yourself to death. You were essentially like lost the confidence, lost who you were. That wasn't because the- Well, the stroke. The stroke is what did that to me. But I'm sure there was an accumulation of like a lot of things that probably contributed to that. Yeah. But now you're 66. You're in the best shape like you've probably been in a long time. You look confident. You're doing all these things. What do you, what is your goal? Do you have like

an idea like your agents like I want to be up for the big stuff now I want to be well how do you approach that are you just continue to want to just act and whatever comes to you whatever comes my way I've never been very good at auditioning so I I usually take stuff um that's offered to me you know I went from a period of time after I did Terminator until uh 17 years without auditioning and and I did um you know I didn't have to audition for mandolarian they didn't have to audition for uh walking dead i didn't audition for either one of these movies um that i did pieces of content that i did um so i forgot what was your no about like what you want like oh yeah you know what i don't i don't i don't you're content i'm very

content i'm very content i'm content because i know that i've got a career that already you know when you're in a movie, like just Terminator, Aliens, and Tombstone. I had been like I did it. I was a movie star. I'm done. I thought I was going to retire. And then, you know, Mandalorian came along. And there's just certain people like John Favre that you just don't say no to.

That still want to see you. Yeah. Can you come in and support Rosario Dawson, who by the way is fucking awesome. She's going to come on the podcast too. Yeah. She's awesome. Oh, she's awesome. Tell her.

I, you know, she knows how I feel about her. And there's just certain people. And then, you know, when I did The Walking Dead, it was Greg Nicotero who had done all the special effects on Robert Rodriguez's movie, is now the showrunner on that. And so I'm not, I'm not very good at auditioning, but I'm, once I really sink my teeth into something, I feel, yeah, I feel pretty good and confident. This is called shit talking with Michael Bean. And by the way, I mean, you're coming on again.

This is like, I honestly, you have so many stories and so many things to talk about. I got to bring you back on. Okay. You got to say yes. Oh, yes. Dude, this is like. You haven't heard any. You asked me earlier if I was funny.

Well, you haven't heard anyone. No, this is, this is just epic. I'm honestly sitting here going, oh, shit, I should have a question ready. I don't. I just, I'm listening to you and like going and I'm imagining all the things you're telling me. It's called shit talking about Michael Bean. These are my top tier patrons. Go to patreon.com slash anxiety to support the podcast.

I love you. But these are questions. Rapid Fire. Stone H. What was it like filming Navy Seals with Charlie Sheen? Was it a fun movie to star in? Love that movie. Fucking horrible.

I hated it. I hated it because it could have been top gun. Charlie was great. Charlie was sober as a church, whatever. Charlie was great. We had a great cast. Do I get one word or just answered me? No, go ahead.

Yeah. We had a great cast. We had Paxson, we had Rick Rossovic, we had John Wally Kilmer, who was smoking. We had an Academy Award-winning DEP, and we had a director who did know what the fuck he was doing. Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, so that was the worst experience I ever had making a movie. And it, you can tell by watching it. You might have liked it, but you're one of the few.

Raj, tell me a TV or movie quote you find yourself repeating the most than people ask you or whatever. Me? Yeah. Do you have any quote that people ask say, hey, Oh, yeah. Well, you know, come with me if you want to live. Stay frosty. I want your blood. I want your soul. I want them both right now. Now I get a lot of stuff like that. Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup. Pick any two breakfast items for $4. New four-piece French toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, biscuit or English muffin sandwiches, small hot coffee, and more. Limited time only at participating Wendy's Taxes Extra.

Jam and Jenny, are you planning on producing more movies with your wife, Jennifer Blanc? No, you know what? That was during a period of time where I was still suffering, my memory. And, you know, that was Jennifer. Jennifer was always there for me. She was always able to, if we were doing an interview or something, speak for me. But now, there's no money in it. And it's a lot of hard work.

And so, yeah, so probably not. Tell me a story, just a quick story about Bill Paxton that you remember from working with him. And how were you close with him and how did him passing affect you? Well, Bill and I did a movie called Lords of Discipline together. That's where I met Bill. And Bill is a live wire. Bill is he comes into a room and you know it. A lot of fun, very passionate, knows films well.

I had worked at Roger Corman's company. with Jim Cameron. I did five movies with him. So I knew Bill before he met Louise. He met Louise when we were right at the end of Lord's Discipline. And then we went over and did aliens together. That was the greatest time that I had with Bill. I mean, you know, next time you have me on, I'll tell you, because it's about a 10

minute story. Maybe I could cut it down, but to really do it justice and really to do Bill justice, you know, I'll come back. But he was, I've, he, he, he seemed to enjoy life more than other people. He seemed to like eat life and, you know, with a smile. And he was always kind of bigger than life. And as an actor, he got started off that way. And he was so great in aliens for being, that's a little bit like Bill Paxson without the coward part, okay? That's a little bit like who Bill Paxon was. But throughout the years, he was able to bring that down. And by the time he was working with Billy Bob Thornton and doing his television series for HBO, he was just a really good actor.

And his being hired was not based on his personality. But he's an infectious, infectious personality who I spent, well, I spent a couple, yeah, I didn't know him as well before, you know, I saw him on the 25th anniversary of aliens, and we were talking a little bit. And he started to talk to me about his, something to do with his heart. And I was listening because I've had open heart surgery. that's another he's coming back right don't you worry open heart bill packs and stories he's coming back go ahead he's telling you about his heart yeah well he started talking about his heart and i've got um rico simanini is my cardiologist one of the best in the in the country and uh i i had

my heart surgery done by a guy named bud fraser who's more used to doing heart transplant mine was a one foot putt something i was no it was i was born with a regurgher Vagitating valve or a heart murmur. So I've had it my whole life, but I got to be 50, 52 or three or whatever it was. It was right after I had my stroke. No, it was before. I don't know. You know, whatever. But anyway, he's telling you about his heart. So he started talking to me about his heart and somebody pulled me away. And so I never had the conversation with him because I would have immediately said to him, you got to talk to my guy, Rico. He's the best in the business. I've had it, you know, and he was aware of that, and I think he probably wanted to talk to me about it.

Bill went to Cedar Sinai and was operated on, and my opinion is that they budgeted him. And I think that his family felt that way. They filed a lawsuit against Cedars, which was finally, it was supposed to go to court last December, and they finally settled out of court. It was a very simple surgery, what he was doing, and he had a doctor that, you know, well, according to Bill's family, he made a lot of mistakes. And I had a little bit of inside knowledge on what happened. And here's the thing about it is, you know, we've all got a date with our name on it.

and Bill's happened to be that he nobody could have enjoyed life more than Bill nobody could have had more fun nobody could have loved as much as he did um nobody could have been a better father uh he's he was human you know he and i used to get into some trouble together so he was human but uh uh one of the uh and i kind of took him on as a younger brother because i had worked more at the time So I would, I felt like I, I helped him become, from an acting standpoint, he used to go to a acting coach that I first started with, named Vincent Chase, and he stayed with Vincent Chase right up until he died. But he didn't, he didn't need to die, but, you know, none of us need to die. Were you very upset about it? It really impact you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah. I,

just because, you know, we're all going to die. But when it happens like that, you know, when it happens because of violence or because of somebody making a mistake or somebody's hubris and thinking, oh, I'm going to try it this way. And it makes it makes it more difficult. And, you know, more than anything else, I miss him, you know. I just miss him. And even though we only spoke to each other once or twice a year towards the end of his career, because he was working so much and I was always working. And so, but when we were young, we were, we were really tight.

And, you know, he, he, he, he was, he was just a, a lot of fun to be around. And it was, it was tough, it was tough to see him, that happened to him, you know, you know, I'm going to end it on the worst thing ever. Okay. Get ready for this. I thought, well, you already mentioned Navy SEAL. You did, fucker. No, did I? Oh, yeah, I did, yeah, yeah.

When Travolta hit you in the balls in Greece. That was you? Yes. In Greece. He comes over. You want to hear the story? Yes. Okay.

I had no idea that was you. Well, here's the deal. I went in, the director's name was Randall Kleiser. And Randall had me in, and I read for him and the producers. I think it was Paramount, went over there about five times, and read for the role that Lorenzo Llamas played in the movie. Remember Lorenzo Lama? Yeah.

So when Olivia Newton-John and him kind of split up, she goes off with Lorenzo Llamas to make him jealous, and Lorenzo Llamas is the jock sort of thing. So therefore, he tries to do all the sports. And so I read a number of times. It was obviously the number two pick for that. And I think that I think that Randall just kind of thought, geez, Michael came in here and was probably very disappointed. Let's bring him in for a day. They brought me in as an actor.

So I got paid as an actor, like $750 back then or whatever. And I came in and I, you know, I did that scene with John Travolta where he's trying to impress Livian Newton, John, by playing sports, baseball, wrestling, and all this stuff. And I happen to be, I don't know if Randall picked me because I was, but yeah, I was the guy that he hit in the stomach. There's also another shot in the movie where Kinnaki pulls out the frog in the classroom. But that, that, that shot starts on a girl in the front row and it starts panning and it pans right across me. So it's just, I think it's just me. Full screen is before the scene really starts. I look like I'm about 12 and I was like 19 or something like that.

And it pans across me and then, you know, Kinniki does something and then the scene starts. But that's, but so that was, oh, let's throw this kid a bone because he auditioned well for so many times. Let me ask you. Lastly, do you still get residuals for grease? Yes. I get, I get residual. For everything you've done, obviously. Yeah, but over the years, Michael, as you will know, they, they become smaller and dwindles and dwindles and dwindles. And what's happened now, because I had this stroke and because I started doing the comic cons, now, you know, Michael, the last one I saw you at was in Pittsburgh, I believe. And, dude, I made so much money. I made, because of, Terminator and aliens and basically it's not work you just stand there and people and people come up and just tell you how much they love you well yeah I but that's because I did Terminator aliens and Tombstone and the Abyss and the Rock and and that's all I do is stand

there and have people tell me how much they love me and have me money it doesn't suck it's not work But I do miss, like I said, you know, so yeah, I mean, you know, I, I, I, you know, like, life is good. And life is good. I love this. I'm not kidding. I want you to come back. There's so many things I want to talk. I mean, I could talk to you. We won't get into it now, but I'm going to talk to you about the rock and working under Brookheimer and working for Jerry. Yeah, Brockheimer. Unbelievable. And Don Simpson, who I knew. Oh, yeah. I saw Don Simpson two days before he died. So anyway, if you guys want him back, he's coming back anyway. I love this guy. Yeah, I'll come back. But I'll come back anytime.

Was this awesome? I mean, honestly, I didn't ever really even look. I don't even, I just, I've been around a long time, Michael. But, dude, I love this. Thank you so much for coming out. And you're coming back. You promise me. I promise.

Yeah, anytime. All right, follow this man. You're on Instagram? No. You're not, you don't need that. See, real movie stars don't need that shit. I don't know. They don't need that shit.

I I I know any cons coming up uh no let me not not I I will let you know um I'm not but no and if I did uh Jennifer would know she's she's my girl Friday she she takes care of me she we were in love and she but she I couldn't have done I couldn't have come back from the the stroke that had been for her she supported me the entire she's stuck with you man she really did this is a life right wonderful and lastly when when the cameras go off and the audio stops you're going to sign my aliens poster that's going to cost you all right thanks for coming on my pleasure i loved it i love that it it went long too because it was just like so fun and intense and real and old school hollywood ones are always good yeah always informative yeah but he just

like you know he just let you in on his rough past and what he went through and a lot of things that a lot of people didn't know and i think uh a lot of this stuff could go viral because i don't think a lot of people knew about this stuff and he's hoping he opened up unless he's i don't think he tells the world about everything but he felt pretty open with me right michael i love you buddy thanks for coming on um yeah that was awesome and uh if you didn't get a chance to listen to the beginning of the show just a reminder to uh you know subscribe to the podcast write a review it really helps the podcast follow us on our handles out inside of you podcast on instagram and facebook at inside you pot on the twitter and uh my new band sunspin has an album out go to it's sunspin the album's called

never is what it is you find that everywhere streaming or buy the cd on sunspin.com along with zooms with the band and all that stuff and that's about it um yeah why don't we do what we do best read the top tier patrons all right go to patron dot com slash inside of you and become a patron today i love these guys uh let's see you know i feel like i want to read a different way each time but like it's like you know i don't know nancy what if i use nancy and then their last name they give the initial i i put say a word but not their last name sure you can get that up lant nancy delicious lea savvy sarah Dixon, Little Lisa,

Eukiko, Jill. Ebullian. Easy does it. Brian H. Brian, how are you? Nico Pleasant. Robert, brother. Jason. Worth it. Worth it.

Sophie. Miraculous. Kristen. Killer. Kristen Killer Raj Come on Joshua

Don't Jennifer not now Stacey love you Jamal friggin A Janelle Best Friends

Oh no Mike Mike Effervescent Effervescent, Eldon Supremo, 99 more, Santiago, my man, Chad, whoopee, Leanne, paradoxical, Leanne Paradise, there you know, Janine Real, Maya, present, Maddie, Belinda, never, Say never. Dave, how long has this been going on? Sheila, G. Money.

Brad, dynamite. Ray, have a great day. Tabitha. Too much. Tom, nice. Man. Should we continue? How many more?

99 more? We get a lot more. Lillianna, just think of one as I go for the next one. You're going to think of Talia M. I want to go. Lillianna, A's for Apple, Talia. Magical. Betsy, don't stop believing.

Chad. Liquorice. Lickish. Dan Neat. Big Stevie W. Angel. My beautiful. Rian and C.

Cool. Rianning Cool, Corey Crystal, Dev Nexon, Michelle, acrobatical, Jeremy Chippendale. Okay. Brandy D. Brandy. Daredevil. Okay. Camille Sweet.

Joni. Mitchell. Mitchell. Joni Baby. Joey Mitchell. Joey Mitchell. Joey. Eugene and Leah.

Corey. Heather Locklear. Jake Busey. Megan. Malali. T. Megan. Thoughtful.

Hmm. Angela Basset. Did the thing. Free. Mel. Sly. Orlando. See?

Orlando City. Orlando City. Carolina. Yeah, Caroline R, Caroline Rocks, Christine scores, Eric Hammer, Shane Rules, Emma, right on, Andrew, my brother, Zadouichi 77, Andrew, nicely done, my friend, Oracle, Karina, and Karina, Notekeeper, Amanda, Amanda. I don't know, rule, uh, reigns. All right. Jen Bright. Kevin Elixir.

Stephanie K. Stephanie Karate. Jor L. All right. I've got a few left and then we'll never do this again. Billy Stupendous. Jammin. Jammin J.

Jammin. Jiamin. Jupiter. Leanne Juice. Luna. Ray. Cindy. Ever. Everly. Mike, forget about it. Stonehenge. Miss Salami. Brian Lover. Katie, Be Real. Aaron Roars. Kendall Loves. House of Jarrell. Meredith Irisdhistible.

uh see crafty crafty and cara courageous that's it we did it we did it we got through we you can't just do half of them and the other people know we did it it's off the cuff we love you thank you for being here today thank you for listening to michael bean uh you rock and uh thank you for all the top tiers and all the love and the following and please continue to do so and support the podcast it means the world to me from the hollywood hills in californ california i'm I'm Ryan Taylor's. I'm also here. Yes, you are. You're always here. A little wage with the camera. We love you. Be good to yourself.

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