Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Modern Family's Nolan Gould on reinventing yourself and living outside of your comfort zone

Episode Date: November 23, 2020

Nolan Gould is best known for playing Luke Dunphy on Modern Family. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet for this conversation from his home in Los Angeles, CA and Modern Family coming to an end earlier this year after 11 seasons, a huge part of his life has also come to an end. In fact, Nolan has spent more than half of his life on that TV show and he grew up before America's eyes each week. We talk about what's next for him in his career, how he got started in acting because of his older brother, why he thought he bombed the audition for Modern Family, the first big purchase he made with his Modern Family money, being mistaken for Shawn Mendes, an interesting theory about aliens, who his acting inspiration is and so much more.   Support the show by supporting our sponsors:BOSLEY- Get a free info kit and a $250 off gift card by texting CVV to 203-203 or visit https://www.bosley.com/lp/chrisvanvliet/ INDEED- Get a $75 credit to boost your job post by going to http://indeed.com/BlueWire BETONLINE- Get a new sign-up bonus by using the promo code BLUEWIRE at http://betonline.ag Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 2003, Nike signed 13-year-old Freddie Adieu to a seven-figure contract. But Freddie didn't live up to the hype. He has turned down every single documentary project looking closely at the details of his career. Until now. People are going to look at everything you did. Because of the hype surrounding your arrival and what they think you can be. I'm Grant Wall. And this is American Prodigy, Freddie Adieu, from Blue Wire Podcasts.

It's Chrysalmania, brother. That's a great question. Look at you, man. With the powerful questions. Woo! This is the Chris Van Vleet Show. Chris Van Fleet Show. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris.

The... Well, welcome back, my friends, to the Chris Van Fleet Show. This episode is brought to you by Bosley, Indeed, and Bet Online. And it's pretty crazy to think that my guest today, Nolan Gould, spent more than half his life on the same TV show. He started on Modern Family when he was just 11 years old, and when he was 21, the show came to an end earlier this year. And a lot of this interview is talking about reinvention. And this happens in all of our lives, whether you're on TV or not. This happens to all of us, because oftentimes our identity is tied to a certain job or maybe

a specific relationship. And when that comes to an end, you have to look ahead to what's next. And there's so many little nuggets in this conversation that you'll be able to apply to your life no matter what you do or no matter what stage of your life

that you're in. So take a screenshot, tag us on Instagram, so we know that you're with us on this conversation. We can say hi to you. This is easy. It's just our name. So I'm at Chris Fiamfleet. He is at Nolan Gould. And if it's your first time here, make sure to subscribe on whatever platform it is that you're listening on. And thank you for continuing to bring the reviews on Apple Podcasts as we creep ever so close

to that goal of getting 2,000 reviews. And I'm going to keep reading one out on every episode as my way to say, thank you for being on this ride with me. And hopefully there's some modern family fans on this ride. Braziant says, amazing. I love listening to this podcast when on the road driving back to college. Great guests and interesting content on every interview. Well, thank you so much. Braziant. Braziant. I hope that you're having a great year at college, despite, you know, everything that's going on in the world right now. I hope that you're able to, you know, still have a good time at college. Okay. So if you've watched modern family, you'll know Nolan Gould as Luke Dunphy. The youngest kid in the family,

But he couldn't be any more different from Luke. Nolan and Luke are polar opposites. In fact, Nolan is a genius. Yeah, an actual genius and a member of Mensa. We talk about how he got into acting because of his brother. Why he thought he actually bombed the audition for modern family. We talk about the first big purchase he made with his modern family money. Being mistaken for Sean Mendez, they do look very, very similar.

We talk about all that and so much more. So please enjoy this conversation with the one, the only. Nolan Gould. Well, here we go. All right, Nolan, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Dude, thanks for having me. I'm stoked to just see another face. Yeah, it's nice to see another human right now.

We also have matching microphones, which I appreciate. That's right. We've got a nice little podcast squad going on here. Yeah, this is like an official podcast thing. You've got like a whole setup, though. You're a gaming chair. You're in a studio. Okay, so I want to explain what all of this is because it looks very professional.

And it is, to be fair. You know, we've got nice mics, nice cameras, backdrops and all of that because we wanted an excuse to get really good gaming computers. Me and my best friend wanted a way to write off on our taxes, like really high-powered gaming computers. Brilliant. And even to tell like my mom and stuff because she looks at all my expenses. I was like, yeah, we're building.

a streaming room. And then we've like streamed like twice and really just played a lot of video games in quarantine. This is great advice though for anybody that's watching. When you have 1099 income, you can write pretty much anything off. It's a great way to fake the system. So where you like, all right, we're going to stream on Twitch.

We need great gaming computers. And then everything else just kind of goes with that. Yeah, you know what? It was one of those things. And it was actually kind of perfect timing because, you know, I was thinking about, you know, the show ending and what I want to do next. And when I'm not working and being productive,

I just like to play video games because it shuts off my mind. And I was like, but it's also such a waste of time. It really is. And so it was like, how can I at least like be doing something sociable and, you know, reaching out to fans and, you know, trying to stay involved that way in the meantime? And, you know,

I hope it is one day to also like maybe do a podcast and stuff. But I'm a little scared because it would just be me and my best friend yelling at each other about like UFOs and stuff. But people would love that. Yeah, there's definitely a market for that. Where do you sit on UFOs? Are they real? Oh, yeah. Well, yes and no. I have like, are we going to get straight into my crazy quarantine brain?

Because I would like to address myself as like a real person and then be like since quarantine started and I've been spending so much time alone, my brain has expanded. I've gotten to a lot of, down a lot of YouTube holes. Yeah, it's a, no, they're definitely. They're real. It's just that they're not nuts and bolts like we think they are. They're not like actual like aliens in a spaceship coming here to abduct us. There's something else going on. I've heard the theory that maybe it's the future versions of us on a different timeline.

That's more what I'm talking about. Or like if you really want to go crazy, this is the stuff that I've been reading about is like the places where the dimensions accidentally touch and then these things like breakthrough on accident. Oh, man, we're only a few minutes into this. My mind's already getting blown. Geez. Well, let's take it back a few steps here. Fair enough. When you talk about modern family coming to an end and preparing for what's next,

how much preparation do you feel like you had? Because, I mean, wasn't season 10 supposed to be the final season? And then you got season 11 thrown in? Yeah, you know, I had my, like, literally my whole life to think about the show ending. Because it started when I was 10 and, you know, even going into it, I was so apprehensive because I had, you know, had all of my friends be on shows and they get canceled after like a season. So like it always felt too good to be true. And then like we'd get another one thrown on like, mm-hmm. Yeah, sure. We'll see how this lasts. And then, you know, it just

kept going and going and then eventually it got to a point where like I, you know, I was like, okay, this is going to last. But then, you know, the realization that eventually like, hey, it was going to end and it's going to be really sad. We made our peace with the show ending. At least I did on season 10. I think some of the adults may be new, like there's a chance of us coming back. And then I remember the day that I realized, oh, we might come back,

was on a group chat. There's only been, like, one moderate family group chat of all time. It's hard to get Ed O'Neill and text message, believe me. He keeps trying to reach out to me via email, but he keeps emailing my mom. So we have to, like, talk through forwarding messages. But we got on one group chat,

and then I think it was like maybe Eric or Julie or maybe even Ed was like, hey guys let's do this one more time. Like season 11, I was like, this is as amazing as all I want. I responded immediately like, yeah, I'm in. And then we made it happen. And then that final season, we knew it was going to be a last.

And so we really got to enjoy it. Is it wild thinking that you spent more time, more of your life on modern family than not on modern family? Yeah, it is really crazy. The thing that I've spent half my life, like being another person. And let me just tell you.

you, it is traumatizing when that ends. It's traumatizing when you get the other half of you ripped out. And you're like, who, who am I? No, it's been, it's been okay. I had plenty of time to prep. But it has been interesting going from something that monumentous in your life. Like, I mean, I don't know what to describe it for. I think I maybe describe it as like the end of like when you graduate college or something.

Sure, yeah. Doing school your whole life. But it's not really like that because it's your first. and your family and your work and your schooling and everything mixed into one. That's what the show was for me. And then that ended. And then the world fell apart. And so it's been an interesting adjustment for sure.

This is also part of your legacy now because when you're on a show that, look, most shows don't last 11 seasons. I'm very well aware of that. This is going to be something that's going to be on your resume forever and ever and ever, which I think is a great thing. But as you know, there's also like you're going to be working against that for a lot of your career too. Oh, well, I'm going to milk it as long as possible. That's for sure.

No, yeah, it's definitely something to think about, you know, the curse of the child actor is omnipresent for me. It's something, you know, I'm constantly thinking about. But, you know, modern family is, it's such a like, if I got stuck, being known as like that, hey, that's that guy from modern family. Like, I feel like for a lot of a young actors, like, you know, coming from, you know, things like, you know, like the Disney Channel and stuff, they want to separate themselves from that. I'm really proud of the work that, you know, we did our modern family and how many people we

reached out to, like, you know, I'm down to, I'm down to keep being known as that guy because it brought so much, you know, joy and love into people's lives and, you know, help change the way people view the world. And, yeah, it's a good thing to be a part of. It's not even just the curse of a child actor. Like, if you're part of a popular show, this is it for a lot of people that's going to follow them around. Jason Alexander's had an amazing career, but he will forever be George Costanza. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, it is easy to get, I think, you know, like pigeonholed into maybe like a character. Like if everyone sees you as that character, no matter your age, it's kind of hard to move on to something else. but I was pretty lucky in the fact that I grew up along on the show. I started when I was 10. We ended at 21. People got to see me grow up. I didn't get like dumped at that weird awkward stage.

They thankfully kept me on. They didn't age me up and recast me with like, I don't even know, Seth Rogan, maybe. They didn't age me up to Seth Rogen. So Luke's just like 35. And yeah, yeah. So it's easy to get pigeonholed, but I got carried through to an older. age and also the character changed a lot. He was kind of, he's cool, he evolved a lot.

He used to be kind of this young, dumb kid, really sweet when the show first started, super gullible. And then by the end, you know, towards the middle, he was like a regular teenage dude that a lot of people connected with. And then by the end, he was this young man trying to figure out who he was. And so I think I, you know, I got to show a lot in there. So it wasn't like somebody you could put your finger on, like, ah, that's Luke, though. I'm really curious to know what the original breakdown for modern family look like

when you got the audition for this. What was the original breakdown for that show? Oh my gosh. I would actually love to track that down. I remember it was called My American Family. That's one thing I know about it. I had a different name and it said something about like a mockumentary single cam show. It's a documentary like following the lives of three connected families or something like that.

And I remember not knowing what any of those were. meant because I was 10 years old. I remember just walking in and absolutely phoning in the audition. Because it was on like a Saturday. It was on Valentine's Day. Like I had gotten like a bunch of like chocolate from my mom and I just wanted to like hang out and eat it and not like read lines. And I remember walking in and be like doing it.

Super hokey. Like it was like a sitcom like a multi-cam where there's supposed to be a laugh track. And then I'm really lucky that our casting girl. Jeff Greenberg explained to me what the difference is and actually worked with me and got to a place where he's like, just say it normal. And then I did. And he was like, they were all laughing. I was like, I don't know what's going on. I left the room being like, man, I've absolutely failed that one. I was like, well, never hearing from them again. And then, you know, ended up hearing back and doing like eight more auditions and then finally getting the show.

But the crazy thing is you get a show like that and you go, all right, I've got the pilot. This is exciting. I've got a pilot. And then you hope the pilot gets picked up. And then you hope that you don't get canceled in the first season. It's just like you're like hitting these to reference a video game. You're hitting like these save points all the way along the way. Yeah. And I definitely feel that.

And I think that I'm incredibly like spoiled now. Because, you know, I'd been acting since I was five. So I was used to, you know, I was used to working on everything being a success. But Modern Family was my first like series, regular TV show. It was my first pilot. And every step of the way seemed very easy. Everyone worked together well as a cast and crew. I think moving on, like, I'm going to be like,

I just imagine if I ever get on another TV show, I'm going to be like calling my manager like, get me out. I need therapy. This is insane. Everyone hates each other. Yeah. I was happy to hear, though, that like after this, you have an acting class because I think a lot of people go,

Nolan's been on this very popular show. He doesn't need acting classes. Now every day is an acting class when he's on set, but you're constantly, like, growing and evolving. Yeah, yeah, I feel that. And I think it's super easy to get comfortable when you're doing, like, a series regular and you play one character for 11 years.

At a certain point, it wasn't even acting. It was just, like, switching on that, like, other part of me. And, you know, now as I'm moving out, I want to do, like, more challenging roles, show people, like, maybe some dramatic work as well. And so, yeah, I'm in acting class, especially because, like, the industry is, like, basically completely shut down. And you do get rusty as, like, an actor.

You really, like, you forget how to act and you have, like, relearn it. So, yeah, I've just been doing acting classes over Zoom. And that's been great. It's nice to also, like, work with other young actors and see the differences in the way people act has been, like, just within one scene, to see the thousands of different ways that, like, different people can come up with.

someone who has had a different lifestyle than you will, like, read it completely different. And that's been really cool to see. It's also, I think, great for young actors to hear that someone like you that's had the success that you've had in your career still wants acting classes. Because I think there's people that are just starting their career. Like, hey, I did, I did like 12 weeks. I'm good. No, yeah.

You know, for anybody like that gets into acting, like, always do. I think classes. I think even like Bradley Cooper works with, like, his own acting coach when he was, I think, accepting an award he got, maybe for Silver Lining's playbook, he thanked his acting coach. Like, there's no, there's definitely nothing wrong with it. You should always be practicing. Just make sure it's like a good teacher who, you know,

knows their stuff and you connect with. For me, I feel like sometimes I just need basic human emotions explained to me. I think there's a tough emotion for you. Was that? What's a tough emotion for you to play? Oh, this is, if you want to get dark, love. Well, it's just, it's something that, like, anything growing up, like, being a child actor, and I never went to school a day in my life.

I mean, I did everything online. And so, like, I feel like sometimes I'm basically, like, core human, like, emotions. Like, this is the way a normal person would process this. Whereas, like, I'm just like, I'm good. Time to go back to work. That really hurt me. Must keep working. Like, that's, like, the very, you know, 10-year-old child on a set kind of way of looking.

And so sometimes it's nice to have somebody to be like, hey, normal people would be sad here. Oh, okay. Oh. Yeah. Have you had a lot of auditions since COVID began? No, it's been, the industry is just now starting to open back up. And I know that me and my people are pretty specific about moving forward, about what we're looking for, because you don't want to go from something as awesome as modern family to just anything.

So we're trying to be like, you know, real choosy. about what comes our way, but there's not much that's out there right now. So I've been spending a lot of time trying to focus on other things and expanding myself as a person outside of acting, doing a lot of writing, just getting into personal hobbies, like woodworking.

What? Really? Yeah, all kinds of stuff. I love, in another interview, you said it was so important for you to have interest outside of acting, which I thought was really interesting because I think there's a lot of people that become passionate about whatever it is. Whether you're a football player, basketball player, actor,

they go, this is my life. Every second of the day is about this thing. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think it's super easy to become fixated on your occupation or even just your passion as your full self, like people who lead with like, I'm an actor. I try to go as long as I can while describing myself

without saying the word actor. because although I like it, it is, you know, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it's one of my passions, but it is a job and it doesn't give like the full picture of how I, I view myself. I like to think of, like acting as a means to an end as well as being really fun. Like acting allows me to do other things I really enjoy with my life, like rock climbing, you know, backpacking, scuba diving, things like that. If you're looking ahead to what the next project's going to be, are you thinking it's going to be television or are you looking at film? I mean, to be honest, television is awesome. It's great to get really comfortable with a group of people. Movies are, it's cool to showcase different things.

But, you know, I've become very, I like the cushiness of sitting on an air-conditioned soundstage and having craft service at my disposal whenever I want. I'm having trailers, cool, you know, all this stuff that, like, sometimes on movies, it's like, You know, I watch some of these things and just, if you watch a movie, like, imagine, like, oh, man, like, that was like a night shoot in, like, the middle of summer in the south. Like, you know, everyone's, like, sweaty. And it's, like, 4 a.m. in the morning. And everyone's, like, angry. I'm like, ooh, that's real commitment to acting.

Right. And I think the thing people don't realize is when you're on a TV show, it's like a Monday to Friday, 9-ish to 5-ish type of thing. Like, you go to work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, if you're lucky, it's a nine to five. I think a lot of times on modern family, it was like, I think it was like a 630 to 4, which by industry standards was like insane. They're like, people are like, wow, you're sitting in rush hour on the way home. I'm so jealous. We don't usually leave to like 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock at night. So we were pretty lucky there. But yeah, it is, I mean, it is full time for sure. So, well, you know, the plan is the hope is we'll see you on another TV show sometime soon. Man, if you got an ear to the ground, let me know.

Like, I got some resumes that can send your way. Sure, yeah. The last thing you want is me putting the word out for you. Please do. Guys, if you're suffering from hair loss, then I've got the answer for you. Go to Bosley. For everyone listening to this podcast, Bosley is giving away a free info kit and $250 off gift card

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I'm very curious what your process is for breaking down a script. Oh, yeah. It's definitely like changing as of late. my acting teacher he's really smart and the way he describes it is like lines are always there for a reason even if it doesn't seem like it at first

it's like obviously sometimes you get bad writing where it's just they're doing filler but think about like why is it written that way why is this line even there is there another thing that's supposed to be like conveyed through this he talks a lot about like events of a scene he's like a scene won't exist

just because a scene exists because it furthers the story. So look for that moment where, like, a character decides they don't want to do this or they really need this or whatever it is, that event, that moment of why the scene exists and make sure to hit that

and make sure the start of the scene, like, there's a change. And so, like, those are all really good things to think about. And then also, I know that always really helps me is to think about something else as you're saying it. Oh, what do you mean? Yeah, it's like, Humans, I guess, don't really always...

Like how I just said humans. You know, those humans don't always meet what they say. Like, they're saying something, but as they're saying that thing, you know, we think about something else as we're saying it. We think, like, you know, I might say, like, yeah, I would love to do that, but maybe I don't really mean it. Like, maybe I'm thinking about all the other things I have to do. Yeah.

I would love to stay here with you. But, like, I'm really thinking, like, oh, you know, I don't know. So running that and then running all the hundreds of different ways to say like a line, like starting with like adding like a little line before it. That's like something else. Like if I was going to be like, hey, let's go, let's go do this thing. I'd be like, I'm going to be like, man, I really don't want to do this. Hey, let's go do this thing.

You know, so like it changes the way that in your mind. And then just running like all of my words together so they no longer have any meaning. This is weird. This is how I just memorize. Really? Look at the lines and just like, as fast. as I can, no intention, and just like mash those words into my brain. And then once those you're really comfortable with it, then you can start changing when it like feels like second

nature to you. So that's how you memorize a script. Yeah. That's how I do. I've never heard that before. Yeah, yeah. I, somebody is, I want to say, I could be wrong about this, but I think Michael Kane. Oh, Michael Kine. Michael Kine. Michael Kine. It's funny. When you say his, name with an accent. It sounds like you're saying, my cocaine. Yeah, that's why that's how you do. My cocaine. Cochine. What is what is he saying in Batman? It's such a good line. He's saying, like,

I won't bury another Wayne or something. He's like, I won't bury another wine. That's so good. But I could be wrong. I could be just crediting him this, but he deserves it any way. Is that like... He's incredible. It's just running it all together. And then over time, like, changing it up.

And then by the end, changing up so much that you're doing ridiculous things to find just all the different levels you can get. I heard someone say that if you can do something else while saying your lines, that's when you know you've nailed it. So if you can, if you and I could play catch while reciting our lines, then it's like they're not lines anymore. That's, that, that is cool. So my favorite actor in the whole world is Matthew McConaughey. I think he's the best. When he got up to accept, I think it was a sag word and he was like, I've been looking into the future and all I see is me, me, me.

I was like, yeah. I was like, you go, dude. And like the way he acts and like true detective where like his eyes as he's speaking are seeing other things that like aren't present in the room. Where it's like he's looking around and his eyes are thinking he's seeing. I'm like, that's a, that is a cool level of acting. Also, never blinking. That's a fun.

That's a fun thing that I realized. You're not supposed to blink? Yeah, I don't, I could be wrong. This is just my theory. but a lot of really good actors try, like, go a long time without blinking. And as a person who's like pretty neurotic, I like, I blink a lot. And when people lie and get, you know, nervous, they blink. And so when we're watching somebody and they're speaking and they're blinking a lot,

it seems like they're lying. So it seems like the actor is acting and not actually meaning these things that they're saying. Like a good example is like Robert Danny Jr. I swear to God, I've never seen him blink. Wow, that's real. I'm going to look for that. That's really interesting. The thing I love about Matthew McConaughey's acceptance speech, I think it was for his Oscar, is he thanked himself in 10 years because that was his hero.

Yeah. And, you know, the idea of like trying to be a better person today so you could impress yourself 10 years from now, I mean, that's incredible to me. It's so self-congratulating, but I love it anyways, because he's Matthew McConae, and you're really going to tell him Matthew McConae not to thank himself in 10 years? Yeah, but I mean, but it makes sense. though. It's the idea of like, I'm trying to get better today so that I can be better in the future.

Yeah, and to say that while winning an Oscar is insane. Yeah. What else do you want, man? I'm very impressed by your impressions here. These are great. Who else do you nail? Man, I've got a bunch, but they kind of just, they come out at

random times. If you want to hear my full Matthew Conaghanay impression from True Detective, I can do it. Well, please sign us up. Is it cool? I don't know if I'm not going to curse, but I'm going to, is it cool if I mentioned some drug use in this speech that he gives? Okay, cool.

I wanted to double check in case we have any kids out there. Appreciate you asking. All right, let's see. He's like, I spent four years in a mental hospital upstate. It caught me in a motel six with three eight balls of cocaine. I shot a crankhead nine times for injecting his baby with Christ. myth. And I was just like, who,

watching this. Another, another, this is what I just, what I just binge watched, which is why I keep bringing it up. Or like, the best moment and the whole thing is right at the end when Woody Harrelson, after everything they've been through,

his family comes up and asks him, he's in a hospital bed and I'm like, hey, are, uh, are you all right? And he goes, like, yeah, I'm all right. I'm all right. I'm, uh, oh, oh, oh, You're just like in the middle of you're like, yeah, I'm good.

I'm good. I feel like we're getting a masterclass right now. That was great. That was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen. Man, do you do a Sean Mendez impression or you just look like him? Oh, duh, dude. So much of my dating life when I was like 18 relied on the fact that I looked like Sean Mendez.

I bet. Have you had it where someone has done that to you, like out in public? public. Oh, yeah, I once took a photo with somebody who thought I was Sean Mendez. And I was just like, you know what, we're going to let them have this. Because it was at, I think it was, um, at Kiss FM's Wingo Tango. And I think, or maybe it was their jingle ball thing, but Sean was performing there. And I was backstage. And this Italian couple came up to me. And they're like, Sean, we love you. We flew in all the way from Italy. Like, please, we flew just for you. Can we get a photo with you? And I was like, and I tried to explain. To be fair, I did try.

I was like, hey, hey, look, I'm not actually. They're like, we love you. I mean the world to us. I was like, all right. So there is some photo out there where someone has probably tagged Sean Mendez. Yeah. It's really you. And you know what the best part is like as we're doing this, like I'm watching Sean

Mendez like perform. Like we were in like, I think like the bar section and he was like on a screen behind them and they didn't even see it. It was like, okay, well, I was like, this is very clearly not me, but okay. Maybe they thought that the twin was performing. That must have been it. Yeah, his body double or something like that. Some sort of, that was his stunt double. Yeah, that would make sense. You know, it's interesting to look at your career path, and I've heard you mentioned in many other interviews, that the reason you got into acting is because your older brother got into acting.

Yeah. Do you ever think about what would have happened if, you know, your parents had put him into something else? Because, you know, he was in acting. You just kind of tagged along with him. Do you ever think what would have happened? Yeah, I'm really glad they didn't put him into bluegrass music or something, you know? I'm really glad that I don't, like, play washboard for a living.

No offense to people who play washboards. But it is something I think about. And actually, so I grew up, I grew up in the South. grew up in a place called Phoenix City. And it's like right on the border of Alabama and Georgia. And I do think about that a lot because I've been back to visit family. And like, wow, our lives are so incredibly different. I get to, I'm very lucky I get to go live this Los Angeles lifestyle and be on television and, you know, this is all really great. But my life could have gone different directions. And I think about that a lot. I feel really

grateful. But at the same time, it's also, it puts my current life in perspective where I'm like, oh, I would have been okay, like either way. Like, I love what I do now, but I do think that if I had done something else with my life, I would make it work. Like, I, there's so much to interest me in the world and so little that separates somebody from one certain life path that I was like, yeah, if my, you know, me and my brother were, you know, really smart for our age when we were kids. I was like, if my family had, you know, got me, interest and pushed me into science. I was like I could be, you know, doing science stuff right now.

I was like, I, you know, I'm really passionate about the environment. I could be doing environmental sciences right now. And I'm like, I would be cool with that. Or I'd also be cool, like, living in a van and changing my name to no lunu and then spending every day on the beach surfing, you know? No lune. No, I know. I think that's, I'm stealing that specifically from forgetting Sarah Marshall.

I'm like, your name's, oh, you. His name's Coonoo. Paul Redis Coonoh. I feel like you had also the great fortune of your father being in the military, which, you know, you could have moved anywhere. And you were fortunate to be able to move to California where, you know, this lines up pretty well with your current occupation. Yeah, that's, that's right.

I'm, you know, I was born in upstate New York in a place called Watertown. I've been to Watertown, New York. Have you been to BS, man, nobody's been to Watertown. No, I'm serious. I grew up just outside of Toronto. I grew up in a city called Pickering, Ontario. And we would take a trip to Watertown to watch baseball, the Watertown Indians. Oh, wow.

It is, it's cold there. It's cool. I'm real glad we didn't get transferred back there because it spends like, I don't know, six months in a constant blizzard. So I am really lucky. I think about it every day. And yeah, I'm grateful for being out here in L.A. where there's good weather and, you know, nice people.

and you get a lot of options that you get to do, possibly, like, live your life. And the nice thing is it still influx, like, acting's cool right now. But if it doesn't go that route, if I find something that else that interests me, like I live a lifestyle that will allow me to, you know, get into other things like writing, directing, being a full-time rock climber, who knows? That's one of my jobs of quarantines figuring out what I want to do with my life. And I'm... That's kind of the cool thing.

I heard someone refer to this recently as the Great Poplar. And that's what it's been. It's been a chance to pause and look at like, what's important in my life, what's important in the future, who's important in my life? So you're right. Maybe in 2021, you might be a pro rock climber. Yeah. And you know what the best part about this year is showing me that none of it matters. Nobody matters.

A family doesn't matter. No, I'm kidding. I'm out of here. All that matters is you. I keep looking in the future and it keeps coming up. Me, me, me. Somebody's going to take that really out of context. Yeah, they're just going to take that one little clip there.

Please don't do that to me, the internet. That's going to be a People magazine headline. That's it right there. The interesting thing is, sure, your dad got transferred here, but he might have got transferred after two, three years somewhere else. Is that just like a stroke of incredible luck that you guys stayed here? No, I think that was planning after being out here. because in Phoenix City there was

no acting to be had. It was community theater and maybe some print jobs here or there. And then being out here and realizing that we really liked it. And I think at that point, my family was kind of getting tired of moving us around because we had gone from Watertown to Phoenix City

back to Watertown to Phoenix City and then out to L.A. And then I think my family was like, let's give our kids some kind of sense of normalcy. And so they decided to homeschools and put us into acting. Those are, but those are like, which is like, thanks mom and dad. Those are just such different cities from Los Angeles. Like, what do you think the biggest culture shock was for your mom and dad moving from Phoenix

City to Los Angeles? Running water. Nothing against the slushes. But no, I mean, we were like little. we're like little neighborhood neighborhood ruffians. We were like running around like barefoot, like the whole kids foot. I think maybe the culture shock was just kind of like the typical big city stuff. Like I don't, you know, like freeways and traffic and things like that.

The amount of people as opposed like Phoenix City, which I think maybe had like maybe 10,000 to like L.A., which is in the, you know, seven million to nine millionaires. Yeah. Right. When you first started making money with modern family, I mean, you're 10 years old, but when you first started making money, what was the first big purchase you were allowed to make? So the first big purchase, and I remember like, man, this is a like a bank breaker. It was, I bought a stand-up base, which is like this big, big six-foot tall bass instrument. And it was like $300. And I remember being like, you still have this? I still there. And I remember, like, Mom, like, I'm going to put myself on a budget after this. I'm not going to.

She's like, okay, sure. I think she was, she, I mean, that's a good lesson to teach the kid. She did not let me get my way. And I remember all my money wanted to save things. But like, I was like, I was like, I'm going to work this out with my mom. I was like, mom, I was like, every episode I work, I want 20 bucks. And so I had this little like little note sheet where I'd write down the episode number. and then I would get like $20 in like imaginary money

that then my mom would take out my bank account when I wanted to buy something. So like I actually had to save up for that base. And like this, by the way, this like happened until I was like 16. And then that's when I got my first car. And then once you have like a first real big purchase, like internet shopping becomes so much easier. Yeah.

Also when you're a child actor, isn't a certain percentage of your money being put away and you don't get it until you become an adult at 18? Yeah, it's called a Coogan account. And it's based on the fact that there was this young actor, his last name was Coogan. I don't remember his first name. And his parents basically took all of his money. Really sad.

And so the SAG Aftera came up with this idea of a Coogan account where if you're under 18, 10% of whatever you make goes into your Coogan account. And I remember being so stoked the day before I turned 18 because I was like, I was like, here we go. We're going to get it. 10% of everything I've ever earned is just mad. magically going to appear. I was like, my friends were telling me about, you know, when they got it and how, you know, they were able to go buy a house or, you know, they were able to do these things with it. All mine went to taxes. What? I swear to God, every single dollar of it went to taxes.

What? That doesn't seem right? Yeah, yeah, I know, right. Well, I mean, like, it works out the same way because then we didn't have to touch. We invested a lot of my money, thankfully, and so we didn't want to pull out investment money to pay off taxes. And so instead my mom used the cash and flow of the Kugan account to pay off taxes. And it was heartbreaking. Yeah. You didn't get your Kugin. Yeah.

It was, well, yeah, I mean, everyone else got my Kugin. Uncle Sam got the roads of Los Angeles got, you know, got a little extra pavement. A couple of potholes were filled. Man, you, to think you could have bought. Off of me selling my soul to a network at 10 years old. You could have bought some other obscure instrument. Yeah, I know. There's that one day I would love to have a room of just obscure instruments.

Man, that's a retirement dream. Well, while we sit in this room that you're in right now, the gaming room, what are the games you're playing? So I'll be honest. I haven't been gaming a lot lately because, like, gaming is nice as a counterbalance to being very unproductive and working and be like, I need to shut off my mind. But when you've been, like, sitting watching paint dry for six months, like sitting, front of a screen and like slowly walting away does not feel great.

So I back before I kind of stopped, I was playing this game called League of Legends, which is actually like the most played, I think it's the most played game in the world. Because it's like popular all around the world, specifically like in Asia and Europe. And it's like the most competitive game in the world. Like you got guys there making like $7 million right now to play on teams and stuff. There's like championships. And it is the most brutal game in the world. You get punished for playing it.

Like it is not nice to its players. What do you mean? So it's like it's ranked. Like you have to play against other people that are around your same skill level and you're trying to like climb up the ranks. And like the higher you get, the harder the better you have to be and the harder you have to play and the more of it you have to play. Okay. So you actually like want to get like that rank of.

I remember my whole life, I just wanted to get gold. It goes like, you know, like bronze, silver, gold, and then eight other ranks. But I was like, I just want to get to gold. Got to gold and I was like, oh, I just want the one above it. I cut to 400 hours of my life disappearing this year and me not getting it and me almost losing my friendship or my best friend. I'm just like, night's just like yelling and like throwing and stuff. I'd be like, what am I doing? I'm 21.

I'm wasting away. And so I took a break for that and said focused everything on writing and creating and trying to like get what I'd want out of life. But I do, every once in a while, I've been jumping back into like old school games. Like I can figure out how to plug my PlayStation 2 into like my modern like Samson's television. And so I've been playing like a bunch of like old like PlayStation 2 hits. Yeah. Like they've been doing a lot of game remasters. They remastered like Crash Bandicoot and Spiro.

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I've been doing my own self-growth. I'm sure they would, actually. Probably. But I've been doing, yeah, like script writing. My friend and I have been working on this animated pie. this adult animated comedy actually for about three years now. And, you know, it just, we're so particular about it. And it goes through so many changes.

And we're actually at a point right now where, you know, we're working with a showrunner. We are going to be pitching in the near future to networks, hopefully. And yeah, so it's moving, which is cool. And this would be, would you be voicing a character in the show, too? Yeah, I would, I, this is, this is some, some contention in our, in our writing, uh, which is, I hate the sound of my own voice. And I'm pretty, I'm pretty much stuck at this, like, register. And so I've not always been, like, great at voice acting, unless, like, I can stick right here.

And, and the characters we wrote for it, it would be a good fit. But I was like, but who else can we get? I mean, you've done like 10 voices during this interview. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, that's true. You got me there. But yeah, definitely. I think about me and him voicing characters,

and then we're out to talking to different people about maybe voicing the main character. And it's, I can't give too much away, but it is very in the wheelhouse of the craziness that you've heard so far from skewing forth from my brain. We only got a little taste of it, I feel. It's very based in the world of conspiracy theories and, you know, kind of what we're talking about with the nuts and bolts aliens and all of that, all of that stuff. It's very in that realm. What do you think is the most believable conspiracy theory?

Ooh. Like the one that when you look at, you go, I mean, that probably didn't go the way they told us it went. There's so many good ones. I'm thinking like, I do have to, I have to be careful because I'm. conspiracy theories, you make a lot of people mad. Sure. I know, like, if people want to go and, like, research this stuff, like there's the Rendlesham UFO forest incident, and that was something like 80 military officers, like, came out, saying that they saw this thing and actually walked up and touched it.

And even, like, that is all declassified stuff that they're able to talk about. I'm going to, like, I might make some people mad here, but like the JFK assassination. No, I think that's definitely the one. Yeah, that's a big one. But I know sometimes when you say that, you make some people mad. But, you know, there's a lot of things in that just, like the magic bullet. I don't know.

It just doesn't really. Yeah, stuff like that. It's not like I'm like, I'll be honest, I'm not that crazy. I just find it all very interesting and fun to listen to, fun to talk about. I don't think that there is like massive, plans against us. I don't think like, you know, I don't think that the, pandemic was planned, I don't think that human beings have that much control to be able to come up with things like that, you know? I could be wrong, but, you know, when you think about

things like the Illuminati and like, stuff like that, it's, I'm like, I can see where that would spawn from real life and being the fact that, like, we are, we're just, you know, we live in a capitalist world, of course, like, we're, it's not as as true as like a bunch of devil worship or 1%'s, like, controlling us. I'm like, it's more of the fact that we're going to keep buying the stuff they make. Right. I know at one point you were going to USC. Are you still doing that? I'm not anymore. So I got accepted to the USC film. It's the UMC film school for like, I think film and television development was going to be my, was going to be my major. And I, so at the time I got accepted, Martin family then proceed to get picked up for three more years in a row. And so I wasn't able to go.

And now the show is over, it's something I'm still thinking about, but I'm at a point where, like, I'm about to start pitching a show. I'm trying to, because an actor, there's part of me that would, and, you know, maybe this isn't the best idea. Instead of taking four years to figure out how to make a show, I would rather try to make a show and fail and learn from that experience of failing than reading the theory and reading books about it.

I'd rather, like, ask the people I know. You know, we've been privileged to work with, like, a lot of really cool directors, the show, hitting them up, asking if I could shadow them, you know, just writing as much as possible, getting notes from writers of respect. And yeah, so I remember once I, Julie said that, Julie Bellin said that she would let me shadow her. I don't know if she's going to, if I can actually hold her up on that, that deal. I'm going to, I'm going to petition her for it. Well, you went to the school of real life. Why do you need to go to college for four years if you went to the school of real life?

Yeah. It's one of those things where like, I think, and mistakes actors sometimes make is like betting everything on acting instead of like, and then when it fails, they like, they have no education. They don't know what to do with their lives,

but I'm going to do it anyways. The nice thing is college, college and education is always there. There's many ways to get educated outside of traditional schooling. Traditional schools never really fit for me. So I've been doing a lot of things like taking master classes. I take master class. Oh, what do you take?

I just finished Sam. Jackson's acting class. Oh, cool. Very cool. And then I'm starting Natalie Portman's right now. Oh, right on. Which ones have you done? So I do, um, ain't no actor going to tell me how to act. I'm not going to take, I'm not going to take acting advice from Natalie Portman. No, I mean, I would, of course I would. What has she done other than win an Oscar? No, I, I take a lot of storytelling and writing master classes. I'm going to, I'm going to

going to mess up his name. I don't know it's Neil Gaiman or Neil Gaiman, but he is the author of American Gods, Coraline, Ocean at the end of the lane, like a lot of really cool books that are specifically based in mythology and storytelling from the kind of like really traditional perspective. And so I took that and that was one of the best classes I've ever taken. I'm taking Aaron Sorkin's one just on screenwriting right now in general. There's few that are better than him. One of my favorites was actually Ron Finley, this gardener, he calls himself the gangster gardener, and he's from South Central, L.A., and he was talking about how he there in South Central used to take these unused greenways, which are like, you know, medians in between, you know, roads and, like, you know, the sidewalk out in front of people's houses and planting community gardens there because there was such a food desert there with people not being able to get food.

and people would be able to come up and just like pick food that they needed for their families. And that was really cool. And you know what? Like that's gangster. Like that's actually really cool. That's how cities should be built. And I took that and ended up planting a garden at the beginning of quarantine. It took off.

I forgot about it. It's going wild out there. It's just like wild growing cucumbers and stuff. I haven't been out there in a minute. There are too many bugs. And all the squirrels and raccoons or even a bunch of. of squirrels and raccoons. I think I've caught my dogs eating my hot peppers a few times. Yeah, that's probably not so good. Look, you probably couldn't have imagined you'd be here 10 years ago.

Yeah. How difficult is it to imagine 10 years from now? Oh, impossible. Like the idea of me in 10 years, I want to fight that guy. Like, Matthew McGahnay, like, looks up to that guy in 10 years. I want to fight that guy. I'm like, it's so dark. I'm like, look at this guy. He's 31 years old, 32 years old. I bet you care about things like family. I bet you're like in a long-term relationship. Oh, look at this guy. I bet you let your body go.

You know why you settled? That's like, that's the way. And you know what? The funny thing is I bet if I were to go back 10 years to where I was like like 11, 12, 13, that guy would have bullied me too. I bet he would have. He'd be like, oh. Although he don't see.

You're going to tell me how to live my life? I'm going to move this green hoodie. You're wearing an ugly green buddy. You're going to tell me how to live my life, man. But with great respect to you and everything that you've accomplished,

you really don't need to work. You've been smart with your money. You don't, I mean, you have enough money that you're set for the rest of the foreseeable future, I would imagine. Well, you know, that's like a, I actually think that's like sometimes a fallacy. Like that line of thought.

Because I mean, I hear it a lot. And it's one of those things where it's never good to feel comfortable like that. Like even if it is true, I prefer to come at it from a point of view. Like, you never know what's going to happen in life. And, you know, like it could be tomorrow, like the stock market crashes. I lose everything. And I'm living in a van, living out my dream, living my best life. And so you know, you never know what happens.

So you always want to keep pressure. like pressing forward and you know if I ever have like a family one day that's like stuff to think about uh you know prepping for that and um like even then like even if you have like all the money in the world like it won't matter unless you're doing stuff that actually makes you passionate in life and things that like give you meaning because it's not all about spending it all or like hoarding it up like a dragging sitting on his pile of gold you know like that's not like that's not the stuff like people I think actually like about life. I'm fortunate now, but I grew up without money. And now that I'm lucky enough to have a little bit saved up, it's not, it is, you know, not worrying about

things as nice, but, you know, the things that really matter in my life are, you know, pushing myself to be the best version of myself I can be and I'm showing the world what I can do and all these different things I think, like, being like, I never need to work again. I'm like, yeah, but I'd be miserable. I've been like a month drinking like, you know, drinking, uh, daqueries on a beach. I'm like, all right, this sucks. Yeah, I feel like it'd be very boring after a month or two. Yeah, you got to, you got to keep doing what you're passionate about. Yeah. So I'm sure there's going to be people that are watching this or listening to this right now that, you know, want to be in the position that you're in. They're, you know, they're auditioning. They're taking acting classes.

And maybe they just haven't got that break yet. What kind of advice do you have for them? Don't do it. Run. It's a mistake. I'm being held here. It gets my will. I'm blanking twice for help. Please.

Oh, no, they're coming. It's, uh, look, it's, it's hard. It really is. I would say, for anybody wanting to get into acting, make sure it's something that you're really, really into before, like, you know, placing all your bets and putting your egg in that basket and, like, moving out to Los Angeles.

Make sure it's something that, like, you want to do because you're 95% of the time, you're not going to be doing it. So make sure that 5% of the time is worth the 95% of waiting. Because if it's like, I get a lot of people where it's like, hey, man, like, I saw you on the show and like, I think that sounds pretty cool. I might try it too. Do you got any advice for me? I'm like, well, like, it's not that easy.

It's just like, oh, this guy's on a show. I can do it too. You're committing your life to it And if you really want to give it a go And if it brings you joy Then like go for it and You know be in acting classes Do it as much as possible

Make your friends sit through performances Be in community theater Do everything you can And yeah just don't give up I almost quit acting before I got the show But yeah you never know But then at the same time like you could wait around like five to ten years be like the next big break's coming and it never does.

So that's one of those things where like it can be tricky. But if you love it that much, then, you know, maybe it's worth it. As we wrap this up, what are three things that you're grateful for today? Three things I'm grateful for. I'm really grateful for the friendships that have gotten me through like this quarantine. I'm really grateful for like my. best friend who he's my writing partner so i've i've had to see him um we're kind of just in a quarantine bubble together um and the people that i get to like hang out with on on zoom who keep me going um

i'm really grateful for like my my second family that i got through the show um there you know i've been i got a phone call from ed o'neal the other day and we just spoke for 30 minutes about everything going on the world and life and um you know those people get keep me going and then Third, I guess, it's just like the people who, you know, support me, all the fans out there and all the fans of the show who made all of this possible and got us here and allows me to be even talking to you today. So thanks to everyone out there. Well, I'm grateful for your time today. This has been fascinating. Oh, I'm glad.

Now, thank you for sharing some time with us. And, yeah, it's just, it's so amazing hearing your story. and I'm so excited to see. I'm excited to meet that 31-year-old version of you 10 years soon now. And he's going to have so much plastic surgery. You're not going to recognize. He's going to look like, he can't even move his face. His eyebrows are going to be stuck constantly.

I'm just horrified of the day. I get a role to come in and like, hey, we wanted you to play the dad on this new Disney show. I'm like, get me out. I've been in a long. I'm a dad now. I appreciate your time. Thanks again, Nolan. Of course, and thanks everyone for listening. Nolan Gould, ladies and gentlemen, what a guy.

And what a conversation. And I love that he's making the best of this pause that we have right now with COVID. Take a screenshot. Share this with that modern family fan in your life. And tag us so that we can say hi. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Nolan is at Nolan Gould on Instagram. And I'm just so excited to see what's

next for him in his career. This idea of reinventing yourself is just so, so fascinating. It's also fascinating seeing how self-aware he is and also how brilliantly intelligent he is at 22 years old. I wish that I had a small percentage of that when I was 22. I guess I was still in college at that time, but yeah, well, I was starting my broadcasting career 22, but I wish I had that. I really do. I also liked where he was heading with this alien theory of his. I was, We only touched on it there, but maybe we need to have him back on so we can just talk about that for an hour or two. I loved it. I'm going to leave you with this great quote from James Altuscher.

He says, every day you reinvent yourself. You're always in motion. But you decide every day forward or backward. That's a lot to think about there. You head and forward or you're heading backwards in your life. Chew on that for a little bit. be grateful. Have a great week. And we'll see you on the next one.

Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand.

He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it. Get up in here. Jim Rome show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.