Patrick and the People - Jason Gann on Patrick and the People - Wilfred, Documentaries, Mental Health and more!

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

Jason Gann is best known for his role as the quirky, philosophical dog, Wilfred, in the Australian original and the FX series. Beyond acting, Gann has made significant strides in cannabis activism through founding Wilfred Cannabis and Wilfred CBD & Hemp, advocating for the therapeutic benefits of marijuana. His personal journey with mental health has also driven him to be a vocal supporter for mental health awareness, intertwining his advocacy with his entertainment career. #jasongann #wilfred #wilfredFX #cannabis #cannabisdocumentary #australia

How am I? I am great. How are you doing? Good. Good. It's been a long time in the making. It has been. I appreciate your patience man. It's been a journey to get here hadn't it buddy? Well I appreciate your patience to set up this date because I know that for a few months there things have been really you know challenging for me geographically so to to end up with my schedule. So I appreciate your patience and no, just, just they're very excited. I have so many questions. Let me start with the easy one first.

Why is everything in Australia trying to kill you? Are we rolling? Yeah. Yeah. We're going, man. Yeah. Are we rolling? Yeah, yeah, we're going man. We're going.

Look, my wife is in Spain and she, you know, I just moved back here a year ago and her and my two sons who are American have never, had never been here and yeah, you know, there's a lot of hype about everything here trying to kill you and you know, she was like, okay, I understand it's not really gonna be like that but she was like, okay, I understand. It's not really going to be like that, but she's like, it is like that. Kind of is, isn't it? Yeah. And you know, I have a friend of mine that lived in Australia for many,

many years and moved Stateside. And we used to talk a lot about the different, you know, animal life and things that you would encounter there because it's very different than here. It's not just the animal life, like wild animal life it's the human animal life. Yeah, them too, huh? Australians are a kind of wild bunch and I don't know it's something to do with because I traveled a lot between Australia and America, you know, since really late 80s. But it wasn't until I was flying and then also Spain, or I've been from Spain,

but it wasn't until I was flying from Spain to Australia across the Middle East that I realized how far away Australia really is. It's pretty damn far. It's like another world. It really is. It's pretty damn far. It's like another world. It really is. It's so geographically isolated. It's like its own world and so I think that has something to do with Australians have like a disproportionate amount of successful artists, musicians, actors, sportsmen for our population. That's absolutely true.

Yeah, to do with the isolation and the fact that we are very competitive and it's like we're trying to succeed in our own world and so then it's I guess a great training ground for the rest our own world. And so then it's, I guess, a great training ground for the rest of the world. Well, you know, I remember when I was a kid, the first real connection, I guess I had to Australia was a musical artist I liked when I was young. You might know him. His name's Rick Springfield. And he was super big in the 80s, right?

And that's when I was a kid and so you know I knew he was from Australia and so it was always of interest to me yeah it's kind of a funny world in it he doesn't he doesn't get as much credit as being Australian and that that that you you might think I do remember hearing these from Australia yeah but when you you you, you know, when, when, you know, when the top, you know, the hit, you know, you've got ACDC in excess. Oh my God, yeah, so many.

There's so many of those big ones that kind of are the top that a lot of the, a lot of the others kind of. No, no, that's, he's little fish compared to the big fish that have come out of Australia, I promise you. So Jason, let me ask you this, I mean. Jesse's girl, is it, yeah, that's not Jesse's Jason let me ask you this I mean oh of course that's a criminal song we used to laugh about that song like in the writers room at Wilford actually we sort of talked about Jesse's girl it's like yeah but this guy he's obsessed with Jesse's girl but he just doesn't seem to have a name it's like we

doesn't even know her name how obsessed can, who is this? No, it's just a big codependent song about a dude skeeving on his friend's girl. I mean, it's not really a polite song at all. But listen, I have to ask you, man, getting into more in the meat of this, man, what a great character. It's so difficult to break through the clutter and to create a unique character that no one has done. No one has seen. No one's really, you know, experienced before. And somehow, some way you came out with a character that was so rich and so dynamic and had so much depth to it that it spanned both Australia and here.

How did you even come up with that that the concept of the character? We know the short film first Seven-minute short film. I remember showing one of my mates that the very first Cut of the seven-minute short film and he said he said it's just you and a dog suit Like he didn't he he just thought that was me, right? So I, and then over time it grew into something else. I, as a stage actor, I mean, I played Hamlet when I was 22. As a stage actor, I was really, I guess,

a writer in an actor's body. I would create these kind of detailed, very rich characters when I was on stage and I actually had to done like 10 years of So the soul destroying children's theater where I would be doing three shows a day during the school terms 30 bucks a show I was doing an you know 20 shows and I was in in all sorts of as a duck in this one I was a fox in this one the big bad wolf here, you know, I was in all these different animal suits and I smoked my cigarettes in between or getting high up in the, you know, on the roof of the theater. And that really did inform the look of Wilfrid.

When I eventually quit that job, I made a promise to myself never to get another animal suit again because I, because you were done. Yeah. I came up with the concept of Wilfrid just as a seven minute short film with the, we'll shoot over the weekend. I said, Oh, look, I don't really want to get in one of those animal suits again, but it's just, it's two days. So yeah, I'll do it on the weekend and we'll shoot it and

so we'd shot it. Now that was 2002, 23 years later, I'm still getting this damn dog suit. Right. But over the years, my love-hate relationship with Wilfred has kind of turned into this sort of, I know, something that I have a lot of gratitude for. Sure. But just to put a button on the answer to the question. Yeah it was a lot of the frustration of Wilfrid being trapped in this dog's body. I was in the Australian Wilfrid in particular, he was like in love with his own arm in a way and that's kind of very masculine kind of way because you know, I'd

noticed that a lot of pets of the opposite sex do tend to have more of more of a sort of a, also a romantic attachment to their, to owners that have got the opposite sex. A little obsessive, yeah. I wanted to have that kind of like, she's mine saying and so that did that a lot of his frustration of being trapped in this dog's body was also you know came from me being trapped in this sweet dog suit that was you know not very you know glamorous. Right, right. So you used it as a sort of a motivator for yourself that the hate fueled you in a way. Yeah, and when I actually went to Hollywood and they, you know, he had a mini makeover. Wilford had these like Wilford feet that were kind of like Snoopy feet that I didn't have

in the Australian version. I had a new dog suit that they modeled on the Australian one. And they did ask me, they said, look, this is going to be very hot in this. Would you like to get some air conditioning in there? And I said, no, no, I've gotta be miserable. It won't work if I'm not miserable. Yeah, so I did definitely, you know. I can kind of see that almost in a character actor

style way, you know. What is it? What is it that I call it bloody, you know, De Niro and stuff? Method actor. Method actor, yeah, that's right. That's right. Well doing that What what to me stands out Jason about that versus other acting is you have to have a certain Disregard for what anyone thinks you have to be a certain amount of fearless because you're doing something that on the surface seems ridiculous but in context is brilliant and and that sometimes is is hard to portray because you have to have full faith in what you're doing and the work you're doing to

believe in it you know thank you for that observation because it's not something that many people really do consider because it is 100% true. I remember reading years ago, Barry Humphrey, I don't know if he was that successful in America, but he had a character, Damien Duret-Fridge, and he said in his board of biography, he said, if you don't feel funny, you won't be funny. And that you also have to trust, you know, and you by then, you have to trust your own instincts as a comedy writer, actor. And so I still remember. Shooting the very first short film of Wilfred, and we were shooting it as you do out of order, you know, you shoot it. Yeah. Yeah.

And so and so on that first weekend, I was I was there. There was all this crew that were being, you know, you shoot it in. Yeah. Yeah. And so, and so on that first weekend, I was, I was there, there was all this crew that were being, you know, paid 50 bucks or doing it for a favor or whatever. There was all this professional crew there. And the director was a big director. And I didn't know any of these people and they didn't know, none of them knew me. And I was sitting in the set on a set with, in the dog suit with a bong and I could see the crew looking at me like again I was shooting a scene out of context, it wasn't all it's in the first scene and I can see them looking at me with a certain amount of skepticism of like I hope you know what you're doing because this doesn't it's not adding up. Yeah. And I just had to have faith in what I was doing

was right, you know, and it did take a lot of bravery and for someone that does struggle with major anxiety, that was an internal battle. But it's a battle, you know, it's a confidence that I had brought with me from years of being a stage actor, but I knew I just had to stand firm to it. An actual fact I had a fight with the director after that first scene and he was he he had we hadn't worked together

before and he was sort of he was he was he was pissed off that I wasn't doing it at a certain level and I knew that his background was in ads, 30-second ads and I was trying to explain to him that in the context of the overall performance, the time that I was giving was the right time. You can't sell everything in the one frame or the one scene. So, and then we had it out and a big battle about it.

And then we all had something to eat and then we continued shooting. And then he was like, oh, it's totally wrong. Yeah, he understood. There's a nuance battle about it. And then we all had something to eat and then we continued shooting. And then he was like, I was totally wrong. Yeah, he understood. There's a nuance to the performance. There are nuances. It's not a monotone performance.

Well, the other thing that happened again when I was on the Wilford set in America, and I remember David Zuckerman, who definitely had his own, it's a big, a lot of experience. First Prince of Bel Air, he developed Family Guy. But I remember there being one scene where we do a walkthrough with the, as a rehearsal, out of costume and then they'd set up the lights and then we'd go out and then we'd

come back and shoot the scene. We'd do a read through, a walkthrough and basically basically block the scene. Yeah, kind of block it out, yeah. Yeah, so I was blocking it out, and sort of doing it, and a bit of business, and Zuckerman came over, he said, no, I think this is wrong, you're doing that wrong, it shouldn't be like that. I said, look, you've got to trust me on this.

And he said, no, it's got to be like this, it shouldn't be like this. I said, mate, I said, would you walk up the chaplain and tell the chaplain in between scenes how he should be doing physical comedy? I said, well, basically,, would you walk up the chaplain and tell chaplain in between scenes how she'd be doing physical comedy? I said, well, basically you're talking to the chaplain, right? So don't, you know, you trust me to when the dog suits on, this is, I know exactly what I'm doing.

And so then I went away, put the suit on, did it, and he came up to me and he said, I'm 100% wrong. Yeah. I'm not going to challenge you on, not to say that I don't like to be challenged on things. I'm always open to that power of collaboration. But when it comes to the world of physical comedy that I've come from that physical comedy from the theater, I knew that I was bringing to it a kind of a chaplain ask kind of

wealth of experience that I knew that when it comes to me and that dog suit, I kind of knew what I was doing. Well, not only, you know, did you have the experience in the physical comedy, but, but you gave birth to the character. You, you intimately have anyone know the character better than anyone from the outside could ever observe. And so those nuances are in part and parcel. You, you're the nuance, you know, Thanks. Yeah. Yes. So, you know the nuance, you know? Thanks, yeah.

So, you know, in playing that role, did you, was it more or less fun doing Australian versus American? Is it just different? I mean, how did those two play out against one another? It was night and day. Overall, I was very miserable during the Australian version and I had actually created another show and another character for another network that I had much more enjoyed

over here. And so I had after shooting two seasons of the Australian version, you know, there wasn't a very harmonious set either. So I had decided, we'd all kind of decided that was, well, if it was done. It was done. Yeah. And then, yeah, it was done. And then I had gone to America, secured a really good agent and manager in Hollywood. I'd showed them both shows that I did, but we were going to go with, from a format sense, we were going to go with the other show.

And then one day my then manager called me up and he said, I know you don't want to play the dog again. So I'm not getting the dog suit again. He said, but I think, and that was when he said to me, I think this could be your Mork and Mindy. He said, I think this could be like the alien, the dog. If even if the show's on a huge hit, you know, you probably can walk into any room in Hollywood after it.

Everyone's gonna remember you. Right, right. It's gonna afford you a certain credibility going forward in the world. It stands out. You know, you're always gonna remember the guy that had the balls to get in the dog suit. Yeah, right. Right? So, and so I said, if you can sell it, I'll do it.

He sold it. I did it. And then it was season two, Wolfie were running and then Robin Williams reached out to me via Elijah and he was a friend, a fan of the show and a fan of mine, I was very honored to, and he'd offered to be on the show. And that was when Robin Williams came on

and played a guest role. And it was his first acting role in a television series since more than Wow, you know, it was very, very celestial, very amazing. Well, let's let's talk about that because I have to imagine from, you know, a a thespian, be a writer and see a comedian that getting notified that a Robin Williams not only is a fan but he'd like to work with you on your show. I mean that must be one of those magical moments where you just go is this my life?

It is and you know unfortunately so much time has passed since Robin is gone like it was like you know I connected with him, we became good friends in a short time and I really, the window of when I knew him was so short, so small and you know, there's just no way of knowing that. But it definitely was the most validating experience of my career and there's been a few but that was the most validating. I can't imagine anything could be much more validating just you know I look I grew up and I watched I saw him when he appeared on Happy Days for the first time and then Mork and Mindy and of course his entire career you know and

he was transcendent in almost everything that he did his stand-up among the most brilliant ever. You know, he was just a tour de force of performance and of brilliance. And so that had to just be a wonderful, wonderful experience and even more rewarding that at least for some period of time, you got to call him friend and and and maybe, you know, gain some little bit of dust from him that that fell onto you. Definitely. I remember when he when he passed, you know, being devastated, of course. And I was developing a series for him when he passed. Wow. And I and and the morning that he passed.

You know, everyone was from the from the from the show was posting photos of them, selfies with him from the set. And my wife, hang on. OK. So I just started turning into a storm here and then the door was slam shut. out of the turning into a storm here and then the door was slammed shut. So, um, so yeah, the morning that. The morning that he passed the day he passed, people were posting these photos of them and Robin and my wife, who is, you know, quite a few

years, my junior, she, she said, did you get a photo with him? And I said, no, I didn't. And she was like, you idiot, what are you thinking? You know, she just didn't want to get, I said, I didn't and she was like you idiot what are you thinking you know she's didn't really get I said no you don't understand you know when it comes to for her famous people that kind of level it's kind of like in a it's good it's an honor do you give them a break from that yeah no they don't make them be the star just let them be who they are yeah and so I says how to explain but it's like it's sort of like something

that I don't do with people at that kind of level. But afterwards, I must admit, I was kind of feeling like, gee, I am an idiot. Like why don't I just get a photo or something, I don't have that, kind of to validate it. But then it was about a year after he was passed, someone from the show posted on Facebook a promotional video that he took that I had never seen before that it was promoting for the series and it was like the interview situation when he was on set and he was talking about me and he was talking about when he would watch the show on TV and look into my eyes and kind of by looking into my eyes he was kind of brought into the this character in this profound way and it was such a like I don't know like a most love letter from the other side like I'm so glad I didn't get that photo I'm stuck

like that is my that was my moment there. That's much better than you think. Someone said they saw like an actor studio type interview where he was that he did not long after Wilfrid and he was talking about me specifically so I'd love to see that. Wow that's amazing. What a great feather. Yeah. So you know what I know that you've got this documentary that you've been putting together and I'm really excited to hear more about this journey in your documentary film and your CBD journey and how all of this materialized. Tell me more about that.

Well, there is this like connection to Robyn with this documentary. It's pretty expansive, this project, so I've got to try to think about the best entry point in. The film's called The Cannabis Code, sort of borrowing from the Da Vinci Code in a sense that there is a kind of a potentially conspiratorial spiritual thing that I am trying to discover. It's been ten years in development and it's about the mysteries, hidden histories and possible celestial genesis of the cannabis plant. And it really does trace into a lot of ancient religions, cultures that used cannabis as an antigen as part of a ceremonial connection to a God or a higher power. And this extra dimensional, extra thing that cannabis has that having been someone who has, you know, I lost my best friend to suicide 15 years ago.

I've had suicide ideation myself for many years, my own depression that I'd battled and I'd overcome in sobriety and rehab. And so then Robin and of course, Susan and Robin. So to me, I find that with depression as it's labeled, for me, it's like a soul pain. It isn a soul pain. I don't subscribe necessarily to it being a chemical imbalance as explained by the pharmaceutical companies. And I believe that cannabis does have something spiritual about it that cannot be defined by biology and science. So I've spent 10 years in development this film and hopefully spin-off series, digging into these hidden histories. And it does even trace back to there's a lot of ancient connection to extraterrestrial beings, extra-dimensional beings that there's a tribe in North Africa called the Dogon tribe who in their telling of history, extraterrestrial beings from the Sirius star system

brought cannabis and gave it, among other things as well, but gave it to early humans as a gift to expand our consciousness. And so when you look at the Dogon, their understanding of astronomy, it was, it was, they knew that there was the Sirius was a Sirius star system, was a dual star system way before modern telescopes and science could prove them correct. Also their way of maintaining their history telling I think is a far more reliable method than ours for instance. So this is all sort of stuff that I am, you know, we've started shooting and we're, you

know, we're going to be shooting going all around the globe in a sense. It's it's a bit like Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown. Gotcha. It's also a bit like Ancient Aliens and it's also a bit like Carl Sagan's The Cosmos. It sounds pretty fascinating and and I know that, you know, we talk about a lot of things of otherworldly nature and so forth just in conversation on my program and I think that maybe just, you know, theoretically that perhaps while that the cultures that existed before us may

not have used the exact same technology we do. I think there may have been cultures as advanced as we are with different technology and different connections to the universe around us, you know, and Far more advanced. And that's what I think is coming out now. I think it's one of the reasons why TikTok's that to be banned is, but I think that there's so much information coming out about the true nature of just pretty much how we've been lied to about everything, mate. Everything, everything, man.

Listen, we just had a conversation today about how the food we have something here. I don't I don't know that they do in Australia, but called the food pyramid. And the food pyramid was the recommended dietary guidelines guidelines it's it's an absolute farce it's horrible it's it's it's a crime that was perpetrated on people you know so yeah we're all discovering that maybe some things have been pulled over our eyes over the years well well just as you know leading back to the cannabis versus you know pharmaceutical antidepress the cannabis versus, you know, pharmaceutical antidepressants, I mean, it came out that they came clean, the farmers, Big Pharma came

clean a couple of years ago and said that the whole chemical imbalance theory, which was serotonin related, is a chemical imbalance and we're going to balance the imbalance with taking these drugs. It was all basically was a marketing campaign and the slogan was not based on any kind of fact, yet still 80% of like people weren't questioned, still think that it's because of chemical imbalance and doctors are still prescribing pharmaceutical antidepressants, you know, with the advice that is a chemical imbalance and even though they came clean about the genesis of that marketing campaign and that it wasn't based in fact, that made no effort to re-educate society.

No. And then meanwhile, you've got this plant medicine, proven life-saving, fundamental plant medicine that's still being constantly demonized, stigmatized and you know, then when you add the industrial hempball element as well, we've got this plant that can really literally save our planet, save humanity and that's the big part behind the show is you know, is this suicide epidemic and just that I believe and have for a long time that there's this, my pain comes from assault pain, it comes from disconnection and that the highest grade, the biggest cause of death in

Australia ages 15 to 44 is suicide. Where my wife's from in Spain, it's motor accidents. So you've got these two different cultures that you've got a culture that you know people just, people won't get out of here so much they're willing to kill themselves to get out. There's so much pain. And I think that what happened was with the failure of organized religion, it's less this where people used to sort of devote themselves to and have this higher connection to something greater. It's that this hole in everyone's souls and out of despair, they just need to escape the pain. And so I hope to inspire people in a way that, you know, say Carl Sagan's The Cosmos did,

as opposed to the Elvira de Grasse's version of The Cosmos, which I found very didactic, condescending and lecturing. Carl Sagan, who actually, Queen Stanley, also spoke about the spirituality of cannabis. And he's one of the only other people over at Red has done that. But I used to go and read and watch his show, even though it was in the 80s, 80s,

his 70s show at the public library. I'd get high and I'd watch it. And it just filled me with inspiration and wonder. And the name for that show was, it was a journey of discovery. Right. And so that's what I'm trying to do with this show. I'm trying to inspire people. I'm not trying to say it's one thing or the other. I do want to call out the big pharma, but also the whole extraterrestrial thing for me is I've been an ancient astronaut theory for most of my life and in 1998, I actually had a direct encounter with extraterrestrial, I believe subterrestrial, but definitely interdimensional beings, right?

Where I felt like I was actually almost killed or abducted and it was a situation that definitely shaped my life and I became and spent the next 20 years of my life trying to find out what these things were. So, I became a very knowledgeable about extraterrestrial, you know, the anarchy and everything because I was specifically trying to find these particular beings that I encountered and I never really didn't find out. So that's why when I read about you know, the Dogon tribes saying that cannabis was bought here by extraterrestrials, for me it was an absolutely nice stretch of the imagination because I've had direct contact with, I've had direct relations with interdimensional extraterrestrial beings.

And so that is and I make no secret of that in the show. I come out from the front. This is where I'm coming from. But I the show is very science. Like I look for the scientific answer for everything. It sounds like it sounds like a really good recipe for a very fascinating program. It hits all the buttons that I'm interested in as a viewer. And I do think that's interesting. You know, you're talking about Big Pharma and I do think that

I think people are finally starting to wake up, but there's a lot of work to do. You know, we've called Alzheimer's a memory disease for a long time, but the truth is, and everybody knows now, it's really diabetes type three. That's what causes Alzheimer's, you know, a lot of it is genetic. And so these, these antidepressants, for example, it really has nothing to do with, with serotonin in that regard. All that does is try to level out a little bit, but that's stupid. It is it doesn't address the issue and that's what you're talking about. You're talking about what the real issues are not what they tell you the issue is.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, I I you, you know, every second day, someone reaches out to me, um, some fan and says, thank you. You know, you have, some people say, I actually just show in the character saved their life. But many people, like you got me through the grief of the death of my father or the death of my dog, or you got me through the hardest part of my life. the depth of my dog or you got me through the hardest part of my life. And so I've just got to plug this computer. I'm sorry again.

Oh, you're good. You're just fine, man. You're just fine. I don't want to run out of batteries. All right. Good enough. Good enough. So, yeah, like I remember kind of conclude like deciding when I was in the bloody 90s and I was dealing with chronic depression then, and I have for most of my life, deciding that God had made a decision that I was meant to live my life in a state of constant perpetual suffering so that I may help heal other people's suffering

with my comedy, right? And my creative voice, which was sort of a lot to carry on my shoulders as a guy in his 20s, but it's the only thing that made sense to me. And honestly, now at age 53, I don't really feel that much differently. I think that maybe I was kind of close to it and I feel that like I heard someone say that you, the broken people, only broken people can really heal other broken people. And when I spent some time in rehab in Tennessee, there in Nashville, not far from you. You notice that the people that were in there with the you know, with those patients, a former addicts, you know, the people that have done it.

Yeah, because they're the only people that really have that understanding, that compassion. My father. I somewhat understand what you're saying, because my father, when he passed passed away he was 34 years sober And he spent his entire life every day of his life the rest of his life Keeping himself sober Simply by helping others to obtain sobriety. That's that was his entire mission in life, you know And so I watched him, you know, throughout

my life, regardless of, of, you know, how he was a dad or anything else, just as a human being dealing with his own, you know, negatives and, and using it as a positive to help others. And so I do understand that I've seen that journey in a man before and it's a powerful journey. You know, it's a powerful thing and you are right. If you haven't been there, you can't help, you know? If you don't know how it's cooked, you can't tell them the recipe, you know? Yeah, so I've felt ever since I was a young boy

and I'm part of what I did deal with in that treatment center. It did focus on early childhood trauma and PTSD and so in those most difficult years and those sort of late adolescent, early teen years for me, I was very introspective, very deep thinker, spent a lot of time in isolation, a lot of time in hiding and in that time, I did hear a voice that did send me on a calling of sorts, you know and I felt that when I did Wilfrid that that was the call. Like I felt okay, this was what that voice was telling me that I was going to do when I was told the result. But now that I'm

doing what I'm doing, I feel that this was it. Like the Wilfrid was the way that I enter it. Like Wilfrid was it becomes unintentionally this cannabis cult figure. And now this, and also dealing with the mental health stuff that, you know, going back to your question earlier about the different versions of Australia and America, there was none of that in the Australian version. It was just all about the comedy. Then when we did the American version, suddenly it became a show about mental health. And then it was unintentional, but so many things in life seem unintentional.

But in a manner of speaking, you know, it's like you did the pre-work and you created your own gate into the next chapter. Your character has been leveraged to bring people to the message that you really want to deliver. And that is, that's a great conduit. I mean, I get that there had to be moments where you never wanted to put that thing on again, you never wanted to see it again, never wanted to hear the name Wilford again, probably drove you crazy, you probably felt pigeon-hoped, know you felt typecast you felt stuck at times but now I think on the other side of that I look at you

know how it prepared you for what you're doing now and how it set the table for all the people who are gonna come and see what you're doing now and and that's a cool thing really you know yeah it, thank you. There was a specific moment that always I was aware of and I mentioned before to you and to, it was Gara? Gunner, Gunner. Gunner, Gunner. Yeah. That I spent some time in rehab in between the pilot and the series, the series, going to get shooting series. And when I came out, I was pretty newly sober. So I was had a lot of intense anxiety. There was this whole feeling, as you said, that the bravery of like, I was wanting to

make the fool of myself in Australia, but now I'm about to make a fool of myself in front of the whole world. I was kind of terrified. I bet. What I'd signed up for. And I went and I had also made a decision years ago, I didn't want to get in front of the whole world. I was kind of terrified. I bet. What I'd signed up for. And I went and I had also made a decision years ago. I didn't want to get in one of those suits again. And now here I am signed on for six years. And I, so I turned up on the very first day of, um, of the promotional

shooting and it's the famous shot of when Wolf was looking at the Google Walkthrough photos, one of those images, he had the window. I'm yelling at someone out of the car window. And I turned up that morning and I and I saw I was in this beautiful trailer and I saw the dog suit hanging up there and I just got this just filming for the dread and I thought, I don't want to get in that dog suit again once. How do I do this?

Six years, 13 episodes. How do I do this? I thought, 13 episodes? How do I do this? I thought, can I just get in my car and drive across America and just not do it? Like, what can I do here? And I'd recently had that spiritual awakening in Tennessee and I got down on my knees and I said out loud, God, please help me find a way to love this. Amen. Nothing happened at the time. They knocked on the door, Jason, there's time to go. You know, I went out there and as I'm walking through the crowd,

walking through this, you know, the crew all like, hey, Wilfred, Wilfred. But I'm just like filled with anxiety and suffering. I'm like, doing, I shoot the first set up. And as they say, OK, Jason Jason you can go and take five minutes half an hour we'll call you for the next setup this guy comes up to me we're on Venice Beach and he was an Australian guy I think I'd seen him in the background he talked to me he said mate so I have no idea you're over here so I'm

over here on holidays on Venice oh I'll see you here in the car my you keep going you make a lot of people happy you keep keep going. And I went, that's the answer. That was it. That's for me. This is how this is the way I love it. Yeah. Is remember the people that I'm doing this for every. And so every time I was shooting that thing and I would be in between scenes, sometimes I ripped that bloody head off. I'd throw it. I'm to get this thing off. Yeah.

But every time I put it on again, I'd like this is for them. And and now them they Are the ones that put food on my family's table now, right? We can have a spot there the ones that are like coming out and like saying yeah They'd buy my stuff at you know when times I need this So it was a really um, yeah, it was a spiritual experience. Yeah, it's, you know, it's, it's, it's always hard to see, always hard to see forward,

but much easier to see backwards, isn't it? And when you, when you begin to unpack it and you look at all of the components together and you go, man, there was a map here. I just didn't know it. You know, there was a map. I just wasn't aware I was following it, but you are. And you still are. And that's the great thing.

You're still following the map now. And except now you're more cognizant. You're more aware. You're more determined. You're more seasoned. You're wiser and you have something of substance you want to share and that's awesome. You know, that's great. That is great, man. Yeah, thanks. I, it's funny this relationship you have with an audience

like you, I knew from my theater days, you know, there it's instant, you know, you'd have this relationship and you feel them and they feel each performance is a bit different and you know, you can gauge, you can know how they're gonna feel about a certain thing But when you when I do Wilfrid like I did feel like I knew my audience even before The show had let me and going to air and there were times where you know I'd shoot certain scenes in particular that I knew

Would just get them in the heart, you know Like I knew that I had him at the comedy and it's just going to rip this out. Oh, this, they're going to feel a certain thing. Yeah. And I'd come off, I'd come off, you know, take my suit off and I'd feel it. I'm like, oh, you think they can do this, you know? And then years later, I haven't seen the show since I did it. The way I experienced it now is through other people's memories.

And they tell me their favorite bits and I'm like, ah, yeah. And I just go, isn't that funny? Like they're talking about how they felt this certain thing and it's like, yeah, I, I felt it with you before you saw it. Yeah. So the time doesn't, time ceases to exist in a way. It is the relationship between me and the audience still happened.

And it's still happening. Yes, no, that's exactly right. You know, I didn't do theater but I did do stand-up comedy and so I became very used to that instant reaction, right? And so when I got into broadcast, there's not an instant there, you know, it's going out over the air and maybe they like it, maybe they don't, you know, I don't know until somebody says something, but over the years, much like yourself, the boomerang, the echoes come back in and you go, wow that really did reach somebody, it really did matter to some, you know, and and that's a real validating feeling to know that it you mattered to somebody, you know, you did the work you did, the words you use, the choices you made mattered.

You know, they really, really matter in a more substantive way than any dollar or building or car could ever deliver to you. You know what I mean? And so that's awesome. Yeah, that's that's great. That's great. Well, look, let me do this because I know you have other things to do. You have a family, you have a life.

So if people want to know more about you, they wanna know more about your CBD, they wanna know more about your documentary, where do they need to go, Jason? Tell them where to go. Well, I guess the first place to always see what I'm doing is at Wilfred on Instagram. Okay.

I'm most active there. When it comes to the brand, WilfredCVD.com. At WilfredCVD.com, there's a contact area. It's like a mailing list. And I, I mean, I've kind of, I'm shadow brand, I don't know, three different demand levels by now because I'm pretty open about the cannabis stuff there. I'm constantly getting, so I know that I'm like only reach when I, my content's only

reaching a very small percentage of my followers, but they can follow me still on there. At Wilfred at Instagram, Wilfred TV Dog on Facebook and but the reliable one is WilfredCVD.com, join my contact list, you're on my mailing list and that way if all my sites get shut down you know you'll always be on the Wilfred mailing list and anything important, I'm not there. Yeah I think that's great man and and and I know that my audience in particular is riding the wheelhouse of your demographic. They're the folks who are gonna embrace not only the CBD and all of that,

but I think they'll really embrace the documentary and the show and the journey that you're on. That's who my people are. And so I'm hopeful that we'll deliver you a lot of new fans, uh, in addition to re-energizing some other fans as well, you know? Well, we are as part of the film plan to spend a bit of time in, uh, Tennessee. Um, you know, visiting the, um, in Chattanooga where our, um, our

grow is and fulfillment center. Yeah, that's great. Also, you know, as part of the journey in the cannabis code, you know, it does follow my journey a little bit and that did happen, did lead me into Nashville. And also we really talked about dig into music and that kind of creative divergent sort, needing cannabis, needing creativity and how many musicians believe that, you know, even just the process of creating music, they'll often describe it as the music went through

them and they were like the channel of music is coming from some higher place. So it really does fit in with that spirituality of cannabis and stuff. So we do plan to spend a bit of time in Maxwell, which is kind of near your neck. It is near me, yeah. It's a lot closer than here anyway. So when we're there, it'd be great to come back

on the show again if you have me and give you an update. Absolutely, and maybe by then by then things are going well maybe I could even pop over there and you know do a little impromptu show and kind of promote what you're doing and talk about it and it'd be a fun journey to do I think. Yeah that'd be great. Okay well yes let's let's stay in touch and and certainly any way that we can help you get your message out and and help continue to get the good words out that you want to get out to people and help them and make them more whole. We want to be part of that journey too, you know, so we're thankful for what you're doing and we see what you're doing and we're here for you. Thanks for that. You bet. We see what you're doing and we're here for you. Don't look back for you. Bad man.

No, no, I'm saying, hey, man, we're fans here. I'll tell you that, sir. We're fans, Jason. Thank you so much. And have a great night, buddy. Thank you. You too. All right, man.

God bless you. That was great, man.