The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Liam Sharpe – Actor, Filmmaker, Writer and Linguist on The Head of Joaquín Murrieta on Amazon Prime Video

Episode Date: March 9, 2023

Liam Sharpe - Actor, Filmmaker, Writer and Linguist on The Head of Joaquín Murrieta on Amazon Prime Video Amzn.to/3mJnDRG Actor, filmmaker, and linguist Liam Sharpe is poised to be one of the most talked about antagonist of 2023, playing the role of “Oliver” as one of the leads for Amazon’s first Latin American Western, ‘The Head of Joaquín Murrieta.” The well-traveled language expert and thespian also founded Sharpe Studios working out of the Bay area and has worked on countless projects including filmmaking, podcasting, photography videography, voiceover work and more. “The Head of Joaquín Murrieta” tells the story of a historical Mexican figure who gave battle to the Americans during the Gold Rush. On the newly drawn border between Mexico and the United States, an all-out war was waged due to the Gold Rush, the series is fueled by greed, anger and xenophobia. In New California, a group of immigrants, bandits and natives join forces, thus creating the myth of the Latin American Robin Hood: Joaquín Murrieta. Initiating one of Amazon’s most ambitious titles ever in Latin America, “La cabeza de Joaquín Murrieta,” is the region’s first Western Amazon Original series, Amazon Prime Video announced Tuesday. Set in 1851 around the Mexico-US border, the series episodes are directed by Humberto Hinojosa Ozcariz (“El Candidato,” “Luis Miguel, The Series”) and David Pablos, fresh of his success with “Dance of the 41,” and director of “The Chosen Ones,” selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard). Liam brings to life the villain ‘Oliver’ the main antagonist in this gritty wild west series. Growing up in the Bay area, Liam was exposed to many cultures and backgrounds at a young age and sparked his love for learning languages. Now fluent in 7 languages including English, German, Spanish, Portages, French, Italian and Mandarin, Liam learned the majority of the languages between the ages of 14-20. Liam abroad as a teen in Germany, and then traveled to Ecuador and taught at an alternative school when he was 18 before moving to China at 19 where he learned Mandarin. Liam would eventually graduate from UC Santa Cruz and begin working as an electrical design engineer for a solar company before moving to Germany to earn his masters.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com, The Chris Voss Show. Welcome to the big show, my family and friends. We certainly appreciate you guys being here. Part of the Chris Voss Show family.

As always, we appreciate everything you guys do to share the show. The audience doubled in February, which for a 13-year-old show is really freaking hard. So thank you for all of you out there who've been sharing the show, writing the great reviews and five-star stuff. Some of the stuff you guys write on the reviews, it just touches me. Like I sit and cry a little bit and I hug one of my dogs and think, wow, people really like me. Bit of homage there, the old Saturday Night Live bit. Anyway, we have an amazing Hollywood actor, filmmaker, and linguist on the show today. Liam Sharpe is going to be with us talking about his new Amazon Prime video

series. This is going to be pretty exciting. gonna be with us talking about his new amazon prime video series and this is gonna be pretty exciting we're gonna talk about his career and what he's doing with the show and some of the other projects that he has in works in the meantime as always we have to dredge you over the shaming to invite your family friends and relatives to uh subscribe to the show go to youtube.com for just christmas go to goodreads.com, Fortress Chris Foss. All the amazing authors we have over down there. And then LinkedIn, the big LinkedIn show over there, the newsletter, the big group, all the stuff that we're doing is there as well.

Tomorrow we have an amazing guest on the show as well. That's all we do. We only book amazing guests. We put them in the Google machine and type in amazing guests, and then we invite them on the show. We have a billionaire coming on the show. I think then we invite them to on the show. Uh, we have a billionaire coming on the show. Our second, I think this is our second billionaire on the show. We're still trying to get trillionaires to come, but we haven't found one yet. So we'll keep

working on that. In the meantime, uh, watch for that. That's going to be a big event tomorrow. For some reason, people like, and we have billionaires on the show, but I like it when we have Hollywood actors on the show, which we have today. Liam Sharp is on the show with us today, and he has an amazing sort of history in what he's done and everything else. When he's not busy acting, producing, or perfecting the multiple languages that he speaks, he loves staying fit and playing soccer and tennis. He tried to be a goalkeeper for the Los los angeles galaxy uh team uh but it's probably better than he didn't because now we can see him in movies and tv and all the series and i'm sure he's going to go on to an amazing career welcome to the show liam how are you thanks man i'm very happy to be here it's nice and warm down here in mexico city where i'm joining you from that's

pretty cool he's he's coming from mexico. We had a great discussion in the green room about some of the living costs and things. I know health costs are cheaper there. I might be moving there as they go. Give us your.com so people can find you on the interwebs and wherever

you want people to get to know you better. Yeah, man. LiamSharp.com is my website. At LiamSharpB. You want people to get to know you better. Yeah, man. Liam sharp.com is my website, uh, at Liam sharp B and you're on Instagram. Yeah. On Instagram as well. Uh, and of course, IMDB, you can see some of the work you've done there. And we're talking about your new Amazon prime video series. You're doing the head of, uh, Joaquin, uh, Murata. Uh, if I got that right, did I get the right Murata? Pretty much. Yeah uh joaquin uh mureta uh if i got that right did i get the right

mureta pretty much yeah joaquin marietta yeah joaquin marietta uh the head of and it's now on amazon prime where you can see it there uh tell us about this series and what got you involved with it yeah man it was a really really amazing just project to be involved with I honestly had no idea coming into it how really wouldn't experience it would be and how amazing it would actually turn out I highly recommend watching it as a viewer not just as an actor in the show I loved watching it yeah what is the what is the overview of the show what does does it entail? It's a great question. So in a nutshell, the head of Joaquin Morrieta,

or the original Spanish, La Cabeza de Joaquin Morrieta, is the first big Latin American Western. And it kind of flips the script a little bit. I mean, the cowboys are always the heroes of the Westerns, right? In this case, they still are, but those are Mexican cowboys, or almost more specifically, Californian cowboys, because the show really tells the history of what was based on a true story of Joaquin Morrieta, who was Californian in the time where the US was taking wanted to take over

California from Mexico. And at the same time, California wanted to be independent, which is obviously still a topic. And it tells the story of how diverse a place it is and all of the conflict that was happening. And gold, of course, played a huge role in all that because people found this rare metal they wanted to take out of the ground and fell and yeah it's just the story of of it's really the beginning of the history between mexico and the u.s which is obviously still still a big uh topic today yeah i think mexico is still trying to take it back so uh there you go i don't i think they wouldn't mind yeah

uh well you know they probably ship a lot of uh you know, they probably ship a lot of nose candy to Los Angeles. That's a joke, people. Just leave it alone. Don't write me. So this is kind of an interesting story because this is a historical context. There was the big fight over the expansion of the United States and some of the different things we did between Texas and California. It's beautifully shot.

I have to tell you, it's, I love the cinematics of it. It's got that grit that, you know, you, you look for in a Western. Like I, I'm a big fan of Westerns, especially like spaghetti Westerns. I mean, who can forget some of the great Westerns that are out there but there's a grit to it it's not clean like one of the problems i have with some westerns especially some that were produced in the 60s and 70s were some of the john wayne ones uh not not all of them but some of the john wayne ones were a little bit too sheen you're like everybody clearly showers every day in this and i'm not really sure everyone was doing that in the 1800s no don't think so definitely doesn't look like that in our show really sure everyone was doing that in the 1800s no don't think so

definitely doesn't look like that in our show yeah and so in in the in the series it it has definitely a grit to it uh now what where are we at with the series are we still in season one season one just came out uh two three weeks ago february 17th so that's live now it dropped all at once so you can binge watch it which i did immediately um and then what role do you play of course you're probably wanting to see all your scenes right yeah i definitely just fast forward now um i'm the bad guy um me and another guy uh play two the two bad guys we're the evil gringos, basically. Those evil gringos.

We're the ones that were in charge of taking California in a nutshell. And I think you play a part as a military leader or someone in the Army, U.S. military. Yeah, essentially. That's definitely the aesthetic. We're the California Rangers. And the California Rangers came out of the Texas Rangers which came out of

soldiers in the Mexican-American War so after the Mexican-American War Texas Rangers were founded out of those soldiers and out of the Texas Rangers they hired Captain Love, who's the other bad guy kind of my boss basically to round up a band

of his, whoever he wanted to form the California Rangers to hunt down, in particular Joaquin Murrieta to round up a band of his, whoever he wanted, to form the California Rangers to hunt down, in particular, Joaquin Morrieta. There you go. And so the story kind of revolves around him, doesn't it? Going through the paces, and it looks like, I don't want to give away too much of the series, but it looks like he's going around exacting a bit of revenge or a bit of

the, uh, tidying up the books of people. Maybe we wronged him. That's kind of the gist. Yeah. He's, um,

he's, he's the Mexican Robin hood to put it. Oh, there you go. He was this, uh, outlaw that, that was stealing gold and distributing it to,

to the people. And it, it kind of details the big fight between people that are Mexican that are living in what at the time was Mexico and is now California and the fight over land rights and settlers and all that sort of stuff.

Exactly. What's really cool about the show is that it draws in everybody. It has incredible diversity. It shows a large portion of the show and talks about or deals with also the indigenous populations that were in the area

around the border areas between Mexico and California, which isn't often talked about, but it was a huge, huge factor in everything. So there's Mexicans, Americans, indigenous, Californians who were technically Mexican but wanted to be independent and

did become independent for a very brief period of time before the U.S. took advantage of that moment in history to swoop in. Which, I mean, I'm from California, so I can't be too mad. I wouldn't exist if they hadn't done that. Hollywood wouldn't be here

it was kind of messed up but yeah exactly yeah changed the world but uh yeah I that that was one of the things I enjoyed about watching the series was the uh you know the they call them Native Americans now but back then they were indigenous people uh but seeing them use real characters from those places really i mean it just enhances the authenticity of the show i grew up in an era where i especially i think during the 60s and 70s they would use white actors to play indigenous people or you know different roles and it sometimes it would be really obvious to a point you're just like it break it would break the fourth wall at least for me point you're just like it break it would break the fourth wall at least for me where you're just like this is yeah come on man like this isn't real

like a little on the nose yeah yeah yeah and and so that was one of the things i liked about the show um there's not a lot of major stars in it uh that you would find in like big hollywood productions that move the thing but the stars are really good in it where they're gritty and they have that the acting is well done the the filmmaking the the cinematography cinematography is a big deal i'm a kiri akira kawasawa fan and uh uh so a cinematography is a real big deal for me and how the camera plays the eye and everything else. Now, your expertise is being an actor, a voice, I think a voiceover worker, a filmmaker, writer, and linguist. Tell us a little bit about some of those different things that you use in incorporating the movie. Yeah, definitely, man.

First, it's true. It was a very Mexican-oriented cast. And so a lot of the actors are huge in Mexico. it was a very Mexican-oriented cast, just go back to what you were saying. And so a lot of the actors are huge in Mexico, but as is typical, you could be huge around the world and never heard of in the U.S. So, like, the guy who plays my rival is huge in Mexico, big in Spain, and, you know, he's done stuff in the U.S.,

but it's just a different world in a weird way. He acts great. It could be a great crossover. Yeah, they were, everybody really impressed me, honestly. Everyone was good, which is hard to do. Hard to get everybody to be

that good. I was impressed. And I love how Amazon Prime and Netflix and Apple TV has done some great things. They've really kind of that good i was impressed yeah and i love how you know amazon prime and netflix and you know apple tv has done some great things you know they've really kind of expanded the scope of what hollywood had and you can find like really great product uh that's being put out you know that doesn't have to be in hollywood you know rubber stamp by effect effect of anything in my opinion some of the holly Hollywood stuff has kind of gone down the tube. I see so many

different movies with hardcore messaging that seems to be more about messaging than it is about writing a good plot story. And the actors really would do it for me. There's a lot of tense scenes in the movie.

There's a bit of blood. What's that old line? There will be blood? There's a bit of tense scenes in the movie and a lot of there's a bit of blood. What's that old line? There will be blood? There's a bit of blood in the movie. Just a little. I'm being a little facetious but there's a grittiness to it. There's a reality to it. It was a savage

time with a savage group of people. It wasn't a pretty era in time and I think that maybe captures it well. Yeah, it really wasn't, and I think what it does a great job of showing is that everybody was pretty messed up at that time. Yeah. The Americans, obviously, but everyone was not great.

And in real history, Joaquin Murrieta has a legend of being a hero. I don't know that he was the best guy in real life either everybody just kind of shitty at the time well you know it was a it was a pretty i would call it lawless kind of somewhat law you know and uh going around doing it um so uh how's the series going so far do you are you guys in production for the next series yet or do you wait to see if it's going to get picked up? It's, it's kind of still new on its release.

Yeah, it just came out. Um, I haven't heard yet. I've heard positive things, but nothing's concrete yet for subsequent seasons. But I, but I've based on what I've heard and I've seen,

it's very promising. Um, but the reception has been incredible. I mean, around the world, people have really loved this. I saw a review in Hindi the other day, which seemed positive. I don't speak Hindi, but it seemed good. It was a newspaper in Belgium, in the French part of Belgium. I've just seen stuff from all over the place.

It was like top five in the u.s when it came out which is great to see really really cool to see and i think it's great in in how it depicts i mean like you say it has that grittiness it has that uh uh the the good bad and ugly sort of grittiness to it which is totally such a great movie you know a lot of clinty's woods i'm a big fan of those movies. It definitely drew from a lot of different Western inspirations in particular, but also other inspirations, which

yeah, I'm really impressed by the final product. It was incredibly fun to shoot. What do you like about your role the most? Because you play the soldier. Do you like playing the bad guy? There's not much to like about Oliver.

Um, it was a very fun experience being the bad guy. Um, I think the best part about it has been that most people don't believe me when I tell them, um, I'll tell you, I was in the show and, uh,

you should go check it out. I play the bad guy. And you're like, you, you're nice. you're like a nice guy how are you just watch it if you hate me thank you thank you you'll win i mean it's acting acting right uh so there you go now one of the things you have is you are fluent in seven languages uh give us a rundown on everything you're fluent in and how that helped you uh fill out the role yeah man um so english is my native language um i started learning other languages with german when i'm when i was 14 just randomly my grandparents were german my dad's parents and i just randomly thought it'd be cool to learn german i don't

know i thought i think i thought it'd be cool to have some language I could talk to people and that no one else would understand. And it worked. And it's true. Most people in the U.S. don't speak German. So I had that secret language. From there, I started learning Spanish. And I would basically just find people to talk to. I just made friends who spoke that language and forced them

to talk that language to me and didn't speak english and that's how i learned spanish and then in college i went to see santa cruz and i learned um portuguese there which is pretty similar to spanish that so it wasn't it wasn't a huge leap and then i later in college did a exchange semester in china and shanghai and just studied mandarin got pretty good i'm definitely wouldn't say i'm fluent in mandarin but i think for being a white guy i'm pretty good yeah mandarin is hard to learn yeah it's pretty different than Spanish or English. But it's also, one of the cool things is it's easy to impress. It was easy to impress people there. All I had to do was say, oh, thank you.

And they'd just be like, whoa, your Mandarin's amazing. Wow. Yeah, I mean, no Mandarin's hard to learn. You may as well just go learn Russian. And you did that between the ages of 14 to 20 yeah exactly so 14 i started learning german 16 was around when i did spanish 17 was portuguese 19 was um mandarin and then just through that period not for any specific reason or any specific uh i don't know it just kind of happened i guess

i've picked up enough french and italian to get by and have a good conversation with people and um been working on my dutch lately oh wow a very unique fun sounding language i i think you know language is interesting you know telling the history of peoples i remember when i learned a bit of spanish i flunked spanish but when i learned i used to be able to count to 40 i think i still can if i ran it off in spanish but you know learning about how you know there's the masculine feminine parts of spanish uh i'm like wow that's really complex um you know it's hard enough for me to learn english at this point, or at least when I was a kid. Um, so, you know, you, you traveled a lot.

You, uh, you've, you've lived in different places, which I think has probably expanded your thing. What, what, what's interesting is you started out working as electrical design engineer for solar company and, uh, doing some other things. What, what, what made you uh turn into hollywood and acting and stuff um a lot of luck uh but that's a great question um yeah i was working at i wanted to save the world when i was in college i still would love to but i'm a little more realistic now it's hard to do it on your own lord Lord. So I was like, well, let me work in sustainable energies. Why can't I do that? I found this really cool solar company in Santa Cruz,

and I just kind of pestered them until they gave me a job. And I was just like going to supermarkets and yelling at people like, hey, you want solar panels, right? And most of them probably did, but not for me and not because I was yelling at them and then i basically just kind of subtly worked my way into becoming a site technician doing the designs and stuff going out to the houses figuring out how the whole electrical system worked i didn't study electrical engineering anything but i was able to learn a basic amount, how solar systems work,

not the planetary ones, the electric ones. And then I just kept doing that until I decided it would be good to make more money, and I went to Germinated to get my master's in computational linguistics, which is like linguistics, which I already knew I loved, languages and stuff, but with the tech component so i was like i'll go work for a tech company and make you know google translate or work on that kind of thing and i thought that'd be really cool and it is but it isn't really cool

for me i decided i didn't want to do that and one day i just i didn't want to work in an office i wasn't that great at the tech side of things definitely more on the humanities arts side of things and one day I just thought wouldn't it be cool to be an extra in a movie people do that those are just regular people right

and I looked it up and I got cast in a cool movie as an extra but I got a little close-up moment, which don't tell anybody got actually cut out of the final movie, but that's okay. And then I just realized that people would pay me to do, even if it wasn't much of the time, would pay me to do it.

And I just did it, I guess. There you go. There you go. Well, you know, it's an interesting business. I don't think people nowadays, maybe they do, I don't think most people really appreciate the art that goes into it and the work that goes into being an actor. back then Touched by an Angel was a big thing up here and a lot of productions were going up here because of a recent uh at the time recent uh strike in Hollywood and so people were coming up to Utah for the non-union part of it but it's a beautiful place a lot of stuff is filmed here including westerns down in the southern part but uh I would go to auditions with some of the people that we knew that were producing films up here up in utah and uh you know we i'd see like all the actors some of them were mine would come in and do their

do their uh auditions and it was interesting to watch and you would have you know most of them would not really have it and then suddenly someone would come on with an audition and there's no music there's no background you know of the set or whatever they're just they're standing in front of you sometimes sitting like you know a warehouse sitting it's and and they will deliver an acting performance that will maybe have you crying or jumping out of your seat or or excited or they will move you in such an emotional way without the music without the background without the story you know they'll just jump right into the piece of that character and people don't

realize you know i think people don't realize how powerful that that it takes to be a great actor or an actor in itself to deliver that i think you're right um It looks easy because they pick the people that make it look easy. And it's really not that easy. I mean, I think there's two kinds of actors. There's actors that can play anyone. It could be anybody. Like Meryl Streep could be a six-year-old boy. She's playing me in the upcoming movie

that makes sense actually god help her please and um I think there's uh most that that's like I think a truly incredible thing which is just infinitely hard to do and there's i think most actors can play characters that are like themselves in some way really well or you know good actors um and that's also very hard to do but but i think that's a lot easier to do if you can come from yourself which is i don't know that's just what most acting to me seems like it is you just kind of put yourself in the situation with a few different parameters okay i'm i'm like this in this world and how would i act but being able to be anybody whatsoever that that is a skill i really really admire and i think it's very rare and it's kind of what you're talking about with these auditions

that people can do that it's it's incredible yeah people don't realize that the actors will you know build the character in their head or at least off of what they're given on the sheet and uh and then make their choices you know there's a lot of there's a lot of work involved in it yeah there's a lot of background work that goes that goes into all of it you really prep a lot you got to learn your lines and that's kind of the easiest part. At least that's not the hard part for me. The hard part is figuring out the world, you know? Yeah. See,

my problem is I'm like Marilyn Monroe. I can't remember my lines. Yeah. But I'm really good looking. Yeah. Right. I think. I don't know.

Yeah. No, I sympathize. Yeah. It's, it's a burden. So how did, how did you, I, it's painful, man. I's a burden. So how did you... It's painful, man.

I suffer every day. So, you know, since you play such an evil character, a bad guy in this movie, where the hell did that come from? I didn't know I had that in me. Now I'm terrified. I am. I didn't know I had that in me. Now I'm terrified. I think it's in everybody. Everybody's got an angry part and everybody's got a part

where they feel like things aren't fair. Objectively, my life's been great. I have not a lot to complain about, but I can imagine what it would be like if it weren't. And certainly I've had my own challenges and times when I was mad. You just draw from that. But I think the really hard part is taking that experience

or number of experiences and putting that into this context, which is completely different. That's I think one of the main challenges between being a person and then person acting another person. Yeah. It's, it's, you know, it's so funny how people don't get the acting part. Like I was, you know it's so funny how people don't get the acting part like i was you know i've seen criticism of actors and and actresses and and uh chris rock got some stuff on the comedy part i

think there's some other comedians that are greats that you know they get a lot of shit nowadays some of the people are out there i'll see stuff on like you know twitter people like you know they're basically armchair quarterbacking someone who actually does the work and you're just like it's like hey do you get it man like this is acting it's acting this is this is the whole point of being an actor um and so some of the things go into it what are some of the other projects you might be working on or do you want to plug any projects you've done in the past yeah man um what i'm working on now since this show since we started filming this show and a little before that i've been doing a lot of writing

so what i'm really focusing on now is is producing these these at the point at the moment two main projects that i've written one's a feature film one is a tv series the tv series is a very large undertaking um the tv series basically tells an alternate history version of what happened to the aztecs in the history of mexico the aztecs were the residents of what is now mexico city and they controlled much of mexico 500 years ago when the spanish arrived from europe and got involved let's say um in this version it tells that story as faithfully as possible because no one really knows the spanish burned all of the the aztec accounts of everything so it's all kind of biased accounts and speculation um unfortunately but as best i can tell or anyone can tell um telling that story but the major twist being the aztecs end up winning and by the end of season one it goes and that's

not really a spoiler because it's kind of a point of the show so the end of season one they they remain in control of mexico and they end up checking out what's going on in spain and getting involved over in europe and we just kind of keep going in that direction we know what happened in the real history that's we've seen that. I want to know what would happen if Europe hadn't taken over the world. That would be an interesting story to watch. Not to do a Nazi comparison of some of the negatives of Nazism,

but that show that they did where they played out if the Nazis had won. The Man in the High Castle? Yeah, The Man in the High Castle. I thought that was interesting because I'm like, yeah, what if? one the man in the high castle yeah the man in the high castle yeah the you know i i thought that was interesting because i'm like yeah that's i mean what if it would be interesting to kind of explore that in the story of it and so not to make a comparison between nazis and the aztecs

just just from that but it is very i mean i've definitely drew inspiration from that concept and i really like that show and i really like the concept of alternate timelines as a really fun thing to explore for me so a lot of my um projects play with that would have been interesting too maybe if the indie uh the american uh natives had had uh won uh won all the wars that we were doing when we first came. I think we had some authors on that have talked about the history of that. Yeah, in the show, that would happen. In the show, that would happen. We'd just be back in Europe drinking our stupid tea and stuff.

No, I just lost the London audience. Earl Grey is great tea. Earl Grey, get it today. Wherever Earl Grey is sold. I'm a big fan of chai tea lattes which probably most people wouldn't consider tea but they're delicious there you go I think we just lost the London crowd again

I think don't they like their Earl Tea over there that's their big thing I'm not an expert but yeah I think so I've heard it through the thing I've heard I've been told I can't call the Queen anymore she's not returning my calls anymore I don't know why anyway that. I've been told. I can't call the queen anymore. She's not returning my calls anymore. I don't know why.

Anyway, that's a queen joke, people. She's passed. God bless the queen. God, I'm trying to save the London crowd now. So, Liam, anything more you want to touch on or tease out before we go? Absolutely, man. Lots of stuff. You asked me a question like 30 minutes ago that I didn't answer.

I was like, let me go back to what you said before. I just figured you were dodging it. Yeah, right? I kind of got that. He doesn't want to talk about it, man. But I forgot. What was that question? I know.

There's a couple of questions I asked. What got you into acting, learning languages, future things, other projects you're working on or have worked on you want to plug? Yeah, man. So there's the show that i've been working on and there's this movie which is probably what i'll make first given that that show is a big big project big budget big show um so i'm going i've written this movie as well which could definitely be made for a more reasonable budget let's say um which deals with the um u.s mexico border today uh so not in a dissimilar vein from morita but now in today's day and age and what it looks like now which is uh the main character is a border patrol vigilante,

a xenophobic guy who's trying to prevent people from crossing the border. And basically he ends up in Mexico with what's called aphasia. So he loses his ability to speak English and finds himself in mexico and has to survive from there and try to get his life back after losing first his ability to speak his own language uh which is another problem with being monolingual you lose that what do you do um true and then uh yeah just trying to get his life back. It's got this really nice arc to it. I'm really excited. So we're in pre-production for that.

I'm really, really excited to get that one off the ground. I like stuff like this because it seems more authentic. Like I say, I don't like the fakeness of... I've seen westerns where the buildings are a little too clean. You live in the Dust Bowl and there's the desert and there's wind blowing and sand and it looks like everyone washed the buildings are like a little too clean, you know, you're like, you live in the dust bowl and there's the desert and there's like wind blowing and sand.

And it looks like everyone washed the buildings last week, you know, and everyone's, everyone's showered and clean shaven and, you know, a little too sheen. And you're just like, it's like, this doesn't seem like the gritty old wild West, you know? And so I, I'm a real big, I like authenticity. Cause I think it's, I think it just makes a great thing and i also like movies that aren't trying to send me you know social messaging i mean uh it's not that i have issues with social messaging it's just like i came to see a movie

like you know i went to the godfather you know like i love the godfather movie i recently saw it again in theaters for its 50th anniversary i don't want to see the godfather telling me about climate change climate change is real and it's a good thing you know whatever you know fix it but i don't want to see the godfather talking me out you know i don't want to see godfather 4 going godfather takes on climate change you know that sort of thing it's just get it get out of my damn movie. People go to the movies to escape all that stuff. Yeah, you do. I think lots, most really good movies do have a message, but it's not so in your face.

You think about it, and you're like, oh. Yeah. Oh, I get it. That's great. That's super cool. If it supersedes the plot, I with you yeah like like i think the i i'll throw some shade my personal in my opinion like to the there's a mar movie that came out with the thor dude and like the whole movie is just about his rejected ex-girlfriend or getting

back with his ex-girlfriend i haven't watched the movie clearly because i just i saw the premise trailer and i just went oh this is probably for the chicks who want to get back together with or whatever it's some sort of girlfriend boyfriend dynamic like i i have enough painful relationships in my past i really don't want to watch someone else's right like i'm here to see you know you go see spider-man you don't you don't see spider-man to see that you know it's it's a subplot his his relationship with the girl he likes. But the rest of the movie is him killing bad guys or fighting bad guys. That's what you really want to see.

That's a subplot. But to see a whole movie shaped around that, I'm like, what the hell is going on? I mean, suspension of reality and whatever. But I have enough of that in my life. So I love the movie or the series so far i watched the uh first part of it and the grittiness the reality the characters i dig i kind of actually like that there's there's no big actors that i know of i mean you said they're they're very big in in mexico but uh i really liked it because i can explore the actors a little bit more. Who is this person?

What's going on? And that speaks to me a little bit more than, you know, sometimes you do break the fourth wall if I see Meryl Streep doing something. I mean, you know it's Meryl Streep. You're like, I think when she played the Queen, you're like, eh, it's still Meryl Streep. She's a great actress.

No shade of her. It's very hard to get beyond being you. That's true. I mean, and that's pretty much what my psychiatrist says is my biggest problem. Anyway, Liam, it's been wonderful to have you on the show. Give us your dot coms if you want people to find you on the interwebs.

Yeah, man. It's been a pleasure. It's liamsharp.com S-H-A-R-P-E Instagram at liamsharp.com S-H-A-R-P-E Instagram at liamsharpb Also my production company sharpstudios.com We do fun commercials, music videos.

We do all kinds of stuff on the production side. So me in front of the camera, Liam Sharp, behind the camera, Sharp Studios. And I can't wait to see you guys there. More shows and movies uh hopefully this next one that we're working on is going to come on very soon so there you go back and talk to you about that one when that comes out there you go we'll look forward to seeing

godfather 4 takes on climate yeah yeah i'll be there i'm climate change i think francis for copa is working on that one that or apocalypse now too that's another favorite of mine i don't even know how you do a sequel to that movie. Anyway, thank you very much, Liam, for coming to the show. We really appreciate it. Cheers, man. It's a pleasure. And to my audience, check out the series on Amazon Prime. If you have Amazon Prime, I think just about everybody does that.

Who doesn't? For real sakes, what's going on there? Check out the movie or the series, The Head of Joaquin Murrieta. And I think you'll like it. I like the grit of it. It has a real Western feel. It's not like, I don't know, somebody who shouldn't be in a Western playing a Western. It really looks and feels like the thing. It's a great story.

And it definitely has its elements of suspense and all the wonderful action that goes into a movie. So check that out as well. There'll be a link on the Chris Voss Show. Also, refer your family, friends, and relatives to the Chris Voss Show. Go to goodreads.com for just Chris Voss. YouTube.com for just Chris Voss and all the places in between

and all that good stuff. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe and we'll see you next time.