The Delta Flyers - Kristanna Loken

Episode Date: November 20, 2023

The Delta Flyers is a weekly podcast hosted by Garrett Wang & Robert Duncan McNeill. This week’s episode is an interview with Kristanna Loken. We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeillAnd a special thanks to our Ambassadors, the guests who keep coming back, giving their time and energy into making this podcast better and better with their thoughts, input, and inside knowledge: Lisa Klink, Martha Hackett, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, Roxann Dawson, Kate Mulgrew, Brannon Braga, Bryan Fuller, John Espinosa, & Ariana DelbarAdditionally we could not make this podcast available without our Executive ProducersStephanie Baker, Jason M Okun, Janet K Harlow, Brian Barrow, Rich Gross, Mike Gu, Tara Polen, Vikki Williams, Holly Smith, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Lisa Robinson, Alex Mednis, James H. Morrow, Roxane Ray, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Feroza Mehta,  Jonathan Brooks, Gemma Laidler, Matt Norris,As well as our phenomenal Co-Executive Producers: Liz Scott, Eve England, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Kris Hansen, Chris Knapp, Dannielle Kaminski, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Matthew Gravens, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Heidi Mclellan, Mary Jac Greer, John Espinosa, E, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Jenna Appleton, Lee Lisle, Sarah Thompson, Samantha Hunter, Amy Tudor, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Lori Tharpe, Mary Burch,Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Holly Schmitt, Christopher Arzeberger, Tae Phoenix, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Daniel O’Brien, Bronwen Duffield, Danie Crofoot, Ian Ramsey, Rob Traverse, Penny Liu, Mars DeVore, Stephanie Lee, David Smith, & Matt BurchAnd our amazing Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Trip Lives, Ann Marie Segal, Samantha Weddle, Chloe E, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Jocelyn Pina, Chad Awkerman, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Maxine Soloway, Barbara Beck, Species 2571, Mary O'Neal, Dat Cao, Scott Lakes, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Cindy Ring, Alicia Kulp, Kelly Brown, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Jamason Isenburg, Mark G Hamilton, Ashley Stokey, Rob Johnson, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Dominique Weidle, Jennifer Jelf, Louise Storer, Justin Weir, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Aaron Ogitis, Ryan Benoit, Megan Chowning, Rachel Shapiro, Eric McConnell, Captain Jak Greymoon, Clark Ochikubo, David J Manske, Amy Rambacher, E.G. Galano, Will Forg, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Russell Nemhauser, Lawrence Green, Greg Kenzo Wickstrom, Christian Koch, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, Shane Pike, Jennifer B, Dean Chew, Akash Patel, Jennifer Vaughn, Cameron Wilkins, Michael Butler, Ken McCleskey, Walkerius Logos, Abby Chavez, Preston Meyer, Lisa Hill, Benjamin Bulfer, Stacy Davis, & Mary JenkinsThank you for your support!“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail].”Our Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hello, everyone, welcome to get another episode of the Delta Flyers. This week, our special guest is none other than Kristana Loken. Welcome, Kristana. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. So nice to be back on your show. I know.

You should get like some kind of merch for this. I know. We got to get you a t-shirt or something. Or maybe a Delta Frequent Flyers program. Oh, yes. There you go. You get a frequent flyer membership. Fliers program.

I love it. Okay. Well, as you know, the strike's going on, and we are definitely staying away from anything in terms of struck projects and whatnot. So let's dive deep into Kristana Loken. On Wikipedia, it says that you were born in possibly Ghent, New York, and possibly Wisconsin. I mean, can you clear this? up of where were you born and, you know, give us the beginnings of your life. Where do you come from? Where do you hail from? I come from planet Earth. You're an earthling. Yes. My parents are actually

from Wisconsin. So that's the Wisconsin piece. I hear the Wisconsin in your accent, by the way. No. A little bit. I've never lived in Wisconsin. When you say Wisconsin, it sounds like you're from Wisconsin. Wisconsin. No. I'm going to have Midwestern. default. I don't know. You're in midwester. Okay. So my parents are from there, but I grew up in upstate New York, where I was born in Hudson, New York. Oh, I love Hudson. How have you been? Oh, yes. I love Hudson. What a great town. Hudson has gotten so cool and trendy ever since I left. I don't know if it's something that I did or said. Yeah, what did you do? It's all thanks to you. It's all thanks to me.

No, my parents had a farm there. I'm going to raise my cup called Love Apple Farm, if you can see this, established in 1969. They added for 43 years until they sold it about 10 years ago. Wow. Oh, my goodness. So Woodstock was happening right across the river. That's right.

Woodstock in 69, and your parents started the Love Apple Farm. That's a good fit. And after they were, after they started the. farm, you came around 10 years later, correct? So that's, is that, or am I right on that? That is accurate. Yep. My sister grew up on the farm and it was an amazing place to grow up. I absolutely loved it. So they had a big gourmet roadside market and bakery and petting zoo for kids and really a family destination in the summer and fall months. What type of produce did they grow mostly? What was the They were the largest peach growers in the northeast.

Wow. Because we think about the Georgia peach, right? Yes. Though climate, obviously in upstate New York is quite different than Georgia, but my dad was a real pioneer of his kind enabling a real delicacy with the peach to be grown in upstate New York. He would even air rate so it didn't freeze the air with helicopters to really try to ensure the quality of the fruit. He also coined the phrase tree ripe, which we've all heard of

now. You guys know what tree ripe actually means? No. It means you leave it on the tree until it is ready to eat. You don't pull it off and let it mature from a green state. Oh, yeah, sure. That's pretty much it. So you may do something called spot picking, which is picking the same tree several times to really ensure that ripeness. So, and they pressed their own cider. They had, they were also pioneers with the cloudy cider that we drink now. That's very common. Yes.

A thing before, it was just apple juice, the clear, really sugary stuff. Right, yeah. They did a natural cider. They also did hard cider. And their slogan there was, love apple farm, love juice, may cause amorous behavior. Very funny. So they had a good sense of humor. My dad had also been an actor in New York.

My mother had been a model, and they kept a place in the city for years, and they would kind of go back and forth until my mother retired and the farm really took over. But did they have farming in their roots, in their background? Did your dad or your mother's parents farm? Like, why did they decide, let's start a farm? I'm just curious. If they would, one was an actor. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. My dad grew up on a dairy farm, actually, in Wisconsin, as you do. And my mother really had no farming background, but it was 1969. You know, it was the whole back-to-the-earth movement in that kind of organic phase. And they were sick of really the New York City lifestyle, and they wanted something a little bit more earthy. I love that. I love that. And your grandparents are both Norwegian.

correct yes so my dad is um first generation on his dad's side second generation and on his mother's side grew up speaking Norwegian and my mother is a mixture of Norwegian German background but we've done our ancestry dot com and we things are pretty much as we thought they would be with some few exceptions that we've found out along the way. It's always interesting to find a surprise on those DNA sites. Yeah, it's true. And the more that I've told people about, you know, finding out different ethnic backgrounds, et cetera, it's not such a surprise.

Yeah, others talk about it too, for sure. Yeah, it's funny, a very dear friend of mine in New York when I went to school in New York, we're still good friends. And he's a gay man in his 60s now, early 60s. And he sort of was feeling very low. lonely in life, you know, a few years back and didn't have a partner, didn't his family had, you know, disappeared. So he decided to do ancestry and do the DNA thing. Long story short, he discovered that he was a father and a grandfather because when he was going to college in New

York, he went to a sperm bank to make some money. And he had forgotten about this. He'd gone to the sperm bank to make 50 bucks or whatever you made. I'm sorry, how do you forget a mouth? Exactly. You know, he was young. I forget that I have a kid, but it's a little bit of the topic for a woman. But anyway, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Well, he just, you know, it was such a distant memory and such an insignificant kind of, oh, I need 50 bucks. And they're offering it.

I saw it in the back of the paper. I'll go do this. And it really just brought about this entire sort of belonging, this sense of belonging and connection that he really was needing and had no idea. He was just looking for some relatives because he's like, Yeah, a lot of people have passed away. I was amazing. Yeah.

Anyway, well, I actually, too, I've gained a sister. Oh. Oh, wow. Oh, my goodness. I gained a sister. We knew she was out there, but she found us. Wow. Man, younger, older.

Older. Okay. Yeah. So I have. And how was that? What kind of impact did that have on you? That must have been profound. It was very COVID.

and I mean, no sooner did I get my whole family on Ancestry.com than about six months later, my dad receives this beautiful letter and we meet her and her lovely husband and now her children and grandchildren. And it's been a wonderful, wonderful adjunct to our family and her family tree and our history. And it's really special. I guess my dad at the time was 88.

You know, you can still get surprises at 88. It's been really great. Does she resemble you when you first met her? She does. Yeah, she really does. You can definitely see it, you know, that she looks like my father. And, you know, she's got a similar jaw line. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty neat. Wow. Yeah. It's so interesting how a lot of the Scandinavians that settled. in the U.S. settled in Wisconsin and Minnesota. It was just like, wham! So many to the point that the Minnesota Vikings are the Vikings for a reason, you know,

because of the amount of Scandinavian Americans that are there. Yeah, I'm not exactly sure of that genesis, but my dad likens it to the similarity of the topography of the land, climate, and all of that. You know, Vikings, we like to work hard and to farm there with all the right. rocks and the inclement weather, you've got to be pretty tough. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah.

And I should also say I gained also a cousin. So the family is growing. Wow. Very cool. Wow. That's amazing. What words of Midwest are you from? Well, he's not Midwest.

I'm not Midwestern. My wife is from the Midwest. She's from Michigan. But I am from the South. I'm from North Carolina and Georgia mostly. Yeah. That's why I'm representing the Georgia Bulldogs. current national champions today are you a sports ball enthusiast do you follow any sports

teams at all i'm just curious here we go with this i just got throw it out there i want to know i'm curious um i grew up being a cubs fan by with my father because uh when he was growing up there was no brewers yeah that was not a team yet so the closest team was the chicago cubs for my 15th birthday I told him that I wanted to take the train from upstate New York to Chicago to Wrigley Field we stayed with my aunt and uncle

and we saw like two or three games and it was great that's so cool I like baseball all the best that's my favorite professional sport and I'm a big fan of the Olympics I will watch pretty much any sport save for curling

you know I can without curling Give curling a shot. Please. It's a good sport. It's an amazing. I was going to say, I will always stop the channel when curling is on. I'm the opposite of you.

I love curling. Oh, my God. I guess I just don't understand it enough. I don't either, but it doesn't matter. It's so silly. And they're so into it when they're lying over and everything. There's so much drama. Yeah, exactly.

The brushing and the sweeping and all the. Yeah. I think for me, it's definitely the humans. stories you know i just i love rooting for people i love feeling how hard and worked for something you know they've dedicated themselves to all of this and this may be the one and only shot that they've got yeah and it's beautiful the sacrifice and the belief self-belief and all of those things that are incredible qualities of life right you know so um yeah well speaking of people taking their shot yes speaking of people taking their shot so you became an actress how

did that happen? Like, you said your parents were sort of in the business in New York. Your father was an actor. Was he a theater actor or a TV actor? He did a little bit of everything. And my mother, as I mentioned, was quite a successful model for about 20 years. She did various different campaigns, TV commercials, etc. They did live out in L.A. for a big it, but New York was really what was the best match for them. And for me, you know, as far back as I can remember, since I was like three years old, I wanted to be an actress. Wow.

Really clear. There was no question about, there was a brief stint when I watched Indiana Jones, and I thought, maybe I'll be an archaeologist. And then I went, no, no, I think. I can pretend to be an archaeologist. if I'm an actress. Exactly. Crocodile Dundee, too.

Like, I like all the adventure, you know, out there kind of exclusive projects and things as much growing up. So ever since you were three years old, you knew you wanted to be an actress. Do you think that was because your parents were in the business? Were you sort of like modeling what they were doing in some way? Or was this your own? Because at that point, they both retired. I mean, my dad- The farm. They were already doing the farm.

They already had the farm. And my dad, also, I should say, is a fairly prolific writer. I mean, still at the age of 91. He churns out more content that's unbelievable. So he would write in the off-season. But I really think it was just kind of in my blood that artistic gene. And I was fortunate enough to have various different types of lessons. You know, I did Summerstock Theater.

I did several different types of dance, I did horseback riding, and I was just really driven. So when I was 13, I was watching this movie. And there was this actress at it who was like around my age, blonde hair, blue eyes, Nicole Tom, who ironically later became my friend when I moved out here. Wow. I saw her in the movie and I said, you know, how do I get to do that? And my dad said, well, why don't I, you know, take you into New York, which was only a couple-hour train ride. And you can meet my old agent and see how it goes.

And I did. Who was that agent? It was Monty Silver. Oh, I remember Monty Silver. Oh, boy. Yes. Yeah, I was in New York in the 80s, yeah. Okay.

Very good. Yeah. Small world. And so I started working with Monty, and he said, you know, while you're here, there's actually a job that you would be right for, which I will not name because I think potentially it's a struck company. I will just say it's a daytime soap. Okay. Okay. And I auditioned for that job.

And I remember kind of auditioning with my love interest, Jason Biggs. and yeah I know sorry okay all too interested in the kissing part of the scene that we had and I ended up getting the job and I thought well this is really easy it just kind of go it was like my first audition yeah yeah so anyway beginner's luck but I went in so I did that show for about three plus three to six months they wanted me to become a regular but I thought well I'd like to try some other things so I did a various different TV series in New York and then I had auditioned for a job in New York that was going to be filming in LA and they flew out and they screen tested me and I said well if I get the job I'll stay at this point I was 16 and if not I don't want to be just another blonde out of work actress in L back home. I'll go back to New York. But I ended up getting the job and staying. Wow. Oh, wow. Well, so 13 was the, how old you were when you booked that soap opera or was it 14? 13.

And your dad didn't, like a lot of show biz parents or a lot of parents that are actors, a lot of times they'll tell their kids, look, this is, unless you really, really need to be an actor, don't get into this business. Because, you know, there's a lot of caveats because they've seen the ups and downs of how crazy this business can be. But your father seemed to be very supportive and very, you know, he was like, okay, now introduce you to my agent, my old agent. So he never gave you any caveats like, hey, sweetie, this is the one side of business. I need it. Did he ever sit you down? Did they warn you about anything? You know, they were great.

I mean, my mother also super supportive and from the modeling side of things, too. They really saw how driven I am and was. And they waited until I said, you know, I really want to do that when I saw that move. So it wasn't like they were pushing me. I was just happy upstate doing my lessons in summer stock theater, et cetera. But it was that drive that they supported. And so when I came out to L.A., yeah, I got emancipated so I could work adult hours. And it really just went from there.

And you had, you know, by the time you showed up and, you know, we got to meet you, you were 19 at the time. So that is... On your show, I think I was 17. What? Wow. Yes. Really? Yeah.

Yeah. Didn't you kiss me on the show? Like on the cheek, right? I'm just saying, wait a minute. You were not even age. I thought you were not... You were 17 on our show. That's incredible.

Okay. But still, you were a four or five year veteran of the industry at that point. Yeah. So I hear I thought you were a brand newbie, newbie, but no, you'd already cut your teeth in New York on the soap. That's true. Yeah. TV series, et cetera. Yeah.

Oh, my goodness. I didn't know that. Wow. Is there anyone in grade school, middle school, high school, drama teacher, someone that really, you know, had a big, you know, was very impactful in your life in terms of your direction in becoming an actor? Yes. I think it would really be, honestly, my dad, I would have to say. Sounds like it. Yeah, my father and also my mother's belief, you know, it's like my mantra through the years has always been believe in and follow your dreams.

And their attitude was like, well, if it's, if it's not you, it'll be someone else. So why not have it be you? And it was just like, oh, all right, sure. I'll just go out there and do it. And my mom had a great piece of advice. She said, Christana, if you go on an audition or an interview and they ask if you can do something, she says, always say that you can't. Because then once they hire you, they've hired you and you can figure it out.

Yes. I did that once on a Western. They were like, and I'd ridden horses as a kid. But they asked me, oh, do you ride horses? It was like, oh, yeah. Yeah, I wrote a lot when I was younger. Yeah. And I got the job.

I was like, I was supposed to play like the lead teamster on this wagon train. Like I should be great at horses. I should look like. You should be a pro. I should be the best horse rider around. And anyway, so I went, I thought I got to go take lessons. I got to learn how to, you know, I did this as a kid at summer camp, but I'm not a like a horse. I'm not a cowboy.

So I go out and spend like a whole afternoon with this trainer, trotting, cantering, you know, doing all the stuff, I got home and I literally had blisters on my butt, the size of like a silver dollar on each cheek, like big blisters, like, you know, that fill with a liquid, that kind of, I was like, what is happening? So did you pull it off? I pulled it off. Yeah, I rode the horse that did the thing. Right. Well, especially if you're trying to, you know, because I did grow up riding And I've never, you know, driving a wagon with a team of horses. If that's what you were doing, that's a whole different. No, I was in the saddle with the alongside the wagon train.

All the pioneers were driving their own or they had someone else driving. But I was the one that was kind of supposed to be like the top cowboy that's leading the wagon train, you know, out west. The one with the most experience. The one with the most boils on his body. That's the one that I played. Hopefully they had popped by the time that you asked. I think they had, I think, but it was very painful. Wait, I want to get back to, though, I love that you said your dad was maybe one of your biggest

inspirations. That's very sweet and touching and wonderful. It also sounds to me like your parents, like talking about creativity is where I'm going with us. They were both kind of, you know, your father's an actor, but you mentioned he writes. He writes all the time. Your mother was a mom. model, a lot of creativity in campaigns and being a model. There's a lot of creativity going on

there. And then the fact that they created this farm. They created, like, creativity plays out in so many different ways. It's not just, you know, TV shows and movies. It's farming. It's, it's, it's selling, you know, creating a brand for your farm and creating up with that logo. Or the logo or peaches, you know, being creative about how you think about growing peaches. So, yeah, I guess it's more a comment than a question, but I love the fact that, you know, it sounds like you were in a really creative family and enthusiastically creative in lots of ways. Very creative and also, I think, really allowing the space for me to flourish in that environment and not have to think within a box.

You know, it's like, well, what do you think about that? And how do you think it should be? and, you know, the way in which that they engaged me, which frankly is what I try to do with my son. And I went to a creative school. I went to a Waldorf school. Oh, yeah. Riddell Steiner and his philosophy around education. And I absolutely loved it.

And then once I started working, I did a homeschool program that followed the Waldorf tradition. And, yeah, my son's now in a Montessori school. And I just think there's so many different ways that we can live our best. life. You know what I mean? It's like people get so boxed into like, well, it's got to be like this and rulebound and otherwise I'm not okay. And it's like, well, what if what if we try something totally different? And what if we like that better? You know, why? Yeah. You know, that's one thing I would, I will remark about meeting you when you were 17 when you came on our show was that you have this energy about you, which is an anything is possible energy. You know, I'm open to trying

whatever, energy, which is really refreshing. So I just want to throw that out there. Or maybe that was just your youthful exuberance. But I'm going to say that I liked what you brought to the set immediately. Thank you so much. No, I appreciate that. I think I still embody that. Even on set, whether it's problem solving or whatever.

I mean, I just shot a movie in nine days. And that is the fastest that I have ever shot a film. And so talk about like creatively thinking outside of the box and knowing here's our time frame in which we have to do it. I'm going to come in ultra prepared because I know we don't have to margin for error. And how do we and it was a bit of a surrealistic a theme. So we had the ability to really create what we wanted. And with the help of the cinematographer, I think we got some. really great stuff. But yeah. Wow. Can you, is that a struck company? Can you talk about that?

He is not. No, I can happily talk about that. This film is called Dark Night of the Soul by Trick Candle Productions. And we shot only 40 minutes away from where I grew up in upstate New York. Wow. I used to ski called Windham, New York. And the Dark Night of the Soul is taken from a poem, an old poem from the 1800s, meaning your dark night of the soul is basically upon death, looking at your life's journey and coming to a place of acceptance so you can pass on to the afterlife. And this woman, my character, has a very high position at the CDC. It's during a pandemic. and it's my survival movie.

She gets into a car accident at the beginning of the film and gets pinned in the car and through her Dark Night of the Soul and the amount of blood loss that she's experiencing through her leg and in her slow process of death looks at a projected conversation of hallucination with the father played by Martin Cove

also some flashbacks of a conversation she had with the sister and coming to terms with the fact that her husband and daughter were patient one and two of the pandemic and she has not been able to find the cure yet. So it's a light comedy. It sounds hilarious. So it's, no, I think it's going to be a beautifully intense and touching film.

That sounds great. It sounds very intense. And is that, so that's amazing you got to do something with a non-struck company. There are still these independent companies that are producing all kinds of things. Is there anything else you've been working on recently? So obviously, yep, that they got their waiver, all good there. With three other films that we did before the strike that are upcoming for release. One is called Darkness of Man.

Another one with dark in the title. Another comedy, hilarious. Exactly. Another knee-slapper. Another feel-good hallmark type of movie. Exactly. Darkness, okay. It's kind of a neo-noir thriller with Jean-Claude Van Dam.

I play in Love Interest. And James Cohn-Bressack, really great upcoming young filmmaker wrote and directed it. And that is being released, I believe, in theaters in February. Right. And then another film I shot earlier this year called No Address. And my friend Julia Verdon wrote, produced, and directed it. And it's about the homeless crisis that we're experiencing in the U.S. And I don't know.

You guys, I don't believe her in L.A., but I am. and we have the largest in-city homeless community in the country, 60,000 people. Wow. Wow. So, I mean, through COVID, it just exploded. And it's been so tragic. So what she did is she got on a bus with a homeless expert, and they went to 17 different cities interviewing people in the homeless community

and hearing their stories. And she made a documentary, and then she wrote a scripted feature. which is what I'm a part of. Right. And Billy Baldwin plays my husband. And all of these stories that you hear in this film are inspired by stories that she heard from the people that she met. Wow. Wow.

So no address, important film. You know, we hope to really raise some awareness about what's going on. That's great. And then last but certainly not least, my company, Trio Entertainment, produced a film called Vice and Virtue, which I'm also in, and this is a film about two celestial beings, vice and virtue, take human form, come to planet Earth, and impose this judgment day on about half a dozen people that find themselves in an undisclosed location over the course of the night. So this is a film about choices, and these people stare in their choices in

the face and how some choices take us on one path and some take us along another room. So what will they choose over the course of this evening? So that should also be out later next year. Oh, wow. That sounds fun. Did you write that as well? No, I didn't write it. I'm not really a writer per se. I think I'm a pretty decent script doctor. But I think my next foray, I did produce it, as I mentioned, but my next foray would be into directing. I think I'd like to do that next. Great.

Yeah, you're talking about these, yeah, these projects. They're great. One thing that I, that crossed my mind was that there have been quite a few projects that have been produced and aired. I was like, you know, Kristana should have been on some of these. You know, maybe you did audition.

I have no clue, but there's been a lot of them out there, for sure. I have, I certainly, it's funny, There's a picture right here from a mini-series that I did where I play Queen of Iceland. Oh, wow. Here you get a little bit. I don't know if you can see that. Oh, yeah. That's a cool.

What a cool shot. When was that? This we shot, gosh, maybe 15 or so years ago, and that was South Africa. We shot it there. South Africa, South Africa doubled for Iceland? Wow. You get a big, major green screen. Yeah.

Massive. Okay. Because, yeah, otherwise, yeah, I'm so hot in all of those furs. Let me tell. I bet. I bet. Jesus. I'm sorry.

I'm just seeing like the second AD going, stop. Wait, wait, wait, there's an elephant in the shot right now. I mean, you're in like, you're next to a game preserve. And here you are supposedly in Iceland, you know. Oh, my goodness. Exactly. Exactly. Wow.

Okay, so you have played your heritage then in that project. Yes, okay, good. And I'm sure I will more and, you know, I get to ride a horse and that one and others. And of course, as actors, as you know, anytime we get to do one of our skills, we're quite happy to showcase it. Did you, did you sprinkle modeling in to while you were, you know, while you're acting or did you just completely just go into acting and stop? Did you do any modeling? Because I think it said you did some modeling. Yeah, I started acting first, and that was always.

my forte shall we say but modeling was very lucrative for me and I did pretty well with it quite well with it I traveled all over the world when I was younger modeling as well but I really the inspiration for me was really acting you know giving to an inanimate object wasn't it nearly as gratifying as interacting with another person, obviously, and creating the humanity around the story and what that person has gone through. You know, Larry Moss, great acting teacher that I've had the privilege of studying with, he asked this question that is like the best question to me. What would someone need to know in order to play you? And if you just up that land, you think about all the specificity and all the experience,

and the ups and downs, and that to me is inspiring. I love people. I love humanity. But what I will say about modeling is it gives you great camera awareness and body awareness and presence. And I think that coupled with the dance background that I had really lent itself well to doing a lot of action too, because learning choreography for me was made sense. Even though the body positioning may be different, if you're in a fight stance,

soon a dance stance but yeah so it was all helpful nice okay how do you how do you keep your creative juices going between some of these projects like what do you have any have creative habits or do you go to class still do you go to acting class yeah i continually study from time to time and i feel like um you know what really kept me going through COVID was developing vice and virtue with the writer-director. And, you know, I feel like I'm always moving the ball forward in some way creatively, whatever that is. And it seems to be changing, whether it's leaning more on the producing aspect and figuring

out, you know, I mean, that may not be it more technical than it is creative. But there's something that I always will find that is a creative outlet. but it does vary. But I think as a creative person, as an artist, you really need that where you start to go a little bit nuts. Yeah. When you book a role as an actor, what do you, what is your process in terms of breaking down the script

or the scenes that you're in? Like, what do you usually do? Your go-to routine? It's a great question. I always, and I'm looking at it right here, I always keep some sort of a journal or a notebook. And depending on the character, there's different entry points,

but I always write a backstory and really get the specificity of where they're from, who is their family, why are they choosing what they're choosing in the script, and really gain clarity on that. is it a physical role? Do I have physical demands on my body? I've really tried to sculpt my body

to different roles through the years. I mean, with some jobs, I've put on a lot of muscle and muscle mass and increased my body weight and gotten into a really incredible shape. And other, you know, if the character is more frail and vulnerable, then maybe it's just getting lighter and, you know, losing weight, you know,

so maybe I'll up my cardio. So I look at it from a physical perspective, too, like where is this person physically in their life? And then it's, you know, really getting clear on the dialogue. And then forgetting the dialogue and really finding the emotional through line in the character. And then it just, you know, it's like the script, write the script they shoot and the script they they edit um like in the project we just did like I said I knew we had a very limited amount of time and I had so much dialogue that I wanted to be I didn't

even want that to be a thought because there was there was so much richness in her and what she was going through in her life that you know once you forget all of that because you know it you can really allow the emotion to go to shine through um so it seems like each job is tailor made a little bit for what the specifics are but um there's there's always things that i that i do and those are pretty much the parameters yeah and i love the fact that you you've done that you know molding of your physical self like christian pay up christian bail is most known for gaining tons of weight and dropping tons of pounds off so that and that's that's a tough thing to do it's not easy to cut to change your body type like that in in the drop of a hat that's amazing that you you know that you do

that so thank you for that i've had that had the help of a great nutritionist for the years too yeah that'll do it okay well we we just want to say thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today and good luck yes good luck on all those projects that are coming out that you told us about. I hope everyone will check those out. And I realized I never mentioned the name of the picture I show you. That's Dark Kingdom. Everyone was dark. I've done so many. Dark. Dark. Dark, night. I know. I know. Salt, dark soul, dark night, dark. Okay. Was that soap opera you did called Dark Shadows, maybe? That was an old day. Soap opera. I don't know. I think you should I'm not for that one, but yeah, and in Dainiballung in Germany.

But I realize what good is showing a picture, you know, without the name. You know, if you need a new name for your production company, it could be Dark Viking Productions or something like that. Okay, just want to throw that out there. All right. This has been so great. Thank you both so much. Yes. Thank you for coming back and coming on the podcast. It's been really, really fun.

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