The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1737 - Catching Up With Brett Cooper

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Today on The Matt Walsh Show, I sat down to catch up with Brett Cooper. We discussed farm life, looksmaxxing, and Pendragon. Ep. 1737 🌻 Follow Brett Cooper here: https://youtube.com/@bbrettcooper?si=I1mzXvefqq_T2QPF https://www.brettcooper.com - - - Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://dwplus.watch/MattWalshMemberExclusive - - - Today's Sponsors: Cowboy Colostrum - Get up to 25% off Cowboy Colostrum with code WALSH at https://cowboycolostrum.com/walsh Ascension Press - You can join Crux with 90 days of premium access to the Ascension app for just $4.99*. Visit https://ascensionpress.com/WALSH to download the app and get the free Crux Action Plan to prepare for the challenge and track your progress through Lent. *Offer excludes current subscribers. - - - DailyWire+: Become a Daily Wire Member and watch all of our content ad-free: https://dailywire.com/subscribe 🍿 Real History with Matt Walsh is available ad-free, exclusively on DailyWire+! Watch now: https://dwplus.watch/RealHistory Subscribe here: https://dwplus.watch/RealHistorySubscribe 🍿 Watch my hit documentaries: What Is A Woman? https://dwplus.watch/WhatIsAWomanMovie Am I Racist? https://dwplus.watch/AmIRacistMovie 🍿 The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin is now streaming exclusively on DailyWire+ Watch now: https://dwplus.watch/ThePendragon Subscribe here: https://pendragonseries.com 🔥 Friendly Fire is here! No moderator, no safe words. Now available: https://dailywire.com/show/friendly-fire 👕 Get your Matt Walsh flannel here: https://dwplus.shop/MattWalshMerch - - - Socials:  Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3Rv1VeF  Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3KZC3oA  Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3eBKjiA  Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RQp4rs - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brett Cooper, how's life out on the farm? It's going well. I just watched one of my escaped pigs run by the window, actually, before we logged on. So it's always exciting. Are you going to go get the pig or do you have someone to be the pig wrangler? Who wrangles the pigs? I do. Alex does. But this particular pig, her name is Patsy.

We have tried everything. We have repaired fences a myriad of times. We have a hot wire. we've tried different brands of Hotwire. She is seemingly immune to all of it. And so we've just stopped Karen. So she's now just a neighborhood big. And so she just runs around and at night she puts herself to sleep.

So that's just passy for you. Alex is convinced that now she's bacon. She needs to be bacon. But now I have like a fondness in my heart for her. But yeah, she just runs around. Is that the plan to eat the pigs eventually, I would assume? Yes, yeah, well, we already have. We've processed three already, and then we bred more. So if you want any pork, we're just going to be giving it to family and friends.

So I'll ship some out to you. I would appreciate it. Well, what, how many animals do you have now? We have, oh gosh, I've kind of like lost track of the cows. I think we have like 15 cows and two more that are going to be born in the next couple of months. And then we have Patsy, the Escape Artist, Pig. and then her two parents that we have on the farm, and then seven piglets that were born. So we have a lot of pigs right now.

And then we have chickens, ducks, and geese. And then two mules. What possible functioned? I mean, this is not what we're supposed to talk about, but why do you have geese? Like, geese are the most obnoxious animals. They're loud. They smell.

They shit on everything. They are, but they're fun, Matt. They're fun. And they actually do serve a purpose because they are great at defending the chickens and the ducks. They're obviously, they're not going to, like, fight off coyote. It's not what I'm trying to say. But for predators that are overhead and as a deterrent, because they are so loud,

they're great at protecting the rest of the flock. Also, they're kind of, I know that this is not like a, I'll make this like a family-friendly story, but there is a lot of sexual things that happen in, like, the bird world, and it all comes from dominance, like, in the animal, kingdom. There's just a lot of dominance. And so chickens, like the rooster will be on top of a chicken, ducks will be, like, fighting over one of these, like, female ducks, and the geese have none of it. They are, like, anti all of it. They stick their heads down. They put their necks out, and they just

squawk at all of them. They break up every single fight. They stop all of the promiscuous activity, and then they're also great, like, predator to turn. So that's why we have them, and they're just funny to look at. So they're like the grumpy Puritans of the bird kingdom. They're you. They're you. Yeah. You actually might identify with an African goose. Maybe I do.

I, because, you know, I do, I am, I have been pretty upset at you for a while, for being such a, as you know, for being such a bad influence on my wife and encouraging her and her delusions of being a farmer, her delusions of agriculture, as I have come to call it. So, and a lot of that, a lot of that goes to you. I was hoping you would tell me that the farm is a total disaster. You hate all of it. You regret ever doing it.

And then I could triumphantly show that to my wife. But unfortunately, you sound happy, which is not what I wanted to hear. Do you still have your goats? I haven't checked in on her lately on the goats. Yeah, we have two, we have two goats. That's it. They don't do anything. They don't do anything.

They're just there. They're cute. They're not even, no, they're not. They smell. They're ugly. They look. Like goats are a symbol of Satanism. Okay, they have these weird slit eyes that look at the with the pupils.

And they don't do anything. So, you know, I was out yesterday. The water is freezing where the goats are. And so I got to go out and like break. My wife has, well, can you go break up the ice in the water thing so that so they can get to the water? It's like, okay, so I'm out there. It's cold. It's dark.

It's snowing. Why am I doing this? What are you, Pete? What are you doing for me? It was my question to the goats. And, of course, they couldn't answer. So typical. No.

So I wanted to ask you, before we, before we, you know, we're talking to talk about Penn Dragon and all that, but you are in the middle, since we're talking this week, I do have to ask you kind of in the middle of a major controversy. And the controversy, if you don't mind, because the controversy is that you, from what I understand, is that you said hi to someone. Yeah, yeah, I said that was that was that was rather scandalous. Why? Yeah, what happened with that? So I was invited to a fashion show for New York Fashion Week from a designer called, her name is Elena Veles.

She is super cool. She's on the right. She's very much a disruptor in the fashion industry. And I learned that she had been a fan of the show and invited me to come see her New York Fashion Week show. And it was a great experience. I was super excited about it. Like, she's remarkable. and it was just like a very, very different world

that I'm used to being in. So that was very fun. And I went with Brittany Hugo Boom from Eadie Magazine. I know you know her. And so we were there. And after I had been invited, I learned that clavicular, the looks maxer,

that he was going to be walking in the show. And so that obviously was hilarious to me. And I was like, okay, this is going to be a great experience. And it would be funny to see him in person. And obviously, I had made an episode about him Before he really even took off in the X space, I would say, with like all of our people knowing who he was, I made a video being like, this guy is insane. This whole looks maxing craze is being taken to a completely unhealthy level. The kid does meth.

He does meth so that he can get through fasts. He wears makeup. He does this thing. Oh, gosh, I don't remember what it's called, but where he like hops around from like books to books on the floor to like make himself seem taller if he's with woman. It's just all of this insane stuff to try to make himself be super attractive. That's the whole goal of like looks maxing. So I'd done an episode about that. And then I had talked about him hanging out with like Sneiko and Fuentes and all of these guys.

And so I got lumped into this conversation. But I had been pretty harsh. And so when he was there after the show, I was like, you know, I should probably go say hi to him because he acknowledged that I was there. I wasn't watching his stream. But I knew that he knew that I was going to be there. I was like, I should probably just go say hi and be polite because I just like ripped him to shreds two weeks ago on my show. and I try not to be an absolute. And so, yeah, I went up and I said hi, and I was with Brittany,

and then recognized a friend of mine, Liv Schmidt, who I had talked about on comment section a while back and who I helped out when she had been canceled a few years ago off of TikTok. And that was the entire interaction. I said, hi, I shook his hand. The internet lost their mind because Alex was not at the fashion show with me. They thought that it was disgusting that I would say hi to this individual and that I smiled.

They like zoomed in on my face as I shook his hand. and then took three steps back and was talking to my friend. Anyway, it was a whole scandal. So yeah, I'm a terrible person, apparently, because I said hi to him. And I had a lot of people saying, like, why wasn't your husband there? Like, do you think my husband would want to be at a fashion show? No. He, like, did not want to be there. My bubble says, and I were laughing. And he was like, Brett, like, husbands only get invited to fashion shows if they're gay rappers. Like, this is normal. Anyway, so that was, that was the scandal. And people have been talking about it for days now. And that was the, that was the end of your interaction with this guy. That was it.

That was the end of my interaction. Unfortunately for the internet, I'm sure that they want more controversy, but no, that was literally it. Well, one way that I avoid these kinds of things is I just don't say hi to anyone ever. I'm not nice to anyone ever. So that's, that's one, you know, that's, that's the advantage of being aggressively antisocial is that you never, you never find yourself in these situations. If you're tired of feeling like crap and want to be healthier in 2026, you need to throw some colostrum into your daily routine. Our sponsor, Cowboy Colostrum, is as legit as you can get 100% American grass-fed cow colostrum that's collected only after the calves get their share.

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Just head to Cowboy Colostrum. dot com slash walsh and use code walsh to check out that's 25% off we use code walsh at cowboy colostrum dot com slash walsh i i do i do what i ask you about this because um i some of these concepts are just now coming across my like making it into my my radar things like looks maxing which i have in the last couple of weeks i've been seeing this i never saw this term anywhere and now it's all over the place and what is that? So that's just you want to look good? Like you want to...

Yes. That doesn't sound like a... A lot of this stuff is like, it doesn't sound like a new concept to me. So you... No, it's not. Look your best. Is that what it is?

Exactly. I guess it's a new fangled concept because we've been living in the society for years now where everybody's trying to make themselves look as like hideous and ugly as possible. Like maybe that's why. But it looks maxing. It grew out of this idea that men wanted to make themselves look attractive

and feel good about their attractiveness. And they've been. believe that they would move up in the social ranks with women and friends if they looked more attractive, which is true in our society. So they are investing in their looks. They are, like, the origination of it is healthy. Like, they were working out. They were eating better. They were trying to take pride in how they dress. They would comb their hair, whatever it is. And then it just blew out of proportion to now you have this kid clavicular, kid he's like 20 years old, where he's selling courses and streaming and inspiring all of these young men to do drugs

and to bone smash is like a big thing that he does, where you take a hammer to your jaw, it's like creating these micro fractures in your bones that allows them to kind of be reshaped and grow back stronger, so you have a better jawline, like just totally took it to a new level. But honestly, this clavicular, he's now even bigger than just looks maxing. He's kind of like this weird character artist. in a way, like, I keep saying his life is literally a reality show. Like, when I went and said

hi to him, I inadvertently, like, I mean, I knew that I was like stepping into his reality show orbit. Like he does these streams for like eight hours a day. He has like a cast of characters. It's like this whole world. It's less about the looks maxing now and more about just him as this like crazy internet character, but that's where it started. So yeah, looks maxing is just the crazy idea of taking pride in how you look and as a man wanting to look good. Yeah, it's interesting because there's this whole world of streamers who, as far as I can tell, don't really do anything. They don't have any discernible skills. They don't have any interesting opinions.

They don't have anything to say at all. And yet they have millions of fans. And yet nobody outside of those fans, like, you have millions of fans, but no one outside of that grand. group knows who they are or would recognize them if they bumped into them in the street. And so it's kind of, to me, it's this thing I've been thinking a lot about, go ahead. Oh, no, I was going to think that's changed a little bit with clavicular because he's kind of now broken outside of that mold.

Like, usually I would agree with the streamers. Like, it's very niche. Like, what happens on Twitch and Kick? Like, that's not a world that I'm really part of. And you're right. They'll stream for like eight hours a day. And they're just walking around and they have like a posse of crew filming them, just doing random things.

And I guess you could argue that that's sort of what happens on taking. when girls are just filming like, here's my day from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and they made a smoothie and went to Pilates. And it's like, why would anybody watch that? So it's kind of like the male version of this. But like, Matt, I was at dinner with Alex and a bunch of our friends prior to going to New York. And like, these 35-year-old guys were like, have you heard of clavicular? Like, if you heard of looks maxing? Like, it's now made its way out of this kind of niche internet world. So it's a bit wild. But yeah, usually it's just a very concentrated audience for sure. And why is this one particular guy

made it outside of that bubble, do you think? What's the appeal? He just has a, his team is really good. I would say, like, they're blasting his clips everywhere and it's this mix of, it's different enough, I think, from the rest of the streamer content.

And I think the language has also taken off, again, like looks maxing and bogging. And now people are, you know, making their own words based off that. It's like I'm yummy maxing. I'm, you know, I don't even know that people are just doing their own iterations of it. And so I think that all, you know, points back to him and is really blown this up even more. So it's just taking on a life on its own, which is great. You say yummy maxing? What is that? It's like you're eating food that's good. Like I posted when I

was at what doing the Super Bowl, I was like, I'm yummy maxing. We're eating wings or whatever. And everybody was in the comments making jokes about that. So it's just all, again, the language of itself has taken off or yeah taking a world of its own taking on a world of its own there we go i can speak yeah sure uh yeah this is something i've been talking about a lot is kind of the death of the monoculture and uh because it used to be we were you know we were we we all lived in one culture together and we share these kind of cultural touchstones and a language and yeah you had slang younger people had their own slang but but generally we all had the same cultural points of reference. And now it's this fragmented, fractured, atomized culture where everyone's kind of

living in their own universe. And to me, a lot of these streamers seem to be a good example of that, a lot of the language that's totally impenetrable and inaccessible for anyone unless you're like in a specific age group and you watch these people. And I don't know, what do you, what do you, what do you think about that? Do you think there's something to do that? No, I completely agree. And it's, it's also very evident on TikTok where there are like subjohners. genres on TikTok, like your algorithm looks nothing like somebody else's algorithm and you're being, you know, fed this type of content and there will be a community within that. And so even on one platform, you'll have people having completely different experiences and speaking in a totally

different language, essentially, using different phrases. The same is on X. Like, I'll look at, you know, my friend's feed and it's completely different from mine. Maybe there'll be like some cross over there with people that we follow. But I think due to algorithms, feeding us what we naturally start interacting with or talking about, it does create these factions. This reminded me, have you, this is a great example of this, have you heard of the trend of being Chinese? I've heard of Chinese people. I don't know that it could be a trend, though.

Okay, so there's this whole trend right now where people are adopting aspects. So you'll get a kick out of this. They're adopting aspects of Chinese culture. But rather than just saying, oh, I'm enjoying like a hot tea with. with lemon, I'm eating some kanji, whatever it is. Like, I'm going to a Chinese restaurant and having, you know, Loamein, whatever it is, they're going on TikTok and they're saying, like, I was just diagnosed as Chinese. Like, you're not just adopting parts of Chinese culture. You're now saying, oh, no, I am Chinese. And it's so ironic because we just got, you know, we spent 2020 where people

were screaming about cultural appropriation and you can't have braids in your hair because then you hate black people, whatever it is. And now on social media, through this little like subgenre, People are saying, I was just diagnosed as Chinese. I'm like at a Chinese moment in my life right now. And people are, you know, wearing Chinese outfits. They are posting TikToks using Chinese sounds and songs. They are doing like funny impressions where it'll be like girls and they're wearing socks and they have little like Chinese man slides and they're walking around.

And it's just this whole little bubble on TikTok. And I have one other friend that also found herself on this weird side. of TikTok and nobody else knows what we're talking about, but it's huge. These videos have hundreds of thousands of likes and comments. So it's not like a super niche thing, but in the grants community, it is. So that's just one example of it, I guess. Are they, do they do the eyes? Do they go all the way to do the eyes too? Or is that, is that out of, uh, no, I should try it in a video and see if that's like taking it a step too far if it's not fun anymore after that. Lent has already begun, but it's not too late to join my friends at Ascension Press for the Crux Lenton Challenge,

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to the Ascension app for just $4.99. Download the Ascension app from the app store or Google Play or visit ascensionpress.com slash walsh to get started today. Offer excludes current subscribers. Yeah, it's weird. I mean, like when I, there's also a kind of nihilism that I see in a lot of these people and a lot of this kind of the internet culture and the streamers and everything where it seems like the ascendant philosophy, especially in younger generations, is less left. and more a kind of like nihilism where nothing matters. Nothing really means anything. Nothing is sacred. Nothing matters at all. Life doesn't matter. Is that, are you, do you, do you pick up on that? Am I, am I imagining that? No, I think that's accurate. I think that there is less

political allegiance, I would say, especially with my generation, with Zoomers, where you see a lot of young people who I think pollsters would say, oh, these are, you know, they're becoming really conservative. They're leaving the left. But I don't really see that. I see it more so as Gen Z just kind of saying to hell with the labels. And, you know, wokeism, a lot of them think, you know, are cringe. They don't want to have controlled speech, but they probably wouldn't say that they're conservative. They're kind of living in this middle, you know, middle ground. And so that's one example of it. And then I do think a lot of people who would normally be on the left are adopting that nihilism where it's less about politics.

and it's just genuinely like we don't care, nothing matters, the world is burning, the economy's terrible, whatever it may be. So we're just going to like make our TikToks and try to have a good time. What about the generation after you? What are you picking up from them? Are they, are you encouraged or discouraged by what's next? Gen Alpha, I guess. What are you seeing from them?

I think your kids will probably be the exception here because a lot of them, I think, terrified people. Like that's the reason why so many teachers are quitting are because of Gen Alpha. Like this is the first generation of real iPad kids who have been raised by interactive devices. They are, you know, from the age of gentle parenting when millennials were adopting that entire philosophy and they're coming into schools and they are totally uncontrollable. They have no focus. They're falling behind in school. Many of them are violent, like causing teachers to have to quit because they don't feel safe in these environments.

there was that whole trend. I wouldn't even say trend. I think that's the wrong word for it, but it was just a conversation about this a couple of years ago about the Sephora kids. And that was just another term for Jed Alpha. But these 12-year-old, 12-year-old girls, were going into Sephora at the makeup store, destroying the entire store. They were using all of the tester products, throwing things on the ground, stealing. It's also just insane. The 12-year-olds will be going in trying on adult makeup that, like, you know, a 30-year-old woman would be wearing. They don't need that. They're all over social media doing makeup tutorials. And here's what I got for Christmas.

And it's all of this insane skincare. And they're adopting all of the very, I would say, adult, influence-ery, very online behaviors. Like, I'll be making a video. And it's, you know, some kind of 12-year-old. And she's, like, sitting here, like, tapping the drink or whatever it is. And so they're an incredibly online and disconnected generation for sure. So I am a bit concerned, I would say, based on what I've seen. And I think the adults in the room are also concerned considering that they are quitting and just saying to hell with this.

I don't even want to work with these kids. So hopefully we can change course a little bit. It's early, of course, but have you thought about what your strategy or policy is going to be as a parent when it comes to screens? I mean, it's pretty, I'm pretty open about the fact that I'm that we are very, we are very anti-screen in our house. Not entirely. I mean, we have a TV and stuff and kids don't have phones or anything like that. these people that where they got seven-year-old kids running around with iPads with full internet access I just think it's like insane

so have you thought about how you're gonna how you're gonna handle that? For sure. I grew up in a house where we also had a TV but we didn't have cable and it was just purely for DVDs like I grew up on I Love Lucy and the Andy Griffith show, things like that and we had a designated TV room

so there were no personal devices which I really loved and in reading the literature about the impacts on technology, what most of the, I would say, I think most of the pitfalls come from these handheld interactive devices. Like, it's less about sitting and watching a movie with your kids, which I know, you know, you enjoy or watching The Ravens, whatever it is, that is less detrimental. It is the putting an iPad in front of them and letting that piece of equipment parent them. And so that's for sure where we are drawing the lines. We have conversations about this all the time.

no phones, no iPads. I love the idea of going back to more antiquated technology where we will have, you know, a landline. So they'll be like a family phone. If you want to call your friends, you don't get to go sit in your room and have your own iPhone and talk on FaceTime until all hours of the night. You can go sit in the kitchen like I used to do

and call your grandparents or call your friends. And it's so funny, there's now, and if you've noticed, it's very cyclical in a way, but they're bringing back that kind of technology. And granted, you could still just go online. and buy a home phone that you plug into the wall, but there are now like old school rotary type phones that are in bright, colorful colors

that you connect to your cell phone plans. So it's connected to your iPhone, but it only has these certain phone numbers that your kids could call and it can connect to other families if they buy that certain phone. So there is now new technology that's coming out that is safer for kids.

Safer is, I think, the best word to use. Less distracting, less addicting. So that gives me hope that I think a lot of people are noticing that this is, issue so they're trying to innovate and make that easy for families. I also love the idea, Alex and I've been looking for one on eBay, but getting a VHS player and having a collection of, you know, VHS tapes and DVDs and, you know, here are the movies and shows that you can watch the old school ones before they were, you know, edited before they had, you know, politically correct

disclaimers at the top of the Disney movies. So those are all the things we've been thinking about. Yeah, I like how the new innovations are rotary phones and maybe we'll innovate we'll go back we'll go back to the printing press instead of computers and that'll be the next innovation i wanted to i wanted so so let's talk about um so one thing that someone can watch on a screen that is actually worth watching which is pen dragon and i have i actually didn't watch the series until it was released to the general public um i was i was forbidden from seeing it so i haven't made it to the episode yet that revolves around uh your character i i I have been, and I said this publicly, I was, I was, I didn't know what to expect with, with this series, because it's so, it's so ridiculously ambitious to take on something like this. And I've been very pleasantly surprised by every element of it. So what, tell us about your character and just kind of like your, how you feel about the, about the series now. Yeah. So I play Gannietta, and this upcoming episode that's coming out on Thursday, the 19th, is my, I would say, title episode.

You've sort of seen me scattered in other episodes, just popping in and out, not really sure what I'm doing or who I am. So my episode will be coming out on Thursday. And I love this episode because it does feel kind of like a mini movie in a way. And I won't spoil anything, but it gives you a lot of content. for the rest of the series and for Merlin's character, Tom Sharp. And so I play Merlin's wife, and that's who Gagnetta is. And so their relationship provides a lot of insight into why he is the way he is today and what he's going through, where he's come from, and it fills in a lot of the gaps. And it's a really, really sweet episode. And I just loved doing it. It was such a pleasure.

my best friend Rose Reed, I met her while working on Pen Dragon, but she actually wrote this episode, which was very, very special. There was a myriad of writers working on the series, and they all broke off, and they were working on different episodes, and this was her baby. And so it was very special to be able to work with her on that. She's just a wonderful writer. She had such a great job with it, and Tom was a wonderful guy to work with, and it's very cool to see. I was talking about this with Michael, but it's very cool to see actors who are, you know, this is like their first big, role. Like, you know, this entire series is essentially on the back of Tom Sharp. And this was his first time doing something like that. And he took it so seriously. He was incredibly committed.

It was great to work with. And so it was just really special. So it's a very, very sweet episode. It has a bit of a different tone than some of the other ones. So I think people will really enjoy it. And it also, it was fun because I, it does kind of stand alone in a way. So if you are hopping in just to watch this episode, again, it almost feels like a mini movie, which is quite. cool. What, and that's true of a lot of the actors in the series, right, where this is kind of their first big, big thing, a lot of, uh, maybe not newcomers, but people who, this is their biggest project they, they tackled.

Yes, for sure. And I always want to be careful without, you know, with saying newcomer or saying, oh, it's like their first thing because so many of these actors, you know, we're in school for years studying acting and have done plays and episodic roles and, you know, a little thing on a TV show here. But this is, again, they're like the first thing that is. like really meaty that they're getting to sink their teeth into and really take on. And so it's just the excitement and the response even just from within the cast has been really special. Like we have a whole group chat.

And every single week when an episode comes up, they're like, oh my gosh, this is so incredible. Because most of them haven't seen it either. There was a screening that the team did in London for some of the folks, but a lot of people, they're just watching it as it comes out. And that's what's crazy about filmmaking in Hollywood is that you pour all of this energy, like this love and blood, sweat, and tears into this project. You know, we all moved to Budapest. Some of us were there for three months.

Some people were there for six months, but you are totally entrenched in this project with, you know, this cast and all these great people, and then you just leave. And some people, you know, live in similar places. So Rose and I, you know, live, you know, a few minutes from each other and some of the cast lives in London, so they get to see each other. But for the most part, you just kind of break off and you go on

and you do the rest of your work. You go back to whatever you are. day job is or you move on to another project, and you don't think about it. You don't see it for however long it takes to come out. So this has been two years in the making, not just for the production crew, but for the cast. And so it's very cool to remember all the scenes that we did together and to see it all come to life. And yeah, it's really special and everybody is very, very excited. How long did it take you to film this, your, this episode that revolves around you? It was very spread out. So that's the reason why I was in Budapest for however long

I was, I can't even remember at this point. Because with filmmaking, you usually are not shooting in a linear format. So you're not going episode one, episode two. It was scattered all around. So there would be some weeks where I would be filming, you know, basically 10 days in a row. And then I would have two weeks off because they were in Italy shooting something else. And then I would pop in for a day here. So it was more location focused.

So I think I was there for almost four months. But it was just scattered around depending on how they had laid out the schedule. and the location where they were filming at that time. Yeah, this is the thing about making, I mean, the things that I've made are smaller scale in terms of people involved. But one thing I've tried to tell people is that when you're making a movie or a show or anything, it's like there's so many,

it's such a long chain of people who are involved at every level from pre-production or production or post-production that if there's a failure at any point along that line, it can ruin the entire thing. And so I would imagine making something like, this so you go do your scenes but it's like well now we got to you know you don't have any control over how the series is put together you go into the edit you have no say over that so uh were you how did you feel sort of seeing everything finally put together now i was i don't want to

say pleasantly surprised because i think that diminishes it but i was really happy because when we were on the ground there and i saw the commitment from the entire crew and the cast and i was watching what you call the dailies, which is, you know, what they filmed throughout that day. And I would be on set watching on the monitor. It looked incredible. Like, it was beautifully done. The performances were great. I read the scripts. But you don't really know how it's all going to come together, especially when you're putting in, you know, VFX effects and they're going to do color correction. And they made Tom's eyes, you know, yellow. But we didn't have that when he was filming because he wasn't wearing contact.

So there's so many different pieces that come together to make it that final product. And so, of course, there are variables there. But when we were there actually shooting just purely based off of what I could see on the monitor and from my fellow actors, I knew that it was going to be special and I knew that it was going to be good. Like, I was not watching this going like, oh, this is like, what are we doing here? I was like, oh, no, this is something different. This is like a very, very cool production. There is, you know, it was a huge swing from Daily Wire, obviously.

and I was really, really excited to see that I thought it was going to pan out. So when I did finally get to watch some of it, I was also forbidden. Most of the cast didn't get to see it until right before it aired to the public. So I think all of us were very, very excited after investing all of that time and the blood, sweat and tears. So, yeah, very gratifying for sure. Do you plan to continue acting? Do you have any other projects lined up or anything? I don't have any more projects lined up right.

now, I keep saying that if it was the right thing I would, it's not what I want to pursue full-time. Obviously, there's a reason why I walked away from it. But there's so much that I love about it and I love filmmaking and I love storytelling and I feel really grateful that the show that I do, I get to kind of combine those passions and I get to tell a story, communicate with an audience and make them feel something. That's really why I loved performing and acting. It was because I got to connect with people and through the art of storytelling. Hopefully leave them. them changed and impacted in some way, make them feel something. And so I love that I get to kind of combine all of those passions with what I do now. So if there was another project, I would

love to dive in and sink my teeth into that, but it's not what I'm pursuing on a daily basis. So it would have to be something special, so we'll say. Are you hopeful in that conservatives can actually make a dent in the entertainment industry? Or does it feel kind of like a fool's errand? Like there's no hope of actually making a real impact. No, I don't think it's a fool's errand. I think that it has taken years of, you know, people taking these big swings and slogging away and pushing through mockery and laughter. And I think with a combination of shows like this and the things that Angel Studios is doing in movies like Dennis Quaid's movie Reagan, I think that we are making big strides, not to mention your documentaries, but I mean, in every single aspect of entertainment, I think that. conservatives are taking real strides, and they're doing so not just within this kind of like conservative network bubble, because obviously the Daily Wire is known for politics and the shows and the

podcast, all of that. But even outside of this conservative bubble, just conservative creatives, I think are taking really big strides. And our culture has changed enough and people have become emboldened that I think they are finally getting their flowers. Even going back to what we were talking about with New York Fashion Week, the designer whose show I went to, she's very, you know, publicly not in lockstep with the left and the majority of the fashion industry. And yet she had an incredible show that was totally sold out. You know, people were standing up against the walls trying to get a peek at what she was doing. Taylor Swift wears her designs, Charlie X, CX, Arianna Grande, like even with her being this kind of like problematic figure and not shying away from these difficult conversations and moving away from wrong think, people are still celebrating her.

And so I'm seeing more and more of that, obviously not just in entertainment, but in all of these different creative fields. So I feel a lot of hope, which is very exciting. And hopefully Penn Dragon will move that needle a little more. Well, last thing, you know, if you ever start another medieval epic, my dream has been to die a heroic and gruesome death in a battle scene. I don't need to be a character. I just want to die. And I said that, I said that when this is being filmed, like just you can behead me or something. I think a lot of people would love to see it across the political spectrum.

So if you're ever in that spot again, just put a good word in for me, if you could. Sounds great. Maybe we could just do it ourselves. Like we can do a short film. You can come out to the farm. You can like stand around with a cow and we can do like a, we'll get Dallas, who's the executive producer, Penn Dragon. We can just do a great beheading. Do it just to really make it excellent.

Yeah, we'll just film a lot of very imaginative death scenes of me. And I think people will really enjoy that. The internet will love it. Blue sky will have a field day. Brett, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. Yeah, good to see you, Matt. Talk to you soon. They told you America invented slavery.

They told you the Indians were peaceful. They told you colonialism was evil and that Joseph McCarthy was a bad guy. And guess what? They lied. Graphic century generations of American school children have been taught to hate our history, hate our country, and hate themselves. Time to set the record straight. And since no one else is going to do it, I will. Who sold us the slaves?

What were India and Africa like before Europeans arrived? What caused white flight? Some of the most well-known stories from American history are designed to demoralize you. Trail of Tears, smallpox blankets myth, the red scare. It's all baseless. It's time for a lesson on what they're not teaching in public schools. On the real history of slavery, of colonialism, of the Indians, of America, and the world. It's time for Real History with Matt Walsh.

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