Interviews

Interview: Simone Policano on Producing and Co-Starring in This is Our Home, Yale University Memories, Being on a Commercial, and Much More!

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Simone Policano is a jack of trades in the entertainment industry. She is not only an actress that appeared on Auggie and CBS’ Blue Bloods, she is also a producer and filmmaker with many titles titles credited to her name such as Final Callback, To My Son, and Go Tell Your Fathers. One of her most recent films that she produced and co-starred in is “This is Our Home” which premiered at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival which I got a chance to see during the week. She has a passion on doing these things and it shows whether if she is on screen, or producing. I got the opportunity to speak to her as we talked about her time in Yale University, the development of the film, New York stories, and more below in this exclusive interview!

What are some of your favorite memories when you were a student at Yale University?

SP: “I would say my favorite memory was the night that I joined the sketch comedy group that I was in from my time there because, I found this incredibly special community of performers and writers and artists in general. I found that really fun community within that group. And the night we had a sort of fun induction ceremony you can say when you’re a freshman and you join the group that was just really one of my first during my freshman year and I just had this really strong artist community right off the bat which I’m very grateful for.”

What drew you into acting and when did you decide that you wanted to continue acting after you graduated from Yale?

SP: “I was born and raised in New York. So I’ve been here my whole life. And I think when you grow up in the city, you’re lucky to be around art a lot if you have access to it. I was taking acting classes from elementary school and I used to do musical theater classes and learned very quickly that I could couldn’t think of doing that. And I started taking more like street theater acting classes like kids classes and then I went to high school called Hunter College High School which Lin-Manuel Miranda went there.  He’s one of our clients. But it’s a really nerdy high school with a really great theater program. And I love that I get a ton of theater there and then I knew I wanted to go to a nerdy college with a really great theater program. So I went to Yale and I did a lot of theater there. I wasn’t a theater major, but you can do a ton. I took a lot of theater classes. And you can also do a lot of extra curricular theater. I’ve known since I was young and I’m very lucky that I had parents and a family that supported my desire to want to do that and didn’t try to talk me out of it. I just kept doing it and I kept being like ‘okay, if this doesn’t work out I’m going to I’ll figure it out’. I guess that could happen down the line. But I’ve been very lucky and I’ve had a great time doing what I’ve done so far so I have no desire to change it right now.”

Being that you are from New York City, are there any parts within the five boroughs that you have never traveled to?

SP: “Well I actually just a couple weeks ago moved to Queens! Other than that, I just really had never spent a lot of time there. I mean, my dad is from Brooklyn. My mom was born and raised in Jersey, but then moved to the city shortly after. So I spent a lot of time in Brooklyn. I wasn’t raised on the Upper West Side so I spent a lot of time there. So it’s been great to explore this new neighborhood. I would say I’ve actually spent the least time maybe probably Staten Island or the Bronx. There’s a great place called Wave Hill up in the Bronx which is a beautiful kind of like nature preserve that my family and I would go to sometimes but I haven’t spent a lot of time in the Bronx.”

You produced and co-starred in This is Our Home and I seen the film at the Brooklyn Film Festival! Tell me how did it get started and also, were you involved with the casting process?

SP: “Jeff and Omri who’s the director knew each other from film school. It was college or right before college. But they’ve been friends for a while and only had just come off doing this movie that was a comedy movie that’s on Hulu now called How to Get Girls with a bunch of people from the office and it’s a very different vibe. It’s very studio and comedy and so he was talking to Jeff a couple of years ago and he was like ‘I really want to do something different. I want to do something darker and more artsy.’ And he and his writing partner Rob basically wrote the script for Jeff and I was just such a gift to get to be that involved in the creative process and to get something from its very inception. We were very lucky in that house that the film is shot in which is basically its own territory and the film is my mother’s house in Woodstock, New York. So we just basically were there for two weeks and a lot of the crew lived there rather than be there. But it’s like we’re living in the house or shooting in the house so that makes it a lot. That cuts costs a lot and if you’re using a location that you actually own and don’t have to pay for it, that’s sort of how that came to be. As far as the casting goes, basically the other main role in the film is the kid the child actor who’s played the character who’s played by a wonderful human named Drew Beckas. And that was a really important part of the film. The casting. Child actors and working with child actors is a really interesting thing because I think people watched the first season of Stranger Things and they’re like ‘Oh my God all these kids are amazing. Must be so easy to find amazing kids.’ And it’s not. It’s hard and it’s really hit or miss with kids especially depending on how old you’re talking. And so we auditioned a bunch of which put out a casting call. I auditioned a bunch of actors around through the age or a little bit younger. Drew was just a very special kid and he just walked in the room with his energy of like I’m game to play and I’m down to do whatever and he has this childlike innocence about him that we felt was gonna be great for the film because it’s important that the kid not trying to play at the idea of the creepy kid but the more just authentically like a kid that character feels within the context of the film. So he just we just sort of fell in love with him and he was great and we got really lucky with him.”

Were there any scenes that were not included in the final cut?

SP: “No there were not. And I think that this was a big lesson with just indie filmmaking in general like you’re working on such a tight budget that every day of shooting costs money and you’re paying people per day obviously, and it’s just you have to pay the whole crew. We did not have a lot of wiggle room and it’s a lean movie. I mean, it’s a short feature because of that. I think there’s totally spaces where it would have been great if we had more time and money to flush some things out. What it meant to be really intentional about what you shoot, and preplanning so that you know you can get exactly what you need because there isn’t a lot of time to film.”

What have you learned the most while you were producing the film?

SP: “Filmmaking is such a feat. Like it is an amazing thing when anything actually gets like it is. It’s so much more extensive than I think. Our film was made on a tiny budge,t but it’s still the money that you do need to come from somewhere. And we were so lucky that basically our major source of funding we were initially going to shoot the film in Philly. And so we got an article in a newspaper in Philly talking about the film and we were contacted by Joey Fatone who was sort of our savior basically being like ‘hey I started a company I had not I guess I sold the company and now I just kind of wanted to be involved in the arts and funding the arts’. And he was like ‘I will give you money’. I don’t know how to make a movie and I don’t want any sort of creative control or creative say like make a movie and then throw my name as an honest and executive producer which is the dream. I mean that is such a dream. And he literally fell out of the sky and we are so grateful for him. But I would say one of the biggest things I learned is that it’s just it’s really hard and it’s going to cost more money than you think it is. Like every time we thought that we had spent all the money that we were going to spend on this film it’s like music licensing or you need to go back and recall or something and it just all takes money and it’s given me a really much stronger sense of appreciation anytime I watch anything because I think it’s very easy as a patron to go to film and walk out and have a lot of critiques that have a lot of things to say about it and that’s great. We should engage with art in that way but I also think that it’s just hard. It’s easy to forget that the fact that anything gets made to look like The Avengers movie it’s great. If you’re an indie film that is not attached to a studio and has a really small budget whether you like the film or not, It’s an incredible feat and it’s given me a lot more of an appreciation for it.”

The first time I remembered seeing you on television was a commercial for the local casino in Yonkers, NY. How fun was it to be on that commercial and have you ever used an actual slot machine before outside of that commercial?

SP: “Oh my God, that was amazing. It was such a such a fun time we went on to Empire City Casino in the middle of the day. But we got to set down different parts of it and just got to walk around and smile and pull a bunch of slot machine levers and just have a good time. We got this huge wheelbarrow of fake money which was awesome. And what’s cool about it was because we shot that a year and a half ago maybe. I’m not sure if I’m right on that but it was playing on a major sports networks such as ESPN and like Monday Night Football and it made headlines. I was getting texts from friends like ‘I just saw you in like a major commercial timeslot’ and then we just actually recapped it like a month ago. So it’s on now again and it’s just a crazy thing. Since then, I recieved videos of friends in bars filming the TV screens when it comes up. But during my senior year of college, We all went to Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. And again, it was a Tuesday or something and we all dressed up super fancy and swanky just for fun. And I was like ‘I’m not going to to gamble’. And then I played one slot machine game and I won like two hundred and fifty bucks and I was like ‘Oh I got much more than what me and my friend won’.”

Do you have any future projects coming on the horizon?

SP: “I’m actually working on a reading of a new play which I’m really excited about because my foundation is in theater. And part of the reason I’m in New York and L.A. is because I want to continue doing theater. So that’s like the next thing I immediately have coming up to the play workshop next week. But I don’t really I feel very lucky. It’s been a really fruitful or happy time for me and the much of a bunch of this came out this other feature that I worked on with Richard time called Auggie just came out. So I feel very lucky like a lot of things I’ve just come out. And so right now, you know the life with an actor is okay and now I’m conditioning I’m gonna see what happens. So in terms of film and TV stuff I’m not sure right now but something will come around because that’s kind of how it works. And I’m happy to have a moment doing a theater thing while I wait to see what the next on camera thing is going to be.”

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.

Interview: Ross Marquand on Working With Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Remembering Jesus, and Much More.

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The Walking Dead star Ross Marquand appears on the new episode “Ghosts” as Aaron and Negan are teaming up for the first time. The unlikely pairing on this episode turned out good for the better and it further explored Aaron’s ability to make sure that Negan does not slip up and to see if he can trust him. I got the chance to speak to Ross Marquand about the episode as we break it down in this exclusive interview!

This is the first time that you and Jeffery Dean Morgan had extended scenes on an episode with eachother. How did it feel for both of you to team up in this episode?

Ross: “I love it. I don’t want to speak for Jeffrey, but I thought it was fantastic because this is the first time as you said that these two characters get a chance to really go toe to toe since the lineup or when Glenn and Abraham were killed. I think a lot of our audience members are gonna be happy to see this because they were hoping for an interaction like this for all of the characters who were in the lineup. Everyone who witnessed this horrific death wish they could have a moment with Jeffrey where they could say ‘hey Negan, you’ve done something absolutely unforgivable and I was trying my damnedest to forgive you. But what what can you do to prove to me that you’re not the same person’. I don’t think that Aaron is convinced that he is the same or has changed rather. I think he is very much convinced that this is the same person that he saw in the clearing all those years ago and it’s a moment of extreme emotional purging where Aaron feels like ‘you have never really fully answered for what you’ve done and this is my opportunity to to relate to you and tell you how much what your actions meant to me and the rest of the group'”.

Do you have any funny stories working with Jeffrey Dean Morgan on this episode?

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan, Ross Marquand as Aaron – The Walking Dead _ Season 10, Episode 3 – Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC

Ross: “I mean, it was pretty tense. He was he was such a great sport. I felt bad when I kept tripping him and knocking him down because you never want to hurt anybody. But there were a few takes where I really laid into him with a leg and I thought I’d actually hurt him reaally bad. But he would pop up and be like “Nah man, i’m fine! It’s all good. Don’t worry you use it use it”. So he was he was a of sport and we tried to keep it pretty simple and pretty quiet for that because it was such a tense scene that we didn’t want to mess with that but yeah, I really feel like he just brings such a incredible characterisation of Negan to the screen. I mean he is really good at blending that like kind of controlled, smarmy, charm with this absolutely lethal stare. And it’s uncomfortable to act with because he’s channeling this diabolical character so well and he does a phenomenal job with it and I love working with him”.

Who came up with the idea for Aaron to have a mace on his prosthetic arm and were any other weapon choices avaliable if the mace was not a choice?

Ross: “Well I don’t know for certain if it was my idea or the writers, but I was in several interviews last year with different outlets and they asked me the same question: “if you would have any different attachments for your arm what would it be?”. And I just joke and said “I got to be really cool to have like a mace on a chain like a cat of nine tails sort of thing”. And I was just joking I really didn’t think that was ever going to happen. And then this year when I had my meeting, I was informed that there was going to be a mace and I thought Oh awesome .That’s so unique and cool but that’s literally exactly what I was talking about last year. I didn’t know if word got out or it spread to the higher ranks, but I was so happy when I learned that because there is nothing more satisfying than taking off my hand and then putting on this beast of a unwieldy weapon. It’s it’s fairly heavy but it looks so cool. And I’m just so pleased with how the props department put that together”.

What is the most difficult skill you had to learn while you were one-handed?

Ross: “Scratching my back probably! (Laughs). I think it’s a trick. I mean I really had a hard time at first because all the things that you were used to doing with two hands, all of a sudden you’re having to learn with one and one of the most practical ones is just going around at lunchtime and if we have a quick turnaround it don’t always take off the arm. So just loading up all of my meal using my fake arm as a balance beam essentially from my trays and put food into my mouth. It’s a learning curve and I think it’s a wonderful challenge to have for the character and I think it’s a wonderful representation of all that he’s lost both physical and mental. Emotionally speaking from Eric, to Jesus, to Tara, every person that he’s lost is a truly felt by t this character I mean he really feels the weight of their loss. And I think losing the arm is a wonderful physical manifestation of that”. 

We see that Negan has watched over Aaron all night. Do you believe that Aaron is starting to trust Negan after everything that happened the previous night into the morning? 

Ross: “I think that they recognized that if Negan actually killed Aaron in that moment, Negan probably would have had to answer a lot of questions and that would’ve been a search party for Aaron and it probably would’ve ended really poorly for him. So I don’t know if it’s so much that Aaron trusts him anymore as these two men both know who they are. They’re not really convinced that the other one has much faith in the other, but they’ve got a nice understanding now and I think that’s where you can build forgiveness and that’s where you can build open communication after that. But at this point, I still don’t believe that Aaron trusts or forgives Negan one bit”.

You mentioned about losing some of the other characters such as Eric during All Out War, and Jesus at the graveyard in Season 9. Who do you think between those two affected Aaron the most?

Ross: “I think Eric. Eric was a long longstanding boyfriend and lover and they knew each other before the apocalypse even began. So they were arguably the longest running relationship the show has ever known. So it affected him greatly to lose Eric. I think the loss of Jesus was also affected. It’s affected them only because they formed such a camaraderie and they were they were they were such a tight unit. And then to lose him in such a horrific and surprising way, that affected them on a mental level so much more as opposed to Eric was more of an emotional level. Jesus was just such a huge shock to the system and it just came out of nowhere literally. And I think that that would be the distinction between the two”.

The sword that Aaron used on 10×01 while he was clearing the walkers, was it the same sword that Jesus used to own?

Ross: “It is and I think it’s sort of a ceremonial sword for him. Angela and I both discussed it and I said I don’t think that he would just retire that sword. I think he would use that sword especially in very very important battles not only as a way of honoring Jesus and everything that he taught Aaron, but also because it’s a way of connecting the past the future. I think he held a great deal of reverence and friendship for Jesus and that sword is a wonderful way of him continuing that tradition.

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.

INTERVIEW: Fear The Walking Dead’s Colby Minifie

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Colby Minifie is known for her roles on Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Amazon’s The Boys, Glee, and The Blacklist and now she is the leader of her group of horseback riders named Virginia on Fear The Walking Dead. She has so far wanted to help Morgan’s group and at the same time, had former members of her group go against her. With the season finale coming up for Fear, I got the chance to interview Colby Minifie as we talked about her role on the show and what can we expect from her in the future.

You are now on Fear The Walking Dead as Virginia. How did you react when you got the role?

Colby: I screamed of course. I officially booked it on the last day of an indie movie I was shooting and about 12 hours later I was on a plane to Austin for FEAR. So, yeah, it was a whirlwind, but the best kind of whirlwind. There’s a certain energy that kicks in at moments like that because everything you love is happening at the same time. 

Colby Minifie as Virginia – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 13 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC


Have you done horseback riding before you got your role, or did you already knew how to ride horses?

Colby: I rode horses as a kid with my cousins. I remember flying off a loping horse once. But I hadn’t been on a horse in over a decade when I had to ride in as Virginia. Boom, my trusty steed, is a total pro so it was a breeze. 

Virginia told Dwight that she knows that his wife is still alive. Will we find out if that is true within the next few episodes?
Colby: That’s super duper secret. 


Will we find out more of how Virginia formed her group?
Colby: That’s also super secret but I’m gonna say yes!


What was it like to work with Lennie James and Karen David on the episode? and why should Morgan and everyone else give Virginia their full trust knowing that she has killed Logan and had some of her members run away from her?


Colby: Lennie was so wonderful. Acting with him made me a better actor in many ways. Some of the scenes we have together were very emotional for me and when I looked in his eyes I always felt safe. I didn’t get to work with Karen very much on this episode but she’s a total sweetheart! And Virginia wants to help as many people as she can. But she’s also a utilitarian, so if a few people have to die for everyone else to survive and thrive, she is willing to make that sacrifice. 

Colby Minifie as Virginia, Beau Smith as Dom – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 15 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC

Were there any other costume ideas that were discussed before you got the cowgirl costume?

Colby: Not that I know of. Luckily, when Ian and Andrew described the character to me, I pictured something not too far from the final look that Jo Katsaras (Costume Designer) came up with. The pioneer/colonial style has a lot of history to it, which meant I could rely on the look to tell a lot of Virginia’s story. I felt so cool in that outfit. 


Any funny stories working with the cast on this episode (5×14).
Colby: I hadn’t had sugar in 2 months before I did this episode and all of a sudden I was eating jam. It was so delicious and I kept sneaking more finger-fulls throughout the scene so I could have more. And then the sugar high hit and I got giddy. 

We are close to the season finale. Without giving too much away, what can we expect from you on that episode coming up?
Colby: All I can say is it’s gonna be BIG. Virginia is a strong woman and will do anything to get her way.

Fear The Walking Dead airs every Sunday at 9:00 PM EST on AMC.

I will be livetweeting from The Walking Dead panel at New York Comic Con next week. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.

Interview: Robbie Jones Talks American Dreamer, Titans, and a Crazy Uber Story

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Robbie Jones will not only appear on the second season of DC’s Titans, but he also co-stars along with Jim Gaffigan in the upcoming american crime film American Dreamer. Today, I got to sit down with Robbie Jones to talk about the film along with his love for Spiderman, his memories in college, and much more in this exclusive interview.

If you were to look back on yourself 10 years ago or a little more, what would you tell yourself if acting was not the path you would take?

Robbie: 10 years ago I was still acting. But before then, I was playing basketball professionally and I always thought that was something that I was going to be doing. I thought I expected to be in the NBA one day, So That was pretty much my plan. And then, the Lord blessed me with this career and I’ve just been doing this ever since. So I I’m just grateful to be a part of this this whole world of acting.

Do you have any brothers or sisters? and what are your fondest memories when you were in the University of California?

Robbie: I have a half sister and she lives in Virginia. And as far as UOC goes, I feel like it was just the people that I met and the people that I was able to interact with along with the friends that I made. I had a great time there. It is a beautiful campus and basketball of course, was great. But I feel like the relationships that I built while I was there and the things that I learned were you know, priceless.

You also appear on the second season of Titans. On the trailer, You are the one to take out Starfire. Tell me how did that come to be?

Robbie: There was a lot of fun. We went out there and we filmed in Toronto and my character’s name is Tamaranean. he’s a past love interest of Starfire who’s basically trying to get her to come back and take her back. She’s not willing to come back that easily. Believe me. I really liked all the interactions that I had with Starfire. She’s played by Anna Diop. And she is she’s fantastic and I had a great experience with her and I feel like we have some really good chemistry so I don’t want to give too much away, but I just had a great time with her.

What comic books did you like reading when you were growing up?

Robbie: I actually was really into Spider-Man and the Marvel Universe when I was growing up. I like to draw and you know, do things like that so I was really big on Spider-Man and Venom. I really like it like that. But yeah those are my main because they had this really crazy dynamic between Spider-Man and Venom and I just loved that whole storyline and I used to like to draw both. So it was fun to draw those characters because they were so awesome and relatable. You know, it was fun and I think that is missing in today’s world of comics from the big publishers.

I have watched you play villians on different movies and television shows and one of them was Confessions of a Marriage Counselor. Do you like playing as a antagonist than the protagionist more? and your memories working with Tyler Perry?

Robbie: Being a villain is always really fun because they do stuff that I would never do in real life. So I get a chance to say that crazy stuff I would never say or do mean awful things to people that I would never do in real life. So it’s fun to play act. I mean, I’m never really play acting, but it’s fun to live out those kind of fantasies of like doing like the bad stuff. But I really enjoy both honestly being a good guy is always fun too. I wish I had more funnier stories, but we had such an intense shoot. We shot the whole movie in sixteen days and we were working kind of like Fast and Furious. So it wasn’t a whole lot of time for too much craziness. But he (Tyler Perry) would come to the set every now and then in full Madea like voice and be directing us with the video voice. He would dress up and he would be in character with the whole voice trying to get us ready to go. He’s a great guy.

You are starring in American Dreamer. What will be your role on the film? Also, there are horrible situations that happen when it comes to lyft and Uber drivers in real life. Once you got the call to play your character, Did you research any of those recent horrifying situations? And How did the shooting of the film go for you?

Robbie: No I really didn’t. I really just tried to take this situation as a real situation that was just kind of happening in the moment as opposed to like “how could this really happen if this happened in real life?”. I kind of like the the way we shot it. We just met everyone the day before we started shooting, and then we just started shooting the very next day. So I was just like when everyone in the fire at the same time so I think we were able to have some real organic moments because everyone was really interacting on a very fresh basis. And my character’s name is Max and he is a low level drug dealer who has a girlfriend and a son that he would do anything in the world for the support. And he’s just really determined father trying to make a living for his family. But the good part about this character and way it was written, is that you see he’s not just a stereotype and he’s not just a cookie cutter type of character. There’s a lot more to him and you can really see that he’s a bit. I want to set I want to say a product of his environment but he’s he’s kind of been dealt this hand and he’s trying to do the best that he can and this temporary situation just to get his family out of this situation. And it’s kind of a motivation behind everything he’s doing. But he doesn’t really want to be doing what he’s doing. It was right in the fire all day.

How was it like working with Jim and having him drive for most of the film?

Robbie: Jim it is a great guy and I joked that he was a terrible driver (Laughs) he was trying to hurt us. Then, he’ll tell you himself he doesn’t even drive here in New York. But he’s from New York. So he never drives and then, he wears glasses in real life. And his character in the movie does not so he could barely see. It was terrifying but also very fun.

Since this film is based around the current scene of Uber and Lyft, do you have any cab stories?

Robbie: I feel like some drivers tried to kill me lately just the other day around really. I’m dead serious! It was earlier this week and I was coming from a meeting and the driver was trying to keep trying to strike up a conversation and I was clearly busy and I was being cordial and nice and giving short answers, but she was upset that I didn’t want to talk to her. So she said “Fine, you got to talk” and turned up the radio super loud and floored it did like 90 miles per hour for the whole rest of the ride. No clinging on for dear life in the backseat. And I don’t want to further upset this person. I don’t say anything and I’m just like one star review.

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.

Interview: Christopher James Baker Talks Agents of the S.H.I.E.L.D., Stan Lee, His Upcoming Role in Stargirl, and more

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Christopher James Baker recently appeared on the latest episode of Marvel’s Agents of the S.H.I.E.L.D as the new villian Malachi. I recently got the chance to interview Christopher as we talked about his appearence on the show along with his time in Ozark along with Stan Lee, his upcoming role on DC’s Stargirl, and New York City in general. The twenty Minute call was a great one and here is the interview below.

So I have watched you play different roles on Ozark and the blacklist and even Garbo. And also, True Detective and now recently, Agents of the S.H.I.E.L.D. My first question to you is that was a hard transition for you to play these different characters?

It’s a good question. And I don’t want to sound flippant. It’s not hard because that’s the work for me like that’s telling you you get a new role and start from the pace up and kind of build it up. Whether it’s about movement quality or you know vocal quality or whether if you know what the story purpose is like all of that stuff is a big part of the craft that I really enjoy. So it is work but it’s very enjoyable work. And by the time you get to the point where you’ve built a new character that’s different in a lot of ways to something you’ve done before. I find that fulfilling to you know when you enjoy seeing that my character was very different to this character those that I’d much prefer to be doing that every time and then doing another version of that guy again if you get what I mean. So yes I it’s work but it’s it’s like I love it. And that’s why I’m in it doing it. I’m kind of always trying to look for something that’s different to anything I’ve done before because it inherently involves a lot of exploration into different parts of yourself or different a different world or different time period that you don’t know about. So it’s kind of like being a religious archaeologist at some point.

When did you get the call that you were going to play as Malachi on the episode?

It was about this time last year. I can’t remember the exact day of the call, but the cool thing about it was that when I did the audition, it was just for a one episode guest. Here’s what I thought I was doing and I was elated like great. This is a great show. It sounds like a really cool character. At that stage, everything in a project like this is so top secret. They’re trying to keep everything under wraps. You actually as the actor not finding out very little about what you’re going to be doing and which is kind of fun and exciting in a way but it really wasn’t until I got there and pretty much just before I read that I met a cast and all the producers and everything. And then you’re reading through and it was that first episode that was just done and I remember finishing the Bible reading and calling my manager and saying oh I just kidnapped one of the main cast. I think they’re going to ask you to come back and get it. So it was kind of I didn’t realize that it was going to turn into to what it was I thought it was just going to be a lot of gastro but yeah. So but it was about a year ago I think and it was very exciting. That’s like stepping into the Marvel Universe which you know I’ve been a kind of comic fan and a movie fan my whole life. So that was there was a limit. Yeah a little bit tingly and kind of giddy and fun stuff like that happens.

Who did you tell first tell that you got the role?

My wife {Laughs} and then my family. At the time, my family’s still over in Australia and so I’m constantly sending them messages that say Guys I’ve got this really exciting news and you seriously can’t tell anyone. Otherwise, I’m going to get my Marvel Police that will come to my house and lock me up so you can be happy for me. But just don’t tell anybody else I’m doing this but it is a double edged sword sometimes.

I’ve heard stories of Stan Lee sometimes going on the set of Marvel’s Agents of the S.H.I.E.L.D.. Have you met or spoken to him before he passed away?

 I’ll just be honest. I think we’re in lunch third or fourth episode. And when we found out I was I remember quite clearly in the makeup like you know you do hair and makeup we’ve performed in the makeup bus and that television on and the news broke that Stan lee had died which you know obviously affected the cast and crew of show immensely. And to your question, the rest of the day and the next day everyone I was chatting with would tell these incredible stories about exactly what you’re talking about that some guy and he just broke up or turn up for a cameo and he’d go out and chat to everyone and you know sign stuff and was just as generous and kind of amazing guy that was loving the world that he’d helped create the universe to help create and I think from from stories from from cars right down to you know set pieces and crew people would just hey just in time for everybody from from what I can tell. Fortunately I never got to meet him. I would have loved to. But yeah I think what a quite an amazing what an amazing amazing contribution to so many people’s lives. If that gentleman made some kind of yeah that was he was an amazing couple of days being on a show that you know he’d been a big part of creating.

What was your first day on the set like?

First day was little nerve wracking even if you had a lot of first days on set with something like this. I mean with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it was made very easy because they’re on Season 6 the most of the cast and crew have been there for six seasons now. They all want it knowing they’re shooting on the studios that they’ve been working on. It’s just a very well oiled machine and there’s no there’s no teething problems. It’s not like working on episode one of a brand new show where everybody’s trying to get to know each other and do their thing. So it was it was like just being into a really welcoming and fun family day. They made this stuff really well. Amazing crew and then all of the other actors are really welcoming and kind of enjoy what the guest cast bringing to their world and how we all kind of play together and it’s really when you on that first day that everything comes together like you’re doing your research and you preparation at home and it’s not until you get in and you get the costume on for the first time and you get things together and then you step into the set and suddenly you’re in a spaceship and then they hand you the props and your things and then you’re looking around and then everybody else turns up and you start when it’s like All right. Yeah well we’re in where it’s space. Sometimes it’s that very first day that you might be really nervous going “Oh my God I don’t know what I’m doing it and how this is going to work what’s going happen”. And then when you get there and finally step into everything and let go of everything, you worried about it it just takes on a whole different form I think. And then, it becomes into that and that becomes the play in the work. And it’s it’s exhilarating it’s nerve racking cause you really really don’t know what you’re doing a lot of the time until you’re actually standing there and then you see how the camera is going to be moving and what other people are doing. Right. Well the place even looks like oh can you tell again now that line makes sense because you’re holding that thing or you know and there’s a lot of you know I spent a lot of that first day going “Okay so what’s happening, why are they here”, Because everyone thinks the end of season five is so much it happened that I wasn’t privy to it because I didn’t get to know what the last couple of script turned out. Yeah there’s a lot of there’s a lot of catch up in it but it was also really fun and exciting because you walk down on those big kind of studio stages in in downtown Culver City. It’s a lot of history there is when I was walking down and someone’s like yeah that’s where they shot the sound of music I think we shot them and you know like there’s a bunch of old. It’s really cool you know on some of those old Hollywood stages that have history under themselves almost like a theater right. There it was. It was an exciting time and it was also a bugler and I know there was a good time. 

Now do you have any stories working with the cast on S.H.I.E.L.D. and also on your time with Ozark?

Oh yes! one with Julia Garner. I do actually use her method of using that one way she’s spinning around on the chair singing to herself and I was standing in the room about 44 when that happened. Just been chatting and then she started doing it. So I just went “Oh my God”.She kind of popped up and cracking up laughing and it was the funniest thing I’ve seen. And it was a lot scarier in the room because everybody of course goes “Oh my God”. And then when we told her that she had been making it look so much worse on the video this looks like she blacked out. Yeah that was crazy stuff like that happened but yeah that was that was about the eyes and watching watching the video of the candidate posting this because she had to get all the permissions and everything she’s like you can sort of make out that we’re on set but you can’t really tell what to do. It’s like I’m in an office. 

You’re also going to start the upcoming Stargirl series for this DC Universe. What can you tell me about the upcoming project?

I’m not saying much but it’s besides what’s happened. I don’t know if you’ve seen the Comics Geoff Johns stuff he did. It’s you know a lot of the story follows that pretty closely. Young young Courtney Whitmore moves to a new high school in a little town gets an advantage because she’s style girls. And there’s the places I have nothing on the other side then but yeah there’s nothing coming. It’s just that I think the most amazing thing about it so far has been that Geoff Johns who created the first comic that he ever did for DC quite a that you sound like you’re knowledgeable about the comic world as well. I think like so you know Jeff John and sort of what he’s done at DC and the characters he’s brought back and like true flash and everything that still go with the first thing he did and he wrote it and made it as what followed was a tribute to his sister. And where did it come. And now sort of come full circle and he’s show running this amazing showing. I think the task that is built and the crew that is built I find that with shows is the person that you know the people at the top and particularly the show runner is if they’re really loose and their intention is in the right place and the team they know they just kind of flows down the pyramid and everyone on this show is really great and it’s just been imbued with this excitement because it’s such a special project for him and personally he’s really going to exceeding in extraordinary lengths to make sure that it’s every shot is exactly right. Not in a bad perfectionist way but in a how can we all make this better so that it’s just everything is kick up and there’s been so many fun moments of just being on the set and watching like it was like when making a huge big 13 episode feature film they’ve got the stunt coordinators and came from like cattle and men and stuff and in doing these incredible stunts and I’m like it’s a proper big superhero do. I haven’t I haven’t thought of that kind of thing. It’s just amazing. And it seems it’s got a really good positive yes. It’s just a good story. 

Any final thoughts before we wrap up the interview?

Just that it’s been pretty amazing to have a foot in both the DC and the Marvel Universe is I just feel blessed that that’s very rare and wonderful thing and I hope the it can continue for as long as possible because I think there’s something about doing these the comic book things. I don’t I feel like they deal with the bigger archetypes and biggest stories that help us work out what’s right and wrong and moral is not that everything has to have a message but it’s definitely fun to work on a big canvas that has lots of fans that are really into it because they can relate to it even though it’s not set in the real world. Oh yeah.

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content and subscribe to The Wrestling Court as we talk about the latest in pro wrestling, pop culture, and comics along with our live watch reactions to past matches. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.