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With Mariottez Mario

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Lopez joining me now in studio from Fleabag

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and Stranger Things. Actor and comedian

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Frett Gellman. Welcome to the show Man. I have a

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big fan, so I'm excited that you're here

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and I got the opportunity to meet you in person.

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You were awesome this last season Stranger

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Things. I thought were a scene stealer. Thank

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you, Thank you so much. Man. It's it's

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crazy to be here, crazy to get to talk to you.

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I'm a huge fan of yours as well. Oh, thank

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you Mann, thank you appreciate that. And um,

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big year for you. So did

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you get into comedy first

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or was it sort of you you got into the creative community

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at this sort of all at the same time. Um,

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I wanted to do comedy since like I was

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a little kid, since I was like six years old.

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Uh no, I don't know. I saw like the Marx

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Brothers. I saw this Marx Brothers movie the

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night at the Opera. So like then, like as

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a kid, I was doing like you know, like

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little feeder classes and things like

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that. And then in my high school I got

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like heavily involved in the theater department, and then I

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got like more into a little

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more into the drama side of things too.

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And then I went to school for drama, you know,

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for theater, and then uh so I'm

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trained. I'm a trained actor, Mario. I

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went to North Carolina School of the Arts classical

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training program. Yeah, I learned.

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I am you know, I am conditioned to

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act Shakespeare to reach the back row.

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You've got the pipe for it, thank you, because

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when you spout off anything

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of of eloquence

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or with gravitas. I was like, I believe it. Nobody's

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ever you gotta have the pipe or else you can't believe

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it. Right, No, nobody's ever really ever telling me like louder

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happened a lot. Yeah, so let's

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let's start with the stranger things. You

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became one of the breakout stars of season

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three. When when did you realize that everyone

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was digging your character? Like right away?

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It happens like right, it's cool. I mean, I

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mean with the season three, Uh, it happened

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right away, and uh it just explodes

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like that first day that it comes out. The fans

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are just so ready they jump

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on it, and you get a sense of how

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it's gonna go. And um,

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I was just I was so I am so psyched.

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It's not just like for the reaction, but because

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I love the show so much, you know, I

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was, oh, yeah, I watched the first

2:14

season in like a day for real, and you

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were in the second one too. I was in the second season,

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you know, not as uh not, like I

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wasn't as integral to the storyline

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as I was in season three. But the

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the Duffers did me a solid I'm very grateful,

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And um, how did the role come about? It was

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a basic audition, it was. Yeah,

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it was a crazy audition. I remember like being in the

2:35

audition and like and you got like sides

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that weren't the script. You didn't know really anything

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about it. You got like a bit of a description

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of who he was. He was like kind of paranoid.

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Was pretty I think it was like that he was like paranoid,

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like in a bit of a conspiracy theorists. You're

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not sure if he's a good guy or a bad

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guy. And like the scene was like

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it felt like this like dark alley or

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like in the middle of nowhere type you're

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having dark, but I mean you've got a charm

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to it, so he's yeah, yeah, he

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could have been No. I was always like I went to the deference.

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I was like, this is like the Richard Dreyfuss of

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this show. This is like how Richard Dreyfuss

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is like in Jaws. Like that's what Murray

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is like in this And they

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they agreed with that, and I think and that's

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how they saw it. Wasn't that they just agreed

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with that. I just picked up on that.

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That was sort of an influence for them too. Did

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you know any Russian prior to that, because

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that was flowing off the tongue? No, really, no,

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no, no, I had I had a very good

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coach. I actually I had a woman walk up

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to me the other night and and start speaking to

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me in Russian. Like I

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really was like a

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lot, no, you know, I mean you get like a lot

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to memorize, you know, you memorize your lines

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and then you get new lines on something else to memorize,

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so you kind of, you know, you lose it. But

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yeah, I had a very good coach. I had a very

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good coach. So it was it was going to I practiced

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a lot, like almost to the point where it was like, oh

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wait, I have English lines too, Yeah,

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I should probably memorize that do

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we know about your character

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for season four? I don't. I don't.

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They keep everything very underlock and

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key. But I'm hoping, I'm very much hoping

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that that they bring me back because I

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love the show. It's like, you know, it's a little family.

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It doesn't feel like that gigantic monster

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that it is. You know, when you're when you're working

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on it, it feels like we're all, you

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know, supportive of each other, and they're to just you

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know, and make this as best as we can. I like

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how to kind of broke it up into like three different little storylines

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and everyone comes together. I know. When

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you get to see that, well, I hope you're back. Oh, thank you

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for me too. Yeah. You're also

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on Fleabag, which is critically

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acclaimed up for eleven Emmys. Congratulations,

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thank you. Oh my god. It's so hard to stand out these

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days with so much content out

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there. Um, but what a nice surprise right

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for them. It's amazing. It's wild

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wild. I mean, I'm not like,

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yeah, it's it's it's like

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surprising because it happened,

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but not surprising because of how proud I

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am of the show and like Phoebe's

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a total genius too. You know, I get

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to work with these uh geniuses,

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Mario, so I'm very lucky actor, and

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uh yeah, it was, it was. It's

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it's great. It's great that it's being recognized

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like this, and that you know the show

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her Sean who Clifford

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who plays my wife Olivia Coleman obviously

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and you know, uh Christen's got Thomas

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Fiona show. Yeah, it's it's wild.

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It's interesting because both of your brother of your characters

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are are They're conflicted,

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flawed, but still very likable, thank

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you, which I think is a testament

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to you. But about how do you find empathy for these characters?

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I think you know you I fortunately,

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you know, for my job, but like unfortunately

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at times for my life relate to you know,

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the feeling of alienation that the characters

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feel, you know, and I think you gotta really

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hit that like what they want and what

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what they don't have, and like all the

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painful things that's happened to them that have

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led them to this point, you know, And then you can

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because you can't you can't ever think like, oh, this

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character is a weirdo or this character is a jerk.

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You know, you have to be approaching

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it from how they see

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themselves. And I think, I mean, I think they also

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think that they themselves are something's

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wrong with them, but they still

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want to connect. Everybody wants to connect tomorrow.

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Everybody wants love, and when you don't

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get love, weird

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things happen. Right

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about that. Uh, And you're now

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joining yet another show the audience show

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Mr. Mercedes for season

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three. For those not familiar to us about

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it, well, it's adapted from this

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novel series by Stephen King and

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it's it's written by David E. Kelly,

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stars Brendan Gleeson. It's about like this

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detective that Brendan Gleeson uh

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plays, where the in the first two

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seasons they were tracking, you know, they

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were kind of like he's

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he's up to uh, you know, against

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the serial killer in Mr. Mercedes who

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like mowed down all these people with his car.

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But that guy at the end of season two is

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dead and there's a new villain. But the

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old villain from the previous two seasons

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is still like his memory and the trauma of

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what he's done is kind of lurking around. And I play

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I play a lawyer

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to this character named

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Lou who's played by Brita Wool who

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murdered the serial killer at the end of season

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two. And so that's

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my first lawyer job. Yeah,

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man, I got to do like monologues

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to juries, cross

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examinations. Yeah, I was crazy,

7:35

it was being in that courtroom. And uh,

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it's funny because we like shot in in

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Charleston in like late

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spring, early summer, and it's supposed

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to be Ohio in the winter, so I'm like in

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all these wool suits. So

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I hope people don't think that my character is like having a

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heart attack. You've

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shot stranger things in Atlantic correct

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in Georgia and this show

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in North Carolina and Charleston South

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and excuse me, London

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in London, So you have yet to work in l a

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project in a while. In a while,

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no, I, I mean I've worked a lot here. But

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it's great to travel around and

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like live other places. That's it's fun.

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And yeah, that's cool right there, like a gypsy.

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How long I've been rocking the beard now? Years?

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Really a lot of years? Yeah, nine years

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or something like that. What's become

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part of I know, But I do

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want to shave it. I think I think it's time to start

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shaving it for roles, okay, stuff and

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and looking a little different for

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some of these people. Yeah, you grow a good solid

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one. I get like a couple of patches

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here. Yeah there. So your father is I

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know my dad? Yeah exactly. My dad

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ironically has a great beard like gears and right,

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and you can know well with my you know, the top of the you

8:56

know, the top of my head went right to my face. All

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right, brot, I wanna put you on the spot. Quick questions, quick answers.

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Okay, yeah, okay, go to karaoke song.

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Go to karaoke song. Thunder Road

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by Bruce Springsteen. Yeah.

9:10

Movie you've seen the most? Movie I've

9:12

seen the most. The Producers by mel

9:15

Brooks, the original, not the not

9:17

the musical one. Not that I'm hating on that. I

9:20

feel you. Celebrity crush growing

9:23

up. Celebrity crush going up, growing

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up. Winona Wryter and Juliet

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Lewis and I got to work with both of them. Isn't that

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crazy? Really cool? Would you work with Juliet

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on on the show called Camping that was on

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HBO's right, Yes, yes,

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yeah, that's cool. And when you know, Rene was great on that,

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there must be a lot of fun. Oh my god, so great.

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Yeah, it's amazing, it's crazy. Most

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fun You've ever had on a set? Most

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fun I've ever had on a set? Wow,

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I I mean I I've

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had a blast on everything. But where it was like just

9:56

like a full on laugh riot, crazy

9:59

fest was when I did two days

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on this uh Adam McKay Will Ferrell

10:03

movie called The Other Guys, where we like

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we spent like two days filming this like five

10:08

minute scene and we just like

10:10

improvised and like Adam and Will

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gave me lines all day, you know,

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uh, and just like just laughed

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the whole day, like acting like totally insane.

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So that was two of the funnest days

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of my life. Yeah. But every show, though,

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it's a blast. When you're working on things that you care about

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and with like incredibly talented people,

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it's just you know, you're

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pinching yourself. Other than that, well,

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Season three of Stranger Things is now on

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Netflix and you can follow him on Instagram

10:37

at Brett Gellman. Thanks for stopping by, man,

10:40

Thank you man, thank you, Thanks

10:42

for having me. Of course, with Mario