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Chris Hemsworth on Limitless, longevity, and happiness

Chris Hemsworth on Limitless, longevity, and happiness

Released Monday, 12th December 2022
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Chris Hemsworth on Limitless, longevity, and happiness

Chris Hemsworth on Limitless, longevity, and happiness

Chris Hemsworth on Limitless, longevity, and happiness

Chris Hemsworth on Limitless, longevity, and happiness

Monday, 12th December 2022
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Episode Transcript

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0:10

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Drive podcast.

0:13

I'm your host, Peter Attia. This podcast,

0:15

my website, and my weekly newsletter, all focus

0:17

on the goal of translating the science of one ingevity

0:20

into something accessible for everyone. Our

0:22

goal is to provide the best content in health

0:24

and wellness, full stop, and we've

0:26

assembled a great team of analysts to make this

0:28

happen. If you enjoyed this podcast, we've

0:30

created membership program that brings you

0:32

far more in-depth content if you want to

0:34

take your knowledge of this space to the next level.

0:37

At the end of this episode, I'll explain what

0:39

those benefits are. Or if you wanna learn

0:41

more now, head over to peteratea m

0:43

d dot com forward slash subscribe.

0:46

Now without further delay, here's today's

0:48

episode.

0:50

I guess

0:51

this week is Chris Hemsworth. Many of you

0:53

need no introduction Chris course and most of

0:55

you probably know who he is through his

0:57

work as Thor in the Marvel movie series.

0:59

You've also likely seen him in no shortage of other

1:02

movies out there and of course my absolute favorite

1:04

movie with him is Rush.

1:06

I wanted to sit down with Chris to talk

1:08

specifically about his work in the recent

1:10

project through National Geographic called

1:13

Limitless, which is now available on

1:15

Disney Plus. Prior to the beginning

1:17

of filming for Limitless, which was in

1:19

January twenty twenty, I didn't know Chris. But over

1:21

past three years, I've gotten to know Chris very well

1:23

and consider him very close friend. And it was

1:25

great to sit down with him in New

1:27

York as we were both there for the premiere

1:30

to talk about everything that had gone into

1:32

the making of this series. Chris and

1:34

I had kind of an ongoing joke over the past few

1:36

years where we would refer

1:38

to the series limitless by another name, relentless

1:41

because it really in some ways felt like

1:43

this was never going to end. In part, Of

1:45

course, that was due to COVID. But in part,

1:47

I think it was because the creative

1:49

team behind this had such

1:51

an amazing vision for what this could be.

1:53

And frankly, the version of

1:55

limitless that you all have seen is

1:57

a significantly better version than I

1:59

think the one that was conceived back

2:01

at the beginning in twenty twenty. So

2:04

as I said, given that we were both in New York for the

2:06

premiere, we wanted to take advantage that and sit

2:08

down and talk about this. Unfortunately, time

2:10

was not completely unlimited,

2:12

and there were constraints. And so as much as

2:14

I wanted to do a really deep podcast

2:17

with Chris and talk about everything in his

2:19

life beyond limitless, we

2:21

simply didn't have the time given how much of limitless

2:23

we wanted to talk about. So in this episode,

2:25

we really just focus on limitless. The

2:27

challenges that he went through in

2:29

a variety of episodes and particularly

2:32

we talk about how they've impacted him to

2:34

this day. In addition to the conversation

2:36

with Chris, we sprinkle in a variety of

2:38

clips from limitless throughout the interview process

2:40

depending on the topics that we're covering.

2:42

While this lens, I think, to a better

2:44

watching experience of the interview, or

2:46

purposeful in choosing clips from limitless

2:48

that would add value to even those of you who are just

2:50

listening to this in audio format. And of course, if

2:52

you haven't checked out the series, I recommend you

2:55

do so. I said it can be found on Disney

2:57

plus So without further delay, please

2:59

enjoy my conversation with Chris

3:00

Hamilton.

3:06

So good to Stanley Brothers. You

3:08

too. Thanks for having me. So

3:09

much to talk about, but feel like I just

3:12

wanna start with kinda getting a sense of

3:15

the first time you heard about this. Was it a call

3:17

from Darren? Like, how did you even get involved in this

3:19

project?

3:20

Yeah. I had a call from Darren. Be

3:22

going back on three years now. He said,

3:24

I wanna do the series, a docu series.

3:27

Called limitless on longevity.

3:29

And he said, I know you're a fit healthy guy, but we

3:31

want to dive into the science and put you in

3:33

some pretty extreme intense

3:35

physical emotional situations and

3:38

see how you're fair and you can be the guinea pig

3:41

as far as the longevity science goes.

3:44

Said, why not? And initially, it was supposed

3:46

to be about AA3 week shoot. And

3:48

I know you and I have talked about this a lot once

3:51

COVID hit the show got spread out over.

3:53

Two and a half years and really

3:55

transformed in the best way

3:57

possible due to having hell

3:59

of lot more time than I think we'd first anticipated.

4:02

We're able flash out each episode, explore

4:05

the science in greater detail. I was

4:07

able to grow throughout the experience

4:09

and have different opinions on myself,

4:11

different opinions on how I approached

4:13

health and wellness. So, yeah,

4:16

I'm really proud of how it

4:18

turned out and I think was a lot

4:20

due to the time spent around to shoot on.

4:22

Kinda

4:22

going back to this. First of all, I can't believe they've

4:24

bait and switched you on three weeks of shooting

4:26

because even before COVID, I was involved

4:28

in four week issues. Yeah. So I don't know where anybody Initially,

4:30

it was soon. I was like, I can't fit that in my

4:32

schedule. That was three and then two and a

4:34

half years. And we joke about it. Right? What do we

4:36

call it relentless? We're gonna do a title change.

4:38

Limited. So

4:42

where were you in you were done Avengers

4:44

by that point? Yeah. What did I

4:46

I'd

4:46

done Avengers. I think I was doing the

4:48

press tour about the time

4:50

this came off. You hadn't done Love and

4:52

Funeral. So

4:53

I remember three years ago almost to

4:55

the day I was sitting in my apartment here in New

4:57

York with Darren, Ruth, Aerie,

5:00

you know, sort of like a core group from Nootopia

5:03

and from protozoa. And at that

5:05

point, so call it November of twenty

5:07

nineteen, they had the idea for six

5:10

episodes. It

5:11

was still a bit foggy. And

5:13

it's kind of amazing how quickly they morphed

5:15

that into that first shoot when

5:17

we started in January. Was there

5:19

anything about it that you had apprehension about doing

5:21

I mean, besides the time, obviously, time is an issue

5:24

based on your schedule. But were you

5:26

nervous, worried, anxious about

5:29

doing

5:29

this? Because this is not

5:31

acting. I

5:32

was to be honest, so I had never hosted

5:34

anything before. And it's

5:36

one thing to hide behind the

5:38

character and and behind the mask or

5:40

whatever. Individually applying in a film

5:42

setting. But then to to be yourself, you

5:44

know, I've done obviously plenty of interviews and so on,

5:46

but to be in a situation like

5:49

this where it was not

5:51

only looking into the science, but dissecting

5:53

kind of my abilities and

5:55

seeing what my limits were in in one

5:57

regard. And there's vulnerability that's

5:59

required there. Right? They had to be authentic, so

6:02

I didn't wanna hold back. But,

6:04

yeah, it was a little more of

6:06

hesitation or a lot more sort of thinking

6:08

about it is how I was going to come across

6:10

and wasn't going to be genuine, wasn't going to be

6:13

appreciated or not, or all sorts

6:15

of silly kind of doubts and questions

6:17

start to creep in that I wasn't

6:19

normally sort of thinking about. And then the

6:21

thing transformed anyway. As far as my initial,

6:23

was there any hesitation around? Taking on

6:25

the show. I didn't think any of us knew what

6:27

it was gonna be. The three or four weeks that

6:29

we'd talk about, even when you're involved,

6:31

and I spoke to Darren the last couple of

6:33

days about this, he said, yeah, it

6:35

was a very different beast at the beginning.

6:37

And due to the time, but also, I

6:39

think due to what I was willing to do, and me

6:41

and I had for it. It

6:43

was allowed to evolve

6:45

and become something bigger. And as

6:48

did the challenges, you know, the discussions about

6:50

cold water immersion and then we do wash

6:52

baths and so on. And then it was like, let's

6:54

go to Norway and let's, you know,

6:57

swimming in in the Arctic Ocean and

6:59

sort of became more and

7:01

more epic as it went on.

7:03

It

7:03

feels like you and I don't wanna

7:06

project this. So

7:07

correct me if I'm wrong. But as

7:09

I watched you because, you know, one of the things about this

7:11

that was kind of a joy is how close we became

7:13

as a group. Like, you, your team,

7:15

me, like, the whole group kind of coalesced.

7:17

It's like you seem to trust the team

7:20

even

7:20

more and more as time went on and gave more

7:22

and more of yourself. Because again, everybody

7:24

sort of got involved in this with the expectation.

7:26

This was gonna be bracketed

7:27

in terms of time and

7:30

COVID

7:30

in part, but also I just think

7:33

the breadth

7:33

of expectation of what this could be

7:35

expanded the scope so much. Do you

7:37

get the sense that you were willing to

7:39

give way more of yourself as

7:42

this thing went on that maybe you had committed

7:44

to upfront? Absolutely.

7:45

And I think due to

7:47

what you're saying about there's a trust there with the

7:49

people I was working with, I knew on

7:51

paper that these were the experts in their field and

7:53

all of you are going to take care of me and advise

7:55

me in the right way. But it's likely working

7:58

with a director. And each of

8:00

the experts and each of these series

8:02

were kind of leading the

8:04

way and they're at the helm. And I was following.

8:06

And if I have a good relationship with my director

8:08

and I trust them and that only comes through

8:10

experience and time spent, then I'm

8:12

gonna give more of myself and take

8:14

more risks and not feel like it's gonna

8:16

be exploited in any way. So

8:18

the first episode that we

8:20

filmed was the fasting one.

8:22

Look, I'm gonna do it with you.

8:24

Do you? Yeah. It makes it a lot

8:26

easier to go through this with somebody else. So Okay.

8:29

Good. Okay. We'll will suffer together. Oh,

8:32

we will. I've definitely gone

8:34

a day without food before. I

8:37

think I get pretty pretty cranky

8:39

when I missed a meal.

8:41

Certainly

8:43

detrimental to my my happiness.

8:46

It's a

8:46

pretty long time. Why why four

8:48

days? Why not? Why not

8:50

longer? I mean, what what is the

8:52

what is the benefit with four days? Why that

8:54

number? Three to four days is

8:56

probably that window at which

8:58

we do enough to

9:00

change how your body

9:02

is interacting with the

9:05

absence of nutrients to basically

9:07

do kind of a reboot on your system.

9:09

Not really. Do you think I'm gonna be able to

9:11

hold together? I can in

9:13

your experience, you see a lot of people the first

9:15

time I do it six eight. In the

9:17

next four days, there is no doubt in my mind. There

9:19

will be a period of time

9:21

in which you feel sluggish

9:23

or teas? Yeah. It's

9:26

kinda grumpy, grouchy, whatever.

9:28

But, you know, if you really stop to

9:30

think about it, this idea that we

9:32

kind of live today where we're sort of

9:34

surrounded by unlimited access to food

9:36

and we can eat three

9:38

meals and snack between them. That's a

9:40

relatively recent addition to

9:42

our species. Right. And

9:45

our ancestors would have gone days

9:47

without food, all the time and and not

9:49

only did they have to do that, they had the

9:51

ability to, in a period of

9:53

starvation, actually go out and hunt.

9:56

that

9:56

shows up third or fourth in the East Coast.

9:58

Yeah. What did you know going into that? And what

10:00

was your expectation? Just that I had never

10:02

fostered before, and I knew that

10:04

this was gonna be And I don't think you knew how

10:06

long it was going to be or anything like that. I mean, we

10:08

sort of saw that on that on you in real time

10:10

over that dinner. We did. I think the

10:12

initial discussions were around like intermittent

10:14

fasting and restricted sort of feeding

10:16

windows. And then it was like, oh, maybe we'll do

10:18

a day or a couple of days and you're like, no, we'll

10:20

do four days. And by the way, I

10:22

suggested three Yeah. I did.

10:24

And they said, no. No. We're gonna go one more. Because

10:26

I said, I wouldn't normally have a patient go more

10:28

than three days -- Yeah. -- on their first one. And

10:30

good. And they put it and they put it to

10:32

four. Yeah. I don't know. I

10:34

mean, as we've talked about many times,

10:36

my expectation or kind of thoughts

10:38

around would I be able to do it or not think

10:40

we're in line with yours. I thought, look, we're gonna commit.

10:42

We're gonna do it, but we kept discussing, you'll

10:44

kick into ketosis on day two, you know.

10:47

And maybe day three and then it comes

10:49

to like day four and I'm like, no. I'm not feeling

10:51

any of the sharpness or alertness. And

10:53

then right in the afternoon when

10:55

we went spear phishing them, probably

10:57

at the right time too. It kicked in

10:59

and things started to sort of pokeulate. I

11:01

remember saying to

11:03

Tanya, it was to Tanya. It might have been somebody else, but

11:05

I think it was to Tanya as we were

11:08

getting

11:08

ready to head out on the boat. I'm

11:10

and that was the moment when I kinda

11:12

realized how sort of strong you

11:14

were because I

11:16

felt like you didn't have that much time

11:18

to prepare for that exercise. And

11:20

it wasn't under ideal circumstances. It's one

11:22

thing to say, you're gonna do

11:23

your first fast. It's gonna be for four

11:26

days. And it was hard enough. I mean, we worked out

11:28

every day. We had a bunch of other things

11:30

that we had to do. But then learning an

11:32

entirely new skill around breath holding and

11:34

spear phishing, I mean, I think it would be challenging

11:36

under any circumstance. How much of that do you remember?

11:38

You know, it's been almost three years since we filmed that, but how much of

11:40

that do you remember? And was there ever a moment when

11:42

you thought, I'm not worried that

11:43

something's gonna happen to me, but I'm worried that I'm

11:45

not gonna be successful. That was

11:47

most of the episodes. As I'd get

11:49

to doing the Arctic swim

11:51

or doing the four day fast or

11:53

climbing the road, I kept thinking,

11:56

So don't complete this

11:58

exercise. He's not really an episode or it's pretty

12:00

anticlimactic. And so

12:02

that it was definitely healthy

12:04

amount of fear there kind of motivating

12:06

me, but also coming back to

12:08

the why of it and why we're doing it

12:10

and understanding the specific

12:12

purpose of each challenge

12:14

was on one hand the clock they were trying to kill me,

12:16

but on the other hand was like, there was an

12:18

incredible amount of information

12:20

and knowledge and support and science

12:22

there that says you do this, you do

12:24

this consistently, you work this in your daily

12:26

routine, then the benefits are

12:28

exponential. So think about Norway. We filmed

12:30

that in, I think, February. Right? We went right

12:32

from Australia. Maybe we had two weeks off and

12:34

then we're all in Norway. My recollection of

12:36

that was beauty

12:37

like I couldn't imagine. So we

12:39

were there to do this thing. It was in this place

12:41

that you would normally never go to. I feel like

12:43

we took, like, three flights together. Yeah. Yeah.

12:46

Again, Ross spoke about this a little bit last

12:48

night, which was it was another

12:50

example of you were

12:52

being asked to do something much

12:54

quicker than you would normally do

12:56

so. Right? I think you didn't What was

12:58

the first day you jumped in that

13:00

water? Because it's

13:01

different than a nice bath. Like, if you can send

13:03

a nice bath all you want. Yeah. It's totally different

13:05

experience to jump in the ocean when it's thirty six degrees

13:08

Fahrenheit. Some of the episodes I

13:10

was having to train for, specifically

13:12

probably the the strength episode.

13:14

That was on and off of the course of

13:16

six, seven months and then I had injuries

13:18

and so on. But the

13:20

cold water immersion I

13:22

mean, I did a couple of ice baths back

13:24

in some We were doing some in Australia,

13:26

back in Australia, and that was new

13:28

to me. And then I was talking to Ross about

13:30

it. And the sort of

13:32

overarching idea was that, you know, when I

13:34

was talking about developing brown fat, you know,

13:36

and we're gonna monitor that. Ross is

13:38

like, not four day. No. This is gonna

13:40

happen. And so it became as

13:42

much adaptation around

13:44

cold water immersion as much as it was sort

13:46

of a resilience test or

13:48

just a grid head down,

13:50

go for it. Because the first time we jumped

13:52

in the water in Norway, and

13:54

we're in there for four and a half minutes. Was

13:56

longer than any ice baths I've had, but it was

13:59

snowing. I'm breathing in,

14:01

you know, freezing cold

14:03

air, and it's windy. And I'm also

14:05

moving. You know, you sit in an ice bath and

14:07

there's a couple of mill of water that starts

14:09

to heat up if you stay still.

14:11

You're treading water, then none of that's

14:13

happening. So a lot of

14:15

it was trusting Ross and listening

14:17

to Ross' voice and just kind of again,

14:19

back to what he said about the trust. If I didn't

14:21

have Ross there, coaching me through it, having also

14:23

done it and even to even more extremes,

14:25

I would have questioned it to no

14:27

end. And in particular, on

14:30

that actual on the actual swim

14:32

itself halfway through, I was like,

14:33

every part of me was like, you're dying, get out

14:35

of the water. This is ridiculous. It's a plain to me

14:37

and to folks watching and listening what

14:40

it feels like because I have

14:42

never been in water that cold. I've done

14:44

long swims at about forty nine

14:46

degrees. And even at that temperature,

14:48

which seems balmy compared to thirty

14:50

six. I mean, that's a big difference. Yeah.

14:52

Right? It feels like you're on fire.

14:54

Oh, yeah. It actually feels like you're in

14:56

boiling oil, which I think most people wouldn't understand

14:58

how is that possible that you can get something so

15:00

cold and the sensation is that Attia being lit

15:02

on fire. Yeah. And then the other thing that

15:04

I think is I'm

15:05

curious to whether you felt it as well, is

15:07

the breathlessness. It starts to take

15:09

your breath away. Yeah. It definitely I mean,

15:11

I'm not I don't understand overly dramatic, but it

15:13

was one of the most painful things I've ever done.

15:16

And again, in comparison to the Ospa is

15:18

very different. The big thing was putting my head on the

15:20

water. Again, an awesome spot. Mind me, did you

15:22

have your plugs? I thought

15:24

I think I did. And

15:26

and and the other difference, by the

15:28

way. Oh, yeah. I was standing on the

15:30

shore. And all the training we've done

15:32

was treading water head above water.

15:34

And Ross is like, let's go for a proper

15:36

swim tomorrow. I was like, I'm just trying to do it, man. I'm

15:38

just saving it for the day, you know, in the afternoon when

15:40

we actually shoot it. I'm just gonna go for

15:42

it because if I experience and I think in

15:44

hindsight, if I had have experienced her pains what

15:46

it was, I would have been even more

15:48

doubtful. So I was standing on the edge and he

15:50

said, we wanna warm up as much as

15:52

possible before you get on and strip off

15:54

and dive in. And he said, and then when you

15:56

get in, just take a

15:58

second to try and adjust before you put your

16:00

head under And we did the warm

16:02

up, a walk down to the edge, and I didn't

16:04

even know if they were rolling. But I was like, I'm out of

16:06

here. I'm in the water, and I'm hoffing.

16:08

And and Ross didn't even have time to jump onto the

16:10

boat that was, you know, chasing us along.

16:12

I jumped in, just had a gun, and

16:14

the first flight I don't know,

16:16

maybe twenty five, thirty, forty

16:18

meters. I was like, got this. You know what?

16:20

I'm going, oh, I know. And I'm coming back. I'm

16:22

going to do that. And

16:24

out of nowhere, once the initial sort of

16:27

adrenaline went, I

16:29

felt the most extreme

16:32

headache, pain, right, to all through and

16:34

to the back of my eyes, and front of my head

16:36

everywhere. And III was

16:38

looking at the bottom and as I was swimming,

16:40

and I started getting really dizzy. And

16:42

I all of a sudden stopped and I was like, I'm gonna throw

16:44

up like it was that painful.

16:46

And I look and I've actually swum off

16:48

course a bit and I've started swimming toward where the

16:50

couple of the camera guys are and they're like, the boys

16:52

that way go that way. So head down

16:54

again and the whole time, I'm

16:56

just like, No. Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out.

16:58

And then I have another voice in my head. I

17:00

have Ross' voice there saying, come

17:02

on. Fight, fight, dig in. And I'll

17:04

just start going for it, but what

17:06

starts to happen is your arms and legs are just

17:08

like lead balloons. Nothing works. You

17:10

know, I felt like I was swimming

17:13

like this. A little chicken. And you can't keep your fingers together.

17:15

Sorry. Your fingers got display. You

17:17

can't hold the water. Yeah. And it's

17:19

just like it was nollie.

17:21

And then I got

17:22

to the buoy and they're all cheering and stuff.

17:25

And Darren said, I was waiting for a big

17:27

celebration. I was like, I couldn't move. I was supposed to

17:29

die. And then the jet ski pulls up. He's like,

17:31

well done mate. And I'm like, can't can't be

17:33

help me on mate? I can't lift my arms, and they're

17:35

dragging up onto it. And then the same thing would

17:37

have gone on the boat. Everyone's like cheering and like,

17:39

get out of the way. And he came in with a

17:41

blanket and a little beanie and sort of started

17:43

warming up and so on. It was

17:45

wild, but I've never felt

17:47

the endorphan kick and the

17:49

sort of elation that I felt

17:51

afterward, it it was incredible.

17:53

And I just remember that my serene

17:56

peaceful state in

17:57

awe of everything, and we are there

17:59

in

17:59

Norway. It's a much stunning backdrop.

18:03

But it's just this wonderful sense

18:05

of calm and overwhelming

18:07

sort of joy. And I think

18:09

that it comes with any time you achieve something

18:11

that you think is impossible or

18:14

overcome some great challenge or

18:16

the face of diversity or whatever you'd

18:18

overcome it. This is such a beautiful feeling.

18:20

And maybe think about people who climb

18:22

Everest and do extreme feats all the time. And the rest

18:24

of us are wondering why the hell would you do

18:26

that? I believe it's for

18:27

that that moment. That post feeling was

18:30

pretty special. And I remember a long

18:32

time. I think there's

18:33

actually something within that. It's not

18:35

just accomplishing their feet. It's the

18:38

temporal juxtaposition of being

18:40

so low and so high. Right. Right.

18:42

Like, I don't think you know, how we don't feel

18:44

speed. Like, if you're on an airplane -- Yeah. -- you

18:46

don't feel it. You feel acceleration.

18:48

In other words, we're only wired, I

18:50

think, to feel a rate of change.

18:52

And I think that's true of emotion. Like, if

18:54

you're constantly in a state of bliss, everything

18:56

is going well all the time. I don't think you

18:58

feel profound joy.

19:00

So I think the reason in part I mean, I think

19:02

there's a physiologic expectation for what you

19:04

experience. We'll talk about that in a

19:06

sec, but I think what you're also

19:08

experiencing is four minutes earlier,

19:10

I thought I was going to die. Yeah.

19:12

And even if the upper part of your

19:14

brain knew you weren't, the reptilian part of

19:16

your brain? Absolutely believed it. Yeah. You were

19:18

dead. Yep. And then four or five

19:20

minutes later, you

19:22

have this unbelievable surge

19:24

of positive emotion. I don't think

19:26

you can find a period of time. And when just

19:28

four minutes, you can go from your absolute lowest your

19:31

higher. I think that's the thing. Yeah.

19:33

That's the juice. Yeah. Absolutely. And

19:35

with no negative lasting

19:37

injury, etcetera, you know,

19:39

for sure. I mean, of all the things

19:41

in limitless, the

19:43

strength stuff, the endurance stuff,

19:45

the mental challenges, all

19:47

those things, You know, the hardest one to make

19:49

the case for this will make you live longer is go

19:51

and jump in the arctic ocean and

19:53

swim. However, I think

19:55

about the benefits of cold

19:57

water I think that is something everybody should get used

19:59

to exposing. I mean,

19:59

just this morning. Right? Like, you know, United Breakfast,

20:02

I did really quickly go up, shower, come get

20:04

over here. I still made time

20:06

to spend thirty seconds to a minute in the

20:08

ice water of the shower and the

20:10

hotel. And I love that feeling

20:12

of the first time you get into the ice water,

20:14

you feel You feel that little thing.

20:16

I mean, there is really compelling evidence at

20:18

what this does to brain chemistry. So that's the only

20:20

thing that I think you're also experiencing,

20:22

although in your swim, it

20:24

was to a much higher degree than just

20:26

taking a cold shower and ice bath. But you

20:28

were, I think, probably being flooded

20:31

with endorphins and neurotransmitters that are

20:33

very positive. Mhmm. Absolutely. And you still

20:35

do this. I mean, this is still kind of a part of your routine.

20:37

You're constantly getting a nice Yeah.

20:39

And it's probably about exactly what you're saying, like the endorphin

20:41

kick, but also every time I get in

20:43

the ice bath, whether I'm

20:45

somewhat

20:45

used to it, it's still brutal. But

20:49

the moment you get out, like you say, you've gone from

20:51

one extreme to another. So it's an instant sort

20:53

of kick of happiness. But I

20:55

find like, just from inflammation,

20:57

repair, the general mood,

20:59

if I had, you know, wake up in the morning and I'm

21:01

feeling off and I'm achy I'm

21:03

not in the space. I could have a hot shower and, like,

21:05

I'm still a bit doughy, but I jump in the

21:07

cold and completely different. It's

21:09

a game changer. So Does Elsa join you?

21:11

Do your kids join you? That one of

21:13

my kids often tries to jump in for,

21:15

you know, not not that long, but gives it a

21:17

go. Yeah. And Elsa does it too. We have

21:19

a sauna and a lost bus set up at home and

21:22

just the best rehab. I

21:23

couldn't agree more. It single best investment I've

21:25

ever made was the sauna cold

21:28

plunge home. Let's talk about strength. So,

21:31

Chris, you

21:31

obviously spend a lot of time

21:34

working on

21:34

your strength training.

21:36

What type of program do you do? I

21:39

mean, I've over the years, training

21:41

for different

21:43

roles and for Thor, in particular, was

21:45

about getting big and mass. I do shoulders

21:47

one day, arms and other

21:49

back, chest, legs.

21:51

Got it. Okay. Feel

21:54

okay? Uh-huh.

21:56

Obviously,

21:59

he's in

21:59

amazing shape. Most of us would look at and

22:02

give anything to look like that.

22:04

But

22:06

there's always

22:06

room for improvement.

22:08

There are more

22:10

than six hundred muscles in

22:12

the human body. And for

22:15

longevity, you've

22:15

got to make good use of as many

22:18

as possible. So when I

22:21

assess Chris' muscular power and

22:23

efficiency, his flexibility

22:25

and agility,

22:26

I found

22:28

he could be working a wider range

22:30

of those muscles. No. That's it.

22:33

Okay. One, that's it.

22:36

And he could improve his stamina.

22:38

I think that

22:40

was an awesome episode because

22:42

I think and this is an a great example

22:45

of where COVID really

22:47

benefited the series. Yeah. Because,

22:49

you know, the initial

22:51

challenge for

22:51

strength was kind of an interesting

22:54

challenge But I think the

22:55

one you ultimately ended up doing was better.

22:57

And my only view on this was, like, from

22:59

a scientific perspective, what can we say about

23:01

strength and longevity or fitness and longevity

23:04

and really like kind of grip strength,

23:06

cardio respiratory fitness, you know,

23:08

would be top of the list. And that's why I

23:10

think that that challenge was a

23:12

perfect challenge because it's

23:14

grip strength, it's

23:15

top end cardio respiratory

23:18

fitness. Yeah.

23:18

Initially, it was I was gonna be being a

23:20

harness and pulling a car across a

23:22

section of land. And Ross Edgel

23:24

had done that, I think, for twenty hours or

23:26

something crazy. So he was like, I'll try and

23:28

you do that. And we were doing it. And I

23:30

did, like, I did a good month, like, pulling a sled

23:33

in the backyard. I had a little

23:35

Polaris doing buggy thing that I was pulling for

23:37

a bit. And it just started like,

23:39

aggravate my back and joints and

23:41

everything. And so we transitioned then

23:44

to the rope climb. And as you say, it

23:46

was probably more on point as far as

23:48

the science around strength

23:50

and longevity. So I started

23:52

training for the rope climb. I'd never climbed the rope

23:54

before, and Ross had also done a feat like

23:56

that. so was was training me. He said to me,

23:58

look, you wanna be strong, but you don't wanna be heavy. The

24:01

heavier you are, the harder it is gonna be to get up

24:03

that road. So I had a three minute road from

24:05

my house. That's ten feet for the

24:07

American? Yeah. Ten for ten feet in my house. And I

24:09

was going kinda three quarters the way up and

24:11

just jumping off and back up and down and doing

24:13

loops like that. And one day

24:14

I jumped down, blew my ankle up,

24:16

and I ruffled all the lemons and tall

24:18

lemons. What happened by the way? Was there anything

24:20

different that day? I was rushing.

24:22

The UFC was on. Right? My mates were in the

24:24

next room, and I was in the gym where my my house set

24:27

up. I think I quit starting online. I'm just

24:29

getting in fifteen minutes, and I'm up and down. And it

24:31

must've been like, Last one, and I

24:33

just jumped off and I had a map there and I just rolled

24:35

my ankle. It just blew out. And

24:37

straightaway looked at it was blue in utopia and

24:39

all the team from that year were in

24:41

Australia and ready to shoot. I think it was next

24:43

week.

24:43

So called them up

24:44

and said, this ain't gonna happen, and then I had

24:46

a doctor have a look and I said, yeah, this is not good.

24:48

And that was the rope, that was the foot I was gonna anchor off as

24:51

I was pulling myself up. And for

24:53

folks that have seen Thor, you've

24:55

got kind of different bodies in

24:57

there I assume the biggest you were in Thor was that scene

24:59

when you were in front of Russell Crowe. Yeah. By

25:01

the way, I was that size for that

25:03

afternoon and kind of fluctuate through

25:05

the film. Obviously, picky windows and guys

25:07

have kind of, you know, where to be your

25:10

biggest. This was like I

25:12

had

25:12

been training with Ross prior

25:14

to that

25:15

quite intensely and

25:18

learned some pretty unique special

25:20

things and how to just

25:22

kind of blast the body and

25:24

do the most effective intense

25:26

workouts and when and what to eat and

25:28

so on. So I was schooled in that

25:30

more so than I'd ever been before, so I had an

25:32

opportunity to get stronger and bigger than I ever

25:34

was. But the timing of it

25:36

didn't line up with this event. And

25:38

so rest hands up and I tried to I hadn't

25:40

been using the rope at all because I'd been working and

25:42

we started doing it and I was just

25:44

heavy and I was getting like three,

25:46

four pulls up and I was just like everything

25:48

was tightening up and so on. So

25:50

we had about two weeks

25:52

where I just stopped lifting weights completely.

25:54

And it's funny. I don't know if you've ever

25:56

put on a big amount of muscle

25:58

that It doesn't

25:59

take long for your body to go. Okay. This is

26:02

where you can switch gears now. And so I

26:04

started doing a lot more right tools and

26:06

sled tools. Got down to the Blue

26:08

Mountains where we shot and there was a and what

26:10

was your weight doing during that period of time? How much

26:12

weight were you dropping? I mean, it was only

26:14

a few weeks. A little bit. But I was still gonna make an

26:16

effort to reduce your intake. Yeah. Because

26:18

you were in India two weeks Two and a half

26:20

weeks. I stopped lifting

26:22

weights. I reduced my calories

26:24

pretty dramatically. Maybe lost a couple of

26:26

kilo on it. It would have been, like, two or nine or

26:28

something, but still heavy than I should have been

26:30

for it. Yeah. And we get to the Blue Mountains and it's

26:32

the most beautiful setting and there's the

26:34

cable cut across two

26:36

mountains as a thousand foot off the

26:38

ground and we go out onto this cart

26:40

and they throw the rope out and

26:42

it's a hundred feet of the rope,

26:44

which is three, four times

26:46

longer than I've anything. I've climbed

26:48

in my training or anything. So

26:50

again, this became less

26:52

about what you've trained for this and

26:54

more about just again grit and will and

26:56

just get up there. And I just

26:58

remember Ross kind of at the top of the cart going.

27:00

Make it a fist fight. Make it a

27:02

fight. Come on big man. Stand

27:05

right with doors

27:06

opening. Get

27:08

the rug going out.

27:17

Oh,

27:17

don't look at it. So

27:20

hits

27:23

me. And all

27:25

the little voices of doubt

27:27

that

27:27

I've been pushing aside

27:30

in

27:30

my mind, started to

27:33

get

27:33

louder and louder.

27:35

I'm looking down and I'm thinking that

27:38

it's not something I fancy

27:39

doing. But I

27:41

cannot let

27:42

Chris see. Any moment of doubt in my mind

27:44

at all.

27:46

Swish

27:50

on Swish two jump. Two jump. Yeah. That's

27:52

good. Very good.

28:00

We're

28:09

So

28:12

I'm

28:17

getting winched down. And

28:20

it

28:20

feels a lot longer than a hundred

28:23

feet. I

28:25

don't want to look back up because

28:28

I'm like, this is so much further

28:30

than I've ever climbed. How

28:32

long did it

28:33

actually take start to finish?

28:36

Probably,

28:36

I don't know,

28:37

probably a couple of minutes. It's a long time

28:39

to be, you know, to the harness that will catch me

28:41

if I fall, but none of it is helping me

28:43

up the road. I was surprised was fun. They're

28:46

most gnarly things. More than your hands, more

28:48

than your forearms, both the biceps

28:50

and forearms. I mean, when I got

28:52

off, I had, like, claws.

28:54

I couldn't extend my fingers that were locked,

28:56

but my quads and especially my right leg kind of

28:58

doing the push of the anchor. So how

29:00

do you feel physically now

29:03

from a strength perspective in

29:05

terms of, like, how this is kind of more if you're

29:07

training a little bit.

29:08

I feel it's it's

29:10

more specific, much running now. You know, I

29:12

used to just sort of go in. Let's still do to

29:14

it to an extent, like, and just start

29:16

throwing weights around and go I get

29:18

biceps, you know, I go back and I get chest and shoulders and

29:20

just as heavy as I could as much as I

29:22

could. And when I was a bit younger, I could get

29:24

away with doing that. And then

29:26

Now it's like, oh, jeez. I'm just not worn that

29:29

properly or, you know, you're kinda hitting everything

29:31

too many times. And so just being

29:33

smart about the training and that came from work

29:35

with Ross by trying to look zockey as

29:37

well. He just targeted much

29:39

more targeted approach. He

29:41

has really

29:42

interesting intense ways to work out

29:44

though. It's everything is about sort of

29:47

explosive energy, like

29:49

light up your was it your

29:51

parasympathetic

29:51

nervous system and

29:53

just switch on. Simparate pro. Sorry. Simparate.

29:55

Yeah. And fire up and just explosive

29:57

up and then slow negatives.

30:00

That might dramatic differences. I got formal

30:02

guidance than than I had previously trying like that. Now

30:04

you actually I don't think I've told you this by the way, but,

30:06

you know, in the process of kind of going through a lot of your

30:08

genetic stuff, which we're doing now.

30:10

Talk about this in a second. of doing this, you know, we actually

30:12

have found that you have a very

30:14

favorable gene around

30:17

muscle fibers. Of the yeah. Yeah.

30:19

Yeah. So I think that we'll talk a second

30:21

about kind of like a gene you have that we wish we

30:23

could erase. But on the flip side, you got

30:25

a pretty favorable gene around

30:27

fast twitch muscle fibers. You know, you sort of

30:29

have a genetic predisposition

30:31

to be muscular and to be strong

30:33

and to be explosive. I was

30:35

lean when I was younger, but as soon as I started even when

30:37

I was playing forty, you know, I was seventeen

30:40

doing more push ups where I would grow. I've

30:42

always had to work my ass off in that

30:44

space, but Yeah. I do

30:46

feel I've had some benefits

30:48

there. It's a great variant of a

30:50

gene to have as you age because one of

30:52

the hallmarks of aging is

30:54

actually atrophy shrinkage of these fast

30:56

twitch muscle fibers. Mhmm. So slinkage in

30:59

Norway, definitely. Yeah. Attia different

31:01

time, but yes. Yes. Yes.

31:03

So as we these slow twitch muscle fibers

31:05

are shrinking and everybody, and that's

31:07

why people are losing strength

31:11

and power and explosiveness most

31:13

rapidly as they age. Much more than they

31:15

are losing endurance, slow fiber. So,

31:18

you know, one of the things we always talk about their patients

31:20

is, hey, we need you lifting weights

31:22

all the time. You start early and

31:24

you never stop lifting weights and the

31:26

heaviest you can lift is the better because it's only

31:28

through lifting heavy weights that you can really get

31:30

those fast twitch type two muscle

31:33

fibers firing. The fact

31:35

that you kind of have a genetic predisposition to

31:37

have more of them is a good

31:39

thing, which then brings us to kind

31:41

of like some of the other stuff we talked about So

31:43

one of my earliest memories of this

31:45

whole experience

31:46

was in December of twenty

31:48

nineteen. We took advantage of the fact that you were

31:50

in LA to get

31:51

some blood work done. And, you

31:53

know, Darren said, look, here's the deal. You and

31:55

Chris

31:55

are gonna sit down in January

31:58

in Australia to kick off the first bit

31:59

of shooting. And I want you to walk

32:02

Chris through his blood work just as you would

32:04

do with a patient the very first time.

32:06

And I said, okay, great. I get the blood

32:08

test back. About two weeks before I'm supposed to go out

32:10

to Australia, and I see something in it that I'm

32:12

I say, Darren, I

32:13

can't walk him through this for the first time

32:16

on camera. That's

32:16

not fair to him. I mean, I know that

32:19

that's what sort of the drama is. Yeah. But

32:21

this is a bit too much. But I can't

32:23

tell you, Darren, what it is.

32:25

Mhmm. So without telling you you need to

32:27

trust me that this can't be done on camera for

32:29

the first time. This one thing -- Yeah. -- you can do

32:31

the whole lab. This one thing. So I asked him to

32:33

sort of trust me, and he did. And then we connected.

32:36

So he called me first. Yeah. He

32:38

called me in

32:38

a panic and was like, you've got to call Peter or

32:40

Tear, something's come up, and

32:42

but I don't know what it is. And I was like, oh, god.

32:45

Why not this? How long have I

32:47

got left? What's that? And so I was

32:49

kinda rattled before we

32:51

even got in the fun.

32:53

So we did sort of

32:55

the million dollar work up on you. We've got

32:57

every blood test one can get and I've

33:00

looked at every gene in your body six ways

33:02

to Sunday. And

33:04

overall, your labs look

33:06

fantastic. And I think looking at you from

33:08

the outside, it's clear how

33:10

much you take care of yourself, but

33:12

we did find a couple of things that are

33:14

a cause for concern.

33:15

Right. Some of

33:17

the genetic testing that we

33:19

did looked at a gene for

33:21

a protein called APO E.

33:24

You have a very rare combination,

33:27

which is you have two copies of

33:29

APO E4A

33:31

set from your mom and a set from your dad. And

33:34

what does that mean exactly? That

33:36

means you have an increased risk

33:38

of Alzheimer's disease. How

33:44

much oil? Probably

33:46

somewhere between eight and

33:48

ten times higher that of someone in the general

33:51

population. You know what?

33:54

Okay. You

33:56

know you're I

33:58

don't know. You're constantly thinking you're gonna live

33:59

forever, forever especially as

34:01

a young individual. And

34:03

then to all of a sudden be told, oh, this may

34:05

be the thing that might

34:07

take you out was like, whoa. Kinda applaud me

34:10

for floored me from it

34:12

a minute. You

34:14

know, it's hard

34:15

to imagine, but

34:18

it's my belief

34:20

that

34:20

if we take every step

34:24

possible, we can reduce your

34:26

risk to that of anyone

34:28

else. Mhmm. Sure.

34:30

In fact, I don't think you you'll me I I you

34:32

in time. You having

34:34

this gene is probably a blessing.

34:37

Because of the motivation that will get into. Yeah. It's this

34:40

is going to motivate you to

34:42

take steps today that most people

34:45

your age would never think about

34:47

until there's your or Sure. I hadn't

34:50

had too many patients that

34:51

had this combination of APO

34:53

E44

34:56

It's not a very common genotype. It's only about one percent of the

34:58

population. So probably only at that time had

35:00

maybe three patients that had

35:03

it. And truthfully, two

35:05

of the three of them kind

35:08

of suspected it before the blood

35:10

test based on their family history. Yeah.

35:12

In one case, about old

35:14

woman total shocker.

35:17

And

35:17

so I remember

35:19

just sort of trying to say,

35:21

look, this is a gene that really increases risk of

35:24

Alzheimer's disease, but it's not a

35:26

deterministic gene. And that's I

35:28

think just

35:30

something someone like me can take for granted because I'm sort of in this space. I understand

35:32

that, but I think that's a that's a hard concept

35:34

to explain to somebody who doesn't eat,

35:36

sleep, and breathe genetics, which is

35:39

you have this gene and it doesn't guarantee this

35:42

thing is going to happen. And there are some genes that do,

35:44

by the way, there are certain genes that if you have

35:46

the gene. If the gene

35:48

for Huntington's disease, you're gonna get Huntington's disease. This isn't that kind of

35:50

gene, but it's increasing your

35:52

odds. And that's the

35:54

bad news. And

35:56

then the good news is the earlier

35:58

you know this, the more you

35:59

can do to

36:02

mitigate risk. That

36:03

was my message. But what did you hear? I mean, how much

36:05

do you think back to that? Again, I I

36:07

knew nothing about the science or the sort

36:09

of the moccas and so on. Outside

36:11

of that one conversation. And so I hung up and

36:13

I was trying to explain it to my wife

36:16

and I was like,

36:17

yeah, I'm not really

36:18

sure what he just said, but I think, you know, I'm

36:20

more vulnerable to Alzheimer's. And

36:22

then we had another conversation And

36:25

I wish we'd had more conversations immediately

36:28

after because I did spend sort of a week

36:30

going, what does this mean? What's going to happen?

36:32

And how long have

36:34

I forgotten? I'm trying to talk to my parents about it, and they didn't know much about it

36:36

either. My grandfather, the house

36:38

of Adamis, and Steve, I've been very

36:40

tragic to

36:42

watch. And So they were aware of it, but didn't know in any great detail about the

36:44

gene combination we're talking about. But

36:46

as you say, it was just a a

36:48

good sort of kick in the ass and a

36:50

reminder to you do

36:52

what I can, whatever is it within

36:54

my control and within my power to

36:56

give myself the best fighting chance.

36:58

And, you know, whatever work I'm doing

37:01

for brine health benefits the rest of my body and the

37:03

rest of my life anyway. So we turned

37:05

it into a into a positive. You

37:07

know, one of the things that was sort of interesting about

37:09

filming this is obviously came out,

37:11

we filmed it, and we did everything in

37:14

duplicate for those episodes. We

37:16

did everything. We talked about all of this, and we went through

37:18

all this stuff. And then, of course, It was also done,

37:20

which is, hey, there's a really good chance that we're

37:22

not gonna wanna talk about this particular

37:24

aspect of Chris' health publicly. So

37:26

let's redo that whole thing, but without

37:28

that. Yeah. And

37:30

I

37:30

think for about two years, it was

37:32

we didn't know which version of this was gonna happen.

37:34

Obviously, the decision was a hundred percent

37:36

yours. When and why did you

37:38

decide that you wanted to be public

37:41

with something so personal? Once

37:42

I understood

37:44

more about

37:45

it, but also Well,

37:47

the same reason, it's motivated me

37:49

to make positive changes. I thought, well, that's

37:51

a great opportunity for anyone else out there who

37:53

may be in the same situation. To either go and get

37:56

checked or to understand more about brain

37:58

health and see what they have within their

37:59

power to make that change. So I

38:02

thought,

38:02

i thought out I would say, I

38:04

don't know. It's a missed opportunity to motivate others

38:06

to do

38:06

the same if I don't talk about

38:08

it. And then they cut to get two versions

38:11

of the episode and the other one

38:13

was just and I fell flat, you know. So Attia had and

38:15

there was no overdramatized or exploit

38:17

or anything. I think what they did to

38:19

Gretel about was it just became relatable. It became and

38:21

this is what most of the series was late. Look, you said,

38:24

humor being, like, you or I and,

38:26

you know, this

38:28

sort of superhero costume aside. This is an

38:30

individual who has many the same

38:32

challenges and is up

38:34

against the same things that all of

38:36

us. So

38:38

even though you have two copies of the APOE4 gene, which is a very

38:41

rare combination, you know, twenty percent to twenty

38:43

five percent of the population has at least one

38:45

copy of the E4 gene And

38:48

even though that doesn't increase their risk as much as the increase that

38:50

you experience, it still does. In fact,

38:52

even though it's only twenty percent twenty five percent

38:54

of population that has that gene that

38:57

group of people makes up about two thirds of

38:59

cases of Alzheimer's disease. So I do

39:01

think I applaud you for doing it and I'm really glad

39:03

you did decide to do this

39:06

because I I've always said I really wish every single person would know their

39:08

APOE genotype early in life. And there's

39:10

a lot of resistance in the medical community to this

39:12

truthfully. There are a lot of physicians who would say,

39:14

look, no one should know that. There's nothing that can be

39:16

done about it. Why would you burden somebody with that

39:18

knowledge? Yeah. And people like me and

39:20

Richard Isaacson, Kellyanne, you know, as you

39:22

know, people I work with, I mean, we

39:24

fundamentally disagree with that, Chris. We think that

39:26

is complete nonsense, and we think that this is

39:28

absolutely a condition through

39:30

which you have

39:32

an enormous lever arm to mitigate risk. If that's true,

39:34

which I wholeheartedly believe it

39:36

is, then not knowing that

39:38

information early is

39:40

criminal. Yep. And also as saying

39:42

that whatever I do in

39:44

regards to protection and arming

39:46

myself with the sort of tools to get

39:49

have the best chance, benefits

39:51

everything else anyway. You know, we talked

39:53

about reducing stress levels, more

39:56

mindfulness practices. There's certain training

39:58

I do, nutrition, my

40:00

sleep habits. All those things made a dramatic difference in every other part of my life

40:02

too. So, you know, one of the things that I was talking

40:04

about is Sona. But

40:06

I paid us convinced that regular

40:08

Sona can boost long

40:10

term health. You know, now that

40:12

we just got in here, Chris, let's let's

40:14

take your pulse. Her eyes.

40:19

Yeah. You're about sixty four beats per

40:22

minute, but we've got this

40:24

temperature cranked up to about hundred and

40:26

ninety five degree. In fact, fahrenheit.

40:28

So let's see where you are

40:30

in a couple of minutes. I guess I gotta

40:32

get used to this hate. Yeah.

40:34

We're uncomfortable right now because we're

40:37

hot. And in response to that, our

40:39

body is trying to cool us off.

40:41

Yeah. And so it's pumping harder so that

40:43

your heart can quickly get the blood

40:46

to the outside of your body. And just as

40:48

exercise is known to help with

40:50

cardiovascular disease, I think SONNA has a

40:52

number of those

40:53

benefits as well. How much of a fan were you

40:55

of Sona before we shot that series in

40:58

Norway? And then really kind of got into the

41:00

science of

41:02

why it's likely. It hasn't

41:04

been proven yet to the same extent that some things

41:06

have because so much of the data is

41:08

observational, but so overwhelmingly positive

41:10

in the same direction with every single study. I think we're confident

41:12

it is. I know you've always enjoyed it,

41:14

but has that taken on kind of a more urgent

41:16

-- Yeah. Definitely. -- and definitely during

41:18

having shot the show, it's

41:21

my or it's become a bigger part of my

41:23

daily routine often after a

41:26

workout. And again, I don't know what the

41:28

science says, but I know I feel great

41:30

after doing same with the nice bath. And so if sort of mood elavosem the

41:32

only thing, then if I'm all about it. I

41:34

would say even if the emphasis and

41:36

the benefit of the heat shock proteins is less

41:38

than what we think I

41:40

agree with you. I think just the psychological benefit and the sleep benefit. I

41:43

mean, I but the difference in my sleep between

41:45

when I saw not and when

41:48

I don't, is so noticeable that then again, are we gonna

41:50

question the benefits of sleep? I don't think

41:52

so. There is no doubt if I've been

41:54

training a

41:56

lot I wake up achy in particular, you know, I've had issues going

41:58

back over the years. If I wake up

42:00

and

42:00

I'd get in the sauna in the morning,

42:03

and I do a nice bath or either or I

42:05

feel fifty, sixty percent better. You know,

42:07

that's the thing you're lying better or not. You're in,

42:09

you know, a position and everything

42:12

starts to kinda I don't know

42:14

lies dormant and becomes

42:16

I don't know. There's there's no fluidity there. You know

42:18

what I mean? You wake up and you're stiff and sore. And then

42:20

you get into one of those spaces, the hot the

42:23

cold all the hot and instantly, I feel like everything's just

42:25

kind of lit up in a wagon.

42:27

So when we think about kind of

42:29

the last episode, which is the one that

42:31

we saw in the premiere, we

42:33

were

42:33

talking about this over breakfast today, but

42:35

that

42:35

episode maybe more than any other,

42:38

really reaped the

42:40

benefit of COVID. Mhmm. Because it had so much

42:41

more time to flush out. You know, when I think

42:43

about what the first

42:44

version of the final episode was

42:47

supposed to look like if this was kind of blasted through in twenty

42:49

twenty. I won't restate what that episode was supposed to be, but

42:52

it was kind of gimmicky. I didn't think it would've worked.

42:54

And then what it became

42:56

is unbelievable. Your mind, how was the

42:58

evolution of that episode? Did you have much of a hand in

43:00

the creative side of that, or were you kind of just a

43:02

passenger? No. I was a

43:04

passenger and I was kept in the dock. Intentionally.

43:06

Darren didn't want me to know much about it. It

43:08

was an immersive

43:09

theater experience. And

43:12

I'm glad I didn't know

43:13

because I feel like I would've had preconceived

43:16

ideas and then expectations and couldn't

43:18

have helped acting a certain way or reacting a

43:20

certain way based on that. So to

43:22

go into it blind and just open and ready for

43:25

whatever they were gonna throw at me

43:27

or throw me into was was

43:29

exciting and different to the other episodes. Everything else was

43:32

about being prepped in some way and

43:34

learning and understanding some of the

43:36

science prior to shooting,

43:38

whereas this It

43:39

was about all I knew was it was about acceptance of

43:42

death. All I've been told

43:42

is that I'm about to jump forward

43:45

fifty years into the future

43:48

and spend the next three days

43:50

living the life of an octogenarian.

43:59

The

44:06

architect of this strange challenge

44:08

is doctor

44:08

P. J. Miller, a world renowned palliative

44:11

care physician. His work sends

44:13

us on unlocking the transformative

44:16

power of accepting aging and

44:18

death. Dine offers

44:20

us something We can change how we see it,

44:22

what we do with it, how we play with it.

44:25

Chris is about to take part in

44:27

that truly unique experiment.

44:28

Ready? My

44:31

old man? That's a

44:32

nice I mean, ask me

44:35

three days

44:35

time, buddy. What did

44:37

that suit feel like? Just

44:39

uncomfortable, incredibly restrictive.

44:42

And I talked

44:44

about this in the episode, the

44:46

way people then spoke to

44:48

me because I knew I couldn't hear

44:50

properly and, you know, there was some of this condescending sort of patronizing tone of,

44:52

you know, how you hear people and some

44:54

of the time talk to elderly, you

44:58

know. It may be immediately going, oh my god. I'm I hope I don't do

45:00

that. But, incredibly oscillating

45:02

to, you know, visions diminished

45:04

and you as I said, you

45:08

can't hear. Restricted to everything is has

45:10

been pulled away all the sort of

45:12

your abilities that were there the

45:14

hour before I put it on.

45:17

And also not having fifty years to

45:19

transition into that. Again, one extent to the other

45:21

in the opposite direction to what we told them

45:23

before. If there's so many things about that

45:25

episode that are beyond

45:26

beautiful. One of them, to me, it's just a very subtle thing is that all

45:28

of the residents of that place were not

45:32

actors. And what was it like kind of

45:34

interacting with them? Because, you know, you

45:36

watched the episode. It's like a, you know, oh,

45:38

slightly over an hour long episode, but I

45:40

assume shooting it was days. A

45:42

minimum three days. Three days. Yeah. So you have a

45:44

lot of time on that set. I reckon some

45:46

of those folks didn't necessarily know who you

45:48

were prior to being able to be

45:50

honest. Yeah. Which must have been a great

45:52

relief, wasn't it? It was. It was really nice. It was unique and different

45:54

on so many levels that episode.

45:57

But to be

45:58

in a retirement

46:00

village with elderly folks

46:02

who were there for the fun

46:04

of the episode, but were just

46:06

genuine and truthful and honest and didn't

46:09

hold back with anything that was thinking

46:11

and sort of the no filter

46:13

approach to things

46:16

was it was it

46:16

was refreshing. You know, I think being in that sort

46:19

of industry where a lot of people do know who

46:21

you are Attia

46:21

lot of the time you're sort of supporting what you're

46:23

doing and everything's kinda tried

46:25

to be made or be accommodating as

46:28

possible. That was like, now

46:29

you're one of us now. It was

46:31

fantastic to

46:31

have brought me straight back

46:34

to If I drifted frequently.

46:36

Having known you for many years,

46:37

you're pretty down to earth, but

46:39

I still think that that must

46:41

have been even another level because you're

46:43

so

46:43

far out of your comfort zone. Mhmm.

46:45

This wasn't

46:46

there's no superhero component to

46:48

this. No. I was

46:49

a lot more nervous about an episode than anything else

46:51

because it wasn't something I could

46:54

fight or muscle through or just put my head

46:56

down, grit my teeth and go for it. to

46:58

be completely open and

47:00

vulnerable and accessible

47:03

and confront things that I

47:05

had never really thought about that

47:07

much. And interacts with people

47:09

who were at the end

47:11

of their

47:11

days or who had dealt with

47:13

death in very extreme

47:16

ways or come close to

47:18

death. And so to

47:20

go from sort of one

47:22

environment of physical sort of

47:24

challenge and defeats and then go into this

47:26

emotional state. With a real

47:28

shock and an adjustment.

47:29

I'm so proud of what the episode

47:32

is and became because it it's unlike

47:34

anything I've certainly never done, but unlike anything

47:36

I think, I've seen before in the Talkspace. There were

47:38

several moments that really

47:38

stood out to me. I'm guessing you

47:41

didn't know BJ Miller's story before

47:43

that episode. No, I

47:46

didn't. Because it came across as really genuine when

47:48

you're hearing it for the first time on camera. It looked

47:50

to me as though that was the first time you were hearing.

47:53

So it was Do you recall that felt like? Because it seemed like

47:55

you got quite emotional. I'm curious as to

47:57

what was more emotional. Was it

47:59

the tragedy

48:00

of his story or

48:02

was it more how moved you were by his resilience and

48:05

how he overcame it to

48:07

do what he's doing?

48:08

do what he's doing

48:10

Combination

48:10

of things. He's one of the most unique individuals

48:12

I've ever met. This is something saintly

48:15

and other worldly about him

48:17

is such a beautiful individual. Certainly

48:20

his story shook me and also the

48:24

strength now that which he reflects upon

48:26

it and his attitude toward what

48:28

happened to him. Was

48:30

so inspiring.

48:31

It made me you know,

48:33

I was in a I was

48:35

really exhausted coming into that episode. I was

48:37

at the end of felt

48:39

like a five year run of different films and work, and we were

48:41

shooting this series throughout.

48:44

And

48:44

I think I was more vulnerable than

48:46

I'd been in a long time out of

48:48

exhaustion, but also out of the questions that were starting to circulate

48:50

through my head. And a lot

48:52

of them were to do with you

48:55

know, this point in

48:57

my life and am I

48:59

proud of what I've done?

49:01

Am I what's next? And

49:04

all I kept thinking was I have

49:06

been sprinting through life in

49:08

the moments and opportunities,

49:10

and

49:10

I'm grateful for them, but

49:12

I've

49:12

been very quickly going to the next one to the next one, the next one.

49:14

And I was in a bit of a

49:17

state of what's next, and

49:19

what's the point and who am I and all of these kind

49:22

of questions that I hadn't sort

49:24

of been able to analyze,

49:26

but were there in the back of

49:28

my head. And

49:29

my mom had said something to me a

49:31

few days before that she'd have

49:33

this

49:33

experience where she came pretty close to what she thought

49:36

was gonna be her death. In a very instance

49:38

at a moment, and she's fine now.

49:40

But said, oh, you know, I wasn't at all

49:42

afraid to go because I realized

49:44

I'm so thankful for my

49:46

life and I'm so happy that everything I've

49:48

had and all the experiences I

49:50

have. And

49:50

I thought, well, what a beautiful feeling

49:52

And

49:52

then in that moment, I think I was talking to BJ and I

49:54

got really emotional because I

49:58

realized that Attia just

49:59

want I'm

49:59

not ready yet. You know, I have all these

50:02

beautiful things around me and family and friends, but

50:04

I can't go yet. This is not this

50:06

is not my time and it was strange because

50:08

we're manipulating

50:10

everything in that space to make me feel like

50:12

I'm gonna die. I'm a master.

50:15

Think about my death, how I would want it to

50:17

be and so on. But I had this this

50:19

sort of sense of urgency of just

50:21

I'm not ready and and maybe think

50:23

about my kids for now. They're growing up and

50:26

things are changing so dramatically. And

50:28

like, I wanna shit. I wanna I wanna

50:30

soak it in. I don't wanna be in a

50:32

sprint anymore. I wanna be more present. I wanna be right here and appreciate everything

50:34

that's in front of me. And again, I it

50:36

I've tried to articulate that a few times

50:38

Attia and I feel I

50:41

don't know if I hit the nail on the

50:43

head is exactly why it's something

50:44

in me sort of

50:48

fragile at that point. That whole

50:50

experience shook me to my

50:52

core and

50:54

made made me me

50:56

wanna slow down and just race home to my family and

50:58

my kids and not jump on another plane

51:00

and travel and work and do anything else,

51:02

you know, in the best way.

51:04

I think the

51:06

time when you

51:07

were sitting on the bench next

51:09

to Natalie was sort of equally profound.

51:11

At least it appeared that way

51:13

as an observer. I assume it's the same. You weren't aware of Natalie's

51:15

story, and you're probably sitting there thinking, why are they

51:18

having me sit and talk to a twenty seven year

51:20

old, very normal, healthy appearing

51:22

woman. Yeah. Definitely,

51:24

again, what she said in particular

51:26

was there's an urgency from her to

51:28

shake people and say wake up, it

51:31

doesn't last forever. The end could come

51:33

at any moment so I like the most of

51:35

it and love and laugh and live

51:37

with a sense of

51:39

gratitude and joy incredibly

51:41

inspiring and heartbreaking

51:44

hearing what she's been facing at

51:46

such a young age too.

51:48

And

51:48

i'm really thankful I'm really thankful that

51:50

I had those conversations and I was forced to think this way

51:52

and had this realization now

51:54

not when I'm eighty. You know,

51:57

I'm glad I'm not sitting

51:58

on my death bed going, ah, damn, I should

51:59

have done this. I could have done this.

52:02

I finally have done that. So I

52:04

feel like this is

52:06

sort of and awakening or sort of shakeup or whatever you wanna call

52:08

it came at the perfect time for

52:10

me. You and I talked about this last

52:11

month, I

52:14

think, but you haven't had more than two months off in about ten

52:16

years. Right? Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah.

52:18

Did you know during COVID, but even then I was

52:20

still working on

52:22

prepping things how do you

52:24

reconcile the fact that you

52:25

work so hard and you've been so

52:28

successful? And

52:28

with that success has so many

52:30

wonderful things. You've got wealth, you've got fame, you've got

52:33

a platform. Right? We're sitting here talking about

52:35

more people

52:35

are gonna know what the APO E4 gene

52:37

is and why they need to be tested and what they

52:39

can do about it. Because of this episode,

52:41

because of this series than anything else that would have ever come out

52:43

of the scientific literature ever. And all of

52:45

that is attributed to the fact that you have

52:47

a platform to do this. So

52:50

there's all of these amazing things, both to you personally and

52:52

to society at large that come from Attia.

52:54

But at the same time,

52:56

that's not sustained. Mhmm.

52:58

You once

52:59

told me a story about something your daughter said

53:01

when you kind of half

53:03

jokingly suggested to her you might retire. Mhmm.

53:05

Do you remember what that was? I was they're

53:07

talking to

53:08

her and I've done

53:09

I feel like I've been doing for a long time in my kids. I'm like, you

53:11

know, every time I left to go on another trip, I'm like,

53:13

to work, I'm like, it's not long. You know, I'm just soon,

53:15

I'm gonna take some

53:18

downtime and I think, you know, my daughter's gonna rolls her eyes at times these days and

53:20

says, yeah. Sure. And then this time, I said,

53:22

look, you know, when I've done with this

53:24

tour, I'm having a big chunk of time at

53:26

home and years, hi, great.

53:28

Awesome. It'd be fun. And and I said, yeah. And

53:30

they got us retired. Maybe maybe this is it. Maybe I'll

53:32

tell him with you forever now. And she's

53:34

like, no, dad,

53:36

you can't. And I was like, why? She goes, kids love seeing you play

53:38

for. And it was this

53:40

beautiful kind of moment of

53:42

like, oh, yeah.

53:43

Maybe it does there

53:45

is a purpose to it. You know, I think for me,

53:47

it's I've been chasing my career and been

53:49

doing it for a number

53:51

of reasons, but you know, it's been

53:53

there's sense of sort of guilt that comes with that of

53:56

sort of chasing down my dreams all the

53:58

time. And when you have

54:00

kids, it's not

54:02

about your dreams anymore. It's about theirs. And I have a family to

54:04

take care of. And I was really sort of

54:06

questioning kind of what I've contributed, though,

54:10

done. And hearing her side, that was like

54:12

a, you

54:12

know, beautiful little moment. And

54:16

so I

54:17

I don't wanna retire and, you know,

54:19

for a number of reasons, but I

54:21

certainly wanna replenish and, you

54:24

know, fill up my cup again. I feel

54:26

like it's it's

54:27

just been sort of flat stick for

54:29

so long now. And I loved it

54:31

and I'm very thankful for it, but I need to have

54:33

a chunk of time at home now and sort

54:35

of Yeah. Get reinstall it, I guess. How is

54:37

your sleep

54:38

now compared to three years ago?

54:40

You had a very

54:41

restless mind. You would wake up a lot in the

54:43

middle of the night. And you'd have

54:45

a thought you'd on it. And sometimes it was a

54:47

very

54:47

rational thought, like, I'm worried about

54:49

the success of

54:52

this film. I'm worried about my relationship with my wife. I'm worried about, like, these

54:54

were all very normal things to be concerned

54:56

with, but they would wake you up. And you wouldn't

54:58

be able to go back to sleep.

55:01

And then sometimes, they were things that

55:03

maybe seemed less rational, which by the way,

55:05

I'm not being critical of you because I'm not one

55:07

of us. No. No. Most areas are rational. Thoughts.

55:09

It's mostly irrational.

55:13

Stress.

55:14

It definitely affects more sleep.

55:16

And this is going back a few years, you know. This is not

55:18

such a big issue these days, but

55:20

my chance not true.

55:23

It is. Yeah.

55:24

Like, I'll go to

55:27

sleep fine and then

55:29

a two thirty This

55:32

is a shot of adrenaline, and my brain will just

55:34

start going through a checklist of things. Let's be like, does

55:36

that bother me? Does that bother me? Or that

55:37

one? Yeah. Good. Let's think about

55:39

that. Let's share

55:41

that a part.

55:42

We can get nervous

55:44

a bit now.

55:45

A little wider than

55:48

Notion.

55:53

So

55:58

sometimes I don't even know

56:00

why, and I wish

56:00

I could deal with that stress better.

56:06

Just got

56:08

a whole

56:08

lot real estate. Not just

56:10

because it sucks. Okay.

56:14

But also, it could

56:16

be killing me. How

56:18

has that changed? And

56:19

has this series given you a

56:21

different perspective on anything that has

56:24

given you

56:26

more peace? I think,

56:26

generally, I'm sleeping better than than I was back then.

56:28

I think just running in

56:29

a a state of fight or

56:31

flight constantly. But

56:33

that was required for me to leave Australia

56:36

with, you know, not a whole lot of money in the

56:38

bank and live on people's couches and

56:40

audition and audition and go

56:42

through that grind and

56:44

be told now a million times and still, you know, obsessively be pushing forward

56:48

requires

56:48

a huge amount of

56:51

composive, obsessive sort of self

56:54

motivated drive. And then

56:56

the problem is you then start to achieve

56:58

those things and I'm no

57:00

longer in the same sort of

57:02

fight that I was, but I'm

57:04

still

57:04

acting like my internal sort of

57:06

environment. Is still thinking it's,

57:08

you know, running away from the donuts or whatever. You

57:10

know, it got us back to sort of to sort

57:13

of ancestral, you know, make

57:15

up. And so the more comfortable I get,

57:17

the more I sort of rationally talk

57:19

myself through, hey, it's all okay now, you know, like, you

57:21

can afford to do this and this and this and you don't

57:24

have to you worry so

57:26

much about it, not working

57:28

out. Some

57:28

of that dissipates, but it's

57:30

there all the time. I'd be lying

57:32

if I said that I had a complete handle

57:34

on it. But again,

57:35

I don't wanna kinda dismiss it

57:36

too much because it's what got me

57:38

here. And it's a tool that I

57:40

will still need to use at certain times.

57:44

It's just monitoring that. And I hear a lot of people talk about that,

57:46

people in the sort of friends of

57:48

mine, sports players and so on with

57:52

that what's required to get them to that place. It's a blessing and

57:54

a curse. And it's a hard

57:56

thing to switch on a switch off, sorry, once

57:58

you once you open

57:59

the gates. Yeah,

58:01

I think that's a very common thread

58:03

for people who have achieved

58:05

great success. And when you think about

58:07

your motivation, right, when you think about

58:09

the love you have for your craft, is

58:12

there a way to

58:14

use excitement more

58:15

than fear? Like, I

58:17

think back to, you know, your beginning as you

58:19

talked about. You've spoken a lot about, and I think you

58:21

even did in some of the episodes, you spoke about

58:23

how one day you found out your father

58:25

wasn't gonna be paying off mortgage anytime soon. Like, you sort of had this

58:28

realization of the fact that your

58:30

parents have done so much for you and your

58:32

brothers with the means that

58:34

they had. But you wanted more

58:36

for them. So part of your fuel for

58:38

success was like, I wanna take care of my family as

58:40

well. Not just the kids that I'm going to have -- Mhmm. --

58:42

which you didn't yet have, but these people who you

58:44

love so much. And there's a bit of

58:46

fear in that. There's a bit of -- Sure. -- like do or

58:48

die. But at the same time,

58:50

there's also a real

58:51

passion you have for what you do.

58:53

In other words,

58:53

you're an artist. And so artists enjoy making

58:56

art. Is it

58:56

about shifting the balance of what's the

58:59

fire? Like, where's the fire coming Is the fire

59:01

coming from a place of fear? Is the fire coming from a place of love? I mean, do those go

59:03

back and forth for you from time to time

59:05

in a different season? No. I used

59:07

to get very intense performance

59:10

anxiety when I was first acting.

59:12

And it was debilitating. I would

59:14

go to auditions and I'd wanna throw up,

59:16

but it'd be shaking. And then even when I

59:18

got jobs, and I don't know how I was

59:20

getting jobs based on how nervous I wasn't

59:22

as auditioned, but I was then being upset

59:24

and it was like, I

59:26

couldn't think or see, and I thought I was gonna pass

59:28

out, like and I had was

59:29

fighting that for years.

59:32

And and you

59:32

talk about fear of excitement. And

59:34

I remember reading something that took

59:37

a series of tests with

59:39

athletes, performers, musicians,

59:42

actors, whatever, anyone in a sort

59:44

of

59:44

adrenaline fueled sort of

59:46

space. And they said, okay. Before the event, are you nervous or

59:48

excited? And some of them said they were scared

59:50

out of their minds. Some of them said they

59:54

were pumped. The interesting thing was they all had the same physical response --

59:56

Yeah. -- elevated heart, pulse,

59:58

etcetera. Climbing hands, short

1:00:00

of

1:00:00

breath, the

1:00:02

only difference was how they labeled that feeling. And so

1:00:04

for me, that was a real light

1:00:05

bulb moment. And I thought,

1:00:07

oh, okay.

1:00:09

So when

1:00:11

this feeling comes out, that's walk under set. I programmed myself

1:00:13

to say, oh, oh, this is that fear.

1:00:15

This is fear. This is

1:00:18

a negative. I then

1:00:20

went, nope, this is a positive. My body

1:00:22

senses are up now. I'm gonna be able to think fast and react

1:00:24

quick. I'm gonna see clear up. I'm gonna my

1:00:26

vision will be sharp. And it was.

1:00:27

And that was all it was. There's a decision then to

1:00:29

see it differently. Then

1:00:31

sort of as time

1:00:33

goes on,

1:00:33

I think the fear does have its place then. I think you sort

1:00:36

of talking to each other, the fear

1:00:38

pushes you, your purpose pulls you,

1:00:40

and both of them need to have equal

1:00:42

sort of relevance

1:00:44

in the conversation. And

1:00:46

it's a bloody good

1:00:47

motivator to, you know, the half of

1:00:49

these challenges. My fear

1:00:51

of looking ridiculous if I didn't complete

1:00:53

this

1:00:53

task or the fact that the episode wouldn't have

1:00:56

worked, you know, that kept me going,

1:00:58

but also the sort of purpose of why I was

1:01:00

doing it kept me going. So I think

1:01:02

that both deserve conversation. Just

1:01:04

it's about balance. And if either of them

1:01:06

get too much attention, then, you know,

1:01:08

you have too much of all my

1:01:10

purpose and my thing. There can be a lack of

1:01:12

humility there. You know? The fear I

1:01:14

feel has allowed me to have more of a

1:01:16

self deprecating sort of sense of humor

1:01:18

about myself. And the world and the

1:01:20

work and hopefully kept me

1:01:22

humbled to. What

1:01:23

was the first role you

1:01:25

had where you allowed yourself to think. I'm gonna make it.

1:01:27

Well, it was interesting. The first

1:01:29

Thor film I thought great. I mean,

1:01:31

the game certainly. Which year was the

1:01:33

first Thor film? Oh

1:01:36

it two thousand and ten? I think --

1:01:38

Yep. -- I thought this is good. I'm kind of in the

1:01:40

mix, but I didn't know if the film was

1:01:42

gonna work. Didn't know if we were gonna do

1:01:44

an Avengers film. When you weren't the first

1:01:46

choice or were you Wasn't there something funny in

1:01:48

addition there? I auditioned initially and

1:01:50

didn't get a callback. I got some pretty bad

1:01:52

feedback. What was the feedback? Just not

1:01:54

good. Just the Really

1:01:56

terrific. Really, like, minimal

1:01:58

feedback, which is, like, not even gonna give you any

1:02:00

sort of, you know, constructive criticism or anything. It

1:02:02

was just kind of minimal nothing. And I

1:02:04

was shooting a film in

1:02:06

Vancouver, and my little brother calls me up and said, oh, they're gonna fly me out Australia

1:02:08

to LA for this film four. And I was

1:02:10

like, what? And he was like, yeah. So when I

1:02:12

sent an audition on a tape and gone over,

1:02:16

I'm like, Oh, that's awesome, man. Congrats. Wow. What do you

1:02:18

know? And then the trades, I

1:02:20

think, variety or deadline come out and had, like,

1:02:22

the six final guys before and Liam

1:02:24

was one of

1:02:26

those people. And I was with y'all Sweden

1:02:28

and drew Godard on the cabin in the

1:02:30

woods. And their both said, what the hell is going on

1:02:32

here? Was this your brother? And I go, yeah. And he goes, why are

1:02:34

you in

1:02:36

the mix? Heave me four, and I was like, no. No. No. No. I didn't get a callback

1:02:38

sound. None of them ended up getting

1:02:40

it. They reopened the casting. And I

1:02:42

got a chance to do an

1:02:44

audition and I sent in

1:02:46

a tape, and I was called

1:02:48

back in to meet with Ken Brenner and with the

1:02:50

audition. And I just had a very different attitude about it. I

1:02:52

didn't put anyone at a pedal store like it did

1:02:54

the first time I had, like,

1:02:56

little children to shut off. Yeah. That my

1:02:58

brother had got there and I hadn't. And I was

1:03:00

good motivation and is about

1:03:02

perspective, you know. And then I was able to walk in that

1:03:04

room and give the

1:03:06

best version of whatever I had to offer as

1:03:08

opposed to people pleasing

1:03:10

and going and going. Is this what you want or is it

1:03:12

this this way? And then there's nothing there's

1:03:14

a lack of strength there, I think. They needed the character

1:03:16

to be assertive, and so I had

1:03:18

a

1:03:18

lot more sort of presence in that

1:03:20

space than I did the first time around.

1:03:22

And then then got the part. How long does an

1:03:24

audition take?

1:03:25

Usually, you have a few days to learn

1:03:27

it sometimes, they call you at lunch

1:03:29

time and they say, coming

1:03:31

this afternoon and raid. But when you're

1:03:33

actually there in front of them, again, depending

1:03:35

on how well, low, bad it goes, it

1:03:37

could be five minutes. Give me two

1:03:39

minutes. It could be an hour. I've had, like,

1:03:42

people answer the phone midway through my

1:03:44

audition when I first got the town. They'd just be like,

1:03:46

yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And

1:03:48

I'm like, I'm supposed to be still going and just like, yep, that's great. Thank

1:03:50

you very much. We'll call you. Oh,

1:03:52

yeah. It's good. Brutal. Even enough of them,

1:03:54

and it's either become numb to

1:03:56

it or destroys you.

1:03:58

How'd you hear about Rush? So

1:04:00

Ron Howard was making the film

1:04:02

didn't know anything about Formula One because you didn't know me. didn't know you. And my

1:04:05

agent had called me and said, oh, you

1:04:07

should do an audition. And Ron

1:04:09

said, oh, look, I've seen Ford,

1:04:12

he's great, but he's not right for the character, you

1:04:14

know. He won't fit in the formula one

1:04:16

car. I said, well, I'm not that size, and he

1:04:18

said, yeah, it's okay. And I said, I'm doing an

1:04:20

audition. And I watched an interview at James Hunt,

1:04:22

and my hair was kind of long enough so I could kind

1:04:24

of star exactly how his

1:04:26

was and and I had, you know, I've

1:04:28

been practicing the accent, did an audition, and he saw it, and

1:04:30

went, oh, kinda cool. And he already

1:04:31

picked Daniel for

1:04:34

Nikki. Think

1:04:34

he had. Yeah. I mean, you know my feelings on that film. Yeah. Like,

1:04:36

if you were getting a dollar for every

1:04:39

time that film got watched by

1:04:42

me, I you'd be even more

1:04:44

wealthy. I'm so thankful.

1:04:47

It's such a good movie. You would

1:04:49

know better than I do at this point. I haven't

1:04:51

seen it since the premiere. Are

1:04:53

you kidding me? It's hard to watch yourself, you know? So you

1:04:54

don't take your kids to Thor and Or they

1:04:56

don't watch it around the house. I know you're taking to the premier,

1:04:58

but No. It's taken to

1:05:01

a kilowatt. That was the first premiere I've talking to, but

1:05:03

I'll watch it once or twice. Or if

1:05:05

I'm producing it, then I'm, you know, stick through it

1:05:07

a bit more. But and

1:05:09

it should be uncomfortable, I think. This is something

1:05:11

now specific about enjoying it too much. So

1:05:13

if we're sitting here in

1:05:15

five years and your

1:05:17

life is better than it is today, especially in

1:05:19

accordance with the final episode of limitless.

1:05:22

Meaning, you're

1:05:24

running less The balance

1:05:26

between purpose and fear is

1:05:28

more in favor of purpose than

1:05:30

fear. You feel

1:05:30

more connected to your kids,

1:05:34

your family, what

1:05:34

has to be true? What are you doing?

1:05:35

This is another thing that came up in the

1:05:37

episode. I just want to sort of clarify. I

1:05:39

don't feel like I've been

1:05:40

doing anything wrong as much as

1:05:44

I've just been in

1:05:44

the storm of it. You know? I have a beautiful relationship with

1:05:46

my kids and my wife and my family. And

1:05:48

I'll be there with them, but

1:05:52

my brain has pulled in a million other places. And so

1:05:54

for for things to be even better,

1:05:56

would just be about is

1:05:59

it just about a state of mind? Or does it

1:06:01

mean it's both? Because in the episode,

1:06:03

I was talking about this

1:06:05

and I said, I was being asked to imagine

1:06:07

what my death would look like. And if this was

1:06:10

my final moment, who would have around me?

1:06:12

Where would

1:06:14

I be? And I realized it's in a living room with my

1:06:16

family and friends, and that's every other

1:06:18

weekend. You know, I have

1:06:20

it. So it was as

1:06:22

much a moment of it's already

1:06:24

right here in front of you, change your

1:06:26

attitude, and also, in

1:06:28

addition to that, was okay, I wanna do

1:06:30

this even more now and I have an opportunity

1:06:32

to do that because I'm

1:06:34

not in the

1:06:34

fight or the sprint anymore. So

1:06:36

it would be to be more curated with my choices and have

1:06:39

more time pre and post the film

1:06:41

to prepare and decompress.

1:06:45

As opposed to just pulling one off the other.

1:06:47

Does that mean more directing, shifting the

1:06:49

balance a little bit? I think it's

1:06:51

who the directors are. Working with people that are at the top

1:06:53

of their game and I've been so lucky to work with

1:06:55

some wonderful people. Just work with George

1:06:57

Miller and to continue to work with

1:06:59

individuals like that

1:07:02

where I'm learning from them. It's a collaboration, but

1:07:04

they're at the helm. They're still in the ship.

1:07:06

I don't have to feel like I gotta police

1:07:08

anyone else there, you know.

1:07:10

Is the dream. And then you're inspired by those people doing it for the

1:07:12

right reasons. It's from an artistic space and

1:07:15

an expression as

1:07:16

opposed

1:07:18

to a

1:07:18

financial one. That's a good payday. Scripps sucks, but I get paid well,

1:07:21

you know. So I've done a few times,

1:07:23

you know. And so

1:07:26

Yeah. To be more curated in my choices and have more

1:07:28

stillness and more calm in this side. Chris,

1:07:30

you know, I think about the last three years

1:07:32

and I think about when we started this

1:07:35

thing and January. For me, one of the most unexpected

1:07:37

joys of this, I really only did this because

1:07:39

of Darren, you know Darren and I were Warren

1:07:42

remained so good friends and

1:07:44

the chance to do something fun like this with

1:07:46

him was the motivation. But I

1:07:48

think a very pleasant surprise for me has been

1:07:50

meeting you and meeting all the people

1:07:52

around you. And

1:07:52

it gives me great comfort as now someone who's become a close friend

1:07:54

of yours to know that you are

1:07:56

surrounded by these amazing people. Like

1:07:59

Ben and Aaron and Zac and your family and your

1:08:02

parents and your brothers. I mean, you are

1:08:04

rich, Chris. You are rich

1:08:06

in people. And I suspect that's

1:08:08

actually probably your greatest asset. So

1:08:10

it's been a real privilege to be a part of that.

1:08:12

Well, well, it's been wonderful getting to

1:08:14

know you too, mate. It's been the biggest joys. The people

1:08:16

I've met with this

1:08:18

experience and the knowledge one thing with the friendships, the most important. So thank you, buddy. Yeah, man. Thanks for so much. I don't

1:08:23

want it. Yeah. Thank you

1:08:25

for listening to this week's episode of The Drive. If you're interested in diving deeper into any topics we discuss,

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1:10:28

take conflicts

1:10:32

of interest very seriously. For all of

1:10:34

my disclosures in the companies I invest in or advise, please visit

1:10:36

peteratea m d dot

1:10:39

com forward slash about where

1:10:42

I keep an up to date and active list

1:10:45

of

1:10:48

such companies.

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