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How you doing out there. It's
me Tiggert, I am Duc Wayne Duck.

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It's me Bunkers Deep Bobcat. All
right, y'all. Did it great?

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Your favorite firefly you desire hold the
old knock guy. My name is

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Jim Cummings and welcome to tuned In. Welcome to tuned In with Jim Cummings.

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Today we have Monu Bennett. You
know him from Sparta Kiss. You

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know him as Slade Wilson aka death
Stroke and Arrow. Thank you so much

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for joining us. Yeah, my
pleasure, brother, my pleasure. Here

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we are Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay, Florida. Yes, and there's the

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proof. There's the bay in the
background. It's so it's shiny right now.

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It was writing five minutes ago.
Yeah, that's how you know you're

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in the bay. We're almost struck
by lightning last night. Oh wow,

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it's an exciting so keep you on
your toes. Wow electrifying. Well it's

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great. Thank you very much number
one for being here. I appreciate it.

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I appreciate it. Please. I
mean, you look like a superhero

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or a super villain. So it's
a it's a beautiful thing, right,

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Yeah, you look I mean,
you know I'm I'm probably known for playing

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quite dramatic characters, you know,
which you know from an acting perspectives.

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Really, you know, it's a
gift, you know, it's a great

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It's a gift to get these these
characters that you know, they they they

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sort of support the main character,
you know, Like I first acted as

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Crixus and the series Spartacus, and
you know, basically you're acting next to

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a great legend. You know,
you know that name itself, you know,

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first first made famous in the film
with with Kirk Douglas. You know,

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I mean you know you mentioned the
word Spartacus and you and you you

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have this idea of this fight for
freedom, you know. Oh, and

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so to play Crixus, who initially
is his nemesis, you know, you

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have to color all of this,
I guess character with this. I remember

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my producer walked up to me and
he said, man, what are you

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doing? You know what do you
know the audience hates you. We're getting

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letters to to to kill you off, you know. And I said perfect,

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I said, you know, this
is this is you know what set

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that seed was when I was when
I was young and in high school.

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You know, I mean, we
all we all go through life, you

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know, knowing or thinking we have
enemies, you know, and the enemy

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is built out of somebody who sees
the world differently than the way we do.

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You know, you meet somebody and
you try to align yourself to them

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in some kind of like you know, common you know, rationale, and

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and if it doesn't work the right
way, you're like, oh, I

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don't really get along with that person, do you know. And so when

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I was at high school, you
know, there was this one guy who

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had like a mullet haircut, right, I don't like him already? Well

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oh yeah, you know, you
know, so you had a mullet haircut,

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and like I wore gel in my
head, you know, and had

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like a flat top or something trendy, you know. And and uh,

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you know my my I had a
beautiful mother and my dad was a musician,

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and you know, life was pretty
easy for me, you know.

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I mean, you know, you
see these I say, these American high

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school stories, and it's the it's
the jocket's the you know, it's the

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good looking guy, a guy in
the middle whatever, and then and then

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and then along comes that guy.
You know, there's even one on the

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Simpsons you know, the guy comes
in and he's like and and and there's

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this image of this person, this
type of person is being kind of like

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the bad guy, the bully,
the whatever like this. So there was

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a guy that was just iconically that
that person. And uh and I really

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didn't think much of him, you
know, and he would he would look

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at me and go, what's with
the haircut? You know? You know

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I did break dancing and he called
me like, he called me a rap

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sack, he got a rap you
know. Anyway, it was just I

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mean that that's not as dramatic as
it got, but but it got dramatic.

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And then any case, I unfortunately
end up in a car accident.

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One night, I went to my
dad's work and my mom came along with

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we've just actually been to a play
and mom and I went to my dad's

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workplace and we got into this vehicle, drove around the corner and we got

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hit by a calm. Then my
mother was killed, you know, I

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was. I was thrown out the
window. And you know, they they

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people talk about my scar that's on
my face, you know, and usually

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like somebody today when I was here
a signing, you know, walked up

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and said, oh, you do
have a scar on your face. You

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know, she thought it was something
that was added for spartacles and in any

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case, So so I wake up
in the hospital, like you know,

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a few days later, I was
I was thrown out of the vehicle.

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So I was on I was in
a coma for like for three But when

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I woke up in the hospital,
my worst enemy, this guy's mattsis Lee

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standing at my bedside, right,
you see the scars in my eye was

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closed. I'm thinking, like,
what am I in? Hell? Yeah,

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yeah, just exactly who we expected. Anyway, put his hand on

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my shoulder and and you know,
I don't remember exactly what we what we

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what we spoke about. But then
I found out that when he was young

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he lost his mother. Oh wow, right, so so we suddenly in

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this moment it was like lightning struck
and we were talking about Tampa. But

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but you know, it was like
all of a sudden, he and I

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were in the same predicament in life, and fright to that not not the

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same at all, you know,
And now I understood him, and he

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understood me, and and like I
was best man at his wedding, We've

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we stay in contact with me and
but just to get to the story.

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So so when I was that was
the story because that's not bad right there.

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Well, when I was asked to
play Crixus, okay, and I

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knew that I had to be the
nemesis, this Spartacus character, I just

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played the relationship that I had at
school, this guy really but I played

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it in the way that I saw
him, you know. I played it

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in a way that he was just
antagonistic and talking to me in a certain

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way that was you know, to
me, riled me up and everything like

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that. So when my producer said
to me, Manu, they hate you,

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I just went, it's perfect.
Good, It's perfect because I'm going

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to break their hearts. Yeah,
oh I'm going to I'm going to allow

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this story to keep on going like
like you know, build the acts to

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the audience and then break their hearts. O W you know. And that's

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one of the proudest Yeah, it
was wonderful. It's the proudest moment in

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my acting. You know. It
was really just to have gone through that

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whole series and I have known how
much we you know, some of my

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own experience allowed the movement of the
audience's emotions, you know, and like,

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you know, I get guys that
come to me who have been fighting

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in Afghanistan, for instance. You
know, one guy, one guy came

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to me recently in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, and he said, like he's

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in tears, he said, he
said, man, I got to tell

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you. You know, like I
came back from Afghanistan, and you know,

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we had a troop that we called
we caught ourselves the Crisis Unit,

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and when we went into battle,
we would say, I grow, I

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can't believe it. You know.
I listened to this and I try to

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realize how in this real situation where
having some sort of effect on them like

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that, and he goes, you
know, when I'd go to in the

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battle, our team would would go
with pretending that we were beating the shield,

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like when I tapped the shield for
Spartacus to begin the rebellion. You

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know, they were like, you
know, we used to do this with

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our guns. We'd tap our guns
and say shall we begin? You know,

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and I'm blown away, and I
was going, dude, listen,

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you know you guys the real deal. Yeah, yeah, no kidding.

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I go on to set and they
give me a sword and shield and like

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raw and whatever. But you know, you know, like I sit down

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and they bring me a cup of
coffee, right, yeah, you're not

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going to get that spoiled at all, you know, on the real battlefield.

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You know, you guys are the
real deal. Right, So I

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don't quite know how to relate.
But then I have to think to myself

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as an artist, you know,
what what have I done that has made

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this connection? Right? So,
you know I didn't explain the full story.

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My brother, My brother was killed
in the car accident, right wow,

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and he but he died and he
was in a comra as well,

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but he died later and he died
in my hands. And you know,

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as artists, you know, as
artists, we we you know, everybody

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brings a different part of themselves to
the to the screen. You know,

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I guess you call it. There's
a camera, right, It's like what

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do I do too to put something
in that little lens that then reaches people

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that then create something worth why?
You know? Absolutely, you know,

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you know, I mean it can
be anything from comedy to drama. You

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can be you know, there can
be lots of things. It can be

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historically, it can be in temporary
whatever. But you know, you have

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that moment in your career where you've
got to do something in a job.

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And but as an artist, you
know, you have this pallette of colors,

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and you know, so so when
I did Dug Deep in Spartacus,

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you know, I was really you
know, sharing myself, you know,

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sharing my experiences with the bully,
you know, sharing the experience of holding

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my brother when he passed, and
and and you know, there's there's there's

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the only thing that I can say
that that that that connects with these incredible

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military you know, soldiers that have
this bravery and all that sort of stuff,

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is that you know, in their
in their quietest, most scared personal

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moments. You know, maybe it's
the hope of Crixus being able to survive

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in the arena. You know,
maybe it's that scream of pain when you

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lose who's somebody you know they because
you know, you hit that note right,

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and it's a real note. You
know, it's the note that they

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have when they're in the battlefield and
somebody dies, right, you know,

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it's there, you know, you
know, it's like you know, I

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mean, three hundred years ago they
were writing about this sort of stuff on

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piano. You know, Ragmann and
Off Chopin and all these guys are doing

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it on piano, right, and
you know, these days we try to

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bring that essential artistic expression to camera, you know. You know, it's

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sort of it sort of began with
method acting, you know, being able

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to bring the real, the real
world into film, you know, rather

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than just entertainments, and it's getting
you know, it's slowly become more like

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that than The Batman. All of
a sudden, Batman changed. You know.

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Batman wasn't just this kind of like
Robin, let's go get the bad

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guy, you know, you know, it became what's he thinking about the

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Dark Knight? You especially especially the
latest one. They really went for tomes

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that were about the silence, about
the in betweens, you know, so

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so all of that stuff, you
know. You know, I think I've

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been able to procure, you know, within within a couple of really good

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characters, like like Grexist death Stroke. Yeah, well death Stroke is I

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mean, I'm familiar with him from
the comic books. And to bring something

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like that to life and make it
real to people. It's kind of like

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you I knew he was. I
knew he was, you know, and

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you you bring it to life.
Yeah, I'll I'll tell you a couple

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of funny stories about the Slade Wilson
death stroke. Right. So, Marv

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Wolfman was the artist who very the
very first iteration of what death stroke looks

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like on Teen Titans on the Teen
Titans comic book series, and the character

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was written by called Marv Wolfman.
Yes, so so I did a I

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did a convention in Ottawa and I
got to meet Marv Wolfman or somebody pointed

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him out. They said, oh, you know the character you're playing.

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And this is when I've just been
cast. So I just started the film

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Arrow and they went, that's the
guy who drew you for the very first

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time. So I went over to
him and I said, oh, George

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Perez. Sorry, his name was
George Perez and I walked over and I

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said, Hi, I'm My name's
Money Bennett. I'm playing death Stroke on

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the New Arrow series. And he
turned around. He went, you're playing

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death Stroke. You don't look anything
like you? Yeah, because a little

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look. Look, if you took
my hair color and your hair color,

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you'd start getting He's meant to be. He's meant to have gray, he's

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meant to have more gray, and
he's and he's meant to be a bit

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older. And he said, you're
not old enough and you're the wrong nationality.

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Dude, I was, I was
just from a comic book, right.

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This is the first guy that visualized
the characters telling me I don't look

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anything like death stroke, right,
So I was. I was like,

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I was a blast of confidence for
you. So I'm completely wrong. Thank

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you, Thank you very much.
I appreciate that. At the end of

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the at the end of the convention, I saw him leaving to get into

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a car, and I knew I
was staying at the same hotel, so

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I went to jump in the car
and I basically this, and I sat

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right next to me. I said, what do you mean, I don't

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look like anything like that? And
with anyone into sort of more like,

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you know, listen, you know, like he's meant to be an American

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soldier, you know, you know, I never saw him as being I

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think I had a bit of a
suntand going on at that stage, so

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I was a bit dark. And
he goes, yeah, I just I

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just don't really see you as the
character. So anyway, I couldn't I

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couldn't change his mind. He was. He was setting his said in his

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ways. So I just I did. I did a convention about I did

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another, can I did another.
It's great these conventions. You get to

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meet everybody, you know for all
different books of life and in any case.

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I met Marv Wolfman, who wrote
the character, a few months later,

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and and somebody said, oh,
that's the guy who wrote it.

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And I leapt over my table and
I ran after him, and I said,

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excuse me, because I was still
trying to I was still scarred from

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what from what George President told me. And I said, Marv Wolfman,

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you wrote the character, right,
And yeah, yeah, I said,

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I'm the guy playing it on TV. And he went, ah, you're

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doing a great job. And I
was I was like, oh, he

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said yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, And I said, George Perez said,

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I don't look anything like the character
is. No, no, no,

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no worry about it. You're doing
a fantastic job, you know,

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the way that I wrote him,
Like he's got so much gray matter.

219
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You know, it's like you can't
tell whether he's you know, good or

220
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bad. You know, he does
when he does things, he does things

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like you know, with a real
code, right, like he's just locked

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in the way that he believes,
you know, and then but you know,

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he's always trying to to sort of
find, you know, redemption,

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you know, beyond that. So
so you're you're playing it perfectly, he

225
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said to me, So oh wow, So I was perfect? Is good?

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That works? Yeah? I felt
good about him and about hearing there

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from him. And then about two
years later, I met both of them

228
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at New York Comic Con. Oh, and it's when they just announced that

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death Stroke was coming into the into
the film. I think the Batman film.

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They're going to do a film with
the guy who was playing Batman was

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from good Will Hunting Christ not from
Goodwill Hunting Ben Affleck, Ben afflecky oh

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that one. Ben Affleck was meant
to play Batman and Joe Manngerillo was going

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to play death Stroke. And so
they got paid a whole lot of money

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for the rights to make that film. And when I saw them, Marv

235
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said to me, oh, Man, thanks so much for for whatever think

236
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is. Now they go to the
film level and we're getting paid for the

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first time, the first time we're
getting money for death Stroke. So I

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looked at it. So I saw
George and I went there you go brother,

239
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and he was like, yeah,
yeah, you did look like yeah

240
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like me. Now, I'm not
trying to claim anything, you know,

241
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credit or anything like that, but
it's just funny how feel how he shut

242
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me down so hard? Yeah,
there is good for you. Yeah,

243
00:16:02,799 --> 00:16:07,399
touching on like vulnerability, you know, talking about being vulnerable on camera and

244
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you know, bringing you know,
those tragic stories of your past into your

245
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into your art and how like what's
your process, Like how comfortable are you

246
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with that to show the world that
you know, like you're literally showing like

247
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the most vulnerable parts of yourself for
these characters. Right, Well, I

248
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think that's the not outest job,
you know. I think it's our responsibility,

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you know. I mean, I
mean, you know, I'm not

250
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not everybody takes it in that stride, you know, like not everybody should

251
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be expected to either, because you
know, I would hope that for anybody,

252
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especially young people, that they wouldn't
have to go through any pain or

253
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suffware, you know. But but
you know, when when you're bringing sort

254
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of consequence to two characters that have
been through that experience, you know,

255
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like the struggles of a I mean
people people usually joke with me and they

256
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say what was it like being naked
on you know, how could you do

257
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that stuff on Spartacus? You know, like you know you've been it before.

258
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I think I just figured, well, we're all born naked. Brother,

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there's a very you know, there's
a you have a whole debate about

260
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I'm Polynesian as well, so you
know, we used to walk around the

261
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Polynesian islands, you know, on
the sun. You know the sound of

262
00:17:12,079 --> 00:17:18,680
waves and you know, no cacophony
of traffic, and you know the constraints

263
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of economics and all this stuff.
You know, yeah, you know.

264
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So so I have another part of
me that thinks in a different way.

265
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But but you know, taking on
that responsibility of being a slave, you

266
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know, you've got this. You
have to realize that, you know,

267
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we didn't have a choice. You
know, there was there was there was

268
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moments of of being a slave.
We don't have anything, you know,

269
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and that's accentuated when you're told to
take off your clothes so we can show

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you to the Roman elite, you
know, standing there, you know you

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just you know, so, so
there's you know, a lot a lot

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of you know, I mean,
there's so many layers in acting that that

273
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you know, you can choose.
Yeah, you know, some things based

274
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upon the moral opinion. Like recently, I actually I can't really go into

275
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that discussion because of the fact that
it's not being made yet. But I

276
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was asked to do a project,
and there's something that's really made me scared

277
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to do this project. And then
I think to myself, like, well,

278
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as an artist, who am I
representing only myself? You know how

279
00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:26,839
many times have I sort of done, you know, what I felt thought

280
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was responsible for the character. You
know, at what margin do I say,

281
00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:36,119
well, I'm not representing that group
because it's not me. Yeah,

282
00:18:36,160 --> 00:18:38,720
yeah, yeah, you know,
because acting is acting, right, it

283
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is, and everybody deserves representation.
You know. It's one of those one

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of those things that's becoming a sticking
point in society today, you know,

285
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like like you know, like where
are the borderlines in the boundaries of society

286
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in terms of you know, what
you represent, whether it be sexuality,

287
00:18:56,160 --> 00:19:00,480
race, whatever, you know,
it's a political, political opinionation, whatever.

288
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It's a very interesting time for that. Actually, you know, I

289
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would I would hope that in the
future of my acting, which is immediate,

290
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:14,160
you know that that there's a lot
more challenging material that brings to the

291
00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:18,079
forefront these conversations, you know,
And that's one of the things that I've

292
00:19:18,079 --> 00:19:22,240
been offered recently where I'm going like, it's not me, but but you

293
00:19:22,279 --> 00:19:25,200
know, is it worth doing just
to really sort of represent you know,

294
00:19:26,599 --> 00:19:30,799
yeah, that group, which which
which you know I support? You know,

295
00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:33,319
you know, I don't know,
but I don't. At the same

296
00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:37,160
time, I'm not opposed or in
any way, you know, you know,

297
00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:41,160
it's I understand. You know.
Notice how he can't quite tell us

298
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:45,400
the Yeah, that's there's the rub, isn't it. But yeah, yeah,

299
00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:48,960
I pop up into something unexpected.
Yeah, yeah, I've dropped.

300
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,440
The seed of my mind is reeling. I'm going down the list. Let's

301
00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:56,720
see, he's playing a milkman.
No, that's not a shoe salesman.

302
00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:03,279
No, that's amazing. Just bouncing
off you on the subject of vulnerability,

303
00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:06,680
Jim, what's like, what's one
of the most vulnerable moments or characters that

304
00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:10,240
you've had in your career? Well, that is actually an easy one.

305
00:20:10,279 --> 00:20:15,079
That was Princess and the Frog.
You know, I do animation, I

306
00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:18,160
do animation voices. I'm Winnie the
Pooh and Tigger and dark Winged Duck.

307
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:22,960
And but I've done my fair share
of movies animated, obviously, except for

308
00:20:23,039 --> 00:20:32,039
Christopher Robins. But I've never had
to die on camera. But and the

309
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:37,799
Princess and the Frog. I played
the firefly Ray and he was a little

310
00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:42,039
kijun firefly from Downdown to Bayou Down, Louisiana. Yeah, And it turns

311
00:20:42,079 --> 00:20:48,200
out the bad guy, Keith David, he stepped on me. He was

312
00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:56,279
the voodoo voodoo doctor and uh,
and he whacked me, and I fell

313
00:20:56,319 --> 00:21:02,000
down to the ground and he stepped
on me to kill me. Because and

314
00:21:02,039 --> 00:21:07,400
you heard it crunch, and and
you know at that point, uh,

315
00:21:07,599 --> 00:21:11,400
you know, the Prince, Navine
and Tiana they came over and found me

316
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:17,279
and and and I died in their
arms. And it was really really hard

317
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:21,000
to die, you know. Uh. And and you only get to use

318
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:26,400
your voice, and we only did
one take and and uh and and I

319
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:30,319
could see he was in love with
the North Star, thinking that it was

320
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:33,400
he was nearsighted, he couldn't see
very well, and he thought it was

321
00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:37,640
his girlfriend, Evangeline, that he
was waiting to meet his whole life.

322
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:41,680
And so he goes, Evangeline,
I'm coming to you, baby, I'm

323
00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:47,640
coming and and then and then he
died, and and I thought, oh

324
00:21:47,799 --> 00:21:52,480
god, this is really hard.
I was like, yeah yeah, And

325
00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:56,319
I looked up and everybody was crying. So I said, oh, okay,

326
00:21:56,359 --> 00:22:00,839
I got it. Yeah they were
crying. Oh wow, that made

327
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:11,599
them cry. So it tears me
up thinking about it. Yeah. Yeah,

328
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:17,440
I was very proud of it,
very proud of that. Well awesome,

329
00:22:17,759 --> 00:22:21,400
Well yeah, can you can you
do you want to promote anything or

330
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:22,960
would you rather stay away from that? We're coming up next. Where can

331
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,599
people see you? Yeah? Yeah, not really not. I think I've

332
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,880
sort of put that in a bit
of a nutshell the way that I said,

333
00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:33,759
you know, like like the present
scenario, I'd love to be challenged,

334
00:22:33,799 --> 00:22:34,599
you know, I'd love to be
challenged, and I love society to

335
00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:37,440
be challenged more in film and television. You know, maybe years ago a

336
00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:42,319
movie called Crash, you know,
one Academy Award for Best Script, and

337
00:22:42,359 --> 00:22:47,839
it was like it was just incredibly
enlightening. You know, that was back

338
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:51,440
in the early two thousands, you
know, yeah, and I just thought,

339
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:55,039
wow, you know films like that, you know, yeah, you

340
00:22:55,079 --> 00:22:59,680
know, they've got a great you
know, a great medicine to them.

341
00:22:59,759 --> 00:23:03,480
You know, I recently was in
Greece and I went to a place called

342
00:23:03,559 --> 00:23:08,039
Peterevros, which is the very first
anti theater that was built by the the

343
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:12,839
Esclepios people. The Sclepios. A
sclepios is the two snakes. That's the

344
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:19,920
symbol of the Lepios. So they're
ancient medicine people, but modern day medicine,

345
00:23:21,319 --> 00:23:23,160
medicine. Yeah, youah, the
two snakes on the staff. So

346
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:26,519
so they built the very first antitheater, you know. And then and then

347
00:23:26,519 --> 00:23:30,960
the Romans copied them by building the
colosseum that was they built it in the

348
00:23:32,039 --> 00:23:36,240
round. They had different plays there, well exactly. And this is a

349
00:23:36,319 --> 00:23:40,599
very this is a very very interesting, challenging sort of topic, you know,

350
00:23:40,759 --> 00:23:45,319
in that these medicine people built the
first anti theater with perfect, perfect

351
00:23:45,319 --> 00:23:52,319
acoustics because they believe that the human
communication, the human signal in itself,

352
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:59,279
it was a form of medicine,
right and oh yeah, and so you

353
00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:03,079
know that all of that pretext that
we've spoken about in this interview, right,

354
00:24:03,839 --> 00:24:07,519
that's medicine. These guys that come
from Afghanistan, you know, any

355
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:08,880
you know, anybody who comes up
and says, oh, you know,

356
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:14,200
we fell in love with your story
with Navy or you know Slade Wilson,

357
00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:15,440
you know, like, oh,
you know you were so bad, but

358
00:24:15,519 --> 00:24:18,279
he's so good. We get us
because you know, they're not struggling with

359
00:24:18,319 --> 00:24:22,559
somebody in their family or someone they
know is going in and out of you

360
00:24:22,599 --> 00:24:25,000
know. I mean, we love, we naturally love as human beings,

361
00:24:25,039 --> 00:24:26,960
and then again we can get to
get to hate. But there's there's kind

362
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:33,279
of like all this kind of like
gray matter, and you know, so

363
00:24:33,279 --> 00:24:37,960
so you know, movies like Crash
were you know, which which basically,

364
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,400
you know, for people watching that
never saw it was about how you can

365
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:47,680
disseminate Los Angeles into multiple racial groups
and that all of it collides at some

366
00:24:47,799 --> 00:24:51,519
point and everybody's really just sort of
living for the same kind of ration that

367
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:56,680
family for you, living for an
earning for whatever, for acceptance, whatever,

368
00:24:56,039 --> 00:25:00,400
living with authority as a police officer
like what was his name, I

369
00:25:00,599 --> 00:25:04,680
remember, but he played the police
officer with authority. And then there were

370
00:25:06,039 --> 00:25:07,519
you know, there was a Matt
Dylan, Matt Dylon. Yeah, and

371
00:25:07,519 --> 00:25:11,200
then you had an immigrant family that
were constantly trying to you know, like

372
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:15,960
the Indian guy on South Park or
the Simpsons, you know, who's kind

373
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:19,720
of it's a little comedy and stuff
like this. But they're not a joke.

374
00:25:19,799 --> 00:25:22,359
Indian people not a joke. You
know, they shouldn't be a joke.

375
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:26,480
You know, nobody, you know, Irish people, you know.

376
00:25:26,839 --> 00:25:29,559
I mean, it's it's funny to
laugh at it, and I'm not I'm

377
00:25:29,599 --> 00:25:32,519
really sort of not into all this
PC. You know, you can't mention

378
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:36,279
anything, but but you know,
like like where're coming from, no,

379
00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:41,319
yeah, as as a ball of
human potential. Yeah, and you can't

380
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:45,880
just be sitting around waiting to be
offended, you know. But because there's

381
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,279
a little of that politically correct nowadays, and I don't have a head for

382
00:25:48,319 --> 00:25:51,920
it. Actually, it's yeah,
a lot of people are okay, yeah,

383
00:25:52,039 --> 00:25:53,640
they're looking for a way to be
offended. Okay, well that's it

384
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:57,279
now Now I'm now, I'm protesting. Now, I'm this, I'm that.

385
00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,640
You know, it's like, calm
down, and it's going to be

386
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:03,799
fine. It'll all come out in
the wash, you know. And especially

387
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:07,480
humor. You know, humor is
a great equalizer. H you know,

388
00:26:07,519 --> 00:26:11,720
if you're going to you can,
if you can you know, that can

389
00:26:11,759 --> 00:26:15,480
be kept open. But you know, yeah, yeah, it's just you

390
00:26:15,519 --> 00:26:21,279
know, I I don't know.
I I have this epiphany in Greece that

391
00:26:21,279 --> 00:26:25,160
that that you know, what what
we do is is you know, because

392
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:27,319
you know now the couch at home, is that antitheater you know in your

393
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:32,759
Dolby Sounds surround system, is that
perfect acoustics that they've built for that antitheater

394
00:26:32,839 --> 00:26:34,799
and a Peter Ross and and you
know, so whatever we are doing,

395
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:38,839
you know, it's it's it's definitely
tonic for people at home, whether it

396
00:26:38,839 --> 00:26:42,920
makes them laugh, whether it makes
them cry, whether it makes them kind

397
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:48,000
of live all these roller coaster rides
of characters played. So so you know,

398
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:52,559
yeah, yeah, yeah, I
don't know. I just looking for

399
00:26:52,599 --> 00:26:57,240
looking for new projects that that that
that I have dialogue about where we are

400
00:26:57,279 --> 00:27:00,559
now because we're in a very address
time. You know, I agree with

401
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:04,920
all this everything, you know.
So yeah, we've had discussions about this

402
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:08,400
on this podcast. You know.
Yeah, it's fascinating. Yeah, bring

403
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,480
on the challenge, man, Yeah, bring it on, you know yeah

404
00:27:11,559 --> 00:27:17,400
yea yeah, but curious to see
where it all ends up. Yeah.

405
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:18,519
Well, I know you guys have
had a long day and I know your

406
00:27:18,599 --> 00:27:22,799
kids. Yeah, I'm the last
interview by the way, who was watching

407
00:27:22,839 --> 00:27:27,279
this. We just did three day
convention and tamp these guys my kids,

408
00:27:27,279 --> 00:27:30,400
and I was just a better walk
out, and you guys came and grabbed

409
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:33,079
me. You want to do an
interview and I was like, oh yeah,

410
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:38,559
yeah, well thanks for yeah,
yeah but giving it the old try

411
00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:42,640
here. Beautiful job. Thank you. Yeah yeah yeah, well I was

412
00:27:42,799 --> 00:27:48,000
something meaningful, you know, absolutely
that was absolutely very thank you for being

413
00:27:48,039 --> 00:27:52,599
vulnerable. Appreciate watching. Yeah,
I'm still looking up at that northern stuff

414
00:27:52,759 --> 00:28:02,839
going coming to It's like, yeah, fantastic, alright, yeah cool being

415
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,039
Yeah, yeah, thanks guys,
all right, yeah, thank you man.

416
00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:10,640
H m hmm
