Brian Townes: From New Orleans to Brazil

Hi, I'm Brian Towns. I'm an American actor and voiceover artist who these days lives in Brazil. However, I'm originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, and that's why I am on NOLA Film Scene.

Welcome to NOLA. Film Scene with TJ and Plato. I'm TJ and, as always, I'm Plato. So, guys, how?

is the weather in New Orleans.

Temps are coming up. We had that nice crisp 60s degrees of weathers for about a week in the beginning of this month. Brian, my friend, how are you? It's been decades since we've talked.

It has. Indeed, it has. Indeed. Man, Brian Plato and I grew up about what? Probably six or eight blocks apart, and that's it. And since then there's been a whole lot of road. Man, I am doing good, I am doing good.

So I mean there's a lot to unpack with your career. Can you tell us how you ended up in Brazil, sure?

Yeah, I mean, I'll give you the whole trajectory. So I grew up in Metairie, like I said, about six or eight blocks from Bryan. So I grew up in Metairie, like I said, about six or eight blocks from Bryan. I was probably first introduced to theater there. Actually, we used to go to La Petite down in the French Quarter Is that still there, even the little children's theater, la Petite Theater? Yes, it is, yeah, but it was just something we did.

And then, when I was 11 or 12, we moved to Shreveport and in Shreveport I did some. That's the first time I started doing a little children's theater, a little community theater. I started doing plays in school and so by the time high school ended I said, man, I really like this, this is what I want to do, you know, in general, the acting thing. And then I went to college, I got a bachelor's in theater. I got a bachelor's in theater, I got a master's and I was fortunate during those times to be able to kind of work and see some other things and I was sort of introduced to film around 19 or 20. And then when I finished my master's degree, I did what every actor without a plan does and I moved to New York. That's 50 percent of the actors, the other ones go to LA. But I moved to New York and in New York I did a bunch of theater and I really started working. There are lots of shows that filmed in New York that I'm sure there still are. At the time it was Gossip Girl. You know, you have your little walk-ons and your this and that, and then a soap opera every once in a while and I ended up doing a lot of behind the scenes work there too, a lot of production work kind of the cool story. I stumbled into a job as a field producer at Saturday night live. So the last four or five years that I was in New York I was working every week at Saturday night live.

Uh, and then during the time that I was there, man, I actually met an actress doing a play who was a Brazilian and we started dating and we got married. And then about a year and a half later she was like hey, let's have kids. And I was like okay, and then we kind of yeah, and the thing is we just kind of came to the conclusion we're both doing really well in Manhattan. It was nice, but Manhattan is a kind of expensive place to live. And we just decided between us like, look, if we have kids here, we're going to end up working more, spending all our time to work to kids here we're going to end up working more, spending all our time to work to make money to pay somebody else to raise our kids. And so where do we want to go? And she suggested hey, how about we move to Brazil? My family's all together down there, it'd be great to have that sort of for the first couple of years.

And so we moved to Brazil for the first couple of years, and that was 14 and a half years ago. But the cool thing is now I can be a gringo in Portuguese 14 and a half years ago, but the cool thing is now I can be a gringo in Portuguese, or I can be a gringo in English, and it's actually allowed a lot of opportunities to do some really big productions. We were talking about a film I did called Bacurau before we started the podcast here, and that one actually went to the Cannes Film Festival and won the jury prize the year that we went. So, man, you know I came. You know I was in New York slogging away doing you know basement theater and the occasional walk on on a show, and suddenly I moved to another country.

It's like, hey man, I'm at the Cannes Festival, you know, like walking on the red carpet, so yeah, funny way of working to work it out. So that's, that's kind of how it's been since then. Um, I've been able to make a full-time living as an actor, you know, and, as you guys said, it's it's. It's a little bit of everything. It's a little bit of screenwriting, it's a little bit of acting, it's a little bit it's a lot of voice work. You know there are lots of businesses down here that you know like, hey man, we need to. You know we have this version of a commercial but we need the voiceover in English, you know, for the international market or institutional stuff. So between it all, it's all kind of worked out in a cool sort of way.

I like to think I've got a good ear for different accents and I can. I'm pretty good at narrowing down roughly where somebody is from. Brazilians when they hear you speak Portuguese, can they tell that you're an American speaking Portuguese, or can they just, or do they just hear that you're? You know they can tell you're foreign, but not really sure from where.

Yeah, generally it's you're from somewhere else, but I'm not sure where. I mean you know, from the, from the look of me, they get like. Sometimes it's like oh, are you, are you british? I occasionally get like are you french? But yeah, the, the, uh. One of the big differences with uh portuguese is the is the r's are typically a little softer, like in most, in most things. So the stereotypical american we, we use r's in words. So the stereotypical american American speaking Portuguese basically sounds like he's speaking English and he's just saying Portuguese words, which kind of works in your favor, because sometimes it's like I've played a German before. You know why? Ah, because he talks funny. Okay, cool, good enough, he talks funny. He's not Brazilian, he's a German, great Done man.

I got to tell you guys, I really, I really have to compliment you, man. It's, it's very. I follow you on social media, of course, and and, man, I love, I love the way that you do this thing. There's a certain honesty to it. You know what I mean, because there's a whole thing of like selling yourself as an actor, and I don't buy into a lot of the cliches. We can, we can talk about that. I'd like to, but uh, but there is a thing about you know, the sort of social media is a sort of curated version of your life and how you sell yourself.

And then you know, in terms of actors, like the way to get a job is to have a job. So you sort of always want to show that you're working. You always want to, you know, you always want it to look like you're just like in the middle of the coolest production ever. And I just love the way that you guys are so like open about hey, man, this is what we're doing right now. You know, and you don't give it a second thought about like like, oh man, well, it's a student film. I don't know if that's really high profile enough. Let's, let's just post about it but then not say what it is.

No, I mean just putting it all out there, because that enthusiasm is translates into integrity. You know, I really that's something that people look and go, hey, you know what. I want to work with these guys because they like doing it and it's cool and they're into it and they're about it. And that's exactly the kind of story that you hear for people that then suddenly blow up and start making money and so because, man, they're not worried about that. They're not worried about how they're perceived by the industry. It's just like hey, we like to make in films. So you know, if somebody dropped a million, you know $5 billion budget in our lap, we went and made a film. But also, if we had 36 bucks and we didn't have anything to do for the weekend, we went and made a film too.

You know and it's really great, man. So I I gotta say just getting into the whole thing, creating that, this podcast, which you know is just a way for like hey, man, anybody who's doing this let's get on and talk about it. You know, because there's so many variations to this and so much gray area and so much, you know, it's just really cool. I really have to compliment you guys. It's really great to watch this trajectory thank you, you I appreciate you saying that.

Thank you very much. The check will be in the mail and that's all our time, folks.

I need it because US dollars, man, those are good. There you go.

This episode brought to you by Brian Towns. There you go, oh wait Compliments.

So, yeah, I fell into this a few years ago, started background and then, after some experiences, started taking acting classes and just keep moving. But it feels like, as I find myself in this and it fills me up, that radiates out. You know what I mean. Yeah, and people are drawn to that and I get a lot of compliments and I get'm afraid somebody goes. I get to work with the legend on this. I was like what? No, but it was nice for them to say that. Sure, so I, I think I, I appreciate what you said and I I've always been like that, whether it was comic cons or you know I'm doing, I love Disney and I just share my stuff. I don't, I, I don't curate my Instagram, except for trying to make the picture right.

Yeah, I think, man, and I think it's a really important thing, because one of the things I mean, on the rare occasion that somebody says, what would you tell people who are just starting in this business, or something like that, I always like to say like nobody, myself included, can tell you how to succeed in this business. You know, and, and the reason, what I mean by that is just the fact that, first of all, there are so many definitions of success, no-transcript. Oh, I'll make a lot of money and I'll get some awards, you know, and I'll spend a lot of time. You know, it's like man. You know, for me, honestly, I like playing make-believe and that's what I've always since I was a kid. I liked to run it around playing make-believe, you know, and this is a job where I get to play make-believe. Now, there's a whole lot to this job, that's. That's not necessarily my strong suit. You know, I don't like putting my face in front of people and and and advocating for myself to get parts, and you know what I mean and, and I mean that in a very passive way, I'm not into the whole aggressive Hollywood machine. You got to get your, you know.

No, I mean, I think that that's the other part of no one can tell you how to succeed is because there are lots of people out there who have the formula and the answer and I'm not saying it wasn't true for them or it hasn't been true in their experience, but you know anybody who tells you oh you know, first you got to, you know you should be doing a year of background work and then you should get your two co-stars and then you get your guest star and after six months you should be this and, man, it just for, in my experience and for most of the people I've known, it doesn't work that way. You know, and anytime somebody lays down one of those rules, if you go and do just a little bit of homework, you're going to find somebody who not only didn't do that, they did the opposite, and they were super successful. You know they achieved whatever they wanted. So, man, you kind of have to. It doesn't mean be arrogant, it means listen to everybody, but do what works for you.

And so to your point, man, if this fills you up and makes you feel good, you know, and you're having fun doing it and it's it's making results, you know, like, like, you're getting things done, man, go with that, go with where that takes you. You know I've known too many people who, ah, but I've know I I been out here for, you know, five years and I haven't gotten a a this type of role or that type of I'm not a series regular yet. It's like, well, you might not be, and then next year you'll book seven series and three Oscar winning films and then in 10 years nobody will know your name. You know the question is are you having fun? You know, is it how you want to spend your time?

you know, is it how you want to spend your time? Yeah, that's a great, that's a great point. You've got to love this, to handle the rejection and it's not always rejection, it's just not an acceptance. You know, exactly, I had, yeah, one I just for this commercial, and I was rushed, you know, I was actually on set in between, so I knocked it out, did my, but I didn't get to worry about it, right, and I even kind of went no, this kind of screw it, and I booked.

You know, and there are days when you're self-tapping and you I'm going to craft that a few more times, and then you go okay, that's enough. Oh wait, that's not it. You know what I mean. There is no one set rule to do an audition, to get an agent to book something, how your look is supposed to go. You know they say don't play with props in an audition. One day you go I'm going to do it, you do it, you don't let it overpower the thing. And you book, you do it and you did it too long and you don't book, or it's this cat, it's.

There's no rule, it's just go with it and have fun and I I think that the, the, the learning for us, the hard part, you know, internally is is learning to let that go. You know, I know that doesn't mean be lazy and don't prepare and just throw whatever on tape and send it and just go. Well, if it's my time, it'll be my time. You know part of what the casting director is going to see. I believe, you know, from what I've seen in the few things I've had to cast or whatever, uh, is that man? There's a certain spontaneity and a certain just like you're going to take one look and go TJ, Sebastian, that's, that's it, that's our guy, that's our guy. And it doesn't matter if TJ is having a good day or a bad day or if it's the best version of TJ or the worst version of TJ. You know, you're just going to look there and you're going to be like that's it, that's what we want. Yep, you know. And it's so easy for us to second guess ourselves. And, like you said, to craft it is a great word because we craft it and sometimes crafting it means slowly strangling everything authentic out of it, you know. So it ends up being this incredibly manipulated, controlled thing that they just kind of go like I wonder what that guy's really like. One of the things that we need to learn, too, is that, like it's a collaborative art, and one of the mistakes that I made when I was young was, of course, like showing up and going okay, how do you do this? What are the rules? And whatever I do, I don't want to overstep my bounds. I tend to tell this story. I'll try to make the quick version but national commercial and the real deal, like union, where you get paid for the day plus you got residuals like some of the most money I've ever made. It was incredible. It was like wow, it was like I made something like six grand or seven grand and then I moved to New York and I you know, I was so happy to have that in the bank and then two weeks later, they sent me another check for that because it was another cycle or whatever. I was like wow, oh well, you know, few times that happens in your life, but but the point is so I booked the commercial and I'm like, yes, and I'm.

You know, I'm there, I show up, I'm sitting in the corner and you know, okay, I'm there with a couple other good young actors and we're all there and it's a food commercial, so of course they have, like, um, you know, food, uh, uh, I guess food specialists, the guys who decorate the food, decorate the props, you know, and and they do a whole number on it, whatever. So obviously, you know, I'm very conscientious. This is the product we're selling. So you know, we need to be in there like guys, whatever you do, don't touch the food. Oh, no, no, no, no, Of course, Right.

And there's this one girl who shows up and she's like she's playing the waitress and she's hanging on everybody and she's talking to everybody and she's, you know, and like the three of us are sort of sitting in the booth like okay, well, you know, this will be the last time she works, you know. And she's making a phone and then at one point they bring out one of these sizzling platters of things and they say to everybody okay, be very careful, this is hot. And they call action. She grabs it, grabs it by the heart part, screams, throws it on the floor, you know, destroys a half an hour and storms off. And then somebody's got to go talk to her and we're just all sitting there like whoa, oh, my gosh man, that particular producer, that particular company, uh, made commercials with a particular effect which was very hot for a year's time, sort of a hype Williams 3d camera thing. So they made one for another popular clothing line that you see in most shopping malls. They made one for you know three or four commercials with that. Look over the year that you knew it was them. She was in every single one.

Does this mean bad behavior gets rewarded? No, you know, but part of the thing was that was kind of who she was. You know, if I had gone in and talked to everybody and hung on everybody, they would have just said you're acting like a jackass, get off the set, you know. But that was kind of who she was and she had this thing going on and that was it. So the point is I would not suggest that to anybody. But you never know. You know, you just never know.

I think the basics are show up on time, you know, show up early, show up on time, know your lines, know your stuff, be prepared and be ready to work. You know which is to say like you know you're going to get hot or cold or wet or dry or muddy or and that's you know, as long as it's nothing that crosses a line for you that wasn't discussed before. As long as it's a reasonable request, Okay. And if it's not reasonable, stop and talk about it and say hey guys, what, what can we do here? I'm not comfortable with this point is that we're collaborators.

So, getting back to auditions, you know, like, instead of like, what I always did wrong for years was thinking what they want to see, what do they want to see? Hmm, what can I do to, instead of just going, okay, I'm going to make a choice, I'm going to make a choice, I'm going to decide to do it this way and that's it. And me bringing something to the table, you know. So sometimes I think we really handicap ourselves in the process by kind of being so worried about following the rules and being good little soldiers and good little workmen. And you know, like, what do they want to see? I want to be a good actor, you know, and the truth is, man, they got, they got hundreds and thousands of actors. They want to see you, you know, but don't be afraid to, for example, you know, stand up in the middle of a press conference and pitch a maybe indirectly pitch a film role to Kevin Smith, Because that, my friend, that was epic, that was epic Inviting Kevin Smith to do a little something, something.

That's what I'm talking about. Thank you, that's a Comic-Con and that was a Q&A.

I didn't know where you were going with it at first. Either way, Either that's a Comic-Con and that was a Q&A. I didn't know where you were going with it at first.

Either way, either way. Man. That was awesome, thank you. He still hasn't come on yet, but we're going to keep pitching. All right, I'll never give up, kevin. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you on the podcast, sir, he will, kevin.

He will yeah, no, and I agree, but that's it. You know, you don't want to overstep, you don't want to be, but on the other hand, people are people and it's so easy to be in a position where, oh, the director's there. So the director said you know like, don't speak to the director unless spoken to you know, no, don't be ridiculous and halt the production. But at the same time, if you've got a question or an idea, pitch it. You know, know, throw it out there. And if it's a dumb idea or real quick, if the director is not interested in that, you'll hear it, you'll get the vibe, zip it and go back to work but you know but but, uh, you know, a legitimate idea, not just hey, I've, you know, let me get some attention here and they'll remember me.

But again, like the idea of of it's so easy if you just keep your mouth shut and go okay, I'm just gonna do whatever they tell me to. You know, you'll do a fine job, you know, but they'll forget about you the minute you walk away. Yeah, you know. Or maybe they won't, maybe they'll love you again.

No rules no rules and also, similarly, who I got that word out be directable. You know, don't go in with, I have to do it this way, that's the way you came up with. But then the director like, well, like that, let's do this. Oh, no, I, this was my process. Okay, you can't just throw it a completely way. Well, instead of saying no, say yes, instead of, you know, plunging the knife into her plunge. Listen to what they have to say. It's, it's your film and their film, and it make, if nothing else not only the creative part, but it makes the time go by better.

Yeah, no for sure, and it's a, it's a job, you know, like you're on the clock, you're trying to get something done. Yeah, as far as process goes, man, I I always I'm a big fan of the idea that nobody wants to see your process. You know, like we all love that. You know. I think one mistake that actors can fall into is being actors. See, there's Brian, who's the regular guy, who's a, you know, a dad. I got two kids, two dogs and a wife. I do laundry, I go to the grocery store or whatever. Then there's Brian the actor. Aha, brian the actor, what's he like? What's he about? And then there's the character I'm playing. Right, so the problem with Brian the actor is that it's a bunch of it's a bunch of malarkey, and if I bring that to the set, then I'm trying to play two characters. You know not to get biblical, but I am serving two masters, you know, or whatever you're not supposed to be able to do. You know, or whatever you're not supposed to be able to do, but it's the you know, it's that idea that like and I have seen actors spend a lot of time, invest a lot of time in showing everybody on the in the production what sort of actor they are.

You know, I worked with an actor in a series that insisted that everyone called him by his character name at all times and that there were and there were and there were. You know, basically there was his character and his group who were sort of antagonist of another, of another set of characters, another group. So he didn't talk to those people. You know, to be fair, he wasn't a jerk to them or anything, but he didn't talk to them because he just I couldn't possibly be friends with you and interact with you. You know, if my character doesn't like your character, you know, and we're talking about like a four or five month shoot, we're all living in hotels in the same city together. So it's like okay, and and and it's not that he was unreasonable and I have respect for any actress process Like if you need your space, take your space.

You know, if you need your time within reason, take your time. But at the same time, it's like how much of this is really contributing to what we're trying to do here? Yeah, so I think the rule of thumb for an actor is always that, like, no one will ever get as much out of your process as you will, and nor should they. You know, like, if I'm watching you on the screen or on stage and I'm seeing what you did, I'm seeing all that writing or movement work or whatever that you did, all that suffering that you did to get into this character. Something's wrong, cause I'm not supposed to be seeing that. I'm just supposed to be watching the story. So that's all for you. Like, like it. Don't. Don't waste your energy playing the actor. Just play the role. Just play the role. You don't have to switch it on and off when they call action and cut. Okay, if you got to stay in your space, stay in your space, but do that for yourself. Don't inflict it on everybody else.

Yeah, right.

Right.

We've heard similar, similar takes on that from others as well, and when the topic of method acting has come up, some of it it seems like it's taken away the discovery in the moment on the scene. If you're in it all the time, I don't know.

Well, to to Brian's point. It can sort of cement you into the idea of this is how I envision the scene, this is how it's going to go, and you know, that's. That's the kind of one-on-one thing is. If I'm so into, if I'm watching my version of my scene in my head, then I'm not really seeing what's going on and, worst, I'm not paying attention to my partner or partners in the scene. I'm not reacting to what they're giving me.

Exactly Right, right, right. So I was wondering in the back of my mind here earlier when we were talking about voice acting and Portuguese do you ever get tapped to do things only in Portuguese language?

Voice-wise. No, I'll be honest. What about film? I would like to say rarely. I think rarely would be the better word for voice, but it's really only been a handful of times because, strictly speaking in voice and I don't, I don't have any um, I don't have any ill will about this. It's also always an obstacle for me with commercials, because a commercial man, unless there is an immediate justification for somebody to be speaking with an accent, unless it's literally somewhere I'm wearing a cowboy hat and there's a big, you know stars and strikes behind me, you know people are going to completely miss the message of the commercial. You know I'm going to come on and open my mouth and it's going to be like they're not going to be paying attention to the car or the tomato soup or whatever it is. They're going to be like why is he talking like that? You know, unless there's some immediate cell that explains it, if it's part of the concept. So it's always kind of I actually, I moved to Brazil and I became a model.

Wow, how did you do that, Brian.

How did you become a model? It's real simple when you do commercials but you don't open your dumb mouth, you're classified as a model, so suddenly it's like, oh, you're a model, yeah, because just don't talk, just stand there, hold the tomato soup and smile no man.

But as far as uh parts go, I actually I have a project coming up next year, a film, uh, that's filming, uh, in february or march next year here, which I'm really excited about just for myself, because they contacted my agency, they tapped me and they were like, yeah, we'd like him to do this role. And and, uh, they sent the script and I read it and the cool thing about it is it's in Portuguese, um, it's, it's a supporting role, it's a good juicy part, it's in Portuguese and it wasn't written for an American, like it could be. You know, it's a law enforcement guy and so the story is such that it could be an international interest, you know, arriving there, cool, okay, tarantino style romp thing. So the point is somebody thought outside the box and said it could be, you know, and we like him for who he is, kind of his whole thing. So we want to cast him and I'm actually really excited about that because it's one of the first couple of times I've done one other thing in Portuguese. But I typically get tapped for English speaking roles and there are a lot, especially now with the platforms, lots of international production, lots of stuff shooting in English here, you know, because, yeah, I mean it's, it's always for. You know, I mean you've got.

The cool thing about being in a niche market is basically there are probably in the whole country, um, about 15 of us who are sort of full time, and there's myself and one other American, uh, there's a couple of British guys, there's an Austrian guy, there's and it's basically the same handful that every time, like an audition notice hits and it's sort of like series looking for English speaking actors. It's like, okay, you know, we all show up at the audition. We know it's the same, hey guys, how you doing. And then, once it's all done, or the self tapes are all in or whatever, we wait a week or two and then we start sending messages hey dude, so did you book that? Yeah, oh, no, james got it. Oh man, and everybody likes everybody. So it's kind of cool. It's always like somebody from our team won.

But it's this interesting thing because it's like on the one hand, there's work and there's a lot of work, but I always say we're like unicorns. The frustrating thing for me, the next big step for me is being considered as a regular actor, like okay, I'm good at Brian, it's my turn to come off pompous here. But I always refer to it as the Arnold Schwarzenegger thing, and I don't mean in the bodybuilding way, yeah, yeah, not that, but the idea that, like, look, man Schwarzenegger has always had an accent. He's always clearly been a foreigner, but it doesn't matter.

Public loves him, we love seeing it, so we don't even worry about it. You know, I remember to this day there was an action movie late eighties, early nineties, with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a small town like Texas or something, sheriff. But the point is like here's this guy with this thick-ass Austrian accent and he's a sheriff. You know, these people that, like men, they're clearly immigrants. They they always have been. But we like them as people, so we don't demand an explanation. The story doesn't have to be about that, you know.

So that's kind of my, my sort of personal goal that I've sort of said and, like I said, I have a project coming up next year. That's a big step towards that, you know, and it's and it's very cool to to kind of again, I think it's kind of a metaphor for just sort of the whole thing. In my case it's an accent and being from another country, but the fact is it's for anybody, right, I think. You know, you put yourself out there and if you can just hit that that right note of authenticity and being the right thing at the right time and the right place, from then on out, man, people are going to embrace you. You know, like you become castable, as, whatever they'll find an excuse to put you in, you know, even if not, what we typically think of as that.

Yeah, Now how you do that.

No idea, but working on it what?

about dubbing. Is there work to dub things into English from Portuguese, or is that a completely different area?

Yeah, honestly, not so much for me. No, it kind of goes the opposite way. I do a lot of work with voice and dubbing in terms of translating scripts into Portuguese and sort of supervising that like something in English arrives and then sort of like translating or at least like checking the translation right, because there are, in any language there are lots of expressions that don't quite translate, you know, even if it comes down to linguistic Like. I'll give you an example, first one that comes to mind when we miss somebody, in Portuguese we say we have saudades, and saudades is like the feeling of missing someone, but it's like we say, like grammatically, we say we have this feeling, whereas in english to miss somebody is an action. Oh, I miss you, you know. We don't say I have missing for you, you know.

So you get these little mechanical things that sometimes, when it comes to dubbing, you know, whether it be animation or live action, that you know you got to kind of fit the phrase, at least to synchronize reasonably with the lips, but sentences end up being longer or shorter. So I generally work on that. From the other side, you know I work in terms of getting the English into Portuguese and finding equivalent expressions you know, or expressions that make sense in the context, that kind of thing. But unfortunately no, almost anything in Portuguese that needs to be English. They just send it abroad. Once in a while I do a little something, but small stuff, cultural stuff.

My wife and I have kind of gotten addicted on Netflix. Maybe it's Korean, Maybe it's a Hispanic feature, from any of the countries, but you can almost tell it's the same actors and they don't always match the emotion or the terror or the action of the scene. Because it's okay. What shall we do now? I don't know. It's a little stiff.

And to your point, brian, it's really flat. I had this experience. I did a series. I will name this one because I did an episode of a series that was called BA Beiju Adolescentiu, which is Teenage Kiss. Nothing to do, like it's. It's this dark. Yeah, it's. It's a dark future kind of world. It's based on a graphic novel.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I I show up in one episode and I play a mysterious sort of um american businessman, who's who's basically like funneling money to the brazilian government because it's set in brazil and, uh, you know, he's in some kind of 3D virtual conference with the president of the country on a golf course. We're playing virtual. We're actually filming on a real golf course. We shot on a real golf course, got to go and take golf lessons for a couple of days. Right, that's a great thing as an actor. They zip you out to the golf course and then they have the golf pro work with you and you're on the driving range. Yeah, I'm really starting to get it Awesome. Two days later you go to film. Didn't hit a single ball, not one, that's not true. I hit one on a bad take, that was it. But literally every time there was a take to hit a ball. Forget it. Dirt flying, but it didn't matter.

Work with the scene, but for what it's worth, the point is. So our scene is in English and it was so weird because it finally came out and I was like man, let me check this out. And I put it on and it was on the English setting and they dubbed me. They dubbed me. I don't know if they dubbed me because of him, I don't know if somebody just got a thing. Hey, dub this whole thing. But I'm like dude, we're speaking English.

So if you listen to the original soundtrack, yeah, the guy's got kind of a heavy accent. His intonation is a little weird on some phrases, but it's perfectly understandable. And I'm a freaking American. I'm there, I'm speaking English, I'm acting, I'm you know, it's a wonderful stroll down a golf course. Okay, not a big deal, but making it happen. And then suddenly in English, it's literally somebody dubbed over me going like, well, I don't know, mr President, what do you think? Well, yes, the money will be there, I assure you. And it's like, really, guys, like this is what you did to make it better for an English speaker, like, try, try, voice acting. But really, man, so voice acting Exactly Something A little intonation, the voice is the little word.

That's right, that's true. Oh yeah, well, it's nice to know that, no matter where you go, producers are all assholes. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

He said that, guys. He said that I'm really not. I do not in any way endorse or reflect the views expressed on this show, or strictly those of Brian Plato.

Plato, not Townes and not TJ Sebastian.

No, no, I'm never going to be one of those actors. I don't think, anyway that oh, I don't watch my own films, man, I watch my films. I don't watch them obsessively, but I'm sure enough curious to see how they come out. And it's interesting. I know some actors.

I remember there was something I was doing, a take in a film film, and then I, you know, things stopped for a second. I walked around like hey man, can I get a little playback on that? You know, camera guy, camera guy, he's like sure he runs me. You know a little monitor there and I watched it. And one of the other actors in the film guys have been doing it a long time combined he goes, you're watching the monitor. I was like, yeah, he's like, oh my gosh, in 35 years I've never watched myself on the monitor. I was like okay, I just wasn't sure how this take was going. I want to make sure I wasn't making a fool of myself or moving my eyebrows too much. To me it's a tool, it's there, that's right.

But I think one of the secrets to longevity is sort of just like man, you got to whatever you throw out there, you throw it out and then you let it go and your performance can be made or it can be absolutely destroyed in the editing room. Yeah, you know, in the process it's also another chestnut we always throw out. Like, as actors, man, police your own. Like as actors, man, police your own continuity. Keep up with your own continuity. Cigarettes, um, coffee cups, whatever it is like. Stay on top of that for yourself, because you never want to like lose that really good take that you did, because you know somebody's in the editing room they're not watching your performance. They're like oh wait, the cup was here. Now it's here. Well, let's not use that one, use the one before.

Brian. Yep, we're out of time. That's all right, we're going to have to yell cut now, that's quite all right.

Oh, no, cause when I was imagining this, I was saying such profound stuff. I was making it, I was revolutionizing the industry. Hang on, but you already did Very profound Listen. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity to come on and talk to you guys.

I took a theatrical arts, a combat class, so they put a sword in my hand. Brian and I are old time D&D from the 70s nerds, so you can imagine how through. I had a bastard sword, I had the rapier, I had fencing for I had a blast. So the goal will be we always try to let's get a project out of this, some kind of sword and sorcery thing, and I'm bringing you back to the States for it man, I'm in, I'm in guys anytime, and and that's, that's the the shameless actor thing.

but it's actually true and I've had this experience. I did a web series in New York 20 years ago with a pair of guys who are absolutely terrific and I've since been back to the States twice to do films with them. It's the kind of thing we always say like, yeah, man, if it ever comes along, cool, okay, and everybody means it. But if it ever happens, but it does happen, it does happen. It's not just curtsy. So, guys, anytime you think there might be something up, let me know. Yeah, because I would love to, I would love to actually be a part of the nola film scene in nola. Hey, excellent, excellent, all right, guys. Thank you so much, it's been a pleasure. Thanks, brian, take care.