Hick Cheramie Part 1

Thank you for joining us. I'm TJ and I'm play, though, and you're listening to, no, the film scene with TJ and play though, and we're here tonight with local actor Hicks Share me my agent said this was the Theo von Pai cast. Yo Theo's tied up your agent line.

Now it's about the Beards and I think I've already lost.

Thank you all on a serious note, thank y'all for having me. I've been keeping up with y'all for a while and I'm humbled and honored because I know you both know a lot of people and I'm humbled and honored that you guys asked me to be our first guest. So thank you so much. I greatly appreciate that and I'm pretty excited to be talking to the both of you.

We're really excited to have you and we're Grateful that you agreed to be our first guest to get this show launched. Brian and I were talking and we both had the idea of starting a podcast and we thought we wanted to put something out that deals with film scene entertainment industry in New Orleans not just acting, but other aspects of it too. The primary focus is gonna be acting, improv and voice acting, and we're just we're pleased to death that you're here, thank you you know we've been friends for a little while.

First we started on social meeting. We've met a few times in classes and Johnny Garcia's project it's. It got a job. Yay, I want a job, but yay for a hit, and I will get there with you one day.

I think that. I think that as actors, we all motivate each other in different ways. There's plenty of times where, brian, you've motivated me and I've been blessed to train under a lot of great people, but I see how much time and dedication you put into training. I don't know anybody that trains as much as you do, not only in one aspect of your improv and, you know, in acting and Doing voiceover and you and it just it blows my mind. So, like any time that I feel lazy, that maybe I get complacent in Guys like you who I see or who are constantly pushing. It motivates me and it gives me that initiative to push hard and to absorb as much knowledge as I can.

Tj inspires me in another way. Tj Communicates with me a lot as far as we share a lot of knowledge, especially in the auditioning process. There's things that TJ will bring up to me and it's things that I forget, like, oh yeah, it's something that I got to remember to do or I have to remember that Can't come up with an exact thing of what it is, because we have we've had many conversations that we share our auditions and we discuss those auditions a lot. Obviously, we auditioned for a lot of the same things. I don't know why, but we do. I think that we all bring rather, we getting jobs or we're not getting jobs, like I think, just as a community, that we all inspire and bring each other certain things that we need totally great yeah for sure.

Yeah, you've definitely been a really good inspiration for me and a wealth of knowledge. I can think of a bunch of times I've reached out. Hey, you ever, ever had this happen or you ever had somebody tell you this. You've had some really good advice on auditions, a Different way of breaking down a script or looking at something, and you give me some really good feedback on the stuff that I've reached Out on. It's been kind of cool. And, yeah, you're right, we've auditioned for some of the same roles.

I think that if someone is listening to this and has not been on our side of the camera, they're just watching and enjoying the products that people make to hear us talk about. I learned how to do this, this and this and then forgot might confuse them. Acting is such a juggling act. While you're doing it and as you grow, you might learn. And it's not like you walk up there, ladies and gentlemen. You just say I'm gonna cry today. That's what we thought when we were on that site. It's accessing that in your heart and just feeling that emotion, because you've seen people out there when it's really bad acting, and there I am so upset, you know. But then when you see someone I always think of Meryl Streep, who I'd not that I'm like her, but when she just shares her emotions and feels it through the prep, through the work, you can tell she's not lying. Acting is what acting's lying no, acting is finding the truth and just letting it be. And it sounds so easy and it's so leaping.

It's definitely hard and we have to use, sometimes, our own truth. There was something I figured out that worked for me is that I healed from a lot of trauma because of my past and what I learned is is that trauma is always there, no matter if you heal from it or not. And what I learned in that was it's always in a place, and I'll never forget how it made me feel and I was, I believe, tj. I shared this audition with you recently. Was it that I shared an audition with you where I had to cry and the an alcoholic. That was one that I had to go in.

That really happened to me in my life. That was something that really happened to me. I woke up one day and they were gone. The character was expressing this but once you heal from that, I want you to forgive yourself. And once you cope and get through it and have the right tools to deal with it, I realized that I'm able to pull that trauma from where it was and I'm able to use it for what I needed for and I'm able to put it back where it belongs.

When you say, finding that truth for me a lot of the roles that I've been lucky enough to audition for our Book our truths within me, our experiences. These are things that happen and they're not precise, but what's cool about being an actor and in our craft is that we have number one, the choice of Free will and our man and to use our imaginations. So we're able, I find, in situations that may not be exactly like linear with a situation that happened to me, I'm able to take a situation and extend it into where I needed it. Does that make sense?

It does.

Truth is what we're trying to sell. All right, that's what we're trying to sell. We are trying to be believable, and I found out as a human being. The only way we can really do that is really tapping into our own experience and extending that into whatever that rider wants us to be Right.

And a quick note I use the word book For those that don't know you audition, you're trying for the job. When you book it, you've got the road, so then you get to go on and get on this side of the camera and have fun and play. I have not had a personal situation where I've had to access tears in class. For me, anger can come so quickly. There's an exercise. The teacher does not want us to describe it to other people so they can come to that class fresh.

But you probably know what I'm talking about and as I was talking to a person, it happened twice. I'm trying to deal with a subject and they're trying to like they were talking to a friend, trying to just, oh, you're being too serious without saying that and it triggered me to use that word I would never hurt somebody, but the anger came out and I was kind of towering over a friend, this girl, and seeing the person who I was talking to, who I was just furious at. And it's coming out and it was. You know, when you cut, your hands are shaking because you've accessed that emotion, that truth, but you always keep a little bit. You're not going to clock somebody, you know. That's the stuff.

Right. The exercise you're talking about is where I realize that I can tap into that trauma. That exercise changed everything for me. Yeah, that's right, and I only went to one of them. But the minute I realized that, oh, like, this don't matter, this matters, yes, and I use, you know, I use the real life experience in that situation and it opened up a whole new world for me. It just opened up some things that I didn't know I was capable of doing. It opened up some places that I wasn't able to access. I know we can't promote it, but, man, I highly suggest that to everyone I talk to. I'm like you need to do this, you really need to experience it, and it's a it's a beautiful thing.

I just remembered, because it's from Jim Gleason from the working actor studio and it's called the circle exercise. The tagline it's what on camera acting is all about. Without being on camera. When you take classes, you have to study a script. It's not that you just come in and you live the life and that's all I can say. It's so worth it. I've taken it, we lost count, but about 17 times it's once a month yeah.

And studying for about four years, and I, I love it. I think I'm a little bit slower accessing my emotions than you, which is fine. We're all at our own speed. I say this every time, too, to the people who are just taking it you may hear the same lesson, but you're a different student, so that's right.

Yeah, you just your perception changes after that, yeah, so when?

you're able to access that, then you start. I felt like in my everyday, my perception of things started to change, especially when it came to dialogue and a script breakdown and understanding a character and what I'm trying to say it without saying it, but where words are in the food chain. As an actor, jim Cleese is brilliant. One of my proudest days was when I was actually on set with him on a SAG contract and I didn't know he was on set that day and I, like, got out of my trailer and I started making my way to the sound stage and I hear hey Hick and I turn and my heart was exploding Just to see that familiar face who probably seen me at my worst acting ever when I stepped into his first class. I was, I had never been, I had never acted on camera, I had never even did independent work. I was a featured reoccurring background act, I was a stand in, but I had never, like, spoke on camera. I love that guy. He's just a brilliant.

Brilliant at his craft, brilliant at teaching the craft we're burning his ears up right now.

Yeah, he just won an election and so we're not.

we're not kissing his ass, we really mean these things.

He's a good guy to have in our corner, so totally yeah, agreed, yeah For me accessing those emotions.

I think I was a little bit slower to it as well. Y'all know my background. For those that don't I served in the military for a while and they teach stoicism. You don't show your emotions, you don't share how you feel, you don't let other people, even though you might be upset or might be sad, you don't show that. So I had to break through that barrier.

When I started getting into performing, I actually had to physically consciously think about smiling and telling myself to relax and smile, and I go with that. Now I've got a bank of memories and thoughts and things that I've been through that I can call back up and tap into when I do need to do something. That's on the emotional side. I do agree with both the Algem as a great teacher so Hickey touched on it briefly getting into acting, doing background and then stand in. I've heard a lot of people that have done stand in work say that being a stand in really helped them from the onset experience, from standing really close to that experienced actor and seeing how they're doing stuff. Is that your experience?

Yeah, it did, and I'll tell you what just when I started out in 2018 as an extra on the CBS show. I started out as an extra and it was so important because I learned so much as far as learning the environment and the way things work. I went into this not knowing anything. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know what DP was. I didn't know what a production assistant did. I didn't know at all. I didn't know what actions were or cuts, so I didn't know anything. I did extra work for a while and learned as much as I could about the environment I was in and all the moving parts, which was so vital to my next step as far as being a stand in and I mean a stand in is where I learned more about the actor. I learned more about not so much acting but the, I guess, the technical things of being on a set and lighting and how rehearsals went. So I learned a lot doing stand in work.

Could you tell for listeners that might not know what a stand in is? Could you give us a brief explanation of what the purpose of a stand in is?

Yeah, if you're on a movie set and then you have an actor who would be first team, before this actor even gets on set, there's a lot of these moving parts, these things that got to happen lighting, sound, and all these things have to be perfect. I don't know how often they end up perfect, but they have to be perfect. And usually a stand in is someone who may resemble the actor in some physical, you know aspect, as it may be their height, their build. I've stood in for an actor who had no beard and I had a beard. We had the same build. And then you know you have blocking. That is done, and then you have, you know, lighting. That is. So everything is pretty much set up. The technical things are set up for the actor to come do their job, if that makes any sense. So most like a prep cook Chef is how I look at it. You get in this environment, you get into things needed ready and then the actor comes and do their job. Hopefully that helps anyone out there.

Yeah, that's the same for you going. For those that don't know, blocking is the movement. So if a character is going to go from A to B, they figure out when character is saying in A, I need the camera, here, I need a certain light, and then I'm going to follow them to B. So all that technical stuff is what Hicks talking about just throwing the technical term and helping people out with that.

So the lead actor doesn't have to come out there and walk through it a dozen times for camera and lighting and sound and everybody to get all their moving pieces in place.

They'll do enough takes, the actor will do enough takes. You know, I'll do, you do one take, you do two takes, and then you'll hear it's that's perfect, let's do one more, and then do one more, and they'll be like you know what let's do another one for safety, let's do another one for safety. So the actor's doing enough takes. And that's where standing comes in, to just make sure that the actor set up to just do as many as they need to. I guess Right, but I was going to say.

I saw one actor had to go through a heart wrenching, gut churning, emotional scene five or six times. It's draining you know they did their stuff. Yeah, exactly, you know. That's why they have to. It's easy, but it's not.

And after okay, cut and he was on the ground on all fours trying to get back together to get back to the starting point of that or just pulling it back in and then action doing it again and the actor's phenomenal and I can't say his name, but it's over and over, it's. That's so hard. That's why they have stand-ins to do the Technical part.

Yeah, it's really hard. And you know I'm sure you can all attest to this as an actor, our job is like never ending. We're training, we're auditioning, we're breaking scripts down, we're sending in audition, which is just a technical part of getting it sent in, and then we're waiting and in the meantime we're auditioning for other stuff and still studying. You know, next thing, you know maybe you get a call back and then you're going to call back and you're still auditioning and other stuff, and you're still, and then you're going to call back and you get all these redirects and you know, maybe try this, and then, well, no, no, try this. And I don't want you as angry or make it a little bit more boring. We do this audition and we are aging, you know. We send it to our agent, gets a breakdown, you know which is the audition, and then we send it to a casting director and now it's in their hands and then we hear are you available? Yes, I'm available. Alright, that's all we want to know.

And then two weeks later you hear hey, the lead actor's schedule got pushed. Is this person still available? Yes, I'm still available. Do I have it? I don't know, we don't know. We don't know if we have it right, but we're still available, right. And then now you see other auditions coming in and they're lining up with the dates of and like, oh man, I hope my agent can work this out. And then you're still not hearing anything. And then you book right, well, you get a call back. You get a call back, and then you get all the redirects and then, hopefully, your book. And then you book, and then you fitting and rehearsal make it to set. Ah, it's done. And then we do it all over again.

You gotta wait for it to come out so you can tell people about it and share yeah and that's what breaks my heart about this strike right now is I have a lot of talented friends who are very Just this process. I explained the difficult part of getting from the breakdown to the rapping that day, the many stages in work that comes in between shifting things in our personal life around and constant communication with casting directors and then producers. And then you do all this hard work and you go out there and you give it hell and like it saddens me. It saddens me that us as actors are getting treated the way we are and we can't even show our work off. We can't show our work off because we're being abused, man, we're literally being taken advantage of and it breaks my freaking heart. I'm lucky I have a job outside of acting about to make 10 years of this job. A lot of my friends right now are struggling not only financially, mentally, some physically, some are going through health problems and they don't have the end that you know make ends meet to get whatever they need. It's freaking sad. It's sad all around. It pisses me off that people are making so much money off of the backs of these brilliant artists who have literally made you two know, you two know, and it's not like us three have these huge, big careers, but you two know the sacrifice it takes. I mean we sacrifice time with our family. We sacrifice money, we sacrifice.

Do you think I like working 11, 12 hours in the oil field and then coming out? Coming out at night in this room and chipping away at auditions and breaking scripts, down until sometimes 11 at night? Spending my weekends auditioning? We love it, we love this. This is what makes us feel alive and they literally try to make us feel like it doesn't matter. The layman I was military too. I tend to say civilian a lot but a person who is not in the film industry, they don't know the workings of it, right, just like you might not know the workings of my oil field job. You don't know how any of that works. So a lot of people don't know. People think actor makes money, right, yeah, we make money for doing our job. And then after that, when we get to do it, but then after the job is complete, the product of that job is repeated over and over and shown over and over and people are making tons of money off of that and we get a couple cents in the mail.

That's right. And what I think a lot of people that aren't in the industry don't understand is the celebrities that are making the most amount of money are only a small percentage of people that are in the acting community and they also don't understand how much work goes into it. You touched on it. You get paid for the time on set. You might get paid for travel, but you're not getting paid for the preparation for the audition. You get that in and you might have a turnaround time of the next day or maybe two days, sometimes longer, to get that audition back in. You got to break that script down. You got to learn the lines. You got to craft your character. You got to figure out how you're going to deliver that performance. You got to figure out how to live truthfully in that situation and deliver a believable experience.

For a lot of people, for most people it's after work. I know Brian's got long hours and he's y'all both work in the heat and, like you said, you got to come home after you're tired and break that script down and do that and then film the audition and then submit it and sometimes you don't hear anything back. You have to. You have to get in that mindset of submit the audition and if you hear back you do, if you don't, you don't. And then then say you get the callback, well then you got to refresh your mind on that script again.

You might have something different, a longer scene to deliver or the same scene, but you still. You may have had a dozen other auditions since that initial submission, so you got to go back to that first script, refresh your memory and then deliver another performance. A lot of times it's live or virtual and they're giving you on the spot Do this instead. Like you said earlier, that's two different times where you're spending a lot of time just preparing for that and then you got your time on set and that's all that you get compensated for is that time on set. I think people don't realize how much goes into it. They think all actors make a ton of money and that's just not the case.

I think I had heard this number might be wrong. There was like 11% of actors or actual working actors and this is from like A-list celebrities or actual working. It could be even a lower number than that, but I recall hearing that number and then don't quote me on that. You think about pilot season in LA. Man, you have a better chance of winning the lottery than scoring a lead role on a pilot. First of all, you have to have an agent who knows a casting director in LA, so the odds are just it's astronomical to book a lead on a pilot, like when it's pilot season in LA, and people just aren't aware that. They just aren't aware that sacrifice and commitment, hundreds of thousands of actors out there and everybody's chasing the same dream, and it's just a lot of work and the one word, the two words that often connect with an actor I have sacrificed so much. It's a lot to deal with mentally. It's a lot for your family and your loved ones to deal with. A lot of actors. Don't talk about that. You better have a good team. You better have a good support system. You have to have people that believe in you. Cameron, I don't know what I would do without her. There's times I was, fortunate enough, not too long ago, where I booked a television pilot at the beginning of the year and you know, I had the audition for it and it was the time period it wasn't my thing and so I did this audition and I didn't hear nothing at all. And then I get this other audition for it and I'm like, oh man, I don't want to do this. I had like a 12 hour day and I was just done and she was just like this is what you do, like you've come too far, like this is what you do. You know, like I could turn down any audition I want. You know, I have an amazing agent who's very understanding when maybe it's not something that I feel like is for me, and you have to have that person that is there when you're just not. She kicked me in the ass and I did audition and two days later I wake up at four in the morning to go use the bathroom and always check where my kids are on the 360 app and I was like I went to sleep before I told them good night. I didn't hear back from them because you know I'm not a priority. I opened my phone and I was like, oh my God. And she's like, are the kids okay? And I'm like, yeah, I'm like, I booked the pilot. I booked the pilot. You know so like, if she want to push me, I want to travel so far and spend seven days filming a pilot.

You know so like, you have to have a support system of people that believe you. And if you don't, if there's people around you, anything you do in your life, you just got to set a healthy boundaries and you just can't have them. You know, like, as an actor and I'm sure y'all can, in the different projects and different things y'all do, I'm sure y'all can all agree that you have to have that support system. You have to have that Absolutely. You know, if it's, if your family don't believe in you, then find other actors who do. You know, find other actors who do. But find that, find your tribe, find your group, find your people. They are there, you know. So it just there's a lot that comes with it. It's a lot of sacrifice, it's a lot of commitment, not only you but others also.

Yeah, I don't think people understand two things about it when you hear this discussion. One, we know there's some free stuff we have to do. We have to go through the auditioning and all that, and we're not going to get paid for that. And then when you're lucky enough to get that job, that high paying job, you're paid on the day and then the residuals keep you going until you get the next one, which may not be for a year, it may not be ever again, you don't know. And then it's the emotional ups and downs that you go through Once you send in that audition, waiting am I going to get it? And just self doubt, but imposter syndrome that kicks into your brain oh, I'm not good enough. And I haven't heard from a woman today. Oh my God, oh no, I'm going to stop fighting it. No, I'm going to bring myself up.

And you go through this emotional rollercoaster. I booked my first commercial. It was a few weeks ago. It was supposed to come out in August. I talked to them it's not coming out in August, and certain things were said. They didn't say I'm not part of the commercial anymore.

But my first thought was oh my God, I'm cut, oh no. And now, oh God, what did I do? I did something wrong. They don't like the way I look, I'm too fat. And then you plummet.

And then you bring yourself out of that nosedive that can physically hurt you. You brush it off, you get up and you find something to do. It's not the movie stars and the rich people that are hurting and demanding the money, but 27% of the union do not make $26,000 a year to make their insurance, make them eligible for insurance, which then I think you have to pay for it, because I haven't gotten it yet. Just think about that Not making $26,000 a year. I've seen things online. Somebody brought that up and then a person was like well, find another career, yeah, we do our other jobs, but this is what we love to do. You find you have a town at it For me. I've been searching for my place in this world for years and I can make people laugh talking to them. I can run my mouth for a long time, but then telling a story and eliciting an emotion from somebody and just seeing the joy or seeing the shock, it lifts your soul up so much that it makes the rest of it worth it. That's right.

Oh yeah.

We're just fighting for the money so we can keep doing that and just making that our career. That's right.

It takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of support. One thing I've found that I really like about our community is the support. If you book a role, it doesn't matter if you're competing for it or not. There's been more than one time that Hick and I both auditioned for the same thing, and when he texted me and told me he got the role, I was ecstatic for him. I was as excited as if I had booked it myself, and online on social media, people are just really supportive. I mean, at least I'm not noticing a lot of toxicity.

No, no, you're right. There's a couple other actors that audition for the same roles that you and I do, and sometimes they get it. You know like I want to see my fellow actors win. You know there's some roles, man, that I really, really wanted, and you know like one of my other buddies got it. You know, and I'm just like man, good for you.

It was a tough audition, it was a tough call. I did the best I could and I'm just really happy for that person, because the thing is is we're all in this together, right, we are fighting against enough odds. Right, we do not need to fight against each other Anything. We need to lift each other up, be on the other end of whatever you know this person needs to receive, whether they be comfort or praise or, you know, congratulatory parade or whatever, or they having trouble with something like, we need to be there. We need to be there for each other because we're a group of amazing, brilliant humans who have, who are relentless, completely committed. You think about how relentless we are as actors, that we don't care how many times we get told.

No, I remember when I was looking for an agent. That was a big step for me. I remember when I sent my first submission because it took me years to become sag eligible, when it took me years to build a demo reel and it took me years to build a resume. It just it took me years to try what training worked for me and what didn't work for me and cost money and it took me traveling to Nashville and getting headshots. So when you, when you put all this work in together and like I remember when I sent my first submission of Cameron and I were at this little po-boy shop in in New Orleans and I cried Like dude, I cry. I'm like I cry because I knew now this was just me submitting for an agent, right, yeah, but like dude, I cry because I knew, you know, like dude, I'm a recovering alcohol. I got sober when, when I took my last drink in 2014, like, my clothes was like in a garbage bag right From that point when I decided to put alcohol down and like, change my life and get sober to that point, which would have been in 2021, 2021, 2022. That's a long time and for some reason, that moment when I hit submit, I had just realized how, and I remember crying, telling I was like you don't know how hard, and I want to tear it up now. I was like you don't know how hard I worked for this. She's got a taste of it. I worked really hard for that. So I sent my first submission in and I sent them to all these agencies and I don't hear nothing for like three weeks, bro. So like now I'm questioning myself as an actor. You taught me like am I an actor? Am I good enough, am I whatever? And thank the agent. I have now a lover and and I took a chance I was in the oil field one day and I was getting my ass kicked by everything jobs, the heat, projects, deadlines and I was just like I remember standing there and I'm like there's got to be something better, cause that would had been weighing on me these, these submissions and I was like you know what?

I'm going to send my all my shit to the agent who's not taking submissions, the one that I was afraid to ever send stuff to, the one that I was. That was, you know. I thought it was impossible and I did. Oh man, thank God that there was people I worked with who, like I guess you question them, and it was like you know this guy like if you work with this guy, and there was multiple people that just went and like the bat to me.

I looked out and I never forget the day when I got the email back from my agent and she was like, the time she wasn't my agent. She was like can you take a phone call on Friday? And I was like, yes, I didn't even know what was going on Friday but I was like, yes, friday came and I had these big projects going on and I had all my guys covering for me and I took that phone call and I stayed on that phone call for an hour and if only Angie could have seen what was happening during that phone call. I had crews working on all different types of these projects and I had a lot of moving parts going on, but I stayed focused on that phone call having a conversation. I even had a guy who, like went dig underneath like cutting holes and there was a snake and he's, this guy's like six, four. He's scared to death of snakes. I seen him jump like four feet in the air and he's like screaming at me as a snake. And I'm like and I'm on the phone.

And when I got all that phone and I found out that I was good enough, like it was life changing. It was like life changing and you know, I know I kind of went off on a tandem and all goes back to how relentless we are. And then I started auditioning even more than I've ever auditioned in my life and there was no. Then I got a yes, you know. Then I got some no's and then I got a yes, and then I got some more no's and then I got a yes, and then I might've got a hundred no's and then I got a yes, you know, and we are so relentless, dude, our skin becomes so thick. But what's amazing about is is as tough as we are.

Every person I've ever ran into, especially in a New Orleans film community, are some of the kindest, gentlest, selfless souls that I have ever met in my entire life, and I'm a hippie bro. Like these people are cool and like dead heads right, like I've met the most amazing people, you know. And then I'm sure Brian, you know, and maybe TJ you've experienced this where I don't know about y'all, but like back in 2018 and 2019, six years ago, I would look at people like Billy Slaughter, who I absolutely think is one of the most phenomenal people in our craft. Billy Slaughter is probably one of the most talented people that I've ever been around and I would look up to him. I'd be like man, how cool is this guy, like his life is so like, he's so talented. Look what he gets to do. How cool is this. And then, like I'm on the same TV series, you know, with him. I'm attending his class. He calls me on my phone to like ask me about some things and he and let me tell you something, the guy who was just starting out and acting that looked up to like Billy Slaughter. The way I looked up to him. I still look up to him to this day, like I absolutely love that guy. He's so talented, he's so, he's so selfless, he's so helpful. I can ask him anything. And you know, like I think it's kind of cool when we get to that point, to where we see people who inspire us and then we get to share something with them, you know, and be like man, like how dude.

I remember the first time I saw Billy Slaughter check this out, I went to a premiere of this film that Lance Nichols was in and Caleb Nuckant was in it and Jeremy Dean and Rachel Jacobs directed it and Michelle Silva produced it. And I show up at this event and I see Billy Slaughter Dude, this was after I signed with Action. Starstruck, bro, starstruck. I remember tapping Cam and I'm like it's Billy Slaughter. Billy was like eating a plate of meatballs. I was like starstruck when I saw Billy Slaughter and I remember I'm like man, I'm in the same agency with Billy Slaughter Like I was just so giddy I still get giddy talking about it and so I got to introduce myself and we talk and I'm like, oh. And then I got to be in a picture with Billy. I was like, oh, my God is Billy Slaughter. You know he's just a phenomenal dude.

But I just think it's pretty cool that there's people like him and Gleason and Dumas, these guys who we constantly striving to get to that level, and they're some of the nicest guys and we can go to them with things and we can go to them with questions and we can go and study under them. They continue to inspire. I think we're so lucky to have those people in our area. Like how lucky are we? And then also, I think we're very fortunate to have the casting directors that we have in New Orleans Ryan Gleosil, hunter McHugh, brent Cavallaro and many others but these they're just good people. They want to see us succeed, they want to see us win.

Like when you get onto the level of crews and actors and then casting directors you know we have some amazing directors in New Orleans also, but Rachel Jacobs brilliant, brilliant, human being. So when you have all these levels of people in film and have not ran into one with an ego problem, they're the most humble people you've ever met and wanting to help. They want to see you win. So I think we're very fortunate in New Orleans. I truly believe that New Orleans is a very is very unique compared to any other city that is thriving in film because it's so close to there and nobody's trying to beat anyone. We just all want to. We all want to be great.

Right, that's right. I think they want to see people succeed. Casting directors they're not scary, they're not the boogie band. They want us to book that role because when we succeed, they succeed Some of the advice that I've gotten from two people.

You mentioned James DeMont earlier. He's my acting teacher. He said I've never been rejected for a role, I just wasn't selected. And he said that and I'm like wow, that's really profound.

And then an actor friend of mine talking about worrying about submissions and not hearing back. You know, when you're submitting for an agent or submitting for a role, you may not hear for a long time or you may not hear at all Jordan Salome. I met him on set. He was one of my early inspirations to get started in this. I called him up. I said do you normally hear back if you don't get selected? You know, if you don't book. And he said no, you don't hear back. He said the best advice I can give you is submit and forget. And when he said that, I'm like wow, it was simple, but it was profound. And at that point I just stopped worrying, like once I hit that button, once it goes up on actors access, that's it. I don't think you got to let it go. You can't. You can't let it eat you up because, as much as we're doing, it's going to it'll tear you up if you think about every single one of them.

It will eventually affect your next audition. Whatever else we're trying to go after, getting pinned is stressful because you make it past the CD and then the producers like you and they pin you and then you get three times three different emails are you still available? Are you still available? Are you still available? There's one time that I heard back after being pinned with three checks of availability. The casting director, I believe, was Vicky Boone maybe, and I got feedback through my agent. It was me and two other actors who, for different characters. We all were up for different characters. We're all pinned.

I believe the email is something into the effect of have some really talented actors on your roster and thank you for every. There was one of those types. I had never received that before even being pinned. So you get pinned, call back and then you don't hear nothing. Are you booked? Or you send another call back or hey, we want to see you in person, that type of thing. So you kind of almost got to say and I think maybe TJ and I talked about this once his effort, like you said, send it in. It's almost like you have to not give a crap anymore about it, kind of type thing or you have to say you know what, if I get it, I get it. If I don't want to, don't.

Right now, right now I am in hands of producers for an interim agreement, a SAIC interim agreement. It's been a while that I've got two emails already. Are you available? Is this person still available? It's sometimes I'll cross my mind through the day. I'm oh, look at my phone, all right, I got to let it go, you know. So I think the further you get into it, the little harder and harder to let go. It's easy to send off the audition and say effort. Then they want somebody like once your agent, like I, can touch you and they want to know if you're available. And casting directors send it off to the producers and you kind of like oh, now it's kind of really hard to let go, but I got to let it go, right. And then you get another email saying are you still available? And you're like damn it, I'm in that position right now, as we speak, it's the one we talked about the other day.

Yeah, the one I sent you, the one I sent you.

I don't know who else submitted on that, but your, your performance and that was so incredibly moving and real and believable. I knew. I just knew when you submitted it that you were going to get a callback, because it was. It was just so strong. I want to shift gears, though. I got a question that I want to ask you. I get this question a lot, I get asked a lot. Would you cut your beard for that or would you shave for that? I want to know what is your threshold. What would it take for you to shave your face, cause I got a number in my head on what mine is. I'm wondering if you considered it yes.

I mean obviously and it's, and it's even come up. There was a project not long ago. It was big casting director in New Orleans. My agent contacted me and she was interested in and it was to actually to play a Coast Guard guy. I told my agent I got to shave for that. A Kate it has to be, and I'm just going to come out and say it. I would be willing to negotiate 20 to 30 grand to shave. At the time it would have been on a side contract for like seven, eight days, which is almost 10 grand. You know give or take. But luckily I was already in contract to film the TV pilot and it was a period piece and this had to all I was instructing not to cut my hair, shave anything, cut, trim or anything. It would have to be close to like. It'd have to be between 20 and 30 grand. I would say it would have to be a number.

My number's higher than that.

Oh yeah, Wow. Yeah, well, I mean, I just want to pay off my car and stuff Right and buy me a new one. It's going to grow back.

You know, yeah, for 30 grand you could get headshots redone because you put a lot of work into the look and keeping the look and you're known for how you look and that's a big commitment. To shave and to cut hair, you know it is.

It is.

For the right project. I would negotiate, I would consider it.

Yeah, and you know, I think the only other factor would be I'm passionate about all my characters but I do have like some dream roles. You know, like I have dream roles, I think there would be a lot of things to weigh in. I think money would be a main factor. I think probably my attachment to the story and character would be a big factor. I'm not brought in to play the funny nice guy ever Me, neither, me neither.

I did look out and I was able to film a really cool commercial where I am kind of a funny fun guy. But as far as I can think of anything that I've ever played, it was not a comedy, funny, just nice guy. Except Vampire Bud, which is the independent project that I worked on. I do get to play a cool like Amish, the hot former stoner. So that was fun, you know, for a sober guy. But you know, guys like TJ and I aren't brought in to be nice, we are brought in to be mean and menacing. And if I ever get a good serial killer role, if I ever get a good, like you know, prisoner on death row role, those are some of my dream roles, very dramatic and thriller type characters. What about you, brian. How much would they have to pay for you to grow your hair back?

Well, it doesn't grow here so they'd have to do a lot of work.

Mine is not as illustrious as y'alls, but especially now with my weight, it gives me a chin, so I like it. It would not be a day role or commercial. It would have to be something. Hey, it had to make me sag eligible, because that's the dream. And for those who don't know, it's when you do work on a sag production and then it's a thing called Taft Harley and they tell the union, hey, this guy's not union, but we love him so much we want him on there and once you do that you can join the union. You don't have to ride away like, hey, he's eligible and he's ready to go. So that's my goal. So I'd have to be that, not so much the money but the role. If it's just a guy walks on and says, hey, how you doing in Leaves, I'm not cutting my beard.

This is only three months for me about it. If it was multiple days, if it was something in a superhero or something to that level, I'm a sci-fi nerd, so you can think of the couple of shows that I would like. I'm there, I'm not saying.

If Kevin Smith actually to shave, you would shave.

Yeah, yeah. For those who don't know. My first thing I ever did was in one of his productions and I just talked to him a couple of weekends ago and he recognized me and it was photo ops at a con and Kevin just sees me and gives me a big hug. Yeah, I'd shave for Kevin.

He's super cool. He already gave out a shout out to. I used to be in this big beard club called the bearded villains, which I'm still in the club but I'm just not an active member because I started to pursue acting and kind of beard away. But he actually gave a shout out to bearded villains once because we're based out of California and just chapters a little bit of where he'll say it's a big charity beard club. But I remember he did a video man giving a shout out to. This is before like cameo and stuff. He did it because he ran into some bearded villain and they hit it off or whatever and he did a big shout out. He seems pretty cool. You're all tied in with them, them Hollywood people, brian.

I'm trying, I'm trying.

I see it all. Like you was Rosario Dawson.

Everybody brings up that it's galaxy con. It was a virtual meet and greet. When you go to a comic con, you can pay for a photo op. You take a picture with somebody. During the pandemic they started doing this like we're talking here online and I paid money to talk to Rosario. We'll put links in all this and you'll be able to see it and I made her laugh and she had a good time.

I had a good time. I was pretty jealous. Thank you Still am.

Thank you, she's an amazing actress. Totally, we can't talk about anything she's done. No Damn strike. I'm still good to go. We're at about an hour, tj, if you want to wrap. Cool, I got another question for Hick. If you don't.

Go ahead and ask.

So we talked about how you started in background and doing stand-in. Like a lot of us, stand-in was the switch to. I Want to Line.

We'll tune in next week to hear Hick's answer.