MR. POPULAR Ft. Kyle MacLachlan | Episode 196

Kyle MacLachlan is here this week!! Drew and Kyle shoutout #1 Twin Peaks fan Jennifer Pritchard and talk being a movie extra for $10, chemistry reads, football rivalries, Kyle’s high school senior prank week, and so much more. Kyle IG: https://www.instagram.com/kyle_maclachlan/?hl=en Kyle Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kyle_maclachlan?lang=en Follow The Comment Section on IG! https://www.instagram.com/thecommentsection/ Discover more on www.disaronno.com http://www.disaronno.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Gonna go to the gym? I booked it. I gotta go to the gym.

• 0:02Drew Afualo?

  Oh, can't go to the gym. Have to work with my coach.

• 0:04Speaker 00

  Yes. Shoot.

• 0:07Drew Afualo?

  Oh, I hate when that happens.

• 0:08Speaker 00

  I know. I booked time to walk my dog. I guess.

• 0:20Drew Afualo?

  Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the comment section show starring me, your fave. Everybody knows me. Who cares about me? Onto the guest. Today, we have a living icon, a living legend, the one, the only Kyle McLaughlin.

• 0:36Speaker 00

  Thank you, Drew.

• 0:36Drew Afualo?

  Oh, my God.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  And you pronounce my name perfectly. I've got to say, well done.

• 0:39Drew Afualo?

  Period. Thank you.

• 0:40Speaker 00

  Not easy.

• 0:41Drew Afualo?

  I practiced over and over and over again. I was like, gotta get it right. Gotta get it right.

• 0:46Speaker 00

  Come on.

• 0:47Drew Afualo?

  I'm honored to have you.

• 0:49Speaker 00

  I'm very, very pleased to be here. Thank you.

• 0:51Drew Afualo?

  Yes. Oh, my God, of course. What an honor to have you in the stew.

• 0:55Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 0:56Drew Afualo?

  And we also did meet last night for the first time.

• 0:58Speaker 00

  We did.

• 0:58Drew Afualo?

  At Brittany Broski's Royal Court Party.

• 1:01Speaker 00

  What a crazy event that was.

• 1:03Drew Afualo?

  What a stupid sentence, but you know.

• 1:07Speaker 00

  Goes without saying. And what an amazing house that we were in.

• 1:12Drew Afualo?

  I know.

• 1:12Speaker 00

  I don't know the history of it, but it's been around for a while and it's really, it's really suited the whole vibe.

• 1:19Drew Afualo?

  I agree. There's a lot of stuffed animals in there, like, like taxidermied.

• 1:23Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:23Drew Afualo?

  That were spooky.

• 1:25Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:25Drew Afualo?

  Spooky to look at.

• 1:26Speaker 00

  Yes, I took a picture in front of the white fox, I think. I think it was a fox, giant creature.

• 1:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, my sister took a picture in front of the zebra, that big giant one at the entrance.

• 1:36Speaker 00

  I missed, I walked right past.

• 1:37Drew Afualo?

  You walked right past the zebra?

• 1:40Speaker 00

  That's what happens. It's like, oh, it's a zebra.

• 1:42Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah. Oh, well, I see those every day.

• 1:44Speaker 00

  You know.

• 1:46Drew Afualo?

  How have you been, Kyle?

• 1:48Speaker 00

  I've been pretty good. I've been really busy.

• 1:50Drew Afualo?

  You have.

• 1:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, I say that with a surprise.

• 1:52Drew Afualo?

  You're real Mr. Popular. You are. You're all over the place, girl.

• 1:56Speaker 00

  Mr. Popular, which is fun, because I was not Mr. Popular in school. But, so it's nice to be Mr. Popular.

• 2:02Drew Afualo?

  And now I bet you they feel silly for not making you Mr. Popular in school.

• 2:05Speaker 00

  I should have won the Mr. Popular contest. I've been having so much fun. I've been having so much fun. We're doing my, my little podcast as well.

• 2:13Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 2:13Speaker 00

  And, uh, and I've been just enjoying it, interviewing, talking with people, getting to learn about a whole culture or a whole generation, other generations, I should say, that, that I am really fascinated with, so.

• 2:25Drew Afualo?

  I think that's amazing.

• 2:27Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 2:27Drew Afualo?

  Well, I know you, obviously you're a very successful esteemed actor. But how does that differ from hosting for you? Like, do, are they like kinda apples and oranges? Do you kinda use pull from one?

• 2:37Speaker 00

  I do, a pull, yeah, definitely. Because we have, I mean, a variety of people on, comedians, musicians, actors, entrepreneurs. Um, but I, I approach it from a creative, the creative side.

• 2:50Drew Afualo?

  Love.

• 2:50Speaker 00

  So it's like I'm asking them, what is it, what's their process? What's important to them? Um, where, how they first started, you know, what was the impulse that came? And, and kind of how they work and how they create.

• 3:01Drew Afualo?

  Love.

• 3:01Speaker 00

  And, um, yeah, so it's, it's fascinating. It's not a, it's not a gotcha kinda show. It's not a gossipy show really. It's just like, tell me about you. And, and we get into some, and I, really the conversation just wanders, you know what I mean? And we get into some really, some, some little heavy stuff sometimes, but mostly just fun and lighthearted. And, and I, I feel like I come away with a much better sense of who they are and hopefully the audience does as well.

• 3:21Drew Afualo?

  I love that. That's very similar to the show too, I feel like.

• 3:24Speaker 00

  Yes, I agree.

• 3:25Drew Afualo?

  I even feel when I've pitched to have like talent like yourself on, like people who are more traditional Hollywood. I've also said the same thing. It's not a gotcha show. It's more so like a fun little talk, a little chat. We can learn a little bit more about each other, but I think that's the fun in it, letting it kinda take its own life.

• 3:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:42Drew Afualo?

  As you chat and get to know someone.

• 3:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:44Drew Afualo?

  That's beautiful.

• 3:45Speaker 00

  So that's been really, that's been really fun, occupying a lot of time right now. The podcast's called What Are We Even Doing? And we ask that question and we never answer it, but we have a lot of fun doing it.

• 3:54Drew Afualo?

  Works perfectly then.

• 3:55Speaker 00

  It's perfect. The unanswerable question. Um, and then I've got a couple of things that have been out. Um, we just, uh, The Lowdown, we just aired our eight episodes of The Lowdown with, with Ethan Hawke, which was, went really well.

• 4:07Drew Afualo?

  So cool.

• 4:08Speaker 00

  It's really a cool show.

• 4:09Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 4:10Speaker 00

  And then we start the fallout craziness here very soon, so.

• 4:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, busy, busy, busy.

• 4:16Speaker 00

  I'm on a press, press and press tour.

• 4:18Drew Afualo?

  The press run of a lifetime?

• 4:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, look in my eyes. You can see how much sleep I'm getting, you know, it's like. Not happening.

• 4:23Drew Afualo?

  Um, I know you said you weren't Mr. Popular in high school. However, I would like to know, how did you get, were you a theater kid? What's your, what's your tea when you were in high school?

• 4:32Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, it was, um, well, it was, um, difficult, not difficult to explain, but there was a, there was a drama department in my high school.

• 4:40Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 4:41Speaker 00

  There were drama classes, but no one took the drama classes. The real nerds took drama classes, just people, you know, in the hallway, you just don't want to be seen walking with them. So they were, they were really that, on the, on the edge. But all of the cool kids did the musical and we did a musical in the spring and we did a fall play.

• 5:00Drew Afualo?

  Interesting.

• 5:00Speaker 00

  So it was, it was considered, no, that was okay. And so I, I, and I just, I, I loved it. So I did.

• 5:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 5:07Speaker 00

  The fall play every year. I did a musical every year. And so it kind of was my thing in high school. I was, you know, you have to find that thing that you're good at somehow. It's like, oh, you're, you're that person, you know what I mean? You're looking for an identity, really. And that was kind of my thing. And, and it carried through into college, although when I got to college, I was like, ah, I don't think I can do this. This is a fun side thing, you know what I mean?

• 5:34Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 5:35Speaker 00

  I gotta find a career.

• 5:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, like something stable.

• 5:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:39Drew Afualo?

  Traditional.

• 5:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. And I was like, okay. And, and the more I tried to dig into that, the more I was like, but I really, I always like, oh, I'm just gonna take one, one drama class.

• 5:48Drew Afualo?

  At least one, just to scratch the itch.

• 5:50Speaker 00

  Just one, yeah. And it pulled me back in. And I, and I just, uh, it, it just became clear to me after a couple of semesters, like, you know, this is kind of where I'm supposed to be, I think.

• 6:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 6:02Speaker 00

  So I just.

• 6:03Drew Afualo?

  How did you like, uh, how do you like stage acting versus like TV, film?

• 6:08Speaker 00

  Right.

• 6:09Drew Afualo?

  How do you like it?

• 6:09Speaker 00

  Very different in some ways and then real similar. I mean, you're approaching a script the same way, you're working on the character, you know, you have this, you do have an extended rehearsal period, which is wonderful to really explore and figure things out.

• 6:20Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 6:20Speaker 00

  But it's, um, and then you have the performance, which is not stand-up necessarily. I think it's as close to stand-up as you can get. I think stand-up is like the most difficult and I've never done it. I've been just too scared to ever do stand-up. But in, on stage, you know, you're in front of the audience, you're, I'm aware of the audience out there. And you have this sort of, um, I mean, it's a real high, you know, and you're you're kind of controlling things, you know?

• 6:46Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 6:47Speaker 00

  And you ride this energy and and that's why at the end of a play, you need to go out and get a glass of wine because you gotta calm down.

• 6:53Drew Afualo?

  You gotta de-escalate a little bit.

• 6:54Speaker 00

  You gotta de-escalate, yeah.

• 6:55Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 6:56Speaker 00

  And then film is just different.

• 6:58Drew Afualo?

  That's so interesting.

• 6:58Speaker 00

  Film is like a full twelve hour day.

• 6:59Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 7:00Speaker 00

  For television and and then and it's kind of like short bursts.

• 7:03Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 7:03Speaker 00

  Like you, you know, you sprint and then you then you walk for a while, then you sprint and then you walk and.

• 7:07Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, like some of the people I've had on the show that are actors, they've told me like, acting on stage is like no feeling like it, like it's completely different feeling.

• 7:15Speaker 00

  It is.

• 7:15Drew Afualo?

  When you're working with the room, like the energy of the room and influence. Do you have a preference?

• 7:20Speaker 00

  Um, I have, I mean, I love stage. I haven't done stage since since the early two thousands. Um, but it would be fun to go back again. It has to be kind of the right play.

• 7:29Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. Well, you're in that era of your life where you can you could pick and choose.

• 7:33Speaker 00

  Well, thank you.

• 7:34Drew Afualo?

  Mr. Successful, Mr. Popular.

• 7:37Drew Afualo?

  Now I'm Mr. Popular now, yeah.

• 7:39Speaker 00

  Oh, my gosh. If only Mr. Popular had been come younger, but um, it would be it would be fun to do, but it's, you know, it's it's also a lot of work. I mean, it's it's great, but it's um, you know, it's two hours roughly of just kind of, you know, head down, let's go.

• 7:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 7:54Speaker 00

  And you can't stop.

• 7:55Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 7:56Speaker 00

  And no, there's no retake, there's no go do over, you know? And I think after a while, you get really comfortable with the idea that you're gonna do it one way and then you can do it again in front of a camera and you can try the other thing. You can try these different things, you know, which I like. I like the freshness of that, too.

• 8:10Drew Afualo?

  Oh, that's true, huh? Like kind of adapting a little bit, trying new things. That's fun.

• 8:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's really fun.

• 8:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 8:16Speaker 00

  It's really fun to experiment a little bit. You know, within, you know, you gotta kind of stay within the confines of the character a little bit, but but also ideally, because you're working with someone, um, and I was talking about the low down earlier with like with Ethan Hawke, so we work very similar. So there's, you don't really know where the scene is gonna track.

• 8:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 8:33Speaker 00

  You know, it's gonna sort of go in this direction, but you're like, how are we gonna get there? We're gonna figure it out in this take.

• 8:38Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 8:38Speaker 00

  And he's up for that and I'm up for that and that's the fun.

• 8:41Drew Afualo?

  That's like the the coolest part of it, I would say.

• 8:43Speaker 00

  It is. It is. It's those moments in front of the camera.

• 8:46Drew Afualo?

  Very cool. When you were out of college, like. What was like a gig you got where you're like really feeling like I think I'm gonna do this for the rest of my life?

• 8:55Speaker 00

  It was, it was when I, well, I went to school, trained for repertory theater. My first job out of school was at the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. So on the main stage, there are 1,200 seat theater, playing Romeo and Romeo and Juliet.

• 9:11Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 9:12Speaker 00

  It was crazy.

• 9:13Drew Afualo?

  That is so cool.

• 9:14Speaker 00

  And I was like, oh, this is real. You know, it was like, and then, then you sort of get into this routine and I, I loved the whole routine.

• 9:24Drew Afualo?

  Very cool.

• 9:24Speaker 00

  Of kind of preparation during the day, performing at night, going out afterwards, getting a bite to eat, you know, with some friends. The vibe is very fun.

• 9:33Drew Afualo?

  How was Shakespeare, acting Shakespeare? I feel like that's heavy, heavy hitter.

• 9:36Speaker 00

  It's heavy, but you know, the language is so beautiful.

• 9:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 9:41Speaker 00

  And some plays are more, you can comprehend more than others. Romeo and Juliet's pretty available. I mean, there's language, there's turns, terms and turns of phrase in there that are sometimes hard to kind of figure out. But for the most part, it's pretty understandable.

• 9:56Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 9:57Speaker 00

  And, and it's just, I don't know, I, I love it.

• 10:00Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 10:01Speaker 00

  I love it. And so it's like poetry, you know, when you learn it, you never forget it.

• 10:04Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 10:05Speaker 00

  So, you know, but soft, what light through yonder window breaks, it is the east and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief, that thou art made art far more fair than she.

• 10:15Drew Afualo?

  Period.

• 10:16Speaker 00

  It just goes on and on and on. You know, it just never leaves your head.

• 10:20Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's like a song almost.

• 10:21Speaker 00

  It's like a song.

• 10:22Drew Afualo?

  Cause it's seeing, it, it sits in there so beautifully.

• 10:24Speaker 00

  Yes, that's a really, really good comparison.

• 10:27Drew Afualo?

  What's the most challenging role you've ever had? Whether it's stage, TV, film, or it could be one in each?

• 10:34Speaker 00

  I think I did the Twin Peaks, the original, and then we did Twin Peaks, The Return. And I played three different characters. And two of the characters, I didn't know if I was gonna be able to really pull them off. One in particular who was absolutely psychotic and very, very, very scary. Which I'd never done before in my life. And I said, I don't know if I can cross over, I don't know if I want to cross over into that. And, but I said, if I don't, it's not gonna work.

• 11:08Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 11:09Speaker 00

  So off I went.

• 11:11Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 11:11Speaker 00

  And it was very powerful.

• 11:14Drew Afualo?

  Cool.

• 11:15Speaker 00

  And also.

• 11:17Speaker 00

  Like I could not wait to take off the character and leave him in my dressing room.

• 11:22Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, get back to yourself.

• 11:24Speaker 00

  Yes, yes, and it was one of those things where I really was like, no, no. He has to stay here because I don't like, I don't, I appreciate the energy, it's a powerful energy. I said, I don't want to be in that energy.

• 11:33Drew Afualo?

  That's good that you can have that differentiation though.

• 11:36Speaker 00

  It's so important, yeah.

• 11:37Drew Afualo?

  I'm sure it's really hard, especially when you're like, deep in it, deep in your character.

• 11:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:41Drew Afualo?

  So that was probably your, your most difficult.

• 11:43Speaker 00

  It was really challenging, really challenging. Everything is challenging to a certain degree.

• 11:48Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 11:49Speaker 00

  Because I love getting into the complexity of the personality and digging around, you know, and sort of figuring things out, and hopefully bringing that, you know.

• 11:59Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, to, yeah, to life, in, in, for audiences.

• 12:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:04Drew Afualo?

  When you're looking at roles, like, do you have like a similar method every single time? Does it kind of vary depending on the project?

• 12:10Speaker 00

  It's pretty similar, it's like, so we'll start with a blueprint, which is the script, and then just, and then just really get into that very, very, very intensely, so. And taking it apart, it's like, I like pulling, it's like pulling apart, I don't know, like, fabric or something, you know, and then you're going to reassemble it, of course. But I love that process, and then, then it's like, learning everything, bringing everything in, and then kind of letting it go away, and then you start, because now you're starting the scene with your scene partner, and you're not thinking about what you're doing, you're thinking, what, what are they doing and what's happening, and so you're suddenly now, the, what you've

• 12:52Speaker 00

  done is no longer here, it's out there, and that's, again, talking about Ethan, I love that because he's going to throw something to me that I, I don't know what that is, and then I'm going to take that and I'm going to throw it back to him in a different way.

• 13:05Drew Afualo?

  It's like tennis.

• 13:05Speaker 00

  So much like tennis.

• 13:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 13:07Speaker 00

  Because you don't know kind of how it's going to come at you.

• 13:09Drew Afualo?

  Right, because reading it on the paper is different from like, seeing it being performed live.

• 13:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:14Drew Afualo?

  Interesting, I'm asking so many questions about that study because, I, I am getting into acting.

• 13:20Speaker 00

  Good.

• 13:20Drew Afualo?

  So I'm venturing into it now, dipping my toes, if you will.

• 13:24Speaker 00

  Yes, and such lovely, I can't see them, but I'm sure they're very, they're lovely.

• 13:28Drew Afualo?

  Thank you, Kyle, I assure you, they're lovely, I can tell you confidently.

• 13:31Speaker 00

  I believe you.

• 13:31Drew Afualo?

  I am venturing into acting, I have been doing quite a few reads and stuff, haven't booked anything yet, but that's okay. I'm just getting, I'm just getting all, all my bearings.

• 13:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, are you working with someone?

• 13:44Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I do. I have an, I have an acting coach.

• 13:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, very important.

• 13:47Drew Afualo?

  I did a read recently. I honestly, it's funny because like the first experience I had, I had with an acting coach was not very positive. Um, only because I felt like as soon as she heard where I like got my start from, she kind of wrote me off a little bit. And she was like, no, TikTok, okay. And I was like, well, yeah, that's like how I became a name, but like. Obviously, my, my thought is like, if I was just on some bullshit, like I'm, I have a lot of followers, I could be in a movie. If I was like that, why would I be hiring a coach? And she was not cheap. So I was like, baby, why would I be paying for forty five minutes of your time if I um was like arrogant about it, I guess?

• 14:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, or not really, really wanting to learn.

• 14:29Drew Afualo?

  Right. I was like, and that's what I told her. I said, I, I really want to learn. Like my ego's not too big. I know I don't know anything. Uh, the only characters I've ever played right now have been myself, like in commercials and stuff. So I haven't really done professional acting at all. So that's why I want to like, you know, I, I like to learn. I, I'm a Virgo, so I love to learn new things. Which makes me know it all. And that's obviously because I do know it all. So obviously, this is how I add more to my repertoire.

• 14:53Speaker 00

  Yes, I can see that.

• 14:54Drew Afualo?

  Study and I learn everything.

• 14:55Speaker 00

  Makes complete sense.

• 14:57Drew Afualo?

  So my, my, my experience with her wasn't very positive, but then I met with someone else who's now my acting coach and he was, he's been so wonderful. And I did like a read, literally not too long ago, like a week or two ago. Um, I did a live read and um, I was kind of nervous for it. Cause the last callback I had with a live read, I did not get. And so I was a little nervous, but when I got on with my coach, he was like. Um, he goes, okay, I read through everything. Like I think, I think you're gonna nail it. I think it's gonna be fine. Um, and then he was like, but honestly, like fuck it. Let's just have fun. Let's go in there and have a good time.

• 15:31Speaker 00

  That's great.

• 15:31Drew Afualo?

  And I was like, okay, he's like, let's take pressure off.

• 15:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:34Drew Afualo?

  Let's go in, because I studied the material and like, I was like, I was going over and over. I had props, I had all that stuff.

• 15:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:40Drew Afualo?

  And he was like, it's gonna be okay. Like, let's just go in and have a good time.

• 15:43Speaker 00

  That's so nice to hear that you just let it all go, because I think that's so important.

• 15:46Drew Afualo?

  Right, because it's, it takes the fun out of it. I feel like I'll, I'll like, um, almost choke myself out with like nerves.

• 15:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:53Drew Afualo?

  When I'm, uh, which I never really get nervous doing, like, I'll sit down here and tell people to suck my wiener for 200 episodes, as you heard, we're almost there. And, and I'm like, whatever, um, but then as soon as I get in front of someone, I'm like, um, what's the line? Sorry. Like, I felt so flustered.

• 16:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's hard. It's hard to pull the lines up. I mean, it's not easy, especially if you've been, you've worked on something and it's a new environment, new situation.

• 16:15Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 16:16Speaker 00

  And it's like, yeah, because you get flustered. The same thing happens to me. I've, stuff goes like, uh, forgot my line. I don't know. What am I supposed to say here? So, but I love that. I love that you, that you found someone.

• 16:26Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 16:26Speaker 00

  Because that's, that, you're not gonna get the, the right person the first time.

• 16:30Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 16:30Speaker 00

  You know?

• 16:31Drew Afualo?

  I know.

• 16:31Speaker 00

  Um, you have to sort of, it has to be a, a relationship, you know, it has to work.

• 16:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 16:36Speaker 00

  Um, and you have to feel comfortable and, and I like the idea that, that he just said to you, let's go out and have a great time. It reminded me of something as you were talking. I remember when I did, so I did Dune and I met Ken McMillan. And Ken McMillan is wonderful, was a wonderful actor.

• 16:50Drew Afualo?

  Mm-hmm.

• 16:51Speaker 00

  Um, and we, I actually took a scene class from him after I came back from, from that. I said, I wanted to work with him and he was teaching this class.

• 16:58Drew Afualo?

  Very cool.

• 16:59Speaker 00

  Uh, and he said, you know, when he, when he, on stage in particular, but even in, in film, he said, before he starts the scene, he could be, and he was, he was speaking about being backstage, where he's being backstage and he's talking to one of the, one of the grips guys or something like that, just, and, and his cue is coming up and he can hear it. And he's talking to him about, you know, whatever it is, like a ballgame or, or something, you know, something he cooked the other night, it was a, and that, he goes right onto stage, just carries that right with him. So he has a real, he's a real connection and he just brings it right into the stage and he's, and he starts the scene and he's carrying that as if it's had a life had before, you know what I mean?

• 17:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 17:35Speaker 00

  That is so brilliant. Instead of like, standing offstage and getting yourself all up and getting ready.

• 17:39Drew Afualo?

  That's so true.

• 17:40Speaker 00

  So it's kind of what you were, I think, a little bit of what you were saying, is that you-

• 17:43Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's almost like distraction to keep from-

• 17:45Speaker 00

  Yes, and just get into the vibe and then go.

• 17:49Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's like, so it's more natural.

• 17:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:51Drew Afualo?

  Rolls off. That's so true. I'm gonna take that.

• 17:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, I've, I've always, I've never forgotten it.

• 17:55Drew Afualo?

  I'm gonna steal it from you.

• 17:56Speaker 00

  We steal-

• 17:57Drew Afualo?

  And then when I win an Oscar, I'm gonna be like- You know, one time I had this scene where I just tell your whole story.

• 18:02Speaker 00

  I was sitting with this, one of my guests, I forgot his name.

• 18:05Drew Afualo?

  God, the name escapes me.

• 18:06Speaker 00

  Popular, was it popular somebody? I don't know.

• 18:10Speaker 00

  Maybe.

• 18:12Drew Afualo?

  That's so true. I love that. I think, I, I think that, that kind of energy helps me put less pressure on it. Because I feel like, when I am, like you said, a little bit more relaxed, like he was saying, I just kind of carried that energy with me. I feel like it does perform a little bit better. When I'm on edge, I'm a little, like.

• 18:32Speaker 00

  Because you know why? Because people are like, what's you, what is, what's you gonna do next?

• 18:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 18:36Speaker 00

  They don't know. They're like, they lean in, and it's like, what's going on? You know, they want to know.

• 18:41Drew Afualo?

  Well, obviously, pivoting, but not really. I know you were on overcompensating. How was your experience doing that?

• 18:47Speaker 00

  Overcompensating.

• 18:48Drew Afualo?

  We love Benny and Mary Beth here, obviously.

• 18:50Speaker 00

  They are the best. And speaking of someone who came from the world of social.

• 18:53Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 18:54Speaker 00

  And has like moved through to creative characters, and now writing, and now he's got a show, and it's like, you know, that's, don't count that out.

• 19:01Drew Afualo?

  And I'll tell you this because you're his like pseudo dad.

• 19:04Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:04Drew Afualo?

  Um, so you can pass the message along, but he cast almost all of my friends and not me.

• 19:10Speaker 00

  You know.

• 19:11Drew Afualo?

  So Benny, I don't want to make you feel like shit, buddy, but still.

• 19:13Speaker 00

  Benny, I'm, I just want to.

• 19:15Drew Afualo?

  I'm telling your dad on you, so.

• 19:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'll talk to you right now, son. We're gonna have, go to your room. Go to your room.

• 19:21Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, go to your room.

• 19:22Speaker 00

  There you go.

• 19:23Drew Afualo?

  And cast me in season two. Thank you very much.

• 19:25Speaker 00

  There you go.

• 19:26Drew Afualo?

  But how was your experience working on overcompensating?

• 19:28Speaker 00

  It was fun.

• 19:29Drew Afualo?

  I feel like it was super fun.

• 19:30Speaker 00

  Yeah. Just so, just delightful, joyful. Um, the character that he, that Benny wrote for me as his dad, was very interesting and funny. And he let me get away with some crazy shtick and comedy and stuff, which I don't get a chance to do that much.

• 19:46Drew Afualo?

  I know, I was gonna ask. I was like, how do you like doing comedy?

• 19:48Speaker 00

  I love it. I really do. I love it. I love sort of a serious comedy.

• 19:52Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 19:52Speaker 00

  You know, comedy situation, comedy because of, you know, I'm just an odd guy. Um, and I really love, I love Benny so much.

• 20:00Drew Afualo?

  I know.

• 20:01Speaker 00

  The experience was great.

• 20:02Drew Afualo?

  He's wonderful and amazing, and very talented, a very talented writer and actor, obviously.

• 20:08Speaker 00

  He's gonna have to be on season two. It has to happen.

• 20:10Drew Afualo?

  I know. And now that we put the pressure on. I'd like to think I'm cast already. Go on and cook me, cook me up a character Benny, I'm waiting for it, so. I'll wait, I'll send you notes when I have them.

• 20:20Speaker 00

  Yes, perfect, I can't wait, oh I can't wait to see what he comes up for you, I hope he does.

• 20:25Drew Afualo?

  Right, I also, do you know, I feel like, I feel like Benny had you in mind when he wrote it, to be quite honest with you.

• 20:32Speaker 00

  I think maybe, yeah, I think maybe, because the voice was like, oh, I think I relate to this guy, I think I understand. What this is like, well it's kind of weird because, I mean, I have a son, my son is seventeen. And, you know, playing a parent, because I played a parent before I had children.

• 20:50Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 20:52Speaker 00

  Is different than playing a parent, when you have, you know, when you have a child.

• 20:55Drew Afualo?

  Oh, interesting.

• 20:55Speaker 00

  It's definitely, you can do all the substitutions in the world you want, but you just, there's just no way to completely understand that journey.

• 21:02Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 21:03Speaker 00

  Without having gone through it as, you know, in, in real life.

• 21:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 21:07Speaker 00

  So, and you, there's just nothing that you don't do for your kids, you know, and.

• 21:12Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 21:13Speaker 00

  And so that way, that was the way it was with Benny, and at the same time, the dynamic between he and, and Mary Beth was just, um, in, from my point of view, was like Benny was the star, the superstar, and Mary Beth was like, oh, yes, sorry, um, I didn't see you there. You know, it was like, you know, and I just said, oh, I love that dynamic so much. He's just very, you know, he just, it was very clever.

• 21:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I agree, I was, I was gonna say too, is there anything now, since you're at this successful stage in your career, is there anything that has to stand out on a script to you, for it to like speak to you? Do you kind of just come and go?

• 21:47Speaker 00

  Does it move you? Two, two things, one, are you moved when you read it and you're like, oh wow, I'm really, I'm in this story? And second of all, when I look at the character, is there some, is it, what am I, can I bring something to this character? It's like, I don't connect with this character, or I don't really understand this character. And, you know, you, if that happens, then you're kind of like, mm, wait, just a second.

• 22:09Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 22:09Speaker 00

  So, maybe, maybe this isn't something that I should do, or maybe it's not right, or.

• 22:13Drew Afualo?

  Interesting.

• 22:14Speaker 00

  Or maybe I just haven't. Kind of understood it.

• 22:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, seen, yeah, I need to see a little bit more.

• 22:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, and I work with, I have a scene coach that I work with, script, script coach.

• 22:22Drew Afualo?

  Oh, love.

• 22:22Speaker 00

  So we work through stuff together, mostly material, and just look at it and, and, and just kind of, and talk, talk through it. Talk through it very slowly and carefully, and really think about each moment, each word, kind of. You know, it gets pretty serious.

• 22:39Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 22:40Speaker 00

  Um, and, but it's been really helpful.

• 22:43Drew Afualo?

  I love that you still have a coach, too. And it's wonderful. Keep the shot, the, the sauce sharp.

• 22:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:48Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I have to.

• 22:49Speaker 00

  It's, it's that, and it's also just, you know, it's when you commit the time, it's like, okay, we're gonna, I've booked you for two and a half hours, and it's like, I'm gonna do the work.

• 22:58Drew Afualo?

  Now I have to, because it's on the cow.

• 23:00Speaker 00

  Right?

• 23:01Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. That's true.

• 23:02Speaker 00

  Gonna go to the gym, I booked it, I gotta go to the gym.

• 23:05Drew Afualo?

  Oh, can't go to the gym, have to work with my coach.

• 23:07Speaker 00

  Yes, shoot.

• 23:09Drew Afualo?

  Oh, I hate when that happens.

• 23:11Speaker 00

  I know. I booked time to walk my dog, I guess.

• 23:16Drew Afualo?

  Well, to kind of pivot, but not really, I did tell you this, this fun thing at the party last night. That one of my best friends, Carrie, her mom, Jennifer.

• 23:25Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 23:26Drew Afualo?

  Jennifer Pritchard Realtor is what I call her, because that is her Instagram name. So Jennifer Pritchard Realtor. Yeah, Jennifer underscore Pritchett underscore Realtor.

• 23:34Speaker 00

  Oh, my god.

• 23:34Drew Afualo?

  Love her.

• 23:35Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 23:35Drew Afualo?

  She's a huge fan of the comment section, I have, I have referenced Jen on the show a couple of times, because she is so fun and she's a hoot. But more specifically, she's a huge fan of the comment section, and she's a diehard fan of you. And I had to tell you last night, because we have to shout out Jen.

• 23:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:52Drew Afualo?

  And tell her, Kyle, Jen, I did tell Kyle about you, and he does say he loves you too, right, Kyle?

• 23:58Speaker 00

  I love you so much, and I'm actually looking for a house, so I don't know.

• 24:03Drew Afualo?

  So Jennifer Pritchard Realtor is your girl. And, and honestly, what's funny is Carrie was telling me, and the dress.

• 24:10Speaker 00

  I mean, that's her whole name, Jennifer Pritchard Realtor.

• 24:12Drew Afualo?

  I literally talked to her, I'm like Jennifer Pritchard Realtor.

• 24:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 24:15Drew Afualo?

  Obviously, I know her.

• 24:16Speaker 00

  That's her whole name.

• 24:17Drew Afualo?

  Obviously, yeah, her middle name's Pritchard, her last name's Realtor.

• 24:19Speaker 00

  Yes, exactly.

• 24:20Drew Afualo?

  What are the odds that she became a Realtor?

• 24:22Speaker 00

  JPR, JPR.

• 24:23Drew Afualo?

  Thankfully, thankfully she became a Realtor. But she's a diehard Twin Peaks fan, like Twin Peaks is her North Star.

• 24:30Speaker 00

  Oh, I love that.

• 24:31Drew Afualo?

  And Carrie was even telling me in the room that her family, she comes from a legacy of Twin Peaks lovers, including her grandma and her aunt.

• 24:39Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 24:40Drew Afualo?

  And they all, did you show them the picture? No, I haven't. Do you want to show them the picture? Yeah, I printed it off. Okay, yeah, let's show them the picture.

• 24:47Speaker 00

  Show me the picture, I love this.

• 24:48Drew Afualo?

  They have, apparently Jen has been, she's friends with, on Facebook with other people from Twin Peaks. You're her only one she's not friends with on Facebook, I guess.

• 24:57Speaker 00

  We have to change that right now.

• 24:59Drew Afualo?

  They were on the news locally in Baltimore and they were invited to the Twin Peaks cast party because they made like, uh, when Twin Peaks was canceled, they like lost their minds, they made a video and submitted it.

• 25:07Speaker 00

  Oh, my God, I love this.

• 25:10Drew Afualo?

  Because it's old, but...

• 25:13Speaker 00

  I am here because of you, that's what it is.

• 25:15Drew Afualo?

  But that is literally her, your mom, aunt and grandma? Yeah, grandmother and aunt.

• 25:20Speaker 00

  I love that.

• 25:21Drew Afualo?

  And they made a whole...

• 25:22Speaker 00

  And we know it's legit because it's time stamped, right here.

• 25:25Drew Afualo?

  There's evidence right there of Twin Peaks biggest fan. She's like, this is like a generational loop I'm closing.

• 25:31Speaker 00

  Oh. This is awesome.

• 25:35Drew Afualo?

  By telling you, I had to tell you, we had to shout out Jen, obviously.

• 25:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, 100%.

• 25:39Drew Afualo?

  She was gutted she could not be here today.

• 25:42Speaker 00

  All right.

• 25:42Drew Afualo?

  She was gutted. And you know what's funny is?

• 25:44Speaker 00

  I'll come back, we'll have to, when she comes to town, I'll have to come back.

• 25:46Drew Afualo?

  You have to come back.

• 25:47Speaker 00

  I would love that.

• 25:47Drew Afualo?

  Honestly, like, I want to say a couple months ago, whenever Jen was in town, she came and watched us.

• 25:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:53Drew Afualo?

  Um, for a bit.

• 25:54Speaker 00

  Baltimore, am I, no.

• 25:56Drew Afualo?

  From Baltimore, now she lives in North Carolina.

• 25:58Speaker 00

  North Carolina, one of my favorite states. That is so crazy. Where, can I ask whereabouts in North Carolina?

• 26:07Drew Afualo?

  Wilmington. Wilmington.

• 26:08Speaker 00

  In Wilmington, wait, you said this last night?

• 26:10Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I did.

• 26:10Speaker 00

  We talked about this last night.

• 26:11Drew Afualo?

  I did, yeah.

• 26:11Speaker 00

  Where we shot Blue Velvet.

• 26:14Speaker 00

  And not even an hour away from Varnum Town, which is this crazy podcast I did. This is on the coast. You don't have to go to Varnum Town. But we did a podcast about this little town. There was this drug smuggling operation. It was a huge thing on the coast, yeah. And we're gonna try and turn it into a series.

• 26:32Drew Afualo?

  And I bet Jen knows all about it. Honestly, she knows everything. She's the funniest person alive. Like, we have a lot of isms from Jen.

• 26:39Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 26:40Drew Afualo?

  Here's a perfect one. One time she called Carrie, or Carrie called her and was like, "Oh, do you want to come with me to this wedding this weekend?" And she was like, "Well, what time? Because I am volunteering at the Blueberry Festival." "So what time?" And then "I am going to a cookout later, so... Actually, I'm busy."

• 26:59Drew Afualo?

  So, if you ever want to go to a Blueberry Festival and buy a house, you can have Jen.

• 27:03Speaker 00

  I know. Jen is my person.

• 27:06Drew Afualo?

  That's your main girl.

• 27:07Speaker 00

  That is so funny. Blueberry Festival. I mean, I guess that is important.

• 27:13Speaker 00

  Right? I don't know. I mean...

• 27:15Drew Afualo?

  More important than a wedding, I'd say.

• 27:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'm, Lord.

• 27:18Drew Afualo?

  Honestly.

• 27:18Speaker 00

  I mean, well, maybe, yeah. Depending on the wedding.

• 27:22Drew Afualo?

  Like, a couple of months ago, when she was in town, she came and watched the show for a bit. Love her. Obviously, she's the best. And she was even, she'll sometimes text Carrie, like, "You know, Drew should have this person on their show." She'll just text Carrie that. And then I'm pretty certain she said, "You should have Kyle McLaughlin on the show." And that was months before we heard from you.

• 27:42Speaker 00

  Lo and behold.

• 27:43Drew Afualo?

  And then Carrie was like, "Mom, you're never gonna believe who's gonna come on the comment section." So she's gutted she couldn't be here today.

• 27:49Speaker 00

  Oh, shoot.

• 27:50Drew Afualo?

  But I did have to give her a little shout-out, a little piece.

• 27:52Speaker 00

  Okay, I'm glad you did.

• 27:53Drew Afualo?

  Of the ep, because she's a huge fan. And if you could sign her VHS tapes after, you would appreciate it.

• 27:59Speaker 00

  Absolutely. I can see there's a...

• 28:02Speaker 00

  There's three or 400 tapes. I'll sign all those photographs and all the tapes.

• 28:06Drew Afualo?

  Carrie was literally like, "I'm like, do you think maybe he'll sign my mom's VHS tapes?" And I was like, "I prepped him at the party last night. I did let him know about Jen."

• 28:14Speaker 00

  I'm all set. And I brought a couple of different pens that we can use. So we are good.

• 28:18Drew Afualo?

  Give her a mix and match a little bit.

• 28:19Speaker 00

  Oh, that's so sweet. I love it. I love the VHS. That is VHS.

• 28:23Drew Afualo?

  Those are OG Twin Peaks VHS tapes.

• 28:26Speaker 00

  That is OG.

• 28:27Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 28:28Speaker 00

  That's fantastic. I love it.

• 28:29Drew Afualo?

  It's beautiful. We gotta bring those back.

• 28:30Speaker 00

  Do you want to show it on TV?

• 28:31Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, let's.

• 28:32Speaker 00

  Can we do that?

• 28:32Drew Afualo?

  Can you bring them over here so I can show?

• 28:37Speaker 00

  It's a significant... I mean, this takes up a lot of room on your shelf.

• 28:41Drew Afualo?

  No, absolutely. Look how stunning and gorgeous it is.

• 28:44Speaker 00

  I mean, it's really nicely done. Like, it's in a log, encased in a log.

• 28:49Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 28:50Speaker 00

  Right? I love that.

• 28:51Drew Afualo?

  360 of Jen's VHS tapes.

• 28:54Speaker 00

  That's cool, and you have all the images of the cast on top.

• 28:58Drew Afualo?

  I know, it's really stunning, honestly.

• 29:00Speaker 00

  And it's in really good shape.

• 29:03Speaker 00

  I mean...

• 29:04Drew Afualo?

  This could go for a million dollars.

• 29:05Speaker 00

  A million dollars.

• 29:06Drew Afualo?

  Once you sign it, I'm gonna hawk it, so I hope that's cool.

• 29:09Speaker 00

  Yes, yes. That's gonna reduce the price. Then it's gonna be 50 cents.

• 29:14Drew Afualo?

  But she's the biggest Twin Peaks fan, so obviously I had to give her a little segment because she is the number one comment section fan too, so... Obviously, we love Jen. This episode is brought to you by Disaronno. This holiday season, raise a glass with Disaronno, the world's favorite Italian liqueur, marking 500 years of Dolce Vita. With smooth almond vanilla and cocoa notes, all nut and gluten free, every sip is unforgettable. Celebrate in style with the limited edition 500th anniversary collection. Five stunning bottles inspired by centuries of beauty, elegance, and style. Taste the Dolce Vita. Celebrate every sip. Visit Disaronno.com to learn more. Drink responsibly. 1525, The Legend of Disaronno begins. But I do have some other fun facts about you.

• 29:58Speaker 00

  Uh oh.

• 29:59Drew Afualo?

  If you'd like, we can go down them.

• 30:01Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 30:02Drew Afualo?

  Okay, this first one says, "Your first film appearance was getting paid $10 to be an extra in the movie The Change Link."

• 30:09Speaker 00

  Yes, yes, I was at school.

• 30:11Drew Afualo?

  10 whole dollars.

• 30:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, I remember, I got $10! You know, I would've done it for free.

• 30:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 30:17Speaker 00

  Actually, I did it for free. It didn't cost $10. I don't even know if I saw that money, where it went. But yes, I was at school at the University of Washington, and that's where the program was that I studied, that I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna become an actor." And they posted the thing for the drama department, "Come be an extra."

• 30:29Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 30:30Speaker 00

  Basically, just be a student on campus.

• 30:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 30:32Speaker 00

  And so I just said, and I was like, "Okay," I didn't know what this meant. And I just went and I said, "Okay, you're gonna walk up these stairs." I didn't see a camera? I didn't see, I didn't even know if there was another actor and it was just a walking, it was just a bunch of us.

• 30:46Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 30:47Speaker 00

  And, and, and I just, and I must, they must have said action, so I didn't hear action. People just started moving and I just, I just went with the people and we walked up the stairs and they said, okay, stop. Said, okay, now what do we do? We gotta do it again. I was like, okay. I mean, it was literally, I knew nothing.

• 31:00Drew Afualo?

  Just walking up steps, walking back down.

• 31:01Speaker 00

  Walking up steps and walking back down. And I have never, I haven't gone to look at the, I've never seen, I mean, I've seen the film, but I haven't really looked to see if, if I made the cut. I don't know if I did.

• 31:10Drew Afualo?

  You, we have to go back and look.

• 31:11Speaker 00

  I might have been cut out.

• 31:12Drew Afualo?

  I bet Jen will know if you've been in there.

• 31:14Speaker 00

  Yes, she will.

• 31:14Drew Afualo?

  I bet she would know.

• 31:15Speaker 00

  She knows all my stuff. Bless her heart.

• 31:17Drew Afualo?

  It says, uh, before filming Blue Velvet, you met Laura Dern and David Lynch at Bob's Big Boy for a chemistry lunch.

• 31:25Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 31:25Drew Afualo?

  And how back up.

• 31:27Speaker 00

  I think it went well.

• 31:30Drew Afualo?

  I'd say pretty well.

• 31:31Speaker 00

  Laura and I dated for four years. Oh my God, it was great.

• 31:35Drew Afualo?

  Laura Dern, how fun. And David Lynch, obviously so cool.

• 31:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:39Drew Afualo?

  And do, like, chemistry lunches, that just for the, like, before you start filming, obviously?

• 31:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think.

• 31:45Drew Afualo?

  Just the kind of vibe?

• 31:45Speaker 00

  I think it was, that was what it was. You know, David doesn't really audition.

• 31:51Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 31:51Speaker 00

  Uh, people, you know, it's more of a, kind of a meet and talk and.

• 31:55Drew Afualo?

  Very cool.

• 31:56Speaker 00

  Which is very nice, very civilized.

• 31:57Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 31:58Speaker 00

  Um, he just figures, hey, well, you're an actor, you know what to do. You know?

• 32:02Drew Afualo?

  Mm-hmm.

• 32:03Speaker 00

  And then he meets you and he wants to know if, if you, if he gets a sense of you within his, you know, his world.

• 32:08Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 32:08Speaker 00

  And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but he's just very kind and very gracious. Was very kind, was very gracious. Speak to, I speak, I still speak of him as if he's here in the present tense. Um, and so Laura and I, and we just had a lovely meeting and, um, she's just delightful and allure, alluring and fun and, uh, she had a great sense of humor. I remember laughed a lot. She's got a great laugh, like you, got a great, she has a great laugh.

• 32:38Drew Afualo?

  Oh, thank you.

• 32:39Speaker 00

  Different than your, different than your laugh, but the same kind of thing.

• 32:42Drew Afualo?

  I don't know if I'd call mine alluring, really. Maybe like a siren.

• 32:47Drew Afualo?

  Maybe like a siren in the ocean, you know?

• 32:49Speaker 00

  I think it's great. Um, but we, yeah, we did that. And, and that kind of thing, I, I had one other, I had, I had a chemistry read for a film years ago. I think it was called The Net. I had a chemistry read, it was with Sandra Bullock and, um, I thought it went great.

• 33:09Speaker 00

  But when you go see the movie, I'm not in it. So sadly.

• 33:14Drew Afualo?

  So apparently, other people did not feel that way.

• 33:16Speaker 00

  They did not feel the chemistry that I thought was scintillating.

• 33:21Drew Afualo?

  I thought it was piping hot.

• 33:23Speaker 00

  Piping hot. Yeah. There you go. So it doesn't always work out.

• 33:26Drew Afualo?

  Oh, that's okay. I even, well, I haven't even gotten that far, but um, I did, I've told this story a few times, but like, when Moana, the live action Moana was like broadcast that they were gonna film it. You know, there's about, I would say about 10 Samoan people in this industry currently. I'm one of the 10.

• 33:45Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 33:46Drew Afualo?

  Um, and I'm fairly new.

• 33:47Speaker 00

  Odds are.

• 33:48Drew Afualo?

  I thought maybe, you know, extra at the very least.

• 33:52Speaker 00

  At the very least.

• 33:53Drew Afualo?

  Not one person called me. Which is interesting because I know the director of the film and um, I've worked with Dwayne, like I've done a few things with The Rock.

• 34:03Speaker 00

  Right.

• 34:04Drew Afualo?

  So, and Ali'i. So it's kinda like, hmm, that's interesting.

• 34:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:08Drew Afualo?

  Um, so then I think, because I made a TikTok about it and I was just kind of complaining for the fun of it, but I was also kinda like, hey.

• 34:14Speaker 00

  Hey, by the way.

• 34:15Drew Afualo?

  And then um, they did end up sending me reads for background characters, all men, by the way. Um, it was Coconut Farmer, Angry Coconut Farmer, um, and Fisherman. Fisherman, Fisherman number three, actually, and I wanted to be the Fisherman.

• 34:29Speaker 00

  So they really had you typecast?

• 34:30Drew Afualo?

  Right. They really were like, well, a man who does hard physical labor, obviously.

• 34:35Speaker 00

  Right.

• 34:35Drew Afualo?

  And I think it's based off my build. So basically, they were like, yeah, like, uh, just read these and I, now looking back, I feel like they only did that because I bitched about it online and they were like, duh, give this bitch Fisherman. And then, obviously, I didn't get anything, clearly. Cause I'm still here doing this, obviously. And so, my Fisherman, my role didn't take off like I thought it would, you know?

• 34:57Speaker 00

  No.

• 34:58Drew Afualo?

  Um, but I did want Fisherman because he had three lines, whereas the other guys had one.

• 35:02Speaker 00

  Right.

• 35:02Drew Afualo?

  Um, didn't pan out.

• 35:04Speaker 00

  No.

• 35:04Drew Afualo?

  But I thought I nailed it. When I did, when I did the self-tape, I was like, I nailed those three lines.

• 35:09Speaker 00

  They made a huge mistake.

• 35:10Drew Afualo?

  I think so.

• 35:11Speaker 00

  If you had played one of those roles, it'd be memorable. I don't remember the Fisherman from that at all.

• 35:17Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, exactly. No one's, and, and you know what? We're gonna forget him again when we see the live action.

• 35:22Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 35:24Speaker 00

  If it'd been you, people would remember.

• 35:26Drew Afualo?

  I do have a fear though, because I did get um a read for like animate like voiceover.

• 35:32Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 35:33Drew Afualo?

  Um for an animation, but it was an audition like three, four years ago and they asked me if I could sing. And I was like, no, um I'm not tone deaf. I just like can't sing. I I wouldn't say I could sing at all.

• 35:47Speaker 00

  Right.

• 35:47Drew Afualo?

  Um and so they were like, okay, perfect. Um we need you to sing for a minute straight a cappella and then do these few lines. And the the description of the character and everything was very vague and nondescript because I think looking back now, now that Wanted Two is out.

• 36:04Speaker 00

  Right.

• 36:04Drew Afualo?

  I know it was for a role in Wanted Two and I know it was for like a newer character they had in Wanted Two. Who the song she sings, you're fucking nuts. I can't sing that shit.

• 36:14Speaker 00

  Right.

• 36:15Drew Afualo?

  But also I was like, uh the the when I did the the tape for just the few lines they gave me and then I sent in the singing tape. I for real was thinking to myself, they're never gonna.

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• 37:01Drew Afualo?

  Call me again. They're gonna blackball me when they see how bad I am at singing.

• 37:05Speaker 00

  No.

• 37:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I think so. And so obviously I didn't get that one either.

• 37:11Speaker 00

  So they didn't tell you what you were auditioning for? They didn't say anything? It was all kind of mystery?

• 37:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, they said it was like um and I I've heard they do this with like huge releases, like they kind of cloak them under other things. So there was a description of the character, but it was, at the time, it was a two-headed bird. That was an old woman and I said, how is an old woman a bird? That feels like just a mean thing to write to me.

• 37:34Speaker 00

  Right.

• 37:35Drew Afualo?

  And so it was like a mean old woman bird with two heads and then they're like, basically it's just like bitchy, they're being mean to each other.

• 37:42Speaker 00

  Right.

• 37:42Drew Afualo?

  They kind of are at odds.

• 37:43Speaker 00

  Back and forth, yeah.

• 37:44Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so I was like both heads, like that was what the lines were and then they wanted me to sing for a minute. And I did, to be fair, I think I picked a song that was really hard. I picked the song Songbird.

• 37:55Speaker 00

  Well, so they asked you to sing just anything?

• 37:57Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, they said anything as long as it's somewhat recognizable and acapella.

• 38:01Speaker 00

  That's really hard.

• 38:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

• 38:04Speaker 00

  I mean.

• 38:05Drew Afualo?

  And then they said nothing, um, like nothing from a musical or anything. They wanted it to be like a modern-ish song.

• 38:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:12Drew Afualo?

  Of some kind, again, very vague instruction.

• 38:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:14Drew Afualo?

  And I don't know how to sing, like I said, and I asked my cousin to help me because he's a very good singer, a very talented singer. And he grew up in church singing and everything, so he knows a lot about music and so he was like, going through takes with me and like, just he's like, just have it, like just sing something for me. And I've never been that nervous in my life than to sing in front of someone.

• 38:33Speaker 00

  Singing is really nerve wracking.

• 38:35Drew Afualo?

  I know, and I know you said you've done musicals.

• 38:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:38Drew Afualo?

  And how do you like singing?

• 38:39Speaker 00

  I, I mean, I, I haven't sung for a long, long time.

• 38:42Drew Afualo?

  I feel like you're way better than me, obviously.

• 38:44Speaker 00

  No, no, no, I, I don't think I can sing anymore. Um, but it's, it's very, yeah, it's very, very, uh, disconcerting.

• 38:51Drew Afualo?

  Nerve wracking, yeah, like all, uh, that's why I said I could get up and tell wiener jokes, but I cannot sing in front of other people. It makes me, it makes me so nervous. And there were a couple of times where my cousin was like recording, he's like, I'm just gonna record you. Um, so you get used to being recorded while I, while you sing and then we'll just like stop it after every take and then we can pick the best ones. I was like, okay. And there were some takes where like, he would start and then about two seconds in, he'd stop and be like, that's terrible, let's start over. That's horrible, don't use that one. I'd be like, I didn't even sing, I sang two words.

• 39:22Speaker 00

  Confidence building, that's what we call that.

• 39:25Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I had a real Mr. Miyagi situation going on, you know what I mean? I was like, what does this have to do with karate? That's why I'm like.

• 39:32Speaker 00

  Challenging. Good lord, yeah.

• 39:36Drew Afualo?

  I know, so.

• 39:37Speaker 00

  You like a, you like a challenge.

• 39:38Drew Afualo?

  But I am looking forward to acting, and I will say.

• 39:40Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 39:41Drew Afualo?

  With all the bumps I've had, I'm very excited.

• 39:43Speaker 00

  Yes, yes.

• 39:44Drew Afualo?

  To keep going.

• 39:44Speaker 00

  I, I want you to have a great experience.

• 39:46Drew Afualo?

  Another fun fact.

• 39:48Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 39:48Drew Afualo?

  It says you originally wanted to be an opera singer and studied classical voice at University of Washington.

• 39:54Speaker 00

  Speaking of singing. I can't sing. I thought about it for like a quarter note. Bada boom. Very funny. Bad joke. But I did, no, I, I, like, I sang in the musicals in high school, I went to college. I, I took singing lessons.

• 40:11Drew Afualo?

  Very cool.

• 40:12Speaker 00

  I was one of those kids, and I studied with one of the teachers at the University of Washington in the opera department. I was terrible, let's just put it, get that right out of the way, first of all. And it had pity on me or something, because I think it was weird, because I was coming from this very special acting program that, that was at the school. And, and I was also trying to do this other thing, and they were like, well, he's an actor, right? Yeah, but he wants to be a singer too, it was like, well, wait a minute, I'm not sure that's gonna work.

• 40:36Drew Afualo?

  He's trying to be a jack of all trades.

• 40:37Speaker 00

  All of jack of all trades. Be good, if I could only, if only I could be a coconut farmer.

• 40:43Drew Afualo?

  Fisherman number three.

• 40:44Speaker 00

  An angry coconut farmer, or fisherman.

• 40:47Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, well, you'll get there one day.

• 40:48Speaker 00

  Someday I'm gonna get there.

• 40:49Drew Afualo?

  Hopefully your career takes off soon.

• 40:52Speaker 00

  Fingers crossed, through, my fingers are crossed. But it was, it was really fun, you know, and that was, that was really gonna be my thing, and then I, literally, I, I was on my way to New York, and I, I auditioned for Dune in Seattle. With a casting agent there, a casting lady, and, and they took, showed the tape to David Lynch in, in LA, and, and they flew me down, they met me, and I chit-chatting, I didn't know what I was doing. And I screen tested, and they were like, okay, you're the guy. And I was like, this is really, I was like, of course I'm the guy, you know, at the time, you're like, well, this is how it works, right? They pull you out of like, a hat, and then they throw you, and I'm like, and, you know, come to find out, of course, that's not how it works at all.

• 41:31Drew Afualo?

  That's so cool, though.

• 41:32Speaker 00

  It was wild.

• 41:33Drew Afualo?

  Okay, opera singer, that's U dub, right, like, Huskies?

• 41:36Speaker 00

  Huskies, yeah.

• 41:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, purple.

• 41:39Speaker 00

  Purple and gold.

• 41:39Drew Afualo?

  Period.

• 41:40Speaker 00

  Well done.

• 41:41Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, my sister went to the University of Oregon.

• 41:43Speaker 00

  I'm sorry.

• 41:46Speaker 00

  Big rivalry. Great school, no, great school.

• 41:49Drew Afualo?

  No, but that's fun. I like that. U Dub's a great school.

• 41:52Speaker 00

  It's a great school too, yeah.

• 41:53Drew Afualo?

  And they got a great football program too.

• 41:54Speaker 00

  Yes, they do have a great program.

• 41:55Drew Afualo?

  Do you go back and watch games at all?

• 41:56Speaker 00

  I went back to recently, yeah, yeah. I went back and saw, and watched one of the games. They're really, really good. You know, they're really good. And the, and the, we got a tour through the, through like the locker room and area, and then the weight room area, and I was like, I mean, it's like pro level. I don't know what pro level is, but I was like, this is incredible.

• 42:15Drew Afualo?

  I know the money they're funneling in those programs now.

• 42:18Speaker 00

  Oh my god, it's no joke. It is no joke.

• 42:20Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, they are, they are like pros now essentially.

• 42:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:23Drew Afualo?

  Now with all the new rules and everything.

• 42:24Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 42:24Drew Afualo?

  Are you a sports fan?

• 42:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, I am.

• 42:26Drew Afualo?

  What do you like?

• 42:27Speaker 00

  Well, I, I watch football. I love the Seahawks, being from that area. I was, I remember rooting them on in seventy-six when the franchise started.

• 42:34Drew Afualo?

  Love. Big Pete Carroll fan?

• 42:35Speaker 00

  Yeah, I like Pete Carroll.

• 42:37Drew Afualo?

  Love.

• 42:37Speaker 00

  He brought a great energy.

• 42:38Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, he led a dynasty over there for a while.

• 42:41Speaker 00

  And, and it's just, you know, it's in the town. See, I mean, I went to school at U Dub, was it, I was in Seattle for five years. It's not my hometown, but I, you know, it's something, it's a town I'm close to.

• 42:50Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 42:50Speaker 00

  And they really, really get behind their team.

• 42:52Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 42:52Speaker 00

  The twelves, you know, yeah, the fans are really an important part of that franchise, I think. So I like that. And then, and then I'm kind of a fair weather sports, you know, like I watched the World Series, of course. You know what I mean? And like, cause you gotta do that. And same with basketball. And then I'm, I grew up as a golfer. I played a lot of golf.

• 43:09Drew Afualo?

  Cool.

• 43:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, I was really cool. You can see why I was Mr. Popular. On the golf team.

• 43:14Drew Afualo?

  Golf's real cool now, nowadays. You see a lot of young people are golfing now.

• 43:17Speaker 00

  When I was young, it was not cool.

• 43:20Drew Afualo?

  They were like, big nerd.

• 43:21Speaker 00

  Yes, the big nerd.

• 43:22Drew Afualo?

  You're golfing?

• 43:24Speaker 00

  But we did have cheerleaders. We had cheerleaders.

• 43:26Drew Afualo?

  Oh, love.

• 43:26Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, yeah. We had, they had, they had two cheerleading squads.

• 43:29Drew Afualo?

  For, for golfing?

• 43:31Speaker 00

  One for, yeah, for golf. There was a cheerleading squad for golf. There was a cheerleading squad for baseball. There was a cheer, all the sports had a cheerleading squad. And so they would come out, well, this is at the high, my high school.

• 43:40Drew Afualo?

  Oh, in high school, okay.

• 43:41Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, it was serious.

• 43:42Drew Afualo?

  Real supportive school. I love that.

• 43:44Speaker 00

  Yes, they were big on that. And I was like, why do you have cheerleaders? Cause you, you know, golf is like, you can't really speak.

• 43:49Drew Afualo?

  It's quiet.

• 43:50Speaker 00

  Very quiet. So they were very quiet cheerleaders. I don't think they had one cheer. They just sort of looked at each other like.

• 43:55Drew Afualo?

  They're just there going.

• 43:59Speaker 00

  Really quiet.

• 44:00Drew Afualo?

  That's a, I think that's a fair weather fan comment you made, I think is real. Um, my dad played in the NFL for like a bit.

• 44:09Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 44:09Drew Afualo?

  Back in the day.

• 44:10Speaker 00

  That's impressive.

• 44:10Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, from like two thousand to two thousand two.

• 44:13Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 44:13Drew Afualo?

  Um, he was on the Arizona Cardinals, but my dad didn't um, play football at all growing up. He played, he started playing in junior college and then um, was walking around. Well, he was just walking around on campus. My dad's, my dad's six, six, so my dad's a big dude. And so he was walking around on campus and then um, his uh, coach like in college was like, do you play football? And he was like, no, I've never played football. And so he was like, okay, like you should definitely join the team. And so my dad played at the junior college for a couple of years and then transferred to Texas, Western Texas A and M.

• 44:45Speaker 00

  Right.

• 44:45Drew Afualo?

  Played there for two and then got drafted like seventh round, right before Mr. Irrelevant. So, you know, Mr. Irrelevant is synonymously, obviously the very last person picked in the draft.

• 44:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:58Drew Afualo?

  My dad got picked right before him.

• 44:59Speaker 00

  Before him, so he's fine. He's good.

• 45:01Drew Afualo?

  Honestly, it kinda sucked. My mom was like, I wish he got picked as Mr. Irrelevant, cause like the guy who, the very like, one of the guys that was Mr. Irrelevant, he like, they throw this big parade and stuff to like, celebrate him as if he's just as important as the first guy.

• 45:12Speaker 00

  Sure, sure.

• 45:12Drew Afualo?

  And my mom's like, well, he didn't get any of the free shit and he was right before the last guy.

• 45:15Speaker 00

  Damn, the timing couldn't have been worse.

• 45:17Drew Afualo?

  Damn.

• 45:18Speaker 00

  Well, the fact that he played in, that's really impressive.

• 45:20Drew Afualo?

  I think so.

• 45:21Speaker 00

  That's the top of the, of the world.

• 45:23Drew Afualo?

  Right, you don't get any higher than that. I know, I tell my dad that all the time, cause a lot of times he's like, nah, about it. But I was like, that's an incredible experience to have and not many people do.

• 45:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:32Drew Afualo?

  But that being said, my, my fiance also played college football for a long time, didn't wanna go to the pros.

• 45:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:38Drew Afualo?

  Um, also a big dude, but both my fiance and my dad are the same and in terms of fair weather, sports fans. Like they love watching sports, like they really do enjoy it, but they're not like, like you said, they like World Series, NBA finals, fun stuff like that.

• 45:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's kinda, it's kinda like that. And oftentimes, I mean, I love having, it reminds me of probably when I was younger, cause there was, sports were, were on all the time when I was a kid.

• 45:59Drew Afualo?

  Mm-hmm.

• 45:59Speaker 00

  And you just sort of walk through the room and you just sort of have in the background, like, oh, it's sort of comforting somehow.

• 46:03Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's so real. I agree. My mom's a forty-niner fan, so our kinda rivals with you and the Seahawks.

• 46:10Speaker 00

  Yes, yes. I'm sorry, we can't continue this interview.

• 46:13Drew Afualo?

  And that's the end of this interview, by the way.

• 46:15Speaker 00

  No, so nice to speak.

• 46:17Drew Afualo?

  Well, it was a joy until, you know, you brought that up.

• 46:20Speaker 00

  Moment.

• 46:22Drew Afualo?

  But speaking on the subject of sports, my next fun fact for you. Uh, it says you worked for a golf course greenski- groundskeeper in the summers growing up in Yakima.

• 46:31Speaker 00

  Yes, I did. When I, when you say nerd, you, it was a capital N. Right there.

• 46:36Drew Afualo?

  I know every fact is more nerd, nerd, nerd.

• 46:39Speaker 00

  It just keeps pointing in that direction. The Ouija board says nerd. Oh, there. Oh, yeah. Well, it was, you know, it was a, it was actually a great job, I gotta say. Cause you're outdoors, started a little early for high, you know, cause I was, I was high school into college. So I had to be there at 6 a.m. which was, you know, sort of put the kibosh on some of the late night activities. But it was really nice to get up in the morning and it was nice to be in the sun all day outside. Really beautiful surroundings. Golf course is very lovely, you know. And, um, yeah, and it was really, and I worked with some very eccentric. It was kind of amazing because there were these old timers that were there, you know. And they all had stories. They had crazy stories. There was one guy, his name was Red. That wasn't his real name, but it was Red, of course.

• 47:23Speaker 00

  And he always kind of hitched up when he would stand like this and he was a good old boy like this and the whole thing with the hat. And you know, the whole thing, the trucker hat. And I remember he had a wallet that would sort of stick half out of his back pocket.

• 47:34Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 47:35Speaker 00

  And it looked like you'd taken two slabs of dried roast beef and stuck them together. And then there was a bunch of stuff inside. And I looked at it, I said, that can't be a wallet. It's like, cause you take it out and it's like, it's a sandwich. It's like a sandwich. I'm like, Jesus Christ. I was like, this is amazing. But it's stuff like that, you know, you have these great like memories of, of these really eccentric characters that, you know, we all were in this. And you know, you have a lunch together and you sit around, you talk and you get to know each other, you know. It was kind of cool.

• 48:02Drew Afualo?

  What a fun job to have.

• 48:03Speaker 00

  It was fun.

• 48:04Drew Afualo?

  It's random, but very fun.

• 48:06Speaker 00

  True.

• 48:08Drew Afualo?

  And then my last fun fact about you is that in high school for prank week, you put up posters of Farrah Fawcett on the gym floor.

• 48:14Speaker 00

  Of course.

• 48:15Drew Afualo?

  Which classroom furniture?

• 48:16Speaker 00

  Of course. This is good. You went deep in this research. I really love it.

• 48:20Drew Afualo?

  So rebellious nerd.

• 48:21Speaker 00

  Well, it was senior prank week. So we had to come up with these ideas. And so the one, the genius prank, and I'm gonna put it out there in case anyone is thinking. So our high school was laid out kind of, it was a two stories, two floors, kind of one long hallways. And in the middle was the cafeteria, right? So too long. And they were sort of kind of mirrored with each other. So what we did is we took, we got in, we broke in, I had a crew, we had a key, we had, we could open most of the rooms. And we took the desk from the furthest away room on the lower part of the, of the, you know, of the floors. And we moved it and we had an elevator because we got the kids that had broken legs and we got the elevator so we could use the key.

• 49:05Speaker 00

  And we moved it all the way to the upper floor of the furthest away point. And we just switched the desks like this. And then we took the Farrah Fawcett posters because this was 1977. So Farrah Fawcett, you know, she was like.

• 49:18Drew Afualo?

  She was the one.

• 49:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. She was like on, she was like, what is it, on Wayne's World, there's a guy's like Heather Lock, Heather be thy name. She was like our thing. So it was Farrah Fawcett. We took posters of her and then we shellacked them over the, over the school emblem in the middle of the cafeteria.

• 49:35Drew Afualo?

  Damn, you shellacked them too?

• 49:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, we put them, we took, we took a glue-water combination to put it down, which was actually easy to get off. And by the time the kids got to school, the janitors had been busy and they like had already removed the posters.

• 49:47Drew Afualo?

  Damn.

• 49:48Speaker 00

  Yeah, I know. It was very sad. But the desks, all day long, they had, it disrupted the school, which was the important thing to do.

• 49:55Drew Afualo?

  That was the important part.

• 49:56Speaker 00

  And it wasn't vandalism, we just, we just moved things around.

• 49:58Drew Afualo?

  Did something silly.

• 49:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:00Drew Afualo?

  You just did a little silly.

• 50:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, just kids, you know. We didn't have social media. We didn't have things to take our minds off. We didn't have, you know, phones. We had to make our own fun, all right? That's what I'm trying to say.

• 50:09Drew Afualo?

  It doesn't sound that fun now, but at the time it was hilarious.

• 50:11Speaker 00

  It was a lot of fun, yeah. All night, we were up all night. So proud of ourselves.

• 50:15Drew Afualo?

  I honestly get that now because I just, I just turned 30. So now, in TikTok years.

• 50:21Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 50:22Drew Afualo?

  I'm over the hill.

• 50:22Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'm sorry.

• 50:23Drew Afualo?

  TikTok years, two steps from the grave, me.

• 50:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 50:27Drew Afualo?

  So like.

• 50:27Speaker 00

  What's next?

• 50:29Drew Afualo?

  God, retirement, hopefully.

• 50:30Speaker 00

  Retirement, oh. No, you can never.

• 50:32Drew Afualo?

  I'm clocking out, you're clocking in. Hopefully your big break comes soon.

• 50:35Speaker 00

  You, thank you, thank you. So I'm here, people to see this.

• 50:39Drew Afualo?

  Exactly, exactly. But I was talking about this with my friend the other day because there were so many things that have shifted drastically, obviously with the invention of cell phones and social media and everything like that. And I feel like my generation was probably one of the last ones to have childhood and high school.

• 50:58Speaker 00

  Kind of before the phone.

• 50:59Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, with no phone and no social media or anything like that. And honestly, I'm like grateful for it. Like now I have brain rot to a level that is terminal, I think. It's clinical at least.

• 51:09Speaker 00

  We all do.

• 51:10Drew Afualo?

  At this point, yeah, I have no choice. Those bugs are embedded in my brain.

• 51:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:15Drew Afualo?

  They're in there.

• 51:15Speaker 00

  They're in there and they're not going anywhere.

• 51:16Drew Afualo?

  It's okay, make yourself busy, that's fine. But I was like telling my friend the other day, I was like, I'm honestly really glad that I had most of my childhood, including my teen years, like with no phone, no social media. It makes me sound a hundred when I say it, but it's very true. I feel like I had a lot of developmental milestones that maybe people are missing out on now because everybody's on their phone and everything's so easy now to look up. Because when I was, I was like telling a story like this on the show the other day that I had to do. I went through a really weird hyperfixation phase when I was a child. So one of my hyperfixations was the Titanic. And so like I've already said this, like I just like needed to research everything about the Titanic.

• 51:57Speaker 00

  Right, right.

• 51:59Drew Afualo?

  Just needed to download it. For why or what, I'm not too sure still.

• 52:04Speaker 00

  No, I think it, I mean, I get it, right? It's fascinating because you think of how could it have happened?

• 52:10Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 52:10Speaker 00

  And it was like everything, all the wrong things happened at one, at one point.

• 52:14Drew Afualo?

  You get it.

• 52:15Speaker 00

  So you're like, how do you?

• 52:16Drew Afualo?

  You're speaking my language.

• 52:16Speaker 00

  Pull that apart.

• 52:17Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 52:18Speaker 00

  How can I not be in a situation like that?

• 52:21Drew Afualo?

  Right, exactly.

• 52:23Speaker 00

  So I'm gonna study it and know.

• 52:24Drew Afualo?

  Exactly, and prepare.

• 52:25Speaker 00

  And prepare, yeah.

• 52:26Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and I think most of my fascinations were with things that involved like the hubris of man, really. It's just like, just like really thinking you're bigger than the program. I feel like I was super invested in stuff like that. I was like, how could you ever think that you could get on that and think nothing bad was gonna happen? Like me thinking like nothing bad would ever happen to me if I was younger at the time, if I was around at that time. I'd be like, well, I'm just, I guess, built different. I wouldn't have gotten on the Titanic.

• 52:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 52:51Drew Afualo?

  I would have saw it and I said, no, that's gonna sink probably.

• 52:53Speaker 00

  This is a disaster, a disaster in the making. Yeah, yeah.

• 52:57Drew Afualo?

  So I had a very weird hyperfixation thing as a child, but when I was really into things like the Titanic, um, and I was at like my grandfather's house, I would, to look it up, because I had no computer or anything like that, I would, I would use the encyclopedias.

• 53:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 53:11Drew Afualo?

  And I talked about those recently, and there were some younger people online that were like, what are those?

• 53:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 53:16Drew Afualo?

  And I was like, God, I'm a thousand.

• 53:18Speaker 00

  You're a thousand.

• 53:19Drew Afualo?

  I'm a million years old. Oh, no.

• 53:21Speaker 00

  Encyclopedia, there used to be the Encyclopedia Britannica. I think that was, we'd have, everyone had one in your house.

• 53:28Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, people used to sell them door to door.

• 53:29Speaker 00

  Well, you know, it used to be, and this is an old reference, um, there was a show called Laugh-In, um, thousand years ago, and they had, it was irreverent and kind of young comedy. And one of their, one of their phrases, they would always say is, look that up in your Funkenwagnals.

• 53:45Speaker 00

  Look that up in your Funkenwagnals. Now Funkenwagnals was actually the name of the, of the encyclopedia.

• 53:51Speaker 00

  It was the Funkenwagnals.

• 53:52Drew Afualo?

  Genius marketing.

• 53:52Speaker 00

  I'm just like, who comes up with that? I'm like, I said, that's Fred. Yeah, exactly. Genius marketing.

• 53:58Drew Afualo?

  Clearly, it was very impactful, because you're still.

• 54:01Speaker 00

  It's a bug, right in here. It's still in there.

• 54:04Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was like, you guys have no idea what it was like to have to pick one out and then look it up and then,

• 54:09Speaker 00

  Oh my God.

• 54:09Drew Afualo?

  And then there's not that much information in there. I need more.

• 54:12Speaker 00

  No.

• 54:12Drew Afualo?

  I need more. Did you have any special interests when you were younger?

• 54:16Speaker 00

  I was, I was a big reader.

• 54:18Drew Afualo?

  Oh, love.

• 54:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, I really.

• 54:19Drew Afualo?

  Any faves? Genre?

• 54:20Speaker 00

  You know, it's all the classic ones, the Hardy Boys, you know, I liked the Three Investigators. Um, I would actually read, my parents had the Reader's Digest condensed books. I was like, okay. And I would literally, if hungry for stuff to read, I would like pull one down and I would go like, what's it, oh, Papillon, what's this, or Papillin, Papillin, what is that? And so I read, but it wasn't the whole story. It was just the condensed version.

• 54:45Drew Afualo?

  The Cliff Notes?

• 54:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, she was like, ah, damn, I gotta go find this and read it for real.

• 54:49Drew Afualo?

  God, getting edged by this. The Reader's Digest is edging me again.

• 54:53Speaker 00

  Edging me again.

• 54:56Drew Afualo?

  Man, you're really not beating those nerd allegations.

• 54:58Speaker 00

  Oh, no, no.

• 54:59Drew Afualo?

  You said I was itching to read something.

• 55:01Speaker 00

  I have gotten to the age, I've gotten to the age where I just let it all kind of hang out. It's all good. It's all good. See, this is what you have to look forward to.

• 55:09Drew Afualo?

  I'm looking for, honestly, I'm there. I'm already there with you, honestly.

• 55:12Speaker 00

  That's one of the things I love about you.

• 55:13Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I'm like, I'm real old, so.

• 55:15Speaker 00

  Right there. It's all right there. Here I am.

• 55:18Drew Afualo?

  I know. The first thing, honestly, at this point would have been like, when you asked me, what is that? And I said, it's electrolytes, just trying to keep my hydration up. That's me getting old.

• 55:25Speaker 00

  I love that.

• 55:26Drew Afualo?

  I was, I was just talking about this.

• 55:27Speaker 00

  Being practical.

• 55:28Drew Afualo?

  That too.

• 55:29Speaker 00

  And health conscious.

• 55:31Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, like tiredness now that I'm older is just like, it'll ruin my whole fucking day.

• 55:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:36Drew Afualo?

  If I don't get a really good night's, good night's sleep.

• 55:39Speaker 00

  Secret ingredient right here.

• 55:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, what's in there?

• 55:41Speaker 00

  It's vitamin C O F F E E.

• 55:47Speaker 00

  Sorry.

• 55:48Drew Afualo?

  That was such an old man joke.

• 55:49Speaker 00

  It's old man. Look, you see how I lean in on that? I'm like, yeah, baby. And you got me.

• 55:55Drew Afualo?

  Oh, man. I yearn for that. I can't wait to just be saying things. When you're older, you could just say anything.

• 56:02Speaker 00

  You can just say stuff.

• 56:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you could just say anything and people go, yeah, because you're older.

• 56:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:06Drew Afualo?

  That's so T.

• 56:07Speaker 00

  Pass. Just keep moving. Keep moving, old man. Keep moving.

• 56:13Drew Afualo?

  I can't wait for that. I was talking about this the other day. I was like, explaining, I think my sister and I were talking about, but I was talking about how like, because a lot of, I have another podcast with my sister and a lot of our, uh, audience members are like, there, there's a good portion of them that are our age, but a lot of them are a lot younger.

• 56:29Speaker 00

  Right.

• 56:30Drew Afualo?

  And so like, when we talk, I was like, you guys don't get it. Like, you're gonna get to an age where you'll say things out loud, like, I can't eat that. I have to work tomorrow. You'll literally say things like that out loud and mean it. Like, you'll be like, I can't, I have a busy day tomorrow. I can't eat that. I'll be up all night. I'll have to sit in the recliner. My acid reflux.

• 56:48Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 56:49Drew Afualo?

  You know, like.

• 56:49Speaker 00

  I know.

• 56:50Drew Afualo?

  To stack my pillows up, so I can't.

• 56:52Speaker 00

  I know.

• 56:52Drew Afualo?

  What am I gonna do?

• 56:53Speaker 00

  Don't start with prunes. I'm just saying, kids, don't. Prunes, no, that's a dead giveaway.

• 57:02Drew Afualo?

  My godfather.

• 57:04Speaker 00

  Now you're gonna tell me your story about prunes, aren't you?

• 57:06Drew Afualo?

  No.

• 57:07Speaker 00

  Please don't.

• 57:07Drew Afualo?

  No, but not about that.

• 57:09Speaker 00

  Don't.

• 57:09Drew Afualo?

  Not about prunes, but my, my godfather did say once, like, uh, he was like, if I could do any kind of reverse aging, I wouldn't make myself younger, I would reset like my food clock. So like, I wouldn't be allergic to anything, nothing would upset my stomach.

• 57:25Speaker 00

  You could eat anything.

• 57:25Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I would just reset that, so I could eat whatever I wanted.

• 57:28Speaker 00

  Wow, that's a really interesting idea.

• 57:29Drew Afualo?

  I know, I was like, huh, cuz when I first heard that, I was like in my early twenties and I was like, what the fuck does that mean? Now that I'm older, I'm like, oh my god, what I would give.

• 57:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 57:39Drew Afualo?

  What I would give to reset my food clock ten years, like, holy shit.

• 57:43Speaker 00

  I love that idea.

• 57:44Drew Afualo?

  I can't even have anything with a little too much heavy cream, otherwise, it's curtains for me.

• 57:47Speaker 00

  Curtains. It's curtains for you.

• 57:49Drew Afualo?

  It's curtains.

• 57:50Speaker 00

  It's curtains, Batman.

• 57:54Speaker 00

  My mind goes.

• 57:54Drew Afualo?

  I think I'm aging as I'm talking to you.

• 57:56Speaker 00

  Like you have reference points, so many, and, and, you know, the audience is not gonna be like, what the hell? But it's like, to me, it's like, that's just like it was yesterday, it's like, you know, Batman and Robin, I mean, come on.

• 58:09Drew Afualo?

  I made, yeah, I made, um, I think it was, I don't even fucking remember, I think I made like a River Styx joke once, like, I just said someone looked like the ferryman on the River Styx.

• 58:19Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 58:20Drew Afualo?

  I just made that joke, I made a Dante's Inferno joke once, and then young people are like, huh.

• 58:25Speaker 00

  No.

• 58:26Drew Afualo?

  Cuz they don't fucking get it.

• 58:27Speaker 00

  Only in Italy, you could do it in Italy, they know Dante, it's Italian, Italian's what I'm saying.

• 58:31Drew Afualo?

  They'll get it.

• 58:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, you're right.

• 58:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, uh, but I can't wait, I mean, I yearn for that time.

• 58:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:36Drew Afualo?

  Where you could just say anything.

• 58:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:37Drew Afualo?

  And they're like, ah, he's old, it's okay.

• 58:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's okay, it's fine. It's fine, he's old, it's good, it's good, go hang amongst your own kind.

• 58:48Speaker 00

  Okay, okay. I think I would reset, if I could reset anything, I would reset my knees.

• 58:53Drew Afualo?

  Oh, that's a good one.

• 58:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:55Drew Afualo?

  I think that, I think that's a great idea. I could use that now.

• 58:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:58Drew Afualo?

  So.

• 58:59Speaker 00

  That would be a thing.

• 58:59Drew Afualo?

  When I was, uh, young, I tore my, I tore my ACL. I tore all the ligaments in my knee when I was, cause I was an athlete growing up, so I tore all of them when I was like fourteen.

• 59:09Speaker 00

  That's a hard recovery.

• 59:11Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it was pretty rough. I was like nine, ten months just total in recovery, but I was like, playing sports full time, like at the time I recovered, so it was like, it was a lot. But I remember when that happened to me, I, oh, immediately, cause in my head I was, I'd always thought, I'm gonna go to college for sports, like I'm gonna go on a scholarship.

• 59:30Speaker 00

  Right.

• 59:30Drew Afualo?

  And then when I get there, I'm gonna find something else that I love. When I tore everything in my knee, I was like, okay, fuck sports, first of all. Uh, this is not forever, have to redo it. But because I tore all that in my knee, um, you know, the scar tissue and everything builds up. My physical therapist over ten years ago goes like, make sure you do your stretches and everything, otherwise, you know, it's gonna be a little hard. I'm like, yeah, yeah, when I'm fourteen.

• 59:54Speaker 00

  I'll be fine.

• 59:54Drew Afualo?

  My mobility was so shit on my bad knee for well into my twenties. And then my, my man now is a, a certified personal trainer, so he helped me like fix my mobility. But I would do the same thing. I would reset the strength of my knees as well.

• 1:00:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:09Drew Afualo?

  Especially my left one.

• 1:00:10Speaker 00

  It's crazy.

• 1:00:11Drew Afualo?

  I know.

• 1:00:12Speaker 00

  It's like, I remember going to, not that long ago, I mean, uh, going to the gym, um, and you'd see like an old, an older person at the gym, you know, and you're just like, ah, why do they even bother?

• 1:00:24Speaker 00

  It's like, what are they really trying to prove, you know, I'm like, and now, I'm like, good for you. I'm happy to see you here. I give them like, it's great you're doing this, you know what I mean? Cause they're trying, they're, they're, they're trying, you know, and I'm like, that's gonna be me one day. It's all good.

• 1:00:39Drew Afualo?

  You're like, God, what's the point?

• 1:00:43Speaker 00

  That awful. Just like, get out of my way, old man.

• 1:00:46Drew Afualo?

  God, get off the machine. You're not even using it.

• 1:00:50Speaker 00

  You're not doing it right. Where's your range of motion? Come on! Oh my god.

• 1:00:55Drew Afualo?

  Oh my god, that's so funny. Go get the fives, old man.

• 1:00:58Speaker 00

  I'm having so much fun with you. This is crazy. I'm just, it's great.

• 1:01:01Drew Afualo?

  Well, thank you so much for coming and hanging out with me today.

• 1:01:04Speaker 00

  Are you kidding? This is really, really nice.

• 1:01:05Drew Afualo?

  I think you're a hoot.

• 1:01:06Speaker 00

  You're a hoot.

• 1:01:07Drew Afualo?

  I think you're so fun, and I can't wait to be the adopted child in the family in Overcompensating Season 2.

• 1:01:12Speaker 00

  It's gonna happen.

• 1:01:13Drew Afualo?

  It'll be like a whole blindside situation. You guys just adopt me, I play football.

• 1:01:17Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:01:18Drew Afualo?

  You know what I mean? Like, I, I, I learn how to read and everything like that.

• 1:01:21Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:01:22Drew Afualo?

  Turns out none of it's true, but we...

• 1:01:23Speaker 00

  You're the daughter I always wanted.

• 1:01:25Drew Afualo?

  Right, we settled that lawsuit way after the fact.

• 1:01:27Speaker 00

  It's just not gonna happen, yeah.

• 1:01:28Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, we could be, we could do like a, one of those. I think that'd be awesome.

• 1:01:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:01:31Drew Afualo?

  Take my notes to Benny, if you will.

• 1:01:33Speaker 00

  I will.

• 1:01:35Speaker 00

  He's gonna hear from me. My god.

• 1:01:38Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, exactly. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

• 1:01:41Speaker 00

  Cool.

• 1:01:41Drew Afualo?

  I adore you. I think you're so fun.

• 1:01:43Speaker 00

  Thank you, thank you. I mean, this is, thank you for my fun questions.

• 1:01:46Drew Afualo?

  Of course.

• 1:01:47Speaker 00

  And your research. That was really great.

• 1:01:48Drew Afualo?

  Oh my god, of course. Anything for you. I do have a, a final question for you.

• 1:01:51Speaker 00

  Oh, I'm ready. I'm ready.

• 1:01:53Drew Afualo?

  If you have any advice for any aspiring actors, or like thespians, if you will.

• 1:01:59Speaker 00

  Ah, yes.

• 1:02:00Drew Afualo?

  Um, and just like, you know, not just, I, especially now because I feel like the, uh, industry feels almost impossible to penetrate.

• 1:02:08Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:02:08Drew Afualo?

  Not that it felt any easier back then, but I think even now with as much exposure as people get, it can feel a little daunting and intimidating.

• 1:02:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:02:15Drew Afualo?

  Um, just if you have any, any, um, advice for aspiring artists.

• 1:02:18Speaker 00

  The, the only thing I can think about, well, a couple of things. One is, you have, social is a great way to just do your stuff and get it out in front of people, you know, and have them respond. I mean, again, Benny's a really good example. Creating characters and kind of developing a following, and then, you know, people will pay attention to that, and then they go, maybe, or he's got the, got the energy to, to, you know, actually tell his story. So I think, you know, that kind of goes hand in hand with just the idea of, I always say just work, you know what I mean?

• 1:02:53Speaker 00

  If you can, just get, get, get on the stage, get, get in front of a camera, get something, student film, and the third thing is find, uh, find your, find your group. Find a, find a community.

• 1:03:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:07Speaker 00

  Um, a couple of people have come to town and they're like, what am I starting? I said, find a class.

• 1:03:11Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:11Speaker 00

  Find a class, just and and just go in and, you know, monitor, find a good class. And and start to make connections with the other people in the class. Because they'll have information and you'll have information and pretty you could, you can share this back and forth.

• 1:03:26Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 1:03:26Speaker 00

  And you build this community that then can support, they can support each other.

• 1:03:30Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:03:31Speaker 00

  And so that's, and that, those are just, you know, and if you have a passion for it and a love for it, you gotta keep doing it.

• 1:03:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, for for no money at all, if it's, if that's what it takes.

• 1:03:40Speaker 00

  No money at all.

• 1:03:41Drew Afualo?

  Cause that's what I think a lot of people have done for a long time.

• 1:03:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:03:45Drew Afualo?

  Uh, do it for no money. I think that's how, I mean, I think that's proof that you really, really love what you do, like.

• 1:03:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:03:51Drew Afualo?

  Especially as an artist. I've said, I've talked about that before with friends too, who are in the same industry, whether they're like a content creator like me or or an act, an actress.

• 1:03:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:03:59Drew Afualo?

  First, um, how that kind of understanding that the whole point of art is to not necessarily profit, it's to like. It's to put art in the world, like the whole point is to create.

• 1:04:09Speaker 00

  You have to, you have to do something.

• 1:04:10Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:10Speaker 00

  A voice and you have to, you know, get it out there and.

• 1:04:14Drew Afualo?

  Absolutely.

• 1:04:14Speaker 00

  With social is a positive way to use social is just to use that as a way to like, hey, I'm gonna hear something that's important to me or.

• 1:04:20Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:20Speaker 00

  Find someone and, um, you know, do a little short film or, you know, just anything, just.

• 1:04:24Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 1:04:25Speaker 00

  Your point of view, your perspective, your vision, vision, put it out there. What do you gotta lose?

• 1:04:30Drew Afualo?

  I, I love that you have said that, especially as an OG, like you're such a successful actor. I love that you're advising people to utilize social media too, cause some people say the opposite. They're like, I hate social media, I hate the crossover. But I think it's a beautiful thing that you're.

• 1:04:44Speaker 00

  Reach.

• 1:04:44Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I think it's, well, and I, a lot of, um, actors I've had on the show that like started acting well before social media were like. It used to be a lot harder to like put yourself out there and now it's like easier to put yourself out there.

• 1:04:55Speaker 00

  Opportunities were, were not as, yeah, and you couldn't do your own thing.

• 1:04:58Drew Afualo?

  Right, exactly.

• 1:04:59Speaker 00

  You didn't have a platform on which you could like show your stuff.

• 1:05:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 1:05:03Speaker 00

  So.

• 1:05:03Drew Afualo?

  Well, thank you so much.

• 1:05:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:05:05Drew Afualo?

  I fucking love you.

• 1:05:07Speaker 00

  Thank you, I love you too.

• 1:05:07Drew Afualo?

  You're the best. I can't wait to grow old together.

• 1:05:09Speaker 00

  Ah, I'm so excited.

• 1:05:11Drew Afualo?

  And thank you so much for shouting out Jennifer Pritchard Realtor.

• 1:05:14Speaker 00

  Yay.

• 1:05:14Drew Afualo?

  And her Twin Peaks VHS set.

• 1:05:16Speaker 00

  JPR.

• 1:05:17Drew Afualo?

  JPR, the one and only JPR. We love her here.

• 1:05:20Speaker 00

  Yay.

• 1:05:20Drew Afualo?

  Thank you so much to all of you for tuning into this episode of the comment section show. Thank you so much to my amazing guest Kyle McLaughlin. Where can everybody find you Kyle?

• 1:05:29Speaker 00

  Oh, down at the supermarket. I'll be there, there, chilling, selling my stuff. Um, we have a couple of things, you know, fallout's coming, um,

• 1:05:38Drew Afualo?

  Very exciting.

• 1:05:38Speaker 00

  Which will be exciting and I do a podcast now called, What Are We Even Doing? And that's been, that's an I heart but everywhere and we do interviews and we're gonna, Drew, you're coming on.

• 1:05:47Drew Afualo?

  Yes, I am.

• 1:05:48Speaker 00

  We're gonna have a chit chat as well.

• 1:05:49Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 1:05:50Speaker 00

  Um, that's been a lot of fun. So, yeah, I'm just, I'm just doing stuff.

• 1:05:54Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was like, everybody who wouldn't know you is probably like nine. So that's probably why. They were just born yesterday. So that's probably why. Everybody else knows you though.

• 1:06:03Speaker 00

  I gotta, I have to get a Fisher Price, uh, thing that we're doing like a, you know.

• 1:06:07Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you gotta get on some Miss Rachel stuff.

• 1:06:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:06:09Drew Afualo?

  Start speaking to them.

• 1:06:10Speaker 00

  Yeah. Used to be, try to get on backyardigans, but they're just really, really tough, you know, cause they sing, you know.

• 1:06:15Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. God, it's so cutthroat over there. Well, thank you so much to my amazing guest Kyle for coming on the show. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Don't forget, new episodes of the comment section drop every Wednesday. You can stream the audio on all streaming platforms with the video list for free and exclusively on our favorite platform, Spotify. Thank you so much to my amazing guest Kyle McLaughlin. Thank you so much to all of you and I'll see you next week. Bye.