April 11, 2023 • 54 mins
This week Brian is joined by 9-1-1 and Into the Badlands star, Oliver Stark. The duo dive deep into Oliver’s early acting days in London, the time Idris Elba did (and didn’t) recognize him, and what it’s been like playing a firefighter on the small screen.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I go to my theater studies teacher at the
time and I say, you know, I think I'm going
to apply for drama school, which is a rada, a lambda,
one of these kind of prestigious land in drama school.
She says to me. And I know this is quite
an odd thing for a teacher to maybe say, but
it was fast. She said. I don't think you're getting
She said, I think you're too young. And even though
(00:22):
it's a thing that some people do straight after high school,
most of the people that do go to those schools,
they have got a little bit more lived experience and
life behind them. They are maybe in their early twenties,
sometimes in their late twenties, and me, being eighteen at
a time, thought you don't know what you're talking about.
I'm going to get in. So when an auditions turns
out she did know what she was talking about, and
(00:42):
I did not get in. My name is all of
the Stark. I am a British actor now living in
the US. You might know me from nam On one
and I'm happy to be here. Hi everybody, and welcome
(01:09):
to today's episode of Off the Beat. I am your host,
Brian Baumgartner. Now listen. As you just heard, Oliver Stark
is on the podcast today. I'm very excited. I'm so excited,
in fact, that I might just call nine one one. Okay,
that was that was a bad one. I am not
(01:30):
going to be calling the police, but Oliver and I
will be getting into his time on nine one one,
the show and how it dove into the stressful realities
of first responders. It's a great series, but it's only
one of Oliver's many accomplishments. He starred in the fantasy
series Into the bad Lands, Underworld, Blood Wars, Mind Gamers,
(01:54):
and much much more. Are you ready? I'm ready. I
always like making new friends. Today is no exception. We're
gonna go deep into Oliver's career, from his early acting
days in London Town to training with real firefighters for
nine one one. So here he is my new friend,
(02:16):
Oliver Stark. Bubblunch, Squeak, I love it, Bubble, Squeak, Bubble
and squeaker cook get every month left over from the Nabby.
(02:44):
What's up? Hello? How you doing, Oliver? How are you?
I'm doing great? Thank you so much for joining me. Yeah,
thank you for having me. Now that this ominous countdown
just disappeared from the screen after lets you have six seconds, Yeah,
and then your life is going to end. What a
way to go. Well, you know, we like to keep
(03:04):
it really dramatic here on the on the podcast, Um,
thanks for coming on. We're gonna talk about obviously just
some of the work that you've done. But I wanted
to go back to start with, well the beginning. You
grew up in London, Is that right? It did? Yeah? Yeah, absolutely,
London is home, Northwest London to be more specific. So
(03:28):
all my family still are okay, so so you know
that that will always in fact be home home. Are
you back there often? You know? When when I first
so I moved to California in twenty sixteen, and for
my first I guess four years until COVID, I will
go back like twice a year, um so, so I
still felt quite connected to the place. But then when
(03:51):
COVID here, I didn't go for two years. It's got
more maybe two and a half. And I went back
just over Christmas and knew which was my first time
in a in a very very long time. So that
was nice, it felt you know, it's just to like
walk around the streets that you grew up on and
sleep in your old bedroom. And I stayed with my
parents and they still live in the same house that
I grew up in, so that that was really nice.
(04:13):
I had missed that more than I realized. Do you
feel like I haven't talked to anybody about this before.
Do you feel like there is in London at a
younger age a greater sort of focus and or appreciation
on the arts so weirdly, no, okay, And in actual
(04:34):
fact I think less so than I've experienced here. Okay,
in a sense that so when I moved here, one
of the things that you know, people say, what's the difference?
And I always found that in London, at anytime you
expressed kind of any ambition for a creative career, it's
always all right, but what are you are you really
(04:55):
going to do? Right? Sure, but what are you actually
going to do? Yeah? R here I and I don't
know if that goes way back to the American dream
you can do whatever you want, though I've never really
encountered that to the same degree here. And somebody put
it like this to me, where if you see somebody
in the UK, or in London more specifically with a
(05:15):
nice car, so as well, how come they have that
and I don't, right, Whereas a bit more of an
American attitude is how did you get that so that
I can have it? So it's a bit more supportive,
and maybe that's wrong, maybe that's but but that's the
way it's been put to me. And you know, there
is certainly more culture in the UK than maybe some cities,
(05:36):
and you know, theater and stuff, right, I mean, I
think that's the genesis of my asking and your answer
is fascinating to me. But yeah, you think history maybe
one naively feels like history and culture and the arts
kind of go hand in hand. But that's a very
interesting perspective. Yeah, I mean, I think theater wise, as
(06:00):
you just said, like there's the West End, just like
in sort of like New York or whatever, that there
is more of a focus in those couple of cities
than maybe other places. But that's interesting. Were you involved
in sports growing up city? Yeah, yeah, that was that
was probably my real ambition when I was like a kid,
was to be a football player. Okay, I guess quite
(06:23):
a slightly different room. I know, I've always said I
want to play an athlete, so I can kind of
straddle the two and pretend like I made my real
dream come true. Right when did you start becoming interested
in acting or in the arts? You know? I think
I had always like I was a real show off
as a kid, Like I liked attention, you know, and
(06:45):
I was a kid who, for whatever reasons, I've never
really been able to explain this, but I always got attention.
Like as a kid I was on the way to
would give an extra scoop of ice cream too. I
was always you know that they or they'd come and
do the magic tricks like that. I just was always
involved in some kind of performance. And maybe I had
an energy that was clear that maybe I needed a
(07:08):
little bit more so so people around me would give
it to me. But I don't think that was ever
at that stage this is a possible career. It was
like I just liked being the silly one of the group,
or I just liked they're putting myself out there a
little bit. I don't think it was until I was
maybe fourteen fifteen where I even started to think about acting,
(07:29):
But even then it wasn't a career. And when I
was about eighteen, I did There's a drama school in
the UK called Rada, which is a very prestigious student school,
and that they came and they did a workshop for
us at my high school. And I remember saying to
one of them, you know, I really enjoy this and
(07:50):
I think I might want to be an actor, but
I don't know if that's a real thing you can say.
And she said, absolutely is just say it, you could,
and you go and do it. And you know, I
think that was the first time that it clicked, the oh,
being an actor doesn't mean I have to go and
win an Oscar and be the most famous person that like,
I can just be an actor. I can I can
(08:11):
try and make a career out of that. And so yeah,
I think it was about eighteen moving into nineteen where
it first became a viable career choice rather than just
a one in a million dream. That's so interesting because
I think a similar thing happened for me. I mean,
I was very involved and here in the States did
(08:34):
this big theater competition junior and senior year, but it
was not until I was a senior in high school here,
like right the summer right before where I did a
similar program here. It's a program at Northwestern University and
you only go. It's not like you can go to
camp there for years. You can only go between your
(08:57):
junior and senior year of high school. And that's where
for me, I was like, oh, this can be more
than just an activity that I do, like an extra
curricular or like whatever like this. Oh, I see the
depths now with which this could be something to study
(09:20):
to learn. So that's that's interesting. Were you doing plays
though before this or not? Really you were just oh, okay, yeah,
I would always do like the school play, you know,
so nothing like you know when I was in I
don't know what the equivalent would be here year seven,
I guess. So the first year of high school was
the Grinch in the school play, and you know, got
(09:43):
to do that. And in one of my later years
we did Guys and Goals and I got to play
Sky Masterson, which is funny because I'm completely incapable of
hitting a note. So for me to be the lead
in the school musical was a very brave decision on
their part. I basically talked my way through most of
the songs, and probably not quite in rhythm or anything.
(10:04):
I could talk sing really well. Yeah, the best of them.
I can talk sing. But yeah, we did that that musical.
It was only on for three nights, and this girl
came up to me. I think she was in the
year below me. She came up, she went, so, I've
got two more performances after this, but she went, why
are You're such a good actor? You know, I'm feeling
(10:25):
good about but you can't sing and I still got
I've still got two more performances. It's like, wow, I
can't wait to get onto stage tomorrow. So you have
this conversation with the person from RADA, So what do
you what's your path from there? What do you decide
to do? So I go to my theater studies teacher
at the time and I say, you know, I think
(10:47):
I'm going to apply for drama school, which is a RADA,
a LAMBDA, one of these kind of prestigious lane in
drama school. She says to me, and I not, this
is quite an odd thing for a teacher to maybe say,
but it was. She said. I don't think you're getting
She said, I think you're too young. And even though
it's a thing that some people do straight after high school,
most of the people that do go to those schools,
(11:09):
they have got a little bit more lived experience and
life behind them. They are maybe in the early twenties,
sometimes in their late twenties, and me, being eighteen at
a time, thought you don't know what you're talking about,
I'm going to get in. So when an auditions turns
out she did know what she was talking about, and
I did not get in. So at that time, I
(11:29):
then applied to university to go and study economics because
I thought, maybe it's not the right time for me
to do that. So I had a place I was
going to go and do economics, and then I did
not go and do that course. It was a thing
I was maybe good at, but not my life. So
that kind of left me in a place of not
(11:50):
knowing where I was. So I just started working various
different jobs. I was like a door to door insurance
salesman for a bit, I worked in a cool center.
I worked in various retail things, and then I reapplied
to drama school the next year and I got into
two of them, okay, and then I got really lucky.
(12:11):
I got offered what was called a Dance and Drama Award,
so a scholarship, and I decided to not go because
so this guy calls me up and he says, you
know you've got your places. Great news, and we're going
to offer you the Dada Scholarship and how great. Thank you,
he said, Wow, that's so crazy to the last person
(12:32):
that told screamed down the phone in excitement, and you
were just seeing so nonplussed about it. And I remember thinking, yeah,
why is that? And I just I think it. I
had realized it wasn't the right path for me at
that time, and I think my fear was that one
of the things I really enjoyed about acting was I
felt like I had a certain kind of rawness to me,
(12:56):
and for better or for worse, I felt like they
were going to try and take that out of me
and rebuild me in their image almost and I didn't
want to do that at that time, so I said no,
and instead I just started making short films, not making them,
but being in them. So I found this website and
it was where a lot of film students would put
(13:18):
up castings for their graduation films, and so I was
in the space of a year I did something like
twenty two short films for just random film students, and
some of them are so awful, but it was a
very safe place for me to be really bad, right,
And then I cut together a reel out of those
(13:39):
and I started sending them off to agents, and I
got my first agent in the UK and just slowly
started to grow from then. You know, did There's a
show in the UK called Casualty where every British actor
ever has been on it, you know, as one of
their first jobs. And so I did that and I
played a drug dealer who one of his pregnant girlfriend
to go to a drug deal because he thought there
would be less chance that she would be the one
(14:00):
to get shook. She goes shut and so yes, I
just you know, slowly started building a resume. Yeah, now
at this point, what is your that by the way,
the foresight that you had to make the decision for
your own path one is very admirable because I know
(14:22):
that most people follow a very certain sort of prescribed path.
So that's very cool. Let me ask you this, at
this point, you do these student films, where do you
Where do you think your life is going? And I'll
tell you about me, not because you ask, but because
(14:44):
to tell you what I mean. Like I was doing
theater in the United States, so I was doing regional theater,
touring theaters, theaters all around him. That's really what I
thought my life was. That was what my dream was.
I want to be a theater actor, doing this forever.
Like that's where it's sort of finished for me. And
(15:05):
I ask in part because yes, you're in the UK,
you're in London, and they do a lot of wonderful
filmmaking over in London. But like for you, where did
you but your path hasn't gone that way? Where did
you see yourself? What did you want to do at
this point? So I think that there were two very
(15:25):
distinct sides to myself this time, one where even though
I had now taken steps into this, one that thought,
I'm never gonna nobody's ever going to pay me to
do this. I just feel like some kid from Hendon,
which is the place in London. Yes, I'm never gonna
(15:46):
make anything of this. And then the other side where
I never had any doubt but I was going to
find success. And I think you know that that's probably
and I have, you know, looked into this. Why did
I have such a part of myself that was so sure?
And it's probably because you know, look at or think
(16:08):
about representation of things. I've probably always seen a version
of myself in most movies, right, Like growing up, there
was always a guy that probably kind of looked like
me that was the hero in a lot of these stories.
So I think for those reasons, it always felt doable
on one hand, But then there's also a lot of
guys that look like me, so completely unachievable on the
other hand. And I just had these two separate sides
(16:31):
where one, I'm going to end up selling video games forever,
which is what I was doing at the time, and
two I'm going to be on TV screens, no doubt
about it. Fascinating. One of your earliest jobs you work
(17:00):
with our mutual friend DRIs elba yea Uther, very big
show in the UK at the time, and obviously he
is exploding at this time. How how was that experience
for you as one of your earliest jobs. I was
so excited because it was it was the third season
of Luther, so so it's been around for a little
(17:21):
bit and it was the best thing in British television,
you know, and and and so much of that is
is him and kind of all aspects. He had this
runess to him where he was rough and ready, but
he was still, you know, obviously intelligent and oh it
was such a brilliant character. They're doing a movie that's
(17:42):
coming out sooner. I know that. You know, I'm gonna
tell you that. I don't think I've told this story before.
I it sounds this is going to sound like a
humble bragg. This is like, oh, very weird, I've not
this is so long ago. Obviously the wire has been out.
But I you know, this didn't I mean, it should
have propelled him immediately into humongous stardom. He doesn't. I'm
(18:07):
at an event out of the country of the US
that was in the Bahamas, and I get this. Someone
comes over to me and says, and I'm bringing this
up because you talked about his rawness. They say, the
DJ wants to talk to you. He said, this is
(18:30):
something that no one is in any club ever said
to me. And I said, oh, okay, yeah, he's gonna
be on your show. The DJs in the Bahamas is
going to be on my show. Yeah, And I go
I go up and there's Idriss as the DJ, and
(18:50):
I you know, it was like, well, one of those
things where you see someone and you know them, but
in this content. I mean, like, here's role on the Wire,
which is where I knew him from. And this a
fantastic DJ by the way, was so different and he's like, hey,
may you know whatever, I'm going to be on your show,
(19:12):
and I was like what who? Oh my god? And
then but his like energy and his wrong, I know
what you're talking about about that it makes that makes
total sense today. That's the story that I always think
about him is. So I do this little bit on
Luther and it's such a small part, you know, it's
at the beginning of one episodes. It was really fun though,
(19:33):
especially because it was maybe my second TV job. I
didn't know what I was doing, and almost in quite
a good way where I just felt really loose and relaxed,
like who knows. So, you know, I do this bit
and by the time our characters that I say this
newsly interact because I'm dead, but you know, he comes
and I've already been killed, right, But you know, we
(19:53):
spoke a little bit on set that day and then
I think that you know, it was one of these
British shows where there's four episodes in the se season,
and so it was the penultimate episode. So the rat
Party was not too long after, and so I went
to the Rat Party and as I arrived there, he
was outside with this guy Warren Brown, who was his
partner on the show. And I'd known Warren previously, so
(20:16):
I started talking to them and after a while he
just goes, I just I feel like I recognize you
from somewhere. And I was like, yeah, Luther like this.
I mean I was dead at the time, but this
is the Luther Rat Party and he's like, oh yeah yeah.
So that was that. That was the first bit. But
then like two or three years after this, saw him
at an airport and I thought, oh what, I'm just
(20:38):
gonna say hi, and he before I said hi, I
worked and he went Luthor right, and he completely remembered
me from like three years prior to my name and everything.
So the difference in those two interactions it made me
feel so good. When I went up to the airport
and he totally remembered me. That's awesome. Um, you start
(20:59):
working on films now, are you still in the UK
and you know at what point? Sorry, well hard tiede,
Yes very much in the UK. Yes, underworld mind gamers,
you're working and you're building your resume and your career.
They are still in the UK. Now you've worked on
(21:21):
some film now and some television. What for you was
the difference or was it just a different job. Yeah?
I think at that point it was very much just
a case of how much time can I spend on
sets and how much can I not mess this up?
And so maybe there'll be another opportunity where anything I
(21:42):
take from this one I can use on the next one.
So I mean, you know that the one you meant
in The Hard Tide was quite a big part in
that movie. You know. In fact, I remember how I
got that was somebody else was meant to do it,
and then he dropped out, and they said to me,
literally on a Friday, can you do this movie? And
(22:04):
you're starting on Monday. You have to travel up there tomorrow.
And obviously I was like, yes, that I can't wait.
But but you know, it was that kind of movie
where it was just so thrown together at the last minute.
But it was a great experience, and it was a
chance for me to just do some acting on camera,
because even the things I had done up until that point,
you know that they were fun and cool, but they
(22:26):
were small and there wasn't really any meat to anything
that I was doing, where I think that was probably
one of the first times where it was like I
can delve into this guy and I can feel like
I'm transforming a little bit. So even though you know
it's it's not necessarily a performance that I look backward
and I'm like, well, I hope some people see that.
But it was an important step for me. And the
(22:50):
biggest one that you mentioned there for me was probably
that Mind Gamers movie, because that actually came at a
point where I had come out to America for a
little bit. I came out to a pilot season. I'd
saved that some money. It came out and did a
pilot season, and it was so bad I think I
had You know, you hear these stories. I don't know.
Maybe I don't know if you hear them as an American,
(23:12):
but you can maybe speak on that. But when you're
coming over from the UK for a pilot season, you're
going to have five auditions a day. It's going to
be unmanageable. You were going to be spending so much
money on guests. Him out for six weeks. I had
about three auditions, so it was such a letdown, and
then I got Mind Gamers a couple of weeks after
(23:33):
I got back. That's what gave me the money to
come out to the US again, which is where I
then booked my first TV show. You start dabbling mind
Gamers for one in fantasy and sci fi? Now, is
this something that you personally are interested in? How was
that genre in a way different than other stuff that
you had done. Yeah, I've absolutely always had an interest
(23:56):
in and watching that kind of thing. I think sci
fi in particular, probably through my older brother when I
was growing up. He was a big Star Trek fan,
so that was often on the TV, and I didn't
necessarily get it when I was really really young, and then,
as you do, sometimes just my older brother liked it.
I liked it, so got more into sci fi and
(24:17):
fantasy stuff. I think the key really for the actor, though,
in my humble opinion, is to not play that you're
in a to not treat it very differently, you know,
is to treat it as if you're making anything and
be grounded and you just happen to be in the
world of sci fi. I think as an audience member,
(24:39):
anything you watch all of that stuff, sci fi action,
whatever it is. That's all only matters if you care
about the people and if you buy into the connections
between the characters, and so that has to be the
focus of the actor, and then everything around them does
the sci fi job. Speaking of sci fi into the
(25:01):
bad Lands, how are you? How are you cast? I
mean this, this becomes your first really big break. Tell me,
tell me how it happens. So so, i'd done this
mind Games movie, which had given me enough money to
come back out to the US, and I came for
two weeks. That's all you were coming for. You were
just coming for two weeks. It's just two weeks in
(25:22):
in October, okay, And I think I had something said
to me of like a mini pilot season. I don't
know if that's a thing or not, but that's what
I've been told. I don't know. I certainly didn't experience that.
I came out and I had absolutely nothing in the
first week. It's okay, not really what I spent the
(25:43):
money for, but I guess I'm having a nice time.
Second week, I think I had maybe one audition, and
I called my manager and we got an argument. For
the first time I've been with this guy for it
for a couple of years now, you know, me based
in the UK and him sending me audition tape. But
this was one of our first times. But yeah, we
really fell out on the phone because I just said,
(26:04):
you know, I've come all the way here and there's nothing,
which is a silly thing to say, because he quite
rightly said, what do you want me to do if
there's you know, if there's anything comes up, I'm submitting
you for it. I think the way he put it
to me is like I'm not sitting behind my desk
jerking awful day. I'm trying to get you jo like
I'm trying to do it for you, right. And so
(26:26):
I said to him, you know, should I should I
extend for one more week? He said, I'll be honest
with you, only don't spend the money. It's not worth it.
There's nothing here called my UK agent. I said the
same thing. He said, come home. But I had just
split up with a partner back home, and I think
I've just been a bit stubborn as well. And so
I said, I'm going to do one more week and
(26:47):
he said, all right, let's see what we can do.
And I had a load of general meetings that week,
so you know, I'm just going meeting casting people, not
for any specific jobs, but I get to sit down
with them and just to have a discussion. Right. And
then on the Friday, the last day of my extended week,
I get this audition or I must have got the
audition on the Thursday to audition on Friday four into
(27:09):
the bad Lands, and they said, it's this great pilot script,
and it was that. The pilot script was fantastic. The
part was so good. This tomorrow Friday, it's late, it's
like four or five pm, as I said, going home
Saturday morning. So I read for this part with just
the cast and director, nobody else, may have even just
been the casting assistant. And I did it once and
(27:29):
she just looked at me and she can you just
give me one second? And she went out of the
room and she came back in with the main cast
and director and she said, can you read it for her?
And this was one of the most humbling I did.
On the first line, she said stop. I said, okay,
she said, you're trying too hard. Said okay, great again,
(27:53):
he started it again, and I literally two or three
lines and she stops me again. She said, just stop acting. Okay,
here we go again, and I remember very clearly this
feeling of getting past the third line and thinking, okay,
she's not stopped me. So I get through the scene
and she says, when are you going home? I say,
(28:13):
I'm going home tomorrow morning's can you stay around if
I get the producers down here to meet you right now? Yes,
of course I can stay around, so I do. I
just sitting there in their office in the waiting room
for about an hour, and Miles Miller and al Gol
who were the two guys that created it, they just
made Wednesday most recently. They come in and I read
(28:36):
for them and we have a bit of a chat
and they say, all right, great, thanks. So I fly
out home the next day and I don't hear anything
for a week, and then I get told that AMC
are going to fly me back out to tests for
the part, and I do that and I think it's
the next day. I get the cool you're in, which
was huge for me. And you know, but I think
(28:57):
by the time I got that cool, it was probably
quite late in the day, and you know, my parents
back in the UK would have been very much asleep,
and I called them straight away and they kind of
groggily answered the phone clearly of what, so, what are
you calling about? And I said, I thank you, said
I got the part, and my mum said, I'm so
glad you called. And and from then it was you know,
(29:18):
you're going to New Orleans and you're going to make
this TV show And it was such an amazing experience.
It's a really cool world they created. Yeah, the character
of writer. Talk to me a little bit about how
you how you got into this this character, besides doing
your best to not act into the this post apocalyptic
(29:39):
world that he's living in. Yeah, well, so the world
itself was not tool I pictured as well, because I
knew it was post apocalyptics. So and I had read
it and I had been imagining mad Max. Okay, and
then we get there and it's my first fitting and
we're dressed like Victorian Royalty, and so from the get goals, oh,
this is something totally different. And I remember my real
(30:04):
focus getting into that character is what does it do
when you're holding onto secrets for a long time? Because
originally that character was going to be secretly gay, and
that never played out in the script, and I remember
he had this dad's played by the sect called Martin
shot Ass, who is like so good but very scary
(30:27):
in the show, not very scary in real life well sometimes,
but very very powerful man in the show, one that
you would think would maybe not be quite on board
with his son possibly being gay. And so it was
something that he was aside himself he was going to
have to hide, and I remember really focusing on what
(30:47):
would that do to a person to keep aside himself
buried for so long? And I can't remember what I
was reading at the time, but it had something about
how secrets rot away at you if you if you
keep them inside. And so there was this kind of
darkness that I wanted to find in him of just
not being able to be himself and never feeling worthy
(31:07):
and feeling like his real self wasn't going to be
worthy of the future Baron of the Badlands, which she
was the heir to be. So so that was that
was a big part of finding who Rider was. What
does it feel like to bear this weight your whole
life of not being good enough? That's fascinating. What do
you think in terms of showing up and having it
(31:29):
be so different stylistically than what you thought before. Do
you feel like that had an impact on your performance
or was that just you were just playing the part
and your environment didn't matter. Um. I think it was
kind of a case of once I was in the costume,
and I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but
(31:52):
it changed everything. Yeah, Suddenly I was walking a little
bit taller, my shoulders were pinned back a little bit
further because I'm in this as the beautiful, you know,
outfit they've put together. So so I do think it
I could imagine if it wasn't that, I probably I
would have had a totally different physicality, probably would have
been a bit more hunched over. I've I've grown up
(32:13):
in this like dirty world, And actually it wasn't that.
It was down to an abbey and I was upright,
and so it definitely changed things, but not in a
way that I think was toll detrimental. I think it
probably added because it's it's all that roughness was still there.
It is still a world where at any moment you
can die or and be killed. But that added into
(32:36):
the kind of royalty of the whole thing I think
blended together quite nicely. Is the physicality important for you
in creating a character? Yeah, massively, I think you know,
I used to be an actor where every part has
to feel so different from the last one, and that
was such an important thing to me. And then I
(32:57):
realized that that's actually probably quite that's quite the intrumental
because to some extent every part we play, you know,
we're putting a piece of ourself into it, right, and
if we weren't, it wouldn't be a unique performance for us.
So so I realized that maybe you know that there's
always going to be an essence of myself in these parts.
And one of the things that can help me get
(33:19):
into the other character aspect is how do they walk,
how do they move? How do they hold themselves? Because
I think that tells quite the story as well. You know,
in certain situations we hold ourselves probably differently, and there's
something about that that is telling a story. Well, why
why do I when I'm putting this Victorian jacket? Why
do I stand more upright? Right? Because I've never had
(33:42):
to kind of put words to it. If that that
privileged upbringing that these characters have had, maybe they've not
had anything weighing them down in from a societal point
of view. So yeah, no, I do. I think. I
think the physicality for me has always been a key
to help unlock a part who that person is. I
agree totally. In addition to that, you had a lot
(34:21):
of action scenes into the bad Lands. Did you do
your own stunts or did you have stunt people? How
much of it was you? I definitely had stunt people,
not as much as I would have liked on on
bad moments, mostly because it was it was martial arts based.
So before each season we'd have these big martial arts
boot camps. And I've always been quite athletic, or I
(34:44):
have not always been is very flexible, and when we
were doing these martial arts scenes, you know, it's like
high kicks and stuff. I just I just wasn't I
just I just didn't have it right. But one thing
that so we had this amazing stunt stunt crew. It
was a very authentic. It felt like experienced to learning
the martial arts. Because his team of five or six guys,
(35:05):
they've flown out from China, only one of them spoke English.
It was it was like very just yeah, as I said,
authentic feeling, and you know, they'd be kind of trying
to communicate to me that I'm doing it wrong, and
I'd be trying to communicate back, I know that I'm
doing it wrong. I just can't do it right. And
so this guy that the heads, the one that he
(35:25):
did speak English master Ded, we would try and base
riders fights around my skill set, like maybe he's just
not much of a fancy fighter, maybe he's just a
bit more seas red, it's just a bit more brutish, Like, yeah,
I'd do that and just swing wildly. So I got
to have some influence in building those scenes, but anything
(35:48):
that did require a bit more finesse. I had a
great double in New Orleans and then the same thing.
In fact I had there were different doubles between season
one and two. Season one, I had a great double.
Season two, I had a very very handsome and muscular
double to the point where it's like, can he just
play writer? He just put my face on his body.
(36:12):
But yeah, he was great, And so yeah, always had
you know, in all these jobs that I've unfortunate to
do a fair amount of action, built a really great
relationship with stunt doubles because I think it's more than
them just certainly something that I experienced these days. It's
more than them just stepping in to do the things
that I'm maybe it's unsafe for me to do or
(36:33):
incapable of doing, and it's much more about building a
rapport of Hey, man, I know you're going to want
to do this, so I tested it out for you,
and I found that if I put my hand here,
it gave me really great leverage or whatever it is.
But but having that back and forth rather than just
all right, I'm done, he steps in. Right. How How
did the calves come along really really well? Because it
was a really nice blend of people, kind of different
(36:57):
ages and different backgrounds and people coming from from parts
of the world, and we were just thrown into this thing.
And we had this fight camp for the seasons where
it was just being beaten up, beating each other up
and not good at it. Yeah, really it was you know,
we were all staying pretty close to each other and
(37:18):
we'd go we spent eight hours a day learning to
fight together. It was It was amazing. It was so
bonding and learning to deal with the Louisiana heat because
we were there like just moving into summit. It was
so so hot, and I just drenched engross the whole time.
But it was it was really bonding for everybody to
(37:38):
kind of struggle through that together. And you know see
some people, oh, they'd learned to do this kick and
and everybody be really supportive because well, you're the first
one to get it, all right, now I want to
get it. And it was Yeah, that that in itself,
I think really helped bind everybody together. Well, you know,
there certainly was and is there was a period where
post apocalyptic tone vision became quite a thing. You've got
(38:02):
The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, Station eleven and more.
Where do you feel into the bad Lands fits into this?
In what way is it unique and what do you
think it's legacy is? I think it's unique kind of
in what I touched on about it just it just
feels like a different world in the way that we
(38:22):
were all dressed. It's it didn't show us going back
to this kind of barren, deserted world, show that in
some senses it is the world's more heightened state where
it has moved forward. For me, the real thing that
sets into the bad Land and society and it has
(38:43):
given it which I've come to learn over the last
few years something of a cult following. It's the action
in it, you know, it's very much old school kind
of Kung Fu movies, gravity defying, you spend a little
bit too long in the air before each kick, and
it's really something there's not much of an American TV
you know. I think those movies really became mainstream here
(39:05):
through things like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, But I don't
think TV ever really found that style and into the
bad Lends for me, really nailed that fighting style. Were
you ready for it to be over when I was over?
I was. I was horrified when I got the because
so I I die halfway through the second season, Yes,
(39:27):
and I was so I wasn't going to spoil it,
but you did. Okay, Yes, So I die halfway through
the second season, and I felt like at the time, Oh,
here's this cool cable TV show. This is gonna be
Oh okay, I'm dying. Oh maybe I did a really
bad job and I'm never going to work again. I was.
I was petrified at the end of it, and in
(39:49):
some senses, if I watched your two seasons, I'm much
happier with the performances I given a second season and
the first, and I think it's because I felt free
up in the first season. I think I still had
that this is like a really big opportunity. Oh, I
should say it's like nice little box because of that,
Whereas in season two I knew it was coming to
an end, so I felt much freer in my performances.
But yeah, I was. I was really really worried to
(40:11):
come into the end of that show of did I
blow my opportunity? Here? Am I Am? I never going
to be able to get get shot? So so no, yeah,
I was. I was not ready for it to be over. Well,
you got another shot pretty quick. Nine one one on
Fox TV. Quite a shift from post apocalyptic victorian wearing
(40:36):
bad guy to nine one one on Fox. How was
that switching it up? Well, first of all, tell me
how you were cast as Evan. Yeah, so that that
was about eight months between bad Lands and them and one.
So in the grand scheme of things, relatively quick doesn't
feel like yeah, but yes, yes, you are ready yes,
(40:58):
And so I it was a really strange feeling when
I got the audition for this part. So audition came
through and I honestly thought I'm gonna get this. And
bear in mind, so in those eight months, I haven't
even got close to anything. I don't think I've had
a call back. But or it wasn't even so much
(41:18):
I'm going to get this. It was I'm going to
give a reading of this that no one else is
going to give, and they're either going to really like
that or they're not. But I feel very confident I'm
going to offer up a version of this character that
no one else is. So I went in and I
read for it, just with Liz Paulson, who was one
of the class and people at Fox at the time,
(41:38):
and I just knew it was going well. And you know,
there's this thing that I act to say about, Oh
there's the ones that you think going well that you
don't get and I don't think that's so much like
you know, when there's a good vibe in the room, right, Yes.
So I came out of that and by the time
I got home, she'd called my manager and she'd said,
he did a really great job. Probably gonna want to
(41:59):
come back in and read for Ryan Murphy and Tim
Myner and some people who are making show. So then
I do get a cool that I'm going to go
back in for it. So I do. I go in
and meet these guys and I walk in this pretty
silent and there I do this I think two or
three scenes. It's just silent. Okay, So I go and
grab my bag and as I grab my bag, right
goes also tell us a bit about yourself, and I
(42:20):
was like, okay, a lifeline. They're not kicking me out,
just so you know, we have a bit of a discussion.
Then a few days go by and I get cool.
I think it's like Thursday morning, they're gonna want you
to test for it. Great, I get cool. Probably not
even two hours later. Actually Ryan has said they don't
they're not testing you that they did. Don't want to
(42:41):
give anybody the option. You're the guy, you got the
party that you don't need to test for it. And
it was there was a real feeling of this one
of like I think, I think this is going to
be a really good show, and I think this is
going to be a really good part. And thankfully it
has gone on unseemingly that that has been the case.
But but yeah, from the minute I got the audition,
(43:02):
there was there was a feeling I was going to
be able to offer something to this that's awesome. Did
you did you talk to any firefighters prior to did
you train with any? Yeah? Myself and it's another action
on the show. Guy called Kenny Choi we Um. Right
before the first season started. We went on and he
happened to know this guy that was firefighter in Santa Monica.
(43:25):
So we went on a ride along. We spent the
day with them in the firehouse. It was so fun,
like we went on three calls with them, and I
remember thinking at the time if I was one of
these victims and I looked up and you know, we
have to throw on the gear and everything to be there.
I looked up and you know, asked for help and now, oh,
I'm actually just here for TV show research like go away,
(43:47):
like what I mean this time of need and I'm
there with my notebook being like okay. And then he
was kind of a jerk, but it was it was
really fun just to see how they are when they
jump back in truck, how they are in the firehouse,
and the way they are is awful to each other,
like it's just bullying and but in the most loving way,
(44:08):
in the way that you only can with people that
you really trust. And I think also one of the
things that was really surprising to me about it was
they all spoke on this, how they would go to
these horrible calls, and they describe some of them, and
it is the things that you would never want to
see in a million years, and how they would then
jump in the fire truck and they'd make fun of it,
(44:28):
not in a way to diminish what it was, but almost.
I think it's quite a human thing that we do
when things get too heavy, you know, we undercut it
with some kind of comedy, and I think it's just
a way to stop it from getting too heavy. And
I think, and I don't know if this is on
purpose or not, but it's I think that's a thing
that nine on one does in itself very well. Whenever
(44:49):
things get too heavy, it undercuts itself with a moment
of silliness or of laughter. And so that I find, yeah,
mirrors quite a lot what I learned from firefighters in
the real world, that they have to be able to
just deal with the weight of the things they see
day in and day out. I make a regular appearance
in New York. I was just in New York last
(45:10):
week at a studio there that tapes at the World
Trade Center, one of the towers, and I got dropped off.
I'm standing on the corner. We're waiting for somebody to
meet us, and this guy goes, hey, what are you
doing here? Turn around? I realize I'm standing in front
(45:32):
of the firehouse right there at the World Trade Center
and it's one of the firefighters that stuck his head
out the door, is basically saying, what the fuck are
you doing here? And I said, oh, hey, what's and
he goes, come on, let's have some coffee. And I'm like,
you know what, sir, I'm about to be on live
(45:55):
television in like thirteen minutes or something, but you know what,
I'm gonna come. I'm gonna come back. And I did.
Came back, hung out with them for a few minutes,
not enough time, and so warm, so generous, so awesome
(46:15):
to me, And like I said, I do this, Uh,
I do this show pretty regularly when I'm in town
in New York. And I will promise you I will
when I'm back again, go back and visit those guys.
You know, there's is there a culture of firefighters in
the UK that's similar to the US or is that
a distinctive US culture the firefighters. I do think it's different,
(46:41):
and I think one of the big differences is because
we have socialized healthcare. If you have a medical emergency
in the UK, you just get an ambulance sent by
the hospital. You know, you cool nine one one and
they just send you a healthcare ebudence, whereas here you
(47:01):
get firefighters for everything. So I think because the scope
of their job is so much wider here, there are
a lot more part of just the kind of societal
view of what first responder is. Whereas in the UK
you think of firefights as they fight fire, and I'm
sure there is more to their job than that, but
(47:22):
that's the main thing that comes to mind, whereas here
that they seem to do a lot more. So I
think they kind of thought about in a much warmer
sense because of that. Interesting my brother in law is
a firefighter there in Los Angeles, and the stories that
(47:45):
I heard, I'm sure you've heard much of the same.
It is, you know, And by the way, I'm not
saying don't respect teachers, but you know, people talk all
the time about teacher, you know, teachers most important profession.
I totally agree but also firefighters. I feel like they're
not mentioned enough, the amount of work and the care
(48:05):
that they put into people, not just when there's a fire,
but as you say, a medical emergency or or something else. Well,
I think that's that's partly as well, because for you know,
I don't think people can be blamed for this. We
don't really think about first respondence until we need them,
that's right. Whereas for teachers, obviously, you know, we do
in it in a much more general sense. But they're
(48:27):
out there all the time and somebody's needing them all
the time, and they are literally the people that run
towards the danger that everybody else runs away from. Yes,
but but yeah, until you have to cool them on one,
I don't think you know it's it's anywhere near the
front of your brain and being processed. The fact that
they're out there and they're doing that day in the
(48:48):
day out. Yeah, absolutely, I think I think you bring
up a great point. They're just there when you need them,
and maybe you never will, but they should be celebrated nonetheless.
Um yeah, oh you also did you guests start on
the spin off? They're a long star? What what was
what was that like tould be a part of that show.
It was fun because you know, I knew all of
(49:09):
those actors by that point, but you know, there was
certainly an element of kind of there, like, guys, we'll
show her it's done. Well, yeah, we've been making a
show for a couple of years now, so don't worry.
You just followed me. So so that that that was
that was really fun to go in with that energy
and you know, mostly joking sense, but a little bit
(49:30):
right right, but it was It was called a really
great episode as well. We would do a wildfire, which
is something that we hadn't I think they've always been
a bit scared of doing a wildfire on the show
on our show because it is set in la and
there's every chance that by the time it airs there
may be one, and you know, you never want to
air anything that called cause upsets. So so to get
(49:53):
to do that on their show was was really fun.
Since twenty twenty one, this is so our you work
with a charity providing workout equipment to firehouses to help
firefighters stay in shape. What was what was your impetus
behind that decision? Obviously I understand why why firefighters would
be important to you, but with the workout equipment. Yeah,
(50:17):
So this guy, Rob Paparo reached out to me and
he's he's a firefighter on the East Coast. He's actually
within the last year or so been made a captain.
But yeah, he reached out to me and he said, listen,
my kids really love the show and he's a part
of this, founding his charity five five Fitness. Basically just
broke it down from me, how how not all firehouses
(50:37):
and have access to a good workout equipment and it's
such an important part of the job. You know, are
they fit enough to run in and be able to
throw somebody over their shoulder and carry them back out again,
Because if they're not, then what's the point, you know. So,
so to hear and find out that so many of
(50:58):
these firehouses are underserved and under equipped when it comes
to that, was was really quite shocking to me. And
you know, he was making the point that then the
firefights also has every chance of becoming the victim, and
you know that's not what you need. So just the
kind of importance of that and how they need more
funding for it. So yeah, and he's he's just a
(51:21):
really fun guy, has just big loan, Mohican handlebot mustache
like it's just a character. His kids are getting into acting.
So it's just it's been really fun to get to
know him and his family over the years. That's awesome.
That's awesome. At some point you and I'll talk. I
have I'm helping out a area in Lake Tahoe that
(51:43):
means a lot to me and very similar story. They
don't have a helicopter, so when they are fires that
are happening up there, they've got to wait and make
sure they can get a helicopter that comes in because
the helicopter is shared between all of these firehouses and
all the counties up there in northern California. So it's uh,
(52:04):
it's important for every community to support their local firefighters
because look, you know, you never know when you're going
to need them, and they should be supported and appreciate it.
And it's that thing if you may not think about
it until you do need them, but when you do
need them, you better hope they were able to come.
So so you know, it's just to give them the
equipment that makes that possible. Dude, Oliver, it's been so
(52:26):
nice chatting with you, getting to know you a little bit.
Good luck to you and thank you for all of
the important work that you're doing. Uh I will, I
will watch you and whatever comes next. Thank you. Yeah,
thank you for me and it's lovely to just have
the opportunity to just talk. So yes, right really, thank
(52:47):
you cheers, Oliver, Thank you that was so great. Thank
you for coming on to the podcast here and sharing
(53:08):
all about you and your incredible career, and listeners, thank
you for tuning in. Make sure to leave a comment
on our Instagram at Off the Beat, follow at Off
the Beat, by the way, tell us what you want
to see more of, who you want to see more of,
or who you want to see period, and then come
back next week for another episode where everything's coming up rosies, roses.
(53:33):
Everything's coming up roses here on Off the Beat, but
maybe with some rosies. We'll see you next week. Off
the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
(53:54):
alongside our executive producer Lang Lee. Our senior producer is
Diego Tapia. Producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr.
Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern
is Sammy kats our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed
by the one and only Creed Bratton
So I go to my theater studies teacher at the
time and I say, you know, I think I'm going
to apply for drama school, which is a rada, a lambda,
one of these kind of prestigious land in drama school.
She says to me. And I know this is quite
an odd thing for a teacher to maybe say, but
it was fast. She said. I don't think you're getting
She said, I think you're too young. And even though
(00:22):
it's a thing that some people do straight after high school,
most of the people that do go to those schools,
they have got a little bit more lived experience and
life behind them. They are maybe in their early twenties,
sometimes in their late twenties, and me, being eighteen at
a time, thought you don't know what you're talking about.
I'm going to get in. So when an auditions turns
out she did know what she was talking about, and
(00:42):
I did not get in. My name is all of
the Stark. I am a British actor now living in
the US. You might know me from nam On one
and I'm happy to be here. Hi everybody, and welcome
(01:09):
to today's episode of Off the Beat. I am your host,
Brian Baumgartner. Now listen. As you just heard, Oliver Stark
is on the podcast today. I'm very excited. I'm so excited,
in fact, that I might just call nine one one. Okay,
that was that was a bad one. I am not
(01:30):
going to be calling the police, but Oliver and I
will be getting into his time on nine one one,
the show and how it dove into the stressful realities
of first responders. It's a great series, but it's only
one of Oliver's many accomplishments. He starred in the fantasy
series Into the bad Lands, Underworld, Blood Wars, Mind Gamers,
(01:54):
and much much more. Are you ready? I'm ready. I
always like making new friends. Today is no exception. We're
gonna go deep into Oliver's career, from his early acting
days in London Town to training with real firefighters for
nine one one. So here he is my new friend,
(02:16):
Oliver Stark. Bubblunch, Squeak, I love it, Bubble, Squeak, Bubble
and squeaker cook get every month left over from the Nabby.
(02:44):
What's up? Hello? How you doing, Oliver? How are you?
I'm doing great? Thank you so much for joining me. Yeah,
thank you for having me. Now that this ominous countdown
just disappeared from the screen after lets you have six seconds, Yeah,
and then your life is going to end. What a
way to go. Well, you know, we like to keep
(03:04):
it really dramatic here on the on the podcast, Um,
thanks for coming on. We're gonna talk about obviously just
some of the work that you've done. But I wanted
to go back to start with, well the beginning. You
grew up in London, Is that right? It did? Yeah? Yeah, absolutely,
London is home, Northwest London to be more specific. So
(03:28):
all my family still are okay, so so you know
that that will always in fact be home home. Are
you back there often? You know? When when I first
so I moved to California in twenty sixteen, and for
my first I guess four years until COVID, I will
go back like twice a year, um so, so I
still felt quite connected to the place. But then when
(03:51):
COVID here, I didn't go for two years. It's got
more maybe two and a half. And I went back
just over Christmas and knew which was my first time
in a in a very very long time. So that
was nice, it felt you know, it's just to like
walk around the streets that you grew up on and
sleep in your old bedroom. And I stayed with my
parents and they still live in the same house that
I grew up in, so that that was really nice.
(04:13):
I had missed that more than I realized. Do you
feel like I haven't talked to anybody about this before.
Do you feel like there is in London at a
younger age a greater sort of focus and or appreciation
on the arts so weirdly, no, okay, And in actual
(04:34):
fact I think less so than I've experienced here. Okay,
in a sense that so when I moved here, one
of the things that you know, people say, what's the difference?
And I always found that in London, at anytime you
expressed kind of any ambition for a creative career, it's
always all right, but what are you are you really
(04:55):
going to do? Right? Sure, but what are you actually
going to do? Yeah? R here I and I don't
know if that goes way back to the American dream
you can do whatever you want, though I've never really
encountered that to the same degree here. And somebody put
it like this to me, where if you see somebody
in the UK, or in London more specifically with a
(05:15):
nice car, so as well, how come they have that
and I don't, right, Whereas a bit more of an
American attitude is how did you get that so that
I can have it? So it's a bit more supportive,
and maybe that's wrong, maybe that's but but that's the
way it's been put to me. And you know, there
is certainly more culture in the UK than maybe some cities,
(05:36):
and you know, theater and stuff, right, I mean, I
think that's the genesis of my asking and your answer
is fascinating to me. But yeah, you think history maybe
one naively feels like history and culture and the arts
kind of go hand in hand. But that's a very
interesting perspective. Yeah, I mean, I think theater wise, as
(06:00):
you just said, like there's the West End, just like
in sort of like New York or whatever, that there
is more of a focus in those couple of cities
than maybe other places. But that's interesting. Were you involved
in sports growing up city? Yeah, yeah, that was that
was probably my real ambition when I was like a kid,
was to be a football player. Okay, I guess quite
(06:23):
a slightly different room. I know, I've always said I
want to play an athlete, so I can kind of
straddle the two and pretend like I made my real
dream come true. Right when did you start becoming interested
in acting or in the arts? You know? I think
I had always like I was a real show off
as a kid, Like I liked attention, you know, and
(06:45):
I was a kid who, for whatever reasons, I've never
really been able to explain this, but I always got attention.
Like as a kid I was on the way to
would give an extra scoop of ice cream too. I
was always you know that they or they'd come and
do the magic tricks like that. I just was always
involved in some kind of performance. And maybe I had
an energy that was clear that maybe I needed a
(07:08):
little bit more so so people around me would give
it to me. But I don't think that was ever
at that stage this is a possible career. It was
like I just liked being the silly one of the group,
or I just liked they're putting myself out there a
little bit. I don't think it was until I was
maybe fourteen fifteen where I even started to think about acting,
(07:29):
But even then it wasn't a career. And when I
was about eighteen, I did There's a drama school in
the UK called Rada, which is a very prestigious student school,
and that they came and they did a workshop for
us at my high school. And I remember saying to
one of them, you know, I really enjoy this and
(07:50):
I think I might want to be an actor, but
I don't know if that's a real thing you can say.
And she said, absolutely is just say it, you could,
and you go and do it. And you know, I
think that was the first time that it clicked, the oh,
being an actor doesn't mean I have to go and
win an Oscar and be the most famous person that like,
I can just be an actor. I can I can
(08:11):
try and make a career out of that. And so yeah,
I think it was about eighteen moving into nineteen where
it first became a viable career choice rather than just
a one in a million dream. That's so interesting because
I think a similar thing happened for me. I mean,
I was very involved and here in the States did
(08:34):
this big theater competition junior and senior year, but it
was not until I was a senior in high school here,
like right the summer right before where I did a
similar program here. It's a program at Northwestern University and
you only go. It's not like you can go to
camp there for years. You can only go between your
(08:57):
junior and senior year of high school. And that's where
for me, I was like, oh, this can be more
than just an activity that I do, like an extra
curricular or like whatever like this. Oh, I see the
depths now with which this could be something to study
(09:20):
to learn. So that's that's interesting. Were you doing plays
though before this or not? Really you were just oh, okay, yeah,
I would always do like the school play, you know,
so nothing like you know when I was in I
don't know what the equivalent would be here year seven,
I guess. So the first year of high school was
the Grinch in the school play, and you know, got
(09:43):
to do that. And in one of my later years
we did Guys and Goals and I got to play
Sky Masterson, which is funny because I'm completely incapable of
hitting a note. So for me to be the lead
in the school musical was a very brave decision on
their part. I basically talked my way through most of
the songs, and probably not quite in rhythm or anything.
(10:04):
I could talk sing really well. Yeah, the best of them.
I can talk sing. But yeah, we did that that musical.
It was only on for three nights, and this girl
came up to me. I think she was in the
year below me. She came up, she went, so, I've
got two more performances after this, but she went, why
are You're such a good actor? You know, I'm feeling
(10:25):
good about but you can't sing and I still got
I've still got two more performances. It's like, wow, I
can't wait to get onto stage tomorrow. So you have
this conversation with the person from RADA, So what do
you what's your path from there? What do you decide
to do? So I go to my theater studies teacher
at the time and I say, you know, I think
(10:47):
I'm going to apply for drama school, which is a RADA,
a LAMBDA, one of these kind of prestigious lane in
drama school. She says to me, and I not, this
is quite an odd thing for a teacher to maybe say,
but it was. She said. I don't think you're getting
She said, I think you're too young. And even though
it's a thing that some people do straight after high school,
most of the people that do go to those schools,
(11:09):
they have got a little bit more lived experience and
life behind them. They are maybe in the early twenties,
sometimes in their late twenties, and me, being eighteen at
a time, thought you don't know what you're talking about,
I'm going to get in. So when an auditions turns
out she did know what she was talking about, and
I did not get in. So at that time, I
(11:29):
then applied to university to go and study economics because
I thought, maybe it's not the right time for me
to do that. So I had a place I was
going to go and do economics, and then I did
not go and do that course. It was a thing
I was maybe good at, but not my life. So
that kind of left me in a place of not
(11:50):
knowing where I was. So I just started working various
different jobs. I was like a door to door insurance
salesman for a bit, I worked in a cool center.
I worked in various retail things, and then I reapplied
to drama school the next year and I got into
two of them, okay, and then I got really lucky.
(12:11):
I got offered what was called a Dance and Drama Award,
so a scholarship, and I decided to not go because
so this guy calls me up and he says, you
know you've got your places. Great news, and we're going
to offer you the Dada Scholarship and how great. Thank you,
he said, Wow, that's so crazy to the last person
(12:32):
that told screamed down the phone in excitement, and you
were just seeing so nonplussed about it. And I remember thinking, yeah,
why is that? And I just I think it. I
had realized it wasn't the right path for me at
that time, and I think my fear was that one
of the things I really enjoyed about acting was I
felt like I had a certain kind of rawness to me,
(12:56):
and for better or for worse, I felt like they
were going to try and take that out of me
and rebuild me in their image almost and I didn't
want to do that at that time, so I said no,
and instead I just started making short films, not making them,
but being in them. So I found this website and
it was where a lot of film students would put
(13:18):
up castings for their graduation films, and so I was
in the space of a year I did something like
twenty two short films for just random film students, and
some of them are so awful, but it was a
very safe place for me to be really bad, right,
And then I cut together a reel out of those
(13:39):
and I started sending them off to agents, and I
got my first agent in the UK and just slowly
started to grow from then. You know, did There's a
show in the UK called Casualty where every British actor
ever has been on it, you know, as one of
their first jobs. And so I did that and I
played a drug dealer who one of his pregnant girlfriend
to go to a drug deal because he thought there
would be less chance that she would be the one
(14:00):
to get shook. She goes shut and so yes, I
just you know, slowly started building a resume. Yeah, now
at this point, what is your that by the way,
the foresight that you had to make the decision for
your own path one is very admirable because I know
(14:22):
that most people follow a very certain sort of prescribed path.
So that's very cool. Let me ask you this, at
this point, you do these student films, where do you
Where do you think your life is going? And I'll
tell you about me, not because you ask, but because
(14:44):
to tell you what I mean. Like I was doing
theater in the United States, so I was doing regional theater,
touring theaters, theaters all around him. That's really what I
thought my life was. That was what my dream was.
I want to be a theater actor, doing this forever.
Like that's where it's sort of finished for me. And
(15:05):
I ask in part because yes, you're in the UK,
you're in London, and they do a lot of wonderful
filmmaking over in London. But like for you, where did
you but your path hasn't gone that way? Where did
you see yourself? What did you want to do at
this point? So I think that there were two very
(15:25):
distinct sides to myself this time, one where even though
I had now taken steps into this, one that thought,
I'm never gonna nobody's ever going to pay me to
do this. I just feel like some kid from Hendon,
which is the place in London. Yes, I'm never gonna
(15:46):
make anything of this. And then the other side where
I never had any doubt but I was going to
find success. And I think you know that that's probably
and I have, you know, looked into this. Why did
I have such a part of myself that was so sure?
And it's probably because you know, look at or think
(16:08):
about representation of things. I've probably always seen a version
of myself in most movies, right, Like growing up, there
was always a guy that probably kind of looked like
me that was the hero in a lot of these stories.
So I think for those reasons, it always felt doable
on one hand, But then there's also a lot of
guys that look like me, so completely unachievable on the
other hand. And I just had these two separate sides
(16:31):
where one, I'm going to end up selling video games forever,
which is what I was doing at the time, and
two I'm going to be on TV screens, no doubt
about it. Fascinating. One of your earliest jobs you work
(17:00):
with our mutual friend DRIs elba yea Uther, very big
show in the UK at the time, and obviously he
is exploding at this time. How how was that experience
for you as one of your earliest jobs. I was
so excited because it was it was the third season
of Luther, so so it's been around for a little
(17:21):
bit and it was the best thing in British television,
you know, and and and so much of that is
is him and kind of all aspects. He had this
runess to him where he was rough and ready, but
he was still, you know, obviously intelligent and oh it
was such a brilliant character. They're doing a movie that's
(17:42):
coming out sooner. I know that. You know, I'm gonna
tell you that. I don't think I've told this story before.
I it sounds this is going to sound like a
humble bragg. This is like, oh, very weird, I've not
this is so long ago. Obviously the wire has been out.
But I you know, this didn't I mean, it should
have propelled him immediately into humongous stardom. He doesn't. I'm
(18:07):
at an event out of the country of the US
that was in the Bahamas, and I get this. Someone
comes over to me and says, and I'm bringing this
up because you talked about his rawness. They say, the
DJ wants to talk to you. He said, this is
(18:30):
something that no one is in any club ever said
to me. And I said, oh, okay, yeah, he's gonna
be on your show. The DJs in the Bahamas is
going to be on my show. Yeah, And I go
I go up and there's Idriss as the DJ, and
(18:50):
I you know, it was like, well, one of those
things where you see someone and you know them, but
in this content. I mean, like, here's role on the Wire,
which is where I knew him from. And this a
fantastic DJ by the way, was so different and he's like, hey,
may you know whatever, I'm going to be on your show,
(19:12):
and I was like what who? Oh my god? And
then but his like energy and his wrong, I know
what you're talking about about that it makes that makes
total sense today. That's the story that I always think
about him is. So I do this little bit on
Luther and it's such a small part, you know, it's
at the beginning of one episodes. It was really fun though,
(19:33):
especially because it was maybe my second TV job. I
didn't know what I was doing, and almost in quite
a good way where I just felt really loose and relaxed,
like who knows. So, you know, I do this bit
and by the time our characters that I say this
newsly interact because I'm dead, but you know, he comes
and I've already been killed, right, But you know, we
(19:53):
spoke a little bit on set that day and then
I think that you know, it was one of these
British shows where there's four episodes in the se season,
and so it was the penultimate episode. So the rat
Party was not too long after, and so I went
to the Rat Party and as I arrived there, he
was outside with this guy Warren Brown, who was his
partner on the show. And I'd known Warren previously, so
(20:16):
I started talking to them and after a while he
just goes, I just I feel like I recognize you
from somewhere. And I was like, yeah, Luther like this.
I mean I was dead at the time, but this
is the Luther Rat Party and he's like, oh yeah yeah.
So that was that. That was the first bit. But
then like two or three years after this, saw him
at an airport and I thought, oh what, I'm just
(20:38):
gonna say hi, and he before I said hi, I
worked and he went Luthor right, and he completely remembered
me from like three years prior to my name and everything.
So the difference in those two interactions it made me
feel so good. When I went up to the airport
and he totally remembered me. That's awesome. Um, you start
(20:59):
working on films now, are you still in the UK
and you know at what point? Sorry, well hard tiede,
Yes very much in the UK. Yes, underworld mind gamers,
you're working and you're building your resume and your career.
They are still in the UK. Now you've worked on
(21:21):
some film now and some television. What for you was
the difference or was it just a different job. Yeah?
I think at that point it was very much just
a case of how much time can I spend on
sets and how much can I not mess this up?
And so maybe there'll be another opportunity where anything I
(21:42):
take from this one I can use on the next one.
So I mean, you know that the one you meant
in The Hard Tide was quite a big part in
that movie. You know. In fact, I remember how I
got that was somebody else was meant to do it,
and then he dropped out, and they said to me,
literally on a Friday, can you do this movie? And
(22:04):
you're starting on Monday. You have to travel up there tomorrow.
And obviously I was like, yes, that I can't wait.
But but you know, it was that kind of movie
where it was just so thrown together at the last minute.
But it was a great experience, and it was a
chance for me to just do some acting on camera,
because even the things I had done up until that point,
you know that they were fun and cool, but they
(22:26):
were small and there wasn't really any meat to anything
that I was doing, where I think that was probably
one of the first times where it was like I
can delve into this guy and I can feel like
I'm transforming a little bit. So even though you know
it's it's not necessarily a performance that I look backward
and I'm like, well, I hope some people see that.
But it was an important step for me. And the
(22:50):
biggest one that you mentioned there for me was probably
that Mind Gamers movie, because that actually came at a
point where I had come out to America for a
little bit. I came out to a pilot season. I'd
saved that some money. It came out and did a
pilot season, and it was so bad I think I
had You know, you hear these stories. I don't know.
Maybe I don't know if you hear them as an American,
(23:12):
but you can maybe speak on that. But when you're
coming over from the UK for a pilot season, you're
going to have five auditions a day. It's going to
be unmanageable. You were going to be spending so much
money on guests. Him out for six weeks. I had
about three auditions, so it was such a letdown, and
then I got Mind Gamers a couple of weeks after
(23:33):
I got back. That's what gave me the money to
come out to the US again, which is where I
then booked my first TV show. You start dabbling mind
Gamers for one in fantasy and sci fi? Now, is
this something that you personally are interested in? How was
that genre in a way different than other stuff that
you had done. Yeah, I've absolutely always had an interest
(23:56):
in and watching that kind of thing. I think sci
fi in particular, probably through my older brother when I
was growing up. He was a big Star Trek fan,
so that was often on the TV, and I didn't
necessarily get it when I was really really young, and then,
as you do, sometimes just my older brother liked it.
I liked it, so got more into sci fi and
(24:17):
fantasy stuff. I think the key really for the actor, though,
in my humble opinion, is to not play that you're
in a to not treat it very differently, you know,
is to treat it as if you're making anything and
be grounded and you just happen to be in the
world of sci fi. I think as an audience member,
(24:39):
anything you watch all of that stuff, sci fi action,
whatever it is. That's all only matters if you care
about the people and if you buy into the connections
between the characters, and so that has to be the
focus of the actor, and then everything around them does
the sci fi job. Speaking of sci fi into the
(25:01):
bad Lands, how are you? How are you cast? I
mean this, this becomes your first really big break. Tell me,
tell me how it happens. So so, i'd done this
mind Games movie, which had given me enough money to
come back out to the US, and I came for
two weeks. That's all you were coming for. You were
just coming for two weeks. It's just two weeks in
(25:22):
in October, okay, And I think I had something said
to me of like a mini pilot season. I don't
know if that's a thing or not, but that's what
I've been told. I don't know. I certainly didn't experience that.
I came out and I had absolutely nothing in the
first week. It's okay, not really what I spent the
(25:43):
money for, but I guess I'm having a nice time.
Second week, I think I had maybe one audition, and
I called my manager and we got an argument. For
the first time I've been with this guy for it
for a couple of years now, you know, me based
in the UK and him sending me audition tape. But
this was one of our first times. But yeah, we
really fell out on the phone because I just said,
(26:04):
you know, I've come all the way here and there's nothing,
which is a silly thing to say, because he quite
rightly said, what do you want me to do if
there's you know, if there's anything comes up, I'm submitting
you for it. I think the way he put it
to me is like I'm not sitting behind my desk
jerking awful day. I'm trying to get you jo like
I'm trying to do it for you, right. And so
(26:26):
I said to him, you know, should I should I
extend for one more week? He said, I'll be honest
with you, only don't spend the money. It's not worth it.
There's nothing here called my UK agent. I said the
same thing. He said, come home. But I had just
split up with a partner back home, and I think
I've just been a bit stubborn as well. And so
I said, I'm going to do one more week and
(26:47):
he said, all right, let's see what we can do.
And I had a load of general meetings that week,
so you know, I'm just going meeting casting people, not
for any specific jobs, but I get to sit down
with them and just to have a discussion. Right. And
then on the Friday, the last day of my extended week,
I get this audition or I must have got the
audition on the Thursday to audition on Friday four into
(27:09):
the bad Lands, and they said, it's this great pilot script,
and it was that. The pilot script was fantastic. The
part was so good. This tomorrow Friday, it's late, it's
like four or five pm, as I said, going home
Saturday morning. So I read for this part with just
the cast and director, nobody else, may have even just
been the casting assistant. And I did it once and
(27:29):
she just looked at me and she can you just
give me one second? And she went out of the
room and she came back in with the main cast
and director and she said, can you read it for her?
And this was one of the most humbling I did.
On the first line, she said stop. I said, okay,
she said, you're trying too hard. Said okay, great again,
(27:53):
he started it again, and I literally two or three
lines and she stops me again. She said, just stop acting. Okay,
here we go again, and I remember very clearly this
feeling of getting past the third line and thinking, okay,
she's not stopped me. So I get through the scene
and she says, when are you going home? I say,
(28:13):
I'm going home tomorrow morning's can you stay around if
I get the producers down here to meet you right now? Yes,
of course I can stay around, so I do. I
just sitting there in their office in the waiting room
for about an hour, and Miles Miller and al Gol
who were the two guys that created it, they just
made Wednesday most recently. They come in and I read
(28:36):
for them and we have a bit of a chat
and they say, all right, great, thanks. So I fly
out home the next day and I don't hear anything
for a week, and then I get told that AMC
are going to fly me back out to tests for
the part, and I do that and I think it's
the next day. I get the cool you're in, which
was huge for me. And you know, but I think
(28:57):
by the time I got that cool, it was probably
quite late in the day, and you know, my parents
back in the UK would have been very much asleep,
and I called them straight away and they kind of
groggily answered the phone clearly of what, so, what are
you calling about? And I said, I thank you, said
I got the part, and my mum said, I'm so
glad you called. And and from then it was you know,
(29:18):
you're going to New Orleans and you're going to make
this TV show And it was such an amazing experience.
It's a really cool world they created. Yeah, the character
of writer. Talk to me a little bit about how
you how you got into this this character, besides doing
your best to not act into the this post apocalyptic
(29:39):
world that he's living in. Yeah, well, so the world
itself was not tool I pictured as well, because I
knew it was post apocalyptics. So and I had read
it and I had been imagining mad Max. Okay, and
then we get there and it's my first fitting and
we're dressed like Victorian Royalty, and so from the get goals, oh,
this is something totally different. And I remember my real
(30:04):
focus getting into that character is what does it do
when you're holding onto secrets for a long time? Because
originally that character was going to be secretly gay, and
that never played out in the script, and I remember
he had this dad's played by the sect called Martin
shot Ass, who is like so good but very scary
(30:27):
in the show, not very scary in real life well sometimes,
but very very powerful man in the show, one that
you would think would maybe not be quite on board
with his son possibly being gay. And so it was
something that he was aside himself he was going to
have to hide, and I remember really focusing on what
(30:47):
would that do to a person to keep aside himself
buried for so long? And I can't remember what I
was reading at the time, but it had something about
how secrets rot away at you if you if you
keep them inside. And so there was this kind of
darkness that I wanted to find in him of just
not being able to be himself and never feeling worthy
(31:07):
and feeling like his real self wasn't going to be
worthy of the future Baron of the Badlands, which she
was the heir to be. So so that was that
was a big part of finding who Rider was. What
does it feel like to bear this weight your whole
life of not being good enough? That's fascinating. What do
you think in terms of showing up and having it
(31:29):
be so different stylistically than what you thought before. Do
you feel like that had an impact on your performance
or was that just you were just playing the part
and your environment didn't matter. Um. I think it was
kind of a case of once I was in the costume,
and I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but
(31:52):
it changed everything. Yeah, Suddenly I was walking a little
bit taller, my shoulders were pinned back a little bit
further because I'm in this as the beautiful, you know,
outfit they've put together. So so I do think it
I could imagine if it wasn't that, I probably I
would have had a totally different physicality, probably would have
been a bit more hunched over. I've I've grown up
(32:13):
in this like dirty world, And actually it wasn't that.
It was down to an abbey and I was upright,
and so it definitely changed things, but not in a
way that I think was toll detrimental. I think it
probably added because it's it's all that roughness was still there.
It is still a world where at any moment you
can die or and be killed. But that added into
(32:36):
the kind of royalty of the whole thing I think
blended together quite nicely. Is the physicality important for you
in creating a character? Yeah, massively, I think you know,
I used to be an actor where every part has
to feel so different from the last one, and that
was such an important thing to me. And then I
(32:57):
realized that that's actually probably quite that's quite the intrumental
because to some extent every part we play, you know,
we're putting a piece of ourself into it, right, and
if we weren't, it wouldn't be a unique performance for us.
So so I realized that maybe you know that there's
always going to be an essence of myself in these parts.
And one of the things that can help me get
(33:19):
into the other character aspect is how do they walk,
how do they move? How do they hold themselves? Because
I think that tells quite the story as well. You know,
in certain situations we hold ourselves probably differently, and there's
something about that that is telling a story. Well, why
why do I when I'm putting this Victorian jacket? Why
do I stand more upright? Right? Because I've never had
(33:42):
to kind of put words to it. If that that
privileged upbringing that these characters have had, maybe they've not
had anything weighing them down in from a societal point
of view. So yeah, no, I do. I think. I
think the physicality for me has always been a key
to help unlock a part who that person is. I
agree totally. In addition to that, you had a lot
(34:21):
of action scenes into the bad Lands. Did you do
your own stunts or did you have stunt people? How
much of it was you? I definitely had stunt people,
not as much as I would have liked on on
bad moments, mostly because it was it was martial arts based.
So before each season we'd have these big martial arts
boot camps. And I've always been quite athletic, or I
(34:44):
have not always been is very flexible, and when we
were doing these martial arts scenes, you know, it's like
high kicks and stuff. I just I just wasn't I
just I just didn't have it right. But one thing
that so we had this amazing stunt stunt crew. It
was a very authentic. It felt like experienced to learning
the martial arts. Because his team of five or six guys,
(35:05):
they've flown out from China, only one of them spoke English.
It was it was like very just yeah, as I said,
authentic feeling, and you know, they'd be kind of trying
to communicate to me that I'm doing it wrong, and
I'd be trying to communicate back, I know that I'm
doing it wrong. I just can't do it right. And
so this guy that the heads, the one that he
(35:25):
did speak English master Ded, we would try and base
riders fights around my skill set, like maybe he's just
not much of a fancy fighter, maybe he's just a
bit more seas red, it's just a bit more brutish, Like, yeah,
I'd do that and just swing wildly. So I got
to have some influence in building those scenes, but anything
(35:48):
that did require a bit more finesse. I had a
great double in New Orleans and then the same thing.
In fact I had there were different doubles between season
one and two. Season one, I had a great double.
Season two, I had a very very handsome and muscular
double to the point where it's like, can he just
play writer? He just put my face on his body.
(36:12):
But yeah, he was great, And so yeah, always had
you know, in all these jobs that I've unfortunate to
do a fair amount of action, built a really great
relationship with stunt doubles because I think it's more than
them just certainly something that I experienced these days. It's
more than them just stepping in to do the things
that I'm maybe it's unsafe for me to do or
(36:33):
incapable of doing, and it's much more about building a
rapport of Hey, man, I know you're going to want
to do this, so I tested it out for you,
and I found that if I put my hand here,
it gave me really great leverage or whatever it is.
But but having that back and forth rather than just
all right, I'm done, he steps in. Right. How How
did the calves come along really really well? Because it
was a really nice blend of people, kind of different
(36:57):
ages and different backgrounds and people coming from from parts
of the world, and we were just thrown into this thing.
And we had this fight camp for the seasons where
it was just being beaten up, beating each other up
and not good at it. Yeah, really it was you know,
we were all staying pretty close to each other and
(37:18):
we'd go we spent eight hours a day learning to
fight together. It was It was amazing. It was so
bonding and learning to deal with the Louisiana heat because
we were there like just moving into summit. It was
so so hot, and I just drenched engross the whole time.
But it was it was really bonding for everybody to
(37:38):
kind of struggle through that together. And you know see
some people, oh, they'd learned to do this kick and
and everybody be really supportive because well, you're the first
one to get it, all right, now I want to
get it. And it was Yeah, that that in itself,
I think really helped bind everybody together. Well, you know,
there certainly was and is there was a period where
post apocalyptic tone vision became quite a thing. You've got
(38:02):
The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, Station eleven and more.
Where do you feel into the bad Lands fits into this?
In what way is it unique and what do you
think it's legacy is? I think it's unique kind of
in what I touched on about it just it just
feels like a different world in the way that we
(38:22):
were all dressed. It's it didn't show us going back
to this kind of barren, deserted world, show that in
some senses it is the world's more heightened state where
it has moved forward. For me, the real thing that
sets into the bad Land and society and it has
(38:43):
given it which I've come to learn over the last
few years something of a cult following. It's the action
in it, you know, it's very much old school kind
of Kung Fu movies, gravity defying, you spend a little
bit too long in the air before each kick, and
it's really something there's not much of an American TV
you know. I think those movies really became mainstream here
(39:05):
through things like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, But I don't
think TV ever really found that style and into the
bad Lends for me, really nailed that fighting style. Were
you ready for it to be over when I was over?
I was. I was horrified when I got the because
so I I die halfway through the second season, Yes,
(39:27):
and I was so I wasn't going to spoil it,
but you did. Okay, Yes, So I die halfway through
the second season, and I felt like at the time, Oh,
here's this cool cable TV show. This is gonna be
Oh okay, I'm dying. Oh maybe I did a really
bad job and I'm never going to work again. I was.
I was petrified at the end of it, and in
(39:49):
some senses, if I watched your two seasons, I'm much
happier with the performances I given a second season and
the first, and I think it's because I felt free
up in the first season. I think I still had
that this is like a really big opportunity. Oh, I
should say it's like nice little box because of that,
Whereas in season two I knew it was coming to
an end, so I felt much freer in my performances.
But yeah, I was. I was really really worried to
(40:11):
come into the end of that show of did I
blow my opportunity? Here? Am I Am? I never going
to be able to get get shot? So so no, yeah,
I was. I was not ready for it to be over. Well,
you got another shot pretty quick. Nine one one on
Fox TV. Quite a shift from post apocalyptic victorian wearing
(40:36):
bad guy to nine one one on Fox. How was
that switching it up? Well, first of all, tell me
how you were cast as Evan. Yeah, so that that
was about eight months between bad Lands and them and one.
So in the grand scheme of things, relatively quick doesn't
feel like yeah, but yes, yes, you are ready yes,
(40:58):
And so I it was a really strange feeling when
I got the audition for this part. So audition came
through and I honestly thought I'm gonna get this. And
bear in mind, so in those eight months, I haven't
even got close to anything. I don't think I've had
a call back. But or it wasn't even so much
(41:18):
I'm going to get this. It was I'm going to
give a reading of this that no one else is
going to give, and they're either going to really like
that or they're not. But I feel very confident I'm
going to offer up a version of this character that
no one else is. So I went in and I
read for it, just with Liz Paulson, who was one
of the class and people at Fox at the time,
(41:38):
and I just knew it was going well. And you know,
there's this thing that I act to say about, Oh
there's the ones that you think going well that you
don't get and I don't think that's so much like
you know, when there's a good vibe in the room, right, Yes.
So I came out of that and by the time
I got home, she'd called my manager and she'd said,
he did a really great job. Probably gonna want to
(41:59):
come back in and read for Ryan Murphy and Tim
Myner and some people who are making show. So then
I do get a cool that I'm going to go
back in for it. So I do. I go in
and meet these guys and I walk in this pretty
silent and there I do this I think two or
three scenes. It's just silent. Okay, So I go and
grab my bag and as I grab my bag, right
goes also tell us a bit about yourself, and I
(42:20):
was like, okay, a lifeline. They're not kicking me out,
just so you know, we have a bit of a discussion.
Then a few days go by and I get cool.
I think it's like Thursday morning, they're gonna want you
to test for it. Great, I get cool. Probably not
even two hours later. Actually Ryan has said they don't
they're not testing you that they did. Don't want to
(42:41):
give anybody the option. You're the guy, you got the
party that you don't need to test for it. And
it was there was a real feeling of this one
of like I think, I think this is going to
be a really good show, and I think this is
going to be a really good part. And thankfully it
has gone on unseemingly that that has been the case.
But but yeah, from the minute I got the audition,
(43:02):
there was there was a feeling I was going to
be able to offer something to this that's awesome. Did
you did you talk to any firefighters prior to did
you train with any? Yeah? Myself and it's another action
on the show. Guy called Kenny Choi we Um. Right
before the first season started. We went on and he
happened to know this guy that was firefighter in Santa Monica.
(43:25):
So we went on a ride along. We spent the
day with them in the firehouse. It was so fun,
like we went on three calls with them, and I
remember thinking at the time if I was one of
these victims and I looked up and you know, we
have to throw on the gear and everything to be there.
I looked up and you know, asked for help and now, oh,
I'm actually just here for TV show research like go away,
(43:47):
like what I mean this time of need and I'm
there with my notebook being like okay. And then he
was kind of a jerk, but it was it was
really fun just to see how they are when they
jump back in truck, how they are in the firehouse,
and the way they are is awful to each other,
like it's just bullying and but in the most loving way,
(44:08):
in the way that you only can with people that
you really trust. And I think also one of the
things that was really surprising to me about it was
they all spoke on this, how they would go to
these horrible calls, and they describe some of them, and
it is the things that you would never want to
see in a million years, and how they would then
jump in the fire truck and they'd make fun of it,
(44:28):
not in a way to diminish what it was, but almost.
I think it's quite a human thing that we do
when things get too heavy, you know, we undercut it
with some kind of comedy, and I think it's just
a way to stop it from getting too heavy. And
I think, and I don't know if this is on
purpose or not, but it's I think that's a thing
that nine on one does in itself very well. Whenever
(44:49):
things get too heavy, it undercuts itself with a moment
of silliness or of laughter. And so that I find, yeah,
mirrors quite a lot what I learned from firefighters in
the real world, that they have to be able to
just deal with the weight of the things they see
day in and day out. I make a regular appearance
in New York. I was just in New York last
(45:10):
week at a studio there that tapes at the World
Trade Center, one of the towers, and I got dropped off.
I'm standing on the corner. We're waiting for somebody to
meet us, and this guy goes, hey, what are you
doing here? Turn around? I realize I'm standing in front
(45:32):
of the firehouse right there at the World Trade Center
and it's one of the firefighters that stuck his head
out the door, is basically saying, what the fuck are
you doing here? And I said, oh, hey, what's and
he goes, come on, let's have some coffee. And I'm like,
you know what, sir, I'm about to be on live
(45:55):
television in like thirteen minutes or something, but you know what,
I'm gonna come. I'm gonna come back. And I did.
Came back, hung out with them for a few minutes,
not enough time, and so warm, so generous, so awesome
(46:15):
to me, And like I said, I do this, Uh,
I do this show pretty regularly when I'm in town
in New York. And I will promise you I will
when I'm back again, go back and visit those guys.
You know, there's is there a culture of firefighters in
the UK that's similar to the US or is that
a distinctive US culture the firefighters. I do think it's different,
(46:41):
and I think one of the big differences is because
we have socialized healthcare. If you have a medical emergency
in the UK, you just get an ambulance sent by
the hospital. You know, you cool nine one one and
they just send you a healthcare ebudence, whereas here you
(47:01):
get firefighters for everything. So I think because the scope
of their job is so much wider here, there are
a lot more part of just the kind of societal
view of what first responder is. Whereas in the UK
you think of firefights as they fight fire, and I'm
sure there is more to their job than that, but
(47:22):
that's the main thing that comes to mind, whereas here
that they seem to do a lot more. So I
think they kind of thought about in a much warmer
sense because of that. Interesting my brother in law is
a firefighter there in Los Angeles, and the stories that
(47:45):
I heard, I'm sure you've heard much of the same.
It is, you know, And by the way, I'm not
saying don't respect teachers, but you know, people talk all
the time about teacher, you know, teachers most important profession.
I totally agree but also firefighters. I feel like they're
not mentioned enough, the amount of work and the care
(48:05):
that they put into people, not just when there's a fire,
but as you say, a medical emergency or or something else. Well,
I think that's that's partly as well, because for you know,
I don't think people can be blamed for this. We
don't really think about first respondence until we need them,
that's right. Whereas for teachers, obviously, you know, we do
in it in a much more general sense. But they're
(48:27):
out there all the time and somebody's needing them all
the time, and they are literally the people that run
towards the danger that everybody else runs away from. Yes,
but but yeah, until you have to cool them on one,
I don't think you know it's it's anywhere near the
front of your brain and being processed. The fact that
they're out there and they're doing that day in the
(48:48):
day out. Yeah, absolutely, I think I think you bring
up a great point. They're just there when you need them,
and maybe you never will, but they should be celebrated nonetheless.
Um yeah, oh you also did you guests start on
the spin off? They're a long star? What what was
what was that like tould be a part of that show.
It was fun because you know, I knew all of
(49:09):
those actors by that point, but you know, there was
certainly an element of kind of there, like, guys, we'll
show her it's done. Well, yeah, we've been making a
show for a couple of years now, so don't worry.
You just followed me. So so that that that was
that was really fun to go in with that energy
and you know, mostly joking sense, but a little bit
(49:30):
right right, but it was It was called a really
great episode as well. We would do a wildfire, which
is something that we hadn't I think they've always been
a bit scared of doing a wildfire on the show
on our show because it is set in la and
there's every chance that by the time it airs there
may be one, and you know, you never want to
air anything that called cause upsets. So so to get
(49:53):
to do that on their show was was really fun.
Since twenty twenty one, this is so our you work
with a charity providing workout equipment to firehouses to help
firefighters stay in shape. What was what was your impetus
behind that decision? Obviously I understand why why firefighters would
be important to you, but with the workout equipment. Yeah,
(50:17):
So this guy, Rob Paparo reached out to me and
he's he's a firefighter on the East Coast. He's actually
within the last year or so been made a captain.
But yeah, he reached out to me and he said, listen,
my kids really love the show and he's a part
of this, founding his charity five five Fitness. Basically just
broke it down from me, how how not all firehouses
(50:37):
and have access to a good workout equipment and it's
such an important part of the job. You know, are
they fit enough to run in and be able to
throw somebody over their shoulder and carry them back out again,
Because if they're not, then what's the point, you know. So,
so to hear and find out that so many of
(50:58):
these firehouses are underserved and under equipped when it comes
to that, was was really quite shocking to me. And
you know, he was making the point that then the
firefights also has every chance of becoming the victim, and
you know that's not what you need. So just the
kind of importance of that and how they need more
funding for it. So yeah, and he's he's just a
(51:21):
really fun guy, has just big loan, Mohican handlebot mustache
like it's just a character. His kids are getting into acting.
So it's just it's been really fun to get to
know him and his family over the years. That's awesome.
That's awesome. At some point you and I'll talk. I
have I'm helping out a area in Lake Tahoe that
(51:43):
means a lot to me and very similar story. They
don't have a helicopter, so when they are fires that
are happening up there, they've got to wait and make
sure they can get a helicopter that comes in because
the helicopter is shared between all of these firehouses and
all the counties up there in northern California. So it's uh,
(52:04):
it's important for every community to support their local firefighters
because look, you know, you never know when you're going
to need them, and they should be supported and appreciate it.
And it's that thing if you may not think about
it until you do need them, but when you do
need them, you better hope they were able to come.
So so you know, it's just to give them the
equipment that makes that possible. Dude, Oliver, it's been so
(52:26):
nice chatting with you, getting to know you a little bit.
Good luck to you and thank you for all of
the important work that you're doing. Uh I will, I
will watch you and whatever comes next. Thank you. Yeah,
thank you for me and it's lovely to just have
the opportunity to just talk. So yes, right really, thank
(52:47):
you cheers, Oliver, Thank you that was so great. Thank
you for coming on to the podcast here and sharing
(53:08):
all about you and your incredible career, and listeners, thank
you for tuning in. Make sure to leave a comment
on our Instagram at Off the Beat, follow at Off
the Beat, by the way, tell us what you want
to see more of, who you want to see more of,
or who you want to see period, and then come
back next week for another episode where everything's coming up rosies, roses.
(53:33):
Everything's coming up roses here on Off the Beat, but
maybe with some rosies. We'll see you next week. Off
the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
(53:54):
alongside our executive producer Lang Lee. Our senior producer is
Diego Tapia. Producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr.
Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern
is Sammy kats our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed
by the one and only Creed Bratton
Host
Brian Baumgartner
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