Mike talks to actor Sean Whalen who starred in the movie Twister with Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman in 1996. Mike and Sean talk about his character in the movie, what 2 actors didn’t get along on set, him improvising lines with Philip Seymour Hoffman and how Bill Paxton fought for a sequel. They also talk about the new reboot in the works now. Mike also goes through all of Sean’s biggest movies from the 90’s such as Men in Black, That Thing You Do!, Never Been Kissed Batman returns and how he became known as an actor where you’d know his face but maybe not his name.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am
movie Mike on Twitter and Instagram at my destro. Have
a very special episode for you guys this week that
I'm really excited about. I'm talking to actor Sean Whalen.
Now you might not know his name, but you'll for
sure know his movies. He's in one of my favorite
movies of all time, Twister, and it's a movie I
talked about on this podcast all the time. I reviewed
(00:22):
it a couple of weeks ago and everybody was just like, oh, yeah,
that's one of my favorite movies too. I stumbled upon
him on TikTok and had to get him on the show,
and he agreed to come on talk about Twister. We're
gonna get into all the behind the scenes stuff, how
it kind of changed his career, and what it was
like working with Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, and Phillip se
Moore Hoffman on set. A bunch of cool stuff to
talk to Sean about. And then we'll also go through
(00:43):
all his biggest movies that he was in in the nineties.
Like I said, you may not know his name, but
you'll remember every single movie that he was in, everything
from Batman returns that thing you do, Men in Black,
Never Been Kissed. He was in all of these movies,
and he'll talk about each of those roles and what
he remembers from working on those movies. So really fun
and kind of nostalgic to go back and talk about
these movies from the nineties and what it was like
(01:05):
to be in a movie back in the day. And
he's also doing a brand new movie with Seth Rogan
that comes out next month on HBO Max, so we'll
talk about that as well. And like I said, Twister
is just one of my favorite movies of all time.
And just to be able to talk to somebody from
that movie and ask them these geeky questions, I think
it's really cool to get to do. And if you
haven't seen Twister, it's actually on Netflix now and there's
(01:25):
even talk now that they're doing a reboot, so I
gotta ask him about that too. So really fun episode
for you guys. Without any further ado, let's just get
right into it. And if you're not subscribed at this point,
if you're not getting brand new episodes every single Monday,
what are you waiting for? Hit that subscribe button, Hit
that follow button wherever you're listening to this episode now
and if you don't mind, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts,
to be sure to leave that five star rating and
(01:46):
write a quick little review to help me kind of
battle out all the other movie podcasts out there and
just throw them into the dust. Anyway, let's get started
with this week's episode with Sean Whalon talking about Twister.
Let's go in a world where everyone and their mother.
As a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears
of listeners like never before in a movie podcast, a
(02:08):
man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like a
walking on MTV with glasses. From the Nashville Podcast Networks
Movie Movie podcast, All Right on the phone now with
actors Sean Whalen. How's it going, Sean, It is going well.
It is going well, complaint. So I just kind of
set this up. How this all kind of started is
(02:30):
I was on TikTok the other day and on my
fo you page, I see your video talking about Twister,
which is one of my favorite movies of all time,
And I literally just had a review on this podcast
talking about how much of an impact that movie has
had on me Over my lifetime and then I see
you on TikTok talking about it, so I had to
get you on. Yeah. Yeah, TikTok's really fun for that
(02:51):
kind of stuff. And and there's a lot of uh,
there's a lot of pizzas right now due to the
reboot announcements, the announcement of the reboots that they're doing,
so I think that's why people are more interested. Plus
it later the Mets legs, so there's like a big
I've noticed a lot of Twitter teats going on. So
we'll get to that reboot later. But first of all,
I want to talk about your role in this movie.
(03:12):
So when you first get this part of Alan in it, Like,
how is that character described to you? Uh? It kind
of wasn't They just don't really they it was very
open they We were just the storm chasers and that
were the only thing we were told is Alan Ruett
myself were told that we were in charge of the navigation. Now,
(03:33):
you know, this was the nineties, so there was no
apps for you know, Google Maps or anything like that,
or ways or anything. So we were in charge of
what is the best way to get the closest and
safest to the tornado or in the clipt you know,
and that's the only thing we knew is that's who
(03:54):
we were. So I kind of came but they did
give us the costume. You know, we went book sitting
and you saw the kind of costume I had with
the backwards baseball hats, funny turns, things like that. So
I kind of came up with anything about that character myself.
But while we hung out with each other so much,
(04:14):
things just came in the movie where that we're just
kind of like us fooling around, like Philip sma Has
and I going like food food with our fingers. Um.
That is uh, that was because that was what we
were doing that some of the fingers thing. And we
would joke around like that whenever we wanted someone to yes,
you know whatever, So we did we did that in
the movie. Hey, we're absolutely not going At the end
(04:41):
of the movie you can see people playing last paper
scissors as a helicopter goes away. But this is all
stuff that we used to do hanging out. But but
it is funny now that I'm putting these things on
TikTok and stuff. How much people actually liked the cat,
liked the camaraderie and saw that we were friends because
seriously of us. I mean, I mean we all got
(05:06):
along really well. Yeah, what's so great about it? First
the cast is just an amazing group of actors. And
then I feel like it's you identify with them being
kind of the underdog storm chaser group, and I think
that's kind of what Also people just loved about it, like, oh,
it's these just a group of people who are like
using their own vehicles basically against the big corporate you know,
storm chasers. Yeah, I mean what was crazy was they
(05:28):
cast all these I mean Anthony Rapped, star of Broadway Rent,
the you know, originator of the role of Rent. He
was on The Bad Guys. You hardly found so that
all these characters but Ruby had been around with tons
of things. They had this big grouping young actors and
then just chose who was on what you brought up
(05:48):
that line about you know the food that food scene
do you have? And I think that's kind of something
that there's a bunch of like quotes in lines from
this movie that I fell over the years has become
part of my vocabulary, Like I used that I'm talking
about dinner like food. Yeah, yeah, it's so funny. So
many people say stuff, Oh my god, I get I
used to be known for the milk commercialness. Say you
(06:09):
know you're the milk guy. I won't talk about that
a little bit later, but I would get that all
the time. And now after all these years, everybody's saying
fold the map or don't don't hold the map, don't
hold the map. And so when I signed pictures of
a picture, you know, I do these live things where
I sign autographs, uh photos on TikTok in the afternoons
on Friday. They do it today, but I signed on
(06:31):
that one. There's a picture of me and Allen wrecked
by those hay sex and I write hold the map
instead of don't fold the map. Because you know, people
were like, did you actually fold them or not? And
I go, well, of course I did. I just find them.
I didn't hold the map. Told me to roll the maps,
so I fold it over. Yeah. Yeah, So I mean
it's just so funny that, yeah, that's the lexicon, and
(06:52):
people are saying the wonder of nature. You know Still's line,
and everyone loves you know cow, that's the same cow.
You know those lines, all these lines. It's it's just
I had no idea, but I think it really kept
into this deske type right now, which is really a
lot of nights he's must out them. You know. So
when when you guys are filming this movie, a lot
(07:13):
of it is, you know, the c G I, Tornado,
the twister in the movie. What are you actually seeing
when you're on set? What did they tell you to
look at or envision in your mind? They were just
point in directions. They were just pointing to certain directions,
and you know, we were just looking up a lot
they didn't have. There was very few times that we
had anything in the sky because it would be too high.
(07:35):
You know, a lot of times they'll do in movies,
you know, if there's something weird to be right in
front of you because on a pole, or they'll have
someone in the suit, or but it was way too
high up. So they would just tell us, you know,
where to look, and and right before you did the shot,
you'd be in the truck and they're like, okay, where
is it? And you know, they say, okay, it's around
you know, ten o'clock, you know, straight ahead of midnight,
(07:58):
this ten o'clock and then up you know, and then
you up, Okay, good. That looks good. Looks there, you know,
and that's what we would do, you know, And you
found a lot of those in Oklahoma, right, yeah, ninth time.
It was in uh, Oklahoma around some all around the
state of Oklahoma. So I remember Bill Paxton back in
(08:19):
when you were still alive, and he was talking about
possibly doing like a Twister three D version, and yeah,
what was there before? You know, we've lost Bill Paxton
and some half more since. Was there ever a talk?
I know there's a reboot happening now, but was there
ever a talk with the original cast to do apart two?
Bill had been pushing that for so long, like he
(08:41):
was trying to take meetings around town. And I remember
seeing him at the Writer's Strike in like two thousand
and two, three um, and we were talking about it.
He just said, you know, it's crazy because he said,
there's never been a huge blockbuster like that that doesn't
the pequel like it was unheard of Jurassic Park, and
(09:03):
I mean everything that did that well always had some
sort of a sequel. So it was so he was
going around pitching it, and I remember thinking, all right, well,
let's Twister. HiT's a big city, you know, and they'd
have to kind of call us them to try to
help people and you know, have the fun of like
a wacky dealing with straightly city scientists. And you know,
(09:25):
I don't know why it never got me. I mean
it could be listening. Bill and Helen didn't get along
that well just because they were so so so different
in the way they were trained as actors and just
there you know, approach as to like she's definitely more
quiet and reserved. He was definitely gregarious or whatever, and
then big and he was so excited because he's been
(09:48):
in the trenches for a long time of being a
side character and he was finally getting a lead. You know,
She's been a lead on a big TV show and
stuff like that. So there were different points in the life,
different philosophies and things like that. So I don't know
that has something to do with it too. You know,
it's still weird to me because I think that's not
(10:09):
a big deal. They replaced people all the time, and
Hellen didn't want to do it would be Bill and
something else, so it would just be Bill, um uh,
or just Helen with someone else, you know what I mean. Like,
I don't really know why they never did. But maybe
it was just because the tornadoes were expensive. I don't know.
But it was a huge hit. I mean it made
a lot of money, Like twenty five years later than
(10:29):
saying they're going to reboot it. I mean it makes
sense to me. I mean listen, like I said, there's
a there's a big but I was drawing up in
the seventies. Everyone was into the fifties, you know, because
when we suck hops, when we had American graffiti in
the Happy Days and things like that, and we had
these lock moresov shows, there's always like this love of
twenty years earlier. So there's a huge nineties love right
(10:53):
And now that studios are owned by big corporations, the
risk taking is a lot less, you know, so they
want to dive. It's the perfect time. It's perfect timing
because that's what people want, is these names that they
know and in no way that I have known that
twitter but so much to so many people until I
(11:16):
started doing conventions and doing these ticktoks and things like that,
in no way in the world. So it's crazy. So
you say, you see it more now when the movie
actually came out, how did it did it elevate your career,
like what happened? Then? Yeah, well, well I got in
the movie essentially because if they got no commercial, um
Saron for commercial. A girl in my class Tournamy and said,
(11:37):
your life's about to change, and I said why, She goes,
I worked at Amblin Entertainment. Steven Spielberg loves your commercial.
I was like, okay, uh. And so it was like
six months or a year later where we had the
audition for Twitter when it went national. So my commercial
was in California only for two years and then the
third year so I did it might be nine three,
(12:00):
and so it was like ninety four nine. If I
was very good national and you know I walked in,
I didn't really do that much. They were and the
cutner goes, he's very hot right now. So once you
get into that, that's film. It's a Steven Spielberg from
the director of Speed, and it's all the quote unquote
hot young actors around the United States. Well that gives
(12:23):
you heat, you know what I mean. So while you're
filming it, there's heat, while there's the year in between.
So that when I got home, I started working like
a crazy person because everybody knew I had hate. So
I was doing guest stars less than right, and um
I did, and you know it, Fielberg's liked that I
(12:43):
worked with his friends, which was Drew Barmore in a
couple of films, and Tom Hanks and things like that.
So it's definitely started it. And then it was just
a big movie. But what happened is when the big
movie comes out, you know, where is that amazing scene
that everybody watched Wayne, This guy is amazing And the
(13:04):
only person who had seems like that really was still
you know, besides Bill and Helen and Jamie, you know
what I mean. In terms of the team Bill, Phil
was the only one who kind of stood out and
still had all these people in New York they wanted
to work on the on independence and now they could.
Now they could use it because they go, he's a
guy in Twister, you know what I mean. So it
(13:25):
really helped him, but it helped me too, for you know,
like I said, they enjoyed working with me and Spielher's
company like work, so I sort of worked with his friends.
But yeah, you know, my commercial career ended with that
most commercial and then this movie helped, you know, launched
me into study acting work for quite a while, you know.
I I know what it's like to have a heat.
You know, when I got back from Switzer and my
(13:47):
friend was onst but moved good luck good Luck, and
I'm like, yeah, man, she's really piste off. And then
I walked into and I'm like, hello, how are you?
It's so good to see and I was like, whoa. Okay,
So you know, you know what it's like to be
on both sides. Have one final Twister question for you.
So we're talking about philipsy Moore Hoffman and his role
(14:09):
Dusty in the movie and I love here in Nashville,
And there's this big urban legend around um Garth Brooks
and the fact that he allegedly turned down that role
because he didn't want to play in a movie that
the Twister was the star of the movie. He didn't
want to share the screen with the Twister. Do you
know if there's any truth to that urban legend. I've
never heard of that till you brought it up. The
(14:31):
never heard that that was over that he didn't want
to play. Oh, I've never heard of that. It doesn't
seem to fit the narrative for me, only because if
you Remember, Spielberg's whole thing back in the day was
not to work with movie stars. He didn't want to
work with movie stars. He only wanted to work with,
(14:51):
you know, known actors. Bill Paxton was not a movie star,
Jamie Gross was not a huge I mean, they've been
in movies and obviously worked. Allen probably had the most
heat because of her show, her show to Shoot Me Right,
But he always used young actors. He put Vince on
in Jurassic Park two because of swingers he was. He
was picking young, kind of up and coming because it
(15:14):
gives them the exposure they need and they have heat.
They have a little bit of heat within the industry,
and it helps them get more heat plus their people.
So it doesn't make sense to me they would have
Garth Brooks and Helen Hunt animal passing because that would
cost a lot of money, you know what I mean,
you got it, Yeah, and they wanted to and they
wanted to throw all the money on the street. So
(15:34):
it doesn't that doesn't make sense to me. All right, Well,
what I want to do next is kind of go
through all your big movies and just the fact that
I've seen you in so many things and I kind
of want to talk about all those roles with you.
Is that cool? All right? So come back and do
that next. Alright, so we're back here with actors. Sean Whalen.
(15:57):
So is it a fair thing to say that a
lot of people I know your face but not know
your name. Absolutely. I a friend of mine, Scott Temple,
who is showing for walking Dad. We've been friends for
you know, maybe in almost twenty years, and he said
to me, you're that guy. You're that guy. And so
for a while, my hand o and all my social
(16:17):
media was that guy, Sean Lanen. Um. But then there
was a documentary called That Guy and they had all
these character actors. But I was like, the guys are
huge names, but I'm an actor, so I would know them. Um.
But I didn't get picked to that documentary. But yes, everybody,
you know, for a long time, it was did you
do to my high school? Did you go to my colleague?
(16:39):
You know? Are you a friend of my cousins? You know?
And I say, now he's probably saying on TV, um,
but yeah, that is uh, that is definitely a fair statement.
And then I remember I think you did like a
YouTube video where you did an apologies to like saying
that you're not Steve Bushemy, Like, do you still get
that to this day? Oh? Yeah, when I do. I
do TikTok lives and people will say, you know, you're
(17:01):
the guy from conn Air, or you're the guy from
five Kids, or uh now I'm getting funny because always funny.
They go rickey cricket. They think I'm if you know,
always funny until and I'm like, nope, nope, you know,
and they're like, do you know you should be brothers?
So I gotta do my parody. Oh I did one
(17:22):
on TikTok about that about how how many times do
you get cold? You look like sneakers say? And that
Michael Cowen trend that was going around with Sky a
lot of twenty times? Yes, thirty times maybe more. Use
that out and do the funny thing. All right, So
I want to go through some of your biggest movies
of the nineties and I'll give you the movie the
year they came out, and you just kind of tell
(17:42):
me the one big thing you remember from doing that movie. Cool,
all right, So let's start first with The People Under
the Stairs, which came out You played roach, Yes, first movie, Um,
I was it was perfect timing the way my training
was going at a really good coach to help me
understand more about this part. It wasn't the person calling
around the walls screaming and laughing, and uh, I just
(18:05):
remember my friends who were in graduate school like hate
getting the suits and brief cases and going to these interviews.
It's just so weird. And I remember saying, well, I
was shirt was calling around West Craven floor, tackling and
laughing and hiding behind his chairs. But but it was
my first feature film and was the movie that got
me to quit being away. What's it like being on
(18:26):
a Wes Craven set. Oh, he's such a nice guy.
It was just so kind and and mellow and really
cared about the actions. That was so wild. You know.
It wasn't let's keep the scares going and the door
coming and things like that. He was like, I want
you guys to do a good He hired actors that
cared about the ethics, so that was really nice. So
(18:46):
I'd have to do emotional scenes that he would stand
and block people from bothering me while I was getting prepared,
and you know, it was really cool. It was wonderful,
all right, let's move on to you were in Batman Returns.
He played a paper boy. What do you remember about
that one? I remember going we were we my ex
wife and I was just landed in my family's late
in Malison Lake, Maine, and I literally sat in the
(19:09):
hammock and my mom said, Hey, your agents on the phone,
and so I call back and they said Tim Burton.
It was Monday. We had gotten there and they said
Tim Burton wants to see you Wednesday morning. So I
immediately had to drive back to a city. I think
I had to get to Boston and fly home. And
then I just remember I was trying up on the
evil clown and I did something I never do and
(19:31):
I never think you should do. He was sitting in
a chair and I was getting kind of crazy and
I kind of walked up in his face a little bit,
and it was being there and I don't I mean,
I was thinking back, I can't believe I got hired,
because that's what a golden real. But he but he
was really cool. And I just remember doing that movie,
the humongous set that was ice cold. Yeah that's what
I wanted, Like, well, how crazy does that set look
(19:53):
in person? Because it looked just very common, look like
it was insane. You would walk in and then entire
are sound stage. He lost those refrigerated you know, you
know those plastic scripts hang down when you go into
like industrial refrigerators. You walked through like two or three
rows of that and you went from a hundred and
five degrees to thirty two degrees. It was crazy. It
(20:16):
was crazy. A lot of people getting cold, but yeah,
it was not It was such a cool fet And
you know, I remember the suits all coming down one
time when I was slugging my lines and they were
all staring at me, looking at their watches, and and
him just kind of burst put because at what's going
on here? And then I said, kindly not like frustrated,
And I said, well, he goes, would you say like that,
I don't know, it's kind of written weird. I'd say, like,
(20:37):
it's just just do that. And I was like, phew,
and I felt really good. And then Alfred the butler
came over and uh he started scoring up his lines
and the burning locked up, and just because what's what's
what's this area right here? That's a little area right here,
and when remember their lives and we all laughed. But
it was nerve wracking because those suits were he was
way back on a monitor and they were all standing
right in front of us, you know, staring looking at
(20:59):
the watches. I can earning money, but it was great.
And then the best story of that was he said,
I want to keep some on the payroll because we
might need him back because I was kind of the
voice of the city and reaction to the penguin. And
I was done in early October, and he kept me
on the payroll still February early and when I went
(21:22):
into the rap party, he was greeting people. Tim was
standing in front of everybody, and I walked in and say, ah,
Seohan Whalen, the reason Warner Brothers the County hates my gut.
It was great, all right? The top over to you're
in that thing? You do you play that Heckler in
the movie? What do you remember about that? It was
amazing because I saw all these great character actors um
(21:46):
and I was I went to remember seeing the office
to Tom Hanks and I was reading for the You
remember the movie or know it well? They go to
a state fair and there's a big, round, older guy
with gray hair double Barker going and here we have
the one, you know, and I have those lines and
I was doing it and I looked over and Tom
(22:07):
Hanks had a paper in front of his face. And
when I was done, and it was shaking slightly, and
is that that's horrible? Like he doesn't even at watch me.
He pulled on the paper. He was howling, laughing. He said,
I'm so sorry. I just didn't want to distract you that. Yeah, yeah,
(22:27):
he was laughing. So and I was literally sitting there thinking, okay,
please understand that seeing you laugh is awesome, but seeing
like you hold the paper and running makes me think
you hate me. But it was very it was very time. Yeah,
it was very tired. And then I did a TikTok
about that as well, about him saying, hey, y'all like this,
like I go, that's you're no crying in baseball yell.
(22:50):
I can't do that. He goes, oh, that's just the
way I yelled, because you know, do what do what
you do? And I was like, yeah, but you know,
I thought he was asking me just try to imitate
what he does, and I go, I can't do That's
here like the most famous yelling thing that you do,
and he was like, oh no, no no, the way I
yell do you say? But it was a blast, so
much fun. Devonni Ribisi and Steveson and I would hang
(23:10):
out with so much fun. It was great and none
that love rap party. And so there was Stevonni Ribis,
steves On, his wife, and Tom and Rita sitting at
a little booth. It was really fun. It was great.
So also in nine you were in Men in Black
and you were supposed to have like a bigger role
in that movie that ended up being happening, right, yes,
I that was another one of those like heat things.
(23:31):
All my friends were going in and auditioning two floors
down reading for the part, and I was upstairs just
being met by Barry Tomasail saying we love you, You've
got the part. At the same time, the part was amazing.
It was communally downs assistant because the whole thing was
that he couldn't sue in and out quickly and um
(23:51):
like in a split second. So Tommy Lee Jones would
start pouring coffee in the middle and Wilson were you doing?
And then all of a sudden I would go to
and I'd be standing u with the cup. Uh was
zipped in and I was always tired. I was always draggle,
and I was like, but I'd always moved really fast,
like a hilarious scene where I was checking in people,
like with my dead pans faced one boy. You know
(24:13):
these weird language think. It was just it was the
art that at the end when he looks at me
and says, and I say, I'm leaving the planet, that's
what Tommy Joe's changes his mind. You know. It was
a wonderful part. Closed the deal on a Friday, Monday.
They said they wrote it out. Then uh, they said,
but again, the accounting cannot justify because they had to
(24:34):
pay me my deal to deal close. And they said,
they can't justify having you be paid for not doing anything.
So I'm in a very tiny scene pecking in the
aliens when they walked through for the first time, him
in a little smith and uh. But you know, I
was really sad um because I loved that part. I
would have done that part for free, and it was
one of the best gripts I had ever read. I
(24:56):
was so excited to be a part of it. It
was just I'm glad they kept me in it because
the residuals have been pretty good. Nice. Yeah, because they
had to pay me at the rate for the bigger
fus even though I didn't work that much. I had to.
But again, I think I would have extended my heat,
my heat heat. I mean, you know, people know who
I am and I work, but no complaints. It's just
(25:18):
there's a heat factor that it would have definitely kept
it going a little longer that I kept that original role.
So we never been kissed, and you had already worked
with Drew Barrymore a couple of times before that. Right, Well,
we didn't really called toppel ganger, but I didn't really
know what farther behind that is. I was my eloye
used to work at Fox Delivery guy came and she
(25:40):
uh said something. MYOFE said, do you know that your
husband's picture is up at Drew bear Moore's Flower Films office,
like right prominently over by where the break room is.
And she's like what. So she called me told me
that I thought, you know what, I'm not gonna sit
around do nothing. I gotta do something fun. I ordered
a big bath it of milk and cookies. Find it.
(26:01):
Thank you so much, been a fan heard you know
who I am or something. I don't even don't even
send it over to them. They the Devon is now
marriage Joli Jimmy Fallon call me and she's like, oh
my god, how we just love you. We love you here,
you know, thank you so much, blah blah blah. And
I said, I had great idea for movies, just come
over here right now. I drove that the same day.
(26:24):
So my xboy saw me in the morning, told me
by the afternoon, I'm sitting into Nancy by my office.
Then I walked out of the office and drew standing there.
She's like, oh my god. So I have no idea
how they knew. I don't know if it was because
of Steilbird. I didn't know it was because the most commercial.
I didn't know. So we became very friendly then, and
then we they wanted me to do. I had tried
(26:45):
out for dem Sami's part in Wedding Crash or that
was another part, and between you and me, I know
I could have been funny. I've seen his performance and
people go, I love that part. I go, ah, that's
the writing. The writing is amazing for that part. I
think I would have been but but that's he's amazing.
I could never take anything away from I'm a huge fan,
would be on a domean himself. But then they said
(27:07):
you want to do never with the kids? Said yes,
it was one line me planning her a message with
a book with a booger on it. I played through
his assistant and then they finally said, what would you
want to do? So I said, it would be really
funny if the guy thought he was the hottest thing
around and his crap didn't think and he was amazing,
and but he was a copy editors assistant. So they
(27:27):
put me in their mind. I said, you know, what
would you wear? And I said, it's like hair on
money suit headsets. There weren't a lot of headsets back then,
so if you had one, it was kind of high tech.
I said, he thinks he's the hottest thing in the
world and he's just kind of a loser. They let me,
you know, create all that character. And then when the
first the first day of the first shot of that
(27:49):
movie is Drew walking in and seeing me, I'm sitting
there and I thought, I'm going to start doing all
these lines. And I started sitting out all those weird
lines of you know, the power is powerful and all
that other stuff. The last time you saw me, Yeah,
the last time you saw me, you told me I
looked fat, you know, and I said, oh, can I
have that mug? And I'm pointing at the mug like
(28:10):
loser or something like that. But it's this awesome new phrase,
power is powerful, total T shirt, right, awesome, amazing, why okay, seriously,
last I saw did and yeah, so all those things
they made up, they say cut and I go, I
mean they're even get fired or it was like those
are amazing. It was so funny. And they all came
over and said, keep writing, keep writing those lines, let
(28:32):
us know, let us know. So, uh, that's what I did.
And my part got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
And that was throughout the whole movie, and it was
all stuff that I wrote. So it was wonderful, you know,
they kept writing me. And then that bar scene, none
of that was on none of that was on the
on the in the script. And then when they were
shooting that, they said, oh, do we need to shoot
(28:53):
the booger thing. The director goes, oh, we need a
thing with the booger and Drew was like, no, we
don't song. Would you ever do that? And I was like,
she goes, song would I said, now she goes, note,
we're not gonna put it in the cand We're not
going to let the studio see it's because they might
ruin everything that Sean did the work on this gray part.
We are not shooting that. It doesn't go to his
character at all moving on. And I was like, holy crap,
(29:13):
it was amazing. Yeah, because if I would have show
what she's talking about, people don't understand. The studio watches
what we shoot during the day. So as they looked
at that, because said, we like that bugger thing, but
it wouldn't make sense, you know, so the character now
that he knows that my character, it wouldn't have made sense.
But I would do that. They could, They could because
(29:34):
they wanted to use it. It could it could undermine
the whole character because one executive thought it was funny.
So Drew was like, no, I'm not even get them
giving them the chance to look at it. So I
was just watching the trailer for the new movie You're
Gonna Be In with Seth Rogan that comes out on
HBO Max on August six. Um, you play a scientist
that and you made the trailer. How cool is it
when the movie gets announced and the trailer comes out
(29:54):
that you're in the trailer, You know what, it's so weird.
I was gonna be shocked if I wasn't in the trailer.
I normally never think that, but because I'm the exposition
for how he comes out of the pickle and pickle
that and has lived, do you know what I mean? Yeah,
so the movie is about it's ah, he's a place
a worker who gets basically dropped into like a thing
(30:18):
of pickle. Was it Brian or something that he's yeah,
Brian's for a hundred years and then he comes back
to life and he's like playing, is it like his
son in the future, grandson? Okay? Yeah, And and so
I kind of knew that it would be weird if
I didn't because it's such an easy especially when I
shot the line that was in the trail, it was
like he lived for a hundred years, you know what
(30:39):
I mean. It's so explanating, so easy to explain. And
I'm the only one in the script who says anything
like that, but explains he's lived. You know, he's alive.
He's now assimilating and you can hear my voice over
saying he found your grandson. I kind of thought I
would be I unless they had like a narrator, which
they don't do any Remember how trailers, these narrators who
(31:02):
talked about stuff. The big movie boy doesn't exist anymore. Yeah,
that guy, I guess gonna listen anymore. And so I
figured that I would be in it. But it was
great because it was you know, I never saw the
shot at floodage, so it was very cool. I'm not
trying to be not humble about it. I just thought
I wasn't surprised because they needed some exposition to explain
what's going on quickly, and I had that those kind
(31:24):
of why you know what I mean? Yeah, and I'm
excited to see that movie. It looks funny. How do
you feel about the shift to movies going to streaming
and you know, with you know, movie theaters being shut
down right now, Like, how do you think that will
play out over time? Over time? I mean I think
it will be. I mean, you know, it depends on
how long everything takes to get this thing under control. Obviously,
(31:45):
you know, Speedborg and and Lucas had a conversation a
few years ago and saying, you know, movie say it's
gonna be like Broadway. It's only going to be for big,
big events, you know, like big tent pole movies, and
it slowly became that way. Anyway, there's a few movies
that you just have to see in a theater, Like
I remember Gravity. A friend was like, yeah, I'm gonna
I'm gonna get the DVD. I was like, no, no,
(32:06):
you If you don't see Gravity unless you're gonna see
it in a theater, it's tough. It's definitely tough because
there's such a joy going to the theater. I saw
movies that I saw a theater that I loved because
it was a big crowd of people, and then when
I saw him at home, it just wasn't the same.
You don't have an energy. Yeah, that's total energy. Like
we saw my daughter and I saw a quiet place
(32:28):
at a screening. You know, we hadn't seen it, and
we relate to see it, and then I left, were
part of a sack screening and there's a big group
of people. It was so much more fun. And so
now my daughter and I love to go to horror
movies because you know this movie they were trying to
figure out because it's an odd little tale. So it's
it's kind of fun that it landed here. Um, and
and they don't make movies like this anymore, you know,
(32:50):
cute little odd stories. You know, it's not a rom com, right,
it's a it's a fable, and so maybe it would
have gotten enough if it was put in the wrong
time with the wrong things. And now I think people
will really be able to enjoy it. Well. Sean has
been great talking with you, man. I appreciate the time. Hey,
thank you so much. It is weird to think. I
(33:13):
was like, wow, I do know a lot of stories.
It's awesome, man. So where can people check you out?
Right now? Just because create creatively wise, it's just been
so fun. TikTok is uh like to check me out.
I'm at Sewan Whalen actor on TikTok Um. I'm gonna instagram.
I'm gonna start building my YouTube up because in case
(33:34):
TikTok goes away and then uh yeah, and instagram at
Seoan Whalen actor and then my YouTube will slowly be
Sean Walon actor. H You can look up Sean Whalen
and find me on YouTube as well, and then same
on TikTok, and then I'm on Facebook at Sean lan
Actor as well. There's a page from there, and then
we'll I'll watch American Pickle when it comes out next month. Yes,
I'm excited and fun. It's a fun movie alright, man,
(33:56):
appreciate it. Bye. All right, that's the episode for this week.
Hope you guys enjoyed that interview. A quick bit of
movie news before hop out of here. I was actually
talking to Sean a little bit about how he kind
of thinks that movies are gonna change after this pandemic,
and I did see a story come out saying that
movie theaters may not reopen until which doesn't really surprise
me anymore. I was seeing how Mulan is still kind
(34:18):
of in the balance of it's going to come out
or not. All these movies still left to come out
in it's really not known if people are gonna be
comfortable going into a theater this year, So that doesn't
really surprise me that they're thinking now that movie theaters
won't reopen until one. It kind of makes sense to
me because I myself couldn't see myself going into a
movie theater right now, seeing things kind of getting worse
(34:38):
than kind of spiking in several places across the country,
it just doesn't make sense to me and doesn't really
feel like it will keep people safe to put out
these movies. What I wonder though, is how these big
movies are going to kind of a dat because they
can't really just throw these movies on streaming because they
spent so much money on them. I don't think they'll
get that money back. I really thought it was interesting
(34:59):
what Sean said about how it may come to be
like movie theaters are like Broadway, where only really big
movies will be go and get the kind of big
theater treatment, and everything else will kind of be taking
the streaming approach. I think that's actually a really cool
way to look at it, in a really interesting way
to see this all kind of play out. See. Like
I said, it doesn't really surprise me that it could
(35:19):
be until I think it's kind of sad that we
will be able to go back into a movie theater.
But again, you gotta keep people healthy, you gotta keep
people safe, and I just don't think anybody would really
feel comfortable going to sit into a theater for two
hours with a mask on. So curious to what you
guys think about that too, And I hope you guys
enjoyed this episode. Until next Monday, feedback here with a
brand new episode. Make sure you subscribe to make sure
(35:42):
you hit that like and follow button and I will
talk to you guys next week later
Hey, Welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am
movie Mike on Twitter and Instagram at my destro. Have
a very special episode for you guys this week that
I'm really excited about. I'm talking to actor Sean Whalen.
Now you might not know his name, but you'll for
sure know his movies. He's in one of my favorite
movies of all time, Twister, and it's a movie I
talked about on this podcast all the time. I reviewed
(00:22):
it a couple of weeks ago and everybody was just like, oh, yeah,
that's one of my favorite movies too. I stumbled upon
him on TikTok and had to get him on the show,
and he agreed to come on talk about Twister. We're
gonna get into all the behind the scenes stuff, how
it kind of changed his career, and what it was
like working with Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, and Phillip se
Moore Hoffman on set. A bunch of cool stuff to
talk to Sean about. And then we'll also go through
(00:43):
all his biggest movies that he was in in the nineties.
Like I said, you may not know his name, but
you'll remember every single movie that he was in, everything
from Batman returns that thing you do, Men in Black,
Never Been Kissed. He was in all of these movies,
and he'll talk about each of those roles and what
he remembers from working on those movies. So really fun
and kind of nostalgic to go back and talk about
these movies from the nineties and what it was like
(01:05):
to be in a movie back in the day. And
he's also doing a brand new movie with Seth Rogan
that comes out next month on HBO Max, so we'll
talk about that as well. And like I said, Twister
is just one of my favorite movies of all time.
And just to be able to talk to somebody from
that movie and ask them these geeky questions, I think
it's really cool to get to do. And if you
haven't seen Twister, it's actually on Netflix now and there's
(01:25):
even talk now that they're doing a reboot, so I
gotta ask him about that too. So really fun episode
for you guys. Without any further ado, let's just get
right into it. And if you're not subscribed at this point,
if you're not getting brand new episodes every single Monday,
what are you waiting for? Hit that subscribe button, Hit
that follow button wherever you're listening to this episode now
and if you don't mind, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts,
to be sure to leave that five star rating and
(01:46):
write a quick little review to help me kind of
battle out all the other movie podcasts out there and
just throw them into the dust. Anyway, let's get started
with this week's episode with Sean Whalon talking about Twister.
Let's go in a world where everyone and their mother.
As a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears
of listeners like never before in a movie podcast, a
(02:08):
man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like a
walking on MTV with glasses. From the Nashville Podcast Networks
Movie Movie podcast, All Right on the phone now with
actors Sean Whalen. How's it going, Sean, It is going well.
It is going well, complaint. So I just kind of
set this up. How this all kind of started is
(02:30):
I was on TikTok the other day and on my
fo you page, I see your video talking about Twister,
which is one of my favorite movies of all time,
And I literally just had a review on this podcast
talking about how much of an impact that movie has
had on me Over my lifetime and then I see
you on TikTok talking about it, so I had to
get you on. Yeah. Yeah, TikTok's really fun for that
(02:51):
kind of stuff. And and there's a lot of uh,
there's a lot of pizzas right now due to the
reboot announcements, the announcement of the reboots that they're doing,
so I think that's why people are more interested. Plus
it later the Mets legs, so there's like a big
I've noticed a lot of Twitter teats going on. So
we'll get to that reboot later. But first of all,
I want to talk about your role in this movie.
(03:12):
So when you first get this part of Alan in it, Like,
how is that character described to you? Uh? It kind
of wasn't They just don't really they it was very
open they We were just the storm chasers and that
were the only thing we were told is Alan Ruett
myself were told that we were in charge of the navigation. Now,
(03:33):
you know, this was the nineties, so there was no
apps for you know, Google Maps or anything like that,
or ways or anything. So we were in charge of
what is the best way to get the closest and
safest to the tornado or in the clipt you know,
and that's the only thing we knew is that's who
(03:54):
we were. So I kind of came but they did
give us the costume. You know, we went book sitting
and you saw the kind of costume I had with
the backwards baseball hats, funny turns, things like that. So
I kind of came up with anything about that character myself.
But while we hung out with each other so much,
(04:14):
things just came in the movie where that we're just
kind of like us fooling around, like Philip sma Has
and I going like food food with our fingers. Um.
That is uh, that was because that was what we
were doing that some of the fingers thing. And we
would joke around like that whenever we wanted someone to yes,
you know whatever, So we did we did that in
the movie. Hey, we're absolutely not going At the end
(04:41):
of the movie you can see people playing last paper
scissors as a helicopter goes away. But this is all
stuff that we used to do hanging out. But but
it is funny now that I'm putting these things on
TikTok and stuff. How much people actually liked the cat,
liked the camaraderie and saw that we were friends because
seriously of us. I mean, I mean we all got
(05:06):
along really well. Yeah, what's so great about it? First
the cast is just an amazing group of actors. And
then I feel like it's you identify with them being
kind of the underdog storm chaser group, and I think
that's kind of what Also people just loved about it, like, oh,
it's these just a group of people who are like
using their own vehicles basically against the big corporate you know,
storm chasers. Yeah, I mean what was crazy was they
(05:28):
cast all these I mean Anthony Rapped, star of Broadway Rent,
the you know, originator of the role of Rent. He
was on The Bad Guys. You hardly found so that
all these characters but Ruby had been around with tons
of things. They had this big grouping young actors and
then just chose who was on what you brought up
(05:48):
that line about you know the food that food scene
do you have? And I think that's kind of something
that there's a bunch of like quotes in lines from
this movie that I fell over the years has become
part of my vocabulary, Like I used that I'm talking
about dinner like food. Yeah, yeah, it's so funny. So
many people say stuff, Oh my god, I get I
used to be known for the milk commercialness. Say you
(06:09):
know you're the milk guy. I won't talk about that
a little bit later, but I would get that all
the time. And now after all these years, everybody's saying
fold the map or don't don't hold the map, don't
hold the map. And so when I signed pictures of
a picture, you know, I do these live things where
I sign autographs, uh photos on TikTok in the afternoons
on Friday. They do it today, but I signed on
(06:31):
that one. There's a picture of me and Allen wrecked
by those hay sex and I write hold the map
instead of don't fold the map. Because you know, people
were like, did you actually fold them or not? And
I go, well, of course I did. I just find them.
I didn't hold the map. Told me to roll the maps,
so I fold it over. Yeah. Yeah, So I mean
it's just so funny that, yeah, that's the lexicon, and
(06:52):
people are saying the wonder of nature. You know Still's line,
and everyone loves you know cow, that's the same cow.
You know those lines, all these lines. It's it's just
I had no idea, but I think it really kept
into this deske type right now, which is really a
lot of nights he's must out them. You know. So
when when you guys are filming this movie, a lot
(07:13):
of it is, you know, the c G I, Tornado,
the twister in the movie. What are you actually seeing
when you're on set? What did they tell you to
look at or envision in your mind? They were just
point in directions. They were just pointing to certain directions,
and you know, we were just looking up a lot
they didn't have. There was very few times that we
had anything in the sky because it would be too high.
(07:35):
You know, a lot of times they'll do in movies,
you know, if there's something weird to be right in
front of you because on a pole, or they'll have
someone in the suit, or but it was way too
high up. So they would just tell us, you know,
where to look, and and right before you did the shot,
you'd be in the truck and they're like, okay, where
is it? And you know, they say, okay, it's around
you know, ten o'clock, you know, straight ahead of midnight,
(07:58):
this ten o'clock and then up you know, and then
you up, Okay, good. That looks good. Looks there, you know,
and that's what we would do, you know, And you
found a lot of those in Oklahoma, right, yeah, ninth time.
It was in uh, Oklahoma around some all around the
state of Oklahoma. So I remember Bill Paxton back in
(08:19):
when you were still alive, and he was talking about
possibly doing like a Twister three D version, and yeah,
what was there before? You know, we've lost Bill Paxton
and some half more since. Was there ever a talk?
I know there's a reboot happening now, but was there
ever a talk with the original cast to do apart two?
Bill had been pushing that for so long, like he
(08:41):
was trying to take meetings around town. And I remember
seeing him at the Writer's Strike in like two thousand
and two, three um, and we were talking about it.
He just said, you know, it's crazy because he said,
there's never been a huge blockbuster like that that doesn't
the pequel like it was unheard of Jurassic Park, and
(09:03):
I mean everything that did that well always had some
sort of a sequel. So it was so he was
going around pitching it, and I remember thinking, all right, well,
let's Twister. HiT's a big city, you know, and they'd
have to kind of call us them to try to
help people and you know, have the fun of like
a wacky dealing with straightly city scientists. And you know,
(09:25):
I don't know why it never got me. I mean
it could be listening. Bill and Helen didn't get along
that well just because they were so so so different
in the way they were trained as actors and just
there you know, approach as to like she's definitely more
quiet and reserved. He was definitely gregarious or whatever, and
then big and he was so excited because he's been
(09:48):
in the trenches for a long time of being a
side character and he was finally getting a lead. You know,
She's been a lead on a big TV show and
stuff like that. So there were different points in the life,
different philosophies and things like that. So I don't know
that has something to do with it too. You know,
it's still weird to me because I think that's not
(10:09):
a big deal. They replaced people all the time, and
Hellen didn't want to do it would be Bill and
something else, so it would just be Bill, um uh,
or just Helen with someone else, you know what I mean. Like,
I don't really know why they never did. But maybe
it was just because the tornadoes were expensive. I don't know.
But it was a huge hit. I mean it made
a lot of money, Like twenty five years later than
(10:29):
saying they're going to reboot it. I mean it makes
sense to me. I mean listen, like I said, there's
a there's a big but I was drawing up in
the seventies. Everyone was into the fifties, you know, because
when we suck hops, when we had American graffiti in
the Happy Days and things like that, and we had
these lock moresov shows, there's always like this love of
twenty years earlier. So there's a huge nineties love right
(10:53):
And now that studios are owned by big corporations, the
risk taking is a lot less, you know, so they
want to dive. It's the perfect time. It's perfect timing
because that's what people want, is these names that they
know and in no way that I have known that
twitter but so much to so many people until I
(11:16):
started doing conventions and doing these ticktoks and things like that,
in no way in the world. So it's crazy. So
you say, you see it more now when the movie
actually came out, how did it did it elevate your career,
like what happened? Then? Yeah, well, well I got in
the movie essentially because if they got no commercial, um
Saron for commercial. A girl in my class Tournamy and said,
(11:37):
your life's about to change, and I said why, She goes,
I worked at Amblin Entertainment. Steven Spielberg loves your commercial.
I was like, okay, uh. And so it was like
six months or a year later where we had the
audition for Twitter when it went national. So my commercial
was in California only for two years and then the
third year so I did it might be nine three,
(12:00):
and so it was like ninety four nine. If I
was very good national and you know I walked in,
I didn't really do that much. They were and the
cutner goes, he's very hot right now. So once you
get into that, that's film. It's a Steven Spielberg from
the director of Speed, and it's all the quote unquote
hot young actors around the United States. Well that gives
(12:23):
you heat, you know what I mean. So while you're
filming it, there's heat, while there's the year in between.
So that when I got home, I started working like
a crazy person because everybody knew I had hate. So
I was doing guest stars less than right, and um
I did, and you know it, Fielberg's liked that I
(12:43):
worked with his friends, which was Drew Barmore in a
couple of films, and Tom Hanks and things like that.
So it's definitely started it. And then it was just
a big movie. But what happened is when the big
movie comes out, you know, where is that amazing scene
that everybody watched Wayne, This guy is amazing And the
(13:04):
only person who had seems like that really was still
you know, besides Bill and Helen and Jamie, you know
what I mean. In terms of the team Bill, Phil
was the only one who kind of stood out and
still had all these people in New York they wanted
to work on the on independence and now they could.
Now they could use it because they go, he's a
guy in Twister, you know what I mean. So it
(13:25):
really helped him, but it helped me too, for you know,
like I said, they enjoyed working with me and Spielher's
company like work, so I sort of worked with his friends.
But yeah, you know, my commercial career ended with that
most commercial and then this movie helped, you know, launched
me into study acting work for quite a while, you know.
I I know what it's like to have a heat.
You know, when I got back from Switzer and my
(13:47):
friend was onst but moved good luck good Luck, and
I'm like, yeah, man, she's really piste off. And then
I walked into and I'm like, hello, how are you?
It's so good to see and I was like, whoa. Okay,
So you know, you know what it's like to be
on both sides. Have one final Twister question for you.
So we're talking about philipsy Moore Hoffman and his role
(14:09):
Dusty in the movie and I love here in Nashville,
And there's this big urban legend around um Garth Brooks
and the fact that he allegedly turned down that role
because he didn't want to play in a movie that
the Twister was the star of the movie. He didn't
want to share the screen with the Twister. Do you
know if there's any truth to that urban legend. I've
never heard of that till you brought it up. The
(14:31):
never heard that that was over that he didn't want
to play. Oh, I've never heard of that. It doesn't
seem to fit the narrative for me, only because if
you Remember, Spielberg's whole thing back in the day was
not to work with movie stars. He didn't want to
work with movie stars. He only wanted to work with,
(14:51):
you know, known actors. Bill Paxton was not a movie star,
Jamie Gross was not a huge I mean, they've been
in movies and obviously worked. Allen probably had the most
heat because of her show, her show to Shoot Me Right,
But he always used young actors. He put Vince on
in Jurassic Park two because of swingers he was. He
was picking young, kind of up and coming because it
(15:14):
gives them the exposure they need and they have heat.
They have a little bit of heat within the industry,
and it helps them get more heat plus their people.
So it doesn't make sense to me they would have
Garth Brooks and Helen Hunt animal passing because that would
cost a lot of money, you know what I mean,
you got it, Yeah, and they wanted to and they
wanted to throw all the money on the street. So
(15:34):
it doesn't that doesn't make sense to me. All right, Well,
what I want to do next is kind of go
through all your big movies and just the fact that
I've seen you in so many things and I kind
of want to talk about all those roles with you.
Is that cool? All right? So come back and do
that next. Alright, so we're back here with actors. Sean Whalen.
(15:57):
So is it a fair thing to say that a
lot of people I know your face but not know
your name. Absolutely. I a friend of mine, Scott Temple,
who is showing for walking Dad. We've been friends for
you know, maybe in almost twenty years, and he said
to me, you're that guy. You're that guy. And so
for a while, my hand o and all my social
(16:17):
media was that guy, Sean Lanen. Um. But then there
was a documentary called That Guy and they had all
these character actors. But I was like, the guys are
huge names, but I'm an actor, so I would know them. Um.
But I didn't get picked to that documentary. But yes, everybody,
you know, for a long time, it was did you
do to my high school? Did you go to my colleague?
(16:39):
You know? Are you a friend of my cousins? You know?
And I say, now he's probably saying on TV, um,
but yeah, that is uh, that is definitely a fair statement.
And then I remember I think you did like a
YouTube video where you did an apologies to like saying
that you're not Steve Bushemy, Like, do you still get
that to this day? Oh? Yeah, when I do. I
do TikTok lives and people will say, you know, you're
(17:01):
the guy from conn Air, or you're the guy from
five Kids, or uh now I'm getting funny because always funny.
They go rickey cricket. They think I'm if you know,
always funny until and I'm like, nope, nope, you know,
and they're like, do you know you should be brothers?
So I gotta do my parody. Oh I did one
(17:22):
on TikTok about that about how how many times do
you get cold? You look like sneakers say? And that
Michael Cowen trend that was going around with Sky a
lot of twenty times? Yes, thirty times maybe more. Use
that out and do the funny thing. All right, So
I want to go through some of your biggest movies
of the nineties and I'll give you the movie the
year they came out, and you just kind of tell
(17:42):
me the one big thing you remember from doing that movie. Cool,
all right, So let's start first with The People Under
the Stairs, which came out You played roach, Yes, first movie, Um,
I was it was perfect timing the way my training
was going at a really good coach to help me
understand more about this part. It wasn't the person calling
around the walls screaming and laughing, and uh, I just
(18:05):
remember my friends who were in graduate school like hate
getting the suits and brief cases and going to these interviews.
It's just so weird. And I remember saying, well, I
was shirt was calling around West Craven floor, tackling and
laughing and hiding behind his chairs. But but it was
my first feature film and was the movie that got
me to quit being away. What's it like being on
(18:26):
a Wes Craven set. Oh, he's such a nice guy.
It was just so kind and and mellow and really
cared about the actions. That was so wild. You know.
It wasn't let's keep the scares going and the door
coming and things like that. He was like, I want
you guys to do a good He hired actors that
cared about the ethics, so that was really nice. So
(18:46):
I'd have to do emotional scenes that he would stand
and block people from bothering me while I was getting prepared,
and you know, it was really cool. It was wonderful,
all right, let's move on to you were in Batman Returns.
He played a paper boy. What do you remember about
that one? I remember going we were we my ex
wife and I was just landed in my family's late
in Malison Lake, Maine, and I literally sat in the
(19:09):
hammock and my mom said, Hey, your agents on the phone,
and so I call back and they said Tim Burton.
It was Monday. We had gotten there and they said
Tim Burton wants to see you Wednesday morning. So I
immediately had to drive back to a city. I think
I had to get to Boston and fly home. And
then I just remember I was trying up on the
evil clown and I did something I never do and
(19:31):
I never think you should do. He was sitting in
a chair and I was getting kind of crazy and
I kind of walked up in his face a little bit,
and it was being there and I don't I mean,
I was thinking back, I can't believe I got hired,
because that's what a golden real. But he but he
was really cool. And I just remember doing that movie,
the humongous set that was ice cold. Yeah that's what
I wanted, Like, well, how crazy does that set look
(19:53):
in person? Because it looked just very common, look like
it was insane. You would walk in and then entire
are sound stage. He lost those refrigerated you know, you
know those plastic scripts hang down when you go into
like industrial refrigerators. You walked through like two or three
rows of that and you went from a hundred and
five degrees to thirty two degrees. It was crazy. It
(20:16):
was crazy. A lot of people getting cold, but yeah,
it was not It was such a cool fet And
you know, I remember the suits all coming down one
time when I was slugging my lines and they were
all staring at me, looking at their watches, and and
him just kind of burst put because at what's going
on here? And then I said, kindly not like frustrated,
And I said, well, he goes, would you say like that,
I don't know, it's kind of written weird. I'd say, like,
(20:37):
it's just just do that. And I was like, phew,
and I felt really good. And then Alfred the butler
came over and uh he started scoring up his lines
and the burning locked up, and just because what's what's
what's this area right here? That's a little area right here,
and when remember their lives and we all laughed. But
it was nerve wracking because those suits were he was
way back on a monitor and they were all standing
right in front of us, you know, staring looking at
(20:59):
the watches. I can earning money, but it was great.
And then the best story of that was he said,
I want to keep some on the payroll because we
might need him back because I was kind of the
voice of the city and reaction to the penguin. And
I was done in early October, and he kept me
on the payroll still February early and when I went
(21:22):
into the rap party, he was greeting people. Tim was
standing in front of everybody, and I walked in and say, ah,
Seohan Whalen, the reason Warner Brothers the County hates my gut.
It was great, all right? The top over to you're
in that thing? You do you play that Heckler in
the movie? What do you remember about that? It was
amazing because I saw all these great character actors um
(21:46):
and I was I went to remember seeing the office
to Tom Hanks and I was reading for the You
remember the movie or know it well? They go to
a state fair and there's a big, round, older guy
with gray hair double Barker going and here we have
the one, you know, and I have those lines and
I was doing it and I looked over and Tom
(22:07):
Hanks had a paper in front of his face. And
when I was done, and it was shaking slightly, and
is that that's horrible? Like he doesn't even at watch me.
He pulled on the paper. He was howling, laughing. He said,
I'm so sorry. I just didn't want to distract you that. Yeah, yeah,
(22:27):
he was laughing. So and I was literally sitting there thinking, okay,
please understand that seeing you laugh is awesome, but seeing
like you hold the paper and running makes me think
you hate me. But it was very it was very time. Yeah,
it was very tired. And then I did a TikTok
about that as well, about him saying, hey, y'all like this,
like I go, that's you're no crying in baseball yell.
(22:50):
I can't do that. He goes, oh, that's just the
way I yelled, because you know, do what do what
you do? And I was like, yeah, but you know,
I thought he was asking me just try to imitate
what he does, and I go, I can't do That's
here like the most famous yelling thing that you do,
and he was like, oh no, no no, the way I
yell do you say? But it was a blast, so
much fun. Devonni Ribisi and Steveson and I would hang
(23:10):
out with so much fun. It was great and none
that love rap party. And so there was Stevonni Ribis,
steves On, his wife, and Tom and Rita sitting at
a little booth. It was really fun. It was great.
So also in nine you were in Men in Black
and you were supposed to have like a bigger role
in that movie that ended up being happening, right, yes,
I that was another one of those like heat things.
(23:31):
All my friends were going in and auditioning two floors
down reading for the part, and I was upstairs just
being met by Barry Tomasail saying we love you, You've
got the part. At the same time, the part was amazing.
It was communally downs assistant because the whole thing was
that he couldn't sue in and out quickly and um
(23:51):
like in a split second. So Tommy Lee Jones would
start pouring coffee in the middle and Wilson were you doing?
And then all of a sudden I would go to
and I'd be standing u with the cup. Uh was
zipped in and I was always tired. I was always draggle,
and I was like, but I'd always moved really fast,
like a hilarious scene where I was checking in people,
like with my dead pans faced one boy. You know
(24:13):
these weird language think. It was just it was the
art that at the end when he looks at me
and says, and I say, I'm leaving the planet, that's
what Tommy Joe's changes his mind. You know. It was
a wonderful part. Closed the deal on a Friday, Monday.
They said they wrote it out. Then uh, they said,
but again, the accounting cannot justify because they had to
(24:34):
pay me my deal to deal close. And they said,
they can't justify having you be paid for not doing anything.
So I'm in a very tiny scene pecking in the
aliens when they walked through for the first time, him
in a little smith and uh. But you know, I
was really sad um because I loved that part. I
would have done that part for free, and it was
one of the best gripts I had ever read. I
(24:56):
was so excited to be a part of it. It
was just I'm glad they kept me in it because
the residuals have been pretty good. Nice. Yeah, because they
had to pay me at the rate for the bigger
fus even though I didn't work that much. I had to.
But again, I think I would have extended my heat,
my heat heat. I mean, you know, people know who
I am and I work, but no complaints. It's just
(25:18):
there's a heat factor that it would have definitely kept
it going a little longer that I kept that original role.
So we never been kissed, and you had already worked
with Drew Barrymore a couple of times before that. Right, Well,
we didn't really called toppel ganger, but I didn't really
know what farther behind that is. I was my eloye
used to work at Fox Delivery guy came and she
(25:40):
uh said something. MYOFE said, do you know that your
husband's picture is up at Drew bear Moore's Flower Films office,
like right prominently over by where the break room is.
And she's like what. So she called me told me
that I thought, you know what, I'm not gonna sit
around do nothing. I gotta do something fun. I ordered
a big bath it of milk and cookies. Find it.
(26:01):
Thank you so much, been a fan heard you know
who I am or something. I don't even don't even
send it over to them. They the Devon is now
marriage Joli Jimmy Fallon call me and she's like, oh
my god, how we just love you. We love you here,
you know, thank you so much, blah blah blah. And
I said, I had great idea for movies, just come
over here right now. I drove that the same day.
(26:24):
So my xboy saw me in the morning, told me
by the afternoon, I'm sitting into Nancy by my office.
Then I walked out of the office and drew standing there.
She's like, oh my god. So I have no idea
how they knew. I don't know if it was because
of Steilbird. I didn't know it was because the most commercial.
I didn't know. So we became very friendly then, and
then we they wanted me to do. I had tried
(26:45):
out for dem Sami's part in Wedding Crash or that
was another part, and between you and me, I know
I could have been funny. I've seen his performance and
people go, I love that part. I go, ah, that's
the writing. The writing is amazing for that part. I
think I would have been but but that's he's amazing.
I could never take anything away from I'm a huge fan,
would be on a domean himself. But then they said
(27:07):
you want to do never with the kids? Said yes,
it was one line me planning her a message with
a book with a booger on it. I played through
his assistant and then they finally said, what would you
want to do? So I said, it would be really
funny if the guy thought he was the hottest thing
around and his crap didn't think and he was amazing,
and but he was a copy editors assistant. So they
(27:27):
put me in their mind. I said, you know, what
would you wear? And I said, it's like hair on
money suit headsets. There weren't a lot of headsets back then,
so if you had one, it was kind of high tech.
I said, he thinks he's the hottest thing in the
world and he's just kind of a loser. They let me,
you know, create all that character. And then when the
first the first day of the first shot of that
(27:49):
movie is Drew walking in and seeing me, I'm sitting
there and I thought, I'm going to start doing all
these lines. And I started sitting out all those weird
lines of you know, the power is powerful and all
that other stuff. The last time you saw me, Yeah,
the last time you saw me, you told me I
looked fat, you know, and I said, oh, can I
have that mug? And I'm pointing at the mug like
(28:10):
loser or something like that. But it's this awesome new phrase,
power is powerful, total T shirt, right, awesome, amazing, why okay, seriously,
last I saw did and yeah, so all those things
they made up, they say cut and I go, I
mean they're even get fired or it was like those
are amazing. It was so funny. And they all came
over and said, keep writing, keep writing those lines, let
(28:32):
us know, let us know. So, uh, that's what I did.
And my part got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
And that was throughout the whole movie, and it was
all stuff that I wrote. So it was wonderful, you know,
they kept writing me. And then that bar scene, none
of that was on none of that was on the
on the in the script. And then when they were
shooting that, they said, oh, do we need to shoot
(28:53):
the booger thing. The director goes, oh, we need a
thing with the booger and Drew was like, no, we
don't song. Would you ever do that? And I was like,
she goes, song would I said, now she goes, note,
we're not gonna put it in the cand We're not
going to let the studio see it's because they might
ruin everything that Sean did the work on this gray part.
We are not shooting that. It doesn't go to his
character at all moving on. And I was like, holy crap,
(29:13):
it was amazing. Yeah, because if I would have show
what she's talking about, people don't understand. The studio watches
what we shoot during the day. So as they looked
at that, because said, we like that bugger thing, but
it wouldn't make sense, you know, so the character now
that he knows that my character, it wouldn't have made sense.
But I would do that. They could, They could because
(29:34):
they wanted to use it. It could it could undermine
the whole character because one executive thought it was funny.
So Drew was like, no, I'm not even get them
giving them the chance to look at it. So I
was just watching the trailer for the new movie You're
Gonna Be In with Seth Rogan that comes out on
HBO Max on August six. Um, you play a scientist
that and you made the trailer. How cool is it
when the movie gets announced and the trailer comes out
(29:54):
that you're in the trailer, You know what, it's so weird.
I was gonna be shocked if I wasn't in the trailer.
I normally never think that, but because I'm the exposition
for how he comes out of the pickle and pickle
that and has lived, do you know what I mean? Yeah,
so the movie is about it's ah, he's a place
a worker who gets basically dropped into like a thing
(30:18):
of pickle. Was it Brian or something that he's yeah,
Brian's for a hundred years and then he comes back
to life and he's like playing, is it like his
son in the future, grandson? Okay? Yeah, And and so
I kind of knew that it would be weird if
I didn't because it's such an easy especially when I
shot the line that was in the trail, it was
like he lived for a hundred years, you know what
(30:39):
I mean. It's so explanating, so easy to explain. And
I'm the only one in the script who says anything
like that, but explains he's lived. You know, he's alive.
He's now assimilating and you can hear my voice over
saying he found your grandson. I kind of thought I
would be I unless they had like a narrator, which
they don't do any Remember how trailers, these narrators who
(31:02):
talked about stuff. The big movie boy doesn't exist anymore. Yeah,
that guy, I guess gonna listen anymore. And so I
figured that I would be in it. But it was
great because it was you know, I never saw the
shot at floodage, so it was very cool. I'm not
trying to be not humble about it. I just thought
I wasn't surprised because they needed some exposition to explain
what's going on quickly, and I had that those kind
(31:24):
of why you know what I mean? Yeah, and I'm
excited to see that movie. It looks funny. How do
you feel about the shift to movies going to streaming
and you know, with you know, movie theaters being shut
down right now, Like, how do you think that will
play out over time? Over time? I mean I think
it will be. I mean, you know, it depends on
how long everything takes to get this thing under control. Obviously,
(31:45):
you know, Speedborg and and Lucas had a conversation a
few years ago and saying, you know, movie say it's
gonna be like Broadway. It's only going to be for big,
big events, you know, like big tent pole movies, and
it slowly became that way. Anyway, there's a few movies
that you just have to see in a theater, Like
I remember Gravity. A friend was like, yeah, I'm gonna
I'm gonna get the DVD. I was like, no, no,
(32:06):
you If you don't see Gravity unless you're gonna see
it in a theater, it's tough. It's definitely tough because
there's such a joy going to the theater. I saw
movies that I saw a theater that I loved because
it was a big crowd of people, and then when
I saw him at home, it just wasn't the same.
You don't have an energy. Yeah, that's total energy. Like
we saw my daughter and I saw a quiet place
(32:28):
at a screening. You know, we hadn't seen it, and
we relate to see it, and then I left, were
part of a sack screening and there's a big group
of people. It was so much more fun. And so
now my daughter and I love to go to horror
movies because you know this movie they were trying to
figure out because it's an odd little tale. So it's
it's kind of fun that it landed here. Um, and
and they don't make movies like this anymore, you know,
(32:50):
cute little odd stories. You know, it's not a rom com, right,
it's a it's a fable, and so maybe it would
have gotten enough if it was put in the wrong
time with the wrong things. And now I think people
will really be able to enjoy it. Well. Sean has
been great talking with you, man. I appreciate the time. Hey,
thank you so much. It is weird to think. I
(33:13):
was like, wow, I do know a lot of stories.
It's awesome, man. So where can people check you out?
Right now? Just because create creatively wise, it's just been
so fun. TikTok is uh like to check me out.
I'm at Sewan Whalen actor on TikTok Um. I'm gonna instagram.
I'm gonna start building my YouTube up because in case
(33:34):
TikTok goes away and then uh yeah, and instagram at
Seoan Whalen actor and then my YouTube will slowly be
Sean Walon actor. H You can look up Sean Whalen
and find me on YouTube as well, and then same
on TikTok, and then I'm on Facebook at Sean lan
Actor as well. There's a page from there, and then
we'll I'll watch American Pickle when it comes out next month. Yes,
I'm excited and fun. It's a fun movie alright, man,
(33:56):
appreciate it. Bye. All right, that's the episode for this week.
Hope you guys enjoyed that interview. A quick bit of
movie news before hop out of here. I was actually
talking to Sean a little bit about how he kind
of thinks that movies are gonna change after this pandemic,
and I did see a story come out saying that
movie theaters may not reopen until which doesn't really surprise
me anymore. I was seeing how Mulan is still kind
(34:18):
of in the balance of it's going to come out
or not. All these movies still left to come out
in it's really not known if people are gonna be
comfortable going into a theater this year, So that doesn't
really surprise me that they're thinking now that movie theaters
won't reopen until one. It kind of makes sense to
me because I myself couldn't see myself going into a
movie theater right now, seeing things kind of getting worse
(34:38):
than kind of spiking in several places across the country,
it just doesn't make sense to me and doesn't really
feel like it will keep people safe to put out
these movies. What I wonder though, is how these big
movies are going to kind of a dat because they
can't really just throw these movies on streaming because they
spent so much money on them. I don't think they'll
get that money back. I really thought it was interesting
(34:59):
what Sean said about how it may come to be
like movie theaters are like Broadway, where only really big
movies will be go and get the kind of big
theater treatment, and everything else will kind of be taking
the streaming approach. I think that's actually a really cool
way to look at it, in a really interesting way
to see this all kind of play out. See. Like
I said, it doesn't really surprise me that it could
(35:19):
be until I think it's kind of sad that we
will be able to go back into a movie theater.
But again, you gotta keep people healthy, you gotta keep
people safe, and I just don't think anybody would really
feel comfortable going to sit into a theater for two
hours with a mask on. So curious to what you
guys think about that too, And I hope you guys
enjoyed this episode. Until next Monday, feedback here with a
brand new episode. Make sure you subscribe to make sure
(35:42):
you hit that like and follow button and I will
talk to you guys next week later
Host
Mike D
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