SPEAKER_03 0:00

All right, I am so excited to talk about this. I am doing a collaboration on lowers with Francis Defense. It will say fire safe, eat a bag of dicks, and they'll have an engraving of the AJ Buckley show. Totally kidding, unless you're serious. Probably the sickest lowers I've ever seen. We are going to be putting up a link to the website for a pre-order. It's only going to run for one week. It's a very limited run. So get it while you can. These are going to go fast. It is the coolest lower you will ever see. Fire, safe, eat a bag of dicks from Francis Defense and AJ Buckley Show.

SPEAKER_05 0:33

But Russell Rang said, listen, man, it's I'll I'll back you. You know, it's it's your turn. And we'll do this together. And and so I've been by his side, and then I've been opposite him.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

Hold on a second. You have Russell Crowe. He's like, that just gave me goosebumps, button. You have Russell Crowe going, I will back you.

SPEAKER_06 0:51

Yeah. Bro. Yeah. Fuck awesome. Into a fire movie.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

And you know where you're the bugging lead. He's like, I'm gonna back you. It's your turn. That is awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

All right. Welcome back to another episode of the AJ Battle Show. My next guest, he's just a handsome fella. Like, what is up with the Aussies? You know? They're just, you know, there are a couple studs out there. The Irish. The Ozzy, Australia got all the Irish criminals. And you definitely can spot the Irish in Australia anytime you go over there because they are white and red and arrested. That's just the way it is. Or happy and arrested. Something like that. That's a that's what somebody told me when I was there. They're like, oh, the Irish, we got all the criminals. But I will tell you this this guy's a stud. Absolute stud. And just a great human being. And there's certain people out there that have a little spark in him, have a little something, something, a little je ne sais quoi. He's an incredibly talented actor. And I feel like this momentum for this movie Beast that's about to come out that he stars in is going to be a game changer. When I watched that trailer, it it it made me feel like I was a kid again watching one of those those movies that has a throwback feel to it. And uh hearing his story, the journey that he's been on, and we've been parallel for so many years. We've actually never met in person. It's always been through DMs. He's lit into my DMs, but just a good human being, fan. And one of those dudes that you can just absolutely deliver performance after performance. I'm just happy for him. I could not be more happy for this guy. And I'm telling you right now, this movie, The Beast, Beast, is going to be uh one of those movies that you'll want to go with your kids, your wife, you'll watch over and over. I haven't seen it yet, but I can just feel it, and it's gonna do great things for this guy. And I'm telling you right now, if someone's listening that has a choice, please make him the next Wolverine. He's like, he's a stud. Please welcome to the AJ Buckley Show, Danny McPherson.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Welcome to the AJ Buckley Show, don't know. He's totally kidding. Let's just feel it. Welcome to the AJ.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

So are you in Australia right now or where are you at? No, I'm in LA. I'm in LA. I'm on the top of not the top of Mandeville Canyon, actually. My buddies in my buddy's library I look way smarter than I am, but it's isn't it crazy when you go into a library?

SPEAKER_03 3:29

Because I'm not much of a reader, only thank God for uh uh audiobooks. Audiobooks I love, but I was never uh uh with my dyslexia and just I couldn't fucking it always puts me to sleep.

SPEAKER_05 3:40

But audiobooks, I'm like, but that's but that's a dyslexia thing, right? I was having this conversation with a with a bunch of parents and they're like, oh, our daughter wants to be an actress, but but we've just found out, you know, she's 11 or something or 12, and she found out that she's severely dyslexic. And it's like most of my good buddies who are all great actors are like don't don't worry about that. Like it's it's it's it's it goes part in parcel with so many creatives, you know.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

Yeah, it's a crazy thing. It took me forever to figure out like I was considered like a problem in school because I couldn't I didn't I w I wasn't the regular way of how they taught back, especially back then, they um he's all right, just let him wander around for one second. Um uh my teachers would, you know, because and the way that my brain worked was when I was learning something, I would have to move around. I'd have to get up and and and and walk and just like I'd get excited about things. So the teachers automatically thought that I was being a problem. I just couldn't sit still. If I was into it, I'd want to talk about it, but then I'd get up and they're like, sit down. And then I couldn't like I when I when I say from all of high school, I didn't read open one book. Like I just it like I don't know how I got through it by the grace of God. But then I kind of figured out if something's read to me and I hear it, I'm I'm good.

SPEAKER_05 4:59

So every script Do you do you have a visual memory when visual so when you hear it you picture it and then you can you can learn more about it?

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Once I can Yeah, so like if you were to read me, if we were if I was studying, I'd have uh my lines re read out like two or three times and I'd have it. So once it's read out loud, and once I can figure out in the scene what sort of my flight path is, where I'm gonna go, and what sort of the idea of the of the scene, but I man, it it for the longest time, you know, there's a great app called scriptation. You heard that? Yeah, I love scriptation. Yeah, so it's great because it can read out the stuff and then um but it's yeah, technology nowadays, it's it's so much better. But dyslexia, yeah, it was if anything for me, it made me really just once I figured it out, it made me just work harder at it. And then it allowed me to, I don't know, kind of because I I had to be more prepared in a sense that it allowed me to be more free on set. So are you you're dyslexic then too, yeah? No, I no, I'm the opposite. I'm the opposite.

SPEAKER_05 5:57

So I'm I'm you're just specialist. I'm I'm I'm I'm highly visual. I can I can look at things on a page, but the the big giveaway for for a lot of my really close buddies were also some of the best um best actors I know. Yeah, was when someone when you're on a show and someone would rush in and go, hey, here's the rewrites. Um, can we just do a quick cold read of these three pages? And they go, uh uh no no, I can't do that. But it's you know what what a great lesson in going, it's it's not about sometimes it's not about that. Like if you can tell them what it's about, tell them what they're doing, tell them what they want, and let them fly free, yeah. Great, you know, they're there's some of the greatest creatives and and and imaginations that I've ever worked with. But you want them to look at a chunk of dialogue, read it quickly and spout it out naturally, um, which is often what I do sometimes when I'm learning stuff, and it gets you caught into it like this. I find it paints me into a corner, and and and it's there's lessons in not learning things that way.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

What's with the internet? Every day it's losing its mind again. Each week there's a new panic, something's coming, something's happening. Everybody's freaking out. Literally freaking out. Nobody's getting any sleep except this guy. Because I got my ghost bed and I got my zero gravity. Every time I hit that button, not a care to the world. I'm gone. Okay. I I don't care if the world ends at 3 a.m. When I wake up at 7, if it's still here, I'll deal with it then. Go to ghostbed.com forward slash buckley. Code word buckley, B-U-C-K-L-E-Y.

SPEAKER_05 7:35

Man, I came from a soap background. I started out a soap background. So I started out on on neighbours back in Australia 25 years. But old neighbours 30 years ago, man. Yeah, you know, there were 15 scenes a day. So my instead of going to drama school, I was learning three or four or five page scenes, regurgitating them, trying to say them naturally, then instantly forgetting them and picking up the next one. And I you know, I think I've had to unpick that way of learning and unpick that way of acting for many years after to try and rebuild it from the ground up, you know.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

Did you find it strange when you would have scenes where there's the most interesting parts of the character are done in silence and or where you're really the audience is learning about when there's nothing being said, was that uncomfortable for you? Like where you're like, fuck, I'm not what am I? Because that that sort of pace of like bop bop bop bah, and there's and everybody's on top of their lines and really moving. But then when it's like when you have the ability to slow it down and there's nothing but there's so much happening, but there's nothing, it was that was that difficult.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

Yeah, we were we were taught, we were educated, you know, it's this started at 17 years old when I started that that that pace and energy is what it's about. And and not only was it pace and energy within the scene, it was pace and energy in the schedule and to and to make our days. And we were, you know, when you're on neighbours, you're shooting uh five 28-minute episodes per week, you know, in five days. So that schedule is incredible. So when I finally understood what acting was, and you're in a scene and there's two people in a kitchen dancing around each other because they're avoiding the fact that one of them's been caught cheating or something, and the entire audience is waiting for who's gonna do what and who's gonna say what, and you're you know, like that's when I discover what acting was about. Yeah. And the po the power of behavior, and and but that that took me years, and even you know, even now we're we've you know been fortunate enough to do TV, do musical theatre, do theatre, and then more recently, more particularly the last five years, it's been mostly film, film and theatre. But but then to really have um the the confidence uh and faith in your own ability to stand on a set and and let a camera come to you and let an audience come to you and trust that that that what you're doing is is deserving of all that coming your way and just trusting that you never have to push it, you never have to show it, you never have to kind of um get on the front foot with it. That's been one of the most joyous and joyful and satisfying evolutions in in my in my craft. And that's that's you know, 28 years in, man, you know. Sometimes I'm a slow learner.

SPEAKER_03 10:25

Uh yeah, we're we're we're kind of we've we've been it's so crazy. We've actually never met in person, but we've been just mates over Instagram. I we've our passive, like we've so many friends in common. Yeah, even when I was over in Australia, I like your name, like you was always there was always because I was at you were you were on my beach.

SPEAKER_05 10:47

Yeah. Like I I like I'd seen who you were, and I knew who you were, and I knew your career, and then like and I saw some photos like he was he was on my beach. That's it, and I I've been back living on that beach, back on Cornella Beach. Um Cranulla Beach, man. I moved back, I left at 17, I moved back at 42 to raise my son, you know, after the pandemic to raise my boy on that beach that I grew up on, and now I go between Crenulla and LA. Um, but you know, that's that's so yeah, man. And then obviously when I was doing Strike Back, you guys you guys were just starting up the SEAL team, and that was very, very similar, you know, cut from the same cloth, and we would be training with a lot of the same people and and doing a lot of the same sort of you know military and tactical stuff, and so you know, we were everything in Europe. Kevin Libby, that's where we connect. You connected me to Kevin Libby, man. Yeah, you didn't need the best. Yeah, it needed the best lib. I love it. Kevin Libby changed my life. I was so that was after season one of Strike Back.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Let's talk about Born of Discipline. Go to bornofdiscipline.com and get yourself some merch. The staple merch of the AJ Buckley show. It's something that I really believe in. It starts with spirit, okay? Then it's the mind, then it's the body. Spirit leads, get your mind right, body will transform. This is the ethos of bornofdiscipline.com.

SPEAKER_05 12:05

And and and I understood what the workload was, as as you would have, you know, with SEAL team and everything you do, but the physicality of that and the schedule, and and I came back after season one, I was like, I literally can't train any harder for this job. So what can I do to continue to improve, but I have no output left? And it was like, fix your diet. Yeah. So cool. So I I ended up once you hooked me out with Kevin Libby, um nutritionist and and dietitian here in Los Angeles, um, and Kevin enabled me through through fixing my diet that I could train less, have better results, have more energy on set. And uh, and man, I'm I'm grateful, bro. You you changed my you changed my life. And that was 2017. That's coming up 10 years, man.

SPEAKER_03 12:52

Yeah, because it was right when I started SEALTEAN. I forget we were going back and forth about something, because I think I reached I I saw something, a straight back or something, and I was like, dude, big fan of yours. And we started going back, and then we connected the Australian thing and I and I remember just having a conversation about I was like, and I actually just saw an interview with uh um David Boreanis the other day, and he was talking about SEAL team, and he said, you know, during season one, like we get back to the hotel, even though on the pilot, and like every part of my body, and like he and he was saying the same thing, just was so sore. And like, and we only done like 10 seconds of the 45-second action scene that we were doing, like, and we were like, like we're just I was sore in places I'd never been sore before. And we had to make this look like you know, holding the 249 in a prone position and like not be shaking him like like like as if it was super easy, it's like a 40-pound gun with fully loaded, and then the movement and then just the repetition. And I would it was it's so crazy because I'm sure you're the same way, the excitement of just like we're getting paid to do this, you know. But prior to this, I've been in a fucking lab for nine years on CSI New York, and now I'm on and I've never seen the sunshine. I never saw the sunshine, and now I'm fucking out the thing. I'm like, but this is nuts.

SPEAKER_05 14:09

And also then you're taking on the responsibility of of playing those those characters and representing those real people, representing those combatant military active, active, you know, active duty guys and girls and and and and veterans. And so there's a great amount of responsibility that comes with that that you you can't fake that. And particularly a strike strike back had such a uh military. Thank you, man. And we well look, we were we we inhabited that, we in inherited that from Phil and Sully and the guys that went before us. So we had a great template to draw from, but we had a great um uh crowd base and fan base all around the world, but particularly in the US and particularly in the veteran community, in the military community. And so we were held to a really high standard, not only the standard that had been set by by the guys that went before us, but by the by the by the real men and women.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

You guys were Delta guys, right?

SPEAKER_05 14:59

You guys were I was I was actually Marsock. I'd really I'd come from Marsock and a J Soc and then and then Warren had come from British SAS. And you know, so we were kind of this American English thing, but he was English, I was Australian, and it was all a it was all it was a little bit of a key.

SPEAKER_06 15:15

Yeah, he was a gray area.

SPEAKER_05 15:16

He's a solid actor, that guy. He's great. May's dyslexic. Is he really? So yeah, man. So Warren is one of my actor. He's a brilliant actor. Well, we were we were doing the uh we were doing the audition chemistry reads. So they flew, you know, half a dozen guys for my role, half a dozen guys for his role, and they flew us all out to London and a couple of the other roles. So it was like one big kind of acting workshop. And Warren walked in and I did a double tape because uh he was in Luther with Idris Elba for for a couple of years, for three years. That's right. And yeah, mate, that was one of my favorite shows. And I did a double tape, oh my god, that's that's the guy from Luther. And I like started having a bit of a fanboy moment of oh shit, shit. And then we started, you know, we ever after every day of this workshop, this casting workshop, we'd all go to the pub in London and and sit down and chill out and have some food and chat because everyone was all from all around the world, you know. Yeah, and I got to know him really well, and then you know, suddenly every day there's a few less people, and uh, and he was the first guy to call me about a month later. I was on a flight, on a flight back from Chicago, I was filming a show in Chicago, and I landed, and the first call was a FaceTime from Warren Brown. I was like, that's that's the guy, that's the guy from Luther. And he's like, Hey mate, you heard the new hey brat, mate. You heard the news? He's like, No, mate, what what news? Mate, we got we got a fucking job, mate. Come on. Yeah, man. It's all right. He knew before you and called you. He knew before I did. He's like, I had all these voicemails, and he was the first one when I turned on the phone on. So um, so mate, we we became, as you do, we became instant best buddies and and to this day remain, you know, he's one of my best mates. If he's my best mate, mate.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

It's so crazy that the whole screen the screen test process and the mix and match and and now being like on you you're the same, like being on the other side of the camera and like just seeing what it what it boils down to, how much is out of your control. I mean, I I I don't know if I ever told you a story, but I don't know if I I might have told it on here or whatever. But so there was a series called Roswell um that was on American TV. David Nutter was the director. Um, and I'd known David Nutter because I just did a movie with him, and he'd actually told me to move down to Los Angeles. I was staying with him and his family, and I ended up going, um, testing for it. And so they have Jason Bear and um Brendan Fair as one set of brothers, and they have myself and Heath Ledger as the other brothers. Okay. And so Heath and I, Heath had just done 10 Things I Hate About You, right? He has his long hair, he's barefoot. I'm like, who is this guy? Right. So him and I are being paired off as brothers, we have scenes together, and uh then they and they're going back and forth. And I'll never forget this. I was staying at uh Nutter's house, um, and you know, you go down to the end and I could hear the head of whatever studio it was saying to Nutter, because Nutter was like, This kid's a star. This kid's a star. And the head of the studio is like, I don't know what you see in him. We're gonna go the other way. And it was just like, there's I will never forget because I there was something about that guy. I'm sure that community guys all, but he had this like, he was barefoot, like ripped t-shirt, he had a skateboard in his hand, and I was like, this dude doesn't give two fucks. And he had his video camera and he was like having the time of his life, and he just walked in and just owned the room. I was like, I just I remember doing a scene with him the first time I stopped because I was like, I didn't, I was like so fascinated by what he was doing. I was like, he's beautiful. Like I was just like, you know, as a as a as a heterosexual man, I could just I looked at him and I was like, what a jawline. I was like, what a stuff, but he just had this charisma about him that a presence and just owned it. And I was like, this guy's got it for sure, like in the bag. Yeah, and it's crazy how the studio is like, it's not him, but thank God, because he would have never gone on the journey that he was. Oh man, totally, totally, totally.

SPEAKER_05 19:00

I mean, he was yeah, we were of the same age, we're of the same era, but he was yeah, as he proved, he was a light years ahead of everybody, and Heath was an artist in his own soul long before I even knew what an artist was. Me too. And no clue what it was, you know, no, no, and he and it was in there, it was wide open, and it was deep. And he, you know, I only had limited um experience with him, but I obviously watched him and I watched him come through all the TV shows in Australia, and I watched him be the first guy on the ground here, and I was over in London, so I'd left to show you to go to London, and he was here. He was he was, you know, I think it was just after 10 things, and it was before the Patriot uh with Mel Gibson, and yeah, and he was kind of having his thing, but but he is just just extraordinary depth of soul and artistry, and the one moment I have, and I and I don't know Heath, and people have many um moments of ownership over his memory, but the one that I remember that that I just hold with me in my heart a little bit is that we were on Bondi Beach on must have been December 27th or something, like right after Christmas. I was working in London on a show, um, and I knew that Heath was working on in America because it was all over the news and all over the magazines and whatnot. And you go down to North Bondi and you can stand on the rocks and you can jump in. Oh, yeah. And it was one of those days where it was crystal clear, super hot, Bondi's packed, the water is amazing, you know, it's is it it's it was just just perfect and idyllic, and summer, that summer energy, that Christmas and festive energy. And I look over and I'm about to dive into the water, and the guy next to me is Heath Ledger. And I'm like, oh hey man, I'm hey, man. And we dive in at the same time, and we both come up. And I don't know if you've been in London in a London winter, but London in December is horrific. And I've just got home like four days before, and you you come up and like the relief and the look and the salt, and it feels like home and the sun. And I look over and there's this heat major is next to me with this massive grin, and he's like, How good's this, man? I was like, Oh, how good's this, bro? And we swam in, you know, the same when we kind of got up and we kind of looked at each other with cheers, man, have a good day. Yeah, you two, bro. And off he went, and it was just sunshine, perfect, Australiana. And look, he may or may not even know who I was, but we had a bit of a sort of a chat and a nod, but like with just just a couple of dudes back in Sydney over Christmas, and so that was a little I I saw him uh at a at a sunshiny moment that was a really special moment in my life as well. So big soul, man. Big soul.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

It's crazy too. It's yeah, it's it's and that's the word I think I'm looking for. It's like, you know, a guy at that age who just knew like it's like an old soul, like he just knew who he was, and and he was so honest in his how he walked into the room. I remember I was so caught up in what are they gonna think of me? How should I what should I do to impress them? And I would I remember being In awe of like Heath, he gave zero fucks. He just would walk in and be himself. And that was like, and we were still, I was like 21 years old, and I had no clue. And he just had this. I don't think he consciously did that. I think he just was who he was. And I'm only now after like having three kids and and like I'm I'm kind of just figured out who I am over the last little bit. I'm still figuring it out, but like I feel like I'm hitting my stride for the very first time in my life. Well, this is who I am, this is what I represent, and I can hold true. But I didn't for years. I fucking bullshitted my way through the whole fucking thing.

SPEAKER_05 22:34

No, but it's a hundred percent exactly the same. No, I literally I've been saying the same thing in those same sentences to people only in the last you know two years, you know, whereas whereas you know, and and you said something too, that that kind of that I want them to like me, I want to impress them, I want them to show I'm a good actor. You throw all that out the window and you go in and and you're you're fearless, like some people like Heath were able to do from the very beginning. You're like, oh even now, you're not 45. I go, shit, I'll do more, I should do more of that.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

You know, it's a did you feel fatherhood brought that a lot out of you?

SPEAKER_05 23:12

Oh, 100%. You know, when I so my son was born on the first of December 2019. Um 1st of December. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

My my dad passed away on the first of December. Wow. Of uh the 2011, but December 1st. Yeah, it's the first of December.

SPEAKER_05 23:29

It's a yeah, yeah, it's a it's a powerful day. It was the first day of summer in Australia. Yeah, so the southern hemisphere. So I was like my little ray of sunshine turned up on the first day of sunshine. Isn't it great being a dad?

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Jason, you better answer. Call him back again. We're calling calling again. Jason, I'm calling you again. I'm calling Jason, who's the owner of PureX, and you better answer. It's like a very important person. But I'm his number one client. All right, Jason. Look, I'm doing a commercial right now for Pure X. And since you're one of the owners of it, I wanted you to say something. Jason, next time I call your FaceTime you 17 times in a row. Pick up. It means I'm doing the podcast. Tied up right now, call you back. I'll call you right after this. Oh, he's doing a podcast. Oh, he's doing a podcast. Jason's doing the podcast. He's not doing the AJ Buckley show. I'm trying to, I'm trying to promote. I'm I'm really recording an ad for you right now. And I want to get the owner of PureX on the phone to to talk about what a great company it is.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

So PureRX is really unique because uh, you know, we're we're taking the white glove customer, uh, the the actors, the elite athletes that have always had access to some of the best medications in the world, best treatment program, supplementation, coaching. Uh we've made it available to the masses.

SPEAKER_03 24:43

All right, Jason, thank you so much. Thanks for being a sponsor of the show. Um, make sure you go to www.purrx.co. Go do it now. I promise you. By summertime, you're gonna be so shredded, you're gonna be wearing a speedo, and that package yours is gonna be looking glorious. Right.

SPEAKER_05 25:00

So I I had wrapped three years of strike back uh four weeks before. So I'd come out of uh a year in Budapest, a year in Malaysia, and the last year was a year in Croatia and Zagreb. And Zagreb is increasing. And my wife. Oh, it was incredible. Croatia was incredible. Um, and I yeah, of all the places I've been and worked and and travelled around the world, that was the one I nearly, I nearly was like, that's that's I'm gonna get a place there. That's my life split, all that damnation. Mate, we oh we would we would go to Havar every every week. Yeah, party island that they had out there with the DJ. So so the first person we met, the first person Warren and I met in Zagreb was the DJ, the Dutch DJ, who would go down and play that party every Saturday night through summer. So we yeah, we had a we had a summer. We had quite a summer.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

I took some random ecstasy from somebody there, and I didn't know what it was, and I'd never done it before. And all I know is I could have been talking to a tree, but everybody I talked to was the greatest conversation I ever had in my life. And I was like, blah blah blah. I was like, nobody's like, what did you take? I'm like, I don't know. So my girl was like, hey, you guys, we're taking this, and I was like, all right, cool. And like, what is this? After I swallowed it, they're like, it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_05 26:16

It was like the closest thing to to like techno woodstock, like it was you're on an island, it's everyone's you know, I remember like we we'd get home, we'd get boats home with the with the guy, the manager who's still a really good buddy of mine, his wife, Luca, and and his partner, and they've just had a baby, but we're like, you know, they'd be like, okay, we're on the 6 a.m. boat home. Well, yeah, cool. And we get this boat home and the sun's coming up over Havar, and you're like, I mean, the thing doesn't start till midnight, you know. So you go in, you you go out there all day, you come home, you have dinner, you have a little nana nap or a siesta or whatever, and then you you're out there at midnight. It was that was that was pretty they do it pretty well over there. I fell in love with and also just like the simple life, like the yeah, the the you know, the the seafood and the water. I mean, uh yeah, I've traveled the world, and we talk about you know the water at Bondar and the water in Australia, but that water there in the Adriatic, and particularly at Havar, some of the most amazing salt water I've I think it's my favorite water in the world. You know, I traveled the world.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

We were super well. I was backpacking at the time, and I just I'd broken up with uh a girl and uh I flew to Italy because I thought that was a good idea, but everything was so romantic and loving and water. I'm like, this is fucking terrible. My buddy's like, I I'd gone on my own, and my buddy JT was like, Where are you? And I was like, in Venice. He'd go, stay there. I'm flying to come and get you. I'm worried about you. So he hops on a plane, shows up, and he's backpacked all through Europe. He goes, We're taking a boat across to Croatia and we're gonna backpack our way down. So we're just stopping off things, and Havar was like our our uh our split was our first or second stop, and we had plans to go to like all along thing, and we ended up staying in Havar for like two weeks and like became really good friends with this family we stayed at. Like they they had this little boy named Spider, was his nickname, and like we were like helping with the house, and like we became like like we'd have that that grappa or whatever, that drink every night.

SPEAKER_06 28:02

Yeah, Varacchia, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

Yeah, Verbacchia, and and you know, just like the people were just so lovely, and um, and it was just you couldn't beat this, like, and then you the other side of the island there was like all the lavender feels and beautiful.

SPEAKER_05 28:15

Yeah, my girl and I went to uh we had to go to a we had to go to a wedding in Italy um in 2024, and I hadn't been back to Europe for a little while and been busy. And she's like, Okay, we've got a week in the wedding, and then what are we doing? We should we go to Europe, we go to Italy, we go to France, we said we're flying straight across the Adriatic and we're going to Havar. She's like, What? So we did a week in Italy, and then we literally jumped in a plane over to Split and we went out to Havar for a week, and it was just as good as it was ever before. I mean, a little bit different now. Croatia's, you know, joined the the Euro and the EU and everything's a little bit more expensive because part of that joy back then was like it's so cheap, it's so relaxed, and you know, yeah, it was great, man. I loved it, I loved it. That's crazy. But my son was born just right after that. So I came home straight after a year in Croatia, and uh and my son was born as I was still recovering from three years on strike back. You know, we you know, we're gonna be able to do that. Did you get any big injuries from it? Um strike back, I was pretty good. Oh no, that's a lie. That final season, I tore my right quad in two places. Yeah. Uh, and they were about, you know, two uh one was a one-inch tear, one was a sort of a two-inch tear. And and I remember they, you know, the joys of Eastern Europe, they took me to this doctor, and the doctor was like, Do you get drug tested? I was like, No. He goes, Great, I've got some stuff for you. And they gave us this this Russian uh this Russian anti-inflammatory drug. It was called active vagin. And it goes into the shot, into the tear, and it causes the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 29:44

I got that same thing in Serbia.

SPEAKER_05 29:46

So it yeah, so it causes the muscles to contract for like to five minutes, yeah, and it takes your six your six-week recovery down to two weeks. Yeah so I had like a bunch of these shots, and uh great, you know, two weeks later they're like, Great, are you ready to run? I said, Yeah, I feel really good. So I jumped out of the car, you know, fucking door open, run down the street, bang, other quad, two places, same thing back. So I tore both my quads in that final year, like it was for the third, the third year of strike back, tore both my quads one after the other, and and that was that was that was when my body was like, it's ready to go.

SPEAKER_03 30:23

You had some fight scene, I remember, and it was with this like I don't know if he was a national champion kick, like tiger kickbox, but he had like longer hair. It was like, was it in a bowling alley or something like that? Oh man, that was that were yeah, man, that was in Malaysia. Jesus intense fight scenes, bro. I was like, Yeah, did you do all your own stunts on that?

SPEAKER_06 30:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:42

Look, I had I had a I had there was one or two where uh Attila, my Hungarian stunt double, he went through a couple of walls, but no, I um I dislocated my uh collarbone, my clavicle off my sternum at like in the second take of the morning. So I've gone back over a a couch, and you're supposed to fall up, except everything in Malaysia was broken or cheap or whatever, and so I've gone over the couch, the couch is broken, and I've landed on my shoulder and popped my cow, my clavicle off my sternum. And I'm like, this is a two-day fight shoot, a fight sequence, and I've kind of like okay, and I kind of had to go to the showrunner about about three o'clock that afternoon. And I was like, oh listen, man, I'm good, I'm gonna keep going. I just need some painkillers, and I might just have to get an x-ray tonight. I don't want to worry you, I just gotta what's up? I was like, I think I've broken my collarbone, but I'm but I'm good. You see this bone sticking out? Yeah, see that thing there? So, you know, and it's one of those things you're like you six, seven months shoot, you're on every day, like you cuts, bruises, infections, you know, especially in somewhere like Southeast Asia. Um, you know, and that's like food poisoning and the and the the food's terrible, so you're eating nothing anyway. Um we were smoking like chimneys because that's what everyone did in Southeast Asia or East Eastern Europe, and so and it just fit perfectly in a mag pouch, you know. So we're like, great, cut two, you know, cut, okay, action. And and and it was so you you were putting yourself through through hell every single day. And sometimes it was just easier to go, I'm just gonna keep going, bro. Like, don't don't get the stunt here in, don't work the schedule, don't make us come back Saturday. Yes, I've broken this, yes, I'm bleeding. I'm just gonna get through it and we'll deal with it. So Chechep was um Chechep was an Indonesian um Hall of Fame kind of uh fighter who was in the I think he was in the Raid or comes from that school. Um we had a couple of great guys that came from that school. One of my favorite movies ever is The Raid. The Raid is my favorite like it's action.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

That and Umbak are just like just you're like, what has happened? The like spiritual moments in the theater. I'm like, that's an action movie.

SPEAKER_05 32:52

Yeah, extraordinary. Um and my only my only kind of wish if I was to go back is that Warren Brown, my my my my sidekick on on strike back with the two-time world champion Muay Thai fighter. And so I was like, and I'd never learn how to fight. So I was like, you can do all the fighting, I'm gonna go with the guns, and I'll just be really good at that because I love that, and that's that's cool, and you can be the fighting guy and I'll be the gun guy. And so it's only now in the last couple of years when I've been training for Beast for this film, this MMA film, that I've learned how to fight properly. And I and I just go back now, and there's just some real basic stuff. I'd love to go back and if we ever went back to strike back or another job, it's like, well, I can shoot and I can fight now. So you know, I know it's cool shit.

SPEAKER_03 33:34

And it those and those skills now that like I didn't realize I went and done something recently and I had to, you know, handle some weapons, and I literally walked up the armor, and it's something I didn't have confidence ever in my career before, but now just getting in there and I was able to just do all the movement and then do it correctly. Well, with as much I you know, I'm sure someone could critique it, but with a lot of confidence and then being mag change and all sorts of stuff, and being efficient in that when you're moving at a pace as an actor and and being able to, it's so like it took me a good it was probably halfway through season two, I started to feel comfortable with it. You know, because there's all these other things and then pyrotechnics are going off and all this sort of stuff, and you're just like, oh, then you know, which obviously gives you just the utmost respect for the real guys that that just can do it so calmly and just like blah blah in your sleep. But it it is it is uh it is those things where where you where you have those that you become that that that triple threat now. You can act, you can you can fight and you can shoot guns because there's nothing worse when you have the Keystone cops that are like doing this or their their trigger disciplines off because you start to pick that up and you're like fuck. Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_05 34:41

I uh I remember the first one of the first sort of training, you know, we we were training for our first season at strike back. Um Jeff Reeves was one of our instructors who I really really got on really well with Jeff. And and so many people, same as you know, I'm sure with SEAL team, but so many people came out of out of out of out of the woodwork to really try and help us and passionately and generously kind of help us. And um Jeff took me up to Tarran Tactical for just an afternoon just to work together. And and he's oh you know, here's here's your here's your movement, here's what you're doing, and da-da-da-da-da. Okay, three, two, one, go. And I was like, he was like, Stop. So what? Why are you breathing so hard? Oh, and I just like automatically as an actor, you're like, or or as an athlete, someone says, right, action, go. Yeah, yeah, and he's like, dude, dude, dude, dude, you're behind cover, you've got a weapon, you think what are you doing? And you're like, oh yeah, oh, okay, what ah okay, that makes sense now. And then it was all about calm, efficiency, and slow is smooth, and smooth is fast, and can sit and just not getting out of your body. And and then you go through and you read all those books, all those great books and audiobooks that you can find, particularly guys who've come through Iraq and Afghanistan more recently, and and and and there's so many great you know, SEAL team and special forces books that have been written. You know, there's it's just a wealth of information out there that you pick up, and it's weird. It was incredible.

SPEAKER_03 36:06

We would hear uh some playback of guys on missions on comms going back and forth in an actual gunfight. And no joke, they're cracking jokes to like, hey, uh, one guy would literally was like, uh man, I think that that girl that I met and wherever uh I gotta get some penicillin and uh burns when I pee, and then you hear them pop. And then they'd like be talking about like oh, I've got the shits, and like then they'd like move in on a target, but like you can hear shit happening, and they are fucking just having like and when the shit got very crazy, they got you know, they dialed in with it. But dude, if I was um a mile away from a gunfight, two mile, I would be fucking shooting my pants. I wouldn't be like, okay, you know, it but it just the ability to just stay absolutely dialed in and not let the allow your discipline to not dictate your emotions, which is such an art form with these guys. Do even with the martial arts guys, like when like you look at any of the any guys, which brings me on to my next question with the beast, it's like when that you know that cage closes, like you're an animal that go walks into this this cage, and you just see these fighters just like like even Justin Gaithy and uh uh uh Patty um uh yeah that was fighting like Gacy just has that stone cone killer like doesn't nothing. He's smiling, he's laughing, you know. Um it's a just a different mindset. So, dude, I when I saw your trailer for the beast, I mean I it it took me back to my childhood. It it really felt like I was watching something like that the tone of the trailer was so honest to all the movies that I grew up with. And obviously, I haven't seen it yet, and I'm dying to see it. One, I'm so freaking proud of you, dude. Like this is you know, and again, not seeing anything, but I really think people have moments in their career, and I really believe, and you've had many brilliant moments, but I really believe this fucking thing I think is has got a bit of lightning in the bottle. So take me, tell me the whole, I want to hear all the details. How did you get it? Yeah, man. Well, thank you. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_05 38:04

Of course, yeah, man. Um, look, yeah, thank you. And that so the the teaser trailer was the first thing that anybody has seen of this film. Um, so I shot a movie. So uh how far do we go back? Uh so when I finished Strike Back and I went back to Australia, turned 40, had a baby, got locked in the country, went through a pandemic, went through a divorce, went through all the things, came out the other side. Uh was on foundation. Foundation was supposed to be uh a five-month shoot, uh, it ended up being 17 months. Um life looked you know a bit different, and after 10 years in Los Angeles, um, ended up back in Australia um raising raising my child or or you know learning how to parent. And yeah, you know. And there was a film called Poker Face that Russell Crowe was doing and he was directing, and it was being shot during lockdown in Australia. So the the parameters of shooting in an entire lockdown in Sydney were quite um were quite tough. Anyway, long story short, I ended up doing poker face, I ended up auditioning, and I got a role next to Russell, uh playing Russell's lawyer. So we'd known each other for about 10 years, but it was the first time we'd worked together, and he was directing. And my first you know, day on set was a two-hander opposite him, and he was on one side of the bar, I'm the other. I walk on set, I've got two lenses, and they're an 80 mil and 120 mil, both pushing in on me. And not only is he my guy opposite me, he's also my director, and he's standing behind the bar, you know, cleaning glasses and whatnot. And goes, Yeah, you good to go. Uh yep. Yep. So we do a take, and he's like, How did you feel? I said, Uh, I felt like everything was kind of here and it kind of needs to be down here. So, yeah, yeah, let's let's do that again. Yeah, cool, man. So slowly we did that. It's a little bit more than that. It was my first time a new film, you know, and yeah, you know, it's it's he's it's the greatest, mate, the goat. And so we did that film, and then from there we I went into uh a movie called Land of Bad, which was we do really well on Netflix action.

SPEAKER_03 40:06

Milo's a good buddy of mine, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:08

He did so great. So Liam and Luke Hemsworth, Milo, Ricky Whittle, um Will Eubanks, and David Fuerio uh was originally it was a great movie, man. Really good movie. Yeah, you know really, really punched above its weight, I reckon, you know, and it came out really well. So I auditioned for for one of the the military guys. Um, of course the Hemsworths had taken all those roles, so they were like, eh, there's not much left. Uh said, well, there's this there is this role, and it's it's with Russell, and you'd be back with Russell in studio for for two weeks. So man, you get you get two weeks one-on-one with with the greatest acting coach I've ever had, you know? Come on. Um great, great, I'll I'll do it. And truth be told, the character didn't have a name, he was just the colonel. I was like, all right, I'm gonna do it, but you've got to give him a name because I don't want him on IMDB going the colonel or whatever. So anyway, so I got to I got to work again with with Russell then and and he kind of we we every morning we get on set and we'd we'd kind of go through the Jay's scenes and he would sit down with David Frigerio and they they'd rewrite this the script. And it was the final two weeks of the shoot, and it was the final two weeks of the year, and so you know, Russell had come off a year full of stuff. So he was like, his advice to me was listen, man, um it's gonna be it's gonna be bumpy and I'm and I'm tired, but we just gotta stay agile and we'll get this done. So cool. Fair enough. And we did, we we rewrote as we went, David Frigerio rewrote this Russell would come into my trailer, go, here's today's materials, it's all changed a little bit. I'll see you on set in two hours. Great. I'll learn everything and we'd when we'd go and do it like a like a workshop every day. And that was incredible. At the end of that two weeks, David Frigerio said, I've got this other script, you know, I watched you guys work and I watched you guys work together. I think you're great together. I got this MMA script, and it's it's a it's an old coach and it's a retired fighter, and they've had a falling out, and and it's set, you know, in upstate New York, it's set in Buffalo, New York, in a real working class, you know, family in a working class, you know, part of part of America, and uh in a steel mill kind of town, I think it was. And um so he gave it to me to read, and I had a look at it, and they said we're looking for some directors, and they found Tyler Atkins, who's an Australian director, who'd just done another film with with Luke Hemsworth. It was called Bosch and Rocket in Australia. It was called Ocean Boy, I think, over here, which I think over here got the worst end of the stick, you know, in terms of titles. Um but it was a you know, it was a bio autobiographical story of Tyler's life growing up uh in Byron Bay and in Australia. It was it was it was a great first film for Tyler. So they put Tyler and I together, and we were like, what the hell do we know about growing up in Buffalo, New York, let alone growing up in you know in a steel mill up there? So we started you know banging ideas around and we're like, well, I'll tell you what we do know. We do know what it's like to to come from some of those mining towns and some of those steelworks towns or some of those port towns in Australia. And someone like Alex Volkanovsky has got a very similar story to that. And we you know, we we know Volk, and we know but he's really famous, and he comes from a Shell Harbor mining town, and there are other port towns, and and and when I so we kind of flipped the story back there. And we're like, okay, now we can make a movie about what we know about. So this was 2022, 23. We're rewriting this script with Figerio and Tyler, and we're all good to go. Long story short, the money kept falling out multiple times. But Russell rang and said, Listen, man, it's I'll I'll I'll back you, you know, it's it's your it's your turn, and we'll do this together. And and so I've been by his side, and then I've been opposite him.

SPEAKER_03 43:36

Hold on a second. You have Russell Crowe. He's like that, just give me goosebumps, button. You have Russell Crowe going, I will back you.

SPEAKER_06 43:45

Yeah. Bro, yeah fucking into a fine movie.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

And you know where you're the bugging lead. Like, I'm gonna back you. It's your turn. That is awesome. So you think I didn't casually drop it?

SPEAKER_05 44:00

that yeah you think I didn't start training bro you think I didn't just I think a little bit went into those punches so bro I um I would play the Rocky music every time I took a shit bro I'd be like so I lost I I lost and gained you know 25 pounds three times because the movie came in the finance kept going in but it was you know you talk about divine timing you talk about you know um just just divine interaction and and man if we had a shot that movie in 2023 with me on an on six months or a year's worth of training different film different actor different guy so you were you casting different different outcome the whole time yeah I was I was um and then I I went off and did I did two plays so the the writer strike was over here did the woman in black and I did the 222 yeah yeah yeah yeah man extraordinary so great so again all this stuff lined up every time beast would fall over um another opportunity would would come up and there's no way I would have been ready the way I was to start Beast had I not had three years to train and had I have not gone back and done eight months of theatre in a two-man play in a show like the woman in black so which is a such a great I wouldn't it just I mean I can only imagine it's two man you know no that was extraordinary you know and you know there's places you can go you can take your truck you can get things done and you you you leave and you're like it was good it was good I was introduced to Total Off Road and more about a year and a half two years ago when I got my Ford F-150 tremor and let me tell you something first of all it's like a family and people say the family but these are some of the nicest people you will ever meet TJ and Dan and the rest of the crew at Total Off Road More Charleston are some of the best guys.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

I had my sister her tire blue she happened to be outside the store I I literally called Dan I was like my sister who's got my mom has got to go doctor they're outside your store can you help they literally saved her everything. Like these are just great people so if you're in Charleston you need something done with your truck if you're anywhere in America and you need something done your truck they have stores across the country this is the best place to go anytime any place it's a family it's good people they do good by you and we all work hard for our money and we put something into our truck that we love or whatever we're building we want to make sure that it's done right and these guys at Total Off Road and more they do it right.

SPEAKER_05 46:36

You know which just as a side note you know we we learn scripts or we get given scripts and and more often not than a TV world you're like great here's a script I either need you to audition for it and have it back to me in tomorrow or maybe we'll shoot it next week and whatnot. But to have 70 pages of incredibly written and refined English dialogue uh screenplay and to go out every single day and refine the same material in you're just digging deeper and deeper and deeper it's it's like it's like that drop of water on the stone and you do it for a year and all of a sudden you got a big a big hole in that stone. And it was the same doing this this same so we're doing eight shows a week it's a two-man play in front of three characters John yeah in front of people thousand people a night around the country man Mark bro and so the the groove that you're deepening every single day and we and John Waters who was opposite you know wonderful old English actor work musician and and and theatrical actor and so you know we even on the last night of the tour we're like still trying new things or still finding new things and and so there's times when you're standing out there and it's just you on stage you've got six seven pages of a monologue of a ghost story to tell people about and you're looking out at a thousand people and your mind goes I don't know what I'm gonna say next and you oh shit oh shit I'm gonna get to the end of this sentence and I've got no idea what comes next and you're like da da da and it just comes out and this and it this stream of consciousness and creativity just goes and you're like holy shit I'm a passenger I know this so well I'm a passenger in my own performance. It's like your mind is just fucking with you it's like I'm gonna get out of your own way man just let the let the creative creative juices flow. So that was that was an extraordinary lesson. Yeah and again coming back to the thing I said earlier is you know that's that's a play that is built upon minimal light minimal sound minimal score minimal staging and it's about an actor performing to take an audience so what that gave me was the confidence to step back into something like Beast. So so I wrapped the play in August 2024 and got a call from David Frigerio the writer of Beast and said hey man we're green lit we're going end of November August September October that's 11 weeks Fridge yeah mate let's go and man I was exhausted I was 20 pounds overweight I've been on so you know and there's there's a great line in the in in the in the in the film where you know I say to Luke Hemsworth he goes you know he goes how long do you need to train like that I need six months he goes you have seven weeks so it was like that you know so and so we started Beast finally and it was like third time lucky if we if this if it goes this time everyone's walking away no one's gonna stick around for this anymore. And it's in Australia you're shooting it. We shot it in Sydney between Sydney and Wollongong which is just an hour south of Sydney so with Port Town Miningtown so so and then and then we were able to shoot with one championship the mixed martial arts organization in Bangkok Thailand. So we went up and shot uh our final fight sequences over the course of a week in front of 10,000 fight fans at an actual MMA World Championship event in Bangkok Thailand so that was a real crowd a real crowd man that workouts here's not DGA or anything like that? None of that it's all real so we shot five days in that cage four of them with with three three Wednesday Thursday Friday Friday night was in front of 1000 people and then we had to go and pick up Saturday and finish the fights and and then we we were in Bangkok for a couple of days before that shooting lots of training and montage and and stuff like that. So did you guys rehearse all the fight scenes prior to getting there you knew what you were going to do or was the schedule yeah no this so I worked with Bren Foster Bren um was in a show called The Last Chip who's a great actor but also a a a a fantastic martial artist multiple world champion marked martial artists and he came in and so we'd shot Russell out before Christmas. So we started the film end of November we shot Russell out in the first two weeks then we had five weeks off over Christmas Christmas and New Year and that that and I trained every day with Bren to rehearse and choreograph these fight sequences. So I've been training for three years but then we dialed in the choreography so we got up to Thailand and we we we nailed this choreography up there and and then after that we had another two weeks off and we came back to Sydney and we shot another five weeks of drama. So it was it was segmented which was perfect because I had you know we we talk about the ambition of it but I I had to act like Russell Crowe I had to fight like Connor McGregor and I had to try and look like Chris Hemsworth with my shirt off you know and on a on an indie movie budget um on you know and with minimal support it wasn't it wasn't like you know we didn't have the nutritionist on set we didn't have the personal trainer we did it was like you do I mean that's that's kind of you know it and in a sense I feel like movies like that the heart always comes out of the movie.

SPEAKER_03 52:10

You know there's no you know it's like there's a you know you hear with fighters I've heard them say this about Conor Gregor or other fighters that have got become champions or Mike Tyson it's hard to get out of bed when you're wearing silk pajamas you know so it's like when you're put in those situations in a real indie film, you know, we're spoiled as actors we are sport. 100% but when you when it's boiled down and you've been working on this for three years and this is your movie that the that the goat himself has has has has you know passed the torch to it's crazy though it that energy without knowing this story you can it's in the it's in the essence of the trailer.

SPEAKER_05 52:46

It's in the minutiae it's in the minutiae of the film. You know we weren't sitting in our trailer drinking lattes waiting for someone to tell us when the stunt men are finished it was like I I was living it I was I was doing my own food every day I was doing my own washing I was you know coming from picking up my own son from school and making sure he was fed and then and then saying up and then training at 10 o'clock at night and then you know it's I was living it.

SPEAKER_03 53:09

Man I lived and we lived it parallel that in in a sense of it seems like it's got that Rocky esque sort of vibe. So who is who is the character that you play?

SPEAKER_05 53:20

Play a guy called Patton James he's he's in his early 40s as an ex MMA champion and he's been out of the sport for 10 years and he's he's he's um there's a few little bits and pieces I'll let you discover when you watch it but he's yeah he's now working on a fishing trawler trying to provide for his wife and his young daughter and they're they're living in a in a in a fishing port town you know down south of Wollongong and this guy's you know all the you know some of those those great fight themes of like the town's shutting down there's no jobs there's no work and he's a dude he's a man just trying to provide for his family as a provider as a protector as a role model yeah it's totally man and then and then the what really unlocked it for me AJ was was as a 40 I was 44 when I shot that I turned 46 you know in April but there are so many men around the world veteran or not that get to that point in their early 40s or late 30s which I think is a real inflection point in masculinity and in life where they decide that that it's that for whatever reason there's no way out and they and they take their own lives. Yeah and we we we never vocalize that in in in this character but the loss of purpose and the loss of um intention and the the loss of direction in a man's life and particularly in in that time when I I went through all my shit was 38 to 42 and and I needed to call on every skill set I had from sport to friendship to family to to everything to to to get you through those tough times. So so I was able to go in and make this beautiful character study of a man who loved his wife and loved his daughter and was scared of um failing them but also has lost his own his own path and his own purpose and unfortunately his purpose was was was fighting.

SPEAKER_03 55:27

Yeah his identity was wrapped in it and he's and as so many men lose that sense of identity around that time in life so once I was able to really anchor that and sprinkle that in across what was already on the page you've got this guy fighting for himself and for his family and for his town and and it means everything and and that's what you know and that's what great sports movies are and and it can be it that could be a fight movie that could be a baseball movie that could be a hockey movie that could be any sports film but what's the what's the why what's the heartbeat what's what why am I watching this and I I've I've referenced this movie a bunch but you know Bruce Willis John McClane you know greatest character ever written he that movie's based on him just wanting to fix his marriage he wants to get back together with his wife the entire movie he just wants to you know get to back wants to fix his marriage and you understand that and and he's like not super jacked he's just got a little pup belly and he just is like but he's like fuck it I love her and I'm gonna figure this out and I'll kick the shit out of anybody in my way that type of character that architect of a character when you see that and I feel like you without seeing it I feel like that it's the simplest thing because as a man now too in my I'm 49 you know figuring out like one being okay with being flawed you know and not you know you know and and uh and and pointing the ship in the right direction where you make mistakes but also allow my kids to see my flaws and explain to them how you recover from those but also to then with the business that we're in who are we like we've been actors and we've there's a facade that we have of like we're actors we're in the thing but then I've had a had a lot of sort of internal work of like man who who am I like who are my kids if I was to die like who what are my kids going to say like I wore makeup and played as an actor like what are they going to say about me like what is that and that was sort of a a life changing thing in that for me over the last couple of years but I I love characters that are at that age because it's honest. It's about what men are really going through and it's true what you hit there it's scary. It's like we in a society now as men it's like we're always supposed to like not be emotional and not talk about this and and and I think there's there are some great people out there that encourage that but we're just sort of our built in our DNA of like nah I'm you know sort of push it down push it down push it down. And but admitting to people like hey I'm scared I'm worried I don't have the answers um and that play the the the the the record that just keeps repeating in your head repeating your head of like and the pressure that builds up that you don't realize is there because you're not fucking dealing with it is a scary thing. But that's such a great I I really I dude I I fucking without you telling me any of this I got that vibe from the from the trailer of like this is going to be fire. And it looked like everybody that saw that trailer like it fucking went nuts online.

SPEAKER_05 58:33

I've never I've never experienced anything like it and I just want to go back to one thing you said before we jump onto the trailer because it's really important but like we're only one generation away from the push it down generation.

SPEAKER_03 58:46

Yeah you know and and we're raising kids I have a boy do you you got boys and girls I got I got twin boys and uh actually before we end they wanted to come in and and say hi because I've shown them the trailer I picked him up from school just before I came like hey know the guy from the trailer the beast movie uh because they watch UFC with me all the time I'm like I'm talking like no way so man of course yeah that's that's why we do it now that's why it's the only reason I do it now is go great I can take my boy on set you know or you get to watch your dad do it.

SPEAKER_05 59:15

Oh that's what what was the message for that you know what he might my dad did something really really special or when I was on foundation you know he was a bit too young but like I took a video of my spaceship and I was like because you reconcile you reconcile the stuff like hey I'm away for a couple of months I'm missing some significant time of my child's life yeah okay but it's what we have to do and it's what we have to do you know working at that significant and that level that you want to work at but also you want to minimize that because now every every job and and the superpower that came with parenthood was every job gets measured against time with or time away from my son.

SPEAKER_03 59:52

And so the quality of jobs you know I remember I I you and I had a conversation about and did I and I had so much respect for you for you doing that where it was it was an audition I think you were up for and we were go talking about it and you were like I it would be I don't want to go do it because it'll I'll I won't I'll miss my son or something like that was like the reason.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:12

I was like many there was a season arc wasn't there was a season arc that came up and I had I had a couple of other sort of shorter jobs a couple of film jobs it might have even been Land of Bad or Poker Face it was something around that time.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:22

It was a series or something like that as you would have to come to America or something like that and and yeah I turned down I turned down one of the big I turned down I turned down one of the big one was it Hawaii I turned down Hawaii that's the Hawaii I remember yeah Larry Tang the director and uh I remember that we were talking about that so much respect for you like because I you're like I don't want to miss my son growing up and I'd just been away I've just been away for for too long and you know I mean and and look preface that by saying I was I was testing you know I was I you know I hadn't had yeah I was there's still a few hoops to jump through but it was like it was all it was all you know yeah full full gas um and to make the conscious thing because I do the same thing too now it's like if like I weigh time away from my kids and if I cannot in my mind tell them that what I'm gonna do while I'm away is worth missing your soccer game or missing your football match or whatever it is um or being there for my daughter to play across or something with my wife if it isn't moving the needle in in the direction that's going to be life changing for you or that fills my soul so much that I have a story to come back and tell you that I grew and and like and the reason I miss it because I was getting better and I was doing if it was just it's just not worth it. It's not worth it.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:44

No and the and the the pang in my gut that I get when I miss my son is is yeah every every parent gets it man what I mean what a privilege to to have that love and have that connection to be going oh man but but I don't want to be sitting in I mean I'll never forget when I'm the first time I'd finished strike back Austin was born and I'd got foundation at the rap party for strike back. So literally as we're showing the blooper reel after three years on strike back my agents is like hey man we need a whole team chat like at seven o'clock on Friday night. I was like guys I'm we rap at five o'clock after in Croatia after three years on this show I mean we can talk but I don't know if it'd be making sense I'll be honest you know and uh and so sure enough with a rap party and the and the goof reel the blooper reel is playing and I'm walking out pushing through the crew on the phone they're like hey you've been offered foundation and I was like what I can't do foundation I've never been home I'm about to have a baby I'm in Zagreb I've been home since February and they're like that's okay you don't start till February you've got you can have three months off oh wow so I went home my son was born and when he was eight weeks old I flew I jumped back on a plane and now I've been same as you I've been on planes my whole life I left home at 17 to start work until I flew from Sydney to Ireland to start foundation the first flight I took after my son was born I may as well be going to Mars. I was like where am I going? What am I shit no my son's back no and and Ireland to to go Sydney London London Dublin and then Dublin Limerick to the west coast of Ireland I was like no no I'm I my son my son's I've got to go home to my boy this suddenly felt compl it was only in November the year before where I'm like I'm in Zagreb it's great. Fast forward four months yeah I was like this is completely different oh yeah completely different and so that was a massive revelation and and changed the course of of sort of the last you know six or eight years um especially since we've been chatting from from those you know from those strike back and foundation you see everyone was like well where where were you what you were doing and I was like well I went home and I mean you talk about career wise but like that decade through until 2020 I've been living here working in LA to get up and going and the plan was that strike back and foundation were going to come out at the same time in 2020 I was going to be a free agent I just got my green card and I was going to be back in LA with two big shows and go right I'm here and God the universe whomever you believe in went yeah no man you got some lessons to learn first.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:31

Yeah you're gonna end up back back in Sydney and go, you know I'm a big believer in in everything even like the I'm sure you've had it like the roles that I was like I tested for and I didn't get and I was gutted over like just it would take me I couldn't shake it. I was like man but then I look at what would have happened if I had I wouldn't have gone on this journey that so that that that that when people like I wasn't meant meant to be like before I'd be like how how could you say that but I mean everything in my life that's I the journey that I've been on and the people's paths that I've crossed unknowingly has come full circle in some way or is like created has added such wealth and and let or lessons you know that and the times I didn't listen I was it was like you know I there was there's so many times in my life I'm sure you've gone through this too where things kept fucking just like I was hitting road bumps and I explained it sort of is like like when you're reading a a a a book and you're going through a chapter you don't understand the chapter so you go back and and read it again and read it again. And you can't get to chapter number two because quite don't under you don't understand what chapter one's about. And even if you go to chapter number two it's not making sense until you actually slow down and like look at the details of like what is happening and what is the sort of the construct of this first chapter. And then once that clicks you flip the page and then you're like ah oh I get it.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:55

That makes that makes sense 'cause you can't you can't get to here if you don't understand, you know, here and here and

SPEAKER_03 1:06:00

And it's all like exactly owning your mistakes and owning the fucking the nonsense that the unless of like passing the buck and like oh this person it wasn't for no no no end of the day it's fucking on you cannot and everything every decision made every argument every sort of right or left you make that decision your reaction of to any situation or how you absorb it's on you at the end of the day you know and it's how you sort of deal in process, good or bad. And I really feel like and look, I'm a fucking working proctors, but I feel like when you sort of take that approach of like, okay, this is on me. How could I have been better? How could I have communicated where was the ball dropped? Okay, that's maybe maybe I didn't communicate the way I needed to, maybe I didn't prepare the way I needed to. And I feel like that going into it is I think from the acting standpoint or from the fatherhood sample, I feel like as a man going into, you know, this sort of next chapter, I feel like the more that I take that sort of listen more as opposed to and be uh um be more less of like what I know about something and more what can I learn, you know, I feel like is uh is a is is is the the the jerk the jerk and that's why I love doing the podcast stuff too. It's like finding out like guys like yourself, like we're on we're on the same fucking journey, we feel the same.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:15

So our journey particularly now I felt has been really synchronous in a lot of ways. Um and just you know, just because we're on it, you know, like and that that ego thing, the ego in the athlete or the ego in the in the performer is like, yeah, I want the role, but I also I want to beat everyone to the role, you know, or whatever. And I just had one. I just had one to this to kick off this year. I've been auditioning for a show over the course of a couple of months, and then I'm you know, I had one of those like, hey, can you be in LA tomorrow at one o'clock for a network test? I was like, cool. So I'm in Sydney, drive back to the hotel because we're still on Christmas vacation. I drive back to fly back to Sydney, get my passport, fly to Melbourne, get over here, end up at Burbank, do the thing. Cool, man. Sign the contract, sign the test deal, and like you're down to like the final five, and then you're down to the final three, and then you're down the final two, and you're kind of waiting. And and I remember the day that they were viewing the tapes, and I woke up sick in my stomach again. And it was that thing of going, if I if someone rings me today and goes, You got the job, you're moving back to LA, you're moving back to America, and you're gonna be here nine months of the year, and you're only gonna see your son at school holidays or when he comes over. Um better be the biggest biggest contract of your life. Yeah, um, but but that's that's what today is. And you know, and I have a I've a I have a strong faith, I have a strong spiritual side, I have as I find as much, I find as much um God in church as I do in the mountains and do in the ocean and and and and do in solitude and silence. And so on that day, you know, manifesting, picturing, no, I want it, I want it, I want it. And I remember I was going for a hike and just to clear that clear my head and I was praying about this job. And God said, if you really want this job, I'll give it to you.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:06

Uh if you really want it, I'll give it to you.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:12

Yeah. And deep down I couldn't say that I really want this job because I knew that this job in comparison to beasts that was about to in two weeks' time was about to release and the level of work that I'd done and all the things, I knew that I could do a great job. Yeah, but I deep down I was like, in your heart of hearts, you know, but there's something in me that's like I've got to keep working, I've got to keep making money, I've got to say yes, I've got to show everyone how good I am by getting the job. And there's the lessons in that, man. And so, and when I got the call saying, hey man, I went to the other guy, the first thing I got was relief. Was it a hemsworth? I was like, wow, was it a hamstring? Thank you, thank you. Thankfully, this time, this time it wasn't a bloody Hemsworth. But yeah, man, the lessons, the lessons we still we still learn, you know, it's 27 years in, bro.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:08

I think being okay more in the lesson when it happens, when it doesn't go back, all right, that wasn't like now being like, all right, that just wasn't the way it was supposed to go. Because so many people, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:18

I had so many people, and I think that yeah, I think that the point that that I wanted to it was I thought about before too is is that particularly with your kids and things like that your happiness and your satisfaction and your quality of life isn't affected by the yeses or the no's that other people are giving you. You know, when when when someone, hey man, you didn't get this job, great. But bless them. Thank thank you for the ride, it was amazing. I wish you guys all the very best. And I know you guys are gonna do a great job, and I loved meeting you guys, yeah, yeah wholeheartedly. And and there's there's a great peace in that, and there's a great set and that I think allows longevity because if your if your whole life is gonna be affected by what some dude in an office down in Century City or in the b in the valley or you know, besides you know, New York or wherever, it's like you you're gonna be yo-yoing for the rest of your life, and you can't do that. You gotta find what makes you peaceful, what makes you grounded, what makes you happy, and that's good in your hands.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:22

There's power in saying no to. There's power being like, no, I'm I'm good right now. You know, and and there's something in that ownership of being like talking with the family, making that decision and and and being anchored in that it's like the decision that you make now as a dad, and is you know, and the journey that you're on being able to say yes or say no, but have it an educated decision how it's gonna affect them, that's something you can always then look at them later on in life, be like, every decision I made to the best of my ability, because we're just fucking winging it at the end of the day. We don't have the answer. We've got to listen to that inner side. And I feel like when you make those good decisions, you listen to that, then you can look at your kids and be like, Man, I love you guys so much. I made the best decision for us, not just for me, but for my from what I knew at that time. And that that's all I can, you know, and when you're honest with that, that your kids are only gonna love you for that, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:17

Yeah, yeah, man. You know, the kids and partners, and my my partner just has a six-year-old as well. And you know, it's and it's it's where you where you prioritize that stuff in in your life, you know, and that's that's because you your your energy is your output is so important. So where you where you prioritize to put that is is something that I've as I've got older, the the the ownership and prioritization of that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:39

Putting the output out there, I have to ask you, because when I was watching this, I'm sure you get this fucking all the time. Are you not gonna be the next Wolverine? Man, is that because beast trailer, and then I was looking at him like fucking hell, he's not the next Wolverine. I don't know what the fuck is. Like, talk about if you get AJ, you get Russell Crowe give you the blessing, then you get Jackman, like, dude, you are like you're like the perfect agent. That trailer is like Beast, and like you you could totally fucking do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:06

Like, I'm not gonna lie, I I made a I made a a little collage of all the comments on Instagram, you know, because there were so many, and I sent it to my agent going, boys, just let's just make it happen. So I've funny enough, you talk about manifesting, but I've been talking about that for many years. David Goya, who was who was our showrunner foundation, I was like, hey Goya, do you have anything to do with with Wolverine? You know, I just always that was almost my favorite, and there was the Australian connection. So, you know, careful, careful what you manifest, man. But I was I was really, I was really, it was it was I was pleasantly smiling.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:41

I could oh I saw the beast, and I've always thought that with some because you but but when I watched you in that trailer, it was like there was a there was a when you bang your fist in or hit your face and thing, I'm like, oh my god, that's fucking that's Wolverine, fucking, you know, like you just you look like a fucking superstar in this man.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:59

And that was like just that was just on the moment. I I knew, you know, again, it's indie filmmaking. You great, great, we've got two minutes, it's between round one and round two, or round three, round four. We're just gonna look push in on you, just do whatever you want. And I just remember like sitting there, you know, that was that was an empty stadium that day, but you're covered in everything, and you're like, and the and uh the the the ability to to understand a really strong and powerful man's self-doubt and his fight against his own demons. Yeah. Um you know, some of those some of those directions from Tyler, our director, um were were leaning into that way that made some of that stuff so much more interesting. So but yeah, that that teaser came out, and I've never, I mean, you would have experienced it with SEAL team and whatnot, but I've I've never experienced something travel and get reactions on a scale that that got last you know a couple of weeks ago. It like was was 6 a.m. here in LA, I was in LA at the time, 6 a.m. East Coast, 9 a.m. West Coast, then it was like lunchtime, it was when people wake up in Australia, and then at 6 p.m. was when people waking up in England, and then I woke up the next morning and it was like India and South America and and and Asia and this thing is when does it come out? This thing is just traveled. April 10, man. April 10. So April 10 in the US, uh, Lions Gate uh theatrical across the country. So so plenty of screens, big, big number of screens. Uh there's a full there's a full trailer coming out soon. I think I think they're gonna release potentially like an actual like a a bit of the movie which which is really cool, which is a really, really cool moment with with me and Russell in the film that just gives everybody goosebumps every time they see it. Um and then we're and then we're yeah, April, April 10 in the US. Uh Australia, I think, is is going to be a week or two after that. And then it rolls out around the world, man. So I've actually got a screening, got a screening in LA tonight. You know, I'd have these sort of friends and family screenings down the line. Lionsgate have just been Barry Brooker at Grindstone and the guys at Lionsgate have just been behind us from the very beginning since they saw the opening scene of the film, which we essentially sold this film on the first four minutes, which was which was me and Russell. Were you naked? Um I was half naked. I was pretty naked, bro. But nothing motivated. We talk about Kevin Libby, our dietitian, we talk about the amount of training, but nothing motivates like knowing you're gonna see your naked ass on screen for the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:39

Yeah, you know, that is true. I remember I played I played an autistic kid that was naked. It was the first time I was ever naked on screen. I'm like, well, this is not flattering. I'm like, this is like I always thought I'm like, I'm gonna have my hammer out, it's gonna be glorious, all uh oiled up and shiny. And I am like I am autistic in a bathtub going boom, it's just not.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:58

It was not the sign just that sign felt quite a lot. There's good naked and there's bad naked. I swear it was it's it's a growing on a show.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:06

It's cold up, he's like, the water's cold. Yeah. Um at the at the turn, we I have this part of the show, it's new that we had. We just like this rapid fire question. It's like a couple questions uh that we shoot off just to kind of have a bit of fun and find out who the mean you are. Oh, good lord. So rapid fire. Um all right, uh, so uh choice coffee or whiskey. Uh coffee. Can't live without it. Can't live without it. Beach workout or gym workout? It's like asking which of your children do you like more?

SPEAKER_05 1:17:42

Um uh uh um beach, beach, beach, beach, beach uh uh favorite movie of all time. Braveheart or Casablanca? Fucking Braveheart. Come on, Brave. Yeah, man, Braveheart. Braveheart was the one that changed my life. I was 14 years old. And I've been out it was a Saturday morning, I'd been out for like a run or something, and I came back in and I went and said, My mum's just gonna watch TV for a little bit, I'm gonna have a stretch and have some breakfast. And I turned it on, and it was about two minutes in when when she's getting tired up. And yeah and I sat there for two and a half hours and I think it was the first time I really truly experienced the power of cinema. And I walked out, and my mum was like, Well, sorry, I thought you must have gone out. I didn't know you were home. I was like, I just watched I just watched the most amazing thing I've ever seen. And that was it.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:40

And Braveheart taught me what what film filmmaking the power of cinema. I did it, I just did a movie with Mel Gibson, and I had a fanboy moment, my first scene with them, and uh, you know, Braveheart was a life-changing thing. I went I I was in Burbank, I was in LA at the time, uh, and I went to the theater, I think like 10 times, and I didn't have the money going. I so I kept sneaking. I saw it once, I paid for it once, and then I snuck in and watched it over, and I just couldn't believe what was happening. And I think just because my Irish roots and all the story, but then just the extra thing. So when I showed up to set and saw Ian Matt Mill, I was like, you know, I talked to him for a little bit, and then we got into the scenes, and the very first scene, I just totally blank because I just kept fucking looking at him and like, oh, is this William Wallace? Like he's got these beautiful blue eyes, and I was just like, I'm doing a scene with William Wallace. And he was such a stud. Like, you don't talk about an absolute like stud, just a great guy. I I was I literally was fanboyed and I was like, Can I ask you some questions? He's like, dude, you can ask me anything you want. And we sit there for hours. I'm like, How did you shoot this shot? How did you do these things? Oh, wow. And then I was like, Apocalypto. And then he was telling me about like Passion of the Christ and all. I'm like, the movies that this guy has made, and just the most one under one of the most underrated filmmakers and directors of all time.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:56

Oh yeah. You know, truly, truly. It just it did what a what a stud. So but uh but yeah, I had the same, I had the same moment. I was doing a film, I was playing a jockey in Australia. It was a it was a Melbourne Cup, a real real life horse racing film. I was down, I was down at uh 68 kilos, so I was like 150 pounds or something with another actor playing a jockey, and the the actor playing Dermot Weld uh had flown in, it's an Irish actor, his name was Brendan Gleason. Like, Brendan wants to take you out to the to the pub, you boys out to the pub. Wow and we get to the pub, and mate, I haven't eaten I've been eating straw for four months, and we get there and have one pint of Guinness, and I'm I'm I'm screwed. And then Brendan casually starts telling Braveheart stories, and in that moment, I looked up at him and went, that's Hamish.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:47

Oh my god, that's Hamish. I'm doing I'm doing and I had to literally excuse myself. Excuse me, guys. I have to score and I did that that um yeah, that that the Emma Thompson thing from um Love Actually, where you go into the toilet and you're like Yeah, it's like fucking fucking he's a big man too, isn't he? He's a big boy, man. What an extraordinary actor, man. Yeah, in bruges and all this stuff of Martin McDonough. Anyway, yeah, I had that moment in real life where it was like a bit of damage. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:20

Okay, couple more questions. Uh, your dream rule that the dream role you haven't played yet is this is this Wolverine?

SPEAKER_05 1:21:26

Yeah, let's let's do that. Let's manifest that Wolverine. Yes, yeah, for sure. I see it in the room. And also Yeah, I love it. I love it. And and I think if you see Beast, you'll see a nice similarity, but also where Hugh Jackman took Wolverine in Logan uh in that in that final installment of Logan, you know, that they they shot, then they released that in black and white as well. Um, I think it was James Mangold who directed that. But that was just that if I could go and do that, I'd I'd be a happy man.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:54

I think it'd take me away from my family for six months. I think everyone, I mean, dude, your your son would be like my dad's Wolverine. I mean, come on. Come on, get away with that one. Do you know how many do you know do you know how many girls he'd pick up by just saying, I come from the lineage of Wolverine? I mean, that that that is a good thing. Well, dude, I I I so appreciate you jumping on, man. I could not be more proud of you. I'm looking forward to the day we get to hang out and I hope that we get to to uh uh share the screen together at some point soon. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:24

I need to um need to come and visit you too, man. I need to come over to that side of town and uh South Carolina, man. You got you like you look like you could set yourself up such a wonderful life over there and and it looks good, man. I love I love simile watching uh everything you're doing, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:37

We got I'll take you fishing or hunting or something. We'll uh we'll go redneck it up. I I I uh I've fully embraced the redneck life out here, and it's uh it's it's uh the red the redneck Riviera. We uh I live right in the water and um it's just it's just good. It's good people, man. It's it's it's a little slower paced and drive a golf cart around and and uh and get in some trouble. So but uh dude, count me in. Yeah, I I I really mean it, man. You're you're you're such a stud. You're you you're you're forced to be reckoned with, and you know, I I I really feel that this movie's you know is gonna is gonna be that one for you. And uh I'm I'm really fucking proud of you.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:14

No, mate. It means it means the world to me, man, coming from you, someone I've I've watched growing up and watched on screen throughout my career, and and I really appreciate it, mate. So thanks for all the support from afar, and I look forward to doing it in person soon, mate.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:25

Fuck yeah. I love it. All right. Fuck yeah. That's it. That's all. Thanks for uh listening to another episode of the AJ Buckley Showed. Thank you so much for watching another episode of the AJ Buckley Show. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, like, subscribe, and share.