Welcome to A Comic Conversation! a podcast brought to you by The Team at Distance NERDing!
Have you ever thought, dang if only i had a way to listen to an interview at a comic con that i missed even tho i had no way of being there? well think no further!!! Jahmez 5000 and Yung Phil of the Distance NERDing podcast thought the same thing and started recording their interviews for you, The NERDs, to listen to at home!!! You may be revisiting an interview that you attended and wanted to hear again, or maybe hearing it for the first time!! were here for you!!!
In this episode we had a frighteningly fun and animated conversation with with Vader himself, Spencer Wilding!!! We talk about his physical roles, his fighting career, and all of the fun on set!! So sit back, Relax, and Enjoy a Comic Conversation!!!!
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All right nerds, brace yourself and reinforce your blast doors,
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because this episode stomps in like a * destroyer at full
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throttle. In the next installment of a
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comic conversation, we had the towering honor of speaking with
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the man behind the mask, the Sith who actually made people
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fear the hallway. Spencer Wilding.
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From playing Darth Vader in Rogue One to showing up in
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Guardians of the Galaxy, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Doctor
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Who, this guy's been the physical embodiment of nightmare
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fuel, space villains, and straight up awesome.
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For years we talked stunts, suit acting, and what it's like to
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become the most iconic villain in cinematic history.
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Plus some stories that'll knock your helmet off.
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So Polish up your armor, queue the Imperial March, and prepare
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for a hallway that you won't survive because it's time for
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another. A comic conversation.
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Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome, welcome, welcome.
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Our get. Our next guest here is a Welsh
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actor and a special creature performer in the UK known for
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his interpretation of strong and imposing characters, often using
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prosthetics and makeup. He's appeared in films and
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series like Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Wrath of
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the Titans, Guardians of the Galaxy, Victor Frankenstein,
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Dungeons and Dragons, Honor Amongst Thieves, and Oh yeah, he
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played a really small role that nobody knows about called Darth
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Vader in a character in some unknown movie called Rogue One
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Star Wars Story. Ladies and gentlemen, please put
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your paws together for Spencer Wilding again.
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That's not enough for me, so I. You.
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Know where's your microphone? How you doing guys?
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You doing good? Yeah, make some noise, make some
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noise, make some noise. Hey, look at the ways of people
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here. Wow.
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And since we're out of Comic Con.
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Yeah, yeah. All the kids are happy that
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you're here. Let's go, kids.
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All right, it's best. So before we get into the story
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of you, all right, because we're going to get into a big story of
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you here, we have a segment on the show called Growing Up
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Geeky, right? What did you geek out on when
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you were a kid? You know, I used to love love
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the Edward Woodward in the Equalizer.
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I said peek for the door crack and I was too young to watch it.
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It's unlike it like ITV or whatever it was.
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We had a BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Three back in the UK, you
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know, 4 odd years ago. And I used to love watching
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Monkey magic. I used to geek out on that.
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And I used to love, you know, like Mickey Mouse and
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Thundercats and all that lot and that thing.
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Yeah, all that stuff. I loved all that stuff.
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But I was a BMX kid as well, you know what I mean?
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I used to, you know, it's a shame now because at Christmas
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time the streets are empty. When we were kids, the streets
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would be full of kids on the skateboards, what they got for
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Christmas and push bikes and stuff.
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Do you know what I mean? You know, the rich kids would
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get a little really smart BMX, you know.
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So yeah, I used to get a lot of hand me downs because we didn't
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have a rich family, but I there was the best hammer down I've
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ever had. You know me, my God, never give
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me like like a racer. You know me and love all that
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stuff. But yeah, that was that was my
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childhood. That's awesome, man.
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So jumping into kind of actually, I'm not gonna jump
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into acting first. You know, before you were an
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actor and Guy didn't say anything like that.
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You, you're fighter. Yeah.
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A kickboxer. Yeah, kind of.
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And that's kind of what led into your, your acting career, right?
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Was, was. Well, it was all, you know, my,
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my acting, let's say I didn't go to any university or, you know,
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acting schools or anything like that.
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My acting school was life from being born.
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I mean, and I was always a bit of a, my mum used to say to me
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when I was a kid, stop kicking people.
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Stop being a monster and it being a professional kickboxer
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and a monster in the films. Is this, is this your, your, is
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this your you film in here? Yes, that's it.
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Just just double checking. Yeah.
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So, yeah. And you know, I was, I was like
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one of them kids. Like they used to come.
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It used to be a circus that come to our our town in North Wales
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in Prestatyn, which is like half a mile away from the beach, this
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big field called Bastion Field. And a circus had come there for
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four weeks. It was really busy for them.
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You'd squeeze another two weeks out of them.
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But it's when they could, they, they had animals, you know, so
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you can't the sous back home don't allow animals anymore.
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You know, you might get the odd horse in there, but you don't
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you don't have the lions, tigers and bears no more.
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You just don't have them because of cruelty and stuff.
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They don't don't allow it. But this specific time I was
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when I was a kid, animals talked to me.
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They did might they'll buy my best friends and I remember
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walking onto the field and there was a camel there there was a an
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elephant and there was lions in the cages.
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So I walked up to this camel and the camel turned around to me
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because used to graze him in the daytime show at night and the
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camel turned around and he goes I want to come home with you.
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I went all right. So it took, it took me 3 hours
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to get this big peg, big peg out the ground and I got it out and
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I got halfway home with the camel and then all the circus
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people coming in and out because there's a vicious, aggressive
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camel. But he liked me, so it was one
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of them. Spitting at everybody else.
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He's a spit, you know, spit everybody.
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He had a right hump with people. Hey, right Hump.
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So when you first started out, when you when you started
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acting, at the point when you started acting, do you ever
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think that you were going to be so many beloved characters or
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you're going to be a part of so many giant franchises?
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I just had a feel, I had a feeling when I was a kid I was
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going to be like a some sort of champion fighter and I knew I
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was going to be in the films and I always knew there was big
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because I was straight in at the deep end.
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I started on Harry Potter three playing a werewolf and like 20
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years ago, Harry Potter. It's a massive now, but back in
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the day, 20 years ago, it was huge, huge.
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You know, I was giving the money, Ron and Rupert kickboxing
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lessons on set when they were 14 years old.
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Me and Alan Rickman on a closed set sang Happy Birthday to Dan.
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And when it was a it was a Rise set, it was Shepherd and
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Studios. I remember Alan Rickman coming
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off the stairs and he tripped and I caught him and went out.
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To save your life, mate. Anyway, yeah.
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What was that like working with Alan Rickman?
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That was awesome. I'm working with all the Harry
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Potter cast. Yeah.
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You know, I was on. It was a really big, beautiful
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family, you know, and we were just all very tight, you know,
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it was just a lot of magic going on that film.
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Yeah. It was just beautiful.
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Yeah. I loved it.
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And I got to work with Dan Laser down the line on Victor
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Frankenstein. I mean, when he was the
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hunchback in the circus. That's.
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Right. I played the circus masters
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strongman and I played Prometheus.
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Who's in there? The strongman in the in the
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Who's the monster in the circus? So like, yeah, he can.
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I already had an idea of how to do that.
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Yeah, sure. Yeah.
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So what's it like preparing for for some of the films you've
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been in or preparing to once you see kind of like the makeup and
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what you're going to be putting on?
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Yeah, normally I'll see, I'll see an artist design first on
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the production wall and then the process will take the, you know,
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you're going for your live cast and then you're going for the
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fit in and the live cast will make a sculpt of you exactly the
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same replica as you. So they can work on you 24/7.
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Because obviously having an actor there 24/7 or a slump guy
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or whatever, that'll cost a little production, a lot of
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money. So they that's why they do a
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mannequin. Mannequin of you.
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Yeah, yeah, it's a process. But because I've been done over
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50 characters now, so I've got like a switch, you know, So if
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the characters there and it's got my name and it'll just come
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to me, I won't go searching for it.
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They'll we'll meet each other, man, I mean.
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Right, right, right. Do you have any techniques when
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you're sitting in the chair put getting the prosthetics on?
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Because like some of those those like prosthetics can take hours.
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Yeah, so, yeah, I remember on the on the Wolf man with Rick
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Baker, the test maker was 11 hours.
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Yeah, but I love testing. Yeah, that was just a test
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makeup, but I loved it. Wouldn't change it for the
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world. Yeah.
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I really, really loved every moment of magical time.
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Yeah. I'm living your dreams, man.
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It's great what I do. They normally in the beginning
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they'd put a DVD on a couple of films.
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You'd watch it within about 5 or 10 minutes I'm gone.
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I'm just like going to some sort of subconscious.
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I've done hundreds and hundreds of makeups.
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So sometimes you look at the makeup chair and go on.
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No, Oh no, I'm going to sit down there for another five hours,
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you know, and the glue would be cold.
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You know, if your location and you're like getting in the
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makeup chair at 1:30 AM, you know, the traders have been
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cold. The the, the glue be cold on
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your face and you just want to get it on and start warming up.
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Yeah. But yeah, my process, I just sit
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in the chair, go to sleep or subconscious and just if, if the
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the makeup artist wants an expression out of you, they'll
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poke you in the face to wake you up.
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Hey, do this now. Yeah, yeah.
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So you were involved in one of the most iconic scenes in
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Stardust? Stardust.
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Stardust. Yes.
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What was it like not only working opposite of Robert De
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Niro, but seeing him in a full gown and makeup?
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Good, good, good, good question, man.
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I've been asked a lot of questions and nobody's ever
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asked me that question. I've done you've done your
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research. Awesome mate.
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Right. So when I was, my character was
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called Mad Bible. That was my character's name,
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Mad Bible. And, and I'm a believer.
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So it's probably stuff in there, you know.
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And it was one of them. It was when we got to meet
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Robert De Niro, Mr. De Niro there was 5 main pirates and
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myself gorgeous George of Snatch and several other Dexter
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Fletcher and several other pirates.
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And he pulled us into this little room, 10th of the size of
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this. And we we all sat down.
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We knew what we knew what was coming.
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Mr. De Niro was going to come in the room.
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So all of a sudden the door opens.
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There he is Mr. Mr. Mr. Robert De Niro.
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And first thing he says he goes guys, it's nice to meet you.
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And we all read a line to him so we could see we were competent
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with our with our work. And he goes right.
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My name is Bob. I answer to Bob, not Mr. De
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Niro, not Robert De Niro. It's awesome, Bob.
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And that's cool because my Sonny's name is called Bob felt
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the presence on the right side there.
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I just noticed he had. The same drink as me.
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All right, okay, cool. Yeah, no, it's great working on
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there and some funny stories when you first see all the pipe.
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Well, you see him a few times, but obviously Robert De Niro,
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Bob was a cross dresser, right? So, but he knew, he knew nobody
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knew about him being a cross dresser, but we always knew as a
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whoopsie, you know, I mean, that's what we call him.
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We would use a whoopsie, captain.
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So when Mark Strong tried to kill him and then we all run
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into the room, all the pirates, and Mark Strong dies out the
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window and swims off. It went cut.
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And that's the first time we'd seen our boss in a dress.
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So so he goes, you know, he said a couple of words to us and then
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he shooed us off. But then when he said cut, Bob
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goes, is that all right lads? Is that all right?
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He said, oh, come on, all you need to do is be in the room.
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It's all right. You know what I mean?
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You do anything. So it's a pleasure to work with
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him. Yeah.
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I mean, it's great when you get to work with your idols because
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you always say be careful not to meet your hero.
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But he was cool. Yeah.
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Everybody's been cool. I've been working for.
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That's awesome. So like he ended up being
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somebody who who lived up to kind of like your thoughts of
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who he was. Yeah, you know, I'm a great fan.
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I would love, love to work with Mr. Mr. De Niro, Bob again on a
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film like Heat with, with, with Al Pacino as well.
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Imagine that. But you know, I know it's not
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going to happen this lifetime. Maybe in another lifetime.
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There's a rumor going around that they might they might be
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working on a sequel. What heat?
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Yeah, really. Well, if anybody's watching,
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bring me on to be the bad guy. I'll kill it there.
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You go kill it and then you can work with both.
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Yeah. Bob and Al.
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Yeah, yeah, that'd be cool. That'd be so cool that yeah, I'd
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love to be. Yeah.
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I just like, I'd like to be like a, you know, you got the good
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guys, the bad guys. I'd probably I'd like to be a
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little just come after, you know, like in the in the very
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beginning when he try and kill that guy who just started
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shooting people right in the beginning and then he
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disappeared and become a grass. I'd like to be I'd like to
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disappear out the gang and then just go go, go go alone, but not
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a grass, but just bring up proper naughty.
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Yeah, yeah. I mean, not be cool, but
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whatever. Just be being a Heat film would
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be incredible that. Man, that'd be awesome.
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Yeah, be cooler. So I mean, you have an extensive
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early career going from, you mentioned Harry Potter, Batman
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Begins, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, all that kind of
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stuff. Do you know which?
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Has anybody seen Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?
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It's. One of my favorite movies.
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Do you know what character I play in Hitchhiker's Guide to
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the Galaxy? I'm vogue on soldier number one,
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and there was like 20 vogue on soldiers, so the soldier that
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so. And it was only my second film.
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I was working on Batman Begins and Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy
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at the same time. So one day I'll be on Batman,
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the other day I'll be on Hitchhikers and sometimes I'll
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be in the same studio. So I'll be bombed from one set
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to there and then that set to there.
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It's brilliant. And so I was on a you know, like
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I say, I wasn't a trained actor. I was on I was having a giggle.
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I was a pro fighter kind of confidence and a movement that
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they hadn't seen before. I know they were loving me and
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just throwing films at me left, right and centre.
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I mean, so that was pretty awesome.
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But I'm the I'm the vogue on soldier that chucks chucks him
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into the chamber and go resistance is futile.
00:13:30
You don't. Yeah, I mean that guy.
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And then I'm the guy, you know, in the in the beginning when you
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get when little Marvin hits him with a ray gun and all the all
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the vulgar soldiers fall over the Bush.
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Yeah. Yeah, well, I'm the vulgar
00:13:41
soldier did a somersault over the Bush.
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Let's see what this costume can do.
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Wait. You know what I mean.
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I'm the winding, winding down the thing when they're dropping
00:13:48
him down into the monster. Yeah.
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So yeah, that was. I'm normally doing the close up
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stuff. And when they said they said to
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me he goes right spent because you're the close up guy.
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There's two of us, me and being another guy, and you go, we're
00:14:02
going to put monitors in your suit.
00:14:04
I was like monitors, you know what I mean?
00:14:06
Because everybody else has got an earpiece and you can't see
00:14:09
through, so they're just going through.
00:14:11
But I had my own little telly, so I was giving it.
00:14:14
I've got a telly in my suit, but after the half a day I was like,
00:14:18
well, that's more heat. I mean, so you basically, yeah,
00:14:22
yeah, yeah. It's like, so it takes you 25
00:14:26
minutes to get in and out of these suits and you're like a a
00:14:29
jacket potato in an oven. You know, it's like huge shoot,
00:14:33
huge shoot. And you put the movement in with
00:14:35
the guns when the lasers are going and Sam Rothwell will be
00:14:39
dancing in front of you and you could be laughing and they
00:14:41
wouldn't see you're laughing. So a lot of us are laughing.
00:14:43
But when you see that V when you're in hit side the Galaxy,
00:14:46
when the when the when the ship goes up and we were doing that,
00:14:49
we're shooting just before you see it, you see a vogue on
00:14:52
soldier who's always messing about pop his head out of the
00:14:54
triangle or something, you know, And at the audition, there was
00:14:56
over 100 people in that room. And it was in London all them
00:14:59
years ago and I remember. So they go, right, OK, we want
00:15:03
you to be like a regiment, regiment and walk around and
00:15:08
March around the room all together, right.
00:15:10
So there was 100 actors walking around the room together.
00:15:14
My character went I don't wanna walk that way, I wanna walk that
00:15:17
way. So there was 99 walking that
00:15:19
way, then one going the other way.
00:15:21
So straight away they knew I was different.
00:15:22
They went right. Get it, Get it.
00:15:24
You know, I mean, that was Peter.
00:15:26
Peter Elliot auditioned and he was one of the He was the first
00:15:29
gorilla and gorillas in Mist. He was the first actor to be
00:15:32
accepted by a gorilla as a gorilla in a suit.
00:15:35
Oh, wow. So he was the first.
00:15:37
Yeah. Gorillas in the Mist.
00:15:38
Yeah. I just this thought came to my
00:15:40
head when you said that you were filming Batman Begins and
00:15:42
Hitchhikers at the same time. Just the funniest blooper and
00:15:45
I'm sure Christopher Nolan would have never let this happen.
00:15:48
But I mean like if you walked in as a Bogon on The Batman.
00:15:51
Set. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:15:53
Well, I was messing about on that set all the time that they
00:15:55
were a character you could play with Darth Vader, who didn't.
00:15:57
He doesn't let you play. Yeah, he doesn't let you play.
00:16:00
You're in your character. That's it.
00:16:01
You're in the character. But the the Vogon soldiers are a
00:16:05
little bit silly. I mean, so they don't mind
00:16:07
having a mess about. So I was always messing about in
00:16:09
the Vogon. But when I was doing some
00:16:12
movements, I'm sure, I'm sure some really, really, really big
00:16:16
gods walked onto the set and have a little look.
00:16:18
Do you know what I mean? But yeah, I remember the
00:16:20
audition for Batman Begins with Christopher Nolan.
00:16:23
The the first audition was with just a casting.
00:16:27
And then the second audition was with Mr. Christopher Nolan, just
00:16:30
me in the room with him. And he goes, right, spend what I
00:16:32
want you to do because you're a ninja legal shadow.
00:16:34
What do you want? I want you to fight 10 guys in
00:16:37
this room, but there's obviously nobody in here.
00:16:39
Just use your imagination. So right, you know what I mean?
00:16:42
You know, from a second film. I'm still very active,
00:16:44
professional kickboxer. So I beat these ten guys up in
00:16:48
this room that weren't even there.
00:16:50
He was Christopher always like, bring more.
00:16:56
He goes, that's all right. I said.
00:16:57
He shut the hand and he goes, you've got the job right now.
00:17:00
That's funny. Great, great shadow.
00:17:02
Boxing gets you the job. Yeah, well, I was.
00:17:04
I was doing more than shadow boxing as I knocked out a few
00:17:07
spirits that day. Oh man.
00:17:11
That is amazing man. So let's switch gears a little
00:17:14
bit right? Let's talk Game of Thrones, yes?
00:17:16
And I know you've got an amazing story about Game of.
00:17:18
Thrones. Yeah, I have, yeah.
00:17:19
Favorite stories anybody's ever told me?
00:17:22
So we have to hear about the experience.
00:17:24
Like what? What would you say the White
00:17:27
Walkers? Would you say the White Walkers
00:17:29
were misunderstood? Well, you know, in the beginning
00:17:31
I didn't read very good so that everybody knows I'm very
00:17:33
dyslexic, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:17:35
So when I walked, when I was the first few films that I worked
00:17:37
on, I couldn't even read or write.
00:17:38
And I was well into my 30s and, but I was very dyslexic and I
00:17:42
found a way to learn how to read, you know what I mean?
00:17:44
And, and it's different if you've got anybody who's got
00:17:46
dyslexia, they understand there's different ways.
00:17:48
We're not thick. We're very intelligent.
00:17:50
We're really good at something. I was really good at beating
00:17:52
people up as a professional fighter.
00:17:54
But then I learned through scripts and stuff like that.
00:17:56
That's what learned me how to read.
00:17:59
Yeah, well, I. Was saying would you say that
00:18:02
the White Walkers were misunderstood?
00:18:04
Right. That's what I was also
00:18:05
misunderstood. But like, I didn't read any
00:18:07
books. I didn't know any about the Game
00:18:09
of Thrones because the book was out before the obviously the
00:18:11
first series. Yeah.
00:18:13
So. So when I walked on set, I was
00:18:16
learning then you know, when I knew my scenes.
00:18:20
We filmed in north Belfast Telemore, and it was in the
00:18:23
summertime, but the, the, the forest was dressed with snow,
00:18:26
which is white paper, right? And so I was just, you know, I
00:18:30
was just loving, loving being this character, White Walker.
00:18:34
But I remember after the shoot, you know, cutting heads off,
00:18:37
chopping people around the back, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:18:40
Then I forgot about it. You know, four years later I was
00:18:43
at a Comic Con and there was a huge banner saying Game of
00:18:47
Thrones. And I went, I worked on that.
00:18:49
Somebody went, what did you do on that?
00:18:53
I said I was the first White Walker meaning and white, no
00:18:55
way. I mean, and I signed some more
00:18:58
pictures, you know, I mean, but like I say, some of my cowards
00:19:01
show off and I could show off for the White Walker.
00:19:05
I remember there was 2 extras and two actors.
00:19:08
We're all doing the same job. I know.
00:19:11
So we all had ice swords, you know, and there was a scene
00:19:14
where we were running down the corridor down there, down the
00:19:18
running down the forest, and there was a camera tracking at
00:19:20
the side of us running through. So the other three had the
00:19:23
swords in front of them. As I were told me, I don't do as
00:19:27
I told sometimes. So I spin it round and I go
00:19:30
backwards with it. So I'm thinking that looks
00:19:32
cooler, you know. And then there's obviously the,
00:19:35
the, the, the forest was a real forest.
00:19:37
They got all the big branches out the way.
00:19:39
But this is the odd little twig that we were running in hard
00:19:41
socks. So you could feel everything,
00:19:44
you know, I mean, you stood on an Ant.
00:19:45
The Ant was like, oh, what you doing?
00:19:46
And about what was that? I mean, but so I remember there
00:19:51
was a like I was saying there was a ditch, A ditch, right?
00:19:54
So it was like, so this is me, right?
00:19:57
This is the track and this goes all the way down the whole of
00:20:00
the table. So I'm like, I don't see this
00:20:05
ditch and then then then rang and show off and jump up.
00:20:07
Get in it ditch, get get the sword.
00:20:10
This ditch is 10 foot, 10 foot. I'm a good jumper and I landed
00:20:14
on its way going to go out, fall back down into the ditch and
00:20:17
it's full of water. Come back on with a frog on me
00:20:19
head, right? You know what I mean?
00:20:21
So that'll teach me for showing off, then show off to the next
00:20:25
character. Again.
00:20:28
I There you go story. Yeah, man, just.
00:20:31
Falling back in the ditch, right?
00:20:32
After straight May was hilarious.
00:20:34
They were all laughing, you know?
00:20:35
I mean, it was great. Loved it.
00:20:38
I miss filming, man. It's been nearly two years with
00:20:40
the strikes and the COVID. Long time.
00:20:43
Yeah, Yeah, I miss it. Well, I miss it.
00:20:45
You haven't been on any new projects lately?
00:20:47
Well, I did a small, it was like a low budget film at my mum's
00:20:50
place at the local papers, called the Journal back home and
00:20:53
they've looked after me from the start of my career, the
00:20:55
kickboxing and the boxing. So I did I, I and if they ask
00:20:59
for help sometime I will for sure and give them help.
00:21:03
And they said spend. We're doing a short film.
00:21:04
Well, it's a long, it's some short films.
00:21:07
I'm going to put it in to 1. All right, OK, cool.
00:21:11
And they said, yeah, we want you, want you to play.
00:21:14
It was like, I won't tell you the storyline, but basically
00:21:16
there's a cast of three people. So there's a lot of presents on
00:21:18
this short bit, you know, on this short.
00:21:20
And they go, we're looking for locations.
00:21:23
And I said, my mum's got a farm, my mum's got a little small
00:21:25
farm. Let me have a word with her.
00:21:27
And if, if you don't take over the farm too much, if it's not
00:21:31
too much of a big reduction, we'll we'll be good to go.
00:21:34
And I know she only charged you for a bit of electricity, so
00:21:37
we're all good. So I ended up playing this
00:21:40
character at me mum's farm where I stay now and again.
00:21:44
So it was like, get out of bed. Oh, the door.
00:21:47
Hey, How you doing rolling? That's a first very fun
00:21:52
experience. Yeah.
00:21:53
So it's, it's, I think, you know, it's a very geeky sort of
00:21:56
filming as well, especially if you like a bit of blood, you
00:21:59
know what I mean? So it's gonna be a good one.
00:22:00
Yeah. So let's jump into Rogue One
00:22:02
here. I know a lot of people here are
00:22:04
like excited to hear about Vader.
00:22:06
Vader. So you got to play one of the
00:22:08
most iconic characters in pop culture history, right?
00:22:12
Most. And in one of the most, you
00:22:14
know, yeah, one of the more. I'm heavy breathing easy coming
00:22:19
I was. Gonna say it was one of the more
00:22:22
ominous scenes, yeah, in there because the dialogue that's
00:22:25
going on in the scene, but your performance is kind of giving,
00:22:28
giving off what's going. On Yeah, Yeah.
00:22:29
Tell us about getting in that role, being on set, being in the
00:22:32
suit and. Well, did.
00:22:34
You deliver the lines before they had.
00:22:36
They gave his additional lines, additional dialogue.
00:22:38
So it's like with nobody knows what the dialogue was.
00:22:41
We can talk about it, you know, I mean, but it's always going to
00:22:45
be James L Jones. So they give the actor
00:22:47
additional dialogue for about a space so Mr. James Jones can put
00:22:52
the real dialogue in, right? Yeah, that's how it works.
00:22:55
And such big films are very secretive.
00:22:57
Some actors get excited and talk about this stuff and they don't
00:23:00
work again. But that's why everybody's under
00:23:02
aid. You know what I mean?
00:23:03
You know, if you want to work again, don't talk about stuff.
00:23:05
It's secret, secret, keeping the movies so the grown-ups allow
00:23:08
you to talk. So I'm good at doing that.
00:23:11
So that's great. It was a process, the fair, like
00:23:14
I said, of many comic cons now many, many shows me.
00:23:17
Agent ran me up. Who was Joe at the time?
00:23:21
He goes spen. We've got an audition in.
00:23:23
Oh, yeah, Yeah. What is it they said?
00:23:25
We don't know. Why?
00:23:25
What? I'm 43 films in.
00:23:27
We've never heard. I don't know.
00:23:28
You know what I mean? Go spend.
00:23:30
Just roll with it. I mean, what's this?
00:23:32
It's got to be big. So come into the workshop and
00:23:37
they want to see you walk around in front of the camera with
00:23:39
authority. No dialogue.
00:23:41
Just walk around. All right, Sam did that.
00:23:44
Call me back a few a few days later, right, OK, sound.
00:23:47
They want you to come back again.
00:23:48
Now we've got a little bit of dialogue sound.
00:23:51
So we do that and then he called me back again for the third
00:23:54
time. He says spend.
00:23:55
And I said it's definitely Star Wars, definitely Star Wars.
00:23:59
And he's no, no, no, it's not as I'm telling you now it is it's
00:24:02
good. Why is that?
00:24:03
Because because at the end of every line he's going good,
00:24:08
good. So and then the third the light
00:24:10
saw the light. We had put several auditions.
00:24:13
The very, very end audition where you got a ticker across
00:24:16
was at Pinewood Studios in London.
00:24:19
And they brought me up into the really high secret room and
00:24:22
there was a little tent in there and he'd drawn the curtain back
00:24:25
and there was the helmet, the gloves, the huge codpiece, the,
00:24:32
the long pants, the boots. And it was literally if the
00:24:36
slipper fit. And it was really was.
00:24:38
So I went, went to the toilet, chopped my toes off and no, but
00:24:42
no, it did. Everything fitted nice.
00:24:44
And that's when the real Vader presence, the spirit came to me
00:24:48
and took over. And then I then the special
00:24:49
stuff happened. Not many actors get to feel
00:24:52
presence like that, not like that.
00:24:54
He's, you know, I've done a lot of presences, a lot of spirits.
00:24:57
I felt a lot of stuff. And he's right up there, right.
00:25:00
Oh, he's dark. He's pretty much just channel.
00:25:02
He's the opposing nature that David Prowse had.
00:25:05
Oh. Yeah, darker.
00:25:07
Yeah, he was darker because I got to feel the whole package.
00:25:11
Because you, you, you know, Mr. Dave Prowse didn't know they
00:25:14
changed his voice. Yeah, you know what I mean.
00:25:17
But we know he's changed his voice because it's it's what,
00:25:21
40-50 years late 1977 is like. What's that?
00:25:24
How many years ago was that 197750?
00:25:26
77 now, Yeah, it's almost 50 years now.
00:25:29
Yeah. So it's like that.
00:25:31
Yeah, we're but Star Wars is in three years is going to be 50
00:25:34
years old, guys. It's crazy, aren't it?
00:25:36
And in what? In like half of you, I'm going
00:25:38
to be 5252. So anyway.
00:25:41
But, you know, it's great, yeah. Given in the scene that you were
00:25:46
in. So you acted opposite of Ben
00:25:49
Mendelssohn? Yes.
00:25:49
How was Mendelssohn? Powerful, very powerful.
00:25:52
And it's the first time ever I felt because normally when I'm
00:25:56
fighting on screen, I'm fighting on screen, right?
00:25:58
But this was a fighter between two actors, right?
00:26:01
Between two presences. He's the boss on his planet or
00:26:04
whatever. But but Darth Vader's nobody's
00:26:08
the Emperor's his boss, right? And that's it.
00:26:11
But he's still his own boss, right?
00:26:13
I mean, he did makes, he makes decisions, you know, So that's
00:26:17
the first time I felt a bit of a fight with another actor, right?
00:26:20
So to to have a fight with them, Alden like that, such a great
00:26:24
actor. Because it's, it's now it's a,
00:26:26
it's, it's a fight of presence. It's a fight of, of, of
00:26:29
gravitas, Correct, Correct. Like an actual, like imposing,
00:26:33
you know, fight of strength, right?
00:26:35
You know which I mean, You, you feel it.
00:26:36
You feel it in the scene. You feel.
00:26:38
Oh yeah, yeah, for sure for that, that scene, you feel it.
00:26:40
Yeah, for sure. And.
00:26:41
In the end, I mean, you win because you know, it's it's very
00:26:44
obvious that Ben this kind of cowering.
00:26:46
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he's, you know, he's, he's
00:26:49
the Dark Lord man. He controls the force, He tries,
00:26:52
controls the energy and he will do what he needs to do to just
00:26:55
put you in your place if you are passing your line right.
00:26:58
Do you know what I mean? And that's the way it is.
00:27:00
And I felt all that I was at the front seat to it.
00:27:02
Do you know what I mean? I'm eating my popcorn.
00:27:04
Going, going to off, going to off.
00:27:05
Go get him. Get him.
00:27:08
So again, switching gears here, So you were in Dungeons and
00:27:10
Dragons Honor amongst thieves, Yes.
00:27:12
And you played another character.
00:27:14
Kind of iconic character for anybody who's a fan of D&D.
00:27:16
Yeah, I didn't notice. I didn't know because Gorg was a
00:27:19
famous character. Right, like, like, what did you
00:27:22
do to mentally prepare to play Gorg?
00:27:25
Again, just the character comes to me, that's it.
00:27:28
And then everything comes with it.
00:27:29
I didn't I didn't rehearse the movement trends like that.
00:27:33
We just soon as we got in the makeup, he comes to me.
00:27:36
All of a sudden he's got Gorg Gorge in the room.
00:27:38
Has anybody seen Dungeons and Dragons?
00:27:40
A new one? So you know my character, the
00:27:42
very reopening scene. So he walks into this, into the
00:27:45
prison cell. You got Michelle Rodriguez
00:27:47
eating a potato and Chris Pine is reading his book and he goes,
00:27:51
oh, another prison, another cell mate, blah, blah, blah, blah,
00:27:54
blah. And I'm a naughty gobbling and a
00:27:57
bit of a horny gobbling, you know what I mean?
00:28:00
So he's seen Michelle Rodriguez. He's gone.
00:28:03
I've been lost cells, never shared what with a female.
00:28:08
Think I'm going to like it. Shut up, you little shy.
00:28:11
Oh, yeah. Anyway, goes on like that.
00:28:13
Tries to get a bit frisky with Michelle Riga.
00:28:15
She puts the potatoes down. She snaps my legs.
00:28:17
Smashing your head into the table.
00:28:19
No more Gorg. How how long were you on set for
00:28:24
that scene like and what was the atmosphere like altogether?
00:28:27
Yeah, you know, again, it was fun.
00:28:29
Yeah, it was great. It was great.
00:28:30
It was. It was cool, really cool.
00:28:34
And you know, I got to, I met Chris.
00:28:38
He didn't Remember Me, but I remembered him.
00:28:41
It was it was in a lounge in an airport somewhere.
00:28:44
And I walked up to him and I just finished on Guardians of
00:28:46
Galaxy and Chris, Chris Pine and Chris Pratt, when they're
00:28:52
wearing hats and a beard, looked just like each other.
00:28:55
They did. And they walked up to him.
00:28:57
I went Chris and he goes, Chris Pratt.
00:28:59
I just wait with you on God, he's got it.
00:29:00
And he goes, well, I didn't get to that.
00:29:02
And he goes, no first name, right, Second name, wrong.
00:29:05
Oh, no, I just wanted to disappear for a minute.
00:29:09
Little voice in me. I said, go see him, tell him who
00:29:11
you are now. Now I forget about it.
00:29:13
And then like all them years later, seven or eight years
00:29:16
later, I got to meet him and I said, Chris, you won't Remember
00:29:19
Me, but I remember you. And then he goes, oh, don't
00:29:22
worry about it. It's all good.
00:29:23
I said that, but it was not nice.
00:29:24
Great. You know, these are living
00:29:25
legends, you know? I mean, these are like the boys
00:29:28
and girls, you know, to work with him, to them, to be in
00:29:31
their presence. It's an honor, Jermaine.
00:29:34
And you got to respect that, right?
00:29:36
So in a more recent project that you've worked on, you were in
00:29:40
the new Toxic Avenger with Peter Dinklage, right?
00:29:43
Like. Yeah.
00:29:44
What? What was that experience like?
00:29:46
I mean, you've had a lot of great experiences with different
00:29:48
films on different sets. Yeah.
00:29:51
You know what? What was that like working on
00:29:53
something that was well, you know, remake of kind of like,
00:29:57
you know, yeah, we list property that like everybody just kind of
00:30:01
loves. Well, they say that it's it's a
00:30:03
trauma, Traumasville on steroids because it's got legendary as
00:30:09
its partner. I can't tell you anything about
00:30:11
that show because I'm ND 8. But what it needs, that show
00:30:15
needs everybody that's a fan of Toxic Avengers.
00:30:18
Don't just sit back and wait for it to come out.
00:30:20
You've got to go on the net and go when's it coming out?
00:30:22
We want to see it. It's got to get it's got to get
00:30:25
that power because you know, if it doesn't get noise shouted, I
00:30:29
don't know when it's coming out. It needs it needs the old fans
00:30:33
to go. Listen, we're gonna we're gonna
00:30:36
go watch it. I mean, but I can't I hope I get
00:30:39
to watch it. I really do, because it's great
00:30:42
to work with Peter Dinklage, such a brilliant actor.
00:30:44
But Kevin Bacon, man, we've really all got a soft spot for
00:30:47
Kevin Bacon. Yeah, he's a sweetheart and and
00:30:51
you know, I got to work with them both, which is cool, so.
00:30:54
That's that's amazing, man. So let me jump into this.
00:30:58
Of all the films that you've been on, all the sets you've
00:31:01
been on, can you share with us maybe one of your favorite
00:31:04
moments or scenes that you filmed?
00:31:06
Just just what? What's 1 of the the best
00:31:08
memories? You know, there's so many, I
00:31:11
couldn't give you one because there's every film has got a
00:31:14
memory. It's.
00:31:15
Got something that's? Got I can't give you one.
00:31:17
Harry Potter's right. So let me just do a few Harry
00:31:19
Potters. It's awesome to working with the
00:31:21
kids. Yeah, they were kids, man.
00:31:23
We're really cool jobs. They weren't allowed to see
00:31:25
press at 14. They didn't know what they
00:31:27
didn't know how massive they were, right.
00:31:30
You know, they're obviously going to get the attention of
00:31:32
the premier, but they're just they're good kids, man.
00:31:35
And they're all grown up adults now.
00:31:36
And they're just smashing it out there.
00:31:38
And they've kept the, all of them have kept their feet on the
00:31:39
ground, which is just shows how great kids they are.
00:31:42
And they brought it right. Batman Begins.
00:31:45
It's cool having a chat with Christian Bale, who's Welsh, you
00:31:49
know, And it's always cool to burn down Batman's house and get
00:31:53
away with it, you know what I mean?
00:31:55
So. And then hits like these guys
00:31:56
together. So share that story with you,
00:31:59
Bear Wolf and Grendel. Has anybody seen Bear, Wolf and
00:32:01
Grendel, the original Bear, Wolf and Grendel with Gerald Butler?
00:32:06
Yeah, Yeah. So if you haven't seen it,
00:32:09
you'll watch it on YouTube. You can get it, buy it out
00:32:11
there. You know, you'll get it in the
00:32:12
DVD bucket bin now, for sure. It's been out for so long.
00:32:15
But that's the film. Has anybody heard of Gerald
00:32:18
Butler? 300?
00:32:20
So that's the film just before 300 when he took off.
00:32:22
Boom. So and I play 3 characters in
00:32:25
that film. I open up the scene with
00:32:27
Grendel's father and then a double AC hag and a double
00:32:30
Grendel. But so basically kills me. 3 * I
00:32:34
remembers when I when I get into the character, the real spirit
00:32:37
and presence comes to me, right? And Gerald Butler killed me
00:32:41
three times. Beowulf kills me three times on
00:32:43
that show. And I remember the very, very
00:32:47
end scene. You don't notice the very, very
00:32:49
end scene where Grendel's mother, the sea hag, is in The
00:32:54
Cave. Grendel's dead.
00:32:56
He's got his arm ripped off. He's dead or lying on the pile
00:32:59
of gold in The Cave. Beowulf is hunting him down.
00:33:03
Now he's on a mission, but he's starting to understand Beowulf a
00:33:06
little bit, and he starts to get him because he's Beowulf.
00:33:09
He's starting to understand Grendel and understanding
00:33:13
Grendel's father and understanding the sea had he it
00:33:16
was, you know, he realised he's he wasn't a bad, bad guy really.
00:33:21
He's a bit misunderstood and all he was doing is setting his
00:33:24
family and feeding them, you know what I mean?
00:33:26
So when I went into the into The Cave I was playing the sea had
00:33:30
you see the actresses face like at once and everything else is
00:33:33
me. The makeup was so good they
00:33:35
couldn't come in close and everything else like that.
00:33:37
So I'm fighting away with Bear Wolf and we had a right good
00:33:39
Ding Dong and then he starts getting a better hand of me.
00:33:42
But then I know my grandchild is in The Cave.
00:33:45
So I do the right thing. I pick up the sword when I
00:33:48
could. I think I could have ever get
00:33:50
the fighter, but I might have had off.
00:33:52
I might be Bear Wolf, you know, I mean, but I wanted to protect
00:33:55
my grandchild, so I picked this massive sword that was like 8
00:33:58
foot in in in length. I put it into my chest and I
00:34:01
sacrificed myself. I walk onto the sword.
00:34:04
So I sacrificed the sea egg and I know baby Grendel's hiding
00:34:08
behind the rocks over there. And but, but when he said cook,
00:34:11
because I'm hanging off the sword now and I'm dead, he's
00:34:14
just killed the Seag And she's like 809 hundred years old.
00:34:17
And, and Gerald, they say cut. And Gerald's just transfixed on
00:34:22
me, transfixed. And I went cut, Gerald cut and
00:34:25
he goes. It feels like I've just killed
00:34:28
the Seag for real. I said you just did.
00:34:31
You just killed the spirit of the Seag.
00:34:33
Well done, man, but no he's you know when they when the actor
00:34:36
can bring the real spirit and presence, everybody's going to
00:34:39
feel that I mean even the other actor in front in front of them,
00:34:43
but I felt it champagne. You just kill me.
00:34:46
They didn't go again. You just left it as it was.
00:34:49
It's a moment watch the film. It's a great film and that very
00:34:52
end scene is cool. I.
00:34:53
Mean when you when you perform a scene perfectly, they don't have
00:34:57
to do another take. No, we don't.
00:34:59
No, you don't. By the way, any if anybody has
00:35:02
any questions for Spencer, get ready.
00:35:05
Just kind of approach the mic if you guys have any questions for
00:35:07
him. We're gonna take some audience
00:35:08
questions here. It'd be great to get a question,
00:35:12
made me feel popular but. Before we get into that, I have
00:35:16
one more thing I wanna bring up cuz I know it's something that's
00:35:18
near and dear to your heart. Yeah, we all know you raise
00:35:22
awareness for kids with dyslexia.
00:35:23
Yep. Can you tell us about that and
00:35:25
your connection? I, I, I know the story, but just
00:35:28
for everybody that's. Here, Yeah, well, like I say,
00:35:30
everybody knows. And dyslexic I talk about on
00:35:32
every Comic Con. But my brother says what are you
00:35:33
talking about? That you know, but no, no, it's
00:35:35
like, because, because in the room there's a load of new
00:35:37
people and there might be somebody here with dyslexia and
00:35:39
it's alright to be dyslexic because I, I think it's pretty
00:35:42
cool. Because you're not thick.
00:35:44
It means you, you've got a superpower.
00:35:46
You just got to find it, you know, and I, and at the end of
00:35:48
the day, Darth Vader's dyslexic, right.
00:35:51
See what I mean? Yeah, so it's pretty cool.
00:35:54
And I'm, I'm a supporter. One day, hopefully the the
00:35:57
chairman or president of dyslexia comes approaches me and
00:36:00
say, listen, we want you to be involved as I right, I'll get
00:36:03
involved. But until then, it's down to you
00:36:07
guys asking some questions. So is there anybody in the
00:36:11
audience that has any questions for Spencer?
00:36:12
All right, cool. Sublime.
00:36:15
Who's that? Oh yeah, yeah, I pass that.
00:36:17
I go pass that. I'm a lot.
00:36:18
I'm a scooter. Yeah, yeah, I got a question
00:36:22
about Guardians of the Galaxy. Yes, obviously.
00:36:25
So right around the release of the first trailer for the movie.
00:36:28
Yeah, your scene is featured pretty.
00:36:29
Prominently at the. Beginning to set up the tone.
00:36:32
What was the general reaction to the people around you about this
00:36:35
very niche Marvel property getting a movie adaptation by
00:36:40
James Gunn? It's, you know, even when the
00:36:44
trailers were shown, I still couldn't talk about it until
00:36:47
public release. Yeah, people sitting down in the
00:36:50
cinema, then I go, they asked me, they'd let, they loved it.
00:36:54
Number one was very, very, very special, very, very cleverly
00:36:57
made because every human emotion, feeling got you from
00:37:02
the beginning. You know, we all, everywhere,
00:37:04
everybody's been affected by cancer.
00:37:06
Everybody's been affected by this, by that.
00:37:08
Then all the music, the iconic music in there, and it was just,
00:37:11
you know, and really good performance in there that
00:37:14
brought it, you know, But I wasn't supposed to play the mean
00:37:18
guard in the beginning. The original gods remember this
00:37:20
scene where he goes take it down to the showers.
00:37:23
Abusers clean up the blood down there.
00:37:25
They wanted me to play him. But then on the light the 11th
00:37:28
hour, and now we'll give him the mean guard.
00:37:29
So obviously, whatever, it all works.
00:37:31
But yeah, thank you very much. Thank you.
00:37:34
Thank you. Does anyone anybody else have
00:37:38
any questions for Spencer? I reckon you're going to come
00:37:41
up, do you see that? I reckon you're thinking about
00:37:43
it. I was just curious, going in
00:37:45
Star Wars as Darth Vader and knowing that your voice was
00:37:49
going to get dubbed over. Yeah.
00:37:51
How do you create that tension? Well, it's, it's, it's one of
00:37:56
them. And we all knew that, you know,
00:37:58
it's always going to be James Earl Jones.
00:37:59
Nobody's going to mess with that voice, But I questioned in the
00:38:02
beginning, is there a Darth Vader voice there?
00:38:05
You know, we all know it's James Earl Jones, but is there?
00:38:07
Because when our presence and spirit takes over you, you get
00:38:09
everything with that. You get the movement, the soul,
00:38:12
the presence of voice. And a voice did come through me.
00:38:16
And I was like, oh, that's what he sounds like, Jermaine.
00:38:20
It was like, I've got them a sore throat now.
00:38:22
But it was like when Ben Morgan come together with with with
00:38:27
with directed credit and Ben Morgan and directed chronic and
00:38:31
Darth Vader, he he goes the my additional dialogue.
00:38:36
They go, don't be too sure that the emperor is as impressed with
00:38:40
you as you are with yourself. You know this voice come through
00:38:43
me. It sounds a million times better
00:38:44
on the day. And I was like, whoa, that's
00:38:46
what you there, you do. That's what he really sounds
00:38:49
like Jermaine, because he was, I wasn't trying to be James Earl
00:38:53
Jones. This voice just came out of me
00:38:55
because James Earl Jones is the voice of Darth Vader.
00:38:57
But right. But you know the I think that
00:39:01
might have been a voice as well. You know what I mean?
00:39:03
Thanks. Nicer, man.
00:39:05
Excuse me. All right.
00:39:07
Any questions? Here anybody else have a
00:39:08
question they want to? I think the big hook's going to
00:39:11
come out and take me off this stage a minute.
00:39:13
Otherwise, I think we're running.
00:39:14
We've got other people ready to come in.
00:39:15
Are we all good? We're good.
00:39:17
You've got time. All right, cool.
00:39:19
So I'm. Going to ask you a couple more
00:39:20
questions here before we wrap up, right.
00:39:21
So given that you've worked in like every franchise at this
00:39:25
point, every franchise that everybody cares about, yeah,
00:39:27
what would be a dream role or franchise to be a part of?
00:39:31
Well, you know the mark, you know the, the, the, the horrors.
00:39:34
You know what I mean? I've covered Frankenstein.
00:39:37
I've covered the wolf man. It'd be cooled.
00:39:39
I'd love, I'd love to play Frankenstein and not Frank.
00:39:44
I'd love to play Darfait and not her.
00:39:46
I'd love to play Dracula. OK, to start.
00:39:49
Or get all the hammers ticked off.
00:39:52
I mean, I'd love to be in a Mummy film.
00:39:53
OK, yeah. I mean, I'd like to, to, to or,
00:39:57
you know, there's a lot of things there's been there's been
00:39:58
a presence that's been hanging around me and I don't know
00:40:01
what's going on there. But the swamp monster?
00:40:04
Yeah, that. Would be he's been, he's been
00:40:06
around me for some reason. And my cousin, one of my little
00:40:09
cousins, she was she at her College in Manchester, asked me
00:40:14
to come in so they I could be a model.
00:40:17
I'm a cousin and a little classmate to swamp monster on
00:40:20
me. And I went, these are all these.
00:40:22
I'd start getting these little signals like the Wolfman.
00:40:25
I start getting little signals, you know, where that I was going
00:40:27
to be playing the Wolfman Frankenstein.
00:40:29
There was a little story there about Frankenstein.
00:40:31
I'll tell you in a minute. You know, all this.
00:40:33
So I'm thinking maybe I'd like to be the swamp monster because
00:40:37
I do love playing the costumes, man.
00:40:39
And then my iconic and I and I, I know how slippery the the, the
00:40:44
that monster is. Yeah, he's very I don't I've
00:40:47
never read the books. I've seen him about on pictures
00:40:50
and comic books, but I know the presence, the spirit of him.
00:40:53
Right, right, right. Well, James Gunn didn't mention
00:40:55
that he wants to do dark justice at some point.
00:40:57
Yeah. And Swamp Thing is a part of
00:40:58
that. So I mean, that could be a
00:41:00
chance to tick off 2 boxes to. That'd be that.
00:41:03
'D be pretty incredible. I'm not sure if James Jones,
00:41:05
James Will Jones will bring us on again.
00:41:07
I don't know if he does use his other actors.
00:41:08
I. Mean he pretty much uses same.
00:41:10
Actors, yeah, he does. He does, he does.
00:41:12
I mean like you know, there is leads on it, yeah, but.
00:41:15
You could be, you could be Swamp Thing, but then also that takes
00:41:18
off the box for DC and you can. Oh well, you've already done.
00:41:20
Batman too, but I mean, yeah, I've done Batman and I did a
00:41:23
Green Lantern as well. That's right.
00:41:25
I did play Kilowog in the Green Lantern.
00:41:26
That's right, he was Kilowog. Welcome to Ringsing in World 01.
00:41:29
That guy. You smell funny.
00:41:31
Yeah, yeah. Kilowog being one of my favorite
00:41:34
Green Lantern characters. Yeah, he's in the.
00:41:35
Comics. The movie, yeah.
00:41:37
I mean, actually you probably you, you were one of the good
00:41:39
shining things in that. What's wrong with that?
00:41:42
Movie it's all good I'd like to see because they've got the
00:41:44
technology and they've got the great performers round even if
00:41:48
it's not me, I'd like to see a a killer whog in a suit yeah and
00:41:53
bring it yes You know it's all right CGI, but not the whole
00:41:56
show right right bring it bring it in a little bit a little bit
00:41:59
a little bit a little bit but you know get a good performer
00:42:02
good strong performer can deal with them hours in that sort of
00:42:05
suit you know that'd be pretty cool.
00:42:07
Yeah. So let's let's get into these
00:42:09
wrap up questions here. And we asked you this in Idaho,
00:42:14
but you know, this is it's always a fun question to ask,
00:42:17
right. Again, hardest question I ask
00:42:18
anybody, what is your favorite kind of Taco?
00:42:22
Taco is, you know, the tacos, the, the yellow thing in it, the
00:42:26
crunchy thing. Yeah.
00:42:27
I mean, Americanized tacos can be.
00:42:30
Yeah, Yeah. Especially tortilla meat.
00:42:32
Well, I I like fajitas, man. Yeah, chicken fajitas.
00:42:36
And I always have chicken fajitas with beef, you know, and
00:42:39
mix them up. But it's got to be a sizzling
00:42:41
dish. You gotta come over to sizzling.
00:42:43
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's your favorite Taco?
00:42:46
OK, so I'm Hispanic, yeah. And it amongst our community,
00:42:49
the way that we look at it is the litmus test for a Taco is al
00:42:54
pastor barbecued pork, right, Right.
00:42:57
Yeah. If the restaurant makes good al
00:42:59
pastor, then they make everything good.
00:43:01
That's. Basically the way it is.
00:43:03
Well, I like that. That's what I like.
00:43:05
But I'm based out of Santa Monica sometimes as well.
00:43:08
And you know, you've got the Taco vans on the side of the
00:43:12
street. So I'll get them with some black
00:43:13
peas and some cheese and some chicken and some mints and
00:43:16
whatever and some lettuce and some chip peas, whatever.
00:43:19
But then I'll go into the prom and feed them with squirrels.
00:43:22
He'll come out the little holes. I'm like, come on, come on, come
00:43:25
get some. Come and get some.
00:43:27
Yeah, next time you get tacos, get Apostor if you can.
00:43:29
Apostor. Yeah, that's the like I said,
00:43:31
that's the litmus test amongst our community.
00:43:33
We. Have to bring them in, man.
00:43:34
Yeah, bring them in next time you.
00:43:36
Know what? This guy right here is the Taco
00:43:39
Master. Now, what's some advice you
00:43:41
might have for anybody trying to get into the industry,
00:43:43
specifically if they're trying to get into creature work the
00:43:46
way that you're they, they, they and the creature work?
00:43:48
Well, one you, when you go to an audition, you've got to handle a
00:43:52
rejection as a positive, right? Because if you go, because then
00:43:56
I used to beat myself up or I used to spend my £100 a week
00:43:59
wages for my an hour, one hour in London, My my train ticket to
00:44:04
London and I buy a bit of lunch, bit of taxi in the audition for
00:44:08
5 minutes back to the train station.
00:44:10
I'm in London for an hour. I'm back home.
00:44:12
I used to do that week, week after week after week after
00:44:14
week. And I used to just crash
00:44:16
everyone. Crash, crash, crash, crash,
00:44:18
crash, crash. But in the end I'm thinking I
00:44:21
was beating myself up, giving out a negative.
00:44:24
So you track negative. If you give out a positive, you
00:44:27
attract positive. It is what it is.
00:44:29
And just be thick skinned and just just enjoy the enjoy the
00:44:34
path and just keep on, keep on going to the auditions and never
00:44:37
give up because one will land. And if you want to be a creature
00:44:40
performer, there's a lot of creature performers out there
00:44:42
that talk and stuff on on the Internet.
00:44:45
I just just just make sure you can deal with being in a
00:44:48
creature suit without freaking out because it can be very
00:44:51
claustrophobic. You might not have to breathe or
00:44:53
see, you know, but that's the character and that's the way it
00:44:58
is. So just just keep on, keep on
00:45:00
going for it, man. Follow your dreams.
00:45:01
Even if it's not just acting, it's something else.
00:45:04
Just keep on going for it and thanks very much.
00:45:06
Probably also helps to be a a kickboxer that's over 6 foot.
00:45:09
Oh yeah, yeah. Do your sports.
00:45:10
Yeah, you got, you got you got to be fit.
00:45:12
That's not that's a known. You got to be fit, Yeah.
00:45:15
Or be very experienced. I could probably go into a into
00:45:19
a shoe unfit now I'd have a hard time, but I can deal with extra
00:45:22
know what's coming, right? But if you went into a shoe
00:45:25
unfit not knowing, you're gonna freak out.
00:45:27
Yeah, yeah, I just did something recently in in a suit and it
00:45:32
wasn't that that it was, I mean it was kind of hard, but it was
00:45:35
just more like because I'm not the fittest that I've that I've
00:45:38
been in years. So it was just like, oh, this is
00:45:40
getting heavy and hot after like 6 hours of being in the suit.
00:45:43
Yeah. Yeah.
00:45:43
Yeah. Well, I was think in the
00:45:45
Wolfman. I was in 21 hour back-to-back.
00:45:47
Yeah, I was crazy. But if you're not fit in the
00:45:49
suit, you're in about 3 or 4 days in the shoot, you're gonna
00:45:51
become fit. Yeah, Yeah.
00:45:53
So. Yeah, it was a it was a 12 hour
00:45:55
shoot. So I mean by 6 hours I was just
00:45:57
like OK this is getting tiring. Yeah, it's a long time, Long
00:46:00
time. So who wins in a fight, right?
00:46:03
The mean Guard with the headphones from Guardians of the
00:46:06
Galaxy or a Vogon soldier. I think the I think the mean
00:46:11
guard would be too clever for the Vogon.
00:46:13
OK, yeah, but I think there'd be mates tell you truth.
00:46:16
Well, because the Vogon can't do anything without the bureaucracy
00:46:19
telling them. OK, right.
00:46:20
You know, you don't want to listen to a Vogon telling you
00:46:22
poetry either. That's right.
00:46:24
That's their superpower. Yeah.
00:46:26
I mean. See, and that's The thing is the
00:46:28
difference on the 2. The Mean Guard actually has good
00:46:30
music, yeah, whereas the Vogon is just going to tell you really
00:46:33
bad poetry. Yes.
00:46:35
So what he'd probably end up doing is putting the the the
00:46:38
Walkman on his on the Vogans head if he could find a giant
00:46:42
bear. I mean, listen to that for a
00:46:44
minute. I imagine you putting the music
00:46:46
on the Vogon. He just like passes out.
00:46:48
Yeah, you never know. You never know.
00:46:49
Yeah. So what's next for you?
00:46:52
And he shows coming up. We hopefully trucks could be
00:46:55
coming out this year sometime. We got I helped out in
00:46:57
Borderlands so I'm looking forward to that.
00:47:00
Can't talk about it. Let's see, now I'm gonna go
00:47:03
watch Borderlands and look for you.
00:47:04
Yeah, yeah. Well, it's not out yet.
00:47:06
Right, right, but I mean like when it comes out, cuz I'm
00:47:08
excited for that one. You probably be like, OK, I need
00:47:11
I need the tallest dude that's on set cuz like.
00:47:15
There's a few tall dudes on set. Now I'm just gonna be looking at
00:47:19
all the psychos and just like he's gonna be a psycho, he's
00:47:21
gonna be a psycho. Where can everybody follow you
00:47:26
if they want to learn more? So if if you if you want to
00:47:28
follow me, I don't go on social media too much, but if you want
00:47:32
to follow me, it'd be great. It's at Spencer Wilding on
00:47:36
Instagram or you can find Spencer Wilding Facebook.
00:47:40
My profile shot is me and my sister and the two boys in the
00:47:43
background. Awesome.
00:47:44
Well, thank you so much, Spencer.
00:47:46
Everybody give it up for Spencer Wilding.
00:47:49
See you out there. I told you he's.
00:47:56
Massive man, he's massive. He's Darth Vader.
00:47:59
Well, we hope you enjoyed this week's comic conversation.
00:48:05
This was the production of the Distance Nerding podcast and
00:48:08
Time for Tacos Media. For more content, follow us on
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00:48:14
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00:48:21
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