And it's got other Iron Maiden stuff sprinkled

through.

Hell yeah.

Yeah, it's cool.

Well, I am Orion's friend, and my name is David Dismalchen.

I am an actor and a writer and a producer, and I make comic books and movies and some TV stuff, and you might have seen me in, oh, any number of fun genre-specific things or the micro-indies that I make that no one gets to see or read one of my comic books, but I got into magic.

The group of friends that Ryan is a part of, we're all getting hardcore into Magic the last few years.

After you watch this episode.

weird Weird Al was on this hike with us And you were always on the hike with us?

Yes.

That's wild.

Yeah.

My friend Jim and I, we would try to make up our, it was a big moment in my life that day and that hike and that conversation with you.

And I finally got the opportunity to express to somebody who would understand, which was you, why this was so impactful.

So Jim and I would also talk on the, he was my first friend.

Yeah.

Now I'm 34, and I will say what gives me great optimism is seeing the many different paths that people have finally achieved their goals in the industry at any age, at any time, through any path.

Very wise.

And in acting for certain, filmmaking, writing, entertainment, music, art, I...

I always get very uncomfortable when I have an opportunity to speak to young filmmakers or actors and they want advice.

Or like someone will call, my nephew's decided he's gotta go to Hollywood.

What advice do you have? Should he have an agent? Is it this? And I'm like...

The path is so unique to the individual.

Yes, he

Oh, big

time.

I feel that way about so many films.

And you can feel the difference between that and when it's a studio that's like, this is a huge cash cow.

The algorithm is telling us that this demographic really wants to see this thing and we need to do this thing with that.

No, give a director who has a passionate vision for a thing the thing.

Give them the tools they need to make the thing.

Why do you think like audiences, because it does seem this way, are gravitating more towards the tactile and the practical versus seeing things bigger grand scheme or grand scale on a green screen?

It's like you're so nice, yet look at that stare.

It's a gift when you get to play a role like this and a character that already lives in a mythological kind of place in people's imaginations, and it's also, like, this incredible challenge because you really wanna come in there and you gotta make it your own.

I was able to, like, really dig into everything from the fun of the way that the video game works and the way that he is presented in the game to the thought of, like, on a grander scale, how does somebody with this much power orchestrate an entire cult, an entire movement around him?

Mm-hmm.

For Bison, what does he lose if he can't take complete control of the world, if he can't become the most powerful person?

mean, I wouldn't be opposed to a 10 minute hug with Taz, to be honest, I wouldn't be opposed

to it.

But in like the stunt stuff, I love stunt work, but I, but I'm cautious with it.

Like I have to be very careful because it's not my go-to skill set.

So when I do it, you have to really be with people you trust, that you love and that you feel safe getting, you know, cause you are, it's a kind of choreography and a dance that is so tied to performance.

And oftentimes, I'm lucky because I've got people who can do it for me and look better than I could ever look doing it.

But the way he does his stunt work and working with him in any capacity around that stuff makes me...

Prisoners.

Yeah, yeah.

I w- you know, with this film, I was, I was more concerned with getting in the head of, of Bison, because his body isn't where he's supposed to be yet.

So that was the, that was the mission for me, was like getting in that...

And I genuinely, it was so frickin', fr- this is PG?

Porkin' fun

...

so much porkin' fun.

The porkin' that was going on on set every day.

Remember

... at the time.

And we start talking and talking, and he starts talking about his vision for what, what M. Bison is gonna be in his film.

And, um, I was shocked.

I was, I'll be honest, scared, and honored.

Like, this dude, to me, is truly a tone master in, in the way he directs and makes stuff.

The stuff that I had been familiar with before the movie was like, he just is...

[laughs]

Tell us about this one.

Accessories is a love letter to the Universal Monsters, Leas.

obsessed with Universal, Universal Studios, the Universal Monsters.

The Universal Monsters to me are my childhood and so we were thinking about all the things that we wrestle with and we think about a lot including interior struggles that most people can relate to like dependency and co-dependency, anxiety, depression, fear, insecurity and so we wanted to instead of focusing on the monsters themselves or just on traditional heroes who wanted to focus on the hench people, the assistance to these monsters, and the guilt that they carry, as well as the struggles that they've carried being in the shadows of their masters.

And all these hench people, like Igor, Renfield, Mrs. Hyde, they've decided to break free of their masters, and now they're off on their own, and they find one another.

I also think that the world at large is a scary place for so many people right now, so we wanted to really explore that in the story.

How did you prepare for the role?

I played the game.

[laughs]

Well, I, I like to inject it into the fuel that pumps the engine of the story so that you go watch a movie that I make, and you go, "Oh my God, this is so kickass.

I love werewolves," or, "I love this insane, intense, you know, action or superhero or, you know, drama that I'm watching." And you walk out of it and, and you're not really like maybe necessarily consciously thinking or feeling about that, but maybe you feel a little less alone because you were able to also wrestle with stuff or think about stuff or, or not think about stuff for a minute.

So I'm always trying to figure that balance out.

I, I am not just an artist entertainer who just d- does, who, who, who exists in a vacuum or without a sense of identity.

So like I have a name.

That name is David Dastmalchian.

So, you know, but, uh, what do you think for you is your, you know, biggest, like, fear of, of, y- you know, for, I guess, not speaking about things, but then on the flip side, how do you feel, like, a sense of peace? Like, where do you think that that, like, future you would feel really like, "I, I did it"? [laughs]

Was that pitched to you? Was that something that you could really get when you're reading the script? When is that tone coming

through? Tone is everything to me.

Everything.

So earlier we were talking about Jason Momoa and how we met on the movie Dune.

One of the lead producers of the film Dune from Legendary Pictures is a brilliant producer named Cale Boyder.

Cale has done the Minecraft movies, the Dune movies.

He's done so much stuff.

I

Rhea's unbelievable

... and you go too.

Like, I, I'm a guy who started my, my acting career, like, cutting my teeth on the boards of Chicago Theater and studying Stanislavski and Grotowski, and I have a lot of pride in the work that I do, and I love to do the work that I do.

And there, there's that element that you walk into a situation, you're like, "This, this is a person with a background in music, another person with a background in sports, another person with a background into comedy, a different form of entertainment." Like, are they gonna bring...

Everybody came- Yeah ... like here, man.

And it was so exciting for me to just feel like, "Shit, I gotta level myself up.

I gotta keep leveling up." His backstory's crazy.

Hmm

So I guess in plainest terms, you know, how do you sort of view being a person that a director wants to work with again?

I don't know if it's a I'm not shitting on your question.

I don't know if it's a productive conversation for actors because.

What I don't want you to do is to have an amazing experience with the director and then they never cast you again and then you think that you did something wrong.

That's not true.

Oftentimes you are the perfect element to execute the vision that they have for that particular project and you're not the perfect element that they need to execute the vision for the next 20 things that they do.

And that's a hard pill to swallow, especially when you go see something and you're like, wait a second, I'm in that guy's type or I'm in that girl's, I go up against that person.

Bigger priorities than podcast

And, you know, in the last big time that happened, what was 90s, early 2000s into that, but it took the studios having, you know, being able to take those chances.

Yes, and it's giant corporate organizations which don't ever embrace risk.

So in the midst of that, you have to have somebody with like really strong vision and like real deep instincts.

And we're very lucky because we have Cale Boyder, who's producer from Legendary, who also made Dune, and also made Minecraft, and also just like goes, he said to me, like off the cuff, I was looking at Monitor, and I was seeing what Kitao was doing, and I was like, how the fuck did you, how do you get something like this? He's so bold, like his vision is so kick-ass, like how do you get that through all the, you know, all the, all the hoops.

And he was like, you can't go make a street fighter movie and paint in by numbers.

He's like, you just can't.

He's like, you have to find somebody who has such a powerful, like strong vision for it.

Yeah.

that's a really interesting thing to dig in on, you know, cause it doesn't have to be drugs, right?

Exactly.

And in the film animals for anyone that gets a chance to check it out, just to know that's a movie that at the beginning of my career, I, it's the first screenplay I ever wrote and I spent years writing and rewriting and working on it.

And I, um, was doing a series of television commercials with a really acclaimed independent filmmaker named Chris Smith and Chris, um, read the script for me and his response to it was so overwhelmingly positive that that was like the first nudge of and he said the quote from um field of dreams which was because i was like how do you make something like this he's like he's you build it they'll come build it they'll come so i just kept putting together this film piece by piece raising the financing found a really great hands-on producer um who believed in the script and she wanted to see it made and then um we pushed through, but what, what was, what was interesting in going through the film? Yes.

It's a movie about two people who are addicted to opiates and they're, you know, living in a car and they're hustling, you know, stealing every day, using all their incredible skills and mental acuity to just stay high.

And I wanted to tell a story about, um, about that was the heroin was just what i knew being uh someone who lived in a car was a world that i knew so narratively that was something dramatically that i could tell a story through a lens that i actually knew and understood but i did want to tell a story about that kind of relationship which we've all been in and it's really hard if you're like me for someone who's raised with the the belief system that like, I made a vow and a promise to be with this person for the rest of my life.

And that is like a sacred deal.

now

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So that was my pitch to Z2.

They ended up loving it.

Rance and Josh gave me the thumbs up.

I started writing the book just as, in, in the spring of 2024, my, in, in many ways, my interior personal life kinda came crashing down and I realized that I was fully addicted in ways that I didn't realize to control, and trying to control people, places, things, outcomes.

So very similar to my character Alex, I had to go on a journey through asking other people for help to break that addiction.

'Cause I was really pissed off 'cause I'm like, "I haven't used drugs.

Mm-hmm

Link in the description bar below.

Must be nice.

Yeah.

I would not recommend it.

I'm not putting these out on Christmas Eve for Santa because I'll end up with coal in my stocking.

I mean, they're not puke worthy.

They're certainly not good.

I think I'm suffocating.

Yeah.

He put so much of his own money into the support of organizations that care for, um, animals from both wildlife to domestic.

And in fact, the care that went into Sebastian the rat, uh, performer that we had, and everyone I'm sure on this Zoom knows how intelligent rats are and what incredible communication is potentially possible with, with rats when it comes to, like, performance stuff.

But, like, I got to watch in real time while professionals coordinated with camera, with direction, with other actors, with lighting, with the studio, the stage, the temperatures, and everyone was safe, and everyone felt supported.

And at the end of the day, I think that's the best way to make art.

And I personally produced and wrote a film that there was a centerpiece to the movie that I, w- was very important to me, which involved a really- horrendous, um, practice that is common throughout all different corners of the world, uh, called cockfighting.

And I had a- my character that I was playing bets the small amount of money he has at a, at an event.

That's it, yeah

Do you find strength in talking about your trials and tribulations in life?

Sharing experience and strength and hope is part of my healing process, part of my recovery process, part of, like, my journey.

So talking about it is something that works for me.

Now, I don't think it's, it's a requisite or necessary for everyone to do, especially in such a public way.

I feel, I feel really grateful at the possibility of the fact that I survived something or some things, and that in talking about them, in normalizing those conversations, maybe somebody else who feels alone might hear it and go, "Oh man, I don't, I don't feel so alone right now." That's, that's the magic to me.

That's like, that's the miracle.

That's what life is all about.

Three, two, one.

[laughs]

It's all connected.

And he says, "Your leg is broke.

Are you okay? And, um, how do you know Joseph?" She said, "Who's Joseph?" He said, "The man who rescued you.

How do you...

You know, is, what's his relationship? Is he a grandparent, something?" She says, "I've never seen that man before in my life." And he says, "What?" And she says, "Why?" His pockets, this man who had pulled her out of the water, this strange, this seemingly unhoused m- stranger who collapsed and is now in the ICU in a coma, had pockets filled with little maps and little details and little notes just totally c- covering every detail of Alex's daily life, where she lived, where she went, what she did all day, her past.

And Alex is, like, totally freaked out.

Really?

Mm-hmm

... and I feel the way that I think I am supposed to feel." That, the amount of time in the day that I was having that feeling had narrowed to the thinnest window, where as soon as I would s- feel it enter my bloodstream, I was already counting the minutes and seconds until it was gonna be leaving my, my, my body.

I, um, I hadn't, um, had a healthy or a non-painful bowel movement in about six months, to the point at which I had, like, inflamed and bleeding body tissue.

I was, um, deeply infected in one of my arms.

I had a tooth that was infected.

And so knowing that I had access to an apartment alone one night, I, um, I decided to...

I st- I, I, I was able to steal about $150 that day, which was a lot for me, 'cause I really needed, like, $80 a day to stay well.

Mm-hmm.

Lake Mungo is so fucking good.

It's a masterpiece.

And you know what's wild? Joel Anderson, who made Mungo, was the person who is friends with the filmmakers of Late Night with the Devil.

He read their script.

He brought that script to Stephen Schneider and Roy Lee, who are the American producers on it, who brought me to the film because I'm friends with Roy.

And Roy had said, David, the filmmakers and I agree, like, you'd be great for the role.

We're making this little film.

maybe?