Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm, I'm doing okay.

But one thing I'm realizing through the life coach work I'm doing is this guy is teaching me how to come from a place of vision rather than other places.

And what are those other places? Well, what I've discovered just through talking to this dude and doing light homework he gives me is, like, oh, fear is a massive majority sort of motivator from where I come from and make all my decisions.

Fear is motivating a lot of decisions, and sometimes it's like...

Like, when I got offered Fantastic Four, it was like I was super stoked to play Mole Man and to be a part of that Marvel family or whatever.

Yeah.

Blackbird's fucking incredible.

That's a character.

That's me doing some work.

But the things I can anchor to are the feeling of being misunderstood or lonely or, like, what is wrong with me and insecure.

Like...

From anger to displacement, there are emotions that I can go, oh, I've felt that before.

And so you kind of put that battery into the device that is the character you've crafted.

Like, what?

Yeah.

And I think with, with Boy Talk it was, like, the David Wain thing is you watch Wet Hot and there's a thousand jokes in that movie, and everybody gets to be funny.

It's not like we have a lead.

It's, like, it's a team of funny people getting in as much humor as possible.

That Wet Hot, 30 Rock style of comedy, I think is what we're going for with the edits.

We got this guy f- Hank Freedman, who did some editing for, um, I think Tim Heidecker in Between Two Ferns and stuff.

And, like, he really knows how to, how to edit comedy, and I think that was a huge service to us 'cause we are trying to get a ton of jokes in there.

I went like this, "Huh?" Like, "What?"

You can tell he's watched a lot of wrestling, 'cause he kinda has a inate ability, but man, he did well.

I think Jeff Jarrett doing indie wrestling is just, uh, it- it's a reflection of how much he loves the fans and this business.

He's giving back all the time, giving back to the fans and giving back to the community of wrestling.

As far as the future of independent wrestling, I think the future's bright.

It's, uh, there, there are a lot of people on the rosters at a WWE or AEW, but there, there aren't spots for everybody.

And so the indies are thriving, and you have independent stars.

They're not just up-and-comers.

And so the talent has to have a place to break in and get better and better and better, so when they do get on a stage, uh, they can perform.

Well, there's also.

There's also those who have just been in high office who have made peace with malfeasance.

So you had McNamara during Vietnam, literally his metric for success was counting bullets spent, bodies piled.

I mean, things that are more rooted in emotionality than any sort of... reality of winning or losing.

And when you have that type of silliness at the highest level, it's like, what do you expect Dan from Home Depot to do? It's like, is he supposed to be above reproach of our own leaders and intellectual thought people? And yeah, I think the one thing I...

The one thing I respect or sympathize, empathize, I never know how to use it.

The one thing I thighs with for folks on the far right is the one thing that the liberal Hollywood does is sometimes the folks in Hollywood get very riled up about one or two things, and then they are silent as a corpse when it comes to other things.

Yeah.

They gotta flirt with somebody, so they just flirt with each other.

You know, it's just, it's fun.

It's funny.

Um, but, but yeah, no, I think...

And once again, a lot of people get really pissed off.

They're like, "What are you talking about toxic masculinity? Men are supposed to..." It's like, dude, femininity, masculinity, these are good things.

I'm putting an adjective on it 'cause I'm calling out the nature with which it becomes wayward or perverse.

Yeah.

They gotta flirt with somebody, so they end up flirting with each other.

You know, it's just, it's fun.

It's funny.

Um, but, but yeah, no, I think...

And once again, a lot of people get really pissed off.

They're like, "What are you talking about toxic masculinity? Men are supposed to..." It's like, dude, femininity, masculinity, these are good things.

I'm putting an adjective on it 'cause I'm calling out the nature with which it becomes wayward or perverse.

Yeah.

Yeah,

she goes to say, don't be broad.

i watch robin williams getting on stage there's a clip on youtube of robin williams getting on stage with daniel day lewis and jack nicholson who for my money are the two greatest actors of all time you know but he gets up there and he's just doing improv bits and it's like It's what I look for and try to construct when I'm in stuffy Hollywood rooms is I'm always trying to have fun and self-amuse.

And while self-amusing, you're amusing everybody else.

Because I can't do it.

I was at the SAG Awards and Fran Drescher was on stage.

And she was like, this year alone, we have saved...

And that's where we met, you and I.

Thank you very much.

Well, even Cosby, who, you know.

Cosby's amazing.

But to your point, the bit he does about Moses and the burning bush, that's kind of redundant in drawing it out.

It's still funny.

It's still brilliant for that time.

But he is trying to get eight minutes out of a three-minute bit.

Yeah, she goes

a bunch of stuff What's one that you thought was going to be a big one? Well, my

first movie had Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly, now Oscar winner Amy Madigan from Weapons.

Whoa, she killed it.

We had killers on this first movie I did, and it just ended up with Look Up the Rotten Tomato Meter for Virginia, it's called, starring Jennifer Connelly.

I had a great time in the movie.

I was so spoiled working with genius actors on my first thing.

They let me improvise.

An Emmy? I mean, come

But there's there's a deeper meaning to

this.

Yeah.

You know, I think people get thrown when I when I when they hear I'm making fun of Toxie Mae.

The reality is femininity, masculinity, these are good things.

But we attach an adjective like toxic to anything when it becomes extreme and wayward.

So we are exploring the traits of toxic masculine men, guys who laud and magnify money.

I didn't realize that you were a professional wrestler.

[laughs]

... "Mother..." Like, uh, I was like, um, "How do I split the difference and please you?" Or whatever.

But when I look back, it's like we were out in the middle of the jungle in Thailand with cicadas screaming from the trees, trying to get out dialogue.

It was hot as hell and humid.

The...

You would ask the foreign crew for a cup of coffee, and they'd bring you back a, um, a sneaker.

Like, you just...

Hmm

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, listen, listen.

The reality is, is it.

I'm not like, yay, let's have a monopoly on Hollywood.

I never said that, nor do I feel that.

Having said that, I'm a realist.

Um, you get pushback at all.

... issues.

So what I'm about to say, a lot of people in the manosphere would take offense to it and think that it's me being feminist.

It's actually just me being honest, and some people can't handle honesty.

Honesty to them is a, a differentiation from their ideology, and thus they feel the need to lambast verbally and punish via keyboard anybody who doesn't align with them.

But the reality is such, the vast majority of the problems in the world are because men-And especially wealthy men don't take responsibility or accountability for their actions.

Give me 10 minutes to Google, I'll find you s- 7,000 answers for what I'm talking about.

... "How did that go?" [laughs] You know?

Yeah, that's one weird like- [laughs] Do you think he'll call me? [laughs] I love this little triumvirate here.

was like, I don't know if that's a good

thing or a bad thing, but I was happy I got to do it.

And that scene in particular, the story behind that scene was that there were two versions of that scene that Billy Ray had written.

There was some crossover, but there were two different versions and we shot both.

And I was kind of like, I didn't feel like we were getting it, and I was being really hard on myself, beating myself up, kind of like, this isn't working.

You know, Rockwell is super empathetic to other actors, and he was like, you know, Clint, I think Paul wants to try another version.

And somehow we came to the agreement we're going to improvise and just do a Frankenstein of the two versions and just let whatever comes out, comes out.

I

For somebody who deals in like both worlds, like what are your sort of thoughts on WWE's current product And how much of the critical displeasure, I'd say, from fans is fair or foul?

Yeah, that's a good question.

It's very relevant right now, obviously.

I would say that, you know, in the world of sports, the people that become most prominent outside of the actual sporting event are people like Stephen A. Smith, like the people that talk a lot, the people that are passionate, the people that have a lot to say.

And I think...

The internet wrestling community, the IWC, and also just word of mouth in the wrestling world is very loud.

And in a lot of respects, that's kind of fun.

Where are we with that? Have you spoken to Mick about any progress on that? Yeah,

Did it start out as a cameo? Did this start out as, I want to just do one match?

No, I always wanted more than one match.

And I hadn't even planned to wrestle right away.

I was going to wait until I lost more weight.

And then Sammy Callahan was like, do you want to come do a show for Revolver at the Ukrainian Center in Glendale? And that kind of kick-started it.

And when you're in the ring, for those that don't know, like...

The adrenaline you get, mind you, I wasn't an athlete growing up.

Yeah.

No,

no. Yeah, I goofed around doing that kind of stuff.

Um, you know, I had a, I have this buddy, Charlie Saxton, who, who's an actor, who's a big wrestling fan.

And Charlie, I remember he went and did wrestling classes for a while.

I think it's Santino brothers near Los Angeles.

Yeah.

And, uh, and I was like, Holy cow, my buddy who is a wrestling fanatic, but he's an actor.

Um, what do you think about that tribalism in like just, just people not being open-minded and being able to mix the two?

No,

no. Yeah, I goofed around doing that kind of stuff.

Um, you know, I had a, I have this buddy, Charlie Saxton, who, who's an actor, who's a big wrestling fan.

And Charlie, I remember he went and did wrestling classes for a while.

I think it's Santino brothers near Los Angeles.

Yeah.

And, uh, and I was like, Holy cow, my buddy who is a wrestling fanatic, but he's an actor.

Um, what do you think about that tribalism in like just, just people not being open-minded and being able to mix the two?

Come on.

Not kidding.

And then we smelled burning at one point and we were like, "What is that weird smell?" And we look up the house and we find out a woman-...

uh, there was a house fire there in the early 20th century where, like, some young starlet was being put up by some, like, rich guy.

And she had a cigarette lit and died.

She was pregnant, and she died in the home.

So, gnarly weird stuff (clapping) going down.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

... or Natalie Portman, all these people, I love their work or whatever, but, uh, at the outset it was just, like, the one-two punch of me seeing, like, Mrs. Doubtfire and then The Mask or The Mask and then, uh, freaking Dumb and Dumber, it's like I was like, "This looks like the greatest thing in the world.

How do you do this for a living?" And, uh, and I remember my dad's a Lutheran minister.

He's a pastor, since retired, but I, I got interviewed at my church.

We were doing, like, a Christmas pageant or whatever and they had the local news come by.

Rest in peace.

Shout out to his people.

Bless you, prayers up.

Did you go to a school or something?

When I was a little kid I, I took, there was a thing called Roadrunner, Bay County Roadrunner Wrestling.

And it was, like, a bunch of kids going to this gym in Bay City, Michigan where the Steiner Brothers used to train.

And it was like Greco-Roman.

Like, and this guy, Bob Wolfe, who was always, like, kinda like an uncle figure to me, he, uh, he brought me with his son and was like, "You should try out wrestling," you know.

And, um, and me and his son Brandon played flag football together, and he's like, "You're a big guy, like, you should try this." And I just kept getting smoked, and I wasn't, I wasn't really into it.

I think I was like, "Where's the showmanship? Where's the, like, where's the acting part of wrestling? Why do I have to know this, like, headlock hold, and why does this hurt like hell, and what..." You know.

Would you want that?

So when you're attached to something that a lot of people take the name Naked Gun and they have their fandom, how difficult is it now to have a new chapter of that come out to the public?

Well, I mean, y'all know in the wrestling business, it's like you can do everything perfectly and still not make everybody happy, and there'll be super loud about it.

So I think at the end of the day, I just got to go with my taste and my respect for the material and say, am I looking at this script and this cast and these people, and will I be proud of it? Will I want to pay my 15 bucks at the theater and my 15 bucks at concessions? And I think that's led me to all my decisions with...

Cobra Kai and Karate Kid, Naked Gun remake, Fantastic Four, doing this Farley biopic I might do.

A lot of these things are rooted, even wrestling especially, is rooted in my love of something that's nostalgic and from childhood.

So my whole thing is I wouldn't do it if I thought it sucked.

I think we crushed it.

you obviously have a love for pro wrestling you're obviously invested in this and the boys like myself and Tommy and Mark and Dave Dave's one of the boys we know how much you like it and we respect your level of respect for what we do if the opportunity ever came your way where you could make wrestling a full time deal if the WWE said to you Paul full time gig can you leave Hollywood behind

Yeah.

And I was, like, so scared.

And then I got there and it went fine.

But, like, there is emotional pressure based on how big of a, as they say in the wrestling industry, how big of a mark you are for the person.

Nah, I've gotten better over the years.

Now, like, g-... now, and once again, this has to do with the match we, uh, that I chose.

You know, Dolph Ziggler and Luke Harper are not t- the two biggest wrestlers of all time.

Yeah.