Yeah

... that I just don't want us to lose, and I don't want a younger generation to lose is the art that you love right now, kids, the art that you love right now, I don't know what it is, you're gonna have an opportunity later in your life to take that art and everything it has always inspired inside of you, every story you ever wanted to tell.

[laughs]

Because he just did so much work for us.

And, and in that, um, he, he talked about how in, uh, in this episode, um, we, we have Stuart come up out of there and go, "Oh, shit, I'm kind of a superhero in this world."

Mm

...

in that, in that side of the scene.

As I was doing that, I had the most ridiculous all five senses flashback I have ever had.

I was on the set.

I could see him, right? The camera's on me.

I can see him there.

Yeah.

Hmm.

Because it was produced and developed and released in 1967, it very much captures the mores of the moment.

It leans into counterculture.

It's deeply suspicious of authority.

It's a little paranoid.

It is a classic, wonderful science fiction program, in that it talks extensively about surveillance and authoritarianism, the rights of the individual, uh, being preserved within the collective.

Do not sacrifice the individual to support the collective.

Gilligan's Island again.

Was that something you were aware of nine years ago when we spoke? Or has that just sort of become aware lately?

I was not aware of the extent of what I had suffered until I started quantifying it through recovery work.

I was diagnosed with complex trauma.

as a result of abuse and exploitation.

When I was describing just the ways my parents treated me, I remember my therapist just sort of looking at me kind of in disbelief.

Shock.

So it's physical abuse? It was mostly emotional abuse.

Right.

Mm-hmm

... and, and, and, and a, and a very clear idea about getting straight to the audience and, and being part of a community, and, and remembering that, like, we have a mission here, right? Like, like, like, we wanted...

W- what we did before was we wanna put more gamers into the world, and we worked really hard to do that, and when we were in editing, if there were ever any questions, well, the question is, the question we're answering is does this make more gamers? If yes-

Hmm.

If no, then find the thing that does.

And so for this, what we're doing is bringing all of the new gamers we made all back around and going like, "Hey, remember why we play games? Remember why we get together? Remember why we do that?" If we had taken that idea to a studio or to a network, they're never going to see it.

Because in addition to all of the things that, that Felicia said, that she's absolutely right about, no one inside of the mainstream entertainment industry has half the experience we have doing this.

We talk about what it's like to return to a story that shaped his life, channeling his memories of River Phoenix in the recording booth, and why the friendships you have at twelve might be the most important ones you'll ever have.

I know Gordie Lachance.

I am Gordie Lachance.

Mm-hmm.

Like, I mean, even when I was a little kid, I was Gordie Lachance when I didn't know it.

Mm-hmm

... and, and art, and where they all overlap, right? It was just like, "Why do you care about that," right? And then I finally sat down and watched it, and I was like, "Oh, I'm wrong.

I'm completely wrong about this.

This show's so funny." And there was a spherical cow in a vacuum joke early on, and I was like, "Nobody makes that joke." Um, and uh, and, and I just thought, "Okay, Wil, you're wrong." And I watched it, completely fell in love with it, and then I'd been watching it for about, I don't know, a year-

Yeah.

And you're gonna be compared to what you already did, no matter what.

And all you can do is commit to the work and show up and do the very best that you can.

And I got to go to the set to visit, and I watched them.And they are amazing.

What about Big Bang? Are you going to show up there again?

I sure hope so.

I actually saw Bill Prady and Steve Malero, and I saw Kaylee and Kunal right before we started our panel, because their panel was ending and we crossed over in the room.

And Kunal says, when are you coming back to the show? And Kaylee says, when are you coming back to the show? And I went to Bill Prady and I said, when am I coming back to the show? And when? They are a terrific group of people and I consider myself really lucky.

I grew up in Los Angeles, so when you're on the freeway and there's no traffic, you don't say, wow, there's no traffic, because then like a Chips-style 75-car explosion will happen and you're stuck, right? So I try not to think about it and talk about it too much, but I'm incredibly grateful and I'm incredibly lucky that I get to work on Eureka with a cast and crew and a character that I love, and Big Bang Theory with a cast and a crew and a character that I love, and Leverage with a cast and a crew and a character that I love,

Here's Will talking about his traveling nerd variety

show.

Well, in 2009, my friends Paul and Storm said to me, are you interested in doing sort of a nerd variety show? And I said, look, you had me at nerd, you had me at variety show.

Anything.

I have been working on a story.

The, the story is a series of metaphors.

It's a guy playing classic '80s arcade games, but each arcade game has a different challenge inherent in it.

Every classic video game has a different, uh...

it tells you, "This is how you need to play me if you wanna get on the high scoreboard," right? And you gotta figure out what that is.

The s- story is about this guy trying to figure out how to get the high score on some of these old classic arcade games, and about two-thirds of the way through, he realizes each one is a metaphor for trauma recovery, for how he's, like, overcoming something that he had experienced before.

Yeah

That's pretty deep stuff for an actor.

Yeah.

I didn't.

I didn't know what...

You know, going back to what I said about, you know, asking Rob about Corey, when he said that Corey was angry, I spent years, man, like years, a couple of decades trying to figure it out.

Okay, River was so kind, and so wise, and had such a big heart and such a huge desire to do special, important things, and he had been failed by the adults around him consistently.Just as Chris Chambers wanted to go someplace where he could just be himself and no one was gonna tell him who he was, I felt like River experienced that kind of at home.

And I felt like he carried this responsibility to take care of his whole family.

Mm.