The Truth About Acting & Why It’s Harder Than Fighting | Sean Carrigan DSH #1253

Speaker 1 would go up and visit my dad all the time up in DC, lived right outside DC, North Virginia, and he'd start training fighters. And that's when,

Speaker 1 you know, I just kind of fell in love with it, watched him, you know, training fighters. I was around a gym.
And, you know, being that I was little, you know, I just like, you know,

Speaker 1 I had moments when I was a kid where I felt like powerless. And

Speaker 1 I wanted to have, I wanted to have a sense of power and being able to defend myself and stand up to people. And, you know, being around a boxing gym seemed like the way to go.
And so

Speaker 1 my dad was all about

Speaker 1 being Irish and boxering. Fighting Irish, but that's it.
And so me and my brothers, my dad trained me and my brothers. And so I would spend all my summers and winters up there.
And then

Speaker 2 eventually I lived up there after college.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 that's when I like, you know, I had a lot of my amateur fights.

Speaker 2 All right, guys. Fellow Sean here today.
Got an actor and a new release, right? Grace Point.

Speaker 1 That's right. Grace Point.

Speaker 2 Yeah, just comes out. It's out already.

Speaker 1 It's out on Amazon and Apple TV.

Speaker 2 I love it, man.

Speaker 2 Was that your most recent film?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, actually, I just shot something called Demonetized.
It's coming out in April. But yeah, Grace Point, you know, we've been working.

Speaker 1 Rory Karp, the guy who directed it, he's been working on this film, getting this film together for a long time.

Speaker 1 And we got a great cast, and we shot it a few years ago, and it's finally coming out and yeah you know and we're happy it's getting the attention it deserves yeah it must be tough these days to make make a top-selling movie right uh you know i think so i mean you know it's a tough time you know a lot a lot going on with you know streaming and you know

Speaker 1 movies it's just you know and and plus there's like so many distractions in the world you know what i mean so it's it's hard to get people to sit down for a whole film but our you know our movie's good and you know hopefully people watch it yeah yeah i feel like there's a power shift towards the streaming platforms now.

Speaker 1 It seems like they're having a lot of power. Yeah, they are.
I mean, you know,

Speaker 1 that's the way the world goes, you know, I mean, it's games for convenience.

Speaker 2 Because I've had a lot of documentary filmmakers on the podcast, and they have numerous stories of how they can't even get on Netflix because they said certain things in the documentary.

Speaker 1 Oh, right. Yeah.
I mean, look, you know, at the end of the day,

Speaker 1 you know, people just trying to get their stuff made and get it seen. And, you know,

Speaker 1 I think

Speaker 1 the the platform has gone gotten bigger for that yeah

Speaker 1 but now it's just getting flooded and so you know people you know and and i don't know what

Speaker 1 you know sponsorships people have with other you know uh

Speaker 1 you know with with stuff you know stuff on their site and why they won't air movies and stuff like that like i'm i'm just an actor man yeah

Speaker 2 it's cool though you're seeing alternative routes andrew schultz who's a comedian ended up launching a special on his own site and it crushed it yeah so there's other routes he's super funny yeah i love that guy Have you seen him in

Speaker 2 performance, live performance?

Speaker 1 I haven't seen Andrew Schultz, but I bounce around the comedy store quite a bit and I see a lot of guys.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Theo Vaughn's crushing her now. Shout out to Theo.
There's some good comedians these days, man. It's a new era.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Dean Del Rey, Dean DeRey, he does a lot of work with Bill Burr. I'm a big fan of Dean Del Rey.

Speaker 1 And Bill Burr is obviously

Speaker 1 the king.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's hard to beat that man. I want to talk about your boxing career.

Speaker 1 So you started at 16.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, man. I was little growing up.
And,

Speaker 1 you know, my parents got divorced when I was real young. So I moved down to Miami, Florida, and started living down there with my mom.

Speaker 1 And I would go up and visit my dad all the time up in DC, live right outside D.C., Northern Virginia. And he'd start training fighters.
And that's when,

Speaker 1 you know, I just kind of fell in love with it. watched him, you know, training fighters.
I was around a gym. And, you know, being that I was little, you know, I just like, you know,

Speaker 1 I had moments when I was a kid where I felt like powerless. And

Speaker 1 I wanted to have, I wanted to have a sense of power and being able to defend myself and stand up to people. And, you know, being around a boxing gym seemed like the way to go.
And so

Speaker 1 my dad was all about, you know, being Irish and, you know, boxering.

Speaker 2 Fighting Irish.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's it. And so me and my brothers, my dad trained me and my brothers.
And so I would spend all my summers and winters up there. And then,

Speaker 2 you know, eventually I lived up there after college.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 that's when I like, you know, had a lot of my amateur fights. I fought all over the country.
My dad would, like, every other weekend, we'd like be going off somewhere.

Speaker 1 He would find fights that were going off in Roanoke or, you know, West Virginia or, you know, up in New Jersey. He would just find fights for all of us to go to.
I mean, one time we went to Boston.

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Speaker 1 Uh, to fight in Brockton. I mean, it was just like my dad was always trying to get his son's fights.
Wow. Yeah.
I mean, when we were real young,

Speaker 1 I've even got a picture of it.

Speaker 1 My brother, my brother's three and a half years older than me, and my dad laced this up when I was like nine. My brother was 12, and he's just,

Speaker 1 he's like about to, they caught the photo right as he's about to land a right hand right on my head. Yeah, yeah.
So you were stopping with your brother. Yeah, yeah.
That's one thing.

Speaker 1 My dad, like, he loved like, you know, putting gloves on the kids, and we'd all like get out in the yard and get after it.

Speaker 2 So he had some tough love to him.

Speaker 1 That's, I think that's, I mean, that's what, you know, when he was, when he was coming up, he he he grew up in Alcoa, Tennessee.

Speaker 1 And, you know, his uncles were prize fighters and, and, and they would, they would lace up all the cousins

Speaker 1 and put gloves on them. And then,

Speaker 1 and then, you know, they'd... They'd all go to, you know, go to battle out in the backyard.
And my dad was like, you know, he was, he was one of the better ones. Yeah.

Speaker 2 That's how it was back in the day, man. My dad grew up on a farm and he was scrabbing all the time.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 You could lay hands on people in school even back then, but now you get immediately suspended.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think there's a lot of fight stories back then. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Different era. Now people fight online.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Cyberbullying or whatever. Yeah.
It's a much different era, but at the same time, mental health's worse. So you kind of start to wonder like which one was better.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean,

Speaker 1 I mean, it's a toss-up.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Would you rather get physically beat up or mentally assaulted on the internet, I guess?

Speaker 1 I'll take an ass kicking.

Speaker 1 Good old ass kicking. Yeah, I'll take a physical ass kicking, man.

Speaker 2 Man. So that was kind of your destiny from a young age then fighting.

Speaker 1 Well, you know, look, man, you know,

Speaker 1 I wasn't very good when I, like, it's interesting because I was real small and I wanted to wrestle and box. Those are my two sports.
And

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 started out wrestling in high school and I just, I was terrible. I wasn't wasn't very good.
I was weak. I was small.
And I think I started at 119, my, my, wow, my sophomore year.

Speaker 1 And then I went up to 130, my junior year. I never even made it to the, to the, um, to the regional tournament, you know, in Dade County.
And, and,

Speaker 1 and so I didn't even make it to regions, man, you know, regionals. And,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 right before my senior year,

Speaker 1 I wrestled freestyle and then I went off to a summer camp. Yeah.
Went to Jay Robinson Intensive Wrestling Camp in University of Minnesota before my senior year in high school.

Speaker 1 And I wrestled with the guy who was a state runner-up in Michigan. I wrestled with him every day for 28 days.
And it was just, me and him became pals. And then, and then you just wrestled.

Speaker 1 They had you working out at J-Rob. They had you wrestling

Speaker 1 a couple times a day. Then

Speaker 1 you were doing runs in the morning. You were doing weightlifting.
And then they had you write out all your goals. I came back my senior year

Speaker 1 and just destroying everybody.

Speaker 1 And one of the best wrestlers in Florida my senior year. So

Speaker 1 I had a good senior year. But I never even wrestled.
I'd never even wrestled in a regional tournament. And,

Speaker 1 you know, went to state championships, didn't do as well as I wanted to, but, you know,

Speaker 1 got to go off to college and I wrestled D1 in college. Amazing.
That's a great story of just being in the right environment, right?

Speaker 2 Because you had the heal inside you. You just needed someone to help bring that out.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And, you know, and that camp, Jay Robinson Intensive Camp, was, you know,

Speaker 1 we had a shirt that we would all wear. It said, I'm going to heaven because I've been through hell, Jay Robinson Intensive Passing Camp.
I love it.

Speaker 1 And so I don't know what I did with that shirt, but I wish I could find it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that sounds like a legendary shirt.

Speaker 1 I love that quote, though.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you got to go through some tough stuff if you want to make it to the top.

Speaker 1 You do. And

Speaker 1 what was great about that, that camp was, you know,

Speaker 1 you know, they had us writing out goals and just like, and, and just doing things that you, you know, pushing you farther than you realized you could go and so i came back that year my senior year and and preseason tournaments i would wrestle 145 and 152 i'd go and i'd i'd like i'd register in two way classes and then i'd be in the finals in both and then um that's hard to do yeah and so um

Speaker 1 yeah man so that was uh you know it was uh

Speaker 2 it was it was a good it was a good it was a good career you know in in high school and and you know i did something that's why i love the mental side of sports, actually, which is why I don't know if you watch basketball, but I think Phil Jackson's the GOAT.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Because he just had the mental side of the sport on lock.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Make the players meditate, write out goals, like you're saying. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think that's kind of what separates the best athletes from like everyone else, the mental side.

Speaker 1 You know, man,

Speaker 1 I think you're right.

Speaker 1 It's just a matter of just working, working, working. For me, you know, I've always

Speaker 1 kind of fell on my face quite a bit. You know,

Speaker 1 it seems like I, you know, I fall down 10 times before I actually succeed. And,

Speaker 1 you know, it was the same thing with boxing.

Speaker 1 There was a guy in the gym when I was younger, when I first started, he had been boxing since he was five years old. And

Speaker 1 he just, you know, he was just better. He was just better than me because he'd been boxing so long.
I was just starting.

Speaker 1 And he would just beat my ass all the time, all the time.

Speaker 1 And my dad on the drives, you know, we'd be driving home and my dad would just be like, just keep working, just keep working, just keep working.

Speaker 1 And he's like, one of these days, it's going to be like, you know, a light bulb goes off. It's like a window is going to open.

Speaker 1 And all of a sudden, you're going to, you're going to see, you're going to see the punches. You're going to see things coming at you.
And it's just going to like get easier.

Speaker 1 He said, you just got to keep working. So

Speaker 1 I listened to it. I'd go back to the gym.
And again, you know, we'd box, we'd spar. He'd beat my ass again.

Speaker 1 And my dad would just say, just keep working, just keep working, just keep working. You work harder, you work hard.
And so,

Speaker 1 and then next thing you know, he was, my dad was right. It was like, all of a sudden, one day it was just like, you know, it's like the window open.
I was like, oh, wait a second.

Speaker 1 I'm like, I see everything. I like, you know, I started seeing punches coming at me.

Speaker 1 I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, no way, no way, you know, and then, and then that, that guy, that, that, that guy, um, that kid, he never, um, he never beat me after that. Oh, really? Yeah.

Speaker 2 It was like an overnight thing for you?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was, it was just like, and it was just like my dad said, it's like, one day,

Speaker 1 the light went off. And that, but that comes with hard work.
Yeah. And,

Speaker 1 you know, it's the same thing, you know, in wrestling, you know, it's like, it was just hard work, hard work, hard work. So I was just lucky to do two sports that

Speaker 1 just spoke to me

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 really gave me a sense of identity because I kind of of felt lost most

Speaker 1 of my high school career until my senior year. You felt lost, like just overall, just felt like unseen, you know, just

Speaker 1 didn't really have

Speaker 1 a sense of identity. That's the thing I love about sports is

Speaker 1 working hard at something gives you character. And then all of a sudden, you know, you start having some success and you start to like feel, okay, this is like, I am here.

Speaker 1 I am, I'm seeing, I'm seeing this hard work pay off.

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 2 and i as it was valuable for me absolutely i attribute uh i was a track runner in high school and that helped me find myself and learn mental discipline too but like like you i was i was lost in high school man my identity i was pretending to be someone i wasn't for sure yeah it was it was tough man uh

Speaker 1 i just i think you know i was smaller and and

Speaker 1 you know i didn't really have the right direction and

Speaker 1 you know i found wrestling and boxing and it changed my life.

Speaker 2 So, you really tied a lot of your identity to your height and size?

Speaker 1 I think so. I think I did because, you know, I felt like everybody was bigger than me.

Speaker 2 Was that intimidating to you?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think, I think, especially in junior high. Junior high was rough.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 ninth and tenth grade, you just, you know, you want to be taken seriously. And,

Speaker 1 you know, you, you just,

Speaker 1 yeah, you know, it was just

Speaker 1 when you, when you,

Speaker 1 I attributed, I attributed like

Speaker 1 being not being able to like stand up to being scared.

Speaker 1 Okay, I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example of what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 When I was in junior high,

Speaker 1 there was a big fight, right,

Speaker 1 out in the yard, and

Speaker 1 a couple of my friends were outnumbered,

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 a bunch of guys jumped in

Speaker 1 and i like i went to like go help

Speaker 1 and i froze

Speaker 1 i froze because i was scared and

Speaker 1 i felt like i i just i like i literally couldn't make myself i couldn't make my like because i was scared yeah i couldn't make myself go help

Speaker 1 now a bunch of other my friends jumped in and like you know they they got out of the situation but it's still like that feeling of

Speaker 1 of like

Speaker 1 being scared and frozen I was like, dude,

Speaker 1 I can't live my life like this. I don't want to live my life like that.
And that's why

Speaker 1 I think I turned to wrestling and why I turned to boxing. And there's nothing like, you know, Rory, my buddy Rory Carp who's on here.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 He's a director. And, you know, he said he always wanted to have the one fight.
He wanted to know what that's like when you're walking out.

Speaker 1 to you know taking that that walk out to the ring and he wanted to know like you know what that feels like. And

Speaker 1 I wanted to know what that felt like. I wanted to know

Speaker 1 that

Speaker 1 I can conquer being scared and frozen. And

Speaker 1 that's why I did it. And, you know, when you first walk out, that first fight that I had,

Speaker 1 I fought a guy named Leonard Johnson from Alexandria Boxing Club at the Olympia Boxing Club in Falls Church, Virginia. And it was a big smoker event.
And

Speaker 1 I, you know, walking out to that ring was one of the, one of the scariest moments of my life because I was like, why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this?

Speaker 1 You know, and, and you, your part of you wants to chicken out. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 I just force myself. I was like, you have to, you have to, you have to.
And then you get in there and then

Speaker 1 you start mixing it up and you're like, all right, I can, I can do this. I I can do this.
And conquering your fears. And I think that's what it is.
It's,

Speaker 1 you know, the thing about boxing and wrestling is you learn to conquer your fears, learn to like, you know, to really like stand up and fight for yourself. And,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 there was an interesting thing that happened in that fight. It was my first fight.

Speaker 1 And.

Speaker 1 Between, so it was a three-round, you know, there's a three-rounder. And between rounds two and three,

Speaker 1 you know, me and this guy had been going at it. We had been going at it.
And I was doing really well.

Speaker 1 And Jim Ed Jones, who was my trainer at the time with my dad, Jim Ed Jones said to me in the middle of round two and three, he goes, hey, this next round, this next round ain't about boxing.

Speaker 1 This next round is about heart. It's about how much heart you got.
You go out there and you give it everything. This round is about heart.

Speaker 1 It's about what you got inside you get out there and you get it you take it you take it right now and i've never forgotten that wow and uh

Speaker 1 and i went out there and

Speaker 1 you know just you know put it on the guy and and it was one of the greatest moments of my life and and i'll never forget that that uh that advice wow you know

Speaker 2 and go ahead where you're no it sounds like a really pivotal moment in your life you remembered every single word and like yeah yeah and i remember him like standing there looking at me

Speaker 1 because you're, I was gassed, I was so gas, I was, you know, I was exhausted.

Speaker 1 And you get on when you have your first fight, you know, in the amateurs, you, you're, you're exhausted because you don't know how to pace yourself yet.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, I mean, it's just, you know, it's exhausting. And, and,

Speaker 1 you know, there's so much going, there's so much adrenaline pumping through you because you're all so nervous and scared. Right.

Speaker 1 And then you get in there and, you know, it's just, you know, you're going probably going at a faster pace than you would, you know, as time goes on.

Speaker 1 I mean, as the years went on, you know, the fights got easier. You know, you manage those emotions better, but nothing like

Speaker 1 that first match.

Speaker 2 I love it, man. Yeah, that's why I love sports and especially fighting sports.
It builds your confidence, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean,

Speaker 1 you know, I was boxing and wrestling way before

Speaker 1 MMA became a thing.

Speaker 1 I kind of missed the MMA window,

Speaker 2 but I always loved

Speaker 1 feeling like

Speaker 1 I could defend a takedown and also defend myself with my hands.

Speaker 2 It's a good life skill to have. You never know when you'll need to throw hands with someone at the bar or something.

Speaker 2 But just that confidence, knowing you can defend yourself, you can defend your girl, your friends.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's really the only reason I

Speaker 1 started. boxing and wrestling is I wanted to be able to defend myself.
And then I just, as the years went on, I did it more and more. And then my dad was such a proponent of it that you know

Speaker 1 i just ended up having a career longer than i ever anticipated

Speaker 1 um but that was the the main the main reason i started was just to be able to defend myself yeah did your brother get to the pro level too yeah both my brothers uh uh i've got a bunch of brothers and sisters but two of my brothers fought uh my younger brother he he started fighting when he was like you know he was like six wow yeah he was young yeah he was like you know they he was you know,

Speaker 1 just scrapping it out. Just scrapping it out.
You know, you know, seeing little kids fight at that at that age is ridiculous.

Speaker 1 It's like that. It looks like they're running.
Yeah, super early, man. I don't know about that.

Speaker 1 But he had tons of fights, you know,

Speaker 1 had a very long amateur career.

Speaker 1 My older brother had an amateur career too, and then he turned pro.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I think he had like, maybe my brother had like maybe four pro fights. Same thing with my younger brother.
Okay.

Speaker 1 And then,

Speaker 1 you know, but they had my little brother, he started boxing at a very young age. He fought in all kinds of national championship tournaments and did, you know, did really well for a long time.

Speaker 1 And he was even a better wrestler than he was a boxer.

Speaker 2 But there's no money in that, right?

Speaker 1 No, I mean, no, but I mean, now he would be MMA. Yeah.
You know, but

Speaker 1 back then, he had the most single season wins

Speaker 1 as a freshman in his high school. He had the most single-season wins as a freshman.

Speaker 1 And he could have been, he could, I mean, he could have done really, he went to the state championships a couple times, and then he just got, you know, he got in a little bit of trouble.

Speaker 1 He followed my other brother was in and out of jail. Both my brothers have been in and out of jail.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 They both kind of,

Speaker 1 you know, I think they were selling drugs at one point and, you know, getting in all kinds of trouble. And then they did some time.

Speaker 2 I mean, I get it, man. I was a little weed dealer in college, you know? Yeah, you're broke.

Speaker 1 I mean, yeah, but yeah, they were, they were, you know, they got messed, they got messed up. But my, my little brother's cleaned himself up pretty well.

Speaker 1 My older brother's doing all right, and um, but they were actually both of them. What's a funny story? They were both in Fairfax County jail for uh about a year and a half

Speaker 1 around that time. They were both in the that in that jail on different floors when I was on the young and the restless.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and both of them got in fights in the TV rec room over somebody trying to change the channel when I was on

Speaker 1 the young and the restless, both of them at different times. And so, uh,

Speaker 1 uh, that's uh,

Speaker 2 you know, that's cool that you could provide them some hope while they were in there, though.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, my one brother's like, that's my brother.
It's like, no, it ain't. It's like,

Speaker 1 that's my brother. Yeah.
I love it, man.

Speaker 2 It sounds like you tie with your brothers.

Speaker 1 That's cool. Yeah, we're all really tight.
I've tied with all my brothers brothers and my sisters.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I grew up an only child, so I can't relate. But when I have kids, I want them to have siblings.
I think that's important.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was good. I mean, you know,

Speaker 1 we came from a rough and tumble family, you know.

Speaker 1 Some of my brothers and sisters had, you know, they had, they struggled with addiction.

Speaker 1 You know, I think that that's why.

Speaker 1 you know, this movie that we did, Grace Point, has been so important to me.

Speaker 1 You know, the main character struggles with addiction. And, you know, then he goes on this journey, and it's about a father and a son, and a son trying to find his father.

Speaker 1 You know, it's like an inspirational thriller and

Speaker 1 a heart, you know,

Speaker 1 a heartwarming thriller. And so I think,

Speaker 2 you know, that's why I related to the script

Speaker 1 and why I wanted to do it. And, you know, sounded like family.

Speaker 2 I love that. I think everyone can relate to addiction, whether it's themselves or their family members, right? I saw my dad with alcoholism.
That wrecked him.

Speaker 1 Sure.

Speaker 2 You know, I think there's a, it's a problem everywhere, addiction.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it really is. And it's commercialized, too.
Like, you know, alcohol, be out, you know,

Speaker 1 you know, and,

Speaker 1 you know, beer commercials. Like, everything, everything.

Speaker 2 Drug commercials on every television network, you know? Yeah. I mean, it's crazy.
It's so easy to get access to this stuff, too.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 You really got to have the right people around you to break you out.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I had to break my brother out of a crack house one time.
Damn. Yeah.
Yeah. That's straight out of the movie The Fighter.
I swear to God.

Speaker 1 I saw that movie and I was like, Jesus, man, that was me and my older brother. So those actually exist, those crack houses.
Yeah, he was in some like, you know, some like,

Speaker 1 like

Speaker 1 just this worn out house that, you know, everybody went and did drugs at. And he called me one day and he goes, hey, man.

Speaker 1 Hey, man,

Speaker 1 you got to come get me, man. These bikers are coming to jump me, man.
These bikers are coming to jump me. And so I was wrestling at George Mason University at the time.
And

Speaker 1 I, you know, I was there and

Speaker 1 I was at a, I think I was like, I forget where I was, but, but a couple of my other wrestler buddies were with me. And I said, hey, man, I got to go, I got to go rescue my brother, man.

Speaker 1 He's at this, this, you know, drug house. And, you know, it's, I, I, I don't know.
I just got to go. And they were like, hey, we're coming with you.

Speaker 1 And I was like, I don't know what I'm walking into, man. You know, so just letting you guys know that.
And so they're like we're coming so

Speaker 1 my buddies um

Speaker 1 uh mark and ty

Speaker 1 you know they're guys are wrestling on my wrestling team with me uh we went and we got there and we pulled up this house and i go all right i don't know how this is gonna go but what i'm gonna do is i'm just gonna go kick that front door in and start yelling where you know where's michael kerrigan where's toby kerrigan where's he at and so um you guys you know ty you go around the back You can come, Kir, you come with me, or you get however you want to do it.

Speaker 1 So, Ty went around the back. I went in the front, you know, uh, Kira was with me.
I just kicked the door in. I was like, Yeah, where the fuck is Michael Kerrigan? Where the fuck is Toby Kerrigan?

Speaker 1 He also goes by Toby, that's his big name. And I said, Where the fuck is he? Where is he?

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 and I'm like, you know,

Speaker 1 people were like, Oh, he's over there, he's over there. I was like, I was like, Hey, hey, you say, Oh, hey, man, amen.

Speaker 1 And uh, I grabbed him, got him out of there, and then,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 saved him, I think. I don't know.
And that was your older brother? It was my older brother. Yeah.

Speaker 1 He's struggled with addiction over the years.

Speaker 2 So you kind of had to grow up quick then. You got to be responsible for your older brother.

Speaker 1 You know, he's

Speaker 1 he's I like I like to say he's my uh he's my older little brother. I love that.

Speaker 1 So but uh but he's always you know, look, we have different moms and you know, he had he had a rougher upbringing than I did. Really?

Speaker 1 And so, you know, same, same thing with my other older brothers and sisters. And so I take that into account, you know,

Speaker 1 you know, it's,

Speaker 1 I guess we're, we're a victim of our environment sometimes when we're growing up. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And,

Speaker 1 you know, I just

Speaker 1 try to be as much help to my brothers and sisters as I can. And, you know,

Speaker 1 family's meant so much to me over the years that I'll do anything for them. I love that, man.
You know, my blood.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Family is important for sure.
I saw,

Speaker 2 so I grew up mixed. I'm half Irish, half Asian.
So it's such a different lifestyle with family on the two sides. So I got to experience both, you know.
Wow, man.

Speaker 2 So now I kind of know what the best of each, and I'm going to have a good family one of these days, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Are you going to have kids? Yeah.

Speaker 2 And I didn't want kids when I was younger, but now I do. Yeah.
You know?

Speaker 1 I, uh, I just, I don't know if, should I talk about it? I just,

Speaker 1 I just,

Speaker 1 my girl and I, we decided to have a kid. Oh, nice.
And so, and we just found out that we're having twins. Dude, congrats.
Yeah. And I called it, too.
I called it, by the way.

Speaker 2 Two for one, baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 I told her, I actually told her beforehand. I was like, hey, listen, we need, we need two for one.
I'm not getting any younger. You many.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And so

Speaker 1 we're pretty excited about that.

Speaker 2 That's cool, man. You held off.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know, hey. What was the deciding moment to have them?

Speaker 1 Uh,

Speaker 1 when I met her. Wow.
I just, uh, I hadn't met

Speaker 1 anyone that checked all the boxes like that for me. And it made me, she's such a good mom.
She has, she has two kids from previous marriage. And

Speaker 1 she's just the most wonderful person and mother that you could ask for. And, and I just met her at the right time.
And we'd known each other for a long time, but we never really

Speaker 1 started dating until back in May. Is she an actress as well? No, no.

Speaker 1 She's a government worker.

Speaker 1 She runs the water department over in the city of Oxnard. Total opposite personality, it sounds like.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I always tease her. I'm like, you like the movie Chinatown.
You run the water.

Speaker 2 Sometimes you need that balance, man. The opposites attract, like I said.

Speaker 1 It's cool.

Speaker 1 But she's amazing and she's super supportive with my career. And so I'm just lucky.

Speaker 2 I love that, man. I want to hear about your transition to acting because that's not an easy space to to penetrate, right? Getting acting gigs.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 You know, man,

Speaker 1 when I was a kid, I knew I wanted to be an actor. And,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 one of my favorite movies is Star Wars, you know. Classic.
Yeah. And,

Speaker 1 you know, then Return of the Jedi came out and or Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. And, like, you know.

Speaker 1 When I was a kid, I'd see these movies and I'd like come home and I'd just like act them out to my mom. And then, you know, Luke Skywalker did this and then Ansolo did this.

Speaker 1 And my poor mom, you know, she's like, you know, I'm working all day. She's like sitting there trying to like listen to me describe all these different scenes of these movies.
And

Speaker 1 I think she knew at that point that I wanted to be an actor.

Speaker 1 But, you know, when I was in high school, I had, you know, especially after,

Speaker 1 you know, my, especially my senior year, it was like, you know, going into my senior year, I had, I had these athletic goals that I wanted to try to hit. I wanted to, I wanted to go to,

Speaker 1 you know, a Division Division I program, wrestle in Division, you know, Division I tried to be an all-American. And then I also wanted to have

Speaker 1 an amateur career, more of an amateur career, and then turn pro and fight professionally for a couple of years. I only wanted to have like, my goal was to have like five pro fights.

Speaker 1 I ended up having eight. And so

Speaker 1 I just wanted to,

Speaker 1 but I wanted to, you know,

Speaker 1 do those things and then I, I used to tell people my senior, I was in drama my senior year. I would tell, I used to tell people in my class, I'd be like,

Speaker 1 I'm going to go to college. I'm going to try to be an all-American in wrestling.

Speaker 1 I'm going to, I'm going to have a few, I'm going to have a brief pro career in boxing, and then I'm going to become an actor. Wow.
And so you called it.

Speaker 1 So, so like people like,

Speaker 1 you know, they'd be like, you're going to do what? You're going to do what? Oh, and then you're going to do what?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 okay, pal. You know, that's not the path that everybody takes.

Speaker 1 But I was just, I had it, I had it in my mind.

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 1 when I was boxing,

Speaker 1 I turned pro in 98 and I was, you know, fought professionally until April 2000. And

Speaker 1 after that fight,

Speaker 1 I got cast in the UPN pilot that was shooting in Baltimore.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I got my SAG card from it. And so

Speaker 1 once I got my SAG card,

Speaker 1 I was like, all right, well,

Speaker 1 I'm going to go to New York. I'm going to go to LA.
I'm going to give up my

Speaker 1 boxing career. Wow.
It's time. It's time.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 my dad,

Speaker 1 he was pissed, right? Oh, he was so mad. He said, hey, man,

Speaker 1 you're going to be driving cabs the rest of your life. I go, hey, Pop, I'll show you that one of these days you're going to see me on the big screen.

Speaker 1 He's like, hey, he's like, I'll be dead and gone before that ever happens.

Speaker 1 And then.

Speaker 1 I went off. I went off to New York.
I was having no luck up in New York. It was like bouncing at the China Club in New York for like six months, having no luck.

Speaker 1 And then I ran into Michael Rappaport, and he goes,

Speaker 1 he goes,

Speaker 1 he was at the club, and I go, hey, man, when you made it in film, or when you made it in acting, did you make it here in New York? Or did you make it in L.A.?

Speaker 1 He goes, what kind of acting you want to do? You want to do TV and film? And I go, yeah. He goes, then you've got to go to L.A., man.

Speaker 1 And so I would...

Speaker 1 Next thing you know, I was in my truck, driving out to L.A., and I've been here for 24 years. Wow, shout out to Michael.
Yeah, does he know that story, by the way? No, I mean, I've never ran it.

Speaker 1 Just let him know.

Speaker 2 He's coming on the podcast.

Speaker 1 Is that right? Yeah, I'll tell him about it. Yeah, that's cool, man.
And so,

Speaker 1 yeah, I love that guy. I love him.
He's hilarious. Yeah.
And he's a great actor. And

Speaker 1 he said that to me right there. And I was bouncing at the China Club.

Speaker 1 I was like, you know, and he, and because I, and he was cool, too, because as he was walking out, I was like, hey, man, you mind if I asked you something?

Speaker 1 You know, and, and he was, he was very forthcoming, man. He, he was a good dude.
and uh but anyway so

Speaker 1 fast forward years later i'm i'm sitting with my dad we're at we're at a dc film festival we're about to watch this movie i did on the big screen and he and my old man sitting right next to me and i go hey hey pop remember how you said that uh you'd be dead and gone before you saw me on the big screen guess what you're about to watch me on the big screen he's like you son of a bitch you remember everything god damn it and so it's good sometimes your biggest haters are your biggest motivation yeah he became one of my biggest fans though he was he was he was yeah shout out to my mother um you know skeptical at first you know coming from china academics is everything education getting good grades that's how she escaped poverty so right why not apply it to me but different path you know sure so we used to butt heads all the time about it but now she watches every single episode she's like my biggest fan of course yeah it's funny how that works uh my dad at the end of you know, in his older years, he would hang out, he would hang out at like the Moose Lodge and the American Legion, and he'd be like hanging hanging out with all these, you know,

Speaker 1 like be hanging out with different women and stuff.

Speaker 1 And all of a sudden, I get a call

Speaker 1 and I go, hey, what's up? And he go, hey, tell this girl that you play Stitch on the Young and the Wrestlers.

Speaker 1 And the girl go.

Speaker 1 Your dad says you're Stitch. I don't believe it.
And I'd be like, oh, yeah, hey, yeah, yeah. And she's like, prove it.
And I go, all right, well, I was with Victoria. I left Victoria.

Speaker 1 I got with her stepmom, Ashley. And then, you know, I left Ashley and then I got with Ashley's daughter, Abby, and then I was in a love triangle between Ashley and Abby.

Speaker 1 And she was like, oh my God, it is stitch. And then my dad grabbed the phone back.
He's like, all right, hey, thanks, man. Appreciate it.
There you go.

Speaker 2 Used it to get girls. This was before FaceTime, you know? Yeah, man.
Times have changed. That's funny, man.
Yeah. Well, dude, this has been really fun.

Speaker 2 What are you working on next? Where can people keep up with you?

Speaker 1 I'm on Instagram. Follow me on the real Sean Kerrigan.
And, you know, do us a favor, go out and buy or rent Grace Point. Yeah.

Speaker 1 We'll link it below. Yeah, it's on Amazon and Apple.
And, you know,

Speaker 1 we worked really hard on the movie, and it's got a great twist at the end, and people get a lot of great feedback from it. See you, guys.

Speaker 2 After you're done watching Beast Games, check out Grace Point. It's on the same platform.

Speaker 1 Right on, man.

Speaker 2 Let's do it. All right, guys.

Speaker 3 See you next time. Thanks.