South Beach Sessions - O'Shea Jackson Jr.

We're listening to DraftKings Network.

Listen.

That's the sound of the fully electric Audi Q6 e-tron.

The sound of captivating electric performance,

dynamic drive, and the quiet confidence of ultra-smooth handling.

The elevated interior reminds you this is more than an EV.

This is electric performance redefined.

The fully electric Audi Q6 e-tron.

Chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more, can make me feel like a spectator in my own life.

Botox, onobotulinum toxin A, prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine.

It's not for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month.

It's the number one prescribed branded chronic migraine preventive treatment.

Prescription Botox Botox is injected by your doctor.

Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms.

Alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition.

Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk.

Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck, and injection, side pain, fatigue, and headache.

Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness.

Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection.

Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, including ALS Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis or Lambert Eaton syndrome, and medications including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects.

Why wait?

Ask your doctor, visit BotoxchronicMigraine.com or call 1-800-44-Botox to learn more.

At blinds.com, it's not just about window treatments.

It's about you, your style, your space, your way.

Whether you DIY or want the pros to handle it all, you'll have the confidence of knowing it's done right.

From free expert design help to our 100% satisfaction guarantee, everything we do is made to fit your life and your windows.

Because at blinds.com, the only thing we treat better than windows is you.

Visit blinds.com now for up to 50% off with minimum purchase plus a professional measure at no cost.

Rules and restrictions apply.

Welcome to the West Coast edition of South Beach Sessions.

Right here, we've got generations of Los Angeles in front of me.

O'Shea Jackson Jr., your father's very Los Angeles.

You're very Los Angeles.

You know, I'm from Den of Thieves.

He played his father in his debut role in Straight Out of Compton.

You got Godzilla.

You got Cocaine Bear.

But the thing that's most important, the only thing that matters right now, the greatest pride that he has, is his nerddom in wrestling.

Oh, yeah.

No contest wrestling.

You've got a podcast and you you are immersed in all things wrestling.

How have you not been dissuaded of this as an adult?

The greatest arguments I had with my father was, dad, that's not fake.

Jimmy Snooka, you can't, that's not fake.

That can't be faked.

Yeah, it's

you definitely, I grew up having those arguments and,

you know, things like that.

But once you start to become a smarter wrestling fan, you know what you're looking at, but then you know what you're looking for too.

If you can, with everyone's knowledge of the business, for a split second, for however long, make them believe

you got them, you got them in the palm of your hand.

And

as an actor, I appreciate what they do because, in my line of work, I get cuts, I get redos, it's not going to be in the movie until it's perfect.

But with them, it's live, and they have to add to a character every week as opposed to waiting for a season.

So, yeah, I mean, and to go is so much better than watching on TV.

There's some things, some aspects that a television match can give you that you don't get from live, like you're not hearing the announcers or anything like that, but the energy of the crowd and just seeing people that might break a limb.

Just for our applause, you got to admire them.

I want to keep talking to you about wrestling, and we will, but the screenwriter in you, the screenwriter who went to USC dreaming of what?

What is it that you are going to be when you start start at the dream in college?

I wanted to, everyone's there to write for TV and movies.

I wanted to write for video games.

That was what I was going to do.

At the time of my freshman year, I think Call of Duty made a billion in a weekend.

And I was like,

you know, like your father's son, man.

Yeah, I can make you pay $16 a movie ticket.

or I can make you pay $60 a game.

So that's where I was headed.

And then,

you know,

second year,

Pops tells me, you know, they're taking this NWA movie serious.

And I didn't think that the conversation was going to lead to my career path.

I was just like, all right, cool.

It's dope.

I'm happy for you.

And he said, in a perfect world, I want you to play me.

And I was not

necessarily jumping for joy because

it's not really a lot of good rap movies, especially at that time.

But the thing is, my dad's never asked me to do anything.

You know, he's just always been a provider.

And this was the first time where I felt like he needed me.

So I had to jump on it.

He said, we're going to have to make you audition.

And I said, please make me audition because I've heard the Godfather 3 stories.

You know, the Francis Fort Coppola's daughter and how that went.

And if I don't get it in an audition, I'm just not good.

It's not like I didn't try.

So we auditioned.

And

Gary Gray saw something that he liked.

From there, he got me an acting coach, Aaron Spicer, who I feel like I owe everything to.

Aaron Spicer hooked me up with Susan Batson.

I flew to New York to work with her for a few weeks.

Two years later, of auditioning and watching my friends graduate without me on Instagram, got the part.

Here I am.

So it's an accident?

Kind of.

Like, it kind of just fell in my lap, and I left school to pursue it.

So now it's just about making it work.

The one thing that I do wish I would have did differently

when you go to college and you're in your major

you don't really grasp that

college is about putting a bunch of people with the same idea in the same room together and you're supposed to make these connections with these people because you don't know who you're going to need or or what

as you go further in this career that you're choosing.

And I didn't do that.

I lost touch with my writer friends and I wish wish I would have kept touch with them because now that I'm in the door as far as the film industry goes I still have my ideas for shows and everything and I wish we all would have stayed I would have held them tighter because

I would have had a team.

I would have had a team of writers right there and people that I know can do it.

So, you know, I got to go on Instagram and hunt them all down, but I wish I would have had a better connection with them.

So take me through through that, though.

You're basically leaving school with your father's blessing to chase this, and you think your father is needing you, asking you for something for one of the few times.

Yeah, it is

a amount of pressure that he's never vocally said, but just that as his son, I felt.

And

when you

put all your you know, you, you, you go all in,

you put pressures on yourself, yourself and

you put yourself in a situation where you have to.

Like, we have to get this.

A lot of times with second generation

kids, the Nepal babies,

the first generation, a lot of their want, need, or drive is external stuff.

Whether that be, I don't want to live like this anymore or I need to get out of this environment i need to better myself i need to be above all this

when you're a second generation life is good i you look around life and it's like what am i running from you know so you have to you weren't straight out of college yeah so you i had to have an internal you have to have like an internal thing of wanting more for yourself and that comes from the conversations with my dad and my mom about whether that's you they never said anything like you got to stand on your own two feet but just want more for yourself.

And so I had to use things like that pressure of going all in and not having an option afterwards.

Because at USC, the screenwriting program is a four-year program.

You can't just leave in your second and then you just jump back.

Hard to get into as well.

So I kind of felt like if I don't make this work, I'm screwed.

So that's that fire.

Now I got to win the role.

He didn't tell me this at the time, but I found out when he told the higher-ups that he wanted me to play him, their response was, is this a joke?

That would have been more fire for me.

Wanting to do it for my siblings, wanting to do it for my siblings because

when I win, I feel like we win.

I do it for Daryl, Karima, and Sharif.

And then you got

my cousins like, well, you got to get it.

So it's these, all these things that I'm using to fuel my fire.

And then once I did get the role,

then all the nepotism talk starts.

So I'm like, all right, now I'm going to prove to you that I can do it.

And then when I do it, and it's great,

then it was, well, of course, he could play his dad.

So I used, so you have to have, they tell you not to read comments and do all that stuff.

But I use that as fuel.

I use that bulletin board.

And yeah, I got to go at him.

Was the doing of it fun or was it pressurized?

The first

month,

pressure.

I was scared to death.

You know,

I had amazing chemistry with Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins, my man, Aldous Hodge, Neil Brown Jr.

That was the crew.

That was NWA.

And if it wasn't for those guys and the chemistry we had and just being excited to work with them all the time, laugh with them all the time, I would have had a very hard time

doing straight out of Compton, harder than

I already did.

Well, which is the one that you're distrusting the most?

The fact that Hollywood doesn't make very good hip-hop movies, or that you're not going to serve the legacy of your father the way that you or he would want it to be served in film?

I knew

auditioning and working and workshopping for two years on that role,

I knew by the time that the first action, I was ready.

I've been holding it and focused for two years straight.

There was really nothing that was going to stop me from portraying my dad, how I know him,

and to make sure that what I put on the screen was true.

You're always nervous that you want the movie to do good.

You want to.

And when you're in it, everything feels good, but then once you put it out, you're hoping and wishing and it crushed.

So a lot of the fears were,

I'm going to say more so

whether or not I was getting it right from an acting perspective.

I knew

how I know how my dad would act in certain situations, but is it translating properly on the camera?

And I feel like it did.

How did your life change after that?

Well,

I can't watch movies the same.

Movies have been ruined for me.

Every time I watch a movie now, I just think about how it was shot, how long that probably took, this probably sucked.

Like, I was watching

Godzilla vs.

Kong.

And that's a movie you're supposed to just kick back, turn your brain off, man.

And there's a scene where Godzilla flips a ship that kong is still chained up to and somebody has to dive into the water hit the button and all i could think about was do you know how much how annoying diving into that water was 13 times so like that type of stuff is ruined for me but

that's a shame you used to be a film buff right

now i'm like oh man what a nightmare

every time or or i'm impressed but you know

well you're not yeah you're you're not watching the movie you're watching how it was made because uh because it's now your life.

It's funny to hear you say that it's an accident, though.

So, writing for video games, what was that going to be?

Like, what explain to me what writing for video games would have been as a career versus what it is you're presently doing.

Like, what what was the path to

well at USC, what I was really taken in is

the art of storytelling.

You know, the

difference between

a popcorn movie and what they consider cinema.

You know,

what things draw what emotions from people.

The best video games have a story behind them, along with gameplay, because gameplay is important.

But they have a story behind them that sticks with you forever.

When I was in

about 12, 6th grade,

I played a game called Kingdom Hearts.

And a Kingdom Hearts is a mixture of a franchise Final Fantasy and mixed with uh Disney.

And so, on the surface, it's just you know, it looks like a fun kids game, but I have you log in all these hours, like over 80 hours or whatever, uh, whatever the game is, you have this attachment to this character and what they're going through, and you want the best for them.

And when it doesn't work out, it crushes you.

Or when you're left on a cliffhanger, cliffhanger, you're I'm on that cliffhanger forever.

And I wanted to do that for people.

I wanted to create those feelings and those emotions that I'm having that

never let go.

I wanted to do that for other people.

And so it was, I was at USC learning how

the greats did that through that media and doing whatever I can to translate a story of the magnitude of a movie and then form it into a video game.

What's going on in your household that makes it so attracted to storytelling?

Your father and hip-hop, that's all it is, screenwriting, wrestling, like it's

all stories.

Yeah,

I didn't know I wanted to be a screenwriter until probably

nine months before I applied.

Like it wasn't like on my radar.

I was supposed to play for the Lakers Lakers until I was 17 years old.

That's when I called it quits.

But

I had a teacher.

Shout out to Hernan and shout out to Rochelle.

Because these two

mean so much to me.

And I have to hunt them down and find them.

But they were my homeschool teachers.

I was in public school from kindergarten through seventh grade.

Seventh through 11th, I was homeschooled, and then I didn't feel like graduating in the kitchen, so they let me go to Taft.

But

I was a daydreamer.

I understood my schoolwork, and a lot of school work is repetition, and repetition is where I get bored.

So

I was a daydreamer, just zoning out, and I got a notebook dropped in front of me, and he said, whatever you're thinking about, just write it down because you're not here right now.

If I let you write it down, will you come back?

I was like, all right.

So he would give me 30 minutes every day to just write, write, write, write, write, write, write.

And then next thing I know, I had like 120 pages of a handwritten story.

And he would read it, you know, while I was doing my school work.

Then he goes, you ever thought about screenwriting?

No.

You never thought about it.

Like, with your dad, you've never thought about it?

I'm like, no.

And,

you know, my mom showed me like, because she keeps like all our school projects and things like that.

And she showed me like

all these projects that I did, these creative writing projects.

You didn't even know you were a writer.

You were so spaced out through childhood that you get to college not even knowing your mom's showing you the scrapbook.

Yes, you've always been a writer.

Yeah, you've always liked writing.

I'm like, oh, yeah.

It's nice to meet me.

And then

they got me a teacher to teach me how to write scripts, Bill Rubenstein.

And from there, we changed my handwritten story into script form, script form into an application, and I go to USC.

But yeah, I'm oblivious.

A lot of people in the world don't know what they're good at because it comes so easy to them.

They think like the great things are supposed to be hard to do.

But when it comes easy to you, you're not paying attention to it.

There's so many people that don't know what their talent is.

But yeah,

here's this mural I made, but yeah, it's nothing.

Like

you have to pay attention to yourself.

And sometimes it takes people on the outside to show you that mirror.

When you say, here's the mural, do it as much as you can.

What's your

childhood look like?

Like, who are your uncles?

Who's in the house?

What is happening in your childhood when you're the son of a rap star?

First of all, we go to Hawaii like all the time.

So much so that as a kid, I'm like, man, Hawaii again.

Now as an adult, I miss Hawaii.

I missed it.

You miss those writers at USC.

Now you're all grown up and you realize what you missed on them.

I long for Hawaii.

But going to premieres, normal.

Just another reason why I got to get dressed up.

But Slaker games,

really

the things that are still within me, just experiencing them through childhood, always at Staple Center.

Man,

I love Staple Center.

I'm sorry, crypto, but like, it's Staple Center.

So always at Staple Center, whether that be for concerts or games, Kings games, Laker games, or if you're really, really bored, we go to a Clipper game.

And from there,

meeting cool people, you know, running into cool people.

There's not a lot of stars that like...

I'll say like, you know, was one of, you know, the fake uncles,

but Uncle Dr.

Shaq is for sure, my uncle.

um

and yeah i i remember going to my first all-star game getting to meet a lot of great players i remember the first time i met kobe lost my mind it was just one of those things that

you appreciate in the moment but especially now man

i met kobe probably five times and i remember each time and then uh The coolest thing that ever happened is one day my dad picked me up from school, which is that this is grandma territory.

All right, grandma picks us up from school.

So my dad picked me up from school.

That's a big deal.

Yeah, whispers have already flooded through the school to me.

Shit, your dad's here, your dad's here, your dad's here.

So now I'm thinking, what have I done?

I can't, I feel like I'm doing good in school.

What could he possibly be here for?

What did I do?

And so I walk out to school and he's in the nice car.

So we got the four doors and everything.

He's in the two door.

He's in the nice car.

So no, I'm really skeptical.

I get in a car and we start driving and he

asked me about my day.

Normal conversations.

We're definitely not going home because we're going really far.

We're driving all the way to Venice, which for a little kid is very far.

And we sit at this table, at this restaurant, and The Rock walks in.

and sits at the table and just starts talking to my dad.

And you have to give a kid at least 24 hours.

At least 24 hours.

Like, hey, so we're going to have lunch with your hero tomorrow.

Anything.

I was so, for the first time in my life, starstruck.

I couldn't say a single word.

Nothing would come out of my mouth.

And to this day,

like, I have, first of all, he paid.

He got a cheeseburger.

I got a cheeseburger.

I dug that.

I got a root beer.

He got a Diet Coke.

Thought that was weird, but, you know, he's the rock.

He paid for it.

Lady brings him his change, but he walks out, and I stole his quarter.

Just to have it.

Just to have it.

Stole that woman's money.

Yep, for sure.

A crime.

You committed a crime.

That some might say.

You stole that woman's money.

That wasn't your money.

That was the

youth.

That's how the universe works.

That's how the youth of today's universe works.

That is not how that one works.

You stole that woman's money.

I'm here for this, man.

Well, but take me through the Kobe meeting.

I want to talk to you about rock, the rock and wrestling, but are you noticing in the Kobe meeting that Kobe's just as

respectful of your father as your father is of Kobe?

Like, you're understanding the weight that your father has everywhere, right?

Yeah.

Yes and no.

I know,

you know, my dad does music.

My dad does movies.

People love him.

I didn't grasp how much my dad means to people until I was 18.

Like, it took that long of, and

it's just another one of those things.

You don't get it until you really get it.

And when I was 18, I went with my dad on tour.

Me and my older brother Daryl, we worked on crew.

So, you know, we're helping with the crates.

Just anything, helping build the sets with the, you know, the blow-up W's.

We were working as crew, crew, helping him sound check, anything that you know we could do, but we were just on the road,

and that took me all the way to Australia for the first time.

And in Australia, a dude in the crowd,

after we were taking the set list off the stage, a dude in the crowd, you know, waved me over.

He had a card.

So I grabbed the card and he was like, Tell your dad I was, you know, living on the wrong path,

you know, gangs, the whole nine, and listening to his music, I became a doctor.

And I was like, damn, like, that's

wow.

And it kind of hit me that he's my dad, yes, but there are people out in the world that needed him.

And if they didn't have him, who knows where they would be.

And from something he probably wrote in the kitchen, you know, wrote just

not understanding, well, probably believe understanding at that time, but just the things that he sends out are they mean so much those words mean so much that they could be the make or break thing that

leads to a doctor who saves other people's lives that you know and that right there is the moment i knew all right he's a he's a bad man oh my god he knows we're gonna talk here about miller light football's back jeremy and that means miller light is in my belly it's in your it's in your belly i was gonna say stomach but then i wanted to say belly I get it.

It's a bellyaching good time.

Dude, I'm telling you, when Miller Light is in my belly, my belly's happy.

And I'm watching football.

I'm just open that.

And I'm saying, of course, so we're having some Miller Light.

Of course, so.

We are having some Miller Light.

50 years of Miller Light.

God, you look great, Miller Light.

You don't look a day over 30, even though you're 50.

There's something about cracking open that Miller Light with your crew, whether it's a touchdown you didn't see coming or just arguing fantasy lineups you already know you're gonna lose.

Oh my God, fantasy lineups.

That's what I need the most, Miller Light.

I stink stink at fantasy.

Miller Light has been the taste you can depend on for 50 years.

Brewed for flavor with simple ingredients, rich toffee notes, and that iconic golden color.

And here's the kicker, just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

It's really amazing.

The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting different five decades later.

Miller Light, great taste, 96 calories.

Go to millerlight.com slash beach to find delivery options near you.

Or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

It's Miller time.

Celebrate responsibly.

Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces

this episode is brought to you by progressive insurance do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game well with the name your price tool from progressive you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills try it at progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Price and coverage match limited by state law.

Not available in all states.

You probably get a lot of this.

I am of his age, so I will tell you that I'm in college.

I'm a freshman at the University of Miami amid those University of Miami football teams that would end up feeling a lot like the Raiders teams that he loves or grew up on when he was like just loving the renegade spirit of things.

And all I'm playing is straight out of Compton as a freshman in college, and it's introducing me to something culturally that I simply have had no access to.

Like you're opening up a window to the world on the East Coast where I'm in the middle of black sports rebellion and, you know, the rebellion of hip-hop music at its at its edgiest and most aggressive.

I'm being introduced to culture through your father, basically.

Yeah, and it's

that right there, bringing awareness, being the voice of the voiceless, having everyone kind of,

let's look into that.

You know, that's where the power really started where you even got government officials listening in you know and

you don't see that when you're the kid like you don't recognize it and even doing the film

in my mind these are stories i've heard all the time

getting the perspective of what other people like not from the just the ice cube side really kind of warped my brain around what was really happening.

And to think my dad at that time was 16 17 it's wild what do you know about that time in its life and like what do you know about obviously you've researched extensively for the movie you got to feel like you really know what your

what your father's growth was

i mean you know you you won't know the day by day but i i know growing up in his house you know he had

Both his parents hard workers and he wanted that for himself.

He's the you know the youngest of his siblings.

And

I look at my little brother Sharif and he's got the most discipline out of any of us.

That dude is a machine.

So I can only imagine what the younger version of my dad was.

And man, I'm grateful for it.

And I'm sure there are some crazy times that I'm so glad he survived because I don't know if you know this.

But the 80s was insane.

I don't know how any of y'all got through it.

It doesn't make sense.

The 80s was the wild, wild woman.

Well, I mean, you know his stories.

You know all of his stories.

It's a bit of a miracle in a number of different ways that he got to where it is that he got.

God bless the latchkey kids.

Wherever y'all are, I'm so happy y'all made it.

Was there a lot of discipline in the house?

Like, what was

you're getting to college daydreaming and not having had to suffer or sacrifice very much, right?

I mean, in the

don't be bad, all right, because you're getting disciplined.

But my parents always said, if you handle your business,

get whatever you want.

And my business as a kid is school in your room.

I was terrible at the room one.

I was really good at school.

And so my parents never really had to get on me until they saw some slip-ups.

If they see, when they see it, they attack it.

I

sixth grade going into seventh grade.

It was my first time ever going to summer school.

Now, the thing with me wasn't that I didn't understand the work or I couldn't like comprehend what I was reading because when I got to summer school, the two classes that I was there for, I ended up with A's in both classes.

And I had one of the teachers ask me, what are you doing here?

It's hard for me to

have six teachers.

Like, it was six different personalities six people like you might be having a good day you might be having a bad day and just i it's just i can't focus that way i need a one-on-one teacher you know i take in information better in a one-on-one setting so when i that was able to you know be compressed a little bit

i got the ae

so then

That led to the homeschooling.

I got a one-on-one teacher.

I'm killing it, crushing it.

So

that was the only time they saw a slip up and

I sacrificed public school.

That was my biggest sacrifice.

When you go to

your only school is the only girl in your school is your sister.

That's terrible.

I love my sister, Dan.

I went to an all-boys high school.

I was ill-equipped for college.

I was not, I had no training on how to just talk to a person who was not male.

Didn't know how to do it.

Didn't know how to do it.

Yeah, so that, I mean, that was probably the biggest one.

yeah anytime they saw slippage in me handling my business and it's that mindset that i still have it's just you got to handle business handle business first you know even now

being an adult having the success that i do i don't go out i don't do any of the things that would affect me handling my business okay but you're i feel like you're skipping over some stuff where yeah of course don't be bad and there's an understanding you're going to be responsible your dad is to be feared and respected.

Your mom is to be feared and respected, but

you still came upon discipline.

Like you, you, your, your, your little brother is very disciplined, like something was happening in the household.

A little rare for a Hollywood family to be together that long, for it to be stable, functioning.

Like, it's not the most normal of things.

Yeah, I think it

stems from a

there's a part of me that the part of me that stays disciplined, or the, you know whether it be the the drive and in my little brother

it's just the the choices that we make when it affects the way that we like to live it just you just have to turn it off and that it starts with you you know you can't nobody else is going to do it for you that's what we always were taught nobody else is going to do it for you and if you don't If you don't like it, if you're not willing to change it, then you're choosing it.

And

yeah, I guess that's where it stems from: is not wanting to let them down or each other down.

We were such a tight family unit.

Anything, we were so

we were terrible at like family talks because we don't want to hurt the other one's feelings.

Like, we're such a tight-knit family that way.

So, I can't even put a real finger on it besides not wanting to let each other down.

What are the cons of working with family?

You don't want to let them down.

I still haven't really worked with him though When we started straight out of Compton He was doing right along two

so when in the beginning He was a an iPad floating around set like there was a somebody holding an iPad of him so he can check things out But by the time he got there I had my feet wet already.

I was I was rocking and so then it became just like a player coach type thing, but I really want to do a film with him and like really work with him and

See how that feels.

I'll tell you one thing.

We used to do I used to I probably got three songs with my dad.

That's crazy.

I like writing.

I like

I like the aspect of thinking of something that you weren't thinking of.

But like writing a song, I'd rather pull my hair out.

I can't write a song.

Like I, for whatever, I just get in my head.

Is it catchy enough?

That's not for me.

So that a lot of my choice to go into movies was because it's just not fun for me.

So do music.

It's just not fun.

Movies, I have fun.

For sure.

Three songs?

Yeah, I think.

It's

she couldn't make it on her own.

And then I think we did another one that's like

an ensemble of like four or five artists.

And I'm pretty sure I did a song with him on one of his albums.

No,

it was a song that we had that didn't get released.

But that's it, yeah.

And then I tried the music thing, but I just didn't have the love for it like I do with film where I'm passionate about it to the point of like being competitive.

Because I I if you're gonna rap, rap to be be the best.

Don't rap to just like,

you know, make a quick buck.

I wanted to be taken serious in whatever I chose.

And with music, I don't think I'm going to take my family name to any higher than what it is.

In movies, though,

I feel like

I can get some new roles for us.

Did you have any imposter syndrome after the first difficult month?

No, I was locked in.

I still do get a little bit of imposter syndrome because

I,

my biggest flaw, Dan, is that I don't know how great I really am.

I'll sit in the trailer first day of work on every project and I'll be reading all the things I have to do.

And then it sets in of just like, what the hell am I doing here?

Like, what am I doing here?

They're going to find out they picked the wrong guy.

This is about to be terrible.

Why did I choose to do this?

And then I get my feet wet.

I'm like, oh man, we're going to crush this.

We're going to kill this.

And it just, it just happens.

It's the first day of school.

It's all those things creep into your head when something is new.

And

I don't think I want to get out of that because it keeps me on my toes.

But let me put you in two scenarios.

So I put you between

50 Cent and Gerard Butler on Den of Thieves.

You feel like you belong?

Yeah.

Gerard is intimidating,

but at that point, I was just so happy to be doing it.

This is my third movie ever.

So I was just so happy to be there.

I was like, yeah, let's do it.

I got to shoot guns.

Not in the movie.

But they made me weapons train anyway.

And

yeah, I had Angry Goes West, had Sundance.

I was feeling good with myself at that time.

Okay, so, but I want to get to the next one where I'm not going to believe you if you tell me, even as if you have your father's confidence, Michael B.

Jordan and Jamie Foxx.

Man, I'm not even really in that movie.

I'm not even really messing with them.

I got to meet Mike and Brie Larson one time.

I don't even see Jamie.

But

your name is in lights around them.

Yeah, I just, in that moment,

no.

In that moment, it's like, all right, it's a great that we're in this.

And in those situations, my thought process is: when you're on camera, you got to steal it.

You got to steal it.

You have to stand out because you're around Titans right now.

You got to steal it.

And

how I've always looked at it or given an example.

When you're not the lead, okay, when you're not the guy that necessarily is is pushing the movie

everybody wants to be Luke Skywalker Han Solo gets the girl Han Solo gets the car Han Solo gets the sidekick with Chewy Han Solo's pretty dope when you're

everybody wants to be Woody

Buzz Lightyear is the coolest toy in the world so if you gotta

support just make sure you steal the show whether that be

10th on the call sheet or number two on the call sheet, wherever, if you steal the show, if you stand out,

you'll do good for yourself.

And there was a scene where I shake Jamie's hand.

I stole that scene from him.

I ate you up, Jamie.

I ate you up, bro.

Stole that.

That shake.

You saw that shake holding back tears?

No, nothing about that.

He still is haunted by that.

It's as memorable as as

Schwartz and Acre and Ventura and Predator.

The way that you shook his hand, he underestimated you because he thought that

he put his guard down for a second and you took it from him.

I thought it was sweet around here.

Tell me the best stories around Cocaine Bear.

How I got it is pretty funny.

So I'm on Twitter a lot.

Some might say too much.

I don't listen to them.

So

I saw Elizabeth Banks get the rights to Cocaine Bear.

I'm like, all right, this is probably a movie about some runner they call the bear.

No, not at all.

It's about a bear on cocaine.

100%.

So I retweeted it and I said, just take my money now.

You know, I'm on my way.

And she saw the tweet, hits them like, hey, I think we could get O'Shea.

So I get a call like, hey, you want to be in it?

Yeah.

So they sent me the the script.

And, you know, this is, this is why I love Elizabeth Banks.

Nobody can ever tell me anything about Elizabeth Banks because I'm reading the script.

And I couldn't help but notice on page 96, Elizabeth,

I don't make it.

I die.

She was like, you don't want to die?

I was like, no.

No, I don't want to die.

She said, all right, you don't die.

That was it.

That's not usually how those conversations go.

She was so chill.

she was like all right uh well carrie russell plays like a nurse so like we'll just say she saves you that's how you try to get cocaine bear too dan that's how you do it folks congratulations that's excellent work there all right you're making you're making it look really easy in hollywood it's unusual you got to do is ask what they're going to tell you no hey

But you hadn't read the script or anything.

No, no, I read it.

I read it, but I just didn't.

And I didn't even die by the bear.

I get shot by Ray Liota.

And so I was like, Yeah,

I can't do that.

Elizabeth was like, You don't have to.

That's why I love Elizabeth Banks.

The last time we talked to you on our show, you were explaining that you had called your father from the set.

They were making you wait a long time, and he told you to just leave.

And you're like, I'm not you.

I can't

just leave.

What are some of the things that you would say you have learned from your upbringing?

Knowing your worth, knowing, like

I'm, I'm respectful, I'm easy to work with, but I'm not a pushover.

Like, know when you're being played, know when

to trust your instincts a little bit of, like, this doesn't feel right.

And

at that time in my life, on the first Dennett Thieves, third film ever, I was so bent on

good report cards.

You know, good report cards.

Don't make waves.

Everybody already thinks that you're just coming here

thinking you're the man anyway.

In actuality, I just want to work and I am happy to be here.

You don't have to be happy to be here after a while.

You know, after a while, you got to know that they need you right now.

And

they don't...

They could not want you, but they still need you.

So it took some time.

It took

a lot of different sets a lot of ways how people work on things and and

learning you know learning through trial by fire but then you get to a point where like no

it's cool to say no it's cool to be like that doesn't work for me

and at the end of the day filmmaking is a collaborative effort to make a you know a beautiful project and you got to make sure you get yours too And so

I don't wait around no more.

You know, I'm 10 years in, baby.

I got some

veteran privileges.

And it's also not nearly as glamorous as people think it is, right?

You're waiting around a lot.

There's a lot of boredom in it.

The movie is great.

Making it's an effort.

And also,

I know as an actor,

You know, you're the one in front of the camera.

If the movie's bad, they don't really think about, well, who wrote this?

No, they think about, like, yo, that O'Shea movie was terrible.

And so, yeah, you're the face of the watch, but the gears that make the watch, that really, like, I'm in movies, the people who are making the movies, those people got my utmost respect.

I'm, I'm, every crew I've ever worked with, I made sure that I'm approachable, that I thank them for what they do because they really have the less glamorous spot.

And when the movie is terrible, they're not really blamed.

But when the movie is amazing, they're not really applauded either.

So shout out to the gears of the watch, man.

Every department, everybody, whether it's costumes arguing with sound.

or props arguing with costumes because the watch is a prop.

It's not really a piece of clothing, hair and makeup, everybody, the grips, everybody who Transpo, especially, shout out to Transpo, but all those guys, man, those guys are

really making the movie.

Can you really not turn off your brain and just watch a movie and say, I enjoyed that anymore?

You're thinking about costume design and how it is.

You're now looking at the, you're not telling the time, you're looking at the pieces of the watch.

Yeah.

The last time I got to really like

where I was like, I'm not even, you know, I'm being a fan was Deadpool Wolverine.

Deadpool Wolverine, I'm just like, I just enjoyed the ride, you know, and it was a,

that was a fun experience, man.

I sat front row in a theater.

I haven't done that forever.

So you were transported.

It's probably the child in you a little bit.

I finally got to be a child.

You probably know too much at this point.

I know too much, man.

I've seen some things.

That's funny, though.

You can't be, it's really hard to transport you in a movie.

It's

it's like the mechanics of it are too fascinating to you and even even

like i look at acting different

because of jason mitchell jason mitchell who played easy e and straight out of compton he's the one who taught me how to look at acting like a sport instead of just

playing pretend

uh

Because we, you know, we walk, we'll watch something together and he was like, man, he killed him.

Or like, man, he got him right there.

Or just like, he looks at it like boxing.

And so when

I see two actors going toe-to-toe, I'm like, man, that was a good round.

Like, you know, so it's just that competitive spot.

And that's not how you're really, you shouldn't be going into a scene like, I'm about to kill this dude.

You should, you're only focused on you.

But it's just something about

a scene where somebody either has a monologue or something where you're like, man, he crushed.

And you can see it almost like you can see a dunk.

And

that's where you really, as a peer, start to become fans of people.

Competition and sports, your father's a bit of an insane person when it comes to just fans.

They're living with Dr.

Seuss, Dan.

His fandom is crazy.

The business entrepreneurship of what he's...

Done, I'm not going to say trying to do, but I know what he's trying to do and how he's trying to do it.

It just seems like ambition that's not necessary at this point in your life, hardship that's not necessary.

Why the work ethic?

Why is it important for you to work hard when you don't have to?

He,

because he hasn't stopped working.

He hasn't stopped working.

And also,

I feel like we're, I'm not nowhere near where I want to be.

And even when I get there, I'm going to want something else.

I

was at a point in my career, 2019, in October.

I was in my apartment.

Little did I know the whole world was going to change the next year.

But I was in my apartment.

I might have had,

I might have been a little inebriated, perhaps.

I'm an American citizen.

I'm fine.

You're allowed to be a little inebriated in your home.

A couple of libations.

Maybe a lot inebriated.

You're also allowed to be a lot inebriated.

So I'm in my apartment

and I was kind of down on myself.

I felt like my career was a little stagnant, like I had plateaued.

And it's because

I don't need much.

I don't need much to make myself happy.

So I'm happy, but I became content and I wanted more for myself.

And so I started having these thoughts and these emotions and scrolling through Twitter.

And then something told me,

Kobe follows you.

DM Kobe.

Kobe's retired.

Kobe's been, you know, retired for three years now.

And he got up, won an Oscar.

He's about to do the.

That's when he had the children's book out and the body armor thing and the mama academy.

And so I hit Kobe and I was like, dude,

you've done everything.

And you still get up and you still want more.

What

pushes you?

I feel like I'm stuck.

So what pushes you?

Give me some books.

Give me some mantras, some movies.

He gave me his number.

Now I'm drunk.

Okay, whoa, it's escalated since we were talking.

It was maybe inebriated.

I'm a little bit more.

No, you know, you're slurring in your hammer.

I am drunk.

And my first thought was, I cannot talk to Kobe right now.

I cannot talk to Kobe.

This can't be my first phone call with Kobe.

This is my hero.

And so I text him.

I was like, hey, I got you locked in.

I'm like, please don't call me.

He was like, I'll call you in a couple days.

And so

from there,

call me in a couple of days.

I'm waiting, waiting, waiting.

You're waiting for the call.

Yeah.

So

I he said, I'll call you in a couple days.

A couple days is very vague.

So I'm like, all right.

So I'm just waiting every day for Kobe to call.

And I did a table read

for

this show that worked but kind of didn't work.

But I got two of my best friends from it called the now.

And

I'm driving, I'm riding in the Uber.

And then my phone rings.

It says, goat.

It says goat.

and I'm like, oh my god, today is the day.

So I tell the driver, hey, can you turn down the radio?

I got to talk to Kobe.

And he goes, Kobe Bryant?

I said, yeah, man.

You had to brag to the Uber driver.

Keep it quiet in here, right?

Kobe Bryant is about to talk to me.

So I talked to Kobe.

And

Kobe told me

that feeling of I haven't done enough or that I all the accomplishments that I have don't mean much and that

like just how hard I am on myself, keep it.

Keep that.

He said, that's what I feel every day.

I feel like we're not done or I feel like I ain't done nothing.

And this dude won five championships, MVP.

Gold medalists, all the nines, the all-star games, all of that.

Nothing.

Doesn't mean nothing.

He said that he paces, I pace as well, throughout his house.

Like you just,

your mind is always working and you have to hold on to that feeling if you want to keep going forward.

We talked about our dads making the decision to go in our father's footsteps.

He told me that your parents are never going to want you to go through anything.

And you got to ignore that.

You got to do stuff for you sometimes and see where you're going to end up from it.

Whether that be learning that, all right, maybe we shouldn't do that, or you might like where you end up,

but they're always going to want to protect you because that's their job.

So, you got to know when, like, you got to do something for me, and you got to know when to take that advice because they're the people that are going to love you the most.

And we talked for

24-25 minutes, and then uh

hung up and you know all right man talk to you later some text here and there i ran into him at a just mercy screening philadelphia and that was like um

like november i think so all this is like from october 2019 january 2020 he was gone

and if i

didn't have

even though it's a bit of a liquid courage if i didn't didn't have that courage to hit Kobe,

I would have never had that conversation with him and I would have never had those words with Kobe.

So I

can't let Kobe down.

He had to tell me that, you know, he had to tell me that.

So I have to hold on to this feeling.

And so far,

it's helped me

make some some good decisions.

I've run into some wild decisions, but it uh it's just something from him that I'll I'll always hold on to.

CRM was supposed to improve customer relationships.

Instead, it's shorthand for customer rage machine.

Your CRM can't explain why a customer's package took five detours, reboot your inner piece, and scream into a pillow.

It's okay.

On the ServiceNow AI platform, CRM stands for something better.

AI agents don't just track issues, they resolve them, transforming the entire customer experience.

So breathe in and breathe out.

That CRM was then.

This is Service Now.

People don't understand how hard it is to make a successful living in here, correct?

Like, they assume you've been in a movie, therefore he's going to have 30 years of movies, right?

Yeah, no.

After I just straight out of Compton, I didn't work for a year.

No one called.

There was a couple of script offers, but nobody cared.

Nobody called.

Nobody?

No, dude.

I mean, you crushed it.

My God.

Thank you.

I'm like, my phone about to blow up.

It's, you know, yada, yada, yada.

And I'm just sitting waiting.

We got a couple of nibbles with like some scripts, but I'm like,

whack.

So, like, I, but you think at this point, you're assuming, right?

You're as soon as this movie gets to 200 million or you're hearing the numbers.

Yeah, I'm some, where are the offers?

How I got to get more agents, right?

And so

I had reached a point where I was confused

and

I had to go out and get something.

And I had a movie kind of fall in my lap.

You know, um,

I went to some award show where I was presenting and I saw Aubrey Plaza in the green room.

And I'm going to go talk to Aubrey.

And then these two lovely ladies stop me and tell me that their grandson loved Straight Auto Compton and yada yada yada.

And we take the picture and Aubrey's gone.

So then I go on Twitter, as I do.

and talk about how I almost met Aubrey Plaza.

So the night's going great.

And she sees that, hits me, it's like, hey I got this film um I kind of need you to do it I was like I'm not sure that's how it works but uh let's set up a meeting so

she gives me her number I text her I say hey it's Batman she goes great exclamation point exclamation point

and then from there we set up a meeting at some bar that neither of us knew and she goes how did you like the script i said what script she said the script i sent you so you you didn't send me a script.

What's my email if you sent me a script?

So she goes, look, she goes, why did you tell me you were Batman?

I was like,

I don't know, man.

I was trying to be cool.

I'm Batman.

I don't know.

She goes, your dude in the movie is obsessed with Batman.

So I told everybody that you said yes.

All right.

Now I got to do it.

Like, now I have to do it.

That's too funny.

And that was Angry Goes West.

Wait, wait a minute.

You You got to be shitting me.

You couldn't get work.

You couldn't get work?

There was no...

You were typecast as he looks like Ice King.

Of course he could play his dad.

Of course he could play his dad.

Jason and Corey got to do Skull Island.

I was furious.

It was like EZE and Dr.

Dre are in King Kong, and here I am just watching the account get lower.

So

I was hot.

So this lovely movie, Inger Goes West, by the grace of God, I get Inger Goes West.

Inger Goes West takes me to Sundance.

I get variety hats.

Wait a minute.

Was your career dead?

Bro, I was done.

I was about to be on Sepulner.

I was done.

Your career was dead out of crushing it in straight out of Compton.

You thought

you were getting cruddy scripts.

A lot of horror.

No disrespect to the horror community.

Not really a lot of awards there.

And like, man.

I was hot, bro.

I was hot for a year, scared to death.

I mean, but how could you not be?

That doesn't even make any sense.

It doesn't make sense because it's like, of course, he can play his dad.

What are we going to do?

Just find a movie where we can't get his dad and make him do it?

So, like.

But even in that, there's a career.

No, I was done.

I was done.

It was over.

If it wasn't for Ingrid's West, Matt Spicy.

But how is that even?

Wait a minute.

But how is that even possible?

Like, clearly, anybody watching Straight Up Compton could say that is well acted.

Like, he's never mind that my introduction to you was like, holy shit, how does that look so much like Ice Cube when he was younger?

Like, how is that possible?

That's my introduction to you.

But how does Hollywood not notice?

No, he's, and Hollywood marketing agents of a certain age that would have grown up as I did on Straight Out of Compton would have also been like, that's good acting.

Dude, I have no, I got no clue.

The only people that I like, I would have my meetings and they would go nowhere or I would do auditions.

Shout out to Carmen Cuba.

I love you forever.

But I would have my, you know, auditions.

You rarely get auditions, bro.

I'm going to just be real.

Like, it's such a rarity to get those anyway.

But I was doing the audition thing, doing all that.

But the only people that, the only thing that had a little like, okay, this might be something was

Dennett Thieves.

So Christian Gudegas was somebody who was looking for me after Straight Art of Compton.

And Angry Goes West, bro.

After that,

anybody was looking for me.

And so it's not just like a set thing to do.

So take me through what is the funniest or most embarrassing of the rejections in retrospect when you think you're going to catapult now to stardom and instead you're nine months in and you got to, you know, meet somebody at whatever, at a diner to be told that you can't have this sixth role.

There was a

there was a movie that was supposed to do with my boy Thomas Middleditch that never got off the ground at Fox.

I forget the name of it.

If he was here, he'd tell me.

There's also a situation where

the reason why Carmen Cuba.

All right, she's a

casting director.

And I love Carmen Cuba because Carmen Cuba is so real with me.

I was auditioning for Alien Covenant.

And

she

in the middle, like after I do one audition, the second time going around, she goes, Shay,

have you seen Alien?

Yeah.

So, what happens in every alien?

I said, you know,

aliens hit the ship, and then she goes, and then

what's at the end?

So, oh, yeah, there's usually a lady that's the only survivor.

She said, exactly, you don't want to die yet.

I said, oh, yeah, I did tell you that.

Like, yeah, you're going to die horribly in this.

So is this what you want to do?

No.

Have a good day, Shaq.

Thanks, Carmen.

Thank you so much.

And

she just looks out.

So that was probably my funniest audition.

But

man, I've auditioned for plenty of films.

I auditioned for the Han Solo film.

Got real close.

Real close.

But my man.

My man Donald Glover got it.

God bless him.

He's pretty good, too.

Pretty good, dude.

He's super talented.

Like, he's super talented.

But, like, for about three months, took every song off my phone.

Every single.

Every single vengeance.

Just straighten it.

You know, it's just something about him.

But no, now.

And you had a lot of Traveller Scambino you were playing?

Yeah.

I love Travis Gambino.

I love

Glover since he did Derek Comedy on YouTube.

Like, I'm a fan of him.

But you hate him right now.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I love him.

I'm saying right now.

Yeah, at that time.

Competitive year.

Trying to be Lando Calrissi Yeah.

Couldn't stand it.

Hated his guts.

Something else I think you couldn't stand was your name for how long?

O'Shea.

O'Shea was not a name you liked, right?

I mean, it's...

I've always, I have liked my name.

It just hasn't.

It's just hard when you're trying to make a name for yourself and you...

Got the guy's name, looked like the guy, and your first job is playing the guy.

So it has its challenges, but i've never met actually i take that back because i have met another o'shea and i wanted to kill him i was like what what do you mean they're like yeah my name's o'shea too you think i give a damn so

like you're named after my dad there's no way your mom was like let me get this name of irish descent and just pass it on to your black ass so

yeah i didn't like i didn't like that like

you at one time you didn't like being the only o'shea and then you get to 17 years old, and you...

I'm the man.

I don't mean the only one.

I'm the only one you know.

No disrespect if you see this, but me and my dad to go to a Celtics game because Jalen Brown is a friend of my dad's.

And

so we said courtside at a disgusting Boston Celtics versus Houston Rockets game.

I am in Laker gear head to toe courtside because, you know.

And they had a dude named O'Shea on the team.

He said, my name's O'Shea, too.

I could have threw my chair.

Give a damn.

I don't care, man.

You Celtic.

If he was a Laker, he'd be really cool.

But no, man.

Yeah.

Y'all are named after my dad.

I don't even know where my name came from.

I was like,

my grandmother, I was like, where did...

O'Shea, like, where did, what was either that or Orinthal?

So I just shut the hell up, Dan.

Why is it between

Muhammad and McLovin?

How did we get down here?

So I just tell people my name came from a hat.

They just pulled it out.

But you don't actually know the story.

No, no.

But it was better than Orinthal.

That's a better story.

Yes, that is correct.

What a coin flip for me.

Is your father's shadow in any way a burden?

Because you always speak of it so reverently,

eloquently.

You're always loving and kind.

Is it a shadow that you have at any point wanted out from under?

It's a shadow.

Shadow is like, is a third-party ideology.

When you're in it, you don't think like that.

And when you start to listen to other people, you think that you're supposed to.

You think that like you're supposed to think like the whole the coattails, the shadow, that all that, the mountain to climb, all that is it doesn't exist the only thing that exists

is

Your family's name

and I look at my family's name and my or legacy whatever you want to call it I look at it as like a physical thing that I have to push forward so that this name goes further through time than just this one individual.

And that is a torch torch that you just have to keep passing on and so that's what i i don't look at it like a shadow i look at it like this jackson name is going to reach everywhere it has reached mountains so high in music and i feel like we can go higher in movies so that's what i'm gonna do and i want

adam sandler god bless him

Adam Sandler took an MTV award from my dad one time, and I hated his guts immediately.

Love Adam Sandler, but I really wanted that popcorn.

And when my dad wins awards, he brings them home, and I get to look at them, and I really wanted that MTV popcorn.

I know, prestigious, I know,

but when straight out of Compton happened, it just happened to fall on the 25th anniversary of the MTV movie awards.

And that popcorn I wanted since I was a kid.

The first time that it went through my family's doors, it had my name on it.

And that meant something to me.

So that right there, I was like, every award

that they

wouldn't give my guy, I'm going to go and grab them.

So that's, that's,

there's no shadow.

It's only pushing the name.

And I'm, I, I got the name in Star Wars right now.

I got the name in Godzilla.

I got, I got our name in places it hasn't been before, and I want to continue to do that.

Can you explain to me why and where all of that comes from?

Like the need to push your father's name forward as your father is a symbol for black pride, for black excellence, for pride and excellence in general.

Like the can you explain it to me?

Why is it so important to you?

My name, too,

Junior.

There's no heavier two letters in the alphabet put together than J.R.

And he's even had moments where he has thought about, you know,

me having my own

identity, which I still feel that I do.

We're vastly different people, but still the same ideologies about how you're represented or how you look, because the things that we do in the

media that we

are both in, the things that we do are going to be out there forever.

They don't go away.

So it has to be something that when you look back, you can be proud of.

And

i'm not cowering away from the the challenge and it's important

because if you push when a name has weight

things move for it and the more i can add weight to that that physical thing

it'll make things easier for my daughter it'll make things easier for my my

siblings when

you have one titan

carrying the name, doing all those things, if you can have two, now you,

then you get a third.

Like, you know, so I just have to keep it going forward.

And with my kid, I'm not,

if she don't want to do entertainment, that's not going to do anything to me.

Entertainment is, it kind of sucks.

Kind of sucks.

It's a blessing, but there's just certain things people don't understand when they're on the outside that

your privacy, that's your sacrifice.

It's gone.

The mistakes you made, magnified everywhere.

You can be the main character of the internet, which is scary as hell.

You never be the main character of the internet.

So it is,

it's a jellyfish.

It's beautiful to look at.

It looks amazing.

You get wrapped up in it.

It will kill you.

So if my kid doesn't want to do entertainment, I'm not going to put that on her.

But whatever she does decide to do,

I'm going to help with it.

But as far as this business, I have to push this name forward as far as I can to make life easier for her.

Her name's Jordan, right?

Jordan.

No pressure of name there, right?

She's not named after Michael.

No,

her real name's Kobe Jordan.

Yeah, I know.

Her real name.

Listen.

Listen.

What her name is.

What an asshole.

What an asshole her father is.

Her name's Kobe Jordan.

You didn't do that.

Her name's Elizabeth.

You didn't do that.

Her name is Kobe Jordan.

But

when she was born, her mom had a dog named Kobe, so she she didn't want to put the Kobe on it.

But like, we both know, like,

so when she's 18, I'm going to explain to her this story.

So I'm like, if you want to go get your name, go get your name.

Your name is Kobe Jordan.

I'm having a tweet about it.

You've mentioned a couple of times now that your father's got you in music, but you're coming after him in movies.

I suspect in the home, if I know anything about the trash-talking family around sports at all that you've shown me from the outside, I suspect you've already told your father that if you have not surpassed him, you will surpass him in movie making.

Do I have that wrong?

Are you too respectful to do that?

He's such a, he's my biggest fan.

He's my biggest fan.

He, when I did straight out of Compton, he said,

it's like watching my son win the Super Bowl with my team, you know?

So he's so happy for me, but I will say,

when I got Godzilla, he did just happen to switch agencies.

I'm just saying.

But

he's my biggest support.

He's always had my back.

But

between you and I, don't tell anybody else.

It's just you and me here.

You got to get that fourth Dennet Thieves.

He's had, like, he's done trilogies.

I don't think he's done a fourth one on anything.

Got to get that fourth Denneth.

Take him out.

Yeah.

Take him out.

Anyway, yeah.

Good talk.

Make Kobe Jordan proud of her father.

Last question on the way out.

I will tell the people again, his passion project of the moment is the podcast, no contest wrestling, your obsession with wrestling, your need to have a microphone and speak of the daily storylines.

Where does it come from?

And why is it so important to you?

Why does it matter?

I've just always, I've always been a fan.

And me and my friends,

we have like

pay-per-view watch parties.

Like we like wrestling is like our thing.

It's been our thing.

And

when the strike happened, when the actor's strike happened, it was immediately after I finished filming Dennett Thieves 2.

And I had a show

out

called Swagger.

Kevin Durant produced Apple TV, the whole nine.

Loosely based on him, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Things had to change because of the pandemic, so it was like, yeah, but it's very loosely on him

so the second season aired during the strike we can't promote like SAG rules we can't promote any of our work

so it just happened to be you know just word of mouth of people telling people where to find it and yada yada yada but none of us can retweet it none of us can speak on it and we kind of just had to watch it just

do something on your own hopefully because you know respect to Apple, but they don't put trailers on a lot of things.

It's not a lot of like,

go here to see this show from Apple.

The

marketing just is just not there.

And so when Swagger happened, we're just kind of watching it.

It got up to Apple's top four.

So we're like, all right, let's go.

You know, we're so happy for it.

And then they canceled us.

And so it was like, wow.

And now those phone calls or those, that thought process of another season is gone.

And I'm not really having any meetings with movies because everybody's on strike.

So

they're just fizzling out.

Plans that I had to do other shows, gone.

Eight months, no income.

Every job that you had lined up, slowly dying in front of you.

And I was scared.

I got scared again.

That fear, that will put that internal fire I was telling you about, that fear will put that right in you.

And I was scared again.

And so I

had to look at

what am I good at?

Like I said, the things that you're talented at or the things that you could probably make a career out of is something you're not really paying attention to.

So I had to look inward.

What do I do every day that doesn't feel like work?

I talk shit on Twitter.

I talk shit on Twitter about wrestling every day for free.

So let's get paid to do that.

And

so I was just going to go on like Twitch or some shit with my sister and just like ramble about wrestling and do it that way.

But then, by the grace of God, Rich Eisen, Rich Eisen called and was like, hey, so I'm putting together a couple of different podcasts for the network.

And, you know, TJ.

Jefferson, my tag team partner, my dog,

he suggested you for a wrestling show.

And at first,

I wanted to do something with my sister.

So

I had plans with her, so I didn't want to do it.

He was like, all right, well, if you change your mind.

About a couple months later, he called back and was like, I need you.

We got to do this.

TJ won't.

budge.

He says you you got the motion.

You know what you're talking about.

He thinks you can do it.

So I was like, all right, I'll do it.

We worked out a deal.

We found a way.

And, you know, I'm grateful for my man TJ.

And we have our balance.

You know, I'm more of the new school.

He's more of the old school.

He's a little bit calmer than I am.

I'm a little aggressive.

I admit it.

You have to admit these things.

And

I've loved every minute of it.

And we've got some motion in these wrestling streets.

Tony Khan invited TJ out to their pay-per-view, all in.

Triple H is, me and him have had our rapport.

He's invited me to a Saturday night main event.

I'm going to go to Survivor Series.

I'm going to miss SummerSlam because it's close to my daughter's birthday and I'll play that shit.

I'm a good dad.

And so, and then Mania, they've hooked us up with Mania, Royal Rumble.

And so it's been a beautiful thing.

I've gotten to meet a lot of cool people.

Definitely will say, hanging out with a bunch of fit people all the time has really gotten me into working out.

And if I ever get to the point where I, like Luca Dodcic, am on the cover of men's health i'm gonna tell the truth working out sucks it's garbage and you should do it that's probably what the that's what the cover sucks okay that's what you got for men's fitness uh you're you're looking at those eight months though those stayed with you huh those eight months of no money when you thought

Everything's going to work out again.

But you didn't think everything was going to work out.

You thought those eight months, it was going to be raining money and opportunities.

Never mind no money money and opportunities.

No money.

And

it's just how the game is.

Even right now, Den of Thieves 2,

January, number one movie in the country, two weeks, all of that.

And right now, I'm just focused on wrestling.

Don't let it bother you.

And the big fish will come.

But I'm hitting up these indies, baby, because of Ingrid goes west.

That scary time after Straight Out of Compton, Ingrid's West.

That indie changed my life.

If it wasn't for Inger Girls West,

I wouldn't get Obi-Wan Kenobi if it wasn't for Angry Girls West.

Those are words Deborah Chow told me.

But that was total luck.

Like, it's total luck that.

That's all entertainment is, baby.

Right place, right place.

But that's legitimately.

You thought you had bad luck because somebody wanted to take a picture with you.

And then largely a misunderstanding becomes I have to take this role, whether I want it or not.

Yeah.

It was great, though.

Yeah, that is.

And they let me do my thing in that.

Shout out to Angry Girls West.

No contest wrestling is the name of the podcast.

He is delightful.

Thank you for sharing that delight with us.

Wait.

Uh-oh, what's happening here?

Got you a gift, man.

You got me a gift?

Oh, thank you.

Look at this.

Ice Cube bobblehead night.

Ice cube.

I understand it.

But wait a minute.

This doesn't look like Ice Cube.

Who is this here?

Come on, man.

Listen, I don't know what the factory got.

But they put the moles on his ice cube, baby.

Put them eyebrows.

Yeah.

Pick me up.

Wait a minute.

Hold on, bro.

I don't mean to be mean about a gift, but that looks more like a slimmed-down Gabriel Iglesias than it does like you or your father.

I don't know what they do with the bobblehead factory, but here's a limited edition Dodger bobblehead.

Enjoy.

I am being rude by not accepting your gift.

Why have you given me a bobblehead of a Mexican man

in a Dodger

uniform?

Listen, I'm not going to say he said the same thing,

but we are grateful.

We are grateful.

I was moved by your father walking out onto the field representing Los Angeles World Series.

And you've told me these people have made him.

It's been a great conversation.

Thank you, sir.

Always, man.