Actors And Writers With Brian Austin Green

As a winter storm sweeps across the United States, bringing heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain from the Southern Rockies and Plains through the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, we hope everyone stays warm and safe. Today, we're excited to welcome Brian Austin Green, a talented actor who's been a familiar face on television for over thirty years. He's most popular for his role as David Silver on "Beverly Hills 90210." With an impressive list of credits, including Smallville, Desperate Housewives, CSI, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Brian joins us to share his thoughts on writers from an actor’s perspective. So, cozy up, add another log to the fire, and enjoy the show!  

Executive Producer Kristin Overn
Creator/Executive Producer Sandy Adomaitis
Producer Terry Sampson
Music by Ethan Stoller

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Transcript

0:11

Hello, my name is Sandy Adamidis, the social media director for the Page International Screenwriting Awards and your host for the Writers Hangout, a podcast that celebrates the many From inspiration to the first draft, revising, getting the project made, and everything in between. We'll talk to the best and the brightest in the entertainment industry, and create a space where you can hang out, learn from the pros, and have fun. Hey writers, it's Sandy. I'm coming to you from Studio City, the crown jewel of the San Fernando Valley. Well, it looks like a winter storm is sweeping across the United States, bringing snow, sleet. And freezing rain from the Southern Rockies and plains through the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. That's 2000 miles. Guys, you are really going through it. Stay warm and safe. But I'm glad your here, and I think you're really going to enjoy this episode because my guest is. Brian Austin Green, a talented actor who has been a major presence on television for over 30 years. He's best known for playing David Silver on Beverly Hills 9 0 2 1 oh, which was on Fox from 1990 to 2000. Brian has an impressive list of credits, including shows such as. Smallville, desperate Housewives, CSI and Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronicles. Brian's here to talk about writers from the actor's point of view. So bundle up and throw another log on the fire. Let's start the show. Brian Austin Green. Welcome to the Writer's Hangout. Thank you so much for having me. You and I worked on Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronicles together. Yeah, we did. And We bonded over our love of animals. Yeah. I tend to bond with people that, Love animals. Yes. Hey, besides the beginning of the new year Yeah. We have the anniversary of the fires happening right now. What was it like for you? we were really lucky we didn't have any damage or anything from the fires, but, it couldn't have been more tense during that, four days when the winds were crazy. I live in the hills around like Calabasas. A fire started to the west of us. Luckily the winds were blowing from east to west, so it. Moved away from us. But I had friends that lived in the Palisades. I had friends that lived in Altadena. you would speak to people and they would tell you like, oh, man, I, y 15, 20 minutes before I was evacuated, I saw them a mile and a half away, cut to, they're banging on my door. We get out and there's, and I went back to my house and there's nothing left. Yes, it was. It was it was pretty heavy. Do you know Spencer Pratt by any chance? No, I don't. Oh, I dunno. Him personally because he's really gone on a campaign. For the people in Pacific Palisades. I haven't been following too closely, but I guess he's running for mayor now, so is he, I dunno. Yeah, that's what I heard. But you know what I, I'm getting my news lately from Instagram, so I apologize that might be wrong, but yes. I, a lot of people get news from Instagram I know, which is, I don't know how I feel about that. Like I have, it's funny just the way the algorithm depending on what it is you pay attention to, the algorithm tends to lean in that direction. So it can be. It can be tricky because it will absolutely start giving you information based on what it is you tend to follow and believe in. And I think then it becomes a slippery slope of okay, I'm not getting anything other than what I seemingly wanna get. And so it starts like really misinforming you. Yes I agree a hundred percent and I was making fun of myself. Yes, I do get a lot of news from Instagram, but yeah, I do watch other stuff. Hey, would you like to do a quick round of, would you rather. Yeah, let's do it. Okay. We got 10. Would you rather be an extra in an Oscar winning movie or a lead in a box office? Bomb. I'd rather be an extra. Would you rather get a tattoo of the last book you read or the last movie you saw? I, if it was the last book I read it, the tattoo ink would be made out of clay and Earth. So I would have to say the last movie and what would that tattoo be? One, one battle after another, I think was the last thing IS Oh, cool. it wouldn't be a bad tattoo thank God it wasn't like, curly Sue three or something that I watched with my kids. That would be a crappy tattoo. There's still time. Brian, would you rather get a paper cut every time you turned a page of a script or bite your tongue every time you eat? I'd rather get a paper cut. Would you rather be forced to sing along to every song you hear or dance to every song you hear? I'd rather be forced to sing alone. Would you rather be stranded on a desert island with somebody who won't stop talking about the TV show Saved by the Bell, or Be Alone? Oh my God. Wait. Be alone on that desert island. Yes. Or somebody will talk your ear off or somebody that won't shut up. About Saved by the Bell and their love for it. I think I would, I think I'd rather be alone. Were you ever on Saved by the Bell? I did the pilot for Saved by the Bell. You did called Good Morning, miss Bliss. And it was Haley Mills was the, was the lead of it. Jaleel White was in it. Jonathan Brandis. we shot the pilot and then they decided, oh, we wanna move this thing to Florida and shoot there. And I was like, Nope. Yeah. would you rather be able to converse with animals or speak every language? Converse with animals. For sure. number seven. I knew I wrote that one specifically for you. What if, would you, if I would've gone the other way, you would've been like, I don't know this dude at all. The stars would fall from my eyes. Our, yeah, our time working together was all a lie. What is going on? Who is this guy? Who is this man? Would you rather sell all of your possessions or sell one of your organs? I'd rather sell all my possessions. Would you rather always have wet socks or a small rock in your shoe? Oh my God. Who, where did you get these questions? I'm not sure how I feel about these. I think I would rather always have a rock in my shoe. Yeah, I have to agree.'cause you could get what is that? Marching foot, or what is that thing called? It's you can it, it seems like you could wiggle it in your mind. Adjust your body so the rock wouldn't hurt so much. A wet sock would just cause you endless problems for the rest of your days, right? You can zen it out. Yes. Question number nine, Would you rather watch nothing but Hallmark Christmas movies or nothing but horror movies? Ooh, golly. Probably nothing but horror movies. Horror movies. Yeah. Last one. Would you rather be in a zombie apocalypse or a robot apocalypse? A zombie apocalypse. You go. You know what happens when you're in a robot apocalypse. You die. Is there, there's never a good ending to that story. You never get a third season. Hey Now you're a kid from Van Nuys. I am. No, I'm a kid from North Hollywood. I was born in Van Nuys at the hospital. Oh, get out of town. I live in North Hollywood. I'm in Studio City. I, so I'm born and raised in Valley Village. My parents are still in the same house on Hesby right by the small side of the park. George and Joyce are still in North Hollywood. That is so cool. George and Joyce. It's the same house my. So funny story. They bought that house in 1972 for$35,000. and my dad was sweating bullets when he did. He was like, oh my God, what am I doing? Cut to, the house just appraised for 1.6 or something like that. Wow. Yeah. I love Valley Village. That was actually the first place I moved to when I moved to the Valley. the only, it's the only area that like still has neighborhoods in Los Angeles, like exactly. The side of the hill is much more, it's like. Living in Manhattan. I go on the other side of the hill now and I'm like, where, when was this built? There are huge buildings that were never there before. Right. And can I get a tree? Is that too much to ask for? Just a tree? Exactly. Just one now. Your dad George Is country Musician. Yeah. which sparked your interest in performing. Can you tell me what clubs you went to? the clubs that I went to were all clubs that I was promoting and had like kind of ownership in, I started going to clubs when I was 15, 16 in Los Angeles. One of my good friends is David Fassino, who played Bud Bundy on married with Children. Oh, yeah. So we used to go to clubs and use his name at the door and we would all get in. That was the, he was. Poor dude. we just completely pimped him out. So I then understood how clubs worked and at the point when I started doing 9 0 2 1 oh, I was like, God, I should really throw the type of clubs that I would go to. So I hear all the music that I love and I can get the fuck out. I like, I know where the exits are, and everybody has to listen to me. So I ended up throwing all of the clubs that, like I threw a club at Bar one I threw a club at. There was a tower at the corner of Santa Monica and Vine. I threw a club up there. It was Did you have a new name for each night or? I had a new name for each night. The one that I ended up settling with though was called Greenlight and it was really popular and it was a hip hop based club, but that hip hop was my world. for my generation and the decade of the nineties that hip hop was the music for me. My old friend coworker, Alonzo Brown from Uptown Entertainment. Okay. He did a club called and I always love this and remember it, he named it Club Butter. Where was Club Butter? I don't remember. I don't, I just remember, do you remember when it was? It must have been during the nineties.'cause that's when I was at Uptown. Okay. And I just remember he did different clubs and one time he said, yeah, we're doing club butter, Sandy. And I just thought that was such a cool name. I didn't know you were at Uptown. Yeah. Uptown they got a deal at Universal to do movies and tv. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Interesting. And yeah, that was wild. We had a exit called the Suge Knight exit. Okay. In case Suge came by. Yeah. Just jump right out the back door and get in your cars. Yeah. Yeah. Su wasn't coming to Universal, but Got it. you would have to do what they do at schools now for active shooter drills and stuff, but you would have to do Suge night drills. Now we know you write music. Have you ever wanted to write a screenplay, No. No. So I rewrite a lot of my stuff or write stuff or, it depends on the project. Like Sarah Connor, I didn't touch one word because that character was so far from me. It was like, God, what makes this guy is the way he speaks, the words that he chooses. He's, he comes from this military world and this background, and so it's very specific, so it is imperative that I learn. To speak the way he speaks, to really sell this character. But then in a lot of other things, I end up rewriting my stuff and paraphrasing and doing things. And I think a lot of a lot of the actors that I. Really look up to they, that's something that they do. They they know their voice and their best way of delivering and being in moments, and they end up finding these aspects of characters that the writers didn't even. No, we're there. Which is what makes the combination of the two so cool because they can I feel like you work a good actor works really well with a good writer. Like they, they bounce off of each other and they build with each other, but I don't like a full script. Wouldn't, I wouldn't even attempt because it's just not, that's it. Writers have a way of structuring a story and telling a story, and I have a way of telling a story once I'm on set doing that. But that's just, it's a lane that I am just fine not being in. I really try and, stick to my lane and try and if somebody's really good at something, it's dude, let them be really good at it. Like you just be really good at what you do. You did. You have to learn. I was just trying to think how to phrase this question. Did you have to learn how to approach a writer to say maybe a change dialogue for sure, or you change it subtly or did or. Do you just sometimes walk on set and know, oh, I'm not going anywhere near changing dialogue. it depends on the project. It depends on the writer. It's, I think you know this from being in the business for a long time. You start learning how to approach people and test the water and see what it is you are up against. And how the collaboration is gonna work. There are some people that you have to be much more careful with, and you have to figure out an approach that doesn't rub them the wrong way. So you can still accomplish what you wanna accomplish, but without stepping on any toes or or causing any conflict. And then there are some people that from the very beginning they're like, dude, this is a. Collaborative creative process. So I'm not married to what, every word that I wrote and they're like, let's talk about all of it. And so you I feel like you learn that as you go. There are definitely things that I've worked on that changing a word is just not an option. I, I worked on Desperate Housewives. I did a season and a half of that. And Mark Cherry, who created and ran the show, he was very specific about every word, every action, and rightfully so. I mean, the show was a massive hit. And His hands were all over every aspect of it. And so it was, for me as an actor, it was one of those, situations where you get on set and you go, okay, I've gotta learn how to do this. I'm not used to working this way. you get to set and rehearse and then he would. Ride in his golf cart to set and He'd set up a chair right in front of everybody in the middle of the set, and you would run the scene for him the way you'd rehearsed it. And then he would say okay, so I want you to lean on the banister here instead of sitting on the step. I want you to come in from here. That he would, really reproduce and kind of run what it was you were doing until he was happy with it. And then he'd go, okay, you guys shoot it and he'd fuck off. He'd, what? What did you think about that? I don't know many showrunners who have the time to sit in on rehearsals. I don't either, but he would, so he had a really formula for him that worked. We shot at Universal, which was like a block and a half away from his house. He would be, he'd be in the room. He was hands on with everything, like there was writer's rooms and everything were right there on the lot that, that we were shooting on. So he, everything could go back and forth seamlessly. He wouldn't come to set for rehearsal. He would come at the point when. The actors and the director would go, yeah, okay, this is feeling good. And then Mark would come and he would watch it and then he, when it felt right to him, then he would say, okay, shoot it. And then he'd go and he'd be gone for another, two hours. You'd shoot a scene, move on to the next thing, you'd rehearse it again, you'd figure out what you wanted to do, and then. They would radio to him and he'd come to set again. And that it was, at first, I remember it was it was shocking because I had never worked that way before. Like I had come from just doing comedy right before that. That was literally like we were improving and ad-libbing majority of what we were doing. So to all of a sudden get to set and it not be that at all. It was like, oh my God, how am I gonna do this? And I remember it was it was terrifying at first, but after a week and a half, you really get the hang of it. And you go, okay, cool. I, this is a new muscle that I've never had to use, but I can use it. One thing IW when I was doing research on you, even though I know you, I was going back through, Wikipedia, it's a lot and you have the bio of a 78-year-old man. Your bio is huge. It's just huge. It goes on forever. But the one thing that I noticed is that you are brought back. All the time. You're made a regular, you're for an arc. Any advice for our writers out there on how to walk into a production, into a writer's room or any workplace and win people over. It's not always just hard work or is it? So Sarah Connor, for instance, my character was only supposed to be in five episodes. I ended up doing the season and a half of that show you were gonna lead in season three. Yeah. of course. Which is why it ended, goddammit. so I think the key to longevity is to be a team player. I think it's the people that step in and they quickly make it known that I stay in my lane, like I know what I'm hired for, but you also know what you're good at and what the thing that is. Your lane, you a thousand percent commit to. But then you know, you've gotta be willing to step back and go, not my lane. You want me to wear what? Cool, let's do it like you. Oh, you're gonna light it this way, you're gonna shoot it this way. Awesome. Let me know where to start. Let me know where to stand. And that was one of the things that I really loved about Sarah Connor when we were doing it, was I felt like everybody that was there. They were at the peak of what they did. Like it was yes. Such a well-oiled machine from day one when I was there. And it just felt like literally everybody, if they brought in extras, if they brought in a guest star to do two lines, he was working the counter in the liquor store. It was. Everybody was top of their game. Yes. Killing it. And it felt so good at the end of the day to go home and feel like, God, another great day. I can't, like I've never ever watched stuff that I've done ever. That's always been'cause I am really hard on myself. I'm particular about stuff. I, it's hard for me to just like subjectively watch stuff and enjoy it. Sarah Connor, I watched every episode because I was such a big fan of the franchise going into it, and I was such a big fan of what was being made and being, I felt like I was a part of a cool process. Like it wasn't, I didn't feel like there was pressure on me of oh my God, if I don't perform and do some stuff, this is gonna suck. I felt like no matter what. It was going to, from editing, from score, from from the crew, from everybody that was involved, it was gonna end up being something really cool. And it was like I was, there was not one scene ever that I watched where I was like, God, that's my bullshit meter was going crazy. What do you do as an actor if you can't connect with the actions? Or the logic of a scene you're in, you just bite the bullet. I, that's a really good question. No. So I no, I don't just bite the bullet. So if I'm going somewhere where I'm not feeling like it's working and it's and the notes and the ideas that I have aren't being met with any sort of enthusiasm or I always make a really conscious choice of in my own head as I'm working on stuff, I have very specific ideas in mind, in a way that I see movements, see papers on a desk, see like stuff, and. I am all about being collaborative, but that this is what I do. I'm an actor. If you hire me and you're paying me, I'm going to do what I do. When I get there, you need to convince me that your idea is better than mine. I'm open to hear your idea. For sure. But if you're, if at the end of the day, I feel like I don't like your idea as much as mine I'm going to continue to give my idea, like I, I work with people, but then, and there's a certain point where you have to trust. Your own instincts. I've built a career working and things that don't work, choosing to not do them anymore and things that do work, embellishing on those. So it's gonna be hard to find somebody that trusts my instincts more than I do. for a writer the writing style that works best for you and somebody can say, Hey, I want more of this, but it's still gonna be your style that creates that. trust yourself. Yeah. It's the only way I'm going to be getting a breakdown for something and getting oh, we're looking for a Christophe Waltz type. Is if he exists, he created that type, it hasn't been just direction and he's just followed the right directors and became something right? He went in with a clear choice of this is who I am. John Malkovich. This is who I am, Christopher Walken. This is who I am. I can be me playing these people, but it's, you hired me to play this part. You hired me to write this script, to write this story, to write this monologue, so you're gonna get. My way of doing it, right? Because you hired me. Otherwise, go hire somebody else. If if what I'm doing doesn't match fine, be willing to step back and go, okay this doesn't work, and move on. But like the second you start conforming completely to what somebody else wants, you're then a puppet in something and you're, and you start losing yourself and you. I think in your, like with your spirit, you start making this deal of it gets easier and easier to lose yourself in things because you've done it once. It's like somebody that has never cheated and then they do and they get away with it. They go, oh I can cheat, And then they start cheating more. They start lying. More people start doing things when they get away with it. If you don't start that habit to begin with I think you stay true to yourself and the days feel better. Even the ones that there have been a lot of emotions and things and people fighting for what feels right to them. You still get to the end of the day and you go, you know what? I fought the good fight. I fought for my art and I fought for my instincts, and I've fought for. Me being true to the person that has been in this business for this long and is still here and is still being hired. Brian, that is so wonderful and I've never really focused on this with the writers out there. But what I really wanna hang a lantern on is if you do it once. If you, for a writer, if you do some bad writing and you get away with it, and then you continually get hired on writing jobs that don't and you don't put yourself into it. Yeah. You can learn to be a bad writer. Yeah. You can learn to be a bad actor. You learn that you can get away with it. Yes. And so then you start going, oh I should just do that more, because honestly, it's easier. It's way easier to just show up on set as an actor and for a director to just go, okay, and you say it like this, and then you walk to here and you, and so you just like a, like a mad lib. You just fill in the bubbles and it's done. And you get to the end of the day and you go, Hey, I had no confrontations on set. it was easy going and it, but that's an easy easy, right? If you're writing a romantic comedy, the easy thing to do is to have your actress fall Romantic comedy actresses can ever walk straight. That is so easy. Don't do that. Think of something else as a writer. make sure that you bring yourself. Through whatever it is you're doing. Tony Scott's domino. Oh, I loved Tony. Yeah. Unbelievably. Now I have no writerly question about this movie, except that I loved it, Uhhuh and I wanna talk about it. Okay. You and Ian were great in it. Yeah. And Edgar Ramirez. Edgar Ramirez. Yeah. I just love him. Yeah. And I pitched him as Sarah's Connor's boyfriend. Did you? But that didn't happen. And did he ever mention me? We've never met all the time. Oh good. It was funny. I remember when he was, and I was like, who are you talking about? And he was, I don't even know, but it doesn't matter. And then you met me. He just kept steering back your name. How was that movie, Brian? What a great movie. And at writers, please. For God's sakes, go watch that movie. So written by Richard Kelly who wrote and directed Donny Darko. Tony had spent so much time directing things. Literally just to find the style of what he wanted to do for Domino. He directed commercials for BMW and Marlboro and all these places and things. just to build this style and vibe of what he wanted to do in the film. I remember getting a call. From my agent, they were like, Hey, so Tony Scott's doing a new movie and they want you to be in it. I was like, what do you mean? They want me to be in it, like they want me to audition for it. He is no, it's, you're written into the script. Get the fuck outta here. So I get the script. The script made no sense. The first time I read through it. It was so complex. And I have like low grade a, DD, so I'm already one of those. Like I have to read a page two or three times sometimes to get it right. That script I got to the end and I was like, ah. Don't understand it at all. I'll still do it'cause it's Tony Scott and Richard Kelly wrote it and I'll figure it out. I had to read that script probably four times to really understand what was going on. That was one of the coolest experiences for me as an actor. And then also as. A director I've been in DGA for years. I haven't directed anything for a while because I'm very much in the frame of, if I'm gonna step back into it, it's gotta be something that I. I'm incredibly passionate about and incredibly understand and can like, really tell a story in a new way that people haven't seen before. I need to add something. I don't want to just make a movie or make a movie. That was the first time I had ever been on a set though with a director. Where he would talk to the actors every once in a while. But more just as a friend. he would just hang out, but then he would get with, we always had six cameras going at all times. Wow. And he painted. With them. It was, he used majority natural light. He had cameras hidden all over the place. So he would literally say to you like, okay, so you pull into the lot here. You guys get out, you have your conversation here. You end up over here and you do it. And he'd go, okay, cool, we're moving on. And you'd be like, what do you mean we're, we just did it for you? And he's oh no, I've got cameras. One up there on the roof, one under there on the, under the car. What? And they were everywhere. And you were like, oh my God. And I realized. That. That's why good directors hire actors that they love because they can then get on set and trust that those people will deliver, that they've done their work at home. So that director can just direct, can just make sure that the things. Look on camera and behind their bank of monitors, the way they envisioned them looking and feeling. The new year brings new writing goals, and like many of you out there, I am committed to finishing my novel that I've been working on for years. We all know that the details you jot down when you start can quickly become fuzzy when days, weeks, and even months. Pass between writing sessions. I wish I had Noum our sponsor, which is a fantastic writing tool that quickly turns chaos into clear well organized stories when I started writing. Whether you write directly on Noum Or upload an existing draft, your characters and setting details. Timeline events and plot pacing are automatically pulled from your story to view at a glance and in real time. Noum catches the problems you might miss on your own Plot Tangles pacing issues. Continuity errors, even character logic slips. Noum isn't another AI content generator. It never writes for you or learns from your work. This is a privacy first tool that leaves your voice untouched and never shares your data. Instead, Noum keeps you in control through every stage of your writing process. It is your text editor, character files, continuity checker, and more in one organized lightning fast platform. You can even use Noum to share your work securely with beta readers and keep track of their comments. Don't wait until your draft is finished. Get the most out of your writing this year with Noum. Try Noum Pro today and get your first month free at noum dot. So with Code Hangout, that's. N-O-V-E-L-I-U-M-O with code Hangout, N-O-V-E-L-I-U-M dot. So with code Hangout. It sounds like everybody felt very confident on that set. Oh, so confident. It was so much fun. it was a grueling shoot. we spent a month and a half just in Vegas. Which is, if you're not from Vegas, a month and a half is grueling because we were staying at was then the hotel at Mandalay Bay. It's now something else, but it was all, it was just like a tower, but it had no casino on the bottom floor, but it was. You had to walk through a casino every day to get Wow. So did you guys gamble? Oh my God. Per diem. Forget it. What? Per diem. It's they, I paid to be in that film. we shot at the stratosphere we shot at in the Valley of Fire. We like, we shot all over the place You all look so badass in it. It was so cool. you can do both comedy and drama. I try. Yeah. You were wonderful in Charlie's Sheen's anger management. By the way, did you tell Charlie that his bus blocked us all the time to get to set on? No. I met Charlie on the lot when we were shooting. Did you really? So he used to always be at the side door to their stage smoking cigarettes? Yes. The outside the door. I would walk to the, either the commissary or the gym, I'd walk past him and so we ended up talking a lot there. And then a friend of mine who created the show, anger Management, he created a show that I did before with Freddie Prince Jr. Called Freddie and. He reached out to me and he said, Hey, will you come play this character in the first episode of this anger management show that we're doing? It's the ex-husband of this character and you work with Charlie. And I said to him, I was like, have you told Charlie that you are reaching out to me? Because we talk all the time where we did on the lot. And he was like, no I didn't, but I'll, I'll let him know I ended up doing the one episode and then, that was it. And they had this crazy like 10 90 deal it up at fx and I think that might be the only time the 10 90 deal was ever done. So the concept was we do a 10 episode order of your show. If the numbers are at or surpass a certain level, we'll pick you up for the back 90 episodes. So your show then automatically you've done enough for syndication. You're good to go the, problem being. Charlie was at the height of the Tiger's blood and, and winning stuff. everybody wanted to see what he was doing. He came off of two and a half men, so all eyeballs were on him. the Premier episode was massive, and the first 10 episodes, the numbers were really good. So then FX was on the hook for the back 90. But the show then steadily lost viewers. Oh my. But they were stuck. They were like, this is our contract. We have 90 more of these to make. They made the first 50 episodes, Charlie and Selma, Blair had some sort of falling out. So my buddy Bruce calls me and he was like, Hey, so how would you like to come do 49 more of these? I was like, are you serious? Who gets a call like that on a show? Hey, come do you know just under 50 episodes of this show for me? We did episode like 49 to 100. Is there a difference between a comedy writer and a drama writer? I, yes, I think. I think so. I think I, I it, so it depends on the comedy. I think I've never really been like a sitcom comedic actor. Like I am a situational comedy guy. I come from the drama world, but I came from watching I. All the, like the British humor, like faulty towers and Benny Hill and those things with my dad when I was a kid. So my sensibility for comedy is very dry. It's, the situations are funny, not so much the lines, the words, they're not like punchline things. I'm not setting up a joke and then knocking it down and then falling over a couch and that's not my thing. Character driven dialogue. Yeah. That's funny. And so I think some dramatic writers are that surprisingly that form of comedy works well for them if you have the right actor. Because an actor can find the pacing of that drama that makes it funny. It, they're not necessarily words. Sometimes you need a good. Comedy writer in just to have funny situations, right? Funny things, funny conversations that are going on for somebody to sit back and go, oh my God, I can't believe they were talking about that in this location. When we were doing Sarah Connor, some of the funniest things I've ever heard of came from the writers there. Yeah. It was like, because everybody had they had the version of what was actually gonna be shot and end up on the show, but then they also had the funny version. Can you imagine if Sarah turned the corner and that, so you al there were always the, there was the options of everything. There was the A and b for sure. Now I'm gonna we're getting close to the end. I don't know how to exactly say my next question, Brian.'cause I feel bad. So just say it. I feel bad and we'll deal with the repercussions afterwards. I feel bad saying it, Brian. Okay. Did you know that writers are taught not to get close to the actors? No. Yes. I think that is a hindrance and that's a terrible idea. And the people that are teaching that. have gotten it completely wrong. it, might not still be this way. It is 2025 and 2026. Oh, you're right. It's 2026. Yeah. Happy New Year. when I was coming up the showrunners worry whether it's drama or comedy, that the. Writers are going to get attached to the actors, and that the actors are gonna influence the writing by making their character bigger in the show. maybe it's not true anymore. I think they're a little threatened that the actors are going to gain a bit of control by being friends with the writers. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't talk to each other or anything like that. the higher ups want to be invited to your parties, but they don't want, like the staff writers to be invited to your parties. that's heartbreaking. have I ruined your day. no. Not at all. It's tough because to me what we do is a collaborative effort and it takes absolutely everybody I am well aware of. What I do on a set especially in a film, is a tiny portion of what actually people audience members see and what they're entertained with. It's my job to show up on set. Do the best work I can so the director can get that on camera to then have stuff to work with in post and make something great. Why? Why would it not behoove them to make sure that the actors and writers are talking so they're getting the best? Stuff on film that they can possibly get. I think it's all about control. I think that's, I think that's control in the wrong way. I think that's people controlling ego compared to trying to control the project that they're making. I agree with you. Also it might be, the network and the studios are always, punching down on the show runner. And I may have phrased it wrong, not friends. Did I say friends now I feel like I'm backtracking. It's, they don't want you to get too close right to the writers as in. You can be friends, but not getting too close. I don't okay. Yeah, I feel like I, yeah, I don't, that's just nothing that I've ever subscribed to, nor will I ever I think it's maybe, I think it's really important for the I don't think actors. Realize the power, what comes along with being number one on a call sheet. I've heard you say you don't like to be number one on the call sheet. I don't mind being number one. I was number 14 on Sarah Connor because originally, again, it was supposed to be five episodes, so it was afterthought okay, he's number 14. Then all of a sudden they brought me on as a series regular, but I made them keep my number at 14. Because it's how I started here. it feels like a dictatorship more than a collaborative. It does. And I, yeah, but more on the number one, on the call sheet thing, I think people don't realize that. That's not just like a badge of honor of Hey, I'm number one on the call sheet. There's responsibility that comes with that because in our profession on a set. It's one of the only times where you have two captains, you have a director and you have your lead actor, and both of them are in these positions of, they can either make or break the experience on set for everybody else that's there. If someone is a pain in the ass, then nobody wants to be there. Nobody wants to be around it. And when we have these long days and these long things, it starts negatively affecting what it is you're making. And you want this situation no matter what the script is, what the story is, what the scenes are that you're shooting, people to love being there. Yes. Whether it's a comedy, whether it's a drama, whether it's exhausting on set, You want people to get to the end of the day and feel like, God, I did really great stuff. I can't wait to see what we do tomorrow. We only have 14 more days on this thing, so we gotta fi, like we gotta really pull together and do something great. Do you mind just quickly explaining what a call sheet is to the writers out there who might not know? Yeah. So a call sheet is, I. Our marching orders for the day. It's basically the scenes we're shooting. Who's in those scenes? The numbers of everybody, if you need to get a hold of anyone the the numbers that are next to. Character names. So then when you are looking at your sides for the day, you can figure out, oh, okay, number two is this character. Oh yeah, cool. So that character number two is in the second scene up for the day, and then the last scene up for the day. So it's lit. It's. It's a way of breaking down the day so you can look at one sheet, you can see how many scenes you have to shoot, what time everything is happening, what time people are supposed to be there. It gives you a rundown for. It is, it's absolutely invaluable. Times have really changed. When I started working for showrunners they were always going what scene are we shooting? Or when is Brian Austin Green getting to set? Yeah. And I would look at the call sheet and be able to answer those questions. Yeah. I, the kids today, they don't even look at the call sheets, I guess because. It's on everybody's phone now. Didn't you get it delivered to your house or if you left, set the ad. Oh, yeah. Have to call you. You'd get a preliminary at the end of the day when you would sign out, the preliminary, you get a prelim and then they would, if anything, leave you a message or a text and go, Hey, we're pushing an hour. So everything that's on the sheet push it an hour ahead. So if my call time was supposed to be nine 30, it's now 10 30. And everything pushes that way. But that was the, everything the buck started and stopped at the call sheet. That was really, oh my God, that was so important. It's always been so important and I still to this day, I the one sheet. So when I sign on to something and I'm doing it, especially a film, the the one sheet and the shooting schedule are of the utmost importance to me because in the shooting schedule, I can look and see what scenes are coming up. So I know. Either back in the hotel or in my house, what to be working on for the next day. What's coming if I don't know, I get to set and I go, okay, so what are we doing? And then it's I'm not prepared for any of the stuff that I'm supposed to be doing. So as much advance notice as you can get I like to get. Brian Austin Green. you have a podcast and it's titled Oldish I Love. I do. Yeah. Yeah. And it's with s Shana? Yes. And Randy Spelling. Yeah. And can you tell us a little bit about it and where our listeners can subscribe and follow? So it's called Oldish and it is really the three of us talking about that point in life when you become, responsible for the choices that you make and who you are. And you decide I'm done just coasting through life and I wanna be informed and I want to make decisions based on the best information I can get. And so we have all sorts of guests that are unbelievable that way. We've had Joe Dispenza was on. We just, it's, we across the board, we have all these people that are really amazing at what it is they do, and they're top of their field. We do the show on YouTube. so anybody can go to oldish oldish podcast and subscribe and watch it. do you have any socials you'd like to share We have oldish oldish Pod on Instagram. Brian Austin Green, Charna Burgess, Randy Spelling, we're all under our names on Instagram. Thank you so much for being on The Writer's Hangout. Of course. Thank you so much for having me. I'm glad we finally did it. and that's a wrap for the Writer's Hangout. Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your positive feedback will help us keep the show going so we can continue bringing you more future episodes. Remember, keep writing. The world needs your stories. The Writers Hangout is sponsored by the Page International Screenwriting Awards, with executive producer Kristen Overn, Sandy Adamides, And our music is composed by Ethan Stoller. Alexa, you are gaslighting me,