Geekscape

Geekscape 399: Keeping A Positive Attitude With Michael Mando!

The Second Season of AMC's 'Better Call Saul' premieres tonight and what better way to celebrate than with a visit from Michael Mando, who plays Nacho Varga on the show! We talk about workings with heavyweights like Vince Gilligan and Jonathan Banks and how this is "the best show on TV" (as I call it)! For videogame fans, Michael gives us the origin story to his super popular 'Far Cry 3' character Vaas Montenegro and how sometimes you've got to just stay positive for things to happen for you! We also preview the release of his upcoming short film 'Wake Up' and talk a little filmmaking! Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Duration:: 48m
Broadcast on:: 16 Feb 2016
Audio Format:: other

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to shop Walmart Black Friday deals first? Walmart Plus members get early access to our hottest deals. Join now and get 50% off a one-year annual membership. Shop Black Friday deals first with Walmart Plus. See terms at walmartplus.com. Money decisions don't have to be either/or. With Bank of America, they can be yes and like yes to sunny vacations and rainy day funds. Can our digital tools and guidance help you create the future you want? Yes. And help you keep enjoying today, too. Do more with a bank that asks, what would you like the power to do? Explore our tips and more at bankofamerica.com/yesand. [MUSIC PLAYING] [SINGING] [SINGING] [SINGING] Hey, what's up, Geekscapes? Welcome to GeekScape. And I just got the OK from the T-radio TV studio that we are on the air and talking to you guys. This is GeekScape. This is your first GeekScape. We're going to talk movies, games, comics, TV, and everything that happens in the pop culture genre world. But chances are, this is not your first GeekScape. So thanks for coming back. We have been here for nine years. But I only say that because we've got coming up episode 400 of GeekScape. And we're going to have a pretty good episode, a pretty big one. There's going to be guests. There's going to be some surprises. And I think you guys will be able to watch it live. Kenny Craig will be there. There'll be fireworks. We'll certainly will be there. And I've been putting a lot of work into planning it. That's a big episode 400. But you know what? Forget that. For now. All right. For now. That was like a big announcement. And you're like, because-- Memento, that chip? Just put a pin in it. OK. Circle the calendar. We'll be talking about it. Know that it's coming. And details will be at GeekScape.net. And they'll also be up on our Facebook and Twitter. But right now, we're doing GeekScape number 399. The final GeekScape, before big 400. And we do this every week. And we always have co-host Kenny Craig. How you doing, Jonathan? Will Sterling. Yo. I mean, I don't even get the co-host label on just here. You're co-host. We have a random guy who sits in the studio. And then that guy who just shows us. Jack this fuck. No, it's you, Kenny. Hey, what are you doing on a geek show, bro? You're looking swole. That's why I got my Dalek's t-shirt on. Hey, man, just take my lunch money and go. This is GeekScape. You guys know the drill. But every week, we also have a co-host. Our co-host today is from what I'm going to say is the best show on television. Yes. I think I really do. I'm not being facetious. I think it's the best show on TV. If you guys are watching it, premieres tonight. Better Call Saul. We've got Michael Mando, who plays Nacho on the series. Hey, guys. And thank you for this very nice studio. It's exciting. Very nice intro. You guys are really sweet. So Michael. And I was talking earlier with my buddy Ryan. I've seen the first two episodes of season two. I've seen all of season one. I've seen all of Breaking Bad. But there was always that reservation when they went to a spin-off, right? And when they announced Better Call Saul, you're like, how are they going to do a Saul Goodman series? Because Breaking Bad, it was one of those rare occasions where I think everybody was unanimously happy with the way it ended. The entire series is phenomenal. And then you have a great character in Saul Goodman. And it's like, oh, they announced a spin-off, maybe a prequel kind of thing. And you're like, how is that going to work? But you can't doubt the talent that brought you Breaking Bad. Because after watching season one, you're like, holy shit, this works. And then the first two episodes of season two, I'll tell you right now, it's just as good. And it still claims the prize as the best show on television. The writing, everything is amazing. And this man right here, Nacho. Michael, thank you so much. What's up with that show? Thank you so much. You know what? I can tell you the truth. It actually gets better. Oh, that's crazy. I'm going to push the mic closer to you. Am I too far? You're good. You're good. Now you're good. Now you're good. The show really gets better. It gets better and better as the season progresses. I mean, you know what? It all starts with the writing. Really, honestly, it's just the way it is. When you have great written material, when you have people like Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould and Thomas Schnauz and Jennifer Hutchinson and Gordon Smith, I mean, they breed their writers up. Like Gordon Smith used to be an assistant for Vince Gilligan and then became a writer's assistant and then wrote his first ever episode in season one, which was nominated for an Emmy. Oh, wow. 5-0, Gordon Smith wrote that episode. Oh. And now he's one of the writers. He wrote two episodes this season and they're just fantastic. And here's a guy who grew up being Vince's right hand man and learning in that room. And I think that's where it starts. And then everybody sees how much they care about the show, how everybody's involved, that it means something to them and that trickles down to every single department. And I think that's how you come up with shows like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. And he's also, I mean, is Vince a big perfectionist or? Vince, you know, with the script, with the script. I'm not saying he's-- Well, listen, you play Vince Gilligan kind of show verbatim. Right. Go improvising, you don't try to ad lib or switch words or whatever, because they thought about every word. It is the way it is for a reason. They thought about it. If you can't figure it out, ask a question, try to understand it. But he's the nicest guy. They're collaborative, really collaborative people. Many times you can feel free to call him or write him an email and say, hey, I was thinking about this moment. I didn't really-- I have this question and they'll collaborate with you. And if ever they think that your idea makes sense, they'll go and they'll change it up. Wow. But the amount that that happens is very, very little. Because you're working with geniuses. You're working with geniuses. Right, right. I keep the first episode of Breaking Bad script. I just leave it in a dog. Whenever I'm screenwriting and I'm thinking about creative ways to do things, it's one of my-- You're a writer? Yeah, it's just one of my go-to scripts where I'm like, the way he's describing things is phenomenal. And you just tell that the guy is super talented. And that first episode of Breaking Bad, that first script is one of the things that whenever people ask me about writing, I'm just like, I'm going to send you this episode and put your head around how good it's written and how tight it is. And good luck. Not being completely intimidated and ever picking up a pen again. Right, like, I mean, are you ever intimidated by the talent? You know what it is? Or you-- It's structure. Yeah. Structure. When I realized reading and having the privilege in season one to actually not be in the show that much, that was a big blessing. Because I got to study the scripts from far. I got to go on set all the time. And I think it's structure. Their shows are very well structured. They have this great giant board in the writing room where they have the tape divided in four. The cue cards are all written by the same person. They do the different color for different story lines and things like that. I didn't see much colors. Can you take pictures next time? Thomas Schnauch. No, no, they posted. If you go to Thomas Schnauch's account, he posted a few pictures of them. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not like they're very open with the way they do it. It's not a secret. Do you have scripts that I can read? No, I'll tell you. I'll tell you, when I knew I was in for a treat, I had never read one of their scripts. And when I read the first episode of the first season, they had the description. You know, remember in the cinnabon? Yeah, yeah. So it started off, you know, we're very close in. We're in black and white. What is it? What shape is in an existential thing? What are we watching? And then he goes, is it this? Is it that? And then Vince Gilligan wrote it. And he goes, no dumbass. It's a stoner. Yeah. And I was shocked at the way he was talking to the audience who was reading it. It was fun. But he's implying tone, you know what I mean? He's doing that thing where it's like when it's on the screen, you're going to get the tone of this. And that educates the cinematographer, that educates everybody involved. Yeah. And I had never read the-- I had never read descriptions like that where the writer is winking at the person reading it. Right. Regardless of the dialogue. Because the viewer won't see that. No. And I just thought that was so cool. That's awesome. The viewer won't see that, but I think the viewer will feel it. Oh, yeah. That's what I mean. But there's no voice saying, hey dumbass. It's phenomenal. I think that framing device of the cinnabon, like-- Yeah. Who'd have thought that when Breaking Bad ended, that this is where it was going to start up again, was in hiding or witness protection. Something with Saul Goodman being in a cinnabon. That's either crazy or genius. And I'm going to go on the side of genius, because the record speaks for itself. You knew when you were going into a dish. And you're like, I'm going to dish for Better Call Saul. Were you intimidated at all by the Breaking Bad history? You know, it's funny. I think the higher the stakes, the better I get in a way, the more-- Welcome to an escape. Yeah, it's good. You're welcome. This is it. This is the end. You had a good run. I would know, but I was really excited. I couldn't sleep. I just couldn't wait to go into that room and be able to just give my best. I was really excited about that. Because the writing is also so good. So you know you have, as an actor, a lot to work with. But I was lucky because I wasn't aware of Breaking Bad when I was auditioning. I hadn't really seen any TV shows at all. Wow, is it? At that time-- you know what? It's funny, I used to watch a movie a day, and I used to be really into films. And I couldn't get attached to the television. I felt like it required a certain kind of commitment. Right. And there's so much of it. There's like eight seasons of something. And you're like, oh my god. And everyone's like, you have to start from the beginning. Good luck, right? And you know, you see the devices. They're hooking you in every episode. And I just thought that it wasn't for me. I thought features were for me. And I never really gave TV a chance. When I was really lucky, I had a big year in 2014. I had two CSA nominations in Canada, four from Black and Rookie Blue. And I said to myself, I'd like to go to the States. And then this came along. And that's when I said, OK, I'll take this seriously. And I started watching Breaking Bad for the first time. And my jaw just dropped. I couldn't believe what I was missing. And how amazing, really, television was. It was like reading a novel. And you can't do that in a film. You can't be as descriptive in a film as you can in television. And I knew right away that I would be really lucky to be on it. And now it's true. The Orphan Black's a big geek show for us. A lot of the geekscape is like Orphan Black. I haven't jumped into it quite yet. Because again, it's that same thing where it's like there's so many shows on TV. All of them are out of quality with the Netflix originals. And Amazon is like, it's all getting away. Yeah. Orphan Black is a priority one. Yeah. OK. All right. Oh, it is now that this man's sitting here. No, yeah. But I remember I got into it after season two had finished. And people had told me over and over how good it was. And on BBC America, every Saturday they would have two episodes. And so I would just record them and watch them two at a time. And I was like, why does it take me two years to get into this show? Because it used to premiere after Dr. Who, the first season premiere. And I am a pen doctor. But I missed it. And now I'm like, oh, I can't get enough of that show. Well, isn't that one said Breaking Bad was the whole idea that after season three, they didn't know if it was coming back. If they thought season four was going to be a truncated season or something, I mean, I'm probably rough with the facts. And then it allowed the show to be on Netflix. And then for everybody to discover it. So by the time season four started up, it was just like a steamroller. Everybody was into it. They didn't revolutionize. I think Breaking Bad was one of those shows that really revolutionized the way we watched TV. The moment it got, it hit Netflix. I think the binge watching phenomenon started. And that's really safe to show. It was awesome. Every year they were thinking of they might get canceled, but they weren't getting any. It was cultural phenomenon. Yeah, you know, we maybe don't need it. But you can't blame them. You can't blame them. Because again, it was the forefront of all this. And then you're a part of it, brother. Charlie Colle, who runs AMC, is also a genius. Yeah. And he's the one who believed in Breaking Bad, also from the very beginning. The producers, Mark Johnson, who believed in Vince Gilligan from the X file days and way before, who still producing Vince Gilligan work and our other producers, Melissa Bernstein and Nina Jack. There are so many, so many talented and intelligent people that we know about and so many that we don't know about. And the few that I'm mentioning are also the reason why, you know, Vince Gilligan, you know, was able to get so much support from Mark Johnson, who also produced Breaking Bad and Melissa Bernstein. And Charlie Colle had AMC, who lets, you know, Vince and Peter run it the way they want to run it, who take risks on black and white and, you know, jumping back and forth in time, so. Well, I'm sure you guys all watched The Walking Dead last night. We'll talk about that when we come back, because AMC is one of our favorite networks. We all watch Walking Dead. And you know what? We're going to get Preacher pretty soon, which is another popular comic book on one of those geeks. But right now, we're going to stop for a spot break. This guy over here, Michael, is going to do a little live tweeting during the East Coast. OK, airing on this episode. And then we'll be right back with more Michael Mando, more Geekscape, and more Better Call Saul, maybe some Far Cry 3. We'll just talk. We'll come back and hang out. This is Geekscape. How's good? All right, Geekscapes, we're back on Geekscape with Michael Mando. And we were on the subject of The Walking Dead. I watched The Premier last night. I don't know if you guys liked the mid-season premiere, but I watched it. Did you watch it? I did not. I did. A lot of zombie violence. And I don't want to spoil anything for all the Geekscapes who haven't seen The Walking Dead yet. But-- No, no, no, all I want to say is, holy shit, the teaser before the credits is probably a top five Walking Dead moment. Violence-wise, or just top five? No, it was just well done. And you're just like, OK, what is all this? Where's this going? It's the season six, right? Yep. Because you start stressing out. I mean, if you guys read the comics, the Negan characters, the Big Bad, and The Walking Dead, Jeffrey D. Morgan got cast as him. That's right. And you just kind of see the screws getting turned in this scene, and then it kind of gets to the point where you really can't take any more. And then the way that they-- it just watched the damn show. It's awesome. I thought the opening was amazing. And the episode was good. The opening was amazing. So we were talking about AMC and all these brilliant geniuses over at AMC who basically take all of our time away from us as geeks because all we spend our time watching it. But you learn because you're a writer, right? So you learn-- But my friend, Larissa, directed one of your episodes last season, Larissa Condraki. She directed a better call so. On Larissa's episodes? No, unfortunately-- She's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, she's a film school friend. Yeah, she just have to take his word off of him. No, I love every single episode. She did a Walking Dead, and she did-- Which episode do you know? I don't know which-- she did like the second-to-last episode of-- I know everybody was extremely happy with everything, but I didn't get to work with them. She's really talented, and I'm like, all right, let's see. I mean, I don't know. We'll see. She can do the same thing with you with the Supernatural now. Hey, man, where did those come out? We're going to keep all that on the DL, bro. What? We cannot talk-- How many are we going to talk about? We're going to be directing-- The Warner Brothers. The Warner Brothers. They can't say. The Warner Brothers. He's directing the new X-Men? The new X-Men. The Warner Brothers stuff is not a topic of conversation. You're actually buying a singer what? That plastic surgery looks good. Let's just say I like to direct, and sometimes people like me to direct for them. But this is Geekscape. This is for the fans. Yeah. This is where we talk about where the people made. It's one of them, and they absolutely will. As soon as we do add more talk, maybe I'll cast this Michael Mando guy. Yeah. It'll be like cast in. How come man takes a mask on us? It's a mask, or you know what? I'm like, I used to know you when you were-- Yeah. [INTERPOSING VOICES] Sorry, Michael. Did I support you from the start? Michael, we gave the role to Paulie Shore. I'm sorry, Michael. I'm sorry. John Claude Van Damme is dubbing your lines. I love both of those actors, man. I'm a big Van Damme. Dude, Van Damme is one of the guys who I would love to have on Geekscape. The muscles for Brussels. Guys, we used to do Geekdrum, which is a show before Geekscape started. It was when it was audio only. I would come on and do the IDs and be like, hey, what's up? You're listening to the-- As Van Damme, but my register changed. I went to a late puberty or something, and I can't-- I don't know if I can totally do Van Damme anymore, but maybe I'll bring it back. I'll work on my Van Damme again. It's been a while since I did Van Damme. I'd like to see you do Van Damme. I'd like to see Van Damme come back. Yeah, dude, I love Van Damme. You know, speaking of Van Damme, he did an amazing film. I loved very much a couple of years ago called JCVD. Yeah, I want to see JCVD. You should see it. No, it's so good. That's real kick-ass. That monologue he does in the middle of the movie-- and honestly, I don't know if you fans of Geekscape who are film guys are fans of Van Damme or not, because if you think you're a highbrow or something, then watch this movie, this Belgian filmmaker. I don't know what he went on to do. This guy from Belgium, or he made this movie. But there's a monologue, like three quarters away through this movie, just uncut to camera. They do a little bit of a camera gimmick. It's phenomenal. And it's basically what, so let's alone did this year in Creed where it's like-- Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That guy's an actor first. That's great. He's really good. Yeah. Yeah. And anybody who thinks Van Damme's an actor, that what I was talking about, that's awesome. I mean, look, I mean, anything that-- all those action guys, it's not easy. It really is not-- try going on in front of the camera and saying like a one-line-- Right, and not sound stupid. Yeah, before a ship blows up. Right, yeah. You record yourself doing that. It's not easy. Practice in front of the mirror or something. Do you ever do that? No, I think-- You don't want to practice-- I don't do the practicing in front of the mirror thing, because I think to me, I like to-- I don't want to say work from the inside out, but you want to understand the truth of it. And if you're too focused on what it looks like, then you're not really focused on what you're actually saying. You're not there. I think if you know what you're talking about, if you know what you're saying, if you studied the text, then it will come out truthfully. So you just go out in the desert and blow shit up and then do it. Yeah. You're like, no cameras. It's too vain for me. I want to act in the dark. That's right. I'll accept the role, but I won't be on your show. When you're working with somebody like-- [LAUGHTER] I'm too much of an artist. I will be lost, but I'm not going to be-- Turn off the lights. I'm not going to be-- Bro, I got that. That's trust me. You're going to change the light. You've got a lighter. When you're acting with somebody like Jonathan Banks, though, that's like getting in a ring with somebody, right? Yeah. He's phenomenal. You know what? It's funny because you don't really know what your dynamic is going to be with another actor until you are actually-- In the scene. --in the scene with the other actor. And it's funny because Banks brought out-- I mean, look, Jonathan Banks is a legend. Yeah, he was in Crocodile Dundee III. He's been acting twice as long as I've been alive. That's insane. That's crazy. But did you ask him about Crocodile Dundee? No, I didn't ask him about it. I didn't ask him about any past things that he's ever done. I'd have been like Paul Hogan. Cool. No, but he really is a legend. Yeah, yeah. And this guy's got so much experience. And what it brought out out of me was as my character, there was a respect. You can't help but relate to him as a paternal figure. Oh, yeah. And it wasn't really going into the ring with someone, like a giant. It was more like this kind of like he was like the sarge. The wisdom. And I felt like the young, ambitious guy who had a lot to learn. So it was like he's Obi-Wan and your Anakin? Like that whole thing? Well, I don't know. We'd have to watch the-- You'd have to watch the scene. It's an Anakin thing, right? That's where Vince says, what is it? Donut, a lightsaber, no dumbass. No dumbass. The USS Enterprise. Stop going to Geekscapes. I mean, I'm just trying to make things relatable for the Geekscapes, right? Yeah, right. But things are Star Wars terms. Yeah, you do. And be like, I don't know what you're saying, Michael. But if you relate it to Star Wars, you'll have it. All right. So when you say Geekspace, what do you mean? You keep referring to your fans. Like, you don't know if they all like this or not. I think the Geekscape is-- I think it's our language. You know, this pop culture language of Comic-Con. Like, you've been to Comic-Con for more than that. That's us. That's who we are. So sometimes I like to put things in the Geekscape term. So if Jonathan Banks is your Jedi Master, then you're the Padawan, learning. I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I would say that. I would say he took on that-- I think it was his energy. It was just like me, you know, as Nacho, speaking to a guy who I knew had more life experience than I can even comprehend. You know, when you're in your 30s, you don't know what it's like to be in your 70s. You can't imagine what it's like. And when you see a guy like Mike, you know, Ehrman Troughts, who's been in the military and the army, who's been around all these drug dealers, who's had all this life experience, you can't help but feel like you have something to learn. In that episode last year-- Oh, my God. --the better cause all of us have had-- I like cutting moves, yeah. --where you see what happened in Philadelphia. Oh, my boy. That made-- it's hard for me to pick the best episode of the season, but that one right there-- I think that was my number one. And I got to tell you guys, like, the evidence is there, and I'm not just saying that because Michael's here, this is the best show on TV right now. Thank you so much. And you guys, it premieres today. Gordon Smith, speaking of-- I don't know if we were aired when we talked about, right? Yeah. Gordon Smith wrote that. That's his first ever published television episode. This just in. And he was in the Emmy Nominate. The first episode is like an Emmy Nominate. And right off the bat, Emmy Nominate is one of the best episodes of the season. I just want you to write it in. Do you guys have anything I can open a vein with? No, no, but don't look at it like that. No, look at it like that, John. You don't know what these people's trajectory has been. How many rejections they've had? I'm starting at the gist of mine. No. You may be the inverse bell curve. You just go down all the way. What are you doing? You know, you've got-- as a writer, as a writer, you're going to hit your peak all throughout your life, all throughout your age. Am I going to hit my peak? Before or after my wife leaves me? No. No negativity. I believe. Just stay positive, guys. No, don't stay positive. Work your ass out. Oh, yeah, do that too. Yeah. But keep a positive attitude. OK, I'm writing all this down. Keep, babe. And I want-- I want 15% of everything that-- Yeah, that's it. Because of that one sentence. Because that, yeah. Keep a positive attitude. Were you formerly a life coach? Yeah. I can't just like mentality forever. From ever, ever. A positive attitude. All right. Well, guys, we're going to keep a positive attitude. You guys are going to keep listening. We're going to stop for another break. Michael's going to do a little bit of live tweeting if you guys are on the east coast watching "Better Call Saul" if you're on the west coast. You better turn on that DVR and get ready to watch this show. It premieres tonight, second season "Better Call Saul." We'll be right back with Michael Mando. And I'm going to keep things positive here in the studio until you get back. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right. We're back here on "Geeks' Game" with Michael Mando. He's just doing some live tweeting. Don't worry. No, he's got-- no, no, you don't have to put it away. Because you know what? "Better Call Saul" season 2 starts right now on the east coast. Yeah, we're live right now. If anybody's listening to us-- Yeah, on the east coast and watching "The Very Good News." Tune in on AMC and keep one ear to the-- They're watching two things at once. You guys are rude. No, they're rude. But it's the kids these days, and they can multitask. You're probably also watching a Twitch streamer the exact same time. And periscoping it. Yep, maybe. Oh. Periscoping and watching three different things. Hey, if you're listening to this and watching "Better Call Saul," put your pants back on. All right. Get home, escape. Come on, do it. And that one's your dad in the room. No pants at home. Is that your rule? That's my rule. No pants at home. I like that rule. So Kenny, you are a big video game player. Absolutely. What was your response when I told you that Vass was going to be in the studio? My pants were off. OK, well, hailed up. You guys were on before. If you guys are fans of the "Far Cry" series, you guys know that Michael played the big bad guy, right? Like the crazy fucking blow up everything bad guy. Like, can you explain this to me? OK, the difference is he's not just going to blow up everything kind of bad guy. It's like the-- I think Vass, as a character, really changed video games. You're talking about Vince Gilligan changed the way TV is written. I think Vass is a character on "Far Cry 3," changed antagonist in video games. Because I was watching the-- I played that game probably for like 200 hours more than I should have, which is really for 800 hours. Yeah, I did a little geek math here, folks. But Vass's character in "Far Cry 3" is it was like a real person. Most people in video games are like, OK, that's the antagonist. We've got to kick his ass. How you played it? It was like a real person on the screen. No, no, no, no. He was still fucking nuts. But he's sympathetic. But you can like a person as a actual person, as opposed. That's my close. He's right here. Yeah, he's going to write your face. I know, but now he's going to put your face on him. Where does it mess? I know you're so sweet in real life. But yeah, yeah. Don't tell me that. That tradition of insanity. Thank you so much for that. That means a lot. And I have to say, the way the fans have reacted to that, and they still do until a quarter of my tweets are always referring to Vass. And I love that so much. Because when we came up with that character, we didn't know. We had no idea what he meant. That character didn't exist before he went in. And they gave me a lot of leeway to write and to improvise and to rewrite. And we were just-- And this just happened in the voice recording stage? Well, the reason also why it's so revolutionary is that they-- Usually, they have a character that they draw. And then they have an actor come and do the voice for that character. And then they have a third actor that does the movement. The mocap. Yeah. In this particular case, it was like they had Brent George and Darryl Purdy, who weren't film directors or video game directors. And the game was sort of like in Mayhem. And they brought in these young guys. I did an audition the character was supposed to be like, this is another example of how you can get lucky completely out of left field. The character was supposed to be six, three, very stoic and unemotional. And I came in and I-- and you had like-- you could pick one out of like eight accents. And I came in and I gave him someone that was very, very fury. You know, I remember I was starting the scene like I was licking my fingers. Like I had just finished eating. And he takes his middle finger and sort of rotates it in his mouth and licks it out as a big fuck you to the guy he was doing the scene with, which wasn't in the script. And I was so lucky that there was someone like Brent George, who was sitting there, who said, I like that. It's bold. It's ballsy and it's different and it's a risk. But I like it. So he came in and he-- and we went into-- they hadn't written a script at the time. And we went into a recording studio. And he kept saying, he said, you know, say a joke as Voss. Say this as Voss. How would Voss react to this? And I just kept improvising it. You were the character. Well, we were finding it. And then when we were rehearsing, they had a camera just like this. And they were taping our rehearsals. And we were lucky that the rehearsal went all the way up to Paris. And the brass of Ubisoft saw the rehearsals. And they said, I want what they're doing on that camera, on that rehearsal. I want that in the game. And they said, well, we can't because this particular actor has-- you know, it's all about like the spaces on your face. And they said, we can't because this actor's spaces on his face move in a particular way that if we put him on another character, it doesn't work. Wait, was it you or the other person that was doing it? Well, they had a design. They had a design. That was the six-three guy. Yeah, I was going to do the body and the voice for. And they couldn't match the movements of the character they had, especially in the face. Because there's a suit, but there's also a one with the dots. And we can't point it at you. Exactly. For the facial recognition. Yeah, and they couldn't match it. And they actually let me go. Wow. Yeah, and then a week-- I don't know how-- They were like, sorry. Yeah, they're like, yeah, OK. Sorry, it's great. This is going to revolutionize video games. But later-- Sorry, we really want you, but we just can't have you. Come back when you're not a six-three. Come back when you're a six-three black guy. But then they called me back. And Lucius Hülbaum, who wrote the definition of insanity monologue, was-- him and I hit it off right away. And he was there. And he said, then they had given me the camera for the first time. They have an infrared camera. We didn't have those little dots that you put on the face anymore. And I did that speech not knowing what they were going to do. I thought it was for a demo. E3, I thought it was like a demo that they were going to do for Far Cry 2. A new character, maybe, or something. They didn't say anything. They just gave me the speech. They just said, come down with that character. And we had two days. We had one day of rehearsal and one day where we actually shot it. And the day of rehearsal is where I had the accent, the Spanish accent. And Darryl and I thought that this is the way we should go. And we were very excited about it. And then the next day, I show up to the set and they say, don't do the accent. And you're thinking as an actor, as you're changing into your multi-color suit, you're thinking it must have been really bad for them not to want me to do what I did yet in the rehearsal. So I do that. And then I don't hear from them. And then suddenly my phone starts ringing a couple of weeks later. And people are like, is that you? Because they hadn't released my name at the time. And I was so ashamed of it. Because I thought-- Because you thought it sucked. I thought it sucked. You hadn't seen it yet. That I kind of didn't want. I was thinking to myself-- Because that you know? No, it was not me. I mean, you've got to go up to it. You've got to go up to it. But I was just thinking it's just going to go away by yourself. And it ended up being this huge, huge overwhelming success. And then they brought me back. And we got to do the other scenes. And a lot of the Vos movements were revolutionizing even the way the camera were. Because at the time, we had cameras with cables. And one of the scenes, I don't know if you remember where he does the kerosene-- Oh, yeah, yeah. --the worlds. We actually couldn't shoot that, because I would get caught up in the cable. In the cable, yeah. And they told me, come back in two weeks, and they had new cameras. Wow. That's all. We invented wireless. That's for you, Michael, by now. It's on Jim's camera and shit. But that was also a testament to the great people that Ubisoft who were like, you know what? We're not going to sacrifice the performance. We're going to go and up the technology. And every time we kept shooting, the technology kept getting better and better. Yeah, we're not going to sacrifice those pirouettes that you did significantly. And then the great thing is the brass who saw it in France, who saw the actual video, decided to do the promotion. And we went to Thailand. I don't know if you guys saw it, the Far Cry experience? No. You didn't see it? Oh, is that the thing for the-- remember the promotion it had? What's his name? Christopher Minh's "Bloss," yeah. We have about almost 40 minutes of footage on the internet. And then we have a small scene in an asylum. And those were all shot because they really liked what was in the game. But they also really liked what we were doing in live action in rehearsal. And the great thing about that is that the face-- they took the actors face to make a character. So when people say you are Vass, it's actually true. It's like they make-- I thought that was just Thailand. That's just what Thailand's like. It's just Far Cry. That's not just what Thailand's like. Thailand. Thailand, you don't get to just blow shit up. Yeah, you get to eat a lot of sticky mango rice. But you're right. But man, I hate those. Oh, man, I ain't too much of them. I used to stuff them in my military camp. Hopefully not 30-year rice. Oh. Sticky mango rice. What the heck? It was just like this dessert. It's like rice and mango looks like a protein bar. Are you trying to bring it back to the States? No, I'm not trying to do it. I gained so much weight. That's all you do in set. You just eat. Like on set, it's like, I don't know what else to do. Well, I got downtown, so just go hang out in a crafty. I'm going to go eat. Persons are like, you need to leave. That's awesome, though. And I think that's becoming more prevalent as the technology goes, especially if they have cameras on the actors. Anyway, no doubt the characters of the game have to start representing the actors who are performing them. At what point do they just download the actors' likeness and sound into the game? Right. And they're like, hey, Michael, we don't really need you anymore. We got a boss. He's in the game, and now it's like the lawn mower, man. It's like-- They did that with Brando, you know? Yeah. Superman. They didn't need him for-- That's right. They just used his face, and they mimicked it. I guess I watched that last "Hunger Games" movie. Yeah. You can see more "Hoppin' It" died, and they did some scenes like that. It's just insane whether it's going-- Young Jeff Richards in Toronto. But that's an amazing story, because I mean, has the Vosting led to the work? I mean, do you play video games yourself? You know, I'm not really big on playing video games or anything like that. But I was just really lucky. I was at the right place at the right time, and I was working with the right people. And for me to be part of that, like you say, huge transition to the video game world, to be part of that pioneering kind of character change, is just I'm just grateful for it. Would you like to do more video games in the future? Yeah. Or could you even? Because you're like the best for, like-- Oh, that's funny. He's not the third Mario brother. No, I'd love to. I'm attracted to great characters, great stories, working with great people. So we can start the rumor that you're playing the third Mario brother. The secret Mario brother, that's right. [INTERPOSING VOICES] Adolpho, you've been gone all these years. I've been trapped by Bowser. [INTERPOSING VOICES] Whatever the heck it was. [INTERPOSING VOICES] Geekscapers for starting a position. We're going to get Nintendo to make him the third Mario brother. Here it comes. That's it. Back up the brings truck on that one. I like that. The election, Mario brother. You're playing the CG. He's got like a smart rat. He's got like a smart rat. [INTERPOSING VOICES] He's the one who's like, the princess is in my castle. He's the one who actually gets princesses. We finally found her. It's a Mario rescue there. And Mario shows up at some time. You're too late. The test that he just left. He just drives up in his Ferrari. Like you two idiots were jumping around on mushrooms where he was in here with the princess. That's pretty funny. Go raise your flagpole door. Mike's been raised the last 25 years. I like Super Mario though. [INAUDIBLE] Don't worry. We're going to make you part of the friendship. Yeah. Get ready to ride some Yoshi or princess. But you guys, listen. We're going to take one last spot break. We're going to come back on Geekscape. We got Michael. We're going to talk about the new Super Mario brother. And we're going to talk about some more better call solid more, more, more, more, more. So set the DVRs for better call solid. We'll be right back on Geekscape. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's all right, Geekscuse. So we're all having a fun time here on Geekscape. It's turning into a party. Michael, you're a cool guy, man. I like you, brother. Thank you. I like you guys. You just came in here. We got you the new gig as the third Mario brother. Yeah, you're welcome. [INTERPOSING VOICES] You can watch-- if you guys like Michael, if you guys have gone this far, like I love this guy, you can watch him on Better Call Saul season. He plays Nacho. Nacho Vargo, which is short for Ignacio. Ignacio. And if you guys did your breaking bad homework, you would notice that when Saul Goodman has his gun to his head, you guys know what I'm talking about? You still don't? OK, so when Saul Goodman has a gun to his head by Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, he says, no, no, no, are you with the cartel who sent you? Lalo, Lalo sent you? It wasn't me. It was Ignacio. Ignacio did it. Ha. And Nacho is short for Ignacio. Ooh. There's a pebble right there. Oh, shit. That will make ripples. Yeah. And get everybody writing-- Yeah, one episode's that get nominated. Eat up, eat up, you nerds. Is it the Mario Brothers news wasn't big enough? Yeah. All the fan theories. Ray is Ignacio's daughter. Oh my god. Think of that one. Nacho has sent him the future. That's right. [LAUGHTER] Wow. He's time cop. Yeah, he's time cop. But part of his people. I love time cop. That's a great movie. It is. This is a van damn nice. Yeah. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] So guys, we were talking to Michael during the break. He's got a little short film. You got a big short film. I've got a little 11-minute-- I don't think a short film. No, 11's good. 11-minute-- yeah. 11-minute short film that I did when I was out. And this is a very special sort of personal project for me because I did it right out of theater school, never having done any television before Vos, before or from Black, before Better Call Saul, before knowing where my career was going to go. A bunch of friends and I said, what if we did this really experimental film? You made your first porn out. And we made our first porn out. We got it. [LAUGHTER] We just wanted to sleep together. Wow. If it's a camera, I could pay you and it's legal. It's a naked art. We're out of ecstasy. It's like on my mind. But no, we did this short film called Wake Up. Wake Up, we're out of ecstasy. [LAUGHTER] Wake up, I go grab me more ecstasy. Wake up, I think Billy's not breathing. Wake up, let's try these mushrooms. [LAUGHTER] I feel a lot bigger than I used to be. Oh, it's kind of everywhere. I'm not slapping my head on the finish. You've been dead for three days. That's a twist of the end. Let me try to get this in for a little bit. Yeah, of course. But no, I kind of like the vazigi. Let's come back to this. [LAUGHTER] You're making that short, right? Yeah. But actually, again, so March 14th, it's going to arrow my YouTube channel. It's 11 minutes long. It's a very experimental film. It's unlike anything you've ever seen. We wanted to try to film what it would be like to be inside someone's head while he's having a nervous breakdown. And he's hallucinating. And so he's at work. He works for a collectors agency. And he's got this sort of Alice in Wonderland rabbit trap in his head. And I showed it to Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Wow. And they called me back. And they had all the writers on an intercom, on a speaker. Hey, look what Nacho did. And they said he sucks. [LAUGHTER] Oh, no. But they were into it. They really liked it. Wow. And I mean, you know, when someone like Vince calls you and says he likes it, you kind of strain. And you pay extra attention and trying to see if he means it, or he's just being a nice guy. And they really, really liked it. And it kind of made me think, maybe I should release this. Or you should have been writing the entire time. It's like you wrote seven years ago. First thing at a school. But no, I hope people will like it. Because I think when you're naive as a filmmaker and you don't know anything, you tend to capture that sort of innocence. There's like an energy to it. Yeah. And that short film has that. And I really can't wait for everybody to see it. March 14. It's hard to get that stuff back, though. It's not breaking the rules. Because you don't know the rules. You're not purposely saving the rules. Exactly. You're just trying to express. And it's that energy, that pure expression, is really hard to get back. And you see people lose it. But you see people lose it. And there's an argument to be made that entire school of filmmakers from the '70s, Coppola, and De Palma, and all those guys. I guess Spielberg. I mean, sadly, when I kicked drugs, it was like, what happened to their movies? Yeah. Because they used to make these pieces of work that were phenomenal. But they were all kind of battling their own demons. You did a huge jump here. You went from they're great to-- They don't do drugs any more than I saw. You know what I'm saying, though, right? Like you see their movies and their movies are-- their movies seem to be about and from other things. They're very personal, actually. They're movies. But like, Jack-- I just read the movie, my agent sent me a script, of the making of "The Godfather." And they were talking at some point about making-- It's phenomenal. And if you see what those guys went through, it's actually-- it was extremely personal. You know, Francis was-- Coppola was saying-- I read a few-- I think we're saying the same thing, though. But I'm taking away the drug thing. Yes. [LAUGHTER] I don't want to give that message that you have to do drugs to make your best work. I'm the straight age kid, yeah. Right. Unless he's in Super Mario, and he's in the show. No, I think what we're saying is when you start out, you're still making-- you're still telling stories about something. You're still finding it. You're still wrestling with things. Does that make sense? I think, yeah, you need trouble. Then you hit a way where the rules come in, and you've done it so long that you're like, man, I'd rather just run a winery. You know what it is, honestly, what I see what you're saying. And I'm glad you brought it up, because this is something that I kind of reflect upon when I'm working with guys who've been doing it for so long. And you tend to feel they get chated. You have to always find a reason to fight. As an artist, you have to take a stance for something. I think what happens a lot of times, and I see this in people who get very successful, is that they have nothing to fight for. They're like, I did it. I've accomplished everything I want to accomplish. I'm successful. I've got money. I'm married. I've got kids. It's just a job. I think what you need to do is you need to constantly find something to fight for. And you notice, I was doing a guest star on a TV show when I started my career. And there was a SWAT leader. And I was just playing around with them. They were showing me how to hold guns and how to do stands. This is on a technical side. Technically, yeah, he was a real SWAT guy. Like a veteran guy who's been doing it for 30 years. And I asked him, I said, who are the best warriors? Who are the best SWAT guys? And he paused and he said, the greatest fathers. Because the young guy who comes in is only doing it for himself. He's only doing it for his ego. But the guy who has a kid is literally willing to die for the greater good of others. And I think as an artist, it takes a bit of that. It takes a bit of doing it for something greater than you. And constantly-- Even if it is dying? As an artist, a lot of the great-- I mean, I hate to say this because it sounds like, I'm going to walk out of the door here. It's like, pop, pop, pop. It's odd. You got his wish. Goodbye, Vaseedee. It's OK. There's like 10 albums worth of content that you've already recorded that was these establishments. But I think you have to-- I think you have to believe in it so fervently that it becomes a vocation. And I think that's what those guys had at the beginning. You know, Coppola couldn't pay the bills. He was being thrown and being fired alone, had to sell his dog. Yeah, that's crazy. And that seeps into the film. And it's there. It's in the texture of the stories that-- You know we're expecting all that in March when we wake up. And on Wake Up? Yeah. [INTERPOSING VOICES] Wake up! Wake up! What is your YouTube? Our expectations. It's on YouTube channel. It's a YouTube.com/MichaelMandofilms. And March 14th is called Wake Up. And now that we've hyped it so much, I don't think I'll release it. [LAUGHTER] I can't live up to this. You got to do it. You got to do it. The Godfather, the Super Mario Wake Up! No, of course. You guys can find him at Mando Michael on Twitter and all that. But we're going to start this position, man. We're going to get you it back to the Mushroom Kingdom. You're talking about things to fight for, and why not fight for an entire kingdom? And why not fight for a Super Mario? Yeah. Fight for a princess's love. I don't even know what I'm talking about. But listen, there's one thing you guys do and get out of all of our nonsensical conversation here on GeekScape. This is what I want you guys to do. Watch Better Call Saul. You know what? If it's your first time watching Better Call Saul, don't start tonight. Go back and watch the first season or right away. It's right on Netflix. First season's on Netflix. And then second season airs today. And every Monday, 10 Eastern time on AMC. And I think the next day airs on Netflix. So again-- Oh, that's cool. Oh, that's pretty awesome. Oh, wow. Thanks for saving us. Yeah. Here's our gift to get the episode right away. I think that's pretty awesome. And tomorrow on Geek Space. OK, well, what we got is that we go watch Breaking Bad if you haven't already. I'm pretty sure you have. And then, of course, Better Call Saul. What I call the best show on TV. But I don't think I'm alone in that center. Thank you so much for listening. High praise. We'll live up to it. It's going to be awesome. And of course, we got GeekScape 400 coming up pretty soon. Congratulations, guys. You guys are really fun. I feel like-- You're really bored. No, you guys are great. I feel like I'm in the Titanic. And where are we going? OK. It's before the iceberg. Yeah. You're the women of children. We're the bands. We're going to stop playing in the circus. You're on the door, and we'll let you float on the door, and we'll sink. You get saved. I feel like it's all downhill from-- Am I the way you do it? Will you draw me like one of your French girls? I'll draw you like, oh, what about that? It's so sweet. It's a line for Titanic in the car. Oh, yeah. I like to draw me like one of your French girls. Jack, but you know it's funny, as a kid, I do remember thinking, there's room for two on that board. Yes, that's very totally fine. And I saw this-- It's really funny, kind of like a diagram where they show all the possible positions, how they could have both survived. She didn't. She didn't. She loved them, but she was gold. She wanted to be comfortable. I love you to a point. He was half frozen. She doesn't like to spoon today. She's like, from the waist down, you're useless to me. Yeah, she's a great actress. My girlfriend says that to me all the time. Oh, Penny, my hypothermia. I thought we had positive outlook. You were going to be downers? Positive. You could do anything with a positive outlook. Yeah, we're going to have you dance again. I just-- it's a marionette string, so we got this. Well, we'll figure it out. We'll be able to just scan you into the video game like Michael, and we'll throw you up on the string. Can I be boss junior? Yeah, you won't get blown up. OK, listen, guys, we've got to wrap this up. This is Geekscape. You're going to watch Better Call Saul on AMC. And you're going to listen to Geekscape every week. We've got Geekscape 400 coming up. You're going to follow Michael on Twitter at MandoMichael. He's got MandoMichael Films on YouTube. We've got Geekscape TV. We're also on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and at geekscape.net. We've got all that going on. We've got one more show, and that's Geekscape 400. Congratulations, guys. Maybe I'll throw you a Deadpool special in between now and then. Ooh, I loved that movie. Me too. And I think you and Colonel and I should break it down for you, Geekscapus. Do it. All right? Yeah. But you guys know where to find us at Geekscape. Thank you so much, Michael. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Michael. Awesome, Gus. Thank you. Thanks for having me. That was great. Cheers. Air fry. Air fry. [MUSIC PLAYING]