-Thank you so much for being here.
I have many questions to ask about this.
Two years ago, you were -- you were in high school, right,
graduating high school?
-[ Laughs ] I graduated in the spring of 2020, yeah.
-Yeah. -So I didn't really graduate.
-Wow. So you didn't know, I guess. Yeah, well.
-Well, I mean, it's COVID, so. -Yes.
-It was very anticlimactic. -Yeah, for a lot of kids, yeah.
-Oh, man. But, yeah, I --
shortly after that, I got into like a few --
I auditioned for like a few theater schools
and drama programs and I got in,
but doing theater in front of a computer for a year
seemed horrible!
[ Laughter ] So, I didn't go.
I put a year off and, instead, did nothing for a year.
-you did nothing for a year? -Which was still horrible.
-Yeah. And then you -- then --
then you end up a lead in a Steven Spielberg movie.
[ Cheering and applause ]
And you go -- -Yeah.
-So keep -- don't stop believing, everybody, yeah.
So then, now, you're auditioning.
Now, you're kind of working -- I mean, auditioning.
You get the part.
Steven Spielberg's directing you
and he goes, "And action,"
and you're doing him in front of him.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah. -I was just run
out of the building.
[ Laughter ] -That's -- It's --
It was nerve-wracking. -It must be.
-It was spooky, you know?
-Boy, oh, boy. -Yeah.
-That must be pressure right there.
-Oh, yeah. But, I mean, it's such a loving set
and everyone was so, so lovely.
-Paul Dano. What a cast. -Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Michelle Williams. I mean, just like --
Did they give you advice or they were --
-I -- -were you cool?
I, um --
I asked them, every once in a while.
I remember I'd go up to Paul.
I'm like, "How do you like get into this?
How do you work up to this?
Or how do you do something like this, this emotional?"
And he'd be like...
[ Laughter ]
And then -- -That's the advice?
-That was the advice. -Wow!
-There's one day where Michelle --
In the scene in the movie, it's cut down,
so you don't see so much of it, but there's one day where
she's just sobbing the whole day, like 14 hours.
It's on action, she's sobbing.
On cut, she gets up and she's like hydrating, I guess.
[ Laughter ] But she was doing that
the whole day and it's like so powerful and so intense
because it's real, the whole day.
And the next day, she's back to normal.
And I remember I'm sitting in like cast holding
and, you know, she's like reading her script
and I'm like in my chair, like looking at her like,
"How did you -- How did you do that?"
And she's like -- she has like a water bottle
and she's like... [ Sniffs ]
"I don't know."
[ Laughter ]
-So, you're not getting any advice
from these great actors? You're going,
[ Laughter ] "Someone give me advice!
I want to do what you're doing!" -Yeah.
-But then they probably watch you and they go,
"Oh, I want advice from you," because you crushed it, buddy.
[ Cheering and applause ] -Well, thank you. -You did a great job.
-Thank you. -You're fantastic.
-Thank you so much.
-Was there -- I mean, there's so many tough scenes.
There's many funny scenes.
You got punched in the nose.
-Yeah. -That was -- That was interesting.
Seems that would be your first action scenes.
-I guess it's action, action around me.
-You're getting punched in the --
Yeah, getting punched is, I mean, action, you --
[ Laughter ] -Yes, that's actually me involved in the action.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
And Seth Rogen, I know, who's also in the movie, he's great.
-Oh, yeah. -He was not in the scene,
but he was there, watching?
-Yeah. Like that was the fir--
So, there's a scene. It's in the trailer,
so, I'm not spoiling anything.
I get punched in the nose
and it's emotional, it's intense.
And, you know, there's a stunt and there's extras
and there's a mat you have to fall down on and there's blood.
And it's very technical and it's emotional.
And, normally, Steven does like four takes,
but we're doing like 12.
And I'm thinking like, "Something's not right,"
and I'm trying to stay in it, but it's like, okay.
So, I'm like, "Is it me? Is it me?"
And so I get up and I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to ask him,"
and my head's down. I'm trying to stay in it.
Like, "What's going on? What's going on?"
I round the corner
and I see like Video Village is all there.
I look up and it's Seth Rogen, like sitting in a yellow,
bright yellow T-shirt in the monitor.
I'm like, "No, no, can't.
[ Laughter ] No, not right now."
Like I can't meet him like this. Like no way.
-Yeah, because he's one of your heroes?
-He's --
So, we're both from Vancouver. -There you go.
-Whoo! -And Seth is a Vancouver icon.
He was the voice of our SkyTrain for a long time
[ Laughter and applause ] and --
[ Cheering ]
And you'd be -- -Wow! Amazing, wow.
[ Laughter and applause ] You'd be sitting there --
-To meet that, to meet the voice of the SkyTrain.
[ Laughter ] Unbelievable.
You'd be sitting there
like on your phone and it's like --
Doon! [ As Rogen ] Hi!
[ Laughter ] And you're like, "Okay."
-You did a pretty good "Hi," Seth Rogen, yeah.
I like that. Not a high Seth Rogen,
[ Laughter ] but a hi from Seth Rogen, yeah.
-It's a hi from a high Seth Rogen.
-Yeah, it's a high from a hi, yeah.
-But, yeah, and they named the octopus
at the aquarium after him.
[ Cheering ] They named it Ceph Rogen,
as in cephalopod.
[ Laughter ] And -- -Wow.
Can't they just give him a star or something?
Just give him anything, yeah.
-And so -- But yeah, I mean,
the impact he has on Vancouver teenagers
and me and my friends, it's like religious.
And so, when I got cast and I was telling my friends
about it for the first time, I was like,
"It's a Steven Spielberg movie."
They're like, "Uh-huh." And I'm like, "And Paul Dano
and Michelle Williams are in it."
They're like, "Uh-huh."
I'm like, "And Seth Rogen."
They go, "Seth Rogen?!"
[ Cheering ] -[ Laughs ]
You're like, "Bigger than Steven Spielberg, Seth Rogen?"
Like, "He's the voice of our tram system!"
[ Laughter and cheering ]
-Yeah, but, actually, when I finished shooting
and I saw my friends for the first time,
like over Christmas break,
they like came up to me and they're like,
"Did you like smoke with him?"
[ Laughter ]
And like, "No, I'm working."
And they're like, "Ahh!"
[ Laughter ] -Yeah, "You missed it!" -They're like, "Ahh!" Yeah.
-"You missed it!" Yeah.
Is there anything -- How do we set up the movie,
for anyone, "The Fabelmans"?
-"The Fabelmans" is a story
about Steven Spielberg's upbringing
and pretty much everything that happens
to my character, Sammy, happened to Steven
and it's about his family,
about how he fell in love with cinema.
-Yeah.
-I've seen this movie like four times in packed audiences
and it has -- it has an effect on people.
And that's -- I'll just say that.
-Yeah. -It's really special.
I want to show a clip.
Here's Gabriel LaBelle in "The Fabelmans."
Take a look.
-$100 for a hobby?
-It's not a hobby, Dad.
-If you spent half the time on algebra that you spend
on these movies, you could get -- -I hate algebra. Why are you --
[ Scoffs ] It's completely pointless.
-Not if you want to make something,
it's not pointless.
Gee, Sammy, when I was a boy,
I always used to think, "Somebody figured out how
to make this." -Yeah.
-This car, that rearview mirror,
that directional signal.
-I want to make movies, though!
-That's right! I want to make movies!
[ Cheering and applause ]
Gabriel LaBelle, everybody!
[ Cheering and applause ] You're fantastic in this.
"The Fabelmans" is in theaters now.
We'll be right back
with a performance from Manuel Turizo.
Stick around, everybody.