- This is my brother, Hafifu.
- Acting! It's a skill I do not have. (laughs)
I wish I did, but it's the one part of my wheelhouse,
oh, let's be honest,
I've got a lot of parts of my wheelhouse that don't work,
but it is one that holds me back in this job,
because there's a lot of experiences
where acting is involved,
and I've had to say, "No, I can't do it."
Or if I get forced into it, I do it really badly.
If I'm given a script,
my brain just decides it no longer wants to respond.
It doesn't know how to function
or what the human language is.
I'm reading a script and I'm just like, (blabbers)
and then it sucks all the moisture out my mouth as well.
So it's like a dusty desert in there.
Thirdly, intonation.
I forget how humans speak. (laughs)
I think I might be a lizard in a human suit.
I'm just like to be or not to be?
So whenever a job comes up
and there is a bit of acting involved,
I dread it. I hate it.
I always say, "Don't make me do this
"'cause I'm gonna ruin your production."
But a few times I have tried my very best.
We are gonna watch some of those today.
We're gonna rate these on a scale from one,
which is a tomato,
to five, which is an Oscar.
Before we watch the first one,
I just wanted to say,
"Hallo! Ich bin Phil,"
and thank you to the glorious Babbel
for sponsoring this video.
I learned German in school and I got pretty good at it.
I ended up with a B, which I was happy with.
I also did French, but I just did not get along with it.
I mean, why are you saying four 20s instead of 80?
Why am I doing maths with your number system?
Sorry, French people.
But German I really vibed with,
and last time I went to Berlin I was a bit sad,
because I was in a cafe and I was like,
"I do not remember any of this.
"Where has all my German gone?"
So Babbel has come to the rescue.
It is one of the top language learning apps in the world,
and this week I've been giving it a little go
with some Deutsch.
(Babbel app speaks in German)
(Phil speaks in German)
- [Dan] Wúnderbar.
- This is really working for my brain,
because the lessons are like games,
and as soon as you gamify anything,
it becomes a little bit addictive
and I want to get the high score for the next day.
So you got me learning
without feeling like I'm learning, Babbel.
Also, the lessons are designed by real language teachers,
and it's good,
'cause it's giving you stuff
that you'll use in everyday speech to people in the country,
rather than the stuff you learn in school,
which is like,
"Here's the word for chicken pox or industrial tank."
And then you never use that stuff.
It's a really good baseline
for if you're going on a trip somewhere
and you wanna crack out a little bit of
(Phil speaks in German)
So why don't expand your language
and give it a go with my very special link
in the description,
which will give you 60% off your Babbel subscription.
So hopefully when I go back to Germany,
I'll be able to say more than eagle,
and I wish you luck in your language journey.
Tschüss.
The first thing we're gonna watch is
my cringey car insurance commercial,
which I didn't realize I was gonna go out
on every ad break on UK television for about six months,
so I became one of the most hated men in the UK.
Charlie Brooker called me a wanker,
and I think I kind of deserved it.
So I was playing a YouTuber that really likes car insurance.
I'm already cringing. Ah!
I've repressed this.
Go through this with me together.
Oh, it's recording.
"Oh, it's recording."
Oh guys, I just pressed record, and I didn't realize.
How quirky.
- Very friendly.
- "Very friendly."
- I really liked it actually.
(Phil laughs)
- That's what you say
when you're convincing your friend about something.
"I really liked it actually."
- That's easy.
- So-
- That's my friend. We bonded over this trauma together.
Oh no! - Simple.
This is it.
That noise!
That is the noise that haunts me in my dream.
So "Jeremy Kyle" was on,
which, side note, me and Dan were in the audience of,
and we probably shouldn't have been,
'cause it was actually more depressing than I expected,
and just played this little clip, ba-da,
in every single ad break
to the point where I was walking around my uni campus
and people were just going, "Ba-da!" at me.
Honestly it is up there with my regrets.
I think I got paid an entire 50 pounds for that.
My emo hair on that day though,
(person wolf whistles)
that was on point.
Look at that perfect swish.
It was a bit mullet-y around my neck at this point though.
Wow, I wish I hadn't watched that again.
Car insurance commercial gets a tomato.
It, I mean, I just regret it.
So I'm not even gonna rate my acting skills.
I'm pretending to be a YouTuber enjoying car insurance.
All right, next up. Can you spot me in this scene?
(light music)
- Two strawberry tops.
- No shit.
(Phil laughs)
- If you didn't figure out,
I am the guy stealing the old lady's handbag
in the background.
Let's watch how convincing I am.
(punches land) Well, I'm really,
I'm really wrestling her for it.
I think my pants were falling down a little bit.
Look at that. (laughs)
Those white boxes hanging out.
Now get ready for my favorite credit of all time
is "Mugger, Phil Lester."
So this was a show made by my friend Keen
and he said, "Do you wanna be a mugger for the day?"
And I thought, "Why not?"
I show up on set, and the old lady's like,
"I want to method to act this.
"I want you to actually fight me."
So every time we were doing a take,
I was being really gentle with her.
She was like, "No, pull my handbag more."
And she was like really trying to get me
to throw her around this park.
We were doing it for about an hour,
and at one point she just slapped me around the head,
which I think was still acting.
And when I turned up, my friend was like,
"Because we know each other,
"you can just sleep at my brother's."
Turned out his brother's was a gay bar,
which didn't close till 3:00 AM,
and I had to sleep in a back room
with four other actors on a tiny mattress.
I mean, it was a good way to get to know each other
and also have a closeted drink with some gays
that turned out actually not to be that closeted.
I'm gonna give myself a five for that.
I get the Oscar for background actor.
I think I was a very convincing mugger.
I'd like to thank my family,
and I also apologize to the Oscar for smashing its ass.
Next, it was my big acting break.
It was very exciting.
In a British film.
I don't think it hit the cinemas, but it was on planes.
I saw it on a plane.
It was "Faintheart."
I was the nerdy guy that worked in a DIY store.
Basically what Dan was,
without pressing a panic alarm.
Here is my first scene.
Oh, I was in here for so long.
5:00 AM start in this.
Ah, look at me!
I've gotta hold this like a viking,
and then charge at my friend.
That's Eddie Marsan. He is famous.
Oh, I'm about to charge.
(employees shout) (Phil laughs)
Ah, I'm so proud of little Phil there.
I had luscious emo hair, right?
I arrived, they took me to makeup,
and just completely covered it in grease.
Look at the grease line.
You can see I've got splinge.
This bit, the main character axes off
this cardboard cutouts head,
and I had to go, "Yes!"
They only had four cardboard cutouts,
and every time I did it at the wrong time,
or just really awkward.
So the last time the director said,
"Just don't say anything, Phil.
"Just stand still, pretend to sweep the floor."
And then what do I do?
Forget what he said and say yes anyway.
So watch this.
- To unleash hell!
- Yeah!
- That was the take they used,
so I got a line in the film,
'cause I disobeyed the director.
The rest of it I was in this battle scene,
which was freaking terrifying.
Well, there I am on the left.
I was in this situation with real swords,
and look, I just hung back.
I was like, "Nope."
Then for the climactic final scene
where the main character fights the love interest,
I'm just stood gauntlessly at the back center frame
with my blue face.
I don't know why they let me stand there.
That was "Faintheart."
Overall, I had a really good time doing that.
I was terrified that I would have to say any acting words.
But for messing up the director's instructions,
I'm gonna give myself a three,
'cause I could have F'd up the whole film,
and they ran outta cardboard cutouts.
Our next one was quite random.
It was for a "Blue Peter" show,
which is a big kids show in the UK that's been on for years.
And I was talking about a book,
pretending I had a book stuck to my hand.
- Couldn't stop reading it.
It's like my hands were glued to the page.
- Ooh! - Now like actual glue.
He's going for it.
It's really stuck there.
Ah, try and get it off with my elbow. (laughs)
I was quite convinced with that.
I don't know about you.
- Air rippled and the bricks exploded outwards!
- Ooh. Ah.
See I reacted to that, and nothing actually happened.
It was like being Ian McKellan
on the set of the new "Hobbit,"
just surrounded by green screen.
- Hole in the wall.
(fireball whooshes)
- Okay, this is the awkward bit.
- I did it! I did it!
Woo-hoo!
- Okay. That wasn't good, Phil.
"I did it. I did it."
I'm gonna give myself a two for that.
Voice acting for TomSka's "Asdfmovie."
Here we go.
- You're gonna die.
- We're all gonna die. (Phil laughs)
- I love that.
I think I was quite menacing there,
"You're gonna die."
- Come out with your hands up.
- I'm gay.
- I mean, there I was just playing myself.
I remember Tom was like, "You just came out as gay.
"This would be perfect. Do you wanna do it?"
I still watch these. I really like them.
There's almost for Ashton's
and there's a whole film crew in our house,
which is quite overwhelming.
- Oh, it's you.
- [Phil] We thought it might be someone else.
- [Both] Hello Ashton's.
- Dan? Phil? - Not bad.
Who did you think it might be?
- People. People are always watching.
- I mean, when they say, "Phil, can you just act weird?"
I think I'm all right. I think that was fine.
- Why are you here?
- I'm looking for a sofa.
- [Dan] A sofa? Know anything-
- That's how people listen to people, right?
Just go...
That wasn't too bad. I'm gonna give myself a three.
Okay, this was a weird one.
I don't know why I did this.
I was in a "Star Wars versus Star Trek" sketch.
I, why? Why was I doing this?
I was the Red Ranger.
No, what's it called?
Red Trek.
Star, I don't watch "Star Trek."
The red suit. The red shirt!
And they're famously known to die,
so I had to look extra scared.
There I go. That was my moment.
I would give a strong four to that yelp.
(Phil imitates yelp)
To be fair, if I was in some kind of galactic battle,
I think that is how I would react,
so I'm getting strong acting vibes from this one.
Oh!
They just reused my noise.
All right, here's my big moment.
So they want me to go, "Beam me up, Scotty."
Well, in this scene,
someone's beam sends them into the exact coordinates
where I am stood, and something terrible happens.
- I'm gonna make it!
Yes! I've made it.
- Oh! I exploded.
They had like nine buckets of fake blood
and they just threw them all over that guy.
"Star Trek" Phil, I'm gonna give him a three.
P.J.'s incredible short film,
he offered me and Dan to play the part
of newspaper husband and wife.
- Keep your filthy hands of my wife.
Daisy! Daisy! What did he see?
- He saw page three, Colin! - That's so good.
- No! You sick child. You should be ashamed of yourself.
- There's nothing like being a northern angry newspaper.
I mean, I was in my element doing that.
I'm gonna do it.
I'm giving myself a second Oscar.
I'd like to thank all the northerners
who've supported me from, ow.
Oh, I forgot. He's got smash in it.
Oh, I just stabbed myself on his ass. Ow!
Here we are. My Oscar winning performance
for "Big Hero 6" playing Male Technician Two.
Here's Male Technician One. It's Dan.
I'm Male Technician Two,
slightly more receding than me.
This was a pivotal part of the film. Here we go.
- Mr. Craig, is there a problem?
- No.
A field breach. Abort!
We've lost all contact with the pod!
- "Field breach, abort!
"We lost all contact with the pod."
I went from British to American.
I'm not really rating myself that highly there.
- [Male Technician Two] The pilot is gone.
We're prepared now.
- Oh, the drama. I feel like I showed some good peril there.
Even though it's such a short scene,
it was such a cool experience to being a Disney film.
Based on going from British to American,
I'm gonna give myself a three.
I can't do it to myself.
Any lower than that, tell yourself you were good,
but you thought we were done?
Well, no.
I've been saving something that a certain person
might not wanna talk about or even acknowledge exists.
Did you know that canonically
me and Dan are actually Disney Princes?
- Oh, Jesus Christ.
Alright, buckle up, chuckle (bark).
Are you ready for some tea?
This is genuinely traumatic for me.
- Gorilla tea.
- This is something that I have been
legitimately repressing- - Yeah.
- For half a decade.
- It's something I'm not allowed to bring up
in front of Dan. It's time to talk about "The Lion Guard."
- Okay.
- This is the official Disney animated sequel
to "The Lion King."
This is Simba's child frolicking around the Savannah.
Who wouldn't want be part of that?
- And all the wacky creatures that he meets.
- Yes. Including Majinuni and Hafifu,
the two gorilla princes.
- Now you might be thinking on first glance,
that's a weird Karen haircut on that gorilla.
- No. - That's an emo fringe.
- They gave the gorillas emo fringes.
See, we've got different perspectives on this.
I'm so proud.
Let's just watch a bit. Okay, ready?
- No.
- Here it is.
- Oh my God, the fringe.
- The fringe! - Put them down the pangolins.
- [Hafifu] Put them down? It's so much fun to squeeze.
- Drop the pangolin, you nutter.
- Leave 'em alone! - No!
- Oh God. - Oh.
- [Majinuni] Oh, hello. Have we met?
- [Hafifu] Would you mind not standing on us?
- They're being tackled by Simba's son.
- [Majinuni And Hafifu] Deal.
- Oh my God. They've got our eye colors.
- They do. It looks like us.
- They're brothers. That doesn't make any sense.
- We are brothers. - You're adopted.
Made you more handsome than me.
- No, I think they've just got your big cheekbones.
They looked at these little nuggets,
and they were like,
"We're gonna draw a whole circle on that guy."
- Yeah. Dan, this is incredible.
- Okay.
- Your voice is coming out of a Disney cartoon.
- Shut up. Right.
We thought, "Oh, they want us to have a line in something."
- A phrase. - A cameo.
- And we were like, what's that?
"They want you to be gorillas."
Sure.
They go, "Oh yeah, we're gonna record it on Sunday.
"You just come to this voiceover studio. It will be good."
And we're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. Let's go ahead."
- "Yeah, it sounds like a plan."
- Two days before it happens, we get given a script.
It is not a line.
This is not a stunt cast cameo feature.
- No.
- It was a 22 page script with a musical number!
- And we were the main characters.
- And we were the main characters
of the whole fricking episode!
- The episode was called "The Gorilla Princes."
- And there was no preparation for this.
Okay? - No.
We had no idea what the show was,
because it was a secret.
We had no idea who these characters were.
And we just saw all of these lines.
I think what happened is somewhere between
the marketing cameo department
and the people making this fricking animated show-
- Yeah.
- There was a severe miscommunication-
- Somewhere.
- Where they were like, "Oh yeah, these guys'll do that,"
and they went, "Cool. Yeah, so we'll just
"put 'em into this full fricking show
"we've been making for years."
Honestly, we freaked the hell out.
- We did.
- I was like, "Something has gone wrong here."
- The universe has shifted.
- "We need to pull the plug," and you were like-
- I was like, "It's fine. Whatever.
"We'll just be gorillas. Who cares?"
- We walked into this studio and there were, no joke,
11 people there staring at us like,
"So you've learned the lines yet?"
- "You know you are the gorillas, right?"
- We didn't know what this show was until yesterday.
- What are you doing in the Pride Lands?
(gorillas laugh)
- Ah, well that's easy. - The gorilla noises.
I'm Majinuni and this is my brother, Hafifu.
- We're looking for someone called King Zimba.
- He's a lion.
- I think they mean Simba.
- Zimba.
- Yes, that's right. Do you know him?
- Yeah.
- It's just our voices. - You can say that.
- You're a lion.
- You're a prince.
- We are ignorant.
- [Majinuni And Hafifu] So are we!
- Oh, hello.
- I think we're doing all right.
Why do you hate this so much?
I was kind of just having fun.
You were sweating and then they were like,
"Can you sound a bit like monkeys?"
- What does that mean?
- And just like do-
- Like do they want us to sound like ourselves,
or do they want us to sound like monk...
Like this isn't something that we should have one day
to think about.
- So then I was like,
"Shall I look at what a gorilla noise actually makes?"
They were just like, "No, just do generic monkey sounds."
(Dan imitates monkey sounds)
- Gorillas don't make those noises!
That's a monkey noise.
Gorillas just go, "Ah!"
- "Ah!" I think it kind of fit the character though.
I think it was fine.
(gorillas hoot)
- Biologists are quaking.
Voice acting is a serious job.
- Yes.
- People spend their whole lives
becoming professional voice actors.
You know that nightmare where you have to
stand up in front of the class,
or do some kind of presentation at work,
or walk onto a stage in front of people.
- I think given that we had no time to prepare,
we were thrown into the deep end
with all these people looking at us.
We did a really good job.
- I think, being fair, - Yeah.
anyone else in this situation
would've had a complete breakdown.
- Yes.
- The fact that this happened
is a testament to our ability to go,
"(Bark) it. Here we are." - Yeah.
- Look at them.
- Accurately done.
- I think that is the most Dan and Phil
that has ever been animated.
- Majinuni, look!
Oh well. Kuishi ni kucheka!
- The song's coming up.
- It's our motto. It means to live is to laugh.
- We're about to harmonize.
You're not ready for this.
- You know.
♪ Kuishi ni kucheka ♪
♪ Live with a laugh and a smile ♪
♪ Kuishi ni kucheka ♪
♪ Stays with you all the while ♪
- We didn't know the song.
- We need to have a moment.
This is the sequel to "Hakuna Matata!"
What the (bark) is happening?
- So we're like, "Oh, so we're just gonna say it right?"
And he was like, "No, you're gonna sing it.
"Do you wanna sing now?"
And we were like, "What? Sing?"
- This was not in the script. - No.
Astral projected 11th dimensional panic attack
you've just ever conceived of in your life.
♪ Kuishi ni kucheka ♪
♪ Stays with you all the while ♪
(Phil laughs)
- It means to live is to laugh.
- "To live is to laugh," sounds like be brave
and have the courage-
- Do you not know my (bark)?
- Oh, what is it? - What the (bark) (bark)?
- What the (bark)?
- Be brave.
- Are you not editing this?
Are you on (bark) (bark) ?
What the (bark) is wrong with you?
- Embrace the (laughs)
- You (bark). - Be brave.
You nightmare (bark).
- Embrace the void and have the courage to-
- Shut the (bark) up.
- You got it from "The Lion Guard."
I think this is the best comedy moment coming up.
We got the timing. - Best comedy moment. Okay.
You ready?
- How could they never have heard of it?
Maybe we should sing it in a different key.
♪ Kuishi ni kucheka ♪
- That won't be necessary.
Look-
- He's just like done with our (bark) by then.
- Stop.
- "That won't be necessary." - That's enough, Phil.
We did it though.
We did a key change, we sang the song,
we did the monkey noises, we did the whole thing.
- I remember when this came out,
there was some mild hateration on Twitter
from people that were probably just a bit like,
"These Dan and Phil on YouTube are
"getting a bit too big for their boots,
"being in a fricking thing right now,
"'cause they're not even real actors."
- I think being a theater kid for Dan,
this experience was a bit of a nightmare.
(Dan laughs)
All you wanted was to have someone
that didn't have your voice.
You wanted to be-
- The joy of acting - A character.
is to be someone that isn't yourself.
- Yes.
- And in the last 10 years on YouTube,
all people wanted me to do was be Dan Howell,
because that was the appeal of my popularity.
- Let Dan be free from himself.
- Please. Somebody, one day.
Yeah, they did just want us to play ourselves.
- Yes.
- But we, considering the circumstances,
we did it.
- We did it.
Did you want me to say it is a banging episode.
You should watch it on Disney+.
- It's a banging episode.
In the circumstances, 11 outta 10.
- We're getting the Oscar.
(Phil vocalizes)
- I accept this golden pig in the name of
persevering against all the odds.
- Well done. Do you feel lighter now?
- Yeah. I mean, I will unpack this
in a full therapy session,
but I'm happy to let this rest.
- Kuishi ni kucheka! - (Bark) off.
And there we go.
Do you know what? Seeing all that together
has made me realize I'm not as bad as I thought I was
in my head, but maybe I should just loosen up
and believe in myself a little bit more.
And maybe I will, one day.
Get myself another golden trophy.
Thank you again to Babbel for sponsoring this video.
If you want to learn some new language skills,
click the link below.
60% off. They're having a President's Day sale as well.
Thanks, president.
Maybe I can act in the end screen?
I'll be the ranch boy.
Hey, Bill the ranch lad here.
Thank you for watching Phil's video.
If you enjoyed it, give him a thumbs up.
Subscribe if you wanna see more of this great dude,
that's not me, 'cause I'm acting.
And have a wonderful day,
have a wonderful life,
and keep believing in yourself, Honey Bun.