i'm going to begin because this interview is surrounding the release of unplugging so i was
just my initial my first question was what was it that initially drew you to uh getting involved in
that project well an offer during the pandemic you know where i knew all the people involved
i'm friendly with eva longoria i'm friendly with matt walsh and then um had a bunch of
friends who were doing it as well so johnny pemberton is a really good buddy of mine
and he's in it i know nicole byers so it's like you see all these names that you recognize and
um it's in you know i flew to tulsa on a tulsa oklahoma on a connecting flight through salt lake
city i think i saw my first make america great again hat being worn um on a airline this is
so people you know are trying to chin mask it you know as the virus is at its strongest
um so uh it was that was the only downside but other than that it was just a nice quick
fun experience working with friends you know that's always the best at least you saw the
maga hat on the way there not when you arrived on set i've done that everyone's wearing them yeah
so i mean you mentioned that you sort of know um either and stuff i mean i've got
a couple of friends over here in the uk that are in the kind of comedy circuit and it's so
small and everyone who's in kind of comedy and in that kind of field knows each other so well
is that quite similar in the states is it quite a close-knit community it's very much so it's
it's a lot of um i think we have a lot of people realize how lucky they are
how fortunate they are to be working in something that they love an industry they love
so if you're a comic actor and you're comedian by the way i love uh the london comedy scene i
i can't get enough of it you know they i think it was the old rope and then uh where else did i go
um top secret lunch and um the bill murray theater as well was super cool so yeah it's same thing
like you had that built yeah i'm not sure if you're familiar with the bill murray theater but
you have um it looks like that community there you know it's just a bunch of friends hanging
out together making stuff yeah but i i i was a creative i mean i'm sorry you know this there's
nothing better than working on a long project a tour something you've written something you're a
star enrolling in your case it could be writing a comic book but every so often is it quite fun
just to rock up somewhere do a few days see a few friends and just be like see you later
it is it sounded here you get a especially when you can get paid um yeah that all helps
so it's again it's a yeah it's i worked a regular job for a long long time so i know
how fortunate i am so i'm still the guy who's like oh look they put food out this is look at this
um so i i i get excited about and i just love working with you know funny friendly people so
have you have you found you've always stayed grounded throughout your career have you ever ever
been a moment where you had to like check yourself or maybe you were kind of you know because
someone was coming and gave you something you're like that's the wrong thing hang on a minute
you know i've i've had to keep myself in check because i think what happens especially
on something like this okay so you know i've worked on i was actually in london working on
a marvel movie i was so you have this treatment you know i'm um being driven around in you know
a range rover by northern tim and then i'm uh you know i'm also you know then you go to a smaller
set you find yourself in an uber to the airport and so you just have to make sure you realize
where you are same thing you know if you're at a doing a theater show for stand-up versus uh
a guest set at the top secret where no one knows who you are you know what you just sort of have
to remember where you are yeah so obviously one of the themes of the film is that idea
of kind of going unplugged for a week no phones no nothing just completely switching off do you
reckon you could do that or you said what's your relationship with technology are you quite are you
someone that can dip in and out quite freely well i i really can't stand social media you know i i
it's a necessary evil for anyone in our industry to have to you know relentlessly promote yourself
and then the um technology every time i see this screen time report from my iphone which is so nice
still that like you're up 50 from last week it's just like ah how could you even get any higher
because i use a sleep app uh to record myself you know i want to see if i'm snoring um proof
to my wife that i did not snore as much as she said now that i did so um that's you know that's
eight hours of screen you know does it counts for your phone the usage right there so i i would love
to unplug and i i can't seem to um i i remember my wife commenting on how much i was on my phone
and you like you said i wrote this comic book primos i act i write i'm a business owner
and you know i have a lot of because i have a business sense for the hollywood industry but
a lot tons of my friends are calling me asking me for advice so we're on a road trip from san
francisco to los angeles and i told my wife i go han i just i handed her my phone and i said you
respond to every text and email that comes through and tell me that i'm crazy like i need like
i don't need to be on my phone and she's like yes i agree it's overwhelming i i'm sorry i apologize
because it is it's like something's coming in non-stop and um i got to do a better job of
putting it down yeah i think that's the problem isn't it everything being portable you can always
be reached so you can always you've never got that excuse of oh i was away for a few days i couldn't
no one could contact me but um because you are right there but i think that about social media
like twitter and stuff which is like whatever whenever i tweet it's even me moaning about
something or it's me promoting something i've done and it's like eat both of those things
like the ugliest side to my personality and that's the side that you end up putting out
into the world so maybe elon musk will get rid of it soon maybe that's where we have to worry
about it i've i've never been a big fan of twitter i that's my least favorite of all the social media
apps so i would be happy to let that go now all the people complaining about elon musk it's like
we love his cars his hearts are great like so i'm supposed to
hate that hate his twitter involvement but i can't deny the fact that the guy makes a great vehicle
and you're someone again looking at yourself comedy style in some of your shows and stuff
you're some of real keen eye and wit for like satire and i spoke to um armando iannucci who's
obviously a great satirist oh cool okay about two years ago and he said because politics and the
world and this is obviously in the height of like trumpism are becoming so far-fetched it's almost
becoming harder to write satire now because the once the one-time outlandish kind of comedy style
now just seems too real so is that a sentiment you agree with do you think it's almost satire's in a
bit of a difficult play place these days because the real world yes i actually was thinking about
the daily show with jon stewart and just you know political satire and just like a nightly show
where you really can't script um you couldn't script some of the things that people are saying
and so all the hypocrisy that's going on is just unfathomable especially like when you look at
you could have a whole show dedicated to florida
you really could like just because it just seems like this news cycle is so insane and with the
comments and again all of the contradictions that are taking place non-stop you couldn't you can't
stay on top of it and so that's another thing is and with twitter and just sort of the immediate
response from everybody it makes it difficult but yeah i i am shocked with some of the things that
are coming out of people's mouths but you know we're able to react immediately and so it makes it
it's much more challenging when you don't have to do any of the writing um i'm talking of writing
obviously as a man of made talent i wanted to talk about primos i mean that's the comic book
you're behind well i was just wondering about the kind of long-term goal on that front is there is a
have you got ideas in your head about cinematic adaptations and bringing it to
that that'd be great that'd be great but we're talking about expanding the world actually right
now because the idea is that there's many more primos out there there's other planets that
you know i'm not going to say that everyone is human but there's you know there's 12 other
planets in this system that the earth is a part of so we could take on stories anywhere but um
uh it if it gets there's people circling around right now for the rights uh which is great and
you'd love it to be a movie you'd love it to be a tv series you look at what seth rogen is
doing with the boys or invincible any independent comic that's not dc or marvel sort of you know the
preacher it's all seth rogen seth rogenstein but uh there's a lot of opportunity there you
just want as many people to see it as possible because the reason why i did this is because
there's very few latino uh superheroes if any and latinos in the united states are
you know 19 of the population and only five percent of the characters on tv
so you wanted sort of my idea there and thinking was working with axel alonso from
awa to create these latino characters that eventually you would see by developing the
ip and it's hopefully a great comic that stands on its own um and unique in its uh origin story but
um yeah it'd be great if it was a movie as well yeah you are right it does feel like
there is that kind of latina representation in the superhero world is is still just like he's
lacking that big new kind of you the uh bad bunny is el muerto like uh did you see that news it's uh
oh it came out yesterday that uh they're making instead of doing um spider-man 2099 they're doing
uh el morto which is just a random very seldomly seen uh latino mexican wrestler character that
i don't know what the rationale is there they're stretching so we needed primos
i'm talking a supers of course you're very mobius um i i was going to ask because so much instead of
jared leto's investment in his projects when he goes in he goes all in i'm just wondering
what it's like kind of being on set with him is he approachable and says he is he in like the
zone when he saw my character was chasing his characters so no um because if you do method
actor uh but i remember seeing him during reshoots and seeing him at the premiere and he was like hey
how are you my buddy was just telling me that he the other day dropped off cupcakes at his
company and was like the most talking to the receptionist the most delightful person i saw
him at the premiere he goes people love you in this you're hilarious like it was just super nice
but during the filming of it you know again my character is tracking him so um i initially when i
got in my dressing room there was a gift from him from uh his character to my character and um you
know in times i've interacted with them these are super sweet so you know it's hard for me to say
anything you whatever your method is it's fine with me and yeah no because i'm just wondering
if you have you ever tried doing anything method just to see if it's for you because i guess when
you sort of start out it might be something that you just go is it is it could it help me
or not or have you always just assumed it's not really yours i mean i really i love acting and
i try to do all the homework and background work into a character so if i am playing you know in
in the way back with ben affleck i was playing a basketball coach you know i i did look you know on
my clipboard there were plays that i had drawn up you know and i really did like you know really try
to embody the character but am i going home or is it like jim carrey and man on the moon where i'm
you know going around as andy kaufman all the time no no i don't i guess that's just
i i could never pull that off my wife would probably slap me is your basketball as good
as your golf at least my basketball got so good when i was on set i wanted but i i am not a good
golfer and not a good basketball player in my mind i'm a better athlete than i actually
well at least you're a good uh comedian actor and comic book writer which i'm really looking
for fingers crossed i'll interview you again in a few years for the the filmic adaptation
of this of the comic book come to life who knows and i'm i'm i'm trying to remember is it comic
signal in the are you in london where exactly are you um london yeah yeah oh okay i'll tell
you there's a comic book store comic signal i wanted to give them a shout out shout out is that
uh i don't know i don't know that but i think that that sound that does bring about i think
it's i think i thought past them in central london that's also um they bought quite a few primos um
copies uh so yeah and uh i can forget samantha i'm sorry that we're being monitored but uh
unplugging is a great movie um r.i.p juan reyes have you seen the movie did they let you screen it
i'm plugging yeah yeah i really enjoyed it i just i've seen i'm above always really liked matt and
eva as well and i just think it's a nice little ensemble had a nice tone to it no it was good yeah
yeah um brilliant well i think i'm out of time actually so i should probably go
um but thank you so much for speaking to me today alex being here of course first
yeah thanks man appreciate you doing your homework cheers later ladies and gentlemen you're watching
hey you guys hey you guys how are you guys is that from the goonies nice