# 725 - Martyn Ford Went From Anorexia to Building a Body Nobody Could Ignore

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If you're not going to want to miss it. But now at BirdCrasherCruise.com. Have you met Arnold? Briefly, but not in time. Not to speak, too. He was on recently. Yeah, we had one, two bears. I met Arnold a long time ago, but he's like, you know, before I got into, like, definitely before I ever got into working out, before I got into film or television, he was a huge, he was like an inspirational guy in a way that I wonder how many people get inspired by people that wonder, oh shit, am I gay? Like, because when you sometimes there's men that you like, you can't stop looking at when I'm like, how did he do it? Like Arnold, in pumping iron, and his workout book was such an inspirational guy that like I was fascinated by the way his brain worked. Yeah, I had that book. I had the encyclopedia. So funny story about me was when I was around 20, 21 years old, I had the biggest breakdown you could ever imagine going from being an exceptionally talented cricket player, good life, good home, great family, to lose him a granddad, to losing a girlfriend at the time, to having an injury that stopped my career and having the biggest breakdown you can imagine. And I went from being a very strong physical kid to a shadow of my former self, found an eating disorder of anorexia. Would you? Yeah, well, that's what it was class does. I couldn't touch food for about six months. And I believe that stemmed from the ambition to try and be perfect in almost all. So I was never lean lean. I was always big, but strong and healthy and athletic and fit. And when I got my injury in my head, I was like, right, well, if I can come back and be the strongest, the quickest, the fittest, the most athletic version of myself possible, I will, I will master this. Like I didn't like not being the best of my sport. And it was at the time where the Atkins Diet was around. Oh, yeah. And a very lethal understanding and knowledge on nutrition was around in sports around 25 years ago to us kids. I'm a little bit older than you by 10 years, I think, but I remember that. There was so little information about. Atkins Diet was like just eat fat protein. Yeah. There was no idea. I remember we put catch up on everything not realizing their sugar and catch up. Not realizing their sugar and barbecue. So it's not realizing that we're breaking atkins. Yeah. So keep going, I'm sorry. No, no, no. So so pretty much what you're saying. My understanding and knowledge was so bad that I gave myself this eating disorder. And because I was so obsessed with being the best version of me, rather than accepting that I had me eating disorder, I kind of had the mindset that I wasn't working hard enough. So I'd train harder. I'd eat less. I'd work harder. I'd eat less. And my performance was was worse and worse every single day. And in my, in my head, it was like, well, it's because I'm not trying hard enough. So I went harder and harder and deeper and deeper. And before you knew it, I'd give myself such a disorder in my own head that I couldn't justify eating food if I wasn't burning body fat. And I couldn't justify the, the, the luxury of having, you know, anything that tasted good without the balance of the performance being increased. And when that wasn't happening, I'd start myself. And then to try and break that cycle with someone who's obsessed with being number one is impossible. And my, the hardest point for me was every single person I spoke to, doctors and, and so on, they had no idea what it was about. I remember going to a doctor who was pretty much, I'd say two, three stone overweight. What's that in American? 20, 30 pound overweight. Oh, wow. But, but what I've been carrying stones around my life. But to me, I looked at him and he, he wasn't my, he wasn't my guy to give me advice. Because I'd look and say, well, you, you don't care about yourself anyway. Like some, some doctor, you are, you're, you're overweight and you, you don't exercise. So I wouldn't listen to him. And it took me a good three or four months to find someone that I trusted, find someone who I believed in to, to break my eating disorder, to really relax and let go. And the hardest part about eating disorder is you kind of have to go to a really dark place before you can start to overcome that. And, and, and eating disorder for an athlete is the worst thing in the world because you can't do the one thing that allows you to escape. Like we're briefly touched on this earlier. People, people train for different reasons, but a lot of people train for their own inner peace. When you can't train for inner peace and training is the only inner peace you get during such a horrible dark place. And to, to go back to that Arnold's encyclopedia was one of those books that I could go to and read up on the nutrition section. And it was such layman terms. It wasn't technical. But back in the day, it wasn't a book around like that for, for individuals to look at and understand protein, understand fats, understand carbohydrates, understand the training. So for me, Arnold was also one of those people who gave me the inspiration to get myself into a certain shape. And I remember looking at him as an actor in the industry back in the day. And he was such a unique individual. I remember so well, about 25-year-old, after I'd followed it for a few years thinking, "Well, I'm just going to do what he did and try and become an actor. And I'm going to create this unique look that is unseen and almost build myself my own niche." And that was when it started. It started back then, it was many, probably 20 years ago now, 20, 25 years ago. Wow. You have carved such a fucking lane for yourself. You have, you're an interesting person. And I think the reason, and casually, the only people I can really speak to is me, you, and Jimmy. Jimmy loved you. Jimmy loved you. And he still does. But like, and I had an affinity for you because I, I, there's a certain part of your self-madeness. I'm going to say that, and I know that I understand that people have given you a leg up. People have helped you. But I see a different side of you, and I identify with it a lot. Because when we were working together on the machine, Fast and Furious 6 came out, and you had a big role in that. Yeah. Big fighting. On the 9. And we, yeah. And Jimmy came up to me, and he said, "Are you going to Martin's premiere party?" And I said, "What?" And he said, "Martin's having a premiere party for Fast and Furious 6." And I said, "Is the whole cast going to be here?" And he goes, "No, just Martin." And I said, "Jimmy, wait, you can do that?" And he goes, "I guess." And he was like, "Yeah." And I thought it was the coolest thing. And Jimmy and I were blown away because we were like, and it was a huge premiere party that only you were at. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So the story behind that was there was a guy in Serbia who turned out to be one of these, you know, like these crazy fans actually turned out to be really cool. Yeah. He was one of those guys, and he kept messaging me, and messaging me, and messaging me. And he was a rapper that was up and coming in Serbia. I'm not sure. I don't think he's made it, but he was trying. He was working in socks off. And he used to send me some DMs and he'd send me all these pictures. And he's like, "I've got this club. I've got this car. I've got this. I've got this. I've got this music video." I was like, "That looks like a cool club." He's like, "Yeah, I can shut the club down. I can do what you want." And I was like, "Oh, that sounds cool." I said, "Well, fast and furious is coming out." And I went, "Say no more." And he had all these cars have turned up. And Barry Martin, this was drawing COVID. Yeah. But COVID in Serbia are not two words that go hand in hand. And we went to this after party. Well, he wasn't after party. It was like a pre-party for the fast and furious. And I remember turning up and there was seven or eight super cars outside. Red carpet, the lot. I was like, "Oh, she's a. She's cool." And I went, "Oh, yeah, these are all for you." Yeah. And then there was a lot going on that I'm not going to talk about in here. And I remember just looking around going, "She's wild. Walk through this red carpet." The whole club stopped, like literally stopped. And they had these massive screens. And he just kept playing the trailer over and over again, a fast and furious. And then the music started to play. And all these bloody fireworks and everything went off. And he was just like, "When I say it was a huge party, this was bigger than the premiere of "Just Been To For." More to come back, which was held at the time. Johnny Theatre. Yeah, he was massive. They made out like, yeah, they made out like the like Vin was there, which was, which was great. But it's, but it's one of the things it's cool about you is. And I think there's so much about you that I want to figure out because you really are a little bit of a anomaly. Like there's so you. When I say self-made man, it's like you really created who you are today, which I think a lot of people draw inspiration from people online and want to add parts of people's personality to themselves. We were just talking about Joe and Joe's wild inspiration. So many men out there, young men out there that go, I want to be more like Joe, I want to, and it's such a cool thing. I've done it my entire career. But, but there's, you don't, you don't, you don't, you don't seem cynical. You don't seem glass half empty. You don't see things as an opportunity. You see everything is like, yeah, why not? Like, why not? This is going to be fun. Let's have a good time. I feel that's kind of learned behavior. Yeah. From realizing that nothing good comes from saying no, it's one of those, when you look back and you think, I wish I'd done this, I wish I'd done that. I had a friend message from him this morning from the UK and it was like, kind of going, how's it going? What's going? What's happening? Filming is just dead. I'm like, the filming is just dead because you live in the smallest town in the UK and you can't speak to anyone. Like, if you're serious about making it, get on a plane tomorrow, come and stay with me and I, I can't do that because of this and I can't do that. This guy's got no commitments, no family, no children, no reason he can't do it apart from the voice in his head that says no. And that's what I mean by this. No, that that word to me, when I was probably around 25, 26, I realised it was not a word I wanted to use. So I try to say yes to everything, look at the opportunity and everything and even things that happen and you're not necessarily proud of or that turn out well projects and so on, you still learn and you still develop and you make friendships and and that's kind of where I sort of place myself in a position where if I can make a friendship or a contact or something, I don't need anything from them directly. I just know it's good to be around good people and good energy. It works well together. Well, it's your that is like I, you sent me a DM and you're like, yo I'm in the States for a while. Let's work out. It wasn't like, hey, I've got a movie coming out. Can I come promote it? It wasn't, hey, me and you both know Todd Garner can, can I get, can you set up? It was, you just said, hey, let's go work out. And I was like, oh, yeah. And then I was immediately, I was like, hey, let's, let's do a pot. Let's work out. And I go do a pot. So you used me, but it's so interesting. But the funny, the most interesting thing I think about you, I think some people have seen pictures of you online. I know when I post, I said to my trainer, Pete, I said, oh, we're working out with Martin Ford and he said, who's that? And I just showed him a picture and I said, oh, I know that fucking guy. But like, you weren't always that guy. You were a cricket player. You were, you were just a tall, skinny, regular guy. Like, start me from, I want to get to how we got this. Like, because you talked about the injury. You talked about the training, the eating disorder, but like, what was your childhood like? Like, I don't think I've ever asked you. Good, good. My mom and dad, great parents. One sister was always ambitious. We came from, I wouldn't say poor as in like, we weren't able to eat, but we absolutely were not well off. Mom and dad both worked full time. We're in England. Nearest area of your Staffordshire. So it's kind of like Birmingham Manchester in between, in between there. And for me, it was a child, a happy childhood. It was, it was the only thing that wasn't happy was, I've never found myself. So I never really understood why I had so many weird things going on. In essence, until I found sport. And then I was like, ah, this makes sense. Like what weird things. I drive her. I was terrible in the classroom. Yeah. And I would switch off. And I was never naughty. Like, I wasn't a naughty kid. I wasn't an aggressive child. I wasn't someone who would be in trouble, but I was never, I was so bad. I'd fall asleep. Like, I literally fall asleep. I'd struggle to focus. I would, in today's world of labels, I'd be ADHD. You definitely are fucking ADHD. Knowing, knowing you, you are tax book. Yeah. I trained three to four hours a day so I can become. Yeah. But that's what saved me because I remember sitting there and I was so internally explosive and creating this hatred for myself because I didn't understand the point, the purpose as a kid. I was, I struggled. I really struggled in that way. And there's so many people that don't understand what it's like to not like your brain. Like I still struggle with my brain a lot. Like literally yesterday, I got, I was like, I'm just, I'm done with it. Like my brain is really bad at an anxiety right now. And I don't know why. And I, I think I know why it's because I'm not drinking as much. And I, I didn't realize how much I was using drinking to cover it up. So I'm just trying to. Yeah. Oh, we're going to get to this because I, we talked about that a little bit in the gym this morning. But, but as a kid, not an understanding, I couldn't understand how school worked. I couldn't understand what, when the teacher talked, I didn't know what we were supposed to be listening to. And I was trying to listen to it all, but it seems like a lot of information. And then you beat yourself up being stupid. Yeah. And I'm like, why am I so, how come this person who I don't respect, can sit and take notes? What the fuck's wrong with? And my mom will bring tutors in to try to teach me how to get organized. And I loved the idea of going to the store and getting the Trapper Keeper and making the thing. But using it was a different thing. My brain was somewhere else. Yeah. And that self hatred is very real for a kid. And I love what's happening now with kids and people understanding kids. And my daughter is dyslexic. She loves her dyslexia. She loves her neurodivergence, all that shit. But when we were kids, you just hated yourself. Yeah. You know those days when you just wanted to check out for a little while, you had a long week and you're finally home, you're ready to relax. And then you realize you're completely out of your stash. It's the worst. 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If you're starting a business or running one that deserves better tools, Square helps you sell, manage, and grow without slowing down. Right now, you can get up to $200 off Square Hardware at Square.com/Go/Bert. That's SQUARE.com/GO/B-E-R-T. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. Again, I'm going back to you talking about my mindset. For me, it's the greatest super parable because that true hatred, and when you can utilize it and drive it, it gives you an insane power. Insane. I remember. I wouldn't say I got bullied at school, but I definitely stood out. I had a birthmark on the back of my head, which was pre-cancer, so they had to whip that off. But that didn't come off until I was 12, 13. So I had this patch, the size of a coin. So I'd get called bulldy and called all sorts of names. And that, I suppose that is bullying. That taught me to kind of become hard, become harder and take away emotion and just be driven to, I suppose, to feel better than those that were bullying me in essence. And once you understand how to use that switch and how to focus and zone in and to go, right, I've got this huge box of shit that I'm trying to deal with. Instead of dealing with it, I just switch off and use the anger to drive this vehicle, oh, wow, I'm good at this. So actually, all of those people that were trying to put me down and and you know, I had a couple of friends, but not mass amounts friends. So I kind of felt quite isolated, which when you look back, you go, well, that worked better because I wasn't able to socialize like a normal kid. So I could focus more, I could train more, I could be, I could use this superpower of anger to push myself harder. And then the body responds by becoming faster, quicker, stronger, being able to switch on and being able, most importantly, it's an athlete to have that switch of mentality where you zone in and you're on. All of a sudden, it's kind of like been on this magic drug. And once you can start to apply that and you have a natural level of strength or mobility or movement and then you find the sport that you're good at, then it allows you to plow all of that negativity into this pocket of power. And that was the first time my life I felt in control and felt good, which is why, from the age of 11 to 12, I was on cloud 9 up until I got my injury and then it just went home. How were you when you got injured? 1920 went from been pretty much full-time pro, living the dream to unemployed and no, I left school. I was training full-time to be a professional cricket player and drop you like a ton of bricks, there was no money in sport then, especially cricket. It was a very low paid sport. So there was no support, there was no support financially, there was no support mentally, there was no support for the recovery of the injury, you were kind of left to do your own thing. So what's cricket look like? I mean, like I've followed 2020 cricket. I followed what I got really interested in, not test cricket. I got fascinated by cricket. I listened to a whole documentary on it. But what is compared to the other sports in the UK? Where's cricket show up? Four or five. So you got rugby? Yes, you'd have football. Rook being cricket, probably on a level path. But cricket was a, and still is a sport that was played by the hierarchy of the country. It was a privileged sport. It wasn't necessarily a sport that was played for the normal guy, which is where again, once I got into the countryside, I stood out because I wasn't from private tutors, I wasn't a wealthy kid. I was just a normal kid. His parents worked nine to five and I'd walk to a school and from school on my own and look after myself. So as soon as you step back into that arena, I've been the odd one out again. It was a weird position to be, but I'd kind of figured out the way to get around that was to be better than them. And once you can do that, they're approached you changes. So it's, you know, I was, I was very good at my age at the sport and it allowed me a cheek card into feeling part of the family I suppose. Will you get a throwing or a hit? I'm bowling, so this will give you my mindset in two seconds. I enjoyed cricket because I could hurt people. That was pretty much that was what sold it to me. I had a ball, which was a stone. And I, you know, was 20 yards away from the moment I could throw it as hard as possible. I was like, well, that sounds like a great way to get my anger back, my anger out on individuals. And that was my enjoyment. I've been an opening fastballer. And I was, I was quick. I was, I was very quick and very powerful. And and as a, as a 15, 16, 17 year old, I probably had the body of a 2223 year old. So the, when that ball was pitched and hit the person's body with very little protection, it was painful. That was, that was meditation for me. And so how long between getting injured? I'm interested in the, in the transformation to training where training turns you into who you are today. Escapism. Really? 100%. Do you remember the, do you remember the first time? I got a funny story about the first time. I remember we, we breathed being through this and breathed touch on Arnold's book. I remember something clicking in my head with food. And I was like, look, if I want to be massive, if I want to add muscle, if I want to do this, I need to eat. Like this is ridiculous. And I remember sitting at home and going to my mom, my mom had been through months of agony, like breaking her heart. She took me to the hospital. The hospital was going to put me into a mental home and put me on a drip. That's how low it was. Like you can find pictures online. And what's funny is people find pictures online of me and their ex can like, oh, they're these body transformation from a skinny teen. I was like, they're a bit more skinny teen. You know someone saw that picture and they went, Kyle saw that picture and they go, that's actually not him. Yeah. And slipped away from it. They wanted to put me on a drip and put me into the ward, isolate me. Yeah. That's how that's how low my body fat was. I mean, we never checked the body fat. It wasn't a thing back in the day, but I would say it was around one to two percent because I couldn't stand up. I was just collapsed. And I remember collapsing on my mom at a charity shop of all places and blacking out and her trying to catch me. And she, that's when she took me to hospital and only either gone too far. And I remember sitting there and she's, she's, she's a parent. If you look back on it as a dad now, I can't imagine how much she was hurting back then. But I remember collapsing on her and her sat in the doctors and crying, trying to explain to the doctor, look, it wasn't the fact he passed out that scared me. It was the fact I caught him and I could hold him that scared me. And that's when it sort of clicked for her, how bad it has gone. So I was always a big kid. I was six, five, six, six, six as a teenager. And I remember sitting there one day going, I don't want this life. I hate, I hate where I'm at. And I was in a, I remember being in the park. And I never looked to the point where I wanted to commit suicide, but I was at a point where I was considering what life would be like if I didn't have to deal with this shit. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. But there was something in him that's never given up. And that, that last grasp of stopping the dick sort of kicked in. And I remember sitting there and going, right, I need to, I need to eat, I just need to eat, I need to stop in a bitch and eat. So I went to my mom, I went downstairs. I've had enough of this. That's, it's got to shop. It's got to shop. Get some food. I'm, I'm going to force myself to eat and she's like, let's go. So we jumped in the car and have you ever been to a shop after a workout when you're hungry? Right. Times that by a thousand. Yeah. So I, in my head, I've given myself this mental click to be allowed to eat. Yeah. Which has been six to seven months of not being there. I'm like, all right. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And my mom thinking she's doing the right thing. She's like, let's do it. Let's buy it all. I'll cook it all when we get home. So gone home. And I swear to God, I must have done 10, 15 eggs. Right. This oats, fruit, nuts. Everything I had was what was on this Arnold's diet. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm going to be massive. I had the first beans, beans as well. I had beans. I remember having beans to loosen up the, so in the UK, we were like tomato-based beans. So I had the first serving and that would have probably been four or five eggs, piece toast, rib ready would have been 100% beans and some nuts and glass of milk. My mom's there. Like, I feel fucking great. I'm searching for some more like, yeah. Bang another ball. Bang another ball. I'm like, fill myself growing because you have a lot of these responses. And your muscles do start. And I was always a big kid. So I'm like, shit. So I'm coming back. Coming back. I remember about half an hour after eating all that food, I was like, oh, I need the toilet. I wouldn't have said as I couldn't shit. I've never had stomach pain like in my life, he took me about a day to go. I had to go and get stuff from my stomach to help me go. Because my stomach had stopped working. - Yeah. - I'd overloaded the system so much I had to look pregnant. (laughing) - Oh my God. - But that was the day that switched from that day on. I was like, right, I'm just gonna keep, being consistent, keep eating, keep training. And it was crazy how quick it worked. I don't know if you've ever been around anyone that's ever been post-surgery or something where they've lost a shit to no weight. But just by eating food consistently for 10 to 15 days, the transformation is incredible. Also when it's come off drugs. - Yeah. - Someone that's come off drugs, hard drugs, and not eaten properly for however long, and then all of a sudden they get clean, and they start to eat. And it's two completely different people. And what was six to seven months of mental torture disappeared in a month. - Really? - I'd found my purpose then it was training in the gym. - And so did you struggle on the gym right away? - I mean, I'd always been to the gym. Even when I was at my podcast, I was trying to go to the gym. But there was a difference between being able to, I remember not being able to walk up to the steps to the gym. 'Cause I didn't have the energy to give it to the stairs. To then running up the stairs and getting the gym going, oh, no, no, no, no, no. And this is a thing like people, people will say to me, "Oh, what do you weigh, what do you this, what do you that, what do you press?" I don't know, I don't care. That's not why I train. I've never trained for looks. I've never trained for performance. I've never trained for anything since that day. I've trained because it makes me happy. - Yeah. - And I can escape. And it's the one place for me that I can go to, and I can be having the shitest day. And I'll come out and I feel like I'm good. Why is that, you know, I feel these days that if I don't, first of all, I'm a mess. Like, would I quit drinking? I put everything into the gym. And I didn't realize I was doing it until a place when I realized I wasn't taking days off. I wasn't taking any days off. Now, by no stretch of the means am I, do I look like you or do I look like a professional? - But my transformation is incredible since what I've seen. I think I feel better, I think I look better. But I'm obviously like, it got to an unhealthy place where I was like in a session. And I got really upset one night. And I said to Leanne, we were in Atlanta doing the TV show. And I said, you know, the happiest I am is in the morning in the gym. And the happiest happiest is right after I'm at the gym. But in the middle of the day when I realize I don't get that again, I get kind of sad. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And it's such a weird, because I really don't train for vanity, I don't think anyone's gonna ever mistake me for being like, wow, look at that guy. He's in great shape. But vanity is part of it. - How could you feel now looking back at pitches of yourself compared to what you look like now? - Well, that gets complicated. And I'll tell you why. I said this to my car, I was at the cardiologist this morning, right before we worked out. And I said, you know, I kind of miss being a mess because when I was a mess, I knew it was my fault. And I knew that I could fix it. And now, - Scares you. - And now scares me because I go, I'm doing the best I can and they're still like, you're still vulnerable. Like, people, healthy people die all the time. And - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw a homeless guy clearly on drugs with 10 trash bags tied around his waist as a ballerina dancing across La Sianna. - I always can. (laughing) - How come he doesn't worry about the cardiologist? - Well. - Like how come? - Because you have the privilege to. - But when you're a mess, you only have yourself to blame and you know you only have yourself to get yourself out of it. And there's a quick way out. And you know that it's your fault. And you know what I said to Leandering, Lanna said that I miss the thing I miss the most about drinking is quitting drinking. Like I miss getting to say, I'm gonna quit drinking. 'Cause when you're not drinking, you've got nothing to quit. You didn't, this is it. And if you're on a panic attack, you're in the middle of it. There's nothing you can go like the reason I'm having this 'cause I'm hungover, I've been traveling, I've been treating myself like shit. No, I've been treating myself perfectly and I'm still having it. It's really crazy. - That's similar to exercise in the way though, because the panic attacks, the anxiety are coming from a source of something that's not been dealt with. - Oh yeah. - But the drink and the exercise is a masking agent. It's not, it's never going to give you the answer. We had this conversation earlier, I had an issue and I had an issue with my knees and having a buildup of fluid. And Tyler, you made earlier said to me, "Well, just get it drained." And I'm like, yeah, but I don't see the purpose of that because for me, the fluid buildup is a response to something else that's happening in the system. - Yeah. - And that's the body's way of trying to protect the joints from whatever else is going on. - Oh, interesting. - So by taking away the protection, you're not solving the problem. So all you're going to do is cause an even bigger problem because the body's now got no protection. - Yeah. - So rather than worrying about draining the joints, I need to figure out, is it my weight, is it my age, is it my movement, am I carrying an injury, am I tight? What's the reason behind the reaction? The reaction is just the body's way of saying, something's not good. Your anxiety, something's not good. - The weight is over. Football is here. And so is draft kings. Draft kings is now live in all 50 states. One app, every sport, nation, wide. 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Like being worried about being able to provide for the kids and the family has always stressed me out for the point that I'm the tightest bastard you'll ever meet. - Really? - Yeah, I'm here in the smallest little Jeep car that I've rented because I can't justify paying money to waste money. My head is, all right, if I'm here for three months and I'm renting a car and it's cost me 20,000, or I could rent a car, cost me 3,000. That's 17,000 that I could put in an investment that would pay back X amount over five years that then looks after the kids for this. What's up? What the hell am I renting a car that I don't need? That's the way my mind works with trying to reduce the anxiety of a financial stress. - I wish I had that. (laughing) - I have the exact opposite with financial stress. Like I don't think about money. - What in the back? (laughing) - I don't think about money at all, and I never have. I had this conversation with my dad about growing up. Now, I don't think we definitely didn't grow up poor, but without a doubt, knowing in my family would say we grew up rich. But for me, it's either here or there, I always grew up rich. In my head, I was, all my friends had money, and so I just presumed he did. I said, yeah, and I remember saying to my dad, we talked about this the other day, everyone was going to Aspen to go skiing. And I had said to everyone, yeah, I'm going to, but I didn't have money for it, but I figured I'd just ask my dad for it. - And he's there. - And he's there, and I didn't ever thought that my dad was paying the mortgage on an office, paying the mortgage on our house, and that he had cars that he was paying for my mom, and him, and my sister, and me, and the college pay. I never figured any of that out. And I remember saying to him, hey, everyone's going to Aspen. It was the very last day, it was the very last day. My friend had gotten a flight for me, and I said, yeah, yeah, I'll pay you back. And I was like, I was like, God, I got to, I kept pushing it off, I got to ask my dad, I got to ask my dad for money. And I said to him, hey, I need $500 to go to Aspen. - And this is back what, this was $22 years ago? - So yeah, I was 1990. - So the equivalent of that today? - It's probably $1,500. - Yeah, I'm guessing. - Yeah. - So I need $500 to go to Aspen, and he, and he, sarcastic, he was like, oh, sure, not a problem. And I said, sincerely, oh, I thought you're going to be upset. (laughing) For real, I need $800. If I'm going to have a good time and be comfortable, $800 would be better, so I'll just take $800. And he went, why don't I give you $1,000? And then he went, you're already cool, that's it. I didn't think this was going to go that well. (laughing) He lost his mind. And I was like, wait, you, and then at the end I go, so can I get the $500 though? And he was like, have you not listened to a fucking word I've said? - I have never thought about money that way. It's a gift, I think, to be oblivious to money. I think my dad gifted me that 'cause my dad stressed about money as a child 'cause he lost his dad when he was 13. So my dad stressed about money his whole life and he didn't want me to stress about money. So he kind of just made it not an issue. I never watched my parents fight about money. I never, I mean, we lived in a really bad neighborhood when I was young, although I didn't see it that way. I thought it was a great neighborhood. And then we moved into a nicer neighborhood and I didn't see that we weren't the richest people in that neighborhood. I just, I never noticed that we didn't have furniture in our house. I figured no one had furniture in their house. All right, this is gonna sound crazy to say, but, you know, we would get cereal that would have bugs in it. I didn't understand we were getting the cereal that was the, I didn't understand any of that. I didn't get it. I just was like, yeah, I literally thought where we live in the loots, there are bugs in the cereal because we're further outside of Tampa than ever. I didn't realize that we didn't live where everyone else lived that we lived further. All that, none of that registered to me. I just kind of figured, this is how everyone does it. And so I never thought of-- - Did you have a good childhood? - I had a great childhood. I had a great, great, great childhood. Now, clearly something happened to me that I have never processed because I have a wild anxiety. And I can kind of try to place it into it when it must have happened. Nothing traumatic, I would say, but something must have happened. But my childhood was literally, I said it to my girls, put on a bathing suit, wake up, put on a bathing suit, walk out the front door, be gone until the street lights came on, never molested, so to speak of, never-- - So to speak of. - I mean, I mean, we had the light molestation that happened. - Some of that laughing is in here. - We had the light molestation that happens to every boy, you know? - No, that's-- - But like the kind of-- - You know it's church. - No, no, it was never a priest. It was just like the, you know, the awkward shit that happens at a slumber party, you know? - No. (laughing) - You know the kind of shit. - I think we found the anxiety problem, but-- - No, but like, but like, but like, not like, it was just like, you know, when I say molestation, it's an aggressive term, but like, definitely bullied-- - It's a term. - Definitely, yeah, I know, never-- - Definitely, I was never-- - I was never-- - I was never-- - I was never dittled. - But like, just regular childhood shit, you know? And I don't know. I must have had trauma, but like, even-- Like, I will say this to my wife the other day. I put this question to you, 'cause I said this to my wife. I look at today as always better than yesterday. When I left grade school, my grade school was the coolest place I could have ever been. I went to an all-boys' Catholic high school, and I thought nothing's gonna be ever as good as my grade school, and my all-boys' Catholic high school was the greatest experience of my life. When I left high school, and I have to say I had probably the tightest 35 friends that you could ever imagine. I mean, that I still keep in touch with. When I left high school, I thought, "There's no way college is gonna be this good." College was the best experience I could ever have in so much is that I was written up in Rolling Stone magazine as the number one party animal in the country. I was famous the day I left college. I was literally famous and had a career planned out for me and stand up. I moved to New York. I start stand up within six months. Will to Smith discovers me. I live in New York for a couple years. I moved to LA. I go nothing's gonna be as good as it was in New York. LA is even better. I fall in love with the love of my life. We have children. I, my buddy starts a podcast. It becomes the biggest podcast in the world. My, me and my other best friend start a podcast. I mean, I do theaters. I do arenas. I make movies. I do TV shows. I, I have. Every day has gotten better from that first day in first grade when I ended attended Berkeley Prep. And I was like, "Well, this isn't that bad." It's gotten better. Now, I say that to you because my wife says it, my wife said the answer is no. My wife's like, "Well, question me asking you." It's not every day has gotten better from it. Is that there have been times she stepped backwards. There's been times where she looks back and doesn't think of it fondly. And, and if you ask her today, her favorite memory in her life, and I were very happy, but is when the girls were young. She was a mom. She said that was her calling in life. That was when she had to sell the most. That was her purpose. - Well, what about you? Does has life gotten exceptionally better as you'd move forward? - I would say yes, but then also the fear of getting older jumps in. And then the fear of, well, was that the peak and I'm now on the back end? - Oh, okay, that's a great, that's a great fear. - Yeah. - That's, we touched on this earlier. We spoke about something earlier. When you asked me how old I was and I said, I kind of feel like I'm at the final chance in my life to make something special of it. But I feel, I'm in a great position at the moment, physically, mentally. Me and the wife been to give us 16 years, three children. That's good. I mean, the hard work, don't give me wrong. Kids are not easy at all. But everything in life is kind of good. Up and down, but good. And I'm in a position where she will allow me now to go and travel and to do my own thing. We're in a good position financially safe. We don't show off, but we safe. She can afford to be a mom. Look after the kids. I can now afford myself the luxury of going out to try and open these doors into the next stage. So in that aspect, it's great. Like it absolutely is the best position of being in financially. Happiness at home. However, I feel like I'm on a stopwatch where the pressure now comes for me, especially being more of a physical actor so that you have a time limit to get to that next level. And that next level is freaking hard. Like from the films that I did in the past and the film that I did with you, it was kind of, well, I'm in a position here where I'm kind of at the top of my sort of circle in essence of the roles I'm going for being the silent big, big guy blah, blah, blah. I could pretty much pick up a movie left-right in the centre. Fast forward and trying to take a lead role. All of a sudden, there's some serious competition out there in this world. And to try and compete with legit. list actors now for me. It's like, whoa, okay, there's not so many jobs coming. That pressure then multiplies, because I still have the pressure of the children, the pressure of the family, and the thing is as well, what you'll notice massively is the more you buy, the more you want, the more you want, the more you need, and you kind of give yourself a, you're probably in a great frame of mind that you don't need to worry about money, because if you start to worry about how much you need to bring in just to stabilize yourself, you probably shit yourself. In all honesty, I think that might be my, oh, I'm so stressed out. I never, I never, I've just told her, well, let's say, let's say, right, and God forbid anything ever happened. But if tomorrow was not like today, and all of a sudden you career stopped, how long could you go on and carry on living the way you live financially? I'd be fine, but I'm just, but I don't need much, but that's the other thing is like, you know, not, not need, yeah, not needing, but still providing the level aspen. Yeah, I think, you know, I have, I have an interesting thing in that, well, I'm in also in a weird place mentally, where we just lived in a two bedroom apartment in Atlanta for two months. Yeah, and it was perfect. And it was perfect. Yeah, it was easy. No stress. Yeah. My pressure and stress is brought on by other people. Yeah. I want to look after my mom. I want to look after my dad. I want to look after my sister, my kids. I've got three of them. I've got, my kids are going to need a house the next 60 years. So I'm going to need to put X ones into that. I'm going to need this, I'm going to need that. So all of a sudden, I haven't spent a penny, but my family have spent thousands every week, yeah, trying to give them that life. Yeah. They probably don't want, but to me, I feel like I need to give. So I was in that race when I met you, I was in that race because I wanted the big house. I wanted, when I called it was my forever house, but I wanted the big house so the girls would be comfortable. So our house before that was pretty small. I only say pretty small because comedians would always come to my house and go, wow, I didn't think it would be this small. And I remember being embarrassed about that. Now I take that as a badger honor because they thought I was, they thought I had made it. They thought I was like the man. And then they came to my house and they saw that we lived on a very, we lived in, in what I felt was crazy expensive. Oh, around here, absolutely. But, but I, I, I'm in a new place in life where I look and I go absolutely compared to my friends or houses, nothing compared to them. Like compared to my average friend, who I also make more money than their houses are astronomical. I remember I had a friend by a $25 million house and I was like, what's the mortgage on that? Yeah, that's what that's straight where I went. Yeah. I have a friend who bought a $12 million house. And I was like, what the fuck? My wife and I have always been in the thing of make it so that you can afford your mortgage on a road salary on just doing the road exactly exactly where I was. So my mindset was always, if tomorrow never came in the industry, could I go back to work and earn this money as a personal trainer or as as doing security and so on and so on. And that was kind of how I've always sort of gauge myself even up until, but even now, even now, to be honest, and, and that sounds stupid because all of all of the money that I've made over the last five, six years, which has been a decent amount. You've been in a lot of stuff. Can you pull up? You know, so funny is you're in things that I didn't know you were in. Like you're, you have no problem sitting through prosthetics. Yeah. You have no problem. Like you're, you've done stuff that I can't imagine. I would never do. I'm not an actor. I'm a, I'm a guy who can play Bert. That's about or a close version of Bert or if Bert had played football, that's, I can do that. I cannot sit in prosthetics. I cannot train. Have you ever had prosthetics? So when we did the machine, you had, I think you had to do like a full thing on prosthetics, not like you had to like sit in something. So when we did Mortal Kombat, my prosthetics procedure, Todd just told me, tell me about this. This is crazy. Yeah. So my, my makeup for that would range between four to five hours a day. So wait. So I want, because I always make this podcast because I was lost and I found myself by watching the internet when at a period when I've never really talked about this, but a period when I didn't know what I wanted to do and I knew I was doing comedy and I knew I was good and I knew that the things were changing and I knew that I was, I was doing travel channel, which was like a, a TV show back in the day. And I knew I wanted to do something else. I just watched the internet a lot and I found Joe Rogan. And when I found him, it was the Joe show, him and Red Band were making it. This is before Mincee and I found Doug Stanhope had a blog and I, we would read it and I realized cool shit was on the internet and I wanted to do cool shit and I, and I was lost. And that's, I always make this for someone that's lost so that they're, they go, they're listening and they're like, man, yeah, what am I doing in my life? This is fascinating to me. And when I say you've created your own career, but you're willing to do things that I know for a fact I wouldn't do. And I find this fascinating. You would get up at what time to go into process. I'm talking to you about the training. Yeah. I mean, because you, because time told me, yeah, you'd go through prosthetics, you'd do the scenes, you'd, you'd do everything. And then you'd go home and you'd train your ass off and you'd go to sleep and you'd wake up and you'd do prosthetics. Yeah. So it's very close, but the reverse was, I did do that and it never worked for me. So what I did was switch it. I would wake up around midnight. I would train in the gym in the hotel. I would go back eat. A pickup would be around half to three a.m. I'd go to work. Do the six hours in prosthetics. Well, 46 hours depends what the scenes were. We've cost you as well. And then I would do the days filming and then go home, try to sleep in the car. I've said, I had a driver and pretty much roll straight into bed. And that would be my routine. So I'd wake up at midnight, start work at half to go through the whole day, finish around five, six o'clock bed. And that was my, that was it. That was the routine for filming days. And it was tough, but probably one of the best shoots of my life because it was so challenging. And you, and you, I have not seen it. The man who made the movie, who was critical, was like, have you seen it? He's like, you have to watch it. He's incredible. 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For a limited time, our listeners can get $10 off at brunt when you use CodeBirdcast to check out. Just head to bruntworkwear.com, use CodeBirdcast. And while you're there, enter the brunt potty of gold sweepstakes for your chance to win $50,000. - I'm not sure about you, but when I shoot something, - He has no idea. - I always think the worst. - Oh, it's still now. I remember telling them when we made the machine, I wouldn't be shocked if it was made $125 million the first weekend. And Kea was like. - Make $126, $127, $14, $14 in total. - So wait, look at your movies. - There we go. Bottom left looks ever so good. - Bottom left looks great. - Oh. - Is that good? To all of those on there. Yeah, it's got more, it's got fast, yeah. - So what was your first movie you did? I want to know about when did you get? - First one would have been. - What was the first, what was getting into movies for you? Like what? And by the way, we haven't even talked about the to-tos. - The to-tos were an extension of the Arnold Schwarzenegger book. - Really? - To try and create something that no one else has ever seen. And it happened in the space of around three months. A funny story about a tattoo actually. - Did everyone hear what he just said? - Yeah. - Three months. (laughing) - Three months. - I ended my life in three months. (laughing) - I love it, 'cause you. - Oh, it's balls in, bro. - I went balls in. I remember going to the tattoo shop. And my friend owned it at the time. And I used to, I used to run a gym and I used to, a personal trainer, the guy who owned the tattoo shop. I was like, "John, I need a tattoo." And he's like, "Well, you got to get a big one." I was like, "No, I don't want a big one. I just want a tattoo." And he had a sleeve. And this was at the time when no one had sleeves. So I was like, "Fuck, man, you look cool." I needed a tattoo to make me look good. I need something, 'cause I'm just a boring kid from certain to place cricket. Like that wasn't good. That wasn't working. I need more than this. So we only got this little tattoo. And when I say it was the smallest little tattoo on my arm. And so I was big, big at that point. I was a lot bigger than this. And the tattoo looked. - How was that part of the ball? - TRT. (laughing) So I looked monstrous and this tattoo was so pathetic. And I remember going home and it was sealed for me when my mom went, "Oh, that's nice." I was like, "That isn't the response I am after." (laughing) - Yeah. - So I went back and I said to John, "It's all right, we need to go more extreme." Let's do the arm. So we literally, the whole. - Which one? - On this left one, the whole upper section. And I knew my mom was gonna go, "Oh, fucking, ape shit." Right? So I was very clever about this. I was like, "I need the initials of all of my family members on this tattoo." So we integrated my mom, my dad, my grandma, my granddad, my uncle, my sister, and I was like, "Mom, before you go mad, "I've had this for you." (laughing) - Oh! - It's very, it's very people. I like that. That's very sweet. Oh, thank you. Three days later, I was like, "Let's do the forearm." So I had my birthmark and then I had this and that. Anyway, got to a position where I'd had my arm, my back, my leg, then. I was kind of bored at this point. I think this, to put this into your world, this is kind of like seven or eight normal drinks in. And you're like, "Well, now, take it out." I had it to kill the moment where I went, "You don't ever have a tattoo at the face." And I knew it was a good decision when the tattoo artist said, "No, you're not that stupid." I went, "It's fucking stupid." - Oh, we literally did it. - Which is at this point. - It was this, oops, sorry, but it was this. - So let's leave it there. - It was this long line here. - I'm sure it's this side. I'm, fuck it hurts so bad. (laughing) This is before numbing cream was available. - Oh wow. - So we went down, but he put it on. And I remember just going, "Ooh, that's a pretty broad statement." - Yeah, and I don't think I'd quite got over the breakdown. You know, my dark spell. And I think this was kind of one of those moments where I was trying to find myself. And I kind of tripped a little bit too far to find myself. And then I thought, "Well, I'm kind of there now." Kind of made that statement. And I remember going, I was doing personal training at the time. And all of my clients were lovely people at this old woman's shoes. It's just such a lovely old woman. And I remember walking and she's like, "What the hell have you done? You are never gonna get a job ever again." Blah, blah, blah. When I say she told me of, I mean, she balloped me. - Yeah. - Like really told me off. - I'm gonna think you, fuck. - Fast forward five years. I got my first film role. I invited her to the screening. I was like, "Dream, when you set a ruin my life." (laughing) So I've never earned so much bloody money. And it was funny because it was one of those moments where I was like, "This is either going to really help them make me or it's gonna absolutely destroy me." - Yeah. - But what's even crazier is, I've had people send me pictures of tattoos they've had. And three or four people have copied this face tattoo. - Really? - Yeah. And you know when you're looking, you're like, "Oh shit, I don't know if I should have done, if you should have done that." Because it's a bold move having a tattoo on the face. - When was the last one you got? - A couple of years ago now. - It's been really-- - Yeah, it's been a couple of years because it's harder to get tattoos now because I have an image. - Yeah. - One because there's an image and two, having a tattoo in between filming is a complete no-go. - Yeah. - You imagine the prosthetics or the makeup or the sweat. You kind of, it just doesn't work. And that was the main reason. And also on top of that, I think, the older you get, the more painful they become, but they're not enjoyable things to have. I do think that I will modify and change when the next couple of years. I feel like, yeah, I kind of feel like I'm going through that stage where I need to, you know, when you evolve every 10 years and you change into sewing cows. I feel like the tattoos are such a big part of me that that's something that also has to evolve with age. So it's just trying to understand. But this time, rather than making a decision in a dark place, I can make a decision from a bit more of an adult, mature place. And what do I want for what reason? Rather than just trying to scare the world, this time I kind of, I feel having something that I can have, has more meaning to me rather than just pure intimidation. - I mean, walking around with you is really fun. - Like, I remember, do you remember, do you remember when Jimmy tried to pick you up? - Yeah. - Do you remember our party? - Yes, I did. - You told the true story about that, didn't you? - Nope. - Jimmy Tatro, to this day, said that was the greatest night of his life. It's the greatest party he's ever been to. - Do you ever told that, party on? - I don't know. I mean, it was-- - Because it wasn't a reason we wouldn't allow to say that at first. Do you remember? - Because it was COVID. - Yeah. - No, it was COVID, it was all 15 of us. - Plus, how many? - It was 400 downstairs? - Oh yeah, 400 downstairs. The Joker fell off of a fucking cliff. I mean, it was the craziest, the greatest party. We were lighting things on fire and Jimmy Tatro. - I have a video, I think I have a video on my phone of Jimmy Tatro going, this is the greatest night of my life. - Yeah. - Yeah, I should see if I have that. - He was the funniest party we've ever been to. All I remember is, We're halfway through the night. And I think someone had a call on the phone saying, but it's just posted a live picture. - Oh yeah. (laughing) - Take it down immediately. - Because all of you should be in luck now. - Yo, let's see if I can find it. - Oh, there's, let's see. God, what, oh yeah. Oh, you still, oh, there we go. (laughing) That was the craziest fucking night. - Hey, do you remember thrown all the money out? - Oh, yeah. - Yeah. - Wait, I have to have a video of that. (laughing) We threw all that fucking money out. Oh, here we go. Oh, there we are. - Now, what the audience needs to remember 'cause this is during peak COVID lockdown. (upbeat music) - This is where Jimmy says, "This is the greatest thought of my life." (laughing) - There's fire everywhere. We're throwing money everywhere. - Yeah. - And then all the flags came out and the dance. - This is peak COVID, not one mask. The wall to wall serbians, smoking cigars. - Yep. - How many people at ear left it out? - That was one of the funnest nights of my life. - It's my life. - Do you know what I think of the thing was for? - That's the night that you and Jimmy walked home and he tried to pick you up. - Yep. - And he was like, "Can I carry you?" And you're like, "I don't think it's gonna work." - Yeah, and did he work? - No, no. (laughing) - God. - That was one of the funnest nights of my fucking life. - I think what it was, we'd been through so much crap as everyone all around the world and we'd been isolated and locked away. And do you remember in Southern, we had to have the vaccine. - Did you? - We got talk to get the vaccine in there. - I've got such a weird place. - I've gotten vaccinated, I think four times. - And I remember when we got one in Serbia, they just gave it to us and I was like, "What is this?" - I drove you straight. I'm not sure about you, but I remember we got, I got picked up, drove to a really strange hospital. - Yeah. - Wading outside with loads of Serbians and it's a big word of English. Fast track to the front, jabbed with something. And then I remember coming home going, "What the fucking ears are so warm?" (laughing) And then I was so anxious because I was like, "What if it's not as good as the UK version of the jab?" And then I was researching the different jabs and I was like, "Oh, shit." - I remember some of the Serbian women that worked on this shoot and I said, "Did you guys get the thing?" And they were like, "No, we want to get pregnant one day." And we're like, "What?" (laughing) And then we want to be pregnant so we didn't get it. And I went, "Sweet, I can't get pregnant." (laughing) - Twice. I find that fascinating that you got all your tattoos within a three-month period. It's-- - Yeah, I'd say 90% of my tattoos were over three months. - But one of the coolest videos is it, was it your video that I saw that someone played to me one time of you just walking down the street and everyone losing their fucking mind? - That was in Vegas, that was when I was the biggest. Yeah. You gotta remember like, so I'm 45 nearly, I was at my biggest when I was 24. - Is there a picture of you at your biggest? - We can find one. They're probably, there's some that they sort of just edit with AI so it's not the real version of you, but I was big. - You are AI. - Yeah, I was big, big. And you have to remember back in the day. Yes, it is. That one there, so okay, so go down to 2000 to 2026. That's a real picture. That one there, that was when I was pretty much at my peak. - Wow. - That was big. - That was just that actually day. - You see the picture on the left, right? That is when I was at my list. I collapsed just after that. So that was when I had, that was peak eating disorder. And what's weird is that when you have an eating disorder, your ears grow. That was when I was at my worst eating wise on the left. And on the right was kind of when I was at my best. And I would have been probably 30, 2, 33 in that picture on the right. - Oh, so you're, that's not, that's not 2026. - No, no, no, no, no, this is the internet mate. - Wait, does that, everything that says that right now? Why don't we don't have a drinking problem? - Oh, no, absolutely not. - I could, yeah, I'd say that's an older picture. The way that I normally judge it is that my scar and my stomach changes. So about six years ago, I had a my stomach exploded, which was a, which was a, a whole lot of the story. But I can tell the difference between the pictures because the scar has gone from that big to that big. - Really? - Yeah. - Yeah. And since that operation, I've not been able to get as full and as big as that. - Really? - They took out like 15 inches, small intestine. - What happened to your stomach? - I had an operation when I was about two weeks old as a baby. I can't remember what the technical term for is basically, my intestines were wrapped. So they had to go and operate and so on. And it was, it was finally a fantastic job. But over the years, where they operated on my intestine, the scar tissue had dislodged. So I'd just finished filming. I can't remember what film it was. Oh, final score with Dave Petista. I just finished doing this film with Dave Petista. And I went to Ohio and I was doing some, I was doing the Arnold actually. I was doing the fitness show, the Arnold. I didn't feel too good. And I started to look quite bloaty and chunky. And then I went to Florida, flew all the family out. The first time I've sort of been in a position to be able to bring out my kids and everyone to America. So the first trip to America, I flew them all out. And I remember waking up this one morning. It was the day after I picked them up from the airport and we were on the beachfront hotel in Florida. And I took my, I should have been about eight, then my daughter down to the beach. Everyone else was asleep jet lagged. It was just me and me and Imogen. I remember standing on the beach with her. And I felt like it had a massive heart attack. Like the most horrendous pain. And I remember just wanting to collapse and cry. I was like, when I say pain, I mean like agony. I didn't want to make a big finger because she was only a baby. And so we'd, I'd walk to back and God knows I managed to get back to the house. And I'd woke up, my wife said, look, I don't know what's wrong with me, but I think I think I need to call an ambulance on. I ain't good. Start on the bed and I was sweating, sweating, sweating. And then obviously panicking. Gone to the toilet and I've gone. And I was like, oh God, I needed that. Look, that was just red, the blood. And I was like, whoa, panicked. When I say, I mean, it blood. And then I don't know if it was because of what had sin or whatever, I felt sick straight away. I went to the toilet, threw up and it was black. I was like, the fuck. So I've gone to a hospital straightaway. And America being America being dying on the floor going, do you have insurance papers? You know, I've seen that. I didn't realize that's a real thing. Bro, this is a real thing. I sat there dying in reception while my wife had to go and get $200 cash out so they'd see us in the hospital. Sweater, God. And we had the insurance. It's just that we couldn't get the documentation. So anyway, 10 minutes later they let me into the room. And the doctors, come on, I'm going to think you've got food poisoning. I was like, yeah, that's food poisoning. You know, no, we do. And they've injected me with painkiller, more thin liquid, but injectable more thin. I was like, I feel great. I'm like, hey, you find it's just food poisoning. It's a very bad case of food poisoning. Now, obviously they've not seen. I've told them, I've gone to a toilet and bloods come out. I don't think they quite understood what I meant was everything could come out. Blood included, not just blood. Anyway, fast forward, four or five days, they want the same problem. Four or five days. Yeah. In the apartment in America where they just keep coming to jog me every two days because I'm still in pain. I figured I even need to get back to the UK. I'm going to die in America because they are not treating whatever this is. Flew back. And it's the first time I've ever spent money like I didn't care. So I booked myself first class out my own pocket. Yeah. You know, shit's real when I'm wasting money on flights. And I remember standing up through the whole flight and I had to fly back on my own because the family had the family had already gone back. This was like a week after they'd come. Flew back on my own. And standing for pretty much the entire flight in the most, I can't even explain how painful it was. I didn't want to say anything to anyone because they wouldn't let me fly. I knew they knew how bad I was, they wouldn't let me fly because my stomach was swollen like crazy. Not thinking about properly, obviously, the altitude. The altitude. Oh, Jesus Christ. Yeah. So I've landed straight to hospital in the UK. And that was my first gay experience 'cause the doctor's like, "I need to shut my finger up, your bum and see what's going on." I said, "Well, on this occasion, I'm going to let you." I've been up there, you know, I've had a lot of fun. And he said, "You're so dry, not the passage inside." I meant like the, "Yeah, yeah." We can't, there's nothing to see. The X-rays are flat because you're interested in something like this because they're so empty. And we don't know what's going on, but something is going on. So we need to open you up. What we find, we don't know, but the problem is you have an eaten or drank for like nearly two weeks. So you were levels of flat as a pancake. I needed to sign this form before you put you under surgery because there's a good chance you won't make up. And you know, all of this has happened in 10 days. 10 days, two weeks maximum of not feeling great to that happening to all of a sudden being on the hospital bed. Pretty much dying. They opened me up, found out what had happened. Was the scar tissue from the operation as a baby had dislodged. That was blocking my intestine. And over the space of however long, it just got more and more and more. And what happened, the intestine couldn't handle it. And it just went, and gone and tangled itself. Can I ask, because I'm going through this. When you go through that and you just had surgery, your surgery on your shoulder, right? Shoulders, shoulder's gone because of that. What do you mean? So when they opened me up, it was obviously in the emergency operation. They just cut straight through. Now, bear my nose massive. So they went straight through my abdominals and my obliques, which then ruined my posture. Because when they open you up in that sort of way, the doctor, our theory opened me up, the doctor came and said to me, like, he'd never been through someone's stomach that was so tough. Because it was just from lifting weights for 20, 20 years. And it was an emergency surgery so that he wasn't planned. It was just like getting life in chopper open. And they went straight through all of the muscles that will control my posture. So now they're not connected. So what happens is my right side flops. So I can't retract my shoulder because the muscles aren't there to allow my core to be straight. Holy shit. Which impacts training a fair bit. But on the bright side, I'm alive. That's what we look at. Always look at the bright side. Jesus. I keep thinking that because the doctor today, I love asking someone a question they're making about me. The doctor today asked me what he thought what my anxiety was caused by. And I said, you know, I don't think I ever really processed getting the blood clot and having it go into my lungs. And like just how scary that is. And then my bus burned down and our dog died. Within like a month period, all of this shit happened. I said, I don't think I ever processed any of it. And then I think right now I'm processing it and it's terrifying. Yeah. And I feel like despite our exteriors are a tad bit different. Interior-wise, I feel like we're a lot like a same guy. 100%. And how does that show up after you survive something like that? You know, going through my disorder as a child gave me everything I needed to recover from that. Really? Yeah. The hardest part for that for me was I've kind of just broken to that next stage of acting and film. And I had auditioned for something which I'd got. And then because of this, I couldn't do. And it would have been the biggest role to date at that point. And that killed me, lying in the hospital bed, sort of realizing that not only have I just lost 50% of my muscle mass. Because I haven't been able to eat for two, three weeks. And the doctors told me, I won't be training for six months. I know what happens to me when I can't train. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And that was a dark place. But then I remember thinking, right, if I can get through this as a kid, what I went through with cricket, I can get through this. Not a problem. I was just grateful that when I was alive, I had kids at this point. So for me, it wasn't about going to the gym. It was about being alive for my kids. That was the strongest. That was the most important part. Everything else I could figure a way to deal with. So I went through when I've been through the first thing as a kid. It gave me the reassurance that I could recover. And I had the right mindset to get back. And I would make this rather than it be a setback, I'll just make it an adventure. And that was the only way I could kind of get my head around it. It helped those in a much better position this time, financially, that I could afford to have three or four months in recovery. Because if it was five years before, I'd like, I've got to go to work. The bills don't give a shit if you're not very well, still going to work. So I kind of, I wanted to be grateful as much as I felt like I've been kicked in the balls by life. I still wanted to be like, I wanted to appreciate where I was at that I could afford to not have to do that. To not have to worry about paying the bills. It was still stressful, but don't get me wrong. But I had the time to try and recover. And I was grateful that I never had to have a bag for the rest of my life because that was one of the other things that had said, there was a very good chance that you'd lose everything inside. The manager saved half my colon. I lost, I'm sure it was about nine to 10 inches of internal of small intestine. And I'd lost some of my large intestine. Now that was, to me, I just couldn't fathom or get my head round. You can feel the emptiness in my stomach. You can feel where bits of missing out my stomach. Really? Yeah, so that's kind of a weird thing to have now. But again, I can still do so much. So it's not, I can get over the loss because I can still do so much of that. But that was a tough time. It was a very tough time. But it was another time that made, I think it's one of those times where it makes you a much better person to come out the other end of those things. Yeah, I think so. What was, that's, I think I've, it's so funny, I've had some near death experiences. And I feel like I'm, maybe I don't see the positive. I see the fact that death is close, as opposed to, oh, it's not here today. Yeah, I'm not, I don't do well. I had a meltdown today. I had to go to the doctor. Having to go to the doctor for me is a big fucking. That's because she's an accountability type thing, or a realization or. Well, today I said, today I had a very different perception in that I'm not unhealthy. I think it's built up on, I've been unhealthy for so long, so you know what it's kind of saying. So I know that there's a comeuppance of like the most unhealthy I ever was. I had blood work done, and I said, I can't deal with it this month. So if I'm, if I'm dying, and you need to save my life, call me. If it's anything short of me actually dying, don't call me. And they were like, okay, and I never heard from them. And I was like, I guess I'm not dying, so I'm good. And then I look back and the blood, the blood work was the same as it always was. I was just unhealthy as shit. My liver numbers were high. My, my fucking inflammation was through the roof. Everything was bad, and I was just like, and now I look back and I go, I wish I should have heard from him. Even today, when I was at the doctor today, she was like, yeah, you were here in November, and you were 275 or something. And your blood pressure was 141 over 95, and she's like so much better now. And I was like, yeah, and then I was like, even still, I was like, God, man, I remember being terrified walking in that day, terrified. And I, but I think it's just a condition to be being terrified today. You know, it does an ultrasound of all my organs and like, everything's looking good. Everything's what your heart looks healthy. You're no blockage in your arteries and where, you know, you're, we're keeping you on these meds and you're all, everything's great. Your numbers are still great. We're going to do blood work, but even still I'm like, waiting for the blood work to come in, like nervous, like, oh, shit, what are they going to find? And so I get a real, I think I just have, I, it's a fear of death, I'm sure. And I feel like working out is the one thing that alleviates that is I work out and I push myself. Do you know why? Why? Because it's the one time you feel like you can actually make a difference. It's the one, to me, it's the one time where if I go through, if I'm going through something and I feel like, I don't know, I say I have a reaction to food or, I had a reaction last week to a digestive enzyme tablet, okay? And I came out in this weird rashi type thing, I panicked, I was like, fuck man, I had a real bad flush on my face and my feet started to go like a red. And in my head, I thought, right, if I drink a lot of water and I exercise, I know I can flush this out. And sure enough, I went, I trained, I flushed it out, I felt great after, and within a couple of hours, within a couple of hours, I was good. Yeah. And exercise and nutrition and hydration and, and all those things. That is the only way that you can do something yourself that helps with the way that your body responding. So in your mind when you're worried is about death, you're actually, that's the only time you can physically progressively help push that away. The doctor asked me today, you know, I haven't really talked about this at all on a podcast and maybe I have, I don't know, but my drinking's drastically changed. I mean, it's drastically changed and he said, "How do you feel about that?" You know, my cardiologist for me is a little more than a cardiologist, he's, I've known him for a while now. And I said, you know, I don't know because I miss the old-school part of me that would get after it, but that guy is, the get after it. I hear him say it, it happened on the plane the other day. I had a couple of glasses of champagne before I got on a plane and I didn't feel great on the plane because I had a bunch of sugar and I'd fall asleep before I take off and I woke up and they asked me if I wanted something to drink and I said, "Instinctually I said another glass of champagne and then I didn't drink it and I didn't want it and I knew that I didn't feel good, but I knew that the race to get that out of my system was a faster race than pushing that race down the line, how long that race would take." So I decided just to drink water on the plane. I knew also my fear of flying is gone right now. I'm halfway through the flight. I'm going to just drink water and I'm going to get on the other side of this and I'm going to be fine. And I did that with beers, my wife and I drank some beers in the river and I got done drinking beers and I had all the fun I was going to have out of those beers. I set the grill up, the grill called on fire, we all made fun of me, I fucked up and then I started grilling and then I went, I think I'm done drinking and I started drinking water and then in a crazy moment I said, because I've always wanted to be able to have beers in a river or have champagne before takeoff or have a drink with dinner on a plane. Those moments I don't want to lose, but I think I'm wrapping my head around for the first time of my life, okay, but also what does maximizing these moments look like? What is having these moments in your life and allowing yourself to cut loose and have fun and be present and have a glass of wine at dinner versus get up in the morning and work out hard and feel good about yourself and get shit done and be present for your daughters and so I was crazy as I had the beers and I had four beers which is more beers than I've had in a very long time in seven months and I felt guilty. I'm drinking water and I felt guilty and I decided to journal about it. My wife came out, she was what's going on and I went, I don't know, I feel bad, I had four beers with you. I haven't had four beers. I sat and had four fucking beers and I wanted them and I go, I just feel like I'm taking a step backwards and she went, you're next to a camper on a park bench riding in a journal in the rain. She was like, I think that's a step forward. She goes, you're not drinking vodka right now or racing to get as drunk as you possibly can get so you can fall asleep. So I think you're going in the right direction but it is, Martin, it's that punitive side of our brain that gives us that superpower to train or to work harder than the next guy. A step punitive side also doesn't let us see easy victories as easy victories that beat us up ourselves up so that we push ourselves harder and I'm not you and I'm not this great mega man that accomplishes the greatest things in the world but I will say that I got that same gene that is stuck in my head about you're not doing shit, get the fuck up. You don't deserve it's not the greatest brain in the world but it's the thing that I think is the reason that I'm doing what I'm doing is because I, you know, we were talking about this in the gym this morning and it's so important for us people to hear. If you greatness, there's going to be sacrifice and if you're not comfortable with that sacrifice 100% that's great, be comfortable with mediocrity because that's probably what you're going to get. If you want greatness and if you want to, not even, not everyone gets it but if you want to strive for greatness you're going to get a lot of shitty things, you're going to miss a lot of plays, you're going to miss a lot of birthdays, you're going to miss a lot of fucking graduations and there's a lot of things you're going to miss but it quite honestly like if you have that brain it's going to be okay. No, and also though and this is what people don't understand is when you chase the level of success you've had and that is you, that's everything around what you've got is you and you say right, well I've missed X, Y and Z and I feel bad because of this. I would look at that another way and say right, I've missed X, Y and Z but I've provided this and I'm doing my very best to do this but you have to understand if I wasn't doing this I wouldn't be this person and the person that would have been present would have been an asshole. Oh, that is brilliant, that's the quote, Jesus Christ. If I had not done what I had done, you wouldn't have liked me. No one would have liked me and you probably wouldn't have been present for a different reason. I would have if I was selling boats in Orlando which is what I would have done and I'd have three DUIs. That's the really hard thing to explain to people it's like are you're a selfish bastard blah blah blah I'm like no you don't understand this isn't a choice but that you don't get to pick your brain, you don't get to pick obsession and it's not it's it's so hard to explain how how my brain works the people that don't get it but I think you get it, it's just you have a different vehicle when some when you wake up and the only thing you can think about is doing X X has to be done because nothing else becomes relevant and I'm in a very good position and I probably don't give her enough credit for it but my Mrs gets that and she's like look as long as you can do X Y and Z for our family I don't mind you going and doing all of this but you have to understand that that comes at a price and it's a financial price but this comes at a price because I can't follow my career and I can't follow this and I can't follow that so there has to be some give and take like as long as your as long as you can do all of this then you can have that time to go and do that and I kind of feel and again this is where I look back and I go do you know what nearly dying because probably a great thing for me because it forced me to stay at home for 12-18 months and and spend time with the kids and I've I've had the luxury to sort of growing to the industry slower I've not made as much I'm not as big a name and so on but I can live with that I've done well for me but it's given me a compromise where I can spend more time at home with the kids and then when I'm away I'm away as I kind of get to this stage now this will be the hardest stage for me because I've already tasted what it's like to be full-time dad and less selfish but I know I need to start being selfish because I'm going to start being a bad dad so it's trying to find that balance where it's like well if I can do it if I can do this and that it's the perfect blend that's the hardest part that's the hardest part my son's six my middle dollars eight and the eldest one's 14 and we've got great relationships between us all but I know the next step for me is ultimately me moving out here and that they don't want to be here they don't mind coming on a holiday but they don't want to be here and this industry is a hard one because I don't want the force to come to LA because the reality is if if things work out well for me I'm going to probably be in Serbia or Greece or somewhere else and somewhere else and it's like well at what point do you say kids you have to do this or kids you can do this because for me I say right you have to travel with me and you have to have homeschooling but then all we're going to do is argue because they don't want to do it and it's trying to find that that compromise of what it means to be a provider to be responsible to be a parent but also to be happy in yourself because without all of those nothing works anyway with this brain a man who do you can I ask you a quick question because there's like because the other night I was I was googling you and I saw like you like I'm a little I'm low key obsessed with Rich Piana and I worked with him once you met Rich no I never met him but I was obsessed with him because there he just was he was a beast he was a beast but I'm also I told you I get I'm obsessed with I watch a lot of bodybuilding documentaries and I watch a lot of Like, anyone, anything fitness has always fascinated me, or it's fired me up. And I was like, I was kind of curious, who, what do you watch online? Like, what do you look at online? What's your, I feel like I kind of have an idea what your, your explorer page looks like on your Instagram. I think you're a million miles away. What, what do you, like, I was thinking cars? Nope. No? No. What? Documentaries, history, current world events, really. Yeah. The whole, I'm not going into politics, but politics. Aliens. It's active, didn't I? Nothing. I mean, it's weird to have a wink too, but aliens. (laughing) Yeah, aliens, news, politics. I enjoy, I enjoy watching left and right to try and find my truth. Yeah. I believe there is good and bad everywhere. Yeah. And I believe we are now, privy to information that we were never had before. And to try, that the only problem with that is that when you do watch any kind of informative documentary, you have to take it all with a pinch of salt and to see their objective and their narrative, whether that be real news, or whether that be YouTube news or so on. So I kind of, I enjoy YouTube when I find individuals that I trust, not necessarily that they are always correct, but their version of their story is the truth. And I feel we're in an incredible position now where they can take a camera and they can travel to parts of the world that we would never get to see. And they can speak to the people and not the regimes. They can speak to the real people on the floor about their experience. I enjoy that, I really enjoy that because I feel it gives me a point of view about the world which is understanding to why we are so fucked up. Yeah. I always feel like I watch a video and if I agree too much, I realize I shouldn't agree at all. And if I disagree too much, I realize I need to agree more. Yeah, to me, it's a constant battle of trying not to one-lead comments on shit because you forget who you are. And then when you go, you know, when you leave a comment or like an Instagram post and maybe you're needing an awful, you're in a bit of a mood or whatever, and you're like, "Ah, fuck him." I leave this comment. And then like six weeks later you come back because someone's replied to your comment, you left, and you go, "No way I've got that, delete it!" (laughing) So I try not to have an opinion out there. One, because I just feel it's very dangerous in this industry to have too much of a voice, one way or the other. And two, I also believe that if you're not 100% sure on what you're saying, say, fuck all. Yeah. Because you're kind of leaning to something that may not be 100% true, but maybe a little bit true, may not be this, may not be that. And for me, I find that fascinating to watch documentary and to just listen, just listen, just listen. It also helps with character building for film as well, which was something that I'd never realized quite how much that does help. Listening and watching and observing real people of interest, I find fascinating. Yeah, I had, yeah. I've never really cared much about acting, 'cause I always played myself, so I figured I'd jump with the character, and I'm getting ready for a movie that's not me. It's the first thing I'll ever do that's not me. And in talking about it, I realized I'm friends with the actual, I'm friends with a guy that's just like that. And I was like, "Oh, you know what I should do?" 'Cause I should call him. I should hang out with him a little bit and get to know him a little better. Watch how he works, watch how he talks, watch how he listens, watch how he eats, watch how he communicates with people. And that's what's interesting, especially when, for me, watching documentaries on evil people. Well, I don't get me started. I'm obsessed, I'm obsessed. Well, I love, I got, my thing right now is to untangle British history, because it's really interesting to see, 'cause I think in America, we don't realize, like the timeline versus the timelines and the rest of the world where Great Britain was. And it's like really fascinating to, 'cause everything's kind of just this chunk of like, where they're nights, where they're princesses, we had a king, did he cut his wife's head off? Like, where does this land? And so for me, I think it's really fascinating to try to untangle that and figure out when this all starts when we get to, and like, where it ramps up to. And, you know, I think that, and that's a tough one for me. I mean, I just the other day was like, wait, the Louisiana purchase was named after King Louis. King Louis, in France, like, and I was like, wait, the Napoleon was around Thomas Jefferson, like, I was like, wait, those, I thought Napoleon was like, in the fucking, he was with King Henry. Like, I didn't know that Napoleon was like recent. Like, timeline-wise, I'm fascinated when things happen. And this is what's funny, because both you and me hated school. Yes. And now we're at a stage where I kind of like, this is so fucking cool. Yeah. It's so funny. It makes you wonder if this technology nowadays was about when we were kids. Would we be more interested in subjects such as history, such as politics without a doubt? It was the, and I'm not listening, I love teachers, but my teachers didn't present history. I think they were just getting through. I remember I had one teacher who was gay, and he died of AIDS, but he was covering herpes. And now on hindsight, I go, it's not his fault. He didn't care about-- Will he go back to that kind of molested story now? He was a gay guy, and his face was covered in herpes. So he'd start growing beards, like, at once every six months, he'd have a beard. And I was like, oh, of course, he had a lot on his plate. It was like in the AIDS era. It truly. And like, yeah. And so I can't blame him for not really caring about teaching me history. I remember I got really hung up in that class about I couldn't understand the idea that because that we were on the same team as Russia in World War II. And I was like, that was just a few years ago. And now we're enemies. He's like, it's a lot to unravel. And I was like, well, can you? And he was like, no, you can figure it out. And he was like, I'm teaching you what I'm teaching today. He didn't want to get off his game plan. And so nowadays, if I was a teacher, I'd just go in and go, what are you guys interested in? Let me teach you about that. Fuck all the other stuff. Fuck my lesson plan. - Yeah. - Fuck it. 'Cause I'm obsessed with this history podcast. And I, I mean, but then here's another one for you as well. This is the only problem with the internet. Is you could watch two versions of someone's history. And it'd be completely different. That's why I like white history. Because we always win. - I didn't mean the time. - Well, yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - That's exactly what I'm talking about. - They called us California technically. - In fact, that's kind of exactly what I'm talking about. It depends where you watch the origin of the documentaries, what story this told. - Yeah. - And for me, I love to watch a Japanese documentary on World War II, and they're like, we got fucked. - Yeah. - But like, it's, I find, I do find, I'll tell you what I listen to the other day, a four-hour documentary on Walt Disney. And like, it was incredible. I love the, I love businessmen. I love dreamers. I love people who created something. Because the idea of being a dreamer in, you know, 1912 is very different than the dreams me and you, me and you had dreams, even when it was tough to be a dreamer in the 80s and 90s. But like, these guys were dreamers in 1912, doing cartoons in 1912, where he was writing, he was making his cartoons in the 40s and 50s in color when nothing was in color. And Walt Disney was like, I think it'll be in color one day, and these are gonna live forever. And then that's how we have fucking Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in color. And he never made them forget. Like, I find, I listen to this podcast acquired, which I think is so interesting. I love this short history podcast. I love anything history. I'm fascinated by, I'm fascinated by history. And I don't know if it's just, I'm getting older, but maybe, I feel the fascination for information as you age, allows you a hope that there's something more than just life. Because the more you can understand. something the more you can trick yourself into, almost believing that it can't all be for nothing. Another reason why I find the aliens fascinating, like I genuinely find that mind-blowing. And now I'm not saying that they exist or don't exist. What I'm saying is the facts around it are questionable. - Yeah. - And the information that you can see has to be taken, for me, has to be taken seriously as much as. I find it hilarious that the majority of people laugh at you about aliens, but as soon as you mention a religion, they're like, "Oh, yeah." - Oh, yeah. - Oh, yeah, absolutely. (laughs) And that's my thing is that I'm as happy to listen to all of the variations of religion as much as I'm happy to listen to opinions on aliens and to see stuff because there's so many things that have happened in history that you could put down to that. And I mean, I'm not gonna go down that really again for the same reason. - No, I love it. - I love it. - But I got backed into a corner talking to Scientologists one time 'cause I was like, I was like, "You guys believe in aliens?" And they're like, "Well, it's a little bigger than that, "but yeah, I mean, yeah." And I was like, "That's crazy." And they're like, "Let me ask you a question." "You believe in Jesus?" And I was like, "Yeah, I'm Catholic." And they're like, "And so you believe like, I was a split seat?" I was like, "Well, I think it's like a. " And I'm like, "No, Jesus was dying." And he raised from the grave through today. I go, "Well, no, it's kind of a. " And then I do believe in artificial intelligence, like, or not artificial intelligence. Do you believe in extraterrestrials? I said, "Yeah." And they said, "So you actually do believe in the thing we believe in and you're kind of skeptical about your own thing?" And I was like, "Oh, fuck, this is how I do it." And I was like, "Wait, am I getting fucking brainwashed?" That would be a good thing. Just come out and just be a Scientologist because that would be a great way to. Great attacks. Oh, it's great for fucking everything. They fucking crush it. Not so much now, but they did. Yeah. What? Who do you want to work with? Like, who's someone? I'm also fast, I gotta get you out of here. We're almost on two hours. But like, who are some of the big guys you worked with? That you, like, he worked with the rock, right? The rock was on the same franchise. I worked with Vena, I worked with Vena. Who did you have the fight with on it? Was it Vena? John Cena. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was it like working with Cena? Great. Yeah. John's incredible. So intelligent. Yeah. So intelligent. Like, incredibly hardworking humble. Just the nicest guy you'll ever meet. What is it like working with big men? Do you, is there like a quick shorthand that shows up where they're like, like, when you meet John Cena, who's fucking always been jacked? Is there like a. There's nothing, nothing great. That's not good, not bad. It's just sort of an understanding of it. For me, meeting John was more of an incredible experience because of who he was, what he's done. And what made it easy was that he was so good. That's done work as well. So when we did our fights and it was a doggle. But he was just. Honestly, but he was one of the nicest guys. And if you get the chance to meet John, I would definitely take it up. How about more of a combat? What was the stunt work like on this? Oh, no movie stunt. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. My character has the most amount of fights throughout the whole movie. I believe about five fights on mine. And that was brutal because the fight sequences on these, I've already gone through five or six hours of work, just getting to make up. Yeah. Then trying to. What was the makeup? Can you pull up that. Let me see your character and moral combat. That one now on the. On the. Second left down is the best picture of it, probably. If you go back, the one next to it left. Yeah, yeah, that's a lot of good one. So this is what you can speak to Todd about, right? So this was my thing about this character. The face was probably three and a half hours to put on. How much of that face do you see? (laughing) Oh, mate. The amount of times I sat there going, this is such a waste of time. They're gonna put the helmet straight on top of this. Yeah. Oh my God. This has cost them so much money. They put the helmet right on top of me. Yeah, they put me makeup for the hours and put a helmet on. Wow. Yeah. I can get into, you know what? In fact, I can show you a picture of the face. That wasn't, that's not me, that's the old, that's the game version. (laughing) Yeah, that's it. That's it. The face looks great that year. Yeah. (laughing) Yeah. But yeah, the body was like. The body had really pissed me off, to be honest, because I came into this shoot off the back end of doing a TV showing Italy with Roland Demarick and Sir Anthony Hopkins, massive show called Those About To Die. And I was playing the character called Flamma, who was a gladiator, the greatest gladiator of all time. I had trained so hard. A little picture of that, can't, is that out there? I mean, those about to die, it should be. So we shot this sequence. Wow. I think there's, if you go back on it, there's a still there. See that, see that, in the middle there, official trailer, there's me on the, holding the shield. Right there. Right, you can't tell too much from there, but I was shredded for this, yeah. Really? Yeah, I was shredded for this, for this, probably the best I've ever looked since the operation. And I was filming that in between filming Mortal Kombat. And they flew me out backwards and forwards from Rome to Australia, Rome to Australia for the first couple of months, at the first couple of weeks. And the first time I put the costume on, they put these scales across my abs. And you couldn't see any of my abs, I was fuming. It was just like a sheet of rubber across my stomach. Oh, yeah, I was devastated. Had you, do you pump up before a scene? No, it depends on what scene. And also that actual scene there was shot outside in Rome in the summer and it was so hot. Yeah. And we rolling likes to run four or five takes in a row. Now, when you're doing three, four minute long fight scenes, dressed in full armor, which is heavy as hell to wear, that's kind of like, oh, there you go, there's a better shot. You can pull back on that one, but he go back to that left. I think I go to the end there, topless. That's the shape I was in. Wow. So you can see I was like, you're fucking sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd pretty pop through on there. And then they go and put armor over it and a cup of your makeup was almost a point of that. I was fuming, fuming. But they'd shoot, we'd shoot four or five times. And the workout we did today would be the equivalent like how you feel of one take. I'm not joking, I swear to God, you've got to remember, if you can get up a picture of me fully dressed in armor, there you go. So that second picture there, but that is real steel. I am, but that's heavy as hell. Good God. And I was doing fight scenes and all that. You can't move, you restricted. And yeah, you're doing fight scenes that last, 40 an hour and a half, two hours in the middle of the summer in Rome, with Italians that don't like listening to you speak English. So when you're asking them for your food, they're like, eh? (laughs) Silly. (laughs) Yeah, that was a tough shoot, that was a real tough shoot. But incredible. So I was doing that and I was doing more to combat at the same time, so I'm back with some forwards from Australia. Wow. And you're just working out in the hotel gyms wherever I could get to, because if it was an off day, I used to drive to a gym in both Italy and Australia. If it was a working day, yeah, just a hotel gym. Hotel gym, just with a treadmill and some weights. Yeah, I mean, the gym in Australia was incredible in all fairness, that was very, very good gym. That was as good as a normal gym. The gym in Rome was, there wasn't a gym in Rome actually. I tell light, it was down the road, it was a private gym we had to walk to. But yeah, the gym in Australia was incredible in the hotel to be fair. But it was, it's tough. What's hard is, is when you go away, I think if you scroll down, I think there's a picture on the right, yeah, if you click on that picture on the right there, and you can zoom in, you can see, you can see, I mean, pretty good shape there. And that, that is the hardest part. It's to try and keep that muscle and mass and leanness while traveling, while working 12, 13 hours a day. I'm then still trying to get the, get the working. That's the hardest part. It's not easy. It's not easy, but such is, such is life. Especially to get older. Well, I've had a blast talking to you. I love you to death, man. I think you're, you're, you're very inspirational for me. And the thing I keep saying is, you're such a regular guy. - I mean, and I am always broke. - Keeps me grounded. (laughing) Well, I hope you still this way when you're rich as fuck. I can't wait for, I can't wait. I would change. I love how much hustle you have and how everything's aggrined and you never push. You never stop grinding and I mean your body of work is substantial. I think you've worked more than anyone on the set of the machine from the date we stopped to today. And Jimmy Tetro is one of the bigger movie stars we got out there. But you are just always in something. Trying. Trying. God bless you brother. Thank you so much, you Tom, buddy. Thank you, man. This has been great. Thank you. Oh, yeah. The transplant of now. This episode was brought to you by The Machine.