Dream Sorcerer with Dorian Gregory - Charmed S01E05

They didn't totally scare me away, but they didn't wow me. Even when we killed the guy on the very bad wire work? [CRYING] Yeah, that's-- Yeah. Yeah. [MUSIC PLAYING] Here. What do we have? Dream Sorcerer, season one, episode five. Can we skip it? Are we skipping this one? I like this one. Why? I mean, I like the concept of it. I like-- I think it's something everybody identifies with, right? It's like-- Nightmares. --dreams coming to life, like being that whole thing. It's like-- I mean, how many times you woke up in the morning, you're like, oh my gosh, that dream was so real Holy cow. And you feel-- I think it-- I don't know. It touches me because sometimes dreams really are so real. And you wake up feeling like your life is a piece of it. And that's what dreams are anyway. But I don't know. I kind of just identified with it. Well, this makes me so happy. It makes me so unhappy of so many issues with this episode. Like it was painful. Holy been so upset. We've actually postponed taping this for weeks because to get Holy to come to terms with the fact that we are here and talking about it. Yeah. It took me weeks to convince Drew that we should just skip it. So moving on. I tell you, the one thing, the lighting and the thing and the sets and how you put everybody-- I have to agree. It felt like a different episode. It didn't feel like it connected to number four and number three. Well, just the way it looked and then how you went into this dream world and the separation, it looked like experimental time a little bit. That's when we didn't have enough money to do the special effects that the script's required. It was not the good formula. And it was also super violent too. Like he started out on the woman crush to death in her bed. I was like, Jesus. It was a little harsh. It was tough to also follow dead man dating. To go from arguably just one of the best episodes that the show had ever made. Not even at that point, now in hindsight, looking back to then following it with this, I understand the follow-up act was going to be tough no matter what. But-- Yeah, but this one. I understand. What were some of the other things that you had that you took umbridge with? Gosh, they're just-- Piper was weird. Piper was weird. All the love, love stuff. I don't know what she was thinking. Piper was a little out of character. Well, I want to let everyone know exactly what Piper was thinking because Piper wants a man who is single, smart, endowed. Employed. Uh-huh. Employed, who loves sleeping in on Sunday's sunset bike rides, cuddling by a roaring fire at late night talks and men who love love. As much as I do. Yeah. Oh, you remember what it is, do you still have it? It's ingrained in my brain because I hate it so much. So what does Holly look for in love? Just at a curiosity. Have you seen Mike? Handsome. Damn handsome. Okay, so you need handsome. He's dangerous. Actually, you know what's interesting. Mike is very much Phoebe's-- Oh, totally. --Cended candles, body oils, Italian sheets, lust, danger, bike rides on a motorcycle. Yeah. He's probably on his motorcycle right now. It's so annoying. Okay, well there you have it. There you have it, folks. So are you saying that really like in personal and like your personal life, you're more like Phoebe the character than pipe the character? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Okay, I just wanted like hot takes. I want to make sure everyone knows what the paper was having a moment. Okay. She was having a moment. We're going to call it she was having a moment. She was having a phone. Yeah, this whole episode. Anyway. I am glad that we addressed safe sex though, you know, we've been called not progressive enough. So yes, there was a whole safe sex decision. Is that with cons? I'm forgetting that safe sex part. It was Phoebe that says nowhere we had safe sex, a lot of safe sex. So you ingrained in my brain, like literally I want to stab myself in the eyes. And then this dude rolls into shirtless. And this goes to your fridge. And like, I guess starts chugging milk from the carton and that's dangerous. Well, it could be. I mean, in cold times. It could be. So disgusting. Anyway, moving on. By the way, that was it. We could we could have been the episode. Let's not talk about paper. The chefs chopping skills. Like nobody helped me. Nobody helped me. Like that should like they should have cut my hands out. Because clearly I didn't cook then. Do you cook now? I do. I had to. I had too many children and they need food. That's true. Don't you just like order in? Not where I live. Yeah, how does postmates work? It doesn't. It works in Seattle, but it doesn't. Can you get something if you're craving something from Seattle? Can they just fly it over to you? Amazon can. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Well, what a complaint about. Yeah, tell me more about what you hated about it. Well, what I hated about it was obviously the whole dream scape. We didn't have enough money for. Situation. But then the rest of it was shot really beautifully. Like she and it's in the tub and it's really beautiful. And then the guy shows up with the creepy sponge. And I'm just like. It's got to be so much better. Could have been should have been would have been. With a few more dollar signs behind it and an experience. You know, that was the like always the production standpoint. You know, with charm was. You can create a whole new world every episode. So it's not just like you're going into the kitchen or you're going into the office or you're going into the police station. I mean, we literally had no boundaries. So it was tough for our construction crew and our visual effects and special effects. So got a hand at you. But this was like this whole episode was like the struggle bus. Do you know. Do you remember how they shot it? Like how did they pull it out? Like how did they pull off that kind of dreams that dream state? I tried to stay out of that stage because I didn't need to be around it. But literally it's like this false like top of the building. And then just like screens everywhere where you felt like you were in a really bad rave. So at that point, 1996, I mean, green screen really wasn't. No, that's why I'm like barely. I'm telling you it's like, right? We're like silk sheets. Right. And then just layer it and out of focus and nothing to really build behind it. Or hand paint. I remember like by the time I actually made, I was on the show, it was like they were they had taken photos and then blown them up. Oh, yeah. The backdrops. Yeah. I mean, you really felt like you were on Gilligan's Island for sure. But what's insane is I was just like I watched the season finale of Westworld last night. And they were. I was there was a behind the scenes talking about how they were able to do all these like three dimensional worlds and stuff that they. You know, these false realities and nowadays and all Marvel does this as well as like the whole set is like a dome of. You know, eight 12k screens like massive screens. So they're actually projecting real images on there. And then it's have you seen any of these these like images behind the scenes? Listen, I try not to watch good news shows because it makes me bitter. Just stay away from TV as much as possible. Well, you are on one today. Yeah. Well, you know, episode five. This is what this is what we get. I had this conversation with Drew many years ago when like what was what were you doing? I was writing something. I was writing something and you were like, well, have you seen this? Have you seen this? I was like, no, no, and no. And you were like, well, why? Like you have to watch what's out there. And I was like, no, I don't. I really don't. I don't need to know. This is not my issue. I do not need to know because. And this is the same reason it will make me better. Well, I mean like. It's progressed, right? Yes, of course, and there's some incredible stories out there. I just want you to watch the behind the scenes of this. You can see like how far the evolution of special effects and things have. Other new technologies. It looks like they're building now down in Peachtree. I had a friend of Maya Quaintnitz has built a new. They have won an award through Disney, whatever. He's opened his own studio. And it's one of these like literally you walk in the room. Everything's lit. It's all that projected screen imagery. You light the box. You bring it a table. You whatever. You change the background. I could be in a skyrise. I could be the top of Mount Everest. In out you're done in eight hours. Send it in. Because everything's already. It's already projected in a way that makes it look so real. It's insane. How cool. Yeah. It'd be amazing if not cheap. There was a reboot of charmed now with the original cast. And what we'd actually be able to pull off. Well, that was my only like interest in a reboot was. Because the special effects needed to be adjusted. Right. Or you know, if there's some special effects ways out there who just wants to have fun. Go back with your. episode then recut them with more facts. There's just there's no way it's trash. But let's talk about giving it a little part right fine. Let's talk about the episode. So I mean, I did, I mean speaking of dreams, dream source, or the whole thing and maybe Shannon had a take on that of what that mentor and dreams and having bad dreams are people feeling that you're ever attacked in a dream and what what that means. And I know we've all done our breaking down of dreams and what dreams mean. And maybe that had something for her character. But a question for you is as the show, I don't know maybe it's a little too early, but did you start to have any sort of magical dreams or were demons appearing ever? Did you have dreams that kind of connected to the show that you kind of brought home from work? We didn't sleep a lot in the early days. We were working probably at this point when we were literally on the struggle bus like this. Probably 14, 15 hour days because we just were like juggling all the things we couldn't get together between stunts and special effects and and all the girl stuff. So I'm telling you like I don't remember sleeping. I remember being on the stage all the time from literally dawn to dawn. I'm talking about this episode specifically or basically this time in your life. No, no, this basically like the first the first year, the first season was really, really, really finding our footing and falling on our face a lot. Like we were actually like this hospital was like the Dexter hospital. So it's super creepy. And it was like in the valley on Ventura completely like it was an abandoned hospital. It was super creepy. And like so we had all these weird locations all over the place. I mean it was it was a struggle. You're not happy. No, I'm not happy. Can we? I'm okay. So now you've been having the nightmare since the night. This is the nightmare. All right, that's so I like it. It's like you're trying to block it out. Hey, PK, that was good. It was really good. I'm really funny. Some of them you drop some shit out of nowhere. I'm like, yes. But it's funny. Like my favorite part, the only part about this episode that made me laugh was literally is that Peru just gives no shit about our B storyline. She's just no shit's given. She's just like all in her A storyline. And we call and she's just like whatever you people. I think my favorite part will make us laugh. But I have to say towards the end though when when you're in there and there's 10 guys winking at you buying your drinks and you have your little kiss and you it was that rival, you know, and other episode you you you weren't angry with that guy or choice in front of you. I was like, who is is that neighbor Dan? Like who is that? I kept looking at rewind rewind rewind. Where is this kind of end to it? Where is Dale? Yeah, where is Dale right now? He's in the attic. Seriously, Belle. That would have been really great. See, if I was a producer then I would have been like get Dale out of the attic. He is now in love with Phoebe. Belle would have been me. Well, maybe I was impervious to a spell at that point. Oh, that's no fun. I was with my other family. Oh, you probably were. That's where you went. Yeah. Well, I'm trying to I'm looking at some notes here. I'm like, well, the first thing that came in, I was like, oh, this gem too. We cannot we cannot I'd be remiss if we don't talk about. Are your parents, Terris? Because baby, you the bomb. Hey, yeah, well, we could use that now. Credit to our writers right there. That was that was strong. I also was wondering where the cat was and then I'm like, wait, we haven't seen the cats in this episode. One, I'm like, oh, 10 minutes later. There's the cat. There's the cat. Kid is helping. Help. Kid. Yeah. Yeah. You were kind of gaslighting prue a little bit. That was a note that I had that I was like, interesting. What when I called her on the courted phone. More than phone. No, it's like, I've got I'm on a courted phone. This tells you what we were dealing with at the time. In the time period that we were shooting in, I'm on a courted phone. What's a courted phone? It's a landline. And she's on like a cell phone that's like as big as her head. It's a brick. You kept telling her like, no, it's not. You're just tired. You're exhausted. You're just. Exactly. It's it's an extraction and it's not a demon. Right. Well, that's apropos. Yeah. There you go. But I feel like you would normally be supportive of that. Listen, I had my own issues going on. Okay. Every guy loved you. Such a such a tough issue. Loving love. BK, did you have any problems with this episode? Or did you actually really love it? You know, for me, conceptually, I like the idea. How it went from a story idea to script and how it want to be in shot. I guess are a bunch of different things. I like the concept of being terrorized in new dreams. I mean, it's a bit of, isn't that candy man? And I mean, it's a bunch of different movies that we've seen. And it's a theme that I think runs with all of us, you know, waking up to nightmares or being terrorized by it. So I do like the concept of it. Like we said, you know, it felt like they were shooting three different episodes. They were trying to find their look, I suppose. And that's why I said, I don't think it matched the first four. And I think the show was still trying to find its look. But, you know, again, the girl's performance is fantastic. I love the bubbliness of the love spell, as opposed to, you know, when you compare the two, the spell that they cast and then, you know, the dream cat sorcerer, you know, what was he was also looking for love at the same time. So, you know, it's just two different ways of going about it. And neither of them worked. And, you know, again, the greater good wins out. So I love the concept of what they were going for. And, you know, maybe you needed an hour and a half for it, you know, to really flush it out. The idea was more like for a movie than maybe 42 minutes. But, you know, I love the idea. I mean, dude, to that end, you know, arguably one of the most popular shows right now ever on TV is Stranger Things. And this whole last season is Vecna. And Vecna is basically haunting the dreams. Like, they go into this dream space, this dream world, where then they can interact with them. So I'm not saying the Duffer Brothers stole dream sorcerers. But I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. Yeah, I'm not saying Charm-E-Fairs. Yeah, big Charm-Fairs. I noticed, you know what? I noticed there was like 10 writers on this episode and it kind of shows. Because everybody was going different directions on this one. Everybody. We were just trying to literally like string it together. Right. Well, look, when you do 180 plus episodes of something, they're not all going to be home runs. Yeah, but this was like number five. And you know who used to say that to me? Who? The person in charge. And when I would complain about a script, and you know, he would say to me, well, Holly, you know, they all can't be great. And I was like, that's unacceptable. That's fair. I mean, look, if you're not striving for greatness, I understand the problem. Like no one ever just goes out to make something to be shitty, right? You're hoping like, oh, it's going to be awesome. Yeah, but there shouldn't be like filler episodes either. Like I said, just skip it then. Well, the problem, well, that's what's changed about television. So now most shows eight to 13 apps, right? Unless you're on network and it's a procedural where it's 22 episodes and each episode is just kind of like a regurgitated varying by like tiny degrees of whatever the crime or something, whatever you need to do. If it's a mad thing, it's a whatever medical procedure, right? But like all these kind of cooler interesting shows that are on the streamers now, it's like eight, 13 episodes. So there is no filler. It's all tight, everything matters. But again, that's, it's just evolved storytelling. So I was right. But it seems like so much of those type of shows are basically one season storyline. I think that was kind of the beauty of charm. Yes, you had the overriding season storyline kind of, but it wasn't one big story. The season wasn't like, oh, okay, that's what happened this season. We did that almost every episode in the procedural way, right? Yeah, which was really cool. Whereas now when you watch a stranger things, when you watch an Ozark, it's season one takes from here to there. There's the storyline rides through the whole season. And I don't know if charm really had more than the greater goods and watching the girls growth. And if they really had a breakdown of like a point A, where the girls are and point season episode one to where they're going to be in episode 22, maybe a loose idea of that. And had they talked about that with you girls at all of where they wanted you to kind of where you were and where, you know, in the progression, they'd like to see you at the end of season one. Well, no. And that was one of my other misgivings is that we couldn't have. have continuous storylines. And it was part of Aaron Spelling's sort of formula where he wanted every episode to be able to stand alone so that it could be rerun in any order syndication dictated. - Yeah, I mean, that's the procedural way, right? - Yeah, that was his formula. And it was also part of the reason we didn't do a lot of holiday shows, which was a bummer. - That's nonsense. - But yeah, 'cause he wanted them to be able to be played. So that was actually like a note that we had and sort of had to stick with for a while until like we just like demanded a Halloween show. Because it was just silly for us not to do it. But yeah, that was kind of like a big frustration for me just as a working actor to be like, why are we saying who we are and what we do in every episode? Like the exposition was real. And that was part of the formula. - Right, does that continue throughout the whole first season? - No, I mean, finally when we started to have relationships that actually stuck, you had to continue that storyline where it was just, you know, back and forth all the time. So we did like eventually sort of branch out of that because you have to. It can't be a Gilligan's Island every time. - No, for sure. And I remember at least this was what was kind of conveyed to me at the time when Chris kind of finally showed up that there was gonna be like a season long plus of arc like a B or C storyline that was gonna kind of be the thread that pushed that forward. And I think it started to change a little bit, at least in my season. - Yeah, but that took a while, yeah. It took a while to get to that point. - It was in five, six or whatever. So yeah. - It's okay, no. - So out of five stars for the DreamSourceRer, episode five season one, Holly, you would give it a, you give it a one? - Zero and number. - No, you have to give it a star. - You can give it a half star. - Half, 0.5. - You get half of one. - A half a star? - Half star, BK, what about you? - You know, not knowing the show, playing that game of, I've only watched five episodes, out of the five, I'd say it's probably a three. It's not great, it's not horrible. I don't wanna crush it, I don't wanna kill it. Again, I love the storyline. I like what the girls are doing, their relationships evolving. - You see, I-- - And outsider's point of view. I'm like, okay, I'm not mad at it. I'm not gonna stop watching this show because of this, right? The girls performance and the chemistry keeps me coming back for episode six, so they didn't totally scare me away, but they didn't wow me. - Even when we killed the guy on the very bad wire work? (cow mooing) - Yeah, that's, yeah, yeah, I love it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, like literally skip to the end, like literally. - Yeah, I'm gonna give it a 2.5 out of five, and the only way, I think the concept is cool. I like this idea of your Freddie Krueger, is your Vecna's, your Vince from Fast and the Furious is coming in and impating your dreams. And like, well, you'll always nitpick on the things that you see, that like, out your hands and the cutting board. Like, the concept and the story, like, it's there. It's cool, it's interesting. So I'm haunting your dreams. I actually think that's, you know, we have reoccurring dreams all the time as, you know, people as humans, and this is kind of playing on that, you know, that you're worse nightmare, no pun intended. So yeah, like where the execution could have been better, of course, like, then I have to take into consideration. This was in 1998, and you guys are still finding your footing, but I don't think it was the worst thing I've ever seen. And there was some things that I found really funny genuinely about the episode. Oh, I was so upset. I'm so upset. I'm sorry. Fine, I'll take it. I'm going to take that half star off for you and solidarity. I'll drop it to a two. Thank you. Like, I'll drop it to a two out of the first five that we've watched. It's by far and away, not the best one. Okay, well, then the next one is worse, but it's bad in a better way. (laughs) It's like, it's so bad, it's good. Okay, now that I can work with, I love it so bad, it's good. Yeah, I get it. Like, look, upon rewatching or watching for the first time, I'll probably never watch DreamSource or again. No, it's a no. That's a no. So maybe, yeah. BK, will you ever watch DreamSource or again? You know, I wasn't angry at it. If it comes up on TNT or on PCOQ TV and it just happens to be there, I don't know that I sit and watch it like it's a Shawshank Redemption and it's just on and I need to just watch this now. I might click away from it. But you know, again, it didn't lose me on the show and it's, you know, it's, it's interesting. We forget, this is a show still trying to find itself and I think it was an experiment and you know, the girls outdelivered for what the episode was and I think that's part of how they kept the fan base attracted, you know. A lot of shows you see come on three, four, five episodes and it's like, this show's over, right? They've lost their chemistry. Maybe they had the same bad thing and you know, without the actors kind of bringing the audience in, they lose the show because of one bad episode and writing and production value and whatever. And I have to say, I think, you know, this kind of proved that the girls, you could give them, you know, mumble jumbo on a piece of paper and have them stare at a wall and their chemistry is what's going to sell the show. And I think that's kind of what it says to me in episode five that you guys are going to keep going forward. - I will say this one other thing is it was also a touch into something that I think everyone would want to kind of explore when you all of a sudden find out that you have powers. Like so I could totally relate with Phoebe, like come on, like yes, we, you know, obviously we have a greater good purpose that we have to be surfing, but like can't we also just play around and have some fun with it for us as well? Like I think every single person given the powers that you guys were given would kind of want to play around and have some fun with it, right? And so that felt really, that felt real to me. I related to that. I was like, yeah, when are you going to just like flex a little bit and have some fun for yourself? And so the fact that you were talked into finding the love of your family. - Like I get that all these things. - So upset, but that's true. Like this is a, this is, I'm being dead serious. Like I'm trying to find, now maybe I'm, I'm trying to find something too specific, but like I would think that the moment I had these powers, if I were given these powers, like I'd try to flex a little bit while still maintaining the greater good kind of trajectory. Nope, Holly. No, it's a no for her. Well, if she gave it a half star. - Yeah, I think we gave a good review from it. So let's, who's our guest today? What do we do? What do we do? - Who do we do? - See, this will make me like this episode a little bit more because we have Dorian, which I'm really excited about. - Dorian, I agree, everyone. We played Darryl, Darryl Morris. Pretty much the entire series, correct? Like he was in the first step and he's, it was there till the end. - He survived. - He survived. - He survived. - All right, ladies and gentlemen, you've all been waiting for him. - I have. - Holly has. - Hey. - Hi, man. - Hey. - Hi, man. - You guys look amazing. What's going on? - You look amazing. - What are you? - Wow. - We have none of us at age one bit. - I definitely have. It's just pixelated. - Brian, hey Drew, everybody, Holly. - So Dorian, my friend. Overall, how have you been? What have you been up to? Did you, well, first and foremost, before we even get to that, did you have a chance to watch DreamSorcer the episode that we are talking about? - I did. I did. - Let's see his face look like mine. See, it's painful, isn't it? You can say it's painful. I can't do anything. - No, no, no, no. - I wasn't gonna say that. - I wanna say, I've never watched my work. Never. - Oh. - And just when it was. - And just when it was episode in my entire career, I don't watch my work. - I watch it. And I've had a chance to distance myself and see it for what it is. I just thought it was, we were young in that. It was fifth episode, first year. - Yes. - We were all finding our rhythm, but the magic as far as, you know, this sounds so flippin' corny, I'm sorry. But there's a reason why we've been around for so long. Watching you and watching the three of you do what you do, it was so refreshing and pure and natural. And I love the way the story was unfolding as far as the duality of the sisterhood bond and then finding your way and figuring out what you want. And then we could talk about, you know, as far as how this story was constructed, Morpheus was interesting, meaning that the dream sorcerer, that's where that's where it rooted. And so, and then T. W. and I, finding our rhythm and our chemistry. So looking at it from a detached distance standpoint with no nothing nothing nothing else in there. I love the the the the the newness of it and the beauty of it and the chemistry of it from what I was observing. Right. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. I like that you re-frame did for me a little bit because I just wanted to skip this entire episode. Didn't you lie? Tell me tell me because you got you got all the all the layers in there as far as the why. You know watching what you're doing. You got a bunch of other stuff. Yeah. It was just such a struggle. We are still like struggling to find our characters struggling to figure out how to get a day done with with stunts and special effects and literally just trying to cram it all into a suitable work day and it was it this one was rough. Yeah. Yeah. You guys have the I can't have fathom as far as what your days must have been like specifically addressing that. You I mean 16 hours you got to be pulling just crazy days day in and day out five days a week and still and trying to find that rhythm the newness of that rhythm and all those between we start talking stunts and everything else involved that just it's a whole different ball game that people may not understand how that works. You're watching this hour but you're watching how many how much how much stuff that you've actually put into the can for this hour. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's a whole nother unit. It's a whole nother stunt unit. Yeah. It's a whole nother green screen unit and we didn't have any of those things. But I was so relieved when you and TW came on screen because I was like, okay, great. So at least this part won't suck. That's very sweet. But you know, during the little beats in between is what I'm fascinated by when it comes to you. You know, it's not it's how you do what you do and you embody a moment and that's what I enjoyed watching, you know, and I don't know if anybody you can connect connect with what I'm trying to convey, but there's just little subtleties that are just so you that you add into that character, right? And I've seen a broad scope of your work and you add different facets of your being to everything that you do and that's the fun part. You are joyous. You're fun. You're beautiful. You're your intelligent and you and you have a strength and you add those moments. You can't miss it. I think you're making me blush during it. It's just what it is. It's great. I think he was talking to Brian. I was saying the same thing is a show that was finding itself. Yeah. Episode five and and I said, you know, yes, technologically, maybe the storyline wasn't completely flushed out, but the girls and you and the acting kept me interested. Nobody would throw the show away at episode five here because of the chemistry everybody had. And it really brought it to life and you'd like the characters. And I said this before you came on as is so I agree. And I think see now I there's two kind of like it and they don't like it at all. Hold on. I was just most of them get crazy. It was our ugly duckling episode for sure. But a question I post to Holly and I'll post to you as well, Dorian, is so many shows, you know, have one singular storyline that for that season or for this season. So for you coming on, was there an overriding storyline that you guys knew you were going to play from the beginning of the season to the end or was it had it become just I'm the procedural guy come in, save few things go out. Like it was it was still kind of new for you guys finding your character or what you were setting up at the same time. We were finding our rhythm and it's not a question of procedure or for the procedural. They're layers of this man had a kid. He has a wife. He's got tenure. He was the ranking officer and you've got this young and male gifts and type of thing. We're just you know, you know, T. W. just come off the time cop and he brought that rhythm of time cop, which is a very different show on to to charmed. And so yes, there's procedural, but I never look at anything, you know, I've had the joy of playing these these roles for a bit of time. But that's not what I look at. I find it I try to find the truth in the moment and the connectivity as far as who I'm feeding off of. So it's not working anything out. It's about listening and buying into what you're saying and you're using the mechanics of what you what you what you're surrounded by to give the truth of it. I mean, if I'm giving a police file, there's the mechanics that's a tool to give truth of it. And I'm listening to what he's saying. If you listen to the first scene as far as setting up the whole storyline where she she was locked into a she had a apartment and and the doors were locked and she she had every bone and her body broken and then boom us as being partners, we say at the same time murder, I hit it when you say that. There is truth in that and you gave me the tools to accentuate and focus on the truth of that moment, you know, we're in the police station, all that stuff. So for me, nothing's worked out for me ever. It's a question of being honest about who this person is and taking all this beautiful stuff that I'm surrounded by and enhancing the reality and the truth of that moment. I like that. Thank you. I'm very glad you're everyone. Come on. You take away the idea of you don't care episode 22 what's going to happen. You don't care. It's it's all about the now. It's all about this moment. You got to me in the moment. I don't I'm just going to answer that real quick. Yeah, I'm not trying to just dominate the mic, but no, I don't in life. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. So how how am I going to I know there's a there is a methodology to that, but I have to be fully invested with what I'm presented and I've got a future in my mind, but I don't have a prewritten future. So I impose the future in my mind as far as the character is concerned with the script and what's happening in this moment and what happened of course were all a product of every moment just before this from childhood to last year to 10 years ago. So you have that, but I don't know what's going to happen next year, but I have what I my mind believes is going or what I wonder what my dreams or what my aspirations are. Were you were cognizant when you were on set in, you know, wearing derls suits vibe feeling were you cognizant of that? Did you bring that to episode five? No, and I was I had that's my loose approach and we're talking a ton of years ago. I'm such a different evolved person as an artist now and so that young man has a approach. I had the skeletal roots as far as my understanding of the beauty of what we do, but that dude is light years away from who I am right now. Yeah, so I know I'm not sure how to ask that, but yeah, you know, I had all that skeletal framework and I did my best. Walk us through the process of the first audition booking the show becoming the regular and you know, what what was going on in 1996 before episode one, 98 before before you got on, where were you well, you know, and then and then to get it and be there. I mean, it must have been exciting. Of course, man, it's surreal. I got this call nine months after they were looking for the guy. Many I came in so late a process. They like they've been looking for this dude, right? And what I got from my representation was, oh, they're looking for a Mel Gibson Danny Glover type type chemistry, right? Am I okay? So I went in and you know, all that stuff goes man, it's it's the glad of your pit from it was for me anyway. We, you know, five times going back, we go into the room where you have the last choices. Everybody's coming out one after another, one after another, you go home, you go home, you sit, you sit, you sit, you sit, you say, and then I come in in this B-neck formation with Aaron spelling in the middle. And I've got the, you know, the network, the red, the producers and the writers and blah, blah, blah. And what, what made it happen was one moment. He saw him work, Aaron did and Aaron's one that did this. He just gave one note. One note, you guys are friends. You like this person and you maybe has ranking officer, but give me that. There's history. Give me that. It's an obvious note, but it's can you can count up in the trap of playing what's on the paper and this, this, this friction that's going on and not adding the humanity to it. And that one note, even though we all know these things, I needed that when I was going through the process of delivering that because I obviously missed that nuance beat. And when I added that layer, it gave the authoritative presence that was needed for that, that scene, but I also gave the humanity of this is the guy I know and this is my partner and this is my friend. And so the layering of those two things made it that that that that that seemed the energy that it needed, which just wasn't one note. So, so you knew before you walked out or was it a day later? I found out five days later. The only thing that that that helped was I was one of the last two in the Gladiator pit, you know, we started out with nine and it was me and one of the dude and they kept calling me back in. And even after, yeah, the last time they called me back in was when when Aaron gave me that note and I still stayed out after the next guy went in and then we were saying thank you guys very much and you know, we'll talk soon. And I think it was maybe five days later. So what were those next five days like? You know how this stuff is, man. I don't think about it. You go and you, you, you, the only thing I do is I do the best that I can in the room and I leave it. It's either meant for me and it's not. But as long as I'm confident in doing the best I can do, I'm cool. And sometimes the best I can do needs improvement. That's okay. Because I've gotten the gift of, oh, you know what? I missed this beat or maybe I could have tried this. I've gotten that gift for my next thing. This is all about the next job always. I don't care what job you're on. We're creators and so we're always vested in what we're doing. But we're always knowing that there's more to do and there's more available always. - Yeah, I mean, when I was little and auditioning in New York, that's kind of the way I would deal with it because pilot season was so busy in New York and you just had to go from one to the next to the next to the next and getting around New York was not easy. So I got into this habit of just throwing out the script when we actually had paper scripts. Just throwing out the script as soon as I got out on the street and done with the appointment, I would just throw it out and move on. And that was sort of like my symbolic like, gotta go, moving forward. But also like, you know, that's a testament like a lot of people don't understand how invested Aaron was in the whole process because that's usually like a note like that you would get from a director or a writer but not necessarily the executive like creator, producer of the show. And he was so invested and that goes to show, you know, he picks his people who he champions. So to me in that moment when he gave you that note, that was him telling everybody else in the room, I really like this guy and I'm gonna show you what else he can do. - You gave me that, that makes me, I know I'm like, wow. - That's true, it's really true. - That makes me feel good. - Yeah. - I just wanna add one note about him every year, never missed a beat, he gave a Christmas present. I mean, that sound, and he remembers your birthday, there were so many things that he remembered you when he saw you and this man has, you know, he's been around forever and he's done such legendary things and these things really touched me as far as him. It was personalized, it wasn't just some thing that you can normally get, it was personalized and he remembered that, you know. - Yeah, he was really great like that. I had one birthday, we were doing a TV guide that covershoot, I know kids, you don't know what TV guide is. And my grandmother had died that week and he sent me my normal birthday and then he sent me flowers for my grandmother passing away. You know, he was just like that kind of producer that is very, very, very rare. - Mm-hmm, yeah. It's amazing, you know, we've done five of these so far and the reoccurring theme of how spectacularly special he was and how caring he was, like it's universal and he's touched every single person that we've talked spoken with and clearly all four of us, we all have these kind of very personal moments with him. Like he was so unique and so special and so grateful that we all got to experience that kind of level of care and loyalty, like so loyal and again, the nuance of like he really was invested every single, not only in the success of the show but the success of you. - Yeah. - He wanted you to be and create you an environment where you got to succeed to the best of your abilities. - And Dorian did because he survived. He survived the whole show. - Yeah man, you were from the beginning to the end. - Yeah, that was really small feet. - Yeah. - You knew it was small feet. - Yeah. - You guys made it easy and enjoyable and the heart that heavy lifting, of course the obvious was with you guys. I came and did my thing and you made it, it was always warm, jumping from Aaron to the set, all of you embraced me warm and Aaron, whenever I would cross his path, I felt that he really was cognizant of my being there and I felt connected and he just took the time to really acknowledge and be present. And for me, as far as my experience and my journey, that's what I felt when I was in any exchange with anybody there, it was just warm. We had a job to do and I tried to do my best to, you can't get that confused. There's a job to do and it's a very serious job and people have to be on their game and people have a lot to get through in a day. So you have to balance the friendship with the fact of staying connected to the fact that there's real work going on here. - Right, well, we were always very happy to see you because that means we didn't have to just work with each other. - Yeah. (laughing) - What the hell? - We were getting bored of each other already. Like Jesus, send us new blood. (laughing) - Thank you, thank you. - So if I fall out. - So you say you didn't watch your work and I'm like you, it's hard for me to watch anything I do. But knowing the concept of this show, knowing which is what have you, was that what did you think of that whole genre coming into it and going forward? Did you watch anything that you weren't in of the show to kind of see where it fell conceptually and what the show was going for, where you were just more of the artist, like I come in, I do my thing and leave it on the table there. - That's a good question, man. You know, magic, you know, color what you will, but life is possibility. And that's what the definition of magic to me is. So I bought in on the premise of the show from the outset as far as family, possibility, and finding the most of yourself and understanding what that means. And when you start talking about connectivity with friends, you start talking about the balance of work, when you start talking about the, you, you, evolving as a person, understanding the truths of what you want and what you don't want going back to magic. Hence, let's talk about DreamSource, you know, dreams are the masters of men, dreams are the masters because that dreams are, what dreams are, are possibility. And so everybody, everybody, having the unbounded possibility of what magic is and what this show is, and also staying grounded to what is important and what makes your life relevant as far as friends and family are concerned, as well as what gives you a feeling of significance. And oftentimes, you confuse that the feeling of significance is work and finding that balance is what they did and what the storyline was for me. And understanding what family is, going back to just this episode, since this is what anchors this podcast, you know, you know, you love. So that's an easy thing that everybody, a universal truth that everybody can relate to and we all have this list, right? And this list is not necessarily what you want and that's what this show reveal. Everything you think you want, sure it's in there, but that's not what love is. It's undefinable, a Piper said it in the episode. You can't define love, love is magic, you know? And that's true. You don't know until you're hit by it and oftentimes when you're hit by it, it's nothing like your thought. - Cheers, Drew. - Yeah, it's true. You like this episode more now? - No, I just like Dorian. - Three and a half. (laughing) Five stars. - Thank you. - But he really is so good to see you. You look amazing. - I'm sure you are. - Literally like a fine wine. - Yeah, you look awesome. - So handsome. - Thank you. - So handsome. - We need to go back to bed. - When I told them that we had connected and then you're coming, I'd send them a photo that I'd pulled off the Instagram. Like, Jesus, look at this guy. - I appreciate it. It's been, I know we've all been onto our roads. It's been a road and so happy that I am where I am right now. I mean, we're not gonna bring in all the COVID and all that stuff that happened throughout the country, but it's been an interesting time that I have witnessed as far as everybody I'm surrounded by and including my own personal journey, won't get into that for us just family and health and all that, but whoa, I'm so glad to be here. And I'm just happy about who I am currently. - That's awesome. - Yeah, I love hearing that. - Yeah, man, that's beautiful. - That hits my heart good. - I love that. - Can you tell us like, what are you working on right now? What do you want to do? - I wish I could. And it's soon I will, but working on something that we'll put that aside. Music, poetry, always been a writer and I do a lot of work anonymously because I wanted to, one of the poems that are anonymous hit me the hardest because I've got nothing to, it's just me and my processing of it. I don't know anything about the author, I don't know anything that I'm going to assign to this work. It's just the truth of the words that are on the page that are speaking to me. So case in point, always been a writer, was writer before the show, been done poetry before the show, and done music before the show, continued to do that. And a lot of what I put out, got a story, you know, in La Vie that I'm working on right now, which is a script. I have a book of poetry that I'm working on that I will assign my name to, even though there are works out there that I don't. Inot Levy, hence interesting enough, Inot, spelled backwards is done. Levy spelled backwards is evil. And Liv, Levy is Liv. And it's about Inot, done, live, which is evil. The journey through life can be the journey through life, the tests that come before you. And once you reach the end, then you're done. Hence Inot is at the very beginning, coming in relationship with Levy. And Levy has all these challenges. He sends this way. He has no idea it's coming from Levy. Anyway, so what am I working on? Working on that and working on coming into the new phase where making people more and more aware of things that they don't know that I've been doing forever. And that's kind of it. Cool. Go, go, go. I just have to say one of my favorite moments on set was when I heard like, I was sitting off set somewhere and I heard, no, Dorian can't come in until later. No, he's not available. No, he's got soul train. Oh, that. And I went, what? He's got what? Oh my God, I died. I was so happy for you. I watched it. Thank you. Thank you. That was crazy. And I don't even have any words for that. Something I-- again, I give a chance to be a part of things in multiple times of my life that I grew up with. And I remember, fathom, I'd be a part of. I mean, when we start talking about the trifecta here, you know, the one in Barisio, but Holly and Shannon and Alyssa and all these pieces of history, of television history, or I want you to say, history pages intelligence, very important pages and chapters intelligence, and spelling, important pages and chapters and television, and film. My God. And another thing that I got to experience and soul train Don for me is, you know, that was wild. I had done a guest host on his show, Seven Years. And I had known after he reached back out that Seven Years' previous, that he always had in me in mind to be the replacement and permanent host. And so there I was, you know, 36 years on air is crazy, you know? Amazing. That's awesome. That's awesome. Thank you. It was so ridiculous. It was so amazing. I was like, he's the one having the most fun. Come on. You are so, so you, you, you are so modest. No. Oh, my God. To say. And so. Well, Dorian, will you come back and play with us again sometime? Obviously we have. Of course. We only have a few left to do. We only have 183 more than six. And Dorian's going to be the good part. And a lot of them, I'm going to tell you right now. We need to go back to Paris. Pell, you know, we've been all over the country, right? We've been all over the world. Paris is Paris's home, right? I think that's when we're, kind of feels like it. Yeah, like it's definitely listening to this. If you're watching the charmed home base. Yeah, it is. It really is. That's where we're all our happiest. I've never seen Brian so happy in my entire life. I've never seen Brian more famous than Leo. Yeah. And like the Mulan Rouge. Yeah. Look out. Kill how we had fun touring Paris together. Oh my God. Because those are honestly some of when we're all there for those conventions, those are some of my most favorite travel memories of my life. Yeah. It's the best. It's home away from home for me. Yeah. Paris has always been that way. Everywhere, man. I mean, Paris specifically, I've got really fond memories of Italy and Paris and the us being abroad and just charmed people. I love that when we get to go to all these countries and we see how everybody has processed what we've done and just being able to see, just being in real on the ground hand to hand contact with people who've enjoyed the, whatever this is. So I look forward to going back to Paris. I guess that's the last question. Would you ever imagine you came in your auditioning for Aaron in the massive room in the V. You're getting squared down to the last two guys. Wait five days. Here you are. You're doing it. I mean, to look 25, 30 years later, could you have imagined episode five that you would be a part of something that was going to last forever could or ever does or ever has. We're in rare air and this has got nothing to do with any individual. It's got to do with the team effort that we were in the magic of Aaron's eye. No, no, and shows don't normally go this long. We have not been off air for 25 years and we're international for 25 years and stayed domestically alive for 25 years. This doesn't happen and it's always surreal to me to be a part of such a unique, rarefied air journey. Well, I think the fans would agree with me is that the show wasn't the show without you and what you brought to it as well. So I think I speak for all of us. It's so nice to connect with you and always great, great to see you and I can't wait till we see you in person. I appreciate that. I'll be back. I'll be back. I can't wait for us to get out of the country again. I can't wait for the future episodes and I got so much more to say now. I'm just getting warmed up. I'll only be quiet. I'm just going to have a free session. You might be getting a call from me in less than a week. I appreciate you having the next episode yet. But I'll let you know real quickly. You got goals. Great to see you. Thank you so much, Dorian, for taking time out of your day to do this. Fantastic. Fantastic. Dorian Gregory. Crushing. Crushing life. He's been out. Looking good. Yeah, he was great. Looking damn good. He's trying to strive for. Get that mustache going. The energy is just heartwarming and pure and honest. It's what a great human. I guess more kudos to Aaron and the people that he eventually brought together real humans with real connections. I think that's where it left us, episode five, the writing that may not have worked. The photography that it may not have worked, but the chemistry of the actresses and the actors really is what this show is about and what made it go forward. And I think that's what I was saying before is, you'll keep watching, I think, as a fan, just seeing the people and what they're bringing and the life they brought to it. He was kind of a testament to that. It lives to see another day. Now, that we've kind of really broken this episode down. Doug within the pool, swam around. You've heard Dorian speak, Brian speak. Are we still sticking at Half Star? You want to bump that up a little bit? No, we get a Half Star for Dorian. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. The Half Star is for him and his parts. That's it. Fair enough. Skip to the end. Skip to the next. Well, thank you everyone for checking this episode out. This and all of the future episodes you can find on whatever podcast platform you listen to, Spotify, Apple, I Heart Radio, etc. All the things. Like and subscribe. All the things. Yeah. Like and subscribe, though, for real. That's a big thing. And special shout out to our Patreon members, you guys are the best. We wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for you. So thank you so much. And that's it for the House of Haledog.