Interview Quotes

Childhood and Stability

"I spent a lot of my childhood in the backseat of a car just driving from town to town as my dad would wrestle. So it was challenging as a kid to constantly be moving, not having that stability, not having roots, having to make new friends. I was an only child."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:00:00

"It was challenging as a kid growing up, like moving every year, year and a half."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:01:06

The Art of Fishing

"What do you like about fishing? The calmness of it. And I also like the strategy of it. You know, when you try and figure out what lure to use, what time of day it is, what the weather's looking like, if it's overcast. Also, it was the thing that I was able to do with my old man. One of the things that we would do to spend time together, which wasn't a lot of stuff, but fishing was one of them."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:00:47

"We'd fish all over the place. So my dad was, he was a pro wrestler. And back in the 70s and 80s, when wrestling wasn't as globalized or as monopolized as it is today, there were like these little promotions and like fiefdoms all around the country. So we would stay in a city and in a town for maybe a year where he would wrestle locally and then pick up and move again. So to answer your question directly, we would fish all the time just on the road."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:01:00

Fatherhood and Teaching

"It was tough love with him. Very little patience with shit, like one of these guys. And he came up in an era where he had to fight for everything."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:02:00

"So, he, very little patience. Nice guess. There you go. Very little patience, but raised me with a tough hand. Physical. Not, didn't beat my ass or anything like that, but just, our bonding was, as a very young age, was, you could come to the gym with me at five and six years old, but you just gotta sit."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:02:36

"So, I just, just sat in the gym and just watched him and his, you know, his wrestler workout buddies just work out, and then, but six, seven, eight, what he would do, then after he was done working out, he would take me on the wrestling mats at the gym. Because usually he was at a YMCA or a boys club or something like that, and that's when he would, he'd beat my ass that way, in terms of teaching me wrestling, basics and things like that."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:02:46

The Impact of Parental Absence

"When you're thrown out at 13, and your mom picks her boyfriend over you, that's a hard place to come back from, and that will inform how you love people, and what you care for in life, and how you care about people. So, it was really fucked up. That really damaged my dad."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:03:34

"So his limited capacity to love is what raised me."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:03:42

"I don't think he liked it. No. No, but that's okay. Sure. It's okay, because contextually, he was kicked out at 13. That informed how he loved. That informed his empathy, his capacity, all these things. I didn't realize that until much later. So, we fought. He didn't want me to get into it. And then when I got into it, things were different, and then I wound up having the career that I had. He was proud, but he also wrestled with a lot of my success, and I know that as his son, and that's okay, because of his capacity."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:04:11

Evolving Perspectives on Work and Success

"Now I've reached a point in my life where, yes, you've got to make hay when the sun is out. However, I want to make sure that the hay I make is the hay that I love to make."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:06:11

"Because I love to work, right? So I feel like that's a thing, too. Like, I have a... It's an addiction. Not the addiction, oh, I just have to be moving and have to do something and I have to work. But the addiction is, I want to do stuff that I love to do."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:07:17

"So these days, there is no backing into a date. Wait, that shit is gone. There's no more backing into a date. Now it's, well, let's back into the project that I love to do."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:06:48

"The goal now is to get up every day and run towards the stuff that I love doing. It could be a hundred things. It could be ten things. There's human beings. I want to run towards them. There's my children. I want to run towards them, my family, et cetera. So that's the goal."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:11:00

The Drive to Connect with Audiences

"But the reason why I bring that up is because what you learn there in cutting your teeth in that world of pro wrestling at that level is to send everybody home happy. Now, keep in mind, Zach, reaching as many people as possible back then was 100 people. Right. 150 people. Right."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:06:00

"When I got into the business of Hollywood and movie making, it's like, okay, well, what kind of movies do I want to make? I want to make movies that hopefully are good, that don't suck, but also reach as many people as possible. So that mentality."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:06:11

The "Bit" by Acting and New Challenges

"Stepped on set. He yells action. When he yelled cut, I know it sounds corny, but I was like, holy shit, this is what I want to do. I'm bit."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:08:26

"Years later, I got bit again. And what I mean by that is, I think to be able to do something where I could really sink my teeth into material and I can jump off a cliff and I could be, I could be scared to do it."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:08:35

"I was terrified. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I was, because this is, it's new material. It's Benny Safdie. It's A24. It's Emily Blunt, who is one of my best friends, but still she's one of the greatest of our generation. And I knew that this was also an opportunity for me to disappear into a character with prosthetics and also play somebody who is still alive and who has gone through the battles and wars of life, not only in the octagon and in the cages, but also, as you talked about, about addiction, about failure, about loss and mental health struggle."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:08:49

"Man, I love it. By the way, if you think about it, Zach, that's why I love being out here."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:09:39

Evolution of Artistic Philosophy

"I feel like I've evolved and grown. But by the way, that was my truth back then. And in 2018, six years ago or so, going on seven, I did feel that way. And I felt, I had this conceit and I idealized what my career should be at that time in 2018 of audience first. Let's take care of the audience first."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:10:09

"What's evolved and changed, and I mean this respectfully because I love people, it's got to be for me. And now what I've realized is if it's for me, then it has to be the right thing. Whether that means, hey, a global audience or whether it means a small audience is going to see it or people might reject it, whatever it is. But I've reached that point in my career."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:10:41

Embracing Vulnerability and Mental Health

"So, yes, in the past I have been open. And I think it's important and critical for me to be open for the sole reason that it's good for me. Yes. In what way? Because I feel like if I'm asked about mental health and some of the challenges I've had in the past, we should name it what it is. And it's okay to be open about it. And it's okay to be vulnerable about it. And it's okay to, at times, rip yourself open."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:11:34

"So you figure out the shit on your own. And then the shit you don't figure out, well, guess where it goes? In there. So you keep it in here for a long time."

— SPEAKER_00 • 00:11:57

"Oh, man, there's a lot of stuff, I think, that still needs healing currently. And I continue to work on it."

— SPEAKER_00 • 11:57:00

The Source of Kindness

"My mom. She'll see this and automatically become your biggest fan. True story. Because, like, oh, you met my son. She's my biggest fan. And you're going to do a story about my son. So now she's your biggest fan. I would say my mom. Always kind. Always sweet. Tough as nails."

— SPEAKER_00 • 11:08:00

On the Other Side of the Run

"Well, I think this will be a quote two, three years from now. You're going to say, you said this back in 2024. I think on the other side of all the running, this kind of running, I think on the other side is joy, man, and happiness. Because I could tell you ten years ago when I was running towards stuff, I don't know if I loved, but I wanted to do. You reach a point in life where on the other side of running, it's the stuff you love. Maybe a few people loved it too. Maybe they didn't. But you did. And that's all that matters."

— SPEAKER_00 • 11:03:00