#20 The Bald and The Beautiful with James Healy Jr.

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:20

All right, Cheyenne. Thank you so much for that amazing introduction. As always, you get the show going. Alright, everybody, welcome to Episode 20 of the Jeff Dwoskin show. So excited to have you for our 20th episode. And for number 20. We've got a special guest in the house today, James Healy, Jr. All the way from Texas. Big actor, big actor. He's been online order Will and Grace even Stephens dynasty. You name it. He's been on it. Yes. And he is here and we're gonna chat all about his career and you're gonna hear some stories and you're gonna love it. You're gonna love it.

Speaking of things, you know, that was me my wife, because she bought a towel bar. And I didn't hire someone to install it. I put it up myself in the bathroom. That's right. I drilled a hammered. I use levels. I've taped templates. And now two towels hanging proudly in our bathroom. And every time I walk by I'm like, Yeah, those aren't sliding off. Because of me, because I knew what to do. Because I'm a handyman. My handyman. Yeah, I just got me one of those hammers. Thank God, they sponsored one of my earlier shows, and I was able to hammer stuff and drill stuff. So I'm ready. I'm a regular handyman around the house now. So that's, that's new. For me.

Speaking of sponsors, this week sponsor two pound hand weights, yes, two pound hand weights, you wouldn't have that dent in the floor next to the treadmill. If it wasn't for your two pound hand weights, they seemed like a good idea at the time. All right. So get get yourself some two pound hand weights. They're great for working out and putting on top of things if you're outside, and there's wind. So there's lots of uses for two pound hand weights. No reason you shouldn't go out and get one, please support the sponsor. That's how we keep the lights on here at the Jeff Dwoskin show.

And now it's time for a social media tube. I really I should invest in professional segues. But hey, I'm excited. Maybe this isn't social media is his phone smartphone related. But I got into the new iOS 14. And while there's lots of cool things like widgets, and all that kind of cool stuff, the coolest thing, I think that I'm going to use the most once the widget phase wears off, is this back tap thing. So I set up my phone. So if I tap it twice on the back, it takes a screenshot. So that's good. It's an accessibility feature. So if you go to your settings, and then to accessibility, and then you click on touch, and you scroll down to the bottom, there's a thing called back tap. And if you turn it on, you can set a double tap, and a triple tap. So my double tap is screenshot. So I said double tap to screenshot. So anytime I just go, tap tap on the back of my phone, it takes a screenshot. And that keeps that's very good for me because I usually I'm holding the one button and then I always hit the wrong one. I keep turning my phone off. Every time I tried to take a screenshot. So this is amazing. This is the best thing ever to me. So check it out, check out back tap, and you can double tap and triple tap. And that's on iOS phones, folks. I'm sure androids had that for years. But now we can enjoy it too. And that's the social media slash phone Tip of the Week.

And now here's my conversation with James Healy Jr. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are here with one of the finest actors of our day. You may have seen him on Law and Order. Willing Grace 24 Judging Amy. A million other shows I'm sure we'll talk about. Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the show. James Haley, Jr. Welcome to the show. Yay.

James Healy Jr. 4:27

I'm the best actor that you will know today.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:29

Yes, this is. James has the best dragon book for the show with his mouth. Never better. Yeah, you can just come back. Well, this is the best show I could get on.

James Healy Jr. 4:44

The only show right now.

How are you?

Jeff Dwoskin 4:49

I am good. I am good. Good to have you. Here. I want to thank you so much.

James Healy Jr. 4:56

I want to hear everything I know you're an actor. You've been in like a million things. and love to go through some of those and talk about those. But I also know that for like, 32 years you were you're a cop, you were chief of police, you're in the real kind, not on Law and Order. You were on Law and Order, but you were actually law and order. So how did you how did you kind of weave being a cop and being an actor and leaving the force and going full time, I was a theater major in high school in college, I had no desire or intention to become a police officer. I was going to be a Broadway star or a movie star, you know, just actor and did High School, theater and then college theater. Shout out to my my buddy Lou Diamond Phillips, we were in college together good friend of mine. And I met my wife. And when I used to do stand up, one of my jokes were that when we met, we both said those three magic words. Mine were I love you, hers were get a job. And so two of my best friends had become police officers. And I thought, yeah, I could do that for a little while. Little did I know that. While I continued to do my acting career, I will also be a police officer for a little over 31 years. And as you stated my last six years as a chief of police.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:21

That's pretty cool. So did you consult at all in any of the shows? Being a real cop and knowing how to hold the gun and arrest people and do Miranda rights?

James Healy Jr. 6:34

Yeah, I've done all of that. In fact, I did an episode of Walker Texas Ranger one time and noble Willingham, God rest his soul. What a lovely man. He could not get out. The Miranda warning. You know, he, he's trying to screw his revolver into this guy's ear. Right? You got the right to remain silent. And then I don't know what the hell the next line is, you know? And Chuck Norris actually turned to me and went, because he knew I was a cop. Anyway, James, does he really have to say the whole thing? And I'm like, unless he's gonna ask him questions. No. So they just had him start, you've got the right to remain silent anything. And then Chuck came up and interrupted him and stopped him from shooting the guy or doing whatever he was going to do to him as he had him on the back of a car. So I guess I saved the day there. And then I did a movie called trial by fire. And heads wick, who directed glory, with Denzel Washington and Matthew Broderick college fire. With Denzel again. And Lou, Meg Ryan. Oh, my gosh, so many of the things he knew because of Lou, when I was on set with him that I was a police officer. And he came over to me and said, Hey, James, your cop. How does this scene play to you? And I told him, I said, Well, honestly, since you didn't write the script, I don't have to worry about offending you. This is not how we would do it. The way it was written is I basically walked up to a guy who was accused of murder and go, Hey, get out of the car. You're under arrest for murder.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:09

That's a get out of the car. So you're going to jail. Yeah, you know, yeah,

James Healy Jr. 8:13

somebody so step. So I told them what we would do. But I also said, because I'm an actor, I know that we cannot, you know, do a full fledged felony traffic stop, it would take too long. So we're able to compromise something in between so that people like me watching the show would go, Well, that was done. Well. In fact, the guy that was driving the police car that I was in, and the other two guys in the other squad car made the stop. Were all marshals, police officers, retired officers, they didn't know I was they just thought I was some actor. And we we set it up to rehearse it to see if the director is going to like it. And when we were done, the guy driving my car who went Oh, you did that really? Well. You didn't even stumble over the lines. He you know, handled Exactly. And I went, Oh, I'm a cop. And he's like, oh, okay, well, that makes sense. So I impressed them because they didn't know I was a police officer. And I just was in Oklahoma on a movie called Ida read, starring Melissa Leo and Josh Hartnett. And I was the onset advisor and armor for that my job was to help the actors acclimate them with the weapons, how to use them, how to load them if there's a miss feed or jam or anything. So yeah, I've used my expertise, I guess you could say a few times.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:38

That's pretty cool. I've shot a gun once like a pistol and like I always every time I watch a movie, I'm like, That's amazing. And the movies is there's no kickback. Yeah.

James Healy Jr. 9:49

The blanks don't have quite the load that real round will have. And then a lot of them are like the set. I was just on one of the 45 it wasn't it's not Even a 45 caliber weapon it's a it's a blank shooting weapon shooting an eight millimeter blank. So you don't you don't even want to show the round ejecting because a real person that knows what they're looking at any kind of a weapons person would know that's not a 45 shell coming out with the objector.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:21

Yeah, that'd be me. I'd be like, that's not a tie your standard 45 objected. Yeah.

James Healy Jr. 10:29

You have no idea. You're just making that up as you've got that

Jeff Dwoskin 10:33

looks like there's a 42 or 46 definitely not a 45 is a mystery. mystery to me, whatever, whatever sakes. Wait, so, Texas, Walker, Texas Ranger, how much times you get this man with Chuck Norris? Is he badass in prison? Or does he play that? Is he always doing karate or whatever?

James Healy Jr. 10:53

No, no, it's really nice. I did probably, I guess, four episodes. They brought me back a couple of times as the same DPS trooper a couple of times. And then they brought me in for a guest star role. Where I was a bad guy. And it was funny because they give you these your sides. When you show up, you know, you get the script so that you can work on the lines before in the scenes. But when you show up, they give you this. They're called minis they're just a shrunken full page down to, you know, to, I don't know, like a notepad sighs and I didn't get a copy of the minis when I got there. Because I only have in this this day. I had seen her to the day before. And then we came back the second day. I had like, one paragraph in one line. And he was supposed to come off with some you know, you've done this and you're this and this and blah, blah, blah, you Be careful, blah, blah, blah, as he's interrogating me. And that was all cut. And I didn't know. So he he's all he does is he leans and he puts his foot up on the bench that I'm sitting on pretending to have my hands cuffed behind my back. And he goes tell you about the Yakuza, which is a Japanese crime, you know, group. And there's this big pause and I've got my head down. I finally I just kind of look up at him like, are you going to and I finally did I went? Is that all you say? He looked at me and he pulled as minis I goes yeah, this isn't any. I said I'm sorry. I didn't get the I didn't get the rewrites for the day. So yeah, no, he's a nice guy. They were all very pleasant to work with.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:37

Very cool, very cool. And then you were on News Radio that Phil Hartman era.

James Healy Jr. 12:43

Yes, yes. What? What a

what a light. He was. Him and Steven route both and thank God Steven route still around and working hard. Steven made me feel so welcome. From the moment I was on set. Phil was your stereotypical stand up comedian. He is very outgoing when he has an audience. But yet he was very shy and quiet. when there wasn't anything going on. I was playing the role of snake guy. It was a Halloween episode. And so we've blocked it, we've rehearsed it, we've gone over it a few times and nothing. Well, the snake which was this huge, I don't know, probably eight foot long, seven, eight foot long. Boa shows up. I'm playing with it, getting used to it, you know, wrapping it around me learning how to handle it properly. And he comes over and starts petting the snake and starts talking to me. And it was so it was the snake was the icebreaker. And then once I had the snake and the ice was broken, we started talking. We broke for dinner. He came and sat with me at dinner and we spoke some more and then of course we went back and got in front of a live audience to shoot. I was actually living in Los Angeles for six years. And while I was there that's that's when his wife took his life was such a tragedy what a what a talent and what a gracious man

Jeff Dwoskin 14:07

such a tragedy that was it's no Yeah, I saw it so so that that whole cast though was pretty amazing. I did you Joe Rogan if today if he had stayed in touch you could you could have been on his podcast not mine. Yeah. Joe. Joe was

James Healy Jr. 14:26

I guess he was fine. I didn't really him and Andy dick and was it Maura Tierney? Didn't day folly. Yeah, they fall in it didn't really have a lot of interaction with it was pretty much Steven route. And then and Phil Hartman, the others. I mean, they were there. Don't get me wrong, but I didn't have a lot of interaction with them.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:49

Stephen Ruta is a hoot. I mean, on Barry and then just dodgeball my favorite movie. He's great. He's he plays just the flip side like total dork total. All.

James Healy Jr. 15:00

Yeah, him and Henry Winkler both. And we'll talk about another really great guy. Henry Winkler. I haven't never got to work with him. But I ran into him at the airport. I was standing there with the kiosk getting ready to stick my driver's license and to get my ticket. And I heard this very meek voice beside me go to the person at the next kiosko pardon me, are you through with that money? If you don't mind, I could step in. And I was like, I know that voice. That's Henry Winkler. And I turned around and very was and I was like, holy crap. I've had a few of those moments in my career. When you're walking onto set, you know, you're expecting it just just like this movie I'm getting ready to do which I'm not allowed to talk about. There's a couple of big name people on it. I think the biggest oh my gosh, moment, I was sitting at a restaurant on Ventura Boulevard called Maria's. And I sat down in this little booth. It was one of those, you know, the old type diners where one wall is just a long row of a solid booth with tables. And then the other side has a couple of chairs. Well, I sat down on the booth side. So there was another table beside me to my right. And I looked at the guy that I had gone there with who was raised in California, and I said, All right, Brad, you've you've been here what's good on the menu. And this voice to my right, said, my wife, and I've been coming here for years. And you can't go wrong with anything on the menu. And I looked at my right disable. Thank you. And I didn't I just looked and I went your Dick Van Dyke. Yes, I yeah. And I'm like, holy crap. I mean, it is so real. Oh, my gosh, I just I didn't know what to say. I made a total fool of myself.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:44

That's like, yeah,

James Healy Jr. 16:45

that was a huge Oh, my gosh, moment that Stig vandyke. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:49

That's how I felt when I met Henry Winkler twice, once in an event. And that's how I was like, overtaken by the fact that I was standing there with the Fonz, because he was such a big deal growing up, and I met him once again, at Comic Con, because I wanted to get an autograph. And it was actually just a year or two ago, I think it was his first time at a Comic Con. The line was ridiculous. Like, where they had the line. And then they they had that separate the line because it was too big. And he knew how to work in that crowd. Because he knew we were gonna have to wait like 30 minutes he would walk in, come talk to us. You take five minutes out and come talk to us in the be in the backup. shake our hands. Thank you guys. Thank you guys, because he knows we're all worth 3060 bucks each. He doesn't give us a there. But yeah, he's such a nice guy. You don't? Just in general, you don't mean nice people like that. I mean, Uncle Jr. But then. Besides the individual. Yeah. Okay, that's my dad. So

James Healy Jr. 17:52

you wouldn't like me when

Jeff Dwoskin 17:55

I just, I just watched the original pilot to the Incredible Hulk the other day with Bill Bixby Oh, my gosh, is it really can't be because I mean, I can just I just picture it's dated. So it has to be kind of campy. The show itself was great. But the Hulk stuff was clearly dated. But you could tell it was as good as it could have been for then. You know, me, you know, I mean, but the show itself I thought the structure like it was it was a fun watch. I ended up watching a few episodes. That's funny.

James Healy Jr. 18:26

No, is No.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:28

Yes or Okay, so talk about your Dallas dynasty General Hospital bold in the beautiful face. You did. You've done a lot of soap operas. You said you get slapped? You get slapped? A lot? Yeah.

James Healy Jr. 18:41

My, my very first one lot. Well, they were back to back. So I guess you could say they were both the same. Again, I started acting when I was in high school. I got my first agent. I was 16 maybe going on 17th lady named Peggy Taylor in Dallas. And they used to come here and shoot the TV series Dallas for the exterior and specific places they had to be. But they would go back to Los Angeles to film things that were on sets. My very first one liner was on the who shot jr episode of Dallas in 1980, the most watched television show at that time ever, and they cut the scene. So you basically saw me walk past the camera I went from being a one liner to a background actor. That's That's why if you look at my IMDb it says uncredited because once they cut your scene and there's no dialogue, they can then remove you from the credits. So it's all it's all in there was I think it was headed by my manager just as uncredited, you know, so that's okay. It was it was pretty cool tonight, and and Larry Hagman wasn't even there. He was in London. He was disputing that summer he was disputing his contract. So they had a guy named Ace freely, I think was his name. Use a local Dallas actor on the gurney wheeling him into the hospital. And what's funny is if you watch the last episode of hooked into the last season, he gets shot outside of his office door and just falls to the ground. Well when they miss the stretcher then he's got his head all bandage and it's like he did they bang his head around in the ambulance or something because there's no reason to have his head man as we saw him fall to the carpeted floor. He's fine. Yeah, no, other than gunshot wound, obviously.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:28

Other than the bullet in his body. Yeah.

James Healy Jr. 20:32

I mean, come on. Don't be a wash is the reason Yeah, wrap up your head.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:36

But that's pretty awesome though. Cuz like in the time, like that was like probably one of the biggest cliffhangers is probably still one of the biggest of all time all summer long. People still reference that to this day. It's been decades, right. I mean, it's Yeah,

James Healy Jr. 20:50

it's that went on all summer long. So let's see. Bolden the beautiful General Hospital I did Episode A passions. That was during my time in Los Angeles. We, my wife and I, we've been married 30, a little over 36 years now. But we moved out to LA and I booked a job right away. I did a couple of you know, little indie things and some television things. I did one of those ABC after school type specials directed by a man named Sean McNamara, who one of his major films that you might remember is Soul Surfer. That's where the young lady gets her arm bit off by the shark. surfboard. Yeah. But he does a lot of those kind of films. He's directing the film that I'm going back to Oklahoma to do next week, I started doing what's called workshops. And when I was in Los Angeles, and that's just an opportunity to get in front of a casting director and network here, their pet peeves, what they like how they handle their auditions, you know, so you get a better feel of what they do. So when you get to audition for them, and through those, I was fortunate enough to start getting some auditions. I was brought in and did two episodes of General Hospital. The first one I got because the casting director, Mark testrunner. He calls me and he says, Hey, James, I know you're from Texas, originally, but can you do one New Orleans accent? And I said, Well, I can't do Cajun. Here's No, no, I just need something that resume. So I said, Okay, yeah, sure. And he goes, all right, go ahead. And I'm like, now, and he goes, Yeah. What do you want me to say? This is on the phone. And he goes, I don't care anything. So I just went, we all just need to come on down here to Louisiana, we'll have ourselves barbecue out back, we'll have a good path. Something like that. Yeah, that's good enough, there's gonna so

Jeff Dwoskin 22:38

whose ball is foosball is for the devil.

James Healy Jr. 22:43

I was like, oh, okay, this acting stuff is getting easier and easier, and just getting an audition basically over the phone. I had to go and meet with him. But that's how it started the Bold and the Beautiful. I was playing the stage manager on a couple of episodes where they do their fashion show every year, I got to wear my hairpiece. So I got to look a little younger, because you're on a soap they want you to you know, unless you're gonna really gonna be a character they want you to at least, you know, be semi attractive. I think I did one episode a young and the restless. And I told the lead actor that his sperm had been stolen from the lab, I was playing a doctor and he called in to check on his sperm sample. And this is a podcast. So I'm assuming we can say sperm.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:24

You can say sperm.

James Healy Jr. 23:25

And so I had to explain to him that his sample was gone, though. dynasty dynasty I just did a few years ago. And that's the new dynasty. That's on The CW channel. Fine. Yeah. And that just came through just through my Atlanta agent, I got to play. It was the character was originally written described as the angry neighbor, or the disgruntled neighbor, something like that. Which I you know, as an actor, when you show up in your character is named Steve or Terry, or you know, Bob, you're a little happier than when it says copy number two, or janitor. If you have a name, it just makes you feel better. Even if it's still only five lines or two days worth of work. It makes you feel better that your character has a name.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:13

I can hear you. I believe it. I believe it. How did you tell him his sperm was stolen?

James Healy Jr. 24:17

Oh, my God. I don't know.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:18

He had there been some dramatic music with that.

James Healy Jr. 24:21

Yeah. And here's what was interesting. I didn't know they did this because it was the first time I'd ever done a phone scene on a soap. So when the phone rang, I picked it up going, you know, lab, and there was this voice and I caught me off guard. I didn't know that they had him on the phone. I see the guy. I never met the guy. You know, they had him on a phone. Like I said, 60 feet away from me going. This is uh, I can't think of his name now. But this is blah, blah, blah. And I'm just calling to check on you know whether my sample has been used for insemination and I'm like, let me check and I put up a Sir, I'm sorry, but your sample shows have been removed from the lab or something like that. And of course, they were just done on pause. And then you know, he's like, What are you talking about? I don't know. I just basically just

Jeff Dwoskin 25:14

gave it to your archenemy. Yeah exact. So we can make a series of clones of you.

James Healy Jr. 25:20

The woman who you hate is going to have seven of your babies now.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:25

They could have been a ring ring. Hey, quick question. You happen to pick up your sperm? No. Oh, well, bad news. Yes. missing. It's missing. And, yeah, we're gonna need you to maybe swing over something again and give us an example.

James Healy Jr. 25:44

We'll have videotapes and magazines just come.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:48

Look at me. I can write soap operas. Right? Yeah, I'm gonna write you a soap opera. No. It's gonna be like, I'm gonna call the populism Africa James Healy Jr. vehicle.

James Healy Jr. 26:01

bowl in the beautiful head to be bald and something

Jeff Dwoskin 26:04

bald in the beautiful. It could send me bother. I can sit

James Healy Jr. 26:06

with a SpongeBob say, am I a pretty girl?

Jeff Dwoskin 26:10

We can do we can make this work. It's our show.

James Healy Jr. 26:13

That's it. That's it. I can be pretty in my own eyes. That's all that matters.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:17

It's right. So good. So good. Okay, so you were thinking of speaking of doctors, Dr. Hanson on Power Rangers. Lightspeed Rescue. I've got to admit, I didn't watch the Power Rangers. So Dr. Hansen, why he's the guy that invented the Power Rangers know. He's gonna just make up plots in case I know. Yeah, yeah, sure. It sounds a lot better.

James Healy Jr. 26:42

And I would have probably had a lot more episodes. No, I'm just a guy that gets off a helicopter with a metal case handcuffed to my wrist. When suddenly explosions happen and lizard. Lobster looking people attack. And then the Power Rangers Go go go Rangers, and they turned into their Rangers and beat him up and we ride off into the jeep. So I didn't even want to do that. Because this is this is how sad it was a friend that I knew there was a regular on the show. He played the father of the pink Rangers called and said, Hey, what are you doing tomorrow? And of course, being from Texas, my first thought was, well, I don't own a pickup truck. So he's not asking me to help him move. So it's like, no, no real plans. And he goes, how'd you like to be on an episode of Power Rangers? We've got a guy that was supposed to be there. He fell and broke his leg or something like that. And I said, Dude, I didn't say it. But I felt that like, I'm a serious actor. You know, I'm a thespian. And he went, well, they're gonna pay more than scale. And it only works for one day, and you probably be in and out within three, three or four hours because it's just one scene. And I went, I said, Well, basically you had me at more than scales. And for those that don't know, scale is the minimum wage for that. And at that time, it was probably like 650 or 685 a day now. It's like $1,030 for a day's work on a full blown sag project.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:17

Just get some good pictures with the Power Rangers and any testimony.

James Healy Jr. 28:24

Well, if they're in costume than their little Japanese guys, so yeah, they're not they're not the actors dressed up their you know, their little Japanese guys wearing padded bras for this being the pink and yellow Ranger. You've just

Jeff Dwoskin 28:37

ruined everything for me. I know. I'm sorry. We didn't get it that well, at least. We didn't have it. We don't want to ruin it for everyone. For those of you who I just edited out James Healy Jr. Just just ruin Santa Claus for everyone. But don't worry, I edited that part out the

James Healy Jr. 28:58

How did I How did the female Power Rangers

Jeff Dwoskin 29:04

so I did see as I you were unwilling grace that that was cool. There you had a full head of hair. I saw that and well tickled you will does tickle me. And that

James Healy Jr. 29:15

that was that was a great three days on set, blocking, rehearsing, and of course, taping in front of the audience. My scenes were with Megan milele and Eric McCormack. And Eric was great. If you saw the scene, you see where I say, Sir, this is serious. We've been following you know, blah, blah, blah. It was Megan malayalees husband who we ended up arresting for tax evasion. But we've been following him and this and this. And he, he doesn't believe that we're FBI agents. He believes we're actors or someone that Megan malayalees character Karen Walker sent over to mess with him because this whole episode, she's been, you know, having to come over to remove a piece of paper from the fax machine. He's like, I'm you're Lawyer, I'm not this, you know, I'm not that. So he, you know, he tries to tickle me. Well, it just, I mean nothing against Max and David. They're the creators and writers of the show. They're wonderful guys. But it just wasn't funny. It was this paragraph of me just doing this procedural law and order kind of speech. And so I said, Hey, Eric, would you mind if we did something where we could get a laugh in this paragraph? And he's like, what do you got in mind? And again, you know, here I am a nobody. You so I probably should have just kept my mouth shut. But I said, Well, I was thinking, you know, because you're tickling me. You're tickling me. What if I, what if I giggle at some point and then compose myself and, and finish and go, Okay, okay. But don't tell anyone. We're gonna do it. Now, this is during rehearsal, not during the taping. And I said, Okay, so Tomorrow's the great Jim burrows is the director, a guy I would want to work with, again, you know, he did all of friends, all of cheers all of wings, you know, the guy has been around forever. And so I like the guy, man, but I'm thinking okay, well, Eric's got my back on this. So we do the speech. And he, you know, he does that purple glow, and he tickles me and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he tickles me. And when he tickles me the third time I think it is I let out this, you know, high pitched kind of a squeal. And then I compose myself and I finished it. And Max and David are standing there. Jim burrows is standing there. They all laugh, they think it's hysterical. But then Jim decides that he's going to have the female that I'm with the female FBI agent, grabbed me, pulled me to the side, let me compose myself while she finishes the paragraph. And, you know, to give up and it was one line, it was the very last line to give up one line to get a laugh on a major network hit show. I do it every day. I'll give up that line for a laugh on a hit show.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:56

That's So Raven, have you? usually like that? Say you like that segue? That was

James Healy Jr. 32:01

great. And pin Next you'll be able to say, so when you even Steven to this out.

As we go, as we go into my Disney phase.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:13

That answer felt like it took 24 Oh,

James Healy Jr. 32:19

but only between four and 5am.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:23

Whatever between four and five, as well, that was an unsolved mystery.

James Healy Jr. 32:29

Which led to the trial by fire. Exactly,

Jeff Dwoskin 32:31

exactly.

James Healy Jr. 32:33

You want to you want to talk about the Disney stuff.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:36

What do you want to talk about? What's your greatest enemy? You worked with Shiloh both, even Steven. He's in the news. His eccentric behavior. You know what I, I,

James Healy Jr. 32:48

I loved working with him. He was he was a great young kid. I didn't know what he was going through with his dad living in a motel and stuff is he was trying to get discovered. And you know, it makes sense to a certain degree, some of the things based upon his family relations and the way he was raised and stuff. But he was just a young, eager, energetic young man with a just natural natural ability and talent. And of course, he's he's shown that again recently with the one where he has the young man with a Down syndrome, peanut butter. I haven't

Jeff Dwoskin 33:24

seen it.

James Healy Jr. 33:24

Oh, my gosh, you've got to, you've got to and then and then honey boy, which is basically the documentary that he wrote, but not a documentary. It's a film that's based upon his life. If you haven't seen honey, boy, both great films came out back to back. So I'm very, very proud of where he has come to where he was where it came to that middle part. Yeah. I mean, when he was sitting in the, he was in not a museum, an art exhibit with a bag over his head and having people come in and talk to them. If I had been in Los Angeles, I would have walked in and just told him, you know, you know me, you know, I'm a police officer, knock this crap off and get the damn bag off your head. Because he used to love the fact that I had been a police officer for years and we would sit in the greenroom before we would go tape and talk. He thought that was really cool. Then he started, you know, getting himself in some trouble and having some issues and he, you know, said some things and did some things. Have you seen honey boy? Did you see that one?

Jeff Dwoskin 34:20

I haven't, but based on your recommendation, I will see it.

James Healy Jr. 34:24

It is it is it is really, really good. And

Jeff Dwoskin 34:27

he's very he's a great actor. He's a great actor, you know, I

James Healy Jr. 34:31

mean, he is he just has to pick the right projects, you know, and obviously keep himself grounded now trouble. He loves doing Hindi things and taking chances and stuff. But what an incredible talent and he wrote like said he wrote he was arrested while they were filming this kind of candy peanut butter Falcon. That's the name of it. Peanut Butter Falcon. It's a movie about a young man a Down syndrome. young man who wants to be a wrestler and Shi'a his character. him traveled basically, across the country, I think down into Florida if I remember correctly, he got arrested. If you watch the tapes of him being arrested the body cams and being in the back of the squad car and just cursing and chewing out the the policeman for doing his job. So while he was in rehab key, started doing some reflection and started writing. And that's that's where he wrote the honey boy. And yeah, it's it's a really good script and an incredible performance.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:30

That is an amazing story. Which Oh, you also were an episode of amazing stories. That's the new the new one on Apple TV. I take it.

James Healy Jr. 35:42

Yep. The new Steven Spielberg produced. Yeah, I played. I played a high school principal in that one.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:47

Very cool. Yeah, that's probably that's a remake from like, the 80s or 90s when they the original, amazing stories, but yeah. All right. Let's I do have one question. This is this one's my favorite. title. I'm sure it's not your favorite amongst your thing. I'm sure you love all your babies. But puppet master the littlest, right? You're like, Oh, yeah, right.

James Healy Jr. 36:14

Got to put it

Jeff Dwoskin 36:16

down. So I was out there that that must have been on I saw a horror movie to be part of. Yeah,

James Healy Jr. 36:24

it was. It's the, I guess, really the only horror movie I've ever been in. I read for one of the larger roles. And a lot of times what they do in indie films is they'll try to find a local actor that they like that they want to use. They'll use us as leverage, I guess for lack of a better term, to get a recognizable name or face to work that roll for less money than they would probably normally do. Let's put it this way. That's what's been explained to me. But they liked me. And they've used me and three other films since then. One of them's right now at Venice Film Festival called run hide fight. I did another one called the seventh day. That's kind of a horror thriller movie with Guy Pearce. And then the other one was incident at Sparrow Creek where I played a SWAT team commander. But yeah, puppet master. They liked me. So they wanted me to stay in the movie in some capacity. So they hired me to play Thomas linens. Father, of course Thomas Lennon's you know, well known comedian and actor, writer. He's the Creator, him and his partner or creator behind Reno 911. He plays Lieutenant dangle in his little tight shorts. And he does. He wrote the night of the museum movies. Cherish cherish partner. Yeah. So I'm only nine years older than Thomas.

And so

I played his dad. And, you know, I was a little heavier. I probably weighed about three, I weighed 191 95. Now, I was weighing around 225 back then. And so they just grade me up and put a little bit more shadow under my eyes to make me look older and tired. Tom and I had a great time.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:10

Very cool. Well, this has been fun. I can't thank you enough for joining me. This is great. You've done so much. You've done so much. How can people keep up with you on social media and stuff?

James Healy Jr. 38:22

The best way obviously, I would say is probably Instagram. It's I'm easy to find. It's just James Healy actor, and you can find me on Instagram or Twitter that way and helia spelled h EA l y.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:34

Awesome. Morgan, I'll hit you up. Stay in touch. Look for that new secret project You teased us with. And maybe after that blows up, you'll come back. And we'll chat about some more stuff. Thank you so much, James. And we'll see you next time. Well, that was fun. How awesome is James has done so much. I mean, think about that. He's gone toe to toe with Chuck Norris. He was there when jr was shot. And he's been tickled by will from Will and Grace. I mean, that's perfect, perfect career, and I can't wait to see what comes next. That exciting new project he wouldn't tell us about. But we'll find out. We'll find out. It's coming soon. We'll look for it. Oh, right. So you know what time it is. It's time for a trending hashtag from Twitter. The fun stuff that you can only find it hashtag roundup and the hashtag roundup app on Twitter. So here's a fun one. Since we were talking about the iPhone earlier, hashtag I wish my phone would and this is by Whoopi cat and Jerry doing a sub game on hashtag roundup really fun hashtag I wish my phone would. I bet you got some ideas going in your head right now. Well, here's some tweets I'm gonna read to you. And they're all retweeted at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter. You can check them out retweeted them yourself. You also can find these funny tweeters in the show notes. All right, here we go. Hashtag I wish my phone would automatically tell people Hey, text, don't call. That's pretty obvious by now isn't it should just be everyone's default voicemail. You should have text. You should send a text. I wish my phone would have a 500% battery life. That would be amazing because that'd be like 100 times more battery or something. I don't know. I'm not good at math. I wish my phone would stop changing swear words. I never mean ducking. None of us ever mean ducking? I wish my phone would let me slap anyone that disagrees with me. Oh, man, there would be a lot of slapping and a lot of phone lawsuits going on? I can I can tell you that. I wish my phone would come with an umbrella. That would keep it from getting wet. And then the Apple Store people wouldn't be all like, I'm sorry, we can't replace this battery. It shows water damage. And you'd be like, that's impossible because I have the umbrella feature. It's never gotten wet. I wish my phone would let me read the thoughts of my enemies. Definitely reads my thoughts. Anytime I think of something I see an ad for it. I wish my phone would print money. yours doesn't. I wish my phone would clean the house. wash my clothes and cook for me. Wait a minute. I think you want your phone to be my wife. I'm kidding. I'm kidding, honey. It was a joke. It was a joke. She's amazing. Anyway, sorry. I apologize in advance. Don't send letters. And finally, I wish my phone would do my chemistry homework for me. But it doesn't work periodically. But um, bomb haha. That was a good one. All right. Well, sadly, we have come to the end of another amazing episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show. I'm Jeff Dwoskin. Your host. Please find us on amazon music on iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio. Wherever you listen to podcasts, like, subscribe, share, tell your friends, do everything you can to help others find this gem of a podcast. Thank you all and we'll see you next week.

Announcer 42:23

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Now go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius. catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai