Brent Huff from The Rookie - Episode 1,076

0:00Welcome to Cooper Talk. I'm your host Steve Cooper. I remember I'm only as hip as my guest. I gotta tell you something people you know you know I love having actors and musicians on it and I love having people who are doing a bunch of different stuff like musicians like Greg Ivegan was on last week and he was an actor and he's a musician and my guest today no not only is he an actor and you know I'm a Schmitty my wife loves the character on the rookie but he's a director of some amazing films as some amazing documentaries. He's the next model and he has a book called my playbook for life which Matthew Del Negra was on a while ago and he talked about his book 10,000 Nose. Now I think it's very insightful what actors and entertainers go through. I deal with a lot of business people and they think they have it easy. I said no actors have it. 87,000 times the force to do and my guest is Brent Huff. How you doing Brent? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing great. I gotta ask you. Let's start off talking about my playbook for life because I think it's great. You know well you can we'll talk about it. Actors have such a hard hard life and I mean just

1:04think but just tell me about the book. Well you just said somebody came out with a book called 10,000 Nose. Matthew Del Negra had come out with it a while ago. He was on the sopranos and a bunch of other stuff but he wrote that because the constant rejection but I want to hear about my playbook for life because it's a great title and it sounds fascinating. Well ever since I was in high school I've always read self-help books, self-help books and biographies and autobiographies of people that I admire that I wanted to sort of acquire wisdom from them how they got to achieve their goals. And so over a course of my life I've written put down in journals all these quotes or whatever little segments that have helped me help prepare them, her tell me forward. I might even get one idea from an entire 350 page book but it would be worth reading the entire book to get one little thing that would help me in life. So over the period of all these years I put it down sort of in journals like Marcus Aurelius you know didn't meditations and it was only meant for me

2:09that I could look back as a notebook and learn from it. And I thought other people would get that would be able to use this to their advantage as well. So that's how it came about. So it's my playbook for life. It might be not be your playbook you might not agree with everything I have to say in this book but there are definitely things that will help you absolutely. So what are just a throwout of not without giving away the book I like to do that but throwout of the other topics you may talk about because as I said we always forget that whatever profession and life you live. There's a lot of parallel lines. I mean like as I said business people they go through rejection. They don't think actors go through rejection. They think oh it's glamorous. You're going through an audition but you guys are sitting there going go and then they'll call back and then this waiting a bullshit bullshit. So give me some of the topics you hit on because I think it's probably fascinating. Well we see a road all actors, musicians, writers, directors. We see this road where there's a lot of twist and turns and pot holes and we take that

3:12road anyway knowing that we're going to get knocked down several times but we love it so much that we continue doing that and we don't let go of the rope. What's going to get a lot of people in this business is that they can't handle the rejection after a while and they give up and to be honest I've never thought once of giving up when I started this business. So that has got me a long way and in fact I was just talking to my buddy who's actually in the room next to me is that my actors sort of view on this is if you're any good at all as an actor you become the character that you're playing and whether you're like the politician the doctor the lawyer the good guy the bad guy in my case the cop or whatever I become that character and I convince myself I trick my mind that I'm that character. So what happens in life if we trick our mind to being the person that we want to be because we all put on our social mass the minute we leave the house anyway we're all acting anyway so why not act like good things are going to come to your way you're living a life

4:17of integrity and character and you're living like the hero in a book or in a movie and a hero in a book like I'd like say somebody's wanting and the movie wants to climb out Everest well we know that he's going to face a lot of obstacles on the way but it's a great story if he doesn't give up a bad story would be if the movie started with him already at the top without going through the ups and downs. So just as an actor or whatever you know you whatever you're doing in life you're going to hit a lot of roadblocks and just you got to power through it anything worth having is going to be hard so I knew that early on. We know it's a it's fascinating you know you said you never wanted to give up but I want to know how you got into it you grew up in Missouri and you know it's not like the hotbed of acting you know you don't say they're like a kid in Missouri like I grew up outside filled off you so New York was close I ended up living in LA for many years but that's just a transgression the transition whatever but for you okay see grew up in Missouri when do you

5:23learn you want to act because you're a tall guy you're over six foot were you an athlete first or what yeah I played basketball and ran track in high school and in college so I learned discipline early on from that because to be honest my dream was to be a pro basketball player even the home is only six one but that was my dream and I was a co-captain my high school basketball team but I didn't get any D1 scholarships and so I went to a junior college down in Oklahoma and I really didn't even play much then but I had the nerve or whatever this but to contact the head coach at the University of Missouri and ask him if I could have a tryout as a walk on and I drove up to Columbia Missouri and I was able to walk on but on our first game we had what they call a black and gold game which is an Air Squad game and they gave me number 52 which is for centers and so this jersey was hanging off me I played one minute I did score two points I was one for one score two

6:27points but I had people come to watch me play and you know and I had this oversized jersey and I thought they were just punking in and even though I dedicated my entire life to playing basketball at that moment the emotion got to me I went quit the next day even though they gave me this opportunity to walk on and I looked back and that was a horrible decision I may never played or I might have been one of these athletes that y'all was sudden he accomplished his great things he couldn't things look bad so I quit and I told myself I was never going to quit anything ever again and so when I went to California to be an actor that was my mantra I'm not quitting no matter what I didn't have a plan B I was either gonna make it or I was gonna make it now where do you think the nerve came up from to to ask yourself on it because my my brother went to a top fashion school in New York FIT or show design and he got turned down and my mom said we the then I went half

7:29in New York my mom said you're gonna go up there and I'm gonna drive you up there and you're gonna go in and talk your way into seeing the Dean and he did then he got in the school so my that came from my mom my mom always gave us that encouragement where for you just to call and say hey you know I'm not even playing at a junior college I want to complete D1 did you come from your parents and your parents have a lot of resilience or where did I come from no I don't know where it came from it's not just running my family at all but I've had it for a minute one I would you know I was in a band in high school we were terrible but I wanted to be on stage because you know all the cute girls were going to watch the band but I would I drove my stingray bike to an auto auction to ask if our band could play there because I had a hook yeah and I was like 14 years old peoply face and so they said oh yeah we'll give you $35 so I went home and told my band they were now professional musicians because we're getting paid that means we're professional I mean you know so I went to this guy you know he's a guy that's 50 smoke and a cigar or gold chains he's like

8:30you know what but I did it I just you know I was afraid to do it but I pushed through it anyway so that's that's kind of what it takes but anybody that comes out here to LA you go I got to call people still to this day that I know don't want to hear from me you know especially what I'm trying to raise money for a movie and they're I know they're rolling their eyes hey it's bread how do you do it now okay you say you're a Missouri you moved LA but what point do you become a model center your model was that happen when you moved LA or what what what what what did this happen I didn't even know there was such a thing as being a male model I came out here to be an actor you know say came out here and I was working at the Huntly House Hotel in Santa Monica which is by the third street promenade and I was the night manager and I knew nothing about you you know you got D's a math and calculus so but they may be the night manager as I could go on auditions and it's right by the third street promenade and which is kind of a walkie street I don't know if you've

9:31ever been out to the center I lived I lived in Burbank for 16 years oh the there you know so the third street promenade kind of the fun place to go in these two older ladies came up to me and asked me if I was a model and I'm like what no what'd you like to be now and one was you know mean a blanche you're not only for it's too big model is it's for it models and you mean a blanche was a big agency out here in LA and I said well once you come to Nina's office tomorrow like a two o'clock and bring a swimsuit and I was making this is a long time ago I was making like 125 dollars a week at the Huntly House we're gonna manage you so I go there and there's all these cute girls and swimsuits I put on my swimsuit and I you know pose and stuff and I got the job and they paid 200 they paid me $250 for the day and I'm with all these cute girls and I go okay I'm a model now so that's how that started and then they sent me to New York and then from New York I went to Milan and I did it you know so I got the model like all over the world it was it was a great life

10:32for a while were you were you working a lot as a model I mean like I'm where you make it it's lucrative they miss not like you know because it was enough for you to sit there and say I'm not gonna act right now I mean it had to be lucrative because you seem to get that acting bunk stuff in your head oh yeah no it was it was lucrative for sure in the travel I mean literally these trips you know I'm skiing in Samarits one day and I'm in the beach in the Bahamas the next and myself that I traveled the globe and you know no models don't make what female models do I'd be like a lot of time it should be the R&P said that of gorgeous girl but we didn't make that kind of money but it was it was good money it's more than I was making as an actor for sure but I always wanted to be an actor and so I was doing a modeling job in Los Angeles when I got this audition to be for this film called The Parals of Gwendolyn which is this French sort of cult film the witanic attain and so there's a kind of a fun story so that my

11:34agent calls up and says uh Brent there's a French director in town he's directing a movie this kind of like Raiders of the Lost Ark and you'd be like the Harrison Ford character but it's sexier and it's going to shoot in Paris the south of France Morocco and the Philippines and your character would be captured in the city of beautiful women is this something you'd be interested in and I said you don't even have to send me the script you know how did I show up and so I ended up getting the job and from that and it was a big shoot it's an expensive movie in France and that sort of set me on the path to do all these like put on a low budget action movies in fact I did a second movie in Argentina where I was capturing the city of women who knew that was and got to be my friend right you know it's funny when you talk about this this low budget movies across seas because you probably know Larry Point Dexter he used to a lot of action movies overseas and it was like there's this whole market that people don't know about but actors are they're getting to act and they're getting to make money and it still goes on like you see IMDB

12:39there's like movies you really haven't heard of but they're legit productions yeah we did for that fun you know Larry Point Dexter huh he's done a show a few times yeah okay you want to hear something funny Larry's wife cast me in the rookie she was a casting director of the movie Larry and I used to play basketball at a guy named Andrew Stevens remember Andrew Stevens we played at Andrew Stevens house every Saturday so I've known Larry for a long time great guys I've known for years and years but that yeah it's funny but you know Michael Duda coffers a friend of mine there's a whole group of us I did like six movies in the Philippines and every time I go to the Philippines and check my hotel I see other actors that I know you know and we'd all be doing the same kind of stories like we're former Vietnam vets we're back to like you know rescue a POW or something like that I've did a bunch of those but they were a lot of fun to do I got to meet a lot of great people and and learn a lot about filmmaking doing that now

13:40being in those movies did you feel it somewhat hindered your career in the beginning because you weren't in LA you didn't have that visibility I mean you know it's changed now I mean back then you know now you have to be in LA you don't you have to be in LA it's just thing but back then you know LA if you hit it in LA you were getting called now everyone auditions but when I mean did you feel like someone had hindered you but I guess you really probably didn't care that much because you were working and I always think you know the true actors are the guys who sit there and they just want to work you know like look at look at Eric Roberts he's in like 8,000 productions a year because he loves loves loves acting so did you feel a hindered you at all and when you were over there well of course every actor wants to be Daniel Day with us right so I love to be able to turn down stuff and only do like great productions great scripts and great agents but you have to pay the rent you know so I wasn't going to turn down these movies I thought I'd learn something and I thought

14:43I'm going to make them better than you know they could be but a lot of times you can't get past the script but you know I've worked with Eric Roberts in one of these movies I directed Michael Madson in a movie and when I directed him in a movie I think I directed him in movie in 2007 and by 2015 he had done like 300 more more movies it was it was crazy so yeah unfortunately he's not with us anymore but yeah Michael was this if he was they would do great movies and then you know he'd do quinterin were quinterin Tino and then he'd do like a piranha ram or something like that and I've worked with Tom Barron he's the same way he'd do great movies and then he'd do like you know these other movies that just kind of pay the rent let's get to act yeah I mean that's the thing well that's that's what I understand that too because it's like people used to say oh you know some screenwriter you know you guys are like a planet Hollywood and Beverly Hills is a waiter and these

15:43other guys you know I work with they're like oh yeah I optioned this screenplay for like next to nothing if it's so to make them but I said they go so commercial your first one you wrote was really good I'm like hey listen man like you said you know I don't if someone I could write the most fantastic screenplant the soul for a thousand bucks then someone offer me a movie about a dog who breaks dance for 200 thousand I'd be like well yeah I'm gonna do it it's not selling out it's living your life and you know getting a monitor what you can do what you want to do yeah yeah no is uh and I do I do short films and stuff all the time where I get paid like nothing uh you know some people ask me I would rather do a low budget movie and Bakersville I'm the story shated Bakersville and Bakersville knowing that very few people would see that rather than take a you know five star vacation a Hawaii drives my wife insane but I would rather do it because I get more of a thrill from that you know I figured I'm gonna do a vacation later maybe not five star I'd say a vacation later

16:48but yeah I just want to work so somebody oversees movies do you start to age out or do you just start to say you know your family thinks you know you know we're not seeing you because you're away or you know so when do you decide to really come back and concentrate on LA and then after that I want to find out when you started making movies well it started uh I don't know what I kind of aged out but I definitely aged out but it's like I was like I'd be number one the car sheet for most of these low budget movies but I'd get the you know fine helicopters and shoot M16s and I've you know swam over wirefalls and Argentina and mountain climbing Austria now there's great stuff and then could I play the hero and then slowly my career transition where I'd be the bad guy in these low budget movies so in 1994 I'd already done several of these movies and you know they weren't very good and we had a great time but they weren't very good and I said I

17:51can do better than this you know and so I wrote a play called actors and other animals and it's about six waiters that will work at Joe Allens in New York and the theater district is waiters and at the end of the night they'll be counting their tips and they'll be complaining about why they had made it as actors and so I wrote that you know did the play and I realized from that that I could do a movie and basically one location like a play and make a movie at it and then I had just done a movie of James Broell and I'm spain and so I asked James to look at this movie that I wrote which is kind of like extremities were too bad guys break into this cabin up in big bear and they terrorized these three couples and the course of three couples at one point over power the two bad guys and they served their own justice so that's basically the storyline and so I gave it to James and I said yeah read if you have a chance and he said a couple hours later he said come up to my room like he knew I got good news and bad news good news is I'm gonna produce this movie

18:52for you that you're gonna you're very written you're gonna direct it bad news is I'm gonna play the part you wrote for yourself and I said okay I'll play the bad guy it's sort of shade my head up here's my hair you know all this kind of stuff and so we took that movie to the cam film festival actually the cam film market I don't know if you've been to cam but there's the festival where the good movies are there's the market where like the three heads and a gun are on the poster and Eric Roberts and Michael Madison the two other heads that kind of deal and we made money and so that's what started me writing my own things that I would direct but I got the money I put up a third of the money James Brolin's orthodontist put up a third and this actress for that work with interior money put up a third so it's another thing where I'm just hustling you know to get more movies made what was it like one directing and also you're directing yourself and it's your words

19:52I mean I think if you're doing all you're doing everything so I'm sure and this and you envisioned yourself as the lead but of course you're not gonna say no to roll and it's gonna invest it so he's gonna bring a different character not character but just he's gonna play the role probably differently than you would have right what is that like when you're behind the camera because you're and you gotta be something to go on nah man he should be doing it this way but I can't because he's the actor what was that like what was like directing yourself when you're actually acting too well it's kind of weird I never really thought that about James I would play it differently because I was more focused on because I also I wrote myself a big part of the bad guy too so I was focusing on it I was playing something but it's not like myself so I'm more focused on that I sort of have everybody's you know how they should play role in my head but I with James I like the way he played it so I had no complaints there so even though I've done a lot of movies on these low-budget movies so my first day on the set up in Big Bear we have the cameras of the

20:53dollies have a crane even obviously you know the crew and people and so I've never done this before so I'm like okay everybody's in place we did a run-through I go okay ready action and I said no friends say a role film well said I go okay so to do that and then I go wait a minute I feel weird saying action that's going to character so I had my AD my assistant director he would say action but then I would say cut but you know you're doing all this stuff it is weird but it is also freeing because I you know a lot of times when I'm acting and I don't want to make a mistake and probably director or whatever but if I'm the director hey you know I messed up the words that's okay you know I'm not gonna yell at myself but that was the only kind of weird difference deal directing yourself but I like it it's a lot it it's a lot of pressure to I tell people when you're directing movie I get asked at least 500 questions a day like do you like this blue better or this blue better for this character for sure and I can't just say oh I don't care

21:57because they're you know I go oh this blue and then you go well why that blue oh because his eyes I think you've got to get off this bullshit you know it's funny you say that because the reason you hire people that you trust is to have you trust their judgment and then they ask you and you're like no I hire like my brother designed my engagement when he's a jeweler and he's like you want this this this this I said I want you and just once this cut and you're you're the guy up there do it and that's what's funny they ask questions because you bring them on to make your life easier and then it ends up saying it ends up being more of a big deal asking you and asking you yeah what's the color palette do you see in this scene I'm like uh uh blue why blue oh it's it's cold it's good you know kind of a thing but yeah and then that's why when I ask directors a question about my character when I'm acting I don't get too upset when they kind of blow me off because I know that they've got two ten million things going on their head because yeah it's like

23:01what if my character did this oh my god oh let's try yeah okay so when you're doing this and you've said you run the movies and then you're directing were you still taking class at all were you working your craft I mean because I think you know I talked a lot of actors Charlie Tillett was on a few weeks ago she was on down she still takes she found an acting class in Nashville she still takes class and it's something because she said you always have to flex that muscle for you were you taking class as you were doing well when you came back to LA after doing all these movies well first of all let's go back to Charlene Tillett and by very first job I ever did as an actor with a Charlene Tillett and where we flexed he was the cheerleader and I was a quarterback at a Coca-Cola commercial and I was like 21 years old man I don't know how she's probably younger I don't know but yeah so that was my first forage of the film business uh what was the question again did were you still taking acting classes when you were I was a theater major to university and then I studied out here with all the acting coaches out here I could I went to New York I

24:02studied H.B. Studios I came back here and then this is interesting uh they asked me there's a performing arts school in Orange County called the performers academy and they would ask me if I'd like to teach sing study I go down you know I'm still getting rejected as an actor you know I'm my auditions and so who am I to tell people how to act if I am not booking on his jobs and they go know you'd be great I go okay I'll try it so I've been teaching acting for like 15 years and it has helped me so much as uh an actor and a director to teach because I've got to like every scene that I do I've got a critique and I see oh that really worked for this actor that didn't work this that and so that has helped me dramatically so and I've read books since then because I read all these self-help books about if you want to really be good at something teach it and then because it's like I have to study all the time and I have to go back to my Udah Hagen books and all this time you know

25:06go to a break and all that and and look at it again but that has helped me dramatically so um yeah and a lot of times on the rook or any show that I'm working on like he'll be actors that are famous actors that you know and they'll they'll be doing a scene and then they'll cut and go I'm so rusty I haven't done this in a while I wish I would have been you know but if you go to class you know it's like shooting free throws basketball you know if you haven't tried a free throw in six months it's not gonna be good but if you're out there like in class shooting free throws doing scene study it helps a lot but um I'm glad and Charlene still doing it so so for TV you know I look at your IDB you know you had two episode character on diagnosis murder or whatever but then you it's Pensacola goal was that your wings of Pensacola wings of gold was that like your was that a recurring or was that like your your and this funny because you played Steve psycho Kessik I love I love the IMDb's description but was that one of your first bigger roles in TV where you were

26:07coming back as you're recurring it was my first recurring role and it was funny I was up recurring on that the same time I was recurring on another show called Black Scorpion but Barbara Clayman was the casting director for Pensacola and I read for something early I think she cast remember that shows silk stockings oh yeah it was something I actually cast that as well and I went in red for it the feedback I got was that that you know I wasn't crazy you know if I was to like more like straight laced and I couldn't play that so she has me back in like a couple weeks later to play the part of psycho and I'm like well can't believe she's having come into play you know audition for psycho she is to be I wasn't I was too straight laced from another part anyway I ended up booking that and then James Broden was one of the executive producers and so uh he didn't even know I got the part so I was recurring on that for two seasons but uh went down I shouldn't sandie a go down there and that was great uh and so I'm still friends with

27:10a lot of the actors uh Michael Trunco who recurs on the the rookie was one of the regular son that Pensacola now you were on an episode of cold case which is just show I love you know anything that's been on ratchets been on twice Catherine Morris essential come on with eventually happened and it took place takes place in filling and I now I live 10 minutes I'll sexually where I grew up in New Jersey so I love that show tell me about your role in that because I'm I'm just trying to I always I watch them all and they're always on like a Thursday afternoon on like start tv and I want to find your episode because I always do it like I the funniest thing is I had one episode is where both Reed Diamond and Robert Ramones were both on an episode together and they both they go those two episodes back to back I saw where they each killed someone I was so happy that I had two cold case murderers on my show back to back um what was your role in that well I played uh uh I had a brother who was like I think I remember this correctly who's like a killer and I have scars all over my face I had the scars I forgot how I got these scars but Catherine

28:14Morris going back who's very nice she was a regular on the very first season of Pensacola wings of gold so that that's interesting so my first scene in cold case uh you know you're a little nervous you're you know you haven't met any of the actors that said the first scene is it's handheld and it's basically they're going through this police station and each rep each person who's the regular but have a line and so you don't want to mess up your line because it's back to one you know and I walk in the door at the very end with a complaint like oh my god we have a problem here whatever so they go this actor this regular actor this actor this actor this actor and it gets to me I'm like uh uh cut and I go oh my god I can't put it yeah and so it took me like three takes to do that now I felt like such a jackass because I you know I'm hoping up the whole show and then I can sort of got into the rhythm later so that was good but uh yeah it was uh it was a fun show to do it

29:18because I got to do a little emotional part in that so that was good now I'm gonna get back to your act about why you're going to the directing because we talked about the features but you know earlier in this interview you said how when you were younger you read biographies and stuff like that you you even if you got one piece out of it is that why you started doing documentaries because it's funny your doctor memories there are none of them are alike I mean like okay like I was watching the trailer for Chase and Beauty which it makes sense because you were in the industry but how do you come up with something like that and how did you get people to be in it was if because you were a model or because you had some credo or cred or what how did that probably I had some cred in that but what happened is Ford models had a models reunion in Beverly Hills even other based in you know in New York they had a models reunion in Beverly Hills my agent Joy Hunter who was ahead of men's division at the time I worked there and then became the president for it's so all these models came to Beverly Hills for this big party and so whoever put it on

30:23they called me to see if myself and Sherry Belafonte would like to film all these models and you know so we had the party and then we had this afternoon at somebody's house where I would interview one after another and so I met all and so I'm just doing this for for it's and then I thought this is fascinating I can make a documentary out of this and so from that we called like Cheryl Teagues went to her house and so I you know so I thought this modeling interesting it can be great to be a model it can be horrible it can be a model it can be really horrible for young girls who get taken advantage out so I want to show both the good side and bad side of it so I knew sort of how it worked and I knew a lot of the models to interview so that's how that happened and right as I'm doing that I was working at the performance academy as you know the acting coach and one of the yet girls affect the owner's daughter one of her friends did I have a drug overdose a prescription drugs at

31:2616 years old and we found out that a lot of these kids were dying these kids had grown up in wealthy families were dying of drug overdose prescription drugs and so they said would I make a documentary about it and they got together I think it was 12 parents you know 24 all together that mom who had lost their kids to drug overdoses and so it was a very emotional meeting there at the performance academy and it was like our kids were good kids is that now that we want to save other parents for having to go through this can you make a documentary about that and I said well we don't have I said of course I will but we got to raise money and they said we can raise money with kickstarter like overnight and basically we raised the entire funds in two days and kickstarter because of these parents and in that movie went around the country and show you what how drugs can just destroy families and take lives and it's really sad but so that was very different than the modeling thing so how how hard was that movie to make though because you must come out just emotionally

32:31drained because as you said it's it's such a you know especially in the area I you know it's funny people the area I grew up when I moved back here like people I know their kids said you know indeed one of my friends is a big cheese steak guy here lost his son to it and it's when you talk to these people you know it's a good friend of mine who she lost her sister to it it's just gutting when you hear him talk but you have to do it every day and you have to sit there and make sure one it's a great outcome to move the doctor make those great but you also have to make sure that it's true to the fact and actually it's it's it's a role model somewhat of a as a doctor manager so how was that like every day I'm sure you know when you're direct it's great because you're getting like the action movie you're getting questions in this you're sitting there every day you have to go in and deal with tragedy because that's what it is I mean how do you keep focused and just not lose your shit because it's being topic oh I'm gonna be behind the camera

33:34by the time interview with these parents and I would be bawling and tears because that you can lose your job your marriage can break up you can lose you know go bankrupt you you can get sick and you a lot of things and people say things can always get worse but when you lose a child it doesn't get any worse that's as bad as it gets so that's what I'm dealing with and I'm thinking I also told the parents I said I'm going to tell this in a truthful way and I thought maybe that because these most of these parents had a lot of money that they were throwing money at the problem they weren't involved parents who said another and I'm thinking if that's still I'm going to say it but it wasn't these were very involved parents they were good kids and it just got caught up and this lot of time starts to enter you're keeping up with the you know the peer pressure and whatever and then to get hooked and then there's the dirty doctors you have to deal with and we mailed one dirty doctor we went in undercover she ended up serving 30 years oh she's still in prison right now it's certain 30 years sentence for killing three kids that you could tell they were

34:39gaining the system you know kind of a thing but yeah it was it was tough and I tried to like who wants to watch this movie where it just is such a downer but you know there's a part where it's like yeah it's people who do come out of it that's sort of uplifting but yeah it's and this was before fentanyl really got big so this there was a drug called opana that was taken these kids alive and that was in 2012 so you know this this many years later now it's a fentanyl which yeah well hey and penicare just died yesterday yeah yeah she just did so okay so what was your first documentary first documentary is chasing you but so but did you thought you would ever go down that road of documentary because you made a bunch of sense so it's like you you were doing your features and then it's it's a quite different beer you know going from a crane you know you have a crane of big bear and then now did so I mean did you ever think in your mind that you would

35:40start doing documentaries no but here's what happens Steve it's like you know I was like when we talk about you know I'll do these little budget movies because I want to work well I want to work as a director I want to work period I want to write I want to do all this stuff and with the documentaries I don't have to raise two million dollars I can get at my DSLR or camera of Canon 5D and I can be in a time square on a tripod and get thousands of extras and look huge production value and shoot it for practically nothing I make all these documentaries for under a hundred thousand I can make a documentary if I really wanted to like for 10,000 do it with my phone on 4k and you know you can tell stories and I can also get name people to come talk to me in a documentary and not pay them kind of a thing so it was like that was one of the reasons I started doing documentaries actually I've always liked documentaries are fine to me entertaining and informative so that's

36:47sort of had the documentary things right and I wouldn't have ever done it had for it's not asked me to go record that models conviction or reunion now how do you choose your top it's because you know you have it's a rockability world and then you have the jockey style story two completely different completely different things do do do people pitch your stories or are you just sitting there and you see something and you go like you said you can make a per under a hundred thousand dollars you go I can get the funds for that like how did rock it how did that even come up a buddy in mine took me to a rocker bill they had these rockabilly show all of the country but they had a rockability show in Ventura california and I didn't know anything about rockability and we go there and get out and there's all these cars in the 60s these really cool cars all the girls are wearing pen and dresses and the big hair and all this kind of stuff lots of tattoos the guys that pop a doors and then these rockabilly bands are playing that were great you know like uh um uh what's Brian Sessor and the uh fake ads straight came is that kind

37:53of music yeah uh and it was fantastic and these people and I had an interview and they go we're still live like life like it's in the 50s and everything in my house is 50s and I dress like the you know all 50s and I go this is a fascinating subculture and there's one guy his entire face was tattooed you know so I'm interviewing these colorful characters and that's how that started and then I went to Vibolas Vegas where have this big convention every year in Las Vegas where they take over their orlean hotel and it's there's pool parties and bowling everybody you think you're in the 1950s it's even people Chinese people are dressed like Elvis and stuff and they had French people in Austria yeah it's it's crazy but fun how do you do the jockey styles story because that's completely that's hoops that's what I'm gonna do I'm a big bass you know a basketball I was gonna be a professional basketball player in my spirit in the off season then I would start movies I had big Steve I had a big ambition and what kind of guy my parents said it's crazy probably not

38:55but jockey styles played in southwest Missouri state which was uh sound called Missouri state but she was a high school basketball player in this tiny town of claffling Kansas uh population 600 and in high school she averaged 47 points a game I could at the top of my game I could an average 47 against six graders right so I don't know how you do that and then in track she won her senior year at the state championship in Kansas she won the 400 they 18 the 400 they 800 the 1600 the 3200 meter first place she won all of them in the same day which is impossible so you know so uh genome alright on that from a Connecticut wanted her Pat Sama from Tennessee wanted her she could have gone anywhere she signed a letter to him to play a Yukon and then the last second she goes to the dollar and played the Southwest Missouri state her dad said well you'll never be in all-american you know never go to the final four well not only was she in all-american took the

40:00team on her back to the final four she said the all-time NCAA scoring record that she had for 16 years before Kelsey Plum broke that and then Caitlin Clark so she was Caitlin Clark before Caitlin Clark and but she was up she's a legend in the Ozarks in Missouri and so uh I just said and then I loved it to talk to her so I reached out there she goes you let's do it and uh the first day I interviewed her at half-cord at the you know the big state arena there in Springfield and she text me she goes how do I get in I'm like you basically built this arena because you know they sold that every game as I just go around the corner but you see where your statue is that's the door you go in and she's got two statues in Springfield but she was basically Caitlin Clark before Caitlin Clark if you saw her play it was like she never missed it was it was incredible so back to the act now you do you do you do a few episodes of shameless okay exactly you said get you some visibility because it

41:03was such a it was a people love the show and I think that was like the and there's some shows that were like industry shows you know like the industry watches it and they go oh this guy's on this and he's on three episodes so even though you know your past you know you have to prove yourself but did that help you at all with your further acting gave me like some credibility for sure so I have an audition my agent called me oh I have an audition for Shane was oh I love this show so I go over to Warner Brothers and I'm in the room and you see like you know 30 other people that look like you and so we're all that our sides here are scripts we're ready to go any to do an audition and then we'll go we're just waiting for someone all right to go into the room you know one of the executives so we're waiting never is and then here comes William H. Mason that's who we're waiting for and he was he was directing this episode and so now I'm like oh it's William H. Mason so I go in there and you can kind of feel when things go well and sometimes you feel things go well they don't but this felt good

42:06and then he goes uh can you do like a Southern accent and go out from a Zura Agenda you'll kind of think if you want me to uh and I don't know thank God me the part but I am getting part it was three at the Stodart but he was great to work with um the whole yeah everybody's great I had a lot of my scenes with Carl who started when he was like nine years old and I was like 18 he's a great kid they said it's so weird for the kudasim as a nine-year-old now he drives to the set so yeah so now let's talk about the rookie it's so funny uh my wife is a powerup at a school so she's off in the summer she worked summer school at power professional and one station I don't know what is it start or we you know these always has the rookie so the rookie the rookies on my house at least probably four hours a day so it's a matter of I see you I see I walk by so how did the rookie come about was that was that and was it originally a one-off or two-offs I love the story sound like people end up in because you've been around over 60 episodes yeah it was one episode in season one

43:12I think episode 14 in season one I had one episode where I had a scene with Nathan Philly and you know John Noah who's lead and uh he's a rookie and they're gonna have him uh tell us what to do as it training for a rookie when we're gonna go into this hotel and we're gonna do this and I go we've got to take directions from this boot and you know what they call the rookies there this boot I was like kind of sure so I thought he was just a hard-ass he's even older than that no and so I'm like I'm not gonna have some old rookie tell me what to do I've been doing this all my wife and so that's how I played it and I love Nathan I loved everybody I worked I worked on the shagga man this would be great and I'd just done the three episodes of Shane with so I bet man I'd love to be you know back on Shane with four they're rookie and so they put me on hold for another episode in season one but they they released me so I go well it was fun while I lasted and then in season two they started giving me all these comedic lines and I didn't see that coming

44:14at all I go oh this is way more fun to do this you know like I've found out all this stuff I have a back tattoo I'm in the goat yoga I'm like you know I'm a honest uh and so I'm like really the the knucklehead the punching bag of the station but I go through life like I don't care you know I'm just I'm gonna get my pension I don't care and I just show up you guys get got to rely and so it's it's a fun character to play it give the writers all the credit forgive me my stuff but how is so season two how many how many episodes did you get uh I was in like since then I've been like every years about I do about uh a third of them so probably like you know four five or six five six do you know when these are coming up did they tell you an advance because you're an actor you're director you have a schedule have you had to turn any of them down because you had a previous engagement no I haven't heard to and in fact I was directing a movie at the time with Jake Paul during season three uh so I just as Jake Paul movie was a kids movie with with with the dog and

45:22I told the producers I said I'm directing this but if the rookie calls me I'm gonna go film the rookie and you know they go fine with it and I had it and it never happened but uh now the only time I've missed the rookies what I've tested positive for covert twice and so I got one call like it six in the morning I was at one I'm as I'm on my way to the set and so I had to call you know this production I go I just got to I got a positive test and they go now go home and you know we would be in these pods they gave us during COVID it's whole you know and so we zip our cells up in these pods and the way to for actors you know if we get and if we want to take our mask off kind of a thing and we had these air conditioner vents going into these plastic pods that we're in it was a crazy time during COVID now because of the rookie do you get noticed do people notice you as smitty because you know that one thing where your name is your cue and the documentary thing and you know but do people recognize you now because it's a matter of it's I mean it's amazing that

46:25shows but over eight or eight seasons and it's one of those seven seasons Nathan Philly and I mean from Castle to that before that uh get that first show that guy constantly works I mean it's funny that he can be so grounded I mean what he said he's a great guy is he a really cool number one because your stories I've heard Mark Harman's a great number one Mark Harman's always good to his actors how is Nathan because he's I mean the rookie is so different than Castle you know it's just I mean what is he like you know you said he's great but what makes him so great to work with what makes him great is first on the call sheet well I'll go back again I did it in CIS and Mark Harman is just as great he's awesome guy a lot of Mark Harman and Nathan's that way so my very first season one we're going we're rehearsing and he messed up a line just in a rehearsal and he goes you know what I used to be good at this kind of thing and he puts everybody at ease and anytime there's a guest star he comes and introduces himself to miss that and he brings up the conversation

47:29and he's just easy going and he you know for someone who's got that much juice or power on the show he could not be more like kind of calm and laid back and so then everybody can relax and so this show there's not one bad apple on it everybody I mean we love each other it's really I love going to work and everybody is cool we see each other in the makeup trailer whatever it's just you'll ask and jokes and we you know and then we do a bunch of TikTok stuff while we're waiting to be seen because that's one of the reasons this show has become really popular and Eric Wenter was one that kind of got everybody into doing TikTok and now the fan base is really young like we were all in Paris the summer or a spring for a convention and it was packed with young people like 18 years old and with a procedural police show that would attract the young people I don't know but

48:30it except for the TikTok stuff we said Nathan's good in the run as they when you have guest started if you ever had a jerk as number one don't mention any of these are you ever going to set where there was just a jerk and then how do you work as an actor because I'm sure well also with the rookie is all these people know the crew and all know it's going to keep getting picked up so they they've got the residuals they got the pension they got this because and it's like a family but if you ever going on where it's just a nightmare as an actor how do you deal with it when I've been dealt with nightmare actors as a director too but it takes you know psychology you know kind of a thing it's just like uh oh yeah it makes it makes everybody miserable I don't I never want to be that person but yeah he get it everyone's going off for sure um yeah I try to stay but when I'm directing I have to deal with it you know kind of a thing I you know go for watch with them or whatever you know but sometimes it's it's difficult but that's why I love the rookie we don't have any of that at all and same with that neither because because well you may see

49:36that you know so cool and Mark harman so cool now now you've been in a business for a while and I always like to get actors answered to this your guy who's trained on stage you're used to the old in-person audition now it's on video do you like the on video did you like being in the room better how because most of the people have been around a while like being in the room because you get a read to it and it's what you're used to what do you prefer because you're also a director so you're used to seeing video awful what do you prefer yeah I prefer coming into the room I mean there's definitely plus sides that take with self-sumissions because you can do 15 takes sometimes I've done 15 takes and just my slate hi my name is Brent Huff oh I didn't like that now I go hi I'm Brent Huff now my wife goes what are you doing that's terrible you know so and you walk into a room in a in-person audition you can't take that back and then you know you have your sides with you

50:38and I don't need my size if um you know doing yeah you know doing it at home because I have a teleprompter there too if I need if I go up so that's a good part of it but then when you when I would leave an in-person audition I had a pretty good feeling if I was in the running or not there's been a lot where you go that that's going nowhere um but sometimes you you feel it with you send off these tapes and sometimes you go oh my god I can't do any better than that that's a great self-tap and you don't hear anything and so that's kind of tough it's just you know and but I talked a lot of the actors who are on the rookie that come in for a day and they go yeah it's self-submission I never you know uh I went in so yeah the business has changed it's really changed the voiceovers I used to do a lot of voiceovers and now everybody you know from the moan to Atlanta they're all you know they all got home uh recording studios and stuff and that

51:40you know that lot of non-union and now AI is really taking the voiceover you know it's crazy the industry's crazy anyway I have I have one final question I always ask my guest this just like I asked the actors about the in-person audition because it is so funny the story to hear how some people got parts when they didn't think they were because they got to read it again you know then they sit there at the record or the or like you said point dexter's uh wife cast you and you knew him so it gives you a little bit of okay I know him I know what he can do I think that it was that networking somewhat that helped now it's just as you say it's just like hey it's like when I used to all this and for commercials they'd your agent would send you just your picture they look at that yeah yeah so in your career you're a very successful career with the directing and your book now and you're acting where are a few things that make you proud I think the biggest thing is that I never I've never given up you know uh so that you know it's uh I've taken rejects

52:40after rejection and try to still stay enthusiastic and stuff and so that's the thing I'm most proud of you know I think I've approached the business with character and integrity so I'm proud of that people like working with me because I'm I'm nice I've never lose my temper and that's even as a director when everything goes wrong which it does sometimes uh because I know what it's like to be an actor and you want to be liked and all that stuff you know it's like I think with actors sometimes it's not you just want to be liked but you want to be loved I don't know what that is in my background that makes me want to do that but so that's why I've never understood actors who are mean to people in the set because didn't you really get into this business to be kind of loved then to get on the set and to make everybody not like you that it never makes sense to me so not that I'm but then just naturally you know it's a nice guy and that why wouldn't you be

53:42you know you're blessed to get to do this you know I don't know what else I would do if I was a tist but oh I tell you another thing I'm proud of is the fact that I didn't just wait for the phone to ring as an actor I've written a ton of scripts I've sold a few quite a few but I've written way more than I sold uh I go out and I pitch these projects all the time get told no in the dorsis land in my face uh so I do voiceovers I do print work I do teaching I do you know so I diversify I've got like six different ways I can try to make a living it's not just I'm waiting for an acting game well this has been awesome and I'm glad I got in touch with you uh so the book is my playable for life and that's one amazon yeah it will be on amazon in november the sixth and people you can uh go to Brent's website Brenthoffhuff.com go go go go and go to those i and eb go look at some of those old shows if you don't watch the road you go watch it it's kind of just great you go to my website CooperTalk.net you can find a thousand and seventy five episodes there you can

54:45also email me at Cooper CooperTalk.net uh Twitter which I don't really go on my is at CooperTalk uh Threads is at CooperTalk one Instagram's at CooperTalk one and Facebook Steve Cooper. So I thank you all for listening or watching I'm Steve Cooper money as hip is my guess don't forget drink your water each your vegetables take your vitamins and I'll talk to you next time.