Leigh: So what bring you to London?
RJ: Quite a few different things. What originally brought me here is that I was doing the MCM Birmingham Comic Con. I've been there for the last three days, meeting fans. It was good, we had a really good time... and then just meetings, meetings, shoots and trying to get some more work over here.
Leigh: Nice. So what was the Comic Con like, what did you do?
RJ: I signed my hand away pretty much... (Laughs) and I met fans and signed autographs and chilled and checked out some costumes and booze. i mean it's Comic Con and there is always something going down there. And sometimes you have these guys in costume and some of the costumes are really good and some of them are... not so much.
Leigh: That's very diplomatic.
Stephen: What is the best costume you saw?
RJ: I saw some video game costumes that looked very real. Some Dragon Age Costumes...
Leigh: Dragon Age?
RJ: Yeah, it's a video game. On Playstation.
Leigh: I've been to the Star Trek one. OMG, it was sort of interesting in there... but it was more interesting outside of the food court where the people were dressed as Star Trek characters, just sitting eating a burger. it's just surreal.
RJ: Yeah, and some of them look like the characters. You look and you're like "they can't be". One year they had a bunch of cast members there, actually dressed up in their costumes.
Leigh: Their costumes?
RJ: Yeah, I don't know which Star Trek it was, I think it was the second one. Not the movie but the actual show. And they were all over there, all dressed up.
Leigh: I've heard various stories about that. Have you been to San Diego Comic Con?
RJ: I've been three times. It's not my favourite...
Leigh: Too big?
RJ: Way too big. I find that people wait all day in line just to meet one actor. And you do not really get to do a lot of things. I walked around and it was not very good, it was just way too much. But it's Amazing. It's just so many hundreds and thousands of people... I've been to San Diego three times, I've been to Chicago, Albuquerque, Stockholm and now Birmingham.
Leigh: Okay, it's quite a random mix of cities...
RJ: Yeah my favourites were Albuquerque, Stockholm, Birmingham and Chicago. These are my favourites versus the San Diego one.
Leigh: Cool, So the Birmingham was okay?
RJ: No, it was great. It's the right size. You don't want too big and you don't want too small. And I've been to a couple of others that were smaller but not the scale or Birmingham and Stockholm. It';s about 250,000 people. And San Diego is like 400,000 people.
Leigh: OMG, thats the size of the city!
RJ: It is. Can you imagine the revenue?
Leigh: Yeah, who is running that show? Right, so down to business... You're best known for
Breaking Bad.
RJ: Yeah...
Leigh: So how did that change your life?
RJ: It gave me a career. I would not have the opportunities I have today without that show. I would not be in London without that show. It gave me an opportunity to do so many different kinds of work. And it was nice to have a show like breaking Bad. I was able to grown and learn. I was fourteen when I started the show. It gave me life, it gave me an opportunity and I was lucky to have that. And after breaking Bad, about two months later, I started working on another American show, it's called Switched at Birth and is on ABC Family. I was able to go from one amazing show to another without just waiting for the phone call! It's the story of my life! It's like a first date. You do it once and then you are like "Are they going to call me back? Hello? " and every time the phone rings you're waiting...But no... I wouldn't be able to do what I do today without the show.
Leigh: Great. So Breaking Bad was one of those shows that when we talk to people about it, they tend to binge watch it. They just get the whole season and whizz through it, which is kind of a new phenomena.
RJL Yeah...
Leigh: So we wanted to know.. are you binge watching anything at the moment? Do you do that? We know you're quite busy so you kind of have to squeeze everything in.
RJ: See, I'm always travelling, especially in the last six to seven months I've been gone more than I have been home. I do binge watch. I like movies. I binge watch really big movies. But the last thing I binge watched was From Dusk til Dawn the series. I watched the movies by Quentin Tarantino last, amazing actors in it. I'll watch everything and anything, I will watch it.
Leigh: Okay, we will give you a list.
RJ: By all means, I'll see what I have watched on it.
Leigh: Have you seen the Fargo series?
RJ: Fargo, oh yes. I actually just auditioned for Fargo series. I'm wondering if they will call me back.. It's great!
Leigh: How many series are there now? I have only seen the first season.
RJ: There is a second and third season. It's doing well, man. People are loving it.
Leigh: But it's just that the original is great.
RJ: But the movie is amazing.
Leigh: And now it has been extended to nine or ten hours. It must be so amazing for the production cast and the directors and actors to be able to say "now instead of doing just two hours, we are able to ten..."
RJ: Yeah and it raises a challenge with the re-creation of movies and still staying true to the story of what was in the book and what was in the movie. I find that it can be skewed when you try to extend so much of it. It's a little risky. but sometimes the risk is worth the payoff.
Leigh: Mmmm. I see.
Stephen: You know what I've watched, that kind of relates. Bates Motel.
RJ: yeah, Bates Motel. Ive worked with the actress from the second season of Bates. The movie I did in August.
Leigh: So when does that come out?
RJ: We filmed it right before August. But with films... Who knows? We'll try to get into Sundance. But if we don't get into Sundance, we'll knock onto someone else's door. Hopefully soon but you never know with movies. I filmed a movie when I was eighteen and it came out last year. But time goes by quick.
Leigh: So you've done some modelling as well. How do you like that?
RJ: Yes...Modelling, it's nice because you can go on location for a couple of days, shoot and then leave and you're done. I like to shoot, no matter what aspect. Acting and modelling may be two different worlds but sometimes they're not. They may be similar because you put on a performance for the camera. I enjoy filming, I enjoy shooting, It's part of the job i actually like.
Leigh: And what's the rest of the stuff?
RJ: Just some BS (laughs) . Just a lot of shit. So much that goes into the industry that just does not need to. People go into it for selfish reasons, be it fame or other. it does not work in this industry. You can build a career off it for a short period of time but it will not give you a long career or continue to push you and motivate you.
Leigh: exactly, it's the same with us.
RJ: Yeah you have to enjoy what you do because at the end of the day, what's the point.?
Leigh: Absolutely!
Stephen: Yes, and that's why we started Jon.
Leigh: Exactly, because we like it, we like magazines. So what is your next big project?
RJ: Waiting for the phone call. I shot a movie about three weeks ago. And then another amazing movie, with Chris Zulka, he's from Spider-man... the 'amazing' one, not just the regular, the 'amazing' one (laughs) And faith Hill and Brian Cartwer who was in True Detective. It was a really nice cast and really good group of people. Sadly, I only worked for two days but we had a lot of fun. It was a blast, shooting in a strip club for two days.
Leigh: you were shooting in a strip club?
RJ: My scenes were.
Leigh: Right... What sort of character were you?
RJ: Well I was...
Leigh: The stripper? (laughs)
RJ: Yes...(laughs). How did you guess? Do I look like a stripper? No, I was the manager of the club. So... I sadly did not get to dance but I got to watch the naked dancers. You know, the strippers from Mississippi are very interesting, very dynamic looking.
John created the look with Mr Mullan's Apothecary grooming tools. Check them here:
