00:00:54.220it was the place you could go tell the truth it was where we could finally have the story heard
00:00:59.640and not have to worry about being sued or defame you were being accused of defaming
00:01:06.120her just by telling the truth um because anything you say in testimony is protected speech
00:01:12.060great and then you can tell it freely and then no because of course they quit she quit team blake
00:01:20.640they were losing we all that's why we were excited for the trial we knew they were gonna lose
00:01:25.180and then they did and then they came crawling and the settlement yeah and now this is where
00:01:32.060we tell our story hey great hey just take a breath i felt it was such an anti-climax
00:01:41.180when they settled in a sense although i do feel like it was probably the best thing for justin
00:01:47.420on the wayfire parties did you feel like oh no i really wanted to see her you know sweat on that
00:01:53.980stand so that's the benefit of us like we we were dragged into it a little bit like you know i didn't
00:02:00.920love the insinuation it was insulting to be described as just justin's friend who was there
00:02:07.340to humiliate her and not be the you know i'm classically trained actor i do have some credits
00:02:12.520I haven't been lucky enough to have her career or an acting family to offer me certain opportunities, but I am good at my job, but to be described in that way was humiliating.
00:02:27.940Right, it's terrible, but at the same time, no one knows who I am, so it didn't affect my career so much as the pandemic as a theater actor destroyed my burgeoning career.
00:13:53.820she's she's this so costume fittings you know she's doing her own costumes so i don't know
00:14:00.140i'd love to hear from the costume designer what they have to say yes i would love to hear from
00:14:04.440so many people about this so this was but this is the thing i think people are really afraid
00:14:10.040still yes and so those those of us who gave up their idea of a career a long time ago
00:14:17.800in the entertainment world people like us they're like oh no my acting career what was it before
00:14:23.540i'm happy to help my friends that are doing things and whatever uh and i coach and you know
00:14:28.860let me help lift this but as far as like fear of lost opportunities for acting goes like i don't
00:14:35.240i don't have that fear so i don't worry that i'll upset ryan reynolds and blake lively from
00:14:41.120whispering into the ears of studio heads and producers don't work with this person yeah but
00:14:46.400if you're an actor with some cachet and you're building your career that's a significant threat
00:14:51.600Or if you're an industry professional and you might work again on a set with a Ryan and a Blake or their team somehow, you worry about what are they going to say?
00:15:06.780And I also think regarding, you know, the trial as well for some of these people who were set to testify for them, that could also be career ending in a way, you know, especially for the ones I think who were forced to
00:15:21.500support Blake some of the other actors which I kind of feel sorry for but then again I mean
00:15:27.460they're like such cowards all of them if you ask me just like you know letting her get away with
00:15:34.340everything I think to be fair though I do think it's scary yeah you know it does take a lot of0.98
00:15:39.000courage to stand up and say okay I'm gonna tell the truth it could impact this career I'm I've
00:15:46.740sacrificed for and build but also if you don't know justin and you're like i don't think she's
00:15:53.680telling the truth but i don't know him you saw you go in the middle which everybody sort of did
00:15:58.360because they didn't offer full-throated defenses of blake's behavior and they didn't like come out
00:16:03.800and be like well her integrity and her this and i can't believe and i watched justin xyz none of
00:16:10.680that yeah so i think they were too scared to give their truthful experience because justin's a
00:16:16.700wonderful director he's there and this was the thing i think that hurt him the most was that he
00:16:21.360with those actors that he cast was creating a really great bonded friendship of artists working
00:16:28.460together and everything seemed to be going very well so when people are then not standing up for
00:16:35.080you i think that also kind of made him feel like oh wow i really thought we were it's so heartbreaking
00:16:40.440that part to me is just so heartbreaking and for him I feel like everything he had to go through
00:16:46.340when this was going on and then afterwards having to read those text messages that what people said
00:16:51.560behind your back just that like you know it's so gut-wrenching to to see and to read that stuff
00:16:59.900that he I mean I can't even imagine how he's still standing at the moment because for me you know I
00:17:05.800went through something a tiny bit of what they were experiencing but just for like a little week
00:17:11.000there when people thought i was part of the smear campaign and you know the hate i received and all
00:17:16.640the backlash was so horrific and that was just like compared to how that this has been with them
00:17:23.840it's just yeah awful awful just a little eyedropper yeah of that experience right which is terrible
00:17:31.080because you're being accused of something you didn't do yeah and it puts your integrity out
00:17:35.500there yeah and what he was accused of is so much worse than what i was accused of but that feeling
00:17:40.260that human feeling of being misjudged in the scene is exactly the same and we get just that taste
00:17:45.600yeah and that's why i think when blake's team came crawling in to settle to staunch the bleeding
00:17:52.300i think that's why they really contemplated like okay let's let's settle this yeah i think because
00:17:58.920the idea of continuing to do that in trial in court in the news again there was nothing to win
00:18:06.300for her at this point but let's get back to yes to to the set again because this is really
00:18:11.080interesting because i we have never we haven't really got to hear about what it was like on the
00:18:15.900set i wondered so many times and you just told me before we sat down that ryan reynolds wasn't
00:18:20.440really there when you were there and you were there for a significant amount of time i was
00:18:24.660their early days pre-production because they had hired me Justin hired me as his acting coach
00:18:29.520that was what I was originally being paid for that was why I was there he's wearing two hats
00:18:34.580he's directing and he's acting and he cared so much about it being a great movie about it being
00:18:41.680a truthful telling of the book but it has to also now translate to the visual medium so he wants to
00:18:48.280do a great movie and to do that he's acting and directing so he respects me as an actor and he
00:18:55.420invited me to be his acting coach I was honored and I was there and we're working because he's
00:18:59.740working as director basically at the office during the day and he'd come and we'd meet to do acting
00:19:04.780coaching sessions in the evening and he'd tell me what was going on during the day and how things
00:19:09.940were unfolding and the slow you know build of her just being difficult turning in eventually into
00:19:17.560what it was but i was there the whole time ryan was only a presence in her life and so there was
00:19:24.080that meeting that um when she was trying to rewrite parts of the script and justin was like a lot of
00:19:30.320this is great i love your passion but i think the original stuff we need to kind of keep this for
00:19:35.500the through line of it he gets this invitation to come over to her house and surprise taylor swift
00:19:41.540is here and ryan reynolds comes in and everyone's love bombing him but also kind of really saying
00:19:48.080how talented she is how great they thought the rights in the script were and he's sitting there
00:19:53.960feeling a little overwhelmed because you're surrounded by some of the most popular people
00:19:59.600on the planet that you not only respect their work but you dream of being their friend of being
00:20:06.540in that same circle and it seems more possible than ever that you could be uh in that place
00:20:13.600and the conversations you could have and we could be friends but he had this weird feeling when he
00:20:19.380came back that he was like i feel like they were trying to pressure me to take her changes so he
00:20:25.300talked to you about immediately afterwards and was like i i felt a little weird and i was like
00:20:30.100really oh that sounds like a crazy like you you hung out with guess who you hung out with you
00:20:34.200know i'm just like i'm overwhelmed because i wasn't there but he his spidey sense was tingling
00:20:39.400he was like i feel like they were trying to at that point still it was gentle manipulation it
00:20:47.540wasn't overt but he had a feeling that this was like a move and he left with like a i don't know
00:20:55.000how it didn't feel genuine oh i can't believe those text messages that we now seen because
00:20:59.520we've seen text messages between justin and blake and how they were talking being very friendly
00:21:04.020to each other and then you see the text between taylor and blake when she's like oh my doofus
00:21:09.520director blah blah blah she is really like and that's where i believe her by the way that's where
00:21:15.260i say you're telling the truth that's how you feel behind closed doors cameras are off that's0.86
00:21:21.220where we get the truth from her yeah he's a doofus yeah like so mean but that's how you have the0.97
00:21:29.300opportunity in those private text messages to say I feel unsafe yeah he's he's a creep he's making me0.98
00:21:35.360feel dirty he's very Weinstein-y in here or something she could say anything that leads us0.97
00:21:41.940to go like oh wow she was really that was the through line no she says he's a dummy and I have
00:21:47.500to do it all yeah she's to me I go that was what you felt you didn't like him as an artist because
00:21:55.060you didn't think he had enough credits as a director and he to his the thing he would change
00:22:00.440that he has shared with me is that he would be a little more protective of how vulnerable he is
00:22:05.300because he really tried to show all of his cards to her and that was just blood in the water for
00:22:11.820them and they just dove in and tore it open because he was like he would share from a humble place
00:22:18.560you know i i really want this to be good and you know if i do anything that you don't think is
00:22:24.560cool like uh artistically if i'm directing you in a way that you think there's a better idea tell me
00:22:30.600and instead of seeing that as like a very human very honest connection between artists
00:22:36.160she was like oh i i could take this whole thing
00:22:39.680tuck it in her thin piece of cloth it's so sad it is so sad i feel so sorry for justin like i think
00:22:49.820like magna said i think that you know we were talking about when really things turned for
00:22:55.240everyone was when they saw those photos of justin and his family and friends in the basement
00:23:01.060because that i was there i was there too i was there too we were separated for the premiere
00:23:08.060because this is when so the emotional terrorism that's happening is holding the film hostage at
00:23:14.120various moments because she's threatening to not do press she's threat and the press as you know
00:23:20.300is one of the most important parts of marketing a film yeah that press tour that we everyone tunes
00:23:26.560in to see all the different questions and then that's very key that's their up fronts you know
00:23:32.200for television like this is your time to go schmooze it and be charming and sell people on
00:23:37.660you so people want to see the film she was like i'm not going to do the press tour which is huge
00:23:41.640the star yeah so Sony has to capitulate so Wayfair has to capitulate what do you need what can we do
00:23:47.540and so she's like I don't want to be on the carpet with him I don't want him to be in the same if
00:23:54.040there's a green room don't want it the same I want separate theaters I mean separate theaters so there
00:24:00.560were two separate theaters and in one there was her and the stars of the film and Colleen was in
00:24:07.000her it was in the bigger theater and in the small was friends and family and crew and the people
00:24:11.340that were like not afraid to stand on justin's side for their futures and we had to wait down
00:24:18.460in amc's overflow basement of crates of sodas and they provided us very sweetly with little
00:24:26.740popcorns and they tried they put all these card tables together it must be weird for them too
00:24:32.480working there like what's going on why would we need to do this star of this movie and the director
00:24:36.800and you're in the basement it was out of body and for justin and the spiritual among us it's these
00:24:45.180continual like humbling moments where you're like okay let's roll with it like let's take let's take
00:24:52.440the high road in whatever form that that looks and be gracious and get through it because the
00:24:58.340important thing was the movie and he kept saying that the important part was what the movie stands
00:25:03.280for what it's about the things she wasn't talking about during the press tour the things she refused1.00
00:25:08.500to in between selling her hair care and booze products right was domestic violence and their0.96
00:25:14.700non-profit partnerships with these things so that these conversations could be had
00:25:19.520crazy did you meet ryan reynolds at that never met him never because at the at the premiere
00:25:25.400we were separated yeah so you know and at that point the shots had been fired the the crazy
00:25:31.720um ambushing meeting and the angry ryan yelling at justin and about all of these things taken out
00:25:39.660of context had happened already so the damage was done there was no like and it hurts because i like
00:25:45.720before that i'm a fan yeah i would have loved to shook his hand when we talked oh there's a fly
00:25:50.500in here it's so annoying i was to come to it was outside early i'm like i'm not gonna let that in
00:25:55.860there we're so popular yes fly on the wall but anyway so um uh what was your like first meeting
00:26:04.160with blake like like because you said to me yesterday when we were on the phone he said
00:26:08.380to me that you know you actually try to you know understand her and try to even defend her a little
00:26:15.420bit when things were getting more difficult for justin because not not knowing her i want to play
00:26:21.980the balancing part of a friendship like you know you're going through something your friend should
00:26:26.040try to hold you accountable to try to find the you know instead of just diving into like yeah
00:26:31.000she sucks uh it's the well hold on let's try to understand because we get our part we understand
00:26:36.440ourselves let's see if we can see from her eyes and i was still coming from a place of0.98
00:26:41.360she got my vote for being in the movie like i was if i'm a fan of her as an actor i liked a lot of
00:26:47.860her choices i find her when the camera's rolling on the thing she was very generous she was very
00:26:54.020open like amazing and then cut and then nothing but when i met her i had locked in the chamber of
00:27:00.960so great to meet you i'm a big fan uh and justin says you know this is uh one of my close friends
00:27:06.720adam he'll be playing the role of the doctor you know in the thing and she's like hi and i was like
00:27:13.020and then immediately turns to continue her artistic conversation and i was like cool that's
00:27:18.720how it is hi uh great i'm pushing it i was just like i've been very like high and dismissive
00:27:24.080you've interacted with some celebrities who are very uh closed yeah before i've fortunate enough
00:27:29.120to have met a lot of people and sometimes different energies are like cool and i was like oh so that's
00:27:33.620how it is yeah great i the only time i talked to her after that was post the scene when we were
00:27:39.380all wrapped okay and there was like a round of applause and i was like that was lovely so how
00:27:43.400was she after the scene though after the birthing scene well she's you know the exhaust it was
00:27:47.420exhausting to pretend to be giving birth and different cuts of the scene but she i said that
00:27:52.480was that was wonderful work it was really lovely and she was like thank you and and that's what i
00:27:57.400got and i was like oh she said thank you great maybe because she was too tired to be to be worse
00:29:07.420And so I was hanging out with him because we're friends and talking about the hopes for the movie and the importance of the story and all of that.
00:29:28.240because there's the truth argue with the video i guess and so i was there to support justin for
00:29:33.560the day and chat with him between scenes and got to see uh the last scene that they did was that
00:29:39.100hospital scene where she is showing the bite mark bruise in the uh thing and then she finds out that
00:29:45.360she's actually pregnant in that because they can't do an x-ray or whatever um so i was there for the
00:29:50.660shooting of that scene and it all went well all of it was shot it was shot beautifully and it was
00:29:55.940executed great and between the different setups talking with brandon talking with
00:29:59.660justin talking and he watching him because he's not in that scene he's just directing that scene
00:30:05.440just watching how he was interacting with her and and then yeah yeah so were you there you were
00:30:11.520there only before uh the strike right you didn't come back after they signed that 17 point list i
00:30:19.240was i was at i was home at that point being connecting with him occasionally to hear about
00:30:25.580some of the updates so how i'm so curious on how the cast and crew could you feel anything like the
00:30:31.880energy there while you that's the thing is while you're there it feels like a professional film
00:30:36.040set it feels you i couldn't feel anything when i shot the scene because there was nothing to feel
00:30:42.340this was happening production wise behind the scenes and it was a slow burn it's like the
00:30:47.800boiling frog analogy the water's getting turned up so slowly that you never know that it's gotten
00:30:53.540to boiling at that point right um so the crew itself wouldn't have known there was a significant
00:31:01.100issue i don't mean to speak for the whole crew but like they might be getting little hints or
00:31:06.580that was weird like but subtle and slow it's like slow dripping over time wow how interesting so
00:31:15.500the way the media has portrayed this i mean what do you think because i've been like reading almost
00:31:22.480every article i could find on this and i've been in shock as a journalist myself i am so ashamed
00:31:29.220on behalf of other journalists who who's been writing and especially of course the new york
00:31:33.800times article to begin with but how the media has spun this in her favor throughout this entire time
00:31:41.780what are your thoughts on that that's great i mean it's a really great question because when it first
00:31:48.180when the new york times article comes out and this orchestra very orchestrated collection of
00:31:54.800hollywood reporter and deadline and new york times very much in her camp and close to her pr
00:32:01.080you know thing it was a coordinated attack released like before christmas or something
00:32:07.060right before a holiday right before a weekend so there could be no response they took over a news
00:32:11.320cycle and so that's the conversation and at that level it's maniacally brilliant because it is
00:32:20.260it is playing 4d chess with the public's mind so when you don't know justin is not as recognizable
00:32:29.740he doesn't have as much uh notoriety as a blake or ryan reynolds for that matter people are like
00:32:36.500huh i guess that's true yeah and so the media hooks their teeth as you know into if it bleeds
00:32:44.860it leads and if justin feels like a chunk was taken out of him and he's bleeding now
00:32:50.840it felt like you know he was the soup du jour and they just went at it thankfully over time
00:32:59.280as we watched that was a brief explosion of this this occurred you get some of that press
00:33:07.800and the media going like yeah and then people started to do their due diligence because everyone
00:33:14.120deserves to be heard she deserves to be heard even if i know that it's not real someone told
00:33:20.800you the joke today i have to say that deserve to be heard you mean amber heard oh wow i don't want
00:33:28.100anyone no one deserves that no one deserves that anyway sorry about that but that's too good that's
00:33:34.180too good yeah because that's really what we're talking about is here and i think that's what
00:33:38.740they were capitalizing on yeah the announcement doing the damage and then for the normal people
00:33:45.520out there the threat of these powerful people and what they can wield litigiously with untold
00:33:51.860resources would exhaust anyone yeah they're worth hundreds of millions of dollars and more
00:33:58.400who could stand the last two years and the hourly wages of the lawyers they are wildly wealthy good
00:34:06.220for their legal services i've been saying this and i really mean it they really need to take
00:34:11.040some people out to dinner and and thank them for keeping their businesses afloat and the new cars
00:34:17.040and boats they'll be buying now we're hearing that they spend over a hundred million dollars
00:34:21.020on this so yeah and it's a lot of hard work and the lawyers the lawyers deserve their money but
00:34:26.640when the lawyers win everyone else is losing but they always there is always the lawyers that win
00:34:31.680especially in cases like this i feel like it's been so unfair and also like like you're saying
00:34:36.800about the media i feel like there's been one reporting in the media and then there's been
00:34:40.700another reporting on social media and it's been very different because in social media like i've
00:34:46.360been doing and a lot of my colleagues we have been digging into the legal papers and really
00:34:51.780done our due diligence while reporters they're just like skimming the surface and picking up
00:34:57.100what everyone else is writing about and like just slapping a title on it without even really
00:35:02.500thinking about what they're actually doing so i think that's been really really fun and i'll add
00:35:07.200to that that i think that same fear because journal entertainment journalists need access
00:35:13.740yeah and there's a lot of like not and they have integrity of course but there is a lot of like
00:35:19.620wheeling and dealing and making sure because the pr people need favors they need good coverage but
00:35:25.540no one's asking anyone to make up a story but they are asking for positivity and they want to make
00:35:32.580sure that this is done to help because then later we'll come to you and offer you the exclusive
00:35:38.260And again, we're dealing with Blake and Ryan who can carry news cycles.
00:35:44.220And so I think early days, again, those entertainment reporters were in an impossible situation until, and this is the credit to the, they tried to silence these independent journalists who were doing their due diligence and really shaming some of these reporters who should have done their due diligence.
00:36:03.020They didn't subpoena any reporters working for traditional media.
00:41:11.380no one wants to like do a little due diligence and find out that we're not a cult um but that
00:41:17.040whole thing going to where it eventually would lead to leads us to go why how why why is it like
00:41:27.120this why are you like this yeah there's something very very wrong with these people i i just can't
00:41:33.800get inside their heads i really don't i don't think that they are sociopath i'm not gonna say
00:41:39.000like i i'm not a doctor but i feel like these i played one on tv yes oh that's another thing by
00:41:45.560the way i just remember you told me yesterday on the phone that they were asking you her lawyer
00:41:50.640subpoenaed him and asked him are you a real doctor i could either prove why my acting resume was good
00:41:59.940enough to get me considered to be in the movie or my actual real life experience as an obgyn these
00:42:07.080were the only because how could i had to send in my acting resume and like the awards that i've won
00:42:13.000and the special things i've done with the royal shakespeare company and like stuff that like
00:42:16.840i had to send you feels dirty it feels like why do i have to prove myself but thankfully that's
00:42:22.600what i mean like thankfully people were like no he is actually an actor and i didn't have to say
00:42:27.220anything and then they tried to change it to oh it should have been a local guy so she's standing
00:42:33.240up for the little guy yeah i don't know if you knew that i stole that job yeah she's standing
00:42:38.260up for all the women in the world all the girls and all the children as well oh she's she's so0.99
00:42:44.040altruistic yeah you know all survivors of which is why she settled for zero dollars1.00
00:42:49.720oh what a victory for all of the victims she really carried that torch all the way to the0.99
00:42:55.960finish line well and then to add on that she wants money now which is also you know just adds up to
00:43:03.220how she's doing this for all survivors not even victims but survivors that's the word that her1.00
00:43:09.260her new attorney refers to her as money for the smear campaign and retaliation against
00:43:16.900something that never happened that was dismissed that there is no evidence of
00:43:21.380so what what were you smeared for what are people retaliating against if they're not guilty of the
00:43:28.700thing you accused them for to start with i know that's the question i've been asking so many times
00:43:33.260and i think the law is really you know it's very slippery slope they can twist and turn turn things
00:43:40.420around and the more you pay for your lawyers the more they'll do for you and i spoke to my lawyer
00:43:46.400today and i asked him you know would you do something like this you know go out and claim
00:43:51.320victory and he was like no way never this is so unethical what they just did saying that she
00:43:59.640she won these lawsuits and also i was just reminded of it wasn't even 13 claims at first
00:44:06.340it was 15 oh that's right yes because she dropped her two first claims of emotional distress she
00:44:12.820dropped them yeah because she didn't want to share her medical records had no evidence of it yeah
00:44:18.680so those two she dropped them i think in like august or september or something like that or
00:44:25.940maybe it was earlier but she dropped those two and then the judge dropped or dismissed 10 and
00:44:32.320then she dropped her last three and she won i mean i don't know what losing would look like for her
00:44:38.780if that's winning that's exactly right it's like what does defeat look like it's such a good
00:44:44.840analogy like okay you won i guess good job it's like the kid that you're afraid to get upset
00:44:51.760who keeps losing it whatever the family board game is and you're like oh no honey you actually
00:44:56.700won that's fine you're always letting them win yeah that is very please don't throw another
00:45:02.280tantrum oh my god do you have anything you want to add here at the end to the audience everyone
00:45:08.420here or most people here unless you were like i don't know but most people here really really
00:45:12.860love Justin and I heard you talk about him on other shows or podcasts about what an amazing
00:45:19.520person he is and what he did for homeless people in LA you were talking about and other things so
00:45:26.340what should people know about Justin that they don't know I'm really glad that I'm really glad
00:45:30.880to talk about my friend uh he's somebody that people are lucky to get the chance to know and
00:45:37.060And I can't say enough about how big his heart is and how legitimate he is.
00:45:45.300And I think it's very telling that when someone is very genuine about being of service and love, that an industry like Hollywood meets that very skeptically.
00:45:56.700and so I would say that I really hope people take the time to it sounds trite to say do your own
00:46:05.360research but like for real do your own research and just trace trace the steps of where Justin
00:46:12.860has come from and where he ended up and then you know make up your mind after you've dug in a little
00:46:21.300bit read his book and listen to some of his podcasts what is he talking about like he's a
00:46:26.860good dude yeah everyone i've heard speaking about him who ever worked with him except blake lively
00:46:33.360and the people she brainwashed around her says that he is such an amazing guy so kind and so
00:46:39.580generous and so he shows up completely yeah into whatever space he's in and he knows like
00:46:45.300how he comes across how he looks and he's very conscious of like not wielding that in any way
00:46:53.480you no one has ever expressed in my 20 years of knowing him and seeing him in different areas
00:46:58.680has ever expressed a feeling after meeting him that somehow he's wielding some sort of power
00:47:05.160or that he's manipulative in any way at all he is so genuine that this is i've said this before
00:47:11.220Or that his worst thing that he's guilty of is being a little cheesy about it.