The Michael Knowles Show - ＂It Went Completely Viral＂ Brett Cooper Talks Internet Drama & The Pendragon With Michael Knowles

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00:00:13.700 You know, ever since Brett Cooper left the Daily Wire, I have been forced to look

00:00:18.260 at Ben Shapiro. There was only a male Ben Shapiro left. The lady Ben Shapiro has been gone,

00:00:25.100 and which is very sad, obviously, for all of us. But I am joined now to talk not just about

00:00:29.400 the hit Daily Wire show, Pendragon Cycle, but also about Brett's viral tweet and a story that

00:00:34.760 I'm actually shocked to see come out of the New York Times regarding Haitian oregano,

00:00:39.600 jazz cigarettes, and spinach talking about pot. I'm joined by Brett Cooper. Brett, good to see you.

00:00:46.460 Hi, Michael. I'm happy to be here. It's nice to see the replacement Ben,

00:00:50.800 the Ben upgrade. This is excellent to see you in frame. So I actually, we have been seeing you

00:00:56.940 around here because Pendragon has come out. This show was 100,000 years in the making.

00:01:02.240 In a way, it actually was kind of thousands of years in the making because it's this medieval

00:01:05.180 epic. So the show's out now. I want to talk about it. I want to hear about how the show's

00:01:09.260 going on its release and the making of the show and the crazy accents and the horses and the bulls

00:01:14.720 and whatever. I want to hear about all of that. First, though, I want to talk about drugs because

00:01:20.440 you had this viral tweet that, you know, I knew a little bit about this from a while ago,

00:01:25.840 but it kind of broke through one of the biggest lies that the left has been promoting for my entire

00:01:32.580 life. And I'm at least five times older than you. And the lie was that pot is not bad for you.

00:01:38.740 And actually, it's really good for you. And there are no downsides and you can't be addicted to it.

00:01:43.600 And nothing bad happens. And, you know, you know, everything that we do on pot could bring

00:01:49.200 us world peace. And you tweet out this story from Politico reacting to the New York Times editorial

00:01:55.160 board, New York Times, which says it's time for America to admit that it has a marijuana problem

00:01:59.720 in which the New York Times admits they got pot wrong. And you said, my mom and I have been told

00:02:05.500 that my brother's psychosis, now full-blown diagnosed schizophrenia, is most likely drug-induced

00:02:12.060 from his years of smoking weed. This drug isn't harmless, no matter what our culture and screaming

00:02:17.020 people in comment sections tried to tell us. First of all, this admission from a doctor,

00:02:24.280 even that is kind of novel. You don't really hear about that. So what happened?

00:02:28.680 Yes. So I actually just put out an episode two hours ago talking about this tweet and talking about

00:02:34.380 this story. And it's interesting that this blew up yesterday. And I tweeted about that after the fact,

00:02:40.200 because you never really know what things are going to take off on X. And I'm very much like,

00:02:44.040 I post and then I turn off my phone. Like, I have my name muted on X. I do not like listen to what is

00:02:48.680 happening. And then suddenly I started getting all of these texts and seeing all of these replies and

00:02:53.080 comments and going, oh my gosh, this is really, you know, striking a chord with people. And it's funny

00:02:57.780 because this is something that I have shared before. I did a, you know, four hour, something like

00:03:02.200 that long interview with Sean Ryan early last year and talked at length about my brother's

00:03:07.460 situation, touched on drug use. So this is something that I've been very open about, but

00:03:11.800 obviously as the New York times is finally walking back their, you know, decades long assurance that

00:03:19.580 pot is harmless, that it's great that we should legalize it, that it will have no ramifications

00:03:22.780 on society. Obviously everybody is talking about this. So yes, my brother Reed, who I just adore,

00:03:28.460 he's 12 years older than me. Um, he, um, is like I said, diagnosed schizophrenic. He is not able to

00:03:36.240 function in society without medication. Um, and I say function, meaning he's completely unstable

00:03:43.880 without medication. And this has been going on for over a decade. Um, and one thing that I talk

00:03:49.440 about in my episode is that there are this connection between cannabis and psychosis is now

00:03:55.020 very well established going back to 2008, Michael, like before, you know, this drug was legalized in

00:04:00.760 many States, the NIH was saying, Hey, there is a risk here. There's a connection between cannabis and

00:04:04.980 psychosis. We knew that in 2008 and they basically shoved all of that down and said, Oh my gosh,

00:04:10.080 it's harmless. You can't get addicted to it. You can't get enough of it. You can drive, you do all

00:04:13.580 of this stuff. It's great. It's going to chill you out. It's going to be wonderful. And we basically

00:04:18.040 indoctrinated and lied to an entire society about this. So, um, again, we've known about this,

00:04:24.540 um, but there are many different ways that this psychosis can be triggered. And so that's what I talked

00:04:30.220 about in my episode is that, you know, this did come out of nowhere for my brother. He showed no

00:04:34.740 signs of mental illness prior to his psychosis. Um, this is not something that my family is

00:04:40.580 predisposed for. We have had problems with addiction in my family, which I've also talked about,

00:04:45.440 but serious, severe mental illness has not been a thing in our family. Um, and the other caveat that

00:04:54.140 I offered, and this is also something that is connected with cannabis is that, as you know,

00:04:59.080 I have a brother who died when I was very young and that brother is my brother Reed's identical twin

00:05:04.580 and Reed watched his identical twin pass away in front of him at 17 years old.

00:05:09.900 I didn't know they were twins. I actually, that part, I didn't know about it.

00:05:13.060 Yeah. So they were identical twins and he watched him have a cardiac arrest in front of him. And that's

00:05:18.300 an important caveat that I want to offer because Reed was already smoking pot around that time. He was,

00:05:24.680 you know, I would guess a dealer in high school. I was very young, but that was a part of his high

00:05:28.520 school experience. But in light of our brother's death and in light of his grief, he self-medicated

00:05:34.460 and he began smoking more and more and more. And so I want to offer that caveat because it wasn't

00:05:38.960 just like he was this happy, go lucky. Everything was great in his life. And he was smoking pot.

00:05:43.040 He already was dealing with massive grief and trauma with self-medicating with weed. And then from

00:05:50.040 there had psychosis. So that is a story that many people also have. There are also stories where it

00:05:54.920 just comes out of nowhere, literally, and you do not have any trauma and your brain is not already

00:05:58.260 broken by the grief of, you know, the death of your brother. And so there are many stories.

00:06:03.720 And so really I shared that post not to try to shame anybody or attack anyone, but just to say,

00:06:11.700 yeah, I have personal experience with this. This is something that my family has been dealing with

00:06:14.680 for years. I mean, we were talking about his drug use. We were talking about drug-induced

00:06:18.800 psychosis eight, 10 years ago when this first started with my brother. I was 12 years old,

00:06:24.860 I think, when his first psychotic break took place. And the doctors were very quick to say,

00:06:29.980 I think the first question was, what is his history with drug use? And so this is something

00:06:34.680 that does not feel abnormal to me. And so I just wanted to share that. And then when I realized that

00:06:39.700 it was going viral and I was looking at the comments, I was like, oh my gosh, people are so angry.

00:06:42.420 Like Michael, they get so triggered. And it's because they've been so conditioned to believe

00:06:47.700 that it is harmless. And I'm like, I'm not attacking you or your experience. I'm simply

00:06:53.700 saying we should be able to have an honest conversation about the realities and the risks

00:06:58.040 of this drug. It's not just something to be toyed with, it is a risk.

00:07:02.500 You're not allowed to say that. I almost never get, and maybe I don't get more pushback on any other

00:07:08.080 issue than when I point out that maybe the devil's lettuce isn't like the greatest thing in the world.

00:07:13.740 There's a meme going around right now because of this story. And in part, I think because of your

00:07:16.620 tweet, where, you know, if you talk to an alcoholic and you say, hey man, you're drinking too much.

00:07:21.520 It's screwing up your life. It's affecting people around you. Sometimes the alcoholic is going to get

00:07:25.660 angry and say, no, it's not. I got it under control. I can quit whenever I want. And sometimes the

00:07:30.100 alcoholic is going to say, yeah, you're right. I got to go to rehab. This is bad. And you get,

00:07:34.680 I don't know, maybe it's 50-50, somewhere in there. Not one regular marijuana user has ever

00:07:42.220 in the history of vegetation admitted that maybe it could possibly be a problem. There's so much

00:07:49.520 cope. There's so much denial. They say it's not an addiction. I saw even in the responses to your

00:07:54.600 tweet, people saying, no, no, what you don't understand is it was an underlying condition,

00:07:59.080 hereditary. It was genetics. The marijuana might've just brought it out a little bit,

00:08:02.780 but you just said, no, you don't have a history of that kind of mental illness in your family.

00:08:07.200 No, we do not. My brother is my half brother. And so there's a whole side of my family with my dad.

00:08:14.560 But in terms of my mom and my brother's father, there is nothing. And again, I want to offer that

00:08:19.480 caveat of we did have this traumatic event. And so that is part of my brother's story,

00:08:23.920 but that is not the case for many other people who endure this psychosis and then, you know,

00:08:29.520 end up having schizophrenia. There is a study that just came out in 2024 that says 41.3% of

00:08:35.360 young men specifically, young men are the ones who are most at risk. Young men who have a psychotic

00:08:41.260 episode due to their cannabis usage within three years, that turns into full-blown schizophrenia.

00:08:47.320 That's an insane number.

00:08:49.160 41.3%. And I'm sorry, not all of them watched their brother die. Like again, there might be

00:08:55.660 something that is, you know, predisposed. Again, it might be hereditary. I'm not ignoring any of

00:09:00.360 that. I'm offering that as an addition, but we should talk about these vulnerable populations

00:09:05.020 and acknowledge that there are risks before just plastering this drug everywhere, opening

00:09:09.500 vape stores on every corner, handing out, you know, weed pins to young people. We should talk about

00:09:16.100 those risks and be able to have an honest conversation. We do with alcohol. That's the point that I made in

00:09:19.880 my episode today is that, you know, alcoholism, it's something that carries a lot of shame and

00:09:25.600 it's very, I would say it's out in the open. It's very clear when somebody is an alcoholic. Again,

00:09:32.740 like you said, you know, alcoholics and people who are drinking, they go, yeah, I know it's poison.

00:09:36.200 Like if I go out and I have a margarita, I'm like, yeah, this is really bad for me. And we talk about it

00:09:39.980 as we're drinking the margaritas, we know that it is poison. But why is it when we just try to have

00:09:44.720 that same conversation and lay that foundation with cannabis that we all just get screamed at

00:09:50.740 from the laid back, you know, vegged out community? It's like they should be so chill. They're jumping

00:09:55.960 down my throat. Just on the point of the addiction, these are people who will wake and bake in some

00:10:01.700 cases. I mean, like every day, if you look, I think it's in the Times story. All day.

00:10:05.660 They'll do it all day, you know, because they have the vape pens, which have much higher THC than,

00:10:09.800 you know, your mom or grandma did in the 60s. And they'll do this every day. The number of

00:10:15.880 Americans who use pot 21 or more days per month, so effectively every day, has quadrupled, I think,

00:10:23.780 in the last 23 years. And they'll say, no, it's not an addiction. You cannot describe a habit that you

00:10:31.400 feel a compulsion to do every single day as anything other than an addiction. So anyway,

00:10:37.880 the Times says here, they say, look, yeah, we kind of got this wrong. We long supported marijuana

00:10:42.660 legalization. Much of what we wrote then holds up. It doesn't. But not all of it does. And then

00:10:49.060 they go on and they say, we predicted it would bring a few downsides, but it actually does. And

00:10:52.240 it's driving people crazy. And they're using it all the time. And it's led to addiction problems

00:10:56.240 and paranoia and psychosis and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then, of course, paragraph four,

00:11:01.300 they say, but America should not go back to prohibition to fix these problems. So basically,

00:11:05.540 they say, we were totally wrong. We called for legalization. We were completely wrong.

00:11:10.160 And we should learn nothing from that fact. And we should do absolutely nothing to correct

00:11:14.140 the errors. It's so, I'm really, I'm just really pleased that you're highlighting this

00:11:18.200 because it's so bad. As someone who, you know, I like a little Coca-Cola every now and again,

00:11:25.220 you know, a nice little scotch on the rocks maybe. I obviously love delicious Mayflower cigars.

00:11:29.720 I don't chain smoke 20 of them a day. You know, I have an evening cigar or, you know,

00:11:35.240 but nevertheless, we say, yeah, all these behaviors carry some risks. Here's the good

00:11:39.760 stuff they do. And I've never seen anyone benefit from habitual marijuana use. Maybe in some very rare

00:11:48.120 circumstances, people try it out in a kind of experimental trial for something like PTSD

00:11:53.600 and then get off it. And even there, like jury's still out, but like, okay, maybe. But for 99.9%

00:12:00.380 of people, the fact that you even mentioned your brother self-medicating because of this trauma,

00:12:04.720 that of course tells you, you know, your brother would have been much better for him had he had

00:12:10.020 talk therapy or had he been able to speak to a priest or something like that. Or, you know,

00:12:14.680 obviously it's not helpful to dull your pain and grief with some drug that just tries to push it

00:12:20.460 aside. Anyway, totally right. I could talk about this for like hours. I've just, I feel so, I'm

00:12:26.220 very sorry about the story with your brother. I feel so vindicated on the issue, which is such an

00:12:30.620 unpopular issue. You thank you. I feel. And it's, well, it's vindicating for my family as well. So I

00:12:35.460 had, you know, people commenting and saying, oh, I'm so sorry that you're, you know, going through this

00:12:38.980 and that you're sharing it. I'm like, I'm happy to share it because at least people are listening and

00:12:42.960 could learn from it. Like me putting this out there again, not attacking people who want to take

00:12:47.700 their gummies, whatever, not my cup of tea. I think it's, you know, ruining your brain. 0.58

00:12:52.880 But if you want to do that, that's fine. But I do, again, it's about having an honest

00:12:56.540 conversation and assessing the risks and making sure we're not lying to young people.

00:12:59.840 Yeah, that's right.

00:13:01.800 Like don't, please don't, pardon the kind of vulgar image, but it's like, don't urinate on

00:13:06.480 my leg and tell me it's raining. Like if you want to do drugs, just be open about it and we can talk

00:13:11.280 about it and maybe there's some excuse to do it or maybe not. Go to preborn.com slash Knowles,

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00:14:27.560 K-N-A-W-L-E-S, preborn.com slash Knowles. You know what you should do if you're feeling stressed out

00:14:32.660 and if you want to relax a little bit. A much healthier thing you can do than induce psychosis

00:14:37.780 in yourself is watch Brett Cooper in the Pendragon cycle. Do we have, we have a trailer, right,

00:14:43.100 of Brett in Pendragon? All right, let's see it.

00:14:47.740 I am Kustenin, king of Gotha and Kelithon. You've met my daughter, Ganyeda.

00:14:53.200 Ganyeda. My father likes you, wolf boy. You're welcome here.

00:15:06.800 Stay. The Pendragon cycle, Rise of the Merlin, premieres January 22nd, only on Daily Wire Plus.

00:15:14.480 It actually already premiered, by the way, but the rest of that trailer was terrific.

00:15:18.100 I am angry about one thing in Pendragon, which is that I visited Hungary twice, I think,

00:15:25.380 during the pre-production and the production of it. Just oddly enough, I had speeches and

00:15:29.980 engagements and things there, and all I wanted was to be disemboweled in some battle scene. I

00:15:34.640 just wanted one seven-second cameo where I'm beheaded or something, and they never gave it to

00:15:40.140 me. I'm very upset about that, but I'll tell you. Well, Matt did too. Matt Walsh did too. I remember

00:15:44.560 being in the break room with you guys prior to even leaving Hungary, and Matt was like,

00:15:47.960 how do I get an audition? How do I be a soldier or whatever?

00:15:51.900 And Matt was really cultivating his... I sort of got cured of the acting bug. Matt is just

00:15:56.720 catching the acting bug. Ever since he took on the character in Am I Racist, he really... I know,

00:16:02.200 poor Matt hardest hit. When I saw the first cut of this, I didn't know what to expect,

00:16:09.020 because conservatives don't make content like this, and it's just absurdly ambitious,

00:16:14.960 and it's just insane, right? And I was very pleased that they picked this kind of a property,

00:16:19.940 because I was afraid they were going to do Atlas Shrugged or something, which all the conservatives

00:16:23.600 from the past 30 years, they love that. Ayn Rand is awful, and that story is awful.

00:16:28.300 That book should be burned. I'm totally in favor of book burning for that book.

00:16:31.880 And so then they picked this great, epic, medieval, Christian, Arthurian kind of tale.

00:16:37.900 Very, very cool, but I thought, can they pull it off? And I think it landed. You're seeing reviews

00:16:42.700 of Pendragon, even from people who don't like Daily Wire, even from people who don't like

00:16:46.980 conservatives or Donald Trump or whatever, and they're saying, it's good. So what's your take

00:16:52.640 on... You were actually there slogging through the marshes of Estregom or wherever you were.

00:16:57.740 What was it like making it? It was fun. And I will say, you made a great point about it

00:17:03.640 reaching so many people. I was just watching a clip of Rogan talking about it. Anyway,

00:17:08.020 so it's reaching new heights, and yeah, and they were having a whole conversation about how

00:17:11.780 you can find TV anywhere now, and it's not just the big studios making it, and you're not just

00:17:19.640 finding it on cable, and there are so many different creative ways to make content now.

00:17:23.240 And they were saying, and we have to acknowledge the people on the right who are doing this

00:17:28.220 because it is good, and it has great substance. So yeah, it was a wonderful experience. I grew up

00:17:36.260 acting, as you know, and had not really dipped my toe back into it. And they were like, Brett,

00:17:42.760 you're going to go do this. And I was like, all right. And it was tons of fun, and it reminded

00:17:47.480 me why I love storytelling and why I love filmmaking. And so it was invigorating just for

00:17:54.960 myself personally, because that was something that I had walked away from because I just knew that

00:17:58.360 I did not want that to be my actual career. I did not want to have to rely on Hollywood to provide

00:18:03.840 for a family ever. And so it was nice to be able to go back to that purely just out of the love for it

00:18:10.560 and to enjoy it and to support good people in a project that I believed in. And yeah, it was

00:18:16.380 wonderful. The cast, Michael, is incredible because it is almost all people who are relatively unknown

00:18:22.440 who this was, you know, their first big project. And because of that, when you have a cast that is

00:18:28.960 relatively new, and I don't mean new that they've like never acted before, but this is like, you know,

00:18:32.800 their first big meaty role, or they're carrying a show for the first time like Tom Sharp was,

00:18:36.740 they care so much. And it's not just like any other project, but it's like, no, this is

00:18:42.680 it. Yeah. And I'm going to put blood, sweat, and tears into this. We know we have to make it good.

00:18:47.420 And so being in that environment was really special because everybody truly was just 100% committed.

00:18:52.620 And it's just a special experience doing any kind of, I would say, creative production. And you know

00:18:59.520 this too, like when you're working on a play or a musical or a film or a TV show, you're kind of

00:19:04.480 insulated in this bubble with your cast and you become a family and you get to know each other

00:19:08.680 really well, especially if you all really care about the project. And so I got to know so many

00:19:12.780 great people. I met one of my best friends while working on the show, Rose Reed, who actually wrote

00:19:18.120 my big episode, which is 106, which I think is coming out next week or this week. Next week,

00:19:23.260 because they're on 105 now. And so she wrote my episode and she is a brilliant writer and was an

00:19:30.000 amazing person to collaborate with. And we became very good friends. So yeah, it was a wonderful

00:19:33.000 experience and a great way to spend a few months in Hungary. Yeah. I remember on that point of just

00:19:38.340 like this pressure cooker, kind of magical land where you're totally insulated. I remember years

00:19:43.940 and years ago, I was a student, I was doing a play and I ran into Brad Dourif and who's a great actor,

00:19:50.460 has had an amazing career, you know, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and, you know, everything since

00:19:54.260 then. And we were talking about it because to do a project like that is so all-consuming. You know,

00:20:01.720 it's, it really, it kind of puts you in this other universe. And we were complaining about it,

00:20:07.060 another actor and I, and Dourif, who's, you know, been around forever, he said, ah, to me,

00:20:12.880 it's just like summer camp. You know, I just like, you could tell he just still so loved it. So then,

00:20:16.920 but this leads to my next question, which is now your circumstances have totally changed. You know,

00:20:21.440 you have a child, you have goats, I'm told you have, you know, like these animals that have to be

00:20:26.920 milked or I don't, I don't really know what one does to an animal other than eat them. But you

00:20:31.280 know, your, your life circumstances are so different from this kind of like magical la-la

00:20:35.760 land that you have if you're in a movie or a play or something. So you say it was great to be in this

00:20:40.300 creative endeavor again for love of it. You know, that's what amateur means. It's like to do something

00:20:43.800 for the love of it, not just for commercial gain. Are you still afflicted by the acting bug? Will

00:20:51.180 there be some other role that you're pursuing? Or do you say, no, I'm cured. I'm done. We did this

00:20:55.900 epic, huge show. It's awesome. And I'm done. I don't know. You know, I don't know if I will ever

00:21:01.880 be cured of it. It's so funny. Do you know Cody Johnson, the singer? He actually, he's the one

00:21:07.420 that Kid Rock covered at the halftime show. He did an amazing documentary a few years ago. And I

00:21:13.580 actually, it's called, um, deer rodeo. And his whole story is that he, um, was a cowboy in his past

00:21:21.060 life. And then everyone else around him, you know, they leaned into that, that became their careers.

00:21:26.840 They became these huge rodeo stars and he was still kind of like slogging along, but he also

00:21:31.620 knew that he loved music. And so he was doing both. And he finally decided just to lean fully into

00:21:35.300 music. He was broke for many years when he and his wife had just gotten married. And then finally his

00:21:40.660 career takes off. And so this documentary is taking you through his career and his story. And he's now this

00:21:47.120 huge, huge country musician. One of my very, very favorites writes incredible music is an amazing

00:21:52.280 storyteller. You would think, you know, Oh, you have all of the things that you want in the world.

00:21:56.580 You should be so happy. And he has this song called deer rodeo. And he's talking about, even with all of

00:22:01.500 this, I still think back to my first love. And it's like, there's always going to be that itch there.

00:22:06.300 And it's like, I just wish that I could do that. Or there's still, you know, part of me that loves it.

00:22:11.140 And so I remember watching that documentary years ago, and it didn't come out years and years ago,

00:22:16.900 but like two or three years ago and thinking, you know, that that's very much how I feel. I grew up

00:22:23.040 acting. I dedicated my entire childhood and young adult life to acting. I love it. There's very little

00:22:31.080 that I love more than storytelling. And that would be having a family and having control over my life.

00:22:37.240 Um, yeah, exactly. Being able to dictate my own career and drive the ship and not be,

00:22:46.200 you know, whipped around like you are in Hollywood. So I will always love it. And I

00:22:51.440 want, you know, art to continue to grow and get better. So I love seeing projects like

00:22:57.180 Pendragon come and take the world by storm, um, and be created. I want to see Hollywood produce

00:23:01.800 great things that are not atrocious, like the new Wuthering Heights. I want to see great stories

00:23:06.040 being told. Um, and if I can play a part in that, then great. But I also am able to scratch my itch

00:23:12.740 by doing my show because I feel like I get to sit in front of a camera. I get to connect with an

00:23:16.540 audience, which is one of the reasons why I loved acting. Um, and I get to tell stories. I get to

00:23:20.720 weave stories and tell those in a creative way every single day. So I get to scratch the itch, but

00:23:24.460 I think I'll always love it. So I don't know. I think it would have to be unique situations where,

00:23:30.360 um, where it's the right project and the right timing, because it is hard. You know, you have

00:23:35.500 responsibilities, you have a family, you have child now, and you can't just, I don't want to

00:23:40.200 be one of those people that just leaves it all and walks away. Cause that's really what turned me

00:23:44.920 off about this industry so many years ago is I was a young person and I was watching these adults that

00:23:50.160 were, you know, coworkers of mine that I considered mentors and friends. And I would watch them leave

00:23:55.340 their families for three or four months at a time. Um, and their kids would go off to boarding school

00:23:59.540 cause they were shooting, you know, the huge hit TV show. They were shooting like, I had a good

00:24:02.980 friend on breaking bad. And so her entire family had to move to New Mexico, New Mexico, but then 0.96

00:24:07.160 her kids would go back to school in LA. And it was just, that just wasn't the life that I saw for

00:24:11.440 myself. And so I'm very grateful that I've carved out something that is on my own terms that I'm

00:24:16.000 getting to dictate. And so if I get to do projects like this, I'll be so happy and I will revel in it.

00:24:21.420 But, um, yeah, it's kind of a dear rodeo Cody, uh, Cody Johnson situation. I would say.

00:24:26.680 I totally get it because even very successful actors, I mean, Academy Award nominees and

00:24:33.060 winners, even like top of the profession, a lot of them have very tough lives, you know,

00:24:39.400 and it's not that industry, especially after the collapse of the studio system where no one

00:24:43.720 has a normal job anymore. It, it is not conducive to happiness. And you know, it's funny. I say that

00:24:50.300 I'm the only guy in the history of the theater going back to ancient Greece who ever got cured of

00:24:54.840 the acting bug. I'm like totally, I really, but, but I did enjoy that. I mean, I was, when I was a

00:25:00.080 student, I loved directing opera. I liked translating plays. I liked acting. I liked music, still love all

00:25:06.300 that. And I love it. But I remember I was talking to a professor of mine who was a Dante scholar and

00:25:12.280 I was trying to decide, I knew I enjoyed theater and arts and things. I knew ultimately I wanted to

00:25:18.300 be in politics. That was kind of always the end goal. But I, for the intermediate, I really liked

00:25:23.520 all of those endeavors. And I asked it to him and he was a very, very serious scholar. And he said,

00:25:28.240 ah, Megaluzzo, you know, when I was a boy, I wanted to be an actor. And I said, really? Oh,

00:25:33.940 did you ever pursue that? He goes, I told my mother and she pointed to the door. She said,

00:25:38.340 there's the door. If you're going to be an actor, ecco la porta. And I said, oh, that's kind of,

00:25:42.760 it's very Italian. It's from this very tiny town in the South. And I said, do you ever regret that? 1.00

00:25:47.540 Do you ever regret not having made that your career? And he said, hey, Megaluzzo, I used to

00:25:53.800 be an actor. Now I am the real thing. And I thought it was such a beautiful, which you're

00:25:58.820 describing, you know, having a family, having goats, whatever, you know, doing your show where

00:26:02.520 you can speak about these real issues. In a way you're, you're kind of the real thing and you get

00:26:05.980 to scratch that itch, you know, on the side. And I think of it every day. I wouldn't have any other

00:26:10.800 job right now than the job I have, but I was born to play ukulele. You know, if only I might,

00:26:16.840 that's my itch. That's my, I got to scratch that itch on my, but you do the show, you do the day

00:26:20.960 job anyway. Well, look, it's obviously been a huge success, Pendragon. And anyone who has not seen it

00:26:28.080 yet, anyone who is not going to see Brett in Pendragon, you go right now, you download the app

00:26:33.800 on your phone, on your television, on your radio, on your gramophone, on whatever device you have.

00:26:40.980 Download the Daily Wire app, subscribe, follow me, follow Michael. And the next thing you do

00:26:46.480 is go, obviously, forget about the other guys, and then go watch Pendragon. Go join the many,

00:26:52.460 many people have joined Pendragon to see Brett and all of the other excellent performers in it.

00:26:57.120 Brett, excellent to see you, both in Pendragon and here.

00:27:01.220 Yes, great to see you too. I'm happy to be reunited.

The Michael Knowles Show - February 12, 2026

＂It Went Completely Viral＂ Brett Cooper Talks Internet Drama & The Pendragon With Michael Knowles

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