Tavond Francis: From Athlete to Actor

Ever wondered what it’s like to leap from the world of football to the realm of film? That's exactly what Tavond Francis did, and he's here to share his riveting story. As an actor and former college athlete, Tavond was encouraged by his parents towards theater from a young age. Ignoring it for sports, he'd eventually stumble upon acting during a break from school and it soon took center stage. His journey is filled with excitement, including a background stint in AMC’s Into the Badlands that set the wheels of his acting career in motion.
 
 But Tavond's story is more than a rookie-to-actor transformation. He peels back the curtain on the technical side of his craft, offering valuable nuggets on script breakdown, character embodiment, and adding a personal touch to roles. The guys talk about how techniques learned from Jim Gleason and Sanford Meisner acting schools have shaped their approach to crafting characters. Tavond has a growing interest in stunt work and would love to add that layer to his craft. What's more, he shares delightful anecdotes about working with Peyton and Eli Manning, and his thoughts on work-life balance are refreshingly candid.
 
 Tavond is not one to sugarcoat. He delves into the highs and lows of the industry, stressing the significance of a positive attitude amidst challenges and tough decisions. With tales of switching agencies and sacrifices, he underscores the need for focus and staying grounded. His dream of working in a Tarantino movie and his top five actors he’d love to work with hints at his aspirations. If you're keen on grasping the intricate dynamics of the film industry, this conversation with Tavond is a must-listen. Hear about his journey, acting techniques, and much more, in a conversation that is as inspiring as it is informative.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Everybody starts from somewhere. That's what I would. I would love for people to know.

Speaker 2: 0:14

Hello, welcome to the Nola film scene with TJ Play-Doh. I'm TJ and, as always, I'm Play-Doh. Hey, we're here with Tayvon. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 1: 0:24

I'm Tayvon Francis. I am an actor. I've been doing it, seriously been doing acting, for about five years, coming up on five years now. Yeah, I'm a college dropout, I am a former college athlete and, as of now, I am a screen printer and trying to chase my dreams of being an actor Excellent.

Speaker 3: 0:41

Nice, what was your sport?

Speaker 1: 0:43

I played football. Yeah, I played football.

Speaker 3: 0:45

That's what I thought. Now, when you lean back, I can see the football on your shirt.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the Kent State and one of my best friends with the school, so I always try to represent all my friends and, whenever I get a chance of football, representing football players and all that good stuff, nice.

Speaker 2: 1:02

I was in the band.

Speaker 1: 1:04

I wish I. I wish I could play a musical instrument. That's like one of my dreams. That's such a talent that I do not possess, but I wish I did it's it's, it's to be musically inclined is is such a blessing. It's amazing. I wish I had that talent.

Speaker 2: 1:18

I wish I had your physicality. I struggled with. I struggled with the beach ball, I mean my weight. But you know it's all good.

Speaker 1: 1:26

I'm not a college athlete anymore, so I'm struggling myself. So you're not alone in that.

Speaker 2: 1:32

I promise I'm not a high school musician either. So we're all good. We're all good, perfect. We seem to only talk about this. But, tavon, I believe we met in the circle exercise.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Yeah, both.

Speaker 2: 1:43

I met both of y'all in the circle exercise, that's right, jim needs to sponsor us, because that's all we talk about.

Speaker 3: 1:51

I think it's amazing. Yeah, it promoted him a few, few episodes now. In fact, I think you and I did a scene together, right?

Speaker 1: 1:58

This was my, my second class, and I believe my second scene was with you, yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:03

And, like the strike, where we can't talk about struck projects, we can't really talk about what goes on in the circle, yeah, secret.

Speaker 1: 2:09

That's right, Just so every actor should do it 100%.

Speaker 3: 2:12

I recommend it yeah you want to know what what happens in the circle exercise, go, take it.

Speaker 1: 2:18

Exactly.

Speaker 3: 2:19

Exactly, you'll see what all the hype is about. It's what on camera.

Speaker 2: 2:22

Acting is all about without being 100%, 100%.

Speaker 3: 2:28

That's the tag line.

Speaker 2: 2:30

I think our big question, tavon and I like finding this out from our friends how did you get started? You know a lot of us started in background or stand in and then we'll go from there. So how did you get started that way?

Speaker 1: 2:40

So, since I was young, I've always been pushed by my parents. They were like you should do, you should do theater, you should do plays and stuff like that in the school. But, like I said, I was an athlete and that's always what I was just focused on. So I always heard that. Since I was eight, nine years old and one summer when I was off from college, I believe this is 2015.

Speaker 1: 2:59

So this is eight years ago I had a summer off from college and I started doing background work. I remember my first background gig like it was yesterday. It was for Into the Badlands on AMC and we had the background. We had some of the best costumes I've ever seen for background. It was like old style and I had like leather boots on and like old brown leather pants and it was. It looked amazing. And so I did that and that was like my first time seeing the house and in them, how film works, and I was like, okay, this is, this is pretty cool.

Speaker 1: 3:27

And so, since I was in school for another two years, three years after that, I would just do background work in the summer, but once I officially left college, I was like, okay, I don't know what I'm going to do and I was just kind of like those few months, that first months out of school, I was lost.

Speaker 1: 3:45

I was like I don't know what I'm going to do. And sure enough, my sister, she's been acting and modeling longer than I and she's my, she's my baby sister and honestly she's she's amazing and she's, like I said, she's been doing it longer than me. The woman who is part, like she's like a family friend, that she's an actress and she's like a coach. She saw me and she was like hey, you have a unique look. Have you ever thought about acting? And I'm like I mean yeah, but not really. Honestly, that is pretty much how it started right there. I started. I got an agent like a week or two after she told me that and I started doing auditions and it's yeah, so that's what it's been doing it for the past five years now.

Speaker 2: 4:24

Wow, nice you hit the goal with the agent.

Speaker 1: 4:26

We've been asking people.

Speaker 2: 4:29

we've been asking people oh, what inspired you to make the jump from background to trying for those speaking parts? You're like I'm just going to do it.

Speaker 1: 4:36

Like I said, I had really never, really even thought about until it's brought to me and I was like, oh, like this is, it seems unattainable if you don't know better. So so, looking at it, I like I said I would have never thought just doing background work, like, oh, this is cool, like this is. But yeah, once I got the agent and then that's when I was able to, you know, start auditioning and really see the ins and out on how the industry works, that's that's where it's like, well, like it's totally different from background work. The 100%.

Speaker 3: 5:02

Yeah, it really is same. Same for me. I didn't think I was doing background and I didn't think that it was attainable. I didn't think it was something I could do. I never had any kind of expectation when I was doing background that I was going to get discovered or whatever. I just thought, well, I didn't think that I had it. Then, you know, I would have. It would have been figured out much earlier in life. So I didn't really think about it.

Speaker 3: 5:25

And then on set, one time a guy that I'm I'm still friends with to this day was a principal day player. In between scenes he said, hey, have you thought about it? And he started encouraging me and he told me and go get headshots, professional head, you know, professional headshots for acting. Start taking acting lessons and start learning about it that way. And he gave me a reading list of some books and I started reading, started taking classes and went from there. Anybody that tells themselves that it's not attainable. They should change their frame of mind because it is you just 100%. You just do it. You just start doing it. You start taking classes and start learning.

Speaker 1: 6:02

Everybody starts from somewhere. That's what I would. I would love for people to know. You know bodies is very, very, very rare. You're just going to jump into it and be like, oh, here's a speaking rule. Everyone has to start from somewhere. 100%. Don't ever be discouraged If that's what you want to do, because, like you said, if you think it's unattainable, you're going to, it's going to become that. If you just think that, then once you finally come out and then go chase it, then then you start to see it's possible 100%.

Speaker 2: 6:26

Yeah, you was saying unattainable, and it made me flash on a memory which I haven't thought about in a couple of years, and I was about 13. This production company came to New Orleans and New Orleans was not big in the industry like it is now. So they put out a call and, like, my mom went there and signed up my friend tonight, but you had to pay to get your kid in and she came back. So y'all got the job. Yay. And that night on the news, productions company company is a scam, devastating. Yeah. And not only did I feel bad for me, I just in my accidentally cheated my mom out of money. You know what I mean. And looking back on that now I can see how that kept me from even ever trying to investigate. It's unattainable. You know, didn't realize it, though that's something when it, when it came around town and Kevin Smith got in his movie, then I was like, oh, this is fun. Oh, that's more. You know I was Jones and Ford.

Speaker 3: 7:11

That's a good public service announcement. If an agent or management team tells you that you need to pay to play, that you need to pay them to get into it, it's a scam and you'll see them advertised on social media every so often. There's one out of New York that advertises pretty regularly. You got to pay to sign up with them and then they'll promote you. You pay them. No, that's not how it works. I don't understand. You go get your experience, get your reels. You get your headshots from a photographer. You don't pay an agent for work. The agent finds you work after you've had some experience.

Speaker 3: 7:44

Yeah, commision, that's right, exactly that's right. They take a percentage of what you earn and not feel around, and there's a whole bunch of different scams.

Speaker 2: 7:51

Yeah, there's like that one. Do you want your kid in movies? Our kids have been in all the Disney stuff. I don't know if it's a scam. I can't tell you about everyone. You have to look at each one by itself. Easy for me to say oh yeah, you want to be in my movie. Yeah, it's no, they pay you, it is a job. The wasted time drives me out of my mind.

Speaker 2: 8:11

I was 13 and I'm 53. So that's 40 years wasted. You know, maybe 35. But if I had started early, I wouldn't be where I am now. I know I'm just starting, but I wouldn't be the person I am now and I probably couldn't have handled it. So for me it all worked out, but it's still like oh my.

Speaker 1: 8:26

God, what a waste of time. No, I exactly know how you feel 100%.

Speaker 3: 8:30

Cool. I'm just curious what position did you play in football?

Speaker 1: 8:34

I was a wide receiver, got good hands. I can catch.

Speaker 3: 8:37

Nice, yeah, I was a lineman. You played lineman, I did which. What position.

Speaker 2: 8:43

I was a lineman in Pee Wee football.

Speaker 3: 8:47

So I was a defensive lineman, I was a down lineman, I played a little bit of defensive end.

Speaker 1: 8:51

Okay, and then that's supposed to get dirty down there yeah.

Speaker 3: 8:53

You know, I wasn't really big enough, I wasn't really fast enough. I was strong enough but was not fast, and walked on in college. I stayed out for spring training, my freshman year, and I could have stayed. I could have had a spot on the team if I had stayed. But I had a job and I knew that I probably wasn't going to be good enough to be a starter and get a scholarship and it was a balance I decided not to pursue it. After that it was a blast. I had a great time in spring training and the guys on the team were you know, they were really cool, I got along with them and a lot of fun. But you know, work-life balance and probably not having the skills and ability to go further than that, I made the decision to step away and not pursue it further.

Speaker 1: 9:35

I too, I was a walk-on and I 100% understand. It's a totally different world compared to people on scholarship. You're doing everything that they're doing, but you're paying to do it, so it's a different animal, and so it's not easy by any standard. So just the fact that you were able to get to that position is a testament in itself, so that's impressive nonetheless.

Speaker 3: 9:58

Yeah, thank you. We're treading carefully with a sag strike that's going on as we're currently recording this. Do you have any projects that you can talk about that aren't restricted by that?

Speaker 1: 10:08

I haven't done anything sag-wise lately, but recently I did do two commercials. I did the Hawaiian Sweet Rolls commercial with Peyton and Eli. I did that.

Speaker 3: 10:20

And the very next week.

Speaker 1: 10:22

Yeah, well, that was a cool experience to see them film with them. And then the next week, crazy story, because while I was filming for that, they were like I got a message like, hey, you got an audition, but it's due today, and I'm like, oh well, I can't do it, I'm filming. And it was like well, my mom's, because she helps me out with stuff when I'm busy and stuff like that. So she was like, well, I can just submit an old audition that fits the criteria for this audition, we'll see. I said, okay, well, that won't work.

Speaker 1: 10:49

Didn't think none of it Because, like I said, it's just another, like here, just submit this type thing. And I get to call it in the day and I was like, hey, you booked. I'm like, well, so I booked that. It was a racetrack, it was a racetrack commercial, and I had to drive to Birmingham, alabama, and I filmed that and that was really cool, really cool filming. They had me like on a dolly and they kind of have it. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's like kind of see like the background in the sky and I'm just kind of eating eating breakfast sandwiches like on a little dolly.

Speaker 1: 11:16

So yeah so that was really cool. So that's the two things I've done recently and I've had a few auditions here and there, but for the most part those are the two like big things I've done in the past month or so, month or two. Yeah, no, it's pretty really good I'm able to stay busy while this strike is going on, because I know it's rough road. It's rough for everybody just to be able to work during this time. I'm lucky, Cool yeah for sure.

Speaker 3: 11:36

I met Eli once, no, peyton, I met Peyton once back in the early days when I was still in the military. Early early on I had a side job work and security. We worked events, sporting events, nightclubs, some some personal protection and back then he was playing for the Colts and I was in San Diego. So I worked on the field and a friend of mine's older brother was there was a whole bunch of Navy guys that worked there. His older brother was one of the supervisors. He was kind of high up in the company and he gave me a push detail.

Speaker 3: 12:10

My job was to guard the instant replay machine and I only had to really do anything If there was a replay. I had to keep the press back. If they had, if the ref had to get into the machine and look at it, everybody else had to stand and face the crowd and watch. They couldn't watch the game. I could watch the game, I could watch the crowd. I had a little bit of freedom to move around. But the second part of that job I had to escort the visiting coach off the field. Me and one other guy had to escort him off the field to the locker room to help keep press or anybody back if he didn't want to stop and talk to anybody. So it was Mora, jim Mora, oh.

Speaker 1: 12:46

Jim Mora, okay, he used to be.

Speaker 3: 12:47

He used to be the Saints coach, right? So he was the coach at the time. I escorted him off and just inside the locker room and I turned around to come back out and I ran smack into. I think he was number 18. Yeah, he's the middle of the shoulder. Pads hit me right in the face and he stopped and looked down. He's like, oh sorry, bud, and he patted me on the shoulder and went up out his way.

Speaker 1: 13:10

That's crazy.

Speaker 3: 13:12

Yeah, super nice, sorry, bud.

Speaker 1: 13:14

Yeah, no, he was Eastie. He's tall and he's a nice guy. I didn't know you served you in the Navy.

Speaker 3: 13:20

Yeah, I started in the Navy, then I switched to the Coast Guard.

Speaker 1: 13:23

Okay, okay, well, thank you for your service. My dad was a Navy. My dad's a Navy veteran as well, so and he was seaside station in San Diego before. So it's a hard San Diego and Navy. It totally made sense.

Speaker 3: 13:33

Nice. Well, thank your dad for his service. Thank you, I appreciate that.

Speaker 2: 13:36

David, I was sitting here thinking of a question and you're learning of acting. What would you tell someone? Either a who's never done what we do or is just starting. What is like one of the keys to breaking down a script or something that you found. That was such an enlightening moment. You were like, oh, that when you share this with them, it'll just blow their minds.

Speaker 1: 13:56

Oh, that's a good question. Let me think.

Speaker 2: 13:59

Nope, gotta do it. No, I'm just kidding. No thinking. No thinking, it's not in, bro Brian.

Speaker 1: 14:04

I'll use an example. For me that helped me is my biggest audition I've ever had. I still think about it to this day it was. Since it's a long pass, I can talk about it. I auditioned for Outer Banks on Netflix and it was a lot of dialogue.

Speaker 1: 14:20

For me, my biggest thing was one getting the character, learning as much as I can about the character in that and what they give me. Also, this had a lot of important little details on how to deliver the line per se. What I would do is deliver, record myself delivering that line and do it different ways. For me, I would take in what I felt was best for me. I feel like once you recite it and you hear yourself reciting it over and over again, for me, that helped me out a lot. That's my biggest thing when it comes to breaking down a script.

Speaker 1: 14:56

For me Also, I've learned a lot from Jim as well. I like what he said when his biggest thing is you're not playing a character. This is you in an alternate universe or another universe. When you really put your feet in that character and you become that character, I feel like it's easier, In my opinion. I think it definitely helps out a lot when you try to be something, you have to think about it, but when you're just that, I feel like it comes more natural to you.

Speaker 2: 15:23

Right, yeah, yeah, that's all in the prep work, building your history, 100%, 100% Thinking about it for doing homework, which I always hated.

Speaker 1: 15:30

Exactly Hitting that minutia. That's exactly how I attack it.

Speaker 2: 15:32

Then, when you walk in the room for your scene or addition, you let it go and you're just that person.

Speaker 1: 15:37

That's exactly how I do it to tackle homework.

Speaker 3: 15:40

Saying about that that always stuck with me is from Meisner acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. You just have to find your own truth. That particular scene, whatever that scene is about. It's not difficult to come up with something relatable to pretty much any kind of character. Everybody's experienced some kind of trauma. Everybody's experienced some kind of joy, some kind of sadness. You just have to find something that fits that and find your truth and that Imagine yourself in that person's shoes.

Speaker 1: 16:12

Yeah, exactly, that helps me a lot when I haven't had to do many super emotional or sad roles. But, just like you said, using stuff from my past that I've been through helped me put out a audition for a more serious and more sad role. That really did help me. Just like you said, using stuff that happened to me in my life that I went through and putting it out as that person for that audition definitely helped me.

Speaker 3: 16:38

Yeah, have you done or thought about doing any stunt work?

Speaker 1: 16:43

Yes, I would love to, because my favorite kind of movies are action movies. I would love to do that. I've only done one class In regards to that. I did a weapons handling movie course and that was fun. I had so much fun and I would love to. We did a little bit of combat stuff hand in combat stuff and how to blot, how to move and then handle, like I said, handling firearms. I would love to. My dream is to be in a movie, of course, and do my own stunts. I would love to do that. That's a great question. Like I said, my favorite movies are like super action packed films, so I would love to do that Nice.

Speaker 2: 17:26

That's cool. I'd love to take a gun course, a weapons course. I took a theatrical combat class in the last year. Oh, that was awesome. They put a sword in an old D&D kid's hand.

Speaker 3: 17:36

It was it was fun, so I took it at the level that sounds fun.

Speaker 2: 17:39

Yeah, I didn't take certification, so it was a rapier, a bastard, sword, knife, unarmed, fighting, dual-bladed. It was a trip, it was tough. You know what I mean, because you think, okay, I'm swinging a sword, that's not too hard. Eight hour days and I was hurt In temple, shape anyway.

Speaker 1: 17:53

But to say when you see it on screen, it's for, however, 30, 30 seconds, minute, two minutes and then. But you got to realize you got to do this all day. You have to do that all day. That reminds me of a commercial I did. It wasn't combat, but just that made me. I was doing yoga. Right, my commercial. I have about 10 seconds of time on this commercial. I did yoga for three hours. It was painful and I was like God, it's hard work, this is hard work, and but it was so fun so I couldn't imagine I would love to take like a class, just like that. That would be so fun, had you done any yoga before that.

Speaker 1: 18:30

No, not a lick. So it's funny, because that's what they were looking for. Like I did my callback and they were like like do this position and do this position. I'm like, oh God, I'm not gonna like, I'm not gonna get it, but it was like at the end it was like well, we loved it. We're kind of looking for someone that doesn't know what they're doing, so that was one of the first times that worked out in my favor not knowing, wow, that's cool, Cool cool, cool.

Speaker 3: 18:51

Yeah, I think. I think I'd be in trouble if I had to do yoga.

Speaker 1: 18:57

It was. It was rough. I got my monies for it. I'll tell you that for sure.

Speaker 2: 19:01

We had to do stretching for that class every day. 20 minutes.

Speaker 1: 19:04

I can imagine.

Speaker 2: 19:05

By the end of the week I was okay. Yeah, I'm old and hurt.

Speaker 1: 19:09

And that's like stretching is play such a big part in, you know, not getting injured and feeling better after your grueling days and stuff like that, so I'd imagine that helped out a lot.

Speaker 3: 19:19

I filmed an independent couple months back and I knew there was going to be a little bit of physicality to the role. And I asked my coach I don't have a prayer for that he said do some yoga, do some stretching, do some yoga, get your core strong, use to it. Because I was going to have to take like a body check from a guy and we had to put him up against the wall a few times. And for the younger you know, the younger guys it was not not that big of a deal, but I'm a little bit older. So it was. It was challenging, it was physically challenging, but it was a fun scene.

Speaker 1: 19:48

That sounds something I would like to do. Just getting into that right there, that's awesome.

Speaker 3: 19:52

Yeah, it was. It was a fun scene. I can't wait, can't wait for it to come out.

Speaker 1: 19:56

Oh no, I can't wait to see it now. I'm kind of excited that you said that.

Speaker 2: 19:59

I want more questions. I want to dive deep into your soul man.

Speaker 1: 20:02

Hey, dive away, I'm here.

Speaker 2: 20:04

And, of course, trying to dance around projects and can't talk about structure, can't talk about future things. How do we do this? So if you can think about a point, maybe it wasn't that bad for you. Your lowest point, where you're like what the hell am I doing, trying to be an actor and I'll give you an example of mine. In Jim Gleason's class and we just talked about this with somebody there are three levels of his application Premier, Intermediate, Advanced. And I made it up to Intermediate and I stuck there for like a year and a half and of course I want to be an actor and I'm so, and then the depression kind of hits, like man.

Speaker 2: 20:31

I'm not really progressing because you don't see it. If you take a class every week, you may be getting better each time, but you're not seeing it because it's not a big step and I was frustrated because I wanted so much more. I'm not looking at the little you know and all that stuff. So I'm never going to do this. I'm never going to be good enough. I'm going to have to go back to just being a janitor this you know. What was your lowest point? What made you want to quit? What made you depressed?

Speaker 1: 20:53

This is such a good question. So for me, it's actually two. I have two moments, Okay. My first one was early, when I started audition. So, like I said, when I started, I started in 2018, pre COVID. So my first auditions were I had a lot of in person auditions for some, you know bigger, bigger TV shows and movies and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 21:14

And Kyle is so nerve wracking for me because, like I said, I'm fresh in the game and I'm kind of being thrown into the fire and I remember I had an audition with like three or four words not many words and I go in there and I remember I'm like I remember I didn't say one of the lines correctly and I was like in my head I'm like am I, am, I, am I, do I really want to do this? Like, do I? Like it's so nerve wracking and I can't even get these little lines down. So, like after I left there, I was just like I was like dude, do I really want to do this? But it kept going, it kept getting better for me. So, like I kept getting auditions and then, honestly, reassurance from people around me were like no, like you, you, this is you, stick with it, it's you're, you're early, you know what I'm saying. So that helped me a lot.

Speaker 1: 22:01

And actually my second time was getting towards the back end of COVID, so like things started opening up back more and then we were able to start filming and stuff like that and I wasn't getting still like it was still dry, Like I wasn't getting any auditions or anything for the most part and I'm I'm like I'm just going to like go get her like a regular job and just start find another career and it even came to. So like the job I work at now, it's very flexible, Like I can get up and go whenever I want. It's just me and another person running a business, so it's just two of us and he's pretty much like family to me. So I'm very lucky that I'm in that position to work like that right now. I was going to get like a real career with you know better paying, with benefits and stuff like that and just like kind of just put acting on the backburn. But I talked to my mom and she was like we're going to switch agents Cause I was with my uh, this was my first agency I was with and it was like we're going to switch agents and we're going to see how it works. So I ended up turning down this job opportunity and then, two weeks later, after switching my agency, I booked my first co-star role. So that was that I would like. I said I go from thinking like, oh, I'm done with it, until two weeks later it totally turned around for me.

Speaker 1: 23:17

So those two were the roughest moments for me and, honestly, just having that reassurance from other people is honestly what got me through it, to be honest, Cause if it was just being by myself, I probably would have just been like, oh, whatever, like I'm, I'm done. But, yeah, so definitely grateful for the people around me, Cause it wasn't for them I wouldn't be, he wouldn't be here talking to you guys right now, At least not about this. That had to be pretty scary. Oh, a hundred percent. It's a frustrating when you're not, you're not getting to where you want to be and it's. I know it's like part of us in humans to want that instant gratification, but stuff doesn't happen like that and I just had to wait it out and I've been grateful to have a lot of opportunities in the industry so far that you know most people would love to have. So I'm so grateful.

Speaker 3: 24:01

Yeah, you have a really good attitude about it too. We were talking with Hicks Jeremy a few weeks ago and he said that's one of the most important things is having a good attitude.

Speaker 1: 24:12

Yeah definitely he's, he knows. But that's definitely true. If you're kind of moping around or like upset, it's definitely gonna, it's going to play a part, it's going to leak into what you're doing and it's going to be like hey, like you're feeling like this and then you're not going to want to do it. But you have that, the attitude like, hey, I can do this, I'm going to do this and I feel like it's all going to work itself out.

Speaker 3: 24:33

Yeah, that's really good that you have the support structure with your mom there to give you advice and help you make those decisions. I've just been thinking in the back of my head, when you were talking about switching agencies, that that couldn't have been an easy decision to make either.

Speaker 2: 24:47

I would imagine you had a lot of second guessing going on there during that process.

Speaker 1: 24:51

Yeah, because this was like the first agency that gave me pretty much I was a nobody a chance. And if it wasn't but luckily I had the recommendation of the person I told you about was like a family friend. She's an actress and a coach. She's the one who pretty much vows for me to get on and they gave me an opportunity. Like I said, with with nothing, and I was able to do a few things from that. Nothing, nothing too crazy, but still the opportunity that first agency given me was still huge and I felt like you said you just have that. He's like like the tug on you that you're going to have to make this decision. Even though it is a business decision, it's still personal and still affected. It still affects you. So it was definitely rough sending that, that letter off that I was switching agency, but it's paid off. It's paid off a lot for me making that decision.

Speaker 2: 25:40

Yeah, when you brought up the legend Hick share me. So we got to ask about your beard.

Speaker 1: 25:44

Yeah, excellent, excellent.

Speaker 2: 25:46

What TJ had asked him. What would it take for you to shave off your beard? What kind of role, what kind of money? What would they have to give you to shave your beard for something on TV or a movie?

Speaker 1: 25:57

Honestly, for me, if it's a speaking role of any kind, it can go. Honestly, I'll do it. Just for the, for the love of the art, I would do it. It's funny enough that racetrack commercial. They were like, hey, would you trim your beard? And I'm like, yeah, what is trimming and tail? Because the pay was good. So I was like at that point I'm like, yeah, I'll definitely consider it. But luckily all they asked for was a trim. But as far as a role, yeah, if you want me to speak and you want this going, it's going. I can always throw it back and I haven't mine's not as long as TJ, so I don't feel like I have as invested in as much as he has or he has. So I feel like it'll be a lot easier for me to let mine go, as opposed if I had like a luscious one like those guys. But yeah, that'll be, wouldn't take that much, but it'll still take a little bit like a little bit of weight.

Speaker 2: 26:45

Yeah, give it a little green or a good juicy role. You got to be careful when they say I did back.

Speaker 1: 26:50

I know right.

Speaker 2: 26:52

I walked in and a little off the top. I told it for Christmas in 2021. And then I just didn't feel like shaving. I was. I was out for three weeks, you know, and then after that, I got a role on this show working background, and then. So it was my first time walking in with hair, because I had always been completely bald and completely bearded. So I'm walking in, I walk up to makeup and, no, the hair is like okay, what do I?

Speaker 2: 27:15

do Go to makeup and she goes. What can we do with it? I said, well, I don't want to lose it all, just a little trim. But I didn't specify. I sit down in the chair and I'm not facing the mirror. The mirror is this way and if you picture the clippers, you know you would go up and down with them. Well, they were coming at me with the blade and I really hadn't shaved for it and I pictured, you know, when these hairs start getting curly and crazy, I thought they're like just neat and wow, that's amazing what they're doing. And they turn me toward the camera I mean towards the mirror, excuse me and all of this is gone. Actually, the 10 to I was left with the cheesy guy mustache, which fit the role, but I was like okay, but I was on camera a lot.

Speaker 2: 27:55

I wasn't featured, but there were so few of us and I knew somebody who was like an AD hey, we need somebody for the role. Go get Brian. Hey, walk here and we will buy a camera. We've told people about going back to one. So one was on either side of the camera, like I'm showing you on this just the audio version I'm telling everybody so three guys on each side of the camera and when the signal gives, we walk forward and you see the back of our heads and we just keep going.

Speaker 2: 28:19

So as I'm walking up, I want to be on camera every second that I can, but I try not to be a jerk. So this guy was walking at me and I was like hey, you want to go first? No, man, I don't want to lead. All right, so I did, because what I knew is, even if they're just seeing the back of our heads, they're going to turn the camera and they're going to see our faces. You know now, is that going to get me any money? Is that going to get me a role? No, but I'm going to be seen and that makes it the long day of background worth it for me.

Speaker 1: 28:46

And I was all the same year.

Speaker 2: 28:48

Yeah, it was cool. I'll tell you which one of yours was off the off the air. Okay.

Speaker 3: 28:53

Yeah, that sounds cool. In a way, I'm jealous of y'all for having shorter beards. Once I grew this, once I I already had my look when I started getting into background stuff and most of the background things I got picked for was for my look, and it was usually they wanted somebody scary looking. Let's just be honest. That's what they wanted. But I feel like there's a lot of things that I can't do or can't submit for because of my look.

Speaker 3: 29:20

If my beard were shorter, it would be an easier decision to take it off for something I can't audition for police officers or paramedics or firefighters or anybody that's clean cut and there's a lot of those that come out because of my look. I auditioned for a podcast a while back for a guy that was playing a police officer and it was fun because I've never auditioned for something like that before and I was this serious guy that was being kind of a jerk to people. But it was kind of fun to step into something different that I've never tried before. I don't know, I don't know if I would do it different, but I don't know.

Speaker 1: 29:59

So what would it take for you to chop your stuff off?

Speaker 3: 30:02

So Hick put his number out. If y'all want to hear that, go check out that episode. But initially I thought mine would be higher than his. I don't think I would do it for $10,000 or $20,000. If it was for something if it was for a significant role, I would probably consider it. If it was something recurring or if it was something in a big Hollywood you know, sag, blockbuster, something I would consider it more. But something for peanuts, for a small role an under five commercial I definitely, I definitely understand that.

Speaker 1: 30:41

Seriously, it's an investment. I don't know how long you've been having yours. I've been having mine for seven years now and I don't even remember, like me, what I want. So, and like I said, it's not nearly as long as you guys. So but yeah no, I definitely understand. It's like it becomes a party.

Speaker 3: 30:58

Yeah for sure. I retired in April of 2015. And I stopped shaving and stopped cutting my hair right after my retirement?

Speaker 1: 31:05

Okay, right after my retirement. I've been going eight years, eight and a half years, in.

Speaker 3: 31:09

Yeah, so I cut my beard down one time to about, maybe just a little bit longer than what yours is.

Speaker 2: 31:16

And I cut my hair once.

Speaker 3: 31:18

I cut my hair really short but I donated it. I cut it and donated it to it wasn't the one that a lot of people mentioned.

Speaker 2: 31:25

Locked some of them.

Speaker 3: 31:25

It's on the link on the name. Yeah, it wasn't that, because it was one that actually donates wigs to kids. Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome what you did. Then I donated it to one that a friend of my daughter's had gotten a wig from when she had cancer, and they got four 15-inch ponytails off of my head. Geez, that was. I guess that was right before COVID, maybe six months before COVID, and I started letting grow again. Maybe it was a little bit earlier than that. I've been letting it grow since then.

Speaker 2: 31:57

You did have me worried in your story because I just couldn't see kids walking around with a beard like yours.

Speaker 3: 32:03

No, no, no Hair. And the reason I cut the hair then I wanted to cut it and donate it before I started getting too much more gray hair in my head, because they won't take the gray hair, because it won't hold the dye. Gotcha, there was one organization that made wigs for women that were breast cancer survivors and they wanted some gray hair for maybe older ladies. But then right about that time and I can't remember the name of it they stopped taking real hair. They had started making synthetic hair that was really close to the real thing. So I donated to the other one, but now there's too much gray in it to donate, I think.

Speaker 1: 32:42

Wow, that's awesome that you did that. Yeah, thanks man.

Speaker 2: 32:45

Well, we're coming to the end. I got one last question for you, tavon. I don't think we've asked it already. Yeah, far away. Hopefully we didn't ask and I forgot with my old man brain. What's your secret wish, what's the role? You would do just about anything to get, and I know we can't really say if it's something that's being struck. Maybe you know there are space knights with glowing swords, a different way to say it. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 33:07

Oh, that's such a good question. It's not really a role. Let me use an example For me. I would love to be in a Tarantino movie. That's like my dream is to be in a Tarantino film. So honestly, like I said, I'm a big action guy, so I would love to be like a gung-ho, anti-hero type role. I would love to play something like that. I would love to be in an action-packed film to where, like I'm one of the center main pieces Tarantino. I feel like that's pretty, pretty well with those types of guys, so I would love to do that. I could see you doing it.

Speaker 2: 33:40

I could too.

Speaker 3: 33:41

A little caveat we can add.

Speaker 2: 33:43

An actor you would kill to work with, and that doesn't have to be limited to one.

Speaker 1: 33:48

Okay, I'll give you my top five. Excellent, christoph Waltz he's one of my favorite actors. I would love to work with Leonardo. I would love to work with Denzel. Edward Norton yeah, and I would have to say Viola Davis, probably for a five. That's a good top five, that's a good list. I would love to work with them, Obviously to me the best actors, and I think Christoph Waltz and Edward Norton are two of the most underrated actors in my opinion, so I would love to work with them for sure.

Speaker 2: 34:21

And you can't go wrong with Denzel. I feel like that.

Speaker 3: 34:24

Nice. There would be so much to learn from all of those.

Speaker 1: 34:28

Oh God, I love seeing actors watching their interviews, just to see, because I feel like the art of acting is so much more deeper and complex than surface level, than what people see. So just to talk to people that's played and so many different movies and different roles, just to hear their experience and let them give them, let them give me some knowledge on the stuff that they experienced and stuff like that, I just think it would be literally priceless, obviously so that was a really good answer.

Speaker 3: 34:58

I just marked the clip right there. I can mark it in certain spots and that was there's others, but that was a mark right there, that was awesome, thank you.

Speaker 2: 35:07

That's your advertising, thank you.

Speaker 3: 35:12

Thanks for listening to Nola Film Scene with TJ and Play Doh. We were here tonight with Tavon. Francis Tavon, thanks for joining us.

Speaker 1: 35:19

No, thank you guys for having me out of blast. I literally enjoy this kind of conversation and whenever you guys want me on, I literally come on Like I really enjoy this stuff. So thank you all for giving me the opportunity to come on and speak with you.