Taking a Stand with Kurt Yaeger: Investing In Inclusive Representation in Hollywood

Join us as we journey alongside the multi-talented Kurt Yaeger. With his rich experiences as an actor, producer, and disability activist, Kurt takes us through his life's ups and downs - from his glory days as a professional BMX rider to his unexpected career shift into acting after a life-changing motorcycle accident. Kurt brings a unique perspective to the table, shining light on the often overlooked challenges actors with disabilities face, especially when auditioning for roles.

Kurt doesn't shy away from uncomfortable truths, and neither do we. We dive right into the hot topic of disability representation in Hollywood, discussing the frustrating trend of non-disabled actors being cast in disabled roles. But it's not all challenges and obstacles. Kurt also highlights the importance of a robust, supportive network in this highly competitive industry. Moreover, he takes us behind the scenes, revealing insider secrets on how actors and filmmakers can carve out value for themselves and influence the industry's approach towards disability.

As we wrap up our insightful discussion with Kurt Yaeger, we dissect the hurdles of expanding a business and share why it's crucial for audiences to access captions and subtitles. With a blend of personal experiences, industry insights, and forward-thinking visions, this episode promises to explore Hollywood's potential for a more diverse, inclusive future.

Chapters

• 0:04 Influencing Disability Inclusion in Hollywood
• 6:47 Disability Representation in Acting Challenges
• 22:39 Capitalizing Disabilities in the Film Industry
• 35:45 Increasing Diversity in the Acting Industry
• 44:30 NCIS Show Runner Talks Business Growth

Transcript

0:00

AXSCHAT Kurt Yaeger

NEIL: 0:04

Hello and welcome to Axschat. I'm really pleased to welcome back to Axschat, Kurt Yaeger. Kurt joined us many moons ago, back in the early years and for those of you who don't recognise him probably haven't been watching TV too much. Kurt is an actor, producer, disability activist and advocate and value creator in the movie and television business. So, had a fascinating conversation last time. You know, you've been in some really large series, NCIS. Myan, Sons of Anarchy, do loads of other interesting stuff. But, please tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background because we talked again last week and what you're doing now and you're trying to influence disability inclusion in Hollywood and it's fascinating.

KURT: 0:56

Yes, well, thanks for having me back on guys, it's great to see all three of you. I love the woods, I love the woods you got going on back there. Amazing. You know, a lot of cool projects and things have been going on lately. I just did a film that came out, two or three weeks ago called the Beanie Bubble, that's on, it was Zach Galifianakis and Elizabeth banks about the rise and fall of the Beanie Baby empire, you know, those little stupid stuffed dolls. So, played Elizabeth's Bank's husband who she leaves for Zach Galifianakis, I mean come on, really leaving me for that guy? Get out of here, anyway. So that and then recently, shot with Guy Pearse and Alex Pettifer, in a film called Sun Rise in Ireland. But since we talked, I did a film in England, I did a film in the UK with the guys from The Inbetweeners. I did a film, The Festival. Do you see that?

NEIL: 1:55

No.

KURY: 1:56

That was a good comedy. My character was named The Pirate, probably because of the prosthetic leg. But, I played the American who gets the girl. I take the girl from the Brit.

DEBRA: 2:14

I like that.

NEIL: 2:15

Yes, we have not been liking that since the second world war.

KURT: 2:22

It's our melodramatic sing songy voice that they just can't get enough of. I like it, acting has been very, very good. Been in a lot of other projects. I just did a NCIS, Hawaii. And then, you know I've written for the last 15 years and it takes about 15 years to start getting good at writing and in spending that amount of time, as I wrote and made more feature films and more projects, I became a better actor. As I became a better actor, more of the behind the scenes unveiled itself to me, that made me want to write other things that made me a better actor in other areas. So, it's all been quite circular. But, yes about me, I mean, I don't know, like, born and raised in San Francisco, a former professional BMX rider. I rode BMX in the X Games. And I was working on my masters in hydro geology doing research at Berkely Labs on fluvial dynamics of dam removal. Once you remove the damn how to not remove the downstream ecology while remediating the material. Blah, blah, blah, when I had a motor cycle accident and flew off a forty foot cliff and tore my leg off and broke my pelvis in half and broke my spine in seven spots, broke all my right ribs, concussion, ACL/MCL blew apart, deep vein thrombosis and spent three and a half months in the hospital and had 27 surgeries while I was there and another year and a half recovery to then say, I'm going to be an actor and everyone is like, Kurt, Kurt, how hard did you hit your head? That's what my whole family thought. And then they started seeing me in movies and TV, and they are like, okay, this is okay. He is not completely a lunatic, I mean, just kind of. So, that's me in a gist right now.

DEBRA: 4:26

Well, that, you have such a powerful story, I love watching your career and I do watch, I missed that one you mentioned, I'm going to go and find one. But, I'm always tracking your career.

KURT: 4:38

The Festival?

DEBRA: 4:39

Yes. Can I see it here in the States.

KURT: 4:41

Yes. Yes, it's a feature film. It's out there.

DEBRA: 4:44

Okay, cool. I'll go and look for it because I missed that one because I usually watch all your stuff.

KURT: 4:48

Oh, and people might know me from the Rudimental video, Waiting All Night. I don't know if you've seen that but that music video has won every award. It's now ten years old and it's still growing. It has over 250 million views on YouTube alone. It's insane, yes.

DEBRA: 5:05

Wow. It's interesting what people like.

KURT: 5:07

Yes.

DEBRA: 5:09

But, I know that, I want to say that one thing that I've been so interested in is watching is how I see what I perceive, I know nothing about your industry, I'm only a consumer but I perceive that there is a lot of efforts being made to include our actors with disabilities. Sometimes Kurt it feels to me like, some of the efforts feel a little bit inspirational pornish and I appreciate all efforts but there are quite a few billboards around Los Angeles right now and once again, I appreciate all the efforts. But once again it feels to me Kurt like we might be confusing people. And so, I know we were having some conversations before we got on where you talked you know what is, how do you get an job as an actor and I thought maybe you could, in light of there has been progress, but some of the progress, actually some of what people are trying to help advance us, sometimes almost holds us back a little bit and creates some confusion.

KURT: 6:18

Yes.

DEBRA: 6:19

And you had just mentioned about how now you have been in this business long enough that you've really been peeling those layers back and understanding how it works. So, I was wondering if you could just explain a little bit about that perspective to the audience because it's just not something I understood.

KURT: 6:35

Sure. Yes, I definitely, like there is a lot of nuance to the things I've learned and if I tell you the end answer, you'll be like, oh, that's not true, it can't be true. Well, if you take the steps to show it. For instance, when you're starting off as an actor you're like okay, well how do I get a job, I need an agent. Well, how do I get an agent, oh, well, I have to have had jobs, oh, how do I do this you know and you're like, you try to figure out how to make that catch 22. So, you try to find any kind of work that you can as an actor. You're like, I'll go on Craig's List, I'll take free jobs, I'll make my own. I don't know, I just got to get a couple of projects going. And then you take classes and you're just trying to get noticed by anybody and then, maybe you put together a reel so that people can like, agents can see the work that you are doing because if not your saying, hey, I'm a good actor, as opposed to look at my work that I've done. Then they can say yes, okay now you get an agent. It's not like it's CAA or ICM or one of the big houses, right? It's like, Kurt Yaeger's agency extravaganza. It's like the one at the very end. And so, you get this addition or you get this agent and they are trying to get you roles and they're like, a lot of the time you're starting in commercials or industrials for corporate companies, you know, the startup work videos, you know you have, you know, when you get your friend a cup of coffee don't pour on his lap. You know, it's like that kind of acting, right, you see the training videos. And then, you do a couple of those and they are like, he's got now some time on set. He's starting to understand what is going on. So, let's put that person into more commercial auditions. So, it's like you know a Budweiser commercial and he can handle himself there. And then like you're getting an audition in the TV and film space like what is called either a five and under or a co-star and a five and under means five lines or under. So, hey John, what are you doing? Oh, we are going to go to the bar. Cool. Well, that's four. That is a huge deal. Now, the audience is like, that's all you did? And so, like when you book something like that as an actor you're like yeah, you're super stoked and then you tell your family, I'm going to be on two and a half men, it's going to be amazing, you know, and they are like oh great and then they watch and they all get around and then you are on there for half a second and then you're off and they are like, oh, that's it and your whole family just poops on your parade and then you're like, nah, I got to get more and then the next, you do you know, four or five of those. Now, the casting director is like, okay, that person has done like five auditions, that's cool or five roles. Let's see if he can handle like more material, a guest star role. You know, something that like has more of a character arc inside of an episode, you know. And then it's like okay, you do a couple of those and then you get something called recuring. So, it's a guest star with an arc, but that happens over multiple episodes. And then you get to the next level which is a regular, a series regular on a TV show, where you're in virtually every episode and you have arcs and they go on and that's on the TV set and the film business it still goes up to being the lead and the star and everything else. And then there are like you can be the lead of a show and it sounds like it's the pinnacle of your career but then you never work again. So, it's pretty brutal. So, that's like the normal actor arc. The difficulty with disabilities is that a lot of actors, with their agents and the demands of a casting director are to be reading very specific people types. You know, they are like, hey, we need to have a Norwegian who speaks Spanish and understands some Swahili. That's a pretty specific act to find with some credits, right? And that's specificity, needing those things or at least someone who can portray it so well is really hard to find. And so, because those are so hard to find, you get a little further and further and further away from the truth, in order to be able to make those projects happen. So, take that specificity and then say, nondisabled is a category and disabled are a category. So, when they audition people for an able-bodied written role, they are probably going to see, almost exclusively, able bodied actors. When they then see disabilities, they will see some disabled actors, or actors with disabilities, whichever you prefer and if they are not quite finding that person they are going to audition all those other people who have tonne more experience, a tonne more credits and a tonne more personal time with those directors and writers and the casting people, so they will probably get the job. And that's where you see most actors with non-disabilities playing disabled roles. And so, the problem is that an actor with a disability is not getting the same auditioning time in the room practising their auditioning skills. Not acting, acting is on set. This is a specific skillset of getting used to reading five pages of dialogue, in a couple of hours, being able to disseminate it and then give some kind of a performance in just a few minutes that shows that know how the character could be for ten whole episodes. And that's really hard to do if you're auditioning once every two or three months. You don't start feeling the rhythm of what people want. Your agents don't have enough info to give you. It's like saying you are going to go out and do some kind of statistical analysis of something and you're like, oh, our pool of numeric are three. Like, your data pool is not big enough. You need ten thousand before you are going oh, I see a pattern. So, that's like the major pattern. And the thing is when a lot of organisations come at trying to fix this they are saying that you need to audition disabled actors. You need to see them. You need to create these opportunities and you need to work with them. And it's all actor coming at them from a charitable perspective. It's coming about it from like a, you'll feel good. It's the right thing to do, which is important but I don't think most people understand that the definition of a capital corporation is to make money and what I mean is that is not their purpose, it is their legal requirement to primarily focus on making money. Like, if according to American law, if they don't do everything they can to make as much money as they can, they can be sued and like the CEO can be removed from the company.

NEIL: 14:38

Yes and people don't even know that. Right. So, this is where you know, people talk about the movie business and don't really appreciate how much of it is business more than movies.

KURT: 14:52

Yes.

NEIL: 14:53

Because you know there is a whole massive finance behind it and the fiduciary responsibilities of the directors and the organisers and the funders and everything else. And if you're part of a publicly floated company.

KURT: 15:09

You have to.

NEIL: 15:11

You have to maximise shareholder value. It's your responsibility. There are other legal responsibilities but it's the one that often takes precedence over everything else.

KURT: 15:22

Yes. So, if you go at it, from a charitable perspective, then you're not going after the company's primary interest. You're already accidentally self-defeating. Right, if you say, hey, there's a monetary element, there's 175 billion dollars in discretionary spending from an American disabled person that they could, there's value in it and so on, but there is no proven model that shows that it will translate. So, no company is going to stop what they are doing and go, so, let's do this other thing. So, you got to come at it from a whole different angle. And it's not wrong what they are doing per se, it's just I think that they have maximised the ability of their purposes, in order to get the results of education, right? Like, they are trying to educate people. And that is part of the way you get someone to see a business model is first educate. But if you're not pitching the business model then you're educating in a vacuum.

ANTONIO: 16:31

Okay, Kurt, let's say you know, we have a young actor listening to us and they are following your lead, how can they, how can a young actor that doesn't want to pursue that charity model how can he break the ice, he or she break the ice?

KURT: 16:50

Well, part of it is realising, like Neil was saying, this is the film business, right, the word business is three times as long as the word film. Businesses all work so, 75% of this is for sure, all work and then film is part work and part art. And so, the remaining 25% is half and half. So it's 12.5% art and 12.5% business. So, you have what 85% ish percent of whatever it is or 90%, you know that is just work. So, the thing I tell young actors or even old actors, that's the thing. You can start acting like you're 50. And you can make it. They are people who are started at 55 and then became a star at 65. Don't think that it's too late. Who cares, do whatever you want. You got one life, so do whatever you want. But, I always tell people, if the film business is 85% business, then you need to be 85% business. So, if you put your business affairs in order, I would say, if you want to start acting, take classes, read every single book. There are literally 50 books on acting alone that you could read that would take you two years. Do that. Take some classes but while you are doing that, get three jobs and work and save up all your money so that you have a war chest. So that when you come out here and you want to start auditioning and the job that you're working at is like, well, we can't let you go to that audition, we need you Tom. And you're like I got to go and they're like, if you leave then you're quitting and you're like, I have plenty of money so, enjoy and you leave. You're giving yourself the financial opportunity to invest time back into yourself. So, by working three jobs to put you know, 20 or 30 thousand dollars in the bank that just can keep you alive for a long period of time that's going to allow you to drop the hat, go to a party in Vegas that a producer invited you to that will actually change your career because in this business people want to work with people they know and the reason why they want to work with people they know is it's like owning a house and having your pipes burst, who do you call? The plumber you know; right? That's what you do. You call and you're like, right? And if not you call someone who is handy, who is knows that who knows who to call. So, you don't just go through the phone book or whatever and let me see, look at all this water coming in. Let me be really calm about. Like, the film business the film set is like putting out a fire. You need firemen all over the place, you need your actor to come on set and be such a good person that if somebody is having a problem they can put that fire out and then do their primary job. So, from like the financial aspect of a young actor, learn and read everything that you can. Reading is free, after you buy the book. Most of the stuff online is out there so just read everything but then put your finances in order so that you can give yourself a long runway. People don't realise that 85% of the majority of actors that have made it come from capital. So, what it allows you to do, usually they are young, they break in. Between the age of 20, 27, these are auditioning and hanging out, and auditioning and hanging out and they might not have a primary job, but what they're doing is they are hanging out with all the young producers, directors, writers, as they come up. Then you these like 32-year-old actors break out. And you're like, oh, where did they come from, but they were friends with those guys and they have a long runway and usually people who have a long runway have capital. So, I would suggest to the young actor, work and put some money in the bank, while you're gathering all the knowledge. Then, to really break in, it's hang out at the places that they are hanging out. Go to the film festivals. If you go to any film festival, wherever you live, you go to all the local film festivals and you go there with note pad or a computer and you pay attention to every single person that's writing and producing and directing, just at a local film festival, you'll see 10 or 20 excited people trying to make art. Then, what you do is you go okay how do I make this art into a business and then you work with three or four of those people and all of a sudden you have your own internal group of really fun people that you're learning from and you start to kind of like building that. You're at a film festival and you meet two or 3 people and you go up to them, hey, it's a five-minute film, your five-minute film was amazing, I would love to make something with you. Oh, I would too. They are just as excited as you. Remember, that you're an actor, a producer, a writer, a director and an executive want to find someone like you to work with. But they are not bigger than you. They are not more important than you. And the second that you flip that in your mind, now you can be a relaxed actor and you can say, hey let's work together. Now, I've confidence in Kurt because he's being chill. As opposed to like, I want to act, can I act. I can act and you're like oh right, oh right. And you just get to that chill spot. So, this is great advice on a personal level but we talk before about the business and the business is not just a business, it's an entire industry, it's like a machine and I know that Off Air, we talked you know about some of the things that you're doing to enable are and support inclusion by working with that machine and understanding that the aspects of business, can you tell us a bit more about that aspect of what you're doing. I think it's fascinating and really a smart thing. Yes, I mean look, I will start general right? The machine of the film business is to make money. We are not in the business to you know, maybe, maybe there is just small percentage is to win awards, because if you win an Oscar, right? You'll be able to make money. So, you're either trying to make money or you're trying to do something so that you can make money like an ultimate goal is to make money. And when you realise that and you realise the structure of the film business is to make money you start seeing yourself as an actor or a writer in a different light. You're like okay, how do I write what I want to write? But for audiences that can have an access point, into the script, into the story so that people can get into my world and learn it. But really what I'm doing is making it so that people will want to watch it and pay for it. So, that I can keep making more and more projects. And then as an actor you're like, okay, what is my value? How do I do something, that's what I need to get a hundred thousand followers on social media. That's why, if I can do that then a producer is going to go imagine this, you have an Actor A and Actor B. Actor A is great, Actor B is great. Actor A has a hundred thousand followers, Actor B doesn't. And if everything is being equal and someone else is doing the social media personal branding work, then you know that they are going to do the personal branding work for your film because they are already doing it but then you know they at least have a hundred thousand eyes for your film. So, now you're like, well, all things being equal, why wouldn't you go with the more useful choice. And so, really it's primarily trying to be as useful as you can. Building up whatever you can and then on the film making side there is a whole another level to how to do that, you start reinvesting yourself, your own money as an actor, into your own film projects. You get paid in a duality way. I made a million dollars on a film. Well, pay me Kurt Yaeger, the actor half a million dollars and then I'll some taxes on it, but then pay my production company half a million dollars and then I role this money over into the next production so, I get myself more and more work. And then the value of Kurt Yaeger is, Kurt Yaeger has all these credits and he has got a hundred thousand followers on social media. And he's got half a million dollars to put in our film. I think we are going to hire Kurt Yaeger. It changes the game. It makes it completely different. So, Brad Pitt, like, you think he's an actor. He's an actor, why don't you just, all of you can this do this, look up the production company called Plan B. That's his production company, look at what it's been involved in? Every single one of his projects, except Quentin Tarantino. So, he's rolled own his own finances into his own finances. If you look at someone like Ryan Reynolds or The Rock. They role their own production dollars that have made so money into production money that they made sub businesses that aren't even a part of the film business. Whether it's Tequilla, or Ryan Reynolds has aviation gin and then now he owns a soccer club that then came full circle by making a TV show about his soccer club. Like it's all feeding itself. So, you're going to start seeing these feeding cycles. You start realising this is the true business behind the business and then once you half enough of these business, for instance, let's say I'm a studio and I am going to put money into production. Well, there are these things called postproduction. Well, we need postproduction facilities. Well, I own those facilities and I need to keep those people employed. I might make one or two feature films that just keeps them employed all year around, that's not going to make me any money. So, I can take a loss on these two crappy films that I made and I can deduce that from my net income to give me a lower taxable gross with this company but I still fed my other primary company. So, it's like.

NEIL: 27:45

This is where you get the art house projects. It's like this is where I get rated work and I can take a tax loss on this and I can feed the beast some more. So, if you start understanding that, and you start really grasping the totality of the business, the true business model of the film business and you come up with an idea, like my foundation, you like that little Segway? And you realise, oh my gosh, how do I capitalise disabilities? How do I make valuable disabilities? How do I showcase not the value to them, how do I prove the value. So, started at a company that's primarily driven at showcasing the value of disabled talent in front of and behind the camera and building the foundations, coffers so, anybody out there have a conversation. Its tax write off, I am not going to talk about that model. I'm not going to talk about publicly but I'll tell you privately. It's a good model. And what we do is we basically take capitalisation and we directly juxtaposed that to a contractual obligations with production to include disabled talent. And we are not saying do it for charity, do it because we want to. We identify the disabled talent and say oh yes, Marley Maitlin won an Oscar, I want her in that film. And they are like it's not a deaf character and I'm like it doesn't matter and they're like well and I'm like, well, here's some money, and they're like okay yes, absolutely yes. We'll do it, we'll do it, because I'm capitalising the businesses. I'm excluding the charity; I'm excluding you should do this. I'm saying, I got tired to listen to everyone saying, what Hollywood should do and I said okay, what should I do? What should I do to change this. How do I capitalise, if I, Kurt Yaeger believed that Kurt Yaeger is valuable and I go, okay, I believe that, then I go okay, how do I prove my value? Then I go well, I get a lot of work as an actor and a writer. My friends, with the other disabilities don't because I have a very light disabled viewpoint from the world. I'm a lower leg amputee, that's like a papercut in the disabled world, right? So, it's I am treated like disabled light. Like, I mean, I almost forget Kurt is disabled. Like thanks for the compliment. I think, what does disabled mean anyways? Anyways, going back to this. I go, well if I know that there are really talented people with disabilities, in front of and behind the cameras, I've read some of their stuff that's not getting made. And I've seen some directors directing things that aren't getting seen because they are doing art not business and I see actors that are talented. They are singing, they are dancing. They are doing Shakespeare in the Park. They are doing these things and it's not translating into the business. If I see all this value and it's truly there. Well then, I need to prove it. If I believe it, then I need to put my time energy and money into it. So, that's what I started doing. Did a couple of projects based on it. Put my own money into the fund. Did a couple of small projects to prove its model, it worked, raised half a million dollars and did it again and everyone's like, woah, you're doing something different. And I'm like, yes I'm doing business. I'm going to use the charitable arm of being able to accept money through a 501C3 and be able to accept money that everyone who donates gets to have a tax write off. So, you get a full tax write off on your capital, it doesn't matter how big it is, if it's a million-dollar cheque, great, you get it, you want to do a million dollars over four years so, you get quarter of a million every year, great. Whatever you want to get the tax break, it's your business. It's not a weird amortise thing that you invest in, even if you plan on losing the money and you can only take 33% per year or whatever. You don't have to worry about that. So now, you could dump all your money into something from a charity perspective but you're putting it into a company that its primary mission is to make money to primarily put people with disabilities in primary dominant roles inside the industry and then what ends up happening is, it's a rolling fund that keeps going and its primary purpose is to grow, not to do charity. And the difference in those two models is when you do charity. Listen, I'm not knocking charity. It's important. It's extremely important. But charity, you go hey I need a hundred thousand dollars this year to say feed some children, thank you, I am going to feed the children. Feeding the children doesn't cost a hundred thousand dollars. Feeding the children probably costs €60,000 and you had some overhead, you had to have the people that made the food, that volunteered maybe. But you still you had to rent the facilities, you had to get some insurance. You had to pay all this other money to be able to feed€60,000 worth of kids. And then you are like, okay, we need another hundred thousand dollars next year. With us, we get the money and we invest in the projects with expected three angles of return. We have our primary principal fund, our equity fund and then ticket sales and profit on the outside and then we wrap that around to then say oh, next year we get to do three more people with disabilities and try for behind the camera, and we don't need any more of your money. If you'd like to give, please do. But we don't need it. Now, we absolve the primary problem with donations, donation fatigue. Now, you're like, I put, a put a half a million dollars into Kurt's thing and that's all I did and he turned into 750 and then a million and then a million two and it's doing the job also. Let's do it again and now everyone is excited because they didn't do something that like I don't want to say this but, like, you know some jerk off kid that you keep giving money to that doesn't like to do anything with their life. Like, this kid you gave money to and now it's doing something. It's doing something you can be proud of. Yes. You put the fuel in the engine and somehow or another that car fuel found more fuel and didn't need any more fuel. Like, you're investing into the mind of Kurt Yaeger's 20 years of experience into the business, not charity, not disabilities. I just happen to be disabled. That's my primary mission, between all of us and all of the viewers, I don't give a shit about money. It just doesn't do anything for me. Like, I've had my near-death experience and so, I can't take it with me. Do I like nice things? Yes, but that's not my primary purpose. I use money as a means to be able to do what I want to do or buy back life. Buy back time. Not buy more motorcycle. I've got plenty of those things, like, I make plenty of money as an actor. So, this is like a different way to think about driving at the solution and the solution is business, not charity. Yes, the money is a tool, not an end in itself.

KURT: 35:20

Well, it's --

NEIL: 35:23

You have to keep it going because without the tool, you don't get the results but it's not, it's not the end result. It's enabling you to do what you need to do but you have to keep, you have to keep the investment. I know we would normally have finished by now but Antonio has got a question and this is a fascinating chat. So, go for it.

KURT: 35:43

Yes, absolutely.

ANTONIO: 35:45

What impact do you expect this can have in lives of the people that you are trying to promote into the acting career?

KURT: 35:55

Well, there is so much of an impact and I love this question, thank you, Antonio. Because, last year according to the Amber Foundation in Glatterport, there were three actors in films, notable films that had a disability, three, a total of three. In all of the films, three. So, when we have our fund and I do say quarter million dollars and that affects one actor, I've already increased representation by 33%. That's an insane increase from such a small amount of money and as I grow the fund, I'll be growing it to 10%, 15%, 50%, 100%, so fast, that let's say, let's say I raise 2.5 million by tomorrow, I'll have affected the film industry by 333% overnight. But what is different about this is we are not affecting it and then it goes away. So, we are increasing this and the Y axis and this is the X axis. We are increasing the new floor. We are taking X and adding it to X's of one. We are increasing the entire X axis. So, where there are only three actors with disabilities, we are going to add ten and say, this ten is where it remains because our fund continues. So, it was that continues, we are creating a new baseline, then ten then 12 and then 13 and that increases the X's of 1 increases to X's of 2 and X's of three: right? Based on our fund and revolving fund. But then a donor sees what we are doing and we are like, that's really cool, we want this dump in and then it jumps to another level because of that and that is just a standard model of growth. What ends up happening is if one of the film takes off, like the Indie film, and let's say it takes off like the film, Sound of Freedom. You know, they made 10 million dollars whatever it is. It made a hundred million dollars and still is making more money, well, we would have 10% of that equity in our film fund would jump by ten million.

NEIL: 38:06

Wow.

KURT: 38:07

So, then we have now an effective rate of saying, hey, we have a film fund of ten million dollars and all the film industry is all about making money. They say, hey we want to have some roles for exchange for money for people with disabilities and I'm like, now that we have this power, I want three actors with disabilities and I want the first AD, which is the Assistant Director I want the first AD to be disabled. Well, Kurt we are really having a hard time finding -- here is a list. We don't really have any excuses, do we? And they can't say no because if they do then they are not doing their fiduciary responsibility is that they have to do because they are a corporation. They can't say no to good money because then they can get sued by their shareholders. So, that's why it all functions. So, what we went up doing instead of from an Actor's perspective, going to school, and working your ass off, trying to get all of these things and once you have enough experience to even get into the audition space, not getting an audition, we are by passing the audition process. We are saying, alright, I'm going to hook you up and so, I know your small actor but I saw you in that play and that was really, really good. So, we are going to take a hundred thousand dollars and we are give you like a little tiny role in three little films and so, it's a four liner, just see how you go. And so essentially, the fund becomes like everybody's with a disability's rich uncle. So, I facilitate the means of finding talent and talent owes me nothing. They don't pay me anything. There is no obligation to me. If they end up hating me because they don't like my attitude. Congratulations. That means nothing to me. I want to take nothing from disabled talent. Nothing. It's like the one scene in Band of Brothers, I don't know if you ever seen that show. Well, the second guy, who is like the main character and then his like buddy who is drinking the whole time and going through, he's gambling and like winning and with some guys that are going to go off and go to war and he says listen, I don't want you gambling and he says, we are just having fun and he says, no, you're their superior officer and you're not supposed to take anything from them. They have already given enough don't take anything from them. So, what we're doing with this is we are not requiring you to come to our classes, as a disabled talent. We are requiring you to go and do good job. That's it. Like, just do some good stuff. So, that's how it works from disabled talent in front of the camera, as we start building the fund, the money that comes back in, I consider that house money.

NEIL: 41:02

Yes. Debra has got to drop off.

KURT: 41:07

Okay.

DEBRA: 41:09

It is such a rich conversation Kurt so, I don't want to interrupt you, it's such a rich conversation.

KURT: 41:13

It's okay.

DEBRA: 41:15

We need this and our community needs to help you fund this too.

KURT: 41:19

We'll talk offline. Give me a holler.

DEBRA: 41:23

I definitely want to talk to you.

KURT: 41:25

I love it.

NEIL: 41:26

So, we'll just finish up because I think the stuff that you're talking about is.

KURT: 41:33

Hi Man, my name is Kurt Yaeger, goodnight.

NEIL: 41:37

Yes, no we're cool.

KURT: 41:40

I'll make it really quick.

NEIL: 41:41

But, I do think the point you're making about behind the camera is also important because we often talk about representation in front of the camera but the whole infrastructure behind camera deserves, there is a lack of jobs and opportunities for people with disabilities in that space too. So, that's equally important.

KURT: 42:04

It's equally as important but it's a harder accomplishment which is why I'm going the talent route first because the development and the responsibility of a single writer or a single director or a single producer with a disability means that they can manage and control 30 actors. Where one actor doing their job, you know that's a little less responsibility in the early stages. So, it's more about getting that person and those people along with the way. But as I get talent in front of the camera, I can get some behind the camera. And there are a few out there, Jenny Gold, Ashley Egan, Jordan Hogg. Right, there are some people out there who are already working. But why are they doing 70 episodes of television? Instead of being the next big feature film director. They are so talented. They should already be at the top. So, someone like Jordan Hogg. I can be like, I'm going to back one of your new films, here's a million dollars. And then it literally primarily gives him that monetary value that we know he has and it proves to the industry when he makes money that he's a valuable commodity.

NEIL: 43:17

Yes.

KURT: 43:18

I'm just, you know, I don't know the right term but what is it where you prove the value of a commodity, yes.

NEIL: 43:31

Proof of worth. It's that, you know, you've proved the market. You've seeded the market and I think that you know when you break open that new market with a new product or a new person being a product. We are talking about ourselves as packages, you're talking about packaging yourself as an actor, you're a product, your part of the system. You know, you prove the worth of that product and then people want to buy into it. I totally get it. I think it's a really exciting project and I think that you know, we'll definitely want to revisit this. So, thank you.

KURT: 44:17

And just so you know, like my advisory board is legit. You know, we have got huge show runners, huge producers, I mean Winona Jude, is one of our advisor board, you know six times Grammy's 19 number one hit songs etc: Daniella Rua, from NCIS LA. Brandon Sonyia, show runner, director, these people are like, let's do this. Let's do this.

NEIL: 44:45

These are sort of bonus, if we were taking the business analogy, this is not your corner shop owner.

KURT: 44:50

Exactly.

NEIL: 44:51

You know, these are people like big conglomerates. So, yes, it's a fantastic thing that you're doing. I think the insight you have given us have been fantastic and fascinating. I wish you great luck. I'll be back in touch because we are going to talk about this again for sure. I need to thank Amazon for supporting us and My ClearText for keeping us captioned and accessible. So, thank you very much, Kurt. It's been a pleasure to talk with you again. Thank you for coming back on Axschat.

KURT: 45:22

Neil, thank you, Antonio thank you. Love it. Let's talk offline.

NEIL: 45:28

Will do.