Once We Were Ten-Year Olds | Episode 18

Summary

Once We Were Spacemen

Episode 18: "Once We Were Ten-Year Olds"

Hosts: Nathan Fillion & Alan Tudyk
Date: March 11, 2026

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Overview

In this lively episode, Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk journey backward, reflecting on what their ten-year-old selves would think of their current lives. With their trademark humor, they dive into childhood obsessions with cartoons, sugar cereals, and daydreams of performance, tracing how these influences shaped their personalities and careers. They also swap stories about home decor choices, teenage adventures, quirky habits, and the deeper meaning behind their creative paths—all while continually poking fun at each other in the way only close, long-term friends can.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Warped Brains of Cartoon Kids (00:00 - 09:55)

• Alan opens with a theory: watching cartoons and eating sugary cereals as a kid “warps” your brain, shaping comedic sensibilities.
  • Alan Tudyk (00:00): “You’re laughing very hard, you’re eating cereal full of sugar. Your brain is trying to grow and it warps it in a certain way. I think it melts it into a. That’s what happened to me.”
• Discuss Sid and Marty Krofft shows, Saturday morning cartoons in Canada vs the US, and their personal cartoon favorites.
• Nathan’s nostalgic memory: limited TV channels growing up, catching what cartoons he could—even in French.
• Alan’s childhood imprinting on robots and aliens via oddball shows like Far Out Space Nuts and Land of the Lost.
• Alan reflects that these “warped” influences led directly to his penchant for playing “weird people, usually aliens and robots.”
• Reminisce about the violent, manic humor of classic Looney Tunes contrasted with today’s cartoon landscape:
  • Nathan Fillion (07:56): “Are there Saturday morning cartoons anymore? … Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd would shoot people in the face, like dropping anvils on heads and lots of things you don’t see on TV anymore.”

2. Sugar Cereals and Childhood Health (10:17 - 11:10)

• Alan bemoans the mouth-destroying properties of Cap’n Crunch and “crappy cereals … just rough corn sandpaper.”
• Typical choices: Cinnamon Life, Honey Nut Cheerios; both admit to sweetening with extra sugar.

3. If Ten-Year-Old You Could See You Now… (11:09 - 13:07)

• Nathan asks: what would ten-year-old Alan think of grown-up Alan’s life?
• Alan: “I think the ten-year-old me would be very happy. You know, I didn’t die by quicksand, which was a big fear for our generation.”
• They tally up Alan’s three dogs (the canine equivalent of a cat lady) and laugh about oddball adult realities versus kid dreams.
• Alan shares that his LA home is filled with visually interesting, toy-like antiques—childhood “peanut butter fingers” are still tempted.

4. House Decor: Bowling Lanes, Yardsticks, and a Snooty Chandelier (13:07 - 16:44)

• Alan details his collection of eccentric home artifacts:
  • Used an actual bowling lane as a kitchen counter (to the fury of builders).
  • Wall of antique yardsticks, recently removed to appease a dramatic Italian chandelier.
  • Alan Tudyk (15:39): “The snotty chandelier said, ‘I will not be by this ugly table and this ugly wall.’ … That thing cost me so much money trying to bring my house up to the chandelier.”
• Nathan fondly recalls another Alan item: a crocheted, dissected frog under glass—a perfectly peculiar synthesis of their mutual love for quirky, macabre artifacts.

5. Dreams and Performance: School Talent Shows & Early Ambition (17:36 - 24:56)

• Alan: “I think I wanted to be an actor. I was always trying to get into the talent show.”
• Nathan: “I didn’t have a lot of interest [in performing as a kid] … You’re searching for your own identity.” He shares stories about unicycles, being a wallflower, and eventually copying Monty Python and SNL sketches in high school assemblies.
• Alan relives failed auditions with mortifying acts: lip-syncing “Grease” as an old woman, miming “I’m a Nut”—only to be denied by wary, unsupportive teachers:
  • Alan Tudyk (20:24): “No, they said no, Alan every time.”
• Trophies finally come in speech tournaments and made-up commercial acts (e.g., the Swiss Army Cow Chip, Macho Hair).

6. Class Clowns, Daydreams, and Shyness (32:01 - 36:35)

• Both reveal pivots from shy kids to class clowns.
• Nathan: “I was a very good kid. But I was always accused of being a daydreamer, practicing my autograph and, who’s laughing now?”
• Alan recounts being constantly admonished: “You don’t know when to stop."
• Both share fantasies of stardom: practicing for talk show appearances (Johnny Carson for Alan, Letterman for Nathan)—with Nathan ultimately fulfilling the Ed Sullivan Theater daydream multiple times:
  • Nathan Fillion (35:32): “I got to go on that … it’s a very proud moment for me.”

7. Quirks, Traditions, and Superstitions (39:39 - 49:37)

• Alan reveals: Nathan sews custom “slankets” (sleeved blankets) for friends, a skill learned in home economics.
  • Alan Tudyk (41:23): “We wore the slankets that Nathan made us so that we could have free arms to play Halo while we stayed warm. That’s a pretty great thing about Nathan.”
• Nathan’s “lipstickious” (not superstitious, but superstitious-lite) tradition: lifting feet over train tracks, holding breath through tunnels—childhood habits he still keeps for nostalgia.
• Poignant moment: both admit to holding onto odd traditions and sentimental superstitions as grown men.

8. Car Mishaps and Friendship’s True Test (43:40 - 46:30)

• Alan sheepishly confesses to “wrecking” Nathan’s BMW—sort of (actually, a construction crew hit the parked car).
  • Alan Tudyk (44:12): “I wrecked it because I parked it on the street… [they] backed right into the BMW.”
  • Nathan reassures him, underscoring durable friendship and the importance of safety over stuff.

9. Motorcycles, New York, and Moving On (49:55 - 51:02)

• Alan’s LA car woes may soon be moot—he’s moving to NYC, selling his motorcycle but waxing poetic about riding it, new adventures, and one last gift from Nathan: a package containing a loud horn for the bike.

10. Closing Moments: Gratitude and Reflection (50:29 - 51:02)

• Both hosts express their appreciation for deeper understanding and enduring friendship, with Alan joking about barely surviving his "harrowing" car ordeal.
• The discussion closes with mutual affection and a tongue-in-cheek plug for their Patreon and production crew.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Cartoon Influence:
  • Alan Tudyk (00:00): “Cartoons... your brain is trying to grow, and it warps it in a certain way. I think it melts it into a. That’s what happened to me.”
• On Cereal Hazards:
  • Alan Tudyk (10:46): “Captain Crunch would destroy the roof of your mouth. And there was sort of a bunch of crappy cereals ... just rough corn sandpaper.”
• On Chasing Childhood Dreams:
  • Alan Tudyk (17:49): “I think I wanted to be an actor. I always was trying to get into the talent show.”
• Treasure for the Macabre:
  • Nathan Fillion (17:13): “It’s a frame with what looks to be like a dissected frog in it ... but it was crocheted. That kinda epitomizes you, Alan.”
• Breaking Into Showbiz:
  • Nathan Fillion (35:32): “I got to go on [Letterman] … it’s a very proud moment for me.”
• On Class Clown Boundaries:
  • Alan Tudyk (33:43): “I was way past the line, man... I was always trying to find that sweet sweet spot.”
• The Car ‘Wreck’ Reveal:
  • Alan Tudyk (44:12): “I wrecked it because I parked it on the street… they backed right into the BMW and knocked on the door.”
• On Handmade Slankets:
  • Alan Tudyk (41:23): “We wore the slankets that Nathan made us so that we could have free arms to play Halo while we stayed warm.”
• Traditions Die Hard:
  • Nathan Fillion (47:07): “[As an adult]… I still [lift my feet] for tradition or anything, but I lifted my feet and I looked over. My brother was lifting his feet, and he looked over. We both kinda smiled at each other, like we still do it.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00 – 09:55: Childhood cartoons and their lasting effects
• 10:17 – 11:10: Sugar cereals—the good, the bad, and the Cap’n Crunch
• 11:09 – 13:07: Ten-year-old self, cars, and the reality of three dogs
• 13:07 – 16:44: Alan’s unique home décor: bowling lanes, yardsticks, and chandeliers
• 17:36 – 24:56: School days: talent shows, early ambition, and creative beginnings
• 32:01 – 36:35: Finding the line as a class clown; daydreams and autographs
• 39:39 – 41:23: Nathan’s slanket-sewing era and the camaraderie it fostered
• 43:40 – 46:30: Alan’s confession about Nathan’s car “wreck”
• 47:07 – 49:37: Enduring family traditions and superstitions
• 49:55 – 51:02: Wrapping up: motorcycles, reflections, and friendship

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Tone & Style

The episode is playful, warm, and irreverent, filled with friendship-fueled barbs and nostalgic humor. Fillion and Tudyk’s rapport is natural and unscripted, with unexpected tangents and confessions ensuring an entertaining, authentic listening experience.

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In Conclusion:
For fans and newcomers alike, this episode is a charming, tangential trip through the formative moments that shaped two beloved actors—and the enduring, offbeat friendship between them. Whether you’re here for the vintage TV deep-dives, the behind-the-scenes life tidbits, or the good-natured ribbing, "Once We Were Ten-Year-Olds" brims with nostalgia, affection, and the kind of stories that reveal who these spacemen really are.

Transcript

[Alan Tudyk]

I know. I got a lot from cartoons. Love them. You're watching, you're laughing very hard. You're eating cereal full of sugar. Your brain is trying to grow and it warps it in a certain way. I think it melts it into a. That's what happened to me.

[Nathan Fillion]

You think that's the root, the cause of your.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes, I will think of.

[Nathan Fillion]

What are we calling your condition?

[Alan Tudyk]

Hammy. Hamness. Hamminess. It's sort of getting hammy. Once we were spacemen. Spacemen. I tend to play weird people, usually aliens and robots and things that don't have romance.

[Nathan Fillion]

I once didn't get a job where they were looking for a Nathan Fillion type. Once we were spacemen.

[Alan Tudyk]

Once we were spacemen.

[Nathan Fillion]

Alan, do the thing.

[Alan Tudyk]

Once we were spacemean. And we still are floating in space, lost in the darkness like some tossed away space trash calling for help. Help us. Tell my wife I love her very much. She knows with. I want you to be the villain. Or with Alan Tudyk, space trash. Hey, buddy.

[Nathan Fillion]

Good morning, Alan.

[Alan Tudyk]

I have a question. This show's called Space Trash. Yes, go on. You have a question?

[Nathan Fillion]

Do you plan these ahead of time? These little.

[Alan Tudyk]

Thank God, no. Because if that was planned, I'm in trouble. That is. That is just, I don't know, electric currents finding their way through different brain cells and seeing what comes out.

[Nathan Fillion]

I'm pleased. The results I find intensely satisfying.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, good.

[Nathan Fillion]

It makes me smile every time. Alan, I have a question.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes?

[Nathan Fillion]

Do you sometimes look at your job and just the life you're leading and the things that you're doing and you think, what the hell? And like, what would the 10 year old version of Alan think about your life presently, right now, today? Mm.

[Alan Tudyk]

I think the 10 year old me would be very happy. You know, I didn't die by quicksand, which was a big fear for our generation.

[Nathan Fillion]

That was huge, big deal.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. Quicksand that I was doing. Animation would be a huge thing because I loved cartoons so much. I mean, loved cartoons. I think a lot of young kids like cartoons and animation. I still do.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

But we had the Saturday morning cartoon. Did you have that in Canada?

[Nathan Fillion]

Yes. When I grew up, I had very few channels. We didn't have cable. We had channel 3, 5 and 13 and 12 was in French, but there were some cartoons you could catch. We also saw a lot of the. Was it Sid and Marty Croft, like Land of the Lost?

[Alan Tudyk]

You saw those?

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, see, Carissa's been telling me you guys didn't get those. She Just wasn't hip enough to be watching.

[Nathan Fillion]

She wasn't old enough.

[Alan Tudyk]

Right. She's a little younger.

[Nathan Fillion]

She's by two years.

[Alan Tudyk]

So Sid, Marty Croft. They made all these little shows and they were all. You could tell us in Marty Croft show just by the opening. They always had really good songs, but far out. Space Nuts. One of my favorites, Jim Neighbors and Ruth Buzzy. And they had a. A horse dog named Dorothy. And they came and picked up two kids and they were rol. See, this goes back this when I. I imprinted on robots.

[Nathan Fillion]

The only one I remember is Land of the Lost.

[Alan Tudyk]

Marshall Will and Holly on the routine expedition.

[Nathan Fillion]

Met the greatest earthquake ever known. The Sleestacks. And that's the only one I really remember. We also had a version of Swiss Family Robinson that was. It had to be a Canadian production.

[Alan Tudyk]

Was it racist?

[Nathan Fillion]

Why would you say that?

[Alan Tudyk]

I just think. I feel like that's something that would lend itself to kind of like My Guy Friday or something. Wasn't that.

[Nathan Fillion]

I don't think so.

[Alan Tudyk]

No. I mean I might be. I might be confusing.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah. Friday was a different.

[Alan Tudyk]

With an important novel of the old.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah. That's not Swiss Family Robinson.

[Alan Tudyk]

The novel is Robinson Crusoe. So they, they, they drank Swiss hot cocoa.

[Nathan Fillion]

It was France and Ernest. Oh, the two brothers.

[Alan Tudyk]

Still sounding racist.

[Nathan Fillion]

France.

[Alan Tudyk]

It's getting even worse.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

What did they do?

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, exactly. What did they do? I remember them trouncing about a set that was sand and tropical plants. But clearly they were working with a small area and just crowding a lot of plants in there and like coming through bushes. That's your set. You come through the bushes and you come to this clearing and it's a small clearing compared to Gilligan's Island. Gilligan's island for me was the epitome of. Oh, man, I want to live someplace tropical like that. I want to sleep in a hammock every night. I think that.

[Alan Tudyk]

Right.

[Nathan Fillion]

Cool. And like for being stranded on an island, those guys had it pretty good. Those, those huts that were so beautiful and.

[Alan Tudyk]

Right. It's tropical. I guess that's where the racist idea comes in for me. Like, whose island was it? I don't know. Maybe it's just the. Just it's a sign of the times that. That's my first question. It seems like you get a group of white people on an island, seem to be running it, and I go, hmm, what's your source of money? Who did you take it from? Sid and Marty Croft. They had the far out space nuts. There was Very little racism. It was a. That was a Gillian's island knockoff. It was about two guys who are putting food on the rocket ship and then instead of, they're checking. Did you get this? Yes. Did you get breakfast? Yes. Did we get the lunch? Lunch. Copy. Lunch. That's right. Launch. No, I said lunch, not launch.

[Nathan Fillion]

No.

[Alan Tudyk]

And that's the whole idea of the show. Breakfast. Lunch.

[Nathan Fillion]

I said lunch. That. Lunch.

[Alan Tudyk]

They land on a planet every episode, and every alien sounded the same. They would just put their voices through this kind of mix of. Of audio distortion. Grown ups bring me aliens to me. And there was, of course, the one that a lot of people know are the Bugaloos, a weird Australian. They were bugs and it was like a record place. And they were a band. There was also Witchy Poo.

[Nathan Fillion]

Was Witchy Poo one of them?

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes. Witchy Poo was in Bugaloo. She was the. She was bad. Oh. Or was Witchy. Witchy Poo was in. It was called Lidsville originally because that was. That's what you bought weed in. But it's Pop the Magic. No, it was called. There's people out there right now who are listening, who are just chopping at the bit to say you are getting this wrong. Let's ask the computer. What's the name of it? Witchy Poo was a character on HR puff and stuff. Thank you. Dr. Shrinker was a big one. Sigmund the Sea Monster. Sid Martycroft put out so many. Oh, Electro Woman and Dinah Girl. Oh, my God.

[Nathan Fillion]

Oh, that one I remember. Yes.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

What are kids watching now? What's Saturday Morning stuff now? I mean, SpongeBob SquarePants clearly, right? Is that. That's a Saturday morning.

[Alan Tudyk]

No, My guess is they're just, like, playing some video games where they kill and.

[Nathan Fillion]

Are there Saturday morning cartoons anymore? Is that. Is that, like, an event? Bugs Bunny. Yeah, we watched Bugs Bunny. That was like the Looney Tunes. That was when Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd would shoot people in the face, like dropping anvils on heads and lots of you don't see on TV anymore.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, Bugs Bunny would dress up like a woman. It was all very. You know, when he wanted to get. He'd get whoever it was, whether it was Elmer Fudd or. There was the one where there's the big monster. The big orange monster with sneakers. Yes. The big orange monster was named Gossamer. Monsters tell the most interesting stories. Is his name Gary? Gary the Monster. I said his name was Gossamer. And they would use all the stars from Warner Brothers at the time, the people that they would see at the commissary, you'd see Humphrey Bogart, you'd see. All of the people who were in films at that time would be in Lauren Bacall. I remember as a kid being like. You'd see these caricature faces and, like, I guess I. I understood they were supposed to be people, but I didn't know who they were.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, yeah. You didn't know the rest.

[Alan Tudyk]

They smoked cigarettes. Our cartoons, did crazy stuff. Yosemite Sam, that I believe, because back in the day, during that time, the comedy that was happening in the world was kind of off of vaudeville and Broadway. And it had a one, two, three punch, and it had a certain pacing to it and a delivery. And I wonder if people who came up watching Ren and Stimpy, it seemed like that influenced a lot of people, a lot of young people. All of the hyperfocus and the extreme anger and extended moments of. Then it goes farther and then closer and closer and closer up. Tim Robinson does a lot of that stuff. I think you should leave in all of his projects that he's doing. I feel like that's another pacing to comedy that is. I don't know, may have come from cartoons, but I know I got a lot from cartoons. Loved them. You're watching, you're laughing very hard. You're eating cereal full of sugar.

[Nathan Fillion]

You're.

[Alan Tudyk]

Your brain is trying to grow, and it warps it in a certain way. I think it melts it into a. That's what happened to me.

[Nathan Fillion]

You think that's the root, the cause of your.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes, I will think of.

[Nathan Fillion]

What are we calling your condition?

[Alan Tudyk]

Hammy. Hamness. Hamminess. It's. It's sort of getting hammy.

[Nathan Fillion]

What was your sugar cereal, by the way?

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, you know what I love? I love a little Cinnamon Life. Not a Nazi life.

[Nathan Fillion]

Life.

[Alan Tudyk]

Not the most sugary, but you put sugar on it, then.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah. Cinnamon Life sweetener. I think we. We used to add Sugar Twin. I think that was our. We didn't use sugar, but we use a sugar. Very sweet. Sweeten the milk like crazy. But Honey Nut Cheerios was my honeycomb and Honey Cheerios. Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Any marshmallows?

[Nathan Fillion]

Captain Crunch was the one that would, like, murder your mouth.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Captain Crunch would destroy the roof of your mouth. And there was sort of a bunch of crappy cereals that were basically the same corn mixture. They were just rough corn sandpaper that you ate for breakfast. Yeah, yeah. It would. It would strip pain off Of a warship I think, ow.

[Nathan Fillion]

We got a little bit distracted but. Because when you were 10 years old we got cartoons. But 10 year old Alan Tudyk is looking at your present day career.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh right.

[Nathan Fillion]

What would he think of the car you drive?

[Alan Tudyk]

Well the car I drive is yours currently. I don't have a car.

[Nathan Fillion]

I have a car you own is, it's in Vancouver, right?

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, I do, we own a car. So he would, he, he'd be happy about that car and he'd say what's a lease? And he would have a very short attention span because of all the sugar cereal.

[Nathan Fillion]

He'd be looking at all your dogs

[Alan Tudyk]

and say what's, what's missing in your life? Truly. We have three dogs now. Three dogs. Three dogs. That is the equivalent of a cat lady. But it's not gender specific and you know we got too many dogs.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, three dogs is equal to seven cats. Yeah, I think that's, you know how

[Alan Tudyk]

many people have three dogs in New York? Six. Six. Four of them are not liked and the other two people are leery of because you don't. No one can have that. I'm going to be walking three dogs down the street and people are going to say oh hey can I get your number? I've been looking for a walking service because no One is walking three dogs that would possibly be all theirs.

[Nathan Fillion]

What would 10 year old Alan think about Alan's house in Los Angeles?

[Alan Tudyk]

I like it a lot. Like it a lot. It's because I have a lot of cool stuff around that's visually interesting. I've often said that about like when people bring their children over when they're really young. It's like a lot of my stuff looks like toys but. But don't touch their antiques. There tend to be like, you know, a sign like a, a cool, like I got this cool eyeglasses, old antique eyeglasses sign. I've been wanting one for a while. They're like eyeglasses and they got eyes in them painted and so when you hang it on a wall it's like your wall has eyes. So it's pretty cool. Your wall's looking at you so that looks like something for a child. I would think at least my 10 year old self would be like ooh, let me get my peanut butter fingers on that.

[Nathan Fillion]

Tony, do you still have the, your kitchen has like a service bar, like a bar you can saddle up to. Is it still there? The one made of bowling lane?

[Alan Tudyk]

The bowling lane was removed. I replaced it with butcher block because the thing is, turns out I bought a bowling alley lane from this place in Florida. You get them real cheap there. This guy shipped me one, and so then I gave it to a builder, and I got my buddy Mark Baker, who I grew up with down in Albuquerque, if you need a good architect. He drew me up some plans to make this bowling alley at like, it was a whole thing.

[Nathan Fillion]

Anyway, it started at the floor. It came up. It went across as a counter. It went up the wall and then up your ceiling a little bit. And you can see the bowling lane marks on the wood itself, like the ones you line up your ball with.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. I've never seen a builder so angry at me when I handed him the wood, because he's like, this is a floor. I'm like, yeah, but we're going to use it as this. He's like, there's nails all through this. He, like, he was trying to sand it and broke a couple of sanders and was mad at me. Anyway, it lasted for a long time, but when we redid the kitchen, they had to remove some of it. And then they're like, we're not. Let's just use better wood. And that was what the other guy had been saying. He's like, can't I just put maple in here? Like, no. Novelty, man. Do you know the price of novelty? You can't put a price on it. This is a bowling alley. But we're using it as a counter.

[Nathan Fillion]

You also had a wall of yardsticks.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes, yes, yes. I. I took it down just the other day. I removed it.

[Nathan Fillion]

That's a long time it's been up.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, well, I moved it. It was in one place. And then, man. Yeah, I bought a chandelier and it ruined everything. Ruined everything. Bought a chandelier. I saw it in a. In a antique store that was going out of business. I don't. I'm not a chandelier antique guy. I'm usually not even in those kinds of antique stores. I'm in the antique stores that go. People go into. They're like, why does it smell so bad in here? And this is just a bunch of junk. That's where I get excited in those places, because I'm finding weird junk and things that are. Are no longer used in society, like closed foot measuring tools, briatic device. Anyway, things that. That have come and gone that are obsolete now. But it was 19th century chandelier crystal from Italy. And the guy was like, they don't even make these anymore. You can. You can't get this if you break one piece, they cannot. It will not be able to replace these. And you can't get. You have to get a passport to bring antiques like this over from Italy. And they won't even give you a passport from this beautiful light. And we walked out of there and I thought about it for a week and a half. And then we went back when it was half off and we hung it above my cool wood table right by my cool yard stick wall. And the snotty chandelier said, I will not be by this ugly table and this ugly wall. So we got a fancy table and then it made the wall even look worse. So then we had to tear down the. We just tore down the whole wall and move the yardsticks. That thing cost me so much money trying to bring my house up to the chandelier.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, it demanded more excellence.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. It's a snooty Italian piece of crystal and lots of crystal and we still have it. It's going to end up in New York. But you know what, we're moving into a building that was born about the time the building was born, around the same time that chandelier was born. So I think it's going to be a good marriage.

[Nathan Fillion]

So 10 year old Alan, my 10 year old me, let's say what the hell chandelier is.

[Alan Tudyk]

This cares even less about chandeliers. Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

Something in your house that always, I always really loved was. It's a very small item. It's a frame with what looks to be like a dissected frog in it. Oh yeah, but. And it's like pinned open so you can see all the innards. But it was crocheted. It's a little wool model of a dissected frog.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes.

[Nathan Fillion]

And that kind of epitomizes you for me, Alan. And this is actually something we share. I like weird little stuff like that. Yours kind of goes to more towards the. I don't wanna say grotesque. Certainly.

[Alan Tudyk]

Of course. What grotesque.

[Nathan Fillion]

Like I like quirky stuff, but macabre.

[Alan Tudyk]

Macabre.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yes, yes, let's use that word.

[Alan Tudyk]

Okay.

[Nathan Fillion]

I do have goofy, weird stuff around my house. Did 10 year old Alan have a plan? Like did he have a dream? Like when I grow up, I sure hope I blankety blank. And then something like that has been fulfilled in any way.

[Alan Tudyk]

I think I wanted to be an actor. I wanted to. I always was trying to get into the talent show. Did you guys have talent shows in like elementary school? We did.

[Nathan Fillion]

I mean in high school. Like my brother was the performer as I was growing up. He was the. He was musically inclined. He could play piano and guitar, and

[Alan Tudyk]

you couldn't be his backup singer.

[Nathan Fillion]

You know, I think I didn't have a lot of interest.

[Alan Tudyk]

B.

[Nathan Fillion]

You know, when you're the younger brother, you're searching for your own identity. You want something that sets you apart. I think that's. I told you. I think that's why I got the unicycle.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. Did you possibly win hearts and minds riding that across a stage in elementary school?

[Nathan Fillion]

Nope.

[Alan Tudyk]

Unicycle. No.

[Nathan Fillion]

Okay. No, no. Hearts and minds.

[Alan Tudyk]

Did you perform in any of the talent shows at home?

[Nathan Fillion]

In high school? In high school?

[Alan Tudyk]

What was your talent?

[Nathan Fillion]

We did Monty Python sketches.

[Alan Tudyk]

Really?

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, we did. We just ripped off Monty Python sketches, and we also emceed a couple of them. So there was. We say we.

[Alan Tudyk]

Who's this we?

[Nathan Fillion]

Nathan, Mark, and Jesse.

[Alan Tudyk]

This is your posse?

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, exactly. We all shared a similar sense of humor. We did. We did some. We used to do, like, student council announcements and stuff like that. But, yeah, it was monkey python sketches.

[Alan Tudyk]

Do you remember which ones you did?

[Nathan Fillion]

Oh, yeah, geez. We did the dead parrot sketch. I want to say. No. Albatross. Albatross. When someone's. One of the. The vendor in the audience was trying to sell an albatross.

[Alan Tudyk]

That's pretty cool.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, we did the rich men sketch.

[Alan Tudyk]

The what?

[Nathan Fillion]

The rich men sketch. The four rich men sitting around talking about how rough used to have it.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

And every story got worse. Yeah, we did that sketch. We did some Saturday Night Live sketches, I think. Yeah, we just took. We just took sketches from stuff that we admired and did those with the accents inexplicably. I'm sorry for this interruption. This is Nathan. Unexplicably is not a word I would like to say. I know it is not a word, and I have no idea why I said that. The correct word is inexplicably. Please don't use unexplicably because of me. I now return you to your podcast.

[Alan Tudyk]

I. I auditioned every year to be in the talent show, as in, we only had it in K through 5, and then that was over. Then. 6th, 7th. 8th grade. There were actual plays being put on that were, you know, not great plays, but that's. I got into plays then.

[Nathan Fillion]

What was your talent that you wanted to. When you. Like you said, I tried to get into it. Sounds like they said, no, Alan.

[Alan Tudyk]

No, they said no, Alan every time.

[Nathan Fillion]

What was your like? But I want to do this.

[Alan Tudyk]

Well, obviously, lip syncing to Grease songs. As an old woman and then kind of stripping off all my old woman garb and throwing my cane down. When I really got into the song, the kids love whatever I would do, the kids that I did it in front of would howl. And the teacher go, there's no way we're putting that on stage. And I also. I was big into lip syncing and fake guitar playing this dumb diddy from K Tel Records. It was called I'm a Nut. The song.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, I'm a Nut.

[Alan Tudyk]

You remember I'm a Nut?

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah. It was that guy. He did all sorts of kooky songs.

[Alan Tudyk]

I'm a Nut. I'm a nut. So that's. Sadly, I would get in front of my fellow students and go, look at me. I'm a nut. I'm a nut. And they would go, that's really no talent at all. And I'd sit down.

[Nathan Fillion]

Was this a solo performance?

[Alan Tudyk]

These.

[Nathan Fillion]

These.

[Alan Tudyk]

That was a solo performance. The Grease one was done with Tony Sakowski. He and I were a team into seventh grade. We teamed up.

[Nathan Fillion]

Where's Tony now?

[Alan Tudyk]

He's still in Texas. He's still in Texas.

[Nathan Fillion]

Did he pursue the.

[Alan Tudyk]

No, I was. Tony was. We had a great time, but I feel like I forced him into things. We're doing Young Frankenstein. You are Igor. I am Young Frankenstein. I did that with him. But we did. There were speech tournaments in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. That's where Tony and I really won a lot of trophies. And we. There was like a. There was a contest. You would have loved this TV commercial. That was something you competed in. You made up a product and you would put on a TV commercial that would have to be three minutes long. So we had macho hair, which was like hair that was. That you like, that you would get at Michael's or, you know, whatever, these crafty craft hair. And you ripped it off. You could grow immediate hair, and the women loved you. And you could rip it off and hand it to them and it would grow right back. One year, it was the Swiss army cow chip. I lived out there, my fields, and I ain't got nothing. All I got is cow chips. And then it came to me, what do I want when I'm looking at couches? It makes me hungry, so I need a spoon and a fork. And anyway, I made couch fake cow chips with insulations. You know that squirt insulation that expands?

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Almost like whipped cream on a paper plate. You just do a little cow pie, paint it brown. And then on the back there were fork, knife, this that it was a weapon. It was all this stuff. And then you'd write a jingle and you'd sing the jingle and we'd win trophies and then you could do improv and you would do group improv. And improv is what they called. It was just a one person thing. You have one minute with a subject and I would always choose a character to do it in and just make a story from a character's point of view. And I'd won a lot of trophies and that's how I got into acting because I liked. I could never win a trophy through athletic prowess. I know you're surprised by that.

[Nathan Fillion]

I am quite. You're quite fit.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. Yeah. But evidently sport requires coordination. Yeah. The ability to throw different shaped balls. That's not. I don't do that. Hit balls with sticks. But that's not. I don't do that.

[Nathan Fillion]

Never really practice that.

[Alan Tudyk]

No. Kick it, kick it to a specific place.

[Nathan Fillion]

Is there any part of your life that 10 year old Alan would look at and go, yeah, this is all great, but I'm gonna pass on that part. You work a lot. Like, you do actual. Like, like there's the fun part of our job and then there's like the. Oh, this is a bit of a grind part. You do that a lot though, the grind part?

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. I'm a character actor, Nathan. Us character actors. It's a hustle. There's a bit of a slog to it. Although I'm now I'm really enjoying auditioning. Like I like auditioning. Maybe I think a 10 year old would want to do that part. It's boring. But I think the more time. I think I, I want to take more time with auditions and yeah. Really enjoy them. Mike really enjoyed the process of it. I got used to doing the same show every year. You, you can probably relate to this. When you go on set at Rookie, you step right into your character. You know, this character. You don't have to. There's not a lot of. Let me get into a special place. You, you could get somebody, they can throw something at you and you'll be able to pick it up real fast.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah. Yeah. You spent eight years building a foundation. You don't have to create anything from the ground up, but in audition you're ground up every time. Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

It's a whole world, it's a whole new. And when it's a character there, like, unless I. I'll get some offers. They tend to be offers for roles that I've played before. Oh, he. We know he can be a robot because we've seen him. Robot. There, there, there, there. He'll probably be able to do a robot, but when it's anything else, they need to see it. But 10 year old me, all 10 year old me want to do is go outside. That's what my 10 year old would like about my house here, is that I have a piece of canyon attached to my house. And I would be down in the canyon getting ticks and loving it and trying to have. That's what my 10 year old. Well, no, I'll tell you, my 14 year old me would be surprised. I lived in LA because I went to Los Angeles when I was 14 with my older brother and we were visiting a friend of my brothers and I had a terrible time. I had just cut all my hair off, I had a little buzz cut and I was too young. And we went to Sea World and my brother, we met three girls. My brother starts holding hands with one. Quentin is holding hands with the other girl. And the third girl looked at me and said, I'm gonna go find my mom. So I did not like it here. This place was a place that didn't get me.

[Nathan Fillion]

You were running around Los Angeles unsupervised as a 14 year old?

[Alan Tudyk]

Well, Quentin was there. He was 16. Where were you?

[Nathan Fillion]

Like in a neighborhood. In a.

[Alan Tudyk]

We went to SeaWorld. He was from the OC and we went to SeaWorld. We went to Universal Studios. So we did all that kind of crap. We went to a Depeche Mode concert with Book of Love opening up. That was.

[Nathan Fillion]

That's fun.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, that was good.

[Nathan Fillion]

But you're. This is like your parents go here. We'll drop you off at the gate and see you guys later. We'll pick you up in six hours.

[Alan Tudyk]

My parents dropped us off at DFW airport in Dallas and we flew to go visit. They were the Downies, they were our neighbors, they lived next door to us. And then they moved away to California. And so my brother was friends with Quint because they were older, my brother's older and they had to bring me along.

[Nathan Fillion]

That's a hell of an adventure for a 14 year old kid.

[Alan Tudyk]

I enjoyed Universal Studios. There was a place where you could make your own video. And I did. I sang. Because this is before you had video cameras everywhere. So they had it all set up. You could put on a wig, you could do this and that. And I sang the duet to all the girls I've loved before. Ironically, since I was shunned at SeaWorld. Go play with the sea, you smell like fish. So I did both Willie Nelson and Julio Glacias, parts of to all the girls I've loved before. And they videotaped it. And I came home with a pretty good souvenir.

[Nathan Fillion]

I. In my later teen years, I must. I might have been 17 or 18, maybe 18. I was the 97th caller to K97 for some contest. And I won tickets to an MC Hammer concert in Vancouver. Whoa, whoa.

[Alan Tudyk]

For young Nathan Fillion, it was Hammer time.

[Nathan Fillion]

It was. But you can't touch this. So I thank you. So I told my brother, I said, hey, for your Christmas gift this year, this is what I'm giving you. Because I, you know, I was 18, I wasn't making a lot of money or anything like that. I was handling it, gave him the ticket. So he and I, well, we. That was our trip, but he and I went together to Vancouver. We flew to Vancouver, and the radio station affiliate in Vancouver picked us up in a limousine with a bunch of other concert winners. And we went to the MC Hammer concert on Vogue, opened. And afterwards, we're going to go backstage and meet MC Hammer. And they line us all up. And MC Hammer and his entourage walk past him, went, hey, nice to see you. Kept walking. And then they put us back in the limousine, brought us back to the hotel, which was. I remember being a very nice hotel. They kind of leaned over and said to my brother, and I said, you guys just. Just sit down over there. Just sit down right there. And said, okay, good night, everybody. Good night. Thanks very much for coming this night. Just. Just wait over here. Just wait. Good night, everybody. And then kind of shoot everybody off and said, okay, guys, come on, jump back. We jumped back in the limousine and they took us to a battle of the bands down not on Granville island, but where the little Olympic Village is now. There's kind of a port area where it's kind of a fun. There was some battle of the there. And they had a bunch of Canadian rock and roll artists were there as judges, but they also performed all together. It was an incredible. And we were upstairs in a VIP lounge with free shrimp cocktails and beer. Oh, my God, what a fun night. What an adventure we had.

[Alan Tudyk]

No doubt, man.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah. So that was like my first kind of experience in Vancouver being, like, on my own and doing something. I think I visited as a kid,

[Alan Tudyk]

but I think you're right. You cannot touch that. You cannot touch that. Wow.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah. But MC Hammer will always have that special place in my heart.

[Alan Tudyk]

To all the girls I've loved before who've traveled in and out my door I'm glad they came along. Julio Glaciers I celebrate this song to all the girls I've laughed before.

[Nathan Fillion]

I saw Willie Nelson in concert once too.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh God. Really?

[Nathan Fillion]

It was an accident. It was the House of Blues. He was incredible and he. He put a little twist on everything he sang so that nobody could sing along. Which was interesting because he was doing like a little. Just a little different. Sang everything a little different so no one could sing along. So it was just him singing. It was great. I was up on a balcony up on like stage right and had a great view. Somebody at the back took their hat off and just did a fling. Just. It flew at an angle, curved around right in front of Willie Nelson. He's playing guitar, he sees it, goes whack. Catches it, puts it on his head, keeps playing. And the crowd went crazy. He would. Then he took it off, he threw it back out to whoever threw it. And he, you know, Willie Nelson always wears the bandana. He would take off his bandana after every song and throw it out there, grab another bandana, tie it in a loop around the neck of his guitar, take that, put it on his head and then keep playing. And then at the end of that song, throw that out there. He just kept playing, putting on new bandanas and throwing them out to the crowd. What.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, what a great.

[Nathan Fillion]

He took a little. I took what I was told was a smoke break to go out to his. In the middle of the thing to go out to his bus and smoke a little weed and chill out a little bit. And Cheryl Crow came out and performed a couple songs and then they. I performed a couple songs together and I was beside myself.

[Alan Tudyk]

I feel like the concert itself is a smoke break. He's taking a break from smoking and that's the only time he stops. That dude smokes a lot of weed a lot.

[Nathan Fillion]

That's what I was told. That's what I was told.

[Alan Tudyk]

Really strong wheeze. I've been told many times by people who have been in the. Been with him in the van or in his bus.

[Nathan Fillion]

And 10 year old Nathan would say, who's Willie Nelson? No, but. But kind of coming back to the 10 year old version of.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. Of me.

[Nathan Fillion]

10 year old versions of both of us. I have an idea in my head. I think it took me a little while. I think I was around 10 or 11 when I said I'm pretty shy kid. I'm pretty much a wallflower. And it doesn't serve me at All. Yeah. I was shy. Super shy kid.

[Alan Tudyk]

Wow.

[Nathan Fillion]

Fifth grade, I went to a new school. There was a class clown. Cameron.

[Alan Tudyk]

Son of a bitch.

[Nathan Fillion]

He and I were buddies.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh. I mean, great guy.

[Nathan Fillion]

And then he got sick. Yeah, he was one. I liked him. He got sick.

[Alan Tudyk]

You poisoned him. Yes. Move on.

[Nathan Fillion]

I poisoned him. And I stepped into his shoes. I said, well, we're going to need a class clown. And I really enjoyed it. There was, like, a level of adrenaline with that kind of performing thing. And. And, you know, you start learning the boundaries. Like, how do I walk this line between being entertaining and annoying? Like, at what point does the teacher go, that's enough. That's. That's enough.

[Alan Tudyk]

That's the test. That's the trick. Right?

[Nathan Fillion]

That's just like, gosh. I remember I was talking to Adam Baldwin's youngest son, Devlin, his youngest boy. His youngest kid. He was very little at the time. This is back in Firefly. And I said, hey, buddy, how's school going? He goes, well, we have a substitute teacher and Nathan. Subs can be tricky. He was that kid who wanted. Who had, you know, if there was a funny line, he would say it. He saw an opening, he'd go for it. And if you didn't get him his sense of humor, I could see how, you know. And he, like, subs are tricky. He wasn't wrong. He wasn't wrong. I remember being a young man and thinking, you know, like, where's the line? And trying to just get right up to it, but never. I didn't try to go over it. You were an over the line guy a lot.

[Alan Tudyk]

You're very conscientious as a class clown. That's very good. I was way past the line, man. I. I was bad. I heard a lot as a kid. You don't know when to stop. I heard that a lot. I heard that again and again year after year after year after year. Sometimes more strident than other times. I heard that you don't know when to stop. Because I had been in situations so many times where I knew I was going past the point of that I should stop. And it worked out so. I was always trying to find that sweet sweet spot.

[Nathan Fillion]

You know what I remember getting admonished for? I was a good kid. I was a very good kid. But I was always accused of being a daydreamer, which clearly was a thing.

[Alan Tudyk]

Sounds like a good thing.

[Nathan Fillion]

Also wasting my time practicing my autograph and who's laughing now?

[Alan Tudyk]

What? No, no, no, no. What? And accepting awards in the mirror with a Hairbrush. What?

[Nathan Fillion]

That has yet to pay off. Didn't you? No.

[Alan Tudyk]

I mean, maybe there's just that point where they. You learn, oh, I'm gonna have a signature like mom and dad. Let me try to figure out what my signature is going to be. But it was more like you start

[Nathan Fillion]

learning cursive and start.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

Loopy letters and stuff. Yeah, yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

And I. I think, yeah, I'm pretty proud of it these days. But you were practicing for the day that you were going to need to be like, who do I make this out to?

[Nathan Fillion]

I think so, yeah. Wow. Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Wow. Nice. So you knew early on.

[Nathan Fillion]

Well, I had a dream. I don't know if I knew, but I certainly had a daydream about it.

[Alan Tudyk]

I was on Johnny Carson in my mirror, you know, and then Johnny's gone. It's like, oh, Jay Leno. No, I'll be on now. I'm going to do it with Letterman. I. That. That went.

[Nathan Fillion]

Mine was Letterman.

[Alan Tudyk]

But you. But you were on Letterman. You fulfilled that dream.

[Nathan Fillion]

I really. I did. I really did. I lived in New York.

[Alan Tudyk]

Uhhuh.

[Nathan Fillion]

And I would pass by the Ed Sullivan Theater and look up at that big old Letterman sign and say, one day I'm gonna be on that show and I'll know that I've made it. And not only did I get to go on that, it's a very proud moment for me. I'm something I really hold dear. And he was very kind to me. I was told, like, oh, you never know what he's gonna do. But he was extremely kind to me. The last time I guested on that show, Mr. Letterman said, how many times have we had you here on the show? And I just. I smiled to myself. Cause it was unreal to me. I said four times. Wow. Yeah, that is. I don't know. I. I mean, it's weird to talk about because how many people can relate, but David Letman's a big deal to me. I used to watch him with my dad all the time, and my dad liked him and would tell me, oh, my God, see what he did? He didn't like that guy. He doesn't like him very much. You could tell because he's doing like. I really enjoyed how individual he was and how fearless he was, except for of animals. He didn't like animals too much, but except dogs.

[Alan Tudyk]

I've gotten close to him, but there's a restraining order now because he lives upstate, and I'm not allowed on the grounds. And like, what is. What are the grounds? Like, how do you Define that. Evidently his property line. But so anyway, that's a better story than mine. You got to meet him and he liked your. Your hair. I remember you. I've seen. I remember seeing you on Letterman doing the hair bit, which is very funny.

[Nathan Fillion]

I do a hair bit because I like. I have what my family calls a floating scalp where you can kind of grab the hair and kind of wiggle it back and forth and it looks like you're wearing a hairpiece. And then I can control my scalp forward and backwards so I can pull it forward and it'll stay. And then I can pull it backwards and it'll stay because I can.

[Alan Tudyk]

I know the bit. It's very good.

[Nathan Fillion]

And he found that very entertaining. He would have me do it every time I came on the show.

[Alan Tudyk]

It was just. It's a. If you haven't seen it, please check it out. YouTube natively and hair. David Letterman. It's out there. Check it out. We used it to comic effect again. I keep talking about common because we just need to make more things together because that's the only thing we have that we've made. But I use that bit that your character was actually bald and just took it one step further.

[Nathan Fillion]

So in common.

[Alan Tudyk]

I was very in common. Yes. You took the. And it. And you would. In season two, you were pulling the hair off of your head and putting it on, and you just had the sidewalls and the back, which you don't see these days. That was something that was more of an 80s look, which is so bad. Please don't come back. I don't want that look to come back because I want it to live in the fun. It's just so funny. I don't want it to be cool again. Was it ever cool or. It was just what you had, but you were very funny in that going that far.

[Nathan Fillion]

You told me later you were worried that I wouldn't want to do it.

[Alan Tudyk]

Absolutely. I was worried because it is just so.

[Nathan Fillion]

It's so unbecoming.

[Alan Tudyk]

It's so unbecoming. Is not an attractive look. Not that you're. Not that you're a vain person, but it's just totally embracing because you take it off and you're brushing it and counting the brushes and you're like, yeah, on a little headstand. It's like. It's. It's. You're trying different hats on it. It became quite a little bit. We just kept using it. Very funny. Also check that out if you want to. We don't maybe need to do this right now. But I do have something about you that I don't know that everybody knows. This should be its own thing. Allen's Hollywood Secrets only about Nathan Fillion Hollywood Secrets. It was after Firefly in the time period. So in the 2004 five, six, seven era. That those era. That's those three years constitute an era in my brain. It was before Castle and you had more time on your hands. These were the really good Halo playing days. We were doing a lot of Halo playing. And you learned to sew and you sewed slankets for your friends.

[Nathan Fillion]

That's true. I learned to sew in junior high school. And also my mom was real good at it. My grandmother taught me a couple of hand stitches.

[Alan Tudyk]

My mom was good at it too. I don't know how to do it. You learned sewing from your mom? Oh, because you were frozen in a glacier. And that was all there was to do.

[Nathan Fillion]

Because in 7th, 8th and 9th grade your options were home economics or industrial arts. And in home economics they were making cookies with the girls cooking things. And it's all the girls since. So I remember Tom Petruch and I said to heck with this. We're taking home economics. And I learned how to sew. And Alan, it's something I use to this day.

[Alan Tudyk]

Well, we all benefited from it when you showed up. And like we got these sort of fleece slankets which if you don't know what a slanket is, it is a blanket with sleeves. It kind of was a hit. It was right around the time that people were getting shamwows. I feel like it was sort of in that same era or that jerk off thing. What was that thing called? That weight. Shake Weight.

[Nathan Fillion]

The Shake Weight.

[Alan Tudyk]

That's what it's called. The same time as the as shamwows and shake weights. There was the slanket and it was so that we could play video games because it's cold. It was definitely cold in Venice.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, the wintertime gets a little chilly.

[Alan Tudyk]

Just a little chilly. And in Venice.

[Nathan Fillion]

Little.

[Alan Tudyk]

That little log cabiny looking house that I was in was pretty breezy. And did I ever tell you it was built by Tony Dow who played Wally. Anyway, odd little factoid Tony Dow, who played Wally in Leave it to Beaver built that little log house that I lived in in Venice right by the beach.

[Nathan Fillion]

I think that qualifies as a Hollywood secret.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes, Hollywood secrets. And we would all. We wore the slankets that Nathan made us so that we could have free arms to play Halo while we stayed warm. That's a pretty great thing. As a friend, like, here's your slanket. I. I got to choose a camouflage. I got camouflage fleece, blanket. I think I don't know anybody out there who's got a buddy who's making them slankets. It's just. It's a pretty cool, pretty great thing about Nathan. So there. That's that secret.

[Nathan Fillion]

I still have a sewing machine. If I have something that can be repaired because I like it and I don't want to get rid of it, I will repair it. I will do it. I just got a set of new hand sewing needles. I'm really excited about.

[Alan Tudyk]

What? Really? Yeah. Wow. That's a good. That's a good craft. That's a good thing, man. If.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

When this whole shit show comes crashing down, you know the world, you're gonna survive. Everybody. You've got flashlights, you've got sewing.

[Nathan Fillion]

I can weld.

[Alan Tudyk]

You've got a bug out bag. You can do a little welding. I've seen your. The arc welding. There's a. But. Yeah, you can weld.

[Nathan Fillion]

You can weld. I got a proper welder now. Like the. It's wire fed and. Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Why do you.

[Nathan Fillion]

It's not amazing. It's not beautiful, but it'll suffice.

[Alan Tudyk]

It's enough to put together like an A team vehicle. Like the final boss vehicle that a team would always put together at the end of the. Yeah, there was always like a van with. There was so much sheet metal in the 80s just hanging around for them to put together these homemade war vehicles.

[Nathan Fillion]

Spring loaded sliding racks and.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, it was like a Team MacGyver. Point of the show.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. I was Murdoch. That would be my character.

[Nathan Fillion]

Totally Murdoch. You're so Murdoch.

[Alan Tudyk]

You would have been Face or Hannibal.

[Nathan Fillion]

I accept. Alan, let's get to know you better.

[Alan Tudyk]

All right. I know you and you know me. Let's get to know you better.

[Nathan Fillion]

Alan, what don't I know about you?

[Alan Tudyk]

You don't know that your BMW, you let me correct it. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's gotta. It's gonna need a little body work.

[Nathan Fillion]

Oh, no. I didn't know if you're doing a bit because we've done this exact bit.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes, we have. And now it's come to life. We've manifested it well. Okay, look.

[Nathan Fillion]

So first of all, first of all, first of all.

[Alan Tudyk]

Alan, look. Yes.

[Nathan Fillion]

Are you okay?

[Alan Tudyk]

I feel like there's a little delay, but yes, yes, I'm Okay. I'm okay.

[Nathan Fillion]

Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay?

[Alan Tudyk]

I think everybody's okay.

[Nathan Fillion]

Okay.

[Alan Tudyk]

I, in a sense, I wrecked it because I parked it on the street. See, see this? There's a little. There's a little qualification here. I am having some work done, and I left my driveway open for the workers to use as a staging area for the work. And these yahoos, when they showed up at the end of the day in the big truck to pick up all the guys that were there, this construction team, like, drops a couple of experts off and then they take off and go do other jobs and they come back and pick them up. They're like, indentured, and they're like, there's no. They can't escape. They have to be here. It feels very indentured servitude. It feels dicey. But they backed right into to the BMW and knocked on the door.

[Nathan Fillion]

When you said, I wrecked it, I mean, yeah. That conjures images of you behind the wheel, Alan. You can hardly blame yourself for someone.

[Alan Tudyk]

Thank you for seeing it that way. You lent me your car. It's now wrecked. So in a sense, I wrecked your car. I feel like I have your car and it is now. It needs bodywork, but they are going to pay for it.

[Nathan Fillion]

Again, wrecked. Listen, that's wonderful. First of all, that's wonderful. I'm glad it's not going to cost you anything. Second, it's a, like a utility vehicle that I use for guests or for friends when they, like, case in point, when you need a vehicle and wrecked it sounds like it's like the thing was destroyed. It's a little bit of bodywork. It's still working. It's still good. You can still drive around.

[Alan Tudyk]

It does still drive. It drives. They crinkled up the front. It's going to show up on their insurance and they. They're ready.

[Nathan Fillion]

Those are plastic bits, Alan. That can be fixed, no problem. I am so glad, Alan, that you were safe.

[Alan Tudyk]

Okay, good. Okay. That's the thing you didn't know about me.

[Nathan Fillion]

I love that you saved it for the podcast.

[Alan Tudyk]

They're like, can we get in touch? Do we need to get in touch with them? Like, don't, don't, don't get in touch with anybody. No, no, no. I got it. Let me, let me do it. And I'll be the one handling it

[Nathan Fillion]

so I know exactly, exactly when to do it.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes, Nathan. What's something I don't know about you, Alan?

[Nathan Fillion]

If you really want to get under my skin, the one thing you can do is wreck my car. No, is. I was gonna say, Alan, this is something I realize that I have done for my entire life. I'm not a superstitious person. I'm a lipstickious

[Alan Tudyk]

pun.

[Nathan Fillion]

I was in a car with my brother, and we crossed over some train tracks, and we both lifted up our feet as we went over the train tracks. It's something we have done since we were children, and it was for good luck. I was like, you have to lift your feet. Train tracks. You gotta lift your feet. First it was like, you gotta do it, and then it was for good luck. And then here I am. I'm turning 55 next month, Alan. I still do it. I think now more so for tradition or anything, but I lifted my feet and I looked over. My brother was lifting his feet, and he looked over. We both kind of do smile at each other, like we still do it.

[Alan Tudyk]

Well, okay. What is that? It's a superstition.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

So if you're driving, you're taking your feet off of the pedals.

[Nathan Fillion]

No, because. Because now I drive an electric car, and when you. When you lift your foot off the accelerator, it slows down a little bit. So I will lift my heel off the floorboard, but I'll keep my foot on my toe on the accelerator. Like I'm. I'm an adult. I'm not gonna. At the cost of driving. I'm not gonna, you know, be, you know, safe. I'm a safe. Superstitious.

[Alan Tudyk]

Right. You know where the line is between. Yeah, yeah. Nostalgia.

[Nathan Fillion]

And I will sometimes, even for kicks, see if I can hold my breath through a tunnel or over a bridge, which is something else we did as kids.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, really? In a tunnel?

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

That could be dangerous. Over a bridge.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah. Which in Vancouver doesn't work because that Lionsgate Bridge, that's a long bridge. You know, you're gonna pass out.

[Alan Tudyk]

You really just want to hold your breath over the north side of it because for some reason, it stinks.

[Nathan Fillion]

That's right over the ocean. There's a. Isn't there a port there of some kind?

[Alan Tudyk]

I think it's. There's a lot of. There's a lot of pulp. There's a lot of industrial stuff on that side.

[Nathan Fillion]

And there's always those two giant piles of yellow sulfur. Isn't that yellow? Isn't that sulfur that.

[Alan Tudyk]

Those two piles of sulfur?

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Maybe it's the sulfur we're smelling.

[Nathan Fillion]

I say two. There might be more. But I remember. I can see. You can see it as you fly into Vancouver. Those mountains of sulfur.

[Alan Tudyk]

It's weird. That's always there. They've always got some sulfur on hand. You'd think they'd need to put a cover on it. Nope. Gets rained on.

[Nathan Fillion]

It's like a guy taking a break. Smoking a. Smoking a cigarette over there. Steve, get away from the sulfur.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. Wow. So you pick up your feet, you're superstitious, a little stitious, nostalgic.

[Nathan Fillion]

I'll say. Let's go with nostalgic because it was something I did as a kid that I still do to this day. Bet you didn't know that about me.

[Alan Tudyk]

I didn't know that about you, Nathan. I did not know that.

[Nathan Fillion]

Here's my question.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes.

[Nathan Fillion]

What are we going to do about you getting into a car? How do we get you into a car? Like you. You need a car?

[Alan Tudyk]

Well, they're gonna have to give me a rental or something while it's fixed.

[Nathan Fillion]

Okay. They'll take care of that. Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Or I'll rent one. It's pretty wild that I don't have a car in Los Angeles. Some. It's a place where you need a car. I do have my motorcycle and I am riding it and I love it very much because I'm going to get rid of it. Going to. No need for a motorcycle in New York. Boy, do I have fun on that thing. It's so much fun.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Good God.

[Nathan Fillion]

I got you that horn, by the way.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, right.

[Nathan Fillion]

I got it for you.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, you have it there.

[Nathan Fillion]

I have a package here waiting for you here.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, so it's a big horn that makes loud sounds. I'm not going to use it. I don't think I should use it. What I meant to say was thank you, Nathan. I'll come pick it up soon.

[Nathan Fillion]

God bless. Alan. Thank you very much for this lovely, wonderful chat. I think if I learned anything, I think I got to know the 10 year old Alan a lot better today.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

And your harrowing brush with death in that auto accident makes me just appreciate our friendship all that much more.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, it was touch and go there for a minute, but I'm glad to still be on this side of the border between life and death.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah. Let me know if you need any counseling to overcome that trauma.

[Alan Tudyk]

Thank you, man. Oh, my God. Thank you for listening. You just bless your heart. You know what? If you haven't yet, why don't you head on over to our Patreon. You're gonna get some bonus content. That's extra content. They're longer episodes. There's more there. You know what's better than less? More. You also get a chance to get your hands on some incredible crap. The kinds you don't need to wash off after you're done. And if you love the show, please leave us a review and tell your friends. Once We Were spaceman is a collision 33 production. The hell that is. The show's produced by Michelle Chapman, Siobhan Homan. Oh, yeah. And Josh Levy. I wear them jeans. He is of collision 33. It's all starting to make sense. It's edited, mixed and produced by Residential Recordings with special thanks to Courtney Plumquist and Adam Townsell. Are. Theme music's done by Carlos Sosa. The Groove Line horns guy. Yeah. And Joshua Moore. Artwork is done by Lewis Jensen. Until next time. I swear to God, I love you. I will not be by this ugly table and this ugly wall.