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Sept. 25, 2021 - The Michael Knowles Show
40:01
Michael's Producer Spills Show SECRETS & His New MOVIE | Ben Davies

Michael's producer, Ben Davies, joins the show to give a peek behind the curtain and talk about his leading role in Sony Pictures' new movie "COURAGEOUS LEGACY" now in theaters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I have mentioned this to someone before when I talk about this show, that it's a lot like when a couple gets pregnant and they say, we are having a baby.
However, one person is carrying that child.
We are having that baby, Michael, every day.
And you are carrying that child.
Welcome to a very special episode of Yes or No.
This is a very special episode because while we have had many illustrious figures on this show before, Never, to my knowledge, have we had an actor, a movie star, someone who is in the movie that is released nationally right now, Courageous, Legacy, this is the follow-up to a movie that was released in 2011,
did extraordinarily well, and a good movie about faith, about family, about fathers, a good movie about the police, And a movie where one of the stars is the producer of this very show.
Not just Yes or No, but the Michael Knowles show here at The Daily Wire.
That would be Ben Davies.
Ben, this is surreal.
This is very strange.
You are usually right there directing this show, but now you are in the hot seat.
It feels so different being in this seat and not knowing a single question that I'm about to read.
It really stresses me out.
But thank you so much for having me, Michael, first of all.
It's truly an honor to finally talk to you face to face.
This is the first time we've ever spoken without, you know, a secretary sort of running back and forth.
This is really great because a lot of the people who are watching don't know this, but we're such a powerful operation here at The Daily Wire.
We're so leaning into Hollywood that even our producers are movie stars.
Yeah, I guess you could give me that title, except I don't think anyone would know me walking through the office.
You're that guy that wrecks Michael's show every single day.
That's usually how I'm known as I walk these halls.
But you really have had a long career in film, and this is a big movie, and it did extremely well ten years ago.
And now this new version, where you've all aged, obviously, ten years, this is now in theaters nationwide.
Yeah, it was great to come back and see how old everyone got after 10 years, but it is great to see there was such a great response from the first movie that came out in 2011 with Courageous and then the impact it had across the country that Sony actually came back and like, hey, can we print some more money and release this movie again?
And they brought us all back to shoot this alternate ending for Courageous.
And so we've all actually legitimately aged 10 years.
We shot the original in 2010.
We shot this alternate ending in 2020.
They recut the movie.
It's released nationwide right now, so everyone please go out, see it.
I'd really appreciate it.
And I can't wait to see the response.
Hopefully it's just like it was in 2011.
This reminds me of that movie Boyhood, you know, where they shot it over a period of time.
Except this one...
That's exactly what it felt like going back.
I was like, dude, did you have our photos?
Like, when we originally shot the movie, I'm like, oh man, it's been rough on you.
And we came back, like, seeing people age 10 years.
But this movie, I assume, does not have that big lib Patricia Arquette in it?
This is the most base movie that's going to come out this year.
Great!
Okay, well this is obviously now it's got a leg up on boyhood.
Alright, so I don't need to explain the rules of this game to you.
No, you do not.
And I would like to let everyone know that I did invent this game, and it hurt me personally every time that you just disregarded the point system, just the flagrant disregard for the care that I put into this game.
The points don't matter.
So we actually did do a new graphic.
So every time you get a question wrong, you're going to get dinged for it, and I'm going to get a point.
And at the end of this, justice will be served for all those times you completely disregarded my rules for this game.
Fair enough.
Now you know, look, as you know, I don't...
Pay a lot of attention to the rules.
Should we start with a little drink?
You're having a what?
What is that?
An old-fashioned?
That is an old-fashioned.
Alright.
Chin-chin.
Delicious.
The only thing Italians are good for is pizza and gangster movies.
It's ridiculous.
There's so many great Italians doing so many great things.
We're also good at being gangsters.
Yeah, secretly...
The gangster movies come from somewhere.
Michael does run this place with an iron fist.
Everyone is scared of what they're going to find if they cross Michael.
It is really tough sometimes.
Can we tell tales at a school about personnel stuff around...
So there was this guy...
Yeah, okay, because there was this guy, Elliot Ness, one time who worked for this company, and he made a mistake, you know, and sometimes you get written up at HR, you know, maybe you, I don't know, you get sent home or something.
But this guy, Elliot Ness, that's not how I reacted to him.
I said I wanted this Elliot Ness dead!
I wanted his family dead!
I want his house burned to the ground!
I want to go to the ground!
I want to shut his ashes!
People don't know that because it wasn't on camera.
You still got it.
Most people probably know you just from the Michael Knowles show, but Michael Knowles is a very talented, successful gangster actor.
Mafioso.
So now we both got that right.
I think we both get a point.
If we both get a point, of course, you drink.
Yeah, I think so.
Okay.
Okay.
Christian films are only entertaining to people with morals.
Wow.
Wow.
I did not write that one.
I agree with that.
But you know, there's a caveat here.
All people have morals in the sense that all people possess moral conscience.
All people actually do know broadly the difference between right and wrong.
Now, some people don't act in accordance with what they think is right.
Some people do the thing that is wrong.
But they all know.
I mean, this is why...
You can watch a Christian movie.
You can watch some bad movie.
You can watch whatever.
And you actually can understand the moral universe.
It's actually the only way we have self-government is because we know the difference between right and wrong.
It's a great answer.
It really is.
But you are dead wrong, Michael.
Wow!
Okay.
What most people don't realize is when you see a great movie and it lasts, it's because at its core it's a Christian movie.
Like the writer of Braveheart said this is an explicitly Christian movie.
I want you to understand that when he was interviewed with The 700 Club.
Yeah.
There are Christian movies that are over-the-top cheesy and horrible.
However, Crate is not being one of those.
It's a fantastic movie.
But most of the movies that do stand the test of time and you go back and re-watch them, they're great.
The writer or director would be like, this was intentionally a Christian-type project.
So not every movie.
Certainly Christianity is the greatest story ever told because it is real and because it is the real enactment of the deepest longings of our hearts.
So I suppose, alright, I'll grant you that.
I think we're quibbling over the nature of morals.
Yeah, I'm a little suspect on the definition of morals here, but that's fine.
Okay, so then I drink, right?
Because I lost.
The re-release of Courageous removed several scenes that had the character David Thompson, and the movie is better because of it.
Now I have to answer how you would answer it.
Oh, man.
Someone's definitely going to get fired.
I'm not going to answer the way that I would answer it.
I'm going to answer it the way you would answer it.
Correct.
Well, have you seen the first movie?
Not yet.
But I am going to end up seeing it before I see the second movie.
So you're going to say no.
Because I don't know for sure.
Exactly.
Okay.
That's fair.
That is fair.
I can't make a judgment about these things.
Yeah.
Here's the problem.
I have seen the first one and I have not seen the new cut.
So I don't even know how to answer.
And I don't know what scenes they may have added or removed.
So I think this is just kind of a wash with a drink.
And I do think that every movie, you know, over time you can go back and assess it.
There are moments you thought were precious and important that you have to cut out and they're better.
So maybe it will make the movie better.
And I know this movie is better than the original.
I don't know how many of my scenes were cut.
This is the problem.
It would be very funny if we do this whole thing, we plug this movie, and then they just completely cut your hair.
I don't know how they would do it, but...
Okay.
So I think we should probably drink for that.
Yeah.
That's good.
Okay.
Okay.
The person sitting across from me is easy to work with.
So I got an answer for you.
Yes.
Now...
Correct.
You come out with it.
Come out with it.
No, you're flattering me.
You're flattering me.
I send in my script late.
I never get you the answers to questions you need.
I barely respond to any emails.
Michael, you've worked with actors before.
That's true.
You know the most difficult people on the planet are actors and actresses.
Yeah, that's true.
I think they are God's gift for this world.
I hate to brag too much since we are like co-workers, but even people come in the office to like...
Get tours, and I don't want to speak to these people.
You're like, oh, bring them in.
Like, I would love to have a chat and, like, see how they're doing and get to know people.
And, no, other than you showing up late every single day.
Every single.
Every single day.
Other than that, it's a breeze.
No, you're right.
I'm basically Mother Teresa.
You're right.
You're right.
So I got that wrong.
Take a sip.
The other producers, though, are much more difficult to work with.
Yeah, no.
That's without question.
I don't know.
Oh no, I guess this is sort of related to the movie.
Police reform is important to moving forward in our country.
Police reform.
Police reform.
This is the tricky question.
Oh, you know what?
We're talking about currently what the police are doing.
Is this the woke version of reform or the conservative version of reform?
It could mean whatever.
In the way it is commonly understood, let's say that.
In the way police reform is commonly used.
Or how you would wish it to be reformed.
Can I do that?
Well, that would be different.
So we're going to do the common tongue.
The common one.
I think we just answered as we would for the common.
And then if we flipped it, we would just have to flip it, right?
Yeah, it's ridiculous.
It's so frustrating to hear that we're going to fix the problem by allowing more problems to happen.
If it was my jurisdiction and it was my police force, I would want people thrown in the can for jaywalking.
And guess what?
We live in a better society, I think, because of it.
I cannot stand weakening our only protection against the people that are trying to wish people harm.
You know what?
I hear this, too.
I hear this often.
Pardon from our libertarian friends out there.
They'll say, you know, we have a big problem of over-incarceration in this country.
Over.
And I think, okay, well, crime is spiking right now, right?
We've got a huge drug problem.
We've got murders are spiking, all sorts of...
It would seem to me that we have an under-incarceration problem in this country.
Is that...
In the 90s, they always cite the incarceration of people with the war on drugs or whatever.
But you also saw a dramatic drop in crime all of a sudden.
Magically, when there was people thrown in jail for crimes, there was less crime.
There was a New York Times headline that said something to the effect of, Prisons keep filling despite the crime rate dropping.
Well, do you know what despite means?
It's so perfect.
Yeah, so I think if you and I could reform the police, it would be, we want to enforce the laws.
And also, if you lock up Granny for not wearing a mask, then that person should be thrown in jail.
That's the thing.
Because right now, the cops are really good at throwing the Viking guy from the Capitol.
Really good at throwing him in the clean forever.
Has anyone seen that guy, by the way?
That guy, yeah.
He's in Guantanamo somewhere.
He might be a Fed.
I don't know.
I'm kind of torn.
Is he a political prisoner or is he a Fed?
I'm not so sure.
They do that for all the awful, terrible MAGA people who had the insurrection.
But meanwhile, the libs who burned the country down for six months, who burned down courthouses, police stations, private businesses, killed dozens of people...
They go scot-free.
I would like to reform our system such that those guys don't go scot-free and maybe, you know, Granny from the Capitol doesn't get the book thrown at her.
I couldn't agree more.
All right.
You both win that one.
It's me.
Let's see.
Oh, this is a good one.
This is probably my favorite one so far.
I got into political news because I couldn't quite hack it as an actor.
Hmm.
And there's an old saying about this, too.
Yeah, yeah.
However...
So you've got to answer for me, I've got to answer for you.
We're both in political news.
Yeah, but you're in a movie that just came out.
It's alright, so I'm going to say no.
You're actually right, because a lot of people don't know this, but I was in politics first.
I did not know that.
I was, yeah.
My first political...
I mean, I'm saying professionally, obviously.
Although, Frank, you know, I did my first little play when I was a kid at age eight, but I did my first campaign at age six, because I campaigned for Bob Dole in my first grade classroom.
But, no, my first professional...
I was 18 or 19, and I'm trying to think of my first really professional acting job.
I was probably more like 22 or 23.
So a long love.
I think the two are actually extremely related.
And frankly, my politics did have some effect on my meanderings in Hollywood, as has happened to people before.
But I think the two are really related.
The way that you'll hear that politicians and actors are the same is that they're extremely egotistical liars.
How dare you?
At their worst, that's true.
But I actually think the thing that unites politics and show business, and actually why there's a huge overlap between the two, Reagan, Stuart Smalley from Saturday Night Live, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Bonner, the list goes on and on and on, Donald Trump for that matter, is you have to Be concerned with the truth.
As an actor, the truth of your given circumstances, and as a politician, you know, sort of deeper philosophical or theological or political truths.
And then I think you have to like people.
I mean, you can speak more to this, but if you're an actor, your job is to create characters that are empathetic.
And if you're a politician, you just spend your whole life at the VFW Hall eating spaghetti dinners with people.
So if you don't like people, there's a much easier way to make a buck than to do that.
I'm not even sure how to answer this one.
I did start into acting much earlier than you did.
I was two years old when I did my first campaign and then did commercials.
Your first acting campaign, you mean?
Well, that was a print ad, but then the acting stuff really kicked off high school, college, and then I have been a leader supporting in 25 different films even before I started working at The Daily Wire.
However, I did...
Also, because of just the drying up of the market in LA, I did actually seek out other opportunities to do political commentary.
I actually started with Rebel Media because I had so much downtime because they were literally not casting any straight white men in Hollywood.
There was a bunch of articles written on this too at the time.
So the casting pool just dried up to nothing.
And then, you know, a year of that, I'm like, well, I've got family and to provide force, so I'm going to get into politics.
But I'm still doing acting, so I guess, but maybe I did because I couldn't hack in Hollywood.
I have no idea.
That's right.
I guess you could both be a successful actor and have gotten into political media for that reason.
That's true.
Okay.
Would that be a judgment call on your part then?
Because I'm not exactly sure.
I'm going to keep my point, but I am going to take a sip.
Okay.
I mostly just want a sip.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Okay, alright.
Protestants hate Catholics because they are simply jealous that they are not the OG Christian religion.
Protestants hate Catholics because?
Because they're upset that they're not the OG Christian religion.
I'm going to say, I've got an answer for you.
So this is, you could dispute the idea that Protestants hate Catholics.
But let's say given that premise, Protestants hate Catholics, like in that world, if Protestants hate Catholics, it is because they're not the OG Christian religion.
What would you say?
I would say yes.
No.
I would say no.
You would say that Protestants don't hate Catholics because they're the OG? Well, it's even more complicated than that.
I'm saying if Protestants do hate Catholics, it is not because they, the Protestants, are not the OG Christian religion.
I think the reason that Protestants, if Protestants hate Catholics or if they, you know, have big problems with Catholicism, I think it's because of their own misunderstanding of Catholicism.
I forget who put it this way.
It was some old theologian type.
One of those guys.
One of those guys who, was it John Henry Newman or Ronald Knox or I don't know.
They all sound the same.
Yeah, it was one of these guys who said...
Maybe it's Fulton Sheen.
Anyway.
Just going through the Rolodex.
Yeah, yeah.
Was it St.
Augustine?
Was it St.
Thomas Aquinas?
There are not a hundred people in this country who disagree with the Christian faith.
There are a million people, or many more millions of people, who disagree with their misperception of the Catholic faith.
But there are not a hundred people who actually do.
And so you'll hear these things, a lot of my Protestant friends will say, I mean, we've had these discussions before.
Why do Catholics worship Mary?
Well, we don't worship Mary.
Why do Catholics pray to idols?
Well, we don't pray to idols.
And I just think, if those things were true, I would understand why Protestants would have a big problem with Catholicism.
Problem is, they're not true.
Well, we're not going to settle our differences over a drinking game, unfortunately.
But I do think, you are right for me.
I don't think that Protestants hate Catholics because they think they're the OG religion.
Yeah.
Am I correct on you?
No.
No.
I think that Protestants hate Catholics because they hate the truth.
Oh, no.
Hey, come on.
No, I'm just...
Am I? Okay, so now do we...
I guess we both drink on that.
Yeah, I believe so.
All right.
Usually the default is you just drink.
You just drink.
That is one of the rules.
That actually is one of the red ones.
Now, you read the last one.
Is it my turn?
I believe so.
You read the religion.
I did read the last one, yeah.
I would rather be stuck in an elevator with Ben Shapiro than Matt Walsh.
You, uh...
Oh, come on, Michael.
You know me better than this.
Because you hate Jews.
I thought the Catholics hated the Jews.
Yeah, hold on.
I would like to hang out with Matt Walsh.
Ben is just too...
He's so much more intelligent than me that I feel like I couldn't have a conversation.
The only thing I would do is take a selfie and ruin half my friendships because they know that I'm friends with this Nazi Jew that is just trying to destroy the world.
White supremacist.
Yes.
No, it is tough to keep up with Ben, too.
Because, you know, the thing that Ben does is he's doing, like, four things at once all the time.
So you'd be having a conversation.
But he is writing a column, you know, as you're...
So you're getting both.
But another person I've heard does that is Jay Leno.
Really?
I have.
I don't know.
I don't have first-hand experience, but yeah, I think that's fair.
Whereas Walsh, the only thing he would do to distract would be chop down a tree or something.
He's such a bro.
The first time I actually hung out with Matt Walsh, we were at John Rich's party, and Walsh and I kicked up a conversation.
We're smoking these unbelievable cigars, some of the best cigars I've ever had, and then had whiskey and talked for like two hours.
Such a good dude.
I've gotten like ten words out of Walsh.
You've got two hours?
What's wrong with me, man?
Okay.
We both got it right, so we should probably drink.
Okay.
To you, Michael.
Film sets are a great place to spend hours of your life.
Let's see, because you're still in the business, so...
Because I know this about you.
I know you hate being on film sets.
I hate it.
Why do you hate?
It's such a great environment.
You know, the last gig I did before I hung up my spurs, I got to have a lead role in a movie.
And I'd never had a lead role in a movie.
I'd had some supporting things and all that, and I'd done a lot of theater.
But I thought, okay, now I'm...
And it's so...
Boring.
You sit there for hours and hours and hours.
You do nothing.
No one's even reading.
You're just kind of making small talk and chit-chat.
How many of those have I had?
You do all of that.
And the other thing that's technically very hard about this is with a play.
It's linear.
So you work on your sort of character arc.
In a very direct way.
Or with a movie, you might film the last scene first, and then the middle scene next, and then...
I hate plays so much because of this.
I've never done plays in my life.
Legitimately, I've done 25 films, never done a play.
And there's something so pure about being in the moment.
You dive into these scenes.
I think it was...
Describing the film to Edison people, I was talking about my history in track and field, which that was what I did before acting.
I was the actual national record holder in the decathlon.
I went to the University of Florida, and I was the best American ever at the time going into it, and then I got hurt and got into film.
Yeah, yeah.
No, I know.
I got injured in my decathlete career, too.
This is really how we bonded with talking about the swimming or whatever.
But, no, it's just...
I'd describe it as just each event, you have to go on to the next one, and it's the most important event of your entire life.
When the gun goes off, you just go.
And so every time I'm in an acting scene with somebody, I love digging into the dramatic, broken moments of these movies and getting to experience that.
And you're with people that are in the trenches with you and the...
When you're working with a good director, then they're trying to capitalize on what you're doing and you collaborate.
It's this beautiful piece of art every single time that I love.
And I can't get that experience.
As much as I like to think that us doing the show every day is that much fun, it's just not quite that.
No, it's a very intense experience being on a movie set.
It's like summer camp.
I mean, you fall in love with people.
You form cliques.
You think you're all going to be friends forever and then you never talk after the movie in some cases.
Whereas with a play, it's much more like a real job.
You show up every night or whatever, you know, four nights a week, and you, yeah, it's much less intense.
It's much less intense, for sure.
And I guess it's a good question, too, because we haven't, I don't know if any of these questions are going to queue this up, but because it is such an intense experience, I know there's a debate about should you be intimate on camera with someone that's other than your wife, and now you are married and an actor, or you have acted.
I'm not, I've got my spoon.
Do you agree that that is something that you should encourage as far as, like, because you know it's not reality, however, you're still doing some type of act, which would be also interesting.
Yeah, I'm really torn because my acting training, such as it is, was very much from the school of the subconscious.
You know, the people like Winn Handman, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, who was Handman's teacher.
It all comes from the group theater.
And the group theater comes from It was influenced by Russia, by Stanislavski, and Stanislavski was influenced...
It's all Freud, basically.
It's all this idea that in pre-technical or method acting, as it's sometimes called...
These terms are a little imprecise.
There's something more annoying than a method actor, by the way.
But there are so many different versions of it.
The thing that unites all of these ideas is this idea that instead of, you know, I'm in the scene and I'm going to be angry at this person, and so I'm going to do the things that would make me appear as though I'm angry at this person...
The subconscious organic acting is this idea that I'm going to push the buttons in my subconscious such that like a sponge filling with water, it just sort of pours out in this very organic way.
But the thing that's dangerous about it, and I've come to appreciate this more and more since I've stopped and given it up, especially since I've gotten married, is the whole point of it is...
You really are in love with the person.
You really are in this very, you know, yelling at them or having sex with them or something.
I mean, you're really...
That's a different, yeah.
But you're...
I'm not saying you're doing a porno.
I just mean like even what simulated you're kissing somebody.
The whole idea of the organic acting is it's real.
It really is real to you.
And so then it will be real to the audience.
And that to me seems problematic.
I think it very well could be.
I mean, putting the porn aside, obviously.
I haven't done that since I left Chatsworth, you know.
It's like a town in the valley.
It's hard to describe to people that have not been in film.
People think of The Notebook every single time, like, how could you kiss this person if you so, you know, betray the person that you're married to?
trust and that level of commitment and that emotion.
But when you're in those scenes, you haven't thought about the eight-hour day, the ten people around you screaming, going back to one, cutting microphone.
It is so removed from what you see in that perfectly formed frame that, I mean, if I came up and touched your face, it would be different than if I touched your face intimately, Michael.
And so to me, it is a great conversation.
I love having those with different actors.
I have a lot of Christian friends that do not kiss on camera.
People will see in a movie coming up that I do.
But yeah, Kirk Cameron, who's a good friend of ours.
Because he's a good person, and you're just a degenerate cat.
I'm a degenerate, apparently.
Yeah.
It does, to me, feel very different.
And it's a conversation you do also have with your spouse, because you're together in this.
I just can't believe every time we've kissed on camera, it's not real for you.
That's what I'm upset about.
It was real for me, Michael.
Uh-huh.
I would be okay with allowing girls to compete in men's sports just to show the absurdity of the notion that is, you know, for example, letting Sarah Fuller get totally rocked if she had ever dropped the ball.
I don't know what that reference refers to.
I know this reference.
I know who wrote this question.
So we should let women compete in men's sports so we can see how crazy it is.
And then we feel bad for the women.
It's like, how would you dare put this one in this situation?
Okay.
No.
No way.
You wouldn't put the women in that situation just to show they're wrong?
No way!
This is this whole thing of, like, let's elect Bernie just to show everyone how bad it is.
Like, no, it's my country, dammit, and it's just wrong.
We did a very similar question to this, I believe, with you and Will Witt.
Yeah.
And, uh...
Was I? No, I was wrong, too.
Okay.
I think we should, because I... For example, like, do you agree with, like, that you should be able to discipline your child, like, spanking, publicly speaking?
Yeah, I mean, within reason.
Yeah, exactly.
Within reason.
I think there is no better cure for insanity than reality.
And for you to get what's coming...
You don't touch a flame because you've been burned before.
And as soon as you...
If you keep people in a bubble, if you keep your child in a bubble, they will never learn reality.
Same thing if...
They may get a physical reaction to burning, but if you let your son talk to your wife that way...
Right.
Like, he needs to know that that is not okay.
Yeah.
And I think it's so great for these states to go down this road and let people get absolutely rocked so reality will reassert itself.
A lot of these women don't want to compete against men.
I mean, some do, and some are willing to do it, and then they get their heads cracked open because of it.
But I just think it's...
I think it is just simply wrong to fight a woman, for instance, and, like, punch a woman.
And so I just don't...
Even if it will...
I grant your point.
It'll teach the lesson.
I still don't want to do it.
I grant your point, too.
But there is something about having reality.
Because you and I can talk all day.
There is something that is just undeniable that people can experience.
And that is one of those things.
If Sarah Fuller tries to tackle somebody...
Is Sarah Fuller a dude?
She was the kicker at Vanderbilt.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
Came to the White House.
They lost the game.
Yeah, they lost every game.
Vanderbilt, it's going to take a long time to recover from that publicity stunt they did.
But yeah, I think, I hear your point, we've talked about this before, but I think reality is the only way to break through to these people.
It's like, that is the red pill moment.
But what if, instead of merely having to persuade them and get their assent, what if we just impose our will, which happens to be correct in this case?
You're saying maybe we don't have the political ability to do it.
I don't think, and I don't think it would change their mind.
They would just say that you're wrong and you're a bigot.
Which, maybe you are a bigot, but it's just like...
On this question, I am a bigot.
Yes.
Punching women is bad.
I'm not opening my mind on this.
I think I got that one right.
Yes.
And I got it, so I got it right.
I had a great high school experience and am in no way compensating by chasing fame.
All right.
How long do we have?
Yeah, I had a great high school experience.
Yeah, I'm sure you did.
Yeah, man, I was like the...
No, really?
No, it was horrible.
Hold on.
So this is why this question is being brought up.
Like, I had a great time.
I was like class president and all that stuff.
Perfect SAT twice, you know, good-looking guy, college.
But hold on, you're...
You're a good-looking guy.
I don't want this to get weird.
Okay, but you're a good-looking guy.
You know, obviously a talented athlete, a talented actor.
I figured you'd be, like, you know, swooning all the honeys up on Lover's Point.
What do you mean you had a bad time in high school?
I went to a really wealthy, great, Christian private school, and everyone was good-looking and athletic Michael.
And I was homeschooled until I was in eighth grade.
Went to high school.
Had no social skills as far as how to interact with people that weren't just being, like, perfect homeschooled.
Have you ever been to a Steady Hawkins dance before?
Yeah, I think once we did it in my school.
The women asked them that.
I was never asked to one.
What?
In high school, you get asked a jersey to wear at the different football games.
The women will ask a jersey to wear.
I had a total of three girls ever ask me to wear the jersey in the entire four years.
And I still remember their names.
I appreciated it so much.
At my own high school, it was a very, very difficult experience.
And it was a high school down the road, actually, from here.
I bet those ladies are regretting it now.
You missed out on this hunk, ladies.
This hunk movie star.
Wow, that's crazy.
Alright, I'll drink.
So now you're up.
I title the Michael Knowles videos for YouTube to be as clickbait as possible.
So now I'm answering, because I don't title them.
That was a totally worded question.
The person who titles them does it to be as clicky as possible.
Duh.
Without question.
Yeah, that's not even.
That is the first thing I think about every time I see those videos.
It's like, I don't care what Michael said.
It's funny because often, you know, I don't mean to disparage my own delivery, but I find my delivery on these videos is sometimes it's a little more circumspect.
It's a little, well, you know, there's this side and this side, whatever.
You can just say more intelligent than the title.
No, no.
I'm saying it's a little drier, though.
And then I look at the title and it's like...
Trans lesbian from Pakistan.
Wow, man, I gotta click on that.
That's pretty interesting.
Alright, so then...
So we got that one, right?
Yeah, cheers to clicks.
Okay.
At this point, the trans agenda only exists to enrich Big Pharma by taking advantage of the mentally ill by locking them into lifetime prescriptions and unnecessary surgeries despite the fact that they will only be, at best, a crude mockery of God's perfection.
Whoa!
Did I write this?
Oh my gosh.
Hold on, I gotta continue though.
Due to YouTube and Facebook rules, make your guess and do not verbally confirm if the other person guessed correctly.
Give only a non-verbal confirmation.
Okay, so...
Please sum that up for me.
I'm gonna sum it up in a slightly less outrageous way.
Powerful interests are exploiting sexually confused people.
To enrich themselves and to advance their own goals, but not to help these confused people.
Well, when you put it that way, Michael...
Uh-huh.
I still think we can't affirm or deny.
Of course not.
Okay.
All right.
You're up.
Ha...
This is going to be interesting, actually.
I am more based than the person sitting across from me.
The question is, like, by your definition of based.
Yeah, yeah.
So I'm answering how you would answer about me.
I would say...
Yes.
Yeah.
I think I'm way more based than you.
My answer for why this cannot be is because I'm Catholic.
It gets back to the early, because I'm Catholic, because I don't believe in, like, you know, like, maliberalism or whatever, you know, which I do think the sort of non-Eastern Orthodox or non-Catholic Christians inevitably sort of partake of that modern thing.
And you think, because...
Because I would lock up Catholics.
Yeah, yeah.
If you would agree with that, then...
And it's like, because sometimes I won't even admit they're turning the frickin' frogs gay.
Because they're not, they're turning them trans.
That is exactly right, yeah.
You know, okay.
I'm up...
I could produce this show totally on my own.
Well, I can...
I definitely can answer for you.
Well...
Well, no.
Good chance, man.
No, but yeah, I think I actually have done this basically before.
I can barely get from the makeup room into the studio.
I need a giant...
And never on time, by the way.
And certainly never on time.
Yeah, so that was obviously correct.
All right.
If you're a man who is unmarried by the time you're 30, it's because you're selfish.
Why did you say no?
Because I think you believe that certain people will be on different paths and it's not necessarily selfish that they're following God's plan.
Yes.
And specifically, you know, priests.
I pray they don't get married.
Generally speaking, they don't get married.
And you're absolutely right.
They're degenerates.
They're not married by 30.
Which is my baseness coming out.
Every person I know that is not married by 30 and you know who you are, it's because you're selfish.
That's what it is.
Wow.
That's really...
Disregording priestly celibacy to own the trads.
Okay, that's fine.
That's fine.
Morally based movies.
That's funny.
Do we mean based or like based?
Yeah.
Morally based movies are gaining in popularity because people are craving traditional value since the woke mob has diluted the entertainment industry.
Well, you're...
I'm going to give like a very esoteric answer.
I know.
I'm kind of like...
Well, probably the exact same thing.
Yeah, I think...
I mean, it's like all movies.
We're all partaking of the moral universe, and to your point, Braveheart is one of the greatest Christian films ever made.
So, yeah, I think that's fair.
They're still not flocking to these movies, and there's such a vice grip on the films they get out there.
There's still going to be these woke things that people are flocking towards, because that's where all the advertising money is.
No one even knows.
I had a movie that came out in 2016 that I loved.
Not even people in the church knew about it, because the PNA was so low.
So, no, I think that's still...
I think you're right.
I think you're right.
It would be optimistic to say otherwise.
All right.
Having a day job means you haven't really made it as an actor.
Oh.
Having a day job.
Well, I guess.
No.
No, absolutely not.
Oh, you got a point!
Yeah, yeah.
I know very successful actors who have been in very, very big movies, whose faces you would know, who still do catering gigs every now and again, or Tudor or whatever, because you can do a big movie.
But you might only work once or twice a year.
I mean, it's just as a matter of time.
It's like $15 an hour is going to support your family.
Sometimes you need that $15 an hour.
I mean, I think Ryan Gosling, didn't he go back and work at Fast Food after he made some big movie?
Because he hadn't quite hit his stride again yet.
Yeah, I mean, you're right about the time.
People often do different endeavors, like Ashton Kutcher will, you know, work with Uber or whatever.
However, I think by definition of you making it, it's like these are just kind of toys that you're playing with.
It's not like, I feel like if you're a working actor, a real successful actor, then you don't have to.
You're just doing this for fun.
Yeah, yeah.
But I'll give it to you on that.
Like, that's...
Yeah.
I guess, you know, there's making it and then there's making it.
There's making it and then there's like Brad Pitt.
Yeah.
Okay.
Oh, we're getting right to the bottom here.
Last two.
I do more work for this show than the person sitting across from me.
Well.
I'm not going to be offended, Michael.
Michael.
Thank you.
This is tricky.
Here's why it's tricky.
I would say you do more things for this show than I do.
For both this show, obviously, and for my show.
I think you do more things for it.
But I'm thinking about it all the time.
I'm writing all the time.
I'm stewing.
I'm traveling.
I'm trying my darndest to own every single lib that goes before me.
Every slight interaction, every invitation, all of it is oriented toward one thing.
You.
So I would say it's very difficult to quantify that.
And trying to outbase me.
Yeah, I know.
Certainly.
Well, I would say I do spend a lot of time stressing about this show.
You do.
And thinking of how am I going to title this to be clicky enough for people to pay attention to Michael Knowles?
Yes.
No, you're right.
What should I put in the thumbnail every single day?
Who is messing up on our set that I have to fire or tell to do something better?
There's a lot of things I'm worried about.
You're right.
You're right.
However, I have mentioned this to someone before when I talked about this show, that it's a lot like when a couple gets pregnant and they say, we are having a baby.
However, one person is carrying that child.
We are having that baby, Michael, every day.
And you are carrying that child.
Actually, no.
I will say that you are carrying that child.
I'm the husband being like, hey, you're not a part of this too, baby.
I'm trans and you're my sugar daddy.
People don't know this about the show because it seems so...
A lot of times we try to make it casual on purpose if it's relatable.
However, you are in that room writing and working.
Slaving away for you.
Like in the salt mines.
I know.
I almost feel bad to come in there and talk to you about why Catholics are wrong, but it's like, I have to do it.
I thought you had to do it.
All right.
You're reading the last question, Ryan?
I'm reading the last question.
Okay, here we go.
Since we're near in the end, I didn't even get close to the end of mine.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Catch you up.
Well, being...
This is such a stupid question.
Being tall and attractive has helped my career.
Well, by whose definition is the problem?
Let's see.
I would say...
Well, for you, yes.
And then let's see what you were...
Well...
Wow.
See, what you don't understand, Mr.
Davies, you...
What are you, 6'3"?
6'4"?
Give or take.
Yeah, okay.
So, what you don't understand, because you say, Michael, you're not 6'3".
You're a little less tall than 6'3".
So, your conclusion of that is that I am not tall.
But you see, these things are a little bit relative, because compared to the Italian peoples, compared to the people in New York, I am Shaquille O'Neal.
I am a giant, actually.
There's a photo.
I went to Italy once.
I was 15.
So, I was still growing.
And I took a photo with these two guys, you know, who were just kind of average Italian guys.
They went up to my, like, chest.
But yet, if I were to go to whatever Scandinavian, you know, Viking yard that your people come from, they could stomp me probably down.
So I think, relatively, I'm going to have to move this to a yes.
Okay.
I think you lean into the intelligence, Michael.
Yeah.
And I think that is where your real gift is.
The Scandinavian people, I think, on average are 6'1".
So that's like the average height.
So you're right.
The height is very different than the Italians, apparently, which are allegedly pygmy people, according to you.
I had no idea they were that short.
It was tough in the boot for a while.
You know, I found out that I did an ancestry sort of thing, you know, my DNA. And I found out I am part Swedish.
I thought, well, I don't look Swedish.
What part is that?
Yeah, I thought it was a small part.
Something tells me one of your ancestors went marauding some coast of Britain or perhaps even Italy and maybe had a little fun with some of the locals there and that might be the result.
That explains this.
That explains this.
Ben, the movie is out now.
People can see it.
People are seeing it.
They can see you now.
Often they can't see you.
Often you're behind the camera.
They're seeing you right now.
And you should see me in theaters.
And we should all go see Ben in theaters.
Go check it out.
Courageous Legacy.
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