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It feels like sweat that's not like exercise.
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It feels like my body's going like get out of me. And my nose is running.
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Hey, what's going on everybody?
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For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans and you're watching Hot Ones.
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It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.
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And today we're joined by Paul Mescal.
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He's an Academy Award nominated actor you know from his acclaimed performances in films like After Sun and All of Us Strangers, as well as the BBC Three breakout hit Normal People.
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He also stars in one of the year's most anticipated films, the Ridley Scott directed Gladiator 2, which is set to release in theaters on November 22nd.
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Paul Mescal, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me.
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What's your mindset like going into this?
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Are you a hot sauce person by nature?
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I'm not a hot sauce person by nature.
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Fully Irish blooded, no real spice in my diet.
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But like the maybe like buffalo hot sauce and that's kind of a that's the extent of it I would say.
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How much of it would you recommend eating?
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I don't police bites from this side of the table, you know, whatever you feel comfortable with. Yeah, this feels fine. There you go.
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So, I always follow your lead though.
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Yeah, I mean This is where the like toxic masculinity will kick in where it's like I want to be I want to win the wings, you know?
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When we had Pedro Pascal on the show, he talked about when he's watching things, he'll sometimes be distracted thinking about how uncomfortable a character's wardrobe must be.
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I'm curious, do you have any memories of the unique challenges of acting in heavy suits, armor, and weapons for your role as Lucius in this film?
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The big one was the heat.
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Sounds like such a very much a first world problem to be like No, but it was There was a couple of takes that we would do especially around the like a a fight that I have with the gladiator who comes off the rhino where that was like you're nearly getting sick after certain takes and ice being poured down your back and you're just like and Ridley's like, "You ready to go again?" to go again?
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Um the like leather cuirasses act like little radiators.
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The heat is pretty extraordinary.
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Well, speaking of extraordinary heat, are you ready to move on here? good. Very good. To wing number two. Yeah.
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All right, so this one is the ghost pepper pair here. pair. Okay.
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It's more so just the stress.
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Like I know what's going to be coming.
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Kind of just thinking like what everybody's crying about when they're on it, but I know that that's what's coming. Um delicious. There we go. No complaints. Yeah.
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I am going to have some milk though just to be preemptive.
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As an actor, have you ever had the feeling of absolutely dreading doing a scene from the second a project goes into production?
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Dread Yeah, that's a good um I think there's that I've seen actors talk about it before like it's not necessary Dread actually dreading, I wouldn't use that word.
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It's like um in certain scripts you know that there's like tent pole scenes that like if you don't get it right, there's no film.
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And you suddenly become hyper conscious of the hundreds of hours that people have been putting into it and ultimately it comes down to the relationship that you have to the other actor in the scene if it is ongoing.
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I think about the scene with the therapist in Normal People.
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There's normally like one or two scenes for a film.
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Can you explain the mechanics of a chemistry read?
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You know, it seems like such a fascinating thing to cast a show like Normal People that way, but I'm wondering how it works in practice.
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Normal People, I did some chemistry reads with uh other actresses for Marianne.
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And we didn't get the Marianne from the first round of chemistry reads.
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And I thought at that point that could be lights out for me because they'll just go back to the drawing board. And they yeah, exactly.
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They could They could have very easily done that, but um thankfully they didn't.
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And um Daisy was the second to last person who walked in.
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You hear actors and directors talk about it kind of incessantly, but like when you know, you know.
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And when when Daisy walked in, it was like unanimous. Yeah.
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The color is becoming more menacing. Okay. There you go. Yeah. I can see. I'm actually good. I think. Is Yeah, I'm good.
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That That I think the second one was hotter. You know what?
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That's what Gus have said all season long, and I agree with you as someone who's done this all the way through.
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It's It's There's little mind game, you know, something going on here with this front half. Yeah. Great. You're crushing it. Great.
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Filling me with confidence.
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That's how you got to keep You got to keep You got to build them up.
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You got to take your wins. That's 100%.
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So, in the past I've spoken to Gus about one of the most challenging actor tricks of all time, and that's eating food on camera. Yeah.
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Is that a lesson that you had to learn the hard way doing that commercial for a sausage brand dating back in 2018?
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I mean I I didn't know about like Do you know Do you know about spit buckets?
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Where like if we were doing this all day, you'd like chew and act, and then you'd spit it out.
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But I like if you think about it, if you've never done it before, it's such a it feels so rude to go like, "Sorry, excuse me.
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Let me spit out my food into this bucket."
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So, I just like rattled through about like 20 sausages in the space of 3 hours. Yeah.
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Heat level five out of 10. Pretty sweet. Mhm.
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I don't know what I'm talking about.
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Like I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm just Am I right? Yeah, no, it is. It is.
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It's got like a serrano up front.
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Yeah, that's what I thought it was.
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Is there a difference in your approach playing a character who you see parts of yourself in versus walking into a role where the psychology and personality is totally unfamiliar?
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It's like my favorite thing about being an actor is uh like say versus a musician for example, it's like when you see a musician like release a record, you you assume that that's their active inner life, their imagination, their lived experience.
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Whereas when you're acting, you are playing a character, but you an audience never unless you choose to tell them, they never really know what bits are totally lifted from your life that you have an active relationship to versus the parts that are totally devised.
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It's a part of the job that I think my favorite actors keep somewhat private.
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It's like allow people to read in what they think is Paul and what they think is the character, but often times that's it's just not the way it works. Baptism of fire. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. I'm still all right. I think I'm doing good.
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I don't like Yeah, I'm all right.
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Yeah, this one it has kind of that same sort of fruitiness up front.
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You know, you catch the apple.
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And then it has that late life on it.
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Oh, the late life being that it's going to but looks like you're good to go. No, I'm fine. But actually I'm fine.
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Like I'm not doing the thing of like I'm fine and like the way that I You're actually fine.
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Yeah, I think I'm actually fine.
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Be honest, are all Irish actors friends?
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And if so, what's the best part of hanging out with Colin Farrell?
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Colin actually sent me a text uh a couple of like a couple of days ago where I sent him a text a year cuz he wrote a lovely piece for me in in Time magazine.
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And I sent him a text like a year ago being, "Thank you for for the sweet text."
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And I got a text a couple of days ago being like, "Sorry I didn't get to this. I know I'm a year late."
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Colin and I got to hang out a bit with the Oscars run a couple of years ago.
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And he's just an absolute gentleman.
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Is there a film that you think best distills the experience of being Irish?
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When Colin Farrell was on the show, he sang the praises of My Left Foot.
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Uh do you know The Wind That Shakes the Barley, the film that Cillian was in? The Ken Loach film? Mhm.
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It's it's about um Irish War of Independence and uh it's just extraordinary and stirring and upsetting and captures a time period in Irish history that was upsetting and depressing and it's handled with such grace and honesty.
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So, that's kind of like if I was to ever point someone in the direction of an Irish film, I would point them that direction. Top of the reckless. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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And then, you know, your home county of Kildare it's home to the Irish National Stud. Uh-huh.
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It's like famous for horse racing.
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When I played Gaelic football, you would be taken there the morning after Christmas Day and flogged.
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Like you would just arrive there at 6:00 a. m. on St.
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Stephen's this morning and they would just run you through 10 miles and whatever Christmas dinner was left in your stomach would no longer be there at the end of it. All right. I didn't get much there. Hold on. Yeah.
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That's the first immediately hot one on the on the mouth. Oh, [ __ ] Ooh. Yeah. Yeah. Here we go.
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I'll join you at the milk party over here.
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Have you ever heard of the phrase now we're sucking diesel?
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No, but I might steal it. That's an Irish phrase.
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It's like after eating that now you'd be like Now we're sucking diesel.
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Now we're sucking diesel.
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Now we're cooking with gas. Now we're eating road.
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They're all You can have them. I'm taking them all. Great. Those are fire. Yeah.
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So, I've heard you say that you feel a parasocial relationship between audiences and actors. Yes. Can you unpack that?
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It's just a weird thing because ultimately I don't know you, you don't know me, but we know a lot about each other because we're visible the whole time and and I think audiences sometimes misconstru the characters that I play versus who I am.
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I mean this with the greatest sincerity and kind of kindness, but I don't really care what people want me to do because I think the minute you start catering to an audience you're ultimately beginning to give them a do them a disservice because I've never considered it before and if it's working at the moment, which I hope hopefully feel like it is, then I want to keep doing that until it starts going downhill. Menacing name. All right.
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This is another one, yeah.
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They start They stop tasting nice.
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Right, they start almost having a metallic Oh, [ __ ] kind of side to them.
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That's like a massive jump.
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That's like Well, wait till you try the next one. Okay.
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Not to leave the witness. Would you wreck Yeah.
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Just anything to survive, you know.
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It starts to become stressful. Yeah.
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Right, the walls close in over you. Yeah.
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And this black curtain set. Yeah.
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As an athlete turned actor, was there ever a time where your life on the pitch brushed up awkwardly with your life on the stage?
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So, I broken my nose and my jaw and my fingers playing it, but I broke my jaw two days before starting my final year in drama school, and that was kind of a wake-up call to be like they don't go hand in hand, unfortunately.
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Yeah, doesn't really pan out that way.
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Are there any foundational chants that I should know, should I ever find myself at a match in Kildare County?
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Well, there's a county in Ireland called uh Down, which like I'm their famous chant is when you get into Croke Park, they'll have a they'll have their portion of the crowd going like up, down. It doesn't Yeah, okay.
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Well It's That's kind of a joke. It's an easy one. one.
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And I remember as a child being like finding that like way funnier than it was cuz it like bunch of adults screaming up, down at the top of their lungs.
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Um the counties would normally sing like songs that are So, Kildare fans would sing the Curragh of Kildare.
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So, what would you say the jumps are between these?
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All right, this is just me being honest with you. All right. is This is gnarly. Yeah. Okay.
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Once you have this, nothing is really a challenge anymore. Okay.
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So, this is the final frontier with you and that's like the code and that's the like end sequence.
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It's like the film fading out. This is the credits. This is You know what?
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We have a story arc of our own over here. Great. You know what I mean?
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So, this is the This is like the final fight. This is the final fight.
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And if you lie to me, I'm Listen, I watched the movie.
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I don't want the smoke, all right? Yeah, yeah. Great. Are we doing it? Let's do it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Just push through here. Yeah. Which is worse?
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Is it worse to be called a plonker, a melter, or a shitehawk? Oh, they're good.
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Shitehawk is a great phrase.
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So, what what a plonker is kind of like A plonker could be used kind Woah, that's It like starts to build. Yeah, yeah.
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And then when you talk, it's almost like a fire that you add oxygen to.
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Yeah, it's as you breathe out. Yeah. Okay.
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So, plonker you could use kind of semi-affectionately.
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And then shitehawk would be someone who's like kind of nefarious. Mhm.
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So, like if someone was like Another great one is a shleveen.
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Like if someone was kind of sly, you could call them a shleveen.
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You'd be like, which is a great word, but shitehawk would be my preference. And it's funny.
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Like if you think about what it actually means, it's like feces on a bird.
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Like it doesn't make any sense. But it does.
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It just rolls And be careful, you know? Yeah.
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No, I get What are donkey years? Donkey ears? What's that, Sean? What did you call me?
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Uh donkey ear Oh, donkey ears is in um Oh, we go back donkey years.
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I think it means like a long time. Yeah. How are we feeling? We're feeling all right.
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Like I think it's just I can feel there's like moist like sweat like it feels like sweat that's not like exercise.
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It feels like my body's going like get out of me.
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And my nose Right, like a like a sponge or squeezing itself.
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like my skin's just going like Like it's not great.
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Oh, [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] I'm okay for now. There we go. Respect. Big, brave, strong boy.
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You start to get the shakes a bit.
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We're big, brave, strong boys.
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Hand in hand through the Hot Ones gauntlet. Yeah. Yeah.
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Like I said, not as bad as the last one, but certainly not fun. So bad. Certainly not fun. Yeah.
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So when we had Jamie Dornan on the show, yeah, he shouted out the focus puller as one of the most underappreciated roles on a film set.
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Does that resonate with you?
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I think it If you have any kind of like OCD tendencies or a like kind of minute focus, like I I I'm always fascinated by um focus pullers cuz they have to like if they like you can be doing the best take in the world and then if you if it's not in focus then they're the people who get screamed at.
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It's a high pressure yeah. I'm sweating. Oh. Wow. You're not sweating.
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I've had my hours, you know. I put my hours in. Yeah. Jesus Christ. Are we doing it? What are you doing?
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You're pouring more on it.
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Are we going to be big, brave, strong boys and pour more on? Is that what we do? happening. Okay. If you insist.
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This is the mistake, isn't it? It's a dump. Okay.
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How much would you I kind of like went a little crazy on it cuz it does avalanche on you a little bit.
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So, just try to be steady-handed. There you go.
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That's That's like very much plenty.
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This is where I don't know I wake up in a hospital. Right. Cheers. Cheers. That's sweet. At first. Oh, Jesus.
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But the good news is Paul Masson no good news. There is some. Well, I've done it. I've completed it. Exactly. There it is.
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Oh, that gets you right in the back of the Yeah, right. The hot sauce No more. Oh, Jesus.
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And to close things out, you know, I've long been waiting for the right kind of guest crossover Yeah.
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to ask this question because you know, one time you ate nuggets on a date with my friend Amelia Dimoldenberg. Yes.
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And now here you are taking on the wings of death.
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I think I have something in my eye. No, sorry.
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From a guest perspective, which is the better culinary experience?
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Hot Ones or Chicken Shop Date?
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Culinary experience First, like actually some of these were tasty.
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Like the chicken the chicken nuggets Oh, I'm going to get so much trouble either way.
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There's no right answer here. I'm going to say thus.
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Uh I've had a great time in both in both settings.
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And there's no notes for both parties.
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Paul Mescal taking on the wings of death, living to tell the tale, and now there's nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you.
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This camera, this camera, this camera, let the people know what you have going on in your life.
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A lot of I was in Gladiator.
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Uh so, we have Gladiator coming out on the 22nd of November, 14th of November in Ireland and the UK.
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It's full of big, brave, strong boys.
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And uh lots of fighting and drama and action.
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And it's directed by the most extraordinary man, Ridley Scott. And please go see it. Great. Great. Thanks, bud. Sweating. Oh.
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That's the spiciest thing I've ever Do I look crazy? I don't know.
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But I would imagine that this is the best ice cream you've ever had in your life, yeah. It feels kind of Irish.
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Is this like It feels like um HB.
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Did you ever If you're ever in Ireland, you should get HB.
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It's like Irish ice cream.
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[ __ ] hawk, what are you doing?
20:40
You loved Truth or Dab and the even spicier Refresh Edition, and now we're turning up the temperature and raising the stakes with our brand new Hot Ones Roulette.
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It's an explosively hilarious push-your-luck party game filled with suspense, consequence, and of course, hot sauce. The game is simple.
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Roll the dice of doom, flip a card, and try to avoid the dab at all costs.
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Hot Ones Roulette is available at wildertoys. com. That's wildertoys.
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com to get your hands on Hot Ones Roulette.
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Godspeed and be careful around the eyes.