The Point Radio: Why Ron Perlman Loves TV

After six award-winning years on SONS OF ANARCHY, Ron Perlman is back on series TV with a new project on Amazon Prime called HAND OF GOD. What was so special about this show that it drew him back? Ron explains it and his love for the craft of acting plus meet the hosts of CRAZY TALK. Reality TV boiled down to just the cool stuff, all by Ben Arron and Tanisha Thomas.

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Transcript

The Point Radio Hey, it's Mike Raub. Well, we are back and with us is Ron Perlman. You remember him from Sons of Anarchy and now with a really interesting new show on Amazon. Plus, Crazy Talk debuts all over the country. It is the interesting part of reality TV. And we'll find out more when we talk to the folks behind the show. Let's get to The Point.

This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. After six years of entertaining his own Sons of Anarchy, actor Ron Perlman is not sitting at home hanging onto his Golden Globe. He's back in the spotlight with a new series on Amazon Prime called Hand of God. Now ask him to tell me about the new show. I play a judge, Bernal Harris, son of wealth and privilege, decade generations and generations.

Probably every street in town is named after my grandfather. And he's a guy who only knows how to win. Now he's a little winner shaker and holds the destiny of many people in the community in the palm of his hand until he finds that his son has shot himself in the head and is clinically dead, is dangling by a thread and is forcing this particular character to grapple with the idea of not only losing for the first time in his life, but losing his air,

his son. And this puts him in a state that's highly compromised and highly vulnerable and leads him towards the search that takes him to being reborn and baptized and having a relationship with God. And that pushes him even further into believing that he's sharing voices from God that's putting him on this path of vigilante justice in order to create what he thinks is the miracle of saving his son's life. So was it the script here that brought him back to TV?

Well, you kind of hit the nail on the head. You know, I actually couldn't believe my good fortune when I read the script of how amazingly original it was. There was nothing about the situation or the characters that was familiar to me. There was no way for me to figure out where Ben Watkins was going with the storytelling. And there was no way for me to have guests where even the first episode ends up landing. So it answered to all of the precepts of what I was looking for, you know,

is to be even more challenged than I was with my good fortune on Sons of Anarchy for six years and to be able to sit away and take advantage of this amazingly exciting moment in the evolution of television. I mean, we're in a golden age right now. After so many years on series television, a lot of actors would take a hiatus, but not run. For me, number one, me going to work on a TV series is like other people going to camp. You know, my idea of relaxing and having a vacation

is working really hard as an actor. That's where I gained my most energy from. And I just love the deeper I'm engaged, the happier I seem to be. And plus, I didn't feel like I still felt like my tank was full at the end of Sons of Anarchy because it was a big ensemble show. It didn't really demand that much of me. And there was still a whole lot more time and energy to be utilized, particularly in light of what an exciting

period we're in in terms of TV. Rada's always tended to take roles that others shy away from. What draws him to these kind of parts? Well, the scarier I am and the more challenged I am, it seems like the more alive I feel. You know, it's, I don't know, it's kind of like an aphrodisiac in the way that people take things that enhance their existence. For me, acting on a show and not only acting on a show, but acting on a show that kind of takes me to places I'm not even sure I

can get to is like taking a drug. You know, it just enhances the quality of my life. So it's kind of an aphrodisiac. So there's no need to thank me. The whole, the whole, you know, thrill I get at it with is, is, is, is, is, is my acknowledgement. It's only, the only acknowledgement I need. So looking back over his career, are there any characters he'd like to revisit one more time? A lot of them. Yeah, I was told Guillermo Del Toro, that first movie I made with him called

Funos. I really didn't understand what we're doing at the time. I'd love to have another crack at him. I'd love to have another crack at a bunch of stuff, but you know, it's all water under the bridge right now. What makes life interesting is that you do your best and then you look back at me and you get to assess. Ron's writing in a book about his incredible career right now. So how's that work? It starts out being me in the business. You know, it starts out

chronicling a guy who kind of, all of his tastes and values were formed during a mom and pop period in America where, you know, all the businesses were individually owned, including networks and TV studios owned by individuals. And then watching everything kind of turn corporate and watching Sony by MGM and Gulf and Western by Paramount and suddenly all of these cultural icons that were built by people who were passionate and not being run by

inanimate objects that only give shit about. I'm part of my language. I care about the bottom line and what the stock prices are. And so I wanted to chronicle that in the book as a reason why our culture has not gotten better, but has been kind of watered down and compromised. I also wanted to leave behind a letter to my kids who are getting out of art school right now, trying to figure out who they are in this world. And lastly, I wanted to

show my gratitude for a life that went beyond anything I may have dreamed. Ron Perlman, along with Dana Delaney in Hand of God, see the entire series streaming right now on Amazon Prime. Even more Harley Quinn on the way. That's just part of what's going on in the world of pop culture. The guys at Rooster Teeth are making their mobile offerings a lot more appealing to their

subscribers with a brand new level of gaming and video apps. First off, everything will now be available for the iOS system and the Android as well. And for the first time, exclusive programming from the studio's website will also be available on the apps, beginning with the documentary Let's Play Live, the documentary which premieres this week on the app. 2015 creative arts emmys were awarded over the weekend and HBO was the huge winner. 29 awards went to the network, followed

for 11 for NBC and then eight for ABC. Game of Thrones alone picked up eight statuettes. There were five given out for FX's American Horror Story Freak Show and WGN America even got their first award for a title design on Manhattan. FXx will air an edited version of the event coming up on September 19th. Another seven titles in the top 10 best-selling comics in comic stores in August. That's a deal for Marvel Comics and of course Star Wars played a part in that. DC managed

to get a couple in as well but we'll go over the entire list and tell you who the winners and some of the losers were coming up. It looks like we're one step closer to a King Kong Godzilla big screen team up. Legendary Pictures has relocated their Kong Skull Island feature from Universal to Warner Brothers to bring it together with the Legendary's Godzilla franchise. No word yet officially on any team up movie but there are features for both franchises underway right now. One of Marvel's

oldest characters Patsy Walker and her more recent incarnation Hellcat both end up with a new series at a launch from Marvel in December. The series will be drawn by Brittany Williams, will be a variant cover for the first issue from George Perez and there will be tie-ins to the original Patsy Walker character who was a mainstay at Marvel from the late 40s through the 60s. Harley Quinn is getting another title called Harley's Little Black Book. It'll be a bimonthly

team up book written by Jimmy Palmiati and Amanda Connor with Amanda doing most of the artwork and DC is celebrating by giving out some variants to Little Black Book on a number of different titles in the month of December. That includes Justice League 47, Justice League of America 7, Flash 47, Wonder Woman 47 and several more as well. Again that first issue itself will be in stores in December. The new syndicated show Crazy Talk brings you all the absurd, ridiculous and most watched

TV clips from reality TV and puts them all in one place. Plus there's a little bit more to the concept as explained by show host Tanisha Thomas. Well Crazy Talk kind of puts reality TV on the forefront. You know if it happens and it's insane and it's out of this world we're going to talk about it on our show. It's a fusion blend. It's kind of like the top suit meets TMZ and everything in between. I mean all of your favorite shows The Housewives, Love and Hip Hop and everything in between. A

little bit of more, a little bit of springer. If it happened it was insane. We're talking about it. We're celebrating crazy. It's awesome. It's one big crazy party for 30 minutes and you're all invited. Along with Tanisha the show is co-hosted by Ben Aaron who in the New York area is pretty famous for doing his Man on the Street bits. Ones that always made me wonder how does he get by with that? There are so many times where people come up to me like how do you not get punched in the face

after asking people these certain questions you ask on the street and I'm like because I'm so skinny who would want to beat me up? It's like there's no point. But yeah we do it there's there's it's a lot of in studio stuff. I mean the shenanigans really occur in studio. The party occurs in studio. The audience is behind us but then we do do a ton of Man on the Street. We do you know we ask people wild questions. We make them do you know bringing bringing the crazy out in people is one

of our great joys in life because everybody's got it in them. They just need that kind of that catalyst to bring it out of them and we're that catalyst. We're the ones who are gonna be like oh you're not gonna dance? Well you should and then they dance and it's like okay great this is you know and then it becomes a huge party. Well Ben has this you know this ability to kind of get people to come out of their shell and it's really awesome to watch and I also was blessed with the same gift.

I like to think it's because we're both Virgos. I don't know. People both have great hair. Yes! I don't know what that means. One of what makes the show work is the chemistry between Ben and Tanisha. How'd they ever meet? We met on Ashley Madison. Yeah Ben wanted a little chocolate and you wanted a little caramel for the coffee. I wanted caramel for my coffee. Yes no uh it's so crazy. Ben how did they tell you about it? You know what happened basically? I was hired for the show

this is honest. I was hired for the show and they're like who do you want your clothes to be? And I said I want a black woman with a big personality. That's it. You said nails too. With nails and bosom and I want her to say child a little black. Yeah honey. And yes honey. And they put me in a room with like five or six different women at the same time. It was my dream and and then Tanisha was the grand finale. I'm like she's in. That's no question. I walked in like I had a little bit of vodka before

and that might have been the secret and we just from the moment I walked in Ben looked at me he goes what broadside was that and I'm like 40 double D and we just. It was that it was there. Tanisha's also working on a new book called Diary of a Fat Girl. I asked her how close we are to seeing that. Very close from Diary of a Fat Girl. You have a book? Yes I wrote a book. I didn't know you had a book. Yes exactly and the fact that's a set up inside because I'm not so fat anymore.

I'm a little bit. You look amazing. Thank you. No I'm really excited Mike. I you know it's the real life stories of my life. My dating the dating trenches the man. Oh god Mike the man. Oh my god. You got any men down there because I'm looking. Ben's love for TV and radio began at a pretty early age. Like not messing with you. I was probably eight years old making videos with my friends and then I was pretending to be on the radio at 11 and then I and I got my first radio gig at 18

in in Connecticut actually in stores and then yeah a lot of basement television. I used to like meet people and be like hey you want to be in my TV show. It's a great way to meet girls that you have a TV show in your basement. Your mom's basement. Not even your basement. I love it. It's so pathetic it makes me sad but also really excited at the same time. No I mean the stories but like you know inspirational story about it. Like if you wanted that enough it will happen. He was persistent.

And if you don't want to date for 20 years have a teeny show in your mom's basement. Hey at the end of the day it's exactly naturally great. It'll work. Hello. Oh my god. My wife is my first girlfriend. So I asked him both have we really hit bottom yet with reality TV. There's so much room. It's not it will it will last forever whether you want it or not and we love to hate it and we're here to embrace it. People love it Mike. People want to see Pookie from Donna Black on TV.

Yes it gives them hope. One of their own is out there. They're doing this thing. Right exactly. People like that. It's relatable. It's raw. It's not going anywhere. It's been going strong for over 10 years and you know what we'll be around covering the next pet. That's right baby. Crazy Talk airs every weekday all over the country. You want to find out what station in your area has it. Go right now to crazytalktvshow.com keyword watch. That's it for now. We are back in a few days. I

promise and with us MMA champion Chuck Lydell who's making a big break in the movies. Plus all the biggest stars from the YouTube world are getting together for one big project and we'll tell you exactly what that is. Find out about all that and more on websites like ComicMix.com, getthepointradio.com and in the iTunes podcast directory as well. Follow us on Twitter at PC upload and we'll see you back here in a few days. Get the point radio.com.