The Unplanned Podcast with Matt & Abby - Alexa & Carlos PenaVega on Untold Big Time Rush Stories, Co-Starring in Hallmark Movies and Filming Spy Kids

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

Carlos and Alexa PenaVega open up about their marriage and discuss their experiences in the entertainment industry. Carlos shares untold stories from his time in Big Time Rush, while Alexa reflects on her experience filming Spy Kids and her journey from child actress to now. This episode is sponsored by Liquid IV, Factor & ZocDoc Liquid IV: Get 20% off your first order when you go to https://liquidiv.com and use code UNPLANNED at checkout. Factor: Head to https://factormeals.com/unplanned50 and use code UNPLANNED50 to get 50% off. ZocDoc: Go to https://Zocdoc.com/UNPLANNED and download the Zocdop app for FREE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve was like, you cheated on me. I'm like, wait, what? I'm like in this hotel room balling on tour with Big Time Rush. My friend George comes in, he's like, what's wrong? And I'm like, my wife cheated on me. Mama! One Direction was opening for you.

That was really hard for us. They would go out, do their 45 minutes, and then after our show, fans were outside chanting for One Direction. Every single kid that's on set has a stunt double, and they're all kids, stunt kids. That's so cool. I had the biggest crush on Gary Giggles' stunt double.

He ended up being my first kiss. It caused all sorts of drama on set. You guys like making movies together. It's awesome. It's hard when he's a diva on set. Oh, please. Wait, wait, wait. How often do you get confused for Lava Girl

from Sharkboy and Lava Girl? All the time, all the time. We sat down with Hollywood stars, Carlos and Alexa Pena Vega, who you probably already know from the hit TV show Big Time Rush or the spy kids movies the couple famously combined their last names when they got married in 2014 and spent the last couple years living on a boat with their three kids They've even co-starred in multiple Hallmark films together and just this past year

They announced that they're pregnant with baby number four We talked about everything from boundaries they have with intimate scenes on set to the time Carlos toured with One Direction. Welcome back to Unplanned. We are so happy that you're here. And today we're joined by Carlos and Alexa. Let's just give it up. Hello. What's up guys? What's up? What's up? What's up? We're having the most interesting conversation off podcast. It really is like ADD conversations because the amount of different subjects that we have just gone through in a matter of 10 minutes. Yep, breastfeeding, sex, camera equipment, traveling. Those are the things we talked

about later on. Okay, hold up. I was overhearing though. Did you ask how to be abstinent for four months and marry? Well, I know. They're starting it right now. Oh, you're starting it. Oh, man. Is this where we're starting? Yep. I think so. Well, basically, what happened was my wife's having her, we're about to have our fourth child, number four.

Congratulations. I think I- You guys are professionals at this point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm really good at it. This child's gonna shoot out, actually. I won't even have to push. Well, we had a little scare the other night.

She basically had to go to the hospital. We thought the baby was coming early, a little bit of blood. It was like, oh no, what's going on? Baby's okay, mommy's okay. Right. But I was having contractions and whatnot. But she's only 32 weeks. I'm trying not to go into labor right now is basically what's happening.

I can't believe you're here. I'm not being really chill. No, it's good. No, it's okay. But one of the big things, so Carlos had been out of town for the last two weeks dealing with a couple things, and he came back to all of this. Yep. And obviously we'd already abstained for two weeks, and the doctor said that we need to

abstain until I give birth, but then after you give birth, you can't have sex for six weeks. Yeah. So here's the dilemma. You're just adding it up. But here's the dilemma I'm having. Gotta laugh too hard. So we want the baby to come later, because it's healthier for the baby. You know, obviously it's 32 weeks.

Let's hope to get to 34, 35, right? Right, 37 is my goal, please. Yes, but the longer that the baby takes, it just, it's prolonging my, my, me too, you know? So I'm like, I'm going to balance like, what's right? No, I'm kidding. You're like, it's okay, the baby can come now, it's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. If, if the baby comes today, then that's six weeks starts today versus six weeks from now. Is that wrong? That's pretty wrong. I'm kidding. Dude, what's funny though is like the first couple weeks, at least from my experience, I was so freaking tired from being

up in the night with the baby. Yeah. I like, I even have any any thoughts about that. I sure as heck wasn't having any thoughts about that. But I think like week three, week four, I'm like, okay, like, I'm like, I know we can't like do it do it but, like, we can always, like, we can mess around a little bit, you know? And Abby's over here still, like, you know. Like, recovering. You know what? I will give my wife the champion card here because she, especially with our first child, because it was really exciting up until the baby was there and I think I was a little bit in shock.

He was. Because, you know, the baby. He was. Because you know the baby's crying all night. You know I have to change diapers. You change the diaper the baby's crying. I'm like I'm trying to help you. Why are you crying right now? Yeah. But my I really didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed. Like she was she was like champion mama. She just has it in her blood. So I was actually rested the entire first three months and I was ready to rock. She wasn't.

I remember you were like terrified because you watched the birth. Bro, nobody talks about this. I literally closed my eyes and I was like, all right, here we go. And I, it's just weird, right? It was like a war zone, bro. I didn't see it. Was it not a war zone? Oh, hold on, hold on. We're talking about two different things. Oh my gosh, Charlotte's is talking about the first time enjoying each other after having a baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're talking about the first. Oh, okay. So hold on, hold on, hold on. Poor Carlos. Oh my gosh. We can, bro, this is the ADD right here. This is the radio.

Okay, we're talking about doing it after like postpartum. Postpartum, yeah. Got it. Not a war zone. Still a war zone, I think. Okay, hold on. So Baby comes out. It's crazy to watch, but it's beautiful.

I said that I was not gonna watch it, but I filmed it, all three of them, all two and a half, and I've actually shown people. I'm so proud of it. I'm like, look. He's like so excited. I showed up to set one day and they're like, we watched the baby being it. I'm like, look. He's like so excited, I showed up to set one day and they're like, we watched the baby being born. I'm like, I'm sorry, what? He had like shown the whole set.

No, not the whole set. Just a few of the cast members, because it's really beautiful and I've cried every time and I'm just like, look at that. But then after seeing that and then having intercourse for the first time, I think that was really hard for me. No? Matt didn't experience that, did you? What do you, like, hard for me in what way? To just look at me and be like, oh.

Because you see everything happening, right? It's like, maybe comes out, you see all the stuff happening, and then obviously, like, there's six weeks, she's recovering, and then the first time that you guys go to have that intimate moment, you're like... It was even scary for me, too, because I'm like, is this gonna, like is this gonna like be painful like i don't know because i just get in a burn it's hard for the women though because i think your body with the hormone changes and everything like so much it's different down at least like i don't know there are a lot of changes i don't want to get too graphic but it's like drier right like you you need yeah welcome to the unplanned, we're not saying podcast, right? This is, uh, brought to you by... Well, I think he's saying that because, like, with a C-section, I was like, we're not gonna experience any of that. Oh, yes, exactly. It still hurt really bad after. Yes, no, of course it did. Okay, okay, okay, hold on. So, C-section, we did regular, I mean,

is it like vaginal birth? Yeah, yeah. Cool. I don't know what we can say in here. Vaginal birth. We can say vagina. We can say vagina. Cool, cool, cool. So, she did a normal vaginal birth, all three, and watching that, because like, I've only

ever known that part of her body as like an intimate part of her body. So then seeing it deliver a baby and get the size of the head and it's coming out, you know, you're just like, okay. And then later on when you try to intimate again, you can't get those pictures out of your head. Did you have that? I don't, for me, I guess I thought of those as like two different people almost.

I don't know. Oh, I like that. I chose, to be honest, I just felt horrible for you. I'm like, like what if I had to poop out a baby or something? Like that would be so freaking painful. I just felt so, so much horrible for you. I'm like like what if I had to poop out a baby or something like that would be so Freaking painful. I just felt yeah, so so much sympathy for you while you were doing that. So yeah as a kid I thought that I could give birth like I for some reason just thought that anyone could give birth It was your decision in your marriage. Like is it gonna be you honey? Or is it gonna be me?

So I was always terrified that I would marry someone and have to be the one to give birth in your marriage, like, is it gonna be you, honey, or is it gonna be me? Because he was a kid, he didn't know. So, I was always terrified that I would marry someone and have to be the one to give birth. That was like, and just terrified at how much that would hurt. Did you ever get the sex talk as a kid? I guess late in the game. There were four boys in my family and we all got it at the same time, so I think I was a little older, and then, yeah, the youngest was probably like only like three or four yeah but my dad was like we're gonna do this one time this is a condom this is a baby this is a wife and we're like we're gonna do this one time

how did he do? oh my gosh I could never yeah I could never because ocean is in such a different place than Kingston. Yeah I think he was like Yeah, okay While you guys are like having babies and going through all this and becoming parents popping them out. You're you're filming movies, right? You're doing Hallmark movies. You're working. We don't stop Don't stop which which is a good thing. But also, I think it's catching up with us a little bit. OK. You think?

Yeah. We recently moved to Nashville. Oh, wow. Two weeks ago. Officially. Officially, we're here. We we we we close on a house. We are living in there. We're sleeping on mattresses on the floor right now because we have no furniture. What's been really nice is, you know, it's allowed us, just these last two weeks,

like life here is so much slower. And I'm go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And when I'm talking to someone, I catch myself wanting to like, ah, but they're like, so, how's your day today? And I'm like, I'm really great. It was awesome, I woke up and it was great, I had coffee, how about you? They're like, it was good I'm like, I'm really great. It was awesome. I woke up and it was great. I had coffee and they're like, how about you?

They're like, it was good. You know, I, uh, I was, I was thinking this morning and I'm like, my, my, my toe is tapping and I'm like, freak. So yeah, so this is so nice here. The Southern hospitality. They're really, really great here. Like really great. Carlos even went to the store the other day and he's like, he goes, people are telling

me yes, sir. And he's like, not that I'm like some old guy, but you know, they were saying oh, yes, sir Just out of being polite and it's just so nice seeing that respect for one another and that's I feel like very rare nowadays Especially in the industry that we're in and being with like you go to California or New York or like, you know Anywhere on the coast that respect kind of goes away. But the more inland you get, the more respectful people are and it really goes a long way. And you don't even realize how much it does to your heart until you get to really experience that.

So being here for us has been a huge blessing and it was such a God thing because we never, in a million years, like if told us like last year at some point that we'd be living in Tennessee next year we'd be like no that's not us. Right, right, right, cool, cool. No not at all and we're here so it was a god thing it was cool. Well because you guys were living in Hawaii and living on a boat you were living with three children on a boat. Yeah, yeah we're crazy.

So we live in Hawaii we have a gorgeous, sorry, we have a gorgeous awesome house there that we love. The community out there is great, but we happen to live in the town that burned down in Lahaina. So there was a lot that happened there and right now they're like cleaning up all the junk and the toxicity levels in the air. They're not really talking about it a whole lot, but it's pretty wild. So we decided it just felt unsafe to be breathing that in with like the kids and then giving birth over there just in our particular area. So we thought like, okay, well then we're just going to be on the boat full time. Well, and the boat story is right after COVID, Maui was pretty locked down over there. Was no fun. Like literally couldn't even go to the beach.

It was crazy. So we, I got obsessed with watching sailing YouTube channels, like obsessed, and I've always wanted to sail and we've sailed before. So I told her, I said, hey, what if we sold this one property that we had, it was like a vacation rental, and we bought a boat. And she was like, oh, so you want to sell an appreciating asset for an appreciating asset? I was like, yeah, how does that sound to you? And she actually said, sure, why not? And we always wanted to sail. Sailing is so, have you guys ever gone sailing? Never. Oh my gosh, you guys.

I mean, if you, if you don't count like a catamaran snorkel trip, okay, cruise. So we've done that like on a catamact for an hour. And we loved it. Okay, but just imagine that. But for like weeks at a time. Yeah, it's so special. And sleeping on the boat. It's so special. So we decided to sell that property and buy a boat.

And it all happened pretty fast, which was amazing. And we bought this boat. She's a Privilege 615. She's 61 feet by 31 feet. She's pretty big. She's a privilege 615. She's 61 feet by 31 feet. She's pretty big She's a 2007 and and we spent the last two years and change Refitting hers we changed everything I mean we we you know did all the standing rigging so all the crazy cabling that keeps the mast up and all the sails

We changed all that we took the mass and the boom down. We painted it We redid all the interior and we basically did everything ourselves Between me her and her and her her dad Because we're Latinos and we want to save money No, no, we're just frugal Sounds better, but but we did it and What's crazy is that like every time that we were going to finish and get on the water, something else would happen, right?

So this would break. Okay, cool, now it'd set us back a month. This would break, you know, a couple weeks. The biggest one recently was in November. Right before we were about to go to the Bahamas. Our goal was, hey listen, we have work until December 1st, and then on the 15th of December, the weather should be good,

and we're gonna get on the boat, and we're gonna go to the Bahamas, and finally enjoy this boat, right? And it was right before Thanksgiving and my father-in-law calls me, we're in LA and he's like, I think the engine is broken. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He's like, yeah, there's water everywhere, this and that.

Well, we lost, so everything was changed, even the other engine, but the one engine, it was 17 years old, it crapped out on us. And that was like the biggest blow to me because it wasn't an easy like, let's just go to the engine store and buy an engine and put it in and keep going. There's not an engine store that you can go to? No. No.

I know. Not the boat. That's what I thought. How does that work? Oh man, well long story short, you basically have to call the dealer, they have to come in and the EPA gets involved and all this stuff. It was a whole big thing. Then we had to cut the boat open to pull the old engine out, put the new engine in and have somebody come and reseal it.

It was a pain in the booty. It took months. And months. And it cost us almost $40,000. It was like the biggest, just just like you ain't going sailing And in the midst of all this about a month and a half ago or two months ago We start praying and we're like God like where do you want us? What are we supposed to do? This is crazy and I felt this random calling to just drive to Tennessee, but I'm like, I don't think that's right

and the next day she's like I was praying and I feel it is weird, but I feel like, I don't think that's right. And the next day she's like, I was praying and I feel, it's weird but I feel like God is calling us to go and just drive to Tennessee and I was like, you what? I felt that, like that's, this is weird. By the way guys, like we've never talked about Tennessee ever, like this was not like something that we had really discussed or even thought about. I think it was one time 11 years ago when we were first dating, Carlos was like, where do you want to live? And I'm like, ah, my dream home would be in Tennessee. Wait, why Tennessee though? I don't know.

I don't, to be honest with you, I don't even know. Other than like, I just pictured these beautiful like rolling green hills with the beautiful fences, exactly where we're at right now. I just kind of pictured as like, that place is perfect. And I grew up on a ranch in Florida, but I didn't necessarily want that kind of ranch life in Florida again. I wanted this vision that I had in my head.

But I had since like, I've never, I don't think about that anymore. Like it wasn't a thought in my mind that was like an 11 years ago, a fun little fireplace game we were playing. This got brought up and I said, well, it's like eight o'clock at night. And I'm like, well, what do we do?

Obviously we both are feeling this calling from God to do something and she's like, we need to go. He called me to go and I was like, right now? Yeah, so we got in the car that night. We got all the kids in the car and we drove 12 hours from West Palm Beach, Tennessee Oh my god! At 8 o'clock at night? Yep

Wait, wait, wait, did you have like a an RV or like what are you driving in? We had an Escalade so it was comfortable Okay, okay It was really cozy Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was cozy The kids just slept in the car? Yep, like this the whole time Yeah, they were champions

Champions Guys, they were champions. So we did stop six hours in Tifton, Georgia. Shout out to the Spring Hill Suites. Did you get peaches while you were in Georgia? No, we didn't. No, but we went to Cracker Barrel for the first time. We had no idea that we would like it. It was so good. I mean, it was so good. Although the second time we went, I got a little bit of a stomachache. I love that they have real maple syrup at Cracker Barrel. Yeah, I mean, I do, too. When you go and you put it, yeah, it's just... I don't know, I just have this, I had everything, biscuits... Yeah, we were like, we were like, we were with the menu, we were like, oh, this is very interesting.

It's like everything you could imagine. But we're really clean eaters, so it was a really big deal that we were going into a Cracker Barrel and then to order what we ordered, it was... And then to go again on the way back, we were like, we were going into a Cracker Barrel. And then to order what we ordered, it was. And then to go again on the way back. We were looking forward to driving back just to go to Cracker Barrel. But we got to Tennessee and God just kept opening doors.

Our friend's parents happened to be camping that week, so we stayed in their house. We show up and it was like this gorgeous farmhouse on a hundred and something acres and we're like, oh my gosh. Yeah, guys, we got the experience right away. It was like the welcome to tent. This could be your life And then we stayed there and then a funny story my ex-girlfriend from college Like 15 years ago happens to live here and she's a realtor. So

She's like one of my closest friends. I love her. They've been friends for a minute now. Yeah, we've been friends for years. So we called her. But for other people, they're like, I'm sorry, wait, what? And her husband is like me and him getting along like this. Like he's so, he's so cool.

I know, I had to, the first time we were all hanging out like officially, I was like, I just want to, one time I'm going to say this, this is not weird for anybody and it's totally cool and they were like he's like yeah, okay. It was great I'm like, okay, that's it Like they did a couple months how long we guys together for two years No, it's crazy is that is that on plan we're just going going to your ex sell us a house too we've literally sent her so many people yes fun fact my my wife my ex-girlfriend and then my ex is my ex before my ex-girlfriend, and then my ex is—my ex before my ex, this one, they all live within 20 minutes of me. You know, so, uh— Now that we're all with Tennessee! We're all with Tennessee! I'm just like, oh my god.

One big happy family. So, our best friend was like, I would love to be at that dinner. What was funny about you guys, I was looking at your story, and you said at one point that you didn't want to marry anybody from the entertainment industry, right? Oh, heck no. He was literally everything on my know list. And that's why God is so funny. She wanted a tall cowboy. What, no, the guy I was dating for y'all.

Don't we all? Thank you to Liquid IV for sponsoring today's episode. I'm sick today, so it's important that I stay hydrated. So I'm glad that we're doing a taste test today of our Liquid IVs. A blind taste test. A blind taste test because I'm I could really drink some. Well they're actually clear cups. Oh, okay. Should we try them? Let's let's go ahead and try our liquid IVs. Okay, here's glass number one. You should take the

first drink because I might get you sick if you take that. I guarantee you this is one of the sugar free ones. I have this in the bag. Do we know what the flavors are? Do we have to just guess? I immediately know what that is. I think we should just guess what the flavors are cause I know this. Can I say it? One, two, three. Blue raspberry.

It was right. Abby's right, but technically it's white peach. Oh, I didn't specify what color peach. I thought it had a blue tint to it. You're cheating actually. This is implying. I love blue raspberry, so it makes sense why I like it so much.

Okay, now we're trying this one. That one's also sugar-free. I know what that is, 1000%. One. Wait, wait, give me a second. Oh, this is like lemon. Two, three, lemon lime. Lemon lime.

I haven't had that one yet. That's delicious. Dude, Liquid IV makes some really good flavors. I'm excited to try that one. That's not a sugar-free flavor. Holy cow, all of these are so good. Maybe I'll need to like rethink my white peach. I'm thinking that one's like passion fruit. Freak, I don't know what that is.

My favorite we didn't even have, which was green grape. I'm going to say passion fruit. I have no idea. Pear. Oh yeah, that is pear. One stick and 16 ounces of water. Hydrates better than water alone. Does that make sense you guys?

You're going to be hydrated if you drink these and there's three times electrolytes of the leading sports drink, no artificial sweeteners, and zero sugar if you have the zero sugar packet. The pear is also great, does have a little sugar, but who cares? Honestly, the other things you could be drinking. However you hydrate, grab your Liquid IV hydration multiplier, sugar-free and bulk nationwide at Costco or get 20% off your first order when you go to liquidiv.com and use code unplanned at checkout that's 20% off your first order when you shop better hydration today using promo code unplanned at liquidiv.com. Back to the episode. The guy was getting right before Carlos was a six foot nine Australian footy player okay so he couldn't be more opposite of Carlo. I don't have a time. No, well I do. So my best friend Brené. And then like wasn't it a swimmer before that too?

Oh my gosh. My best friend Brené, we were all kind of going to the same church but Carlos hadn't really gone there yet. It's like this little gospel church in Inglewood in California. I don't know if you guys know about Inglewood, but it's kind of like... The big hats. It's awesome. Like a big hat church. Hey, what's up? Gospel. Jesus.

I love that. Oh, that's so fun. It was amazing. It's awesome. I went for the first time and saw the choir and I was like, I need to be in that choir. He was obsessed. Did you join the choir? Oh, yes.

You bet your butt I did. He did. But Brene at the time was like, this poor kid has no chance. Talking about Carlos, because on my no list, I'm from a crazy Colombian family, so I was like, I am never dating a Hispanic person because I already have my crazy family. I don't need to add more to that.

Needs to be taller than four feet. No Latinos, no short guys, no singers for sure and definitely not an actor because they're so vain. Hello, hello, hello, enter Carlos. All of those. He is a perfectly sized Latino who sings and acts and dances. That's a plus, babe. That's hilarious because Abby's list for guys

she didn't want to date, she was just like, I never want to date a theater kid. I don't want to marry a guy who's been in theater. We met doing theater. No way. Stop, wait, do you do theater? Yeah, we went to school for it and then we switched our majors and stuff.

Where'd you go to school? So we went to Missouri State into the acting program where, I don't know if you've heard of Into the Woods, but the person that originated the wolf in Into the Woods, Robert Westenberg, was the head of faculty at Missouri State. Okay, so first of all, I was born in Missouri. Wait, what? Yeah. We should have known this.

Wait, wait, wait. In Columbia, Missouri. Bro, my brother went to school at Mizzou. My mom went to school at Stevens College. No way. Yeah. I lived school at Stevens College. No way. I lived there for 10 years. What? Broadway was my first school in life.

I went to the Boston Conservatory for a year and then I sent in a tape and I got Big Time Rush and I left. That's insane. Fun story there too I can tell you about. But yeah, I'm a theater. She was actually on Broadway too, but she claims that she's not a thinger but she did hair spray she was penny that was really fun that's really neat yeah I feel like you make a good penny as well I can't have you such a talented actress she is so so good

like singing Matt answer it right now you know we'll both admit like I have a good two note range I'm not the best actor and she'll admit she's not the best singer, but like she, she can dance. But together. Yeah. Together. Hey. Amazing. So funny. Where are we even going with this? I don't even know. No, no, hold on, hold on. I love that you guys did theater. Yo, like, that's like, I mean. Theater is Carlos'. I mean, I did, uh, Grease Live. Dude, I saw that!

Which was so, my, my that! That's so sick! Which was, my kids are obsessed with the Grease Lightning version of that. I was like, daddy, can you play the car song? And I'm like, yeah, I'll play you the car song. And then I played it in the original and they were like, I like yours better. I'm like, oh dang! Let's go! Sorry, not your fault!

What was that like, being in Grease Live? Dude, it was really cool. I mean, for me, I always wanted to go to Broadway. So I kind of like, I don't know, most people tell me they're like, dude, that was way cooler than Broadway. Like, you know, that was 32 million people are watching this live thing and, you know, it was one time only. It's like super special.

And I loved every minute of it. It was super cool. I think I still have that inkling to go still do a show in New York But yeah, I mean it was Was almost ten years ago. Yeah, that's crazy. I mean it was actually right before Ocean. So we're like eight years ago the the rush of like You could mess up and this is live It's live TV is always that it's like like a live show where you can play it off like no

This is TV people are watching on the TV that was really cool and like being in golf carts like getting driven like during commercial breaks to another set. That's so unique. And stuff like that like that was really cool. Even like Carlos was wearing three outfits for the Grease Lightning. Yeah for the song. Okay so so fun fact that had never actually gone off correctly until the actual performance. So- Because they're ripping away these suits. So yeah, so I'm wearing my normal jumpsuit, the fancy blue jumpsuit, and then a normal

one over it. And it all had rip-away buttons. And getting into that, like I did a scene with Vanessa in the car, and then I had like 45 seconds to get into the other two outfits. And it was like, I would always just make it. So I made it. We're doing the scene and we all, the camera goes on us, it pulls away,

goes onto some dancers for like 15 seconds. And then when it comes back, the car is changed and we're all in these fancy outfits. So we have 15 seconds to basically go, and every time one or two of us would always have like a pant leg sticking out. Or take everything off. Or yeah, or right, or right, or that.

And by the grace of God, that night, it went off without a hitch. Like that was the only time that it ever actually worked. Somebody always had half an arm on or just something. And it was just, yeah, it was cool. Do you have more fun doing theater and like live performance or do you like doing more film and stuff in that? It's different. It's different. We've really, this last year we started our own

production company and we've really enjoyed being behind the scenes and in July we're gonna be producing our first movie with our production company which is awesome. And we're starring in it and she's singing in it. No way. Yay. Congrats you guys. Thank you, thank you. What's the company called?

It's called Good For You Entertainment. That's so cool. Yeah. I thought it was a perfect little name. Well I like it too because I'm always like, good for you. Yeah. And so it's like kind of like, not a play on words. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like it's a couple different things. It's like really good for you. Yeah. And so it's kind of like a, not a play on words. But it's a couple different things.

It's really good for you quality entertainment, but also good for you. Let's land this plane about the move here. Oh, OK, go ahead. So we come here, and we start looking at houses, and it goes a little crazy. And we're just like, what's happening with life? And she's like, maybe we have to sell the boat.

And I was like, oh, like dude that's a crazy thought. No, I didn't say that. Hear me out. That night we're talking in bed and the houses that she wanted to buy I was like we need to sell the boat. We can't do any, like this is just crazy. And she was like well let's just pray about it. And the next day somebody calls me and goes hey would you ever consider selling your boat?

Out of nowhere. And I was like God. No one has a clue we're in Tennessee. I was like I know that maybe you're just setting things up, but you know, can I get more confirmation? The dude ends up being someone who lives in Nashville who wants to go sail the world with his four kids. That's so sick. Was he watching your YouTube channel? Like, how did he know about the boat? Just through a friend. Okay. Through a friend. He ended up not buying the boat. That

kind of fell through. Okay. But you never would have decided to sell the boat. Yeah, like we basically like it was like one thing after the other just kept opening and opening. Yeah. And after that week here, we made it back to West Palm Beach and we're sitting on the boat and, you know, I've got an offer on the boat. I got this happening and a house that we love. They accepted our offer. And I'm like'm like dude we just in one week We just completely changed our lives and things didn't like work out exactly like that You know with the guy kind of bailed and now the boat is Officially gonna be on the market next week and whatever it's fine

But all those things led up to us actually making the decision to move and our life like we never got to leave the dock We basically redid the boat for some other family which I think is really cool and now we're here in Tennessee. Sorry my my ADD brain was like I have to land that boat. No you're good for sure. I totally did it. We went on a whole big thing and I hope you all appreciate that. Wait what boat were you on then for the past hours? No. No, this was a month ago. We've been living on a boat while refitting the boat. Living on a boat on the dock. So you have two boats?

No, no, just one. Okay, I missed that part. The boat is in the water at the marina, but we're refitting everything on the inside. So like for the first year, we had like no walls, things were ripped out. Like when I tell you that the boat life was kind of miserable at times, it was miserable because I had a newborn on the boat plus two other kids and we're like trying to, it's like living in construction with your family. It was so miserable at times. But then other times it was amazing because we're like fishing off the dock

and we're creating the coolest memories. It was across from Peanut Island so we would just go to the island on the dinghy. So it was really cool. And if you ask our two year old, where do you live? The only thing she knows is the boat. So she's like, boat. Boat.

I live boat. Here she is. Ah, the boat. The boat. And I named it after my first wife. Shut up, Carlos. Alexa. Wait, I'm like, is this an ex-girlfriend? I was like, I did not see this in my research. Wait, what? You've been previously married. And named after my first wife. He tells everybody he names it after his first wife and I'm like, your only wife, your only wife. My dad is the same way, my dad will joke with people, he'll be like on vacation, he's such a dad and he'll say something like,

-"Dad joke!" -"Yeah, let me ask my girlfriend over here," which is my mom, just like, messing with people, I'm like, -"Dad, you're not funny, stop!" -"Dude, dad, I'm gonna start doing that." -"Oh my gosh." -"Let me ask my girlfriend." -"Hold on one second, let me ask my pregnant girlfriend something real quick." -"Hey!" -"My baby mama mama. My baby's mama. Okay, here she is. Look, there you go. So, like, beautiful. Wow, that is a nice bowie, guys.

We like have all the white. Dude. The white used to be ultra suede, mustard. It was disgusting. With mold. It was super moldy. Moldy. I left one little piece in a closet just so that if anyone asked like what it was, I'm like, come on down and you look up in the closet and it's about yay big. The original mustard. Yeah. That's hilarious you guys.

But we redid everything and you know, she looks great. She feels great and a brand new engine. That was a huge setback. But hey, some other family is going to, you know, have a great time with her. So last night at about 10 o'clock you got a phone call yeah yeah yeah because something thank you for reminding me Matt I appreciate it. Can we talk about that? Yeah so the boat the boat was set to be listed on the market on Monday okay so everything was prepped I just had her completely you know waxed and everything and she looked great and last night I got a call that this monstrosity of a boat

came and hit hit me three times. Three times hard and then at the very last one we have it on video the boat is like driving away but just scratching our boat the whole way just going it's a it's a huge stainless steel boat. If I show you the picture of this boat you just keep talking home I'll show you the photo I love you have all this documented on your iPad I'm bringing my iPad and there we go here's the boat oh my gosh that thing That is a hunk of metal. Wait, that's the boat that hit your boat? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whose boat is that?

It's like a charter boat or something. I don't know, but I hope they have good insurance. Oh. Because, okay, so what we were talking about earlier was how expensive it is to paint a boat. You would think that painting a boat would be like, you know, like a $15,000 thing, you know it's expensive. No, it's $120,000 to paint a boat. Well this one this one. Well okay because this boat is

big but also you have to think like they have to pull it out of the water they have to pull every little piece off and then they have to like contain the boat. That's a really good point because I was like why can't you just drain the water? I was like it would be like five grand to paint a boat. Yeah I wish. No it's a house. I'm sure that you know you could get it done cheaper like in the Caribbean or somewhere but yeah it's gonna be uh it's it's gonna be crazy. Hold on I again I'm a visual guy so I just I just want you guys to see the damage. No, the moment it happened. Oh, yes. You have to send them all of this.

We'll have to put the video up for people to watch the video. Oh my gosh, why not? Why not? That's hilarious. Is there a camera on your boat recording? Oh yeah. Yeah, Carlos, he loves tech.

Look at this sucker. He has cameras everywhere. They came in and they went, boom, boom. Right here, right here. And look, and they just dug into the side. No. And then, here's the worst part. They back up, and they come and do it again.

And they do it again! Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on! They back up again. But look, it's just like, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I don't know and it was technically a hit and run. Yeah, they didn't report it. So they took off and then the cops, I guess, showed up or something and called them and the guy was like, I didn't hit their boat! And it was so bad. I was like, bro, I got video. You got the video of, you got the boom boom right there. I don't think a lot of boats have cameras the way we have cameras, like, maybe one camera

showing if somebody goes in and out of the boat yeah but not like every angle Carlos is like like I I love having eyes on everything yeah how about you guys we got security it's just a Braxton Hicks wait oh gosh are you okay yeah okay oh crap what time is it uh it is uh it's not a good 16 wednesday march 13th uh i can tell because you're legit 32 weeks pregnant right now right yeah 32 now that i'm just like please don't give birth now i just need to no you'll be fine okay when you're doing like a hallmark movie do you conceal your pregnancy for the film so that doesn't change the story? Yes, how does that happen? I've had to do it twice.

It's such a pain in the booty because you're always in like big coats or giant purses or holding like random things in front of you. Luckily for the most part, even though I get like swollen for the most part, it's really just belly Even though I get like swollen, for the most part, it's really just belly on me. So I'm able to look for the most part the same when I'm pregnant and filming, but they just cut around it as much as they can. Every now and then you might like notice it and be like,

oh, I caught a peek of like her belly there, but really they do a good job of hiding it. Yeah. Obviously pregnancy affects everybody differently. And some people it changes a little bit of how their face looks. Yeah. Like how do you, do they have to do like certain makeup things to try to make you look consistent? AI is amazing. AI is such an incredible tool. Well, here's what's amazing. Whenever we're doing, whether it's like a Hallmark movie or like these these TV movies, they're quick shoots it's not like like spy kids was a six month shoot a TV movie you have three weeks four weeks to shoot

a movie and that's it you are in and out so for us like not a whole lot happens in that three to four weeks that you're able to really contain it if I were to shoot a movie over six months being pregnant, there will be such a significant change that that would be really hard to conceal. But within a month, it's usually pretty doable. That is a very quick turnaround. I didn't realize they filmed those that fast. Oh yeah, it's like, sorry, you go ahead.

No, the filming schedules are pretty intense. We have it down now, especially if you have it like a crew that you're used to working with or a director You get these routines where you just show up and you work You're shooting like 10 to 12 pages a day on a normal set you shoot one to three Yeah, the day that's it tops because they're getting so many different angles usually more stuff is involved and These are the movies that we want to do for the rest of our lives But they definitely pay the bills and they're really fun.

They're so fun, we get to work together and bring the kids. And as an actor, as y'all know, you show up and if you're just the actor, you don't really have much say or control. They want you to know your lines, show up, do your lines, take direction and then go home, it's kind of it. And on these movies, especially the one that we get to produce now, but even before, we had so much freedom to talk with people and say, hey, how about instead of this,

we can go this and this, and I was kind of thinking this, and they're so open to it that they've been the best experiences as an actor. Because I've done other projects where you show up and you're just a paid hand. It's like, okay, cool, thank you very much, bye. But these movies have been so fun because you go in and if you don't like a line,

they're like, okay, cool, well how would you say it? I was thinking this, then, then, then. Well, how about you do this, isn't this? They're like, oh, that's good, okay, cool, go try that. I can't tell you how many times we've showed up to set where we're like, we're just not gonna say any of this, we're gonna say this instead. And they're like, oh, that's good. OK, cool. Go try that. I can't tell you how many times we've showed up to set where we're like, we're just not going to say any of this. We're going to say this instead. And they're like, OK.

Yeah. We're like, great. Yeah, because sometimes they're not written the best. The gist is there, but it's like, this is kind of cool. Who's going to walk in the door and be like, hey, howdy, y'all? No, I'm not going to do that. My character would come in, and I feel like he would say this. And they're like, OK, cool. Well, can we do this, this, and this? And they're like, no, I'm not gonna do that. My character would come in and I feel like he would say this, and they're like, okay,

cool, well, can we do this, this, and this? And yeah, great. So, it's a really collaborative process that you don't normally get. That's really neat. Yeah. And it's so common amongst the Hallmark movies, they let the actors have a say in what their character says. I don't know if they let anyone.

Oh, okay. We do it, though. We do it though. We do. And then this next batch that we're doing is with GAM, Great American Media, or GAC, basically Hallmark's competitor. Oh yeah. How does Hallmark feel about that? I don't know. They stopped calling us. No, we don't know yet. No, okay, so. Listen, I love Hallmark. No, no, no bad blood. To backtrack, so do you guys know Pure Flix? Yes, yes. It's a safe-based movie company.

So they, they do a bunch of movies. I've worked with them over the years and I really, really love them. They've actually teamed up with GAC. So now it's- They merged. Yeah, they merged into one company. So we had a deal with Pure Flix at the same time while we had a deal with Hallmark, and that was a totally fine thing.

But when Pure Flix merged with this other company that happens to be a competitor for Hallmark, things kind of changed in there. But then we were now suddenly a part of all three of these families and we were kind of like the kids where everybody had to just get along because they had kids. This portion of today's episode is sponsored by Factor. If you haven't tried the sun dried tomato chicken meal from Factor,

you are missing out. They have so many good ones. There's like a garlic chicken thighs one that I love. And the wellness shots too are really good. They have wellness shots with like lemon and ginger. And then there's one with lemon and like cayenne pepper and it freaking just sends your taste buds for a Whole party. It's awesome. What's really unique about factor is that their meals come fresh and they are never frozen You know that you're getting good quality clean fresh food

Exactly, but it's so easy because they're just ready to eat you just take the outer paper off Yeah, cool. This is a little thing put in the, and then you have your meal in like three minutes. Actually, it's only two minutes. So it's just every meal is two minutes. I was adding in the time to take off the paper. Oh yeah, I guess you're right, because if you do put it in the microwave for two minutes. Poke the holes, and then you're probably

gonna let it cool off a little. So three minutes is probably more accurate. But that's pretty quick still. When you were gone on a business trip and I was by myself. That makes me sound so official. Yeah, it's pretty cool you're on a business trip. But I was like, I just kept eating factor meals

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So head to factor meals.com slash unplanned 50 and use code unplanned 50 to get 50% off. That's code unplanned 50 at factor meals. com slash unplanned 50 to get 50% off. Back to the episode. Do you guys like making movies together? Like is it fun if you're if you're co-stars? It's awesome. It's hard when he's a diva on set. Please.

No way. I'm joking. I'm totally joking. No, it's great because we know our limits. Like if I'm working with another guy, I don't know how much I can play around with them. I don't know how much like, okay, like if I ad lib, is he going to be able to go back and forth with me or is he going to be kind of stuck? And I can't tell you how many times, God bless the other actors that I've worked with, but like I get, I throw a little something at them and they're like, oh my god. Dear in headlights because they practice. That's not the line.

That you say this, I say this. You say this, I say this. Now when you get to bigger movies, they're way better actors that don't really do that. But a lot of the time you get people who are like, they memorize their lines based on what you, okay so I'm gonna hear this line and then I say this. And then I hear this and I say this.

And it's like well then you're really not listening you're not listening in the scene you're just repeating you're going okay that's my trigger and I'm gonna say this and the whole thing is listen so we we we play around on set if I think that she's being too rigid I'll literally like in in the middle of a take I'll just start poking her and she's like stop and I'm like I'm like do not put me in a label sorry sorry sorry oh gosh I'm like I'm like you know you can do it better and it's like we have that flexibility whereas I think if I was with another girl doing a scene I couldn't be like I think I think you can do that better. But then the romance is real. Yes, but a lot of people say that they don't like watching couples on screen because there's

no chemistry because they know each other so well that there's not like this like flirty back and forth but we're so flirty in like real life that that I don't know we just have so much fun together and you're so cute. It's a good vibe. Do you guys learn your lines well in advance? Do you just do it the day before? We should. We do it the day of, usually. Really? But only because- Only on these types of movies. These movies change so much that you really- it becomes more confusing to learn this old dialogue that's not gonna stay and then say something that's kind of similar but then you're like, oh wait, was it- was it like this?

Like, for us, we just go, okay, we know this is gonna get rewritten, what's the story we're trying to tell? What's the point of this scene? How is it like pivotal to this part of the movie? And ultimately it comes down to like listening and reacting. Not being a parrot and just repeating lines. But if we were to do a Quentin Tarantino movie. No, you say every word that Quentin Tarantino writes. I would show up and I mean if he like every punctuation I would do it exactly as as he hasn't written because that's just how that is but for stuff like this like she said I mean there's just it's a different it's a different yeah breed yeah and some may disagree with us there might be people out there who are

like no learn your lines the other day show up and you're never gonna say them that's all I'm gonna say yeah it's just we will never say the lines that we would have memorized and do you have certain boundaries too for if you will or won't kiss people on on set that are that are not your spouse? Like yeah, what are your boundaries as actors and actresses? Do you get asked that a lot? No, we just have a really funny history with it because we didn't establish those boundaries when we first got married. We were also in a very different season in our lives. We were just no kids. I was 23, she was 24. We were just growing in our faith, really understanding what it meant to follow God. Like, it's one thing to be like, yeah, I go to church on Sundays, but like have a relationship

with God and like, we would like have a Bible study on Thursday night and then go to a club. Go to the club that night. We just didn't know. And now like, and now like party and go crazy, but it was like, okay, what, like, her, her stepdad, like, you know, ran a club, so it was like, okay, let's go, we got a table, let's hang out. What's wrong with that? Like, Bible study in the club, like, we already did Bible study, we got the good part. But it wasn't like, going to the club and like, yeah, but then, after a while, we realized, we were like, this is probably not. Well, it was, it was, it was very early in our conviction. Isn't dancing so much fun though?

Cause we went to a club and yeah, like we went to Vegas. We believe in once to the clubs and it was so much fun. I agree. If you're going and again, I, and this is where I like battle because intention, right? If you show up with the intention, like, I just want to go dance with my husband. I love dancing. It's like so fun and you can like be free. But it wasn't like we were just dancing.

We were drinking. We were around a lot of not the greatest people also at the time as well. So like, it wasn't, we weren't doing it necessarily right. Like if right now we were like, you know what? Let's go to a club and just have a mommy daddy night just of dancing. I think that intention is actually a good fun adventure

versus going out and going clubbing because you need something else fulfilled. You know? So. It's kind of fun though going out with your spouse because you know who you're gonna go home with at the end of the night. Heck yes.

You know? And it's like, I don't know. You're definitely getting some. You're definitely getting some. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Okay, do you guys have like convictions on drinking? Because you mentioned drinking, so do you like not drink anymore? What's that like for you guys? I mean, the only times that I ever drink are if we go on a cruise.

I love champagne, even though it's so sugary. I think having a glass of champagne is just really fun and like she she she doesn't drink at all. I mean again like I've never been a huge man of drinking I come from a family with like a lot of addictive issues so for me I'm just like it's not yeah it I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything and I also don't judge anybody for like wanting a beer or something. Like it's that to me that's not a very bad deal. I feel better when I don't and I think that's why I've only always kept it to cruising

because like I'm on vacation so you know you show up and they're like here's a glass of champagne. I'm like yeah okay hey. So for me that's always just been like kind of where I stay that's yeah that's pretty much it like the last time I had like hard liquor like I I can't remember like yeah long long time I probably at the club that night yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean it's my past so don't judge't judge me. This was 10 years ago. It's my past.

This is 10 years ago. More. Yeah, because we weren't married yet, were we? No. No, this was like 11, 12 years ago. So her dad, you know, owns and runs this club in Hollywood, so we go, we had a table, you know, he got us a bottle of vodka, and it's like these like balls are coming down, the lights are going, and like every 15 minutes it was like full-on fog where you couldn't see anybody oh I love that

it was so cool and then like it comes out and like you like there's like people making out like what the heck dude you don't even know her that's a little weird that thing so Alexa had had too many vodka Red Bulls and and again I didn't like drinking I was just like doing it. This was the one time that we went to the club. The one time. And her stepdad comes over to me and I was I was really prepared for the night because I was really into her. So I was like I hired a security and he and he drove my car and you know had an Escalade so like it felt like we had an escalade so like it felt

like we had a driver with like it was totally planned out like we're gonna have a good time he's gonna watch over us then he's gonna take us back to our house and he'll drive home like I had it all planned and her stepdad comes to me because she's like drunk because this is a sloppy drunk you guys I don't remember it yeah sloppy drunk that's how bad he comes to me and he goes she's coming home with me scared and I was like dude coming home with me scared Carl and I was like, yeah I sobered up so quick and I went over and I was like six sir Look, I have everything planned out like I have my security here right now. He's driving my car

I'll make sure that she gets home safe He like I talked him for a minute and then he was like then you guys need to go home right now And I was like, yes, sir, of course, of course, of course so we also meet her and then and then our friend got in the car and you know Renell drove us and we you know drove home and this one like I was like at the time again different place in my life but I was like I wonder if I'll still get some tonight you know it's like and and so I say goodbye to our friends the you know security leaves and I'm like Alexa

where you at and I go upstairs and And I open my master bedroom door and there's throw up But but it was fruity pebble colored because she had eaten fruity pebbles like Purple is color all the way to the bathroom around and I look over and she's just like I'm like, oh my gosh I was like long definitely not getting something So so so I literally like Googled like what to do and then it's like don't I mean, you know Google freaks you out You're like I have a cut on my finger like you're gonna die tomorrow, you know So so it was like do not let her swallow her own throw up. You're like she's like she could die this yeah

Freak so I literally just covered and throw up. So I literally undressed her into her panties, whatever it was. And it sounds creepy. No, no, no, but it was actually very sweet. She was covered. So I like carefully undress her. And then I got the shower warm and I put her in the shower

and I literally just sat with her head, not like this, but like this, just like in the warm shower for hours until she like kind of came to and then I got her and she like like got a towel and just laid in front of the fireplace just flat right there and cleaned everything cleaned everything and went to sleep but he was so worried I was gonna get some in the morning I'm just kidding

you were not that guy I'm a dude, I'm a dude, okay? No, no. Oh, so that's why you did all that? Yes, exactly. I did all that. But no, but then she woke up the next morning and we ordered soup and we sat and we talked and realized that that was not the life that we wanted to lead. And like even though that was like fun for a minute, like was it really fun? And it was like, no, like we don't need to do that.

And I was sad that I almost risked us. Because I almost didn't get to bring her home. And the whole plan was for us to have a great night tonight. And then her stepdad was not going to like me, and blah, blah, blah, blah. And it ended up working out. It ended up working out. Pretty pebble girl over here.

Stupid. Hashtag. And that's why I don't drink, guys. Yeah, I'm just working out. Pretty pebble girl over here. What a crazy story. And that's why I don't drink guys. We never got to use in your boundaries with kissing. Or like romantic scenes. Land that plane baby. Okay, so.

Somebody told it to me the other day and I was like, I kind of like it. It's kind of annoying but I kind of like it. I like it too. So I was on this show that I actually loved. The character was awesome. I was super proud of it Gave me a lot of like really great stuff to work with now in the beginning of the show. I'm the villain Okay, so when I said yes to taking the show there was zero Romantic I knew that was so ever I was the villain

I was like you're gonna become a love interest now It was like a hundred my close friend who actually his father made our engagement ring. Which she loves to wear. I know, I'm too puffy. I know, it doesn't fit right now. I'm just too fat for it right now, so I can't. So this is like a close friend of ours that I'm working with. And two or three episodes in, I'm no longer the villain,

I read this episode and I'm now the love interest. Which I have to say is really awkward because if you don't really know the person, it's a lot easier to be the love interest of this person because there's no history there, there's no weirdness, you just show up, you're two professionals and it's great. This guy happened to be a friend of mine and there's history there So now I'm like, oh my gosh, and I have to call Carlos and tell him what kind of history

No, like like friends. No, I know I just want to clarify There's history there just like a friendship, but we're like buddies So now I have to find out that I have to like kiss my buddy and have these kind of like Oh wow. This is you're married. This is we had just gotten married. Okay. So it didn't set boundaries. So we didn't have boundaries yet of like what we were okay with and what we weren't.

And this was a CW show. So CW is not known for just like you do a cute little hallmark. Heck like this was and again this was early on in our walk with our faith, with what we were comfortable with, so like it's a very kind of, I wouldn't say raunchy because it wasn't like HBO, but for CW it was a very intimate scene and I had to like call Carlos and tell him he's like you're not doing that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, she's like, hey, so I have this, you were right, now I'm 11, blah, blah, and I have this scene to do and this and I'm like, and you have to kiss him? And she's like, yeah. And she goes, so for things like this, do you want me to tell you before or after? And I'm like, well, before, obviously, like I want to know before. And she goes, okay, well, I had one yesterday and I have one tomorrow.

And I literally died. He started crying. I was crying. Cause he was like, you cheated on me. I'm like, wait what? And I'm like, you should have told me that you had one yesterday. You didn't tell me that you made out

with this dude on camera. So then I'm in this hotel room balling. My friend George comes in and he's like, what's wrong? And I'm like, my wife cheated on me. The world was over. The world was over. I cannot perform tonight. Like not gonna happen. And then we finally, you know, whatever, I kind of manned up. I was like, it's fine. So two, three days later, I fly straight to Canada after the tour to meet her. On set. On set. And the next so. You're like hi sir, nice to meet you. Yeah, yeah. Well no, no I knew him. No, he's friends with him. His dad literally made our engagement rings.

But then, but then, but then we're literally hanging out. We have a great little night together and like life is good. We're back, you know, like we're just connected again and she's like, I have to leave for work, it's one of my games, of course, of course. She's like, hey, I have another scene and I have to basically wear lingerie and then take my coat off and be in lingerie and then basically straddle him. And I was like, whatever. And I said, no, you can't do it.

She's like, I have to, it's today. And I was like, no, I was like, no, no. You tell them no. I was like, you just tell them no. She's like, I have to, I was like you just tell them no, she's like I have to be able to tell them no And then we got to another big fight and I was just like this is crazy I was like I can't do this for the rest of my life like so then we finally got over that she did it It's fine But we basically after that experience and those that roller coaster of emotions

We just set boundaries and it was like like what are you okay with like obviously? of emotions. We just set boundaries and it was like, what are you okay with? Obviously, was it the biggest deal? No, but no one wants to see their wife with another guy. Even if it's just acting, she kept saying, babe, and now that I've done kissing stuff, it's awkward. It's not like you're making out with this girl and you're like, yeah, I love this. You're you're like dude There are 25 people watching us right now. Let's just get this There's like a specific kiss went out like on camera. Yeah, which I didn't know I didn't know these things they're very different. They're very very different how you kiss explain that. Yeah, so

No tongue like there's yeah, there's no Unless it because I've seen movie where I'm like dang people are really going at it. Yeah but usually those people are hooking up behind the scenes so you can usually tell when like something's going on behind the scenes. But I think what was really really powerful for me in that moment that I learned a lot about because I had my best friend Andrew kind of walking me through that season and he's been our mentor throughout so much but specifically in that season,

it was tough because in my head I'm like, this is my career. I didn't think anything wrong. There was nothing wrong with what I was doing in my head. In my head I'm like, this is just acting, this isn't real, whatever. But now I look back at that and I'm like, oh my acting, this isn't real, whatever. But now I look back at that and I'm like oh my gosh I was so naive to be in that position because I would never take

projects like that now. While the character was amazing and I loved the the like umph that they gave me to work with every week, there were so many things that were unnecessary or that we could have pulled back from to still give her like the range that was amazing without having to be overly sexualized and I think and I think especially in my walk that's been the biggest thing that not hurdle that I've had to overcome but it's really what has caused me to have to like turn down a lot of projects because I will love a character but ultimately just be like I just I don't trust that they're not going to take her somewhere else or like they'll have like nudity in something or you know

just like overly sexualized for no reason. I'm like this is what's wrong with all of our stuff today. We're just like doing stuff for shock factor. Yeah. Shock value. And it causes people to stumble and I'm like, there's no point in being responsible for that, you know? Like we're human beings, like you know, you have a bad day and then something else catches your attention. You're like, well, I'm mad here, so I'm gonna go here. And it's like, how do we help just clean up the world a little bit? So we set healthy boundaries with each other, but then those boundaries ended up

even kind of going further to being like, man, I don't wanna portray that for other people. I don't want other people to see me doing those kind of things anymore. So it really hit me on a deeper level, but it took me a little bit longer just because for me at the time, my career was my life. I've been doing this since I was four.

So I was just like what like who are you to tell me that something I've been doing since I was like four years old. Now you're trying to like take over. I mean that I just felt very defensive of it at the time and not really coming from a place of like oh my gosh this is my husband. How is this affecting him? How is this actually affecting me spiritually? There was just so much growth that I had to do and that we did together and learned a lot. And just to add this, that's not to say that like, if a role has, I don't know, like you're a crack addict, you know, and you're doing this thing.

Like for us, like if there's a really great story of redemption and at the end You see the journey and there's a positive message like to me like those are the stories that I want to tell So it's not about like doing these clean-cutter movies all my life But it's not even the reality of the Christian walk like Christianity is messy. It's sloppy. It's painful it is ugly sometimes but like Like those are the stories I'd rather tell when you watch and I'm not trying to put all these Christian movies down But you watch these like cookie cutter Christian movies and you're like, well, that's definitely not what my walk looked like and

Maybe for some people that's what it looked like but it definitely didn't look like that for me or most of my friends who now didn't look like that for me or most of my friends who now love the Lord and who like live a totally different life than they used to. Those are the kind of stories that I want to tell because you really have to show like the pain of what somebody went through to get to where they are now and you can't just show a clean happy version of it because then I feel like you're just doing a disservice for that story, but also for people who are literally in the thick of it right now,

because in their heads they're probably thinking, well, nobody's as bad as me. Nobody's, like, they probably got saved, or they're probably in a better place now, because they weren't even really that far off from being good anyway. I'm so far off, like like what hope is there for me? When I'm like, no, we've all been through the gutter.

We all got junk. Yeah. Thank you to ZocDoc for sponsoring this portion of today's episode. I officially have ADHD and I have ZocDoc to thank for it because what they do is they allow you to do a virtual doctor's appointment. And so it got me thinking, hey,

if I actually want to be evaluated for ADHD, maybe I could do this virtually because I'm a busy guy. I don't have a lot of free time to just drive to the doctor and stuff. And so Abby set up my doctor's appointment for me using ZocDoc. And I got evaluated and turns out that I have ADHD. ZocDoc was really easy to use. It's a place where you can find and book doctors who will make you feel comfortable and actually listen to you. Being seen by a doctor nowadays can feel overwhelming, especially when you're like, I don't know if they take my insurance and I don't know if like, how far is that? Is this the right place to go? Like there's so many questions about it. Even as an adult, I feel like it's just difficult to navigate and ZocDoc makes that so easy because I just put Matt's insurance information, they take your insurance, they connect him with the doctor. He had an appointment literally the next day.

It was so fast. It was very efficient and great quality advice too. Think about this, all the time that you save doing a virtual doctor's appointment is incredible because you usually have to drive all the way there, wait in the waiting room, then you go back, then you have to wait on the doctor because they're seeing other patients first.

All in, you're probably taking like three hours to go to the doctor. I don't know, if you're quick, maybe two. But to do this ZocDoc appointment, it literally took me 20 minutes. It was so fast. And what's really cool is that ZocDoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare highly rated in-network doctors near you

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That's Z O C D O C dot com slash unplanned. Zocdoc.com slash unplanned. Back to the episode. Do actresses have a say so in, OK, I love this role. I love this story, but this nude scene, like that's not for me. I'm not comfortable with it. They actually do. So you've been able to say that before with roles?

So it just depends on the project, it depends on, and you'll hear this again and again on like different TV shows or movies where I think, you know, there was one girl, I can't, I think I know the show but I don't wanna say it because I'm not 100% sure, but in the first season, I think there was like nudity and the girl was'm not 100% sure. But in the first season, I think there was nudity and the girl was totally fine with it.

But then in the second season, she realized she didn't like what came with it. She just felt so exposed. She said, I don't ever wanna do that again. So when it came time to the second season, she's like, I'm not doing that anymore. And they can't force you to be naked on set at the end of the day.

They can't force you to do that. So in all honesty, you could take a role and say, yeah, I'm okay with doing it. And then show up and say, I'm not doing it. I wouldn't do that because I think that's kind of like a little unfair. I would just be straight up right away and not, not her. I was just saying like, if you were some actor that just said, yeah, I'll do it and then decided not to. I feel like depending on one, where you're at in your career and two, if you can come up with something that would also be like of equal value.

Like for instance, hey listen, this scene calls for nudity in the writing but it will still be just as powerful without the nudity. Here's why. Here's how I think we can do it. Offer them another angle. And a lot of times they want to accommodate. There are some people who are just weird, who just are like kind of perverts and want

naked people on set. That's just how some people are and you won't be able to change it and either you get fired or you leave Well, I've even heard like on Game of Thrones the actress who played Cersei said I don't want to do the Walk of Shame Yes, they did a body double because I guess it was essential or the producers or director whoever it felt like it was essential Thought it was essential. And so she said okay fine I'm not doing it and so they were still gonna tell the story without her body and I even think about movies like Schindler's List like like such a sad, sad movie. But like when you see the people who don't have clothes on, you're like, I cannot believe that people were just treated like cattle.

Because it's not sexualized. Exactly. It's intention. And again, like, my issue isn't nudity. Gosh, the human body is beautiful. Some of my favorite art pieces or photographs are actually of naked pregnant women or because they're beautiful. There's nothing sexualized about it. The problem is how we've sexualized everything. But you made a great point.

I look at a movie like Schindler's List and then I would never be like, oh my gosh, I can't believe those people are naked. Oh my, like, no! You don't think that way because they're telling a story of, first off, history and what has happened and what these people went through. And I think that's why we go back to,

it's not as simple as just like never doing nudity, never doing this, never, like, it's more about, okay, what is the story? How does this move the story? What is the intention here? What is the intention here? What is the intention for the audience to receive? How are they getting this? Is this causing them to stumble

or is this giving them insight to something horrific that has happened? So I think there's so much more to it than just no to this and no to this. I mean, I always laugh. Back when I was first starting on Instagram and stuff. Dude, I was like, I was always posting like shirtless photos and like, yeah, I went to jail.

And then once we all started having I was like, why am I doing this? A is because I, at the time I really wanted that attention. Yeah. And it's like, that validation. Yeah. And it's like, that yeah and it's like that just feels now it feels wrong did you look good in those photos I went back at your interest I was like this dude freaking straight I'm gonna stop you bro I'm gonna stop you bro

you're gonna find a lot of shirtless content dude that's really funny is I there's pictures of me at family Christmas and everyone's wearing a sweater Matt you always use that and I'm sure no I have the photo on my phone I'm shirtless and everyone's wearing a sweater. Matt, you always use that. And I'm sure, no, I have the photo on my phone. I'm shirtless and everyone's wearing a sweater. Yeah, but like, are you posting it being like, look at my shirtless body? No, I just hated wearing shirts as a kid.

No, so that's one. And I still do. But this is Carlos. Carlos never has clothes on, ever. Like, this man is always just in like bottoms. That's what I love about Hawaii, because in Hawaii you can just wear swim trunks and no shirt and no shoes.

And that's us. Yeah. Well, I was even laughing with the babysitter today. I'm like, hey, so listen, I know it's kind of weird, but my kids don't wear underwear because we're from an island where we literally just live in bathing suits. So I can't get them to put on underwear. So I'm like, just put her shorts on.

She'll be fine. She doesn't need underwear. I don't wear underwear, do you? I wear underwear, yeah. Wow, so you don't like wearing shirts, but you like wearing underwear. Yeah, I've always worn underwear. You wear underwear with your swim trunks. Shut up. What? You guys don't wear underwear? Dude, I don't wear underwear, period. Wait, what? Yeah. Either one of you guys? No, you guys just go commando all the time. All the time. What's the point of that?

You know what? I wear underwear if I'm wearing light pants, only because sometimes if you go to the restroom and you don't shake up sometimes sometimes there's a drip and then you're like yeah but I don't know is that not so you're not wearing either one of you guys are wearing underwear right now Abby do you have your undies on today because I do. I wear undies. Okay but hold on. Two out of the four of us. What's the point of underwear then? I think it's just to keep the particles from getting on your clothes. But what particles? Like I don't know like poop and like MP. Yeah but like. We need to get you some wipe wipes. You guys. Eber how dirty are you bro?

I'm gonna wash it anyways. Thank you. You guys, how dirty are you bro? Bro, I wipe well. Yeah, me too. I don't know why, what are we talking about right now? It's unplanned dude. What the frick is going on? Don't you gotta keep it together.

Oh, I'm so sorry. No, not you. I just was laughing so hard. I'm like, okay. I love how honest you guys are. I told you, we have zero boundaries. It's a problem. No, it's not.

I love it. But I think something that's really cool that you guys have opened up about is like difficult like struggling in your marriage Which is something like we've talked about too. And then of course the Internet's like well, you're gonna get divorced But like it's like wow I mean, wait, you guys never have disagreements in your marriage I'm like, I was pretty healthy to have healthy disagreements and then also for other people, if you're in a healthy place, for other people to know that because if you're having conflict in your marriage, it can feel very isolating at times. Heck yeah. Especially when you're seeing people in Hallmark movies or like everything looks picture perfect.

But I think that's really cool and inspiring about you guys. I guess like talk more about that. Well, I mean last night, we talked about last night. I had a great, I mean, okay, like I said in the beginning of the podcast, if you challenge me, I will take the challenge. Like, okay, like, you know. Carlos has a very strong personality, which is great. That's what I married him for. Like, I love how strong he is. Not my good looks. And your sexy, amazing good looks. I am somebody who, I was such a people pleaser for so long that it's really hard for me to stand up or like say, you know what?

No, I don't like this. It's taken me a long time to kind of find my voice. So usually if there was ever a disagreement, immediately I'm like, okay, yeah, no, I'm sorry. Like, oh, you're right. Like, okay. Like I cower very quickly. So those two opposites were kind of crazy. So we had to find a way to meet in the middle. So I'm getting much better at saying things that I don't like. And I'm getting much better at not overpowering and understanding. But we definitely have moments. So last night, we're talking about something and it's just something simple but our writer had to change a writer so a buddy of mine was

like well how about this writer and I was like well see if he can write the first 10 pages just so we can get a you know like a vibe check on him. I only got the phone and she's like I wish you would have talked to me about that and I'm like what? She goes you should have you know asked me that was like I was like I has nothing to do with us like it's not affecting us he's gonna have his buddy just do a vibe check on check on the writing and see his writing style, whatever. But we got to this thing. But I was super committed that I did not feel like I needed to ask her permission for that. And she was and she felt the opposite. So

instead of like resolving it right there, we tried to and then I just put my hardhat on and I was like alright fine I'm not gonna talk to you I'm just gonna clean the I'm just gonna clean no what did you say I've locked out what did I say I'm just gonna have to start focusing on me good luck no you know what? In my defense, I was very overwhelmed. We spent two days where she was kind of in the bed, just chilling, and I had the kids, and I was doing everything, and the house, and life.

So I was just like, I mean, man, I'm cleaning, like even though there's no furniture, the house gets very messy with these kids. But you guys, you have to know, I understood this though. So like, I was not mad at all. But I kind of get into this place where like I just do me and I'm like, fine, you know what? I'll take care of the kids. I don't need you. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. And I just got into one of those moods and anyway, so those things kind of happen. But we always find like, I don't like going to bed angry.

She likes to- I do not mind going to bed angry. Do you know why? I need to rest. I need my brain to take a break first before I can have this conversation. Whereas he's the opposite. It's like two in the morning. He's like, no, we need to have this conversation now. And my brain literally needs time to process it. You guys do that? Well, I totally relate to you. Who's who? Who's who? You and me. Abby always relates to the husband, and I always relate to the wife.

I always relate to the husband, always. But he's like the wife in the marriage, for real. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on. I think I just had an epiphany for me. Okay, tell me. All of my issues that I have in life with like confrontation come from rejection.

I have a really strange relationship with my parents, both of us do. Like literally we're on our own, like we don't have anybody. So no grandparents or nothing, it's just us. And I think that is really like that whole thing of rejection and just in life and acting and this world, rejection is a huge thing for me. Like I, if I feel like I go into a conversation and someone's not liking me I start trying to make the conversation like liven up because I'm like I want them to like me, you know Yeah, I think you going to sleep at night and us not solving it to me as a form of rejection because I'm going So like now now we're going to bed and my wife who like supposed to love me is like really mad with me

And I like I don't want to be rejected. So how can I like no, let's solve this No, usually I'll go to sleep like not super happy but I'll be like okay I'll just I'll still touch you. Yeah I should touch you with the toe. You'll get like one touch. The toe! Until then I'm like just give me the toe. Wait you'll do the toe for me? I'm such a chick. Abby does that to me. I'm such a chick man. No no no I make him give me his stuff. I'm like, just tell me that you still are here. You're still here. So you like to go to sleep and like, rest it off and breathe. We've been talking about it for over an hour. I'm like, it's one o'clock in the morning. Let's figure this out. Let's get some sleep. We're going to be okay. We'll still be married

in the morning. Let's just resolve it. I'll go until the morning. I'm like, let's hash this out right now. But what you actually need is a break from the morning. I'm like, let's hack this out right now. But what you actually need is a break from the moment. Yeah. For both of you to go, it's actually like, right now it's under a magnifying glass. It's really not that big of a deal. You both just need to rest because there's probably other stressors causing the animosity, causing that sort of like riff-raff. And that rest does everything. We didn't finalize the conversation last night. We technically didn't like finalize anything.'t like the boat thing happened anything and that's why I said Hey listen, I know we have all this stuff going on

Let's just put that to the side and let's just forget about that Let's deal with the boat right now, and then I kind of washed everything Something I just thought of I did a deep dive on your YouTube channel together. I love all your vlogs. Oh no. Living on a boat. Oh no. And something I saw way, way back from 12 years ago, you made this music video with

Justin Bieber and Selena as well. Call Me Maybe. You have to, no, Call Me Maybe had been out for two years and nobody had heard of the song. No, no. Wait, did your video blow up the song? Yes. Wait, what? Yes. Hold on, hold on.

In a nutshell, I was dating someone who was best friends with Selena. She lives here in Tennessee. Yeah. She's the girl that we were talking about. She's super sweet. The ex that sold you your house is the girl that was in the video. No, no, different ex. Different ex.

She also lives in Tennessee. Was friends with Selena. How many exes did you have by the age of 23? He was a serial dater. Because I hated being alone. I didn't like rejection. It all goes back. Oh my gosh, this is therapy for me. Okay. Maybe she unplanned therapy sessions. That's so funny. So basically, girlfriend came over and Selena was there. I have a funny story with Taylor Swift too. But she comes over and it was me, Selena, Alfredo, and my girlfriend at the time. And basically she's like, yeah, Justin keeps playing this song. He's obsessed with it. It's his girlfriend Canada, whatever. She plays it and it's like,

I just met you. This is crazy. I'm like, oh, this is cool. So I pull out my Mac laptop and put on photo booth and we made a whole thing and sent it to him because Selena was like, I can't stand this song. He's always playing it. So we make this video. It's really cute and really fun. So we make another one. And then every time people would come over my house, we would just pull out the laptop, put photo booth and play the song.

I just met you. This is great. Just keep doing over and over again. Then, you know, a few, you know, with the Big Time Rush guys, Justin did a few of them. And then me and Alfredo didn't edit and that was the video And Fredo was like he did he did a good chunk of the edit He was he was he was pivotal in that and then we put it on our on on my YouTube channel Which I was trying to grow I mean actually I got

Scooter like yelled at me because I put it out on like a random Monday And he's like you know what man we should have planned this out and today's my wife at the time I didn't really care like a random Monday and he's like, you know what, man, we should have planned this out and did this, blah, blah. At the time, I didn't really care. Did he like scream at you to take it down for a minute? I, no, I, I, I don't know. This is Scooter, Scooter Braun. Scooter Braun, yeah. Justin Bieber's manager. Yeah, yeah, like, like he was not happy that like we put it out on a Monday or something

like that. He was like, we were supposed to do strategy. Yeah, well, I mean, but, you know. But he's just a kid, he was like, we were just having fun. It wasn't like, yeah. And then my brother, like, who was helping me with my YouTube, he's like four years younger than me, calls up Scooter and tries to get a release so that we could monetize it and Scooter's like no. I was like oh dude because that would have been some good money right there. Yeah,

well it has like 80 million views. Yeah, I mean that's what I'll take it. I'll take it. But um so so the song starts blowing up and I feel like that was like kind of the first viral video of that type at its time where it was like just a bunch of like friends hanging out and making you know like little music video and then the song blew up song song just kept going going and she kind of got like a second that song got a second win and I don't know if it's true I mean I heard a lot of different stories like you know like the the label was about to drop her like maybe maybe not just kind of you know hearsay yeah but a hundred percent that song is what made her relevant and and obviously Justin Bieber being a part of it and yeah and like all that and the craziest thing is

I did Greece live with with Carly Rae and she never mentioned it why didn't you bring it up she did back into Alexa's car and... Oh my gosh, I forgot about that. But, Carly Rae, I think, yeah, never, never... She never thanked you for blowing up her song. I never expected thanks, but I just thought like, should we just bring it up? Why didn't you bring it up? Were you too nervous?

I just didn't think it was worth, like, yeah, I was nervous. Rejection, rejection, rejection. Was that like a circle that you hung around with, like your ex-girlfriend Selena, Justin Bieber? A handful of times. Okay. There's like one story, I came home from shooting one night and again, like I had this house that I like, I partnered up with my dad to like redo it. So we basically like gutted it and like, you know, we did it and I made this like little movie theater in there and I Come home one night from working and my girlfriend Selena and Taylor Swift are all in the theater Just like hanging out and I open the door. I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah I gotta go to bed and I think about I'm like, that's crazy. It's crazy

But you also weren't that guy like no stayed out of those kind of circles But it's a crazy to me. I was like, I was like dude. That out of those kind of circles. That's so crazy to me. I was like, dude, guess who was in my house? That's crazy. That's so wild. It really was. Yeah, I mean, it really was.

I thought it was funny too, looking back at your YouTube handle, because then the One Direction was opening for you. Like, One Direction was opening for Big Time Rush. That was hard, man. And you're interviewing One Direction. All the guys are right there. And I'm like, this is hilarious that like they all look like infants, like they were all so young. That was the hardest thing for us as a band because we kind of got forced to do it.

Really? Yeah, our label was like, hey, this boy band and we didn't think it was a good idea. We're like, I don't know, I know and look, they were super successful, props to them, they have some, I love all their music. And they're all really nice. But literally they killed it. They would go out, do their 45 minutes and then after our show fans were outside of the theater chanting for One Direction. So for us, that was really hard for us. I'm sure, yeah.

No, no, no. And you know what? They offered for us to open for them in the UK. They did like 11 shows at the O2 or something crazy. And our egos got in the way. We were like, no, never. Probably should have done it. Yeah, you should have.

What is wrong with you guys? Great business move, honestly, to open up for one direction. But I think we just, you know, our ego, I mean, and we were kids, like I was like 22, you know? Like, it's hard to control your ego at that age. And for us, you know, we were doing our tour, but then this opener would come in and they really just wanted to see them and like that that hurt. Although we sold our tour was sold out before they got on. So they were there

to see us. But it was like the Beatles. It was it was like a freak of nature. They came in and people just they they wanted these five cute British boys and yeah. Do you still hang out with any of them or keep in touch with any members of One Direction? One Direction? No, you know I mean I'm sure that if we saw each other we'd be like oh hey yeah cool but no they're they're all doing their stuff. Niall was always like the sweetest one like he was so cool. Yeah, I love his music. There's a oh, what's the song that I listened to heaven by Nile Horn? I think it's the one I've heard it his music so good. Yeah, like it's yeah, and I didn't even know I was never like a One Direction fan, but I started

listening to Nile after the band split. And I think his music's awesome. Yeah, I mean, they're they're they're they're all so talented. I mean, they did, like, I hope that we can do stadiums one day. Like, how sick would that be? Like, to have a stadium full of people that connect to the music like you do? Yeah. I don't know, that just must be the coolest thing ever. You guys have to come see their shows. Their shows are insane. They sold out, but like, both tours back to back. They're about to go on another tour in Europe, which is gonna be great and huge, which I'm super bummed because I will have just

given birth so I can't go. Oh no. They're really good. They're such strong performers. They've been doing it for so many years now that there's just this cohesiveness that just works between all four of them. And I don't know like I

think for a while they stopped I mean they stopped performing and I would always tell Lowe's I'm like babe you have to get back on stage like you were made for this like God really gave you a gift and that's hard to do like if anybody could do it they would not everybody has that like it factor and like you have it you have to do it he's just so good on stage. What we have with the band now is really cool because we we run the show like back in the day it was all Nickelodeon and Sony kind of controlling everything yeah and we were able to get the rights to you know use use the name

and Big Zermush is kind of like our baby now versus before you know you worked for the man yeah well now we are the men. That's so cool that you guys are like back together and touring, are you just loving getting to perform live again? Is that, has that been? It's so fun and like the whole family goes on tour. That's awesome. We live on a tour bus, which is so special.

Tour bus and we go around and you know. Kind of like a boat. That's crazy. We're you know, working on you know, developing a Big Terrain Mush movie right now. No way. So yeah, yeah, that's, yeah. It right now. No way. So yeah, that's... It's crazy. There's a lot of things that we've worked hard for.

15 years we've been doing Big Time Rush. Wow. It's just a part of me and the fact that we took like a 10-year break, we had kids, one of my bandmates got married, having a baby, like all those things. It's like all of us have grown up, so we've matured quite a bit So there aren't the fights that we used to have You used to fight a lot. Yeah, I mean do you fight with your brothers? Yes. Yeah, I mean, it's like it's like having it's just You guys still fight but you have learned Better like before it was like childish fights now, we're business partners now, right? Before we were hired hands and it was kind of like-

That changed everything. Yeah, yeah. Now we're business partners. So if I don't want to do something, they have to go, okay, well why? And it's like, well, because my family like, okay, well, how about the band pays for X and X to do it? Okay, you know what? Fine. That's a good compromise. Okay, great. So we have to just come at it with a different approach. But so far so good guys have been handling it very maturely Now I want to go see one of your shows And you sold out Madison Square Garden she that's insane. Yeah, and the form in LA and What's crazy is that we are doing Europe this summer and we're playing a show in Amsterdam

and the day that the tickets went on sale, that show like sold out. Wow. But there were still, and I don't know how this is even possible, but we got an email from the promoter that there were still 78,000 people in the queue to get tickets. 78,000. Bro, you should sell it arena. Why are you not doing an arena tour? So the issue is we're doing a smaller show out there, so our production is only so big and to do a huge arena or a stadium, like you can't show up with you can't show up with like a couple lights and you know, so our goal is to really blow this one

out and then hopefully, hopefully in you know, 2025 if, if you know if all works out, do a massive world tour. How is that being a family man touring the world? Well, we would be going with them on that tour. They don't have a choice. Mom is putting her foot down on that one. I want to go on that one. I know, four kids. Yeah.

Well, no, I think it'll also be different too because when you go to Europe in that way, I imagine that you guys are going to have more dates. It's going to be a longer tour. By then, another one of his bandmates will have had a kid. So I just feel like it just makes sense that the families will be there. Right now, when they do these quick shows, they're doing fly dates. So they're showing up to a place and then as soon as they're done with the show they get a little bit of rest and then they fly to their next location. Doing that with four

kids, one he would never get rest and two it would just be way way too hard. So I just feel like like the thing that makes the most sense is like this tour he's only gone for like three or four weeks he'll go take off but next year if it turns out that like they get to do like some giant world tour we'll all work something out to where we all get to go. I uh it's cool it's it's unplanned uh the police are at the boat and they want to speak to me. Oh my gosh. Okay yeah dude totally take the call. Just call me but do you guys just want to continue with her? Yeah I I had some questions about spy kids, if that's OK. Oh, my gosh.

If you're cool with that, I'll just step out. Dude, you're good. And I'm going to go talk to the police. Don't worry. I'll be back. I'm going to talk to the police. I'm so interested. I'm invested now in this.

This is hit and run on your boat. I'm playing baby, that's fine. I would have thought hit and run on the boat. OK. First of all, for you, I want to say you are such a chill mama. Like, you literally was four, like about to have four. It's so fun, truly. I don't know. I just, so I think a lot of that has to do with, so I started acting when I was four.

And I think when you grow up in this industry, you are never in one place. You are always on the go. You're constantly meeting new people. When you think things are going to be one one way they really turn out to be another. So if you don't have like a go with the flow personality that industry just won't work for you. So for me it's just kind of been one of those things where I'm like oh well like it's out of my control anyway. The things that I can't control great, the things that I can't whatever we just we're gonna make the best of it. I love that I always want to be more of that because I feel like especially since becoming a mom like my

Want to control like I've never been like I don't really like being control things But it's definitely like I start to feel it more where I'm like really like I need stability I need like what are the stressors for you the routine like I'm like I need routine I need like it to some extent I get that though because that creates a lot of good stability with You know kids at home having that routine and I think that's kind of been the hardest for us in this season of living on the boat. Like we're so ready for a routine for our family even for our kids just giving them that stability. Now it just remember like we travel non-stop so luckily our kids are also

very good with the flow. So we're trying to find a way to balance like okay how do we have a routine that makes sense for the life that we live? So is it no matter where we go, is it like starting the morning with like a prayer time or always ending it with like either a bath, a story, and a prayer or just something that just always stays the same, no matter where we go, what can stay the same, so that way they know what to look forward to, regardless if we're on a boat, on a tour, or in some random studio filming a movie.

I love that, I feel like it's almost more like a rhythm in my mind, because it's like, yes, we can do this anywhere else, but it's like, I love that I feel like it's like almost more like a rhythm in my mind because it's like yes we can do this anywhere else but it's like I routine I'm like it has to be in this room in this space this way like I love that. Which I love too but I've just learned that's not that's just not our life as much as I would love to just be like this is our homeschool room this is where we will always do homeschool that's nice for when we're home. But when we're not home, when we're just on the road, it's just not, it's not gonna happen that way.

And I have to be okay with that. And if I'm not, my head's gonna explode. So I've just learned like, if I'm gonna make it work, then I have to be okay with these random changes. And then like, it's that letting go of control. Once you let go of control, life gets better. Right. It really does.

You're never disappointed. You're like, I was out of my hands. Yeah, which took him a long time because he is the typical Latino, I wanna be in control, I've got this, whatever. And the more and more he's just let go of the control, I just watch stress just release from him so much. Like this boat situation, this boat situation happened five years ago. Carlos would

have reacted in such a different way. He would have been a mess. He never would have slept well like at night. He would have been like, what do I do? I have to fly there right now. Whatever. Like whereas in this season of his life he's just learned like it's out of my control anyway, I'll deal with it tomorrow, let's get a good night rest and that's it. But it took a long time to get through letting that go. How often do you get confused for Lava Girl from Sharkboy and Lava Girl? All the time. All the time. Okay, so Taylor is a good friend of mine. I love Taylor Dooley. She is the coolest girl ever.

But I can't tell you how many times people think it's the same movie because it's the same director, same crew, same like studios, everything about it was all the same except for the fact that that was Taylor Dooley. This morning Abby was like, we definitely need to talk about Sharkboy and Lava Girl because like that was such an iconic movie. I'm getting confused. And I'm like, we definitely need to talk about Sharkboy and Lava Girl because that was such an iconic movie.

I'm getting confused. And I'm like, Abby. Listen, Abby. So much Spy Kids. I had Spy Kids on DVD. But everybody thinks it's the same. They do have similar vibes. You know what?

They have similar vibes. I only just recently watched Sharkboy and Lava Girl. I never did until I would say a year and a half ago or two years ago because my kids are obsessed with Sharkboy and Lava Girl. Like they like Spy Kids, they do, but they love Sharkboy and Lava Girl and now I know why I watched it I'm like this is great it's actually really deep and like the story that they're telling and like both Taylor like all the kids were great but like Taylor and Taylor did such a good job with their characters I'm like this was actually a really really good movie I'm a little sad it wasn't a spy kid movie that's so funny I like spy kids was my childhood

and me being one of three brothers like we thought spy kids was so freaking cool it was a sequel too right yeah we did a bunch of them yeah there, there's a lot. There were three originals, and then 10 years later they did a fourth, and that was with Jessica Alba, New Kids, and we were there, but we weren't, we were just kind of random people a part of it. And then they recently just rebooted all of Spy Kids, but with New Kids again.

But we weren't a part of it at all. To be honest with you, it was actually a really sad moment because I think we just always assume one day they'll reboot it and maybe we'll have the opportunity to either like it be our kids or, something like Darryl and I,

so Darryl played Junie, something Darryl and I were like, oh, that'd be so fun, 20 years, in 20 years, we'll make a real brand new Spy Kids or something. And I get a phone call, or no, he's at rehearsal, we're at the studio, he's at rehearsal because he's about to go on tour and this guy walks in and he's like, oh my gosh, I've been meaning to call you.

My good friend is the new spy kid and I was like, what? Like I didn't even know they were making another one. He's like, my good friend, his kid is the new spy kid. I like just played it off. I was like, no way, good for him. Oh, so awesome. He's like, oh, I gotta FaceTime them. So like, they're like FaceTiming.

I'm like, this is so cool. And in my head, I'm like, they're making a new spy kids? Like, what? And I remember calling Darryl and just being like, did you know about this? By the way, Darryl's married to Megan Trainor. He has like a great life.

He is doing awesome. But we were just like, kind of just our feelings were hurt because nobody even told us, nobody was like, hey listen, we're gonna save you guys for later or something, there was nothing. And we just both felt like just a part of us had kind of like died. It was this weird experience because it was such a part of us had kind of like died.

It was this weird experience because it was such a part of our lives. Such a part of our lives. But like since then, you know, like while they were filming Spy Kids, we actually, they film everything in Austin, Texas. He happened to be going like on the tour bus through Austin. So I just wrote and I was like, Hey, we're in Austin. I want the

kids to be able to go see the old airport hanger where we shot. Is that open right now? And they were like, actually we're still in the middle of filming. Do you guys want to come to set? So we went to set, we met the new kids. They could not have been nicer. They pulled out every old gadget out of storage and displayed it. Like our old Super Guppy, our old spy plane, the dragonfly submarine. They pulled all of these out of storage, you guys, and brought them into this giant airport hangar, like green stage, and then pulled out like our watch and Ralph, that little like spider guy that would like crawl around like all these different cool like nostalgic gadgets were just on display and like our old costumes and my kids were just having the time of

their lives and it was the weirdest thing to literally be like sitting in the super guppy holding my kids and like being a grown-up having that like it was such an emotional beautiful experience and then when I showed up to set like the new set that they were filming with like the new kids the crew is the exact same that's what's really cool about the filmmaker of this movie Robert uses the same people over and over and over again that's why a lot of times you'll see like the same cast come through there, the same crew, he keeps his crew always. So they know how he works, he knows how they work, and it's just this tight-knit community. So the people that

I worked with 20 years ago were the same people that were there and like we were all bawling because they're like, you're here with your kids on this set. It was just such a beautiful, unique experience. And yeah, so even though it was like a passing of the torch and like that was kind of like sad, it was also just really, really beautiful to be able to have that experience and with my babies. That's so sweet.

Now I'm sad for you. I want you to have a cameo in the new Spy Kids movie. Well, the new one ended up being great. So my little kids love it. They actually love it more than the other Spy Kids movie. Well, the new one ended up being great, so my little kids love it. They actually love it more than the other three. I'm like, thanks, guys. But it's so sweet because they understand that the other ones were mommies, so they're

like, mommy, we want to watch the new Spy Kids, but it's the one that you're not in. Are you okay with that? They're trying to break it to you. Yes, of course. It's not going to hurt my feelings if you watch the movie and they're like, oh, okay, good. They're playing it 10 times in a row. But I love that it was such a special project that it's really what stood the test of time.

And the fact that they're making more still based off of the idea that we did, what is it now, 25 years ago or something insane? Holy cow really cool it's really it was such a special thing and I don't know it's kind of like ET in that sense I mean ET is so iconic but like just kind of lives on. Oh Spike is iconic I remember going to the movie theater and getting my 3D glasses. Well because it was the first time they brought 3D back. Yeah so 3D hadn't been in theaters since like the 80s. And Robert was like, I wanna bring this back. I really do.

And he's like, and I don't wanna do it in the new way. I wanna do like the old school red and blue glasses. And like so he brought 3D back with Spy Kids. How cool, and now it's big. Every movie has. And now it's everything, everything in 3D. Although it just makes me so nauseous. I'd rather watch it in 2d Yeah, I get that. Yeah, I even got the the DVD

We did you like for yes, and we got we got the 3d glasses with the DVD And so as a kid we put on our 3d glasses and watch it at home. Meanwhile, my kids now are like, what are these things? I'm like, you don't know what a DVD is. Oh my gosh Like this is we've reached a new era. Something that you mentioned that I thought was kind of interesting was how you maybe envisioned or like thought that one day your kids would be in the movie like spy kids or things like that. And I guess that just like brings up a conversation like since you were raised as a child actor,

like how you would parent a child that was interested in child acting, or what your perspective on that is. So I know a lot of people who grew up in the industry would be like, I would never let my kids do this. I had a really different experience. I was very, I would say sheltered in a good way. Obviously there were things that I also wish, you know, we could have maybe done differently,

but that kind of started happening as I got into my like teen years as far as like being a child actor I had the best time ever I mean I was literally playing dress up every single day doing something that I loved something that was so unique and fun and while yeah I didn't have a normal childhood I didn't know any other way and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way like I look back and I think of All the stuff that I you know missed out on and I don't really feel like I missed out on anything I I think I was right where I was supposed to be

So for my kids even right now like we our biggest thing is making sure that they have community Because we don't want to take them away from other kids and I think that was probably the hardest which is why spy kids was so fun Was because I wasn't just on set with adults all day long up until spy kids I was always on set with just adults so I could handle conversations with adults really well But conversations with other kids They were really hard for me because I just had different stuff in common. Even though I was a kid, I grew up talking to adults 24-7 and now I have to like try to get along with kids who are like picking their nose and like throwing rocks. That is so immature.

Knock it off. And I was just kind of awkward around them because I didn't really know how to act. So I'm trying to find a little more balance with my kids, even though we travel a lot, even though they're around adults a lot, we try to also find like, okay, we're gonna be in this place, what's a good spot for them to be around other kids?

So we're even a part of this like gym that has like a really good kids program and they're all over the country. So whenever we're traveling somewhere, we get to bring everybody and the kids get to go into kids club and they're still in it without having they still get to be a part of it and they still do have their friends that they you know get to FaceTime and see but so they're not completely out of it but um yeah I guess just trying to integrate community into their lives. Are there any untold stories with filming spy kids that you, I don't know, you've never

shared before? There must be some funny things that must have happened on set or... Oh my gosh. Well, spy kids, for the second one, there were so many kids on set. Also cannot wait for your update. There were so many kids on spy kids 2 set that that was the best filming experience I have ever had ever, ever, ever, ever. Because I'm 13 years old and it's like right when you're crushing on guys, you know, and

Matt O'Leary played Gary Giggles and every single kid that's on set has a stunt double. So I have a stunt double, Matt has his stunt double, and they're all kids, stunt kids. That's so cool. So it was like one. That's what you should have been. It's the coolest thing ever. So the Dashnall boys, so Jeff Dashnall

was our main stunt coordinator on Spy Kids, and he had his sons JJ, Nick, Jake, and Chad. So all of their kids were stunt kids. We had Emily Osment back in the day, Matt O'Leary, obviously Darryl, and then we also had our stand-ins who were also kids, so it was like one big fun play set. Now I had the biggest crush on this guy, Nick, who was Matt O'Leary's stunt double, Gary Giggle's stunt double, and he

ended up being my first kiss. But it caused all sorts of drama on set because what happens if they don't get along, so like the parents are all worried if like one, I'm not supposed to be dating, I'm not allowed to have a boyfriend, but we're like secretly dating and we had like this secret breakdancing room in the back of set that we like broke into and nobody knew that we had access to this room so like all like 15 of us kids would pour into this room we put down like really what is it like cardboard and we'd all like blast music and breakdance in there but then nobody could find us and nobody would be able to shoot anything so they're like where are

these kids that hiding in this like random room and it's like airport hanger that we had found fun it was like summer room in this like airport hangar that we had found. Oh my gosh. Fun, it was like summer camp. It was just like all these fun, fun experiences, but I ended up dating Nick on and off for many years after that movie. He actually, he ended up recently passing away, but he was a good friend of mine and his family was, is truly still like my family. She had a tattoo, that's what his name was. I actually did have a Nick tattoo on my wrist. Really? That's how serious it was? Yeah, no, it was very, very serious,

but we ended up just being friends and really good friends, but that family is so special and will always be so special. Like my sister even dated one of his brothers for many years. Wow. They actually helped us get our crash pads for one of our tours. Oh yeah, they did. I totally forgot about that.

We could not source them anywhere and they were like, well I think my buddy's selling some, I mean these are like thick nice crash pads. Crash pads. So good. And now the stunt coordinator for all of Robert's new films happens to be JJ, which is Jeff's son, his oldest son. That is cool.

So yeah, they really do keep it all in the family. It's very special. What happened? Was it cancer? Was it a tragic accident? You know, he unfortunately had some addiction problems. So that ended up happening and it was really, really tragic. But the family is so special.

Like such a beautiful tight-knit family. And they will forever be my family. And it's so cool because within the industry, they are just known as like the coolest people you'll ever meet. Like these people have no fear whatsoever. They just, they're just so cool. Wow. Thank you for sharing that.

Hey, real quick, I'll keep this really brief. Just give me 30 seconds of your time. Thank you guys for being here. Like it truly means so much that you're here. We actually flew all the way to Nashville, Tennessee to do this interview. And it's all because of you guys. You guys have been watching this show. You guys have been subscribing, interacting, leaving comments, and it means the world to us. I just, I just have one ask from you guys. And that is if you would please hit the subscribe button, it would mean the world to us. I promise that I'm going to do everything I can to keep making this show the best it can be. We're

going to bring on the guests that you guys want. We're going to talk about the topics that you guys want and give us feedback down below. Let us know who you guys want us to bring on the show. Let us know topics you want us to cover because we're doing this for you. It's been a lot of fun. I can't believe that this is something we get to do. We get to interview some amazing guests. And so your support means the world to us. Thank you so much. If you subscribed, that means the world to us. Now back to the episode. Officer Jacob, uh, he was, he wanted to speak to me. So we have the, uh, the captain's contact info. Great. We have their insurance. Okay, great. Um, they, they did deny hitting the boat and the officer's like, but there great. They did deny hitting the boat.

Oh my God. And the officer's like, but there's no denying that they hit your boat. We're looking at it. Did you say that you have a ton of video? They have video, oh sorry, we have video, they have the video from the marina. The vessel is still on its way to Miami at three knots because it's a big old boat. But they're going to cite the captain and he is 100% responsible. They're writing up a report that we have to basically finish filling out and send in

in 10 days, send to our insurance and he's like, this sucks. And they, it's not confirmed, but they could have potentially been intoxicated. Intoxicated,icated. That would make sense because they literally hit the boat twice. Three times. Oh, oh, sorry. And then dragged. Three times. Just a small hundred thousand dollar paint job. See, I would be completely sober doing that, but if it's a captain, then maybe we have to think. I'm just like, oh man. It's alright, you know what? There's gonna be a silver lining and there's no structural damage, which is amazing. It's all cosmetic, so whoever buys this boat, I hope that we can do something where it's like, look, it's gonna get painted with a $120,000 paint job. If you buy the boat, you can make it any color you want. Like you want it purple, it's gonna be a purple boat.

Wait, that's kinda special. That's cool. If I was buying a boat and it had some like, you know, fiberglass damage or whatever, and it was just all, you know, cosmetic, and they were like, hey, buy the boat, and then we're literally gonna send it, and you can pick the color, I'd be like, yep, that's a score. You heard it right here, ladies and gentlemen, you can buy the boat. You're in the market. If you're in the market for a boat, they'll paint it whatever color you want. We won't, but some, some, some, some, some, some, yeah, some, uh, whatever, we'll. Professionals. What a crazy, what a crazy day. Wow. I feel like there's so much you guys could talk about because even just like. It's a problem.

I'm curious, how, how old are you guys? How old do you think we are? Well, yeah, I don't know. You guys look very young. You're not gonna offend us. You look, yes. I would think you're like 23 or 24, personally. 25.

Yeah, we're both 25. No way. Okay, so right there, oh, I got 10 years on, I'm gonna cry. Dude, I've think you're like 23 or 24, personally. 25. Yeah, we're both 25. No way. Okay, so right there, oh, I got 10 years on, I'm gonna cry. Dude, I've seen so many of y'all's videos. No way.

Yeah, because like, I didn't really, Alexa set this up and I was like, who? Because we were going back and forth on Instagram. Yes. And I'm like, who? Like, maybe two days ago, I was like, who are we going to see? Like, who is this podcast with?

And I was like, oh, I know them. I was like, I've going to see like who is podcast with and I was like, oh I know them I was like I've seen their videos. No way. Yeah. Yes so much shocking. Yeah. Why that's great Watching you guys. Oh my gosh, you guys and then you're like, oh, I've watched your videos It's like I'm walking to the house and and Gabe is here and I'm like, I've seen his videos That's crazy. I don't know who that is. Really? Yeah. You guys are, I already can say this right now, you're gonna be great friends. Oh yeah. Really?

Oh, yes. We'll take all the community. There you go. All the community. Look at us. And that was his wife that I met, right? Yeah, Jess. Okay, cause she's awesome.

Oh, incredible. I met all of her. From Australia. Yeah. The best people. I'm thinking the other people. Them too. The Tori.

Yes, yes. They were in their house. Sorry, we're learning meeting we met a lot of new people right now it's kind of a party when you guys came over okay are you because I know nothing about you guys are you born and raised in Phoenix is that like no I'm from st. Louis so it's funny you guys loving this baby so that's why when you guys were like yeah national is on like I I'm starting to like Nashville more because I come here almost every month to record music,

but it's just crazy because- It feels like home for us. It feels like St. Louis. So when are you guys moving in? Has God called you to move in? We can't do that. We moved our entire family to Phoenix. Our whole family's moved out to Phoenix. Oh, your whole family is in Phoenix.

Your family over there. Yeah. My parents live with us. But I'm here all the time. I'm so happy. We have very- Got it. Built-in babysitters sounds like a dream. Yeah. It's great. Honestly, it's like, it's, it's working out really well. You can get up and leave at night, like... We took off to

Nashville. That's beautiful. And then you do music out here. Yes, I've just been like, it's been a childhood dream and so I just kind of started releasing stuff and I'm just kind of throwing stuff out there and seeing what works. Dude, that's how it should be though. Yeah. Dude, share. Please share should be though. Yeah. Please share with me. I would love, I would love. It's been scary though because it's like usually when you start something new, you don't have people who are like watching your every move, but because of our-

He already has a platform. Because of our platform, people are seeing every mistake I make and every, like every good song and bad song that I make. So it's like, it's kind of nerve wracking, but I love music so much. It's just like. I wish that's what Big Ten Rush did. I always say like, let's just put a song out every month. It doesn't have to have this big plan behind

and all this money. Like we have so many songs that we've written that it's like, let's just put it out. And they're just chilling. They're not out. Do we have songs from like. Release them dude, release them. They have like 60 songs.

But hold on, here's. What? I listen to all the time. Here's what's hard. There's so much red tape in the music industry. Okay. We have 60 songs. But hold on. What? I listen to all the time. Here's what's hard. There's so much red tape in the music industry. Okay. That like, you know, people want to make money and I get it.

Like that's a living. Yeah. And especially like if you have a successful brand like Big Time Rush, they're just like, they just, you know, equate it to, well, if you put my, you know, like you should pay me for my music, which I totally get, but it's like, we're not trying to like, like the goal, there's an overarching goal. So like, if I were to put music out right now, I'd probably do it with somebody who had the same,

same mentality of like, hey, listen, let's make money on the backside. Let's not worry about every nitty gritty right now. Let's just make some cool songs and just keep putting them out. One a month, one a month, one a month, one a month, one a month, or two, like who cares? And not with the intention of like,

it has to get to radio, it has to hit Spotify, whatever. Just like let's just put music out, like why not? So the fact that you're doing that, props to you. You're doing the right thing. Thanks, it's awesome. It's been a fun project, I'm like I'm currently independent so I don't like work with the manager.

Good, stay independent, bro. I do it all my. Stay independent. Okay. If you can. Yeah. Are you guys independent? Are you guys with a label? How does that work? We're kind of independent. We're, yeah, like we did a deal with BMG to do our last album

But we're basically independent. I mean we do whatever we want. It's crazy. It's really awesome That's like yeah, that's awesome for for for a brand like this. I mean, I always laugh most people want to go on tour and sell tickets We have no problem selling tickets like we can go on these massive tours like last summer We did 300,000 tickets like it was amazing. Holy cow, dude. It was sick. That's a lot. But we have no radio play. They can't get on the radio. Why? Because radios don't play them. Yeah. Can you pay? You can pay to get on the radio, right? It's a pay all the thing, but like what are you going to drop a quarter million dollars just to get into the top top 30? Like are you guys pushing Tiktok? Are you guys making Tiktoks

of your songs? and no i mean our our whole thing is just old so dude oh yeah it's funny like to learn how tic toc works boyfriend uh someone did this remix of boyfriend and i was like like like a super high yeah and it actually gave us a nice little resurgence of that song so i think look i love social media i think it's great that's why we're kind of diving in and trying to, you know, use that more. But for us, like we just love performing and our fans show up and they buy tickets. So as long as we keep putting out music and, and, you know, cool content. And I think doing a movie will really help because people like it's so

nostalgic, you know, cause like most people grew up with big time rush, like our kid, our kids, but our, our ocean is obsessed, like the biggest Big Time Rush fan you could ever have. He got into Big Time Rush like six months ago and we thought like, oh you know, he'll like it. Like we played an episode and he was like, oh this is funny, but now he's so obsessed with it that he's like trying to dress like the boys. I was at the mall the other day, oh my god it's going to go fast, I'm at the mall and Carlos is in like Crate and Burrell trying to figure out like furniture and stuff. And there were these like 10 year olds, like four 10 year olds that like the mom dropped them off

and they're like all these girls just like sitting at this little couch area and I needed a break so I sat down with the kids next to them on the couch and Ocean sees these girls so he gets up and he walks over to like this like little kind of glass window he pops his collar and he just like leans on the side and I'm like what are you doing and he goes he goes mom I learned it from big time rush and then I'm like oh my gosh he's trying to be cool for them and I said baby and he's only

seven like baby are you trying to be cool right now? He's like I'm not trying Like in his head. He's like I am cool right now. What do you mean trying to be cool? I'm not trying and he just sat there and like one leg was crossed over the other and he just like popped his little Collar and I'm laughing cuz I'm like, oh honey. That's not how it really works in real life But in his head it works on the show It's what he's seen the the show and he's starstruck not with me but with everybody else like James James lives in Nashville as well and he came over and it was like hi hi James I did the face James do the face I was like oh my gosh like I was like

James just you know my kid like we're like idols to him now you know like the the you know big manager Gustavo Stephen Glickman I facetimed him one time said oh come here look at he wouldn't he wouldn't even talk he like walked off camera and I'm like it's okay he's like I want to talk to you I'm like dude it's okay it's so funny it's beautiful I love that for you guys it's cool you guys are so cool it's so fun well listen it's listen, you guys have to once we get our podcast up and running you have to come and Oh, or we'll come to you or do it online. Stay at the house dude. You know what next time you come to a session

We'll just kind of plan it out. Yeah, stay with us for a few days do the podcast you can chill and yeah You guys are awesome for a few days, do the podcast, you can chill and yeah. You guys are awesome. I'm like, they're so cool. You do it all, you have a family, you both have your own very successful careers. You try. And we're working on it.

We have some really cool stuff that I can't share here, but I'll share after we get off camera. We're really excited. It's really inspiring, because you guys are proof that you can have it all. You can be a family man. You can be, you can have, you can have all these values and hold true to them and still do the entertainment industry because everybody would think that you can't. You can't

get so toxic and like you can't have a family, can't have- It is, it is, but you have to kind of put a bubble around yourself and just say, what are my priorities and what like what do we put first? Like we put our family first. If like, you know know they've thrown she had an opportunity to do a TV show and they were gonna give her like 70 or 80 grand a week to freaking do this TV show and at the time we needed the money so bad now and we were like yo this is insane but it would have it would have meant moving the family to Georgia and and doing and like living in a just moved to Hawaii living in a little apartment and all this stuff and it was like,

what is, where is our family gonna thrive? Living in an apartment in Georgia while you work all day or staying here in Hawaii. And we chose that over the money and I believe that God honored that. That was hard. I'm sure there's so many decisions along the way where you had to re-remind yourself of what is the most important to you. It's not like a one-time thing. It's a

constant thing that you're evaluating together. It's constant, but it's never been difficult. That I will say. Well, because nothing feels better than the peace God gives you. And that is than the peace God gives you. And that is like, I have learned that through and through. And no matter what comes our way, you know immediately if it feels right or wrong. And the money is just like, I kind of laugh now because I'm just like, I don't care what number you throw at me. Like it literally means nothing because this is gonna take me out of where I'm supposed to be and I know it. You're so so right. I was telling Abby the other day, I was like you someone can come up to me and say hey I'm gonna pay you I've started a crazy

number like ten billion dollars to go live for ten years in another country and like not see your wife and kids for ten years. I wouldn't do like it no you can't put a price on family. You can't. Your family is so important and so just I don't know don't you can't yeah you can't you can't put a price on family. You can't. Your family is so important and so just, I don't know. Yeah, you can't put a value on that. You cannot at all and it's just, it's so wild to me because I'm like, in short, from like an outsider's perspective, it's like, oh my gosh, you're crazy. It's just a small sacrifice or whatever.

And it's like, no, you don't understand. It's not a small sacrifice because you're walking out of your path. Like you are walking out of where you are called to be, where you're supposed to be, what you're supposed to be nurturing and rooting into. And you know, you know when God is calling you to something or when he's calling you out of something.

And I also think that's why when we finally made the decision for this move specifically, and honestly any move, when we made the decision to move to Hawaii, it was such a big shift that our whole team was like, you can't leave LA. LA is where you need to be. You need to be here for auditions, for meetings, for anything to do with film, TV stuff.

If you leave here, your careers are over. And we knew that wasn't gonna be the case like even though that's not what everybody was telling us we knew in our hearts we were gonna be covered by making this move because it's where we were being called to and we really needed to get out of California in that season badly yeah I mean we just we just chased got chase God's direction versus the money which I think is like most people just chase the money all their life It's like like money money money money money, and I was there I used to be a super materialistic person like big house big this big that and if she taught me anything because she started over

three times Make money down to zero make money down to zero make me down to zero Once with me and two on her own and after those experiences we just went like we're chasing the wrong thing. Yeah. You know and I just think like if people in this world stop chasing money because like again it's that thing like oh like money doesn't like money brings happiness whatever it is like no dude like. Well I think to an extent. it can help. If you're paycheck to paycheck and you're broke and you can't put food on the table I think money in that circumstance does bring happiness yeah you have you're getting like your

your basic life needs met but you know for a lot of people I mean I think it I've read articles but it's like any amount over like a hundred grand or something doesn't bring more happiness right because you already have all your needs met, you have time to take off work and spend time with your family. So I think in that sense, it's like, we need to really rethink,

like why are so many people always chasing more? Right. Right, well, we've been programmed. Yeah. Like, oh dude, like literally we're programmed for the upgrade. Everything is an upgrade. You get the new iPhone and then you're like,

yes, I got it. And then you see a commercial, it's like iPhone 27 coming out. Freak, I just saved up for this. And then now you want that. And it's like, dude, we are literally programmed for an upgrade in every aspect of our life. But I do think there is something to it. So two thoughts. One, I do think money can't buy happiness. I actually disagree when people are like, money can't buy happiness. I think it can. I just don't think it solves your problems

and I think it's a temporary happiness. It's not a fulfillment. You can totally, you can be in like, this horrible place in your life and suddenly get a ton of money and I think for that first week or two, that money can absolutely buy your happiness, but it's not long term,

and it's not a fulfillment that will last at all. But I think money is a tool, and we talk about this all the time, money is not this end all, be all thing, it's a great tool that can get you the things that you either want in life, or to help you achieve goals, or to help your children, whatever it may be.

But you have to look at money as a tool, not as like, oh my gosh, I like need this money. And storing it up and obviously be wise steward. But every time that we are in a comfortable place in our life where we have like really good savings and things are good, God always comes in and he's like, who are you relying on? On me? Or are you relying on that? The comfort of having finances. The comfort of that, you know, financing the bank. And every time we're like, freak, a shift happens, you know, and whether it's moving to Tennessee and buying a house and now basically, you know, you put your savings into that house, you buy the house and now, you know, you're not as comfortable as, you know, you're still

making a living but it's not like, you know You have all this money in the bank where you can just do nothing, you know Now you got to like, you know continue and every single it's happened three times every single time When that shift goes from him to like money or something else. He's like no, no, no, no I need you to rely on me every time one last One last thing, last question I want to end on. You guys combined your names when you got married, which is... I've never heard of anyone else doing that. You mean you don't do that either?

No, I've never heard someone doing that. Howard Biswell would not. Howard Biswell would not work. That doesn't sound cool. Yours sounds really cool. No. Pennevega sounds really cool. What would you do with that? What, Howard Biswell?

Yeah. Howbiz? How, how, no? Biz, Biz Howard.well? Yeah. How Biz? How, no? Mm. Biz Howard. Sit on it. Let us know. I'll sit on it. Pennevega works great. It does. Pennevega works. His will. Yeah. Biswell. Hey. His will. His will. No, we went to the place, the courthouse. The courthouse. And we signed out this paper and they're like- We had talked about it beforehand.

We did, we did, but there's a legal way to change the name. I didn't know this. So he went in, we just put on our marriage certificate, he goes, who's taking whose last name? And I was like, okay, we'll figure it out. I put Pennevega as one word, because Vega Pena sounded dumb. So Pennevega, and I slid it under the paper and he looks at it and he goes, that's a cool name. Stamped. Boom. And once you have the marriage shirt, you can

change anything and everything. So then we did our our licenses, then after that we did our passports, and after you have all that, we did our social security, and then we just became the Pena Vegas. I don't know if that was a legal way to do it, but we did. That's what we did. That's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. It was good for you guys. And it worked, because like, I didn't- We were already both established in the industry that, look, we could have, we could have fully just gone like Pena and called it a day, but I don't know, it just felt really, we both come from, God bless them, and we love them, but like, our, well, family isn't kooky, so we both come from kooky families. Well, clearly they live with their parents, so it's not that kooky.

No, they're kooky. Everybody's kooky. But we just felt like we really wanted a fresh start. We wanted to start over. Like, so what does starting at zero look like? And that was PenaVega. Like, creating our own new family. That's really sweet. And using it in our industry, as our professional name. Like most people get married and they're like, well, I'm still gonna stay XX. We were like, no, we're gonna be Pennevaga. So all our new contracts were all done. Pennevaga, Pennevaga, Pennevaga. And the first time seeing it was really cool too. On Square Park's poster. That was awesome. I think a lot of people that listen to this are probably also come from difficult family situations as well and they can find like hope in that and like, hey, we can be the start of something new for our family and for generations to come.

We love our families. And you could still honor your family and all of that. Of course, of course. We love that we honor them, but sometimes you just, you know, I wouldn't live with them. What are you talking about? You live with my father. Oh, yes, you know, I wouldn't live with them. What are you talking about? You live with my father. Oh, yes, you're right. He's very helpful.

He's very accommodating. Real quick, real, real quick. So I have a really interesting relationship with my father. So he is, he is my birth father, but I didn't really get to know him until I turned 23 years old. No way. And around then was when I met Carlos, so we started getting to know my real dad at the same time, and they clicked. They hit it off

really well. So even though he's my dad, he doesn't feel like my dad because he didn't raise me. He also doesn't look like your dad. He looks more like my dad. Yeah, he's very Colombian. So like this old Colombian. And dark. So everyone's like, is this your dad? I'm like, no, that's actually her dad. Yeah, that's mine. So they hit it off really, really well. He lived in Hawaii with us for a while. Yeah, he lived, yeah. And then on the boat.

You know, he's had just some interesting, his life story is really crazy and that's a whole other podcast. But he's just lived quite a life and now he's kind of in the place where, you know, there have been a couple times where he hasn't really had a place to live. So he's come to stay with us a few times. Yeah, one time was in Hawaii and then on the boat. But listen, he pulls his weight. Like this guy, while, you know, while we're gone and our water heater broke on the boat, he was like, okay, boom, here's the model, here's this, here's this here's that buy it send it I'll install it so I shipped a new one there he's also like a genius engineer he's 76 he rigged this thing he

lowered it down with his pulley system got it in installed it how about are you done yeah dude he he pulls his way and and and and again I deal with a lot of projection so for me having a father figure around who actually like I could like have that with and like build things with and he teaches me a lot of stuff and we fight too about things he always really funny he always thinks he's right just like you know like like daughter like father but it's amazing anyways yes I agree parents are great well you guys this has just been this has been so great. Where can people follow you on social

media? Or where can they find your stuff? We do a lot on Instagram, so I'm at the real Carlos Pena and you are? I'm at Vega Alexa, but we share a TikTok. Yeah. Hey! Lex. Pena Vega, I think. Pena Vega, yes. And then we have a YouTube channel called Lex loves Lowe's. No, it's not I lied It's called the Vita Pena Vega La Vita Pena Vega Thank you very much And then yeah, we haven't hopefully in the next three to six months a new podcast coming out Wow called Lex loves Lowe's Sorry, my Production company and we have our present company good for you entertainment

We get some we have a lot of stuff happening with that. Tour. Hold on, we wrote, so we have three books. Yes. We wrote three books and then we have another that I think is supposed to come out next year. Another book? Yeah. We wrote another book?

No, we haven't written it yet. It's supposed to come out next year. Oh, so you have the third book coming out. Fourth. We already have three, now we't written it yet. Oh, okay, cool. I was late on that. Oh, so you have the third books coming out. Fourth. We already have three, now we'll have a fourth. Yes, we did, what do they call it? The first one? Was it, was it, was it, was it on the autobiography?

No, it was a memoir. Memoir, memoir. Thank you. Very cool. I saw that, yeah. Yes, a memoir. Then we did a children's book called Ocean's World, which is currently being developed into a TV show.

That's dope. we did a children's book called Ocean's World, which is currently being developed into a TV show. And then number three, we did a 100-day devotional, which like, that was our big baby that we love. Really cool. Yeah, we were really excited about that one. And then, yeah, we like wrote the first one just to get to that one. That's so neat, you guys. So cool. I love it. That's it. Who knows what could happen next year? Yeah, well, I know. Well, we can't wait to tell you guys. Yeah. Oh, very good. We have to, we have to cut this off. Yeah, let's just cut this off.

We're going to end the podcast here so we can learn about their secret project. All right. Love you guys. Thank you. Thank you for watching. Bye.